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Not long after that the sound of flapping wings resounded out as Sera’s lithe form appeared on bended  knee. In the light of the well- lit bedroom, she was the vision of a raven-haired beauty, her looks and physical appearance identical from that of over four months ago.

 

“I apologize master” said Sera as she slowly rose from her prostration, “I ran into some…complications, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”

 

With  one smooth movement Sera removed the azure & onyx space ring from her index finger and summoned the bronze chest from its place inside.

 

Immediately, Lucy’s eyes glowed in glee as she looked at the target of her ambush tonight. She couldn’t help but slightly salivate when she thought of the spoils inside.

 

“Excellent, excellent job Sera. Especially for your first solo mission! I must say I think all that midnight training with Mars and his men these past few months must’ve paid off” said Lucy while  using her claws to destroy the small gold lock on the chest.

 

Flipping open the lid, Lucy’s eyes scoured over the riches inside as she mentally catalogued everything In order of importance.

 

Inside the chest there was a diamond storage ring with huge amounts of space, more than twenty thousand gold coins, 2Class II  rank 5 beast cores, an IV ranked wind spell model, a couple mystical looking gems and jewels, and a worn and rolled up scroll.

 

“Minus the scroll and perhaps the two beast cores that can be of use to me, all of this stuff should be worth an additional seventy thousand gold coins!” Lucy visually calculated

 

 ‘This is enough to buy a small villa in the northern sector ha ha! I can’t wait to sell it all for a profit tomorrow’ she rejoiced

 

The most valuable item, surprisingly enough, was not the gold nor the jewels or even the IV ranked spell model, but rather the worn looking scroll. In fact, it was precisely for this seemingly inconsequential piece of parchment that Lucy had planned and launched the ambush Sera carried out.

 

“What’s so special about that scroll master?” asked Sera as she peered over Lucy shoulder, “for something so heavily guarded it looks pretty plain.”

 

“Plain? How could a map of the entire hidden interior of the Great Forest ever be plain? This map is one of a kind!” she replied

 

At that moment Lucy spread the wrinkled scroll across the tiled floor as sparkling golden light spilled from it.

 

 For a moment the eyes of the two vampiresses were blinded by the sudden brilliance but next thing they knew, all of the light emanating from the scroll receded onto the surface of it’s page, creating an eye-catching and highly detailed map.

 

Much to their astonishment, at that very next moment, as they stared at the glowing map spread before them, scenes and images of a fairy tale like land & forest appeared before their mind’s eye.

 

It was like magic. The longer they stared the deeper and more lifelike the illusionary experience became.

 

“I-Impossible” Sera muttered incredulously, “these colors, these smells, t-they’re impossible

 

As Lucy and Sera’s eyes drank in the exquisite details of mana fogs, floating mountains, azure forests, and silver streams illustrated on the page and experienced in real time (yet not) their mouths were pressed shut in silent awe.

 

However, neither one of them could suppress the gasp that escaped their mouth at what they saw next…

 

 

Tall, lithe men and women with silver hair wearing unfamiliar plant like clothing could now be seen.  Some had flawless skin of bronze and tan, while others had moonlight white colored skin. But one thing they all had In common,  however  was that they all possessed delicate features, forest green eyes, and two pointed ears.

 

“A kingdom… of”

 

“Elves” Lucy whispered

 

Almost as if the map had heard Lucy, all at once suddenly the vision and scene ended as the map returned to it’s ordinary blank state.

 

 

Following the strange phenomenon caused by the map, Lucy spent the remainder of the night thinking over the questions the strange event had raised. She wondered what was it that had called her to the Great Forest?  And why would it only happen during her awakening to the Sire rank?

 

Sadly no matter how much she tried to get the map to show her more, it would provide no more answers and only displayed a detailed sketch of the forest.

 

Despite this however, Lucy was still in a good mood.

 

Beforehand she had been completely confused as to what the Great Forest was and even Amara’s memories were no help.  But she figured that at least now after seeing the elves apparently living there, she had answers to why Amara’s memories were of no help.

 

‘Back in Amara’s time the kingdom of elves was only known as Avalon. Sometime before now and then the humans must have started calling the place the Great Forest… just like what happened with this Hale/Trench kingdom. Ugh how bloody annoying’

 

Truth be told, no one believed in the existence of elves or the 'fair folk' as they were called anymore. Lost to the ages of time, historical recounts and any stories about them had long become the stuff of fairy tales in the world of Aleria. As such, Lucy knew getting any answers on this subject would require a lot of time and effort, both of which she did not have as she planned her, and Sera’s return back to Verak.

 

“The Great Forest will always be there, once I rebuild my kingdom, I can revisit this matter but for now I must focus on getting the fleet of ships and slaves I need. Who or whatever that has called out to me out there can just wait”

 

Lucy was still extremely curious about the various strange occurrences linked to the Great Forest and the fact that no one seemed to know anything about it or the elves living there, but with the rise of the morning sun she decided to save the concerns for a later date. Right now, she needed to see Mars off and make sure she received her gold and ships.

 

 

Lucy had arrived just in time.

 

 

Mars and his men had already begun to move out for the mission from their contractee, Duke Lainsworth when Mars felt the familiar tug in his head notifying him of his Lucy’s proximity.

 

“Halt” he yelled at his caravan heading out of the city.

 

Jumping off the saddle of his horse, he quickly ran to the rear of the caravan where he sensed Lucy approaching from .

 

 “Master I didn’t think you’d show” he said as he came to a running stop, “I’ve got the deposit from Duke Lainsworth right here

 

With a quick flourish of  his right hand wearing a purple space ring, instantaneously a sizable leather pouch appeared in his grip as he presented it to Lucy.

 

“There is 50,000 gold coins exactly in there master. I counted it myself”

 

A look of surprise quickly crossed Lucy’s face as she placed the pouch of gold in her own space ring before asking,

 

“Double the normal deposit fee? Duke Lainsworth must really want this mission completed huh? No matter.  I expect the rest of the payment at the completion of the mission will be doubled as well then?”

 

“I can imagine so master. It appears his son wants us to capture this magic beast alive so he can tame it.”

 

Lucy slowly nodded at Mars’s explanation before retorting, “Well do be careful I suppose. You may be stronger than the average Great Mage, but I won’t be there to save you this time. Oh, and when can I expect my ships? I must set sail in a sennight or less.”

 

“Definitely in three days or sooner, when I spoke to the shipping manager of the Golden Merchant Company at the party, he’d promised me a full fleet of your choosing was already on its way and that he’d immediately seek you out upon docking”

 

“Excellent” Mars words were like music to Lucy’s ears as she nodded her head pleased, “Remember what I said, and I’ll see you again soon.

 

With no further ado Lucy left Mars to complete his mission before discretely taking flight to go and take care of some matters of her own.

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