Bernard ignored his sister's warning and kept moving forward to her, but instantly flinched after hearing her threatening.
"Stop or I will throw a black ball on you!"
A black ball. literally the living nightmare of Bernard.
Throughout Maitea's life, whenever her two brothers misbehaved or caused troubles, her master would throw a black ball on them making her brothers disappear in the dark fog for an hour, before suddenly reappearing full with scratches and out of breath, thinking of it as a way to discipline someone.
What she does not know, that this black ball was actually a temporary teleportation device. In other words, the master threw her brothers in some dangerous place telling them to survive for an hour as a punishment for being disobedient.
Well, the master wasn't that soft of a person as his appearance showed.
Maitea's threat actually worked.
Bernard cautiously stood still, he looked at her and the purely black ball in her hand in disbelief.
'HOW IN THE GOD'S NAME DID SHE FIND THAT!!!!!'
After being tortured by that ball for years, Bernard and Yoon both decided to get rid of it, either by figuring a way to inactivate the device or stealing and hide it somewhere.
However, in the end, they couldn't find that device anywhere even after turning the whole house upside down.
'...I can't afford to teleport for an hour '
An hour was enough for his sister to disappear without a trace. She might have not been trained to hold a sword properly like her brothers, but Maitea travelled with the master to wherever he went that made her memorize the whole continent's map.
She knows more than she understands, Finding her later will be harder than facing an army bare-handed.
" baby girl, where are going?"
Why would she suddenly run away? Just because her master wasn't here anymore doesn't mean that she has nothing left, her brothers were basically her loyal servants! And it's not like the master was dead, he.... just returned to be a tree.
" I will go find the grandmaster!"
Maitea answered with firm confidence. The grandmaster was the one who reshaped her master from a peach tree to a rational and independent life form. If he did it once, then of course he can do it again.
" Ah, baby girl.....he is not-"
He wasn't in the human realm, what will a divine being do in this plain realm? The humans were already given a lot of face when he supported their shabby realm with the world tree.
"I WILL FIND HIM!....there most be a gate that is still working "
' if there is not, then I will just create one...'
In the past three days that Maitea was hiding in the master's room, she has been searching through his thousands of years old dairies in hope to find a clue about any active gate. However, she already visited all the gates with her master and saw by her eyes that they were ruined. Leaving only three locations that are deep inside the Dead Land.
A cold land that nothing can survive in it, frozen since the black snow incident.
Of course, the master won't take his precious little Love to such a dangerous place, which means, Maitea did not witness by herself whether those gates are useable or not.
There is a chance, but it's faint.
"Then I will come with you"
If this girl was acting stubborn, all he had to do was to make sure she won't get herself killed.
"No! Brother has lots of work to do. The town, master's work and your job in the Empire"
Who is supposed to keep an eye on the nonhuman races if Bernard disappeared like that? Once the leaders of each territory hear about what happened to her master, the one who suppressed them from going berserk, the underworld will fall in chaos. Someone will have to step and take the initiative to hold the chains of these 'hungry monsters' before shit hits the human society.
Surely, one won't ask the low IQ Maitea to carry such a responsibility. It's either Bernard or Yoon, and since the second disciple Yoon was somewhere in a mission, Bernard would be the only choice.
" no it's fine, I don't want little Ma to get hurt"
As he said that desperately, Bernard finally noticed the man who was sneaking behind his sister.
It was Jennings.
They were talking too seriously that neither Bernard nor Everly felt him approaching. Bernard quickly averted his gaze and pretended not to see Jennings, while listening to Maitea's nagging about how she can't take him with her.
Only when he was few feets away from her, did Maitea feel the presence that was stealthily approaching her. The fact that she didn't notice him, even though Maitea had sharp instincts, gave her the chills. She immediately turned back, but the man already dashed on her and the only thing she could see was the wide shadow covering her.
Jennings warped his arms tightly around Maitea before falling in the water. The river was as deep as Jennings's ankles, though, they were drenched, nothing serious could happen.
" your majesty?!!! What are you doing here?!"
"Chasing after you, what else"
Jennings calmly answered the shocked girl, looks like she never thought that he will really follow her. Maitea opened her mouth to speak before quickly closing it again, she felt the hand, that was holding a round object, now was empty.
After confirming that he was holding the young girl firmly, Jennings turned to where her brother was supposed to be standing but the only thing he could find was dark fog.