Retaliation

Ivy's POV:

After realising my destiny, I resolved myself to work as much hard as it takes to achieve it.

But as I was missing in my thoughts, a tall man with some of his goons entered the room. He began ordering some one named Grim to change location to warehouse in the south and then told Lore to take me out of cave with two other boys on the next ones. I remember that we three are the only one who have awakened mana.

'They are separating us because of my warning, so even if I get saved by grandma, these guys will get sold.'

Realising that took all the mana I had and put it in the seal and activated it, then I put the seal that linked to grandma in the pockets of one of the kid who was not being called out.

'I will believe in Kakashi, he must be coming back I hate to put him in danger but it is the only thing I can do in this situation to save these two kids and my life. But I still can't activate the seal. I must do something about it.'

One of the man comes and pulls me out, as I was bound in way that rendered me incapable of anything, he removed my leg restrictions.

I was very happy at that, as I felt some control of mana come back to me.

I was taken to the man who seemed the leader, he grabbed my lower jaw and squeezed it tightly.

"Look there bitch, because of you, you three are going to forest with us and if some beast attack, the other two are going to be there food while we escape. "

I was horrified, wasn't he going to keep us safe untill he sold us. Was he trying to scare me like Kakashi does?

"No you will never let them get harmed, they will become useless for sale."

One of the men in side said.

"Heh, but we have got you, you are more than enough to cover the loss and obviously there is no use saving them if we get killed in process. He he we will show you how it feels to watch one of you friends get eaten in front of you, and you won't be able to do anything."

When I heard that, I stilled, like what they said was incomprehensible to me. Tears began to gather in my eyes as I began to question whether what I did was right or not.

"Ahh looks like she is not looking forward to spend time with, yes. But unfortunately that isn't for you to decide." The man continued.

"I won't let you do that to them."

"Then you have to do just what we say, without question, okay. Even if you hesitate one of your friends will die."

"O..okay but nothing should happen to them."

Leaden then intervened.

"We have wasted enough time, let's move out."

Then leader ordered two of his men to carry the two children, Kana and Inori. 5 more men along with the man who was threatening me named Lore followed leader and I as leader took us towards the forests.

Beneath the wall separating the village and forest was an tunnel through which we passed the wall and began heading towards the forests in South. Maybe because there are less beasts there.

On the way there, I was channeling mana towards the seal in my hand but the seal was not working. Suddenly I heard the seal vibrate and click. As I still had the restriction on and I had poured all of my accumulated mana in seal left with the rest of the kids, this seal was flickering but still working.

'Looks like Kakashi got the message, grandma must have also gotten it, now i just have to secure these two children.'

"What are you smug about kid, if you think your seal to inform knight is working, then you are delusional, no activity has been seen in their offices." Lore asked again.

I replied confidently.

"Do you know that one of the magic knights also know about my secret. He must have told his captain or wizard king about it, kingdom won't let rune magic attribute get sold, and I can easily offer them my services in exchange to save everyone. You are a fool to try to capture me, you will only get yourself killed."

'Atleast that's what Kakashi said about kingdom's attitude, he also said that I might lose my freedom there.'

"RUNE MAGIC." All of them except the leader exclaimed, suprised.

"Hey Vinz, what's this all about? Why don't I know anything about that?"

'Dont they know already? Did he keep it a secret?'

A frown appeared on the leader's brows as he glared me and replied.

"Yes, this girl has rune magic, it was confirmed in the morning, she is also the reason we attacked the orphanage. I didn't tell you to avoid information leakage."

Hearing again that everything was happening because of me depressed me, but I didn't let it take me down for long.

"What, you don't trust me with something this trival."

"This is not trival and no, I don't trust you."

'wow, cold. They didn't tell that to everyone.'

"And girl, you are right, maybe the kingdom will come for us but it won't matter because because you will be sold to a high noble family atleast and they have enough influence to keep you to themselves. So if you are looking for a way out through this, perish the thought. You will be seeing hell from now on."

"Hey Vinz, don't ignore it, what, you were thinking of disposing us when the deal is done, so that you get to have all the money."

Leader stayed silent, maybe I cracked a rift in them.

We reached the camp, as the men began working on setting a camp, but I could tell the things were getting dangerous here.

....

Margaret Thatcher POV:

Sometime before separation of children:

'It had been quite a while since sister went out with the children, did something happen? Should I check it out?'

With that thought I went to park to see no one there, looking but more carefully I could see mana in the air, my heart shook.

'No one is here, did they capture everyone. Ivy had not informed me with seal too are they keeping everyone in mana sealing shackles.It means seal with Kakashi should be blocked too, this is very bad then. Should I inform knight? No I should go to Sonia, she could help me get to mayor, then knights should take it more seriously. '

As I was contemplating my next course of action, the seal in my pocket began ringing.

I hurriedly went back to orphanage, asked rest of the children to take care of orphans and open the gate to no one. I took my daggers from Ivy's room, changed into something better for fight and moved to location. It was constantly changing direction.

'Is it malfunctioning or they are changing location, no matter this is the only lead I have, I will follow it. Kakashi and Sonia should have gotten the message too.'

Meanwhile with Sonia:

A women clad in lightning blue armour could be seen zapping through the streets towards the mayor's mansion. When she reached it, she immediately informed the guards to call Sona.

(Well she can't just call Mayor of the city like that.)

Guards invited her in because she was rather frequent to the mansion, Sona too hurriedly came to meet her and asked her what happened.

