Chapter 19

The sky was blue with little strips of cloud present in the sky with the sun shining right in the middle of it. Directly under it, there lied a garden. The garden was full of flowers ranging from violets to bright yellow to red and then blue, different kinds of flowers swaying gently with the winds. Two small figures could be found hiding from the sun, under the shade of the only old tree present in the huge garden which was atop a small hill. A cute little white haired girl and a boy of her age with little red hair. They both seemed to have been resting under the tree with the girl's head on the boy's shoulder. The girl spoke in a soft voice.

"Nee, Aaron."

The boy replied.

"Yes, Nina?"

"I wish we could always be together."

The boy was surprised as he asked innocently.

"Why won't we?"

The girl looked at him sadly before grinning.

"You will be the future Duke who will support my twin brother while me and my little sister will be sent off to someone else."

The boy then looked resolute as he ‘harrumphed’.

"No! I won't let them take you from me! We will always be together, even when we play games of hide and seek, counting stars and other things. I will always be the knight in shining armor for you!"

The girl looked happy and smiled at him.

"Will you promise me?"

"I will!"

Then the girl looked at her necklace. It was a simple pendant that had a blue crystal attached to it. She took it off and gave it to him. He looked at it in his hand and tilted his head in confusion.

"What is this?"

"It is a pendant of Ocean Heart. It is said that you give it to your closest friend and she or he will find you wherever you are!"

She stood up, dusted her white summer dress before twirling and looked at him with her hands behind her.

"My mother once told me of a story from her homeland. It was about a princess who was abducted by a dragon and locked her up in his castle. A brave knight from faraway land adventured through many hardships and found the dragon's castle. He then fought the evil dragon and slayed him. Then he took the princess's hand in....."

Little Aaron was confused.

"I have never heard of such a story Nina. What happens next?"

Nina blushed before sticking out her tongue.

"The rest of the story will be told when you rescue me, o' my shining knight!"

Then she giggled, like the melodies of spring. Before sighing wistfully as her expression turned sad.

Aaron Pov

Aaron woke up from the ground. He touched his face and found out that he was smiling. After all who wouldn't? It was such a nostalgic dream as well. But really he had never heard of such a tale from anywhere so where did her mother learn it from? Then he grasped the pendant that was hanging on his chest, hidden by the clothes.

"Was it a premonition for what is to come? Well it has been half a year at least since we had last met. Also I still don’t know why she looked so sad…"

It was strangely quiet after yesterday's night. He, along with Brand and Rowley, knew they were being followed. He was waiting when they would strike them. He was sure they would attack them yesterday night or today as they were creeping closer and closer. Reports confirmed that there was unnatural amount of trained-bandits on the outskirt of the territory.

'To think that they would target us.... but I am in doubt if whether they knew about us or not. But then, who would willingly attack a carriage guarded by this many knights?'

But when they woke up early in the morning the trace was gone today. He frowned a bit as he looked in the direction of the bandit.

'How odd.'

He went outside his tent. There were a few embers left in the campfire. He could see Rowley and Brand looking at the fading embers and sat down at the opposite side. Aaron then discussed with his retainers.

"Something odd is happening. I cannot feel a trace of them near us. Rowley jii-sama, you are the best when it comes to sensing. Could you expand the perimeter of the search?"

Rowley looked perplexed and explained.

"It's not like I didn't do that. I tried but I could not feel anything from them. The trace has gone cold."

Brand nodded.

"During my shift, they were at the edge of my senses. Maybe just across the river at the top a small hill. Nearly 4 km from here but then suddenly they disappeared. I thought that it was a ploy to lure us out but others do not know that are here as your protector. It is not that simple to fool us so I thought they just went away outside of my sense zone. But I still have not been able to locate them since."

Aaron nodded. His uncles were the heads of the different Branch Families of the Elcot house and were trained from young. They were powerful but were unnoticed by the people. All due to the fact that the Duke was the strongest in the Empire and as a result people would only notice the Duke. After all it was like comparison between the moon and the star; as the moon is nearer and more luminous, people rarely notice the star that surrounds it. But as the head of the branch families were all trained from young to fight only, they were total disaster in any other fields of work. People do not take notice of them but it was okay because they were a part of something else. They protected the Duke and his heir.

