The Stonehearted Knight
Chapter 214: Schemes behind schemes (4)

Chapter 214: Schemes behind schemes (4)

"Pour more Heart Lotus seeds there."

"Group 2, pull back."

"Someone call the Captain!"

Briella stood behind her Vice-Captain slash lover and heard him yell out command after command, which started to turn into pleas.

The Heart Lotus seed was something the royal family specially cultivated to keep the Heartless in check. It was originally a wild flower growing in Notrelune’s lake. When the Witch struck and hordes of Heartless appeared, no place remained save.

But a fisherman who lived near the lake and whose daughter liked these seeds happened to have a boatload of them in his boat. When the Heartless attacked his home, they retreated once they smelled the seeds. Something about them scared them away.

This was reported to the soldiers who used them to evacuate the survivors. With time the lake dried up but the fisherman had many seeds left. The royals invited them to plant and tend the Lotus in the pond inside the palace.

As far as Briella knew, the royal pond was one of the few places in the world that had these seeds nowadays.

Boom!

Out of nowhere, suddenly a building collapsed. This started a series of crashes. Seeing the dust and smoke in the dark sky the Vice-Captain’s face turned pale.

"How? Why?"

As the person in charge, he knew what the destruction of those buildings signified. The line of control they maintained for so many years, was broken!

"What happened!"

Sensing the increase in ambient pressure, he knew things turned worse for him. He didn’t need to look at the person who arrived. After working years under him, he certainly recognized his superior’s voice.

He missed the change in expression on Briella’s face. She tried to hide her face by pulling the collar of her robe higher.

"Captain, I don’t know what happened. The Heartless are acting unlike ever before. Even the Heart Lotus seeds aren’t working in repelling them."

The presence of a Refined Knight helped him alleviate some of his worries. He blurted everything quickly, hoping that the Captain could salvage the situation.

The Captain’s expression turned solemn as he listened to his underling. He looked at the going-berserk creatures moving and slaughtering some of the people who remained back.

"But why didn’t you report this immediately to me? Why did you pull all the Knights from the other areas, leaving those places unguarded?"

The Captain knew his superiors would punish him greatly for this. It wouldn’t matter to them whether he was at fault or not. Keeping his Refined stage would be a miracle in itself. The fear of his bleak future made him angry at the moronic underling in front of him.

Hearing his superior’s reprimand, the Vice-Captain shrunk back. But he also was confused by the rebuke.

"B-But sire, I acted on your orders? That’s why I thought you knew about the situation?"

"Do I look like a moron to you? The moment the Heartless started to act abnormally, we had to alert the other side, requesting true backup. Have you forgotten the basic procedures? And who told you I gave the orders?"

The Vice-Captain looked lost for a bit. He indeed forgot the procedure. After all, he only read them but never had to act according to them.

Feeling confused, the Vice-Captain turned toward his trusted subordinate. But she didn’t meet his gaze. Her attention seemed to be more on rearranging her collar and robe.

Her lack of awareness angered him immediately. For a moment, he forgot their relationship.

"Will you leave your robe with rest?" Briella jumped slightly, unaccustomed to being rebuked by the Vice-Captain. But she regained her bearing quickly and looked lost. This only ignited the fury inside her superior’s heart.

"She was the one who told me about the orders. She is also the one who reported the strange behavior of the creatures to me."

The Refined Knight’s gaze landed immediately on her. The accusation stunned Briella so much that she forgot to execute her plan to escape. She looked slack-jawed at her pretty boy lover.

"Huh?"

That was the only thing Briella managed to blurt out in the end.

...

"What the fuck was that?"

The Knight who brought the team through the channel exclaimed as everyone gazed toward the sound of the buildings collapsing.

Hex, disguised as one of the listless figures showed only fear on his face. But inwardly he gloated at his plan succeeding so far.

"That doesn’t look good," the SS3’s Vice-Captain said with a frown. Having lived years inside the ruin, he knew the positioning of his colleagues at SS2. Seeing their line of control collapse, his heart filled with worry.

"We need to check these people quickly and escort them to the gates," he urged his men.

But the Knight who brought them here protested. "Heck no. You can do what you want but I am not sticking around." While shouting he ran to the well and jumped in.

"Royal coward," the Vice-Captain snorted but didn’t pursue the retreating Knight. Hex watched it all play out from the corner of his eyes.

"Sir, look!" Just as the Vice-Captain was about to start testing his ’goods’, his subordinate pointed at the other side in panic.

On the roof, opposite them, they noticed a Heartless. The thin and well-proportioned figure meant just one thing.

"To the gates!"

The Vice-Captain realized at once the jeopardy they were in. It couldn’t understand why the Calamity left its territory but didn’t wish to investigate. Even their Captain wouldn’t survive against that thing.

Hex kept a steady pace, remaining just behind the Vice-Captain. He didn’t wish to be exposed by his own act of luring the creature over.

The reason to lure the creature over was simple. To prevent tests or other checks they might have put in place. Hex didn’t believe they would allow anyone to enter the Temple just like that. The royals had shown utmost care and preparation for everything he had seen so far.

The screams and screeches erupting behind him caused a little bit of guilt inside him but he suppressed it.

Death and life weren’t assured. The life of all Blessed was cursed like this.