SPIRIT SOUL

Since Gaby and Selene had left the Jars' home, the former guard captain had a nagging feeling that something was wrong.

She could feel that someone was eyeing them.

Unfortunately, she had been unable to see anyone.

This made her think that she was imagining things.

However, Gaby's discomfort had only increased upon reaching the district in which the Lohars were currently living.

Her instincts told her that something bad was about to happen.

As such, she had decided to drag Selene into an alley the moment she had finished her short speech.

Even if there could be lurkers in the narrow alley that could turn into their doom, Gaby decided to risk it.

He felt that it was the best path to return to the Jars.

Selene was confused about the sudden change in Gaby's behavior.

But after seeing her stiff expression, she meekly followed her.

Either something must have been wrong, or Gaby sensed something Selene was unable to.

Instead of complaining, she simply followed Gaby.

But, she halted in her tracks the moment they were about to leave the alley.

She pulled Selene back before she entered an open street once again.

Taking a robe out of her spatial ring, Gaby slowly manifested a firm pillar of ice in her hand.

Draping the robe around the ice pillar, she turned it into a human-like figure.

From a distance, it would pass as a person who was crossing the alley.

This would make it seem as if a Lohar could be below it.

After that, Gaby enlarged the pillar, carefully pushing the robe out of the dark and narrow alley.

Selene wanted to figure out what was going on, but she only observed Gaby curiousl<.

The former captain was fully focused on trying to sense something in their surroundings while pushing the pillar of ice that was slowly enlarging.

Suddenly, a shocked outcry of a woman reverberated through the entire area, causing both Selene and Gaby to halt in their tracks.

Only a moment later, the faint noise of something whooshing through the air could be heard.

Minutes later, two sharp arrows pierced through the robe, missing the head by a hair's breadth.

They had lodged in the spot where Selene's shoulder would be located.

The sudden assassination attempt shocked them, and they waited in the alley for a while.

But, nothing happened afterward.

'Is that it?' Gaby wondered as a droplet of sweat trickled down her cheek.

Suddenly, just at the moment, Gaby had planned to move, a third arrow whooshed through the air.

She stumbled back as it pierced through her robe.

The arrow had hit right at the spot where the heart is normally located.

As the feeling of her failed assassination sunk in, Selene involuntarily flinched.

Gaby's mind was rattling and even her palms began to sweat.

Her gut feeling had just turned true and she realized that there might be even more attacks that could follow. Horrified at the thought,, as she let go of the ice pillar and robe.

It fell to the ground as if the robed person had died.

Now that the pillar was of no use, she wasn't required to focus on her ice affinity.

Hence, Gaby had enough time to direct her full attention to the surroundings.

Her body was taut as a wire and her senses were on high alert.

There was a high possibility of another attempt to assassinate Selene.

Of course, she knew that nobody in their right minds would think of assassinating her.

This meant that someone was after Selene.

Thinking on her feet, Gaby had quickly created a robed being that looked like Selene.

She was evidently the target, and after waiting for a minute that felt like an eternity had passed, they decided to move.

After hearing a commotion from further away, Gaby knew that she could leave the narrow alley.

Nevertheless, her guard was up.

And, instead of leaving the alley unguarded, she took a shield out of her spatial ring, which she handed Selene.

Gaby decided to only use her two daggers as she only had one shield.

Gaby was confident about her combat prowess and knew that she would be able to fight an attacker head on.

Meanwhile, Selene was less likely to be able to deflect arrows that were flying towards her.

Thus, she handed over the shield to Selene.

Now that they finally left the alley, both were extremely vigilant.

Their eyes were darting around, and they couldn't help but feel uncomfortable and tense.

Being attacked within the town was not to be taken lightly so they proceeded carefully.

After a few minutes, Gaby noticed that no more arrows or other attacks were flying towards them.

Thus, she took a relieved breath and eased a little.

There were only a few dozen Aldras looking towards the rooftop of a specific house a bit farther than them.

It caused Gaby to calm down a little bit before she approached said house.

While approaching it, she noticed that there were two corpses on top of the rooftop. Oddly enough, both of the deceased were oddly familiar to her.

Because of that, she climbed on top of the house, the moment she reached it.

On reaching the rooftop, she noticed that the corpses were still warm and hadn't turned ice cold.

Furthermore, their wounds were deep and looked like the attacker had mercilessly slashed at them.

