Chapter 168: Birth of Lupin part-1

Llyne Kingdom;

As the night fell, the darkness loomed over the kingdom, forcing the war between Llyne and Zuweth to stop temporarily, and following the rules of the battlefield, both of the armies returned to their camps to continue the battle, the next day.

Upon hearing the battle reports of various battlegrounds, the soldiers of Zuweth decide to return, taking advantage of the new moon in the sky.

Meanwhile, at the camp near Blackburn city, a heavy discussion is going between a couple of generals, and Starlight, who was representing the player army currently.

"The enemy is left with only a couple of thousand soldiers. We can just stall the time until our reinforcements arrive," A General named Cobalt voiced out his opinion.

Starlight shook his head in response as he knew there are no reinforcements from the East Ocean City, "with the King's gone, I don't think the Royal Knights will make the move. As for the army from East Ocean City, it'll take more than two days for them to come all the way from the south."

Duke Armine, who is also currently serving as a general, nodded in agreement with Starlight and asked him whether he has any plan.

Starlight smiled in response. "I have over a hundred members in our guild that can fight even in this darkness."

"Hundred?" General Cobalt frowned as soon as he quickly realized what Starlight wants to say. "Are you proposing a night raid?"

"Yes." Starlight once again nodded in response.

"No, it goes against the rules of the battlefield. For a warrior, losing his honor is worse than death," Cobalt said decisively as he slammed the desk, not intending to accept the proposal no matter what.

Duke Armine patted his shoulder, "Calm down General. Let's listen to his plan, first, shall we?"

"Go on." The Duke gestured the player to continue.

"Thank you." Starlight proceeded to explain what he plans to do. "General, the war is between the Llyne and Zuweth kingdoms. We are just reinforcements that are helping you out. So, none of our actions will represent you.

However, to prevent possible issues in the future, you can expel 114 of us from the regiment, which will make us free to do whatever we want."

Starlight highlighted the word expel before the General on purpose because he knew, the worst thing most people in the higher position fear isn't doing a wrong thing but taking responsibility for it.

And as he expected, General Cobalt calmed down a bit and gestured him to continue.

Starlight took a vial from his pocket and showed it to the two of them.

Looking at the green liquid, Duke Armine asked him whether it is the poison.

A smile appeared on Starlight as glanced at the vial in his hands. "This isn't a simple poison. It's a poison made from the flowers of Datura. For now, our guild was able to craft only this single vial."

Unlike what Starlight claimed, the poison wasn't made by the guild but was dropped from a level-150 heroic grade plant type monster that's available only at a racial dungeon.

Meanwhile, both of them were indeed surprised after hearing the plants of Datura, which Listening to his words brought a surprise to both of them as they long heard of it. Even the palace has an abundant stock of them in their Treasury.

Starlight continued, "even though it's just one, as long as this was mixed in their food and water, by sunrise, they will face respiratory depression, arrhythmias, fever, delirium, hallucinations, psychosis, and in a rare instance, even death.

Both of them didn't understand the rare illnesses that Starlight pointed out but they nodded to save their face.

***

Meanwhile, at the Imperial palace, a middle-aged man with streaks of gray hair was walking towards the palace, wearing gold-grade armor with a useless spear in his hand that can't damage anyone because of no physical attack attribute in his stats.

He was none other Wil, who asked the help of Silvershapers for his transformation.

With the help of non-combat player Venus, a former makeup artist for a top actor who currently operates a parlor in-game, Wil now disguised as a soldier passes the training grounds.

At first, Wil thought of sneaking into the palace since the high walls were destroyed in the incident and there might be a place to infiltrate without getting noticed.

But, after finding out that most of the soldiers along with Royal knights got stationed there, Wil decided to go through the entrance.

On the way, the exhausted soldiers didn't pay much attention to him as he looks and walks like one of them.

But, he was stopped at the main gate of the palace by a couple of guards, who weren't able to inspect him because of the mask of Tranquility.

Wil saluted to the two of them, trying to trick them one of their own.

"State your identity." One of the guards spoke.

Wil took out the prince medallion and showed it to them, "I'm from Arch Duchess Mansion. Her highness Rikilda Llyne sent a message to Lord Raziel. Here's the proof."

Looking at the genuine medallion, both of them stiffened and immediately moved aside to not bother this messenger.

Fooling the guards, Wil passed through the gate and made it to the palace only to get stopped by Royal knights at the entrance, this time.

Wil repeated the same thing to them.

Unlike the guards at the main gate, the royal knights examined the medallion carefully to check whether it's genuine or not. Upon realizing that it's real, they immediately concluded that he might be an elite secret messenger. That's the reason why his identity is also hiding from them.

"Ok, come with me." A Royal knight named Petrus spoke as he gestured to follow him. Another royal knight also tagged along with them.

Even though they came to the wrong conclusion as Wil wanted them to be, still, to be cautious, they didn't let Wil go alone towards Raziel's chamber because of several reasons.

With one on the front that's leading the way, and the other that was on the back that's making sure just in case, the three of them entered the palace.

Passing through several guards, the three of them reached the damaged empty main hall that leads to several places.

*Clang*

All of a sudden, Wil loosed his grip and the spear fell on the floor.

Followed by it, Wil collapsed on the floor and started to breathe heavily.

"Are you alright?" One of the Royal knights asked as both of them turned around.

"I'm sorry. I was injured on the way. I guess my body isn't able to keep up." As Wil apologized to them, he bends down to take the spear with his right hand while his left hand reached to his back. 

"Equip the bow," Wil whispers to himself, equipping his bow in his left hand before throwing it away in the darkness without letting the two of them notice his actions.

While Petrus didn't notice anything as his attention was placed on Wil and the spear, the other royal knight frowned, "Injured? How?"

Wil didn't speak further and went silent.

Meanwhile, as the bow was about to hit the ground and make a sound, Wil then spoke to himself in his mind, "Averil, get ready."

Without any warnings, two successive arrows flew like a flash of lightning and precisely struck the throat of the Royal Knights, killing them in instant.

*Ding. You killed Royal Knight Petrus.

*Ding. You killed Royal Knight Alan.

Flexing his fingers, Wil turned left and started walking with a smile as he replaced his armor into a suit with red jacket, a tophat on his head, and a monocle to complete the outfit.

Meanwhile, the floating dragon princess spirit Averil who was carrying his bow as she followed him in the dark, stared at him curiously, wondering what's the reason he changed into this weird costume, all of a sudden.