"Are we camping out today?" On asked as she ate the jerky Hans had left in the carriage.
They were on their way to Puzzle City, it was the centre of the transportation of goods in the East and it was famous for its rock towers. And out of all the rock towers, Adara and Cale needed to find an unfinished one.
"Yeah." Adara nodded. "There aren't any places to stay until we get to the next city." The kittens whispered in hushed voices to each other but she paid them no mind. They needed to camp outside for a couple days since they wanted to have enough time in Puzzle City, so they needed to move without stopping in any inns.
The Vitality of the Heart, she thought. It was an Ancient Power that focused on restoration and vitality. That's why Taylor Stan was searching for it, she thought with an indifferent expression. He thought it would heal his legs and restore his position as Heir. He had rummaged through all sorts of texts before finding an ancient text in an unnamed person's possession. She had a feeling that the words 'Restoration. Rock Tower' were familiar until realising that they were the exact same words that were in an ancient book that she bought from an old bookstore.
"Adara?" Cale asked, he could tell she was thinking up a storm.
Without question, she spoke out her line of thought. "I have an ancient book I bought in an old bookstore. Taylor read the lines that lead him here in a book in an unnamed person's possession. I am that unnamed person." She paused, petting Hong again. "But I don't get how he got the text now. I'm pretty sure he got to the Thornwin Territory, we couldn't have influenced that part of the storyline. But I haven't been home in a while, so I couldn't have given him the book. But he somehow got ahold of it, because we know he's in Puzzle City. But who gave it to him?"
"Your brother?" Cale offered.
She shook her head. Hong had climbed onto her shoulder and On was resting in her lap. "No, he does not care for old stories in old books." She still remembers the looks of scorn when he had seen her reading a book about the Ancient Times. "And while I translated all of it, I keep the official translations apart and only wrote notes in the corners of the most important parts. So it would be impossible for someone to understand everything unless I was there."
"Did you write notes on the 'Restoration. Rock Tower' part?"
She nodded, thinking hard. "I'm sure I did. I also wrote a—." She paused. The image of the corner of a book filled her mind. The handwritten words 'Restoration. Rock Tower' were clear, and an arrow pointing down to a location. "Puzzle City. I wrote Puzzle City underneath the translated words. I even drew a little rock tower." She chuckled. "Oh, I really laid out all the cards for them to find."
Though the Vitality of the Heart was unable to restore an already injured body, Adara found it funny that it was her that lead them here. What she did not find funny, however, was that even after finding Vitality of the Heart, a month later he died. An unknown organisation had killed him during the state of chaos from the Terror Incident. Venion, of course, sent that organisation after Taylor.
What interested Adara the most, was the Crazy Priestess, Cage. She was Taylor's friend and a Priestess of the God of Death. When Taylor got assassinated, she killed all of the assassins in anger. That resulted in her becoming excommunicated by the Temple. She was happy after being excommunicated since she was finally free. That's how she earned the nickname, 'The Crazy Priestess'. She was known for using the strength of the God of Death for curses. While the Temple might have thrown her away, the God of Death would not have dared.
And when the war broke out, she only grew in famousness because of how she helped to heal the injured.
Taylor will not die this time, Adara thought. She didn't know for sure, but she wanted to reassure herself. Venion will probably be too busy having to deal with the missing dragon incident and sucking up to the Marquis. He won't have time to deal with some quiet older brother, even if he did supposedly spend time in the Wealthy Thornwin's Territory. He'll need to focus on those pesky younger siblings of his. She'd met Venion's younger siblings too. But she found them boring, they were all too scared of her to even look in her direction without side-eyeing her.
"We'll be taking his last hope away," she said, indifferently, but the fact she was bringing it up proved to Cale that she was thinking about it. "Whether we both get it or only you. He will have nothing left."
Cale shrugged. "As I said earlier, we will be replacing it."
