PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

The door behind her opened without warning, but Cecilia’s expression didn’t change. She knew who had entered the room, or rather, she could see who it was even with her back turned.

That was an ability that she had developed after acquiring her new powers. It consisted of linking her senses with the mana of light and using it to recreate the light patterns of a specific place within her vision. In essence, she could extend her sight within the range of her mana.

That ability was perhaps one of the only reasons she was still alive. Having extended her mana to cover almost the entirety of the tower where she resided, Cecilia had been able to avoid several assassination attempts.

And it was thanks to that ability Cecilia didn’t need to turn around to greet Nana, her servant and her only friend, the only person she knew that she could trust.

“What do you think of him?” Cecilia was the first to speak, extending a question to her servant.

Nana bowed politely and replied with a mischievous tone, “He’s one of the most handsome men I’ve ever seen. Yet I guess that’s not what you’re asking. He usually has a warm and gentle air around him, but I believe that’s nothing more than a facade. His smile seemed practiced, and even the way he lustfully looked at me seemed like nothing more than an act.”

Unlike Cecilia, who relied on her supernatural ability to get a preliminary reading about a person, Nana was extremely good at reading people. Her opinion was something Cecilia valued highly.

Probably even Desmond didn’t know that all of his behavior had been scanned, there were several factors involved, but the shortest version of it would be that Desmond was losing his ability to hide who he was.

.....

This could be considered a side effect of his training to increase his affinity and control over various mana types. Desmond had to enter a particular state of mind to further his training, a state of mind that was both true to an element’s nature and true to his own nature.

Desmond hadn’t noticed until now, but his behavior and attitude towards certain things were becoming more sincere and pure, not necessarily better, but more true to himself.

This could be considered an adverse effect, especially for someone so used to using lies as a tool. But it was also a good thing for someone who wanted to go far down the mana path.

Not to mention that this increased the spiritual affinity between Desmond and Kyuru, something that both would not discover until later.

Whatever the case, both Nana and Cecilia already had a wrong impression of Desmond due to finding him unreliable. Still, to Nana’s surprise, Cecilia defended him in the end with a single comment.

“You are right. That man is unreliable, a hopeless liar, but there were a few true things among his lies, and that is enough for me.”

Nana did not dare contradict Cecilia’s words, so she only nodded. She was preparing to leave the room when she saw that Cecilia’s face had worsened significantly.

Following Cecilia’s gaze out of the window, Nana watched as a shadow slipped out of the tower, a sad expression filled her face, and her eyes became somewhat lonely as she asked in a low voice: “It’s Eria, isn’t it?”?”

Cecilia kept silent for a moment, reaching out of the tower to see more clearly to have her suspicions confirmed. A hint of anger flashed across her eyes, represented by the golden flame within her pupils, but the fury was short-lived. She was soon giving way to sadness.

“It seems she didn’t take my warning seriously,” Cecilia commented with a pained expression.

“What will your holiness do now?”

“Wait, I still don’t know who she works for, so we’ll wait for those people to make a move. We should be fine; that man also noticed Eria.” Cecilia replied with a wry smile.

Knowing that there was no point in standing by the window waiting for something, Cecilia asked Nana to bring some hot drinks and desserts to pass the time. Cecilia might seem carefree, but inside she was suffering from the betrayal of one of her childhood friends at the same time that she feared the move that his enemies would make.

Her only consolation was the man she had met just this morning, which was sad enough for her.

Hours passed, and dark clouds filled the sky, blocking the starry sky, covering the entire city of Serit with a blanket of darkness. It seemed almost a cliche as murderers, and people with bad intentions preferred this kind of time to make their move. Still, some things were meant to be related even across the world.

At least that’s what Desmond thought when he saw a dozen people dressed in all black sneak up on the tower. Desmond instinctively glanced at his shadow briefly but quickly remembered that Revna wasn’t here to help him from the shadows.

Shrugging with a wry expression on his lips, Desmond commented, “To think I would have formed a habit so soon, that girl knows how to make someone dependent on her.”

Stretching his body with a relaxed expression, Desmond started to leave his room. His destination was the lower floors of the tower and eventually the outside of it. Still, he ran into the assassins as soon as he reached the lower floors of the building.

“I guess it was to be expected that they would have a way of dealing with the magical defenses of this place. I didn’t hear any signs of a struggle either, so the other guards are dead or let them through. They also seem to know their way around this room well; they could at least fake it so someone doesn’t know someone from the church sent them.”

The sarcastic comment full of sensitive information was enough to stop the assassins in their tracks, but to Desmond’s surprise, they didn’t seem upset at all and instead looked like they had found their target.

Sure, the assassins didn’t have their faces uncovered, but Desmond read their body language, dressed in tight black robes and matching leather armor, none of them seemed to be carrying weapons, but Desmond didn’t dare underestimate them for that.

Desmond knew that they were at least in the low-tier one-star class, just from the mana fluctuations emanating from their bodies. The difference in strength seemed to be relatively high, but Desmond wouldn’t let his guard down just because of that; after all, Desmond had killed more than one individual stronger than him.

The assassins pounced on Desmond, fast, coordinated, and stealthy without a spoken word. Desmond had trouble dealing with all of them at once, Mainly because he didn’t want to resort to his more destructive abilities while still inside the tower.

Spinning after deflecting two attacks with the backs of his hands, Desmond dodged a third and fourth blow by lowering his center of gravity. Being in a low stance, Desmond erupted with explosive power from the encirclement of his attackers, then countered with a single palm strike to the back of one of the assassins.

A wave of aquatic mana hit like a silent bomb trying to paralyze the assassin completely. Still, to Desmond’s surprise, the man’s leather armor had been enough to neutralize most of the force of his attack, leaving the man to rise, barely injured after falling to the ground a couple of meters away.

The same thing happened on two other occasions as Desmond tried to use soft shock waves to destroy the internal organs of the assassins, almost seventy percent of his force had been absorbed by the armor.

Backing away hard to avoid several attacks, Desmond’s survival instincts kicked into high gear as one of the assassins drew some hidden blade, attempting to stab him in the back.

Desmond readjusted his stance quickly to get out of the attack, but he didn’t have enough time to entirely escape, letting part of the hidden blade cut into one of his sides.

That was when Desmond ran into a second unexpected problem, the seemingly thin and brittle hidden blade slicing through his scale armor with ease.

Desmond winced as the blade ripped through his torso, a numb feeling trying to spread through the wound, but it quickly faded.

For a moment, Desmond was confused by the numb feeling, but noticing how the assassins seemed to relax after seeing him wounded and then catching the strange greenish glow on the hidden blade, Desmond concluded that he had been poisoned.

The misfortune of his enemies was that Desmond had a solid resistance to poison, courtesy of his lovely fairy companion, so the poison had barely begun to invade his body before it was neutralized.

But one had to remember that this was Desmond Astryd we talked about. Taking advantage of the carelessness of his enemies was a common tactic for him. And the slightly relaxed attitude of his enemies had just given him an opportunity that he didn’t plan to miss.

Desmond smiled with no one but himself to hear his slight murmur, “Let’s see if you like my new ability.”