"How did nobody notice him going out?" Arthur summoned Emmy and Stephen and asked them how Asher managed to slip past the security of the estate.
"Young Master told me to let him be alone in the training chambers and requested that I remove other servants from the vicinity," Emmy told him with her head held down.
"Where the hell has he gone?" Arthur was looking at the message that Asher had left outside the training hall in his phone. He had gone out without security and without his phone as well. Usually, Arthur would not panic if Asher had just taken his phone with him as he could have had it tracked. This was the reason Asher left his phone as well.
"Tell the security team to search for him, but don't let other people know that Asher is missing," he ordered Stephen.
"Emmy, you go stay with Sylvie and tell her about this as well," he said, already having a headache considering if Asher somehow got late or missed this party, it would cause him unnecessary troubles.
"I just hope he doesn't get into any trouble," he sat down on his seat and closed his eyes to calm his mind.
Emmy left with Stephen, who ordered the shadow guards of the Greville family to search for Asher. They were trained hunters whose sole purpose was to guard the Greville Family and follow the orders of the family head. Even Nathan could not command these guards to do something. Only Arthur, who sat as the successor of Nathan, had the authority to command them. They were people who were bound by a mana oath contract from a young age.
These people were generally orphans with no backing, and only Elite Families and other High Council seat holders were allowed to bound people with Mana Oaths. Mana oaths could be broken but the moment they will alert the other party. The moment one of these shadow guards will even have thoughts of betrayal about the Greville family, Arthur will know about the oath being broken.
Slavery was not allowed in this world. No matter who you were and or how much power you held, if the world knew such person dabbled into slavery, they would face heavy criticism from the masses as well as other major powers. Hundreds of years ago when the first mana breakout happened, such things were common issues. So long ago the High Council was formed. This consisted of all the major power holders in the world who enacted certain rules and regulations for everyone to follow.
Meanwhile, a young boy with a black hoodie hiding his face could be seen walking in a mountain range. This young boy was none other than Asher. He was walking along a forest path and arrived at a particular place and stopped.
"Seems like this was the place where the dungeon will appear in a month or two," Asher felt the mana in the surroundings of the place. He wanted to observe the phenomenon of dungeon gate forming. Nobody could do it in the world as who would know where a new dungeon would appear. He felt the mana around the place and found nothing odd with it.
"The mana is stable around here, so Gate forming is not related to mana instability as I thought before," Although the real reason he came out of his Estate was to calm his mind and let loose in someplace. He knew if during the party his bloodlust came out, others, and even his parents might suspect something strange in him.
"Let's hunt some beasts," He took out a sword from his space ring. An E rank sword he used when he had gone into the dungeon was still with him. Usually, you needed to return such weapons, but the officer there didn't dare ask Asher to give back the weapon as he technically owned everything of the Abyss Guild.
Asher channeled his mana in his eyes and legs and quickly moved past many trees. Beasts here were not as strong as peak G Rank monsters, but they could still kill a normal human. Although Asher wanted a tougher opponent, he could not enter a dungeon without others noticing him, and to calm his bloodlust, these beasts would do just fine for him.
He saw a pack of 10 Wolves sitting around and jumped in the middle of them. This move was basically suicidal, as who would jump in between 10 beasts, although they were not comparable to peak G-Rank wolves in the dungeon, but they were equivalent to Mid G-Rank wolves. He immediately released his bloodlust, which froze the wolves as they jumped away from Asher. He carefully released his killing intent so as to not freak out the wolves too much.
"Come on puppies, don't run now. Give me some fight!" He said with his eyes showing shining crimson red.
The wolves were cautious, but because Asher was the one who infiltrated their den, they were quite mad at him. Three wolves jumped together at him. Seeing them jumping, he quickly backstepped and slashed two of them at the same time. His sword traveled in a wide U path beheading the two beasts. Seeing two of their kin dead, all the wolves were glaring and making sound at him.
"GRRghhh"
"Grgghhhrrr"
Five of them rushed at him from all directions. Seeing their charge, Asher stood still and waited for a second before using his mana in his legs to jump upwards. He was airborne and seeing him that way, the wolves were waiting for him to come on the ground. He could not change his trajectory mid-air, and so the wolves only looked above waiting for him.
"Whooooooooooooo" He breathed out mid-air and rotated his body, making himself turn and slash three of the wolves. Two of them died instantly and one was dripping blood all over the place. He used the force of his sword to shift his body to the left and land behind the three wolves which were left. He didn't waste any time and quickly dashed towards and killing the other wolves easily. He tried to use his bloodline on one of the dead wolves.
[ No Higher Stat found, cannot absorb ]
"Tch, So weak," He wiped the blood off his face and moved further into the forest.
All the animals in this mountain range were around below Mid G-Rank, so he hunted many such beasts, taking their carcass into his space ring. Although he did not need them, but letting them rot here was not an option as well. He wanted no one to know about his presence in this forest. He had already carefully removed his traces while going out of the estate. Even the shadow guards would not be able to trace him back.
"This much will be enough for now," Asher was breathing roughly as he ran around a lot to hunt some beasts. He was soaked in blood from head to toe. He arrived at the lake near the forest and washed himself before going back in the city as he would alert everybody walking with blood all over him.
"Two hours more until they arrive at the fake trail I left behind," He thought as he dressed up in new clothes he had already stored in his ring before arriving here. He rested for a couple of minutes and meditated to recover his mana. After a 15-minute rest, he exited the forest and arrived at the city. He took a cab and stopped at T-point street somewhere in Soran.
"I have 30 extra minutes..." He looked at the time and there was still some time before the Shadow guards would arrive here. Although they could find him quite quickly, doing it without causing a commotion and making others aware of Asher's disappearance was quite tough. He knew this and played his card right. His personality was antisocial, and he would use whatever excuse to distract Arthur from questioning him. But he was sure after today's party, his disappearance would be the least troubling issue to Arthur.
"Young Master, we need to take you back," Asher, who was sitting in a cafe drinking a coffee, heard a voice behind him. He saw two men with black hoodies and covered faces. Their sudden appearance alarmed other customers, but Asher knew who they were, so he was calm.
"There's still some time before the party, I will go there after finishing my coffee," He took a sip of his coffee calmly, and listening to him, the two men immediately disappeared from their locations. Other customers were startled by this, but nobody wanted trouble, so they did not voice it.
"Nice coffee," Asher said while slowly finishing his coffee. He had wasted so much time that it was already 7:30 PM in the evening. The shadow guards were also thinking about what to do because they would be late if he delayed it anymore. The coffee shop owner had already given him 5 cups of coffee. He was surprised by his appearance, some people even tried to take his pictures, but the shadow guards always stopped them.
Fortunately, Asher got up after finishing his 6th coffee. Was he even human, drinking SIX cups of coffee??? He tipped the cafe owner, who was surprised to see the amount he tipped, but before he could thank him, Asher was already out of the cafe and left with his guards.
He arrived at the Estate, which was decorated everywhere. Their cars entered from another path, which was different from the path the guests would take. He exited his car and saw Arthur, who was wearing a white suit.
"Why did you leave without the guards, my 'dear son'?" Arthur smiled and asked him.
