Chapter Twenty-Six: A Traitor Among Us
Hey there, readers, sorry this chapter was late, today's my mom's birthday, so I haven't gotten a chance to type earlier. Here's the last chapter, I hope you've enjoyed this string of chapters. Cya.
"What's going on...where am I?" Asta mumbled to himself, his vision only showed darkness before he slowly opened his eyes and the light of a room became visible, to his side, he noticed Kenos, the black-haired mage touching him with both hands. "Ke...nos?"
He saw the solar mage talking to someone else, but his words were inaudible, but then, he turned to look at him, his face giving a small smile before facing whoever else was in the room, he spoke words again, but this time, the swordsman was able to hear what they were, though it was still pretty quiet.
"Hey, everyone, Asta's finally up," Kenos said with a happy tone, he took his hands off the magicless mage.
Asta groaned before sitting up, he turned in the direction Kenos was looking at to see Noelle, Rebecca, her siblings, Eon, Finral, and Yami. "Hey there everyone, um, where am I?"
"We're at the restaurant, this is a different part of it which is private," Rebecca replied.
"After our fight with those members of the Third Eye, you passed out," Finral explained.
"I see, how long has it been since then?" Asta asked.
"Almost a day, you were asleep for the remainder of the night, and we're already a good amount of hours into the afternoon," Kenos replied. "You slept off a good amount of your injuries, and I just healed you quick to make sure you're doing alright,"
"Thanks," the swordsman said as he held his previously injured shoulder and began turning his arm like a windmill.
"Well, it's a good thing that you're up kid," Yami said, although he wasn't smoking a cigarette. "Finral's magic is back at full, so we can head back to the base,"
Yes sir," Asta said as he stood up, but as he did, his stomach growled violently, he grabbed it intently. "Oh damn, I'm really hungry,"
"That makes sense, you haven't eaten in hours," Noelle spoke up.
"I know, why don't you have breakfast here, our treat?" Eon suggested before turning to Yami. "If you want, you can stay too, we have enough food,"
Yami politely waved his hand in a refusing manner. "Thank you, but I'll be fine, I need to head back to my base," he said as he held his stomach. "I have some...important business to attend to. Finral, a portal,"
"On it," the spatial mage said as he opened a portal. "I'll stay here with the others so they don't have to fly all the way back,"
The captain nodded as he walked into the portal before it closed.
"Oh, that reminds me, where's Gauche, Marie, Sister Theresa, and Neige?" Asta asked.
"Well, Neige turned himself in, some capital mages happened to be here last night and he left with them earlier," Kenos replied. "As for the other three," he pointed to the main area where the customers would sit and eat.
The swordsman walked to where the solar mage pointed to and saw the three people, Theresa and Gauche standing across from each other, with Marie standing beside the nun, hand in hand.
"It's been less than a day, but you're already back on your feet, not bad, you old hag," Gauche said.
"I'll take that as your way of saying you're glad I'm better," Theresa said back before she gripped Marie's hand. "Marie and I should head back to the church,"
"Wait a minute, we haven't got to spend any time with each other," the mirror mage protested.
"That's not my problem, besides, I don't think your captain would be happy if you were to stay here for another day," the old lady retorted.
Gauche comedically sank to the ground on his hands and knees. "No, it's not fair,"
"Brother," Marie muttered.
"I'll admit, your circumstance is unfortunate, but it is what it is I'm afraid," Theresa said. "Let's get going, Marie,"
The little girl nodded. "Okay, bye Gauche, I'll see you next month," she said as the two walked past him.
"Just wait," the mirror mage said as he got up.
Theresa turned around to face him, Gauche, however, had his back turned to her.
"Please...continue to take care of Marie for me,"
"You don't need to worry, I'll keep her safe," the nun said as she and Marie walked out.
Asta gave a small smile. "It's good to see him getting along with her a bit better,"
"Same here," Kenos added as he walked next to him. Gauche then walked outside.
