"You two seem to be enjoying yourselves," a third voice teased.
"Shirley! You're finally awake!" Elizabeth jumped with joy.
"What did you mean by enjoying ourselves?" Benedict was confused. "I don't get it."
Shirley glanced at them exasperatedly. Was their ignorance a good thing? "Your talking woke me up, but it looks like I can't move much either," she said as she struggled to sit up. "How long are you going to stay dead, Freon?"
Elizabeth and Benedict widened their eyes and glanced in Freon's direction, where the boy groaned unhappily, "…What do you mean? I also woke up at the same time as you. Ah… I have a splitting headache." He massaged his head in pain.
"It's a relief that everyone's okay." Elizabeth felt her chest loosen. Although the Battle of Liguang ended with the kingdom's complete defeat, as long as her friends survived, then it was bearable. That might sound cold-hearted, but it was her honest feelings. It might be her duty to avenge those fallen soldiers; however, it was her wish to protect her friends!
"Looks like we're not alone. How many survived?" Freon asked.
"Including us four, there is the Imperial Princesses and Protector Chang… Imperian Qiang and Lady Mingyu… Sir Winstin and Cardinal Hui… and three of the Ten Dawns for a total of fourteen."
"That many?" Benedict was startled. "How are their injuries?"
"I'm not a physician, but… they're fine at the moment," Elizabeth answered frankly. As for how much they would recover, she had no idea.
"Huh? Isn't that bad? That's people from the empire!" Shirley shouted in panic since she had seen what Mingyu Loon and Cardinal Hui could do. They were monsters in human skin! There was no way she could feel safe with them around.
"We should tie them up first before they wake up," Freon added. "We still don't know if they're our allies or our enemies. It's better to be safe."
Elizabeth wanted to protest since they had fought against the Imperial Council together, but she ultimately stopped herself. She knew better than anyone else that allegiances could change overnight and that the politics in the kingdom were the greatest example of that. No relationship was eternal! It was important to nip any problems in the bud before they had the chance to grow. Thinking along those lines, she sliced off some vines from outside and tied up Mingyu Loon and Cardinal Hui. They might be Perception Realm Masters, bordering on Half-Instinct Realm, but without Martial Energy, they should be unable to escape… in theory at least. As for the Imperial Princesses, Imperian Qiang, and Protector Chang, they were much less of a threat and heavily wounded. Elizabeth and her friends outnumbered them and could suppress them if necessary.
She wiped the sweat from her brow and exhaled. "That should do it."
"Sorry for making you do all the work, Elizabeth…" Shirley replied sheepishly.
"No, it's fine. You three shouldn't be moving around. I can handle this much."
"You said that our saviors never came back?" Freon changed topics. "What are the chances that your master, the Sword King, intervened, Benedict?"
"…I doubt it." Benedict's impression of the Sword King was an aloof man who focused wholly on perfecting his swordsmanship, to push it to a new apex never seen before. The Second Great Kingdom War should not interest him in the slightest.
"My uncle shouldn't be involved either. He despises the Zino Kingdom."
Freon knew that for reasons unknown to him, his uncle had a thorny relationship with the Conquestian and the Three Sages. It most likely had something to do with the fallen Arcellius Family, but that was conjecture on his part. Either way, assuming that he did have a reason to intervene, his uncle was all the way in Firecast. He might be a Blue Depth Core Arcanist, the strongest Arcanist in the human world, but even he should lack the means to do anything from this far away. This would mean that…
"The Featherwind Sect saved us," he concluded aloud.
"Huh? No way! They nearly killed us!" Shirley shouted. The image of them splitting the town in half was fresh in her mind. Not to mention, they were entirely responsible for trapping everyone in Liguang!
"Who else could it be?"
"Could it be another Instinct Realm?" Benedict asked.
Shirley nodded. "Or maybe it was someone like Freon's uncle. Blue Depth Core, was it?"
"What are the chances of that?" Freon smiled wryly. "Let's be realistic here. The only ones in a position to do anything was the Featherwind Sect."
"Elizabeth talked with them before, didn't she? Maybe that has something to do with it," Shirley wondered.
"You overexaggerate." Elizabeth shook her head. "Our conversation was short and uneventful, but… something does come to mind. According to what they said, they should be bound by the Nine Regrets Reincarnation vow. Saving us should violate their vow."
"Unless they lied about that," Freon said. "We don't have any reason to trust what they said after all. Either way, we shouldn't speak about this right now. There's no telling who might be listening in."
"I agree," Elizabeth had a dark expression. On the off chance that the Featherwind Sect was nearby, then exposing anything in their current situation could court disaster. They could talk at length in private later. That was also why she hesitated to say anything about her teacher… ignoring her outburst when she woke up.
"The bigger question is how do we get back to the kingdom? Do you know how much time has passed since the battle?"
"It couldn't have been more than a week," she deduced after some thought. "You're probably thinking of regrouping with the kingdom's main army near Liguang."
Prior to the Battle of Liguang, Elizabeth and General Dennis had arranged for the kingdom's main army to advance towards Liguang ahead of time, since they anticipated that the Imperial Council would make a move. Although it would take hours for the main army to arrive, it should have been easy to hold out with the Steel Eagle Brigade's troop of five thousand. That was the idea anyways until the Featherwind Sect intervened. Just thinking about it almost caused Elizabeth to boil over with rage.
She coughed and recomposed herself. "I had the same idea, but the problem is I have no clue where we are. There's nothing notable nearby though we should still be in the Samfeng Province…"
"Can't we just travel eastward? The Yunyun Stronghold and the kingdom's first offensive line should be that way. Even if we can't find our way back to Liguang, that's an option," Benedict said.
"We have too many injured, so making a journey that far is too dangerous," Elizabeth explained. "The main army near Liguang is our best bet."
"But the Featherwind Sect might be there…" Shirley pointed out which made everyone's expressions darken. If they fought that hard to escape their clutches, only to return like a moth drawn to a flame, that would be the epitome of stupidity. It would be suicidal!
However, Elizabeth disagreed. "Now that we've disappeared, the kingdom should be doing everything they can to confirm our statuses and rescue us if we're still alive. The Imperial Council's main forces should still be beyond the Quiton Gates, whereas the Li Family's main forces should lack the capability to extend their offensive line any further. The forces that they fielded to Liguang should be everything they have. Of course, even I didn't expect that they would be all Perception Realms wielding Martial Energy, but they can be outmaneuvered and outsmarted. As they say, soldiers are only as strong as their commander. They're not invincible. Therefore, Liguang should be the safest place we can go to. On the contrary, if we travelled through the wilderness and accidentally stumbled upon the Li Family or the Imperial Council's forces, then we would have zero chance. We would be hunted down and captured."
"I agree with Elizabeth," Freon said. "We know for certain that the Alzar Kingdom's forces should be in or near Liguang. As the Featherwind Sect… since they've shown reluctance in using large-scale strategic spells, we can assume that they cannot freely use it. That means the likelihood of another attack on Liguang would be vanishingly small."
Elizabeth nodded. "There should be no more strategic value to attacking again now that we're absent. Everyone should be more focused on determining whether we're alive or dead. After all, we have the Imperial Princesses and Imperian Qiang here…" The value that these three possessed could not be understated. The former were the only remaining legitimate heirs to the throne, whereas the latter was the current patriarch of the Li Family. Not to mention, she herself was the heir apparent to the Alzar Kingdom. Their total strategic value was immeasurable!