Isekai: The Eight Soul Fragments

After they stayed the night in an inn, Keith and Layla were greeted by a carriage and a few guards. "Guess they'd like us to introduce ourselves formally as state guests... Doesn't sound too bad don't you think?" Keith was slightly smirking as the two of them seemed to be accepted well in the country. "Sure, let's greet their leaders as [Sentinels] of Preeliance shall we?" "Executor Keith Nagual, we are deeply honored as to receive a sudden visit from Preeliance and to use our city as your place of vacation, we sincerely welcome you to preside in the castle for your vacation." The Guard who stood to welcome them had a bit of a different presence than any easy target he would usually encounter. "You're emanating a presence of a hero. To think that the Hero of Aquila himself would greet us in person..." The hero looked young, almost the same stature as Keith, but seemed to have a huge amount of combat experience. "To think my cover would be blown this easily... As expected of an Executor I guess..." The Guard, who was actually the Hero of Aquila changed his tone to a more casual vibe. He offered a handshake to greet both Keith and Layla to which they accepted. Keith gave a bit of a warning to Layla as he sent a telepathy using spirit magic. "This man is actually dangerous... His innocent look is covering up the amount of destroyed spirits in his hand, be it physical or mental. He most likely has slaves serving him." After sending the warning to Layla through telepathy, he casually continued the conversation to the Hero. "I presume that you're here to pick us up, then let's get to it immediately." Keith made himself look like he couldn't contain the excitement, but there was clearly no sign of messing around in his tone. He now intends to avoid the grasp of the country if possible. Layla was able to read Keith's expressions easily and followed his lead without anything else to say. She made a decision to remain quiet for the most case.

"We extend our warm welcome to you, Executor Keith Nagual to our country of prodigies, Aquila." The king kindly gave out his warm welcome, Keith and Layla gave out their best appearance to keep themselves looking proper as officials of Preeliance. They didn't want to put out a bad image of the country.

A feast was prepared for the two of them, it was already poison tested and the Keith had closely examined everything whether they're poisoned or not with spirit magic. "I have to say, I am greatly intrigued when an Executor of Preeliance has decided to visit us. There were already a few [Sentinels] that had been sighted, so we sent some men to just keep an eye on their movements. Are you perhaps in charge of them?" "Yes, however, they are here purely to enjoy their vacation on various countries. After the global crisis of knightly invaders and devils, we were all given a chance to take it easy for the time being." "Such a culture to give out their men some time off to spend. As far as I have seen, all members of the governmental side of the country seem pretty young as well, it's like they're all prodigies." "Of course, we were summoned from a different world, but we have a goal to the entire continent. Connecting all the countries together in an era of peace, something that seemed to have never been done before in this world's entire history." Keith explained the gist of the main reason why their country exists, but he never had made any statements to his current goals. The conversation continued after eating, there were many noble daughters that attempted to make an approach towards Layla to gather some information about men in Preeliance. But she felt an instinctive feeling that she has to accompany Keith for the entire time they are in the castle. Another telepathy came in from him as she continued to listen. "This country is obsessed with getting prodigies, to the point that they would recruit from other countries... I sure wish Draxus would be here to handle the talks instead... But now that I'm here, I guess I could rampage a bit myself with ideas." Layla simply smiled as she glanced over to Keith's expression who was enjoying himself. "Would the two of you be interested to see our [Academy]?" "Sure, but we'll leave that talk for tomorrow. It seems that we're about schedule to end the feast for the time being. I'm grateful for the dinner, let us have one last toast before it all ends." Keith made a suggestion that they'll take an earlier bit of rest. "Very well." The king ushered one of the maids over to serve them a refill of their drink. Keith decided to take in the wine despite his religion to gain the trust of the king. However, he clenched himself in his mind to prepare for something major. Layla was also served some wine to drink for the last toast. "Cheers to you." "Yeah, cheers to you as well." The three of them drank the wine in the glasses that were refilled. It was then Keith noticed an immediate feeling. "Tch! Aphrodisiac huh? And slow working sleeping medicine..." Keith kept a poker face and thanked the king for the meeting and feast once more. Layla clung a little bit tighter to Keith as she had already taken the effects. She was resisting it as best she can, but she knew that she had been affected. Keith began to escort her into a room for her to rest. The king told some maids to accompany them to their rooms. Keith was about to say okay to the idea but then he felt a sinister smile among the people around the feast. "Your majesty of Aquila, this may be presumptuous but she may want to stay in a room with me. I request that you two would keep us together in this night?" "So you're engaged with her?" "Yes." Keith didn't bother listening any further to questions by anybody else. He used his spirit magic to detect any presences following them, but seeing that it was the hero they had met, and another different presence coming for them in an entirely different direction, Keith assumed that the hero of the country of Aquila may be accompanying them to ensure their safety.

Keith brought Layla into a room and went out of the door for a quick moment to speak with the hero. "Miss Layla seems a little off, did something happen to her?" "Yeah, I can pretty much guess in theory. Mine was drugged with a slow acting sleeping medicine and aphrodisiac, I can guess that Layla got a strong aphrodisiac alone." In that short moment of talking, Keith felt a presence enter the room which made him turn around and kick the door open. A black, muscled burly man was holding Layla by the neck. In that short second, Keith was restrained by the Hero of Aquila while the burly man escaped through the window before Keith could even react. The escape attempt almost seemed like a success, but Keith finally took the decision to straight up set the two of them, as enemies. "[Halt]!"