Secrets

Ashur awoke several hours later to a hungry and tired body, along with his still painful body, but it was a lot more bearable than before.

Ashur noticed Riveria was already awake but without Ashur's permission, she did not leave the tight cave as she did not want to accidentally attract enemies.

"Good morning Riveria"

"Morning" she replied with a yawn.

"Ene, how long has it passed since we went to sleep?" Ashur asked as he looked at Ene off to the side.

"Morning Master, It's been a little over six hours now," said Ene, displaying the time on the screen.

"Let's get out, those slave traders should have already given up and left," said Ashur, as he started crawling out of the small cave, before also helping Riveria get out.

After a few hours of rest, Riveria's leg did not hurt as much as before, and there was only a little bit of pain while walking around.

After they got out, Riveria asked "So what do we do now?" and as soon as she said that, her stomach suddenly growled.

"Why don't get something to eat?" asked Ashur with a smile as he was also really hungry.

"Yeah let's do that," said Riveria as she tried to hide her embarrassment.

Ashur and Riveria felt so much better after getting out of that cramped and rather horrible to sleep on, cave floor.

Riveria had so many complaints about sleeping on such a surface, it was hard and uneven, while some rocks were poking into her back, and it so much different than her bed at home in the palace, but since Ashur did not complain about it, she chose to not bring it up.

Ashur and Riveria started walking around looking for anything they could eat, and after about 10 minutes of walking, Ene suddenly shouted "Look Master, a cute rabbit!"

Ashur soon spotted a small rabbit coming out of some shrubs a few meters away.

"Good thinking Ene! We got ourselves dinner!" said Ashur happily as he started slowly approaching it, so he would not startle it away.

"Wait, Master! That's not what I meant!"

But Ashur ignored her pleas, as his stomach was constantly telling him to 'Eat it'

Slowly pulling out his sword and leaning forward, Ashur's body was tense as he eyed the rabbit, and Suddenly, his body suddenly blurred, and in the next second, he was over the body of the rabbit with his sword sticking out of its neck.

"Nooooooo!" screamed Ene as she mourned the loss of the cute rabbit.

"If this bothers you, you might not want to see what's next Ene," said Ashur as he picked the rabbit up and hanged it up against a tree, as he started to drain its blood.

By now, Ene had already headed his warning and dove into his phone and started to talk to her new friend, Flandre as she ignored what was happening outside.

Ene and Flandre both grew quite fond of each other and since both of them were mostly bored all the time, they chatted to each other a lot and quickly grew to like each other very much in the short time they have interacted with each other.

Meanwhile, in the basement of Scarlet Devil Mansion, Flandre was humming a happy tune as she was currently painting a picture.

The painting in question was something Ene suggested she make, after sending her a video she secretly recorded of Ashur's epic battle when fighting the slave traders.

Flandre was naturally shocked when Ene told her that it was actually Ashur who was fighting in the video, as he was much younger than what he showed in the picture he sent, and when she asked Ene about it, Ene said she only showed her because she thought of her as a friend and quickly asked her to keep it a secret. Which she quickly agreed to keep it a secret, and promised she would not tell anyone about it.

Flandre was naturally also very excited to get a 'Friend' who was not like those from the mansion who rarely talked to her, with the only exception of Patchouli, but even she rarely visits her.

Flandre was also very excited because she had never been asked to keep secrets between friends.

Flandre also found the video that Ene sent was really interesting as there were things she had never seen before in it, and She also saw Ashur beat up some of those 'Bad guys' that she disliked, so that also made her like him even more, on top of him saying that he will play with her.

As Flandre painted, she suddenly heard a knock at her door, before it slowly opened.

"Flandre-sama I have brought you your meal," said Sakuya as she slowly wheeled in a trolley of food that was covered with silver covers to keep it warm.

Flandre put down her paintbrush after hearing Sakuya enter.

"Coming!" she shouted as she excitedly ran over to Sakuya.

Sakuya face flashed a surprised expression before it quickly went back to normal as she brought over the food.

