The Magic Of Skill

Chapter 21's

Killifer came to the palace in the clothes he used to wear, which were tight-fitting jerseys due to his muscles, and comfortable-looking trousers. A mighty sword sheathed at his waist, Killifer Voil walked confidently into the palace without anyone stopping him.

Arriving inside the palace, Killifer had no reason to look around, he already knew enough what was in the Emperor's palace. He rushed to the Emperor's room, where there would be someone important waiting for his arrival.

He was Marquis Daralo, a high-ranking nobleman who was a friend of Emperor Valarish and Killifer. As soon as Killifer came into the room, Daralo was overjoyed, he immediately hugged his best friend very tightly.

There was a warm conversation between the two of them, in which Killifer recounted what happened during the festival uprising. Daralo listens to that without the slightest bit of suspicion, because Daralo knows his best friend has no reason to lie.

But what concerns Daralo is the expression Killifer who says that he pretends to be a subordinate of Meffery Walter. As expected Daralo, Walter was indeed a very strong person, even to the point of enslaving Killifer.

“That person is very dangerous, he has a legendary elf with him, also his partner is a spirit, he also has a Royal Knight named Quine von Harold. We can't let anyone seem to wander around, Daralo.” Killifer with a convincing face.

“You're right. But why are you here.?”

“I was ordered by him to be a spy watching over you. He knows your closeness to me, and wants to take advantage of it. Lucky he didn't realize my loyalty all along was a pretense.”

“... so.. what are you planning?”

“You're a smart man, Daralo, I know that. I can be a spy for both sides, I can spy on Walter for you, and of course I will be completely on your side. Together we terminate********* that. Otherwise, this Empire would have definitely collapsed.”

Hearing that, Daralo smiled. He stood up, then looked out the window. All things, events, forms of escapism, even the plans behind the plan, are being processed in Daralo's intelligent brain. This time he is no longer afraid of Walter, having learned that he has a strong insider.

And there is good news coming from his beloved. “You know. My wife infiltrated Raverine alone, disguised in a protective mask. He did it out of annoyance at me who said bad things to him. But.” the smile on Daralo's face becomes bigger, “That's no longer important, we can update him at any time about King Loiros.”'s assassination plan

“... You plan to kill King Loiros?”

“Yes, killing Walter is ridiculous, I thought that it was impossible. In fact, wouldn't it break even if we killed the king alone?”

“Perfect. All right, Daralo, I'll come!”

***

A woman wearing a mask and a robe, riding a horse in a hurry. He drives in the middle of the city, which is actually normal even though there are many pedestrians around. Because in Raverine, animals such as giant lizards or pet foxes, are deliberately used to pull trains because of their strength and body size. This makes the streets of Raverine very crowded.

Whether he wanted to go where the woman wearing the black robe was, he seemed to have no special purpose despite riding his horse.

Until suddenly the woman got out of control, and accidentally hit a pedestrian. The pedestrian bounced and fell to the ground. A parcel containing a ribbon of cloth fell from the hand of the pedestrian who was hit.

Feeling guilty, the woman in the robe went down and helped the pedestrian.

“Sorry, sir, are you okay?” ask the robed woman.

“.. Y-Yes. I'm fine.”

When he saw the face of the man he had just hit, the robed woman immediately fell silent.

“I'm sorry, are you Mr Meffery Walter?”

“Yes, I'm Walter. I'm surprised you know me.” Said the person who called himself Walter.

The robed woman immediately took a serious action, she looked around like she was watching something. After realizing that he was not paying much attention, he immediately whispered to Walter.

“I am an emissary from the Empire of Nazaroth, my name is.. Cardella´s. I was ordered to give this letter to Mr. Walter.” The woman named Cardella took something inside her robe, which turned out to be a scroll of letters with a red string tying her up. He gave it to Walter. “Then, I'll excuse you.”

“Wait, don't just go away.” Stop Walter when Cardella plans to get back on her horse.