He had said earlier, that the Crown Prince had an Ancient Power too. Star of Healing, it was called. A one-time-use power, one that could heal any type of injury. In theory, Crown Prince Alberu would be willing to heal Taylor's legs if he had a method to keep the Second and Third Princes in check. And considering the Stan Family wasn't currently leaning in the Crown Prince's favour, it would be beneficial for His Highness if Taylor became the Head of the Family. It was a plan that couldn't go wrong. I mean, who doesn't trust random letters that appear out of the blue? She felt a cold presence patting her head. She sighed. Of course, Cage is still one of his Priestesses, as if he'd miss the opportunity.
"It will be better if Taylor is Marquis, for all of us" she spoke up. "Marquis Taylor Stan has quite the ring to it."
Cale nodded. "That it does. Better than Marquis Venion Stan."
"Venion's control in the North-Western Underworld would disappear, for one," she muttered. "Most of the assassins come from there. They have a certain dialect. They're all from the slums."
"I'm not surprised," Cale said. "You do what you need to do when you're low on money." I will never let that happen, he thought, thinking about how he would never let himself be low on money. Nor let Adara die at the hand of an assassin. To live out my slacker life I cannot be broke. "The Organisation Venion hired was definitely from the North-Western Underworld."
"Billos's uncle is in charge of that region's Underworld. Can't we just throw him some money and let him deal with it? Maybe he can get my head off its pretty display. I could pay him twice as much as the price," she murmured, trailing off.
Those assassins must be annoying, he thought, staring at her face. Her face was perfect as usual, as if it belonged on a sculpture in Countess Violan's Art Gallery than on a person's face, but he could see hints of tiredness on her face. He had seen how her eyes moved across an unknown room rapidly. She's constantly paranoid. I would be too if assassins were coming after me all the time, he admitted. Is it really such a good idea to have her with me? She's capable of killing— He stopped thinking as soon as he saw her petting the kittens, she had such a calm face with a small smile hanging on her lips, it was hard to picture her mutilating the knights from when they rescued the Black Dragon. But she will protect me as long as I keep looking like her best friend. He knew, of course, why she did not kill him the second he revealed he wasn't the Cale Henituse she knew. He didn't dare say it out loud.
The kittens broke him out of his thoughts. "I heard from Hans earlier," On started, talking as much to Cale as to Adara.
"Hans said," Hong continued.
"What'd Hans say?" Adara asked. He better have not said some bullshit. Hans had no idea the kittens could understand every word of his, so she was worried about what stuff he had been blabbering about.
But seeing how excited and innocent On and Hong were acting, it couldn't have been anything too bad. On smiled. "If you make a wish at a rock tower, it will come true."
"He said the rock towers were pretty," Hong added.
On looked at them with excitement. "I want to go. But it's okay if it's too annoying," she added, with a shyly concealed sly look, that kids had when they were trying to trick you and thinking it's working, at the two.
Hong, catching onto her idea, smiled. "I want to go with you too! But it's okay if it's too difficult."
Adara chuckled, letting out a happy sigh. "Haaa. Sure, what do you guys wish for?"
Hong fell from Adara's shoulder in excitement. "That everybody, including my new little brother—."
Cale interrupted. "Dismissed."
Adara tried holding in her laugh as she tried to explain to the kittens. "Dragons have big egos. It would not follow two humans."
Hong frowned. "But you are not human."
She shrugged, she took the sun pendant from next to her and put it around her neck, her appearance changing, her ears going back to the human shape they usually had and her skin getting light enough to pass as a Southerner. "Even a Dark Elf is underneath a Dragon."
The carriage stopped at that moment, they had arrived at the location of their campsite for the night. Hans appeared at the window with a smile on his face. "Looks like we are camping out again starting today."
"Indeed," Cale said, stepping out of the carriage with Hong in his arms. He stood like a servant next to the door to the carriage, a hand outstretched to help Adara off the carriage.
Adara paused, staring at his hand. Before bursting out laughing. She took his hand gingerly, stepping down from the carriage with On in her arms. As she smiled widely, Hans was stunned at the unexpected expression on Adara's face. "Thank you, Young Master," she said to her pretty red-haired companion, her expression playful.
"Of course, Young Mistress," he said, smiling back to his equally-as-pretty black-haired companion.
