Chapter Twenty One: In The Viper's Burrow

"Oh, I'm just glad you're okay, and Erina too."

That was Emilia's response after Devon explained what happened while they were away to her, he had to leave out the part of the spider for her too because he didn't want her to start imagining how that must have felt for him.

"There was nothing to worry about." He replied before shaking his head.

"You know Aurora hasn't been herself since last night."

"Huh?"

"She kept saying she was going to kill you once you two got back but I knew she was just worried, she may still try to kill you though." She expressed with a little chuckle.

"Well, thanks for the heads up, I'll just stay out of her way now." He remarked before slowly looking down at her leg. "I see your leg is getting better."

"Yeah, it still hurts but I can somehow walk on my own now." She replied before letting out a deep sigh. "I can't wait for this leg to return to normal so that I can get to go on missions with you again."

"Oh, yeah, me too."

The room fell into sudden silence after that until she finally decided to get up from his bed.

"I guess I should get going now."

"Yeah, you shouldn't even be walking around that much in the first place anyway."

"I'll try not to." She replied before placing her hand on the door to open it.

"Hey, wait a second."

"Huh?" She said before slowly turning her gaze back to him.

"I just want to confirm something."

"What?"

"That day, you saw me teleport while I was carrying you, right?"

"Yes." She answered without hesitation. "I wanted to ask you about it that day, but I think I sort of passed out when I was on your back."

"And after that?"

"Well, I thought since you didn't tell me about it, you didn't want anyone to know so I didn't want to bring it up unless you wanted to talk about it." She expressed with her gaze constantly shifting between his face and the floor.

"Oh, I see but you think it's strange that I can do something like that without an ability, right?"

"Yeah, how is that even possible?"

"I don't know, it just sort of started happening after I tumbled down that hill that day." He replied after shaking his head.

"After coming down the hill, Hmm. Do you feel any side effects after using the ability? I know you must have used it more after that day."

"Yeah, but I don't think I felt anything afterward."

"Hmm, I see, I just hope it doesn't have any side effects in the future, I'm skeptical about how that ability came to be so please be careful of how you use it."

"I'll try."

"I know I can't make you promise but okay, I'll be in my room."

After saying that, she left through the door before shutting it.

"Sorry, Emilia, these abilities have proven to be blessings to me so far, and I'm going to use them whenever I need to," Devon muttered before slowly getting up on his feet.

He stared at the door for a while before he suddenly crashed down on the bed.

He stared at the ceiling for a while before slowly dozing off.

________ _______

"Owww." The youngster groaned as he slowly sat up on the bed. "How long have I been sleeping?"

He slowly turned his gaze to the wall clock on the other side of the room to see that it was already 5:00 PM.

'What the heck? I've been sleeping for that long?' He said before springing up from his bed. 'Why did no one come to check up on me.'

He quickly made his way out of the room and straight down the hallway until he got to the treatment room where he found Erina who was busy taking care of something.

"Oh, hey, Erina…."

"There you are," Erina said before he could finish saying what he wanted to say.

"Get on the bed, please." She requested before she started making her way to him.

"Huh?"

"Just get on the bed, I want to check something on your body."

"Okay," He replied with an awkward expression on his face before slowly lying down on the bed.

"Do you mind lifting your shirt?"

"Okay." He replied before slowly lifting his shirt.

What she wanted to see was the area where he got stabbed by the spider, and that was what she was looking at now.

"Strange."

"Huh? Anything the matter?"

"Judging by how fast I rushed your healing process, the wound should have opened up a bit but it looks perfectly okay and the scar is even way thinner compared to last time." She explained.

"Wait, so when you rush a healing process, it causes the wound to open up afterward?"

"Yeah and not in a good way, that's why I don't fully heal any of you but I had to do it for you because I was slowly losing you, and then you still ended up dying."

"Huh? Dying?"

"Yeah, your body went cold in my arms for a couple of minutes and then you just suddenly came back, I don't know how to explain it."

"Hmm, now that you mention it, I did find myself in a dark place with light at its end, and when I tried moving toward it…"

"What happened?"

"I…don't remember anymore, but I know it felt just like a normal dream." He replied with his hand on his forehead.

He knew there was something else but it just wasn't coming back to him.

"Hmm, I see, it's a miracle that you're still alive really but I'm glad that miracle happened."

"Yeah, me too." He said before sitting up on the bed. "So, are the others not back yet?"

"They've been back for a while now." She replied before she began to make her way back to the other side where she was taking care of something on the table.

"Really?"

"Yeah, Aurora has been knocking on your door for quite a while now, she seemed quite serious about bringing it down."

"Oh, really? Strange that I didn't hear any of that." He muttered to himself. "So, where are they now?"

"Michael called them to the meeting room, he said they had something important to deal with tonight." She replied. "But anyway…"

She was able to finish what she was saying because just as she turned to the bed where she saw him last, he was no longer there.

"How does he even do that?"

Erina was right, they were all in the meeting room and Michael was telling them about their mission tonight which had something to do with robbing the princess, he got to the area just in time to eavesdrop on everything.

"Now listen up, this is a special tiara that the princess has to wear tomorrow for the event so it will be in her room tonight, and to make the job easier she will be out of her room for most of the night preparing for tomorrow but that doesn't mean we don't have to be careful, this is a dangerous mission but that tiara is worth a lot which is why I need all of you to work together," Michael explained.

"So, that's it," Devon muttered under his breath before quickly sneaking out of the area.

The kingdom's castle wasn't far away from the orphanage but he still had to get there before his mates made their move.

All it took for him to get to the view of the princess's room was a few minutes of running.

With the sun almost completely gone from the sky, the castle's walls began to get dark and that was just perfect for him.

He was standing beside a shady tree so even if the princess was to look from her room, she wouldn't be able to see him from that far under the tree.

'To keep it safe, let's just get to the window first.'

[ Location acquired ]

[ -40 Energy ]

As soon as that message popped up in front of him, he found himself right in front of the window.

He quickly took a peek inside to see that no one was inside, he didn't really think about it at first but it was great that her window was open or else things would have been more difficult for him.

After confirming that no one was inside, he slowly made his way into the room through the window and now that he was inside he quickly began to scan the area with his eyes.

"Hmm, her room does smell nice, way better than mine for sure." He muttered.

'But I guess that makes sense.'

It didn't take him long to find the tiara sitting on a chair by the left.

It was a golden tiara with a ruby at its top, Michael mentioned that it was mostly made of gold and perhaps that was true.

'Well, this was easier than expected, I'll just grab it and teleport myself out of here.' He said subconsciously before taking a step forward.

However, just before he could take another step forward, the door suddenly opened and who else would open the door other than the owner of the room?

[ -20 Energy ]

[ Invisibility activated ]

As soon as she walked into the room, she paused before slowly turning her gaze to her bed and then to the side where the tiara was sitting.

"Hmm." She sighed before she began to make her way to the other end of the room.

"A chameleon blends in with its environment to avoid its predator's gaze, unaware that the Viper does not need to see it visually to strike it."

Just as soon as she finished saying that, a red spear formed in her hand and without hesitation, she threw it straight at the wall.

Devon was lucky because the spear only managed to miss his head by just a few inches or perhaps it wasn't her intention to hit him.

His invisibility wore off soon after that, and now he could be seen on the wall with the red spear right above him.

"Hi." He muttered with an awkward expression on his face before slowly waving at her.

"Who are you and why are you in my room?"