Falling petals

The Battle.

"Kano!"
 
Her joyful shout filled the room when she sees the man who would add her chances of survival. However in the eyes of the others, she seemed full of joy of seeing her favorite knight.
 
"Your highness!"
 
Kano for the first time in a while smiled when seeing her run up to him. His smile held relief and delight to know she was safe.
 
***
"Why hasn't backup shown up yet!?"
 
Zeke, the green haired guard yelled in frustration while blocking an attack from the side.
 
"..."
 
Clause stabs a man in the chest and pulls out his weapon while using it to defend himself after pulling it out. He as well worries how much the situation seems to have worsen and glances at the knight who was covered in the most wounds and seems to be taking more attacks than them.
 
"They should be arriving soon."
 
"That's what you said close to half an hour ago!"
 
Kano does a horizontal slash and removed two enemies that were overwhelming another guard.
 
"Tsk!"
 
A slash to his shoulder made him turn and stab the man right in the throat. He stabbed though to  get the man right behind that one, killing two with just one movement.
 
The guard all huddled close to Kano for aid. May it have been done subconsciously or consciously, Claus can see that the guards who followed him ended up putting more faith in Kano than him.
 
However he was a levelheaded person and understood that being beside Kano gave them a higher change of survival than them being beside him.
 
"Where is the damn bird!? Did it arrive to the mansion or not!?"
 
Dodging a dagger aimed at his rib, Zake used the chance to cut through the mans throat. However at the same time he was stabbed at the side while killing the other man.
 
"Ugh!!"
 
"Zeke!"
 
"Ah!"
 
Kano created an earth barrier around Zeke to block another attack and formed spikes to attack the enemy who stepped closer to the barrier, fatally wounding 2.
 
"Ronan! Did the bird reach the estate or not!"
 
"It has sir! I feel the connection and can tell the distance. It is right now inside the mansion!"
 
The black haired man blocked an attack but was showing signs of running low in stamina. He can tell the raven he is connected with is inside the property, however he isn't at a high tier to see through the eyes of his contract beast to know its surroundings, the only thing he knows it arrived safely.
 
"Then why is there no support!? What the hell is taking them so long!"
 
Zeke grunts in pain and holds his wound so it wouldn't just bleed out.
 
"Argh!"
 
"Shit! Sir! Their mages are attacking too strongly! We can't defend against the magic while trying to defend from weapon attacks!"
 
"Tsk!"
 
Claus uses the chance he gets to attack with his own magic; he formed wind arrows and aimed for the magicians who were in the middle of forming their own attacks, which ended up leaving them defenseless to guard against. He was able to kill 4 low tier, fifth stage mages; however there were others who were from a higher tier so they didn't fall for that tactic.
 
"I don't have enough magic power left, right now I can use a few low tier magic until I can do nothing but just attack with my sword."
 
Clause was panting and his usual composed expression displayed his frustration of the situation. He turns and looks at how Kano single handily killed two enemies in just a slash and from breaking the neck of another enemy while enhancing his strength.
 
"There are 11 wounded men from our side who can't defend themselves anymore sir. They fell to the attacks created by those mid tier 4th stages mages of the enemy side."
 
"Damn! But at least we were able to kill 3 of their mid tier mages when we ambushed them inside the carriage."
 
"Your losing too much blood Zeke. Stay within the circle formed by the other guards and only attack or defend if enemy gets in there."
 
"Sir. The number of enemies aren't lowering! Rather, they seem to be growing!"
 
"No wonder we are getting beaten so badly here."
 
Kano pulled Clause, helping him dodge a fireball aimed at his head.
 
"Thanks."
 
"No problem, just watch over the others and I'll watch over you guys."
 
"Sorry we aren't doing much help."
 
"Your doing enough by surviving."
 
Kano slashed an arrow in half and frowns at the direction of a few trees.
 
"There are archers in the trees over there. They seem to have just arrived."
 
"Dammit! So the enemy are getting backup quicker than us."
 
Clause smiles self-deprecating and can only find their situation becoming pathetic.
 
"But as long as they keep attacking us, then it means that they haven't found her highness, nor our miss."
 
Clause was no fool, he can still remember when those men that ambushed the carriage entered and didn't see the prior occupants, he recalls the yell that they let out.
 
**
"Where is the brat!? Damn! They hid them. Go and look for them!"
**
 
"Kano."
 
"Hm?"
 
"If it seems we can't make it, then you escape and find her highness and the miss, take them to the mansion and we would use our life to distract them."
 
"..."
 
"Please!"
 
"I don't think you have to worry about that."
 
"What?"
 
"Backup arrived."
 
The moment he said that, the mages that were giving them such a hard time by attacking from a distance were killed by guards and knights arriving to the battle.
 
"Claus!"
 
"Russell!"
 
A fellow guard who seems to be at the same level as Claus in status rode up to him in a horse, slashing at any enemy in his way.
 
"Glad to see you alive."
 
"Glad to see you are able to make it."
 
"Rest for now, we brought healers along that the emperor sent."
 
"The emperor send them!? Does he know what occured!?"
 
