Judging from how Ryu still hadn’t healed his wounds, they could already guess that he couldn’t use mana at all.

Murok bitterly smiled at himself. He didn’t understand how his divination could be wrong. It had never been wrong in the past. Could it be that I’m already old and my skills are deteriorating with me?

Murok sighed. With the flipped off his hand, an ivory-colored scroll appeared that glowed in faint azure light.

“Now, now, don’t be angry. You can kill him once we return to the kingdom. But right now, he still has some use. In the meantime, since my mana still hasn’t recovered, I’ll give you this scroll so you can bind that girl to you to make up for my blunder.”

Cecily was stunned at hearing this. She knew how valuable a master-servant scroll was even for a mage like Murok. Only high-ranking nobles could afford this expensive scroll. Even she, a Princess, didn’t have one in her items. She had to request her father to purchase one, which she would never do in her lifetime.

The sudden thought that she would gain a powerful higher rank demon as a servant, Cecily’s unhappiness somewhat reduced –– considering that Agatha didn’t lie about the little girl’s strength, that is.

“Are you sure that she’s powerful and that she will grow horns to become a higher class demon in the future?” Cecily asked again, facing Agatha.

Angels and demons were very hard to defeat and capture. Thus, there were very few out there that had higher-ranking demons as slaves, one being Murok.

Thus, it was a known fact that capturing a demon’s child that didn’t have horns yet was the easiest method to acquire a higher-ranking demon slave.

But how to know whether the demon’s child would turn to be a powerful rank or not, only the demons knew.

On the other hand, there were no known records that one had acquired an angel as a servant –– not in the Mortal realm at least.

“Yes. There is no mistake.” Agatha was very sure of this. Though she didn’t want the child to end up being a servant, it was better than dead!

And maybe in the future, this child could be my ticket out from the clutches of this old man.

Agatha smirked in secret.

For demons being immortal, they have lived for more than a century and knew more about the other races than humans who have a short lifespan. There was knowledge in the world that only they knew.

“Alright. From now on, this girl will be my servant.”

“Then what about those slaves?” Murok glanced at the group of hurdling men and women in the back of the enemies toppled wagon.

Cecily swept her gaze to all of those slaves. When she made sure that none of them were human and mostly halfbreeds, she flipped her hair and ordered. “Kill them all.”

To her, this group of weak slaves was just baggage rather than being helpful. With just relying on the black collar, these slaves could kill them behind their back. It was better to kill them than have their backs stabbed out of nowhere, not knowing how they died.

Murok sighed. Suppose he had at least another master-servant scroll or that his mana in full, he might be able to pick some servants out of the slaves. Though they were inferior in strength and power, they still have their uses.

Traversing these lands for at least more than half a month with just their little numbers was dangerous. At least with added servants, their chances of survival would increase.

But alas, the reality was that no one in their group had a master-servant scroll. The last one was already in Cecily’s hand, and he could barely replenish his mana.

Rather than bringing them along with just a messily collar in their neck without a tight hold of their soul, it was better to kill them all.

Murok nodded in Agatha’s direction.

Agatha, who was kneeling on the ground, was now nowhere to be seen. She appeared in front of the slaves who screamed in fear at the sudden arrival of the demoness. Agatha began a killing spree with a vicious glint in her eyes and a smile on her lips.

----

Southern town

A town in the far south where the view was covered with old decaying wooden houses, muddy grounds, and old smelly humans and piss.

It was nighttime when Cecily’s group reached Southern town. After reserving rooms in the inn and eating their food, everyone rested in their respective quarters.

Cecily still didn’t allow Ryu to take dinner and sleep in the inn with them. Nobody even healed his wounds!

Though Murok kept reminding Cecily that they needed Ryu for the days ahead, Cecily remained stubborn and deaf from the old man’s plea until Murok gave up after countless persuasions.

After all, Murok, too, didn’t have any hope for Ryu if the halfbreed couldn’t use mana. To Murok, Ryu was as good as dead. His only use now was to take bullets for them in case something happens.

While each and everyone had their room, Ryu was kicked to the side of the inn, sleeping on the hard cold dirt together with the trash and the little creatures roaming about.

To Cecily, Ryu was already dead. Instead, she focused on grooming the little girl called Ferris, the ugly little girl who was now her servant. Ferris even had her room, and Cecily even bought new clothes for her.

Cecily and Murok even tried to heal Ferris’s scars and restore her appearance to no success, which added up to Murok’s list of questions to ponder once he got back to the kingdom.

All masters acted this way. Though they loathed the other races with a passion, they still wanted to groom their servant to become more powerful and useful to them. This includes buying them armors, weapons, and other things that could boost their fighting prowess.

It was just that, the moment Ryu licked Cecily on her face, it already sealed his fate. Then and there, Cecily only felt repulsed and disgusted towards him. Hence, every time she saw him, her blood boiled, and a murderous thought surged fort inside her brain.

Dozla’s death was the last straw. No matter what, she couldn’t, wouldn’t forgive him.

----

In the dead of night in Murok’s room, where only the burning candle and fire stones illuminated the whole room, Murok was sitting in a chair, a feather in his hand. He seemed to be writing something while Cecily was watching the distance sky from the opened window.

“I believe it was I they were after. But what I don’t understand is why attack in the open where everybody can see? Even though they are trapped here, if they wanted to kidnap me in exchange for them to get back to their realms, it still doesn’t make sense to attack in broad daylight, out in the open field no less. It was like . . . it was like they were not afraid . . . ,”Cecily mumbled.

Remembering the events a while ago. Those groups were odd. It was not the first time that royals or high nobles were attacked and kidnaped by foreign races that were trapped in the mortal realm after the end of the war. But usually, those attacking and kidnapping were secretly done in the night, less they wanted to alert all the guards, bounty hunters, and mercenaries.

But those group acted so brazenly out in the open without any fear and targeting a royal Princess from the Byron kingdom, no less.

“This event is indeed strange. And unfortunately, we don’t have the time nor resources to investigate this matter. We can only hope that those groups won’t attempt to kidnap you again while we headed home.” Murok stood from his seat, a tiny parchment in his hand, rolled and tied by a ribbon.

As he was nearing the window, Murok mumbled some incantations, and not for long, a gust of wind sparkled inside the room. It twirled in the ceiling before it formed in a shape of a bird.

Murok handed the tiny parchment to the bird. “We can only hope to live through this travel until help arrives. Once we get back to the kingdom, I’ll discuss this matter between the three rulers.”

The three rulers that Murok mentioned were the King of Byron, the ruling Queen of Ruk, and the Asura emperor.

The bird shook its feathers before it accepted the letter. It spread its wings and flew out of the window.

Now that they were in this kind of situation where those groups could attack at any moment, traversing back to the kingdom would become more troublesome. Thus, Murok decided to ask for help which didn’t make Cecily happy one bit.

But what could she do? Those men that attack them were strong, and Murok still hadn’t recovered half of his mana! While Agatha might be strong, yet if those groups brought out another high-ranking demon, it would be all over.

Cecily decided to swallow her pride and clenched her teeth in frustration. She bit her lips when a sob pushed through her throat when she thought about Dozla. She would not shed a tear now.

Not yet, at least.

The soonest she returned to the kingdom, she would hold a funeral for Dozla with Ryu’s head as an offering to appease his soul and her anger.