My thoughts are interrupted soon after since Velia eventually drops back down from the wall and lands beside us without making much noise.
Everyone imdiately turns their attention towards her.
"What did you find?" I question.
"The guards are all inside," Velia answers.
That isn’t exactly surprising since we already knew that much...
"What about the king?" Aria asks.
"I didn’t see him," Velia answers.
So much for that, it is kind of the main reason we are even here in the first place. But at least she confird that the guards are inside even if it was sothing Eliza kind of confird.
"How many?" I ask.
"Ten," Velia answers with certainty.
Looks like Lust wasn’t lying after all, not like she had a reason to lie about this if she really is trying to see how far I get.
"They’re all gathered together in the courtyard. It looks like they’re training," Velia says while leaning up against the wall.
So they really are training. But it’ll matter more if it is all of them since that ans we can’t really sneak by.
"All of them?" I ask.
Velia nods her head.
"Every single one," She says.
For a mont I don’t really know what to think.
But what if they are doing sothing special today? Sotis guards do have drills to prepare them for any situation that may or may not occur.
"Wouldn’t that be lucky?" Aria asks.
I glance over at her.
"How?" I respond with so confusion in my voice.
"They’re all together," Aria says with a soft tone.
She isn’t wrong, if they’re all together then we know exactly where they are.
But the problem is that they’re all together... It is the fact that we have no isolated targets, no easy way around them, and no chance of picking them off quietly.
Just ten guards standing in the sa place.
Velia folds her arms.
"It’s unlucky," Velia speaks up.
Looks like she ca to the sa conclusion I did.
"Can you sense anything else?" I ask Eliza.
Eliza remains quiet for a few monts.
"There are more people inside," She answers.
That imdiately gets my attention.
"More guards?" I question with more of a concerning tone.
"I don’t think so," Eliza responds with uncertainty.
Now that is definitely sothing. Lust only ntioned ten guards and the king himself; nothing about anyone else here or anything really.
But Maybe servants are possible or so sort of nobles... or I’m wrong and it is sothing entirely different.
Either way it sounds like she left out information.
Again.
I let out a small sigh.
Of course she did... Nothing is ever straightforward.
"How many?" Velia asks.
"I’m not sure," Eliza answers while looking towards Velia.
That isn’t reassuring.
Still better than walking in completely blind.
"What do we do?" Aria asks.
Good question.The obvious answer is to go inside, but that ans we are definitely going to be starting a fight instantly.
Leaving us now real ti to prepare if are caught off guard for any reason whatsoever.
Then again...
Maybe a fight is unavoidable.
You seem bothered by that.
What do you an?
You were hoping for an easy victory, weren’t you?
I definitely wasn’t. I knew this wouldn’t be easy since there has to be a challenge at so point or another.
You were.
Alright fine, maybe I was hoping for an easy fight. This shit has been quite exhausting lately so a break would be kind of nice to have for once.
Especially after dealing with the Lord I wouldn’t mind sothing simple for once. But Unfortunately simple doesn’t seem to exist anymore.
Everything has to be complicated.
Everything has to involve monarchs, sovereigns, kings, or whatever other title people decide to give themselves.
"You know," Aria suddenly says.
"What?" I question.
"You overthink way too much," Aria answers while staring back at .
I stare at her.
"How would you know that?" I question.
"I can tell by the way your expressions constantly shift," Aria responds confidently.
"No you can’t," I say in disbelief.
"I can," She assures .
"You’re making things up Aria," I respond once again in disbelief.
Aria just smiles.
I don’t bother arguing further.
There isn’t much point.
Velia lets out a small sigh.
"We should focus," Velia chis in with a more serious tone.
Right. The castle, king, and the guards. That is exactly why we are here after all.
Not whatever weird conversation Aria is trying to start. Not that I really mind a change of pace from whatever it was all about.
I doubt she can actually tell what I’m thinking about or if I’m overthinking in the first place.
Regardless we have more important things to focus on right now, like what we should do next. Honestly it would probably be smarter to go over the wall, even if they end up seeing us.
"We go over the wall," I decide.
"Simple enough," Velia says.
"You just want an excuse to climb back up, don’t you?" I question.
"I do not," She answers.
The fact she answered imdiately tells everything I need to know.
Even Aria looks unconvinced.
"Sure," Aria says softly.
"Believe whatever you want," Velia replies while looking back towards the wall.
Velia doesn’t seem interested in defending herself further.
Probably because she knows we’re right.
A small muffled laugh leaves Eliza.
Honestly that’s more surprising than anything else.
"You laughed," Aria says.
"I know," Eliza replies.
"Have you done that since joining us?" Aria asks curiously.
"No, but we’ve been kind of busy. Everything has been pretty intense," Eliza answers.
It is good that everyone is relaxed here but it is best for us to keep it down so we have so sort of elent of surprise at the very least.
But I guess it doesn’t hurt to ease any sort of tension since we don’t want any unnecessary tension before entering.
Because once we get inside things are probably going to get ugly... And the king isn’t going to hand over information willingly.
Not if he really is connected to the darkness spreading throughout this realm.
Which ans we’re probably going to have to beat the answers out of him, not like I’m not used to it.
Talking would be much easier but it never works so beating us the next best thod. It also works... Sotis.
We all slowly prepare to scale the wall while trying to stay out of sight.
Before long I find myself climbing the wall with Eliza on my back since she can’t see.
Looking up from here makes it seem a lot taller than before but I bla that on how it feels to climb these walls.
Not that it matters.
Velia already climbed it once.
"Any problems?" I ask Eliza.
She remains quiet for a mont.
"No," She answers calmly.
"Good. We’ll get through this quickly," I assure her.
That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.
Carrying her on my back isn’t an issue but I didn’t want her to be uncomfortable or anything of the sort.
Not long after that interaction I eventually reach the top and the others follow shortly afterwards.
Once everyone is in position we carefully look over the other side.
And imdiately understand why this is going to be a problem.
The courtyard is filled with guards.Ten of them just like Lust said but unfortunately they’re stronger than I expected.
Even from here I can tell that much.
A few of them are sparring while the others watch.
Nobody appears to be distracted either.
Which makes things significantly more annoying.
"Those are the guards?" Aria whispers.
"Looks like it," I whisper back.
"They seem strong," Eliza chis in.
"They are," I say with a serious tone.
I don’t really need Eliza’s senses to tell that since I have a good way of detecting these things myself. It also ans that this might be more of a pain then I previously thought.
A movent near the center of the courtyard catches my attention.
Soone is sitting in a chair.
Watching.
Not participating.
Just observing everything.
I can’t make out many details from here.
But there is only one person that makes sense.
"The king?" Velia asks quietly.
"Probably," I respond while looking right at him.
That definitely has to be the king we are looking for but I don’t know what to expect from him.
The mont that thought crosses my mind, the man slowly raises his head and looks directly at us.
Silence falls amongst us as he stares at all of us up on the walls here, enough to tell us that he must’ve expected us to arrive here. The guards also stop training in that mont as well.
"Well," I mutter.
"What?" Aria asks.
I stare right back at the king as he continues looking directly at us.
"Looks like we’re the unlucky ones," I respond quietly.
The king slowly stands from his chair.
And every guard in the courtyard imdiately turns towards our position.
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