It took a while, Aya was asleep the whole time, but we managed to make it back to the floating castle in one piece. As we approached the guards knew who we were, and formed a path, and as we flew past them, their eyes widened as they saw the Retainer's bodies, dead on the back of Sylvie.
"This is a huge win for Dicathen." Arthur said as the doors to the castle opened for Sylvie to fly into. "We got to get her to the medical wing to heal up, I have to go too, but you, you seem fine."
"I am fine." I admitted as Sylvie entered the castle, and the figures of multiple people appeared, the first person I recognized was Elder Virion. He was standing around a bunch of healers, I already told my clone to tell him we were arriving soon, so he was ready for us.
The next person I knew was our sister, Ellie, standing in the back watching us land, and as we landed. I picked up Aya's body and slid off Sylvie. "Gramps, Aya needs medical attention, most likely mana depletion, and few internal injuries, but she should heal up." I held her body out for a healer to take, and they did.
"Get her to the medical wing immediately!" Elder Virion ordered, and two of eight healers I counted left. I used wind magic to pick up the Retainer's bodies and brought them to the floor near us as Arthur slid down Sylvie's wind to the ground. Sylvie changed into her fox form, and jumped on to Arthur's head, tired from the flight. "Oh my god! What happened?!"
"Gramps, right here, are the bodies of three Retainers..." The room fell silent, everyone's eyes widened as they examined the bodies.
"Before that." I interrupted, I basically had all my mana back, it was a long flight, so it gave me time to absorb mana. "Arthur needs to go to the medical wing as well, he has been hurt by acidic mana."
"I can make it there myself, Veer, no need to worry." Arthur insisted. "I would get theses bodies somewhere safe."
"I know what we are going to do with them, but first, Veer is right." Elder Virion was speaking, but still looking at the bodies of the Retainers. "Get General Leywin to the medical wing too, Veer, do you have any injuries?"
"Nope, these assholes could not touch me." I laughed slightly. "It was quite a battle though." I forgot to do something. "Arthur, I'll come se..."
I was interrupted, and before Arthur could leave, Ellie came running in. "Jeez! Your body is all scarred!" She hugged Arthur, and held him tight, I could see her hands clenched behind his back. "Holy shit! These are the Retainers?" She released him, then looked at me.
"Ellie, it's good to see you too." He said sarcastically.
"Finally, you come back without being severely wounded." Ellie said as she hugged me next. "You can take my older brother to the medical wing now; he needs to go."
"Haha." I laughed, embracing Ellie's hug, my twin sister. "I'll stay with Elder Virion, Arthur, you are fine to leave."
"Okay." Arthur said, and four of the healers left with him, leaving two healers, Elder Virion, Ellie, and me.
We stood around the bodies. "How?" Elder Virion asked, and then spoke again. "How did you guys manage to kill three Retainers? I thought they were supposed to be one of Alacrya's top generals."
"They are." I answered. "Arthur killed one, I killed the other two, I also killed around one hundred and sixty Alacryans underground." Elder Virion was in shock from hearing this. "Yeah, before you take them, I need something from them." I activated "Blood Oath" and pulled out three tubes I had in my mana ring that were empty. "I need their blood."
"Nasty, Veer." Ellie said, looking at me as I manipulated the blood in their bodies that was left in the three tubes, then when I finished, placed them back in my mana ring. "Are you sure you aren't injured?"
"Yeah."
"Virion, would you like to come with me into the council room, everyone is waiting there for the full report?" Elder Virion asked me, and I nodded, not having much to do now, but rest and prepare for the next battles.
"Sure." I said and faced Ellie. "How about you go with Arthur and be by his side. I know he is not seriously injured, but I am sure he would like you there with him."
"Since you are so important, and have to go to the council room, I guess I'll go with Arthur." Ellie said sarcastically, then followed quickly behind Arthur and the healers.
"Haha." Elder Virion laughed. "Go join them." He ordered the two healers to leave us, and they went to the medical wing as well. "Now, how about we head to the council room." I stared down at the bodies. "I'll have a couple of guards handle it, they will store them somewhere safe."
"Oh, alright, that is fine with me." Their bodies were of no use to me anymore, I had their horns, and their blood.
Elder Virion placed a hand on my shoulder as we made our way out of the hanger, and into the hallway of the floating castle. "You did well, I don't need to hear the whole story to know that you were a force they could not handle."
"Ha, you can say that again, I basically fought two Retainers at once for a little." I don't know why, but I feel so good to be here right now. I sensed for the people in the council room, and I was surprised to see that most of the council was here, except Rahdeas. "What did you guys do with Rahdeas?"
"He is currently locked up in the dungeon for his crimes." Elder Virion removed his hand from me as we turned the corner. "We will decide on his fate later, but it won't be good."
"It is what he deserves." I would have down something a lot more harmful than just lock him up, I had intentions of killing him slowly with an ice dagger, but I guess I can't do that anymore. "You know, gramps, this has cause for celebration."
"You may be right, a celebration to celebrate the death of three more Retainers could boost morale." That was what I was thinking, it seems Elder Virion was as well. "And I think after this victory, they will be wiser in their usage of Retainers and Scythes." I don't know about that, it all depends on me, I guess. I don't know how bad Agrona wants me, so I do not know what to expect.
We arrived at the council room, and the guards bowed and opened the door for us, and we walked inside. Sitting there was Aldir, and both Kings and Queens, which slightly surprised me. When do the Asuras attack Alacrya? Doesn't that happen at some point soon?
