51 Breaking And Entering (1/2)
Aciel snarled as she cut apart a monster. She flicked her blonde hair back as she stepped past the carcass, stabbing it in the brain as she did so. It wouldn't do to be careless at this juncture. Not when they needed all the time they could get. She was feeling highly uncomfortable. They should have staggered their shifts better. Someone, somehow, had taken Deltan out from right under their noses. She couldn't believe it.
Brooke was tearing himself up over it. Even though he and Deltan liked to fight, he still considered the prince his friend, deep, deep down inside. Aciel couldn't help but worry about him. Dark circles were forming under his eyes, and he looked more haggard by the day.
It had been a week since Deltan had been kidnapped, and their group of five had shrunk to four. Just one person was gone, but it left a constantly aching hole that they couldn't ignore. Against better judgement, the four of them had left Cosmos City after combing it thoroughly with their other classmates.
A group of five stayed back to inform their Teacher of what had happened in their negligence whilst he was away, while the rest of them set out to try and find Deltan. One week was already far too long. Being in the state of eternal sleep, he had no plausible way to defend himself.
At least they knew that there was no way it was the Vampire who had marked him that had taken the prince. Since he was still in the underwater part of Cosmos City, the person who took him must have been a citizen who knew about this hidden secret.
To their frustration, it seemed like Deltan was the exception and didn't have any hidden guards of his own. Even their teacher had his own hidden guard or two! A hidden guard with a Master was always able to track their Master down through their bond. Aciel felt a strong need to throttle that stupid prince. As the Eldest Prince, there was surely no end of people who were after his life. Why didn't he have a hidden guard of his own?! Cosmos City was safe, but not that safe! When they found him again, she was going to have a little 'spar' with him.
At least they struck off a few of the potential people who would possibly be the kidnapper. They were more than halfway through the list, keeping in touch via the transmission function on the bracelet their teacher gave them. It made things go a lot quicker, splitting up the work.
The place they were heading towards now was one of the summer residences of Baron Ruben Beverley. They had reports that he had been staying there from the one week before Deltan had been abducted up until now. Even if the chances were low, they weren't willing to overlook anything.
Aciel, Lucien, Eden and Brooke slay all the monsters in the vicinity as they neared the secret summer residence home to prevent anything from giving them away. It was around twilight now, the time when people were the least alert, working in their favour.
Silently, the four broke into the residence without alerting the guards. They mapped out every inch of the residence, noting the number of servants as well as the food and ammunition.
Aciel headed in the direction of the Baron's office, going through the drawers with great efficiency and familiarity. Doing the same thing over the past week had bred familiarity. She could almost call herself an expert now.
Aciel's eyes hardened when she read several of the Baron's correspondence letters. It puzzled her how he was being so arrogant when he had allowed his daughter to kidnap a prince of their Empire. It was almost as if he hadn't realized the Empire's might. Did he think really think he would get away with kidnapping a prince?
Aciel turned the drawer over, having realized that the drawer wasn't as deep as it should have been. Sure enough, it had a false bottom, with another few letters inside it.
The blonde quickly made perfect forgeries of the letters and left to head to their meetup spot, sharing the news.
Four pair of cold eyes looked at the letters of correspondence, reading through each one.