Chapter 1081 An Hour Till Marriage
As the three learned about the man who terrorized an entire kingdom, only to be stopped by his son, Dorian and Whisker managed to infiltrate Ironspire under the guise of taking revenge from Ascent.
A shadow leapt through the window, which Dorian had unlocked without anyone noticing, landing on the iron-covered floor of the fortress. His yellowish eyes darted around to look for any guards, but there were none. Sounds of conversations reached his ears from a room nearby. Whisker stood close to the door, eavesdropping on the people inside.
"That is why I was surprised when I saw you on my doorstep," said a feminine voice from inside. Whisker peeked through the crack in the door to get a glimpse of the one talking. A middle-aged woman, plump with curly hair and bouncy cheeks, was talking to Dorian. "I think we are a great pair."
"...you were engaged to my father?" asked Dorian with confusion as the woman gave him a bittersweet smile and nodded. "I never heard about you, ma'am."
"That is obvious since your father canceled the engagement once he laid eyes on your stunning mother," said the woman with a wave of her hand. "My family always knew that if the Weapons Creators united with the Weapon Masters, we would be invincible. That marriage was the method to achieve that."
Whisker lost interest once he realized this was just another political scheme for these people. His mission was to find the artifact that this fortress had. However, after a few steps, the woman said a few words that made him stop.
"This is a chance to fix that mistake," said the woman, and Whisker's ears rose in alarm. He turned toward the room with a frown. "I have remained unmarried for my entire life. As you can see, I am still as beautiful as I was."
"...you are indeed..." said Dorian with a flat tone as if he was vocalizing the words against his will. "However, I feel like this is too hasty for us, ma'am. Your advisors will have a different opinion about marriage under these circumstances."
"If anyone lets out a single complaint, they would lose their heads," said the woman in armor, whom Whisker chose to watch again. This was too interesting to miss. "I have already prepared for the banquet. We shall be declared husband and wife in an hour!"
"I don't think that something this hasty would feel meaningful to you, ma'am," said Dorian with tears almost spilling out of his eyes. "My father is the one you love, right? If we want to do it this way, we need to know each other first."
"You are even more handsome than your father, and your gray hair makes you seem wise enough to be my husband," said the woman as she rose from her chair and stood atop him. "Be ready in an hour. I will have my tailor make you a proper suit!"
The woman then tried to leave, making Whisker rush into the shadows to hide. It seems that this was the lord of Ironspire, but she didn't want her men to find out about her past affairs, or they might lose respect. This explained why no guards were around.
Although this made the mission easier, Whisker felt like he was going to die because he held back his laughter. Dorian was still rooted in his chair, shocked, as he seemed like his soul had left his body. As for the feline, he was shaking like a laundry machine.
Once the woman was out of sight, servants rushed toward the room. Dorian was still confused about what was happening as they began to take his measurements and asked for ideas about the wedding cake. As he watched from afar, the feline began to calm down as he felt pity.
If he did not find the artifact in an hour, Dorian would be stuck here as her husband forever. Thus, with a newfound resolve to save the man his leader chose, Whisker embarked on a relentless search for the artifact.
His first idea was to tail the woman, who seemed like the lord. However, she was too occupied with her dress rather than anything else. Whisker found her admiring a giant dress that might not be able to fit her with reminiscence as she muttered to herself.
"After all these years, fate has a way of finding me!" said the lord as she caressed the silky dress. "This will teach all those who laughed about me, although rotting in my dungeons should have already achieved that!"
"Lady Margery! We have a little issue with the wedding. It seems that we ran out of resources for the banquet!" said the man who was dressed as a chef. "We need the gatherers to find us the ingredients in just ten minutes for the wedding to be over in an hour!"
"Just use the artifact we have," said Lady Margery with a wave of her hand, as if she was far from interested. "Abraham should be using it to gather the iron for the fortress expansion. Take it from him and gather with it!"
"Many thanks, Lady Margery!" said the chef with a bow as he ran out. Whisker changed targets as he began to follow the short chef who made his way down toward the basement, where the smithy was.
A dwarf began shouting profanities at the chef after hearing what Lady Margery ordered, but still walked with the chef toward a different location. Although he kept complaining, he took the chef to a different room.
Whisker managed to peek into the room and find a giant wooden box surrounded by guards. However, the door closed and locked from the inside, so he had no choice but to wait.
Strange lights shone from inside the room before the chef walked out with the dwarf and a few guards carrying all sorts of ingredients. As he hid behind a corner and watched the situation, the feline gained a general idea about what their artifact could be.
This running around almost wasted half an hour of his precious time, so Whisker had no time to study the situation. He walked toward the door and knocked on it, before a man opened it. His impressive build and dangerous eyes looked down at Whisker before realizing that he was an intruder.
Whoosh!
The feline jumped into the room and straight to the artifact, but the man was not going to let him walk unhindered. A sword slashed toward the feline, who already had his gauntlets on. Sparks flew in every direction as he blocked the attack with his silver claws.
lightsnοvεl.cοm "An intruder!" said the man with a grin covering his face. "I thought it was odd that Lady Margery had a visitor at this time, but she can be too stupid to notice their true intentions! What brought you here, thieving cat?"
Whisker did not say anything as he tried to push the man back, but their stats were similar. The entire room was filled with guards who grew alarmed and tried to sound the alarm. One of them rushed toward a lever beside the door, trying to pull it down.
"Thank you for the warning!" said Whisker as he pulled back from the deadlock with the man, letting the sword graze past his fur as he jumped toward the door. Instead of running, Whisker attacked the guard who dodged.
Boom!
The entire room shook as Whisker clawed the lever the man tried to pull. As the mechanism shattered to pieces, Whisker counted the guards within the room. There were eight of them surrounding him, but there was only one exit behind his back.
"We don't need anyone else to kill a stray cat," said the tall man who seemed to be their leader as he raised his sword. Two pointy ends grew from his sword as it turned into a trident. "You are the one trapped here, feline!"
"You are just as idiotic as your lord," said Whisker as his eyes glowed in the dimly lit room. "If you know that I'm a feline, you should know that we are far more dangerous than you think!"
Before the man could answer him, Whisker's body began to grow as his eyes turned beastly. The guards began shaking with fear as his shadow filled the entire room, with silver claws.
"You are the rodents I hunt for pleasure, human," said Whisker with a hoarse and terrifying voice. The man looked at him with a sweaty face, not realizing that Whisker had this ace up his sleeves. "Move away and I shall spare you the pain."
"You are not the only one with hidden skills, feline," said the man as his skin began changing, and his frame expanded as well. "My name is Metallic Man Matt, one of the strongest fighters in Ironspire!"
The armor broke apart as it melted into his metallic skin. Matt was now as tall as Whisker, who almost touched the ceiling. The two glared at each other for a few seconds before Whisker disappeared from his place.
Matt hurried to raise his arms to cover his face, blocking several strikes that slashed through his metallic skin but could not injure him. He had a smirk on his face as he lowered his arms, only to find the seven guards slashed apart.