Ariana was sitting in front of the big mirror in her room. It was early in the morning around 8 o'clock. Zoe had already dressed her for her journey to Valoria Province.
She looked at herself in the mirror. Zoe had disguised her as a man.
Her long curly hair was straightened and kept open and untied.
Many noblemen kept long hair because they would often be busy in long periods of cultivation. This caused long hair to be pretty popular among men.
She wore polished leather boots, and a belt and had a sigil on her clothes.
She looked like the young master of a small rich family who was around 30 years of age.
"Your Highness if you are ready then we should go to the place where the empress is waiting for us." Zoe reminded her.
She looked at Zoe. She had also disguised her face and from her current outfit, she looked like a female guard of a small family.
"Yeah let's go," Ariana replied.
The emperor was busy as usual, Ariana knew that. She heard from Zoe that her mother would teleport them, using a treasure, to a place outside the Imperial capital where our guards and protectors would be waiting for us.
Soon they reached the empress' room. The empress' maid stood outside guarding the door. Seeing them come she bowed and gestured for them to go in.
Inside the empress, Elena Thornwood, was sitting at her desk, working.
When she saw Ariana and Zoe come in, she left her work and went forward to hug her daughter.
"Mother."
"Ah Ariana, you are going to have to be careful this time.
I have found that those beasts were indeed lured towards your group however I still couldn't find who did it even after using the Thornwood's information. "
Hearing this both Zoe and Ariana's mood became serious.
If even Thornwood's information agency couldn't find it then that means the other party was really powerful.
Ariana knew that Thornwood's information agency was the best and could gather information on all the other four top families.
However if now they didn't find anything, then that would mean the other party was much more powerful than a top family of Lunaris Empire!
'Could it be a power from outside Lunaris? Or perhaps an enemy empire?'
Seeing their worried faces, Ariana rubbed both their heads and said, "Don't worry your father is seeing to it. Also this time both you and Julius will have two rank 7 and two rank 6 warriors as your protectors.
And you are going in disguise with almost no one knowing that you are even leaving the palace."
Hearing that she would have two rank 7 protectors, she was surprised for a moment.
The empire was divided into 34 provinces. Some provinces, where talented warriors came from, were strong while others were not so strong. Valoria Province was a weak Province and in it, only the Province Governor who was appointed by the empire to govern the Province was a rank 6 warrior. Everyone else in it was rank 5 and below rank 5 warriors.
"Kreek!"
The door opened and three people came in.
One of them she knew. It was Clara Whitefield, her father's concubine. She was a few years younger than her mother and was a rank 7 warrior.
Seeing her, her mood became complicated. It wasn't like she hated her, but her status disturbed her. Her father's concubine!
She knew strong people took in many women as concubines in spite of having a wife. This was a common practice in the empire for the strong.
However she didn't like this practice. She couldn't imagine the person she loved being with another woman.
'I definitely won't allow Darius to have anyone else other than me if we end up together in the future. Hm, I have to become much much stronger than him.'
With her physique, she now had the confidence to become much more powerful than him.
She looked at the man and the woman who came in with Clara. The boy looked to be around 30 years in age and looked like a rich young master. The girl looked to be around 25 years in age and looked like a female guard. She could guess who it was. Only Julian and his personal maid could come in with Clara. But she still felt a bit weird seeing him like that.
"Oh my, you look just like a boy Ariana," Clara said.
Although Clara had some disputes with Elena, she was always friendly with Ariana.
"Hello, Aunt Clara." Ariana greeted.
"Uh, I told you that you can call me mother."
She then looked at Elena and said angrily, "Are you restricting her from calling me mother?"
Elena also replied with a smirk, "Yes I did! What can you do about it?"
And their quarrel started. Nobody was surprised at this, this was a daily routine when Clara and Elena stayed together at a place.
After going back and forth for a while they stopped.
"Alright, it's time for you four to get going," Elena announced.
She took out a square-shaped small mirror from her storage ring and activated it.
It hung in the air in the middle of the room after it was activated and within the mirror, it was pitch black.
Ariana knew that it was a portal. Upon touching the black space within the mirror, she would be teleported to a different location.
Soon one by one Julian, Ariana, Zoe and Julian's maid touched the black region and were teleported.