The huge golden doors opened, revealing the majestic beauty behind it. Wearing a crown befitting of her stature, she sat proudly on her throne.

The sound of armor moving could be heard as a huge man, obviously a Ki user, walked into the throne room. Admirably, he didn’t bow nor look subservient. He looked very tranquil.

Stopping a few meters away from the feet of the throne, he bowed, placing a hand in front of his chest, “Dakath Evacol of Tova greets your Majesty”

“Rise” she said softly.

Dakath, formerly known as Raven, looked up, his eyes meeting Abigail’s. Remarkably, her dark eyes looked just like King Alejandro.

“So? How did it go?” she asked, shifting her posture a bit.

“As usual, Your Majesty”

“Nothing?” her eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Yes” Dakath replied.

“Are you telling me that she left the Kingdom?” her voice went up a notch.

“I wouldn’t think so. She wouldn’t dare get an identification with your Majesty looking for her so I believe it safe to assume she is still in the Kingdom” Dakath replied, his voice still level.

Queen Abigail closed her eyes to rein in her emotions. As she reopened them, one could practically feel the anger in her gaze, “Are you actually looking for her?”

“Of course, Your… Highness”

“Raven!” She screamed, slamming her hand on the arm of the throne.

“Yes?” this time, his tone sounded dangerous.

Abigail gritted her teeth, “Dakath, how many time do I have to tell you…”

“I apologize, Your Majesty. It was a slip” he interrupted her.

Abigail gripped the hand of her arm chair tightly, “I see… good job”

He gave a curt bow, turning around and leaving the room.

The throne room returned to its usual silence.

“How much longer do I have to keep up with this” Abigail’s hateful voice rang out.

“Sorry, Your Majesty” a voice replied.

Abigail let out a sigh and leaned into her chair, “It shouldn’t have left my Kingdom, why is it taking so long to find it?”

There was no reply.

She drummed her finger tips on the armrest, thinking out loud, “Do I personally…?”

“No”, the voice interrupted her before she could continue, Your Majesty must not leave the palace. Especially now”

Abigail didn’t reply to that, as the guards announced the next visitor.

***

Dakath walked silently, the wind doing its best to rid his hair of whatever form it had once taken.

His thoughts were as stale usual as he took in the humongous sight of the Kingdom of Ferasi. He felt no elation as one of the people who had hands in raising this Kingdom. Besides as far as the world knew it, he was dead. And dead, he stayed.

He rose his head to gaze at the blazing sun and almost as swiftly, turned his gaze away. But he’d seen what he wanted to see. The sun was beautiful. He let his gaze drop, looking at the people running back and forth on the ground. Perhaps it was the view point from the roof top but he felt superior to them.

It was a given that he’d felt superior but at this moment he felt even more so, inexplicably. Unlike these people, his life didn’t depend on the word of one person. That alone made him-----

The sight of something by the side of his eye stopped his thoughts. A particular shade of blonde hair. Dakath felt his eyebrows twitch and he narrowed his eyes turning his gaze onto the owner of the hair.

A full second of scrutiny later, Dakath couldn’t stop the smile that crept on his lips. How stupid. He didn’t account for the fact that her appearance would change, wondering if the little girl actually managed to outsmart them all.

Dakath moved his gaze away as she froze in place, obviously looking for someone. He felt a tad impressed that she could feel his gaze, even if he wasn’t trying to conceal it.

He sat down on the roof and raised his head to meet the gaze of the sun. Beautiful. A cryptic smile flitted across his face again.

In situations like this, Dakath always admired the beauty of coincidences.

***

Agnes ruffled her wet hair with her towel, flopping down into the sofa, “You called?”

Noet looked up from whatever crap he was doing, scratching his head for a second, “Oh right. We are heading out on an expedition tomorrow and I want you to come with us”

“Tomorrow?” Agnes asked in disbelief.

“Yes” Noet nodded.

“Isn’t it quite late to be telling me this?” Agnes raised a brow.

“Not exactly”

Agnes gave a dry laugh, “So you want me to follow you on an expedition?”

“Yes”

“For what?”

“We were asked by the palace to do a little exploring for them. Nothing much”, Noet shrugged.

Agnes raised a brow, “The palace?”

