Chapter 209 - Walking Bomb?

“What were you thinking?!” It was the first time they had Lord Hall yell, and to be fair, they did leave, ignoring his orders, but they were just coming back to pick up their stuff.

“A lot of things,” Luna replied calmly as she finished packing up her bag. Which was placed neatly on the bed. “The most important one for you was that I was curious about how the reaction would be.”

“The reaction of the parliament after you broke the order?”

Syrus turned around, “No, the reaction of the city. What would appear upon my exit, and it was juicier than I expected.” Luna added, “In accordance with Eletscoep, unless a non-citizen is charged with a crime, is suspected to be infected with an infectious disease, or is in possession of a potentially illegal item, they can’t be detained. So on the crime side, I haven’t done anything as the order doesn’t exactly apply to me.”

This stunned Lord Hall for a moment. No one expected Anlesa to be familiar with Eletscoep law, but with Eva, who lived in this city, to learn and experience the laws, and Luna, as a part of her studies, to read into the laws of this country, they knew fully well what could and couldn’t affect them.

“The law considers everyone who came from the city, and is currently active within it.”

[That loophole.] Luna wanted to roll their eyes; they had already expected that argument.

Syrus shrugged, “And how does that apply to me?”

“Your family–”

“I could be lying, not to mention, I never said which side of my family. There could not be a speck of my blood that came from this country, and your parliament can’t prove it either way.” They already had an argument ready for that law trick. If the parliament wanted to punish them through that method, then they needed to look elsewhere.

Of course, that was far from foolproof. There were plenty of ways for the parliament to harass or imprison them, but that required more bureaucracy unless the Prime Minister himself ordered it, and that had its own restrictions and complications. If that were all the case, then an easy way to avoid it was to go quiet.

After searching through this city, they had learned the paths well, and with their disguises, they could even hide perfectly, but it was likely better to just hide as Syrus to help trick people in other areas.

Lord Hall groaned before he spoke. In the grand scheme of their time here, he hadn’t interacted with Syrus much, but he had been given numerous reports and updates from Haiver. Each one made him realise that this girl was a difficult one, something he had missed during their first encounter.

He didn’t know whether she was calculating or reckless, and honestly, he would rather Havier be here to have this conversation. His head butler and friend were always a bit better at convincing people.

“Syrus…” As he prepared his next speech for the hunter.

The sound of frantic footsteps could be heard moving towards the room.

“Syrus, I have heard you returned." Mary had run to Anlesa’s room the moment she heard the news. “What are you thinking, and are you okay?” 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

“Thinking a lot of different things, but I am okay. Everything from my point of view is golden.”

“And, what about the part of your safety? I wanted you to stop being in constant danger.”

Syrus admitted, “I needed to exchange information which was relevant to your safety, and I needed to see what would happen if I left, and the results were interesting.”

Mary glared at Syrus, “How is being attacked interesting?”

“Do you know the details of the attack?”

“All I know is that you were attacked by gangs.”

Syrus turned to Lord Hall, and he replied, "Someone else must’ve informed her from the staff.”

Mary looked at both of them, worried, “What happened…?”

Syrus gave Mary a quick breakdown that after she was attacked by a large group of gangs working together, the guards showed up who threatened to arrest her on murder charges despite the fact that everyone was alive. Then one of the guards tried to kill an unconscious individual, and the leader of the group attacked Syrus in the middle of the street.

“That’s even worse…” Learning the exact details of the situation made Mary more concerned. “Why would you leave when that happened?”

“That is the crux of the matter.” Lord Hall interjected. “For everyone's safety, it is better if you stay protected here as we planned the evacuation.”

“I’m not too interested in that, I have my own plans.” Everything was packed up, except the sword, which was still on the bed. She then pulled a smaller bag from the bigger one. “Mary. I shall put you in charge of keeping these supplies safe. Carrying a big bag around constantly isn’t exactly fun for me.”

“What are you even on about….”

Syrus tossed the little sack over her shoulder, holding the rope that kept it closed. “This bag is all I need, so if I never come back, consider these items a donation or a birthday present. Whatever the reason is, up to you.”

Mary asked, worried. “What are you planning?”

Syrus smirked, “Nothing special.”

Lord Hall let out an exasperated sigh. “I swear you are walking—”

“Walking bomb?”

“That wasn’t the word I was going to use, but that is appropriate.” Lord Hall let out a long sigh. Today was hard, this whole situation was painful and worst of all, he felt like there was nothing he could do. It wasn’t the first time he felt this way, far from the first… but every time this feeling came, it never got easier. It only reminded him of his failings more strongly.

“I…” Lord… Maxus Hall had been dreaming and having nightmares of Maryelle’s return for decades. It was hard not to. Sometimes it was a happy reunion, but the majority were nightmares. Mary, being caught in the schemes of the current political climate in every way that could develop, or her return would just be her body, which was always a more painful nightmare.

Maxus Hall was an old man now. He was considered young thirty years ago, mostly because of his attitude, even when most twenty-year-olds lost that label. Thirty-one years ago and beyond were memories of the best times of his life. Of a time, that would never come back.

And now… His best friend was now an uncle.

Max had been the biggest surprise and was something his mind never predicted. The Maryelle in his mind was always that little girl whom he couldn’t protect, but the one that came back was an adult who had lived her life with her own hardships and tribulations.

Anlesa didn’t know what Lord Hall was thinking, but they had their guesses as the man looked tired and worried.

Ethan, Maca, Max, and Lavender all came charging in, cramping the room. Cobalt was the only one who chose to stay outside as he watched the situation unfold. He was a very smart dog, as the room had suddenly gotten a lot tighter.

What happened next was very much a repeat of what happened with Mary. People had questions and various amounts of information. Some overheard people speaking while others had been told by certain staff that Syrus got into trouble. Anlesa had a delightful time trying to rectify the differences in information in the group, and once again spoke about her genius plan of leaving and doing whatever she wanted to do.

To the surprise of no one, the majority of people weren’t exactly happy with Anlesa’s decision. The amount of danger she would be put in was massive. The manor had many people around who could protect everyone and help alert everyone if an intruder entered. This was deeply important for the great act of sleeping, the time when everyone was most vulnerable.

Maca was able to accept some of the risk Syrus was taking since, in the end, she would always be returning, but it was clear from her plan that she had no plans to come back any time soon.

Max also disagreed, but he didn’t really know enough. He was acting on emotions and felt this was a bad idea.

The only ones who had any positive thoughts about Syrus’s plan were Lavender and Ethan. The former had a feeling for a while now that Syrus would be doing something like this, so it wasn’t much of a surprise. She agreed that it was massively risky, but if Syrus was doing this now, then she must’ve had a pre-arranged plan sorted.

Ethan also had faith in Syrus's plan, due to his existing trust in his teacher.

After a few back-and-forth rounds with the brick wall. Everyone eventually gave up. There was no way they could convince ‘Syrus’ to say, and to do so would require conceiving two of the trio to drift away from the plan. Trying to keep her by force also seemed impossible. Maca heard some of the guards suggest that, but that idea was immediately shot down by Mary and then Maca, who bluntly said, ‘only death will await’.

Before she ended up leaving, she managed to corner a certain butler that she was dying to speak with before leaving.

“Havier, before I leave, I do have a few questions that I am wondering if you have the answers for.”

The butler sighed, “I’ll do my best.”

It was time for Anlesa to accelerate her operations. “Good, and in the future. I have another favour to request of you.”