The group of 8 entered the room. Three of them were women while the other three were male. All of them were dressed very neatly. Boban was being very friendly with them.
“As you can see, we only offer you the highest products before they are put up for auction. That is one of the benefits you will receive when you work with us.” Boban said.
They were maintaining their distance from him and only lightly acknowledged his comment. They all came close to the people who were put up for viewing like artifacts at a museum. They were inspecting each person one by one.
Everyone except Leo was standing completely still out of fear that the nobles would do something to them if they misbehaved. Meanwhile, Leo was trying his best to control himself from spinning out of control. If he did, then he would have to deal with all the mages while not harming any innocent bystander.
They eventually came to Leo. When they did, the two mages, one male and the other female, both suddenly backed away. Leo realized why they were on guard all of a sudden. He was unchained and also an Aura Knight.
The others didn’t notice it because they were not that much stronger than him. But now that there were mages who had a lot higher perception, they saw through him completely. He immediately jumped back from them and leaped at the guard behind him.
He quickly grabbed the guard’s blade before he could react and used his Twilight Veil Slash, cutting down the guard. He then ran out of the door on the other side.
Meanwhile, the nobles who jumped back were looking at Boban with extremely furious faces.
“What practices do you follow? How did you not know that the person you could use aura?! Moreover, it was a Late-Stage 1st Circle Aura Knight. If we didn’t notice, then we would be dead!” They shouted.
Boban’s face turned purple.
“I am so sorry, Lord and Lady. I will fix this. I will make sure his head is before you in an hour.” He said and turned to the man in the suit, ready to bark an order, when one of the ladies other than the mages spoke up.
“I want him alive.” She said.
The others looked at her. Boban was confused. “Why, Lady Fairmount? He is, after all, just a crafty boy?”
His tone turned even more respectful with her than with the mages. For some reason, he feared the lady more than the other nobles there.
“He is very pleasing to the eye. And on top of that, such a young boy is a 1st Circle Aura Knight. It would be a very addition to my collection.” She said.
Boban nodded. “Of course, Lady.”
He turned back to the man in the suit.
“Alive, then. In an hour.” He said.
The man nodded and left the room from the same side that Leo did. The time that they took to discuss this was 2 minutes. At this time, Leo had gotten enough of a head start. He had completely escaped from the room and was essentially just creating enough of a distance from it.
As the man left the room, the rest of the people who were in the line with Leo were quivering. Out of all of them, Oliver and Brock had the most severe reaction. They didn’t think the young boy was an actual Aura Knight. Deep inside, they hoped that at least he would be able to escape.
After keeping the nobles settled into the couches, he said, “The other products are also here for your enjoyment. You can keep inspecting them. I will also go to make sure that the person is caught without fail.”
“Mobilize everyone! I want him caught in 30 minutes. Surround the entire Stronghold and don’t let a single person leave.” He shouted.
One of the guards quickly ran to a room that had a staircase to go to the top of the building. He ran to the top, crossing 2 stories, and finally reached the tower. The stronghold was essentially a small fort with a basement, ground, and first floor. The first floor was only to defend against attacks, with outposts to look out for attackers.
The first floor was completely open and was also elevated because it was the walls of the fort. At each corner of the fort, there was a bell in a small tower-like structure. The guard quickly reached the bell and quickly rang it. He rang it twice, signaling a certain code to all of the people in the fort.
Everyone who heard the bell immediately became alert. A quarter of the bandits in the fort left their posts and ran up the staircases to populate the top of the walls. Another quarter immediately ran out of the fort to cover the perimeter around the fort.
The remaining half started searching the rest of the fort aimlessly, looking out for any suspicious activities. They were mainly waiting for further orders from their superiors.
Leo heard the bells and smiled. He knew they were going to start looking for him, but he wasn’t worried. He felt that he was pretty safe, considering that he was back in the room with the suits.
He had gone back there because he needed to be alone for what he was going to do next. He waited near the door for someone to search the room, but it was going to take some time before they got there. He was hoping the time would be enough to lure away all the guards away from the fort.
With the number of guards being only around 100, and only half of them in the fort searching for him, it would be easy to deal with them. But he didn’t care about the small fries. He wanted to take out the man in charge.
Meanwhile, Boban and the man in the suit were describing Leo’s appearance to the guards so that they would relay the information to the other guards. After giving this information, Boban and the man split up to make the search more effective.
The man in the suit was drenched in sweat. He sounded very angry as he walked to where the cellars were. He didn’t like that he had to do this work at all.
“Why did that fat ass have to give that amazing idea of trying to sell a 2nd Circle Aura Knight? We were doing fine without his suggestions! But no, he had to make us capture that person. If we didn’t try that, then none of this would have happened.”
He kicked one of the buckets nearby, sending it flying. Suddenly, he frowned. He looked around and saw that there weren’t any guards near him.
This was suspicious because, with the alert on, all the guards were supposed to be at their posts, looking out for suspicious people. But the area with the cellars, the most important area, was completely void of people.
As he was looking around, he heard a voice. “So, you don’t like the short dude either?”