Emperor's Reckoning

Lyon looked at the figure who was walking toward him with a smile before stretching his right arm forward with a thumbs up, "Good Job Ryona."

The figure was naturally yours truly. No one in Deo could have such delicate skill for a brute weapon.

"To think that they only send one assassin to hunt you down, you are being underestimated, hubby," said Ryona softly as she clings to his arms.

Lyon's face suddenly turned bright red as his nose was enlarging with every heavy snort. He was not the kind of guy who would get a nosebleed out of this or the type that pushed the woman away. (Oh you are so wrong if you think I would shy away!) thought Lyon as he greedily moved his arm that fell between Ryona's breast.

*pak

*pak

"Now is not the time!" a loud shout startled both of them after being hit in the head with a fan. Though the fan was made out of paper, it was depending on the user who much damage one could do.

Kyoko suddenly appeared behind them with her fan-folded while tapping it on her hand.

"Oh, Sorry overseer!" Despite Ryona's haughtiness and strength, she still showed respect to the fox woman in front of him. In fact, if it wasn't for Kyoko, she would still wear her bikini armor.

While rubbing his head, Lyon said, "That's right, I gotta go back. Stick to the plan ladies." Then he turned and walked toward the carriage's spot. Though it's not far, the luscious trees made it hard to navigate.

-----------------------------------------------------

The twin moon in the sky illuminated the forest as if nature was guiding the travelers while the stars were dimmer than them, they provided a romantic scene quite well. Sadly, the fantasy-like scene was a hundred and eighty degrees as to what actually happened below.

Besides an exquisite white carriage, were two guards from Luderia sitting on a log. They were looking at each other and distress was apparent on their faces. One of them was palpitating as he gulped his saliva while his silver boots keep shaking.

"H-hey, are we really gonna do this?" The cold attitude which he gave Lyon was nowhere to be seen and was replaced by nervousness.

"We already blow the signal, there is no turning back now," said the other guard, but from his tone, it was clear that he was not in a calm state.

"But maybe there is another-" before he could finish, the other guard slammed his own thigh.

"There is no other way Olga! For all we know, this is the best we can do."

Sighing, the man took out a locket from his pocket. Despite having a spatial ring, he always kept it there.

The brown locket was nothing special, but the man looked at it with warmth gaze. "Fritz, is that?" asked Olga.

With a click, Fritz opened up the locket.

There was a picture of three figures. A man, A woman, and their daughter. The three of them smiled in the picture as the woman sat on a chair while the man was holding her hand. The child naturally looked playful on the ground.

"The choice that I made just now, was a price I must pay for being weak," said Fritz while closing his eyes before continuing, "I lamented the gods over and over but they don't listen, or maybe there was none, to begin with."

Whatever Olga was thinking, it only stuck there after Fritz said his peace.

(Why did I become a guard in the first place) thought Olga. Unlike Fritz, Olga was unmarried and he didn't have any special relationship going on either.

(When I was a kid, I always saw them as cool, 'I want to become one', 'I want to become one!') Olga thoughts wonder as he stared at his past-self.

--------------------

On a sunny day, A little kid suddenly approached a gatekeeper, "Hey, mister what guards actually do?"

The gatekeeper looked at the little kid, before kneeling down to face him. Under the heat of the sun, a normal man would be furious by just about anything and it made the little boy nervous.

However, to his surprise, the gatekeeper smiled and said, "Guards means to protect! So if their hirer is in danger it's the guard duty to save their life!"

The little boy looked at him with stars of admiration, "That is so cool mister!"

"Haha, you think so?"

"En," the boy nodded, "When I grow up I will become one!"

--------------------

Before he knew it, Olga's eyes produced a streaming warmth liquid that fell across his cheeks.

*clank.

*clank.

He slammed his thigh as his armor produced its unique sound. "Sorry, I-I'm so sorry mister!" muttered him. "I-I-. Somebody will die because I am too weak! I'm afraid to die! Because I'm a coward!"

Even though Fritz heard Olga's voice, he chose to be silent. Fritz was much more mature than him but in this case, both of them were one and the same.

*swoosh.

The wind gust suddenly hit them as they covered their eyes instinctively. As they didn't feel the wind anymore, they took a glance at what's in front of him. A group of four people with the same black

coat and masks stood before them.

(It's them!) thought both of them. Olga quickly wiped his tears and stood up, along with Fritz.

Though the four of them didn't exude any killing intent, Olga and Fritz could feel their knees weaken.

As Olga was about to say something, one of the four of them put its index finger on its own mouth, signaling him to keep quiet.

The same person extended his arm and open his hand to retrieve something.

Fritz was the quick-witted one and gave him the item he just used to summon them, along with a piece of paper describing their targets and a spatial ring.

After they checked the content in the spatial ring, they nodded at the same time before rushing toward the carriage without a second thought.