"He is heading to another direction though."
 
"Wait, he is here!?"
 
"Yeah, he is heading to were you guys last left her highness and the miss to retrieve her."
 
"That's great! Then everything went well."
 
Clause sighs in relief and feeling all the tension go away, he ended up kneeling to rest.
 
"Not good!"
 
A guard that arrived with the others galloped to the group to tell them bad news.
 
"What's wrong?"
 
"The enemy are starting to retreat."
 
"They must be running in fear. Isn't it expected?"
 
"I heard one say 'they found the target, it's time to retreat!' I believe they must have found whatever they were searching for."
 
"The princess and the miss!!"
 
"What?"
 
Russell turns to Clause and can see the color in his face disappear.
 
"The targets are either her highness or our miss! We have to follow them. Now!"
 
"What!? What do you mean!?"
 
"There is no time! Follow and find out where they have them!"
 
Before any of them can do anything else, Kano was already the first one to run after the running enemies, however he couldn’t  reach them before they were teleported away.
 
"No!"
 
Kano angrily killed a few that ended up staying behind because they couldn't make it through the teleportation crystal radius.
 
But he kept a few alive so they can be interrogated for their base.
 
"Kano Kizuki?"
 
He turns around and is face to face with a furious emperor.
 
"Your majesty..."
 
"Take him to the prison! Interrogate him for the false information of my daughter having a detection item and for leaving both my daughter and Adaline without any protection. See if he is a traitor and arrest the others as well. We have to check if any of the guards are working with him or those bastards too."
 
"Please wait your majesty!"
 
Kano was grabbed by two knights but he didn't resist, he just wanted to ask for one thing.
 
"Please take me along to finding her highness! Or the place she been to last, she must have left something there to help find her!"
 
"You think I'm a fool? What makes you think I would trust you when you lied about the objects in my daughters possession? If she did leave anything, I won't let a suspicious man like you anywhere near it or else you will sabotage it!"
 
"Your majesty!"
 
"If you are innocent, then just go to the prison without struggling. After we get them back, then we would start your trial."
 
Without another word, Mihkael turns fully away from him and hurries to the last location that they heard by the two men who ran to distract their pursuers left them.
 
Kano looked down, allowing himself to be taken without a fight. The only thing he can do is hope.
 
'Please... please be safe Sakura.'
***
 
"I'm truly relieved to see you made it safely back your highness. I'm sorry I was not there to search for you."
 
"I don't blame you Kano. I found out my dad put you in the lower prison in the mansion."
 
"But still I'm truly sorry I couldn't protect you, I should have stayed beside you."
 
"Stop apologizing. Remember for my plan to fully work you were needed to fight with the others. And it went well didn't it? There was no casualties from our side. Only a few injuries here and there."
 
"Your highness..."
 
Kano looked touched that she was trying to make him feel better. He was truly feeling horrible that he wasn't beside her in her most needed moment and he promise himself if such a situation ever occurred again, he would do everything he can to convince her to allow him to follow beside her.
 
"Talking about plans, I bet Seraph would like to hear how much was planned by you Sakura, and how far ahead you planned for that day."
 
Ariel voice was like a splash of cold water to the happy mood that Sakura was finally able to get today.
 
'This freaking-!!'
 
"I would definitely like to hear it all when you guys return."
 
"!!!"
 
Without noticing it. Uriel held a communication crystal and what was displayed was the frightening peaceful smile of Seraph, who rarely has a smile in his face that looked that kind.
 
'Yet that smile hold a chilling tone. Damn! Looks like I have to reveal a few more things. But it will be better to give him this information than have him ask other questions. Just have to make sure to watch what I reveal to him or to Ariel.'
 
Sakura quickly noticed that her carefree and image of a simpleminded muscle head of an uncle was the one she had to watch out with rather than her intelligence uncle Seraph.
 
'The one who always gets me speechless and ends up pushing me into the corner is this uncle of mine, Ariel. He is more than what he seems and he always seems to notice what I'm trying to hide.'
 
She glances at him and he catches her eyes. He tilts his head and gives her a harmless smile which earns him a scowl in return.
 
"Haha! You make the same expression Seraph makes when he looks at me."
 
"Shut up you annoying dog."
 
"Haha! There it is! That scowl full of annoyance!"
 
Seraph sighs and decided to ignore Ariel to turn back to Sakura.
 
"Going back to topic. I'm glad to be reminded about how this all started. You only gave us a brief summary of how this all started, so I would actually like to here the full detail of it and of what else you may have seen. Does that sound like an idea. Hmm?"
 
He returned to that smile that was the opposite of his personality and Sakura can only gulp and nod to his words.
 
"Then, I shall see you sooner or later our princess. And to you two."
 
He turns to Gabriel and Mihkael.
 
"I'm glad to see you guys in a better state. However Mihkael, it seems your daughter isn't the only one hiding something from us. You better talk when you get here."
 
Mihkael held the same expression as Sakura and can only nod to Seraph's words.
 
"Bye bye uncle Seraph."
 
"Goodbye Sakura and to the rest."
 
With that, the communication crystal turn off.