Chapter 24: In Distress.

After hiding the bag of magic fruits in my father's safe box, I quickly exited the room and noticed my maid Melissa, who was in distress.

"Master Lucas, what's going on? Those roars aren't normal. There's something about them that makes my body tremble uncontrollably," Melissa said to me as soon as she saw me leaving my father's room.

She looks weak and frightened, with her body is still shaking from time to time.

"Stay inside the mansion, Melissa. Those roars aren't from an ordinary Magic beast. Only a rank 5 Magic beast could have this terrible effect on everyone," I replied solemnly.

"Why is this happening to us? Last time it was the earthquake that gave me terrible nightmares for consecutive nights and now it's a rank 5 magic beast terrorizing us." She tearfully said as she tried to stop her cries from coming out.

"Don't worry Melissa, you're safe here, all of you are safe here. My father and I would make sure of that." I said to her in order to console her poor soul.

"Master Lucas have some of this soup it will keep you warm. Ben made enough for all of us here to help us calm down." Jane suddenly appeared carrying a tray of soup, served in a small bowl of silver ware.

Even though she has managed to keep her calm on the surface and cover it with a comforting smile, I can still see that her hands are still trembling from distress albeit not that obvious.

"Oh thank you Jane. I really need something like this." Melissa earnestly said as she take a big gulp of the soup.

"My brother Ben prepared this immediately after that roars. He said that it would help us to calm down. He learnt this simple recipe from the potion master." Jane explained as she handed our own small bowl of soup before going to another room.

"Master Lucas, what should we do? There's no one who is a match to fight that magic beast. Even if we include all our knights in the city, there's only a small chance that they would be able to defeat it. Why does this have to happen to us?" Melissa suddenly said after calming down.

"Don't worry, Melissa. As long as we stay within the city, we will be safe. No magic beasts will be able to invade it from the outside." I assured her because I knew that we had a secret weapon in the basement that could help protect the entire city, but activating it would reveal the hidden secrets of this place.

"I have a lot of faith in your father. I'm confident that he will be able to find a solution to this problem because he has always been successful in the past." She said with conviction.

""I understand what you mean, Melissa. My father is a truly remarkable person. That's why I strive to be like him as I grow up." I said, deep in thought.

"I'm glad to hear that, young master. I have no doubt that you will be a good leader for everyone. However, I must take my leave now. The soup has helped me calm down, and I need to return to my duties and help the others." She said with a calm voice. It seems like the soup is really effective.

"Are you sure you're okay? It hasn't been very long since you were subjected to the terrible suppression from the roars of a high-ranking magic beast." I asked quickly, concerned about her condition. a

""I'm fine, Master Lucas. The soup really helped me calm down. Talking to you also helped set my mind at ease. I'm old enough to take care of myself. You should go back and attend to other important matters. I know you must have a lot of work to do today. Even if your father arrives today, I'm sure he won't rest for the entire day as he still have a lot of work to do." She said before leaving me alone in the room.

What Melissa said is correct. I have a lot of work waiting for me, and I know that once my father returns, he will immediately call for an assembly to address the people and the situation in the city."

Thanks to the special soup that Ben prepared, most people and staff had already recovered their strength. Some of them are already helping with the clean up while the others are busy checking the situation, worriedly talking about the loud roar that disturbed the peace within the city, I even saw Gaspar excitedly speaking with Ben.

I knew that if Gaspar was involved, then something is definitely not normal here. I already learned my lessons before when I didn't say anything about his experiments with our food, as this middle-aged man has too many secrets on his body.

Wait did I say middle age? He doesn't look like that old anymore. In fact, he looks younger now due to eating so many magic fruits, but what I don't understand is how is he able to eat it without having any problems on his body.

"What else did you put into this soup? I can see that you didn't used anything special, and most of it are just ordinary ingredients except for this herb? This is something not meant for human consumption due to its bitter taste." I heard Gaspar says to Ben.

"I didn't really add anything special. I just learned this recipe from the potion master when I asked him for a good potion to help calm someone down. He said that I didn't need any potion for that and could use this herb instead. He also taught me how to remove its bitter taste and turn it into a soup." Ben replied anxiously as Gaspar kept bombarding him with questions.

"That's great, then you can prepare a lot of this soup. We can give it to people in the city to help them appease their emotion. I know that Michael must be having trouble controlling the crowds by now." I said to them out of nowhere, interrupting their conversation as I didn't want to give Gaspar another chance to do something unimaginable. He might try to do some experiment with it, and who knows what kind of consequences it would inflict to us.

"There's no problem in preparing this soup Master Lucas, since we already have all the ingredients that we need. It's just that it might take me some time to cook them if I just did it all by myself." Ben said while carefully stirring the pot of boiling soup.

"I can do it, I can help him, all Ben needed to do is to teach me the recipe, then I could just follow every step and process of making it." Gaspar said excitedly, eager to learn the secret of this soup.

