King Toma E. Fiore did not dare to be negligent in the face of the Wizard Saint's polite deference.
He quickly stood up, his short stature belying the dignity of his position, and returned the courtesy with a solemn nod.
"I am Toma E. Fiore, King of this kingdom. I have long heard of the esteemed names of you exceptional mages from Fairy Tail. Your presence here is a great reassurance."
The king's aged eyes, wise and weary from decades of rule, scanned over the three mages before settling on Ankh.
In the monarch's view, Ankh and the other young Wizard Saint, Siegrain, were truly the most outstanding talents to emerge on the continent in a generation.
One only needed to look at the other members of the Ten Wizard Saints to understand why.
Fairy Tail's own Master Makarov was a strong man in his seventies.
Jose of Phantom Lord was an old man clinging to a facade of youth.
Among the top four, the legendary Four Gods of Ishgar, the youngest was already well into his thirties, while the oldest was a figure who had nearly spanned an entire era.
Only these two, Ankh and Siegrain, had achieved power and renown to rival these veterans before even reaching twenty years of age.
They were, in every sense, heaven's favored ones.
And now, with his kingdom and his daughter under threat, it was precisely such formidable talent that Toma needed.
The perpetual worry that had been etched between his brows for days finally eased, if only slightly.
Perhaps there was hope.
The king gestured for the three to take the seats that had been prepared for them.
As they settled, the false "Carteus" moved with practiced deference to close the large, ornate doors to the conference hall before taking up a position standing faithfully by the king's side, the picture of a loyal retainer.
Ankh, never one for prolonged courtesies when a mission was at hand, did not avoid the subject.
He leaned forward slightly, his calm gaze fixed on the king.
"Your Majesty, regarding the commission you mentioned involving the White Devil Cult, what exactly is the situation and what do you require of us?"
Hearing the dreaded name spoken aloud, the king's aged face crumpled in distress.
He let out a deep, weary sigh that seemed to carry the weight of his entire kingdom before pulling a single, plain card from within his royal robe.
His hand trembled almost imperceptibly as he handed it over.
"Please, take a look for yourselves."
Ankh accepted the card.
The material was cheap, the kind available in any common market stall, but the words printed on it were venomous.
He read them aloud, his voice cool and measured, yet each syllable dripped with ice:
"King of Fiore, your precious daughter, Princess Hisui, is in our hands. If you know what's good for you, obediently withdraw the guards from the royal treasury. Otherwise, don't blame us for returning her corpse to you!"
He paused, then finished flatly, "It is signed simply, 'White Devil.'"
A cold, predatory glint flashed in Ankh's eyes.
"Even when beaten back to the brink of annihilation, clinging to survival like cornered rats, they still dare to show themselves so brazenly." His tone was deceptively soft, but it promised a world of violence.
Since he had first exposed the Cult's grand designs years ago, they had suffered unprecedented blows.
Major nations, spurred to action, had sent troops to reclaim the small countries the cult had covertly occupied, stripping these criminals of their bases and resources.
Later, Ankh himself had taken to the hunt, pursuing the cult's remnants with a brutal efficiency that had become legendary in certain circles.
That any of them still drew breath was a testament only to their connection with the mysterious Tartaros and their cockroach-like ability to scatter and hide.
After processing the vile message, Erza frowned, her tactical mind working nonstop.
"How was Princess Hisui captured?" she asked, her voice sharp. "The specifics of the event are crucial."
"Exactly," Mirajane added, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms.
Her tone was less formal and more blunt. "She's the crown princess, presumably residing in the most secure, deepest part of the palace. Don't you have even that much protective capability? This seems like a massive failure of security."
King Toma's shoulders slumped, the criticism striking a painful chord.
"I protected Hisui with my own life," he said, his voice thick with sorrow. "Her guards were the best, her quarters a fortress. But her disappearance was... supernatural. There was no forced entry, no struggle, no alert from the palace guards. One moment she was in her chambers, the next... she was simply gone."
"After Hisui vanished, I received this card. I mobilized the entire royal garrison, turning the capital upside down in a search that lasted three days and nights. We found nothing. No trace, no witness, no clue. It was as if she had been plucked from this world by a ghost." He looked at the three mages, his expression one of desperate hope.
"Finally, with no other path forward, I had to swallow my pride and trouble a Wizard Saint of Fairy Tail."
Erza pensively pinched her chin, her gaze growing distant as she analyzed the facts.
"To spirit away a princess from the heart of a heavily guarded palace without leaving a single trace... this suggests capabilities far beyond simple thuggery. The White Devil Cult we faced before was powerful, but this... this is a different level of sophistication and stealth."
Mirajane let out a scornful, quiet laugh. "Sophistication? I doubt it."
She uncrossed her arms and leaned forward, her eyes narrowing.
"The more likely, and more troubling, explanation is that the palace has already been deeply infiltrated. There are spies for the cult walking these very halls, wearing uniforms, perhaps even standing in this very room." She shot a meaningful, sweeping glance around the opulent chamber.
"Otherwise, how could a 'crippled remnant,' as Ankh put it, possibly pull this off? They didn't sneak in; they were already here."
It had to be said, that although Mirajane's current temperament was often impulsive and quick to anger, when she set her mind to a puzzle, the sharp, calculating insight that had once earned her the title "She-Devil" shone through with piercing clarity.
As she spoke, Ankh's eyes subtly flickered toward "Carteus," who stood statue-still by the throne.