"What are we waiting for, let's get breakfast ready," Eon said to Rebecca, she then turned to Noelle and Finral. "Hey, do you two want to stay for breakfast?"
"Yes, thank you very much," the water and spatial mages replied as they bowed their heads down respectfully.
Rebecca and Eon then made their way to the kitchen and began cooking a variety of different breakfast items, filling the building with its aroma. Once they were done, they set large platters of everything on the benches where the others sat.
"Thank you for the food, it smells really good!" Asta exclaimed starry-eyed as he dug into the food quickly, shoving forkfuls into his mouth. "And it tastes great too!"
The other three Black Bulls ate at a more moderate speed. "Be careful there, Asta, I know you're hungry, but you don't want to choke," Finral told his squadmate.
"Right, sorry," he apologized as his eating speed slowed down.
"Hey, Asta," the swordsman turned to his left to see Marco.
"Is something the matter?"
The scarlet-haired boy shook his head. "No, I just wanted to give this back," he revealed the Black Bulls robe. "Thank you for lending this to me,"
Asta smiled. "No problem, I'm glad it could help you," he said as he took it from the boy and put it back on.
Rebecca smiled, glad that her siblings were back home safely...thanks to Asta. "I want to thank him, but how should I do it," she looked at Eon, remembering what she told her just the night before.
The scarlet-haired girl clenched her fist tightly as she walked forward. "Um, Asta," she said.
The swordsman stood up as she neared him. "Thanks a lot for breakfast, that really hit the spot,"
"You're welcome," she said as her cheeks turned slightly red. "And there's something I want to tell you,"
"Oh, what do you want to tell me?" Asta asked.
Rebecca then moved in, bringing her lips to Asta's face as she kissed him on the cheek, not an eye in that room didn't widen, even Asta's.
"Uh...uh," Asta was speechless.
Rebecca backed up from him. "I wanted to thank you for rescuing Marco and Luca and bringing them back to me,"
"Oh, it was nothing, but it wasn't just me, I had help," Asta said as he nervously scratched the back of his head.
"AHHHHHHHH!" Noelle mentally screamed as if she was some kind of banshee, unable to believe what Rebecca just did.
Finral, however, reacted quite differently, instead of mentally screaming or being angry, tears fell down his face as he made a comedic facial expression. "No fair, he's so lucky,"
Eon grinned. "Now that's what I call shooting your shot," she thought as she looked at the two Black Bulls beside her, but focused mostly on Noelle. "What're you going to do, are you just going to stand there, or are you going to make your own move?"
The water mage merely crossed her arms and turned around, her cheeks were a bit rosy.
The green-haired girl shrugged. "I guess she's not going to do something," she thought before her eyes fell on Kenos, for some reason, she could feel her stomach tighten, she began thinking about what Rebecca and Noelle said to tease her the night before.
"Uh, damn those two," Eon muttered as she started walking to the solar mage. "Hey, Kenos,"
The solar mage was still taken aback by Rebecca's sudden action before he noticed Eon and stood up. "Oh, sorry Eon, did you say something, I didn't hear-," he didn't get another word in as Eon pressed two fingers on his lips and gave him a quick peck on the forehead. Everyone else's eyes widened again.
"C'mon, him too," the spatial mage muttered. "I'm older than both of them, why do they get all the luck?"
Rebecca and Noelle grinned, glad the girl had made a move of her own.
Eon's cheeks were slightly pink. "Rebecca's not the only one who's grateful, I want to thank you for saving Marco...oh, and Luca too,"
"Hey!" Luca exclaimed as she ran to the green-haired girl. "Why'd you mention me last like that as if you don't care that I'm okay, you-,"
She didn't get to finish her statement as Eon quickly embraced her. "Of course I care that you're okay, please don't make me worry like that again, you're like my little sister, I love you," she said with a small smile as tears slowly dropped from her face. "Even though we fight and say mean things to each other, I could never hate you,"
"Eon?" Luca muttered, she never knew the older girl saw her like that, the scarlet-haired girl returned the embrace, not saying a word in response.
