Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

"So when do we start?" Wrik asked, ignoring all the stares. if Ryat did not mention to the others, why would he let out his secrets? Well, he was not wrong. Even though the other three had accepted him cordially, he could still keep a few of his secrets. And from his perspective, they should have a few secrets on their own. But the one with the most secrets should be the bald, short man and he appeared to know some secrets about his crews as well.

A terrifying man in contrast to his stature.

Anton finally seemed to have to get what they were mentioning about, and seeing his look, he sealed his lips as well.

Ryat did not answer immediately. "The faster you guys prepare," he said. "The plan would not work if even a small piece was not ready for it. There is no definite time, but I would like everyone to be ready in four weeks' time or less."

"Isn't that quite early?" Wrik asked again, as he did not know how they could prepare everything so early. 

"As I mentioned, the item has a lot of eyes in it, and when it was in there, we could only steal it," Ryat said. "Lord Rudyard could not always delay the council. But don't worry about the time, everything will be checked by us. After all, I had planned this for quite a while now. All you have to do is, train to do your part. Wrik, you will be playing the crucial role and you need the most training in it as well.

"You need to have at least the speed of 121km per second to bypass the system here." He showed the tunnel-like path that divided through a lot of left and rights. It was the way towards where the item was securely hidden.

Wrik looked at where Ryat was pointing and frowned. The distance it showed was exactly 587 metres. With his capability, getting to that speed for an instance was easy if he put every elevation for that instance, but the issue here was that in the quick instant he could barely move about a hundred metres. 

"I know what you're thinking," Ryat said. "Even with the best artifact I have, you will fall short by a couple of hundred metres. That is why you have to train your hardest in these few days. Work on your agility and the mana revolution while I will look for another item that could get you a bonus into revolving mana." 

"There was another solution," he said, though he was not sure about doing that. "I can invest the 7 free points in agility and get a boost of about 90% in agility, though I have no idea if the actual number would be that staggering as my ability in wielding mana would still be the same." 

"No," Ryat said at once, and Rosie and Balat joined in with him to decline his proposal. The bald leader continued, shaking his head. "You should not do that if you are not in mortal peril. Look at these two. Both Balat and Rosie wasted their early free points to get out of some dangerous and they were still regretting it."

Balat nodded while Rosie added, "If you use those points, then it's gone for good and you will be wasting so much of your potential with it. You don't know how much each of those points is worth until you wasted them." 

"Well, I'm just saying," he said, as he did not expect this much reaction from the crew. "Then all I can do is work hard."

Ryat continued with the discussion and told everyone about their role, though there was no Byul in it. Ryat mentioned he would get her to do something, though nothing seriously dangerous. Byul sighed in relief at hearing that. Nobody expects much from her as she should be the weakest, ignoring Ryat, who was still an enigma to him.

"All is good, but how are we going to escape from there?" Anton asked, arching his eyebrows. 

"That was where I and you will come to play," Ryat said with a glittering smile, as if he was truly proud about it. "We will warp away from there." 

"Teleportations?" Anton frowned. "Isn't the place sealed for all teleportation paths."

"It is, but it is not absolute," Ryat said, grinning. "I have a way to solve that and you will help me do that."

"Are you going to be all mysterious about it?" Wrik asked with concern. After all, he would be the one who would dig deeper inside there. His safety would be in harm's way the most. 

"I will mention it during the rehearsal. It is quite late already," Ryat said. "Now, does anyone have any questions? 

"I have one," Wrik said at once and saw Byul picking her arm up. Getting Ryat's approval, he said, "Where did you get the information about the item and where they were hiding it? It should be confidential information, no? I reckon not many even in house Rudyard knew about it?" 

"A valid question," Ryat said. "To be honest, I got it from a broker, though it was not your usual one."

"Wait, how could you believe that your broker did not sell that information to anyone else?" Anton asked, and the others held a clear concern as well. It appeared this shady merchant kept secrets from his old crew member as well.

Ryat smiled. " As I mentioned, it is not your usual broker. Not everyone could buy his information, and there is not many he sold informations too," he said. "The broker owed a favour to my old master. I'm sure he would not sell this new to anyone else. I have her word." 

"Is it Black Raven?" Wrik asked with narrowed eyes. 

Ryat frowned instantly at hearing him. "Looks like you are digging quite well, to even find her name," he said. "Yes, it is her."

It was not exactly because he was digging, but he found her name or pseudonym through the data left behind in the ruby by Lucas. In one of the task, he was supposed to find this Black Raven and get some important information about its origin. He was sure their family was not normal, there was some in linking with other things he was not sure about. Aunt Anna knew some part of it, but she was not ready to break her promise to his mother. All he could hope was that this Black Raven had the information. He made a mental notation to ask Ryat to introduce him to her. 

Ryat moved to the other person that raised her arm. 

Byul released a deep breath and opened her mouth for the first time there. "What will happen if we get captured?" she asked hesitantly.

The room turned silent. And the sound of them releasing deep breaths came. 

"Have you seen the sickly slaves on your way here?" Ryat asked her. Seeing her nod uncomfortably, he continued, "Then we will be turned into that, or worse. If you get caught, you might have to live your entire life mining while the illness infects your body slowly." 

Wrik shivered a little, and he was not the only one. Byul and Anton joined in the shivering. But the others were not the same. They all knew something like this happened, but only the three of them had not accepted it yet.

"But don't worry, the chances of us getting captured are not high," Ryat said as his voice turned the opposite 180 degrees. "Even if some of you got captured, I or the others would do everything to break you away from there."

'That did not relieve me at all,' Wrik thought and watched the bald, short man rising up. 

The discussion is finished for today and Ryat broke the barriers he had put before. Finally, they could get fresh air though it was not much fresh here.

They all left the room and one by one they bid goodnight went to their own room. Anton left yawning, but the short-haired girl was still looking at him as if she had a lot of questions to ask him.

"Good night, Byul," Wrik said as he was in no mood to answer any one of the questions. He was about to leave, but she caught his arm.

"Hold on," she said and made a brief eye contact with him. She could not keep it and asked, "Why are you avoiding Tanya? Do you know how depressed she is?" 

Wrik freed his arm from her and looked out of the window. This was not something he knew the answer of and he did not want to seek the answer. Not now, at least.

Byul somehow seemed to have understood it as well somehow. A pained and troubled expression appeared in her eyes at the same time. "I know you have a lot of things to worry about, but you should consider her more, at least for the chances you still have."

________________

End of the chapter: The Plan. 

Next chapter: Deportation.