The rain didn't seem to be subsiding anytime soon as the group exited the warehouse. Darkened clouds covered the sky while a very thin rain fell constantly on the Great Forest. Before they left for their journey Laura stopped by the doorway and turned around with Neiliel's leather bag of supplies in hand as she gave it to the demi-human girl. Everyone stopped when they noticed the barbarian linger behind, the hulking woman kneeled down to meet Selene's eyes before laying her hand gently on the girl's slender shoulder to say her goodbyes.
"Take care Selene. I hope this will keep you fed for the next few days, take care of your dad as well alright?"
Selene's trembling hands grasped the worn leather bag with a few tears forming from her wine red eyes.
"I- I will, Miss Laura, thank you."
Laura had a bittersweet smile as she stood up to accompany the rest of the group. Leaving the warehouse and a waving demi-human girl behind. Selene grasped the bag tight against her chest while shedding silent tears of sadness.
"That was admirable."
Jonathan discreetly spoke to the barbarian so no one else heard what he said. With a faint smile, Laura replied.
"It was what Neil would have wanted."
More silent footsteps as they traversed through the thicket, Krieg and Phoebe kept leading the party with Leona and Laslow in the middle while the thief and barbarian kept in the back in case anything went wrong. But even if they were inside the enemy's territory, the chances of finding someone to that side of the Great Forest was much lower compared to the central portion of the plateau.
"How long until we reach this mansion?"
Laslow asked while tugging something underneath his robes. Apparently his tome wasn't enchanted against water as he took an extra precaution to keep it dry.
"About four hours of walking. But with this rain to cover our tracks, probably less."
Krieg answered while still focused on the forest ahead of him. He carefully made his way through the vegetation in order to not make the trail stand out much, but the water levels made the journey difficult for everyone since the soil was practically mud. As they walked, Leona realized Laslow was having no trouble whatsoever walking through the sloshy terrain, as she took in consideration that his stamina wouldn't be so different from a sheltered noble like her, she decided to ask him either way.
"Laslow. Could you tell me how you are able to walk normally on this ground? I can't help but feel that I'm missing something."
She went straight to the point without wasting time as her breath was becoming more and more fatigued as they went on.
"Oh, I'm surprised you noticed. I'm just using fire to harden the mud beneath my feet as I walk."
He took his next step very slowly and before his right foot could touch the mud, a very thin flash of orange covered the ground and solidified the sludge and after he stepped on, it broke apart and pieces were lost amidst the mud.
"See? It's not awfully difficult to pull it off but since I can only create orange levels of flames, it's not exactly discreet."
"Ah."
Leona couldn't help but want to try, it was already very difficult to walk in the mud, but it was especially bad for her since it only made her feet more wet and it was not a feeling she wanted to get used to.
Focusing on the sole of her foot while lifting her left leg, she started by imagining a thin layer of air before it turned into the blue flash of seething flames and as she took her step forward, a large area on the mud around her foot became crackled smoking with distinctively blue flames.
"Gah!"
Her leg instinctively flinched backwards to avoid stepping on the scorched ground and was thankfully supported by Laura who was directly behind her before she could fall with her back on the mud..
"Oop. Careful Princess."
"Thank you Laura."
She regained her footing but was now left with a disc of about half a meter of dried mud leaving a trace of heat on the ground. Laslow kneeled down before pressing with his index against the disc, easily breaking its surface while barely using any strength. He stood up and nodded as he encouraged her.
"It's alright, try again with less mana. Your flames are much more potent than the ones I'm able to make, so instead of a layer, try to go for a small point in the middle of your foot."
"Right…"
She walked once again through the mud for a few more steps as Jonathan cleaned up the dried soil behind her.
Leona sharpened her mind, focusing on the same flash of fire but more controlled right in the middle of her foot like a morning warm breeze and the moment she was about to step on the ground, a very gentle wave of azure fire dried the mud beneath her foot and she was able to step on the hardened ground without fear of being burned.
"I… I did it!"
Though it was easier for the first step, consecutive steps made her break concentration as she tried to keep up to the group's pace and in the end she gave up. But it was a notable experience for her as it was an unusual use of fire magic, the element she deemed so dangerous before.
"I'm surprised you learn quickly, Leona."
Laslow expressed his genuine surprise with her spellcasting prowess.