Everyone smiled as they all finished their breakfast, Finral then stretched. "Well, we should get going, I'll go outside and see if Gauche is there," he said, exiting the establishment.
"It was nice seeing you two again," Kenos said. "But we were supposed to come here on a day off, but we get hurtled into action anyways,"
"True, but we're Magic Knights, we should be ready to get into action at a moment's notice regardless," Asta said.
"You're right, but it wouldn't hurt to have a real day off, this is the second one we've had where we had to stop someone," Noelle said back.
"You really have it tough," Eon chuckled.
"Hey," Finral said, walking into the restaurant. "I found Gauche, let's go,"
"Alright, we're off, cya around," Kenos said.
Rebecca and Eon smiled. "Same,"
"Bye Asta, bye Kenos!" the children exclaimed.
The three Black Bulls walked outside towards Finral and Gauche, Asta smiled. "If you don't count that interruption, Nean was a pretty cool place to visit," he said before he felt pecking on his head, he looked up to see Nero. "Hey Nero, did you enjoy your trip?"
The anti-bird gave no response as they made it to where the mirror and spatial mages were, the fives of them then entered the portal as it closed behind them, ending their time in the town of Nean.
On the other side of the portal, the five stepped out and came face to face with the hideout. "It's good to be back, it's felt like some time since I've last been here,"
They walked up and opened the door, and were immediately welcomed to a riot, their squadmates were everywhere, it was complete chaos.
"Wow, it's been some time since I've seen the others like this, now it really makes you feel that you haven't been around in a while," Kenos noted.
"Luck, you bastard!" Magna exclaimed before he noticed the five mages at the door. "Well, would you look at that, you four are back, we didn't see you for all of yesterday, then Finral and Captain Yami left after you," the flame mage said.
Luck landed next to Magna. "Captain Yami got here earlier and told us you fought some really tough people from the Eye of The Midnight Sun,"
"That's right, it was incredibly tough, we weren't able to win against the last group of opponents though, they just made a tactical retreat, we also had some help from other captains too," Kenos replied.
"Ah, I wish I could've gone too, but here I am stuck with Magna," the lightning mage pouted.
"You take that back!" Magna exclaimed as Luck laughed and ran away, the shad-wielding mage hot on his tail.
"What idiots," Gauche muttered as he walked in the direction of the hall. "I'll be in my room sulking over my missed opportunity with Marie, don't bother me,"
As the mirror mage entered the hallway and was out of view, Yami came out of the hallway, a bit of serious look was on his face, and in his hand was an open piece of paper, he looked at the ones who just came. "You guys are back, sorry that you couldn't spend your day off the way you wanted to, but look on the bright side, at least you aren't dead," he said as his expression lightened, even managing a laugh.
"That's sort of like what I said!" Asta exclaimed.
"Well good for you, kid, and speaking of you," Yami said as he walked to the swordsman and grabbed his head with one hand, lifting him into the air. "I'm going to need you to come with me,"
"Ow, that hurts, why do you keep doing this to me?!" Asta screamed. "And where are we even going anyway?!"
"To the capital, Julius wants to see the two of us at headquarters," the dark mage plainly replied.
"Alright, another chance to see the Wizard King, he's so cool!" Asta exclaimed, but this time with joy as Yami released him.
"Let's get going then, Finral, a portal to the capital," Yami ordered.
"On it," the spatial mage replied as he formed one of his portals.
"Okay Finral, I'm leaving you in charge this time, you know the rules, if anything gets broken, you're dead," the captain's voice was strangely casual.
Finral silently gulped. "Don't worry, Captain, I'll make sure to keep everybody under control," he replied as the two Black Bulls walked into the portal, once they appeared on the other side, it closed behind them.
Yami and Asta looked at the familiar sight that was the Magic Knights Headquarters, but this time, standing not too far from the building was a man with turquoise hair, the dark mage raised a brow as he and Asta walked up to him. "Well hello there, assistant, did Julius send you to greet us or something?"
