NoGift

Chapter 153: and then there were three

WINTER looked out of the window of the gryphon drawn carriage.  All he could see was the vast blue sky and some birds flying around.  He was on his way to Victoria City to attend the Festival of Creation that would happen three days from now.

Originally, it was Icelyn that was supposed to go.  She had been the one attending the festival ever since the Pope visited Albion a few years back.  But now, this thing had fallen on him.  There was really no other candidate.  The former first prince was now exiled.  The second princess and third prince were both still young and not really suitable to handle political stuffs.

Speaking of Icelyn, she was now imprisoned at Nightstone Tower - a prison located at a small island near the capital where the famous criminal in Albion were being held.  It was completely made of Nullum stone, weakening the Gifts of the prisoners inside.  The prisoners were also often fed drugs that would make their limbs weak and their minds muddled, so as to prevent them from escaping.

Winter didn't thing that the King would actually put Icelyn there.  After all, she was still his daughter.  Colluding with a dark organization related to the Temple of Gaia probably hit his bottom line.  Probably more so because Icelyn was his daughter.

The King was busy dealing with the aftermath of his decision.  After Icelyn was imprisoned, the Queen was stimulated a lot and started a rampage inside the palace.  She needed to be sedated and locked in her room since.  Aside from the Queen, the King also needed to control some of the nobles in court who supported Icelyn.  They requested for Icelyn to be released.  Of course it was rejected by the King.   

The crime bestowed upon Icelyn was treason.  It's a crime punishable by death.  It's already magnanimous of him to just imprison her.  That point, of course those nobles couldn't refute.  Especially since majority of the members of parliament agreed with the decision of the King.

What happened became a huge scandal though.  Because of the presence of sPhones and Apps like [Jiffy], the news about Icelyn commiting treason didn't only spread at Albion but also to other countries at the Southwestern continent.  Soon, it might even spread around the world.

The King tried to contact Argent, to ask him to help contain the news.  He's the creator of sPhones so surely he had a way to stop the news from spreading even further.  But sadly, the duke couldn't be contacted.  The people from Hanover manor all said that they also had no way to contact the duke.  Even the duchess couldn't be contacted.

As a last resort, the King contacted Silver Corporation directly.  Which didn't really help.  That McAllister boy told him that Silver Corporation had no control over what people post on [Jiffy] or any other Apps.  That's part of the people's freedom and they never interfered with that.  So at the end, the King could only grit his teeth and accept that the embarrassment of their own royal family would be known to the world.  He hated Icelyn even more because of that. 

But even so, the King couldn't put the blame on the Temple of Gaia.  The church was a behemoth.  No matter how powerful their kingdom was, it couldn't compare to the influence of the Temple.

That's why Winter was here, going to the home base of the Temple and attending the famous festival.  His presence was like a sign, telling the Temple that despite what happened, the Kingdom of Albion was still willing to compromise with them.  He hated it.  The situation and how powerless their kingdom seemed to be.   

The Temple of Gaia was supposed to be the symbol of hope, kindness, and righteousness.  And yet they're doing something like this, trying to bring countries under their control.  Winter was sure that Albion was not the only one.  He just wondered, what would that accomplished?  The Temple in itself was powerful enough.  What more did they want? 

His thoughts ended when the carriage slowly landed, which meant that they were already at the gates of Victoria City.

Sure enough, Aspen who was sitting in front of him said, "Your Highness, we're here."

Winter looked at the man with a shaggy blond hair and a muscular build.  Of his three most trusted men, he only brought Aspen with him.  The other two were left at Albion to deal with other things while he was away.  Of course, Aspen was not the only one with him during this journey.  The King insisted that he brought servants and guards with him.  In the King's mind, he probably thought that bringing those along with him would show his glory as a prince.  But for Winter, it's only a hassle.

"Let's go," he said.

Aspen first went out of the carriage followed by Winter.  Another gryphon drawn carriage landed, it was slightly bigger because that's where the servants and guards rode.  Aspen went to the toll gate to pay for the fee.

Winter looked at the blue sky again and couldn't help but wonder what Argent was doing now.  He thought of contacting him after the matter of Icelyn was decided.  But he heard of the King not being able to contact him.  Winter realized that the duke might be truly busy and immediately changed his mind.  He decided to just wait until Argent contact him again.

He was used to waiting by now anyway.

Winter and Aspen, as well as the guards and servants with them, soon entered the gate of Victoria City.  Unknown to them, two plain looking servants stealthly moved away from their group and secretly entered a narrow alley.  One was tall and the other was short.

Upon entering the alley, they took off the long maid uniform they're wearing which revealed a simple shirt and trousers underneath.  Then after that, they both pealed the skin on their faces and removed the hair on top of their heads.  And soon, they're true looks were seen.

The shorter of the two looked like he was only 12 or 13 years old.  But the people who knew him all knew that he was much, much older than that.  He had fluffy blond hair that looked soft to the touch and a pair of toffee colored eyes.  The other one had platinum blond hair and a pair of heterochromatic eyes - one was forest green, the other sky blue.

Viper glared at his companion, completely annoyed.  "This is all your fault, you know.  If not for you, we should have arrived here long before."

When he returned at the headquarters of Dreich Gallere to report to their master about what happened at Xing, he was ordered to go and help Argent.  Which he gladly accepted.  But before he could do that, he should pick up this pipsqueek first and bring him together with him.  He couldn't really defy his master's order, so reluctantly went to where this pipsqueek was.

Who would have thought that Viper had to help him to finish his assignment.  By the time they're done, their master ordered them to go and check the matter about the first princess of Albion since there were no other members with codenames available.  Their master wanted them to interogate that princess and ask her if she was the only one in the royal family connected to the Temple.  So off they went.

But when they arrived at Albion, the princess was already imprisoned at that tower.  Her mind was already muddled by drugs that they couldn't get any useful information from her.  Which was really suspicious to Viper.  She had only been in that prison for a few days, there's no way she would immediately be in that state.  Unless someone didn't want her to talk and increased the dosage of drugs by a large amount.

At the end, they could only leave and hitch a ride with the second prince who was planning to go to Victoria City to attend the festival.

"Then I would have met my sweetheart much faster," Viper added while taking another set of wig and human skin mask from his space ring.

Lynx only snorted because he knew who this sweetheart was.  "Did you really turn gay?"

"I don't like men.  I just like Argent," Viper only said and put the human skin mask on his face.

Lynx only rolled his eyes and also put the new human skin mask on his face.  Now he really couldn't wait to meet this infamous Argent Blackbourne.

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At the same time, over the town of Cati - a town at the East of Vitalya - if one would only gazed at the blue sky, they would be able to see unexpected.  A figure wearing all black was flying at a very fast speed.  His long black hair was tied in a high ponytail and was freely swaying with the wind.  His handsome face was serious and full of concentration.

There was only one goal in his mind - go to Victoria City! 

And that could be reflected in his obsidian black eyes.