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Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 26
🕑 Added 2023-11-23 07:18:40 +0000 UTCThe next couple of days after the assassination attempt at the Ironcrest estate were rather busy. The first thing Baron Rowan Silverbrook did after confirming Luke was stable and his daughter’s shoulder wound was taken care of, was to send out a few messenger birds to a few of his war buddies to call in some favors.
The next thing he did was to send a runner into town to report the assassination attempt to the local branch of the Royal Constabulary. Within the hour, even though it was in the middle of the night, there were more than 50 constables and officers swarming the Ironcrest estate collecting evidence and interviewing people.
The only thing they were thankful for was that Luke was unconscious and Charlotte was hiding with her maid and did not see anything, this allowed Amara, Rowan, and Isabella to fabricate what actually happened and explain how Amara and Luke got injured and the damage to the surroundings.
Nobody was going to believe a bigger than usual 3-year-old boy went toe to toe with assassins and beat them with magic and aura, and even if they believed the unbelievable truth, that would bring up a lot of questions that they could not and did not want to answer.
After the initial investigation was done, they found in the possession of the assassins, mana sensing stones, mana detection powder and its neutralizer powder, blueprints of the mansion, and most importantly an array jammer.
Array jammers did not come cheap or easy, it was a highly controlled item in all countries. Which begs the question, who were these assassins? After examining their approximate age, body build, body condition, and equipment, these assassins were determined to be low-level assassins, yet they had the tools to deal with mana which was expensive, and an array jammer, things did not add up, why would any group waste such precious material on low level scrubs.
That was until news of similar assassination attempts and sabotage happened along the border with the Valorhelm Dominion. Fort commanders and high-ranking military officers were the targets of assassination attempts, along with their families.
And while most attempts failed, a good number of them succeeded, most border fort commanders were barons with a few viscounts, and not all of them could afford magic arrays or a massive amount of highly trained men-at-arms to guard them and all their families all the time.
Those assassins who were captured or killed were found to have similar equipment and tools on their person. This suggested that these were disposable assassins of the Valorhelm Dominion who were mass-trained and sent to weaken the front lines and force the kingdom to spread thin its troops along the border, but not knowing when or where along the border the attack would come from.
Hearing about the assassination attempts on the fort commanders, Amara became deathly pale and wanted to enquire about her husband’s health, but before she could kick up a fuss, a letter arrived from Alden telling her that he was fine and not to worry.
As for Luke, he was unconscious for 2 days straight and when he woke up, he could barely move his limbs, even opening his jaw made him actually feel strain in his facial muscles, “What… happened… to me?” Luke croaked out weakly.
Luke’s sudden noise shocked his personal maid, Alice, making her yelp in surprise and running out of the room to announce his awakening.
Shortly after, Luke’s mother, sister, grandparents, and even Emma along with her parents stormed his room to check on his condition.
After a good once over of inspecting Luke’s body condition, his grandfather Rowan Silverbrook announced the results, “Other than severe muscle fatigue, he is fine. From now until he recovers, he needs a meat-heavy diet.”
And after looking back at Luke, he added, “Maybe cut the meat to bitesize first.”
After that, everyone who was not involved in the assassination attempt was dismissed, and all that was left in the room were Luke, his mother, and his grandparents with serious looks on their faces. It was time to get their story of what went down during the assassination straight for when the Royal Constables came to question Luke.
Luke’s mum and grandparents wanted to push this talk back until he was older, but the seriousness of the situation needed to be impressed upon his allegedly young mind.
***
As soon as everyone but Mum and my grandparents left the room all their smiles disappeared from their faces, which is never a good sign of things to come.
Mum sat down beside me and took my hand into hers, “Sweety, there are some things we need to talk about.”
Well, shit. I remember that tone and words from my mum in my previous life. Not good, definitely not good. Were there more assassins? Everyone I knew came into the room to check up on me, did they do something else?
“Luke, just to confirm because all of us are not aura users… did you manage to fully off your aura?” Mum asked, but from the look on her face, I think she already knows the answer.
I nodded my head and answered, “Yes Mum, what is wrong? You look worried.”
Mum smiled, but I could see it was a forced one, “Well dear, I am not so sure when, but some people are going to come by and ask you what happened when those bad men came to hurt us. And do you remember what we said never to talk about to other people?”
I nodded again and answered, “Never tell people I can do magic and aura.”
Mum nodded and prompted me further, “And do you know why?”
“Because I am too young and bad people will come and take me away…” my eyes opened wide as my mind raced, “Is that why those people came to hurt us? Did someone tell on us?” I asked in a panic.
“No dear” Mum said as she calmed me down, “Nobody told anyone about you…yet.”
Yet? What do you mean yet?... the assassins… not all of them died and they saw me use magic and aura.
Apparently, the increasing look of terror on my face told it all and my mum said, “So, now we need to tell you the story we told the Royal Constables so your stories match up with ours. Because if news of you being able to use magic and aura at your age…”
I could see Mum was hesitant to continue and was trying to find the right words, but Grandpa finished her sentence, “If news of you being able to use magic and aura at your age, the Holy Inquisition may get involved.”
The Holy Inquisition? I was not expecting that, what do they got to do with me?
Wait a second… any kind of Inquisitio, holy or not, has bad connotations in my book… am I screwed?
