Few minutes ago they stopped and made him change in a bit weird black outfit they called a ‘ninja costume’. Although it felt a bit weird, prince had to agree it was very comfortable. And, in addition to the powder they covered themselves with, it allowed to easily infiltrate Sethalia unnoticed.

Next was the hard part, well, one of the hard parts they would experience in the upcoming two days. Prince led them to the house where people from the Holy Order stayed. They had to act very fast and stealthy, but the problem was they couldn’t take out the guards, even though the guards on the duty were from the city guard. Currently they were already observing the sentries patrolling around the building and even one on the roof. Such puzzle was basically unsolvable.

Of course, their plan ‘b’ was to kill everyone around and in the building, but that would spoil the real ‘fun’. In fact, those were the exact words Nick said. And that damn kid used that as an excuse and kicked everyone but his fiancee out of the command tent to use it as an alchemy lab.

While prince was furious, general Grant just shook his head and carried the three unconscious captives away. He had too much to do to worry about such small matters. But prince Helio was a prince! And that was his command tent!

Although competent, that kid was way too arrogant and prince vowed to himself to ask his father to cut the boy’s wings a little. He hadn’t asked for anything in a long time, therefore father shouldn’t refuse him. He did consider to teach the kid lesson himself, but that was his baby sister’s best friend and prince didn’t really want to call upon himself the wrath of the palace’s ‘nightmare’.

“Ok, I have and idea. YunYun! You’ll be with me. Helio and Zia! Do you see the dark window over there on the first floor? Be there in exactly four minutes. Underneath you can remain hidden for at least two more, but we all should be in by then.” Nick quickly commanded and then he and YunYun disappeared in the night.

Seeing his sister’s ugly expression, prince tried to console her, “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him tomorrow and tell him to not order you around.”

Zia looked back at prince in a surprise, “I don’t care about that. What bugs me is that I really hate fighting inside. It’s really inconvenient to use my Pig sticker.”

“What?” This was prince’s turn to be surprised.

“Isn’t it obvious? They will get in the house and let us in so we can all have fun together, but my weapon is too big for the indoor fighting.” Zia answered.

‘Do they seriously consider this a game?’ Prince asked himself and what happened next confirmed his suspicions.

Two people dressed in army officer uniforms confidently approached the building and, when Helio wanted to observe what would they do, Zia pulled him by the arm. Right! They had to move as well.

‘So he called YunYun to come along not because he preferred her, but because Zia has too long hair to impersonate an officer, but I and him don’t have such subtle understanding to work undercover flawlessly.’ Prince realized.

What surprised him even more was the speed in which the two changed into officers, even applying some makeup to look more manly and older.

‘They are definitely not doing this for the first time!’

While hiding under the window they heard the guard greeting the two fake officers and soon there was a knock on the door. Turns out general Trant, the one who commanded troops in Sethalia’s garrison, has sent an urgent personal message to the honorable elder and under such pretext the duo was immediately asked in.

Then there was silence for half a minute or so.

“Get in!” Helio barely heard someone whispering, but when he looked up he saw the window slightly opened.

After making sure the guards didn’t notice anything, he and Zia vaulted in.

The next part was already scripted. Even though they’ve never been in this house, they figured that the layout should be more or less similar to other ones in the neighborhood and they mapped it out already back in the garrison.

The four shadows quickly and silently darted through the rooms and silenced the people from the Holy Order. And, within seconds, the ground floor was cleared.

“Don’t kill any of them and only use these needles! After we secure the whole house we will take care of them!” During the discussion prince found it a bit annoying how Nick repeated it over and over again, but now he understood the importance of following that instruction for real. None of the Qi masters in the house noticed anything, not even the slightest Qi fluctuation! It wouldn’t been possible with just silently slicing their throats.

‘I have to groom few talented alchemists. That science is way too scary to not use it.’ Prince made a decision.

When they gathered near the stairwell, they suddenly heard an elderly voice from upstairs, “Karl! What happened?”

‘F*ck!’ Prince cursed to himself only to realize that he was the only one left downstairs.

The three shadows had already silently disappeared on the stairway and, after freezing for a second, prince immediately followed.

When he arrived, everything was already over. At the far end of a spacious room, there were four tables put together at the wall. On those tables were ingredients, beast cores and tons of alchemy equipment. There was even a fire still on under the furnace that was steaming with low whistling sound.

On the floor near the alchemy station lie beheaded elderly and, judging from the fact that he had only one hand, it had to be elder Jan. Near him stood Nick, seemingly lost in thoughts.

“What should we do with the others?” Zia walked in from a nearby room and threw another, the last one, on the floor.

“We’ll pack them up.” Nick shrugged, “There is no …”

“Don’t breathe!” Prince’s sudden shout interrupted him.

