RISE OF EROS

The speed at which Aldus, Redeus, and Zelfit moved was even faster than when they reacted to the appearance of the minotaur because they knew the seriousness of an explosion in the castle.

Stepping back a few minutes, when everyone was celebrating the victory. A man hidden under a cloak that covered his entire body from head to toe slipped into the center of the city where he activated the magic summoning circle.

When the magic circle was activated and the minotaur appeared, the suspicious man had disappeared. While everyone was busy fighting the minotaur, his summoner had now managed to enter the castle.

Obviously, the security of the castle was tight, not to mention that, due to the stampede of monsters, the security was even tighter, however, this man had planned this for a long time, so he had managed to buy off several regular castle guards to create access for him.

Although he managed this, he was only able to enter the castle garden, not the building, as the guards stationed there were not easy to buy, as their loyalty is great, and for that reason, they are the ones in charge of protecting the castle.

In spite of everything, the man was more than happy to enter the garden, as it would be much easier to fulfill his mission. His target was the king and the royal family of the empire of Cannaris.

More specifically, he wanted to assassinate the king or kidnap any of the members of the royal family because in that way he would destabilize the foundations of the empire, leaving it vulnerable.

The death of any king generated instability and even more so in a country like the Cannaris empire where the crown prince was only 14 years old. If the king were to die, the prince would be crowned, but no matter how intelligent and mature the prince was, he was still a child and that would bring insecurity to the people, and therefore the empire would be vulnerable.

The kidnapping of the royal family was the same, even more so if it was the crown prince because the king would not think clearly because of the danger to his loved ones and could even be manipulated to the benefit of the captor of his relatives.

These were the objectives of this man because he was a special agent sent by a neighboring kingdom of the empire that had evil intentions. However, this man was carrying out his operation without knowing that his plan had been discovered.

The day before, the empire's most powerful intelligence agent, "Demon", had informed the king of Goston's betrayal and how several of the guards outside the castle had been bought off.

Thanks to that information, the king knew that Goston did not have the capacity for such a plan and that it must be a foreign attack, so he decided to set a trap.

It is known that every time a stampede of monsters occurs, 3 of the 5 knights of the empire are sent to the borders with delicate situations, to show the world that the empire remains strong, however, that also decreases the defenses of the city, as 3 of its most powerful warriors are absent.

The king also knew that his attacker should know the information of the meeting he had with the nobles, thanks to Goston, so the attacker should know that Aldus, Redeus, and Zelfit would not be in the castle and it would be his opportunity to achieve his goal.

However, as the king knew all that, he made special plans. Not to mention that this assassin had the wrong information. He believed he could kill the king if he got close enough, but he did not know that King Augustus Cannaris was as powerful as one of his imperial knights, so that job would not be so easy.

On the other hand, the king had evacuated his family, so the assassin was out of options. The problem was that the assassin did not know this and infiltrated the castle believing he had fooled everyone.

As the assassin was observing how he was going to be able to sneak into the castle, a voice was heard behind him, "So this is the rat that snuck in", instantly the hooded assassin jumped to the side to dodge the incoming attack.

The assassin was so surprised to have been discovered, that this emotion could only be surpassed by the person who had attacked him. "Arturios Von Done," said the assassin softly as the sweat began to bead on his forehead.

The assassin could not be blamed for feeling this way because the man in front of him is the man considered to be the most powerful expert in the Cannaris empire and is the captain of the knights of the empire.

There are 5 knights of the empire, but above them is their captain and that is Arturios. The assassin was surprised for two reasons. The first was that he had information that Arturios had been sent to the border like the other 3 imperial knights, however, it was obviously a strategy of King Cannaris.

The other thing that surprised him was Arturios' appearance, as he was or at least looked surprisingly young. Actually many had heard of him, but few had actually seen him, either because if you were his enemy you would be dead or because he had a habit of disguising himself, so few know his true appearance.

In this aspect he is similar to the intelligent agent "Demon", however, the assassin was able to recognize him thanks to two characteristics that everyone knows about Arturios.

His fiery red hair and his dragon-slaying sword. Arturios smilingly looked at the assassin in front of him who was getting paler and paler, as he knew he would not get out of this place alive.

The assassin knew that there was no way for him to defeat or escape Arturios, so he must die before he was captured. However, this man was indoctrinated to a blind loyalty to his kingdom, so before he died he wanted to make one last contribution to his kingdom.

The assassin turned and ran towards the palace as fast as he could, but he had not taken 3 steps when he heard Arturios' voice in his ear, "You are brave. Turning your back on me like that."

The assassin was surprised at how fast Arturios caught up to him and seeing that he could do nothing, he grabbed a small handle on his belt and pulled it with all his might as he shouted, "THEN DIE WITH ME."

Arturios immediately understood that the assassin had played his suicide card, but he did not flinch at the assassin's actions. He certainly couldn't stop him and the assassin exploded into a thousand pieces, but Arturios was unharmed.

In fact, by the time the explosion occurred, Arturios had retreated several meters away. Not even a speck of dust had fallen on him. However, he was upset because he was unable to capture the assassin.

Arturios sighed in dissatisfaction, but there was nothing he could do. Within seconds, several guards arrived on the scene, and soon after Aldus, Redeus, and Zelfit did too.

The three upon seeing Arturios were surprised and the first two saluted with respect, "Captain", to which Arturios only nodded his head. Zelfit wanted to know better about what was going on, so he asked, "What happened, weren't you at the border?".

At Zelfit's questions, Arturios smiled and said, "We should meet Augustus, he will explain everything. Within the empire of Cannaris, apart from the royal family, only Arturios could, or rather, dare to call the king by his name.

This not only showed his strength and status but there was a reason. Despite Arturios' appearance, he was over 100 years old and he is the teacher of combat of King Augustus, so he had these liberties.

In addition, this is information that few know, but Arturios and Demon are known as the pillars of the empire, being the first who holds the empire by day and the second at night.

Kings and nobles may change every few decades, but these two have been supporting the empire for three different generations, so the importance of these two characters was great to say at least.

The four entered the palace and met with the king in the throne room and Arturios began to explain what had happened. Everyone sighed with ugly expressions on their faces as they listened to Arturios' account because they had lost a valuable source of information.

However, they did not blame Arturios because if he failed to capture the assassin, no one in the kingdom could, so there was nothing to say. Still, Arturios apologized for failing, "Sorry Augustus. read-more-at-MvLeMpYr

You planned all this and I failed", but the king would never reproach his teacher, the respect he had for him did not allow it, so he answered, "If you could not stop him, no one could, there is nothing to forgive".

The king, seeing that everyone was discouraged by the bad news, said, trying to lift their spirits, "Don't be depressed. We certainly lost a valuable source of information, but Goston was captured and is being interrogated while we speak."

At that moment Zelfit raised his head exclaiming, "Right. Demon captured Goston, I had forgotten." After that comment, the mood of those present had changed.

While in the castle these issues were being discussed. In the city, the inhabitants began to clean up the damage caused by the battle. Actually, the damage caused by the minotaur was greater than the damage caused by all the other monsters, even so, taking into account the number of monsters, it was not such a big damage.

The red district was unexpectedly the least affected region of the city not because there were no attacks in that area because the monsters were eliminated as soon as they wanted to approach.