RISE OF EROS

They could not get too close to the place, as they would be detected by Silvio, as Oliver had warned them, but even from a distance, they could see the hawk and with great skill intercepted it.

For people of their level and profession, it was not difficult to capture a messenger hawk without harming it, so they did it. They quickly looked at the message and then put it back on the hawk releasing it.

Normally, for this type of message, several security measures were placed. Still, the kingdom of Tripia and Silvio decided to omit them, because if they were intercepted, it would raise suspicions about the level of security, so they preferred to place simple messages without any valuable information and without protection because if they were intercepted, there would be no leakage of information.

This happened to the Shadow members, they saw the message but had no idea what it meant. They mistakenly thought it was some plan to attack the Heavenly Palace, but they were not sure, so they made the decision that no one expected.

One of them decided to follow the hawk. They thought this message would be for an ally of Silvio's in the city, but when he saw the hawk fly out of the town, his gaze narrowed.

He hesitated for a few seconds as to whether he should continue to follow it but quickly decided to follow the hawk. Since it was unrealistic to follow a hawk on foot he tried to find some horse he could use among the many travelers arriving in the city.

Not wanting to lose sight of the hawk, he approached a lone traveler riding a horse and mercilessly snatched it from him. He didn't hurt the traveler, he simply pulled him forcefully off the horse, and as the man was about to shout "Thief," a leather bag loaded with silver coins fell into his lap.

The man was surprised by the bag and when he opened it he was shocked because the amount of money was three times the value of his horse, so, in order not to attract attention, he simply kept quiet.

The other nearby travelers who saw everything were surprised that the man was not bothered by the fragrant theft, but the smart ones who noticed the leather bag that the man quickly hid, knew that rather than a theft, it was a forced purchase and one that made the man a profit.

While the Shadow member who had forcibly purchased the horse was chasing the hawk, another Shadow member who was watching Silvio went to report the find.

This alerted everyone in the Heavenly Palace, as it was the prelude to battle and they did not want to be taken by surprise, so Oliver stepped up the surveillance. Unexpectedly, the person following the hawk had not reported even when night fell and this made everyone think the worst.

In their logic, if so much time had passed without this person returning, it only meant that he had been discovered, captured, or even killed and that depressed them, but when Oliver was about to make an extreme decision a carrier pigeon arrived at the Heavenly Palace.

Upon receiving this dove, all the members of the central core of the Heavenly Palace gathered in the office. Andrew read the message and made him wrinkle his eyebrows. Everyone else seeing this was curious, but before they could ask, Andrew said, "It's from our agent. He says the hawk got out of town and is still chasing him."

When they heard this, their reactions were not unlike Andrew's, as they could not understand the situation. Oliver fell into deep thought trying to find logic to what was happening and only one thing came to his mind.

"If the message is from outside, possibly it is not something related to us, as it doesn't make sense for an agent outside the city to get involved, but I can't think of what other plan this Silvio could have," Oliver said attracting everyone's attention.

"What can you think of could it be?" asked Andrew believing that Oliver had a hypothesis as to what could be going on and indeed Oliver did, so he began to lay out his thoughts.

"It's a wild guess, but I think this Silvio might be a spy from another country." Andrew and the others were expectant of what Oliver would say, but when they heard what he said, they gulped in a mouthful of air and even felt a chill.

Andrew was no different because if what Oliver said was real, they had been left in the middle of a fight of nations, something they should never have gotten involved in, so a little frightened he asked, "What makes you think that?"

"Although it hasn't been long since we watched over Silvio, he had never received messages of any kind, and all of a sudden he gets a hawk from out of town with a message that has little information. That is a method of operation widely used among countries for this type of operation, I have even used it in my time of service in Nufa," Oliver explained.

After his explanation, for some reason, his hypothesis seemed, more convincing, and that only made everyone more nervous. Oliver who noticed the tension his words created said, "We still don't know if it's real. Let's wait for our agent to get back in touch before we worry. Besides, this could be an opportunity."

"Opportunity?". Now it was Carolina who asked and Oliver nodding said, "Yes. Think about it, if it really is what I think and we communicate what we know, we would gain a great favor, which would help us a lot in dealing with our enemies, for example, Johan."

Now was the moment everyone got excited and some even began to pray that Oliver was right, but Andrew was not one of them. In fact, he became even more worried and not holding back his thoughts spoke up, "Won't exposing us to the public like that cause us more trouble?"

"That depends on how we do things, but I still think it's a chance if my guess is correct," Oliver immediately replied as if knowing Andrew's concerns.

Andrew seeing Oliver's assurance, regained his confidence. He had absolute confidence in Oliver's abilities and if he said it was a chance, then it was, so he said, "Okay. We still don't know if your guess is right, Let's wait and see, then we'll decide what to do."

Everyone in the office attended in agreement and the meeting ended. While they were discussing in the marginal district a young man with a robust body entered a canteen and sat at the bar.

The young man placed a copper coin on the bar and said, "One beer" and the bartender took the coin and began to serve the order. As the bartender set the beer down in front of the young man and was leaving to serve someone else, the young man placed a silver coin on the bar.

The bartender was attracted to the coin, but said nothing, just looked at the young man and seeing that it caught the bartender's attention said, "I'm looking for someone". The bartender understood immediately and approached the young man.

The burly young man seeing that the bartender came over to hear his request, began to speak, "The person I'm looking for is a young man about 18 years old named Andrew who came to town about a year ago."

"I need more than that. Appearance? Business? Any special characteristics?" the bartender said in a low voice so no one would overhear the conversation they were having.

The young man thought for a few moments and then said, "Dark brown hair, almost black, about 180 centimeters tall and slim build." "Well, those aren't very distinguishing features. Don't you have anything else?" the bartender asked again.

"I'm not sure, but he could be doing business in the red light district," the young man said after thinking for another few seconds. Although he seemed doubtful of this information, the bartender seemed satisfied with that information and taking the silver coin said, "Come in three days."

The young man did not stop the bartender, he seemed to be used to such dealings and took the beer in front of him drank it in one gulp, and left. The bartender watched the young man leave with a serious look on his face and muttered, "This kid is not normal."

Andrew, unaware that there was someone gathering information about him, was in the office with his wives enjoying some of their affection without bother that the Heavenly Palace had begun to receive customers.

They always took refuge in the office at these times, as the girls could not appear in public, as they wanted to avoid possible problems. The worries of the various events that had occurred during the day had evaporated and they were now enjoying each other.

They were not the only ones enjoying themselves because in Oliver's office or more precisely in the operating room as he called it. Oliver was sitting in front of a table with some maps spread out and on his lap was Marie.