(Jane"s PoV)I thought that I would have some days off without thinking about the army and all of my problems. I even had planned to do casual things with Tom and Sanji and I wasn"t talking about s.e.x, you know. As much as the s.e.x felt good, I couldn"t indulge myself in it too much. I was still young and I should have spent my days outside instead of rolling in the sheet with two hot men. I even had planned a horror tour for the three of us.
However, things didn"t always go the way we wanted it.
It was lunch time, and we were having lunch together in the dining room when Siji came out of nowhere. His expression was solemn as he bowed his head a bit to me.
"What is it?" I asked him. Anything that could make his expression solemn must be really important.
"Milady, we have news from South Sea."
My body stiffened when I heard South Sea was mentioned. It must be news about my father, right?
Sanji and Tom"s expression grew somber as they heard it, too. Sanji and I had been waiting for any piece of news from the South Sea, but this one was the first to come.
"Tell me." I put down my spoon and fork, and turned to face him.
"Actually, it was a messenger from the Queen herself." Siji said again.
Messenger from the Queen?
"Our men met her when she reached the land, and brought her to us as soon as possible. Maybe you want to meet her?"
"Let"s go!" I stood up, didn"t bother to ask where they held the messenger.
Siji bowed down again as he opened the door to my house in their dimension. It was quick and in a second, I had entered my house with my cloak draped around my shoulder. I glanced behind me and found out that Siji and Tom were following me. I couldn"t find Sanji, but from the way Siji looked at me, I knew that he had explained it to Sanji to Sanji couldn"t follow us.
Well, at least for now.
I focused my attention towards my guest who had been waiting in the guest room. A beautiful lady in green was sitting on the wooden chair with her hands on her lap gracefully. As expected of the people under the Queen, they were all as graceful as their Queen.
As much as I wanted to stare at her, I remembered my main priority in coming here. Taking the main seat as the host, my arrival was finally noticed by her.
"This servant greets Milady, the Master of The White Army." She bowed down a bit while speaking in a soft tone. Even her movement was smooth, so lady like.
"Rise." I commanded. "I heard that you came from the South Sea?"
"Yes, Milady." She answered softly without making eye-contact with me.
"And may I know what does the Queen want from people on the land?"
"This servant came to see Milady on account of Lord Satya to deliver a message to Milady." The woman stepped forward and out of nowhere, accompanied by the presence of water, a scroll of paper appeared in her hands. It was like a magic, but I didn"t have time to admire it.
She bowed down as her hands were offering the scroll of paper to me. I frowned a bit. Who was this Lord Satya she was talking about?
Still, it wouldn"t be polite to let her in that position for much longer. Nodding my approval at Siji, Siji approached her and took the paper from her hands. He even opened it right on the spot and read it.
"Hidden Village, M Province. You know where to find it. Bring the Black Creese to the South Sea." He read.
Hidden Village, M Province? Where was it?
"Since the message has been delivered safely, this servant will excuse herself." She bowed again and with a wave of her hand, water came spiraling up around her. When the water dropped down, she disappeared, leaving wet patch on my floor.
d.a.m.n, she left even before I could ask about my father. She even wetted my floor! Who was going to clean it up now?
I could feel my face darkened. "From now onwards, if the Queen sends a messenger, let her wait in the garden. That way, their water can be used to water the plants." I gritted my teeth in annoyance.
"Yes, Milady." Siji answered. "About the message..."
"Do you know where it is?" I turned to look at him and Tom.
"Honestly speaking, I don"t." Tom shook his head helplessly.
"Well, Siji must know something." I stared at Siji.
"There are more than ten Hidden Villages in M Province, I really don"t know which one it is." Siji replied with a helpless smile on his face.
I squinted my eyes, trying to remember if I knew something about Hidden Village in M Province. M Province, wasn"t it in the South?
"Let"s go back. Sanji might know something." I stood up and opened up the door to my house by myself.
