Upon returning to Deja, Ashton and the rest of the crew had to spend a couple of days in quarantine. It was a safety measure against the notorious diseases that could be found near the swamps. Thankfully, all of them were clear and could carry on with their day to day activities.
But first, the king had summoned all of them to his throne room. The reason for it was obvious. A royal knight's death wasn't something Jonathan could just ignore. Aso, he could not afford to let such news out in the public as the royal knights were seen as unstoppable heroes who couldn't die.
Even those who perished in battles were claimed to have either gone missing or had been captured by the enemy. It was an agenda to make the kingsmen seem godlike and in turn, it would help boost the morale of the citizens.
But now… well, Ashton and everyone else knew the royal knights might not be as mighty as they had been led to believe. Yet none of them was bold enough to speak their mind in front of the king.
Everyone was lined up in from of the king and questioned by him. Well, the others were let go easily while Ashton was asked to stay behind. Since he had crucial information about what happened in the cave, Jonathan wanted to interrogate him a tad bit more rigorously.
"Hm… that is troublesome indeed." Jonathan spoke once Ashton was done recounting his made-up tale once again, "We can't let such mysterious creatures roam around freely. Especially if they were able to kill Seven just like that. Is there anything else you remember?"
"I can't think of anything else at the moment, your highness. If I remember something, you'll be the first to hear about it." Ashton obediently replied while his head stared at his feet.
"That'll be all. You can leave now." Jonathan dismissed him but before Ashton could leave, Jonathan remembered something, "You should probably head home now. Someone has been waiting for you there."
"Will do." Ashton didn't bother bowing down before he left, which instead of pissing Jonathan off, impressed him.
It showed that even though Ashton was working for the kingdom, he wasn't going to recklessly serve them.
"That kid… there are too many mysteries around him." Jonathan mumbled to himself.
The next moment there was a sudden movement in the throne's shadow as three hooded figures revealed themselves in front of their king.
"Would you like us to tail the kid?" The female figure standing in the middle asked Jonathan.
The three of them were all dressed in the same gear. A hood that covered their entire faces, except their mouths, while the rest of their body was covered with light armour. It was so that their agility did not suffer as the type of jobs they were assigned often required them to strike and retreat.
After all, they were Jonathan's personal information collectors and assassins, also known as the 'Guardians'. In a lot of ways, they were similar to the royal knights. But unlike the knights, their existence wasn't known to a lot of people.
Hell, even the secretive Conundrum might not be aware of their well-hidden identities. One could also assume, the Guardians were Jonathan's personal grim reapers. Hidden in the shadows till they were required to do his dirty work for him.
"That kid is someone who will be joining your ranks one day. The loss of a dozen royal knights wouldn't affect me as badly as the loss of that kid." Jonathan mumbled, "That being said, I would like you to visit the cave and see what you can do about those creatures."
"Your wish is our command."
"You're dismissed." Jonathan waved his hand and the next moment the assassins disappeared just like they had appeared in the first place, "I thought a royal guard would be able to shield him. But I guess I have been overestimating their capabilities. I might need to smack some sense into them."
***
"Someone is waiting for me at the house. Well, it doesn't require me to use my intelligence points to guess who it could be." Ashton sighed and headed inside to meet the mistress.
He was expecting to see something weird, but what he saw was something entirely out of his expectations. Both Duncan and Daniella had their limbs been chained to the ground. Both of them were naked and had huge cuts on their backs.
Someone had been thoroughly whipping them up for quite some time now. Although it wasn't unusual for human slaves to be treated like this, Ashton did not like it one bit. They were HIS slaves, not the mistress's for her to do something like this to them.
"Am I supposed to be scared?" Ashton announced and began ripping the chains off, "If that was your plan, then I'm afraid to say you have lost your touch, mistress. I could accept torturing Duncan, but doing the same to a pregnant woman? Have you lost your mind?"
"Looks like you have grown quite a mouth, Ashton. Let me reduce it back to its normal size." Ashton heard the Mistress's voice coming from behind and ducked.
A moment later he heard the whip crack right where his head would have been, had he not ducked.
"My mouth isn't the only thing that's gotten big." Ashton smiled widely as he turned around, "But why don't you check it out yourself?"
"Who gave you the permission to brand them as your slaves?" The mistress roared once again and charged straight into him.
"Why would I need permission to brand my own slaves?" Ashton replied while dodging her attacks, "You yourself told me they were my slaves after all."
Might not be at her level yet, but with all the changes he had gone through after hitting level 15 for all his genes, his stats weren't less than a level 25 being in any way. The mistress was still at least 5 levels above him but since she wasn't going all in, parrying her strikes wasn't difficult at all.
After five or so minutes, the mistress finally managed to momentarily pin him down, But the moment passed as quickly as it came. As Ashton reversed her attempt to get him in a chokehold and locked her in a sleeper hold instead.
"Now if you have calmed down, would you let me explain myself or not?" Ashton asked the mistress while not easing the pressure on her neck.
Ashton might have thought he got her, but he was wrong, as the next moment he ended up with a broken nose along with a fractured arm. A werewolf's skull wasn't something to take lightly.
"Now I am calm.." The mistress spat out a mouthful of blood before pulling Ashton back to his feet, "Talk."