Chapter 25

Mental manipulation magic can have permanent side effects that alter the receiving party's mind. Simple spells like placing suggestions in another's mind would be fine, but the magic of forcefully erasing one's memory, forcefully retrieving another's memories or dominating another's mind was actually very dangerous magic, almost like tearing apart someone's psyche.

'Simon wouldn't go that far. It's not for an enemy.' Kalia thought.

Although he sometimes went about reaching his goals through any means possible, be it fair or foul, she believed he was not lunatic enough to destroy the mind of the Empire's temporary general simply in order to find a friend.1

No, Kalia wanted to believe in him.2

'Anyway, we don't have that kind of deep relationship. We're not close friends, just friends…. At most, he was just losing a friend.'3

Simon's act of destroying her mansion 'simply because he had lost a friend' had clearly been forgotten by Kalia.. .

After the call, Kalia returned to the carriage. If Simon was back and destroying her mansion, it would be unwise to delay her journey any longer. She'd be placed in an even more difficult situation if the Prince of Akan had recognized her or somehow came to realize who he had been staring at so intensely. So, she should leave now….

She looked at the small crystal bottle in her hands.

'….is this really alright? Will they be okay?'

She didn't have time to hesitate but she sat there unmoving, not reaching for her scrolls. She was worried about the children.

Ultimately, her worry won over her caution and she turned on her communication port again and patched through to Brigham, this time with video call.

"Brigham, I have one more thing for you to do."

When he saw how serious Kalia's face looked, Brigham responded with a tense face.4

-Yes, please tell me. –

After taking a short breath, Kalia glanced at the teleportation scroll she had in her bag. It was a gift from Simon, a one-time teleportation scroll that could teleport anyone and anything over a distance of 180 kilometers.

'Maybe it's time to use this,' she thought, pulling it out of the bag.

"Go to Simon right now and tell him I'm in Anticra," Kalia turned back to Brigham.

After she finished relaying her orders to Brigham and had hung up, Kalia immediately got Humming and Allen into the carriage, both who had stepped out too to stretch their legs, and tore 2 scrolls in succession.

On that day alone, Kalia tore a total of eight scrolls; she could only ask for Humming's understanding. Allen fed her recovery pills from time to time to keep Humming from collapsing. With the help of Simon's scroll, they travelled over 500 kilometers in just one day. She didn't forget to use magic to erase their traces and made sure to thoroughly hide their identities when they were travelling by carriage. Eventually, Humming passed out that night from exhaustion. While Allen rested, Kalia took over the reins and pushed the carriage onwards to run through the night for another 60 kilometers.

After moving over 900 kilometres in just a mere two days, both Humming and Allen were exhausted to the point they couldn't get up.

At this point, Kalia herself felt a little tired and decided to stop in a very small, off-the-map town to rest.

The small village seemed to be centered around raising horses and sheep. The residents welcomed Kalia, who was posing as a woman travelling with her cousin and younger sister, with open arms. The three were given a small room to share.

The first thing Allen did once he guided Kalia to rest on the old bed smelling of dry pastures was to check on her conditions. While he treated her, his complexion was so pale it wouldn't be strange if he collapsed immediately. Despite his pale face, he did his best to smile through his fatigue, and used mana to scan her belly, "Fortunately, your baby is growing well.

With his mana, he could see a bean-shaped fetus silhouetted against the white cloth he'd used to cover Kalia's stomach; it simply was an amazing sight to witness. The squirming little one was a lot bigger than last time. If he looked closely, he could see what looked like arms and what looked like legs. He couldn't believe it had grown so big in the time they had been travelling. Though it had only been 10 days since he had last checked, he was very proud to see the child had grown.

"It's a good thing you don't have any morning sickness. Your physical fitness is incomparably healthier than normal mothers…but always be cautious and careful please. From now on, everything you eat, see and hear can affect your baby," Allen advised sternly before unsteadily getting to his feet and staggering away.

Kalia thought he looked like one of those unnatural undead creatures5 crafted from forbidden spells.

Allen, who had just crossed the doorway, lost his balance mid-stagger and fell, shouting, "Uhhhhhhhhhh."

"That tired?" Kalia couldn't help but ask.

She, who had undergone many marches with her squad in the army, had never seen this level of exhaustion before. His spent appearance was surprising to see.

"Allen is weak," Kalia was regretful. With a click of her tongue, she turned her head to look out the window, thinking that she ought to help shape up Allen's physical strength if she had time.6

The stars floating in the sky glittered and winked. It was as if someone had poured a whole pot of stars into the dark night sky. Looking at the beautiful constellations, she patted her flat belly unconsciously in habit.

'Did Simon find the children yet?' she wondered.

Others didn't know but Simon would be able to see the children. Those with Elven blood could see fairies and it was thanks to the child in her belly that had Simon's flowing through it that she could see the fairies too.

"I hope everything's okay and there's no problems."