“Suspicious?”

“Yes. I mean you’re a merchant company”

“Well, it’s not exactly a secret that many merchant companies are comparable to sects in terms of strength”, Noet smiled.

“Well,” Agnes crossed her legs, “It’s not a secret either that sects are made up of a bunch of twigs who believe Ki will one day be superior”

Noet laughed, “Twigs, huh”

“I really think they are delusional. I mean yes, Ki is fairly powerful but I don’t think it can ever match the might of mana”,

“You do realize you are talking to a warrior, right?”

“I do realize I’m talking to a warrior who doesn’t really give a fuck” Agnes replied.

Noet nodded, “It’s not like their delusions are from empty air. Ki was once superior to mana”

“That was when mana research wasn’t a thing yet. Like millions of years ago” Agnes rolled her eyes then gave a start, “This discussion is derailing”

Noet smirked, “Was worth a try. Anyways, the palace knows we have enough strength to do this so we were asked”

“Why this company?”

“I would like to believe we were finally recognized. Wouldn’t you?”

“I’ll pass on this expedition, Noet. It smells fishy all over” Agnes shook her head, wrapping her hair in the towel.

“Are you sure it’s not your hate for the palace coming into this?”

“What hate?” Agnes narrowed her eyes.

“Oh nothing. Maybe the fact that they killed your…”

“Boss” Agnes’ voice boomed through the room.

Noet sighed, “You are coming with me”

“No. This is weird, why do you even want me to?”

“Because, I think it’s a good opportunity for you”

“Oh, really?” Agnes rolled her eyes.

Noet went silent for a few seconds then spoke, “They want us to explore an underground ruin”

Agnes froze.

“Apparently, the miners found something suspicious and it has been confirmed that the place is a ruin. And it’s huge” Noet continued.

“No way. When was this?”

“Few days ago”

“When you say huge, do you mean huge or huge?”

“Huge”

“Damn” Agnes clicked her tongue. At first, she had gotten into looking at ruin excavations to find out more about her demonic heritage then slowly, she began to realize that she liked ruins. She’d gone through already explored ruins and had been dying to finally explore one herself.

“Anyways, it’s up to you if you want to come or not” Noet suddenly said, changing his previous statement.

Agnes glared at him, “You know, I hate you sometimes”

Noet smiled, “That’s nice”

Agnes placed a hand on her head and leaned back, “This still feels weird”

Noet ran a hand through his hair, “Raena, do you really think that if the Queen knew you were alive and kicking, she’d leave you alone?”

Agnes narrowed her eyes.

“No” Noet spoke firmly, “The answer you are looking for is no. So, I don’t think this request from the palace has anything to do with you, honestly. Once I heard it was a ruin, I figured I’d bring you along to surprise you but that’s obviously not working out so well”

Agnes listened quietly until the end of his sentence when she raised a brow, “Surprise me?”

Noet sighed and leaned back in his seat, “Happy birthday, Agnes. In advance”

Agnes couldn’t stop the smile that crept onto her face, “Would it kill you to stick to one name?”

“Agnes. Raena. Same thing” Noet shrugged.

“That reasoning is just…” Agnes shook her head, “Thank you, I should say. I would like to go to the ruins. But somehow I don’t feel like something is right”

Noet drummed his fingers on the table, “It’s not like you to be so suspicious. Alright, I’ll get some extra protection just to be sure”

Agnes nodded, “Where is Ianan? I have been looking for him all day”

“I had him do something for me. Is there something you need?”

“Not really. He asked me to meet him”

“Oh” Noet exclaimed, “That was probably about the expedition. He was supposed to tell you about it although now that I think about it, it was probably better than I did”

Agnes rolled her eyes, standing up, “Is that it?”

“Yes, actually” Noet gave her a brief smile before swiftly turning his attention back to the crap ton of papers on his desk.

Agnes got up from her seat.

“You are coming, right?” Noet asked, not looking up from whatever he was doing.

“Sure” Agnes gave a faint nod.

Although Noet didn’t see her nod, he sensed it and nodded back, focusing on his stuff again.

“Ah…” Agnes exclaimed softly as her hand touched the door knobs, “Is Lysa coming with us?”

