Bloodbound Codex: I Grow Stronger in Secret

As Karval paced toward the Rosaria Household for more information about his target, inside the Rosaria Household the Patriarch could be seen walking through the corridors of the lowest floor, his hands behind him and his new attire a red and white combination unlike what he had been wearing when Atlas was last present.

His eyes moved across everything in front of him without pause as he walked, and when he reached the massive entrance door of the House and stepped outside, his head snapped toward his right immediately as a thought formed, ’A rat is coming to our household?...An assassin and Special S-rank at that, which household would dare do this?’

Dravenson hadn’t needed to spread his senses to pick up the incoming assassin, the moment he stepped out his Instincts had triggered on their own, that was what came from the experience of many battles across the years it had taken him to reach his current rank, his Instincts tended to stay quiet when he was inside his own house or somewhere he considered safe enough that they didn’t need to run at full alert, but the moment that safe perimeter ended and he stepped beyond it, they fired at anything suspicious in the surrounding area without needing to be told to, and they had fired now.

He spread his senses outward as they triggered, and when he did, he saw straight through the Veil Karval was running under.

That unique ability which read as impossible to most people was peeled back by Dravenson’s senses like it presented no resistance at all, and from sensing the Veil itself Dravenson understood without needing to look further that this was a Special S-rank.

That Unique Ability that Dravenson saw through seemed to require way too much spirit to keep it running at that level, it was not something any normal Special S-rank ever carried, and from the speed and movement pattern of the figure running through the streets of Lumivale he also concluded the intruder was an assassin, the way trained assassins moved was distinct from normal or even high rank Explorers that someone with enough experience could make that identification at a glance.

Then something else caught his attention and he thought again, ’Hmm?...A Human, so it’s not the Noble Households, they would never hire Humans to assassinate someone...’

’And they would never dare attempt anything like this knowing I am present in this Household...Interesting, then who sent him?’

Those two conclusions came quickly because they were way too obvious to him - the Noble Households that were in opposition to Rosaria had enough sense not to move against them in any way when Dravenson himself present, that was known and understood among the Noble circles of Celestara, no Household would take that kind of risk no matter how strong a disagreement between them became.

And even if one had lost that sense they would never use a Human assassin for it, Angelic Noble Households hired Humans for exploration or escorting work, never for assassination, that was a line they kept entirely separate from Human involvement regardless of the situation or the target.

So whoever had sent this Assasin was not from the Angelic Continent at all, which narrowed the origin considerably and made the whole situation more...interesting to Dravenson than threatening, and it also immediately connected in his mind to what had happened with the Rosaria Spirit Contract and the commoner explorer who had been involved with them recently.

Dravenson turned to his left and spoke, ”Kaelion...”

The moment the name left his mouth an Angel appeared a meter to his left, pure white wings behind him, a regal attire and a sword at his waist, and he dropped immediately to one knee as he bowed, ”What is it, Patriarch?...Please give your orders.”

Dravenson looked down at him and spoke calmly, ”There is a Human assassin coming here, I want you on guard at all times, though I will handle him myself it is better to remain careful, you know what to do if anything goes wrong or that Assassin carries some...High grade Relics.”

Kaelion lifted his head slightly as a thought moved through him, ’Some Human assassin dares to enter Lord Dravenson’s territory?’

Then the next thought followed immediately as he narrowed his eyes ’...I couldn’t sense this Human assassin at all? my senses are spread over the whole city and still nothing came through?...This can only mean that this assassin must be a Special S-rank just like me, and from Lord stepping in personally it seems this matter must be serious or Interesting to him than it looks on the surface.’

He came to some of the same conclusions Dravenson had reached, thought through them for a moment, then lowered his head again and spoke, ”Yes my Lord, I will remain on guard, though I think it won’t be necessary with you stepping in personally, I will carry your orders regardless.”

Then Kaelion vanished with a WHOOSH of wind, his form didn’t blur or move at speed the way a normal fast movement looked, it simply disappeared alongside the sound of wind passing through that spot, and that alone told Dravenson everything he needed to know about what Kaelion’s Unique Ability was connected to, the ability type was readable just from how the disappearance happened.

Dravenson smiled slightly as he watched him go, then turned back toward his right and spoke quietly, ”Let’s see why you came here, you damn rat of a Human assassin...”

And then he vanished as well, in his case however there was no blur, no wind, no visible sign of movement at all, he simply was not there anymore, similar in appearance to how Atlas had moved using Mu-ho but different in the actual mechanism behind it, that distinction being something better addressed at another time.

Because right now Karval was running through the streets near the Noble District where the Rosaria Household stood as the largest building in that area, and as he ran he had already worked out which building it was.

The way he had figured that out was straightforward, he had been listening to conversations across the city while running through it in the Veil state, picking up what people said without them knowing anyone was listening, and through those he had heard rumours that Atlas Crosswood had been seen entering the Noble District multiple times to meet with someone named Seraphiel Rosaria, whose household was the largest in that entire district by a visible margin compared to everything else around it, and the building itself confirmed that the moment it came into view.

As Karval ran in the Veil state toward the massive gate, he was sensing only one Special S-rank inside the building and concluded from that single reading that the situation presented no serious obstacle for him, he moved to pass through the gate the same way he had passed through the counter at the Guild, his body already at the threshold and preparing to cross it without stopping.

He had sensed that single Special S-rank inside from a distance while running through the streets and dismissed the concern quickly, one Special S-rank inside a building was not something that changed his approach, he was a Special S-rank himself and had engaged higher threats in past missions, and on top of that his Veil ability made him untraceable to anyone whose Cultivation rank did not exceed his own, so there was nothing inside this building that his assessment told him to be cautious of.

What he didn’t know was that the single Special S-rank he had sensed was not the highest ranking individual currently in or near this household, and his Veil had a ceiling it operated under that he had simply never encountered before because no one he had been assigned to deal with had ever exceeded it.

But as he tried to pass through the gate threshold, he felt it, THUMP, his heartbeat fired once and his eyes went wide as every Instinct inside him screamed of danger on a scale beyond anything he had faced before, something he had no reference point for from all the fights and missions the years had put him through, and he tried to turn his head toward the source in the same moment as that split second seemed to stretch outward, but before he could complete the turn a voice echoed directly into his mind, ”Who sent you?...You rat of an assassin.”

The cold voice sent chills through his whole body.

And in that exact moment... a fist connected with his jaw with a force so completely disproportionate to anything he had ever experienced that his head turned sideways before time seemed to resume its normal flow, and his body flew in the direction the punch had sent it.

- - -

[A/N: Give this Author some encouragement with some Gifts, Golden tickets and Power stones will ya? Lately it seems many of you have forgotten...sigh...only some of you care about this poor Author to shower some gifts and i am very thankful for it!

Though I would want every reader to be like that...what can we do? ...I will let you guys decide]