The wind was breezy and was blowing lightly through their hair as they surveyed their campsite. It was pretty relaxing. But, at that moment, a sudden feeling came upon Adara. She rolled her shoulders, trying to lessen the feeling. I guess another sleepless night. She did not let any of her emotions come onto her face. But she sighed inwardly. And I was just feeling relaxed.
It was well into the night when a soon-to-be unfortunate finally climbed out of her tree. Finally, she thought, her tone annoyed. That bitch finally went to sleep. Her target had spent a ton of time outside and not sleeping, talking with the knights, a black-haired one and one with dark blue hair. The unfortunate could not measure the strength of the black-haired one, nor the one with blue hair, so she made sure they were well enough away too. But she stayed up talking with them until the red one dragged her to sleep. She rolled her eyes. This trash has been the talk of the Underworld recently. Word's going around that her brother is going to raise the price to at least 400% if someone gets rid of her before she gets back home.
She kept to the shadows as she neared the tent she and the red one were sleeping in. She walked in, carefully. Her target was the one furthest away from the tent opening. She stood still, staring at the both of them. Pretty bastards, she grumbled. She heard stories about these two Trash, of course, they were pretty infamous to everyone. There were some small kittens, but they were sleeping with the red one.
She walked over to her target. Creepy, she's barely breathing, she's not even moving. She stared at her face for a while. That scar looks deep. But, compared to the pictures she'd seen, her target looked almost calm as she slept. What did you do to raise such hatred in that bastard? She got her dagger. I wonder if she knows? She shook her thoughts away. Who cares? I get the money, and she doesn't get another day. It's always been like this.
She raised her dagger and brought it down on Adara Thornwin's heart. Except, her target moved. Quickly, too quickly, her dagger ended up in the bed she was sleeping in and not in her target's heart. And her target had her eyes open now. She was smiling.
"Oh, you didn't actually think it would be that easy, did you?" she asked, her eyes wide and her smile making her look unhinged as her tone was mocking. Her target's hand clasped around hers as she tried to get her dagger out of the bed. She was panicking.
She couldn't comprehend what was happening. But somehow, her target had twisted her arm behind her back while making her fall. She was on the ground now, with her arm on the verge of breaking as her knee was pressed into her back. Her other hand was somewhere under her, bruised from the harsh fall. Tears were coming into her eyes at the pain in her right arm, it felt like this Crazy Bitch was breaking it.
"And I was expecting more fight," Adara sneered. She had no care for the people who tried to harm her or anyone with her, however often they may come in her dreams. She was numb when it came to killing people, but she kept herself from spiralling into a descent of madness because of the blood on her hands by convincing herself every single one of those assassins had slaughtered countless people before she came along and disposed of them. So she cared not for them. "How unfortunate."
The tent opened, but the Unfortunate did not notice it, her deathday was prophesied since the day she took the job of killing the Adara Thornwin. The Adara Thornwin, who had disposed of countless assassins before her. Who had survived every single one. Her head had not been taken off since it got there, and the price had only increased.
Choi Han came through the door, panting as if he had run hard. "Adara-nim— I—." He stopped talking as soon as he saw the assassin on the ground. "Wha—."
"Get Beacrox."
Choi Han couldn't take his eyes off the assassin, her face was in so much pain, her face was red, tears were streaming down her face, and she was rambling, something about not wanting to die. "Choi Han." His eyes raised to Adara's face. Her eyes were cold, colder than they ever had been. And she was not smiling anymore. "Get Beacrox."
Choi Han disappeared, coming a few seconds later with Beacrox in tow. Choi Han stood a couple metres away, still not taking his eyes off the assassin. He wasn't feeling pity, rather, he was glaring at her. What a coward. Begging for your life to be saved after trying to take someone else's? What's more, this assassin had crept in without him noticing until the last minute. And she had tried to attack the very person he was set to protect. How could he forgive someone like that? What he didn't get, however, was why the assassin was trying to kill his Adara-nim.
What he didn't understand more, was what Adara-nim wanted with Beacrox. But he had woken him up regardless, and to say the least, the chef was not exactly happy to be woken up. But he came willingly when he heard the Young Mistress wanted him. Beacrox stood in the tent, Cale was sleeping peacefully, but Adara had an assassin under her. "Yes, Young Mistress?"
