Unexpected Turns

Right after Asher had arrived at the family house, a guard who stood waiting by the side walked up to him and greeted.

"Welcome back, young lord. His excellency, the proxy is waiting for you."

"Lead the way." Asher got off his horse.

A short while later, Asher was in front of a building Ol' Fang just exited.

"Oh, you made it." Ol' Fang said.

"It was an emergency so I had to." Asher sighed.

Since they had less than twenty four hours to make it, asher had his team riding horses throughout the day and night. When they had departed from the Purple Snake gang's base, it was a bit after noon. With the mixed breed White-bloods, they rode all day and night at top speed. Considering the momentum of the group, no one dared to stand in their way, whether it be merchants, travellers or even the stray bandits along the way, who were mostly the lowest ranked bandits that neither belonged to any group nor possessed magic power whatsoever.

"What's the status?" Asher asked.

"They will be here soon. Within the next hour or so." Ol' Fang replied.

"Go freshen up first. Don't tell me you plan to meet royal envoys looking like this?"

"Since when did you care about formalities, much less with those guys." Asher gave him a side eye.

Ol' Fang calmly replied, "Orders from your father."

"Ah, makes sense now." Asher smirked.

The Ol' Fang he knew was a stubborn man that didn't like paying attention to things like formalities and rules. He would rather do things how he wanted than take advice from anyone even if his method was a lot more stressful and difficult. Of course, this personality of his had made him come in loggerheads with some elders of the Arnhaunt family, but Ol' Fang didn't care. They could only complain to the one person who could bring the Smiling Blood demon under control, duke Darius. Only he could rein in this old rascal and make him abide by the rules.

Ol' Fang's lips twitched but he didn't say a word, instead opting to walk away before he lost it.

Asher went on to go freshen up and he similarly gave the same order to his men, most especially Isabella, Luther and Aaron.

. . .

An hour later, Asher was standing at the entrance of the main house of the family. He wore a formal attire but nothing too serious. A white long-sleeved shirt with a purple embroidered waistcoat on the outside. For the bottom, purple was still the theme but the trousers were simply plain in design.

Together with a black pair of shoes, a purple gold bracelet on his wrist and a golden pocket watch pinned to his waistcoat, Asher radiated the aura of a true-born noble heir.

The Arnhaunt estate was extremely huge and had multiple buildings, all offering various features and facilities. Since the visitors were from the royal family, it was only right to come outside and welcome them, however, the Arnhaunts still had to maintain their dignity and prestige as a great family hence why Asher stood outside the main family house and not the estate.

Another reason why he had chosen the main family building was because of the presence of the decadon; the ten-man unit created by Darius. At all times, there are always three decadon mages within the main family building: one protecting his mother's chamber, another protecting his father's room and the last one was charged with protecting the building itself but most especially watching over Asher within the building.

With three mages individually on par with seventh-stage Guardian mages present, Asher was confident that even if the royals wanted to pull something silly, they would fail.

"They are here." Ol' Fang walked up beside him.

Unlike before, he wore a formal attire; a white suit with blue linings and some jewellery as accessory. Compared to Asher, he looked more formal for the occasion.

"You changed?" Asher raised an eyebrow.

Ol' Fang ignored him and maintained his look towards the front. Asher wasn't offended but simply smirked and did the same.

"Such a crowd." Isabella, who stood behind Asher, couldn't help but comment.

Unlike the duo, while she did dress in an appropriate wear, Isabella didn't look so formal, but more casual. Since she was technically Asher's maid, there was no reason so her to do so and it would be lowly for the envoy to have an issue with it.

"Yeah. This line-up is consisting of the reinforcements as well as the envoy from the capital. It's only natural for them to be large in number." Ol' Fang explained.

The envoy alongside the reinforcements from the Golden Gate province consisted of a long trail of men. At least five carriages moved in with hundreds of horses and mages. If not for the fact that the Arnhaunt estate was extremely large, it would have been difficult to fit this much men in.

"Is it alright to let them come in with their full force?" Asher asked with a slight frown.

"Don't worry. They aren't stupid enough as to make a move here. Even if they are, they would all die before they can cause a fit." Ol' Fang's eyes gleamed with a tinge of savagery.

Asher sighed. His uncle misunderstood his question then. Asher wasn't worried about the royal envoys attacking them but was instead irritated that the soldiers moving in would 'dirty' the road.

Just when he was feeling pitiful for the workers who would have to clean up after them, an aura burst from one of the carriages. It didn't move with enough momentum to blast the roof of the carriage, but it did possess a fierce nature and seemed to be sending a message to someone.

'Hmm?'

Just as Asher was studying the energy, he felt a murderous sensation beside him. There was no need to guess who it belonged to as there was only one person beside him at the moment.

"Lucius. You dare appear before me?!"