For a Princess like her, she had many experiences where powerful men would fight to get her attention. The sole purpose of the grand event that got her abducted was to find her someone to settle down with but turned out disastrous. However, in front of her was a powerful figure who claimed to have 'erroneously' rescued her and didn't care to know how she was coping with her injuries, rather he kept walking without batting her an eye. This left an unsettling grudge in her heart, but she couldn't do anything about it. Not that she couldn't voice out her grievances, but she feared that Nero might leave her alone in this forest if she did.
Three awkward hours passed and these two never said a word to each other. Nero was fully engrossed in finding his bearings so he moved at a slow speed. Whereas the young lady looked around like she was enticed by her surroundings. The truth was that she was enticed by it. All her life she was told how dangerous this forest was, how man-eating beasts lurked at every turn, and how only the brave and insane ones dared to venture into these grounds.
Beautiful flowers, insects perching on them to draw their nectar…. Although it was dark and misty, it still didn't stop nature from taking its course.
Nero took a glance at her and said, "Don't get too attached to this place. Everything here including the plants are all deathtraps so be careful of them."
"I don't believe you." The lady scoffed and reached out to a flower close to her. Nothing peculiar happened when she plucked the flower.
The young lady was about to gloat in front of Nero when she felt something creeping up her arms. She looked and saw the stem of the flower slowly entwining along her arm. With a surprised scream, she quickly jolted and let go of the flower, but the stem still crawled up her arm. In the next instant, her arm burned red hot like an iron in a furnace, directly burning the flower stem to ashes. The lady was panic-stricken; all this happened in an instant. If she wasn't careful and fast, only ghost knows what would have happened to her.
Just then, Nero's warning rang in her mind. He truly wasn't joking when he said that everything in this forest was a deathtrap. The lady grimaced. She had allowed Nero to gloat at her misfortune. However, when she turned to look at him, she found him still walking ahead, their distance was nearly half a mile apart.
"Wait for me!!" She shouted and ran after Nero.
"I told you I would leave you behind, you had to learn the hard way." Nero said indifferently.
Now the young lady was furious. Nero was aware that she was in trouble and didn't show any concern; talk about heartlessness!
"My name is Nero, In case you ever wondered if I have one." Seeing her distressed mood Nero blankly introduced himself, not seeming interested to know the other one's identity.
The lady was suddenly thrown into a daze. The arrogant young man suddenly introduced himself, although sounding a bit condescending.
While overflowing with thoughts, she vaguely stuttered a few words, "M... My name is Amaya."
The lady shook her head, this was definitely not a good day for her. She had repeatedly been made a fool by this pompous strange fellow who came out of nowhere.
"Princess Amaya of the Gandor kingdom, I have been honored by the heavens for gifting me this rare opportunity to meet such a dignitary like you…" Nero said, sarcastic. For someone like him, things like this held no meaning to him.
"And what brings you to hands of such a fellow like that?"
Amaya scoffed and said, "You obviously don't sound very pleased to meet such a 'dignitary' as you claim…"
"And that 'fellow' you mentioned is a barbaric tyrant and leader of a well-known bandit society… Saburo! And if you must know, I was abducted by him."
"If you're a Princess as you claim, shouldn't you have experts guarding you at all times? And not only that but your strength seems… decent. It should at least be enough to put up a resistance." Nero didn't try to hide the disdain and mockery in his tone. He was purposefully trying to annoy her and… it worked.
Amaya quickly retorted, "If you want to make fun of me then don't try to sound polite!"
"I am not trying to sound polite, I'm simply pointing out how incompetent your Gandor Kingdom is."
"How dare you-."
"There's no need to be hostile. You've been abducted for a long time and till now, no one has come to rescue you. If this doesn't show incompetence, then I don't know what will."
"The Black Dragon mountain is covered by a strong formation that prevents anyone from getting through without the right inscription. So even if they could find the right location, it would still be difficult to get through!"
"Then how did I a get through?" Nero asked with a demeaning smile.
Hearing this question, Amaya who wanted to burst into a rage fit quietly calmed down and swallowed her words. This was indeed a good question!
If the formation was as good and strong as she thought it was, then how did he breakthrough? She deeply looked at Nero as she wondered just who this person was!
"How did you break it?" She asked. Nero heard her question and only shrugged his shoulders. He in no way owed her any explanation, so Amaya didn't pursue the matter any longer, rather, it made her curious to know if this person was an old expert who had been in seclusion and only came out now.
However, no matter how much she tried to probe Nero's cultivation, she just couldn't see through it. This was as a result of him being stronger than she was, but Amaya couldn't help but feel a deep mysterious aura emanating from him.