“We found another one, and the situation is terrible!”
Milli slammed open the door to Richard’s workshop and shouted.
“Where, who?”
Richard replied while still tinkering with his pieces of equipment.
“Luo Yang…and she is the princess!”
“Clink”, Richard dropped his tools in a state of shock.
“...What are the chances of them finding her?”
“...Really high, she is about to ascend the throne…”
Milli replied with a tone of despair.
“They won’t make it then…”
Richard sighed.
“We have to save her! We can’t let her ascend the throne!”
“What about Regina?”
“Wake her up now, we have to go as soon as possible, I will have to get my cards back.”
“I’ll meet you guys at noon, be ready!”
Milli went off to prepare her equipment after saying farewell without giving Richard a chance to reply.
“Wake up, it’s time to leave.”
“Fueh…?”
Regina rubbed her eyes as she got woken up by Richard.
“Wear this, we have to travel way north to Luo Yang.”
Richard then hands Regina a black cloak with a hood.
Just as Regina was wearing her cloak, the workshop door slammed open.
“Are you guys ready?”
“Would you stop slamming my door?”
“Mmm”
“This will be a long journey, probably around two months to get there.”
Milli completely ignored Richard’s remark about his door.
“Why must we go to this Luo Yang place…?”
Regina asked meekly.
“Lil’ Reggie, we must save the princess before she gets killed.”
“Fueh…? Somebody wants to kill the princess?”
“Yes, she will most likely get killed after she ascends the throne, so we must get there before she becomes the queen.”
“Okay…”
Regina nodded while being a little frightened.
“First, we have to head north-east to Daw’ Al-Qamar, the village of beastmen, I have to get my cards back…”
“Cards…?”
“Yeap, they are my precious friends, let’s go!”
Milli held Regina’s hand and strung her along, with Richard following behind.
Traveling along the forest path, Richard had a sense of unease. He was on high alert, looking around the surroundings, checking for anything out of the ordinary.
“Wait.”
Richard held out his hand to block Milli and Regina from moving forward as he saw a dorsal spine poking out from behind a bush by a little. Then he pointed at the spikes behind the bush on their left.
“What creature has a protruding dorsal spine, aquatic-type enemy? No, this is a forest far from any ocean. Lizardmen? Only some of them have it. There’s a high possibility it belonged to a draconian-type enemy.”
Richard was trying to figure out what creature it was, hoping it wasn’t a draconian type as his face twisted from imagining what trouble would be coming.
“There’s a scent of blood, it must be injured or feeding…”
Milli had a stronger sense of smell being a quarter beastmen, so she picked up the scent before Richard could.
As they approached the source, Milli’s face turned red from anger.
“It is eating a beastmen kid!”
Milli said it and moved in front of the creature, with a staff in hand.
“Shit, why would there be a drake here?!”
Richard was contemplating the discovery.
Regina covered her mouth with both her hands to stop herself from screaming and froze in fear.
The drake spotted Milli and got into a stance ready to pounce.
It roared and another two nearby drakes came to its aid, surrounding Milli, Richard, and Regina.
“Leave them to me!”
Milli declared confidently, then Richard nodded, carried Regina, and jumped out from the drake’s encirclement.
The three drakes focused on Milli and charged at her, ignoring Richard and Regina, they might have thought that Milli was more delicious.
‘Thud!’ Milli jumped away, evaded the three drakes, and took a card from her pouch.
She gently let go of the card, and it remained in the air, winds began swirling around her body and the floating card.
The three drakes began charging toward Milli again, their mouths wide open, preparing to gnaw at her body.
”Drown them, Laspi Versillio.”
Milli chanted while touching the card with her staff, and a huge blob of water appeared from within the card.
The blob of water jumped and slammed the three drakes with its giant body from above, absorbing them within its body.
The three drakes tried to get out from within, but their struggle was futile and they were slowly suffocated to death.
Regina’s eyes opened wide, unable to look away from what was happening.
“He is Laspi Versillio, one of my dearest friends.”
Milli turned to face Regina and explain who the creature was, then moved closer to it and gently touched its gelatinous body.
“Laspi…aren’t you glad…? You can see her again…”
“He was the slime king before being severely wounded by enemies from the Azevaria Empire and dying. I only managed to barely save him, by bounding his soul into this card as his last wish…”
Milli explained further, tears flowing out from her eyes while giving an awkward smile.
Regina then moved toward Milli and hugged her, and she began crying too as she felt an indescribable sadness welling up from inside her heart. She did not feel any fear from the slime king, only familiarity and sadness.
Laspi Versillio gently nudged Milli and Regina, stopping them from crying, then slowly vanished into thin air, leaving the corpse of the three drakes on the ground.
“Well…sorry for showing you this… I guess we should bury this poor kid.”
Milli wiped the tears from her face and tried to be cheerful again.
“Mmm”
Regina nodded back while rubbing her eyes.
“Let me do it, you two just search the area to see if there’s any more drakes.”
Richard interrupted, wanting to leave the heavy labor for himself and let those two rest.
After a while, they managed to bury the kid and made a mini grave, then continued heading
toward the beastmen village, Daw’ Al-Qamar.
“There shouldn’t be any drakes here, they live on the Azevaria continent.”
Richard was the first to speak out while walking.
“Keter must be planning something, or should I say Shinal.”
Milli interjected, trying to explain to Regina what might happen.
Milli continued to explain.
“Shinal the dragon king…he is known as one of the Kabbala, Keter, flying the flag of the Azevaria Empire. Only a few know Keter and the dragon king are the same beings.”
“He was also one of the main reasons Azevaria managed to destroy our kingdom, Esmeria, just hearing his name makes my blood boil.”