The man groaned. "Please Yami, could you refrain from calling me assistant, my name is Marx," he said as he looked at Asta. "Hello there, we haven't met before, I am Marx Francios, an adviser to the Wizard King,"
"It's nice to meet you, Marx, my name's Asta," he greeted respectfully.
Marx nodded. "Yes, I already know who you are, we did ask for you specifically, we're going to have a conference between the Magic Knight Captains and you have a part to play in it,"
"Really, what do you need me to do?" the swordsman asked.
"Why don't we enter the building before we discuss it any further?" Marx suggested as he walked inside, the other two right behind them, they walked down a large hallway before they arrived at a split stairway path, the flight of stairs to their left went up, and the ones to the right went down.
The turquoise-haired assistant turned to Yami. "You can head upstairs to where we usually meet for meetings, the others should be there already,"
The dark mage pulled out a cigarette from his pocket as well as a small magic item to light it, once it was lit, he put it in his mouth and blew out some smoke. "Okay then, have fun kid," he said as he walked upstairs.
"Where are we going?" the magicless mage asked curiously.
Marx pointed at the staircase going down. "We're heading down there," he replied as the two did so. The stairway went down for some time, and as they descended further, the lighting around them became dimmer, taking on an ominous blue color.
"Wow, this place is kinda scary," Asta remarked, though his tone and demeanor showed he wasn't frightened at all.
"True, but it's easy to get used to after some time," Marx responded as they reached the end of the staircase. "We've arrived,"
"So, where are we exactly?" Asta asked.
"A good question, this is the part of Headquarters where we interrogate criminals," a voice replied suddenly, startling the swordsman a bit, however, once he turned in the direction of the voice and saw who it was, he grinned.
It was Julius, and he was standing next to what looked like an iron door.
"Sir Wizard King, it's so good to see you again!" Asta exclaimed starry-eyed.
"Likewise Asta, but you don't have to be so formal with me, you can just call me Julius," the time mage said to him before turning to Marx. "Thank you for bringing him to me, Marx,"
"It was of no trouble at all, Julius," the man said back.
"Oh, and Asta, Yami told me of how the Black Bulls helped the people in Nean when their children were kidnapped, I was very impressed and sent three stars to your squad," Julius recalled before his facial expression became a bit more serious. "He and Kenos also told me that the ones responsible for it were the Eye of The Midnight Sun, and that you had a run-in with them?"
Asta nodded. "That's right, we were able to meet that guy we saw when the capital was under attack and I was captured, he's a light mage as well as the leader of the Eye of The Midnight Sun, and his name is Licht," he replied. "But it's not just him, we also met three mages who went by the group name 'The Third Eye',"
"The Third Eye?" Julius asked.
"Yes, each mage countered one of the leaves on the standard clover grimoire," Asta replied. "I also remember Licht saying that each of them was stronger than him,"
Julius closed his eyes and stroked his chin. "If that's true, it's going to get really bad for us, as such, we must obtain any advantage we can against them, which leads to why I called you here,"
"Whatever you need me to do, I'm ready," the swordsman declared confidently.
"That's the spirit, let's head into this room, your task awaits you in there," Julius said, beckoning to the door beside him.
"Okay, let's do this," Asta said as Julius opened the door and the three people walked inside.
The first thing that Asta noticed was the decent number of capital mages that were present in the room, standing silently at ease, when they saw the Wizard King, they did a quick clover-salute before moving to the left and right, revealing an old woman who was bound on a slab of iron, light emitted from her bindings.
The magicless mage was a bit taken aback before quickly regaining his composure. "Who's this old lady?"
"Don't call me old, I'm young, and beautiful!" the lady exclaimed furiously.
"And a little crazy it seems," Asta thought to himself this time as to not let the woman hear what he thought of her.
"This woman's name is Catherine, she's an ash mage who was working with the Eye of The Midnight Sun, during their attack on the capital, she was subdued by two Magic Knights, your friend, Yuno, and another Black Bull named Charmy," Julius explained.
