Chapter 9 – Preparation

Isabella fell silent hearing Edison's words. Her pupils dilated, showing how shocked she was to hear the news.

"What do you mean Cody Alfredo betrayed us?" Isabella asked with an angry face, at the same time not believing what she was hearing.

"This morning when you went to check out the forest, Cody came unannounced to see Raymond. Then he suddenly stabbed Raymond with his magic. It was so sudden that no one had time to react."

Isabella swallowed her saliva then asked again. "What is the proof that Cody really did it? Maybe someone made up this story to divide us."

"Several mages witnessed this firsthand, myself included."

Isabella's face turned pale when she heard that. Now she can no longer argue that Edison who testified saw the incident firsthand.

"So Cody really…"

Isabella squeezed her hand tightly, trying to contain her emotions.

Just looking at that, Griffin could tell that the relationship between the three of them must be pretty good, that's why Isabella could be so shocked.

"Why did he do it, is the relationship between the two of them bad?" Griffin replaced the shocked Isabella to ask.

Herbert answered the question. "I don't know, no one seems to know. Even though they had fought several times, their relationship was very good. Nobody thought Cody could do this."

Edison continued his explanation. "When Raymond was stabbed, me and some mages tried to stop Cody, but he was too strong, we couldn't stop him. And a few minutes later, the troops from Boaren came and messed up this place. Their leader took Raymond away with Cody."

Isabella who couldn't bear to hear it ran out. In that moment, Griffin could see Isabella's tears falling before the girl ran away leaving the five of them.

Griffin chased out. "Isbella, wait!"

The four people could only see the two strongest magicians they currently had running away.

Marcello was the first to speak in the silence. "Then what should we do now? We must think of ways to overcome this crisis. Without Raymond and Cody, it was certain that Boaren would attack again. And some of Isabella's powers are also sealed. This is the worst situation for Lirest."

Herbert responded. "Of course we have to save Raymond. Without him, Lirest has no chance of surviving."

Joanna joined the voice following their debate. "But how? Raymond had already been brought to Boaren, and had most likely been sealed in the deepest place within Boaren. With the strength of our troops alone will not be enough to save him. It would be good if Isabella was in top shape, but right now her strength isn't much different from ours."

"Okay, enough. All of you calm down."

Edison's words silenced the three of them for a moment. There, he had the most right to speak, so the other three had to respect his decisions and words.

"You guys are right, we should save Raymond, but not attack directly at Boaren."

"What do you mean?" Herbert asked in confusion.

Edison continued his speech. "It's a very crazy idea, but it's actually the best way to save Raymond with the least casualties possible."

Elsewhere, Isabella sat under a large, towering tree with thick leaves. Surprisingly the tree was not hit by the attack from the great war just now, maybe because of its position at the end of the Lirest forest.

Isabella stared blankly ahead. His childhood memories with Raymond and Cody seemed to pass by. She still vividly remembered the memories of their time together, even though it felt like it had just happened last night.

Cody was a bit of a stubborn person, and he also fought a lot with Raymond, but the two of them actually had a very good relationship. Isabella still couldn't understand why Cody could harm Raymond and the rest of Lirest like this.

Without her knowing it, tears rolled down her cheeks. Isabella tried to wipe away her tears, but her sobs became even more unbearable. She was so lost in her grief and confusion that she didn't notice Griffin sitting behind the same tree, leaning his body against a tree trunk so thick it could cover the bodies of two grown men.

Since earlier, Griffin had heard Isabella's cry which sounded so heartbreaking. Griffin knew that Isabella needed some alone time, which was why he let this girl let out all her sadness.

He didn't know what their relationship was, but hearing that the usually cold Isabella could cry like this, Griffin could guess that they were most likely childhood friends.

10 minutes went by.

"Are you calmer already?"

Isabella immediately stood up when she heard the question just now. It was only then that she realized that Griffin was sitting behind a tree, looking calmly at the dark forest.

"Since when have you been here?"

"Not long. Don't worry, I'm not here to comment or ask questions. I just wanted to see if you were okay or not." Griffin said without looking at Isabella. He knew that this woman would be embarrassed to be caught crying alone here.

Isabella sat back down and leaned her body against the tree.

"To be honest, I'm not fine." Isabella said quietly, but Griffin could still hear her.

"You can tell me if you want."

Isabella was silent for a few seconds before answering. He seemed to be thinking about something.

"No., just forget it. We're back now."

Isabella got up and walked towards the tent just now. She was still feeling sad, but on the other hand she was quite happy that someone had come to cheer her up at this time, especially since it was Griffin. For some reason she felt that this man always appeared at the right time and solved her problems.

Griffin followed Isabella from behind. Although he couldn't see Isabella's expression, but Griffin could tell that this woman was calmer than before, Griffin was quite sensitive when it came to dealing with things like this. Because when he was with his younger sister, Griffin had often learned to understand the expressions someone showed when they were sad.

"Oh, if they ask what your level is, just say you're level 10. Don't tell them you don't have a level." Isabella gave Griffin advice when they got close to the tent.

"Why?"

"Like I said before, there is no wizard without a level in this world. If you say you don't know your own level, they'll get suspicious. Well even though your previous status was only in the 7-8 level, but since your mana is quite high it's better to say that you are now level 10 so they don't get suspicious." Isabella explained her thoughts.

Griffin just nodded. Actually his stats had increased quite a bit compared to when they fought the Ferocious Hound. But for the time being it was better that he didn't say so just yet.

"Oh yeah, by the way, how much mana do you have? How can you produce such big fire against the Boaren army just now?" Isabella asked as she recalled what had just happened.

"Oh that, my mana amount…"

Griffin fell silent when he saw Edison come out of the tent.

"It looks like you two are here, I was just about to look for you."

Edison looked at Isabella.

"Isabella, are you sure you're okay now? You don't need to force yourself in your current state."

"It's okay, I'm better now. Why are uncle looking for us?" Isabella asked with a stern expression, trying to show that she had no problems at the moment. That's what she's been doing all this time as one of the most powerful warriors in Lirest, Isabella shouldn't show her weakness in front of others, this is to maintain her prestige.

"Alright, then let's discuss this matter inside."

The three of them went back in there. Inside there are 6 people who will discuss the future of Lirest.

"When the two of you weren't around, we already discussed plans for the future. And we decided to infiltrate Boaren and save Raymond." Edison explained their plan.

Isabella thought for a moment, she didn't think it was a bad idea. Lirest was in danger of losing the most powerful leader like Raymond. But infiltrating Boaren is also not an easy thing that anyone can do.

"Then how can we save Raymond? Bringing a large army there would be too conspicuous. And we need troops to stand guard here in case of another attack." Isabella asked.

"Yeah, it's hard to bring in a lot of people if you want to infiltrate Boaren. So we decided that only three people would go, me, Isabella, and Griffin."