"Don't move a muscle", the guards ordered while pointing their spears at us , the sudden action by the guards made us jump but dad quickly handled the situation . 

"Wa- Wait , we're not suspicious we just happened to get covered in red berry juice", dad confronted them while raising his arm , but because of the war that was happening between the Kingdom of Diamond and the Kingdom of Frost the security level had increased . 

For some reason a conflict had started between these two kingdoms because of a certain rumour that the Kingdom of Frost were secretly planning to backstab the Kingdom of Diamond with the help of the Dwarfs . The Dwarfs always resented the Elves and the Kingdom of Diamond sided with the Elves providing them with various rare gems because of their high attacking power which led to the agreement of the Dwarfs and the Kingdom of Frost to backstab the Kingdom of Diamond according to the rumours .

With the strict policy of the checking system it took quite a while for dad to convince the guards to let us through , 1 hour to be exact . Dad let out a long sigh "Why did it took so long just for us to get inside , but first lets find some place to stay", we could practically see almost all the people staring at us without even trying to notice it . Later we found really nice inn but even the owner was hesitant at first to let us stay but at the end dad convinced him and we even cleaned ourselves later and had a nice pair of clothes , we rested for the day as we were a bit sleep deprived .

The next day we woke up early and got ready to go and cure Vanessa , after a while of walking we came across a tall shady tower , dad went up to the door and knocked a couple of times but no reply came , it was still pretty early and so we thought that whoever was the person in charge wasn't awake but dad didn't budge and kept on knocking the door "Hey! I know you're awake so open up!", dad shouted "I think you're being a bit rude", Vanessa hinted but dad just assured us that it's fine and started banging the door we were taken aback by the sudden change but suddenly the door opened viciously and strange black smoke came from the inside "Ar- Are you okay?", we asked but dad suddenly fainted , we tried to go over and help him but an old man suddenly came out coughing and noticed us "Huh? Who are you kids? Why are you- Wohhh! S- Sholji is that you!?", "He only noticed now?", I thought myself feeling concerned . The old man suddenly started dragging dad inside "Where are you taking him?", Vanessa asked trying to help dad "You two come inside", the old man said calmly . He looked shady with the witch-like hat and the black cloak he wore so it was a bit hard to follow him blindly like that but we followed him anyways because he just didn't stop dragging dad away .

After we followed him inside we noticed that though the tower looked spacious from the outside it was actually very cramped because of all the tower of books and shelves that he had put wherever he wanted "I- Is it okay to trust him?", Vanessa whispered to me afraid of the old man "I- I don't know", I replied , the old man made dad to sit on one of the stools and brought a bottle full of some blue liquid and started sprinkling it all over dads' face "Wh- What is he doing?", I asked in worry "I don't think we should trust him", Vanessa replied and after a while dad suddenly fell down and started rolling on the ground grabing his throat "Ahh! He's trying to kill him!!" " He's dying" we both screamed hugging each other but suddenly dad sat straight up gasping "Are you trying to kill me!?", dad asked angryly "I just woke you up", the old man shrugged it off and went behind his desk .

"So , what do you want?" 

"Don't just ignore me! But I do want you to cure the oath of evil" 

"Wait what do you mean by that didn't we take care of that a while ago!?", the old man suddenly stiffened up "Seems like some of it is still present till this day" 

"So who has it?", the old man looked really worried

"She has it" 

"U- Umm", Vanessa became startled and quickly hid behind me,

"She is dressed like that because of the oath?"

"I actually don't know but I do think that that's the case"
"What do you mean by that?", the old mans' face suddenly looked depressed

"You can do it , can't you?"
"I can but I don't have the necessary items"
"What are you missing?"

"The thorns of liberation"

The thorns of liberation are supposed to be actual thorns that have great healing capacity .
"Is- Isn't that like very hard to get?", 

"Yeah if you wanted to find it yourself but"

"But?"
"The Diamonds family has like a lot of them"

The rulers of the said Kingdom are referred to by the Kingdoms reference , so the rulers of the Kingdom of Diamond are referred to as the Diamonds family and rulers of the Kingdom of Frost are referred to as the Frost family .
"You really think I can get something from those greedy nobles"
"You probably didn't know because you were out but the Diamonds family has already changed"

"What do you mean by that?", dad asked with shock

The Kingdoms have a unique rule that whoever shows or has the capability to rule the Kingdom with utmost care and overwhelming power that can protect its citizens will be the new rulers of the said Kingdom .

"I mean that they've changed", the old man replied with a sigh
"I get that but how did it change? I mean how did he even get overthrown?"

"The kid openly challenged the ruler and beat him without even breaking a sweat... in all the categories"

"Wait! What? A kid? Wasn't the previous ruler like unbelievably strong , I can accept in the tactics and knowledge but even in strength!?"

"I know , everybody was shocked to see the kids' power , I think that even you might have trouble dealing with him but atleast he's reliable except for the other one"

"What do you mean by the other one?"
"He said that he will rule the Kingdom with his sister so the Kingdoms' decision are dependent on both of their answers , here take a look by yourself", the old man threw a newspaper at dad , 

"Wh- Why are you showing me a problem that was created by a kid?", dad asked showing the newspaper that showed a girl around 15 pouring water on the knights,

"That's her"
"Huh?", dad looked back at the newspaper dumbfounded "What?"

We left after some time , the old man was Krek dads' old friend . Krek said that there will be a program held on Sunday for the announcement of the war situation and that we should meet them then , he said to get atleast a dozen of the thorns as he wanted to have them as a back-up if needed . But even meeting them will be difficult as they are the rulers and the announcement will be huge and packed with people from all around the Kingdom . We were heading back to the inn when suddenly a girl bumped into us and quickly left without giving us any time to think , "What was that?" we then headed to a shop to get some more information about the announcement placement and when it was going to be held , Krek didn't really give us much information .