“No, I’m taking Ianan with me and I need someone to watch over this place” Noet answered without looking up.

Agnes gave a small smile and released her hair from the towel, shaking her hair out as she walked out the doors. She waited for the doors to close behind her before she walked away.

This is weird. From what I know, Noet and the palace haven’t really had much communication since that civil war and now, he’s being asked to clear a ruin? Something as profitable as a ruin?

Surely, the palace had other merchant company they are close to. This is just a new company on the rise.

She pulled a strand of hair from her face as she entered her personal room. Was I sold out?

She ruminated over that thought for a while then tossed it away. Noet wasn’t that type of roundabout person. If he truly sold her out, she wouldn’t even be here at this moment. It was possible Agnes may be looking too much into this due to her prejudice with the royal family but the opposite was also possible.

She lay down still on her bed, gazing at the ceiling. It was plain, just like she liked it. Anyways, thinking about it wouldn’t change anything and it wasn’t worth it to lose the opportunity to explore a ruin just because of a baseless worry.

She sent a glance at her always ready equipment in the corner of the room and sighed. She then closed her eyes and began another dreamless sleep.

As the tiny crack of daylight seeped into the window, Agnes opened her eyes. She blinked once. Twice. Then got up. Not bothering to take a shower, she wore her gear with such fluidity that spoke experience and headed out.

A few nods and waves later, she was out of the building and into a lustrous restaurant. She waved a card at the counter before they could say anything and a waiter led her upstairs and into a private room.

She gave a slight nod to the people already inside and sat in a corner. After waiting a few minutes, Noet arrived and discussion began. After which they ate and headed out.

The entourage was not too small not loo large. There were enough people that people would know they was some kind of event but not enough to make bigger entities suspicious. Agnes was a step behind Noet as usual and on guard.

The Namihal forest was a huge forest rumored to connect to the Kingdom of Welch, not that Agnes had checked it out. Even if she wished to leave Ferasi, the monsters on that route were monsters she wouldn’t dare to face unless she wished to lose her life.

And she wasn’t sure how much of a connection the blood elves and high elves had. Her aim was to leave this continent. It was somewhat a farfetched idea but anywhere in the elven continent to her didn’t seem safe. After all, one should underestimate royal power.

Sure, she’d been able to evade Queen Abigail’s search for a while but someone would soon put two and two together. She’d been making preparations to leave but security had gotten even tighter after Abigail took the throne and her wanted poster was all over the gates.

Despite the monsters though, slave traders had a route through the forest. She had never been able to actually squeeze it out of them even with death threats. She had come to believe that slave traders probably went under some kind of oath before knowing the route which was pretty religious for something as petty as slave trading.

She sent a glance behind her at the orderly men having mild discussions. They seemed more like soldiers than mercenaries. Which was expected because this ruin exploration dealt with a lot of secrecy. Mainly because of how much benefits a ruin exploration could actually bring to a Kingdom. There’d even been wars over ruins after all.

She looked up, waving a thick branch away from her face, sighing inwardly. The forest was extraordinarily quiet and they hadn’t encountered anything. Which was definitely a good sign, seeing as they had cast concealing magic over their party. Meeting a monster that could counter that magic or see through it was definitely not a good sign.

They soon arrived at the mining outpost. As expected it was void of any human beings in the area. Two men walked forward, checking the stability of the mines with some device before they all proceeded into it.

The place was dark and musty and Agnes could see mining equipment lying around carelessly. She scanned the place with as much as her eyesight could let her. There wasn’t really anything impressive. It was a mine after all.

Suddenly, Noet raised his hand, signaling them to stop. He looked through something Agnes could identify as a map and pointed at something. Ianan unsheathed his sword and walked forward disappearing into the darkness. He came back a while later giving a faint nod.

At that, Noet signaled for them to move again. Soon arriving at a place that was obviously a dead end in the mine, Noet gave instructions to move in.

Unlike Agnes who currently had a confused look on her face many of the men walked forward with no hesitation. Agnes scratched her head guiltily. She had been a tad absent minded during the briefing this morning.

She watched in fascination as the men reached the rock and just disappeared into it.

“What are you doing? Enter” Noet said, failing miserably to stop himself from smiling.