"Alright, those two did a great job," Asta said in praise of his rival and squadmate.
The time mage nodded. "Yes, we've been trying to get information out of her, but she won't talk,"
"Of course I wouldn't talk, why would I, I'd rather die than turn my back on the Eye of The Midnight Sun, especially Master Licht," Catherine spoke up. "When the world dealt me a bad hand, he came to me, he gave me a brand new life and a brand new purpose, I would never even dream of repaying such kindness with betrayal!"
"Wow, she's really serious about them, it's just like what happened at the cave, when Valtos was injured, Licht when mad, despite the fact that what he's doing is wrong, Licht genuinely cares about all of them, and because of that, their loyalty to him is ironclad," Asta thought.
"So, is she related to my task?"
Julius nodded as he turned to face the swordsman, his face was dead serious. "It is. I'm going to be blunt with you, Asta, the attack on the capital was both unexpected and catastrophic, but what's strange about that is that there's supposed to be mages running a magic barrier around the capital to both detect foreign threats, and protect us from it, but that wasn't the case here,"
"I see, that is strange," Asta held his chin as he thought about it.
"The only logical reason to how this could happen is if the mages who control the barrier were taken down by something, or, someone," Julius continued.
Asta's eyes then widened. "You don't think…?"
The Wizard King caught on to what the Black Bull was thinking and nodded his head. "Yes, if my assumption is correct, that means...there is a traitor among us, most likely one of our captains as the barrier mages are quite capable and can't be taken out by just anybody,"
Asta froze in place, his face showed fear and shock. A traitor was among them? And whoever the traitor was was most likely a captain? But who could it be, what motive could they have, what could they even stand to benefit from? "I can't believe it,"
"I thought the same thing, so that's why we're doing this, to find out who," Julius said. "And although we couldn't make Catherine talk, Marx does have a spell which lets him search through people's memories,"
Marx stepped forward. "Unfortunately, a spell's been cast around her which doesn't let me do so, whoever put it on her had probably known she would get captured," he said before turning to Asta. "But that's where you come in, your task is to use your anti-magic sword to nullify the magic protection around her,"
"You can count on me!" Asta exclaimed as his grimoire came out in front of him and he pulled his Demon-Slayer Sword and neared the ash mage.
"No, don't get near me, stay back!" Catherine exclaimed.
"No can do," Asta said back as he tapped Catherine's head with the crossguard, a blue outline of light then was then visible on her head before it shattered. "And there we go,"
"Thank you very much, Asta, now it's my turn," Marx said as he walked up and Asta walked away, the assistant's grimoire came up to him and flipped to a page. "Memory Exchange Magic: Memoir Absolu!" he exclaimed as a blue sphere appeared a good amount of feet above Catherine, it then shot a beam down with five horizontal lines in between them.
Once it happened, screens appeared from the horizontal lines, putting the old lady's memories on display for all to see, Asta especially noticed the memory of her being defeated by Yuno, and then Charmy shortly after, a grin crossed his face.
"As well as letting us see her memories, she is compelled to answer any question she is asked truthfully," Marx explained.
"Good, that's exactly what we need, Marx…," Julius began, turning to his assistant. "Please head upstairs, and bring the captains down here, it's time we find out who the traitor is,"
"There we go, I made it, I wonder what everyone else is doing in there," Yami muttered to himself as he arrived at the door of the room where the captains met.
The dark mage opened the door and saw the other captains sitting down doing a variety of things.
Nozel merely crossed and closed his eyes as he sat quietly, to his left was Dorothy Unsworth, the captain of the Coral Peacocks, as usual, she was fast asleep, softly snoring, to her left was Gueldre Poizot, the captain of the Purple Orcas, he merely rested his face on his palm as he twiddled with his other hand.
Then there was Jack, the severing mage has created a long blade on his left arm, he then grew a short blade on his right hand as he sharpened the long blade with the short one. As for Rill and Charlotte, unlike the others present, and although there was an open chair in between them, they had actually engaged in small talk, talking about whatever captains talked about.
