All four of the summoned heroes gathered under Prince Levi's instruction. They brought their beasts along too.
Cerberus's appearance left the other three heroes feeling both stupefied and envious not only that but even their canicus wolves showed fear or perhaps reverence towards Cerberus as they did for Artemis.
On the other hand Artemis had his pride hurt when he saw Cerberus, he challenged Cerberus, got reprimanded by Levi and ended up sulking the rest of the day.
They began the final part of their journey. Artemis, Bada, Aris and Zephyr moved above ground whilst Kim Jaehyun instructed Cerberus to just go around any villages they came across when moving on ground.
Despite him moving on ground, Cerberus didn't lose in speed at all and was practically right alongside Artemis, further wounding his pride.
It didn't take them too long before they arrived in the village of Tohunn.
The canicus wolves landed at its entrance, allowing the three riders to dismount.
Prince Levi jumped off of Artemis back while he was still in the air and as he did so he said, "Temis, hide yourself."
Artemis' body flashed the colour gold as it rapidly morphed into a ball of light and then zipped towards Levi's chest where it disappeared upon impact.
A similar phenomenon occurred with Cerberus at Kim Jaehyun's behest.
"Let the Canicae stay here since they cannot hide themselves, we'll move on foot for now. I'll get rooms for us at an inn so you can settle and then immediately we enter Ifvnar," Prince Levi spoke as he led them towards the small gates where two guards were standing.
Prince Levi showed them the royal seal he carried and told them not to announce his arrival, after which he also told the guards, "a bigger squad of elite knights are following behind us, they'll be led by a man named Riven Hunter, let them through immediately but make no mention of their arrival," Prince Levi had used spirit to make sure the four people behind him didn't hear his words.
"Understood your highness!" The guards responded in unison, then Prince walked through the gates, pulling his cloaks hood down to hide his face.
To ensure their travel remained unnoticed, he told Kim Jaehyun and the others to dress accordingly, they all wore simple clothes that wouldn't make them standout from the crowd.
They entered the village and found it was relatively quiet, everyone was going about their business with few children running around and old people sitting on stools outside their wooden houses watching them.
There were also hunters looking like they were just about ready to set out since the day had just began.
A small well stood at the centre, it's looked like it was the oldest thing in the entirety of the village yet there were people gathered around it waiting their turn to fetch water.
The atmosphere in the village was calm, not what you'd expect from a village that was right next to the 'poison forest'.
As they walked, one of the children that was running around bumped into Prince Levi, who then squatted down to see if he was alright since the child fell back.
The little boy looked up, when he saw Levi's face his eyes widened and then he ran away crying.
Prince Levi was stunned and perhaps a bit offended.
Kim Jaehyun who witnessed this felt the scene was familiar, he heard Cerberus speak in his mind, Master isn't that the same as your memories, only that child is much slower than your deceased companion.
—Why don't you shut up Cerberus?
Don't be angry Master.
Kim Jaehyun clicked his tongue and ignored Cerberus. He followed along with the others as Prince Levi entered an inn at random and booked the entire place for a whole month, he even paid in advance.
Han Shinwoo's internal monologue: travelling with a loaded prince sure is worth it... wasn't he trying to keep a low profile though? If he does this he's making it obvious that he's rich...
"Pick any room, to settle in, don't worry about the rest, we move out in fifteen minutes," Prince Levi ordered them.
He waited until they all went off, each inside different rooms before he called out, "Marcel."
The young brown haired, green eyed man appeared right in front of him. The Inn lighting clearly exposed the slight spattering of freckles on his face.
No one, when looking at him would think he was one of Ledris' most powerful assassins.
Knowing Prince Levi was staying beneath the radar, he didn't bow to him and only said, "need anything?"
"Wait here for Riven and pass on my instructions to him."
"Understood," Marcel nodded.
"Tell Riven to start the investigation immediately, we'll be going deep into Ifvnar and I'd like them to follow but keep a good distance away. Their objective is to investigate the increasing corruption and also locate the python Rui, they should wait for my signal before splitting up to investigate."
After that, Marcel disappeared leaving Prince Levi alone near the Inn stair case, he sighed, "you're really nosy aren't you?"
Kim Jaehyun chuckled, "you weren't really trying to hide it from me, now were you?"
Kim Jaehyun climbed to the bottom of the stair case, he walked towards Prince Levi who was standing beneath it, closest to the corner on the room. "So the increasing corruption? The python Rui... Hector taught us about the king of ifvnar, is that what you want us to fight as training?"
"The investigation has nothing to do with you I assure you," Prince Levi said.
"But that does prove that something is going on in Ifvnar," Kim Jaehyun said.
"You should be more focused on your training, Ifvnar isn't a play ground even for someone as strong as you," Prince Levi said coldly.
"Don't worry your highness, I am well aware," Kim Jaehyun smiled courteously.
Soon after their conversation, the others stepped out, like Kim Jaehyun they were dressed in regular hunting gear. They had leather armour and boots on.
