RISE OF EROS

Marquis Zelfit was not slow at all. In just 15 minutes he had assembled a platoon of 100 guards and together with the Donald they left the palace towards Gistaly's mansion.

The march of so many guards caught everyone's attention. Within minutes they had surrounded Count Gistaly's mansion. The mansion guards were scared to see that the royal guard had surrounded them and soon one of them went to warn the earl.

When Count Gistaly was notified that Minister Zelfit had arrived with Donald and a platoon of guards freaked out. He knew that it was impossible for the royal guards to be mobilized just because of Donald's complaint, so it must be because he had been found out.

The problem was that he had no way to escape and he could only play dumb he came out to greet them with an expression of feigned surprise as he asked, "Marquis Zelfit, Marquis Valoid, to what do I owe this visit?"

Neither of the two visitors ate that performance and Marquis Zelfit said with all seriousness, "Count Gistaly your Majesty ordered to search your mansion and requires your presence, please cooperate".

Gistaly's expression changed, as those words were the greatest proof that he had been found out, but he still pretended, "May I know the reason?", to which Marquis Zelfit responded, "Cooperate or it will be worse".

It was not the words of the Marquis Zelfit that were important, but the aura of authority and power that he had released. He was not the defense minister of the empire thanks to connections, but because of his strength and merits in battle.

He was a very powerful warrior that was known by everyone inside and outside the empire, that's why Gistaly was scared. His back was drenched in cold sweat and when he found the courage to answer, Raven appeared from the shadows.

"Master, your honor Zelfit, Earl Gistaly ordered one of his trusted men to burn the evidence before leaving, but I managed to prevent it," Raven said as he bowed and handed over a leather-bound book that had one of its corners burned.

When Gistaly saw the book, his face turned pale because he recognized the book. That was his downfall and in desperation he hurled a ball of fire at the book as he tried to escape.

However, he was too naive, Raven blocked the sphere of fire and the annoyed Marquis Zelfit disappeared from everyone's sight and with a strong blow to Gistaly's neck knocked him down, leaving him unconscious.

"Arrest him," Marquis Zelfit said and walked over to Raven, took the book, and began to read it. With each page he read his expression grew uglier and uglier and in the end, he just closed the book in visible anger and solemnly said, "Marquis Valoid, good job."

Then he turned to look at Raven and said, "Young man, you were good at keeping the book from being burned." Donald and Raven only nodded at Marquis Zelfit's compliment.

They did not know what the book said. Raven had barely managed to prevent the book from being burned and immediately handed it over, so he didn't know what it said but that wasn't important to them, because what they wanted was justice and they had gotten it.

Although the sentence had not been handed down, just by seeing the expression of Marquis Zelfit when he read the book they knew that what Gistaly had done was not small. Quickly Count Gistaly was tied up with special force-suppressing ropes and taken to the castle.

After they returned and a guard entered the office where the king and the ministers were waiting and said, "Majesty, ministers, Marquis Zelfit and Marquis Valoide returned."

"Okay, tell them to take Gistaly to the throne room," the king ordered, but the guard quickly spoke again, "Majesty, Marquis Zelfit asked to bring the captured one to this place."

The king and the four ministers immediately wrinkled their eyebrows, understanding that this request was not simple, and the impatient king ordered, "Bring them." The guard got up and went to carry out the order.

A few minutes later, the Marquises Zelfit and Valoide arrived with Gistaly in tow, since he was still unconscious. The king was going to ask to be awakened, but Marquis Zelfit stepped forward and handed over the book that Raven had found.

The king understood and took the book. He started to read it and his reaction was no different from Marquis Zelfit's when he read it and quickly ordered, "Send guard to them too", but Marquis Zelfit said, "Don't worry your majesty, they've already been sent".

"Good", replied the king, satisfied with the efficiency of the marquis. Then he looked at Gistaly and with contained anger said, "Wake him up." When Gistaly woke up and saw where he was, his heart fell deeply into despair.

"Who did you sell this information to?" the king asked annoyed, but Gistaly didn't answer. Not because he didn't want to, but because he really didn't know, he only knew a few members of the organization, but he didn't know how big it was or what power it had, much less what country it belonged to.

Since he really did not know, he confessed that he did not know, but no one believed him, and seeing that Gistaly refused to speak, the king said angrily, "Take him to the dungeon and let the devil visit him."

The guards carried out his order, but Gistaly was crying and shouting to forgive him that he really didn't know anything, but his pleas were ignored. Everyone knew that the devil was the leader of the organization called Hell that operated under the king and its job was information gathering and assassination.

No one apart from the king knew the face of the "Devil", but everyone knew his abilities and torture was one of them, that's why Gistaly was crying and screaming for mercy because he knew that nothing good awaited him.

After the guards had taken Gistaly away the king turned to Donald and said, "Marquis Valoid your contribution this time is not small," but Donald humbly replied, "This is what I should do."

Then the talk continued, only this time Donald was present and the discussion was about the book they had found in Gistaly's mansion. Throughout the day the royal guard raided various mansions of large and small nobles, which drew a lot of attention.

No one knew what was happening, but it couldn't be a good thing, as about 10 noble mansions were raided and the nobles were arrested. This caused some panic in the city, especially among the nobles, especially when they were summoned to the palace.

In the Flower Mansion Eris and Julius were reporting what they knew to Candice and Teresa, who were also shocked to hear. They never imagined that the situation was serious enough to involve the king.

The red light district was not calm either, since martial law had been declared, so all establishments would have to close for three days. Andrew immediately called Oliver and asked, "What happened? Why are we in martial law?

"Young master, I already send Shadow to investigate tonight we should have news of what happened," Oliver replied seriously. From experience, he knew that something serious must have happened, as the capital's martial law order could only be ordered by the king.

The hours passed and night fell. In the Heavenly Palace office, Andrew, Carolina, Helena, Aki, Oliver, and Marie were gathered. "What did you find out?" Andrew asked anxiously.

Then Marie began to explain how the royal guard had arrested about 10 nobles from barons to counts, but the details were not known, the only thing they knew was that all started with the attempted kidnapping of Teresa and the capture of Count Gistaly.

Although Andrew wanted to know the details, he also knew that it was something he shouldn't get mixed up in, so he didn't investigate the matter further, just asked everyone to stay alert.

(I'm sorry this chapter was shorter, but I'm a little sick and it was hard for me to write 3 chapters, but as promised I did my best.)