At Leon's feet lay the body of the Rank Nine knight. He had been the last one to die completely, so Leon immediately headed for the other rooms. Instead of opening each door, he simply passed through the walls without slowing down.
[Be careful. I'm sure there are still enemies.]
As soon as the system finished speaking, seven knights appeared in front of him to block his advance. Leon merely extended his hand, and a gigantic fireball exploded ahead, destroying the entire room and opening an enormous hole. Without hesitation, he leaped through the opening. As he descended, he intensified the flames of the explosion left behind even further and kept them burning for several seconds. The mages and knights who were beginning to revive were consumed by the flames until they were reduced to ashes.
The first subordinates he found were his three strongest maids. They seemed to have just defeated their opponents and only had a few injuries. Leon stopped beside them so quickly that he startled all three.
"Where are Rebecca and Elara? Is Knigrave with them?"
"Lord Leon, as soon as we appeared here, we were separated. We were with both of them, but we ended up being captured."
"Where was the last place you saw them?"
The maids pointed in one direction, and Leon was already about to run there when everyone noticed that the rooms were beginning to disappear simultaneously. The three women became worried. If that dimension was being dismantled, it meant the plan to capture Rebecca might have been completed.
"Lord Leon, they came here to kidnap Lady Rebecca. If they..."
"No... Now that this dimension is disappearing, I can sense almost everyone's mana..."
After saying that, Leon fell silent as he returned to the street. Near a corner, he saw Rebecca lying unconscious. He immediately ran to her and took her into his arms. Witnessing that scene, the maids let out deep sighs of relief.
Leon turned his eyes to the left and narrowed them. Farther ahead, Elara stood with her gaze fixed on the ground. In front of her, Knigrave was kneeling beside a body. Feeling the last traces of mana still lingering within that body, Leon clenched his teeth. Veins bulged along his neck as his expression grew colder and colder.
'I need to wipe out that filthy family as soon as possible.'
Outside the city, about ten thousand kilometers away, a portal opened in the middle of the forest. In one of the dimension's rooms, Solene had prepared a portal that could only be activated with her own blood. Once opened, another portal would appear kilometers away in a place where they would be unlikely to be found.
"Maito, once we return, we'll put our plan to strengthen our forces into action. You need to reach Circle Ten within a week."
Solene, Maito, and several mages passed through the portal. In total, only seven people survived the mission. The operation had been a complete failure. Everyone had believed that at least some of the guards would be able to withstand Leon long enough. If they had lasted long enough, they could have been transported directly to the portal room.
"If I receive proper training, I'll reach Circle Ten in three days."
While he had been at Leon's side, Maito had always pretended to possess only the strength of a Rank Seven user, hiding his true level since childhood. In reality, he was already a Rank Nine knight and was on the verge of reaching Rank Ten.
"I'll prepare suitable training. So don't worry."
Solene walked ahead of him while Maito remembered the training sessions Leon used to impose. In front of Leon and the other two leaders, he had always pretended to put in less effort than he truly could. However, when no one was watching, he performed every exercise with complete seriousness.
As much as he hated to admit it, the level he had reached was the result of the years he had spent training alongside Leon.
'Well... I helped him a lot in the beginning. So getting me to this level is the least he owed me.'
When they reached a river, they found several knights from House Valtor waiting for them. All of them were awaiting Darian's orders and news of the mission's success. Solene clicked her tongue when she saw them. Without a doubt, her husband would remember this failure very well.
"How did the mission go, my lady?"
"Do you see Rebecca captured?"
"N-No, my lady."
"Then it's obvious the mission failed."
She shot an irritated glance at the knight who had asked the foolish question, making him immediately nervous. Letting out a long sigh, she tried to calm herself before entering the carriage. From that moment onward, House Valtor had unquestionably become a declared enemy of House Solfyr.
'We'll probably face many problems, and the king may even put us on trial... I suppose we have no choice but to accept that proposal from the enemy kingdom.'
Maito sat at the front of the carriage to accompany her and ensure her safety. The other mages remained around it, watching the surroundings with some apprehension. Lord Darian would undoubtedly be furious when he learned the outcome of the mission. Even Maito, who was practically part of the family, felt a slight uneasiness about meeting him.
As the carriage continued its journey, Solene watched the landscape through the window, carefully reflecting on their next steps.
'The king will stand by Leon... so we truly have no choice.'
A few days earlier, one of the strongest men in the enemy kingdom had secretly approached the Valtor family to propose an alliance. Apparently, he had discovered that the Valtor family had severed ties with Leon years ago and took advantage of the opportunity to make the offer.
'That man was considered the strongest in the enemy kingdom before the new king ascended the throne... Having his protection will be a great advantage.'
That man was none other than Caelum Drazhar, one of Leon's personal enemies. The two had already clashed in numerous strategic battles on the battlefield. Although they had never faced each other directly in physical or magical combat, they knew each other very well, especially after Leon killed the former king.
'We can use his hatred to our advantage... And if we help him win the war, we'll be able to return to this kingdom with newfound political power.'
With a new plan already laid out, Solene began mentally organizing how she would speak to her family. She needed to find the right words to ease their anger over the consecutive failures of every mission.
'Come to think of it... I wasn't the only one who failed. The only one whose plan truly succeeded was my eldest son's...'