“So you can really speak our language. You visited Argent City before, haven’t you?” Caleb asked with furrowed brows.

Brushing her hand through her black hair, she replied, “I did, what about it?”

After looking into her eyes for a few seconds, he appeared behind her in a flash. Expecting it, Elena used her Shadow Step to get behind his back. He elbowed her in the stomach. Jumping back, she put her hand on the handle of her dagger. Turning around, he looked at her again without moving even a finger. Seeing that he managed to hit Elena, the General and the Old man reconsidered their initial thoughts of this ‘rash’ man.

“What do you want?” Elena asked.

“It depends. Who are you?”

“What does it matter to you? I’m just a normal person.”

“Is that so? I heard from Sally about you. She told me that you probably killed our guards and ran back to your king, Atelon. But that doesn’t seem to be the case unless you felt like visiting this place before going back.” Hearing Caleb’s words, the General made a surprised face, finally understanding why Elena wanted a backstory so bad.

“She was born and raised here,” Salem spoke in their language.

Remembering that he came with friendly intentions, he returned his Mana from his feet and hands into his body, which resulted in a change of aura. “I understand. I’m very sorry in that case,” he replied, slightly bowing his head.

“What? You come here and attack me out of nowhere based on some hearsay and expect me to say that everything is okay now?” Elena asked, furrowing her brows. I don’t really care about it, but I might be able to pull something good out of this, she thought, holding back a smirk from forming on her face.

Although Salem wasn’t a politician, he wasn’t stupid and understood Elena’s intentions. He knew that Elena wasn’t as angry and offended as she showed. I’m sorry, my king, but I’ll listen to my instincts and play along with your guest. She seems to know what she is doing, he thought before saying aloud, “You just attacked the princess of this kingdom, who is also our hero. What do you have to say?”

Raising his hand, Calem rubbed his eyes. Fuck it, I fucked up real bad. If she has such a position, then she has nothing to do with Atelon or our kingdom. She probably came to spy with her friends, but only to measure up our strength, culture, and the rest of the stuff a kingdom would like to know. The question is, how do I correct this without making them have a bad impression of me? Bethor will beat me up if I can’t fix this! It wouldn’t be good if they would turn into our enemies because of this.

Opening his eyes, although really unwilling, he got on his knees. Considering his strength, his act was very humiliating. “To show how my I am sorry, please accept my apology.”

Silence spread on the training ground. Although they came from two different planets, they were connected in the past and so, the basic customs were still the same. Salem knew how much it meant and he was surprised since based on his knowledge, Calem had no reason to do anything of the sort. She surely knows more than me. It was right to trust her, after all, he thought as a smile formed on his face.

“I accept your apology, but I want something simple in return. Last time I had to play around in your city and try to get information about your country or what, but I had to leave earlier since an enemy empire attacked us. I want you to answer a few of my questions!”

“A peace treaty?” Caleb asked with a smile on his face as he jumped up.

“Eh? Ah, it’s up to the King to deal with those kinds of things. I’m just a princess, after all.”

“Hahaha, ‘just’ you say. Others would kill for your position,” Salem laughed awkwardly as he walked up to Elena and stopped beside her.

Oh, right. It’s best if I’m a valuable person for them in the current setting, Elena realized her mistake.

“Of course, I’ll gladly share what I know with you,” Caleb nodded his head. “But we too are preparing for… a battle, so is it possible for me to leave now and come back later? If you don’t mind.”

“Hmm~ Do you want to rebel against your king, Atelon? Was it? I learned while being there that you were hiding your army as ‘thugs’ in the slums and made them into the bad guys. Even your city felt a bit weird, could it be that the inhabitants know about it as well? Maybe Innkeepers and popular store owners? They could give false information to many visitors, after all. Your plans seem to be doing well, as I saw it. Was I wrong in something?” she asked with a smile, showing all her cards.

