Chapter 389 - Quinn’s Operation

The day had turned into night and the full moon was shining down on the lands. Inside of the Goldenia family's main house, Katya was inside her bedroom trying to force herself to sleep. However, she couldn't because of how anxious she was feeling.

Ever since she had arrived a few days ago back at her family's territory and met up with Quinn, she had been receiving the man's help on a daily basis. The butler had provided her with accurate information about her family's lands and had aided her in recruiting more people in their army to defend against the impending Faustus Archduchy's invasion.

He not only helped her recruit them, but he even helped her train them. They weren't sure until how long the Faustus Archduchy would stay their hand and gather up their forces before they launched an attack, but they did all they could to prepare.

Quinn had also helped Katya secure an absolute position in her family. Even though her father had given her the highest authority to command her family, some of her family members in the branch families didn't care about it and went around doing their own things.

Quinn had put them in their place for Katya which led to the Goldenia family finally being a bit more solidary than before. No one in the family questioned Katya's orders. The bolder ones did step up to give her suggestions which she would naturally consider, but anyone that so much as disrespected her and rebuked her would be dealt with immediately by Quinn on the spot.

The cold-faced young man was so frightening that they feared his punishment more than they feared Katya's anger and rebuke. Seeing as Quinn was constantly protecting her honor, Katya had grown to like the young man over the past few days, although, they would always argue about things every now and then.

When the other Goldenia family members saw how they interacted over the past days, they wondered why Katya wasn't back at the Silvaria Kingdom trying to seduce Cecil into marrying her but was instead here, frolicking with a young man who seemed to be a butler.

They didn't know who to ask so they kept it to themselves. Katya had been busy throughout the entire day but after she had leaned back into her pillow to sleep, her anxious mindset and worry for the young man who had been helping her kicked in so she couldn't sleep.

She took out her MID and debated whether not she should call him. Quinn did tell her that he didn't want to be bothered right now since he was doing something important. However, Katya couldn't stop her impulse and clicked a few times on the MID and called Quinn.

She waited for a long time before the call connected.

"...What is it? Didn't I tell you not to call me?"

"E-eh? Uhm... I-I was just wondering if you were okay or not..."

"...tch...it's late, just go to sleep."

Sensing that Quinn was about to end the call, Katya quickly spoke up.

"W-wait!"

"What now?"

"H-How goes the mission?"

"I already finished gathering all that I needed."

"R-really?! Then, are you still on the island?"

"...Why would I still be there when I'm already done?"

"S-so you're on your way back?"

"Yeah...I'll be arriving at the dock in an hour or so..."

"O-okay! I-I'll see you later then!"

"Hm? Okay..."

Katya quickly ended the call and jumped out of her bed. She went to her wardrobe and began pulling out some clothes. After picking one that she was satisfied with, she darted out of her room and shot straight out of her house and went towards the dock.

*****

A few hours earlier, Quinn had just ended his call with Katya. He had just finished interrogating the commanding officer of the fleet and was able to get some pretty good intel. Quinn didn't finish off the officer since that would arouse suspicion.

He instead fed him a hallucination and memory-loss drug before putting him to bed in the bedroom located adjacent to the office. Quinn didn't forget to take a few doc.u.ments from the office and copied them.

He made sure to get all of the information he could get about the current state of the Faustus Archduchy's gathered forces, their numbers, rations, everything. He pilfered the entire office of information and copied them into a magic tome that Cecil had given him.

With the intelligence he got from the commanding officer and the information he acquired from all of the doc.u.ments, Quinn's mission was as good as done. He didn't forget to map out the island. He had drawn the exact locations of every building, patrol route, and enemy ship situated on and around the island.

With this, Quinn concocted a plan in his mind. He was going to return to Katya first and see what she thinks about it before they could continue. Speaking about the girl, Quinn found it quite cute that the girl had called her earlier, clearly worried about his situation and wellbeing.

He shook his head and chuckled since he found it quite amusing. He also found it troubling since the girl should be more focused on her duties and preparations than on him. It wasn't like he was some helpless fool.