'They're guards, and they had been killed without any resistance.

This means that someone from their own rows was the culprit...did they shoot two of the three arrows?'

While she was in thoughts, she heard a commotion from the other side of the house.

She rushed to the edge of the rooftop and looked down to the ground.

'A third one...but he looks paler than the others...was he the reason for the shriek?'

Scratching the back of her head, Gaby's mind worked hard.

She could only come to the conclusion that there was another perpetrator, possibly the leader of those who had tried to assassinate Selene.

'The first corpse was probably killed by the leader… and he then shot an arrow by himself before he killed the others...does that even make sense?'

Unsure if her conclusion was correct, she tried to run multiple theories through her mind.

Her eyes returned to Selene, who was looking around in vigilance.

She was still not sure whether someone would attack her all of a sudden or not.

Now, she was beginning to doubt the safety within the town walls.

Suddenly, just when Gaby returned to Selene, another commotion could be heard from further away.

A group of guards arrived at the crime scene.

"Why are suddenly three guards dead, just when the Lahin kingdom's soldiers are there? What kind of joke is this…?"

Gaby knew the middle-aged man who was shouting out.

But instead of paying anymore attention to him, she pulled Selene away from the corpses.

Her guess was that they were possibly the assassins who were supposed to kill her, only to die at the hands of one of their own.

At least that was what Gaby could comprehend in the short amount of time she had spent investigating the situation.

Running back to the Jars would take a lot of time and expose them to more attacks.

Hence, Gaby dragged Selene towards the town's entrance.

'Right now we cannot rely on the guards anymore...the Lahin kingdom will protect Selene, I believe.'

Gaby had quickly decided to not trust the soldiers.

At the same time, she was forced to trust the soldiers of the Lahin kingdom rather than the city guards.

If her assumptions were right, some of them wanted to kill Selene in order to create nothing but chaos.

The reason for this was evidently her status as a noble.

Her assassination was probably supposed to act as a means to enrage the Lohars who resided inside the town.

'Is it just a coincidence that the assassination failed, or were they too impatient? Did the arrival of the small unit of soldiers from the Lahin kingdom make them commit a blunder? The soldiers are not yet inside the town, so the news has to be from someone stationed on the town walls, or even the watchtower!'

The thought of having been betrayed was already enough for Gaby to act quickly.

Instead of ensuring her survival and safety, she wanted to protect Selene.

She was answerable to the Jars after all.

Plus, she had taken a liking to the little Lohar.

As such, they reached the town gate, in a matter of less than ten minutes. Both of them spotted someone they hadn't expected to see, at all.

"Kyle?!"

"Kyle!!!"

**

Kyle had been unconscious, lying inside the bathtub filled with medicinal solutions for the entire time.

Weirdly enough, his body twitched the moment the assassination attempt had been initiated!

It was as if his body was instinctively telling him that he had to move and protect someone.

Unfortunately, he was still unconscious.

After that a few moments passed in which nothing happened.

And then as if a chain reaction had ensued, multiple things happened at the same time.

Dirk's arrow pierced straight through the dummy Gaby had conjured in order to deceive the assassins.

It was at this exact moment that the guards informed Laila about spotting a small unit of armored Lohars. They were about to arrive and at the same moment Kyle's emerald-colored eyes opened widely as he blurted out.

"They're here..."

His body and mind were instantly awake and it felt as if he had never been unconscious. Meanwhile, Arashi emerged from within Kyle.

The Horned Azure fox's appearance hadn't changed, but he had grown in size by a few centimeters.

Meanwhile, his fur seemed to be shining brighter.

Kyle could sense many other things from his Spirit Soul but that did not matter.

Right now, his instincts were telling him to get out of the bathtub and get outside.

Somehow, it was as if something bad had happened, but at the same time, that was also not the case.

He was unable to explain his condition and what his instincts told him about Vila town.

What he knew for sure was that Arashi had completed something and that his body had finally adjusted to the changes he had undergone.

His mind was still somewhat befuddled for a few more seconds.

Shaking his head and body, he got up from the tub. Everything was washed away as he began to move.

Not a trace of his earlier exhaustion was left in him. Kyle didn't feel any pain by moving inside the bathtub either.

As such, he got out of the bathtub before he grasped the closest towel.

He quickly dried himself and put on a clean set of clothes before rushing to the town's gate, where he was supposed to be!

**

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