Rowley looked at Aaron and sighed.

"Aaron, it seems my daughter is adamant about taking my place."

Aaron was surprised.

"Alicia did that?"

His childhood friend, Alicia Elcot, was the eldest child of the current branch family. Rowley looked at him from the corner of his eyes, which went unnoticed by Aaron.

"It seems she is pretty much adamant on helping you. I was about to declare my younger son to be the heir but she argued with me to let her be the heir... after all only a few select of the Branch family know about our work."

Aaron made a troubled face and sighed.

"You know? She was always by my side, your daughter. She always remedied after the trouble caused by my short-comings. I thought at least she would live her life unburdened by me...."

Rowley kept a neutral face. His face mask, that made him appear young, betrayed nothing.

'Aaron, the thing about my daughter is that her life completely revolves around you, more than you know, you bastard!'

He thought bitterly.

Brand was still concentrating; sweat forming on his face, before sighing.

"It seems I cannot find them. Aaron I will be conducting some reconnaissance. It feels as if we missed something."

Aaron nodded and Brand disappeared in an instant. Rowley was about to say something before Fiore came out of the other tent while yawning in her pink bunny pajamas. Aaron focused on Fiore.

"Morning, Fii-chan."

Fiore was rubbing her eyes before smiling slightly, still drowsy. The knights were busy tending to their duties as well like feeding the horses and keeping on the lookout while changing shifts.

"Morning, Aaron nii-san and Rowley jii-sama."

Rowley looked at his niece and smiled.

"Only you can figure me out even if I am wearing a mask. So what do you want to do, Little Chibi?"

Fiore pouted a bit. It was true that the current face that Rowley had was a skin like mask. Although a disappointment to the Empire, their face was rather well-known.

"I feel icky. I .. want to take a bath."

Aaron was quite unsure how to respond to that. It was hindsight on his part to not take a maid to tend to his sister. He gestured a female knight to come over. It was the yesterday's female knight. She bowed and asked.

"Yes, Sir Aaron. How may I be of service to you?"

He politely asked her.

"I want you to take Fiore to the river along with other lady escorts. Her usual assortments of products are inside the bag and make sure to protect her. They did teach you how to properly take care of a noble lady at the academy, didn't they?"

The lady knight nodded.

"It was... included in our curriculum on how to take care of a lady noble. Very well, we will take care of ojou-sama."

Aaron nodded and gestured Rowley to protect his sister. As he was about to leave his hand was grabbed by Fiore. She glared at him.

"No, I want to brother to come with me!"

Aaron looked troubled.

"Fii-chan, it's unbecoming of a lady to bath in the presence of other men."

But the hand grabbed his even tighter. He sighed at the determined face made by her.

"All right, I will come along. I will just wait outside while you bath."

Fiore just grinned a silly grin and pumped her fist in air in a childish way. Then they all began to head towards the river nearby.

Brand Pov

It took few minutes for him to arrive the last place he had felt the presence. He was a little bit shocked when he arrived at the patch of land which could be described as a battlefield. One side was scorched black and reformed, heat from the twisted ground indicated that the temperature was so high that the land had turned into lava.

'Could be [Magic] of the [Fire category].'

He looked on the other part where pieces of limb and guts were strewn all across the field but he didn't flinch. He had seen much messier way of killing and he was a part of some incidents as well. After all, as a force that worked in the darkness their hands were already dirtied enough. He frowned.

"The battle was a one side massacre. But the strange thing is that we could not feel the disturbance. Looking at it, it was done by one or more than one person with a help from an accomplice who could have casted a barrier?"

He stretched his hand forward and tried to sense the magic. He could feel the tyrannical fire magic casted but it seemed to be contained inside a field. He tried to sense this field but could not find any remnant magic. His eyes widened a bit as he exclaimed.

"So someone with a precise control over their magic to the point that not one bit of magic is expelled!?"