"Not many mages are capable of adapting on the fly like this."
"Well… not that I succeeded on the other tries however…"
She glanced down slightly disappointed.
"Oh it took me months of practice to be able to do this without a second thought."
He laughed sourly as he continued to explain.
"Phoebe used to help me a lot with these things."
"You and your weird magic experiments."
The elf complained from the front while going through the foliage. Leona chuckled. Those two reminded her of when she studied in the Grand Academy, when Luke would often help her in order to discover new ways to use elemental magic, one of which was her unique spell, Diamond Frost. It took a few months for her to develop, all the while having Luke produce stone golems to test the potency of the freezing spell. Though the fond memory of her friend was almost all she had left after what happened in the cave.
'I just hope… he didn't suffer.'
She thought to herself. Being a noble had its perks, she never really had to do any difficult or straining chores nor was she ever hurt badly to the point of feeling intense pain, eventual scratches from falling over or minor wounds from mild experiments going wrong was all she had to deal with in her time studying, but just imagining what would be to go through what Luke did was enough to send chills down her spine.
She could only dream of ending that madness as fast as she could, lives of many were on the line and if Alexander was indeed successful in achieving control of the capital, things could be more dire than she imagined.
Seizing the rights to rule was a convoluted process, first, one individual had to be acknowledged by at least five other noble families of the council of ten, second, the current king or queen had to willingly pass on the throne, but in this case a duel could also settle the dispute. The third and last requirement was to have the Eleonorian church hold a binding ritual, though this process was complicated as the ruler had to go through many procedures to 'appease' the goddess of light.
Leona knew all of that, because like every other person of a noble house, she had to be taught the arts of ruling in case she ever decided to rise up in power, which was mostly the same for the other nine families, but with all the information she acquired from Selene, it was very much clear that the Crossford household held almost no power now. She wasn't quite sure if she could turn the whole capital against him, many pieces were starting to fit together as to how the mansion was attacked with such a large number of soldiers and also why the royal knights didn't do anything. Obviously Alexander had planned it all, though his methods still eluded her. For someone to be able to put so many things in motion in such little time was beyond her logic. However her line of thought was interrupted when Laura commented from behind her.
"Isn't it getting foggy? I swear I can't see more than thirty meters ahead."
Leona shifted her weight to the left, glancing over the elf's shoulder only to notice a creeping white mist engulfing the forest around them, slowly but surely it was starting to make it more difficult to navigate through the woods.
"We should stick closer together, you never know what might jump out of the fog."
Laslow suggested while gesturing to Jonathan and Laura since both were in the rear. Krieg and Phoebe also started to slow down their pace in order to match their march, while in the middle of the group was technically the safest place, Leona couldn't help but feel anxious, it was as if something was staring at her from the fog.
"I feel like we're being watched."
She voiced her concern as she summoned a small blue flame that served to disperse some of the fog around them, though it only worked while she pointed in the desired direction. Phoebe seemed bothered by the display of magic as she glanced over her shoulder to speak to her.
"That'll attract more attention, if anything, you should put it out."
"Ah, I'm sorry."
With a quick flick of her hand the fire dissipated and for a split second the wizard winced from the intense heat he felt on his face, though it was not enough to cause any pain directly he still seemed curious when he motioned with his hand to get the Princess' attention.
"Leona, how are you able to make a blue flame like that? I often thought that it was because of the amount of mana used but that doesn't seem to be in your case."
"I actually don't know, I was always able to make my flames blue."
"Hmmmm…"
He flicked a very small flame on the palm of his right hand and the color varied between orange and red, though always shifting more towards orange. He turned towards her while gesturing with his other hand open towards the spell.
"See this? It's not a very powerful spell, though its destructive power depends on the user's mana, but what determines the intensity of the flame is still a mystery to me."
The Princess never gave a second thought as to why her magic was so different from all the other fire mages, not only was it more potent but also very efficient in mana consumption.
"My mother taught me how to cast spells and I remember she used to say something about imagining plenty of air fueling the flame, like as if you simultaneously casted a wind spell to feed it."
"Wait… that's genius…! So instead of continuously using the fire you instead use wind to feed the flame of the already existing fire spell."
