Me and Elena, started walking on the dirt road to see where it leads to, I still didn’t have a map or geography of the planet’s, so I have to trust and follow neither Elena or some of the planet’s locals.

I let her walk first since she might know a little about our current location. We walked in between the large trees of the forest, and I already sent Maule for some advance scouting through the woods, if he was able to find any settlement connected to the dirt road he will immediately report back.

[Elena, talk to me about area.]

She was walking in front of me leading the way, seeing as to how she was walking she seemed confident about the way we’re currently walking.

If only I was able to drop a hovercraft from the dreadnought this would be faster.

[Sir, Kliest we seem to be heading the right direction to the border town, Vilon, it is currently located at the southeastern border of the Selvionis Kingdom.]

“Admiral by how she said it and how confident she is, she is saying that we are currently walking at the right part to the border town, Vilon.”

“I see that’s good…”

I mumbled so that she wouldn’t be able to hear me talking to my nanomachine, if seen in a different view, it would look like I am currently talking to myself, which would make me a crazy person.

But as we walk on the dirt road, I couldn’t help but wonder why did they enter the forest if they were already following the right route. I decided to question her, I can’t let her be a convicted royalty it will be harder for me, if she was.

[You said, you were walking in right way, why are you in forest?]

With my beginner vocabulary of the planet's language, I questioned her, as I recalled from what happened to them a few days ago I found her and her escorts massacred in a deep part of the forest.

***

I can't let him find out that I was currently being pursued by a rebel noble, will he find me a hindrance. But if I lie and he finds out, will he still trust an almost fallen princess like me?

Elena hesitated to answer, she kept walking straight and quietly almost as if she didn’t want to answer Arthur’s questions. But she was able to form a quite convincible lie.

[we, because of the monsters on the road, we had to take the forest’s path as a detour.]

Elena said, she tried not to stutter but since she was looking at the other direction, she thought that Arthur was unable to see through her lie.

Will he believe me?

***

[I see…]

I had a little bit of doubt about her response, she said that this is a road connected to a town, wasn’t roads like this supposed to be heavily guarded to avoid monsters’ attacks, it's just my hunch, but if roads are full of monsters how can trade between towns and kingdoms be possible, I mean they can use the ocean, but that takes too long and barely any sufficient supply can be given in a short period of time.

No matter how I look at it doesn’t add up…

I also remembered that when I rescued her and her now deceased escorts from the cave, most of her escorts had deep holes in their clads of iron armor, something that those small Myrophixes weren’t able to do, they didn’t even have enough strength to puncture that deep into the iron armor.

I had a little doubt about her but for now, I must believe her answer, Afterall a pawn needs to trust and believe the leader, right?

We continued our walk on the dirt road, in the middle of our walk Maule had returned and was rowdy, again, Elena was still not used on Maule’s howls and barks, the scary part for that since she was at the front, she thought the Maule was heading towards her.

Maule passed her and went straight to me, I gave him a pat on the head, since he was really rowdy, it seemed he was able to successfully scout the border town.

[Sir Kliest, Is there something wrong with your wolf? It seems to be returning to you in a disorderly fashion.]

It seemed Elena was asking me about something, but I barely understood her as I still didn’t know a lot of words.

[Yes.]

I said, and she responded with a confused expression, which also confused me since I didn’t know what she asked me about.

Maule started to pull my uniform forward onto the dirt road. By the looks of it he seems to have found the small settlement, but its affiliation was currently unknown since I hadn’t seen it yet, I still didn't receive any reports from the ships and drones about the planet.

[We found… town.]

I told Elena who was confused in front and looking towards the both of us. But Elena acted in a different manner as if she was anxious about something.

[hurry to town, we must find town before night]

I’m a beginner in this language and I hope she understood it.

But the anxiousness didn’t disappear as I said that to her, she just nodded in an unease state. She was obviously scared, maybe because she thought, how will the villagers react to a royalty in the middle of the forest without any guards, there is also the chance that she will be robbed, not to forget the border town she said was part of a Selvo-something kingdom, I don’t know anything about their politics here, but she seems scared about being found out.

I looked above and it was already afternoon, we seemed to be walking quite the range, that I didn’t even notice the time after I looked into the sky. I slowly pushed Maule to the ground as I saw the time of the day.

[Sir Kliest, what are you going to do with Maule?]

She asked something to me, but being a beginner in the language I was only able to understand a few parts.

Currently, by how she and her escorts reacted to Maule it seemed that his species seems to be feared in this land, so I asked her on what to do.

[What do I do?]

Elena turned her body around and completely looked back at me and getting ready to what she was about to say to me.

[Sir Kliest, your darkness wolf is feared any many parts of continents, you must hide him, or else many nobles will take advantage of him.]

What?

“Admiral, it seems she is talking about Maule’s species as a wolf, it seems that his species is feared throughout the continent, and if keeping him with you for too long and standing out, many nobles will start eyeing on you and Maule.”

My Nanomachine translated it to me, it seems it is getting better in translating the language.

That feared? I literally beat him to a pulp like a few weeks ago.

Well what she said was important, I can’t be eyed this early, keeping a low profile is needed. I looked at Maule who was currently wagging his tail and awaiting his next orders.

It seems the border town she said is quite near and within a few minutes or an hour we might as well reach it. I decided not to send Maule away early

[until we reach town, he will stay with me]

I can’t be too cautious, who knows what this girl might do, considering she is royalty she can use her power to arrest me.

[I see… then shall we go, Sir Kliest?]

[Yes.]

Good thing I understood what she said, I signaled Maule to follow us. To which he immediately followed behind.

Elena seeing what I did was again anxious.

I can’t help but feel something is certainly off about this girl…

When many politicians want you dead it can’t be helped to always be cautious about the people surrounding you who knows, today they look at you with their kindness, tomorrow they look at you with Animosity.

After I signaled Maule, we continued our walk on the dirt road.

And for about 30 minutes, in the distance we finally saw smoke being emitted, it was actually the border town.

[Sir Kliest, it seems we have found the Border town.]

Elena said to me as she also saw the smoke coming from the border town

And now that we’ve found the border town, I must order Maule away or at least find a hideout where no one can find him.

I looked back at Maule and finally thought of something that will help me and maybe also Maule. He is technically a Marine Colonel Afterall, it’d be a waste if he doesn’t use his authority.