Now that was a scary thought. Most magicians could not efficiently convert all their mana into a magic. Meaning there were remnants of magic from the person themselves. Each mana is distinct to each magician therefore from the remnant mana, the identity of the magician can be found out. It is known as [Mana Signature]. That is why magicians have some tools to cloak their mana but the mana from the tool can also be found, identifying that some tampering had been done in that area. It was in case of the one who used the powerful fire magic in this area. That magician had used some tool to cloak their [Mana Signature].

But the one outside who casted a barrier? That person had perfect mastery and control to not only sustain the AOE attack of destructive fire magic but also hypothetically cast something else to mitigate the sound and luminosity of the fire spell as well without wasting even a little bit of mana. Not more than 10 people could have such skills. As he was pondering in his thought, he heard some noises. Looking at the edge of the field he could see a limbless bandit struggling on the ground. He dashed straight there.

"Who did this?"

Brand asked without wasting a time. He knew that the man was not going to make it so why give him false hope? That was why he went straight to the point. But all the man could mumble was.

"....m ... monsterssss.... Both of them ....are monsterss...in minutes..."

Then he died with eyes stricken in fear. Brand processed the information he had gotten.

'This was done by two people? And moreover one of them was outside casting a barrier. The fight was over in matter of minutes. These people are extremely skilled. Especially the barrier caster. The other one's combat is nothing to scoff at either.'

He gave a final look at the battlefield before quickly leaping off towards their camp.

Aaron Pov

They nearly reached the river. Aaron just followed behind the knights as they were leading Fiore. Little by little he felt as if they were heading towards other destination than their original place they had intended. It was as if some sorcery was played. It started out randomly with Fiore finding some flowers and some knights finding other things interesting. The whole thing was a strange experience. In the end they all reached the riverside but not the place they had wanted their little Fiore to bath in. He was perplexed and thought it was just his imagination until he heard Rowley besides him, as they were at the last, mumble something.

“How odd….”

Aaron nodded and looked at their original destination.

“Indeed. We have strayed almost half a kilometer from our original destination.”

But nothing weird happened afterwards. He just looked around the surrounding until Brand came back. Brand just sighed at the two who looked at him.

“It seems the bandits were all killed by a third party.”

Aaron frowned and so did Rowley.

“But if there was a battle then we would have felt it.”

Rowley nodded as he agreed with the sentiment. Brand replied.

“So would I. But the thing is we did not. From the testimony of the only survivor, who died later on, it was done by two persons. One of which stood by and casted a barrier as well as additional barriers that could mitigate the sound produced as well as luminosity. The second person was the one who conducted the slaughter. The second person proceeded to physically incapacitate the people inside. But I guess that person felt the need to quickly finish things off so he deployed a rather potent fire magic to incinerate the left people.”

Rowley nodded.

“So can we assume they have left some traces? Mana signature?”

Brand shook his head.

“Unfortunately the second one covered up his traces while the first one…”

He closed his eye and his voice turned grave.

“….he had perfect mastery over his mana, so no amount of mana was wasted.”

Rowley sucked in air sharply while Aaron looked grave. Rowley said gravely.

“If they are aiming at us then we’d have little choice but to run away. Those kind of mages are kind of pain in the ass.”

Aaron thought that was true. Because not a fraction of mana was wasted, it meant that his/her magic would be in its most powerful form. Average mage wasted about 60% of their mana into performing magic while skilled mage wasted only 20%. The differences of firepower would not mean much but when you are fighting someone with perfect mastery, a single percent would differentiate between life and death. Aaron thought for a while, maybe what he felt in the forest was that?

“Uncle Rowley, what we felt in the forest?”

Rowley thought for a while before agreeing.

“Could be. We must not let our guard down. However, they did not strike us when we had let our guard down, yesterday. They could be a neutral party at best or someone with a hidden agenda.”

All of them nodded and decided to not let their guard down.

Kimiko Pov

“Hmm.”

She looked at the place where their road companion was situated. After the careful use of mental suggestion and application of illusion magic she was able to divert them from here. Now she could enjoy her time in the bath. She took out a soap from her storage box and proceeded to carefully wash her body a second time. After all the sweet smell did linger even after washing up the first time. Her hair was a bit tangled and she used a shampoo which was inside her storage box since the last time and carefully untangled it. Claire helped her in washing her hair while another maid helped Mira. The remaining maids proceeded to wash and dry her clothes. Small talks were made in the middle. Just as Claire was washing her hair while she hummed, Claire said.

