33 Lost

Traveling inside the forest was harder than she originally thought.

"If you wanted to win this hunting, we need to go deep into the forest," Hunter said, his voice was a little hoarse. She figured it was probably because of the sudden drop in temperature inside the forest.

Cassandra nodded in response. She was already expecting this. She glanced at her shoulder, who had the tracker. "I'm taking it out once we get there."

"Getting it out?"

"I can melt it, but it's too risky. So, I will take it out." Since he was behind her, she couldn't see his reaction. "We could use it too."

"Hmmm."

Seeing that he was no longer interested in any conversation, Cassandra decided to stay quiet, too. She lifted her head up and stared at the canopy of trees that blocked the sun. It was thick, luscious, and somewhat ominous. Aside from the sound of their horses, she could hear a plethora of sounds around them.

The sound of the branches breaking under the hooves of their horses accompanied the bird's melody that somehow lacked rhythm. Instead of comforting her, it made her more alert to her surroundings.

This forest was located near the seaside. It was in the southern part of Zealandia and was quite far away from the capital. Despite this, The Hunting was always held in this location. This was because this was actually considered the safest forest among all the forests surrounding the capital.

Just like all forests around the capital, this place is also a nest of negative energy. But for some reason, the animals infected with that energy were lesser in this place. Rumor has it that it was because another monster was living in this forest.

Some say it was a gigantic snake that only feds on animals who had been affected by the negative energy. Because of this, there were lesser animals in this part of the forest. Another person said that dark ones live in this place. To avoid detection, they only hunt animals with negative energy.

Obviously, few people believed this. It was because the flesh of an animal infected is poisonous and black. The heart and blood would be black too. Moreover, dark ones wouldn't have the intellect to come up with a plan like that. They are just blood-thirsty creatures who wanted to kill people.

However, Prince Hunter's existence is enough to make Cassandra wonder if the rumors that she heard and those writings on the books were true.

Dark Ones.

They are the people who hated Sybills so much.

"I heard a dark one attacked you in the outside world?"

"Yes." That wasn't the first dark one that she had killed. However, it was the first dark one who actually used its intellect to try and kill her. It was smart enough to change itself and imitate her brother. Even her grandfather couldn't explain what happened out there.

She recalled how her grandfather thought this is one of the new things that the dark ones had been doing in the past few years to avoid detection.

"And you killed it?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"Ah. How?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"How did you kill it?"

"Beheading it? Taking its heart." Isn't this the normal way to kill those stronger dark ones?

"How did it manage to get near you without killing other people?" he continued asking.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Why was he acting like the doesn't know this? "I thought this is something that you should already know?" Isn't he one of them?

After thinking about the past incident and Prince Hunter, she thought that there might be some sort of hierarchy. Maybe it was just like those zombie novels that she read in the outside world. There should be some sort of level of insanity that a dark one could have.

And there should be some sort of leader that everyone respected because they are stronger. From her visions alone, Prince Hunter became the Prince of the Dark Ones. This meant that he was the strongest of them all.

"Hmmm… I never thought that you could actually kill those people."

"Pardon me?" Was he underestimating her abilities? No, that was not it. He wasn't underestimating her. He just thought that those people were that strong.

"Why would they want you dead?" he asked.

"They?"

"Dark Ones."

"Ah, shouldn't you be asking that to yourself?" Why the hell did he want to kill her?

For a few seconds, he didn't say anything. "I wanted to use you to instigate chaos between the throne and the four great families."

"Huh?" Did he just answer her question? She immediately turned her head towards his face, only to realize that their faces were only a few centimeters away. She blinked stared at his dark eyes, hoping to get a glimpse of the truth from his reaction.

Sadly, he maintained his stoic expression. He was looking down at her face, lips thinned.

"What did you just say?" she asked, gulping.

"Didn't you hear me?"

"No… I…" Of course she heard him! His lips were only a few inches away from her ears!

"You thought I would lie?"

She felt his hot breath against her cheek. "Yes," she nodded.

"Why would I lie?"

"Because…" Isn't that the only logical thing that he would do? Wait… what is going on here? "Because you have never been honest since we met, your highness."

"That's true."

"Perhaps you…" she hesitated for a few seconds. "Perhaps you wanted to kill me in this forest?"

"Even if I wanted to. I couldn't do that without risking my life. I love my life."

Ah, what a smart thing to say. "That is true." Her attention shifted to their environment when the horse that they were riding halted. She immediately looked in front of them, squinting.

"It seems that we could no longer use a horse to travel," he noted. "We should leave the horses here."

She glanced at the rocky steep in front of them. "Where are we?" They have been traveling for about two hours and they never encountered a single animal worth killing.

Are they… lost?

....

This is an unedited chapter. My editor is sick. 

Anyway, if you have any questions just asked below. I will answer everything if I can. Thanks.