*RING* *RING* We entered the shop and the shopkeeper immediately welcomed us , it was quite well established with all the wooden furniture and fancy items but there wasn't really any customers , dad immeadiately went straight to the shopkeeper and asked him about the announcement but he refused to answer and demanded us to capture someone for him "Ho Ho , I'll tell you everything if you capture the elf that stole from my shop" "An elf?" "Yeah earlier today the elf stole something really precious from my shop" "Can't you ask the guards?" "I don't want to bother the guards for this mere problem Ho Ho" "O- Okay but atleast tell me how they look like" "They look like a girl Ho" "I think something is wrong with him", Vanessa whispered in my ear "I- I think so too", I replied while dad just stayed there speechless .

We went out and asked the pedestrians around if they had seen the elf but most of them answered with a no as they had just came out , it was to be expected as it was still pretty early but we kept asking until a girl suddenly came up to us saying that she knew who we were talking about "My friend saw the elf who came out from that shop earlier", the girl wore a cloak and a strange mustache and glasses "Wha- Who are you?" dad asked "Me? I'm the justice that reveals the dark", she said striking a pose while I and Vanessa just laughed dad did a facepalm "If you don't believe me just follow me and I'll show you the elf that you are looking for", she suddenly started walking with her head high as if she had already found the culprit "This better be worth it , lets just follow her for now", dad started following her and we followed as well .

We went through many alleys and even had to jump over a few walls and cross over others houses . "Ar- Are you sure we should follow her?", Vanessa asked with a tone of concern "I don't think we should", I replied and dad also agreed "Hey I don't think that we're gonna follow you anymore , I mean it's already mid-day you're wasting a lot of our time" the girl suddenly turned around and started begging us to follow her "Wait! Don't go please , she's right around here so please", she even began tearing up , we felt guilty and ultimately kept following her . She started to run and we followed and ended up in-front of a shady cabin "She's in there", the girl pointed and went inside , we followed and saw the girl we bumped into earlier , the elf immediately realized what we had came to do and tried running away but dad didn't allow her to and quickly knocked her out with a chop at the nape "See I told you I knew", the girl began to look up and started to smile . 

We went back to the shop and handed in the elf to the shopkeeper "Ho Ho , thank you for catching this mischievous elf for me" the elf had already waken up by the time we got back and started begging "Please , I'm sorry , let me go I promise I won't steal again" but the shopkeeper didn't listen to the elf and demanded the thing that she stole after resisting for a bit the elf agreed and gave back his... glasses . As soon as we realised that this was all for a pair of glasses we began bombarding the shopkeeper with our disappointment and frustration , the shopkeeper wasn't fazed at all and just laughed it off but we still were a little mad but we got the information that we wanted and just headed home .

"How along are you planing to stick with us?", dad asked the girl that helped us as she hadn't gone back and just kept following us 

"Oh , I don't know"

"It's getting dark so you should probably go back to your home , we are also going back to our inn"

"What it's already this late!? Then I think I'll have to go , see you tomorrow bye~", the girl quickly went running waving at us

"What do you mean 'see you tomorrow'?", dad questioned but she had already gone

"Are we going to meet her again?", I asked 

"I don't know", dad replied 

We reached our inn and ate . The announcement was at a neaby plaza that was located next to the ocean starting at 9 Am , the plaza wasn't really that far away so we could make it if we left for it at around 6 Am . After we ate we all went to sleep , 2 days left before the announcement .

Ater waking up the next day I saw Sholji stretching in the middle of the room and Shekrit was still asleep , he noticed that I woke up "Oh did I wake you up?", he asked with concern "N- No , I woke up by myself", I replied "You can sleep more if you want , Shekrit is still sleeping" ,

"I don't feel sleepy" I hadn't really talked to Sholji as much as I did with Shekrit so it was a bit awkward but "If that's so I'll go and talk a walk , you can call me once Shekrit also wakes up" "Okay" there was something inside me saying to just ask him this one thing , he was about to leave so this was my only chance "Ca- Can I ask you something" he stopped and decided to listen to me "Okay" "I- I don't know why you're doing so much for me" "What do you mean?" "I know that you're doing all this just to cure me but I don't know why , I mean sure we have known each other for a couple of months but... doing something like this for... someone like me , I just don't know why you would help someone like me , I'm a liar and hated by most people who know of me so it's just surprising why you would help me", I could feel my voice cracking but still managed to ask what I wanted to ,

"Well I don't know how or why you're so conscious about the things around you I mean you're just a little kid but it's not like we're getting forced to help you , we're doing this cause we want to so don't go feeling like a burden , I can see you've gone through a lot even as a little child and that's not something normal so don't feel like you're all alone we're here with you and you can lean on us and loosen up around us , you don't need to feel like you're an outsider , you are like a family to us"

After hearing that I was speechless , for a long time I was just running away and that made me feel so lonely , I felt like I was a burden to them , to everyone and that they would probably hate me as well but after hearing him say those words I felt full of emotions that I didn't know , I couldn't explain this feeling so the tears that were coming from my eyes were something that I couldn't stop even if I wanted to .

"Th- Thank yo- you , Tha- nk yo- so mu- mch", I said barely but I think he managed to understand what I meant to say as he left giving a warm smile .

Shekrit was still asleep and I was kinda glad that I didn't wake him up with my sobbing and crying or that he didn't see me cry I guess .