Without any hesitation, he pulled out his tome and under the cover of the cloak started to quickly scribble with a metal pointed pen. The tip swiftly tracing burn marks across the paper as he jotted down everything he just learned.
"Hey isn't that going to blur with this rain?"
Jonathan asked while trying to help his friend protect the page from the rain with part of his cloak. Laslow chuckled before he explained.
"My friend, this is a burn pen. I heat the tip with magic and it marks the paper, though I can't write the front and back of it. It's very useful for taking notes when traveling."
The heated tip smoldered the thick page marking his discovery. Meanwhile Leona stared at her right hand, closing and opening her fingers individually. She began to create tiny spheres of different elements, water, ice, wind and fire from her pinky to index finger accordingly.
A sense of wonder started to fill her, why her mother, a manaless spell caster, was able to teach her so much about magic? While a bird is born to fly, humans weren't born to cast magic like demons or demi-humans were, yet she could grasp every concept of magecraft her mother taught her. She dispelled the elemental spheres and glanced at the wizard who just finished jotting down his notes, seemingly satisfied with himself.
"I wouldn't have thought of using two elements simultaneously like that. Your mother sure taught you a lot."
"Maybe, it's because she couldn't cast any magic so her understanding of elemental magic was different than other mages. Though how she could grasp something so abstract such as magic without being able to use it is beyond my comprehension."
"I believe some people are born for certain things."
The back side of the group, especially Laslow and Leona turned at the barbarian, who seemed a little down from her tone of voice. She seemed to be so lost in thought not even noticing she was speaking out loud.
"Hey Laura, are you alright?"
Phoebe asked from the front, not turning around but apparently worried about her friend.
"Huh?"
Her emerald eyes perked up to glance at the elf who was still surveying the area around the group carefully. With a cautious tone, Phoebe warned the barbarian without ever looking back.
"You were spacing out. If you're not feeling okay you should turn back now. This is no place for the dispirited."
The elf's comment ticked her off as she promptly asked indignantly.
"What did you say?"
"It's exactly as I said, if you are spacing out like that you might put the whole group at risk. If you're not feeling alright you should-"
"Watch what you're saying Phoebe, I'm here for a reason and I'll see it to the end even if it costs my life."
Phoebe sighed quietly before calmly explaining to her.
"Listen, I know you're angry because of what happened but we have to keep it together if we are to succeed. Lives of others are depending on this, if we do something harsh-"
"Shut up…"
Laura halted and when the rest of the group noticed her lagging behind they stopped walking altogether. Jonathan decided to approach her while trying to alleviate the situation at hand.
"Huh? Hey Laura we're-"
"I SAID SHUT UP!"
Her yell promptly made Leona recoil and cover her ears with both hands, it echoed in the forest seemingly for meters beyond the dense fog. It caught most off-guard, though not Phoebe who quietly cast a spell.
"Winds of time, bestow peace for my enemies, Silence."
Laslow raised both his hands open at the barbarian while slowly but steadily approaching her while at the same time trying to appeal to a more diplomatic solution.
"Calm down Laura, this is hardly the time or place to fight between ourselves."
She ignored the wizard and went straight to the elf, grabbing her by the collar of her clothing.
"Listen here, I'm coming along whether you like it or not. Neiliel died thanks to this job and I intend to see it done for her sake."
Phoebe grabbed her wrists with one hand staring at her eyes intently.
"Save this for later. Thanks to your display we are being hunted now."
The elf shoved her hand aside with a surprising amount of force before turning around to keep walking. Tension was high in the group due to what happened the previous day, but Phoebe knew they needed to keep going as fast as they could, because unlike Leona who merely felt being watched, the elf was much more perceptive and already had an idea of their pursuers whereabouts even in the dense mist. Her plan was to ambush them but for that plan to go smoothly, she needed a less open space, turning to the knight beside her, she asked.
"Krieg, sire. Do you know anywhere near the mansion that is less open?"
Without looking at her he replied.
"There is a clearing of a cave known as Dead Man's cave. There's also the mansion's secret entrance but I think I know why you want a place like that."
"Did you notice?"
"Someone is trailing us, yes. Although I'm not exactly sure where they are."
"A few hundred meters behind us, if we keep this pace they won't reach us."
"Right. Let's speed things up then."
He slowed his pace to let Leona catch up with him, she noticed his gaze and decided to ask what was wrong.
