Band Two, having seen from a distance, that the Princess’s unconscious body was already being taken away, Band Two had tried to catch up to them.

Within a certain range of the Crowned Prince’s residence in the palace, held more of the Crowned Princes men, they were the ones that gave Band Two such a hard time, as the one holding the Princess, and the Crowned Prince himself, just continued onward towards his residence within the palace.

Having been unable to fight against five all by himself, he had slowly gone backwards but had been stabbed from the back, from who Matthew would know as the ‘follower’.

It was very normal, to have the ‘stealth’ person mostly to follow others and only intervene or join battles if absolutely necessary.

Matthew himself didn’t like his two ‘stealth’ subordinates to be in a position they could lose their lives, because they were a much needed asset.

Having been stabbed, rushing away was the only option left for Band Two, if he had not been able to free himself…He really was quite lucky he was alive!

Matthew hit the tree, that Naruto just jumped out off. He hit it so hard, that it tumbled over and landed onto the ground.

 

Even though his hand was bleeding, and pain flowed through him, Matthew stood there breathing heavily.

He couldn’t help but think of Sahara being in the state that Gabriella had been in and closed his eyes.

What if…What if she’ll be worse than Gabriella!?

As Band Two wanted to get his attention, he still did not say a word, and the General had continued on following Naruto. One of the General’s own physicians came to look at Band Two, hurriedly trying to stop the bleeding from his back. Originally, he had wanted to help the Second Prince first, seeing cuts and blood over him, but Matthew’s cold glare had made him move to the other patient instead. It was probably a better idea because Band Two was hardly holding on as it was…

 

Seeing the General some distance away, Matthew sighed. Running over to them, Matthew picked up Naruto, who growled at him, and said, “I know where she is…Go back!”

Frowning, the General looked at Matthew, “What are you going to do, boy?”

Matthew glared at Naruto, who finally calmed down and hid his head into Matthew’s clothes and then said, looking out towards the palace, “It’s time to ruin the Crowned Prince. Band Two, go to the eastern hideout and make Band Three go directly to the emperor with the rest of the evidence! He will have everything else…I…”

“You what boy!?” The General asked loudly.

“I’m going to get her back!” Matthew stated.

“And put all your work to nothing!? Let me go instead!” The General said, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. He even sounded happy with the suggestion, making the people close by feel a bit awkward.

 

Matthew closed his eyes, “I should have protected her! How could I let this happen!? What do I do now!?”

The General patted Matthew, seeing him really disturbed, “I will go, you get that boy taken care of with the emperor, you understand!?”

Matthew put a hand to his forehead, really unhappy with himself, after a few moments he nodded.

If he went to save her, intruding into the palace and taking a woman that isn’t even declared as his…His statement of not only clearing his name, but trying to show people of the Crowned Prince’s crimes may come to nothing. The emperor would even lose face about hearing his two sons fighting over a woman…It was such a predicament…

Matthew knew of the fighting spirit of his good friend and had much trust in him. Yet…All he wanted to do…Was get her back!

“Your Highness?” Band One looked at Band Two’s pale face and bloodied body.

 

“Band One? Where were you!?” Matthew cried out in a panic.

Bowing his head, Band One tried to figure out what was going on.

“I ask to request One to go in my stead, Your Highness…” Band Two hated to talk to the prince while he was like this, but he knew that Band One will be faster than himself at going to the eastern hideout. As it was, he felt quite dizzy at this moment.

“Go where!? Where am I to go, Your Highness?”

Matthew tried to calm down, remembering that he himself had let Band One go for a rest earlier. “Go to the eastern hideout, get the rest of the evidence to the emperor…You take it to the emperor, send Band Three here.”

Knowing that the emperor had seen Band One out of most of his ‘slayers’, and that he probably had a small rest recently, Band One seemed to be the better person.

“What about the Princess?” Band One asked, looking at the now broken stable, in the distance.

Matthew glared at him and when Band One turned back to his Master, he widened his eyes in shock. “…Yes, Master. This subordinate will leave this instant!”

I have the worst luck! Three times now, Three! I leave, the Princess gets poisoned! I leave, His Highness is imprisoned, now, this time when I left, something had happened to the Princess again! Master! I never want to leave again!

 

***

 

“Such a beauty. Take her straight to my room, this Prince will take her chastity himself!” The Crowned Prince stated, as he walked towards the study in his residence.

As he walked in, he saw the pile of dirty papers and books all spread out in the room. Smiling in satisfaction, the Crowned Prince said, “Get someone to go through this…No! Get three people to go through this! If this Prince can’t use any of this, then burn it!”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Walking out, the Prince orders to see his steward, as he walks towards the bathing chambers.

After going into the water, the Crowned Prince smiles as he remembered the memory that his subordinate had of Matthew smiling and kissing the red eyed woman.

