Chapter 73

I moved to sit next to Athy so the other three could sit in facing us. Sebastiene stood behind me with a smile.

"Speak, tell us what you know about this Black circle." Athy's gaze swept across the three.

They lifted their head, staring at the little girl in front of them who had a calm but domineering aura.

"The Black circle is a group of assassins under Karciel." Miss Bloom replied with her head down.She was playing with the teacup in her hand.

"The circle is made up of around twenty people, all well versed in assassination. Most of those people are slaves he brought or people he blackmailed into agreeing to join, like Poison Ivy." She glanced at Elaheh. "Sorry, I mean Elaheh."

"They would be the ones sent to kill people who would run away or those owed him money. Sometimes, he would also accept assassination missions from other nobles or people as long as he gets money. They are his biggest source of income." She explained.

"So he must not really trust them, right?" I frowned. "With how he is using blackmails and stuff, he wouldn't really trust them with his life."

"That is correct, my lady. Thought they only serve and listen to him, they also want him dead." She sneered.

"Those twenty people, how strong are they?" I asked.

"I have only met them in passing at the headquarters, I have never actually seen them fight." She shook her head.

"In terms of strength, I would be considered fifth, before Milia almost crippled me." Elaheh chimed in.

"Milia?" Athy's cute little face suddenly darkened.

"Facies Milia, the number one assassin within the circle." Elaheh explained.

"What kind of ability does she have?" I asked, resting my face on my hand.

"That-" Elaheh was speechless. "I honestly have no idea, my lady. I have also never seen her face, nobody had. She would always be wearing a mask and a hood whenever we see her. All I know is that Karciel had some kind of information on her that he uses to blackmail her to do his bidding."

'A hidden ace.' I thought

"If I may ask, how many men does this Karciel currently have?" Sebastiene interrupted.

"Roughly five hundred, if we include the those that he bought and blackmailed." Miss Bloom answered after a short deliberation.

"HmMm.. It's not really that much." Sebastiene smiled, his handsome face containing an expectant look.

"They should be a good practice for our knights, don't you think so Seb?" I smiled mischievously at him.

"It would become their first mission under you, my lady." Sebastiene smiled knowingly.

"Do you know where this headquarter is?" I asked the three again.

"It is located at the edge of the city, close to the Red Road. I can draw you a map, my lady." Elaheh offered.

"That would be very much appreciated miss Elaheh." I smiled at her appreciatively as Sebastiene passed her a paper and a quill. No idea where he got it from.

Elaheh started drawing and we continued our discussion.

"How strong is Karciel to be able to move around Westreon city like this?" Athy frowned.

"He isn't that strong before, he only gained much because the Castellans never cared before." Realizing what she said, Aspez clamped his mouth shut.

Our faces went dark at what he carelessly said. It was true though, the Castellans did almost abandon their people until we came.

"Sorry. I-I did not mean-" Aspez tried to ease the tension.

I sighed.

"It's fine." I waved at him. "It is true that we were too caught up with the happening inside the family that we did not notice the reports from our past butler was all sham."

I immediately pushed all the blame to the butler.

"So, those kinds of things happened in our territory." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "How does he keep so many men?"

"Its partly my fault, my lady." Miss Bloom bowed her head in shame. "My ability is information reading. I can read any information and will not be able to forget them. I can also use the information to presume other things about the certain person or topic. That is the reason why he kept me beside him for so long, to manage the business for him."

"So she is like a computer?" Athy asked me.

"More or less." I nodded.

The others looked at us with puzzled expressions but we simply ignored them.

"What kind of business does he run?" I asked making Aspez snicker.

"I might call it business but those are underground businesses. Assassination, prostitution, slave auction and other illegal activities. He mostly run the black market within Westreon, my lady." She enumerated.

With every business that came out of her mouth, our faces grew a shade darker.

So a mere ant dared to enter our territory a terrorize our people. They even had the audacity to sell slaves even though House Castellan and the entire Eleveire Kingdom banned slavery since the time it was founded.

I couldn't help the vicious smile to escape from my lips.

"He is one smart rat, isn't he Seb?" I looked up to Sebastiene who was gleaming with and eerie smile of his own.

"It indeed is, my lady."

Ase continued discussing with them, our thirst for the blood of the bastard getting bigger. Everytime we learned something new, it was never good. I really want to run there myself and just take his head.

After a few more minutes of working on the map, Elaheh gave us the piece of paper with the the drawing of not only the way to their headquarters but all other things to take into consideration inside. Hidden passageways, look out posts and even the rooms and ways inside the headquarters.

"This is precise." Athy commented. "Good job Elaheh."

"Thank you, my lady." Replied the blushing Elaheh.

I gave Sebastiene the map to keep.

"My lady, I have a request." Miss Bloom looked at me.

"What is it?"

"I would like to be there when you attack them. I want to be there when you defeat Karciel. I want to be there when everything he has is taken away from him. Please." She begged.

"No need to beg." I smiled at her. "You are allowed to."

"Thank you, my lady." She smiled, tears were brimming her eyes.

Sebastiene leaned closer to me and whispered that our family were on their way here. I nodded and looked back to the three.

"You can go back downstairs and wait for when I call for you." I instructed Miss Bloom. "Stay inside and do not let anyone know that you are here."

"Yes, my lady." She stood up and bowed to us before going down stairs.

We cleaned up everything, had the knights come back up and went back to acting like nothing happened.

The sun was setting, painting the sky a lazy orange and pink. Athy looked outside the window with the teacup in her hand.