Laris and Letitia walked side by side. The guards by the door gave them a glance, not even sparing a single nod, but the twins knew where their loyalties lie and let them go. Besides, it's not like they aren't used to be disrespected, especially by the Alphas of stronger packs that were nearer to the position of King Vaughn and his son, Vihan.
『 I don't know what he's thinking. 』Letitia conversed telepathically as she watched the view outside the carriage window zoom past them. 『 He isolates us in that house and now he calls us back to live in the palace. Isn't he wary of us? Or does he want to watch us himself up close—keep your enemies closer and all? 』
『 I'm not sure what he's thinking either, but it could be something's happened. 』Laris was expressionless, the nobility's aura oozing out of his every pore while he sat straightly opposite his sister.
『 It's been years already and we haven't found them. Could Uncle Vaughn had been tipped off about our probing? 』
Laris glanced at his sister, his eyes holding a disgusted hint that was unique only to siblings.
『 Don't you get goosebumps calling him that? 』
『 What, 'Uncle Vaughn'? 』Letitia smirked without removing her eyes from the outside scenery.
There were circular country houses all around the area. It took a several decades before the whole kingdom was finally reconstructed, having more than one uniform type of house. Each country house was circular, with the middle opening into an open-ceiling garden where the any Lycan can lounge or bond in their wolf form. Each house was assigned per pack. The larger the pack, the larger the house. Of course, the largest would be the guards and the hunter pack that was assigned to live inside the walls.
The huge wall that surrounded the whole Kingdom had two walls. One thick outer wall for defense and the inner wall for support and living space for the guards. Of course, the guards also have the option of choosing to live in single houses but the residential areas are far as it is.
There are no shortage of trees and open fields in the entirety of the Lycan Kingdom. Only a small part of it in each of the three cities in the kingdom was left as the residential areas that were occupied by half-lycans, other affiliated human-kinds, and those Lycan-kind that have yet to get a pack or were kicked out of one.
『 I wasn't aware that you respected that man enough to call him uncle. You should save the familiarity for someone who's actually worthy of being called that name. 』
『 You think I'm calling him uncle because I respect him? Don't get me wrong. I'm calling him Uncle Vaughn to disgust him to death. Who knows, maybe calling him that would lessen our problems, sort of like using a curse to cancel another curse. 』
Laris finally gave a smirk at Letitia's playfulness. Though Letitia did not seem like it outside, she was extremely playful and naughty deep inside.
The carriage pulled to a stop. They stepped out into a bustling crowd. In the middle of the residential area was a market.
Expressionless, Letitia walked through to the small shop selling clothes, the crowd unconsciously parting for her with her aura. The Lycan-kind were quite keen on instinctively knowing who is stronger than others, unless the other party hid their strength.
Yet one can hide only so much.
『 Where are you going? 』 Laris asked as he followed behind his sister like a robot.
『 It's a surprise for you, Rissy~ 』 Ironically, behind that impassive countenance, Letitia's voice was full of color and tone, with the up and down intonations of an excited child on her first time trip to the market.
『 Oh? Do you even have money for this shop? This is a soul clothes shop. 』
A bell chimed as they entered the clothes shop.
『 I'm quite aware of that! Why must you always spoil the fun, Rissy! 』
『 It's not fun to be financially broke. I will not have you spend the camp's funds on these clothes. 』
『 Stingy! 』 Letitia focused her sight at the clerk. "I'm here for my order", she spoke to the clerk.
The clerk nodded and consulted a few details before going to the back of the store to obtain Letitia's soul clothes.
Soul clothes are different from normal clothes, wherein the threads are made from the essence of one's soul, processed by the handful of Sorcerer-kind that stayed in the kingdom to do business. They would spin the thread for you as you concentrate to pour your energy in one of their instruments that sucks and concentrates essence.
The result is that they can bring the thread to make a cloth that won't be lost or worn off whenever they change into their wolf form. The clothes tailored from the thread is unique only to one Lycan-kind and will be worn instantly once the Lycan changed back to humanoid form. All they needed was think it for the clothes to follow through.
Born as twins, their souls were a little bit more similar than others, as if one was split in two, and this made it easier of Letitia to surprise Laris with the most basic gift. Yes, basic.
At a young age, most Lycan-kind already had their own spare set of soul clothes and yet, the twins still wore normal ones. The whole service fee and process of soul cloth creation was very taxing and expensive, and the twins never really had that kind of luxury, despite having the Lycan-kind's royal blood coursing in their veins.
『 I'll have you know that I sacrificed my precious food for months to save enough for this, and there's not so much as a thank you from you! 』 Letitia immaturely grunted and pouted at her brother through their link.
Laris gave a soft sigh. He walked over to his twin and held her hand.
『 Alright, I was wrong. Thank you very much, Letitia. 』Laris gave a rare smile as he gazed at his only family, but that smile lasted only until the clerk came back with a package upon his arms.
『 It's only natural. We need to gather everything we'll be needing before we leave. 』
『 It bothers me. 』 Laris' grip tightened.
『 What does? 』
『 The way Vaughn wants us back into the palace when we're just months away from executing our escape. Did he catch wind of something? Was there someone among our camp who slipped? 』
『 Or it could be something else. Maybe you're just overthinking it, Laris. 』 Letitia returned to being serious. One had to take one's life and death seriously after all.
『 And if it's not, what then? We'd be trapped inside the palace, much more tightly than in that country house. 』
They walked together into a familiar café that sold imported sweets from the Sorcerer Nation's main city—Salciorne—sitting down, ordering and eating like they always do. It wasn't the least bit suspicious in the eyes of the Lycan guards that watched the twins in the dark on behalf of his Majesty's orders.
『 But wouldn't it be a great opportunity? The dungeons are directly below the palace, and the last bit of information we had about those two is that they're somewhere in the west or south wing. 』Pausing, Letitia elegantly takes a sip of her tea. 『 We came here for three things, remember? 』
『 I remember—learn to control our wolf, gain comrades that can infiltrate the palace for information, and rescue the hybrids. 』Laris watched his sister devour sweet after sweet without batting an eye. He wasn't a fan of sweets. 『 Being called a hybrid… How distasteful. They talk and label as if half-lycans aren't some sort of hybrid either—Hey, that's enough! Just how many are you eating?! 』
『 Stingy, Rissy! Stingy! This is my second cake! 』
Laris swept a glance at the empty plates stacked beside Letitia.
『 Then, what about the other ones? 』
『 Those weren't cake! 』Letitia justified.
Laris internally sighed. Well, might as well let her be. He observed liquid in his cup as he gently flicked his wrist to stir the contents about. Who knows until when we'll get to go back here to leisurely eat sweets anyways.
By the next morning, a carriage adorned of creamy white and gold design was sent to fetch them. Like two birds, the twins stared at the carriage as if some sort of golden cage. It felt as if they were delivering themselves into their own demise.