"Do you need to tell me something?"
"We are being trailed so we'd like to double the pace, do you think I should carry your or-"
"Don't worry about me. I can run along at that pace."
He nodded before looking behind at the rest of the group.
"Let's increase the pace."
Jonathan and Laslow nodded while Laura simply complied by jogging faster. They were on a brisk run at that point. With Krieg navigating the group, even in that fog he was able to discern where to go in order to reach the infamous cave.
The knight endured harsh training in order to become one of the most important figures in the royal Arcadian army, even though the same kingdom casted him aside when the war was over, he couldn't forget the reason why he was able to live for so long.
First was Queen Eleonora who gave him power and a purpose, nurturing his ever growing strength with caring of a mother he didn't have. And now Princess Leona, the once little girl who was resolute in her duty to help others less fortunate, was now possibly the next ruler of the kingdom and her life depended on his ability to keep her safe. His blood soaked past had to make a difference, it was now or never.
He ploughed through bushes and vegetation, both his speed and size was key to make a path for everyone to follow. Though that tactic had a risk, if the pursuers knew the place as well as him they could cut them off or instead go directly to the mansion and call reinforcements, though Phoebe was gambling on their lack of knowledge of the terrain.
"If we keep running straight we should reach the cave in about an hour."
Krieg warned as he broke through a big rotten tree trunk with his arms. Thankfully everyone was fast enough to go through the path before the pieces of the wooden trunk fell back in the trail.
"An hour of running… I don't… I don't think... I can run for that long…!"
Leona muttered, starting to sound tired, barely being able to speak as her legs did their best to carry the noble girl through the muddied path. Phoebe, showing an impressive feat of dexterity, began to run backwards while casting a spell on the winded up Princess.
"Winds of time, bestow thy grace upon this tired body, Steps of Wind!
Murky green wind started to envelop Leona's legs like vortexes, with each step she took it seemed like she was running on air, which made it much easier for her to keep the pace without getting too tired. On top of that, Phoebe threw a green vial towards her which almost found its way to the mud before Leona caught it mid air.
"Ah!"
"Drink while running if you can, it's a stamina potion."
Leona hesitantly uncorked the vial. The smell wasn't particularly bad as there was a hint of mint inside of it but the green liquid made it hard for her to drink it. Jonathan caught up with her, the moment he noticed the vial in her hand he chuckled before telling her to drink it.
"Chug it down, it's easier if you do it in one go."
"Nnngh…"
She closed one of her eyes and downed the whole flask in one go. The taste was something she had never felt before, it was a mixture of mint with honey which made it very sweet but also surprisingly refreshing.
"Ah!" This- this is actually good! I wasn't expecting it to be this sweet."
Phoebe took the vial back from her and pocketed in her leather satchel before continuing running.
"You're welcome. Just make sure to tell us if you're not feeling okay."
"Yeah, thank you Phoebe."
Laslow was continuously creating a thin path of hardened dirt while chanting under his breath.
"Flames of destruction heed my call, flow through the time and await thy end, Delayed Fire Blast!"
A small sphere of flame the size of a golf ball gently fell on the hardened path, slowly increasing in size as it was left behind by the wizard who had a smug look on his face.
"This will do some damage."
They continued to run for minutes, thankfully Laslow could keep up the pace without falling too far behind thanks to his ground hardening technique, though it was a challenge for the wizard to run so much in so little time. Leona surprisingly was able to keep up with Krieg and Phoebe in the front, mostly thanks to the elf's wind magic, not much was able to slow her down. Jonathan and Laura were closely behind the rest of the group, the thief making use of his speed to not slow down in the mud while the barbarian was able to just force her way through without much trouble.
With time passing, the temperature started to rise little by little and with it the fog dissipated allowing a better view of the environment around them, not that it made much difference in the dense forest, but it was better than not being able to see more than ten meters ahead of them. Suddenly the thicket opened up for a bright clearing, to the right, a familiar cave entrance with mangled corpses around it, along with them there were broken weapons and pieces of teared armor.
It was a shocking sight, much more for Leona since she relived memories she didn't want to remember. She calmly breathed in and out before accompanying behind the knight towards the clearing, most of the corpses were beyond recognition, with claw marks carving through solid metal breastplates and gnawed rotten limbs around, most likely because of the wildlife.
