Chapter 45: The One who Vanished
(Valerian Alzette’s POV)
Nearly two months.
That was how long it had been.
Nearly two months since my disciple vanished before my eyes.
I stood atop the reinforced wall overlooking the borderlands, my hands clasped behind my back as the cold wind pulled at my coat.
Below, soldiers moved between the defensive positions in disciplined formations. Scouts returned from the outer perimeter. Supply wagons rolled through the gates. In the distance, smoke rose from places where the war had scarred the land.
Everything appeared normal.
Or at least, as normal as a border at war could ever be.
Yet my attention was barely on any of it.
For almost two months, my thoughts had continuously returned to that night.
The empty tent.
The sudden surge of mana.
His presence appearing inside my quarters.
And then...
Nothing.
Gone.
Even now, I could remember the sensation perfectly.
The mana compressing.
Space twisting.
That final shimmer in the air as I reached the tent a moment too late.
A teleportation artifact.
At the time, I had recognized it only at the very end.
Now?
I doubted I would ever mistake that sensation again.
My jaw tightened.
The memory that followed was somehow even less pleasant.
The conversation with his father.
****
Duke Anthony Vortex had arrived at the border the following morning.
Not sent a messenger.
Not dispatched one of his knights.
He came himself.
I had expected anger.
What greeted me was worse.
Silence.
Anthony stood across from me inside the command tent, still dressed in the dark travelling coat he had worn throughout the journey. There was dust along its hem, proof that he had not even bothered changing before coming to see me.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then his eyes settled on mine.
"Explain."
One word.
That was all.
I had faced monsters capable of tearing apart battalions. I had stood against warriors whose mana alone could crush ordinary soldiers to their knees.
Yet somehow, that single word carried more pressure than either.
So I told him everything.
The captured beastkin.
The meeting with Duke Relawear.
Returning to check on Alash.
Finding his tent empty.
The mana surge from my quarters.
The second presence.
Alash’s mana.
The teleportation.
And my failure to reach him before it activated.
Anthony listened without interrupting.
Not once.
That somehow made it worse.
When I finished, the tent fell silent again.
Finally, I said the only thing that mattered.
"He disappeared under my protection."
Anthony’s expression did not change.
"Yes."
There was no accusation in his voice.
He didn’t need one.
My fingers curled slowly against my palm.
"I will find him."
His eyes remained fixed on me.
"Alive."
It wasn’t a request.
I met his gaze.
"Alive."
For the first time, something shifted behind Anthony’s expression.
Something small.
Something dangerous.
"My son awakened with SSS potential," he said quietly. "Half the continent would benefit from possessing him. The other half would benefit from seeing him dead before he matures."
"I know."
"No." His voice remained calm. "You understand it now."
I had no answer to that.
Because he was right.
Before taking Alash as my disciple, I had understood what SSS potential meant in theory.
A future powerhouse.
A strategic asset.
Someone capable of reaching heights ordinary awakeners could never dream of.
But after two years of teaching him, I had stopped seeing the letters above his potential.
I saw the boy instead.
The disciple who complained whenever I interrupted his sleep.
The child who somehow managed to look personally betrayed whenever training began before sunrise.
The strange little monster whose growth continuously exceeded my expectations while he acted as though his greatest ambition in life was finding a more comfortable pillow.
I had forgotten what everyone else saw when they looked at him.
SSS.
A weapon.
A threat.
A prize.
Anthony turned toward the entrance of the tent.
"I want every beastkin involved in this operation found."
"We’re already searching."
"I didn’t say search."
He looked back at me.
"I said find them."
Then he left.
***
Anthony did not return to his duchy.
That surprised everyone.
Within three days, Duke Anthony Vortex was personally participating in operations along the border.
Within a week, the beastkin learned why his name carried weight throughout the kingdom.
He hunted their units himself.
Supply groups disappeared.
Scouting parties were intercepted.
Hidden camps that had survived months without discovery were suddenly exposed.
And whenever beastkin soldiers were captured alive, Anthony was there.
He questioned them personally.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Where was Alash Vortex?
Who ordered the kidnapping?
Where had the teleportation artifact sent him?
Which tribe was responsible?
Who possessed artifacts capable of bypassing the kingdom’s defensive formations?
Most knew nothing.
Some knew fragments.
Others refused to speak.
It made little difference.
Anthony continued.
Day after day.
Week after week.
The war had existed long before Alash disappeared, but after that night, something changed.
For Duke Vortex, it had become personal.
And the kingdom noticed.
Of course it did.
The disappearance of an ordinary noble heir would have caused outrage.
The disappearance of a duke’s firstborn would have caused a national investigation.
