A usual event - II

Aranthia Kingdom. The very place infamous for its self-isolation from the outside world. One can say that it is a peaceful nation.

Or it would be better to say that it was.

Once the barrier covering the entire main city collapsed, the citizens had fallen into hysteria. It was the worst possible situation.

The knights who were supposed to protect the citizens only continued to gallop on their horses in the direction of the huge castle. That was in the centre of the city. The palace.

The people standing by the streets observing the knights rush towards the palace made a certain person grit her teeth. Her rage and frustrations were not directed towards those people. Her eyes squinted with bitter aftertaste.

'I should've been more careful...'

The immense sense of guilt was eating at her heart.

Sigh

The man on the horse next to hers shook his head aside. He was a good judge of people.

Also, within their whole platoon, that man was the only one who noticed the woman's condition. His lips frozen for a moment, as if they were waiting for the words to come out of his mouth on their own.

"Vice commander Elyria... it wasn't really our fault."

"You don't need to try to uplift my spirits. Assistant knight Sloan."

"No. I'm just stating the obvious."

"Is that so..."

Even though Sloan had said those words to her, it was of no use. Elyria was fully aware of her mistakes.

What's done was done. Now there was only one question in front of her. How would they face their empress after such an unprecedented failure?

Elyria Eulius Reinfer. The youngest female knight to be appointed as vice commander in the history of Aranthia Kingdom. Despite being a fifteen-year-old girl, she was able to rise to the ranks of vice commander without any trouble.

The Reinfer family was one of the lowest-ranked nobles within the kingdom. Without being affected by her social standing, Elyria had achieved a remarkable feat.

After seven years of service as a knight, this was her first failure.

-Always remember that a knight must maintain vigilance over every little thing.

As those words rang in her mind, Elyria bit her lips lightly. Still numb to that minute pain, she sped up the horse.

-Only a failure of knight would make a blunder.

Never in her life had she thought that her own words would come back biting at her.

'I underestimated the culprit.'

That wasn't actually her fault, though. The barrier was supposed to be unbreakable. The possibility of the culprit being exhausted was high.

And that was somewhat true. Rudia's wounds were still healing at the moment. She only had enough strength to move herself to a safe location away from them.

It would be better to say that Elyria was unlucky.

She had never experienced such immense failure all this while. There was only one solution on her mind. Catching the culprit, or rather, the culprits, no matter what.

'There's still a chance they will try to invade again.'

Someone of that much strength wouldn't go out of their way to destroy the barrier for no reason. Elyria was certain that they would invade the kingdom for sure.

And seeing how the culprit escaped easily, Elyria was able to get the gist of the situation. The culprit likely had pre-planned it.

If her assumptions were accurate, then there would be more than just one person invading their main city. Even if that didn't happen, it wouldn't have hurt to be on guard.

The timing when they would do so was still unclear, though. But that much was enough.

'If they meet me next time...'

Her golden eyes glowed within the darkness of the dimly lit path. The Rapier hanging on her waist trembled oddly. Her fierce gaze cut apart the air brushing against her face.

'I will kill them with my own hands.'

Sloan could feel the cold aura emanating from Elyria. He gulped down his nervous saliva along with his words. That was never his place to interfere.

His gaze slowly wandered around for a bit. The rest of the knights looked stressed up too. Well, he couldn't blame them for it.

'There's no point worrying about it.'

It would only waste their energy. Sloan's peculiar brown eyes shrunk for a moment. He could see their destination clearly.

The main gateway to the palace was just a few minutes away from them. He let out a sigh before having a blank expression on his face.

'The question is...'

-----------------------

"What should be our next action now?"

His emerald-green eyes kept on staring at starfall with an odd smile on his lips. Unlike him, someone was smiling enthusiastically.

And then there were two people who shuddered because of the man's sudden words.

Jaden glanced behind him at that woman and the girl holding her hand. They were also surprised by Blaise. Then another person spoke.

"We are almost there."

Aliana was leading the way from the front most. Claire and Melanie missed their timing and had to walk behind everyone else.

Jaden let out a light sigh, observing their surroundings.

The foggy path they had been walking through seemed isolated. Maybe it wasn't used by anyone for over a long time.

At least there were no traces hinting that it was in use. It wasn't that dark, so Jaden was able to see the ground clearly.

There were no footprints visible. Nor were there any other forms of traces left behind by animals and beasts.

There lingered one single question on Jaden's mind.

'How did she even find out this path?'

Given that they were already past the borderline of the barrier, it must've been a coincidence. Was sneaking inside such a kingdom like Aranthia supposed to be that easy?

A bitter smile surfaced on Jaden's lips. A memory of the past where he remembered being surrounded by the elven troops popped up in his mind.

'Don't jinx it, me-!'

He shook his ways sideways violently to erase the negative thoughts. But the unsettling bad premonition stayed unchanged.

He had a feeling that something was going to happen.

From deep within, Jaden hoped that they managed to safely enter the Aranthia Kingdom. Unlike him, Blaise was carefree.

He had something, more like someone, to reassure him that everything would go fine without a hitch. Aliana was strong enough to take on any dangers. Himself and Jaden too.

Trnk trnk

A faint sound continued to creep in closer through the fog. Both Aliana's group and the source of sound were heading towards each other.

A faint ray of yellow colour burnt into his deep blue eyes. Something that looked like a ball of fire was closing in.

Or was it them who were approaching it?

The sky that was clearly visible a few minutes ago was being partially covered by the tree branches. Jaden gulped down his own nervous saliva.

He slowly steadied his body and touched the tips of his fingers to snap. If it came down to it, he was ready to unsheathe his sword.

Then gradually, behind the flying ball of fire, a shadow became visible. Someone was walking along that light.

"Don't be on guard like that."

A strange shiver went down Jaden's whole body as he flinched at Aliana's words. How did she figure out that Jaden was about to pull out his sword?

She wasn't the only one who had seen it coming. Blaise let out a light laughter while speaking.

"I don't think that person will try to bite us."

Both Aliana and Blaise were experts when it came down to magic. They were able to sense the mana around Jaden bend peculiarly. As they both were familiar with it, they had an idea what Jaden was about to do.

Then slowly the fog surrounding them got a bit lighter. It had already been about an hour since they strated walking there. 

The brown rag-like robe covering his whole body became clearly visible. The hand full of scars clung onto the handle of the lantern.

Jaden's assumption was wrong. It wasn't a man. The voice of an elderly woman, maybe in her late thirties, fell on his ears.

"Hurry up and-"

Woosh woosh

That was just to get interrupted by the sounds of something brushing past the bushes. A foot stepped out from the shadows.

The maid uniform she wore became visible under the dim light of the lantern. Her orange eyes and black hair glistened lightly as she moved out of the bushes.

"Rudia!"

Claire exclaimed with a surprised expression. She was curious as to where Rudia had disappeared to. Melanie was surprised by her sudden appearance too.

Not to mention the unseen colour of her eyes and hair.

Clap clap

Aliana clapped lightly twice before taking a light breath. Her pink eyes switched gazes with Jaden and Blaise as she spoke.

"Now that everyone is here, there's no need to waste more time."

Jaden knew this tone of speaking. No, he was oddly overfamiliar with it. A cold chill ran down his spine.

Blaise had an uneasy expression himself. They both glanced around nervously. Their thoughts were completely in sync at the moment.

'Don't tell me...'

"Without further delay, let's head for the palace!"