"How did you do that?" I heard Tom exclaimed behind my back.
"Siji will teach you." I grinned as I stepped into the living room of my house.
Sanji was there, walking back and forth anxiously. He looked like a man who was waiting for his wife giving birth to their first child. The moment he laid his eyes on me, he approached me eagerly.
"How was it?" He asked.
"We got a message from Lord Satya. Hidden Village in M Province. He said that I knew where to find it and I needed to bring the Black Creese to him in South Sea." I said, flopping down on the couch. My cloak had disappeared the moment I stepped in our dimension.
"To be honest, I don"t know any man named Satya or Hidden Village. So, I have no idea where to get this Black Creese that I have never seen before." I added. "Say, do you know any Hidden Village in M Province?" I turned to see him, and only then I realized that Sanji"s expression had darkened a lot.
What was it that made him unhappy?
"Jane." He called me in a dangerous tone.
"Hm?" I replied shortly.
"Even though I don"t know who Satya is, but at least I know the other two." He said. His eyes met mine and I saw helplessness as well as joy flashed in his eyes.
"Really? Then, tell me." I sat down properly as I stared at his face.
"Black Creese is a mystic weapon who picked its own wielder. As far as I knew, it is in the hands of your father. Also, since this Lord Satya mentioned about Hidden Village, he must have known that Black Creese is a vital item in the village. The Black Creese must have been sent back to the village by your father." Sanji explained. "What"s more, since he mentioned that you knew where to find the Hidden Village, I bet this Lord Satya we are talking about is your own father!"
I was stunned as I heard what Sanji said. "But, his name is not Satya." I mumbled.
"Well, whether this Lord Satya is your father or not, we will find out later. For now, I think we must prepare ourselves to go to this Hidden Village. I know where to start, but I don"t know the way there. Whether we could reach the village or not, it depends on you." Sanji looked at me half-smiling.
"What are we waiting for, then? Let"s pack up!" Tom, who had been silent the whole time, finally spoke in a matter of fact tone.
The both of them didn"t even wait for my reply and went to their own room to pack up. I turned my head to Siji who was still wearing his solemn expression and sighed.
Whatever, I"ll just go. What can happened to me with Sanji and Tom protecting me? Not to mention Siji and the men. Let"s just go!
But, honestly, I wasn"t sure that I could find the place. My father did tell me before, a long time ago, that if his descendants wanted to visit that place, they would always open the gate for us. There was no way his child would get lost in the forest during the searching for the village.
I really felt skeptical, and I meant to talk about it to Sanji and Tom. However, both of them looked excited and trusted me that I would be able to bring them there. How could I say to them that I wasn"t sure?
Ah, let"s just pack up first. Whatever happens after that, let"s just think about it at that time.
That"s what I thought. We finished packing soon and in less than eight hours, we had stood at the entrance of the forest in M Province.
I took a deep breath as I watched my surroundings. It was around ten in the evening. There was no way I wanted to go inside the forest this late. The people who lived around the forest also told us to take a rest first and went inside first thing in the morning. However, I didn"t know what burned the fire inside these two men that even though they didn"t say it, I knew that they wanted to go into the forest at this precise moment.
What the h.e.l.l? Even though I wasn"t scared about those things anymore, but it didn"t mean I wanted to send myself at their doorsteps willingly. At least, let me wait until it was bright. The voice of night animals were never good to begin with and I didn"t want to walk inside being surrounded by those voices.
"Let"s go inside tomorrow morning." I said to those men.
They simultaneously looked at me, which was kind of startled me. They were so in sync that I thought they were puppet. But, only for a second, but they treated as if they didn"t hear me saying anything.
"I"ve always wanted to enter a forest at night instead of in the morning." Tom said. He sounded rather enthusiastic, which was worrying for me.
I wasn"t surprised when I saw Sanji was nodding his head. I had guessed them right, that they wanted to enter the forest at night.
Even so, it still left me speechless. They won"t force to enter the forest tonight, right?