Cynthia ran away from the castle that night and slept with Alissa and me in our room, come to think of it, it's been a while since I slept with Alissa

It was a great night and when I went out, I was greeted with Brunhilde who was covered in sweat, she was probably training early in the morning again

"You prepared?" I asked

"I'll miss your food" It was her answer

"Don't worry, it's just a month, make sure to report daily using the Nexus armor okay? if something comes up, the mini warden will pick you up" I advised

"Yes, thanks for your concern" She nodded before disappearing into their room

I cooked breakfast, fried rice with some sunny side egg and bacon, Brunhilde ate a lot today, according to her, it's the last time she'll be eating good food for a month. Everyone had fun watching her eat with joy and sadness at the same time

We all met at the castle gates, Guardian 4 was now with Lance, I already explained to Lance that Guardian 4 was a special Golem with sentient so that no problem will arise later. At exactly 10:00 am, we all set out on our journey.

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Inside a dark castle somewhere~~

"Well? Thankfully we managed to cut off the root of the problem before more of our secrets were discovered, what about the man? where is he?" A man white hair and two horns asked a shadow behind him

"I followed him all the way to the castle but he suddenly disappeared, as of now, I'm searching high and low for him"

"I see, continue your search, such a strong warrior, we must pull him over to our side"

"Yes"

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Back in Aegis guild

"Ho? Zeno took down huge monsters huh? I still wonder what happened to him" Lea asked Marcus

"Beats me, according to what I've heard, he dissed the King and went on a rampage inside the castle after the King refused to respect his beliefs" Marcus chuckled

"What an interesting guy, I really like that attitude" Lea laughed

"Yet it's because of that reason that we had to hide" Marcus stated

"Yes, we are now being hunted, aw man, just when I thought things were going right"

"Lea, I received a letter a few hours ago, it's from General Gram, according to Gram, her daughter Brunhilde followed Zeno and Alissa to Arcadia, Brunhilde wrote it to General Gram so that he'd have an idea where they are" Marcus stated

"I see, we can use this to buy our innocence" Lea replied

Marcus stayed silent

"But, I'm not kind of person, tell everyone to pack their stuff, we're heading to Arcadia!" Lea announced

"But what about our guild?" Marcus asked

"We'll have to abandon it for now, one day, we will come back and reclaim our guild, everyone's safety comes first"

"Spoken like a true guild leader"

"That's because I am a guild leader"

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"*sigh* seriously? I knew there would be enemies here but men, they are pathetic, they're too obese to even put up a fight" I mumbled on as I killed another spy from the Kingdom

2 weeks have passed since we arrived in this city, just like Arcadia's city, the place was desolate, devoid of life. I've already killed the Lord who governs this city and am just picking off the other spies who are still around. The death of the Lord is still not announced because I had Guardian 2 pose as the city lord, copying his voice and pretending to be sick as he locked himself

inside his room

I also shared info with others, Brunhilde adapted the same strategy as I did and as for Lance, he lured spies and killed them off one by one after giving them a reason to leave the city, no one suspected the disappearances of the spies since they all told everyone that they were leaving.

We're making good progress, I only need to kill 4 more people while Brunhilde need to kill 7 and Lance needs to kill 8, the city Lord included

Now the only thing left I have to do is lure them all in a meeting that the city Lord (Guardian 2) will hold, once they go to the designated place, they will all be as good as dead

Guardian 2 effortlessly copied the dead city Lord's handwriting and asked a courier to distribute the letters, the meeting will take place outside the city in the entrance of a forest at 12 midnight. It's still 9 pm so I still have 3 hours to set up my ambush. I hid in a bush just a few meters away from a clearing where the meeting will be held.

In the center of the clearing was Guardian 2 wearing a cloak and hood that covered his entire body including his head, we patiently await our guest until it was near 12. 4 men wrapped in cloak appeared

"So about the disappearances of the other spies, what do we do about it?" One of the men spoke out as he walked closer to Guardian 2

"Is this everyone, I need to know if there are other spies who entered the city without telling me" Guardian 2 copied the voice of the dead City Lord

"Yeah, about that, don't worry about it, there are no spies who entered the city, were you suspecting that our King was silencing us? impossible, we are the ones providing them food forcefully taken from the people here haha" He laughed

With my M4 I shot all 4 people in the head, they lifelessly collapsed and our job was over

'Alissa, I'm done here, please tell Cynthia to send someone trustworthy here to be the next city lord' I requested

'Got it, basing on the others progress, they should also be done by tomorrow'

'Great, by the way, how are things there?'

