As the two walked towards the direction of Ignalia, Liu stopped short when he heard something. There were footsteps, and rustling of grass.

Liu turned around. There was no one, not even an animal.

"Is something the matter, Liu?" Aleph asked beside him.

"Nothing. I just thought I heard someone," he said.

He shook his head and continued walking. However, as soon as he did, he heard the same sound again which made him look back once more. Still, there was no one around. But then, his eyes narrowed on something else. The grassy grounds.

There was nothing too weird about it, except that he saw it earlier. It was lush, it was green. But now, it looked like something scorched it.

Liu held on to his stick tightly. Now, he was really sure about it. Someone, or something, was following them.

Shadows slowly emerged from behind the tall bushes and trees.

"Liu, what's the matter?" Aleph said, her voice squeaking a little bit. "You're freaking Aleph out--"

As soon as Aleph said that, someone suddenly appeared from above, blocking the sun. Liu and Aleph looked up, and saw a girl clad in armor and cloak.

She raised her polearm against them. Aleph shrieked, while Liu automatically shielded her from the possible attack.

As if by instinct, Liu slashed the stick in the air to block the attack. As expected, the flimsy stick broke, but it helped divert the polearm. Liu was able to step back and shove Aleph away from the fight. When the girl saw this, she grimaced and raised her polearm once more.

Without a good weapon to defend themselves, Liu thought it might be better to ran off and take Aleph with him. He made a good distance between him and the enemy.

He thought that she would attack him once again. But instead, she just raised her polearm against him. The tip of her weapon almost touched his neck, so he raised his arm in surrender.

Unbeknownst to them, the shadows that were moving earlier slipped away.

Aleph whimpered and ran towards them. "Please don't kill him again!"

The armored girl gave her a confused look. "What?"

Liu resisted the urge to sigh and shake his head. Aleph!

"Aleph means, he--he was just nearly drowned back there in the coast! It took Aleph a long time to nurse him back to health! So, please, don't kill him!" the child pleaded.

Aleph looked at him and Liu stared back at her, too. Good catch, he said silently.

"Why? Who is he to you?" the girl clad in armor inquired. "Actually, who in the world are you two? And what are you doing in this place?"

***

For a while, none of them spoke. They just stared into the girl's accusing eyes, while thinking fast about what they should answer her.

She doesn't seem like an ordinary person, Liu said in his mind. He looked at her from down to up. Judging from her outfit, she must be a knight or a warrior. She might be an official in this particular kingdom, wherever this may be. So it's best not to get on her bad side, if they could help it.

"Answer me. Who are you and what are you doing here?" she said.

"W-we're just--" Aleph began.

"We're just ordinary travelers who happened to pass by this area," Liu said quickly.

"From what country, specifically?" she asked again.

"We've been shifting from one place to another, so we really don't have a kingdom we belong to. All our life, my daughter and I have been nomads," he said in the most serious tone he could possibly muster.

The girl's eyebrows furrowed, and so as Aleph's. She turned to look at the homunculus, and while she did, Liu gave her a signal to just go along with it. Aleph smiled a little too awkwardly.

"Y-yes, F-father and Aleph have lived in the woods for a very long time, and w-we just came into this island sometime ago," Aleph stuttered. When the armored girl looked at him again, Liu nodded gravely as if to agree with everything Aleph had said.

"She's your daughter?" she said suspiciously. "You look like a teenager to me."

Liu almost coughed. Yeah, he forgot about that. Actually, he wasn't sure what he looked like. However, what this stranger said had just confirmed that he was now way younger than his real age in the previous life, which was 29.

"Well, I-I had her when I was very young," he began to stutter, too. He sucks at lying, and he knew it.

"When you were what? Eight?" the armored girl responded in disbelief.

"No! W-what I mean was, she was like a daughter to me because our parents passed away when we were very young," he said. Finally! A good excuse! he told himself. But why hadn't I thought about that earlier?

"So, you are siblings?" the armored girl clarified.

"That's what I said," Liu responded.

Aleph thankfully got his drift and nodded enthusiastically. "Aleph just likes to call him 'father', too."

The armored girl raised an eyebrow.

"So, now that we've told you we're innocent people, will you let us go?" Liu asked.

