There was a flash of hatred to his eyes as he looked at the portrait, his eyes were focused on the young man, whom he shared the same appearance on as his default appearance of purple hair and amethyst eyes.
The young lad in the portrait seemed to have a good countenance, however, his eyes were filled with fear and self-belittling. It was as if the life he had now was something that he was forced to take like he had lost something too great for his age.
Now, whilst he had red blood eyes and dark purple hair he was still the same yet different at the same time.
All the years that he worked, expanding his network was all to fulfill his end of the bargain with Birsha.
"This form is proof that I have become strong. Far stronger than I was before."
"Now it's about time to move… I've been waiting for centuries…" With a wave of his hands, several dark ravens formed in the air and hovered around his figure.
"Tell everyone to start the preparation…" He uttered as he turned around and disappeared in the shadows with the ravens around him.
–
Truly as Governor Fidel had predicted, the Imperial Family, together with the Seirende Temple and the envoys became busy in the preparation of the transport of the prisoners.
The Imperial Family could have started to construct the modified carriages to be used to house the prisoners; however, the Pope's party kept on adding a lot of requirements.
It took them three days to finally come to terms with the structure and features of the prisoners' cages.
All in all, they had to transport about fifty prisoners and around ten of them were those who had to be guarded at the highest level.
With that, the entire empire was mobilized to quickly source out the materials and the best craftsman and array of technicians were assembled to create these transport carriages.
Eli and Kayden also showed themselves during the preparation.
As part of the Anti-Curse committee, they are tasked to reinforce the arrays and mechanisms to keep the prisoners in order. Apart from that, they are also tasked to keep the prisoner vessels sturdy and secured so that no outside personnel could force open these cages and let the criminals loose.
"The trip to the Holy Island will be at least three months… We will be traveling at full speed so as to not exceed three months." Leon told Eli and Kayden to fill them up with the recent happenings in the negotiations in which they were not directly involved.
"If allowing teleportation was not something that could raise suspicions, you could have saved much time…" Kayden shook his head in regret as the three of them watched the workers get busy in the construction of the prison wagons.
"Three months is already a limit for us, allowing the prisoners out for more than that would make it hard for the guards.
We must also account for the ambushes along the way, for sure the Spectre would have to put on a good show to disrupt the travel." Leon replied.
The journey would be challenging, however, this was the risk that they accepted to take the moment they planned to attack the Pope back then.
That is because they have all embedded a tracking mechanism in the bodies of the prisoners and were not at least bothered that they would escape.
This was a secret they did not tell to any officials in the empire and so only the core members of the original curse investigation team knew about it.
And so in public, Emperor Valentin appeared reluctant and anxious when it came to the transportation of the prisoners. However, in reality, they were also making these prisoners as bait for the enemies waiting in the dark to attack.
While the two friends were conversing, Eli remained quiet. While she was observing everyone in the workshop, one would think that her mind seems to have been occupied by something far beyond what was around them.
"Eli, are you all right?" Leon moved to her side and asked her softly.
The latter shook her head, unwilling to speak in public. Leon and Kayden immediately understood so they decided to talk to his office back in the barracks.
"Tell me what bothers you…" Leon sat beside her while his other hand was carefully handing her a cup of freshly brewed tea.
"I could not help but feel like we have failed to consider something here…" Eli finally started to explain her thoughts.
The two did not react and contradict her statement right away but instead allowed her to finish communicating her thoughts.
"Days ago, we have already sent you the results of the investigation and the probable reasons why the Spectre wanted to have the asanis on their hands.
However, this very matter of visiting the prisoners, insisting that they themselves should be the ones to handle the matter up front… Going to the troublesome lengths of transporting the prisoners across two great continents…
What makes the Pope and the Spectre think that all these are worth it?
I could not help but keep thinking what is it that they were after?
Is it the prisoners themselves? But they were now as useless as they already know that the 'Paladin' back then destroyed the fragments on the spot.
The prisoners could not have just become the food for other curse users right? How much work would they make if all of these were for that? If I were in their shoes, attacking a nearby territory would have been much easier…
I tried thinking about something that could have been present in both circumstances. Whether the Pope personally went here to carry out the trials or whether the envoy went here and initiated the transfer of the prisoners.
But I can't seem to find the answer." Eli said with a deep anxious frown on her face.
Leon and Kayden looked at each other seemingly understanding where Eli was coming from. However, the next second, Kayden nodded at his friend seemingly signaling him to say something.
And so Leon chuckled helplessly and rubbed Eli's head, while he said in a gentle tone,
"Eli… it amazes me every time you would point out things that are crucial and detrimental to consider on matters such as this. There has not been one instance where I found your thoughts ridiculous or overly cautious.
However, my love… for me this trait of yours is both your gift and weakness at the same time."
Eli did not take offense to Leon's words, in fact, she was interested in what he had to say, "A gift and a weakness?"
Leon took her hand and rubbed it affectionately,
"Yes, it's…
It is a gift because you are able to remind or make people realize that there are important things that they need to consider to make sure that the plans work as successfully as they could. You could come up with a myriad of sensible ideas that would just blow everyone's mind and are truly praiseworthy.
Believe me, love, it truly is praiseworthy!" Leon paused and looked her in the eye.
Meeting Leon's sincere gaze, Eli's throat tightened as she felt her heart leap. It has been a long time since Leon talked to her like this. And every time he did, she could never resist that sultry soft voice that he was using every time.
It might sound like Leon was genuinely affirming her character but to her ears and mind, he is whispering her sweet nothings.
'Goodness… Brother Kayden is still around!' Eli's obsidian eyes darted around, no longer able to withstand the heat from Leon's breath and the reddening of the back of her nape.
"Tsk…" Kayden could only flip a random document around and turned away from the two. How bold these two are for openly flirting when the topic is so serious.
Leon could only chuckle and poke Eli's nose.
Then he leaned back to give both of them space to breathe and explained the next part of his thoughts,
"While most of the time, it is a gift… I said that it was also your weakness purely because of this…" He went on to rub her hair while smiling helplessly.
"Sometimes, you need not think too much about things...
Sometimes, being straightforward and simple works too.
For an enemy who was already used to seeing you use such cunning skills. Wouldn't it catch them off-guard once you suddenly went back from adopting a super simplistic strategy?
What do you think? Does it make sense?" Leon asked.
Eli paused and contemplated Leon's answer deeply then finally nodded in understanding.
Leon was not saying that it is wrong for her to think as she had thought earlier, but is actually replying to the concerns she just communicated.
Leon's words meant that at this moment, it would no longer matter for them to guess what the enemy was planning to do.
Instead, he was telling her to just be prepared for an all-out war no matter what, because the enemy's objectives wouldn't matter anymore.
These enemies just simply had to be defeated!
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