Chapter 235 – The Assassins Go to War!

  Hugo Riverclimb:

  “Fuck!” Margaery shouted. “He’s gone!”

  We had searched everywhere, and the young master had vanished in the blink of an eye.

  What kind of power was that? Could it be ected to him being a transmitter of the thunder element? Over all these years of training, I’ve withe speed he gained using the Thunder Mantle, but what I saw ihrone room was different. Nathan simply vanished.

  I sighed.

  Kids these days…

  We had turhe castle upside down, but Nathan had already left. When Katherine checked his room, she found only Cyl.

  "My son..." Katherine murmured, her guilt evident.

  “We ’t waste any more time!” Margaery barked, pag bad forth ihrone room. “Nathan might be a skilled mage, but he’s just one person. There’s an army camped in front of that fortress, and another i. I know he’s angry—hell, I’m angry too—but we had a pn for a reason!”

  The Legacies were assembled. With me were my wife, my two daughters, Katherine, Margaery, Yusuf, Lionel, Samantha, and Bonnie. Sifu was absent, busy preparing the army.

  “What do we do? Does anyone know what he’s pnning?” Bonnie asked, grippiwin cleavers. Her ons, ected by wires, were wielded with precision thanks to her affinity with the wind element. Samantha, oher hand, used fans to manipute wind and fire. Lionel, a fighter wielding a massive cymore, trolled the water element, while Yusuf was a skilled marksman specializing ih manipution.

  “I don’t know, but I’m done waiting. Fuck it!” Margaery decided, her expression resolute. “We’re leaving now. Fet about setting out at dawn—we’ll be walking for days anyway. I won’t let my nephew pull off this madness alone!”

  She stormed out of the throne room, leaving us behind.

  “Wait!” I called after her, notig the others following in her wake. “Where are you going?”

  “What’s your pn, Margie?” Katherine asked.

  “I’m calling reinforts! The future of our family is at stake. The entire family is going to war!” Margaery decred with vi. At that moment, a shadot from the wall toward us.

  “Holy shit!” I excimed, startled.

  “ROOOAR!” A gray panther materialized before us, r ferociously.

  “There you are. You’re ing too,” Margaery said to ellian, who nodded in agreement.

  “ellian, you’ve never left this castle. Are you sure about this?” my wife, Martha, asked. “I thought you were a recluse.”

  The panther gave a predatrin, rising to its full height and revealing sharp cws.

  “AAARGH!” ellian roared again, pointing to its own mouth.

  “I see… You’re Nathan and Chloe’s guardian,” Martha said, uanding its i. “It looks like you’re pnning to deliver judgment for those who harmed your charges—by dev the enemies alive.”

  Margaery tinued down the hall, and we all followed, ellian by our side.

  “Where are you going?” I asked as we moved through the corridors, but she ignored me.

  After some time, Margaery stopped in front of a familiar door and ope. Inside, we heard the soft sound .

  On the bed anther cub.

  Don’t tell me she’s pnning t that thing too.

  I hadn’t spoken much about it over the years, but the truth was, I was afraid of that phoenix, especially after seeing the size she reached in her dragon form.

  Damn...

  I g the giant panther beside me, t over me, and then at Nathan’s room.

  Fuck… good thing I’m not oher side of this war, I thought.

  “And you? Are you staying here?” Margaery asked, sitting on the bed o Cyl.

  Cyl was still g and only nodded, firming silently.

  Margaery sighed. “I take it he forbade you from leaving...”

  The panther cub lowered her head, lookied.

  “I’m that boy’s seother. I watched him grow up in these halls—stealing sweets, studying books—and I taught him many things myself. I taught him to read in uages, about politics, culture, and even how to kill someoh a quill. That boy is my pride. But he also listens to me, because I’m his aunt—his seother.”

  Margaery leaned in closer to Cyl. “I’m overturning his order. You’re an Evenhart. You’re ing with me to avenge what was doo our family.”

  Cyl looked at her, surprised.

  “If he gives you a hard time about it, let me know. I’ll have Katherine pull his ears,” Margaery added, standing up. “Now let’s go! I need a warrior, not a crybaby!”

  She left the room, walking past us.

  ***

  We were walking outside the castle, where the small army was almost ready to depart. Everywhere I looked, men were adjusting their ons, fastenis, and cheg equipment on their horses. The maids moved in perfect synization, some focused on ial wires around their wrists with the precision that only years of training could bring. The air buzzed with preparation, a calm before the storm.

  I approached Katherine, who was busy adjusting her armor. It had been a while since I’d seen her in that gear—the dark, reinforced metal trasting sharply with the vibrant colors of her hair.

