'She is still nearby...'

After a long time, he heard her talking again, seemingly talking to someone about dresses. 'She is finally buying something.'

There was a long break with Seren not talking at all, and this made Drayce grow restless once more. Just then, he picked up on the commotion outside, with people screaming and running, and his heart skipped a bit.

It did not take long before one man entered the office and bowed to the merchant in a hurry. "My Lord, the two wolves we had brought a while ago hurt our men and managed to run away. They are on the streets now—"

Without even waiting for the man to finish, Drayce hurried to go out of the door. The others had yet to even get out of their chairs in that fraction of a moment, but he had already disappeared from their sights. Those who did not personally know him thought they had seen something wrong.

How could the King of Megaris vanish suddenly?

It was nothing new for Arlan and their escorts, and they were less worried as they followed behind him.

--------

The streets had turned deserted as everyone ran away, hiding in fear of those two wolves who had managed to harm quite a few people. The city guards had been mobilized by the Loyset Family, but they paid more attention to rounding and protecting the innocent people, thus there was less manpower hunting the wolves. The fierce wolves were used to living in the wild and were quick to run; the men from the merchant and the small number of city guards were not enough to corner them.

No one realized that these two violent predators were circling towards a particular person who was busy hiding herself. Some time ago, the two wolves had already noticed her—or to be more precise, they sensed something that attracted them towards her without even seeing her. Because they were subconsciously aiming towards her location, the rest of the civilians found this as a chance to run or hide.

That particular person, Seren, was hiding behind the same hand cart loaded with huge packages from the shop earlier. It was left in the middle of the road by the two workers who ran away after hearing news of the wolves.

Seren was clueless about the incident. She only vaguely felt that things were strangely quiet around her, incomparable to the earlier bustling and noisy atmosphere of the district. As she didn't know what had happened, she was relaxed. She preferred the silence as that would mean she was somewhere without people. Her best guess was that she was probably somewhere far from the merchant district, that's why it was quiet.

On the bad side, Seren was worried her escorts might spot her as the crowd was gone and so was her best cover. Once she left the protection of this hand cart, she would stand out if she were to walk on the deserted street. She could only hope that they were searching around the other shops. She waited for a while before taking a peek out. Seeing no one was around, she came out from her hiding place and thought of heading in the opposite direction far from that merchant guild where Drayce went.

"Grrrr!"

The sudden snarling sound made her flinch. When she turned to face the source, she was welcomed by the sight of two huge beast-like animals baring their sharp teeth at her.

'Wolves!'

Seren covered her mouth to prevent herself from screaming, as she was sure Drayce would get to know her whereabouts after that. Despite her trembling legs, she slowly took steps backing away from those wolves. Perhaps because she was not running, the wolves merely glared at her while sniffing the air around them.

'I am thin and not tasty at all! Just stay where you are…'

Sir Rulf and the other knight finally found her and saw the sight of wolves walking towards Seren. Both pulled out their swords and were about to run to help the queen, but they were stopped by the sudden arrival of a red-eyed man who looked like he had appeared out of thin air.

"Your Majesty!"

"Stand down," they heard Drayce say, and they immediately sheathed their swords.

Sir Rulf was sure that with his king present, then no one could hurt their queen. Even the knight from Griven was aware of his Crown Prince's best friend's abilities. They trusted his skills more than anyone else.

Though Drayce saw those two wolves taking slow steps towards Seren, he didn't go to help. He wanted to check something and decided to wait. Even if he was wrong about what he had thought about Seren's powers, he was confident he could still kill those wolves before they could even touch the hem of his queen's long dress.

He soon found the wolves turning calmer the more they approached Seren, though someone who was not familiar with beasts might not realize the change in them. Drayce was sensitive to savagery and bloodlust, and he could sense none of those from those wolves. However, Seren was frail at heart, to the point even harmless mice scared her. It would be impossible for her mind that was clouded with fear to notice these animals meant her no harm. She was even unaware that rescue had arrived; she had been terrified to the point she could see nothing but the wolves in front of her.

Even from a distance, Drayce could feel what his queen was going through. He was sure she was scared to her bones that she could faint any moment.

'Only if she is aware of her powers…'

However, before Drayce could observe further, his eagle arrived to her rescue with an angry screech before starting to attack the wolves with his claws. The majestic bird dealt with two wolves while flying, spreading his enormous wings with each claw attack.

Despite shivering in fear, Seren managed to speak out loudly, "Dusk, no! Go away!"