In their hectic journey over the past 2 days, her unease had unconsciously faded a little but even then, there was still a little bit of anxiety and unpleasant feeling remaining. Kalia, turned over in her bed, back and forth, and eventually sat up in her restlessness.

Strangely enough, every time she tried to get away from him, her mind always went back to him. The further away she was from the Capital, the more Simon's face came to mind.

"….are you thinking of dad?" Kalia whispered, stroking her belly with a strange face.

She didn't love Simon.

'No,' she corrected herself, 'I do love him.' But, she loved him like a very old friend or as a brother.

However, brothers weren't supposed to harm one another. You are supposed to protect and care for each other. Thus, she decided to leave him.

...Of course, on that day, Kalia had attacked7 Simon.

"Sure enough, I'm trash….." she said aloud.

Gasp.

She hastily shut her mouth and quickly apologized to her baby when she realized what she had said. Stroking her belly, she whispered, "I will only use pretty words from now on but I'm sorry sweetheart! Your mom is never trash! It's just that, that day, it was a little messy….!

She sighed, her heart perplexed. She felt very apologetic towards her child; she had to tell her child of the mixed up and chaotic situation that their mother was in.

'Just because I love you, I pounced on you…. No, it was bad of me to attack you nonetheless. But, I didn't force him to do anything, did it? ' She was in conflict with herself.8

Except for that first kiss of hers which ignited a flame in Simon's eyes, he became the one to lead her.

Come to think of it, it was him who put the rope in her hallway.9

They didn't make it back to her room…..

It required too much effort to get to her room and it was also Simon who had swept her onto the top of her work table.

She laid on the tabletop while Simon kissed and licked her lips like crazy. It was as if he wanted to personally express what it meant to be coveted.

Just as Kalia at that time wasn't the usual Kalia, the Simon at that time also wasn't the Simon she knew. Before that day, Simon had never touched Kalia like that.

During the long time they were together, he barely touched her…..

But the Simon on that day was like a starving man; he did not let Kalia off for even a second. He had left traces of himself in the form of hickies all over from head to toe, searching incessantly for the unfamiliar pinnacle of pleasure10 that she didn't even know existed until then.

The warmth of his lips, the tangle of their tongues and their hot skin pressed firmly against each other; the buildup of heat between the two was intoxicating. The strange movement of his fingers which had fluttered all over her body, the strength of them as they held her thighs and the husky voice that restlessly called out her name.

"Kalia….Kalia."

Gulp.

"….Mhm," her cheeks flushed bright red as she recalled that night. The more she tried to stop thinking, the more embarrassed she grew. She coughed faintly, her face still red.

There was an angelic child in her stomach but she still had such lustful thoughts.As if to distract herself and deny the rising heat inside her body, Kalia muttered to her child, "Your mother didn't do anything bad. It was something that happened because chemistry sparked between two grown adults. Of course, mother believed that I couldn't get pregnant and I let my guard down…. Still, no matter what, mother thinks that meeting you is the greatest blessing. You are mother's miracle."

As she whispered, Kalia finally got out of the bed she had been sitting in. All along, the heat in her body never subsided.

"Ah, it's still hot."

Phew.

It was stuffy under her neck and the heat in her body didn't seem likely to drop anytime soon so she decided to go out for a walk. She put on a jacket and headed out. It was late in the night and both the flock of sheep and herd of horses were asleep.

As she was returning to her room the farmer couple had lent her in the outbuilding, she heard the sound of a door opening. Someone stepped out of the shadows.

***

At the same time, in front of the ancient fairy tree, Simon stood beneath the beautiful giant tree and looked up to its canopy. The tree that was now shrouded and enveloped by darkness was a contrast to its fresh and bright green leaves; somehow, it looks powerless11.

Simon, still looking up at the tree, reached out his hand to stroke the trunk. A faint light emanated from his hand to penetrate into the tree. For a long time Simon injected light into the trunk but he did not get the desired response from the tree.

'…..is it not enough magic?'

Though magic could do great things, it wasn't much help when it came to healing fairies or restoring their things12. didn't have enough power to restore fairies.

What could heal them was time, fertile land, unstoppable winds and warm sunshine. The only other thing would be…. Fairy water made from the essence of joy.

Simon stood still and stroked the tree a few more times.

When he heard from his lieutenant that Kalia was here, he had been crouching in her broken mansion reading her letter.

'…..Kalia, how could you leave such a letter and just disappear?' he thought in near-disbelief.

The sincerity he felt from her words was one he had never heard before. He read it on the spot, again and again as if to engrave each letter, one by one, into his brain.

That was when Kalia's deputy came with news. After his mind processed the information, he teleported right from the spot he had been rooted in. It only took two teleportations, a bare 5 to 10 minutes, to arrive in Anticra. However, there were no signs of Kalia anywhere, only the traces of an unknown wizard harassing the fairy tree.

What the hell is this?" Simon muttered upset.