  “Where’s Cyl?” I asked, trying not to sound as nervous as I felt.

  “She’ll take a bit longer,” Katherine replied, not lifting her eyes from the buckles of her armor. “She o switch to her beast form and stabilize her mana reserves before we leave. But since she fly, she’ll catch up with us easily. She’ll probably leave in a few days but arrive slightly te.”

  “Did ahrow her some meat yet?” I asked.

  Katherine paused and looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “No. She’ll feed during the war.”

  I swallowed hard.

  Damn… I think I’m the only normal one here.

  As she firapping on her armor, my eyes drifted to her on: a massive pair of gardening shears made of a greenish metal that seemed to pulse with its own energy.

  “Are you going to summon that thing?” I asked, trying to mask my nervousness with curiosity.

  “I am,” she said, referring to her Soul Golem, her tone calm but heavy with iy. “It’s been a while since my girl and I went out for a stroll.”

  I kly what she was talking about. Katherine was the only summe in our army—a rarity among mages, ohat made the kingdom go to great lengths to keep sudividuals on their side.

  “Looks like I’ll be seeing the Head Cutter in a again,” I ented, attempting to ease the tension with a ugh.

  She shot me a firm look, her eyes bzing with determination. “They hurt my son… his body and his heart. I won’t let a single one of them leave alive.”

  As she adjusted her boots, the ground around her began to respond. Roots emerged, twisting and turning into pnt serpents that seemed to move in rhythm with her breath.

  “I’m going to put these princesses inside every one of their stomachs!” Katherine decred, her fury palpable. Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked away.

  I stood there, watg the pnt serpents vanish into the ground, her words eg in my mind.

  Damn… I really thought I’d gotten over my pnt trauma…

  ***

  We were on the move. Some of our panions had already gone ahead, led by Lionel and Yusuf. The maids had vanished into the trees, likely under my wife’s and, as she took the lead to finalize the details of the attack strategy.

  “Sifu, what did he mean by something called a ‘Trojan Horse’?” I asked, my curiosity breaking the silence of our march.

  Margaery, Katherine, and I walked alongside the monk, leaving the castle behind. Ahead of us, mehe reins of their horses, preparing to face the treacherous trails of the forbidden forests.

  “He actually said ‘Trojan Horse’?” the monk asked, raising an eyebrow in intrigue.

  “Yes, exactly that,” Margaery replied firmly.

  Sifu grew thoughtful, his eyes taking on a distant gleam as he tried to recall something. “He mentioned a story by that name once,” he murmured, almost to himself. “I found it fasating.”

  Katherine, ever curious, leaned slightly toward him. “And what was the story about?”

  “All I remember is that it spoke of a legendary city called Troy, known as the most fortified in the world. Its walls were so imperable that the Greek army, their enemies, spent years trying to quer it without success. Then, a Greek general named Odysseus had a brilliant idea. He ordered his army to pletely withdraw from the city’s front, disappearing from the Trojans’ sight. But before leaving, they built a massive wooden horse, hollow on the inside, a it at the city’s gates.”

  Could it have been an army of elves maniputing the wood? Or is it just a tale? I thought but kept my silence.

  “The Greek army, Troy’s enemies, vanished ht. By m, the Trojans found a giant wooden horse in front of their walls. To them, it seemed like an of peace—a gift left by the Greeks in reition of their defeat, as the army had disappeared without a trace. vihe war was over, the Trojans brought the horse into their city, a trophy symbolizing their invincibility. They pced it iy’s ter, a testament that Troy would never fall. After all, if even the mighty Greeks surrendered... no one would dare oppose Troy. But, uhe cover of night, the ued happehe imperable city, so proud of its fortress, fell,” Sifu tinued, his expression pensive.

  We stared at him, engrossed, waiting for him to reveal the clusion.

  “And then? How did Troy, with its unbreakable walls, fall?” I asked, the curiosity evident in my voice.

  The monk offered a faint smile, clearly sav our anticipation.

  “The certainty of victory was their downfall. Hidden ihe massive wooden horse that General Odysseus built was ae troop. When night fell and the Trojans slept, tent with their supposed victory, the Greek soldiers emerged from their hiding pce. They opehe city gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had been waiting outside. In a single night, the years-long war ended—all thanks to the intelligend strategy of a single general,” Sifu cluded, his voice imbued with a near-poetic reverence.

  We exged gnces, each of us refleg oale.

  “I don’t see how this could be a pn…” Margaery said, struggling to ect the dots.

  “I believe, in some way, he pns to be the Trojan Horse himself aer Nikous Wolves’ fortress alohe monk cluded.