Dungeon of Niflheim

114 Chapter 114: Returning to the manor

“Phew finally we’re back outside.” Luna took in a deep breath and shielded her eyes from the rising dawn’s sun. Unfortunately, the air wasn’t exactly fresh.

“Bleurgh” Luna quickly gagged and had to run off to the side so she could throw up. The two kids even with their harsh treatment also frowned and covered their noses due to the smell.

What lay before them was carnage. There was so many bodies that the ground no longer had a single patch that wasn’t dyed blood red. The strong smell of blood and organs filled the air, it was repugnant.

Frost however frowned for a different reason.

‘Such a waste of DP.’ He sighed and shook his head before moving toward the young man ahead who was talking with a bunch of hardened adventurers sporting varying degrees of injuries.

“Thanks for all your aid and sorry for your loss Bagua, I’ll make sure his family is rewarded for his valiant services here tonight.” Leo spoke with a depressed tone. The group were standing around the corpse of an older gentlemen, a mage of some sort. He had a smile plastered on his face as he lay there cold and unmoving. Two much younger adventurers one male the other female were crying over his corpse while the rest appeared hurt and upset.

“Thank you for your kind words young master....Nalan knew the risks of this job and gladly took on the burden despite his age. The large smile plastered on his face shows he had no regrets and in his last act he saved the lives of those he cared about....an honourable death.” Bagua spoke with confidence, yet his fist was clenched and trembling.

Nalan was the oldest active adventurer in Furano and had helped out so many of them when they were first starting out. He was due to retire years ago but couldn’t. His two grandchildren started out as adventurers, and he wasn’t going to allow them to fight alone not after what happened to his son. The two young adventurers crying over his body were those grandchildren, Nalan died protecting the two of them.

Bagua moved towards the two and placed his hands upon their shoulders.

.....

“Arda, Zofia, Nalan will not be forgotten.” Bagua stood up before bowing low towards the corpse of the man he greatly respected. To be honest Nalan was probably the best choice to be the leader of this group of 14 adventurers given his experience and strength, but he refused.

“Hahaha I’m an old man, the young ones should take on a job such as this, Bagua you’ll do fine much better than an old bag of bones like me hahaha.” Nalan laughed off Bagua’s urging for him to be leader just like that. The memory of Nalan’s laughter brought a smile to his face.

The other adventurers copied Bagua’s actions and bowed towards their deceased friend. The rest of them had a wide arrangement of injuries, some serious but only one of them died tonight a miracle given their situation.

They fought against well over a hundred goons, it was exhausting and dangerous, but the real threat came when the local guards stormed the compound to investigate the signs of battle. These guards were far better equipped and much more skilled plus unlike them they were at peak energy.

Nalan died shortly before Leo and Bastion surfaced. A sergeant in the guards ran him through with his sword while he was focused on protecting Arda and Zofia from being overwhelmed.

This sudden attack came as a complete shock, and the 13 remaining adventurers were filled with wrath. They came down upon the guards with incredible ferocity no longer caring to hold back. They burned through what remained of their stamina and successfully brought down many of the corrupt guards, including the one who killed one of their own, but it could only last so long.

Once they reached their limits the 13 of them were surrounded and exhausted and would soon be forced to join Nalan in death. It was at this point that Leo and Bastion promptly arrived, barrelling through the corrupt guards, and revealing the head of Baron Adam, thus saving them from certain doom.

Leo and Bastion joined the rest in bowing towards the deceased Nalan. Bastion had a real difficult time accepting the situation, he was the one that brought the adventures on board and had quite a strong friendship with Nalan, he couldn’t help but feel guilty.

‘If only I was faster.’ Clenching his fists hard and biting his lip, a tear dropped from Bastion’s eye.

“Goodbye old friend.” He muttered quietly under his breath.

Noticing the awkward atmosphere Frost held back his words, standing silently in the back while the group gave their farewells.

“Nalan” Ryuu followed behind Frost and quickly noticed the dead adventurer. He moved passed Frost and the bowing adventurers to see his dead friend.

“Oh, Nalan you will be missed old friend.” Ryuu frowned as held back his tears. Nalan was a mage like him, and they had a lot in common. Nalan taught him a lot when he was first starting out as a mage, he owed him a great deal. He closed his eyes and bowed in silence.

Leo sighed before moving over towards Frost.

“How did the vault search go?” Hoping to lighten the mood Leo asked Frost about his findings.

“Haaaaa Ryuu and Luna had better findings than me, my area turned up jewellery, gems, art, and furniture but there was something complicated...” Frost directed Leo’s attention towards the two phoenix kin behind him who were rubbing Luna’s back as she was hurling. Frost then proceeded to explain the best he could about the situation and their intentions in fixing it.

“Bastard!” Leo shouted in anger as he looked for something to break. He knew that his uncle was an asshole and stooped low, but this was something different entirely, permanently enslaving children through a barbaric practise created by the Church of Light. Leo got a headache just thinking about it. This issue was far more complicated than he expected.