But instead of lowering her weapon, she just moved it closer towards Liu's neck. "Not so fast. If you really are telling the truth, then you should come with me. Peacefully."

***

Minutes later, Liu found himself riding a weird, ostrich-like creature with absurdly big beaks. The large bird was brightly colored, too, with feathers a hodgepodge of red, orange, and yellow. He had never seen such a bird before in his previous life. Moreover, it seemed that this bird was used as a mount because it had a saddle and a bridle.

Aleph was sitting in front of him. Meanwhile, the armored girl walked beside them, her hands tightly holding the bird's rein.

"Is it alright for you to just walk while we ride your bird--horse thing?" he asked.

"Firstly, it's a doco doco bird. And secondly, you're my prisoners. It's safety precaution that I should let you ride there, should you try to escape," she said coldly.

"Huh," he said, observing the weird creature they're on. "Aren't you afraid that we could just ride this fellow away and escape?"

"Hmph. If you think a doco doco bird can be ordered by someone who isn't a knight of Ardainia, then you got it wrong," she said, crossing her arms. "Plus, Mr. Docomelon listens to me and me only. Right, Mr. Docomelon?"

She reached out to pat the giant bird, but it avoided her touch and made a loud, squeaking noise. Liu couldn't help but grin, and Aleph actually giggled.

"What's so funny?" she snapped at them.

"The bird doesn't even like you," Liu remarked, resisting the urge to laugh.

"I-it's not that! It's just that--he hadn't have enough to eat this morning, so he's just a little grumpy," she said. "For your information, Mr. Docomelon and I are the best partners in the Knights of Ardainia. Oh, why bother? It's not as if it's something a kid like you would ever understand."

Liu didn't respond, but looked at her momentarily. She kept saying that, but she didn't look more than eighteen herself, too. He just shrugged.

"You haven't told Aleph and Liu yet where you are taking us, Miss--"

"Deana. That's my name," she said, without even looking at them.

"Miss Deana," Aleph continued. "So where are we going?"

"To Ignalia," Deana said. "It's my duty to bring suspicious individuals to the camp for interrogation."

Liu sighed. "What exactly did we do to rouse your suspicion, anyway? As far as I can remember, we didn't do anything you can remotely call suspicious," he said.

"Huh," she said, looking them up and down. "For starters, your clothes are weird. I mean, who wears a sack like that?"

Liu instinctively looked at his clothes. Even though she was right, that he was wearing a funny, cloak-like thing that's more like a sleeping gown that anything, he never thought about it until she pointed it out.

"Hey, that's a bit judgmental of you, isn't it?" he responded. "Didn't we tell you we just got into this island for some reason, so we don't have any decent clothes or even any kind of human stuff with us?"

"Then what's that on your bags?" she said, her left eyebrow raised. She eyed the bag he was carrying behind his back.

Liu forgot about that. "Oh, this? These are just lo—" He stopped short. He was about to say 'loots', but wouldn't that the same as stealing? And if this person is really telling the truth, then they will be in trouble for sure.

"What?" she said suspiciously, and stopped on her tracks. The bird stopped, too.

"Uh—I mean, l-lost things? Just some lost things we found in the forest, and w-we think of giving them back to their owners," he stuttered.

"You mean you found these stuff on the ground, picked them up and take them for yourself?" she said, giving a sly smile. Liu wasn't able to respond. "You really suck at lying, don't you?"

Liu's cheeks burned. He was starting to get annoyed at this girl. He was annoyed at himself, too, for getting caught that easily.

Aleph leaned in to whisper. "Next time, you should probably let Aleph talk for the two of us."

He glared at her. Now, even the kid was looking down at him. He drew a deep breath and shook his head.

"Fine! So what? Does this count as an offense that we can go to prison for?" he challenged Deana.

"Not necessarily. I mean, you found it, so you kept it. That's understandable. But you really should just avoid lying. It's easier to just tell the truth, you know?" she said.

Even if I told you everything that had happened to me, I bet you wouldn't even believe it, he said to himself.

"But there's a more important reason why I took you with me and why I think you're suspicious," she said. Liu and Aleph looked at her expectantly. "You weren't supposed to be in that place I have found you. Oh—rather, no human is supposed to go to that dangerous place, or even go near it."