"It seems everyone is doing their own thing," Yami said as he walked up, catching everyone's attention. "But we're missing some people, I know Fugeoleon isn't awake, so he can't be here, but what about our golden boy, William?"
"I don't know, but it's super strange, he's never late, he's usually the first person to show up," Rill stated.
Yami went over and sat down between Rill and Charlotte, he ruffled the young captain's hair. "How's it going there, kiddo, and hey there, Prickly Queen,"
Rill smiled at the Black Bulls captain while Charlotte blushed. "Wow, Yami's sitting right next to me, this is exactly what I wanted yesterday, now all I have to do is say something, but I was already talking to Rill, ending my conversation with him would be rude. Wait, I know, I should try to include Yami into our conversation, it's genius," she thought.
She cleared her throat as she turned to the dark mage. "Yami, Rill and I were having a conversation before you got here, and now you're in our way, but since you're here, why don't you join us?" she asked, trying to sound as professional as possible.
"Sure, why not," Yami replied.
"We were talking about our futures and what we want to do in about ten years from now," Rill explained.
"Ten years aye?" Yami wondered aloud before turning to Charlotte. "Well I know what you won't be doing in ten years, or any time soon: get married, not with all that talk about 'the battlefield being my only partner',"
Charlotte's cheeks turned as red as a tomato before she did her best to recompose herself. "You're one to talk, I doubt that you'll ever get married either, I can't say much about you that a woman would find appealing," she retorted, however, it was a different story in her mind. "What the hell are you doing, Charlotte? Not much about him that women would find appealing? He's Yami, EVERYTHING about him is appealing, now stop being a dishonest idiot and say what you really feel,"
Yami merely chuckled. "Yeah, you're not entirely wrong, tell you what, when we're both old and still single, wanna take care of each other?" he asked.
"T-Take care of each other, as if we were...married, well, why wait until we're old, nothing like the present, oh wait, I know why, I CAN'T SAY THOSE THREE DAMN WORDS TO HIS FACE!" Charlotte thought frantically, the briar mage then buried her face into her hands.
"Everything alright, Prickly Queen?" Yami asked.
"I'm...just fine," she replied.
"Alright, if you say so," he said before he realized something. "Hey, shouldn't Julius be here by now?"
"Not sure, we've been here for a decent amount of time before you arrived," Gueldre replied.
"He's right, waiting here for Julius to come is starting to get boring," Rill stretched before something popped into his head. "I have an idea, why don't we all play a game to pass the time?"
"No," Nozel quickly replied, his arms remained crossed, and his eye remained closed. "We're Magic Knight Captains, we shouldn't play games before an important meeting,"
"Ah, you're no fun, Braidilocks," Rill fired back.
The young captain's remark earned a chuckle from the other captains, Yami, however, burst out laughing. "Hahaha! Braidilocks! It suits you so well, with that hair and all!"
The Silver Eagles captain finally opened his eyes, and they were greatly annoyed. "Shut up, stop making fun of my hair, you stupid foreigner,"
"You seem more annoyed with me than usual, I can feel it in your Ki," Yami pointed out with a tone of sarcasm. "Let me guess, is this about taking Kenos from you back at the second entrance exam, isn't it?"
"Of course not, Kenos made his choice and I must respect it, besides, Dante is on my squad, we both have a Rossiu in our ranks," Nozel stated.
"True, and speaking of Rossiu," Yami began, turning to Rill. "One of your members stopped by our base two days ago, Zuka,"
"Yeah, she told me one of your members wasn't feeling too good, so I permitted her to go so she could cheer him up," Rill responded. "I hope there isn't a problem?"
"No, I just wanted to thank you," the dark mage said, his voice losing its sarcasm and becoming genuinely serious. "Say what you will about my squad, but I care for all of their well-being, Kenos was in a slump, then Zuka came and helped him feel better, thanks for letting her do it,"
"No problem," Rill said as he scratched the back of his head, he wasn't used to being praised by his peers, especially the captain of the Black Bulls.