“.. but, sir, my order is to immediately give it and leave as soon as possible before others realize our meeting.”

Without further rebuttal Cardella rode her horse then drove in the opposite direction. When he moved away, and Walter's figure was no longer visible, he reported something by using a magic item, message scroll to speak to a distant person, “Letter has been received by Walter, dear. I'm getting ready to go scouting now.”

Walter, at the time, was still holding an obscure letter from the woman who referred to herself as Cardella. He opened the letter, and looked at its contents;

‘On behalf of the Nasaroth Empire earlier let us apologize to Mr. Meffery Walter for our impoliteness in sending a letter. We have great respect for King Loiros' decision to return our Emperor's body.

But apologize, as this has had a bad impact on the Empire. We strongly suggest that King Loiros will come to our banquet, the day after tomorrow, at our palace. The point is to reinforce the mistakes of one of the parties, especially those of us who mess up the festival.’

“Injection.”

Walter burned the letter to nothing. She collected her shopping bags containing ribbons for Hile's dress. Then walk back to the palace.

***

In the afternoon, Cardella, wearing a black cloak and mask, stood on the roof of the house to spy on her target, Meffery Walter. The house that Cardella was riding in was directly opposite the veranda of Princess Lennef's room, although the height was much different.

Cardella who at that time saw Walter enter the palace alone certainly could not lurk any closer. Lurking from home like this is the most appropriate way.

Of course, Cardella did not merely scout her with just the naked eye. The palace was surrounded by a large wall, while Princess Lennef's room was on top. The only way to see the veranda was to climb the wall, but if it was done the guards would know.

That's why Cardella uses a magic item called Tap Point, an earring that has the function of tapping the sound and visual of the target. Cardella could easily see how Walter was leaning against the porch fence with next to her was Princess Lennef. Not only can she see, but she can also hear.

“Really? Well then, I also feel awkward with the relationship between countries lately.” Princess Response.

Hearing Princess's wrong response, Walter confirmed, “. There will be no banquet there. My guess is that the King will be ambushed during the journey and put to death. It makes sense that they want revenge for the loss of the leader.”

Cardella who heard that was immediately shocked. It was not only Walter who managed to guess the Marquis Daralo's plan, but also the fact that he discussed the matter with the third most important person in Raverine, Princess Lennef.

In addition, if Walter succeeds in guessing this plan, it means that he has already told the king, or another possibility is that Walter did not give the letter to the king.

In any case, this was a retaliation for two parties at once. Marquis Daralo wanted Walter trapped and ended with the king's death. Even if the king was killed, and Walter was angry, it was an inevitable path if they wanted revenge.

But Cardella did not want to jump to conclusions, she also only had a few more message scrolls. In a plan like this a report is important, but Cardella chooses to listen further.

“So what are you going to do?” princess Lennef asked Walter.

“Just relax, I have someone there to set things up. I have Killifer Voil, he's now with Daralo and his loyal partner. We can manipulate Daralo through Killifer.” Answer Walter.

Cardella immediately remembered the sentence well in her ear. Did he hear wrong? Killifer Voil is the military chief, how can he be Walter's spy?

But if you think there's a point, Killifer wasn't seen during the Emperor's disappearance. If Killifer could have bowed to Walter, what about Cardella's husband?

Using a message scroll, Cardella reports that Killifer is a spy for Walter. She also reminded her husband not to immediately agree with Killifer's words, nor to directly hit him, it might be a rebellion if Killifer changed the plan to attack directly.

Finished reporting, when Cardella was ready to leave, Walter again said something interesting, “I will order Killifer to report to Daralo like this, ‘The king's entourage will come, , her bodyguards are two Royal Knights namely the sisters Quine and Neressy.’ That way they will gather an army to trap the king. But in reality, the king will not come, and my group will ambush them later.” While saying the plan to Princess Lennef, Walter wrote what he said in a letter. The letter is rolled up then given to the pigeon sending the message.