“Mistress, it seems your hair is as lustrous as before.”

“Hn.”

After seconds of silence, Claire again asked.

“So how was your life back in other world?”

Kimiko stopped humming and thought back to her time in her world. She had wonderful parents who took care of her. Something she did not have when she was just an orphan before. She thought to her high school life. A normal world and a normal life. Seeing Kimiko reminiscing Claire asked.

“Would you…. go back if you were given a chance?”

Kimiko turned her head back to see Claire who had a neutral face. Even though she had a neutral face Kimiko could see in her eyes, a type of sadness and confusion. After all, with no magic and other things it would be impossible to summon them. This time could very well be their last time together. But Kimiko did want to return to her parents. It was a tough choice as she clenched her hands, looking forward while giving her answer with conviction.

“Yes. I want to- No, I will return!”

Claire sighed and was back to her task. It was the duty of the maid to take care of their master and listen to their orders. If her Mistress was to go back to her homeland, then it was their duty as a maid to support their Mistress. Claire nodded and began to wash Kimiko's body as well despite Kimiko saying not to. But it didn't matter, they had limited time and she wanted to explor- wash her Mistress.

After some time had passed and Kimiko felt refreshed and somehow strangely violated by Claire after the bath. Kimiko decided to return to the carriage and resume their journey after having some meal. She returned to the carriage with Mira and the remaining maids. Looking at the other camp she noticed that the duke party still had not returned. However, in her camp, Gabby was the one who was preparing the food thankfully. She had made Chicken soup and some butter fried bread. A light breakfast and thankfully ways better than what was yesterday’s evening. Kimiko ate it inside the carriage with Mira who was gobbling up in an unrefined manner, which got a prompt smack from Annie who reminded her of her manners.

While they were having breakfast, the other party had returned. It was a heart-warming sight to see a giggling small girl being carried on the shoulder of her smiling brother. But it seems his two guards were giving wary glances at their party. Then they all packed up before heading onwards on their journey.

Aaron Pov

After a tense breakfast, they had decided to travel along with the other carriage. It was midday as Aaron observed the maids from the window. Mind you, not as those stalker kind.

“Hmm… It seems they ARE neutral party. They haven’t tried anything yet.”

Fiore was sleeping so it was safe to speak up. Rowley nodded.

“So it seems. Either that or they couldn’t be the culprit in the first place. However, we still can’t rule out any possibility.”

Brand nodded.

“Well that tense moment is done, so let us discuss what is our objective going to the capital. Or what could possibly happen so that even the Duke was called to the capital. There’s only a week left for one of the biggest festival held on the capital. And it will be a century since we have celebrated the festival so this time it should be big.”

They all nodded. Even though bodies were found floating in the rivers of capital, it only did little to hamper the mood for one of the biggest festival held in the capital. Either that or the news was suppressed by the Kingdom. Just as Aaron was about to speak he felt a warm sensation in his chest. He looked down and quickly took out the pendant. It was glowing brightly.

Then he looked around frantically. Just as they were about to cross a crossroad from the left side a carriage passed, an ordinary one but Aaron squinted his eye at that particular carriage. The carriage moved slowly. It was surrounded by 10 different horses with riders on them, looked ordinary. He then looked from the other window. But as the carriage passed, the window which was blocked by black curtain was slowly being lifted. Just as the curtain lifted his eyes suddenly widened. Without warning he bolted out of the carriage destroying the door in the process. He skidded from the momentum for a while before stabilizing himself and chased after the carriage.

His face was stern and deadly serious as he took a glimpse of just who was inside the carriage. A girl with long white hair and porcelain skin who looked as if she was sleeping. A girl who he could not forget, an oath he took that day to be her knight. He was damn sure he will protect her.

“PRINCESSSS NINAAAA!!!”

Edited: 27-Nov-2020 Grammar improvement