Then suddenly, the entrance door opened and William walked inside, everyone looked at the captain of the Golden Dawn as he walked to his seat right next to Nozel.
"You're quite late, that isn't like you," the mercury mage spoke.
"My apologies, I was very busy," William said back as he sat down. "And so was my squad,"
"Your squad is always so busy, it must suck to be the best Magic Knight squad," Yami said. "You should really give them a day off or something, both you and them could use a break,"
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, I'll consider it," William responded with a small smile. "So, where's Julius?"
"He isn't here yet, I'm sick of waiting," Jack quickly replied.
Just as he finished saying that, the entrance door opened again, but this time, Marx came out of it. "Hello everyone, thank you for coming, I assume you've been wondering where Julius is, well, he's in the criminal interrogation room, and he wants you to meet him there,"
"All the way at the bottom of Headquarters, what could he want with us there?" Rill wondered aloud.
"Let's go and find out," Nozel replied as he and the others stood up and quietly followed the memory mage all the way to the criminal containment room.
"Hello everyone, I'm glad you all could make it," Julius said as he and Asta looked at the captains, lined up in front of them.
Nozel noticed the swordsman and narrowed his eyes. "That Asta boy is here too, what's going on?"
"I'll be honest with you, the reason I've called you all down here is because…," Julius began. "We believe one of you is a traitor and helped the Eye of The Midnight Sun attack the capital,"
The others gasped, unable to believe a traitor was among their ranks. "So, who is it?" Yami asked seriously.
"We're about to find out right now," Marx said as he walked to Catherine. "Tell us, who's the traitor who worked with the Eye of The Midnight Sun?"
"The one who helped us and betrayed you is the Captain…," the ash mage began saying slowly before turning her head to the one who was guilty.
"...Of the Purple Orcas, Gueldre Poizot,"
Everyone immediately turned to the presumed traitor, none were as mad as Nozel though. "You're the traitor? Fuegoleon lost his arm because of you!"
"I'm going to enjoy cutting you up," Jack threatened, a crazy look was in his eyes.
"No, it's not true, I'm not the traitor," Gueldre said in his defense.
"I don't know, I've heard some bad rumors about you, I didn't want to believe them, but it appears that they were true," Charlotte said this time.
"Whatever you've heard about me isn't true, I'm innocent I tell you!" Gueldre exclaimed.
"Gueldre, if you're truly innocent, then let me search your memories," Marx spoke up. "If we find nothing, you'll be abstained from all guilt,"
The purple-clad captain grit his teeth before quickly taking out his grimoire. "I won't allow that either, Permeation Magic: Invisible Seeker!" he exclaimed as his body became invisible.
"What the, where'd he go?!" Asta exclaimed.
"I'm not done yet, Permeation Creation Magic: Invisible Troops!" he continued as invisible knights formed around him. "You're not taking me in!" he said as he left the room and started making his way upstairs.
"I can't see anything, did he cast something?" Asta asked.
"Gueldre uses Permeation magic, the spell he used on himself makes him invisible and intangible, the second spell he used summoned invisible knights, while they can't be seen, their magic can still be sensed," Marx explained as Yami, Jack, Charlotte, and Nozel quickly defeated said knights.
"That was easy, now we have to go after Gueldre, we can't let him escape," Nozel said.
"But how, his spell makes it impossible to see him, sense him, or hit him," Charlotte countered.
"It can be done," Yami spoke up, grabbing their attention. "We have Asta,"
Everyone turned to the swordsman, Asta looked at his captain. "Me?"
"That's right, those swords of yours can negate magic, and you can use Ki to track him, even if he's invisible," Yami explained.
Asta pulled out the Demon-Dweller Sword. "Alright, you can count on me," he said as he left the room.
"I think I can find him too, I know where he's going," Rill said as he left the room too.
"I need to get out of here, I'll leave the Clover Kingdom and stay there for a few days before meeting up with the Eye of The Midnight Sun," Gueldre thought as he made it to the main floor and began running to the exit. "I'm almost there!"