The man's expression was perfectly neutral, but Ankh didn't miss the minute tightening of the muscles around his jaw.
Turning back to Toma, Ankh asked the pivotal question.
"In that case, Your Majesty, what is your intended course of action? How precisely do you wish for us to assist you?"
"Of course, we cannot agree to these vile cultists' demands!" Toma declared, his voice suddenly firm.
Ankh looked at the king with renewed interest as Toma's comically short stature seemed to grow, radiating an astonishing, fiery aura of royal authority.
This was not a frightened father ready to capitulate; this was a king pushed to the wall and ready to fight.
Toma slammed a small, firm hand on the arm of his throne, his earlier distress burned away by a pure, blazing fury.
"How dare they! How dare they lay hands on my daughter! They must not be let off lightly! They will be made to understand the cost of threatening the Royal of Fiore!"
"Expecting me to withdraw the guards from the royal treasury and leave the wealth of the nation undefended? To bow to their extortion? Not a chance! Never!"
With that, Toma hopped down from the elevated dais of his throne, landing squarely before the three mages.
"Therefore, I would like to request your assistance in working with the military—but not openly. I want you to hide in the shadows, to be the unseen blade. Let the military make a public show of force to lull them into a false sense of security. Meanwhile, you will be the ones to find their nest, round up these rats lurking in the dark, and bring my daughter home!"
Erza's expression turned solemn and filled with a knightly fervor.
She placed a hand over her heart, her armor clinking softly.
"Your Majesty, rest assured. We will not fail you or the princess. We will hunt these villains down and rescue Princess Hisui! You have the word of Fairy Tail!"
Toma nodded, visibly moved by her conviction.
"Carteus," seeing an opportunity, chimed in smoothly, "Your Majesty, with the assistance of these three powerful mages, the White Devil Cult is nothing to worry about. Their reign of terror is at an end."
Watching the highly motivated Erza make such a bold, sweeping promise, Mirajane, who had been silent during this exchange, couldn't help but roll her eyes.
A lesson Ankh had drilled into her years ago echoed in her mind: 'When undertaking uncertain missions, especially against a hidden enemy, it is best not to make absolute promises to the client. It sets unrealistic expectations and can lead to profound disappointment.' She sighed inwardly.
'For all her strength and talent, in matters like this, Erza really doesn't resemble her cautious brother at all...'
Ankh, meanwhile, showed no outward emotion at Erza's pledge.
Instead, he did something that perplexed everyone in the room.
He stood up, his demeanor still calm, and made a quiet, unexpected request.
"Your Majesty," he said, his voice low. "Before we proceed, could I trouble you for a moment of your time? In private?"
A stunned silence fell over the conference hall.
Everyone present was taken aback by the abruptness of the request.
But no one's reaction was more pronounced than that of "Carteus."
His face tightened almost imperceptibly, and he felt as if his heart had been seized in an icy grip.
Had he been discovered? Was this it?
The impostor's mind raced.
It was impossible! Ankh had met the real Carteus a full four years ago, and their interactions then had been brief, limited to a single mission.
The disguise was perfect, the mannerisms meticulously studied!
Unless the man's eyes were blessed by a deity, there was no conceivable way he could have seen through it so quickly!
He forced himself to breathe evenly, to keep his posture relaxed and his face a mask of mild, respectful curiosity.
He could not afford to reveal any flaw now.
King Toma was momentarily stunned, but the gravity in Ankh's tone brooked no argument.
He quickly nodded.
"Of course, Ankh." He then politely but firmly escorted everyone else, including a deeply wary "Carteus," out of the room, closing the heavy doors behind them and leaving himself alone with the Wizard Saint.
Once outside in the lavishly decorated corridor, Erza looked puzzled, her confident proclamation momentarily forgotten.
"Brother... did he notice something we missed?" she muttered, more to herself than to Mirajane.
Mirajane, in contrast, laughed without a hint of surprise.
"Ankh always notices things the rest of us miss. It's his specialty. He must have thought of something important, something he couldn't say in front of... everyone."
Her gaze drifted meaningfully toward the closed doors.
Erza nodded slowly, accepting the logic, but then a flicker of self-doubt crossed her features.
"But how come I didn't notice anything? It seems I've been too lax with myself... I must be more observant."
Listening to her mutter to herself, Mirajane felt utterly speechless, a fresh wave of exasperation washing over her.
Standing a polite distance behind the two girls, "Carteus" listened to their conversation, a hint of cold disdain curling inside him.
'A monster like Ankh, one of the Ten Wizard Saints—how often does a person of that caliber appear in a century?' he thought. 'These two little girls, for all their S-Class titles, how could they possibly operate on the same level as a man who commands shadows and the respect of nations?'
The impostor, well aware of the reports detailing Ankh's terrifying power, felt his contempt for the two women grow.
Though both were S-Class Mages, flashy, self-proclaimed titles like "Fairy Queen" and "Demon" were clearly not as blood-chilling as the one earned in battle: "Fairy Tail's Grim Reaper."
Erza and Mirajane still had a long, long way to go before their names inspired genuine fear.
His guard now lowered against the two women, whom he dismissed as lesser threats, "Carteus" fixed his entire attention on the ornate doors, his ears straining, his mind racing, trying to pierce the thick wood to hear the conversation within.
'Everything... everything should still be fine, right?'
The question echoed in his mind, a silent prayer to dark gods.
'He couldn't possibly know.'
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