Second World

"Exit point reveals yourself!"

The rectangular void reappeared again. Jack went through and came to the empty beige color space with Janus behind his desk at the center. Before Janus could say anything, Jack said to him, "bye!" And walked directly to the front door. Janus' mouth which was opening, shut again as he smiled and nodded at Jack.

"Are you in a hurry? He seems to want to chat with you," Peniel said once they were outside.

"I'm giving him the treatment his old self gave me," Jack spoke loudly at the door. "He can still hear me," he told Peniel.

Finished with his business with the league factions, Jack headed in the direction of the Noble district. He wanted to check on Duke Alfredo and Prince Alonzo before seeing if any kingdom faction quest was available. He would put neutral factions as the last on his list. He simply didn't have enough time to tackle everything.

When he arrived at the entrance to the noble district. The guards guarding the entrance gave him a stare. Jack was feeling confused by the stares, before one of the guards said, "are you going to use your mount again?"

Jack understood after the question. He smiled wryly. "No, sir. I will just walk today," he said.

He was not in a rush this time. He just walked leisurely as he enjoyed the beautiful landscape within the noble district. It was rather some time already since he could relax in this way.

When he arrived outside Duke Alfredo's estate, he was surprised to find a translucent dome was covering the entire estate.

"What is that?" Jack asked. Peniel flew over to take a closer look at the dome. Jack noticed some glowing runic symbols on the stone fence.

"Is it a rune diagram?" Jack asked when Peniel flew back. It was similar to the previous time when he first came here. But at that time, there was no translucent dome.

"Yes, a more powerful one from the last time. It completely blocks anything going in and out," Peniel explained.

Jack touched at the semi-transparent surface of the dome, he felt like he was touching a solid wall. He guessed this was similar to their headquarters when it was in a protected status, but why erect such protection? Jack decided to head over to Commander Quintus' residence. The commander should know something.

At Commander Quintus' mansion, Jack was worried the commander was not home as he knocked on the door. The door opened and Jack saw Lindsey behind the door.

"Mister Storm!" She called with a bright smile.

"Hi, Lindsey. Is your old man home?" Jack asked.

"Yes, please come in," she said. On the way, she bombarded Jack with many questions about where he had gone all this time. Jack could only answer a few questions before they arrived at the Training Ground. Commander Quintus was seen inside as he practiced with his oversized sword.

The Commander noticed Jack. He stopped and said, "Training Ground is off-limit today!"

Jack smiled wryly. 'Sigh, I truly need to rebuild my reputation with these natives,' he thought.

"I'm not asking to use the Training Ground," Jack said. "I want to ask if you know anything about Duke Alfredo? His estate is covered by a protective dome. Did something happen after the expedition?"

"You only come to ask after this long?" Commander Quintus replied.

'Uh, it's not like I have much free time, mister,' Jack complained in his mind.

Commander Quintus came out of the Training Ground and asked Jack to follow him. He brought Jack to his home office and gestured for Jack to sit on the couch. He asked the maid to make some tea for them. When he sat down on his office chair, he noticed Lindsey was there.

"Why are you here?" Commander Quintus asked.

"I want to listen," Lindsey replied.

"You are not yet graduated from cadet. Leave, this is an official matter."

Lindsey pouted, but she didn't disobey her father.

Jack kept his mouth shut. This was father and daughter stuff, he had no right to interfere. However, he was curious about the Commander mentioning this was an official matter.

After Lindsey was out, Jack asked the commander, "Did something happen to the duke or the duchess? Is the cure not working?"

"The cure is working, albeit not as immediate as we all hope for. The curse the Duchess suffers is more powerful than we expected. The cure needs time to slowly erase the curse. During this time, she needs to be protected from harm. That's why the duke had opted to erect the powerful protective dome to cut out all contact with the outside. Laurent is with them inside, he is helping by using his art to speed up the healing process."

"How long will the process take?"

"No one knows. Laurent estimated it might take several months, but even he was not sure of it."

"Well, at least everything is still okay," Jack said.

"Not quite," Commander Quintus said.

"Oh? But aren't they safe inside that protective dome? It's just a matter of time until the duchess recovers, right?"

"I'm not talking about them," Commander Quintus said. "It's Prince Alonzo. There has been another assassination attempt."

"Another? Was it when the expedition was returning to the capital?"

"No, that return was fine."

'Oh, great. Otherwise, I will feel really bad for having left the expedition early,' Jack thought inwardly. Another point to note was that the Commander said attempted assassination. In other words, it failed.

"The incident occurred around one week ago. The guards managed to repel the assassins. However, the prince was poisoned."

"Poison? Just give him an Antidote then," Jack uttered.

"Don't treat us as the same as you outworlders. Not every poison can be treated with a simple antidote. This poison didn't put the prince's life in danger, but it still render him weak. Royal Healers said he will need a few more weeks of bed rest before he can attend to any activity. The assassin must have taken the chance when the Duke isolated himself. Most of the Prince's security details had been arranged by the Duke. After what happened, I have taken the liberty to take over."

"Do we know who sent the assassin? Is it the crown prince again?"

"That… I will bring you to see the prince. We can talk more over there. The prince has informed me to bring you to him once you show yourself. You are a very hard man to find."

"I did a lot of travels," Jack said.

Outside the mansion, Commander Quintus summoned his steed. He didn't ask Jack to ride at his back, because he knew Jack had gotten his own steed during the expedition. Jack felt awkward, he had told the district guards that he would not summon his mount. Now he would do exactly that.

He took out his red whistle and blew. Commander Quintus and his mansion guards were alarmed when a pillar of fire erupted. The flame soon dispersed as the majestic figure of Pandora was revealed.

"A… a Nightmare…?" Commander Quintus stammered.

Jack rode onto Pandora. As long as Pandora only did a light gait, he should not get fined again.

Commander Quintus was still staring at Pandora. Jack asked him, "shall we?"

He snapped back and said, "Ye.. yes… lead the way… Ehm! I mean, follow me!"

Commander Quintus' rank allowed him to have his horse gallop at a fast pace. Jack, on the other hand, asked Pandora to only trot. Even with that pace, Pandora easily followed the Commander's steed.

They were heading towards the largest structure within the capital, the imperial palace.

'Finally!' Jack said in his mind. He had been wondering when he would be able to enter that palace.

The grand castle was getting bigger as they approached. The castle was protected by an outer wall and an inner wall. Each of the walls had a colossal gate. The iron portcullis was hanging on top of the gate, ready to be brought down in the case of invasion. Jack wondered about the wall gate they were constructing at Heavenly Citadel, would it end up a portcullis as well?

There was a platoon of soldiers guarding each of the gates. Each of the soldiers was level 50 elites, led by a level 55 special elite Sergeant. Even Commander Quintus underwent heavy checks. For Jack's part, he had to present his Themisphere Nobility Faction Badge and was subjected to a scanning spell by one of the mage soldiers. That must have been a spell to dispel illusion or something like that, in case someone was impersonating another person who had access into the castle.

After passing through the inner wall, they came upon a large courtyard. Jack saw two battalions of elite soldiers performing drills in the courtyard. The castle's main entrance was two extremely large doors. It was closed at the moment, with two knights in heavy armor flanking the doors.. Both of them were level 60 rare elites.