Chapter 155: The Earl of Luon

Kothar leapt from roof to roof, only the slightest of thumps and the swish of his clock moving through betraying that he had passed by. Had there been anyone else up on the roofs of Luon with him, they would have taken him for a demon, with the eerie mask covering his face and the enormous bat like cloak.

It was only a few minutes before Kothar found his way to the residence of the Earl, and looked down at the front entrance, where a lone guard was asleep against the wall, slouching against it, while also propping himself up with a spear.

The residence itself was quite simple, two stories of white stone, a cube shaped building, with most of the beauty of the place coming from the elaborately manicured gardens. 

[Doesn't look too comfortable, but I guess humans will do whatever they can to slouch off, I don't think I'll ever understand that.] Silane commented. Meanwhile, Kothar circled around to the southern side of the estate, he didn't want to risk alerting anybody at all, even sleeping guard was too much of a risk.

After sweeping the surroundings with his Mana Sensing Lens, Kothar swept his gaze around, and seeing nobody in sight, leapt down from the roof. A quick portal put him past the wall, and instead of trying to find a door or window to break in, Kothar simply ran across the gardens, careful to only tread on the paving stones, and then portalled directly to the upper story, into an unoccupied room.

As he exited the portal, Kothar found himself in a finely furnished guest room. It had a plump bed, with satin sheets and a finely carved wooden headboard, inlaid with the emeralds that had given the Earl his wealth.

There was also a washbasin, a set of drawers and a full thing mirror, next to what Kothar presumed was the wardrobe. All over, the craftsman who had created the decor and incorporated the use of the emeralds, not overly so, but adding just enough color to the finely carved wood that even Kothar stopped for a moment to admire the craftsmanship.

Kothar unlatched the door, and walked out into the corridor, if the intelligence that Docara had passed onto him was correct, he would find the Earl sleeping in the largest, northernmost room.

Kothar crossed to the other sight of the estate, and as passed the stairway, he shook his head upon seeing yet another guard asleep, this one sitting on the stair and leaning his head against the banister.

Kothar used his Mana Sensing Lens as he approached the door, and saw the bulk of the unmistakably large Earl of Luon asleep. But while Docara's informant had been clear on the size of the Earl, they had failed to mention that his doorway was protected byu a runic construct, which if Kothar had not had the Mana Sensing Lens, he would have either activated the construct or noticed it far too late, when he was in range of it.

Kothar squinted at the slowly rotating rings and inscriptions, all created from pure mana, and tried to puzzle out the purpose of it. From his own understanding of Runes, the construct would explode if triggered, incinerating anything in a one meter radius, but he wasn't certain.

[Silane, you got anything on this construct?] Kothar asked, peering carefully at the edges, trying to figure out if the construct extended to things inside the room or the walls. The main issue was, that while Kothar could easily make out the central components of a construct, the portions of it that were used to detect intruders were often so delicate that they blended in with the ambient mana, making it hard to find out the exact range of a construct.

[Our Earl definitely cheaped out when he had this door enchanted. Any real Runecrafter would have extended the sensing filaments throughout the walls, but he only included the door itself and the latch. I think you can ignore this one and just portal through one of the neighboring rooms.] Silane sighed in disbelief at the foolishness of however had crafted the construct, it was practically useless in the face of any intruder with more than a shred of intelligence. 

Kothar nodded and followed the path that Silane had highlighted for him in his vision, while also creating a red zone that would keep him away from the activation range of the construct in the door.

Kothar let himself into the room on the right side of the Earl's doorway, a storage closest for linens, and towels. From inside, contrary to his usual habit of opening the destination portal first, Kothar cast the entry portal.

Since portals always made noise, no matter what, Kothar decided to have as little time as possible between when he would be in the room and when his portal inside the room would open.

Kothar opened the portal inside the Earl's bedroom, and braced for the inevitable explosion of the rune construct, hearing nothing, he linked the two portals and stepped through. His short blade at the ready.

But there was no attack waiting for Kothar on the other side, only the massive bulk of the Earl of Luon, snoozing away on an enormous bed, that dominated a large portion of the already spacious room. Similar to the guest room, finely crafted furniture was tastefully placed all around the room, as well as a large bowl of candied fruit and pitcher of wine next to the bed. It seemed like the Earl liked to snack.

The Earl was an extremely large man, Kothar hadn't seen anyone of his size since he head been reborn on Eclat, but the Earl would fit right in with the wealthy and powerful that he had often seen on the Garden.

The dry heat of the climate south of the plains meant that the Earl's lank, long hair was plastered to his scalp, and he snored loudly in his sleep.

[You're lucky his snores drowned out the sound of your portal opening, I don't think your next missions will be as easy as this one.] Silane grumbled, she still wasn't happy with the mission but nevertheless made an effort to engage with Kothar.

[I agree, this first wave of attacks is only going to make all the vassal states more vigilant.] Kothar replied, still taking in the room, psyching himself up to end the Earl's life. HE had done similar things before, as a Sentinel, but it was one thing to take a life as an unfeeling immoral half man half machine and another to take one as a flesh and blood person with all the emotions and morals that came along with being human.