Chapter 92 - The Price To Pay Part 1

"That won't be necessary!" A voice had rung out from behind, capturing everyone's attention.

A well-dressed man that looked to be in his late early twenties had burst into the room with numerous guards in toll and a hooded woman beside him. Just from his attire and jewelry that adorned his figure, one could tell he was an important person.

Upon looking closer, one could even see he bared some resemblance to Tukmar although he looked much younger and unlike Tukmar, he had a strong arrogant demeanor.

"Stop this at once! By the command of I, the fourth Imperial, Mahil Uk-Jasil!" the young man declared in a powerful tone as he stared at Aron angrily after noticing the dead woman near him.

"Stop? Well, that depends, can you give me a satisfying answer as to why you were spying on me?" Aron didn't bother with pleasantries and directly asked in a casual tone.

His question seemed to have taken Mahil aback as he turned to the woman beside him with a questioning expression. It was only then that she stepped forward slightly and spoke. "On what basis do you make that accusation?" she asked in a heavy, exotic accent with an alluring tone.

This woman, just like many women in Findel, had smooth, light brown but with long, black, curly hair. Like most people of the city, she, too, had various jewelry adorning her figure although hers looked to be one of a kind.

"They possessed an imperial seal and this woman who died already revealed she was hired by the fourth imperial prince before her Runic Life Seal killed her," Aron replied as he gestured towards the lifeless corpse near him.

Upon hearing Aron reveal this, her expression remained the same, but Aron noticed she had grown tense for just a moment before returning to her normal self. "This could merely be a ploy to harm the fourth Prince's reputation, as you may know, the prince is contesting for the throne, he has quite the number of enemies. Any of which could have set this ploy up," she explained to Aron while maintaining absolute calmness.

The fact that her body language gave off no indicators she was lying was something Aron found quite impressive, but this wasn't going to stop him from slowly chipping away at her. "Does the enemy include the Aramil Alsahra?" Aron asked as he began pacing near the two surviving spies before placing his hand on the shoulder of one of them.

This was a clear attempt at provocation, Aron wanted to see if she would continue with her story or completely shift gears. "The Aramil Alsahra has been extinct for ages, aside from originating in the same region it had no ties or grievances with us. It is more likely that another organization is using their name to avoid detection or some other reason." The woman stuck with her story and seemed to have an answer for whatever question Aron would ask, so he knew he'd get nowhere with this.

"Hmm, then it's my mistake. So, did the imperial prince come here just to stop me killing an organization who wanted to spy on me? Or do you have a sixth sense for fights and always rush to stop them with your entire imperial guard?" Aron asked while showing a small smile, this was clearly mockery.

His words were implying how could the imperial prince suddenly know about the fight when only his members were present in the dining area, and why come personally to stop the fight? No matter how one looked at it, this was bound to draw suspension but once again, the woman replied without hesitation.

"The imperial prince was coming to greet you as he had other affairs to deal with when you first arrived. But we heard the commotion and he thought you were causing trouble for his people; many guests have done so before in the past after all," she explained perfectly, Aron saw there was no way to implicate them using words and minimal evidence, especially in their own territory.

"Then it was all a misunderstanding, I'll use these two to get to the answer." Aron rubbed the shoulder of one of the spies and said so with a smile but this time, the imperial prince stepped forward. "We can't allow that, this incident happened in our city,so we shall apprehend them and carry out an investigation, no matter how long it takes, we will provide you the culprits. Guards, seize those two quickly," Mahil confidently declared before pointing at the two spies.

As his guards stepped forward, Aron stomped his foot and a burst of air pressure hit them violently causing them to stumble back while others fell completely. "I wasn't asking for your permission; I was telling you," Aron said to Mahil in a tone that left no room for discussion.

The situation was starting to deteriorate for them, so Mahil once again glanced at the woman beside him for help. "If you choose to not follow our laws then we'll be left with no choice but to report you as criminals that will be handled by the governing family of the Northern region. The Rosenbergs," she threatened in a calm tone, but Aron simply smiled at this.

"That will be fine, tell them Aron Harbinger of Galos Academy has taken away spies that tried to kill him. I'll also report this matter to our inquisitors and once we unravel this minor Runic Life Seal, we will annihilate the organization behind this. Should these two kill themselves, then even better, we can simply extract their memories with necromantic arts, I doubt they have seals protecting them from that." As Aron said this, he showed them the Galos Academy emblem that clasped his cloak together. Once these words left Aron's mouth, both the woman and imperial prince showed worried expressions.

The situation had now risen to a very dangerous point. The Galos Academy was a power all noble families respected to a frightening extent; the very fact families couldn't pursue matters of their younger generations dying there was testament to this.

And here one of the Academy's Rank Four existences is claiming there was an attempt on his life. Should this investigation lead back to them, then the consequences would be disastrous for both the imperial family and the Aramil Alsahra. How could they know that he was technically wanted by the academy for a minor felony and had no power of inquisitors either?

"This...." Mahil was at a loss for words, he didn't know how to handle this situation. When he glanced at the woman next to him, he saw her still very much calm, but no words left her mouth. This was an overwhelming checkmate; she was smart but her lack of knowledge on Galos academy affairs led to her and the prince's loss.

"But before moving to more drastic measures, why don't us three discuss this in private and see if we can reach a satisfying conclusion?" Aron continued to speak, and his statement brought hope to worried prince, it was clear Aron just wanted to negotiate with them, but he was willing to pay whatever price if it meant he could avoid making an enemy of Galos Academy.

Little did he know the price Aron was targeting was far greater than anyone thought....