Chapter 25: Baron Alden
Jon quickly looks behind to see if Chlera is alright. That is the top priority.
Chlera fell on her butt and was totally frightened. But there was no physical injury.
So, Jon felt relieved. There is a slight delay in between his diving and reappearing.
And something happened in this delay.
He looked around for any other presence.
Olen is still looking this way... breathing heavily.
Petra got flustered by the sound and lost her grip. Jully caught her. So, everything is fine there.
There was no presence around.
Then he looked at his foot. There is a four-foot-long headless snake body twitching.
Then he looked at the snake head in his palm, still biting out of reflex.
It's dead.
The head was severed with something extremely sharp.
There wasn't any sign of resistance. It was that clean.
What could have done this?
He is confused as hell.
He looked at Olen, "What happened?" -he asked.
"I, I…" -Olen looked just as confused. He just pointed his finger in Jon's direction.
It isn't Jon he is pointing at.
Jon looked behind. He is pointing at something in the water.
Jon went there.
There was a relatively big rock cut cleanly in two, and the kitchen knife that Olen threw was embedded in the soil behind it.
Jon pulled out the knife to take a look.
There was nothing unusual about it.
It is just a normal kitchen knife with a dull blade.
He now knew what happened. But he has no way to explain it.
He picked up the split rock and got out of the water.
"Let's go back." -he said.
No one said a word.
Jully nodded and started picking the things to leave the scene.
Both Chlera and Petra were too shaken up to speak.
There were people from the mansion coming this way. They noticed the commotion and wanted to know what happened there.
Jon didn't give any explanation to them. He just ordered them to guard the area and left.
No one noticed that there was a pair of eyes looking at everything that happened. There was a clear shock in it.
.
At the same time, in the kingdom's capital, Jiero.
The city is at least ten times larger than 'Wolf Fang City'.
The population is also much denser.
In this huge city, not every place is accessible to everyone.
And the place that won't let commoners in is the noble district.
But almost all of the nobles would surely have a resident here.
It is the same for the Aldens too.
Though it is smaller than other nearby villas, it still has its own unique grace.
The villa is three stories high and has white marble work all over. Anyone seeing it would want to have a second look at it.
The small Baron must have expended quite a fortune in building this place.
Right now, the outside has the sun shining brightly over the place. But inside is equally gloomy.
A man is sitting on a sofa. There is an empty bottle of wine in front of him. The eyes of the man aren't focused. The beard has grown due to a lack of shaving. He is sitting there alone.
This man is Baron Davies Alden.
"Knock, Knock." –A knocking sound came but he didn't respond.
A man of large stature came in wearing boots.
"Sir, it's been a week. You should go out a little." –the big man said.
"…" –Davies didn't reply. He opted to drink from the glass again.
Seeing this, the man in boots didn't stand still.
He moved forward and held his hand, stopping him from drinking more.
"Davies, you must stop. It's not over yet. And you are not a child anymore." –No servant would have done what the man dared to do.
But still, being an underling to do this shows that the relation between these two isn't simply master and servant.
"Shatter…" –Davies threw away the glass in the process of getting out of the man's grasp. It broke into pieces, and the fine wine spilled all over the floor.
"Heavy, what do you mean by it's not over yet? They have my boy. MY BOY." –Davies shouted in agony.
This is the side of Baron Alden that no one has seen except for Heavy, not even his wives.
The full name of 'Heavy' Hearous Vyspath. He is the knight captain of Alden house.
It is a tradition of shorts for the Alden household to assign a guardian of shorts to every male hair in the house. Like Jon is for Olen.
They would teach the heirs to fight and guide them forward.
Heavy is the same for Davies. He saw Davies grow and guide all his life. He is the closest friend that he (D) has.
So, now that Heavy sees the way his friend is crumbling, he doesn't know what to do with him.
Two months earlier, they departed for the kingdom's capital with the highest urgency.
There was a letter from the capital. It said that his first son 'Nicolus Alden' was captured by the Victorians in the war between the Kingdom of Toa and the Kingdom of Vitonia.
The news was so shocking to Davies that he couldn't take it and departed without informing anyone about the matter.
He didn't want his wives to get too anxious about the matter. He would rather bear the entire burden himself than let this matter affect his wives.
As a man, he was always taught to be strong. But now it is breaking him into pieces.
By nature, the members of the Alden family have always been affectionate to other members of their family. That is the reason, they would allow people like Berdly, who has a very distant connection, to live with the main family instead of giving him to an orphanage.
And now his eldest has been captured by those barbarians. Who knows what they are doing to him? How could anyone expect him to be rational?
Still, Heavy believed in Davies. He managed to get things in order. He always did. So, now it is his duty to make sure that his Baron comes back to sense.
.
Bianca's room.
Currently, she has her eyes closed.
There was a carcass of a white-bellied black snake, a split rock of human head size, and a kitchen knife put side by side on the table before her.
Jon was standing before her.
Jully was taking care of Chlera and Petra in another room. Olen was sent to Elena's place as 'agreed' by Olen.
After some time, Bianca opened her eyes and smiled.
"So, you are telling me that this all was done by Olen after you asked her to train him yesterday." -Bianca asked to confirm.
"Yes." -Jon.
"Then this Aniston is more of a monster than I thought." -Bianca said.
Jon didn't say anything.
"She has already paid me up with this." -Bianca thought. "Jon, see to everything that she demands. It doesn't matter what it is. As long as my personal fund can cover it, I'll allow everything."
"And get that foolish son of mine to be more attentive. And keep tabs on his progress." -Bianca commanded. "And cover up the issue."
"Ok, madam." -Jon heisted. "Madam, what are you going to do about Madam Aleta?"
Chlera and Petra were there too. They might have not seen much, but this incident is going to string the Forth Madam in ways that he has no way of knowing. And her reaction is something that no one can predict.
"You don't have to worry about that. Leave her to me." -Bianca has her own way of handling her.
"And Jon, see how much of it you can understand about this matter without offending her. And also check if anyone set the whole thing up."
"We can't be too careful about this, especially that Viscount Gerald. They have been eyeing our way for." -Bianca said.
"Yes." -Jon.
.
At the same time, Olen is standing in front of Elena.
He just finished his narration of the story that transpired today in the afternoon.
In the beginning, Elena thought that it was the typical Olen telling her all the useless things that happened to him.
But then he started saying some peculiar things. Like a green-grade spirit beast attacking Chlera without Jon noticing even though he was there.
And... him, throwing a kitchen knife at it and cutting the beast's head off. And the same knife cutting a rock underwater in two.
I mean... come on. Could you stop daydreaming and wake up?
She has many important things to do other than listening to this nonsense.
But Olen insisted that he was telling the truth.
So, Elena had her tell the whole story again.
Now, after hearing it the third time Elena didn't find any deviations in the story and somewhat believed him.
But the problem comes after.
If this thing is true, then that's a huge thing.
Cutting a spirit beast and a rock is a child's play. Anyone could do that with proper equipment or Artifacts.
But the problem is, it is done by a kid and with a fucking kitchen knife.
How do you explain that?
Elena knocked Olen's head and said, "Brat, you should have told that earlier."
'Why does this brat always tell all these unimportant matters first and leave out the important matter for last? Did he fall on his head when he was born?' –Elena doesn't understand this kid at all.