Chaos (5)

"Sweet dreams young master."

Vivienne said with a low and sweet voice.

Her face started to loosen up after seeing the quiet and peaceful sleeping face of Voltaire.

"I'm fine now. Keep watching the prince for me."

What can the servant's do if Vivienne said it herself that she's fine?

The servant assisting her immediately follow her words and went to Voltaire's side without hesitation.

"Hmmm... About 20 acolytes were still standing."

Vivienne nodded at her own words, her face was full of satisfaction.

After she went outside of the man-made barrier, Vivienne observe how the nobles are faring.

"Yes."

Meagus replied.

Of course, this is within expectation. After all, a puppet who only moves so simple would never be able to defeat the battle hardened nobles.

But then, a question started to rose on Vivienne's curious mind.

"What about you, Meagus? Why aren't you fighting with them?"

Her words escaped her lips before she even knew it.

Indeed, out of all the nobles, he's the only one who didn't go out there for some reason which is strange.

"Don't tell me... You are..."

Vivienne's face started to glare at Meagus intensely. Along with the glare, some of the knights who heard her words did the same.

The man in question, Meagus, understand where this is going. His face started to hardened, sweat were dripping down on his handsome face, and his eyes wouldn't stop moving around as if he was trying to avoid contact with Vivienne's.

"I hope I'm wrong. Am I? Huh, Meagus?"

It's not a question, but a confrontation.

Meagus understand that very fact, if he answer her question without much clarity, there's no doubt he won't see the sun tomorrow.

'What a monster Lady Vivienne is and she's past her prime too. I wonder how powerful she was back then. Putting that aside, it's clear to see that she's now looking at me as a prime suspect.'

Meagus pondered. After a short while thinking how he should answer as clear as possible, he finally opened his mouth.

"Lady Vivienne. I'm not an enemy."

Meagus steeled himself. Not breaking the stalemate between his eyes and Vivienne's.

The atmosphere between them turned heavy and defiant.

Vivienne observe his every movement.

'His eyes were telling me the truth but it's not enough to convince me. What if he's just that good at bluffing? I don't care if he save the prince earlier. If he's an enemy, he's done for.'

"Surely, you're strong enough to be of help to the other nobles. So, why are you doing nothing? If I remember it correctly, I only task myself and the knights to protect the children."

This time, he avoided Vivienne's eyes. His handsome face turn into a gloomy and desperate one similar to his face earlier.

'I don't think he's lying even now. His expression is rather genuine. Even if he's just pretending so I let my guard down. The knights already knew what to do even without my orders. I should listen to his answer first before I decide what to do.'

There's a short pause before Meagus voice out his answer.

"...Well, you see. I only became a noble two years ago. Since then, I'd try to build connections with powerful and well known people and organization and the temple is one of those organization.

"I'm very close to them that I even consider the relationship between us exceeded the label of business partners. My family always visit the temple at least once a week. Even my daughter had played with those acolytes.

"That's why, I can't bring myself to hurt those people even knowing that they're already dead... I just can't."

Meagus spoke in one go, his voice was hoarse and sounded painful. Tears even started to flow on his face.

'Indeed. I heard rumors about how close he is to the temple.'

"So, how did you manage to protect the prince earlier against the acolyte?"

Is what Vivienne actually said recalling the scene of Meagus attacking one of the acolyte.

It looks like Vivienne still has doubts.

"I don't know if you're going to believe me, but I only did that by instinct. Back then, I don't even know the one I saved is the prince until you called my name."

"...Is that so?"

A sarcastic comment came from Vivienne.

Not yet. Vivienne's trust to him isn't fully back yet.

It's obvious from everyone to see this. However, one of the knights stepped in.

"Lady Vivienne, I think Baron Meagus is innocent."

The knights interfered.

"Hoh? Why is that?"

The knights get closer to Vivienne before he replied in a whisper manner.

"I've seen two acolytes who's even more suspicious than the Baron."

Vivienne's eyes opened widely hearing the knight's words. If the knight was saying the truth, her suspicions to Meagus would lessen.

"Tell me. Where did you see those so-called suspicious acolytes?"

Her voice was cold again and her eyes were menacing.

'Scary.'

The knights and Meagus thought in unison.

On the other hand, the knight who gave her an idea of what might be the real culprit didn't answer in words, instead, he simply point at them with his eyes.

Vivienne followed the knights direction. The knight's took Vivienne to the sight of the dead body of the priest laying on the floor.

'That's the priest. What about him?'

Vivienne thought. No. Not only her, everyone who heard the knight thought the same.

However, Vivienne's face became distorted.

There's something suspicious after all. Two acolytes were standing still at least 7 meters away the dead body of the priests.

Unlike all the puppet-like acolytes, these two has natural features not different to a lively and normal human.

Their face can't be seen easily as they were hiding it under the shade of their hood. However, their stature wasn't.

One of them has a small and slender stature similar to a teenager. And the other one has a tall and well toned body to represent his appearance.

These two figures were simply standing as if they are watching everyone, but there's something eerie about the air around them.

No one notices them until now. Unlike the acolytes, these two seems to have done nothing at all since the havoc started.

Vivienne observe them intensely, marking their every movement. As someone who have tons of experience under her belt, this kind of scene is very familiar to her.

Her instincts started to raised her guard even more than the case with Meagus.

And then, the smaller one raises her head slightly showing a face of a girl under the shade of her hood.

Her eyes wandered around the temple with glee and delight until she made contact with Vivienne's.

Vivienne glared at her. Right now, she already coming to a conclusion that they're the culprits who caused this hellish sight that she's looking for.

The girl showed her tongue outside as if to mock Vivienne before tapping the tall man on her side.

In return, the tall man quickly put the girl on his shoulders and ran towards the back door of the temple.

'They're trying to escape! The knights and I can't leave this area so the only way to catch up to them is to tell the nobles.'

"Meagus!"

"Yes, ma'am!!!"

Meagus and the knights replied in unison coming to the same conclusion as Vivienne.

However, before Meagus could move to tell the nobles about the two escaping acolytes, the ceiling shattered and splintered with a thundering roar, scattering shrapnel everywhere.

The dust that had risen gradually subsided, and then there was silence.