33 Risen#re - Chapter 337

It was late in the night and Lord Grant was currently at his desk, to his right was a stack of parchment each one filled with bad news about the battlefront on his lands.

Every last one spoke of a piece of land that was taken, or of another death that occurred on the frontlines, so far House Ventrano lost a quarter of its novices, and as for normal soldiers, the numbers were about to reach five digits.

Worst of all it seemed that House Hauton noticed the lack of reinforcements from House Kurt so currently, they were making a big push into House Ventrano’s territories.

At the rate that things were going, even if House Ventrano survived, it would take decades before they could recover their numbers, and worst of all most of their territories would be lost.

But currently, he shelved the heavy thoughts on his mind as he spread out a new blank sheet of parchment, he hoped that Lirian’s plan would work out, but still, he needed more, he needed assurance that his House could survive, no matter the means.

He learnt all about Lady Liberia’s plight and he was certain that sooner or later she would come to silence him, so he needed to secure the information, so that even if he were to die his House would be able to use it, such was his duty as a family leader.

Just as he dipped his quill in his freshly ground ink and prepared to write the first words on the parchment his ears perked up as he heard something move in his study.

He glanced around the room and noticed that a window was open, and the evening drafts were causing the curtains to flap.

He got up and walked to the window to pull it down with a soft sigh, as he looked out into the street he could see quite a bit under the light of the street lamps that were placed at the corners of every street.

The road was empty without a trace of any movement, ‘I’m too jumpy after what I learned,’ he reasoned to himself, but just then as he looked through the mirror he saw a flash of light in the window’s reflection.

Lord Grant jumped with a startle and turned around with speed he didn’t know he possessed, yet when he turned around there was nothing to be seen other than the crackling fire in the hearth.

Lord Grant felt his heart racing as he scanned every inch of the room, but after a short while, he confirmed that he was alone in the room.

Lord Grant returned to his desk with haste, as he took a seat a small box on the edge of the desk caught his eye, it wasn’t anything important, it simply held 500 food pills, for some reason the flash of light reminded him of the silver-haired man.

But he quickly shook his head to get rid of the thought, all he’d been thinking about all day was the silver-haired man, he even sent his ambassadors to the merchants guild to purchase any information about a silver-haired noble, he would have to wait a few days to get his intel, but for now, the man was wrapped in mystery.

Once he knew about the silver-haired man’s identity, he’d be able to better use the man to his own ends.

When he returned from his thoughts, he was going to grab his quill, but he was surprised to see that the quill was already in his hand and as he looked at the parchment, there was writing on it, he recognised the writing it was his own, but he didn’t remember writing anything.

As he read he was surprised, there were a few words but they seemed to reflect his thoughts perfectly.

—

Silver hair…

Identity…

Use him…

—

“Gah,” Lord Grant suddenly felt a wrenching pain from his back, slowly enveloping his entire body, he let out a pained cry, but barely any sound left his throat, only blood splattered out of his mouth.

Lord Grant heard the sound of footsteps as his assailant walked around his chair, and revealed their identity.

“You!” Lord Grant spluttered out with blood and spittle fly from his mouth, he could feel the blood filling his lungs and threatening to drown him, but he couldn’t hide his surprise at the sudden change of events.

Lord Grunt couldn’t help but wonder ‘Why?’ his mouth moved, but the sound failed to escape his lips.

“Hush now,” his assailant whispered, and grabbed onto his hand that was still holding the quill, and before his very eyes, he could see new words being written onto the parchment.

Only he couldn’t understand how the words were written in a perfect replica of his own hand, only the writing seemed rushed almost as if he was scared and in a hurry, which he most certainly was but it wasn’t him who was writing it was his assailant.

He read the words with his dying breath, but he noticed that his assailant didn’t finish the sentence, and before his assailant finished writing his assailant pulled up the sheet of parchment and squashed it into a ball, and tossed it under the desk.

“You did your part, now rest,” the assailant whispered and in the next moment Lord Grant saw a flash of silver, it was the last thing he ever saw.

Lord Grant remained in his chair as blood spilled out of the back of the chair from two wide holes that pierced into his lungs, and blood poured down his slit throat dying his clothes red.

Before his corpse, the assailant moved to the edge of the desk and took an item before rushing out the window.

The only thing that continued to move was the crackling flames that continued to dance endlessly, without a care of all that happened before it.

—

Lirian walked through the shadows of the Red Boar in the middle of the night, no sound came from his steps, as he silently crept through the empty corridors.

Lirian crept into a room near the kitchen, it was a very small room with barely any space, but inside the room was a simple pellet on which a waiter was fast asleep.

Lirian walked up to the man and slapped him awake, the man woke with a start, and looked at Lirian with fright, just as he was about to start screaming, he felt a sudden calmness wash over his entire body, and he looked at Lirian’s figure with reverence and worship.

Lirian smiled as his charm took effect, the waiter was just an ordinary mortal, he didn’t have much money but he knew how to play the lute, so the owner of the Red Boar allowed him to sleep and eat for free so long as he played whenever a noble requested a song.

“Now then be quiet and don’t scream or make any noise, otherwise I’ll be very disappointed,” Lirian said with a gentle smile.

The waiter shook his head as if horrified at the prospect, “If I disappoint master I ought to die,” he said with sincere conviction as he stared at Lirian with worship in his eyes.

“Good,” Lirian said with a smile, “Because this is going to hurt quite a bit,” as he spoke Lirian broke off a piece of the pellet and put it in the man’s mouth, “Bite on this,” Lirian whispered and the man obeyed without hesitation.