Manor POV " Argh." I groan after jumping down from the tree. I was lucky this tree was here or I would have broken something. I thought as I sat down in a secure part of the royal garden where the bushes and trees block the view to the rest of the palace gardens. V6 was already waiting for me, I bet he must have smelled me coming. " Wow, breaking an entry! That's a new low for you." V6 compliments me as I recover from the climb. " I wouldn't have to if you got me a palace pass!" " That crap is hard to get! They embroid your name into it when you join and when a palace pass goes missing the guards keep an eye out for it." " Don't tell me I have to climb that again! That's a really high wall!" " I'm actually quite shocked that no one saw you climbing it in broad daylight. " " There's a blind spot between the guard towers. Anyway, that doesn't matter, did you manage to warn V0 of the version slayer?" " Oh! Right! I managed to catch V4 when he was leaving the mansion
Manor POV I was heading back downstairs after a change of clothes and a bath, I then noticed Terry leaving his room. He looked better than before. " I see that you're finally up, didn't you said that you'll run back to the lab as soon as I left the room?" I teased. " For your information I did." In your dreams?" "..... Yes...." He sighs as he looks away and rubs his neck. " Wow.. Your slumberland is a creepy dark lab in the basement. Then your nightmare would be.... Let me guess. ... Sunshine rainbow hills?" " Oh! Haha! Very funny! " Terry says in a sarcastic way as he headed downstairs. I followed after him as laughter echoes throughout the foyer, Hikaru and Kaen walk in all sweaty welding short swords. " Hey! Runner! Where were you? You missed all the fun!" Flames chimed. " Runner? .... And I thought nicknames couldn't get worse than that." Terry gave me a weird look. " I was checking in on the princess, and guess what she gave me, Flames." I inform
Kaen POV " You're still awake?" I asked as I approached Terrius who wearing glasses and looking through my notes with a half-empty bottle of whiskey on the table. " Of course I am, why wouldn't I be? How did you get past the locks?" Terrius looks up at me in surprise before leaning over his seat trying to see what I had done to the door. " I used to be an assassin, no door can stop me unless it's a barricaded one. " I shrugged. " Coming down here at 1 am for an assassination sounds like your normal routine if you were an assassin. " He says in a casual way as he continues looking through the notes. " Well, that's if you count serving a late dinner as an assassination. " I chimed as I held up the tray of food in my hands for him to notice. Terrius chuckled a bit as I placed the tray on top of the notes in front of him. He stared at the food for a while before picking up a spoon. " Something tells me you're not just here for a late dinner. " Terrius says when h
Manor POV " Better than nothing. Come on Terry, show me what you got. " I stood up and waved, for Terry to follow me. " And duty calls." He follows after me with a sandwich and a cup of tea in hand. I walked up to his desk which was filled with Kaen's notes and test tubes containing small amounts of mine and Kaen's blood. " So what am I separating?" " Look through the microscope, see the white little dots mixed with other colour dots in Kaen's blood?" He says as he points toward the microscope on the other table further away from his desk. " You want me to collect all the tiny white dots in the blood into a test tube?" " Yup." He nodded as he took a bite out of his sandwich. " Great! I'm so screwed!" " You might want to tell me what's your plan to do before doing it, it'll save you time and my equipment." Terry says as he sits down on his armchair behind his desk. I sat down in front of him. " Um... Boiling it?" " That would just get rid of the liquid,
Kaen POV I stood waiting for Runner in the gardens with two daggers and a short sword. As long as I remember what V4 taught me, I should be ok. Runner appears with three katana on his belt and zero armor as well. " Ready for payback?" He asks as he draws two of his sword. " Ready as I'll ever be." I drew my short sword, I only have 10 minutes until my arm starts straining from the weight. " Then here I come. " He changes at me, swinging his swords at my neck and my stomach, one from the left and the other from the right. I jumped onto his lower sword, balancing myself on his sword, then bending down to avoid the upper sword before backflipping off his sword and backing away to a safe distance. " Fast little thing, aren't you? But how long can you keep it up?" Runner circles around me as if he was studying my stance. He then does a spin attack that I narrowly dodged, and before I could even recover he launches himself at me as soon as his feet touch the ground. The
Terrius POV " You forgot sitting here and trying to separate white dots from colourful dots but you have already given me more credit than I deserve, so I'll let you off." Manor chimed, trying to hide his huge grin behind a smug look, but it just ended up as a huge goofy-looking smile. " How is any of that a compliment?" I sigh once more as I lay my head down on my desk. Suddenly Manor puts a beaker in front of me, it's a pure liquid. I immediately sat up straight to look at it more carefully. " Is this?!" " The white dots in Kaen's blood." " How the hell?!" I asked trying to recall what he was doing the past few hours. Wasn't he just spinning the beaker?! " In one of your previous tests with Kaen, you guys noticed that different colour dots have different densities and that the white one was the lightest compared to the other colour ones. So I just kept spinning it to separate them." " How did you know spinning would work?! " Hikaru summarised and phrased al
Terrius POV " It has finally come to this.... my impending doom." I said with a sigh as I put on my cufflinks while looking at myself in the mirror checking for any wrinkles on my black suit. " Oh! Come on! Cheer up! You act as if we're attending a funeral. " Manor says as he puts on the silver coat of my dad's suit. I can't believe it actually fits him, he's roughly the same size as my father. " What's the difference? " I asked in a depressed way. " Weren't you happy that we're coming along to keep the princess away from you just a week ago? What's changed?" Kaen asks as he enters the living room with Hikaru behind him. Kaen walked as if he was a dog wearing socks for the first time, he seems uncomfortable with Hikaru's dark blue suit even though it fits him well. I don't recall Hikaru ever wearing that suit and it's even stranger that he has a suit in Kaen's size since Kaen's frame is much bigger than me but smaller than Hikaru. " Me, remembering that you and Hik
Terrius POV " Must you always be like this for every event?" The palace guard says as he loosens my grip on the couch. Within seconds I find myself being carried out the door in Manor's arms. I pushed his face and struggle to get away but his grip under my knees and around my shoulders was too strong. " You're quite strong to be able to carry him like a girl. I'm lucky to have you! It normally takes me hell to drag him past the door." The Palace Guard compliments. " Manor! Please! I'm begging you don't do this! I don't know if I can hold myself back under her touch!" I begged. " Sorry, I made a promise to little Sana that I would try my best to get you to attend." Manor apologized. The Palace Guard opens the door to the Queen's carriage door and gestures Manor to board. Manor finally puts me down but he sits next to me with his arm around my shoulder keeping me from escaping out the second door. I struggle while Kaen and Hikaru sit in front of me then the carriage do