Lord of Charm



"Yes. We are going in 2 days before they can find out about it and change their base. We expect one magus to be there, but our magi will take care of him. We only need to deal with those at the True Mage Stage."

"The Empress is willing to put her children in danger like that? In a battle, you never know what's going to happen."

Kisuke asked with a surprised tone. The Empress just lost a daughter, and he didn't expect her to send another daughter into danger. If she sent Hanako, it was very likely she sent other princes too.

"Of course. If we don't fight and face danger, we won't be able to grow. She will take precautions of course; there will be expert mages and advanced mages to fight their equivalents from the Order. She will send a force at least three times bigger than the pessimistic estimation of the enemy's numbers."

"I see. Although there are still some variables, you will face minimal danger, unless you're too weak to stand your ground against a weaker enemy."

"Indeed. If we are that weak, she doesn't mind if we get killed during the fight."

It was quite heartless, but The Empress wanted her children to become strong enough to make sure the imperial family will keep standing firm after her death. 

She didn't want them to die, she was just that confident of their strengths. They had very high affinities and endless resources.

Kisuke and Hanako spent the two days left until the operation flirting with each other and going outside to enjoy the attractions the capital had to offer.

Kisuke did one more thing. He reported his intermediary with the Amistrys Empire about the operation he was going to participate in. He made sure to tell them he is going there too so they won't get him killed.

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2 days later, Kisuke stood by Hanako's side in front of a large airship. They were standing behind The Empress along with a few other princes and their spouses.

The Empress faced a large crowd in front of her and spoke. The crowd was members of the army of the Nikkokuni Dynasty, and they were ready to attack the base of the Assassin Order.

There were three platoons, each consisting of 300 soldiers. At the top of each platoon stood a true magus meant to intercept the enemy's magus during the battle. It was extremely hard to corner a magus, especially one with a high Darkness affinity like those from the Order had.

If a true magus of the Darkness element decides to run instead of fighting when he is still in top condition, he had a good chance of running away from a grand magus. 

Other than that, each platoon was made of 200 advanced mages and a hundred expert mages.

However, The Empress didn't plan to kill the Order's magus or a full-blown war with the Order might break out; she only wanted to teach them a lesson and give them a warning.

"Everyone, get aboard!"

The Empress finished her speech, and everyone went on the airship. Although normally ambushes were done at night, they took off at night so they could arrive at sunrise. Nobody wants to fight a group of Darkness Mages at night.

The Empress used her Darkness magic to cast a huge camouflage spell on the airship, hiding them completely from the world. It blocked both sight and sound from leaking outside.

As for when the sun comes out, one of the magi who accompanied them, Ichinose, had an affinity for Light Mana and was the only magus with Light affinity in the Nikkokuni Dynasty. 

He was brought on purpose; although the illusions that could be made with Light Mana weren't as good as the camouflage of Darkness spells, they were good enough to hide an airship in the sky.

"Everyone, don't cast any spell, and don't disturb the disguise magic I've cast on us or you might reveal our presence to the enemy."

The airship took off, completely invisible in the darkness of the night under The Empress' spell.

"Hey, whom from your brothers tagged along?"

Kisuke asked Hanako who was sitting on his lap. Her fourth sister still wasn't a mage, so she didn't come while her third sister wasn't in Nikkokuni at the moment.

"My brother Taeko is here, I just asked him to give me alone time with you, so he isn't sitting with us. My first brother and my second brother are here as well, they are both at the Advanced Mage Stage."

"Are they from a different father?"

"Yes, they share the same father, my mother's first husband. They're the oldest of us siblings."

"Oh, how about introducing me to my brothers-in-law then?"

"Sure, why not? Let's go."

She got up from his lap and Kisuke walked by her side toward a lean, tall man. Nearly everyone had black hair on the ship, making Kisuke's red hair conspicuous like a dinosaur in the middle of a group of cats.

"You must be Kisuke, my dear brother-in-law, twice! Good to finally meet you!"

Evidently, he also got the news about him sleeping with Isuzu before her death. Although The Empress killed all the guards, some of the princes had already heard the news.

"Kisuke, this is my eldest brother, Akito."

"Good to meet you too, First Prince."

"You can call me 'Big Brother' like Hanako does, don't be shy. We are family."

Akito smiled and revealed two rows of white teeth. He then turned around to the woman by his side and introduced her.

"This is Hibika, my wife. Hibika, meet Kisuke, he is my sister's future husband."

After exchanging some pleasantries, Kisuke and Hanako said goodbye to Akito and his wife and left to say hello to Hanako's second brother.

"Hello Hajime, meet Kisuke, my fiancé. Kisuke, this is my second brother, Hajime."

"Hello, Kisuke, nice to meet you. You can just call me Hajime."

Hajime said with a pleasant smile after he was introduced. He gave the people around him the impression that they were safe to talk to him about anything they wanted and radiated an aura that made one feel they could trust him.

"Good to meet you, Hajime. Who is the lady next to you?"

"She is mine, so you will have to settle on having only my sister for now. Honey, say hi to Kisuke."

"Hi Kisuke, I'm Hinata, good to meet you."

She showed a beautiful smile as two cute dimples appeared on her round cheeks.

After finishing with the introductions, Kisuke and Hanako spent the next few hours flirting with each other and making out in Hanako's room. As a princess, she got a spacious and comfy room.

"Everyone, come out of your rooms. In 15 minutes, the operation begins, and we will launch our attack."

One of the magi who joined the operation announced and everyone started coming outside.

With a sigh, Kisuke forced Hanako off his lap and took a few moments to calm down his excited body. 

He had to wait a few minutes before the bulge in his pants diminished, and the two went out of the room with smiles on. They both had to change their underwear after over an hour of groping and making out.

"You two took a while. Come, we were ordered to join Ichinose's platoon for this operation."

Taeko gestured for them to follow him as soon as they came out of their room before going to the relevant platoon.

Kisuke, Hanako, and Taeko joined Ichinose's platoon, while Akito, Hajime, and their wives joined the other platoons. They stood at the back of the platoon, letting the other soldiers take the front as they charge inside.

"Listen, this is the layout of the base. Each platoon covers a different area. Remember, our goal is to kill everyone, so don't take any prisoners. The other magi and I will take care of the enemy's magus, so you have nothing to worry about. Just make sure to support your comrades and don't let enemies from higher stages kill your weaker comrades. Make sure to hold down and kill enemies in your stages."

Ichinose showed on a hologram the plan of the infiltration and explained to his troops how the operation was expected to work.

"We are taking care of the western area. Soldiers, we're out!"

The soldiers jumped in an orderly manner out of the airship, still in the sky. Hanako grabbed Kisuke's hand and jumped with them, dragging him with her. He was quite surprised as he never did that before.

He saw Hanako's calm expression and knew he was missing something, so he patiently waited to see what will happen. The three platoons were covered in Ichinose's Light magic to prevent the enemy from seeing them until the last moment.

He was still in the air when he suddenly felt a strong wind underneath him, making everyone's descent much slower. A few moments before he landed, a large wave of water climbed seemingly out of nowhere and cushioned their fall.

Kisuke never saw such a way to use magic; the soldiers cooperated to create a spell that saved everyone from sure death by crushing down the ground. Although he could survive it by himself with his SSS wind affinity, it wasn't the same for the soldiers who didn't have it.

The only downside of this method was that everyone in the base noticed the huge mana surge that happened simultaneously in three different places across the base, one place for each platoon.