"Got another one for you," Adara said, digging her knee into the assassin's back for emphasis. "So sorry I keep delivering them with a broken arm."
"I don't mind," Beacrox spoke, sliding his white gloves on his hands.
The next morning, Adara had slept well after Beacrox dragged away the assassin, it was because Choi Han was standing guard outside their tent. But Hans had come in, waking Adara up, unsure of how to explain.
"Young Mistress," Hans started, "before I explain, I think it is best if you both are awake."
Adara sat upright, looking at Hans through half-lidded eyes. "Then wake him."
Hans started fidgeting with his hands. Adara realised with a start why he was acting that way. The last servant who had woken Cale up had gotten a flurry of swears. She sighed, Hans flinched lightly. She turned on her side, facing Cale. On and Hong were starting to wake, and were already rubbing their heads on her. She reached a hand, and grabbed a hold of his shoulder. She shook him lightly. Cale was a lighter sleeper than her Cale had been, so she did not need to use such force. "Cale," she muttered. "C'mon, wake up."
His voice was low. "Adara?"
"Mhm, that's me. Y'need to wake up." She was still a bit tired even though she had a good sleep, she briefly remembered a dream, but she wasn't sure if it was a good one or a bad one. When she was tired she slurred her words slightly. "Hans 'as something to report."
Cale woke up at that, sitting upright too, they both stared at Hans, waiting for him to explain. He was still fidgeting with his hands. "I think Young Master and Mistress should see it, it will be easier to explain."
So Adara and Cale got out of bed, still in their sleeping clothes.
"What the—," Adara stopped herself from swearing. There was a dead deer on the border of their campsite. She could tell that it was hunted recently, and not by human hands. Is it possible?
"What is this?" Cale asked, slightly more conscious.
"Someone left it here on our campsite," Hans explained.
There was an icon of a fork and knife next to the dead deer. Someone left here for us to eat, Adara thought. Someone who can hunt. Someone who could speak but not write in understandable letters. Cale had similar thoughts as he and Adara turned their head to look at Choi Han, the kittens that were in his arms, and all three of them were smiling at them.
Adara and Cale gave each other a look as they both thought, I have a bad feeling about this. They gave each other a small nod. I have a bad feeling the dragon did this.
Adara beckoned Choi Han, On, and Hong, closer to them. She leaned closer to them, speaking in a low voice. "We are going to pretend like we don't know."
When all three of them nodded, with only slight mocking meows from the two siblings, Adara stood up straight again. She turned around, where Ron and Beacrox were staring at them with odd expressions. "Beacrox," she started, "have you ever cooked with deer?"
He shook his head, tugging his white gloves on again. "I have not, Young Mistress. Will you want it for breakfast?"
She nodded.
Ever since that day, they have been getting all sorts of food delivered to them right outside their campsite. Wild hog, rabbits, more deer, some fruit, another hog, they had something delicious every single day.
Cale and Adara arrived in Puzlle City with a clear confirmation in their minds. The dragon is definitely following behind us.
~~~
[F̶u̶n̶ Fact]: While most Dark Elves dye their skin to an almost ivory-pale, Adara could not have that luxury. Since most already knew of her looks, she could not suddenly appear with pale skin. When she was younger, her skin was almost as dark as a Dark Elves, and because she was still a child her ears weren't fully pointed, but they were still pointier than most. So, as she learned how to control dead mana, she imbued a pretty necklace with dead mana to change her appearance to make her look more southerly than dark elf-y. Every week she changed her skin tone, lighter and lighter, and made her ears rounder and rounder, and nobody noticed. All the servants that saw her on a regular basis completely forgot about the times she had darker skin, and all their memories of her as a young child, with her normal skin and ears, were replaced with the child she was then.
On a completely unrelated note— yet still a bit related—, it's mentioned that Adara's mother had 'pale skin and ginger hair' while people in the future will compare Adara's mother to a Southerner, and Adara will even lie that she was a southerner. Which is completely untrue, of course. But this is due to the fact the Countess was never seen by the public since she rarely went to events because she and Count Devon were quite private people. So when the public found out that Adara looked like a Southerner, they could only imagine her mother as a Southerner.