"BROTHER WIXX, do you have solid evidence to back up your claim?" Soleil asked her brother. "I believe you, of course. But we need to proof if we want to gather allies to go to war with us."

"I won't mention it if I don't have proof," Winchell said confidently. "The 'proof' that I'm talking about is in the form of the survivors that I managed to save while I was investigating Auro Moonchester."

"Where are the survivors, Brother Wixx?" she asked worriedly. "Why didn't you bring them here so they would be properly taken care of?"

"Don't worry too much, Soleil," he assured her. "The survivors are currently hiding in a safe shelter. There are also people who are protecting and taking good care of them. So far, the survivors are still traumatized. But fortunately, they are willing to step out and expose the evil schemes of the kid emperor."

"That's a relief to hear but…" She trailed off, hesitating to ask. But in the end, she gathered the courage to voice out her worries. "What kind of proof do the survivors have?"

"They are pregnant with the humanoid Crades that r*ped them."

She shut her eyes tight and bit her lower lip until she tasted blood in her mouth.

To be honest, she already expected to hear that from her brother. Thus, her hesitation to ask earlier. But confirming her thoughts still hurt like hell.

Those poor ladies…

Her anger for Auro Moonchester only grew worse.

A while ago, she was wondering if she was being petty for taking revenge on the young emperor because she lost her baby and her husband to that despicable man.

But now, she already knew that she couldn't allow a person like that to rule the continent. She also knew that she was the only one who could stop him. After all, she was the one who saved that evil man in the past.

"Most of the ladies that we saved are royals from either a small or a defeated country," her brother continued. "If we inform their families of what happened to them because of Auro Moonchester, we can convince them to join our revolution."

She took a deep breath before she opened her eyes. "Brother, can I see them?"

"I don't think it would be wise," her brother said while shaking his head. "Soleil, you know that Elis Ripperton is keeping an eye on you, don't you?"

She scowled, then she nodded. "I can feel his presence recently as if he's trying to intimidate me. The Fire Mages led by Solaris tried to catch him several times but to no avail."

"That bastard Blue Dragon is really sleek," he said while clicking his tongue. "Anyway, since Elis Ripperton has his eyes on you, you shouldn't step out of the palace for the meantime. If you meet the survivors, the Blue Dragon may follow you. You wouldn't want him to find out the shelter that caters to the survivors, would you?"

"I understand, Brother," she said. "Then, will you personally take care of the ladies?"

"An ally of mine is already doing that."

She raised a brow at that. "You have friends, Brother?"

He just scoffed at her. "I have other 'beast' friends that you didn't meet because you didn't ascend to the heavens. Let's just call this one as the 'shadow beast.' He does the dirty works for me so it wouldn't be an exagerration to say that he's my servant now."

"Brother, if you don't want me to know who he is, that's fine with me," she said. "No need to make an exagerrated lie."

Her brother laughed softly while shaking his head, then he turned serious. "How are you, Soleil?"

She automatically clutched at her stomach because she knew exactly what her brother was talking about. "I'm fine, Brother. As fine as someone in my situation could be."

It seemed like her brother had already heard that the child in her womb was already heard about the Moon Serpent. Moreover, she had no reason to hide her condition from him. Fortunately, Winchell didn't look like he wanted to pry more as he changed the topic easily.

Plus, she wasn't comfortable to talk about how they couldn't extract the Moon Serpent from her womb yet. According to Solenn, they had to be careful because her baby's Mana inside her was like a magic bomb. If they weren't careful, it would explode inside her body and hurt her.

"Are you not going to ask me if I know where the Black Serpent is?"

"Are you going to tell me?"

"Of course not," he said bluntly. "I think it's better for you and the Black Serpent to get separated. Now that the Moon Serpent is gone, you have no reason to stay with him anymore."

She knew that her brother was making sense.

But it still hurt to hear that.

"Brother, can you talk to the elders and our clan about Auro Moonchester's disgusting experiment?" Soleil asked, her turn to change the topic this time. "I'm going to personally check on the progress of the Keepers' training."

"Of course, my little sister," Winchell said, then he gently patted her head. "Leave the matters of the war to me."

***

"LORD BLACK Serpent, the ladies said that they are ready to have a recorded interview now."

Kalel was relieved to hear that from Josef Sherwood– one of Elis Ripperton's descendants.

To be precise, Josef Sherwood came from the lineage of the Blue Dragon's daughter. Thus, the different surname. But the other descendants who carried the name Ripperton before already changed their name into 'Sherwood.'

After all, they were mad at Elis Ripperton for abandoning their clan.

I'm glad that I found their clan before.

He searched for the Blue Dragon's descendants in the past because of Auro's order. But when he found them and realized that the Sherwoods didn't trust Auro because of his association with Elis Ripperton, he hid the whole clan instead of presenting them to his brother.

As of now, the Sherwood clan was using the snowy mountain called 'Elisio' as their hideout. They created a small village there. And just recently, Elisio became the shelter for the ladies that were abused by the humanoid Crades for breeding.

"Good job, Josef," Kalel praised the young head of the clan. "Tell the ladies that we will visit them later with the matriarch of your family to keep them at ease."

After all, he knew that the ladies wouldn't feel comfortable if only men would get their statement.

"Are you going to talk to them personally, my lord?"

He shook his head. "I'm not good at talking to ladies who aren't my wife. It's his forte."

As if on cue, he heard a loud flapping of wings as a huge shadow hovered above them.

When he looked up at the blue sky, he was greeted by the person who had been his 'partner in crime' for the past weeks.

"Welcome back, Winchell," Kalel said while looking up at the Red Phoenix. "Are you sure you weren't followed by the enemies?"

Winchell scoffed at his question, and completely ignored it by bringing up another topic. "Kalel, when are you going to return to my poor sister's side?"

***

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