Chapter 28 Twin Flowers
Morning. The air was fresh and crisp.
Roskin was leading two subordinates quickly toward the courtyard that had been arranged for Lampson and his group the day before.
"This time I need to serve Lord Lampson well. Just one word from him and I'll probably get promoted," Roskin thought, though a touch of worry gnawed at him. "It's a shame — Lord Lampson and the others seem to be awfully cautious. They won't even let a single attendant into the courtyard."
Lost in thought, Roskin arrived at the courtyard gate.
"What's going on? Why isn't the gate closed?" His brow furrowed. He knew full well that Lord Lampson and the other dignitaries had very important matters to attend to — there was no way they would leave the gate open.
Stepping inside the courtyard, Roskin was struck by an oppressive silence.
"My lords?" he called out.
His voice echoed through the empty courtyard, but no one answered.
"You two search down here. I'll go check upstairs." A creeping sense of something wrong washed over Roskin, and he immediately headed toward the second floor of the two-story building. Lampson and the others had each been assigned separate rooms.
Every door on the second floor stood open. Not one was closed.
Roskin entered the room Lampson had stayed in and immediately frowned. The bed was a mess, clearly unmade. An outer robe still hung from the bedpost.
"This isn't right."
He hurried into the other rooms. Sure enough, every bed was unmade, and bundles sat on the tables. If Roskin couldn't see that something was seriously wrong by now, he'd have to be out of his mind.
"Lord Lampson didn't even have time to put on his robe. The other lords left their bundles behind. Could some urgent matter have come up that made them rush out?" He rubbed his temples.
"My lord!" a shout came from below.
Roskin's expression changed. He dashed into the hallway, vaulted over the railing, and dropped into the courtyard below.
"What happened?" He looked at his two subordinates.
"My lord, there are bloodstains." Both men pointed at a section of the courtyard wall.
Earlier, Sessler had ordered his undead creatures to erase every trace. Almost all evidence — including the blood on the ground — had been cleaned up. But when the Black-striped Cloud Leopard, Black Lu, had shredded the head of a special-class steward with its claws, the spray of blood and brain matter had been too widespread. Even with the undead working diligently, some spots had been missed.
"Bloodstains? And all the lords are gone?"
Roskin stared at the eerily silent courtyard, his heart as heavy as if a boulder had been dropped on it. "A battle took place here. As for the lords — could they have given chase?"
He had witnessed the six lords' astonishing strength the day before. There was no way he believed someone could have killed all six of them.
Roskin immediately turned to the two men beside him. "You two — set out at once for the provincial capital of Bazel. Report everything you've found."
"Yes, sir!"
Roskin's two messengers had not yet reached Bazel when Lin Lei and his group had already encountered the escort convoy on the road.
"There they are?" Lin Lei, Sessler, Bei Bei, and Black Lu crouched in the overgrown grass by the roadside.
Sessler peered at the carriage in the distance and the four knights surrounding it, then nodded. "That's them. The two girls should be inside the carriage."
"Inside?" Lin Lei frowned, then looked at Bei Bei. "Bei Bei, I'm guessing there's more than just two girls in that carriage — there should be guards too. You're small enough to slip inside. Your job is to rush in and kill everyone else in there."
Sessler nodded in agreement. "The escort is six people total, all men. There should indeed be two more men inside the carriage."
"Bei Bei, did you hear that? Kill the two men inside the carriage." Lin Lei smiled and stroked Bei Bei's head.
Bei Bei leapt onto Lin Lei's shoulder, stood up straight, and lifted his little head proudly, chattering at Lin Lei: "Boss, when has Bei Bei ever let you down?"
Lin Lei chuckled with fond indulgence.
"Let's move," Lin Lei transmitted through his soul.
Bei Bei immediately grew serious, his small eyes locking onto the distant carriage. Then he slipped into the undergrowth, creeping silently closer and closer…
Inside the carriage, twin sisters with beautiful long green hair sat with red-rimmed eyes, glaring with hatred at the two men across from them.
"You bastards," the slightly older-eyed girl muttered under her breath.
The two men exchanged a glance and a smirk, completely unconcerned.
"Rebecca, stop cursing. It's a waste of breath on scum like them. All these years we believed in the Church of Light and prayed to the Lord for happiness. Who could have imagined they'd be this vicious?" The other girl's eyes burned with the same hatred.
"Sister." Rebecca clutched her sister's hand in anguish.
Rebecca and Lina hailed from the 48 principalities of the Chaos Region. Like their parents, they had been devout followers of the Light Lord — only to discover, in the end, that it was the Church of Light that had murdered their parents and abducted the two of them.
Their parents were dead. Rebecca and Lina no longer had a home.
And now their future was nothing but darkness, without a shred of hope.
"Father, Mother…" The moment their parents crossed their minds, their hearts clenched in agony. For years, even amid the chaos and war of the Chaos Region, their parents had always protected them.
This time…
"Lina, take your sister and run!" Their father had clung desperately to a seventh-level powerhouse. In his final moments, with nothing but his fifth-level warrior strength, he had managed to hold the man in place for a precious few seconds.
But the Church of Light's forces were simply too strong.
"God, please save us!" Lina screamed silently in her heart. "If you can save us — if you can give us a chance at revenge — I will give anything. Even my soul."