"Commander Virion, was everyone okay?" King Eralith spoke up as gramps made his way to his seat, every other seat was taken, so I stood in the center, slightly annoyed I could not sit after a big battle, but I guess I was doing that all day flying back.
"Yes, Aya is slightly injured, Arthur has these acidic marks all over him, and as you can see, Veer is completely fine." I bowed to the Eraliths, and sent them a smile. "And Lady Sylvie seemed fine as well, but tired from the flight."
"So, what was the outcome?" Aldir asked immediately, my clone left out most of the details, so they didn't know exactly what happened. "Virion, explain." He ordered, kind of pissing me off.
"Well, we arrived in Ashber like planned, I killed maybe four slave traders who pissed me off, then three Retainers showed up outside the town, and over a hundred soldiers showed up underground." As I was speaking, and they were hearing what happened exactly for the first time, their eyes widened.
"There were three?!" King Glayder stood up and said, and I nodded my head at the King. I wonder what it is like to be a king, I don't know, I mean, I kind of want to be one. "Virion?"
"Oh, sorry, lost in thought, yeah there were three." I said, looking at him. "We split up, I went underground to take out the force, and everyone fought a Retainer." I shrugged and added. "That is pretty much it."
"Virion, what was the outcome?" Aldir asked once again.
Everyone seemed a little anxious except Elder Virion, he had already seen the bodies, and was probably still in shock. "Well, after I killed the one hundred and sixty soldiers underground, I came up to the surface, where everyone was fighting, and joined." I paused for a second, and then went on. "I took over for Aya, and killed the Retainer she fought ---"
I was interrupted by a standing King Eralith. "You killed a Retainer?"
"Let him continue." Elder Virion insisted, and King Eralith sat back down.
"I also killed the one Sylvie fought, pinned him to a tree." Their eyes were wide, except Aldir who was examining me. "Arthur killed the other, maybe it didn't all happen in that order, but we won, no one died, and they are now down three Retainers." The room fell silent, they all just stared at me. "What? Don't tell me you guys all thought a bunch of half breed Vritras could beat me in a fight?"
I still didn't get a response, but Elder Virion applauded. "To the child who has now taken down three Retainers, bravo, Virion, and Arthur has killed one, I am proud of the both of you." I felt joy radiant inside of me for some reason, probably because Elder Virion raised me for two years, close to three.
"Virion, we are also proud of you, and your brother, and everyone who went on that mission." Queen Eralith said with a smile. "Arthur and you discovered that Rahdeas was a traitor and thawed him out."
"And what are we going to do with him?" Queen Glayder asked.
"May I suggest something?" I asked, and Elder Virion nodded, I was going to say what Arthur did in the novel. "Don't do anything, don't report anything, don't tell anyone else, make it top secret that he was a traitor." I grinned for some reason. "Torture him, make him tell us who he was talking to, and basically run Darv from here, pretend Rahdeas is okay, I could create a fake Rahdeas right now to trick everyone if we wanted."
"Tch." Elder Virion made a noise, then spoke again. "I'm happy you are on our side; I would not want to go to war with you."
"That is an excellent plan though." King Eralith said. "We can run Darv for him instead, acting as their representative without anyone knowing." Exactly what they do in the novel, and it works, well, they still lose.
"What child thinks that way?" King Glayder shook his head. "I'm glad you are my soldier." What the fuck did he say? I was not his soldier.
Aldir stood up and stared at me with his third eye. "You may be a bigger anomaly than your brother." I mean I did kill two Retainers and took down another. "It begs the question, what would you have been if you trained with the Asuras?"
"I would have won a lot faster." I said jokingly. "That was pretty much it, we showed up, caused some chaos, and killed three Retainers." I looked around the room. "I thought there was supposed to be a Lance here at the castle at all times."
"There is." King Glayder said. "Lance Varay is currently helping Kathyln in the training hall." I am pretty sure Kathyln helps Arthur train for the next couple months. "You should go see her, our daughter wonders how Arthur and you are doing all the time."
"I will." I said with a smile. "Am I good to go? Or do we have other things planned to talk about?"
"I believe we should have a party." Elder Virion said seriously. "Let's celebrate this victory, give our soldiers more hope. Invite noble families, some of the Lances, and let's just show that we are not scared of them."
"I like the idea, but will I have to dress up?" I asked, and everyone turned to me. "I'll take that as a yes."
"I think that is a great idea, a ball celebrating a victory by our Lances." King Eralith said, standing up. "How about we go see Lance Aya?" He asked his wife.
"That seems like a good idea, Virion, would like to come with? I know you and her are close." Queen Eralith asked as the two of them made their way toward me.
"I would love that." I wouldn't mind seeing how she was doing, I knew she was fine, but still, she was in a bad state. Most people would think walking the halls of the castle with the King and Queen of a Kingdom would be intimidating, but nowadays it is normal, I just act like my normal self, which does get me in trouble in certain situations.
"You can tell us about how you bested the Retainers." King Eralith put a hand on my back as we walked out of the room. "I want to hear how powerful our elven Lance is." We turned down a different hallway, and I smiled up at the King and Queen of the Elves.
"I don't know if you want to hear what happened, I will though, but it is pretty gruesome, I did pin one of them to a tree with ice daggers." I spoke honestly to them.
"I would still like to hear about it." The King replied, so I told the two of them what happened as we walked to see Aya in recovery. I also plan on going to see my brother, but he was just dealing with all the burn marks.