Han Shinwoo had his black hair tied in a loose ponytail as it had grown out over the months, so did Park Haejin whilst Lee Byeol left her hair down. Somehow Kim Jaehyun's hair was perfect as if he'd just gotten a fresh trim, truly the image of a perfect prince even while standing next to an actual prince.
"Alright, you're all gathered," Prince Levi said, "now I admit this is all rushed but please bear with me a little longer, they are much worse things coming our way than what we may face in Ifvnar. Still I advise you all to keep your guard up, be careful, Ifvnar isn't like any place you've seen so far, you could easily die there, still each of you should managed to kill or capture a beast and bring it back to me as evidence."
"So any beast will suffice so long as it's a strong one?" Park Haejin asked.
"Yes, it's should be a creature that is either a lesser beast or above, keep in mind the creatures of Ifvnar are inflicted with corruption so even lesser beasts will be more powerful and dangerous than what you know theoretically."
"Understood," Kim Jaehyun said.
"Mr.Kim," Prince Levi turned to face Kim Jaehyun, "throughout your training and even when sparring you've been using a wooden staff, I suggest you take up a real weapon now."
"I intend to do so," Kim Jaehyun answered assuringly.
"Lastly, take these," Prince Levi opened up his hand an a ring of light spun in it for a moment before four black-silver bracelets with strange inscriptions carved on them appeared, "these are storage devices, they have limited space but rest assured everything you'll need has already been placed inside, including food, water and a set of Hunter gear and standard weaponry, enough to last you two weeks, when you kill whatever beast you face, place it's corpse their as well, living things cannot be stored in these. You need only think about an action and imbue spirit for it to be performed. This is all I will give you for your journey and I will escort you to the very boarder of Ifvnar, then you are to enter on your own."
Han Shinwoo was feeling both excited and anxious, Lee Byeol was only feeling the latter.
Park Haejin had an apathetic face and Kim Jaehyun had his amicable smile plastered on his handsome face.
"Wait your highness, I have a question..." Lee Byeol said with her hand slightly raised.
"What is it?" Prince Levi asked.
"You made us leave our wolves behind but Kim Jaehyun even has a legendary beast... isn't it not fair that he gets to go into Ifvnar with a beast whilst we don't?"
Prince Levi looked at her silently, inwardly he sighed, this is the kind of naive thinking I intend to squash....
Han Shinwoo spoke before Prince Levi could, "that's not right, you can't say it's unfair, his highness gave us a choice and we three chose the Canicae over summoning."
Prince Levi didn't disagree, "Ms.Lee Byeol, I did not forbid you from taking your wolves so if you wish to enter Ifvnar with them you may do so, but I'd rather avoid causing a ruckus in this village which is why we left them at the gate, lastly your lack of a legendary beast was the result of your own choice. Still, I believe you're powerful enough to come back alive beast or no, same goes for all of you."
Lee Byeol kept silent, she lowered her head so no one could see her biting her lip, she looked rather pitiful at this point.
With all things settled, they finally trekked to the border of ifvnar, the little village was about 500 metres away from Ifvnar, so they were currently on an empty road, with barely a person passing by.
From this point Prince Levi allowed them to call to their wolves who then discreetly flew over to them.
Artemis too came out, he shrunk down to the size of a regular lion , hid his wings and walked besides Prince Levi. On the other hand, Cerberus too shrunk himself to the size of a normal Stallion, he receded the flames of his fiery mane and tail, letting them turn black.
The party of ten proceeded towards Ifvnar and just when they were a hundred metres or so away from the dense cluttering of dark trees with flowers that glowed beneath them, Prince Levi who was leading came to a stop.
He signalled to them with his hand, there was something in Ifvnar rapidly approaching.
Immediately they all went on guard, the beasts stepped foward, each guarding their masters who immediately took out their weapons.
Only Prince Levi and Kim Jaehyun didn't move to take their weapons yet. It was because using their awareness, they sensed that whatever was coming towards them wasn't dangerous, in fact it didn't have any malice whatsoever.
Cerberus and Artemis also told their masters that it wasn't a threat.
"Master, it's weakling, nothing as strong as myself," Artemis said with a fluff of his wings.
"Oh? Such a weird presence yet no malice, amusing human it is a bit like you but it is not dangerous, can I have it?" Cerberus asked earnestly, his relaxed tone contained hints of intrigue.
None of them were prepared for what they saw next.
When the creature with a strange presence rushed out, they realised first that is wasn't 'a' creature... it was five creatures, one of them even human.
There was a grey tiger beast that had two silver-spotted white 'cats' clinging to its back and it came to a grinding halt as soon as it saw them.
Whilst the barefooted human dressed in messy white robe with long dishevelled black hair had a particularly small black fur ball in his hand. He also came to halt yet unlike the tiger, once he stopped and saw them he turned and fled back into the forest, even telling the others to run too.
Cerberus laughed.
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(A/N:
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