"Something happened to Ivy and she is currently kept in somewhere in South of the town, near merchant district or their lounge. Kakashi had followed her, I came here to ask for your help."

A trace of worry and concern could be seen on her rather stoic face.

"I will help, but will you tell me, how you got that information, I can't just check every house. It would create too much panic."

"Well Kakashi and Ivy created a seal that when activated, would alert the other one and tell the general direction, Kakashi should be there, there is no need to take much knight force, just take few who you absolutely trust."

"Okay."

Some time later, a group of 4 guards came from the office, their attire showed that they helped high rank in the knight order. Additionally the route leading out of the town was sealed and every abandoned building was being checked.

6 of them left for the merchant district which was not quite far away from mansion.

Meanwhile Margaret, who saw the search going on, immediately concluded that this was because of Sonia. But she was confused that Kakashi wasn't with them as he had the seal.

Sonia and Sona, who saw Margaret immediately came over to her and Sonia asked.

"Mother, are you also here because of Ivy?"

"Yes, but not only her, 6 more children along with the nun have also been kidnapped. Where is Kakashi and why are you running around like headless chickens." She replied with an rageful expression and asked.

Sonia replied a bit embarrassed.

"He had gone ahead, he said that he will give some kind of signal, but nothing peculiar happened, so we are just searching most likely places."

"Enough, follow me, I too have one part of the seal, Ivy made it for me this afternoon."

"Oh,that great, lead us." Sona replied.

Following the seal, all 7 of them arrived at a place where three warehouses were located, incased in fence with a metal gate. Hiding some distance away from it, they discussed what to do next.

Sona - "Whose warehouses is it?"

Guard - "It is Sir Kamei's warehouses, ma'am. Should I summon him here."

Margaret - "No, nothing will come out of it. He would just deny any accusations."

Sonia - "That aside, Kakashi is not here, are you sure seal is showing this warehouse."

Margaret- "Yes, well we will get the answers when we go inside."

Sona- "Very well then, knights, bring reinforcement and surround this place, capture anyone who runs out."

Guard - "As you wish."

One of the guard went away and rest surrounded the warehouse. Margaret and Sonia went towards the warehouse. Some people who were wandering outside in disguise noticed them and knights and stiffened up, few went in to inform inside, rest started surrounding the three ladies.

The three ladies undeterred went upto the gate, when atlast someone spoke.

"What are you ladies doing here, this place is a private property, you can't just enter without permission of its owner." A man, who emerged from the middle warehouse asked. He had brown hair and brown eyes and wore

Sona -"We are here to inspect the place, we have received information that various kids were kidnapped here for being sold."

Man- "It's a honour to meet Mayor's daughter, though you are really being unreasonable here, placing such accusations and asking to search the place without a warrant."

Sona- "Lives of children are at risk, there is really no time to waste, if you are really innocent, surely you can show us what's inside. Don't worry, we will pay you compensation for all your troubles if you really are innocent."

Man had a annoyed expression, after contemplating, he said while flaring his mana and open his grimore.

"You are really making things hard for me ma'am, I am sorry if I am a bit rude but I really can't let you inside."

At that moment warehouse behind them open and about 50 men step out, all with their grimores open, while reinforcement knight bought also arrive. There were about 20 knights there. 4 knights seeing that it would be all out battle also arrive.

Margaret - "We will see about that."

Man casts the first spell.

ASH MAGIC: WITHERING BLOOSOM

and battle begins.

.....

Kakashi POV:

After running for a while, I was perched of a tree some distance away from a huge clearing. Camp had about 6 tents placed, in a circle. In the middle 4 persons were sitting, circling a bonfire. My sensory skills are not that great, but from the smell I could tell that every tent was filled and one of them had three familiar smells.

'They are Ivy, Kana, Inori. Did they kidnap only those who have awakened their mana. Must be.

Now what to do, they could sense mana in mist, direct confrontation is a no go and if I sneak and knock the one in the tent unconscious but havingy presence erased doesn't mean that I am invisible.

I don't know if they have a sensory mage in them or not, so I can't move recklessly or I will alert the whole camp.

Let's first talk to ivy.'

I calmed myself down, noticing that I was becoming nervous. Then dissipated some mana then moved towards the tent.

Arriving by her tent, I slipped inside. Ivy's eye widdened but I hurriedly closed her mouth, rest two were unconscious.

All of them were tied to each other and the metal hooks they forced into ground.

When Ivy calmed down, I had her tell me what had happened till now. As she told me, I got a gist of what had happened. I praised her for the false warning she gave.

'If grandma had second seal, she must have found the other group and to help her mother is there with her maybe with Sona and knights.

Still leader didn't tell anyone about Ivy, it doesn't seem feasible, when ever there is a chance to become successful very easily, nervousness about it is also high. So he must have told some of his subordinates to make them understand the gravity of situation or to consult them. Is he that subordinate in this case or is he partnered with someone else. I will assume that someone is supporting him in this case.

And how did he get the information? Did that magic knight betray us afterall? Or was it someone else. Ugh so little information, but they did take Ivy's warning seriously, were they just paranoid?

I will just assume that leader is working with someone else.

And that mage who can made all of them unconscious, I have to be wary of him, unfortunately I don't know who he is or what magic he has.'

"Ivy can you tell me if the leader of this Lore is their in the bonfire?

"Lore is there but not leader, they are still angry with each other."

"Well Ivy stay here for now and stay silent, make preparations for seal, I will go and see if I can take the key to your hand restrictions and their locks, okay. No need to worry, we will escape this successfully. Don't came out till I say that, okay."

"Hmm"