I knew it. This man must be planning something else, but since he was the only one who could help us, I have no choice but to give him the permission.

"Fine, I need you to prepare a lot of it. We will go in the city within half an hour. Can you both make it in time?" as I gave them a time limit.

"That's good, I-I mean, yes, we can definitely do it," Gaspar said joyfully, not considering that other people are still affected by the suppression of the magic beasts,

"This soup doesn't require anything special and it's very simple to prepare. Half an hour is more than enough for us to cook several pots of it if we utilize all the stove in the kitchen." Ben added in a serious manner.

"Great! I'm not sure what's happening in the city right now, but Ben, your soup seems to be really effective at calming people down. This would help us a lot in stabilizing the chaotic situation we have." I said as I left them both busy in the kitchen.

I just hope that Gaspar won't try to do anything unusual while I am away. With those looks on his face I know that he must be planning something again. Every time he's involved, something terrible always happens, and that's not good at all.

While waiting for the soup I decided to wander around the mansion first, to see if there was anything I can do. But upon closer inspection, it seems like all the servants in this house is highly trained. Even though they have just experienced something terrible It didn't take them that long before they went back to doing their work acting as if everything is normal.

Although it seems like their worries haven't faded yet, as I could still hear some whisper from time to time, about the terrible suppression that they felt when they heard the roar of several high ranking magic beasts.

Even though the mansion is located quite far from the main population of Florentine city, I could still hear faint voices of terror and people panicking coming from the city. It wasn't difficult for me to hear the chaos going on this place using my enhanced senses as a knight.

 All of our soldiers have already resumed their patrols in order to organize the crowd but the entire city itself is still in chaos. Due to the sudden expansion of the market and with the rise of the new industry, a huge inflow of people have come in the city. And now those people are crying to be evacuated away from this place.

In fact, some rich businessmen and small nobles had already tried to forcefully enter the mansion, but they were beaten by sir Daniel and taken away by the soldiers.

If the worst really happened and several rank 5 magic beasts decided to attack the city, It would forced me to activate the ancient formation on our basement.

If that happens, then that would also be the first time it would be activated since Florentine city was built. I don't know how long or how strong that formation is, but one thing is for sure: it is something that a beast on that level couldn't destroy.

When my ancestors found the ancient formation in the city 800 years ago, the barrier around it was still working perfectly fine. They only manage to get inside of this city by luck. When he accidentally stumbles on a hidden entrance that leads to the current basement of the mansion.

But that entrance has now been blocked by a landslide he purposely made. However, in his memoir, he described that the narrow walls along the pathway are all made of special steel that his most powerful attack couldn't damage. Even after using his spirit aura, it only managed to slightly penetrate the walls, leaving only a small dent on the surface.

That is also how Randolf Ditler Beaufort, our families first ancestor, discovered that the entire narrow pathway he took was made up of meter-thick steel walls made from an unknown ore. One thing is for sure: it would take him a long time to destroy just a small piece of it. This alone astonished him because he hadn't seen this kind of metal before

The entrance he found led him to the control center of the entire formation of Florentine city, where he found the special key that maintained the barrier around the old ruin. According to his memoir, there were no defensive mechanisms around this key because most of the mechanisms in place had already fallen into disrepair. And only the magic formation remained working in the old ruins.

But it still took him a long time to bury the entire ruin under a thick layer of soil in order to hide this relic. Most of the buildings inside the city had already fallen down, and only the city walls and the giant formation remained.

That key now lies in the secret room in our basement. Once it is placed in its original position, the entire formation will start working again, and the barrier will reappear in front of many people. 

My ancestors tried to investigate and look for clues about the role of this old ruin, but due to the passage of time, most of the things they found were broken magic artifacts. The machines and gears that ran around the secret room have long been rusted and broken down, making them useless. Even the mechanism to open the thick steel doors has already failed, and most of the materials inside have already degraded into powder.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard my father calling for my name. Finally, they had arrived. "

"LUCAS...LUCAS..." father called out in alarm. "Father, I'm over here," Which I immediately answered.

"Great, you're okay," he said in great relief as he put both of his hands on my shoulders.

"Father, what's going on? What happened? Why is there a high-ranking magic beast in the enchanted forest?" I immediately asked, worried about our dire situation.

"I also have no idea why several powerful magic beasts would choose to live on the edge of the enchanted forest. We didn't even manage to reach the entrance before we were attacked by hundreds of its minions, so we had to retreat first. But what I didn't expect was for those beasts to use their loud roar to announce their presence to everyone," Father said in a solemn voice.

"I'm already prepared to activate the formation if necessary. At the same time, Michael has gone into the city to pacify the people and restore order. They are panicking due to the sudden appearance of many high-ranking magic beasts," I said to him while explaining everything that happened during his absence.