Way of the Knights

Chapter 29: Errand

“What the hell is going on here!?”

A deep bellow came from behind them. Everyone was startled and looked at their back to see a tall and well built man cladding a heavy suit of armor frowning at them.

“Sir Felix!” Jenny immediately stepped forward and explained, “The Sunlight Sword! Something’s wrong with it!”

The man grunted and moved forward as well, he joined the adults in defending the kids from the malicious intent of the sword. He summoned his shield and raised it to meet the aura. This proved to help a lot since the kids immediately felt like they regained their bodily functions.

“What in the world was that!” Paul exclaimed in a low breath. He clutched his chest and heaved breath of relief.

“How are we supposed to know if even they…” Ellen pointed at the staff, “…don’t know as well?”

Paul’s faced flushed, he laughed in embarassment as the rest snickered in his antics. Mark unconsciously looked at Raven, well if someone does have other opinions about this whole matter then it should be him right? Surprisingly, he saw Raven’s face looked like he was in deep thought. Noticing his gaze, Raven looked at him as well but only shrugged, seemingly telling him that he was clueless too.

“Is their tour of the museum finished already?” Felix looked at Jenny and asked. He saw her nod.

“Yes Sir Felix, this is the last remnant here at the first floor that they are allowed to see. I’ll escort the kids back to their temporary residence.” Jenny saw him nod and no longer paid attention to her. She then shifted her gaze and looked at the frightened kids.

“Um…alright guys, I apologize about that sudden event, we are not aware that something like that would happen. Fortunately, this is the last remnant that you guys are able to see for the first floor. I’ll be escorting you out of the museum and towards your temporary residence. Group up and make sure to pay attention to your fellow classmates okay?”

She saw the students nodded which caused her to feel relief. She then started escorting them out of the place while Arnold, Jackson, Old Lee and Sir Felix dealt with the raging sword.

The students are to stay a nearby high class inn, each having their own rooms with complete necessities and the expenses are shouldered by the Institute. Some students decided to have their lunch, some traveled the vicinity of the place while other preferred to stay at their own rooms.

Before their group separated, Raven pulled Luna in a secretive corner. She was deeply startled, she was about to scream for help when she realized that it was only him, which caused her to lower her guard. But somehow, realizing that it was only them in a dim and secretive place, doesn’t help her composure at all, not by a long shot.

“W-w-what’s the problem?” Her voice was stuttering as she avoided his gaze. This was something that has been bugging her for a while now.

For some unknown reason, she was having difficulties looking straight into his eyes since each time she did, her heart threatened to leap out of her chest. This feeling was so strange to her. For some reason, she can’t understand why he looks at her like that.

His gaze was warm, so warm that she felt like he was melting. It was so different from those gazes that she had faced before. Some gazed at her secretively, lustfully, warily, and some were even full of hostility. His gaze however was just kind, caring and…friendly? She can’t really explain it properly.

“…listening? Hey! Hey!”

“Ow!” Luna was startled as she suddenly felt pain in her forehead. She instantly returned to reality, Raven flicked her forehead since she was dazed. “S-sorry about that! I got distracted! What are we talking about again?”

“I said…” Raven sighed and continued: “I have a request that must be done secretly and only you can do it.”

“What request?” She asked, Raven removed something from his arms. It was an old and worn out bandage. He arranged it neatly and placed it to her hands.

“Give this to Old Lee later.” He said with a solemn voice, “Tell him to take it to the Sunlight Sword in the Heroic Museum and hand it to the sword. Remind him to not be seen by anyone, no one aside from us three should know this. Understand?”

Luna felt the heaviness in her voice, she nodded in agreement but can’t hide her curiosity. “Is the rampage of the Sunlight Sword related to this?”

She saw him nod and say: “It is. But it won’t do you good knowing what it is yet. Just give it to Old Lee and pass my message to him. He’ll know what to do.”

Luna nodded and kept the bandage on her spatial ring, she saw Raven move back to the Inn and followed him, with that the group decided to hang out and discuss random things about their trip.

***

Midnight of the same day.

Old Lee could be seen walking outside of the inn with a deadpan expression and his hands behind him. It looked like he was walking on his yard but in truth, every step of his took him to mind boggling distances. It only took him a couple of steps before he was already standing at the at the general location of the Heroic Museum.

His eyes moved quickly and with that, he vanished once more. Just that glance allowed him to basically know that defensive perimeters of the entire museum in his mind along with the patrol route of the guards and their superiors.

It looked his he just skipped but he was already inside of the museum, practically in front of the Sunlight Sword. His expression became a bit strict as he hesitated.

‘What the hell am I doing?’ He shook his head in frustration.

Like Raven told Luna, she gave him the bandages and relayed his message to Old Lee. The old man was highly skeptical and tried to get more details but Luna was also helpless as he didn’t give much either.

‘Come to think of it, that kid was so strange. Way too intelligent, way too strong and way too mysterious for his age. Just who was he anyway?’

He felt like tugging his remaining hairs out from confusion. He was torn between trusting Raven and killing him to stop this madness.

He seriously felt like all of the mysterious things revolve around him. He has this knowledge that even someone like him doesn’t know, he could create strange yet highly effective things that none had seen before and don’t even mention his strength, which was far too strong for a kid in his age.

He had seen him multiple times, he basically stalked his young mistress and her friends whenever they go to his place. He was shocked to see the way they trained themselves.

The method he used wasn’t all that crazy, in fact it was simple. So simple yet highly effective. Using constant combat to drill the basics into their body, even going as far as etching the basics at an instinctual level. Old Lee saw those moving dummies who he cursed multiple times because it hurts his young mistress. He saw that weird chamber that shot projectiles of air. And what probably the most interesting creation that he saw, the one that Raven personally uses everytime. Those wooden poles and the automated firing crossbows.

It would be a total lie if he said he wasn’t interested on those creations, as he had personally witness their capabilities, heck Raven even gave him one which ease his work load by a lot. And that says many things.

‘Whatever, it’s not like the kid would set me up or something, even if he did, it’s totally reasonable since I the one who doubted his good intentions at the beginning anyway.’

Thinking like this, Old Lee set up an enchantment around him which seemingly blurred his location. The enchantment created an illusion and also suppressed any sort of commotion that might happen while he’s here. Can’t have those guards hot in his trails while doing a stealthy errand. After making sure that the enchantment had been successfully made without any leaks. He produced the bandages from his spatial ring.

He immediately thanked the gods for making him such a paranoid, because as soon as the bandages were out, the Sunlight Sword automatically flared with an intense aura.

He watched as the Sunlight Sword hovered in front of him, completely disregarding all of the ‘protection from thieves’ mechanism that the staff members created for it. Unlike last time, the aura it radiates wasn’t heavy and malicious, instead it felt like it was singing with joy and excitement, he could only describe it as ‘a person meeting an old friend after a long time of separation’.

Without his consent, the bandage floated off from his hands and glowed with a brilliant light. It wrapped itself to the sword under Old Lee’s dumbfounded gaze and the bandage transformed into a scabbard.

With a ‘click’, the sword hummed a joyful tune and went back to it’s location along with the scabbard. Old Lee’s brain malfunction for a while and could only ask ‘How?’ In his mind, knowing full well that only a certain someone could explain it to him.

He smiled wryly and sighed. After making an effort to erase his tracks, he deactivated the enchantment and disappeared in silence.