Richard added while clenching his fist. Regina stayed silent throughout the explanation, listening closely to what they said.
“We should move faster, I fear something bad might happen in Daw’ Al-Qamar.”
Milli grabbed Regina and Richard’s hands and walked faster.
Hidden in the unnamed forest near Acacia lies a small village of beastmen, they were all escapees from the Azevaria Empire.
Some were injured, some with limbs amputated, but the younger ones who were born in this village were more cheerful without experiencing first-hand knowledge of the fear of war.
A group of beastmen can be seen walking toward a house in the middle of the village in the early morning, carrying something draped in cloth. They were talking caution not to let anybody else see what they were carrying.
The group leader, wearing brown leather armor knocked on the door when they approached the house. An old beastmen answered the door, letting them in, after glancing around to see if anybody else was around.
As the group of beastmen entered the house, the one carrying something draped in cloth gently placed it on the floor, uncovering it. It was the corpse of a fellow beastmen.
The older frowning beastmen dressed in a plain robe who looked worried was the village chief of Daw’ Al-Qamar.
“This is the 5th victim huh…”
The village chief spoke out while rubbing his temple.
“We can’t hide this matter any longer, the villagers are getting more suspicious.”
The beastmen wearing brown leader armor who spoke was the leader of the village guard, Khalid Al-Qamar.
“We can’t let the villagers know, there would be mass hysteria if they find out the guardian cards’ effect are diminishing…We should fortify the outer parameters of the village more...”
“It’s useless. Whichever monsters did these can’t be stopped by mere barricades. We should think up a plan before it gets any worse.”
“If only Milliana were here…”
The door slammed open after the village chief spoke out, and another group of beastmen entered the house.
“Oi oi… what do we have here, a corpse of our comrade?”
The beastmen who spoke was Zafir Al-Qamar, the leader of a group of younger beastmen who oppose the village chief.
“Zafir! How did you know we were here?!”
Khalid was surprised as they tried to be discreet while visiting the village chief’s house.
“Oh Khalid, do you seriously think Cainean’s sense of smell are that bad?”
“Did you sleep around so much that your Felinean brain has gotten stupid?
Zafir tried to provoke Khalid.
Cainean are beastmen with the canine genes, while Felinean are beastmen with the feline genes. They do get along usually, it was just that the inexperienced Zafir does not know how dangerous the outside world is.
He thought that the village chief and the leader of the village guards wanted to lock them in the village, never letting them out.
“How dare you speak ill of Khalid!”
The guards composed of Cainean and Felinean tried to defend their leader but were stopped by Khalid himself.
“Stop it, mere mockery won’t get into me.”
Khalid interjected before the groups got into a possible brawl.
“I hope that you can keep this a secret.”
The village chief added in.
“Oi oi, from the looks of it, this wasn’t the first victim, how many have died?”
“Five…”
The village chief answered.
“Five?! Where’s the power of those guardian cards you so proudly spoke of? Why would there be victims if the trash guardian cards were that strong?! You old coonies are going to get the whole village killed!”
“We are trying to find a solution for this.”
Khalid replied while frowning at the fact the worst person in the whole village just had to find out about this serious matter.
“Guys, inform the whole village about this matter!”
Zafir commanded, and his sidekicks quickly ran away to inform the villagers.
“Wait-!”
“Nevermind…let them do it…”
The village chief interrupted Khalid with a grim expression as if he had submitted to this despair while Zafir had a triumphant look.
“Mama Milli…I miss you...please tell me what to do…”
The village chief thought while crying inside his heart.
The villagers were gathered in the town square, all busy mumbling and talking to each other, as the village chief got to the town square, the villagers bombarded him with questions.
“How could you hide this from us?!”
“What exactly happened to them?!”
“Stop trapping us in this place when it is so dangerous!”
“Tyrant!”
They were blaming the village chief for all that had happened to the victims.
At the signal of Zafir, the villagers stopped talking.
“Guys, should this old bag of bones finally release the barrier of the guardian cards and let us out before more of us die?”
“Yeah! Stop trapping us here!”
The villagers all chanted in agreement.
“You guys know that the power of these guardian cards kept us safe till now, right?”
Khalid tried to dissuade the villagers from going out.
“What is the proof that the cards were doing what he said, guys?!”
“Yeah! Show us proof or you are just lying!”
The villagers all supported what Zafir said.
“Take it down! Take it down! Take it down!”
The villagers chanted with Zafir, demanding the village chief remove the barrier.
“I-I can’t…I can’t take the barrier down…we will get slaughtered by whichever is outside the barrier…”
The village chief tried to stop the protest, but his voice got drowned out by the villager’s chant.
‘Thud!’ Khalid’s head was hit by a rock thrown by somebody in the crowd intended for the village chief when he stepped in to cover, and his head started to bleed.
The villagers rushed toward the village chief and Khalid, trying to lynch them at the suggestion of Zafir. The village guards tried stopping the villagers by forming a barrier using their bodies, and they also became their targets.
“I will finally be able to leave this shitty village!”
“We will finally be free! Kill the village chief if he doesn’t want to release the barrier!”
Zafir tried to rouse the villagers further by coercing them with sweet words.
The villagers then continued to hit both Khalid and the village chief, not intending to stop until the barrier was removed.
As the village chief grew weaker from the injuries inflicted by those he tried to protect, the mana he continuously supplied to the cards for many years was stopped, and the barrier was finally removed.
“The barrier is down! Hooray!”
The villagers were happily chanting and celebrating at the prospect of finally being able to get out of the village while ignoring the injured village chief and the guards.
“Rrrrrrahhhhhhhhh!”
Thunderous roars were heard from a distance after the barrier was removed.
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