"Not so fast!" a voice exclaimed, Gueldre turned to see Asta in the air, his sword in hand, the swordsman struck the invisible mage, sending him to the ground and making him visible again.
"H-How did you find me?!" Gueldre exclaimed, confused someone could find him when he was invisible.
"Easy, I sensed your Ki," Asta replied as he began walking towards him. "You won't get away this time, you're going to pay for what you've done!"
"No, you won't catch me!" Gueldre exclaimed as he quickly got up and started running, making it outside.
"Sorry Gueldre, but this is as far as you go,"
Gueldre turned to his right to see Rill, a smile was on the young captain's face.
"I knew you'd pass by here, it's a good Asta undid your spell," he continued as he walked forward.
"He might've undone it, but I can recast it," the permeation mage said frantically.
"That's not happening," Rill said as he took out his grimoire. "Picture Binding Magic: Spring of Restriction!"
At his call, a swirl of colors surrounded the traitorous captain, he then began to sink, before he knew it, he was trapped in a large portrait.
"There we go, he can't cast any of his spells now," Rill said as Asta came out. "Don't worry I already got him,"
The swordsman looked at the bound captain. "Awesome, what kind of magic is that?"
"Picture magic, it turns anything I paint into reality, one day I hope to create the greatest masterpiece ever known," Rill replied. "But let's start by taking this guy back to Marx,"
"It seems to be worse than I thought, not only was Gueldre working with the Eye of The Midnight Sun and took out the barrier mages, he abused members in his squad and accepted multiple bribes in order to increase his personal wealth," Marx said as he searched the bound Gueldre's memories.
"Disgusting, he has no right to be called a Magic Knight," Charlotte said in disgust.
Marx turned to some capital mages. "Confiscate his grimoire and bring him to the dungeon," he said as they did so.
Julius turned to the captains. "I wasn't aware that Gueldre was a traitor, I want all of you to interrogate your squads to assure we don't have another traitor in our ranks,"
"Yes sir," they all clover-saluted.
"Thank you, that is all, you may return to your squads," the Wizard King said. "But, Yami, I'd like you and Asta to meet me in my office,"
"Okay," the two Black Bulls said as they followed the time mage to his office, he went to his desk and sat down.
"The two of you can sit down if you like," he offered.
"Nah, we'll be fine," Yami replied. "So, what did you want to talk to us about?"
"Asta and Kenos already know this, but the Eye of The Midnight Sun is after objects called Magic Stones, that was the reason they attacked the capital, Fuegoleon was in possession of one, as for what they need the stones for, I don't know," Julius explained.
"So, what do you want us to do about it?" Yami asked.
"We have to find the Magic Stones before they do, and I know the location of one: the Underwater Temple," Julius replied.
"How'd you find out?" Asta asked.
"I was informed by the Rossius, they found out about the stone's whereabouts just yesterday and sent me a letter informing me," the time mage responded again.
The swordsman narrowed his eyes after hearing that family name, it wasn't that long ago since he had been to their household.
"I'm assigning the Black Bulls to handle it, consider it a secret mission," Julius told them. "The temple is in a strong magic region, right under the ocean of Raquey, a popular beach town,"
"A strong magic region, that sounds tough," Yami said.
Julius nodded. "It will be, that's why you'll wait till the full moon, that'll be your best chance of crossing it, the magic around it will be severely weaker during that time, but the full moon will be in four days from now,"
"Alright then, I'll inform my squad, you can count on us," Yami clover-saluted as he and Asta left the office.
"I'm counting on you, Black Bulls, don't let me down, I know you can do it," Julius thought to himself.
Meanwhile, a captain was walking through a hallway, they were cloaked in the shadow of the room, but then, they were cloaked in light before they walked out.
And the one who walked out was Rhya.
"Well, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and here I thought this would be a big pain," the copy mage said as he formed a portal.
"Time to move on to the next stage," he said as he walked into it.