XI - The Story of Faith: The Traitor
"Cirxen! Where's my food?"
"Put a sock in it, wench. Can't you see I'm working here?"
It's a peaceful, sunny day in the Royal Capital and Alvieha decided to drop by the palace. And because she had her cloak washed, she had her long, straight, golden hair with black highlights tied to a ponytail, in contrast to its usual loose state beneath the hood. Her outfit, a loose, black blouse over a pair of loose leg pants and a pair of black sandals, wasn't hidden at all. Over her shoulders, she donned a white robe with black trimmings. An insignia of a clover in gold with black trimmings was displayed on the robe's left chest area. On her wrists, gold rings connected by a long, black chain that run around her back hung.
She got herself to sit on a couch while a male with snow-white locks whose uniform was almost identical to hers – save for the lack of gold links and other minor details, got himself buried with paperwork. The Magic Emperor disappeared in the middle of the day and left Cirxen to handle his work, much to the younger male's chagrin.
"Make yourself useful and grab me some tea."
"Darjeeling or Camomile?"
"Anything but black."
As Alvieha left her seat to approach the exit, a certain tall man ushered himself inside, earning a pleased yet shocked from the woman.
"Julius-san! I thought you went to the market."
"I think I've seen everything in the market for today. Thanks for checking in for Marx and Cirxen."
"My pleasure," responded Alvieha with a curtsy.
Behind them, a certain knight heard every word crystal clear. Obviously ticked off, he plotted a quick revenge.
His eyes darted on Alvieha from the corner of his eyes while she reached for the door, and when the woman was about to grab the knob, a hole immediately opened beneath her, sending Alvieha instantly to where Cirxen led her. With a yelp, the Rover left the room.
Left behind, Julius slowly began feeling cold air run up his spine.
"So..." the younger male dropped his pen. "You were in cahoots with Lady Loose, Julius-san?"
"C-Cirxen... I..."
"I would be expecting a certain middle-aged man to remain in this room until all the paperwork is done," declared the male as he headed for the door. "I hope the documents would be dealt with by the time I get back 'cause if not..."
"Well, we don't want to go there, now do we? Excuse me. I'd go look for Marx-san now."
"Cirxen! No!"
For the rest of the day, the Magic Emperor stayed in his office, as what his personal bodyguard asked him to do. With all the necessary tasks done, he found himself staring towards the town below through a window, now eased, when Marx, his personal adviser, entered.
Beside the blue-haired mage stood Alvieha with a fruit on one hand.
"Mahoutei-sama," Marx started. "I have sent a message to all of the Magic Knights Captains regarding tomorrow's conference."
"Thanks, Marx," replied the older male while still facing against him. "I don't want to believe it, but it's clear that there's a traitor among us who's connected to the Eye of the Midnight Sun."
"And I'll find out who it is tomorrow."
Several days past, havoc swept through the Capital. Opposition sent out the undead and disrupted the peaceful city. Beyond the façade of the chaos, the real target became under fire. In the end, he lost a limb, a magic stone in his possession, and consciousness.
And Fuegoleon Vermillion was yet to awaken.
The Rover in the room didn't express any thought into the matter – she just lent her ear, but the male with her was full of it. Simply put, he was uneasy.
"But... Are you sure this is going to work?"
"It'll all depend on Asta-kun."
The next day, while Julius and Marx were somewhere else in the palace, two mages were stuffing themselves with food in a kitchen.
"Shouldn't we be working?"
"And miss an opportunity like this? I don't think so." And Alvieha continued with the pastry on her spoon.
"What do you mean miss an opportunity? You're inflating yourself with food ever since you stepped in here. One more whole cake and you'll end up worse than Gray's transformation."
And words of caution simply entered and left between ears. While Cirxen was exasperated trying to control his friend, an attendant came to them, telling the two they were wanted underground.
Alvieha didn't feel like moving an inch, so, Cirxen just warped themselves to their destination through a portal underneath them. As they arrived at the area, Julius was alone with two completely bound prisoners, one completely aged woman, and a fairly younger male.
"So," Alvieha broke the ice while still holding a plate of strawberry cheesecake. "Found anything, Julius-san?"
"Not yet. Asta would be here in a while with Marx. I want the two of you to stand witness to whatever would happen."
While supposedly waiting for their visitor, Alvieha stand in front of the two captives, her eyes checking things per detail.
"Is either of them the one responsible for... you know..."
"Not the slightest. Neither of them looks to have any capability of nailing down Fuegoleon," said Cirxen as he stood beside the lady.
"Well, that's great, 'cause if it was one of these two..."
On her hand, the slice of dessert and the ceramic itself turned into dust in a blink of an eye. The residue slowly ran down her palms and coloured the black canvass that was the dirty room floor.
"It would've been a mess and I won't be bothered."
