after discussing a few things with Augustus they ended the call. while shiva excused himself to do some work and write an official report to submit later.
as for Asuna, faes began reading the file as everyone else eyed asuna trying to see through this boy.
the contract was properly made! stating the conditions deeply that were previously mentioned in the letter. faes made few changes to the contract discussing the terms and conditions with sauna before singing two copies. one for her and the other for the cult;
"i will be right around princess, just call me if you miss my handsome face!" asuna winked as he exchanged contact with faes.
"get lost dumbass" faes glared at him
"watch your mouth princess there's a kid around" asuna laughed before vanishing.
"i dont like him" eli frowned followed by other's agreement.
"sky like brother asuna! he is cool and while talking to him sister faes uses many new words" sky spoke making faes turn blank.
"miss sky dont listen to these two when they talk, specially those new words! they arent good" sarah spoke
"and miss faes should control herself from cursing in front of little kids specially our princess! she is so innocent!" eli agreed.
faes smiled wryly being reprimanded by everyone but then she closed her eyes leaning her head on the headrest. she was already under the poison's effects and was too weak currently, hence speaking and playing strong all this time had made her have a massive headache along with feeling dizzy again.
"i will just rest for a while" faes spoke yawning before she fell asleep instantly after.
"sky wants to sleep too" sky snuggled near faes and she too fell asleep making others smile softly. they had long noticed the two acting and feeling tired. they only helped the two girls lay properly and then went to their work.
....
in few days both faes and sky were at their peak again. right after they were able to, shiva had faes complete her tests. theory, knowledge and fighting skills faes was tested in everything and much to her irritation- in front of whole battalion.
shiva had told everyone that asuna was just messing with faes by calling them princess because faes had defeated the cult in the past too. while about the dragon phantom it was believed to be a high levelled spell sky used.
but despite the whole battalion knowing faes and sky being strong but they still weren't aware of their cultivation realms which had increased after finishing the quest.
faes had climbed to vitals strengthening stage 1 while sky was now vitals refining stage 2 cultivator.
in vital refining stage the cultivator have to refine their vital internal organs. in the five levels of the cultivation stage one refine- heart, intestines, kidney, lungs and liver respectively using the mana before strengthening them in vital strengthening stage of cultivation.
as faes levelled up the mana itself did all the work under her guidance and hence she levelled up this much in just a week. if asuna came at her again then he would get a good beating!
as for the test faes passed it with good grades and a day after her test ended shiva ordered his troops to head towards the capital. they were travelling using roads this time in buses while faes sky joined shiva in his jeep after all using teleportation for a thousand soldiers would be troublesome!
it will talk a week to get to the capital with enough breaks in between. while they were travelling faes suddenly remembered something.
in normal transmigration novels when the mc travels they encounter bandit attacks and save a damsel in distress. but she didn't encountered any bandits till now~
'system where's the bandit attack?' faes asked right before she heard a notification going off making her smile.
.....
deep in the forest nia glared at the man in front of her.
nia was an ice mage and was dealing with the bandits who kidnapped children's for the past year. she finally found their headquarters after all this time and fight she did with the small groups.
she was a noble establishment stage 5 cultivator currently but when she came to raid the bandit lair she was defeated and captured because the bandit leader was an elemental strengthening stage 2 cultivator! there were also dozen king establishment stage cultivators in the cave which served as the bandit headquaters.
after her defeat along with her personal army they all were captured and were being kept in cells present in the cave. it would be better to call it network of underground tunnels as the cave was huge enough to hold hundreds of people at once and still have enough room for mounts cars and other vehicles.
"we stuck gold this time leader, if we can sell her royal highness then it will fetch a high price!"
"just her father will pay the highest price to get her back after he knows about this"
"maybe we can have some fun with her before that?"
"i wonder what royal skin feels like"
many bandits around the leader discussed laughing while staring at nia with lust and greed making her disgusted. if she wasn't currently under a magic array that made her unable to use her mana, nia would have shown what happens after talking like that even if its the last thing she did.
currently although she was under impression of the array the bandits still had her tied up on the wall and even had blocked communication with outside world. nia only hoped that her father would know about this soon and get here to rescue her before she have to endure something she didn't wanted to.
yes, those bandits were monsters who treated the kidnapped children's like toys to fulfil their desires. fighting with wild beasts till death, fighting between themselves, pleasuring the bandits- the innocent kids were forced to do many unholy things both boys and girls. boys were usually used for entertainment fights while girls were mostly used as pleasure slaves.
what made nia furious was that there were women among these bandits!
"now now! that the princess you are talking about~" the middle aged bald man- the leader of bandits spoke grinning. a huge scar ran across his left eye as he glanced at nia
"your highness please rest properly maybe tomorrow you might have a lot of work to do~" the man spoke laughing while others joined
nia didn't speak but paled thinking about what these bandits planned to do with her. if some miracle doesn't happen tonight then after tomorrow she might have to kill herself to save her reputation.
.....
on the other hand faes grinned turning to shiva
"why don't we have a detour? i heard there is an interesting cave near around here. there are some gifts waiting for you and the soldiers there while the city eduki is nearby the cave too and i wanted to buy a few things from there" faes spoke making shiva eye her curiously. he had grown used to her weird behaviour in the past year and sudden movements.
"if we take the way you are speaking of then it will add another day or two to our travel" shiva spoke checking the map.
"its fine we can travel to the cave at night. maybe we might meet someone important there tonight. if we are any later then kingdom might have to enter a grieving period" faes smiled but shiva and sky both felt her anger behind that smile. "also tell everyone to stay ready to fight"
"i will order others about the new path" shiva spoke picking up the sevearity as faes turned to the hovering translucent screen in front of her along with mi.
[quest: save princess nia and other children's from the bandits.
rewards: exp, vitals strengthened, attribute points, spiritual points, good and well wishes
punishments: decrease in two realms of cultivation, princess nia's death
time limit: 10 hrs]