Furrowing his brows, Caleb stayed silent for a few seconds. Clenching his fists, he said, “You know way too much. I could try to deny it, but you seem to be sure of this and you aren’t bluffing. How did you find out? Were you the one who killed those guards, after all?”

“How rude! I’m being suspected for the second time already! I didn’t kill anyone but a random thug who wanted to rape me and a guard who came out of nowhere and attacked me. Is there anything wrong with that or did you expect me to just stand and let them do everything they wanted with me?”

“I don’t think that our guards would have attacked you without saying anything,” Caleb tried to reason, but Elena pressed on.

“Are you telling me that I’m lying?”

“N- No, I was just…”

“Just what? You seem to be doubting me non-stop. You should leave and never come back if you wish to keep up with this. That’s really sad since I had plans there,” she said as she turned around with a ‘hmph’.

“Plans? What kind of plans?” Caleb asked with a newfound interest.

“Well, your land seems to be flourishing, while we have many deserts and even the ground is strange at a few places. I thought that it would have been nice to form an alliance, take over the throne together and we would gain some territory…” she replied briefly telling her plans, rolling a lock of her hair around her finger.

Did she have such plans?! That would be damned great! Caleb shouted in his mind, already imagining the possible outcome of their rebellion. Holding back his emotions, he tried to keep a cool head. “I deeply apologize once again and Miss, your plans are very much to my liking! Could we talk about the details at some time?”

Salem couldn’t help but look back and forth in his surprise. What the fuck? How did our kingdom decide to help another one to gain more territory? Even the Sliton Empire is too big for us in its current state. Our population isn’t even high enough and now she is leading us into another war? I shouldn’t have trusted her, but I can’t say anything at this point! Shit… I’m sorry, my king! Salem cursed in his mind, realizing that he should have never opened his mouth.

The only escape would be to reveal Elena’s true identity, but the oath is protecting her and I wouldn’t want to turn her into our enemy either. I have a strange feeling that this man wouldn’t be able to kill her and we would be left alone. Once she came back… no, no. I definitely mustn’t betray her expectations.

Going over his lacking number of possibilities, Salem decided to partake in Elena’s play, hoping that they would really benefit from it in the future.

“In case you are truly interested, come back tomorrow morning and we will discuss the details. I have to tell these plans to the King too since I haven’t done it yet, hehe,” she said, showing a cute smile.

“S- Sure. I’ll be back tomorrow morning in that case. By the way, my name is Caleb. I’m the Vice-Captain of the guards,” he replied, introducing himself before turning around to leave.

“Oh! So you are that guy. I didn’t manage to gather any information about you,” Elena pulled on the sides of her mouth with a taste of dissatisfaction.

“Heh, I’m the best in hiding, after all.”

“The right hand of the King or should I call you a sneaky tail?” Elena asked with a smirk on her face.

“Whatever you wish,” he replied with a grin on his face, taking a liking to Elena. After seeing the end result, he realized that she was leading him by the nose and was acting to get the deal done, but it only showed him that she was capable. Finding a capable ally was better than having many useless ones.

Turning around one last time, he asked with a slight feeling of concern in his voice, “There is one last thing. How come you don’t just tell Atelon about our plan, raid our city, and take over it as your territory as a reward?”

“Don’t take me for a fool. If we get a territory as a reward, it will never be truly ours. I don’t want to be the bootlicker of that guy either after hearing what kind of person he is. But if I help you win, I can make a preferable deal and truly own a territory.”

“Great! You are really great!” Caleb shouted as he stomped on the ground, turning into a black mist and flying towards the portal like grains of sand.

When he ‘finally’ left, Salem eased up before showing an angry face, “Elena! What’s the meaning of this! This isn’t what you said before! If the other side is full of Magicians like you and even stronger ones, then we have no chance!”

“I originally didn’t want to come here after seeing how weak you were, but the opening of the portal forced me. Seeing your weapons, it turned out that you are still useful. My kind of ability isn’t a common one. Only people with Assassin related Classes have these kinds of abilities. The others will be blown up by your bombs and their heads will be filled with holes from your rifles. You don’t have to worry because you won’t lose more than with a usual war.”

