Epic Of The Demonic Sage

"Two days? That is quite sudden. Have you asked permission from your father?" Countess Lita glanced at her husband.

"He already asked, Lita. Didn't I tell you that I passed down the heirlooms of the Inanis Family to him?" Count Gabriel replied.

"Yes, you said that, but not this." Countess Lita shook her head, but then sighed softly as she rested a hand on her chest. "Are you… are you sure about this, Asher? Perhaps you can send this mercenary group and let them do it by themselves?"

"I'm afraid that I have to do this, mother." Lucius replied. "You must understand that this is a personal matter that I will not take lightly."

If Count Gabriel was someone who had been furious and reminded of the time when his mother was assassinated, Countess Lita was someone who nearly lost her son while the two of them were in the same roof.

"Lita, now's not the time to stop Asher from doing something important like this." Count Gabriel saw himself in his son, and understood his position.

"I know, I know… I'm just quite worried about you, Asher." Countess Lita smiled weakly. "Please return safely… of course, make those despicable Bergan's Band pay for their transgressions but come back as soon as you can."

"Of course, mother. In the meantime, I would also like to address the issue with the Black Rose Knights. I am quite sure that even with the testimony of the associate of the Black Crow tavern owner, they would like to see the corpse of Biroy for themselves, but unfortunately I've disposed of him along with the note, it was badly burnt during the fire you see." Lucius lied.

Although, it wasn't much of a lie considering that Biroy was more or less unattended since Lucius used Soul Scry on him. He had already gotten most use out of the assassin and wouldn't waste any more resources on him.

"Indeed, they've been requesting to inspect your burnt room and had made it their duty to interview all of the servants and guards about the night of that assassination." Count Gabriel said and massaged his forehead. "It's a little difficult to refuse them when it was the king himself who asked them to assist me in the matter of this incident. Perhaps, they're still a little unconvinced of everything."

"Worry not about it, Father. Instead, I am sure that their attention will shift once I leave." Lucius said.

"Were you not going to leave undetected?" Count Gabriel asked.

"Yes, but let it be informed to them that I will be moved to a safe space in lieu of the recent assassination. They need to be reminded that the reason why they're here is still primarily to catch the culprits over antagonizing me and the household." Lucius said.

"Hmm, I think that will be quite a great excuse to throw them off their still lingered suspicion." Count Gabriel chuckled. "I am sure that they will be preoccupied with the thought that they weren't able to do their jobs properly so you opted to leave. Knights can be like that."

"Of course, father." Lucius said.

Lucius knew what the Count meant, as there were knight orders in his past world that spent much more time focusing on their image and their chivalry codes over doing anything of actual substance.

It was actually incredible on how some individuals could get preoccupied over things like that, but it was to each their own.

"Now then, I'll be taking my leave, mother and father." Lucius said and bade them goodnight.

***

Two days later, Lucius and Kiana left the mansion of the Inanis family without drawing any attention to themselves and headed to the meeting place where Gellor and his mercenary group were waiting for them.

"I… I can't believe this is actually working." Kiana whispered to Lucius in disbelief.

"Rest assured, I told you that nobody would be able to recognize us." Lucius said.

"I can hardly recognize you myself if we hadn't left together." Kiana frowned as she inspected Asher, he looked like a completely different person.

Lucius and Kiana were both outfitted in mercenary gear, and Lucius took the opportunity to dye his hair to black.

For Kiana, she had completely changed the way she arranged her hair and also applied makeup differently than how she did in the past.

She didn't actually use makeup that much, so it was something that changed things greatly, but if Kiana's transformation was decent, Lucius' change was actually more drastic thanks to his experience in his previous world.

It wasn't only his hair that made other people not notice Lucius, he had taken the liberty to use the disguise tricks that he had and they became quite handy.

With enough knowledge on the subject, one was able to use makeup to change the way their bone structure looked like and could make anyone presume they were some other person.

"L-Lord Asher?" Gellor called out uncertainly when they arrived at the meeting place. He somehow still managed to recognize Kiana due to him knowing her after quite some time, but he had to look twice at Lucius.

"You and everyone here shall be referring to my alias while we're traveling together." Lucius informed them. He didn't want any of them to accidentally use his name while they were in the Aisse territory so it was better to practice right away.

"O-of course," Gellor bowed his head.

"Well then, this will be quite a trip." Lucius glanced at the horses all prepared and ready to go. Albus and Barty were tending them as Ariana and Finch loaded their packs.

"These were the adjustments done so we'll look like mercenaries." Kiana said, not looking forward for the trip since Aisse territory was quite far away.

"It'll be seven days, if I recall." Lucius said.

"Yes, seven days." Kiana nodded.

It didn't take too long for them to get on their horses and then ride out of the city, successfully leaving without anyone recognizing Lucius or Kiana.