I left Arana in a small cave and sealed the entrance with a 'black wall' spell, after all, it would be too difficult to chase after anyone if I have to be carrying her and if I leave her alone in this state it would be really bad if a monster showed up. I'm counting on Longleg to find this place again later, he'll be able to find it, right?

"So... do you have any idea where those knights went?"

Longleg points in the direction they went to. Since I'll be much faster by flying it seems like it's time to try out my 'sky terror cloak' for the first time.

Instead of my wings materializing from raw mana, the cloak changes shape and turns into them. This feels good, not only do I not get tired but not having to focus on maintaining my spells means that I can keep a clear head. I never knew just how much of toll my flight magic took on me, it really took away all the fun from flying around, this makes me wish that I could enjoy this a bit longer, but the cloak only last five minutes and I'm in a hurry right now.

"So they are down there?"

Following Longleg's directions, I arrive at a very dense forest, the treetops do not let me see anything down below.

"Can you tell me where they are exactly?"

He responds by shrugging his shoulders, which is quite amazing for a creature with no shoulders, I suppose that means that I will have to look for them myself...

"But this place is like a maze, with so many trees I cannot see more than a few meters away..."

The knights will probably leave while I get lost in here, I cannot search for them in this place by myself...

Oh! That's it! I'll just need to get some help, or rather, make some help.

'Spawn minion'

If the knights meet any of my imps they will kill them for sure, won't they? So all I have to do is make a lot of them, send them everywhere, and go wherever I feel that one of them has been killed.

...

..

.

You know... it really does not take any effort to make these things, I was planning to stop when I started feeling the drain on my mana but I think that I already went past ten thousand and I'm still not tired in the slightest...

"Oh! I think some of the first ones I sent away just got killed!"

Alright, I cannot mess this up no matter what, as soon as I see the knights I need to cast a shadow bind spell to make sure that they don't even get the chance too...

Oh, false alarm, it seems like these imps just got into a fight with some squirrels and got completely crushed.

"Wait... that must be it!"

Now I can feel a lot of imps being killed at a constant pace, that has to be the knights.

...

It's not the knights... the imps are all just walking into a lake and drowning one after the other... do these things not have any survival instinct at all!?

...

..

.

I keep checking the dying imps but they are all getting killed by either some random weak monster or a stupid accident.

"This plan is not working as well as I expected..."

-Silvea-

"Let me go you idiots! I'm telling you that Luna was just trying to help me!"

We had to tie the princess up, and she's been kicking and screaming the whole time.

You know... we just saved this girl from the queen of darkness, that was a rather hero-like thing to do, no matter how you look at it, am I wrong?

...

Then why does this look like we are the ones kidnapping her?

"Paula, can you really feel no trace from the spell controlling her?"

"No... maybe it's just because it's a type of magic I don't know about, but I don't feel any traces of dark mana in the princess"

"That's because nobody is using a spell to control me! Just how many times do I have to tell you!?"

She keeps saying that she's not being controlled and I cannot help but feel like she's very convincing... but the idea of a princess willingly going along with someone like the queen of darkness is absurd! Just what in the world is going on here?

"I know! You've probably been tricked by that blue witch! You cannot trust her! She's mmmfgh mmmmmh"

I could feel the spell that just made the princess unable to speak, and the one who cast it is... Ranna, she just showed up here right now.

"My apologies, but the queen of darkness is looking for us, we cannot have her screaming like that"

"I see... but could you let her speak for a bit more? I want to hear what she was about to say"

"I'm afraid that's not possible, the spell I just used will last for two days and cannot be undone until then"

"Mmmmmh!!!"

Ranna... she put her life on the line and got face to face with the queen of darkness so that we could rescue the princess, I don't want to suspect her after such a valorous deed but...

"Before we return the princess, I would like to take her to a mage who specializes in dark magic, to check if she's really being controlled"

"What? Why? I already told you that she is"

I think that she just got surprised, it's hard to tell with that inexpressive face of hers.

"I'm sorry... but the princess is acting in a way that should not be possible if she's being controlled, Paula cannot find any traces of dark mana in her, and you just cast a spell that will prevent her for talking for two days. You cannot blame me for finding all of this a bit suspicious"

"This cannot be... you were not supposed to mistrust me... I wasn't told what to do in this situation... please wait a moment"

She goes away from me and takes out a small mirror from her pocket, I think that she's using it to talk with someone but I cannot hear what they're saying. After a short while, she comes back to me.

"Very well, when we arrive at the capital you may look for a mage and have them examine her before heading to the castle"

"Can we not stop in some other town before?"

"No, we cannot afford the time that would take"

"I see... very well then"

She accepted my proposal, but the way she reacted and the fact that she talked with someone in secret just made her look even more suspicious...

"First we need to leave this forest and reach the plains next to it, I left a car there that we can use for our escape"

"You left a what?"

"My apologies, a car is a vehicle that uses fire magic and explosions to move at high speeds, it was invented only recently on another continent, so I should have known that you would not have heard of it"

A vehicle that uses explosions to move? That does not sound very safe...

"Hey! What are those things?"

Before I can ask any more questions, Roul points out a large group of small dark purple monsters with big heads slowly approaching us.

"What are those? They look cute"

It seems like Paula does not agree with me, she went pale when she looked at them.

"Those monsters have been created by someone, and I recognize the mana used to make them, it feels like the mana of the queen of darkness"

"WHAAAAT!?"

"Let's hide under there!"

We all rush under a large fallen tree, hopefully, those creatures have not seen us yet.

If they've really been made by the queen of darkness then they are not something that we can defeat, their skin looks as hard as steel, those large mouths full of teeth could probably chew our bones into pieces without any effort, and their round white eyes reveal intelligence that no monster should have.

"Uh... those things are absolutely terrifying..."

"Didn't you say earlier that they were cute?"

Fortunately, it looks like they didn't see us and are walking away.

"I'll go and see if the coast is clear"

"No Silvea, you are the youngest of us, we cannot let you take that risk"

"I'm the fastest one, if something happens I can run away"

"But..."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine"

I go a bit further ahead and see some more of those monsters, but they seem to be jumping off a cliff... why?

"Ugh, this isn't it either, can't you guys go more than five minutes without some of you killing yourselves?"

Eh!? Who... who said that?

"Oh! I didn't think I would find someone else alone in this forest"

WHY DID I HAVE TO RUN INTO HER!!!?

"Hello"

"..."

"My name is Luna, who might you be?"

"I'm... I'm Silvea..."

"Oh, did you by any chance see a group of knights around here carrying a girl around?"

"No... I didn't see anything..."

What is she saying?

"Well, that's too bad, but say... have we met before? You seem familiar..."

She looks right into my eyes, causing me to forget about breathing for a bit from the sheer terror.

"I... don't think we've met"

"Is that so? I'm really bad at remembering people's faces so I'm not sure... but I think I've seen you somewhere"

"You must be mistaking me with someone else"

"Uh... are you feeling well? You're sweating a lot..."

She's just toying with me isn't she... there's no way that she does not know who I am...

This time I'm really going to die.

forli

This week I couldn't get into the mood for writing and I don't know why. I hope that doesn't happen too often.

Silvea is not really dumb, but her fear of Luna does not let her think clearly about any topics related to her. I should probably show her on a non-Luna scenario to balance out her character so that people do not hate her too much.