The Virtue's Manor (1)

"So, what do we do?" Petra asked, with a smug smile on her face. She then sends an arrogant glance in Mabel's direction, who just raised a brow, amused.

"We will divide the Virtues. We will use our best weapons from the beginning. My proposal is that three virtues will stay here while four of us attack all three points simultaneously!" Jonah explained.

They all smiled, the sound of that plan was nice, and Jonah seemed to have everything figured out.

"Excellent, then it remains to decide which of us will go to which place!" Maximo said as he looked at Jonah with an agreement.

They all looked at each other, and when Maximo stood up, he said, "I'll take one of those points. Jonah, I'm sure you can have another. My assistants and I will be more than enough for ones like you and your team, I assume."

Jonah nodded. "So I will also provide support with a platoon of the army's ground forces. The third point, can I make the suggestion that Mabel and Junica take care of it?" He asked with a smirk.

Mabel stood up and, while looking at Jonah unhappily, "You are going to make me work! You are so annoying!"

Junica also stood up and tried to imitate Mabel's unhappiness. But her lips were twitching, so she ended up smiling. "It's a field trip? This will be fun!"

With that, the two looked at each other with a hint of mischief in their eyes that made Jonah smile helplessly.

"Well. The rest that will be here will be Petra, Sebastian, and Satin," Maximo said before he looked directly at Sebastian and said. "We have two Markeds outside the mansion. They need to be protected. I want to assign the boy Benjamin to you, Sebastian! "

Sebastian smiled and nodded as he said, "It's no problem, boss!"

"You will take care of Malcom, Petra. Satin will protect the mansion!" Sebastian, while looking at Petra and Satin.

Petra was glaring at Maximo when she said, "First, you send her on a royal mission, and then you ask me to protect her lackey. Are you really serious!?"

At that moment, the smiling Mabel added, "You must protect him well... that lackey makes a lot of money for me!"

"Bastard!" Petra shouted while looking at Mabel in contempt.

"Enough!! You will do as I said, Petra!" Maximo roared.

Petra gave a frustrated snort before sitting down. However, her expression was clearly reluctant to cooperate.

Maximo released a sigh before he looked at all of them and said, "We will prepare the assault on those places tonight. And tomorrow, we will each go out on our designated mission. Is it clear?"

All the virtues agreed, and with that, the meeting ended. All the virtues left the room with the exception of Petra, who was looking at Malcom's file.

"You don't have to protect that Marked. I'll do it for you," Satin suddenly said before he drank a drink from his liquor.

Petra snorted. "I will not disobey Maximo," she said seriously.

"It is not disobeying him, Honey! It's an adjustment… Besides, Mabel always does what she wants. Why should she have more privileges than you?" He asked with a taunting smile.

Those words echoed in Petra's mind, she gritted her teeth. "It's true. In addition, protecting various targets is better with my power," she said unhappily before asking curiously, "What do you gain from this?"

Satin chuckled and then said, "To get out of the house, sweetie. I can't stand being in one place all the time!"

Petra smiled. One could not guess if she believed what Satin had said or not. She got up and handed the file to Satin before leaving.

"I know I'll take care of protecting you, damn kid!" Satin muttered to himself, his eyes cold as he looked at the photo of the Marked and, with a smile.

And with those words, he left. The strategy was in place, and things were about to get moving.

Malcom walked calmly to the residence of the virtues. He had been summoned to that place by Jonah himself. Despite not being too much of a fan of the virtues, Jonah had shown to be working in order to rescue his friend.

That reason alone was enough to get Malcom to go to that place.

When he arrived, a huge gate appeared in front of him, and two guards saw him in a guardhouse.

When one of them saw him, he came out, his posture was upright, and his uniform was a variation of the army officer's uniforms but totally black and with the symbol that identified them as level one mage on the chest.

The man looked Malcom up and down, and with an irritated voice, asked, "What are you doing here?"

Malcom looked at him, and taking a deep breath, he said coldly, "Jonah called for me."

The man widened his eyes in surprise, and a mocking smile appeared on his face.

"Jonah? You mean the materializing Virtue Colonel Jonah. That Jonah?" He kept asking in mocking disbelief.

Malcom crossed his arms over his chest. He looked at the other expressionlessly as if he was bored.

"You seriously expect me to believe that Colonel Jonah requested to see you?" The man continued to ask.

Malcom was not feeling frustrated. He looked at the partner of this man in the cabin, and he smiled dryly before speaking, "Listen… Why don't you do your job and announce me? If I am lying, I will go. If not, I would enjoy looking at your surprised expression for being a judgmental fuck!"

The soldier opened his eyes, offended and looking at the young man, he said, "You have the guts to talk to me like that boy. I'm not surprised someone has already broken your arm. But they should have broken your jaw!"

"Why don't you try it?" Malcom asked as he brought his hand to his knife.

The soldier released a satisfied smile. The boy had given him the perfect excuse, but when he was about to act, someone suddenly spoke behind Malcom.

"What stupid things are you doing?"

When he looked up, he saw a woman in the same uniform as the guard but of a higher rank. Her short blonde hair revealed her face with sharp features and her powerful green eyes. The young woman walked with authority when the soldier in front of Malcom took a firm position.

"What exactly are you doing?" The girl asked again, passing by Malcom's side and staring at the soldier.

The soldier was taller than her, but her presence made him shrink considerably.

"This guy is saying stupid things, Major!" He replied respectfully but defensively.

The girl looked at Malcom with an expressionless face. Before she looked at the soldier again and asked coldly, "What stupid thing did he say?"

The soldier took a deep breath, and with some fear, he said, "He claims Colonel Jonah sent for him!"

"Of course he was called here! He is one of the Marked ones. Don't tell me you don't recognize him from the tournament…." She frowned before she glanced at Malcom and then asked, "What is your name, boy?"

Malcom, in exasperation, replied, "I am Malcom."