Alfred watched as Henry and ten knights on horseback behind him slowly made their way in his direction. The knights were fully armored, the shields hanging on their backs and the swords on their waist. The aura they gave was intimidating. He was sure they were battle veterans. A smile crept on his face for the first time in a few days. The reinforcements have finally arrived."Hero, what is the situation? Did you find the vampire?" Henry questioned even before getting close to Alfred.
"The vampire escaped once more, but there is other bad news." Alfred"s smile disappeared from his face and it was replaced with a frown.
"What bad news?" Henry had a bad feeling about this, what exactly happened when he was away from the city?
"There is an ice magician with the vampire. Last night, there was a fight in one of the inns. The fight brought us to the slave market where a slave trader tried to capture the magician since the magician was actually a half-elf. When I entered the mansion of the slave trader, I found only ice sculptures and signs of battle in a few places. I think there is someone else with the magician and the vampire."
Hearing that, Henry"s expression became grim. "Please take me to that place, I want to see it for myself."
"Alright, follow me" Alfred turned around and strode in the direction of the mansion. Henry and the knights were following him closely behind.
After fifteen minutes of walking, the mansion was finally before them. There was nothing abnormal except the fact that it was too silent.
"This is the place" Alfred opened the front door and entered. Henry was following him, but the knights all stayed outside, starting to surround the place and guard it. Although from the beginning the knights didn"t say anything, they were fast and proper in their actions. From this, it could be seen how good their training was.
Henry watched the frozen corridor with a frown on his face. The magic used here was quite powerful, but he could handle a magician of this level.
"Is there any way to track them?" Alfred suddenly asked.
"Hmm, we need an object or some blood from the person we want to follow. If we can find something like that, it would be possible." Henry answered and swept his gaze around, but there was nothing he could use for this purpose.
"Alright, let"s move to the garden. There is some blood in that place. I hope some of it comes from the ones we are after." Alfred turned around and walked in the direction of the garden.
After they went to the place, the signs of battle greeted Henry everywhere. There was some blood on the ground. He walked towards it and murmured something. A faint light came out from his hand and touched the blood.
"The person with this blood is still alive. I can confirm that since I have a reaction for his general position. We should move to the east, but I am not sure if the blood is from the vampire"s group or someone who managed to survive."
"It"s alright, this is our only option for now," Alfred said, his look filled with antic.i.p.ation. He hoped the blood to be from the vampire"s group. The last few days were sleepless for him from all this looking around.
Henry nodded and left the mansion, starting to guide the rest in the direction of the reaction until they reached the city walls.
"It seems our luck is good and bad at the same time. This is the way to the forest, so we are after the vampire"s group. The bad thing is we will have to fight on their territory." Alfred watched the forest with caution. The best places for a vampire were those places, where they could attack from all sides. He was sure if they tracked them, their target would notice.
"No problem, we can take that risk. Who do you think I am? There aren"t many who can oppose me." Alfred declared and strode in the direction of the forest. Henry sighed and followed him. The knights were still silent, minding their own duty and following along.
"So, who are those knights? Why are they so silent? There was no greeting or whatsoever from them." Alfred was really curious. Most of the time, people would bow to him and greet him, but those knights didn"t.
"They are personal knights of one of the dukes. He prefers the silent atmosphere, so they rarely speak. They are used to be like shadows, moving without noise and rarely talking. Although they don"t talk much, their power is good. They were the only ones I could manage to take back as reinforcements in such short notice."
"Alright, what is important is their strength, not their conduct. If they were to flatter me from the start, I would feel annoyed anyway." Alfred said, not minding the knights anymore. Henry smiled to himself, the hero was really a bit self-centered, but his power was for all to see. , There was no questioning that he was the strongest in the empire. Those words coming from his mouth weren"t hard to accept.
***
Erin tried to open her eyes, but couldn"t see anything. She felt her face enveloped in a soft material, suppressing her breath and squeezing her cheeks with an unusual tenacity. Slightly disgruntled, she involuntarily huffed, causing the warm material surrounding her face to twitch as a low moan could be heard nearby. Realizing after a few moments of confusion, her cheeks reddened from embarra.s.sment.
At the moment, she was fully restricted by a hug. Moving her face a little, she inhaled, finally able to breathe, but her movement was followed by another moan. She finally opened her eyes and realized that Anna was hugging her at the moment, and her head was buried in Anna"s chest. Her cheeks reddened even more, not expecting to experience something like that.
She looked at Anna and saw her slight smile and the slightly reddened cheeks. Her sleep was really peaceful at the moment. Erin was a bit uneasy from this situation. She felt her heartbeat racing. That was a really awkward situation for her She wasn"t sure how she should react now. Should she wake up Anna or stay like that?
She decided to stay like that for the moment. There was no problem to let Anna sleep a bit more. Looking once more at her face, Erin felt intoxicated. She was hugging Anna at the moment too, her arms enveloping her waist. The feeling of the smooth skin and that beautiful face were really too much for Erin to take as a sight so early in the morning.
Anna suddenly opened her eyes, looking directly at her. Erin felt like her heart would escape from her chest, her eyes widening from shock.
"Good morning, Erin. " Anna"s smile widened. Her low whisper brought a breath of air into Erin"s face. Erin reddened, even more, not knowing what to do at all.
"G-good morning." She finally managed to answer, but her body was stiff at the moment. Anna finally retracted her hands from around Erin and looking at her master"s reaction, she decided to tease her a bit.
"Why is your face so red?" Anna put her right hand on Erin"s cheek, whispering in her ear. Erin"s body trembled, but she finally managed to calm herself.
"You were hugging me too tight, I wasn"t able to breathe. It"s normal for my face to redden!" She said, but her eyes kept darting around, not willing to meet Anna"s eyes.
Anna smiled even more brightly. She felt like that was enough. After all, she could feel that Erin was in a panic at the moment. Although hugging like that was a normal thing, Erin was surprisingly still a bit shy about this. She was a young girl, after all. It wasn"t really strange for her to react in such a way.
"I am sorry about that! It wasn"t intentional." She pretended to feel a bit of guilty to let her master feel easier, or else Erin wouldn"t be able to relax.
As expected, upon hearing this, Erin exhaled a breath. Although her heartbeat was still racing, it was slower than before.
"There is no problem, you can"t be blamed for this. After all, we were asleep and I was hugging you, too. " Erin smiled at Anna, she was still trying to fully calm herself.
"Umm"
This voice brought the pair"s attention. They both looked in the direction of the voice, only to see Lyse a bit dazed, looking at them with confusion in her eyes.
"Did we wake you up? Well, it"s time for us to go out. So why not freshen ourselves a bit and look for something to eat?" Anna suggested. Lyse nodded absentmindedly and rubbed her eyes, trying to fully wake herself up.
"Good idea, I am a bit hungry too." Erin nodded and prepared to go out with the girls.