“I’m sure that once I leave, the neighboring kingdoms would attack you in their fear anyway. But if you manage to get their city lord on the throne, you too will benefit. You will be able to turn the use of spells and Mana into a common thing. Imagine your Drung Kingdom filled with magicians. Wouldn’t it be nice?” hearing the words of the devil, Salem couldn’t help but agree with her.

Am I being lead around again or not? But her words do make sense. It would be hard to keep up our territory with our current army. If this war really helped us in nurturing more magicians, then it would be more than worth to join! He thought.

“I’ll accept your reasons, but I hope that you will take responsibility. You could cause a disaster and the downfall of our Kingdom. When we first met, you said that you were looking for ‘bad’ people, right? If you really kill all of us off, then you should be the first on your own to-kill list,” he replied with furrowed brows as he turned around and walked towards the palace.

“I know. I don’t wish to sacrifice you. This area is quite interesting and might be a deciding factor in the future,” she replied with a smile on her face.

“Huh? In what?” he couldn’t help but stop and ask.

“Secret.”

“...”

“Let’s continue this training, but I warn you. I’ll kill you if you’ll try to grope me again, just saying,” she pointed at the old man's face.

“F-Fine.”

Audrey, Jake, and Cor joined not long after. Cor caused quite a big ruckus in the palace, but thanks to Jake’s and Audrey’s presence, things calmed down quickly. Elena’s friends were surprised to hear what happened while they were sleeping in the morning. They spent the rest of the day in learning fighting techniques, movements, stances. The second time, the old man changed into a completely different person and took their training seriously.

In the evening, Elena and Audrey took a bath together in the women’s bath in the palace, while the guys were sent to have a bath in the men’s bath. Knowing that the next day would be long, Elena went to bed early. But at that time, she sensed somebody sneaking into the palace, thanks to the usage of Dark Magic.

She stayed in bed the whole time, even when the man sneaked into her room after checking a few rooms in the palace.

“I found you,” the man talked to himself in a low voice, unsheathing his dagger. But before he could even move, Dred jumped out of his shadow and grabbed his throat. Raising him into the air, he asked, “Who sent you? Who are you?”

The man didn’t even have the time to react to his speed and strength.

“...”

“So you aren’t talking,” Dred growled. Pushing him on the ground, he forced open his mouth and grabbed one of his teeth and slowly tore it out.

“AARGH!”

“So? Fine then.”

“...”

Elena just laid on her side on the bed and looked at the assassin with amusement as Dred beat him up and pulled out of him what he wanted to know. “P-Please, no more!” the assassin said as Dred grabbed his last tooth and pulled it out. His limbs, fingers, and toes were broken by the time he finished.

“Who sent you?”

“I- I came from the Slave city! They wanted me to assassinate you and take your bodies to them! I don’t know anything else, I swear!”

“And where is that Slave city you speak of?” Elena finally spoke, even though she stayed silent the whole time the assassin was tortured.

His body pressed to the ground, his mouth and limbs a bloody mess, the assassin looked up into Elena’s cold eyes, which filled his heart with more dread than anything he experienced before. Her strong bloodthirst pressured his mind and heart so much that his body started trembling in fear as he replied with a stutter, “I-It’s to the East, a-about five hours of travel. Please, spare my life!”

Nodding her head, Elena turned away. That was the moment the assassin felt sure of his death. He felt Dred’s fingers and claws sink into his neck, tearing his muscles and nerves in the blink of an eye. For a moment, he saw his own body before he lost his consciousness.

“You little shit, you tried to sneak up on us…” Dred cursed at him as he devoured the remnants of his body.

“You seem to be pissed off more than usual. What’s up?” Elena asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Well, their target was you, after all,” Dred replied, scratching the back of his head. Crossing her legs, a smile formed on her face. But Dred’s wandering eyes didn’t escape her sight either, which somewhat surprised her. He did say that his demon body had some kind of feelings when seeing my body. Could it be that he was so strange in the morning because of that? Elena thought as she got up from the bed.

