“Good. Now that we are on the same page, listen carefully.” Nick was already calm and sat back down, “Our enemy, one of the most talented alchemists in the world was sighed in this region. He specializes in poison and, more specifically, development and distribution of lethal poison that can kill thousands of people. He is ruthless, but exceptionally smart and doesn’t care for human lives and can do anything to achieve his goals. At the same time the army forces of the Sand kingdom are preparing for extremely large scale attack and intend to make a move without waiting for their allies whose main objective normally would be to act as a cannon fodder. From all of this I gather that there won’t be any fights, but the Sand’s army will simply march over our southern cities, because there won’t be anyone left to defend since our garrisons will be wiped out without any bloodshed thanks to the genius poisoner. You can call me an alarmist, but I’m pretty sure my guesses are close to the truth. Your opinions, gentlemen?”

For the next ten minutes silence filled the tent. Nick felt as if soon hot steam will come out from generals ears from how hard he was thinking.

Finally prince asked, “What do you suggest?”

“We desperately lack information to think of anything, so may be you could at least tell us all you know?” Nick sighed said, “Show me where the people from the Holy Order were sighted last – from the looks of it, we will have to do some reconnaissance.”

Zia’s eyes immediately lit up. Although she preferred fighting to spying, it was still much more interesting than going back to the capital. Currently it was winter in Aurora and she could start the real preparation for the Olympic games only in the spring.

YunYun, on the other hand, enjoyed any action together with her fiance, since he had this talent of transforming any event into adventure.

“You want me to send some people to the surrounding cities?” General asked.

“No.” Nick held back his laughter and pointed at the two cousins, “With ‘we’ I mean the three of us.”

Only now general and the prince looked at the two girls and saw they long expected this.

Nick pulled over a map from the other side of the table, “Don’t worry, you don’t need to waste your men power. We are quite experienced in this. So, in which city exactly your scout noticed the red robed people?”

General stood up, leaned over the table and pointed at the map, “Town Sethalia. But we don’t know if they are still there.”

“Of course, that is why we will have to investigate nearby towns as well.” Nick nodded.

“But that might take too long.” Prince shook his head.

“It’s not that bad. Sethalia is not that far from here and, even if they left, most likely their next stop is another town close to the war front. Thus we can check few and then reconvene here.” Nick said.

“I guess I should go with you then. Otherwise it might take too long.” Prince sighed and glanced at his sister.

Although these three just came from creating havoc in the Lori kingdom, war front was a dangerous zone and Zia was his little sister after all. He had to take care of her, even if it was this once.

“Great!” Nick was oblivious to prince’s thoughts and happily accepted his help, “You can take the fourth town then.”

“Fourth?” Prince got confused.

“Or course, or you thought we are going all together?” Nick furrowed his brows, “First of all, it’s inefficient, and second – too dangerous. If I’m not mistaken, the security in these parts must be much more strict than in the relatively peaceful Lori kingdom, therefore infiltration has to be done solo – less people mean less chances to get caught. Am I correct, general?”

“Indeed, but I still don’t understand how do you want to proceed.” General said.

Under the cover of the night prince Helio closed on to Sethalia.

‘How the hell I got myself into this?’ He thought to himself.

Today he, a crown prince, was ordered around like a common soldier! But all he wanted was to take care of his baby sister!

Although he had to agree, the plan in general was not bad. But how did the trio judge him to be the slowest? Doesn’t that mean those three think that he is weaker than them as well? And that kid, who was basically half his age, was the fastest? After this all was over, they had to compete, otherwise it was almost like an insult.

He was tasked to investigate Sethalia, the closest town, while Zia – town Kirol, the one few dozens kilometers further away and YunYun – town Ugul that was even further.

What surprised everyone, the blond kid said he would check out Ilianara, but that city was too far away! Almost triple the distance from Ichita to Ugul! But he still claimed he would be back before noon. How that should even work?

But prince had to agree, although sometimes arrogant, that kid not only had brains, but means as well. Just in case for him to be able to hide the dead bodies, Nick gave him a storage ring. But while prince and general couldn’t believe their eyes, he only warned to take good care of it, because he did not have more, at least for now! What was that supposed to mean? More? If prince didn’t know that his father only had one such ring, he would’ve though that his old man supplied those en masse, but it obviously wasn’t the case!

But the ring did come handy. Right after the prince scaled the town wall, he jumped down almost directly on a slacking town guard who was taking a nap between few boxes. After quickly taking care of him, prince stuffed the body in the ring. Although it was dark, there was no need to risk raising the alarm.