'We started growing crops with fertilizer, I also invented a tool that a horse can pull in order to easily cultivate the soil, in addition, I've had Guardian 1 and 5 check on everyone in the city, making sure they were free of any parasites and also making sure that they were all loyal to Cynthia'

'Wow, you're amazing'

'Of course I am'

'Alright, goodnight, I'm hanging up'

'Goodnight'

I stood up and examined the corpses, none of them seem to carry anything important. We discouraged everyone in Arcadia city to spread the news of Cynthia's return but rumors started popping up, thankfully, we managed to retake 3 of the large cities around the Arcadia city. Compared to the other Kingdom who has at least 5 major cities, 12 mini-cities, and 36 Villages where 1 major city, 2 mini-cities, and 6 villages were lost to the colonies. 1 major city was heavily damaged and that was the city Julius protected

we still have 4 mini-cities and 12 villages that are being run by corrupt people, Cynthia will mobilize the army to take care of them.

I left the corpse where they were, unburied. Guardian 2 and I immediately left Alphon city, our journey back will take a day on a horse.

We returned to Arcadia city in the middle of the day, things have really changed around here. The gloomy atmosphere I once saw was replaced with hope, even though the vegetables and meat here have yet to improve in quality, at least the people are optimistic. I was going through Arcadia city in order to reach Arcadia castle in the center, whenever I pass by the townsfolk would kneel and greet me respectfully, the same was with the soldiers. I wondered why but I immediately found the answer to my question, I saw a poster of me with the words written: "The Princess' Knight and his 6 followers" there were 6 shadows behind me whom I presume is the 5 Guardians and Brunhilde.

I then reached the castle and saw the soldiers hard at training, I also have to train these people... I can leave that to Guardian 4 once he's returned, all I need now is to find 5 people who will come along with me whenever I will assassinate a queen

I asked Cynthia to give me recommendations on who to pick, I returned to my room inside the castle, just beside Cynthia's royal bedroom, inside my room was a shit ton of paper, each has detailed description of a soldier. Looks like my job is not done.

I went through all of the files until afternoon, I only stopped because Cynthia came back to the castle and had some tea with me. After that, she went back into the throne room to sort out some documents, as for me, I visited Alissa to see how she's doing.

I entered the ship still hidden within the rose garden, I entered her lab and found her creating a... large chainsaw

"What is this for?" I asked, the chainsaw was even larger than me

"A weapon for behemoth" Alissa chuckled

"Nice, want something to drink?" I asked

"Yeah, could go make me some iced tea"

"Sure"

I headed for the kitchen and made her Iced tea, I returned inside the lab and gave it to her, now that I have a proper look, doesn't the lab room look a bit... empty? There was so much equipment in here the last time I entered

"Hey Alissa, where's are all the equipments? the lab seems a bit empty" I asked

"Oh, about that, I asked Cynthia for a large yet hidden area, she said that behind the castle was a small building where all the stolen food was stashed, it is clean and empty now so Cynthia gave it to me" Alissa replied

"Oh, that's nice to hear, although it might not be that hidden" I remarked

"Yeah, she apologized for that because the other places are just too small, oh well, I can just set up some traps and defense mechanisms"

"I'll try to help out"

"Aww, that's sweet, we can have some quality bonding setting up death traps that will blast any intruder to bits" Alissa chuckled

"Please don't say it like that" I also laughed

That night, I slept with Alissa in our room

The next day, I returned to my room only to see half of the documents that I left yesterday. I read half of the documents but none of them fit my requirements until I read 1 document that piqued my interest

[ Reina Morg

Female 19

Assassin

Level: 67

She comes from a poor family in the slums]

Detailed huh, oh well, I'll test her out later I still need 4 more. I finished reading all the documents in the afternoon and only found 2 more suitable candidates

[Melphis Arson

Female 20

Arc Mage

Level 70

She came from a rich family in Arcadia, she was dubbed the "Genius wizard" Due to her mastery of 3 elements which is a rare talent]

[Albert Stein

Male 30

Archer

Level 75

Albert Stein comes from the village Alisto that Alphon city governs, he was a hunter since a child and has developed the ability to shoot down any foe from distances well over 5 kilometers]

I headed for the throne room gave the three documents to Cynthia and asked her to call them, she furrowed her eyebrows and looked at me

"Did you really look through all of the documents?" She asked

"Yes, if you're talking about your document that you inserted in there then it's a no. You're a soon to be queen now and I'm sure that the people around you won't let you face any danger" I sighed and explained

"Zeno, our promise" She looked me straight in the eye

"...Let me think about it okay" I gave up too easily, my reasoning was based on the people's opinions on her fighting and not mine anyway

She nodded and called out to a guard, she gave him the document and told him to call the three soldiers asap.

