“…And that’s more or less how we’re going to go about apprehending him.” Taking in a deep breath the very moment he was finished explaining, Valyr shifted his gaze towards the four’s faces, their expressions telling him that they understood what he and Tryndall wanted to happen. “Any questions?”

“Just to clear up any misunderstandings, Braum would be the only one accompanying you alongside that friend of yours?” Hearing the question Valyr brought up, Paul took the initiative to ask the former to clarify certain parts of the plan.

Nodding in response to the question, Valyr explained the part of the plan Paul brought up once more. “Indeed. However, my friend wouldn’t be coming alone. There would also be someone accompanying him, though that person’s specialty would be in reconnaissance and stealth instead of combat.”

“To lead you guys to that Lucas’ residence, right?” Paul asked once more, which earned a nod from Valyr as confirmation.

“Since my role has been thoroughly explained at this point, let me just ask for clarification. The other four are tasked to take care of Lucas’ henchmen, right?” Seeing that Paul was finished asking his questions, Braum took it upon himself to ask a question of his own, wanting to clarify the role that the other four were going to do.

“Yeah.” Valyr nodded. “According to what my friend told me… well, to be more specific, one of the five suspects that’s helping us out, Lucas lives in a modestly sized manor within the city. As leader of the city’s guard regiment, he has a lot of guards patrolling his manor at all times, though it would be better to consider them as his henchmen than just mere guards.”

“However, that does not mean the four would be making the first move,” he clarified. “Think of it this way. The plan mostly revolves around me, Braum, my friend, and his companion. Us four would act as the vanguard of the operation and apprehend Lucas and find out the truth of the whole incident from him.”

“Naturally, now that we know he has henchmen, it’s more or less certain that they would stop at nothing to bar us four from reaching Lucas in the first place. And that’s where the four will come in. To stop the henchmen from blocking us.” After he was finished with his clarification, Valyr looked at the four once more, who nodded back at him in understanding.

Nodding back, he then turned around to make his way towards the workshop portion of the smithy. “Once Madeline returns, please tell her about the plan I just explained.”

“Hmm? What plan?” Coincidentally, just as he was about to start moving, Madeline had appeared inside the smithy once more, prompting Valyr to turn back around.𝑶𝔳𝓵xt.𝑐𝚘𝐌

“I’ll explain it in greater detail later.” Braum looked at Madeline for a bit in silence, who flashed a smile at him before nodding. Understanding what she meant by her gesture, Braum inwardly let out a sigh of relief as he posed a question to her. “You were successful?”

“Even I was surprised.” Madeline chuckled before extending out one of her hands. Soon after, an intricate sigil made out of mana manifested above her extended hand, which radiated off a strong feeling of purity, might, and justice. “They usually take hours to process requests like these.”

“Perhaps it’s just that time of day where people request arrest warrants less.” Seeing the sigil of mana Madeline manifested, Braum released a bit of his mana in response and extended it towards the sigil. At the moment his mana and the sigil made contact, the sigil swiftly disappeared from their vision as the aura the sigil radiated soon emanated off of Braum’s body.

Not long after, the sigil appeared on Braum’s forehead, which gave off a faint glow for a few seconds before disappearing, making it look as if it had never been there in the first place.

“I’ll tell you when we’ll move out.” Committing what he had just seen into memory, Valyr went ahead and gave the five time to prepare for the operation they were about to undertake later, with the four explaining to Madeline the specifics of the plan.

Arriving at the workshop portion of the smithy, Valyr looked at the bloodied and damaged pieces of metal that made up the Half Wyvern Armor, bitterly smiling before proceeding to fire up the furnace.

Placing one of the pieces on the anvil as he took a look at the materials he had in stock, he then took in a deep breath before grabbing the forging hammer to start repairing the armor in preparation for later.

“It seems like tonight’s gonna be noisy.”

…

“I know the arrest warrant allows us to be above board in our actions and all that, but are you not going to hide your identity at the very least?” While walking to the meet-up spot he and Tryndall had used for the past two operations that involved the Clossbay Killer, Valyr posed a question to the man walking beside him.

“What is there to fear?” Braum looked back at Valyr with a solemn expression, wondering why the latter was so insistent on covering up his face at the least. “Do you perhaps fear the repercussions that might come from this operation failing?”

“Well… I am in the middle of Rank 1. It should only make sense for someone like me, no?” Valyr could only shrug his shoulders in response.

“It does… however, don’t you think your current actions are different from your words? The armor you’re currently wearing is the exact same armor you’ve worn in the coliseum.” Saying these words, Braum continued to stare at Valyr, who could only chuckle after that.

“I guess you being around has instilled a sense of confidence within me.”

“Is that so?” Braum raised his eyebrow in doubt. “From the looks of it, the reason behind you wearing your armor is all because I and my comrades are here to aid you.”

“Hehe.” With his intent fully seen through by Braum, Valyr could only chuckle once more as they continued to make their way to the meet-up spot, only to find out that Tryndall and his companion were already there.