While they were talking, he noticed a thin smoke, almost invisible, coming out from elder Jan’s chest area. Even before he finished his words, prince jumped over and quickly stored the body in his ring. Then took a step towards the one Zia just threw on the floor, nimbly stabbed with his sword and stored in the ring as well. Seeing his actions, Zia and YunYun reacted quickly and dashed downstairs to do the same with others, while Nick ran from window to window, slightly opening all of them.

Afterwards returned to the alchemy station took off the furnace from fire, put another one on, then grabbed seemingly random herbs and threw them in.

Not even a half minute later, a thick white smoke filled the room and Nick shouted in a voice of an elderly man, “Karl! Open the windows! And you two – get out of here!”

Then he beckoned to YunYun to follow him and then ran downstairs. Zia, on the other hand, started to open all the windows, but this time – wide open.

Prince watched all of this with wide eyes. Most likely they were in grave danger just a minute ago and, yes, thanks to his quick reaction, survived. But then, without uttering a single word, all of them started to perform actions they never planned before like a well oiled mechanism. The teamwork of these three and the ability to improvise was remarkable.

As expected, Nick and YunYun downstairs apologized, said goodbyes and closed the door behind them on their way out. Obviously they would return few minutes later through any of the windows that currently were all wide open.

Suddenly prince heard a shout from outside, “What happened? Are you guys all right?”

Zia immediately pointed at prince and then towards the window.

‘Right! All the Holy Order’s people in this house were males! I have to answer something!’ Prince Helio realized.

He went closer to the window, but only so much that his stature could be seen from outside.

“It’s fine. Elder got distracted and we had a small mishap.” Prince said a bit loudly to the guard outside just to get startled right after.

“Stop shouting and come over here!” Nick’s shouted at him in his ‘elderly voice’. Somehow they were already back in the alchemy room and were visibly holding back their laughter looking at prince’s expression.

The displeased prince moved over from the window when he heard Nick whispering, “Well done, everyone! Thank you, Helio! Your quick reaction saved us.”

Prince nodded back, ‘Indeed! ... wait! Why are you calling me by name again? It’s ‘crown prince Helio’ to you!’

“Ok, it should be safe. Let’s proceed to the next stage.” Nick said.

All four quickly changed into the dark robes of the Holy Order and the girls started fixing their makeup. While Nick was still inspecting everything around the alchemy tables, girls were quickly done and turned towards the prince and mercilessly changed his appearance as well.

“I think it’s in the other room.” Zia said when she saw Nick frowning and scratching his head.

Indeed, the box with poison vials was in the next room. Nick brought it back and carefully inspected every vial. They contained a transparent fluid, slightly red in color, but without any smell and, most likely taste. Of course, already knowing its effects from general Blato, Nick didn’t have any intention to try.

Then Nick went to the room again and brought out another box, similar to this one but with empty bottles. After he sat down on the floor, a larger pot appeared in his hand and he started to fill the empty vials with a greenish colored liquid. Seeing his actions, YunYun left the task to ‘finish’ the prince to Zia and in immediately went over to help. Nick passed the pot over to her, from somewhere got another one and they both sat and filled the smaller vials without saying a word.

“Those two …” Prince was amazed by the sight.

“Ye, they fit each other well.” Zia smilingly nodded, “What about you, brother? Have you already found a wife?”

“What?” Prince blushed all over. Although he could be considered a seasoned soldier, he didn’t have much time for romance.

“If you haven’t, I can ask sisters to introduce you to someone. You will definitely be popular in the capital, especially with that manly scar of yours.” Zia expertly said.

“Stop spouting nonsense!” Prince berated her, “Are we done?”

Although Zia finished Helio’s makeup quickly, Nick and YunYun took their time. Even after they were done, Nick checked the green vials over and over again while YunYun went over and sat besides Zia who, to prince’s big surprise, was meditating all this time.

‘Seriously? While I casually observed what the two were doing, she just trains? Is that a plain carelessness or incredible power of concentration to be able to meditate in these conditions? We are behind the enemy lines and in the Holy Order’s hideout!’

While prince was inwardly shocked, YunYun followed Zia’s example and started to meditate as well. Suddenly prince felt like he had been slacking all these years even though up until now he thought he worked very hard. No wonder these youths casually ran hundreds of kilometers while carrying unconscious captives over their shoulders – they continuously trained all the time!

“All looks good!. Let’s create the ambiance and proceed to the next step.” Nick said and the girls immediately got up, “Helio, you were a great 'Karl', call the guard over. YunYun – you take the door.”

‘There is this again! If we weren’t on important mission I would’ve smacked you for ordering me around!’ Prince clenched his fists, but still went to the window and called one of the guards.

Soon the door downstairs opened and YunYun instructed the guard to urgently inform his superior that the elder wants to send something over.

Now they could only wait. Of course, none of them wasted any time, but all, including the prince, sat cross-legged and meditated.