"Leona are you alright?"
Phoebe noticed her sudden change in the breathing pattern, as if she was anxious.
"I'm… I'm alright. This was the last place I saw a dear maid of mine. Her name was Adele Heikel. I... really hoped to see her once again."
Krieg noticed something on the ground beside one of the slashed corpses already in decay. While the smell was terrible, he was more focused on the object and simply ignored the smell. After picking up the small sharp coiled whitish object, he offered it to the Princess.
"Princess, I think you should keep this."
He gently placed it between her hands and upon inspecting the object closer, she recognized it as part of Adele's horn, it was but a tiny memory of her. Leona did her best to hold her cries but she gripped it tightly near her chest. It was painful to face that reality but at least she had something to remember her dear friend and maid.
"Hey… are you guys feeling this too?"
Jonathan asked. The ground began to rumble and shortly after there was a dry explosion in the distance. Whoever or whatever was following them seemed to trigger Laslow's magic trap. The wizard chuckled as he declared.
"Well, you can kiss whatever was following us goodbye."
"Save the fanfare for later Las."
Phoebe said at the same time she pulled three arrows from her quiver, Krieg and Laura covered the Princess using the entrance of the cave as a place to put their backs to. A number of mercenaries came out of the woods as if they were waiting for them.
"Well, well, what do we have here, you are one hour ahead of schedule. Leona."
An irritating voice came from behind the line of mercs as a well dressed dark brown haired man was accompanied by two dirty demi-human slaves, one holding what seemed to be a fancy dark umbrella to protect the lord's expensive dark wine velvet suit from the rain while the other one made what seemed to be an improved version of Laslow's mud hardening spell to keep water from reaching his fine leather shoes. He seemed in a very good mood as he gazed upon the Princess wearing nothing but dirty clothes and cloth for shoes.
"I believe you have something that I want and I-"
He snapped his fingers and motioned behind him before completing the phrase.
"Have something that you want."
Leona's eyes went wide as she saw her father in his sorry state, while being carried by two other mercenaries by each arm, he could barely open his eyes, his face was bruised beyond recognition and marks of stained blood was all over his clothing, which seemed to had been pierced over and over again.
"Father!"
"Leona…?"
His frail voice could barely be heard from that distance. Leona wanted to rush to save him but was stopped by Krieg's arm who blocked her path while shaking his head. Her eyes darted once again to her father's face which he seemed to be smiling.
"Ha… well… I'm sorry dear. You didn't need to see your dad in this sorry state."
"Father… don't… it's not your fault."
"Alright, alright shows over."
Alexander interrupted the reunion as he started to clap his hands. He fixed his necktie and extended his arms once to fix the sleeves, he then turned once again to the Princess with an intriguing question.
"So. Tell me. How did your mom make it?"
"Huh?"
"If you just tell me how and I won't have to hurt your father."
Sweat started to build up on her brow as she had no idea of what he was talking about. Surely, her mother invented the firearms they know as muskets but nothing else came to mind.
"I- I don't know what you're talking about!"
He sighed before pointing with his chin towards the mercenary beside him who took a punch at Jean.
"Argh!"
"Father!"
Alexander scratched his chin amused by the situation.
"Keep this up and he might not live long, actually he doesn't have long to live, but we'll get to that later. I spent almost two weeks trying to get information out of him but he wouldn't speak up, but I'm sure if I have you, he'll tell me for sure."
He snapped his fingers once again.
"Alright listen up. I only want her alive. You can kill the rest."
He turned around but the moment he did time seemed to stop for a brief moment as Phoebe quickly drew an arrow and fired at the back of his head. It was meant to be a deadly blow but somehow the man simply threw the demi human creating a path of hardened soil behind himself to take the arrow for him. The projectile pierced the young man's neck as he fell on the ground pleading for air, the other slave was paralyzed with fear and ended up wetting herself on the spot.
"Ah what a waste."
Alexander muttered as he glanced at his shoe smeared with mud.
On the other side Phoebe couldn't understand how he was able to predict where she would shoot, but instead of dwelling too much about it, she knocked the other arrow ready while having a third one between her lips. The sky was sundered by light as lightning struck in the distance. Laslow, who seemed to be stunned in anger, finally snapped.
"ALEXANDER!"