In this way, Cardella already knows Walter's plan. That means the king won't come, and Walter's army is already waiting there. Then later that will be ambushed is the troops of Nasaroth. In addition, Walter also said that he would come ambush, which means that if there was a war then Nasaroth clearly lost.

Just as Cardella wanted to report, she was aware that the scroll she had left was one, and it would be used to report the route of the trip for which her information was still unobtainable. So instead of wasting time, Cardella rushed after the bird.

Until he ran too far from the palace, the dove he was chasing flew close to the roof of a high-rise house. Cardella could easily run and jump on top of the building, but reaching for the bird was a bit difficult.

He took out a magic item from his sling bag, the Light Shooter. An item that is shaped like a horseshoe-shaped magnet, but has a unique way of working. When the object is directed to the object, the Light Shooter will emit a heat beam that is formed like a laser. The chance to shoot him is only 3 times.

It didn't take much of a chance, Cardella only needed one shot to make the bird fall.

When the bird fell, Cardella caught it, then took it to a narrow alley and rarely seen. It was there that he saw the contents of the letter that was a report for Killifer later.

It turns out that it is true, what Walter said in accordance with the contents of the letter, means that at that time Walter was not trapping Cardella let alone aware of her existence.

Cardella changes the report, when she just wanted to write, Cardella just remembered that Killifer is a spy for Walter. If Cardella sabotaged the report that seemed to help Nasaroth, Killifer would definitely be suspicious and doubtful of the contents of the letter. That meant he had to be good at rearranging reports so he could manipulate Killifer.

What Cardella reported was like this, ‘King will not come, nor will I act foolishly by trying to ambush them. Let's just say this mission was canceled. You report to Nasaroth exactly as it was written earlier.’

In this way, Cardella managed to manipulate Killifer in the hope that Killifer would later report that the king would not come, which meant that Marquis Daralo did not need to prepare an army in that place.

Done already, this way Walter's troops will ambush things in vain, Cardella thought in her heart so.

He healed the bird he shot with the healing potion, then let the bird fly back to give the letter to Killifer.

But Cardella was a little disappointed in herself, in the end the plan her husband made did not go smoothly. Though he hoped that the king would leave without Walter's escort. But if Walter intervenes, then there's no choice but to abort the mission.

***

Quine and Florinas are in a predetermined place, according to Walter's plan where they are now setting a trap in the form of Space Prison where Walter wants. It was a forest edge, facing directly onto a 17-kilometer-long prairie of empty land, as Quine once explained.

But the existence of Quine and Florinas there is not to set a real trap, but rather to oversee Varnella's work, because Space Prison is a magic belonging to Varnella whose own loyalty is still doubted by Walter.

And Varnella worked well, although she often fought with Florinas, she completed the Space Prison to a very perfect stage with zero errors.

Florinas reports this to Walter using Call's magic, “Master, the prison has been successfully prepared. What else am I supposed to do?”

“Good, thank you, Florinas.no, thank you for Varnella.”

“I also work, Master!!”

“... stop. Florinas, use Call on Killifer, tell him to report to Daralo that the next day King Loiros will come, his route is through the field where you stand now. You understand?”

“Sure, but Master said Killifer's report was taken care of.”

“.. yes. there is a slight problem. You just do your job, okay?”

“Alright, Master.”

On the other hand, Walter received a call from the Florinas while he was still on the royal veranda. Walter's eyes were fixed on the view of the sky, no matter if the sun burned his eyes. Until something that Walter was waiting for finally came along. Something flying in the sky, a hairy animal in charge of delivering letters, that is a dove.

The bird rested in Walter's hand. As Walter had guessed, the letter had been replaced.

“.. Cardella.?” Walter mentioned the name of the person who touched the trap bird, where it was coated with detection magic that made it plastered and identifiable. “Cardella... oh, that was that afternoon? Geez, he's not an expert at making pseudonyms apparently.”