After gathering up everything he needed, Quinn was just about to head out, but when he was about to head off of the island, he took one last look at the cove, and on the horizon, he saw a large fleet of sh.i.p.s heading towards the island.

Seeing the new development, Quinn naturally wanted to know what was up. He decided against returning right away and camped out to wait for the large fleet to get here.

He noticed them stop a few hundred meters away from the island and smaller boats with people on them were let down and rowed to the port inside of the cove.

Quinn noticed that on one of the rowboats, two important looking figures, a man and a woman, were standing on the bow of their respective rowboats. The commanding officer wasn't present to greet them so the vice-commander had come out.

When Quinn moved in closer to observe, he was able to listen in and he quickly found out that of the two people who had just arrived, the man was the Field Marshal of the Faustus Archduchy's army, Ashtarh Imunic, and the woman, Jena Nohkurl, was the archduchy's Fleet Admiral.

It was obvious that these two were sent over to lead the invasion on the Goldenia family's territory in the No-Man's Lands.

Quinn frowned at this sudden development. The only reason why these two important figures would even be here was because the Faustus Archduchy was now ready to attack. Remembering that their preparations weren't even finished, Quinn clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Could it be that they hastened things up because they weren't able to receive word from their young lord?"

Quinn didn't think any further since he was able to hear the two Generals ask about their Young Lord who they weren't able to contact in the past few days after he had gone to secretly meet with the Goldenia family's young lady.

Quinn trailed behind them and was able to find out that they would commence their attack ahead of schedule. Once the next batch of soldiers who were scheduled to arrive next week or so arrives, they would immediately initiate their attack in the following days.

After getting what he needed, Quinn quickly decided to head back to Goldfire City, the Goldenia family's main city where Katya was at. He needed to quickly inform her about this. He wanted to call her, but decided against it since the woman might be busy.

It was better if he said it in person anyways so after he got to the edge of the island, he immediately began swimming back to his ship that was a few kilometers away from the island after he made sure that it was safe.

The swim back was a bit taxing since the patrol routes and the number of patrolling sh.i.p.s had increased because the two army generals had arrived. It took him an hour or two to break out of the Faustus Archduchy's controlled perimeter.

After he got back to his ship, he immediately had the crew steer the ship back to the Goldenia family's territory.

On the way back, he got a call from Katya since it was so late. He was quite surprised that the girl hadn't called him earlier since she had kept on calling him every few minutes after he had first departed.

After he had ended the call with Katya, it didn't take long before he arrived back at Goldfire City's port. When he disembarked, he saw Katya waiting for him at the port. Seeing her wave at him, Quinn walked over to her.

"You're back! That's great!"

"Yeah... did you wait?"

"Hm? No, I just got word that your ship had returned and quickly went out to greet you."

"...I see..."

It was a lie. Quinn was able to probe her with his Ki and noticed that her body temperature was a bit low, like she had been waiting there for a good while.

"Let's head back to your house. I have some information to give you."

"How about we leave that for tomorrow? You just got back and didn't you have to swim to get to and from the island? You should go take a shower first and sleep. We can talk about the information you got tomorrow. It's already so late and I'm pretty tired," Katya said.

"..."

Quinn glanced at her before nodding.

"Alright...then I'll be going then."

"Why not just stay at my house?" Katya stopped him and said.

"?"

Seeing his questioning look, Katya immediately spoke up in a fl.u.s.ter, "I-If you stay, we can immediately begin discussing things early tomorrow!"

"...Hm, alright."

Getting his approval, Katya quickly led him to her house. The other members of her family had been stirred awake earlier since they saw her rush out of the house. When she got back with Quinn, they grumbled and only thought that she just went to fetch her boyfriend.

"You can pick any room! There's a shower and bath in each room so make yourself at home. Also, if you need anything, just ask the maid—"

"Is it alright if I borrow your kitchen?"

"H-Huh? Y-yeah, it's fine!"

Quinn nodded and quickly entered an empty room and shut the door behind him. Katya wanted to say something more but having the door shut in her face, she felt a bit dejected and puffed up her cheeks.

She dejectedly went back towards her room and slumped on her bed and whined.

"Stupid..."