Out of curiosity, she slightly opened her legs, only to see Dred’s eyes turn away. Since she didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable, she said in the next moment, “Let’s visit this city quickly. With your speed, we will reach it and come back in just an hour at most, if not less.”

“Should I call the others?” Dred asked, raising a brow, behaving in the same way as usual.

“Yes, call Audrey and Salem. You can call the others if you want them to sit on your back, haha. I want to show him something. Before we meet Hector again, I want him to know what we are capable of. Audrey had been learning that new spell ever since obtaining it, so she should be able to use it by now. I want them to do as I wish and when I wish for now,” she replied as she got up from the side of the bed.

As she walked past him, she felt his eyes on her back before hearing his footsteps as he started following her. She looked back at him from the corners of her eyes while thinking, Interesting. What are you hiding, Dred? If not you, then time will tell…

---

They soon left the palace and went towards Slave city. Salem was holding Dred’s leg in the strong wind that blew against his face high up in the air. Looking down, he couldn’t help but find his current height a bit terrifying. Looking up at Elena, he asked, “Why do you want to go to Slave city? That place is terrible, filled with nothing but criminals!”

“You’ll see it soon enough, just guide us.”

“Fine.”

Half an hour later, they found the city and Dred landed a few kilometers away. Audrey hopped off of Dred’s back and looked at Elena, “Are you sure about this?”

“Yes.”

Nodding her head, Audrey spread her arms, forming a huge gravity zone in the city that made the houses crumble and the debris fly towards the center of the zone. After forming a mix of fire and light elemental ball, the size of a house, she compressed it into the size of a head and shot it towards the city.

Screams and shouts could be heard even from so far away as the houses crumbled and the people tried to get away from the pull of the gravity zone. When the ball arrived, Audrey closed her eyes and snapped her fingers.

An Eon element speck shot forward and split the Mana specks inside the mixed fire and light ball into two halves, causing it to enlarge to the size of the whole city. There was no sound at first, only a huge light that radiated the dark night in white and orange. Then soon a loud rumbling came as the ground started to tremble, followed by a huge shockwave that pushed Salem up into the air and made him fly through the air. He landed on the ground with a loud thump a few meters away. Sitting up, he looked at the scene in wonder, surprise, amaze, and fear.

“W-What the meaning of this?” he asked, looking at Elena, his forehead covered in sweat.

“Nothing,” she replied bluntly, showing a smile.

Sitting on the ground, feeling like a child in front of adults, he started to ponder, If they used this against our capital city… We have no fucking chance. Is she threatening us with this? But… it’s working, he thought as he got up from the ground, forgetting his ‘status’ completely. The bright light slowly faded away, leaving nothing but a huge crater and a barren land in its place.

Soon silence and darkness returned and only the silver light of the Moon provided some light.

“Mhm, it’s working perfectly, though you lost quite a lot of Mana, it seems,” Elena nodded her head as she examined Audrey’s state.

“It’s a bit hard to control, but I can get used to it if I use it a few more times. Though I should do it in a desert instead,” she furrowed her brows, thinking aloud.

“Haha, I’m fine with that. I won’t make you use this unless somebody betrays us. Let’s go back,” Elena said with a bright smile, not even looking at Salem.

She is threatening me, after all… he thought as he sighed loudly. Audrey got back onto Dred’s back and hugged Elena from behind to hold onto something.

“I can’t wait for the time when you finally learn to fly!” Dred grumbled in a low voice, feeling dissatisfied again.

“Hush, you should be happy instead!” Audrey replied with a chuckle.

Looking at Salem’s blank face, Elena leaned down to poke his face, “Salem? Come…”

Nodding his head, he grabbed Dred’s front leg and hold onto it tightly.

As Dred flew into the air and turned towards the capital, Salem looked back one last time.

“Nothing is left, huh…”