The Iudex's day off

Chapter 96 - Schemes and Plots

Wriothesley's POV

 I slowly made my way down the stairs towards the Wingalet.

 Let's hope it's a false alarm.

 As I took a few more steps, Neuvillette's words from our evening spar a few days ago rang inside my head.

 "Try spreading out your elemental energy over your surroundings to sense the presence of beings around you. Maybe then you'll be able to sense when I do this."

 That piece of advice ended with my falling face-first onto the floor after Neuvillette yanked my legs from under me with his cane once more, but it was solid advice nonetheless.

 Even if it was hard not to turn our, now regular, evening spars into flirting sessions.

 It should be useful in this kind of situation especially.

 I tried slowly spreading out my elemental energy. I certainly wasn't as efficient at it as Neuvillette, but it wasn't all that difficult.

 As soon as it reached the floor below, I sensed 1, 2... 8 people come in contact with it.

 "Archons, it's cold down here."

 "We're pretty much in the fortress's basement you morron! What did you expect?"

 "It just feels like it suddenly got way colder."

 "Just shut it, will you? Why would it suddenly get colder? Ghosts? Hah!"

 Two voices sounded as soon as I sensed their presence.

 The cold.

 Right. The first one was right about it getting colder. Neuvillette warned me about this little problem.

 "You will find your surroundings cooling down if you don't have enough control over the elemental energy you spread out. It will get better with time so don't worry too much about it." He smiled.

 Hmm.

 I was hoping Jurieu and Lourvine had just accidentally triggered the alarm, but it seemed a little peace was just too much to ask for.

 They probably got in through Sigewinne's ward.

 Tsk!

 Good thing Sigewinne went to the surface.

 Now let's handle this situation. Eight people shouldn't be all that hard to take care of.

 I was about to storm in, knock them all out, and just be done with it when I heard Neuvillette's voice so vividly I had to turn around to check if he was there.

 "Be careful, Wrio. You might have a longer life now, but that doesn't make you immortal."

 Yep, yep. I got it.

 No storming into unknown situations.

 Sigh!

 To think I would be worried for my own safety because of someone else.

 And for someone else to be Neuvillette.

 If someone told me that a few months back I would have punched them for speaking nonsense.

 Still, I was more careful than usual. Just as I was about to take the last step I stopped for a moment to listen and as it turns out, that was a good idea.

 "How do you think things are going upstairs?" One of the voices asked.

 "How would I know? Their job is pretty simple though so nothing should go wrong." Another answered.

 "Is it really that simple? We don't know all that much about melusines after all."

 Melusines?

 Wait.

 Are these bastards planning to do something to the girls?!

 "Tsk! You idiot! Have you ever even seen a melusine get violent? Besides, the whole room is rigged. They'll just have to pull a lever, flood the place and bye, bye, melusines."

 Rigged?

 Flood the place?

 "I can't be sure what would happen if a melusine came in contact with Primordial Seawater." Neuvillette's words rang in my mind like a death sentence.

 At the same time, one of the voices spoke up again confirming my fears and worse.

 "Does Primosrial Seawater- Yeah, no. Never mind. Even if it somehow doesn't work they still got their guns." The man laughed.

 Son of a b*tch!

 No.

 I need to calm down.

 I'm too agitated to do any good right now.

 I took a few deep breaths to calm down, thinking about a solution.

 According to Neuvillette, the gathering that the girls hold always takes place in one of the back rooms of the Opera Epiclese.

 Phew...

 Neuvillette is fully packed with trials today so he should be there as well.

 Alright.

 If I can just take care of these guys and go a bit lower to the Primordial Sea, I can punch the seal and an illusion of him has a high chance of showing up again.

 I'll just have to tell him about this and he'll make sure the girls are fine.

 Okay.

 That's a plan.

 Now let's get on with it.

 I took a few more deep breaths before taking that last step.

 Now I could finally see the situation inside.

 Aside from the one person fumbling around with the access panel that operated the door to the Wingalet, the rest of them were leaning against one wall or another.

 By the time one of them noticed my presence it was already far too late for them.

 "Duke-"

 Bang!

 That's one.

 Having dealt with the first one, I instantly moved on to the second.

 Somewhere along the way one of them pulled a gun but the bullets were blocked by a block of ice.

 Yeah.

 Neuvillette, I still can't hit properly.

 You guys are a different story though.

 Sparring with the hydro dragon really does wonders for one's reaction speed, huh?

 Now that I wasn't trying to hit an ancient dragon I realized that I was able to move my body much faster and a lot more easily than before.

 But.

 It's still incredibly humiliating that Neuvillette ends every fight by sweeping my legs from under me with his cane.

 Tsk!

 I've been through it a dozen times and I still can't stop it.

 At least I've managed to reign in my newly gained strength enough to just be able to knock these guys unconscious and not paint the walls with their insides.

 It took me less than a minute to have them all unconscious.

 Now to the seal.

 I made sure to cuff all of them and take their guns before moving forward. Wouldn't want an unpleasant surprise later.

 Unfortunately, however, the moment I got to the elevator leading to the Primordial Sea...

 Tsk!

 These bastards-

 It looks like I would be in for an unpleasant surprise after all.