“Wait, before you go, quick, tell me where Edna’s body is.” Duke stated, pointing at the map. If they weren’t to continue this information, at least he could get some type of plan for later.

The girl gave him the impression that something was wrong, but he couldn’t pin down what it was that seemed to upset her…

If she didn’t speak much after returning, he’ll hold off from talking of his Phoenix for a little while.

…Actually, the idea of knowing more about this girl was a great idea anyway. Then, when the girl is sleeping, he could then go check out Edna’s place of burial.

 

Seeing that it had nothing to do with Malic, Perdita took a moment and then nodded.

Her tears seemed to immediately be pulled back into her ducks like they weren’t threatening to tipple over just moments ago.

Walking to the map, she looked for where she had stayed with Edna and pointed.

“I’d prefer it if you came with me.” Duke stated, wanting a yes. He didn’t want her out of his sight. She still looked…Emotional…

God knows for what reason though!

Was it because she can put herself into his Phoenix’s shoes that much that she can feel whatever his Phoenix would be feeling?

If that were the case…He couldn’t blame her. Even he is upset to what his Phoenix had gone through!

Nonetheless, he wasn’t the best at putting himself in other’s shoes, but he wished he could figure out what the girl was thinking and feeling…

 

“No. I was not going to return to Questro.” Perdita stated firmly. There were two countries that she wished to completely stay away from at the moment, and that was Questro and Dura.

Even if she went to Edna’s burial sight…

Oh…

Feeling bad, Perdita wondered if maybe she should go. She could give Edna flowers, perhaps tell her a bit of how much she still had meaning in her life…

Duke sighed and then said, “Are you sure it’s there?”

Perdita frowned and did a circle around the area, thinking it was there somewhere, “Edna will be buried near the sea, near a hut like place, that is where your Phoenix was after she was born.”

 

Was she going?

Could she really go with him to see one of the very few people that had treated her sincerely?

But…What if she gets stuck there again? What if someone touches…Right…It’s probably best she just stay away from everyone…

That was when Perdita remembered that she was enslaved once again. How could she forget!?

This…Man…

Frowning, Perdita nodded, sure that there was probably no way that her master would let her go!

So, there was no more reason to think about it!

 

After that, she left, truly going to do personal business. Her bag had tissues in it, but now…Now, she wasn’t sure if she needed them, she was just sad…

Duke had a faint feeling that he should wait, because he was certain that if she came back, to see that he wasn’t here, she probably would be on her way…To wherever she was going…

And he wanted her to stay!

Even if…If she were to just be with him a little longer, that…That would be nice…

So…Even though he knew now upon an idea of where this ‘Edna’ was located, he could only take the chance of continuing to spend more time with the girl…He wanted to be there for when she came back and then he was going to ask her to stay a while longer!

Thinking further, Duke remembered that the girl was the subordinate of Sharlae, so all he had to do was ask Sharlae to make her stay…

 

 

To the Dragon King’s wants…Or even desires…Things did not turn out the way he wanted them too.

Now that Sharlae had awoken, having been too exhausted to have stayed awake before, she was seeing that the girl wasn’t with the Dragon King and immediately told her to disappear from this place!

Perdita had only just finished doing her personal business, before pain and an order came over a link. A cruel laughter echoed in her head, with an arrogant voice. The voice was so strong and firm, so full of determination…

Hearing that she did not deserve the Dragon King, that she was a failure, and would only bring him down, made Perdita give a small smile of pity towards herself.

 

She somewhat agreed with the voice in her head and made a determination look of her own, feeling strange because of it. Clenching her fists, she suddenly felt a new degree of want go through her entire being…A want to show how wrong this voice was!

Knowing that she rarely fought back unless she had no other option, this feeling was new to her. It was something that she had never done before…She wanted to be stronger, not just in body but in soul. She wanted to be able to handle her past and be able to show that she wasn’t a weakling! She was excited and had a goal and already, she felt like she was alive!

Thanks to the voice and how the voice was wanting her to quit, she now clearly wanted to fight back and become someone better! She wanted…She wanted something…

 

The problem was, this want could only minimize for now as she knew she needed time to prove this! And proving this, she will do it! She didn’t particularly know how right now, especially with her new master, but she will find out then how to do this first and then do it!

Then, she could possibly laugh at the voice in return…Or something…

Perdita wasn’t sure what she would do once she had more courage, but that is what she pictured first. Picturing a confident and strong future self, seemed to also give her even more excitement!

Not surprised to the outcome, of being told to leave, Perdita did not think much more and just did as she was ordered too.

If she thought to much about it, she knew that she felt like she was missing something or leaving something behind. And since she still felt somewhat overwhelmed with what had happened that day, which included her creature coming out and being yet under another enslavement, she wasn’t quite ready to try the line between her and her new master yet.

 

Squeezing her eyes shut, knowing that this master was more powerful then the others, Perdita could only do as she was told…There was nothing else…

She couldn’t dream about another type of path, where she could slowly feel the presence of the Dragon King and let her heart have a taste of what it seems to want, no…For what it was worth, it had been a nice, short interlude…But it was over now…Well, until she became stronger at least.

Not feeling worthy of him for the moment, she was determined for that to disappear! She was going to work hard to be someone that she was proud of, that he could be proud of, and show that she was then worthy!

 

She had told the Dragon King enough for now, she also didn’t have the courage to go against her new master yet, so…Why shouldn’t she follow orders?

Wouldn’t she be tortured if she didn’t?

Since she knew this place, having lived here for fifteen years, Perdita didn’t take long to take a route out of the area and go towards a big town, on purposely staying away from the capital though.

This was the start of Perdita’s strength as she found that she wanted something. She was already willing to work hard, knowing that she might stumble along the way. So, leaving now, was just the beginning!

 

 

But, while Perdita had decided to leave, the Dragon King was getting antsy and started pacing around the room.

After some time, he started to really wonder if Perdita was running away…Could it be?

Frowning, as he really could have been well on his way to Questro to check on Edna’s corpse by now, the Dragon King wondered how everything suddenly changed!

Just for some time with a girl, he had stopped his research on his Phoenix!

Not even Sharlae had ever interfered as much as a certain girl had!

Sitting down in a huff, the Dragon King could only conclude that the girl was a very good investigator! And also, a very good distraction!

How did she know so much!

She looked so young yet found so much information!

Of course, he can’t take everything for certain, but he felt…He felt…

 

Why did he feel like what she stated was fact? That what she said was real and the truth!

He wanted to believe her, yet, at the same time he didn’t.

How can a fifteen-year-old know so much and how did she get this information!?

Thinking of ways that information could be obtained, Duke suddenly had a strange thought…

Was she one of those girls that worked in brothels?

There was one place in Questro that they had obtained an interesting bit of information and that was from a brothel.

The information they inquired about from there were only stories when they came, since it had been so long since the stories may had happened for real, but the stories led to truth and evidence and Duke frowned.

 

A sudden picture of the young girl looking very much like Perdita, working in a brothel, vexed him terribly!

His outrage made him slam his fist on the table and shut his eyes to the horror of the thought.

That girl…If that girl was in that line of work…

Breathing heavily all of a sudden, he realized that it seemed to be something that he couldn’t handle!

He didn’t want that kind of life for her! He wanted to see her smile, instead of shivering to an outstretched hand. He wanted her to feel comfortable, instead of flinching to something close to falling of a table.

There was just no way that he could let her continue that kind of life!

 

Taking a deep breath, Duke then narrowed his eyes.

If the young girl were one of those brothel girls…Wouldn’t that mean that Sharlae was the one that demanded her to do it!?

Getting up all of a sudden, unable to do nothing, Duke immediately made his way towards what a person pointed out as where Sharlae had been taken to and walked straight into the room where she was staying.

“Who is the girl?” Duke asked straight away.

Sharlae, having been surprised that Duke came to her at all, lost her smile upon Duke’s question. “The girl?”

“The one working for you, the one I’m talking to!”

 

Sharlae thought quickly…

Why would the Duke ask this question?

Was it because she told him something about the Phoenix?

Dammit…That means…I have to show to him that she could be lying!

“I found her when she was a thief…She had tried to steal something from me and acted out as though her whole family had died instead of giving it back when I caught her. I nearly believed her too, until someone yelled out that she was a scammer! After that, I found a use for her to use her skills to find information.”

 

…A thief?

Duke was stunned.

Completely stunned.

‘Acted out’?

For a moment, Duke just stood there paralyzed.

What if…What she said was all fake?

What if…

He didn’t want to believe it! His head didn’t want to believe because of all the facts that he had found but also…His heart…His heart felt pain to think that all that time spent with her was…

 

“Tell her to speak with me, now!” He stated, he couldn’t help but show anger in his voice!

But he was…He was angry because he didn’t want it to be true! He wanted to see her, see her innocence, and know that she hadn’t lied, he wanted to fight about the fact that the girl had changed from her younger days!

Sharlae frowned, she knew now that she had to make it out as the girl left on her own accord, even if it did look questionable.

If her man saw that the girl rushed to leave…

Sharlae had been silent for a moment, before finally saying, “…She begged me to leave. I wondered why she wanted to leave so quickly, but…Now…What did she say to you, Your Excellency?”

 

Duke’s anger was now showing, and he clenched his fists to his utter dismay. It can’t be true!

Breathing heavily, he found that the girl wanting to leave so quickly was…He was angry!

Dammit!

As much as he wished that things were different, the blunt way that the girl seemed to want to leave so quickly wasn’t a good sign!

He…Did she not feel anything in their short time together?

Was he the only one that was attracted to her, the only one that felt like his world had slightly changed just by having met her?

A sadness that he never thought possible leaked into him and he just knew that it was all because of Perdita…

 

Was it really an act? Had she acted that way on purpose? Perhaps her…

Remembering what she had said about his Phoenix and how she had smiled…Was it really all fake?

Dammit!

Sharlae lowered her head and smirked. It looks like she had done well enough to make him think badly of that undeserving Phoenix!

She would be surprised if he asks to see her again and the Dragon King will once again not be able to meet his Phoenix!

That should mean that she needed to keep her slave alive as long as possible!

She needed this current life of hers to make this man hers!

 

Seeing the man of her desire suddenly walk out in a huff, Sharlae smiled even wider.

After he lets off some anger, she should go and see him and make him happy somehow. She had tried to make him happy previously, which had obviously come to nothing, but now she felt like she was able to try again and perhaps steer him away from whatever he might think of the stupid girl and think of herself instead in a helpful, grateful way.

Yes! It was my time to shine now!

And it was a perfect time to clutch this godly man of hers!

 

 

On the other hand, Duke changed into his dragon, not long after leaving Sharlae, and flew straight towards Questro.

He wanted to see this dead person…

If there was someone buried there, would that mean that the girl, Perdita, was telling the truth?

But, could it mean that she was making it up and perhaps already knew that someone was buried there?

With no time to lose, Duke fastened his pace and desperately wished he knew if the girl had been acting at all in his presence.

He remembers everything about her, since seeing her the first time, and it felt like she was innocent and scared…But what if that was all an act!?

 

Her getting scared of being touched, her headaches, her timid personality…

Her smile…

How was that all an act!?

He felt like it was all real, that the girl was being who she truly was!

Dammit!

Not knowing how much time passed, Duke hovered above the big lake in Questro, to search for this hut that the girl was talking about and stopped when he really did see a hut looking house.

Not wanting to wreck the area around the hut, Duke landed quite a distance away and changed back to human form, running towards it.

He just felt like that if he digs up a corpse, the girl still might have been true to him…That she hadn’t acted at all!

 

Within no time at all, he could see the obvious grave that was slightly higher than the other ground around it. Walking around it for a moment, he frowned only for a short moment, before letting out a slight smile. The grave had not been touched in a very long time!

If the grave had been tampered with, there wouldn’t be grass growing on it!

With this thought, Duke felt like there was some hope and used his dragon claws to start digging into the dirt.

It hadn’t mattered to be careful or not because he soon found bones as it seems that the grave wasn’t that deep.

Only now, did he think of whom may have buried this corpse and he frowned.

Did his Phoenix do all this all by herself?

It would explain why the grave was not very deep…

Doing this, all by herself…

 

Finally, seeing a skull, there was complete evidence that the whole of a body had indeed been buried!

Looking up, around the grave, there wasn’t anything there to state who it was, making him unhappy.

This Edna had died so long ago that even if he went to the town, they probably wouldn’t know who she was…

But…He did find bones…So…Could he trust her words?

Putting a hand to his head, Duke swallowed and didn’t know what to think.

His heart was breaking into two…

He wanted nothing but the best for his Phoenix, which is why he would rather what the girl said to be wrong, but on the other hand, he wanted the girl to have said the truth because…Because he didn’t want to hear lies from the first female that really caught his attention…

 

On one side, he still unconditionally loved his Phoenix, wanting her with him…On the other hand he was desperate to be close to Perdita, even for friendship…

If they could be friends, he could hold back from more…Just taking in her scent, helping her and making her happy would be enough…

With this decision made, he flew back, after reburying the bones, wanting to get Sharlae to directly bring back Perdita.

Surely, she fled so quickly from him because she was just a bit frightened, it wasn’t anything else.

Surely, she didn’t hate him and didn’t lie to him. And perhaps her hands no longer steal, that she has chosen a path that was different to her last…

Duke was positive that the girl was just scared to get into trouble now! Probably because Sharlae…

…Could it be possible that Sharlae had lied?