But Alash was neither merely an heir nor merely the son of Duke Anthony Vortex.
He was an SSS-potential awakener.
One of five in his generation.
The reaction was immediate.
The royal family issued orders before the first full day had passed.
Border inspections intensified.
Teleportation records were examined.
Known beastkin agents were hunted.
Merchants crossing sensitive territories were searched.
Information networks that had remained dormant for years suddenly became active.
Every rumour concerning Alash’s whereabouts was investigated.
Every suspicious movement became a possible lead.
Every beastkin prisoner became a potential source of information.
And the other four SSS-potential children?
Their security tripled.
No..
In some cases, it became even greater than that.
Royal guards were reassigned.
Personal escorts expanded.
Travel routes were altered without warning. Even their families were subjected to new restrictions regarding who could approach them.
Because the kingdom had finally been reminded of an uncomfortable truth.
SSS potential did not make a child invincible.
Potential was only potential.
Until they matured, they could still be taken.
They could still be killed.
And someone had proven it.
Someone had reached into a military encampment guarded by powerful awakeners and stolen one of the five most valuable children in the entire kingdom.
Right beneath our noses.
Right beneath mine.
I opened my eyes.
The borderlands stretched before me once more.
Nearly two months.
And still nothing.
No message.
No ransom.
No corpse.
No confirmed sighting.
Nothing.
I hated that most of all.
If they wanted money, there would have been demands.
If they wanted political concessions, there would have been negotiations.
If they wanted to display the kingdom’s weakness, there would have been a body.
Instead, silence.
Absolute silence.
It left far too many possibilities.
Some of them I refused to entertain.
I exhaled slowly.
"Where are you, boy?"
The wind carried my words away.
My mind supplied an image before I could stop it.
Alash sprawled across some ridiculously comfortable bed in an unknown location, completely unaware that half the kingdom was searching for him.
I almost laughed.
Almost.
Knowing him, perhaps he had somehow escaped his captors, found an abandoned house somewhere, discovered a soft mattress and decided that returning home could wait until he finished sleeping.
Ridiculous.
Completely ridiculous.
Yet after nearly two months without answers, I found myself wishing desperately for that ridiculous possibility to be true.
"Just be alive."
My voice was quieter this time.
"That is all I ask."
He could complain about training for an entire month afterward.
I wouldn’t care.
He could sleep through every morning lesson.
I might even allow it.
Once.
Perhaps twice.
My lips twitched faintly.
"Who am I fooling?"
If Alash heard me making promises like that, he would exploit them for the rest of his life.
The faint amusement disappeared almost as quickly as it came.
Because I would gladly endure it.
Every complaint.
Every excuse.
Every ridiculous attempt to negotiate another hour of sleep.
I just needed him to come back.
My disciple had entered my care as Duke Vortex’s son.
An SSS potential.
A child carrying the strange title of Aegis Healer.
But somewhere during those two years, he had become more than a responsibility.
He was my disciple.
And I had failed him.
A faint pressure suddenly brushed against my senses.
I froze.
For a fraction of a second, I wondered whether I had imagined it.
Then it came again.
Mana.
My head snapped toward the eastern side of the encampment.
The atmosphere had changed.
Soldiers below continued moving, unaware of what I had sensed.
But I knew.
My entire body became still.
Mana was gathering.
Not naturally.
Compressing.
Twisting.
My eyes widened.
No.
I knew this feeling.
I knew it far too well.
The last time, confusion had cost me precious seconds.
I had felt an enormous mana surge and wasted an instant trying to understand what was happening.
Not this time.
Never again.
"Teleportation."
Mana exploded around my body.
The stone beneath my feet cracked.
Nearby soldiers shouted in alarm as I vanished from the wall, launching myself toward the source.
My senses expanded to their limit.
Someone was coming.
No, someone was teleporting here.
Into the border encampment.
My hand moved instinctively toward my dagger as my mana surged through every muscle.
Friend.
Enemy.
Beastkin.
Assassin.
I didn’t know.
And I would not make the mistake of assuming anything.
The pressure intensified.
Space itself began to distort.
A familiar vibration spread through the air.
Exactly like that night.
My heart hammered once against my ribs.
For nearly two months, I had replayed that moment in my mind.
Nearly two months wishing I had been faster.
Nearly two months waiting for anything.
A clue.
A message.
A sign.
Now space was twisting before me once again.
I landed hard, already in a combat stance, mana raging around my body as the distortion rapidly expanded.
The soldiers nearby finally noticed.
"Sir Valerian?!"
"Get back!"
My command thundered across the camp.
They scattered immediately.
The distortion brightened.
I narrowed my eyes.
Whoever was coming through, this time, I would be waiting for them.