Now he had to find a person who could spill the location of those red robed bastards. He still was not clear how it should work, but the kid gave him few potions and told to feed one to the person he was going to question. Of course, he didn’t forget to brag and say that they are extremely rare, expensive and hard to make. Ye, right! He probably got them from some department under Simon Den. No wonder they could cause havoc in the Lori kingdom. With the equipment king provided, one could probably destroy the whole country!

But prince couldn’t figure out why the king was so good to this kid. Yes, he did save his sisters or at least played a large part in that, but his father was a pragmatic person and would not bother with sucking up to him, in fact, his father wouldn’t suck up to anyone. It just didn’t make any sense!

Wait! The Holy Order, the secret missions and the gadgets … his father has chosen this kid as Simon Den’s successor!

Although prince Helio didn’t agree to this idea, he understood he might have to work closely with Nick in the future, therefore he himself had to show good results in this mission and forgive the kid after he returned from the distant Ilianara empty handed. And then, they would compete! Prince will show who was the fastest around here!

With this thought and a slight smile on his face prince stealthily approached a guard who had dozed off. Earlier he got startled by the first one and instinctively killed him, but this time he was prepared and the guard lost his consciousness without any sound.

Too easy for an expert Qi master like him. While prince had to respect the three youths for becoming Qi masters so early, it might have been mistake. But Zia had good teachers in the Sword sect so it should be alright, at least with her advancement.

Similar to Ichita, Sethalia on the Sand kingdom’s side was a war front town and had experienced tens of years of warfare. It also was built on a mountain pass and most of its territory was occupied with garrisoned army forces. Despite that its almost ten meters high walls sheltered quite a few civilians. They led relatively normal lives, mostly providing services to the army.

But while the soldiers lived in tents, civilians lived in regular two storey houses built from stone, wood and clay, albeit even the best of these these structures were not as lavish as the regular housing in Aurora or even in smaller city like Ravi. But still these houses made Sethalia a town – formed streets, blocks and alleys.

Currently, in one of such dark alleys, prince Helio stealthily carried an unconscious soldier and, after finding a suitable spot behind some sacks of garbage, fed the potion Nick gave him before waking the soldier up.

Nick promised that the potion will immediately take the effect and it was indeed so. On had to give respect to Simon Den’s alchemists – those guys knew their stuff.

Almost immediately after waking up, the soldier looked back at the prince with lifeless eyes and, while saliva was uncontrollably oozing out from the corners of his mouth, mumbled out the answers to the questions prince asked. Although often these answers didn’t make sense, prince got what he wanted – the people in the dark red robes were still in the city. More importantly – they were some important big shots and general himself was meeting them almost daily. Then prince got even better news – these people stayed in the town, or rather, in the part of the town where the civilians lived. Than meant they had less security around them as well and will be easier to be taken care of!

But just because someone said something it didn’t mean everything was true and before the sunrise prince questioned two more guards. He confirmed the things first one said and even got the exact address of where the Holy Order’s people stayed.

After stuffing the last guards body in the already filled meteorite ring, prince hurriedly left Sethalia. It was already getting bright in the east and he had to leave to not get discovered. The guards on the walls might be lazy and sleepy, but they were not blind and the archery skills of the Sand forces could even make a Qi master like him weary.

When prince returned, he found his baby sister in his tent sleeping on his primitive bed. Apparently she already returned a couple of hours ago and, of course, empty handed. Obviously there couldn’t be other results since the Holy Order’s people were in Sethalia.

Sensing someone enter, Zia immediately jumped up and her ridiculous weapon was already in her hand. Apparently she slept together with that huge thing, but prince didn’t mind, in fact, his sister looked even a bit cute like this. Zia quickly realized what was going on and immediately put her weapon on her back.

“Are they back?” She asked.

“Not yet, but I got good news. I found them!” Prince Helio victoriously said.

“Oh? Good. Did you kill them? I found out that they passed through Kirol towards Sethalia and really got upset you got lucky.” Zia sighed while straightening out her costume and putting the red headscarf on, “But you are my brother, therefore I forgive you.”

‘Lucky? Forgive me? Is sleeping with that thing impeding with her judgment in the morning?’ Prince smiled to himself. Although she acted so weird, he was still glad to see her.

“Let’s go to the big tent. I feel that the others will return soon.” Zia said.

“YunYun might, but don’t you think Nick’s destination is a bit too far?” Prince asked.

“Wanna bet?” Zia squinted her eyes and cheekily asked.

Although prince was disappointed in her blind trust, Nick was her childhood friend and may be it was normal. He himself didn’t have that many real friends, in fact none. Those few good-for-nothings he hung out with all those years ago only wanted his company because of his status, therefore he even envied Zia a little.