"It's actually great that they're not the ones," Cirxen voiced knowingly. "Otherwise, I have to work."
"You really know me very well!" And the mage was smiling again.
A few more minutes later, the massive door of the room creaked open. When a faint excuse echoed into the dark, all three unrestricted mages stood in waiting. While Julius was the one who actually welcomed Asta and Marx, Cirxen and Alvieha simply blended into the background, occasionally snickering and out-right laughing – vocally and telepathically, at the Magic Emperor's childish behaviour.
But, when Marx stepped in, both knew it.
Things were about to begin.
At Julius' request, Asta summoned a black sword from his dark grimoire. All eyes were on the ashen-haired male as he softly bumped the heads of the prisoners with the pommel of his weapon. In an instant, a wave of magic oozed out of their foreheads.
The old lady and the young man had their minds locked to prevent any information that they know from leaking to their opponents. With such powerful magic, Marx, the one in-charge of interrogations, failed to progress with his quest for answers. But, now that the chains have been undone, he can finally get to the bottom of things.
Hopefully, the two captives had something in their brains.
Once Asta's work was done, Marx began to sew the pieces. With the Black Bull knight, the Rover, the First Ace, and the Magic Emperor himself as witnesses, light was almost within reach.
Asta came to the palace with his squad captain, Yami Sukehiro. And the buff man was with his fellow leaders.
After getting all they needed, Julius summoned Yami and the other captains to where they were. And once everyone was gathered, the truth came rushing like bullets.
In front of the present eight Squad Captains, the Anti-Magic user, and his special attendants, Julius headed straight to the holy grail that day.
"Now, would you kindly tell me which one of these captains is the traitor which aided the Eye of the Midnight Sun? Tell me their name."
"It's..." the controlled captives answered monotonously and in sync. "The captain of the Purple Orcas, Gueldre Poizot."
All captains didn't see it coming. It was a shock.
Especially to Gueldre who declared his complete loyalty. To him, why would he even betray Clover Kingdom?
However, rumours about the captain's supposed shady transactions began to fill the room. Charlotte, Nozel, even Yami testified to have heard of such dark secrets.
Gueldre continued to deny. "Don't be ridiculous! Th-This must be some kind of mistake," he added.
"I know! They're trying to frame me as a traitor!" And he pointed his finger at the terrorists.
"They're only telling me what they know, plain and simple," Marx interjected. "Information obtained with my memory exchange magic is absolute."
The masked man couldn't argue. He fell into a corner.
To straighten things out, Yami raised a suggestion.
"Why not just let the guy with the bowl cut look at your memories? If you're really a clean ham, that is."
Aside from Gueldre's, no other objections towards the action were raised.
The Purple Orcas captain tried to talk his way out of it, but the pressure was amounting. Eyes were now on him and it was chaffing. No decent words were leaving him, either.
"So, it really is you," Asta alleged. "Because of you, Captain Fuegoleon was..."
Before the young male could launch his frustration, Alvieha blocked him by an arm, quickly urging the younger Magic Knight to calm down.
Fearing there was no way out of him, the accused declared a strategic retreat. With a quick flip over his grimoire, he turned himself invisible.
And the chase was on.
Yami and Charlotte were first to engage in combat, but the Briar Magic user was worried.
The Transparency Creation Magic of the Purple Orcas captain made him vanish for a set amount of time and lets any form of spell go right through him. Whatever magic she and the other captains could do were pointless.
To put more obstacles, moving invisible soldiers were materialised to hold off any attempts to catch.
The remaining captains began to block any shrouded swords coming their way, unable to quickly go after the target.
But Yami was calm. With a cigarette on one hand, he showed no panic.
Using the ability he unlocked while fighting against terrorists several days past, Asta easily knocked Gueldre off his feet. Before the accused could have escaped further, the captain of the Azure Deer showed up and lifted his paint brush. From his palette, rivers of colours mixed together surrounded Gueldre. Later, splashes of hue rained down on him and began dragging him down the floor.
Seconds later, the escapee was bound. The alleged became trapped in a large piece of painting spanning metres on the floor. The other captains then appeared, fully prepared to take on the ability of the Purple Orcas captain. Julius and Alvieha didn't fare any different.
They were ready to blast full force against the possible traitor.
While Asta fell dumbfounded to the showcase of strength in front of him, as every captain was ready to break loose, Cirxen was fairly calmer than the rest.
"I was a bit excited to cut loose as well, to be honest."
"Your cake already suffered enough damage. Spare the ham the same fate."
At the end of the day, they got their answer. It was indeed Gueldre. To rake in some cash for himself, he sold, embezzled, and smuggled. He kidnapped those responsible for the border around the capital.
They got their confession.
To avoid any possible unrest to arise, Julius asked the disclosure to be wrapped under sheets. And after that was settled, the captains were dismissed.
Aside from Yami and Asta. They had to follow upstairs.