Agnes gave a cough in embarrassment and followed into the rock after him.

She felt her sight distort for a second and then she was somewhere else. It still looked like the mine but she could tell that it wasn’t.

She didn’t wait for instructions as she knew what she was to do here. She nodded towards Noet and moved out to scout around. She strained her battle sense to the maximum ready to act upon any warnings of danger.

Her ears twitched as she heard something. She removed her daggers hanging at her waist and muttered something under her breath. Acting oblivious, she moved a bit closer to the sound.

Suddenly, she swiped to her left, coming face to face with the entity planning to kill her. The wolf was humongous. She could barely make out its figure in the darkness as its fur was obviously black. She flicked her hand, throwing five balls on the floor. The beat dodged what it assumed to be an attack but all the balls did was flicker with light, barely illuminating the place but at least she could now see.

It growled in response and moved to crush it. The darkness was its domain and it didn’t really like the light. Agnes didn’t give it that chance, charging forward. The beast dodged her charged clawing at her sides. She curled up, avoid the hit and using the chance to injure it.

It gave a hiss in pain and moved back in preparation for an escape. Agnes smirked. This was the signature move for a shadow wolf. They were naturally attuned to darkness despite having no magic and were used to killing unsuspecting prey from the darkness. The trouble some part about them was that they always tried to retreat when injured. If they judge themselves to be weaker than their opponent they bail almost immediately. Unfortunately, this was never then end of it as they would track you down with your scent and almost always return with an entourage of other shadow wolves.

A single shadow wolf would not give someone of Agnes’ rank problem. Even five of them would be fine. But when it becomes at least 100 of them, her making it out alive would be difficult.

SCLUNK

The wolf slumped to the ground as a sizeable lump of rock was embedded in its chest. Agnes waved the blood off her dagger from where she’d nicked the beast and sheathed them.

She walked forward, waving her hand to withdraw the rock she had sent into the beast. She had heard that shadow wolf hide was quite thick but apparently not. She sighed inwardly as she thought about this battle. She couldn’t wait to rank up to be a magus. Recitation of full spells when in combat was a chore and it took too much time which made using spells in battle a bit inefficient. When she became a magus, she wouldn’t need to recite the full spells anymore.

She heaved the wolf unto her shoulder and decided to walk back. She’d deliberately stalled after killing the wolf and no other animal came, attracted to the blood. The place was practically empty… which was odd.

What had the wolf survived on if there was no other food?

She walked back to the group and discovered she was one of the first scouts back. She dumped to body of the wolf with people who could skin better than she could and walked to Noet. They would cut up the meat and preserve it.

“Did you see anything of notice?” Noet immediately asked when she drew near.

“No. That’s all that was there”

“Just the wolf?” Noet wrinkled his brow.

“Yes. Oddly, I couldn’t find any other animal and this place is bare without even growing trees. There is not food source for that wolf to live off”

“You think it was planted here?”

“No. I think it came from somewhere in this ruin”

“Why?”

“Familiarity. It was too familiar with this place when we fought”

“Hmm” Noet caressed his nonexistent beard, “Shadow wolves aren’t a threat but the fact that it appeared at out of nowhere is a problem”

Agnes nodded, “But there isn’t much we can do about that. It is a ruin, there is bound to be some kind of absurdity. The only thing is I haven’t felt any mana fluctuations which is worrying”

Noet was quiet for a while before he said, “When we entered this ruin, did you feel any mana fluctuation”

“No…” Agnes sighed, “Just like I thought, this ruin is a grade higher than we were told”

Noet clicked his tongue.

“I think we should explore a bit more. There doesn’t seem to be much of a threat now. The only difference with a grade D ruin and a grade C are the illusions and illusions aren’t so scary once you’re aware of them, right?” Agnes said.

“I would have thought you’d immediately want to leave seeing as you didn’t even want to explore at first” Noet smirked.

“I’m already inside. Besides, going out now would be giving up an opportunity of a lifetime”, She shrugged.

Noet studied her face then smiled, “Yea. We already know what to expect and we should be able to handle what it throws at us. There shouldn’t be a problem”

Agnes grinned sarcastically, “Uh-huh. What could possibly go wrong?”