“We’ll need to contact the royal family as soon as possible; this can’t be handled simply in house anymore.” Leo rubbed his temples as his headache got worse.

“We need to visit the merchant guild master.”

“Uncle Sebastian?”

“Yeah, Ryuu said he could help deal with the slave tattoos.”

“Hmmmm I knew that he had some history with being a slave merchant but I didn’t know he was that skilled....he’s probably still asleep at this time. We can head back to the lord’s mansion and call him through the communication magic device. Handling something like this would be best done in the manor, we can send a carriage to pick him up or have him come over.” Leo was actually quite inclined to leave, the smell of death here was getting to him. It took his entire strength to maintain his noble leader persona and not throw up like Luna did. But he needed to act as his position deemed, he was the one in charge of this operation and needed to see it through to the end.

Leo frowned while glancing in a certain direction. Frost followed his gaze and saw a bunch of guards kneeling on the ground with their heads lowered, they were trembling. This group were some of the corrupt guards hired by Adam who panicked when Leo revealed his uncle’s severed head. Some ran in fear, some fought desperately refusing to give up, Bastion made short work of these fools. The remaining ones kneeling gave up quite quickly afraid to act. Their backer was killed, and no one could protect them from the crimes they committed, they submitted to Leo and Bastion, afraid of death.

Leo found this group really difficult to deal with, killing them all would have been far simpler, but they surrendered forcing him to arrest them and spare their lives for the moment. It was difficult to restrain the anger of the adventurers who wanted to annihilate each and every one of them especially Arda and Zofia, but he managed.

“What’s your plan for them and dealing with the aftermath?”

“Now that Adam’s dead we can use the local guards without fear of being betrayed so I’ll have some of the more trusty ones escort this group to jail and have others help watch the compound, can’t trust the underworld gangs to leave such a valuable looting location alone. In regards to collecting the valuables I’ll leave it to the Sebastian, he can assign some trusty merchants to catalogue everything, the bank manager Hoggins will probably help as well.” Leo smiled the more he spoke, there was actually quite a few skilled people in Furano that he could trust to deal with such issues, especially now that Adam was no longer manipulating the shadows.

“It’ll be a lot of work and it’ll take time to restore order, but we’ll get it done.” Leo was filled with confidence again, regaining his strength to ignore the encroaching stench of blood and organs.

“Well let’s get to it you’ve still got to save your father after all.” Frost was keen to move on, he missed Maya and was pretty exhausted, he needed a long rest.

“Ah! I almost forgot.” Leo proceeded to run over to Bastion and Ryuu to tell them that he was leaving, they’d take care of the adventurers before heading back to the manor.

With that settled Leo, Luna, the two kids and Frost quickly left after saying their farewells. Edwin was still waiting with their carriage a few blocks away; he never left his post waiting for his young master’s return.

“Young master welcome back.” Edwin bowed and greeted Leo when he arrived.

“No time for pleasantries Edwin we need to head back to the lord’s manor on the double.” Leo waved off Edwin and hustled Luna and the kids into the carriage before alighting himself after Frost.

Edwin was a bit surprised but obeyed the order jumping up to the driver’s seat and pulling on the reigns

“Hyaahh,” he whipped the reigns downward forcing the horses to pick up the pace, thankfully there weren’t many people on the streets at the moment so they could speed down the road at max speed. They also no longer needed to hide their actions and barrelled through the check points fully revealing the carriage’s owner.

They made record pace and reached the manor’s gates well under an hour, there was no guards at the gate just like when they left. All the trustworthy ones were assigned to guard the important areas and people such as Douglas, Cassandra, and the servants. They were still in the dark in regards to the operation’s success. But they weren’t worried about any danger falling upon them thanks to the reliable guardian that dwelled alongside the Lord and Lady.

Frost sighed when he alighted the carriage, his mask was gone, his body was still full of injuries including his face. He used the cleaning and repair function of his robes to make him look at least a little more presentable, but he was still nervous.

‘I’ll be lucky if she ever lets me out of her sight again haaaaa.’ He looked forward to meeting up with her again but not the lecture he’d receive.

Leo and Luna weren’t aware of his reluctance and ran ahead into the manor desperate to bring relief to Douglas and Cassandra as well as end Douglas’s suffering. Leo held the case containing the vial of antidote close to his chest, desperately hoping that it would be an antidote and not something else.

‘Hopefully Adam spoke the truth in his final moments....Father I can’t lose you, not now.’ Leo ran with increased speed ignoring the friendly greetings from the passing servants.

Bang!

He slammed open the door to his parents’ bedroom and rushed in not caring for decorum. The two guards stationed outside didn’t stop him in the slightest, the two of them revealing a slight smile on their faces. Leo being here meant that he succeeded, Adam was dealt with.

“Mom! Dad!” Leo shouted out while panting.

Douglas and Cassandra were fine, in the exact same state they were before he left. His father was in bed relaxing against his many pillows while Cassandra and Maya were sitting chatting away with smiles on their faces before turning around towards Leo.