7 Thorned Circle

Somewhere in the Aidass Manor, in an underground, gloomy room, a gray-haired man sat behind a simple and crude table, his face was so cold it will send chills down the bravest men's spine.

"Any news from Alfred?" inquired the gray-haired man monotonously.

"Yes! sir Eadlyn!" replayed a young man in his late twenties emotionlessly, clothed in black like Alfred, with a Thorned Circle symbol on his chest.

"Was he confirmed as a spy?" Eadlyn questioned further, still no fluctuations in his tone.

This time, the young man in black simply gave out a small affirmative nod.

"Leave him to Alfred, he knows how to deal with spies, you are dismissed" with this order Eadlyn dismissed the young man in black, who turned and left immediately after a short bow.

the room then was shrouded in silence, Eadlyn looking through some documents and reports is the only indication the room is not empty.

...

Back to Marik!

"Hey! from the look on the two big guys, things are not looking good for this young man!" Bob gave his opinion in whispers, leaning toward Acton and Marik.

Spoke one servant from behind: "what do you think of his end if caught?" obviously, he heard Bob's words.

Bob gave it some thought and answered: "the way I see it, they will torture some information out of him then...." and he ends it by slitting his throat with his right hand gently, a gesture all who are presents understand.

Acton the honest young man, exclaimed fearfully "they would go that far! he's just a young man, he could've been forced to do this!".

to his reaction of what could be the sort of this Kal, different expressions and emotions flashed across the servants' faces, some who sympathized with Kal like Acton, few showed indifference, some even smirked gloating over the rank-2 who stupidly ruined his life, at least that was their way of thinking, a commoner's way of thinking, tainted with a bit of envy they don't see or simply don't care about the machinations of the nobles; nothing new, the world has plenty of this kind of people.

Taking in all the servants' expressions, Marik gave his two cents "young or old, that doesn't matter, a spy is a spy no matter what his age, the damage he'll cause is real, forced or not!"

Marik saw the constipated look on Acton he laughed and added"but!" in a teasing tone.

Most of the of servants looked his way waiting for what could be an alternative outcome for the young man Kal, even though, half of them don't believe that the young man could ever survive this act of treason, still, they don't want to disrespect the only rank-2 with a bright future among them, that would be stupid since they are not sure about Marik's personality, petty or high-minded only time will tell!.

"I think he still has a chance of survival!" said Marik plainly, his eyes still locked on the hopeless young man, that kept jittering showing signs of inner struggles.

"Why?"

"Well, first is Mr. Alfred's reaction to this young man's strength, it shows that this Kal has some talent, and why would you kill a talent like him when you could control him, a spy in the palm of your hand is better than a dead spy!" elaborated Marik his point of view.

"But! what if he feigns loyalty? just to escape death!" asked another servant.

"Still better than a dead spy, just use him to feed his real master the information you want, furthermore, who would completely accept a rat's loyalty?!" answered Marik with a playful smile on his face.

What Marik and the other servants don't know is, with Alfred's strength he could hear every whisper they breathed out, and he sure did, after all, that what a thorned circle agent should do.

Sniffing spies is just a part of the Thorned Circle mission, so passing the initial background check doesn't mean you escaped their radar.

As long as they are living in this Manor, there will always be someone from the shadows watching their every move.

As for Alfred, he wouldn't deny that he's content with Marik's train of thought.

"You don't look stupid enough to resist arrest, right! we made it obvious that we are giving you a chance to choose, so what would it be? immediate death or nicely follow us in order to treat you with the same" suddenly advised Alfred calmly, breaking Kal away from his thoughts.

Then, Kal knew his fate had been decided, not much time left to change it.

looking around him, Kal saw all the pairs of eyes fixed on him, pale contorted face, cowered back sodden with sweat, for some reason he felt humiliation, ok, he may be not deemed a genius but he's still a talent, 6th step Aura practitioner at this young age, half the noble families of the kingdom don't have scions as talented as him, compared to this fox Alfred I have three times his chance of ascending to the most desired Aura Knight realm! why should I lose my life for that good for nothing prince!.

That what he thought, yet he's still terrified of this prince that he thinks so low of.

But the next moment, all his messy thoughts were cleared away by Alfred's next sentence.

"Oh! yeah, we already know who send you, this should make things easier for you!" chimed in Alfred, leisure, written all over his face.

"Y..you k...know!!" stuttered Kal in shock.

"Hmph, the factions opposing us that could send a 6th step practitioner your age could be enumerated on one finger!" snorted Alfred coldly.

"But still! having the ability to do such a thing and doing it is two different matters, what reason would make him send you?" further elaborated Alfred with a serious face.

From the side, Marik realized this Kal is not your average spy with the usual task of collecting information, so his talent is only half of the reason he's still alive, the motive behind this bold move is the main reason he's still breathing.

Reaching this point, Kal hesitated no more "I'll cooperate as much as I can"

Kal chose life!

"Ok. you can take him now!" ordered Alfred and immediately turned and left just like that.

Kal smiled bitterly and looked towards the two huge men in white training outfits, waiting to be taken by them, yet strangely, they didn't advance his way, when he wanted to ask about the situation, he heard footsteps from his left and right sides, moving his attention to his right and left sides, out of nowhere two men in black with a thorned circle symbol on their chest are already closing on him from both sides; I truly had no chance of escaping huh! sigh!.

Kal sighed remorsefully but didn't struggle and let them lead him where ever they want!.

Minutes later, Marik and the other servants are the only ones who were left on the gray stoned path in front of the new servants quarters, shock, and confusion still clouding their faces.

"Hey! what about us?" asked one servant to break the silence that lasted for minutes by now.

Naturally, the two servants who came with Mr. Alfred are at the receiving end of this question.

"Wait" answered the servant with the list nonchalantly.

"For what?"

"And for how long?"

clamored the servants.

"Shut up! here is not a market!" hollered the servant responsible for distributing the wooden tokens.

"We are waiting for the manager, so you better shut up and stay still!" he added in a stern manner.

with this, the place regained its peace.