“Oh, you want to know about our empire?” Frederick asked excited. This girl wanted to know about the empire he would some day rule, he felt excited. He had never felt this emotion before so this was a new experience to him.

“Well, our empire is located on the south east corner of this continent. It spans 25 million kilometers and borders the Rafne Empire in the north and the Xerpor Empire in the west. We have the Decaying Ocean to our south and east.” He looked as if he would continue speaking for hours and hours on end so Azura listened to only the crucial information such as the royal families of the two empires and their inhabitants.

“Here!” Azura looked at the meat in front of her face and heard her stomach rumble. She whispered an incantation and her hands were instantly clean.

She took the meat and said a ‘thank you’ to Frederick. As soon as she took it, he immediately took another from the fire pit and started devouring it, as if he hadn’t eaten properly in months.

Azura looked at the fire and ate. She tried to get her newly acquired information in order. It seemed like the three empires were in constant war, and Tyran Empire only had an ally overseas called Brefen. The reason they are allies is mainly because of the trade. Tyran supplies weapons, armour and technology while Brefen provides food, energy crystals and restorative pellets.

“Excuse me miss” She looked up and saw Gabriel standing there looking at her. “Can you follow me, I want to discuss something with you.” He looked at Frederick and back to Azura.

She stood up and rubbed any dirt that had clung onto her while she sat. Gabriel looked at her and started walking towards the largest tent, which was reserved for Gabriel. As soon as she entered she saw a desk with a stack of papers on top of it.

“Please, sit” Azura sat down and watched at he took another chair and placed it on the other side of the desk.

“I asked you to come here to discuss a... job, if you wish to call it that.” He looked at the girl only to see her staring back at him with no reaction, as if she was a naive little girl that didn’t understand how the world worked.

“I understand that you are powerful. The way Frederick described what happened is most likely just some hallucination he had gotten from the shock of fighting the spirit, but you did kill it so you are definitely stronger than the Prince. I came here to offer you to become the bodyguard of his Highness. You will be coming to live with him in the palace so just think of it as babysitting in another persons home.” He is sure that this girl would accept. To become the bodyguard of a Prince, who did not wish for such an occupation, but her answer left him stunned.

“I’m afraid I’m not strong enough to become the Prince’s bodyguard so please look for someone else” That’s it? Gabriel looked at the girl, no reason other than ‘I’m not strong enough’?

“If you’ll excuse me, I am tired after today's events. I am going to my tent for some rest” Azura bowed towards Gabriel and quickly left. Gabriel snapped out of his daze and quickly ran to the entrance only to see Azura entering her tent.

“Uncle Gabriel! What did you want to speak to her about?” Gabriel looked at the Prince and sighed helplessly. “Why do you need to stick your nose into everything?” he hit the Prince’s head lightly and went back to his tent.

Frederick looked confused. Why did uncle Gabriel sigh and then hit his head? He then looked at Azura’s tent. Shaking his head slightly he walked back to his own.

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Several hours later.

Azura opened her tents door and slowly made her way out of the camp, trying not to be spotted by anyone.

‘Only 5 minutes left.’ Azura looked back at the camp and smiled. Artemis looked at her and felt that it was good it had submitted, who knows what she would have done to it if it had not.

-Master, did you really have to do that? We could have lived in the Imperial Capital. We could have easily gotten food, riches and anything we wanted.- Artemis was confused. Was that not why she had saved the Prince?

-Before I went back to the tent, the man named Gabriel wanted to recruit me to become the Prince’s bodyguard, or in other terms, his meatshield.- Azura continued stroking Artemis’ fur while it was running towards the border of the Xerpor Empire.

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Five minutes later, in the camp.

*BOOOM*

Gabriel quickly stood up, only to be knocked down by a shockwave. He tried standing up this time, only more careful. He started to faintly shine green as he walked outside. He saw his people running out of their tents and screaming as fire continued to spread from tent to tent. He grabbed someone who was on patrol and demanded to know what was going on.

“L.. Lord Gabriel!” The soldier instantly stopped struggling once he knew who it was that had grabbed him. “What’s going on! How did this happen!?” Gabriel roared at the soldier.

“S.. Sir there was an explosion.” The soldier quickly relayed everything that he knew. Gabriel threw him down and quickly ran to where the Prince’s tent was located. As soon as he got there he stopped.

It was gone. It was all gone. Instead of a row of tents, it was just a hole in the ground. How was he going to explain to his friend that his son had died in his protection, and that not even a piece of hair was left of him.

“Find who did this.” Gabriel said, surprisingly calm. The soldiers who heard this instantly shivered and ran towards the armoury.