It took only a few seconds for Elena to materialize in her room just in front of her bed and without allowing another second to pass she came crashing down on her bed.
She buried her face deep into the bed and remained motionless.
However, there were a lot of things running through her mind.
Devon's words were just playing in her head over and over again even though she was trying hard to not think about it.
'Well, it's not like he's wrong, I was only interested in him having dual mana and not him.' She said subconsciously before slowly raising her head to look at the wall.
Her eyes were a bit red and swollen now but she seemed to have rubbed off whatever was left of the wetness on her bed.
"The black market." She muttered with her gaze still fixed on the wall.
'How can an organization like that be running in the kingdom without my knowledge and I doubt that father knows anything about this.'
After running those thoughts through her mind, she slowly sat up on the bed with her gaze now on the door.
'That woman turned out to be only an assassin who doesn't know anything about why they had to kill me otherwise I might have gotten somewhere by now.' She said subconsciously before getting up from her bed.
"Father should be out by now, I need to go see him." She muttered before quickly making her way to the door.
_______ ______
Back in Devon's room, Erina still had the piece of ice in front of him waiting for an explanation while he was racking his mind trying to find an explanation that would make sense because he didn't want to tell her that someone was just in his room especially when that someone was the princess.
It took a couple of seconds but he was finally able to come up with something off the top of his head.
"Um…I think that came from the bear that attacked us." He finally said.
"It was a bear that attacked you?" She muttered with a stunned look on her face before slowly bringing the piece of ice down.
"Yeah, didn't Aurora tell you anything about it?"
"No." She replied before shaking her head. "She said she had to get to her room after telling me about you."
"Oh."
"What tier was the bear?" She inquired, her attention piqued.
"Oh, it was master tier." He replied casually.
"Master tier? That's even worse than the spider that almost killed you."
The more she learned about what they had to go through the more baffled she became.
That spider was the first time she ever encountered a unique tier beast in her life and it was terrifying, just thinking about that sent chills down her spine yet Devon had to deal with all that and even got hurt on both occasions.
"I want to tell you to try your best to avoid situations like that but it's like you attract trouble wherever you go." She remarked before sitting down on the bed.
"Yeah, that probably could be true." He replied with his hand on the back of his head and an awkward smile on his face.
"Yeah, and it's not a good thing." She said before turning her gaze to his right arm which was still covered.
The room fell into a state of sudden silence as she slowly untied the piece of cloth from his arm and slowly placed both of her hands on the wounded area after they had started glowing green.
It was always so relaxing to have her place her hands on any of his wounds with that green glow, the fact that her healing could easily calm even the deepest of wounds from an injury was one of the reasons why Devon was never really that afraid of getting injured.
With that warm and relaxing touch now on the wound that had been disturbing him for a while now, he slowly closed his eyes and was about to forgo his consciousness when a thought suddenly popped into his mind causing him to slowly open his eyes.
"Um, Erina." He called.
"Huh?" She replied before slowly turning his gaze to him.
"How much do you know about mana and spells?"
"Mana and spells." She muttered before turning her gaze to the ceiling and then back to him. "I've read a good number of novels and data books about them so I'll say I have good enough knowledge on them. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, I just wanted to know if you know if you knew the spell to check if someone has mana." He replied.
"Yeah, I've read about that lots of times in books that have to do with mana and spells." She replied with a nod.
"Okay, and what's the spell?"
"I think you have to hold out your hand first and say, Ostende Camino." She answered.
"Oh, so like this." He said before stretching out his hands. "Ostende Camino."
As soon as those words left his mouth an orb slowly appeared in his hand, it was just the way it was when he was in Elena's room, one side was dark and the other side dark.
"What the heck?"
Elena couldn't contain her shock after seeing something like that happen right in front of her.
She knew about dual mana but most of the books she read made it out more as a myth than something that someone could actually possess but she was looking at the proof of its existence right now.
"You have du…al ma…na?" Her voice quivered as the glow in her hands died down because she couldn't focus on what she was doing anymore.
"I guess that's what it looks like." Devon shrugged
________ ________
Meanwhile, in the castle, Elena seemed to have gotten to her destination, the place where she was supposed to find her father, the throne room.
A large room with candlelit chandeliers and scones to provide dim lighting, creating an atmosphere of regal splendor and solemnity. There was an intricate hand-woven red carpet running straight from where she was standing to the throne which was elevated on a dais, crafted from ornate stone and adored with gemstones on the far end of the room.
The room did well to convey the majesty and dominance of the king even though the guards who were usually found at the entrance and beside the thrown didn't seem to be there today.
As she got closer to the throne, the appearance of the person sitting on it right now came into view.
A man dressed in an elegant and sophisticated black garment with golden buttons and golden outlines woven into it.
He had golden brown hair just like Elena who was standing in front of him now, a well-defined face, and a jawline that exuded authority.
His eyes just like hers were green with that piercing gaze that commands attention but there was also something about the warmth from his gaze.
It was obvious that the king of Audaznimo was quite a young man who seemed to be in between his early and late thirties.
Standing beside him now was a man dressed in an elaborate red garment with a staff in hand that did not match at all with his ragged-looking beard.
His hairline was in way too deep with only a few strands of hair left on both sides of his head.
His dark eyes were something he always tried to make look warm but looking deep into them that wasn't really the case, his gaze was like that of someone always looking for something to judge someone with and the fact that his face made it seem like he always had a smug look on his face did not make that any better.
"Welcome home, Father." Elena greeted with her gaze now on her father whose face was beaming with a smile.