Chapter 42: The Hunted Finally Becomes The Hunter

Elara sat at the edge of her bed with a neutral expression as she gave instructions to one of the servants. The scent of daisies filled the air, creating a relaxing effect on whoever inhaled it.

“You may leave,” she instructed.

The female servant bowed deeply and left the room without lifting her head.

Elara’s expression broke from its neutral state the moment the door clicked shut. She fell onto her bed with a bounce and let out a groan.

She had spent the rest of the day pressuring Kaelen to tell her what exactly had happened in the town, but he had been strangely secretive about the whole thing.

After much insistence, she had only managed to get a description of the physical features, limited to his general build and the mask he wore.

That was enough for her. Besides, she couldn’t bear to look at his face for a second longer, so she dismissed him to the other rooms in the large house.

She stared blankly at the flowery ceiling and traced the moon design placed at its center, inwardly appreciating the contrast it created. The silver glow from the actual moon that spilled into her room caused a familiar face to surface in her mind.

She sighed and covered her eyes before muttering something under her breath.

Her feet made contact with the soft rug as she walked to her wardrobe and undressed.

Peeling away her royal attire, she slipped into something more comfortable—a blue pair of pajamas with a large griffon knitted across the chest, and a small heart near the hem of the shirt with the initials “C&A” stitched inside it.

She moved to the window and stared out at the greenery beyond. The building had been constructed only a few weeks prior to her arrival, and her father had made sure it was as far from the Grey–Rock border as possible.

A smile tugged at her lips as she recalled the chase she’d had with the Anomaly.

“He’s smart, that’s for sure. Ruthless too, and he has some kind of hold over this town. How do I beat someone with those attributes?”

She chuckled softly as she fell onto her pillow, face-first.

“I just have to be better.”

At the same time, Aden stepped foot on a leveled piece of greenery. He jumped over a large gate soundlessly and climbed behind a tree close to the manor.

Sounds of laughter and exchange of pleasantries sounded in his ears. Golden lights shone through the large windows of the manor, illuminating the people closeby.

Aden noticed that most of the people he saw had masks fixed on their faces, and they were all in the shapes of animals.

A noticeable number of knights roamed around the compound in an orderly fashion, their hands never leaving the handle of their swords.

’Are these people having a cosplay party? After stealing my shard? They dare take what’s rightfully mine?’

A cold smile formed on his lips and his fingers buried themselves into the bark of the tree.

“Those dumb, self centered nobles. I’ll make them pay.”

His eyes followed the trail of servants that led into the manor and the servers stationed at each pillar. A plan slowly formulated in his mind.

He pulled his fingers free of the bark and jumped down from the tree soundlessly.

He stood against the large wall that protected the manor from outsiders. It was vastly different from all the walls he’d seen since his coming here.

Aden pressed his back against the manor wall. It wasn’t made of the crumbling brick of the slums or the soot-stained stone of the textile district. This was Ivory-Quartz, a rare material that naturally hummed with a low-level Purity frequency.

To anyone else, it was just a smooth, cold surface. To Aden, it felt like leaning against a live wire.

’This isn’t your average wall,’ he realized, his fingers skimming the surface. ’It’s a massive Resonance conductor. If I try to climb it using any form of energy to grip the stone, I’ll set off every alarm in the building.’

He looked down at his hands and took a deep breath. He didn’t jump, instead, he pulled a small, silver fox mask from a trash bin where a drunken guest had likely tossed it and placed it on his face.

A small fraction of his Void energy circulated through his body, alleviating the itch that had been slowly accumulating a little.

The air around him paused, the winds halted and the laughing guests’ laughter ceased for a split second.

In the next second, he was on the other side of the wall.

He jumped into a shrub immediately and snapped his head urgently, his ears perking up to pick up anything remotely close to an alarm.

The laughters were still uninterrupted and everything else the same as they’d been a second ago.

A smug smile formed on his lips. ’Can’t touch what you can’t see, can ya?’

He infused his energy into his eyes and got a general layout of the buildings in the observable distance.

Waiting for a guard to pass by his location, he moved toward the servant’s entrance, where a large, golden-furred beast was being fed chunks of raw meat. The beast tamers were distracted, laughing about the Masked Ghost bounty and how they’d spend the gold.

’Dream all you want, zoo keepers,’ Aden ridiculed as he slipped into the shadow of the meat-cart.

The wall here had a small gap—a drainage port for the beast’s enclosure. It was narrow, filthy, and smelled of iron and musk.

’Meat first, heist second,’ he reminded himself, though his heart was now beating with the rhythm of a hunter.

A Griffon with red feathers rested on the padded floor with a peaceful look. A large chunk of fried meat was placed before him, the scent making Aden’s mouth water.

’Thank you, my good friend,’ he rubbed the beast’s nose, earning a pleased growl from it.

A gap revealed itself as the Griffon adjusted it’s large body, making Aden’s eyes to shine in a triumphant light.

He squeezed through the gap, his body contorting in ways that would have snapped the bones of a normal man.

The Ivory-Quartz screamed against his skin, a high-pitched psychic whistle that threatened to shatter his focus, but he pushed through.

He emerged in the internal courtyard, hidden behind a decorative hedge.

Above him, on a balcony, two nobles stood with glass flutes filled with shimmering blue wine.

“Did you hear?” one laughed, adjustng his lion mask. “Baron Valerius says the Essence will be ready by dawn. Once he has it, we won’t need the Shard or this pathetic town anymore.”

Aden’s grip on the hedge tightened, snapping a branch with a quiet crack.

’They’re not even infected, yet they’re depriving the less privileged of getting healed.’

The hatred he felt for these nobles burned hotter in his heart, the sheer selfishness they exuded reminded him of his experiences on Earth.

Spitting out a bone, he closed his eyes and spread out his senses throughout the manor, riskily infusing it with his Void energy to pinpoint the exact location of the Essence.

Within a few moments, the location of the Essence projected its location and size in Aden’s consciousness.

’Time to get back what’s mine’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep