“OH!!! SHIT MY WIFE”

He screamed in a sudden bout of panic and interrupting Elia mid-sentence and startling her at the same time. Now that Gerrick had escaped from Shian there was no doubt that they would most likely go after his wife and probably torture her and since she didn’t know where he was, she was probably going to get tortured and killed or worse the duke would order a bunch of men to take turns playing with her, horrific despair marred his face as his stomach churned and felt sick.

Seeing the girl in front of him he quickly grabbed her by the shoulders and pleaded.

“Please take me to Duke Basterbine’s territory, I need to save my wife!!”

He asked in desperation, the despair clear in his eyes. Elia was about to respond but the man shook her violently as he continued to plead. That woman was the love of his life, the only good thing in his life and the only thing that kept him working for the duke, she was innocent, pure, and blameless he cannot have her die not to mention.

“Please they’re going to kill her If I don’t save her!!  please I’ll do anything!!!”

Tears formed in his eyes and his voice cracked as he spoke and he successfully made Elia feel uncomfortable, seeing a grown made cry was a sight she has never witnessed in real life, it felt weird.

“Calm down man!!! we’ll save your wife so don’t worry but you have to tell me the information I need from you first.”

“You don’t understand the moment the duke finds out that I’m still alive he will go after my wife, he’s a monster that would do absolutely anything to get what he wants-”

The man could not finish his sentence as he received a rather painful slap across his face immediately shutting him up and leaving him momentarily stunned, Elia thought it was more efficient than trying to calm him down with words.

“Jesus! Calm the fuck down. We have time, both the duke and the butler are still in the capital it would take at least a few days before they arrive back at his territory, so it should be fine for the time being, just tell me the information I need and we’ll go rescue your wife, got it?”

He nodded at her explanation.

“Good, Now just tell me all you know about the duke, what he did to that tribe of Bushmen and why he did it, after that we’ll go get your wife.”

“Okay.”

………..

The duke careful walked through the halls of the castle after having exited and the throne room and was now heading back to the guest room. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of conflict within himself, his dealings with the mages put him within a position where he must choose either his goals or the country. Duke Basterbine has no illusion of thinking if himself as a person with good morals of any kind as such the choice should be easy, however his loyalty to the country he lived in was not based on the patriotic desire to protect his homeland.

As he walked the halls passing by servants and maids who were going about their duties. He shoved his hand onto the inner pocket of his coat and felt the little marble like ball within it, as he did so he hummed in thought. The small marble ball in his possession was one of the things that guaranteed that he gets what he truly wants, the other two were His current Target Elia, she was a component that he desperately needed, and the third one was the spell that would make his goal achievable which unfortunately was in the hands of the mages.

“Don’t worry darling, I’ll bring you back.”

He whispered to him, feeling a strange sense of nostalgia and depression as the thought of his wife’s roamed around his head.  It did not take long for him to arrive in his guest room and found Shian already waiting for him and a book place at his desk.

“My lord, I’ve brought the necessary book…”

“So, you have and?”

“And I am deeply ashamed to announce that I have failed to locate Gerrick, I have scoured the entire city but he us now to be found, I don’t where that girl took him.”

He announced, as a cursed beast from the book of curses Shian possesses a myriad of abilities that allows him to separate tiny particle of himself that he can use to search for persons of interest the ability has never been truly useful due to the duke own abilities. In hindsight he probably should have attached some small part of himself on her so he can track her unfortunately he didn’t think of that or rather her sudden arrival at the scene had caused him to not properly think ahead.

“So, it’s not just a Matter of them finding a blind spot to my ability or hiding themselves using a form of stealth magic?”

“I believe so my lord.”

“I see”

The Duke hummed, he was  quite honestly puzzled, this was the first time someone had managed to evade his sight, he would believe it if Garrick simply went  out of range but that wasn’t possible since his range  extended to the whole  capital, in order to  escape him they would have to be outside the capital, it also didn’t  help that the target could quite possibly clone herself and be in two places at once, capturing her became fare too complicated and he didn’t like it.

‘Maybe I should hire some people to test things out so I can plan a better way to capture her.’

He spoke inwardly, if she can clone herself like he thinks she can, it will be far more difficult to capture her as such hiring some bandits and mercenaries to test things out and find out more about her fighting skills and prowess.

“Gerrick has a wife; how long will it take you to reach my territory to get her?”

“If I change my form to a more flight-based body then it should take no more than an hour.”

Shian explained, among many of his abilities is the skill to polymorph and turn into any creature he has seen at least  once, his fight with Elia would have lasted longer if he had been trying to capture her but since he didn’t have information on her skill and abilities he did not want to prolong he was also certain she was very powerful more than himself as such a proper strategy was need to fight, just because someone is stronger than you are the doesn’t mean you can’t defeat them.

“Alright then do that, I’m sure wherever Gerrick he’ll want to see his wife at some point so she will be our hostage.”

“Yes, my lord”

“Also, since you’re going back to the territory, quickly get rid of the slaves we take and find a way to permanently silence the knights without killing them.”

“Why not kill them?”

Shian asked but received no answer, the answer to his question was obvious as such the duke did not need to explain, having the dukes knight order killed over night would certainly be suspicious so he need to find a way to make sure they won’t say anything should there be an investigation. Having understood that Shian gave a nod.

“Good, now go!”

Hearing those words from the duke Shian quickly changed his form turning back into a slimy liquid and seeping into the ground, he planned to change his body into a flight-based creature outside the castle so there would be no one to asking the duke questions about what creatures flew out his window.

 With the duke now alone, he opened the book Shian had brought him and sat down to read it, as a duke of the Elderon kingdom he knew the laws of the country however that didn’t necessary mean he knew every law about everything as such he needs to find any clause pertaining to activities outside the kingdom.

 

………

“I see, that is just fucked up.”

Elia spoke as she leaned back on her wooden chair, Gerrick had just finished detailed everything that he knew about the duke and Elia found herself a bit dumbfounded, ordering the massacre  of a whole village of people  choosing specifically women and children, then  enslaving the all the men and using them as sort of battery by sucking out their life force and using it to maintain your own youth is indeed fucked up. Not only that quite literally feed your own people human meat is just straight crazy.

“Why does he do it? Feeding people human meat, I mean”

“From what I understand it’s because it’s a good way of getting rid of evidence of the people the people that don’t pay him back the money they owed him, I don’t know how he gets away with it but apparently if you remove all the bone and trim out obvious human parts it becomes very similar to pork.”

“Damn that’s crazy.”

Was all she could utter, however deep down Elia thought this was quite the opportunity not for her but for her family, if she is able to bring the dukes crimes into light and expose him for what he is it wouldn’t be a stretch to receive his territory is a reward and maybe a promotion from baron to viscount, and order for that to happen  she need evidence or at the very least people like Gerrick who know what the duke has done.

“So are going to take me to my wife.”

“Yeah sure, although I have never been to the duke’s territory so I will teleport us somewhere close and you’ll direct me from there.”

She informed and the man agreed with a nod, however before he could speak a word, he found himself suddenly falling into a dark space and before he could properly process what was happening, he felt his back collide with the hard ground and let out a grunt as he did.

“we’re here.”

Elia informed as the two of them arrived n a forested area, since she has never been to the duke’s territory before Elia could not directly open a portal there or teleport there, however she did remember that her maid had said that they were close to the duke territory back when she was coming to the capital so she teleported to the place where they got ambushed by the bandits.

“HOLY CRAP!!  You really can teleport.”

Gerrick exclaimed in shock. He had figured that she might have been lying about being in  the southern part of the kingdom but she was telling the truth, her being able to teleport was something revolutionary every mage on the continent will seek her out should this be revealed  and the fact that he has never heard of this Kaguya Otsotsuki individual meant that she’s very powerful and dangerous that nobody dares come after her or that she’s a hermit that has hidden herself for years and only now just came out, either way she was definitely someone that could challenge the duke. Gerrick also figured that she was much older than she looks after all no child would be able to do that.

“Now then let’s-”

“Can I ask a question?”

“Go ahead”

“Did you take in that red haired women because you knew what happened to her people and you were planning to use her against the duke?”

Elia looked at him with a bit of confusion before realizing that Gerrick had saw Einalam in her home and he was the reason she had screamed the other day before she died. That realization also made her realize that it was pointless hiding her identity since he already saw her in the capital while inside a Saxonwold house.

‘Not unless he did not know that was a Saxonwold mansion, DAMN! I was careless.’

It is also possible that Gerrick doesn’t remember seeing Elia as his mind was occupied by the fact that the woman he had let go was in the capital and that he might get killed for it as such anything he saw before and after seeing her didn’t register in his mind and he was too worried about his own safety to think about anything else.

“Yes, that was the plan, let go.”

She said as she flew high up and wrapped, her hair around his waist and both flew up high and went even above the trees.

“Which direction should I go to reach the dukes territory?”

“Just go south you should be able to see, it's on the east side and don’t confuse it with the territory of baron Arcues which is to the west.”

“Gotcha!”

...........

A/N: finally using my pc to write this, which helps me edit as i write so i hope there aren't any obvious errors.