A few hours later, three people entered the room and kneeled

"Good afternoon princess, I am Reina, at your service" A woman whose entire body is covered by a black cloak spoke out

"Good afternoon future queen, I am Albert" Albert was wearing wolf pelt for his top

"Hello your majesty, Melphis at your service" Melphis was wearing a robe and pointy hat, she was also holding a wooden rod that had 3 gems combined, Red, Blue, and Yellow

"Rise, as you all know, I called you here for a reason, you will all be serving under my royal knight's command" Cynthia spoke with the air of royalty

"Excuse me for being rude but princess... is the royal knight trustworthy? I've heard rumors of him slaughtering people" Reina asked

"He is kind yet evil, gentle yet ruthless, like everyone else, he has a line you must not cross, don't incur his wrath" Cynthia explained the best she can

"Alright, the princess still has things to do, let's move to the training ground in front of the castle, I'd like to test all of your strengths" I stated

They all nodded and left

"Zeno, please think about it, okay?" Cynthia spoke to me

"I will" I replied before leaving

I left the castle and arrived into open ground, the training ground was the size of a basketball court with 10 feet wall fencing it, there are always mages here who cast a dome-like barrier in order to protect the onlookers who watch the training, seems like a battle arena to me

I entered the field and looked at the 3 people in front, they stretched for a few minutes

"Let me cast a barrier first, the mages here won't be able to take on my attacks" Melphis stated before chanting a spell and creating a barrier

"You guys ready?" I asked

"There are some curious people" Melphis remarked as she looked around

I noticed that a crowd has gathered on the seats above the 10-feet wall, one of them was Cynthia who was surrounded by 10 blackguards

"The princess is watching, don't show her anything embarrassing" Albert remarked before pulling the string of his bow without an arrow but a strange thing happened

Once the bowstring was pulled an arrow appeared

'Alissa, watch this, Lilith, scan that thing' I spoke to the Alissa and Lilith

'What is it? a fight? a mock battle?' Alissa replied instantly

'Scanning... it seems to be an arrow composed of mana, DK can take it but please exercise caution' Lilith replied

'Thanks Lilith, and yeah, this is a mock battle'

'Alright, good luck' Alissa cheered me on

Albert shot the magic arrow, the trajectory was immediately predicted, I wanted to test it so with Azazel, I cut the arrow in half, the arrow vanished as soon as it was split into two

Albert was astonished but he refused to give up, he immediately shot another two, which was once again, split in half

"What the hell?!" Albert cursed before he started running, shooting arrows as he goes, I cut them all down

'Zeno, mana has compressed underneath your feet!' Lilith warned me

The ground around me raised up and locked my feet in place, I can easily escape this hold but I am curious as to what they will do.

Melphis started chanting as Albert kept shooting me with his arrows which I still cut down, I noticed an attack behind me and I immediately used Azazel to block, soon enough two small blades collided with Azazel, I looked back and saw Reina, she clicked her tongue and jumped away

"Don't look away!" Albert shouted as he shot 5 arrows, I bent backward and dodged them

"Try blocking this!" Reina appeared above me, I was still bending backward so she thought that it would be the perfect chance to attack me from above

But I blocked her attack once again and threw her off, I stood up and prepared for their next wave of attack, my feet still being held down by the earth

"Take him down!" Melphis shouted and soon enough two coiling dragons headed for me, it was fire and water

[Crescent slash!]

I used crescent slash and destroyed the attack, they were shocked and I was satisfied. I destroyed the earth holding me down by hitting it with the hilt of Azazel, now it's my turn

I switched to speed and instantly appeared behind Albert, he away as he shot two arrows, I split the arrows in half, good reflexes by the way. I moved forward and slashed aiming for his throat only to stop inches away from his skin. He conceded defeat and left the stage

Melphis and Reina, I headed for Reina but the moment I reached her, she threw a smoke bomb. 6 Reina's surrounded me and started attacking me all together but I dodged all of their attacks as I cut each and every Reina down.

It's hard to see which Reina is the real one but if I switch to thermal, it is easy to see that all of them don't give off any heat

All of the illusions vanished but Reina was nowhere to be found, suddenly, two hands emerged from the earth and held my feet. I was surprised for a moment before I looked above and saw Reina who threw multiple knives, cut them all down before preparing for her next attack but surprisingly, she pulled on a string and changed her course

I looked in front and saw Melphis shooting off a large fireball that left a deep cut in the ground that has to have a radius of 24 inches, I used the thrusters on the sole of my feet and propelled myself up high, I now have a clear view on the ground so I used the thrusters on my shoulders and shot down like a meteor. I was aiming for Reina, she didn't even notice my sudden attack, she only noticed it when Azazel's tip was poking her back

She sighed and left the arena, as for Melphis, she was tired, probably out of mana

I won the mock battle, everyone was shouting and cheering.

I left the arena and headed for the three people, they have potential, I just have to nurture them.