 

Having been stopped by his ‘stealth’ subordinate, at the northern hideout, the Crowned Prince had gotten answers then and there, using his ‘mind’ technique. It had practically left him with no spiritual essence left, but he most definitely had to get this woman!

With Gabriella, the Crowned Prince had really wondered and questioned their relationship.

Having stolen her and locking her up, he hadn’t any interest to play with her at all. Especially since his brother hadn’t done anything at all about her going missing…

Yet…Not only with seeing with his own eyes of Matthew’s happiness, but seeing how beautiful the woman was, the Crowned Prince felt himself excited!

Even if he gives this woman back to his brother…He was going to taint her first!

Oh brother! Having your woman in my hands makes me feel so good! How am I to make her cry?

 

***

 

The General had called for an immediate meeting with his loyal army. Yet, only fifty people came, as it was in the middle of the night…

“Strategist!” The General yelled, walking into the room with all these men, suited up and ready for battle…

“General, my name is not Strategist! I’ve been with you for five years! Please remember my name, it’s Joshua, Joshua!”

Sometimes it was ok and sometimes it wasn’t! Normally being called ‘Strategist’ was acceptable because of knowing how simple minded the General was but…Joshua was a bit upset having been woken up for whatever the General wanted.

The General finally found where the voice was coming from and went straight towards Joshua. “We are invading on the Crowned Prince’s residence. Try and come up with a plan! Neil!”

Joshua shook his head, was this a joke!?

 

The General spoke to Neil, stating to wake up more men and get them to the side of the palace, closest to the Crowned Prince’s residence and to await further orders.

Joshua spoke up next, “General, are you serious? We are going to…Invade upon the palace? Are you crazy?”

“Yes…We are invading on the palace! Strategist, get an idea as fast as possible, we need to go and save someone!”

Joshua was stunned into silence and went to sit down…But found himself on the ground instead.

Normally the General was fun and games, but at this moment he was really serious!

The first thing that Joshua could think of, is that they were in deep trouble! Even if they weren’t found out who attack the palace! “Get masks, lots of them, and get attire that looks like the Crowned Prince’s men! And Neil, tell the men to come here first! Dammit General, this is crazy!”

 

***

 

Upon Sahara’s awakening, she found herself unable to move and even without her spiritual essence to check inside of her body, she was sure, that her cultivation base had been blocked.

Doom! What the hell! How can someone go through so much shit! I don’t even know why someone’s doing this to me!

So stupid! At this age, on Earth, I was…Going to school…Wait! It’s night-time, so I was sleeping!

Suddenly, Sahara remembered one thing that she did do when she was sixteen in her previous life and blinked…Then blushed.

Yeah, I was young…Focus!

 

Closing her eyes, Sahara try to see if she could do something about her predicament. But like what a blocker is, she was unable to use her spiritual essence whatsoever…

If I can somehow…Communicate with the spiritual essence that is blocked away, perhaps I can unblock myself from the inside…Yeah right!

But did she have any other choice?

With that in mind, Sahara calmed her breathing and closed her eyes. she didn’t think of anything, except wanting to try and communicate to the inside of her dantian…She had, on the occasion, tried to communicate with her spiritual essence, since coming up with the idea when she had been on the mountain all by herself…

“So, it really is you, Sahara…How convenient.”

While she was busy and concentrating, Sahara had no idea that another had come into the room uninvited. Having looked upon her figure for quite some time, they had finally come to the conclusion of who the person was in front of them…And this person always had a personal vendetta against Sahara…

 

Gabriella didn’t care that she didn’t have Sahara’s attention, while she brought out a small knife that she had stashed into her clothes.

Having been imprisoned for so long, she had gained a few extra techniques and had sneakily acquired this knife, to be able to run away once again.

Having attempted to run away a few times already, she kept on getting caught and then just thrown back into some kind of smelly, dirty, small cell…Which filled her with so much hatred, that upon seeing Sahara, she can only think to torture her and then kill her…

Her life had literally turned upside down since meeting Sahara, when she had been nearly four years old! She lost her father’s love, she lost her brother’s love, and her mother, who had been the only one that was on her side. Sahara hadn’t been happy and had gone as far as killing her mother! She hadn’t seen her friends, she might not even be recognized now by them! She’s lucky to be feed and clothed, compared to being a Young Miss with servants like before!

Even her own grandfather had beaten her up!

Having been knocked out that day, Gabriella had been bedridden for a couple of days, but she was still able to find out what had occurred…

Sahara…Her enemy, was in fact, her Aunt…

She really had the same blood as her!

It was…Disgusting!

Looking at the knife, then back at Sahara, Gabriella wanted to get rid of this blood…All of it! If she could drain out the blood from Sahara’s body, will she feel even slightly better? How can they be so directly related! It wasn’t right!