Usually, Flandre would not be this excited just by Sakuya coming here and bringing her food, but Sakuya noticed that Flandre seemed to be in a great mood today?

This was strange as Flandre was usually unenthusiastic and only cheered up a tiny bit when someone was either bringing her food to her, or someone coming to visit her.

Sakuya wondered what could cause such a change and did a quick look around the room, intending to not really find anything, but the half-finished painting that Flandre was currently painting, suddenly caught her eye.

What the painting depicted was a boy whose face was not yet painted, was fighting a few men and what looked like a cage attached to a carriage in the background, while another man was grabbing a girl in the background of the painting.

As Sakuya looked at the painting, she knew exactly what it was depicting and knew something was up.

Flandre would have never known what a slave trader was, but she was painting depicted otherwise.

'I smell a rat' thought Sakuya, as she decided to ask about the painting.

"Flandre-sama, I am quite interested in this painting here, would you mind telling me about it?" Sakuya asked as she pointed to the half-finished painting that she was painting.

Flandre looked troubled as she spoke, "Well...um..."

She did not want to talk about the painting, as it would expose the chat room and if her elder sister found out, she would probably tell her to stop talking to them, as she always stops her from having fun.

"Well....I drew what I saw in...um..A dream! Yes, Flan drew what she saw from a dream!" said Flandre as she tried to lie, but failed horribly.

'She obviously lying' thought Sakuya as she decided to tell her Mistress about this.

"Well it's very interesting," said Sakuya as she laid Flandre's food out.

"Um thanks," said Flandre nervously as she hoped that she would not ask more.

Luckily, Sakuya asked nothing more about the painting, and after Flandre's food was served, she left to quickly report to her Mistress.

Sakuya quickly traveled the Mansion very quickly and came to a room before knocking on the door and a "Come in" shortly followed.

After getting her mistress's permission to enter, Sakuya then opened the door and entered Inside.

Inside the room was her Mistress, Remilia Scarlet. She had bright red eyes with short light-blue hair and she also wore a pink mob cap and pink dress with bright red trimming but the most noticeable thing about her was two bat-like wings that were protruding from her back.

She was sitting down on a chair next to a small round tea table and was currently sipping on some tea as she looked at Sakuya who just entered.

Sakuya approached Remila with slow steps and stopped a few feet away from her before saying "Mistress, I have something to report".

"Oh? Something to report?" asked Remilia as she sipped her tea.

"Yes Mistress, there seems to be signs of a 'Rat' sneaking into the Mansion, Mistress," said Sakuya.

"A 'Rat' you say? Do you know how it snuck in?" asked Remilia as she held her teacup and looked at Sakuya inquisitively.

"I'm sorry Mistress, I am unaware of how this 'Rat' got in, as I only discovered its existence because of a half-finished painting that Flandre-sama was creating as I entered her room." said Sakuya apologetically, at her failure to find out how this 'Rat' got inside the Mansion.

"Flandre?" asked Remilia, this time she was not as relaxed as before after hearing Flandre was involved.

"Yes Mistress, as I entered Flandre-sama's room, I noticed she was more cheerful than usual, I found this odd and gave the room a quick look around, and I took notice of an unusual painting that Flandre-sama seemed to be painting before I came in," said Sakuya.

"Painting?" Remilia asked.

"Yes Mistress, the painting was half-finished, but from what I saw, it seemed to be depicting a young girl being captured by slave traders, and a boy fighting them to save her. As we both know that Flandre does not know the concept of slave traders, I concluded that a 'Rat snuck in and showed it to her." said Sakuya, before she continued, "I also asked Flandre-sama about the painting, but she lied quite horribly about how she saw it in a dream, this further cemented my theory of a 'Rat' had snuck in through unknown means".

"Find how this 'Rat' had been seeking in and communicating with Flandre and put a stop to it, immediately," said Remilia sternly.

She did not want someone corrupting her little sister or putting idea's in her head, so Remilia wanted Sakuya to deal with the 'Rat' immediately.

"Yes Mistress," said Sakuya before quickly leaving.