Lucil approached with a group of men. They didn’t surround us in a threatening manner, but then again, I didn’t bother to try to flee. At this point, I could only come to one conclusion. Lucil had a method to track us. She dismounted and approached us. Ba tensed until I waved her down. As for everyone else, they were sore, wet, and beaten, and the blistering sun was just starting to come out. Soon, our bodies would be cracking under the heat. I was hoping to swap to better clothing and do my best to clean up before the sun was overhead, but now that Lucil was here, all of those pns were disrupted.

  “Are you done?” She asked, her eyes narrowed.

  “Who is it?” I asked in response.

  “What?”

  “Who are you tracking to know which direction we were heading?”

  Lucil’s eyes widened for a second. “Who said I was tracking someone? Perhaps you weren’t as good at covering your tracks as you think!”

  She was pretty good. Her voice only cracked slightly on such a lie.

  “Which way did we escape the city then?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You think you’re far too clever.”

  “Heh… if I was cleverer, then I wouldn’t have been caught. You never would have guessed the route we took, not with the storm. You wouldn’t have been able to track us physically, and Baba brought down the barrier, so you wouldn’t have had any clue the direction that we fled. The only way you were able to discover us is because you had a way of knowing where I’d be.”

  Lucil’s lips tightened, but she didn’t say anything, so I continued. “Originally, I had assumed you’d simply reasoned out that we’d be at the outpost. However, even if you had, you wouldn’t have known when we reached it. We might have already passed it and been in the desert, or we might have still yet to come. The way you were able to track me directly to the inn should have tipped me off.”

  “Maybe, I scouted you out,” Lucil responded after a paused for a moment.

  “If you had used a physical scout, one of my guards would have noticed, and if you used magic, Baba would have noticed. There is no point in denying it. You were able to track me. You knew exactly where I was from the beginning, and were able to track me right to it. The faery magic is truly wonderful. It exceeded my expectations. The only thing I’ve yet to confirm is who you were able to track.”

  “I-sn’t it you?” She responded darkly. “Your devil magic is an eyesore to the faeries. You can be seen from a mile away!”

  “I theorized such a possibility, but then I disregarded it. Faeries have a deep-rooted fear and hatred for the devilkin. This is well known. I don’t think they’d hold as much fear if a devil could be detected so easily. If a faery could detect a devil from long distances, and even follow them to the same space, then the devils wouldn’t have been able to succeed in any wars, no matter how deceitful and clever they were.”

  “Then, what do you propose?” Lucil’s eyes fshed in defiance.

  She didn’t pn to give up the information. Of course, she didn’t need to. I already had come to an answer. I just hadn’t confirmed it yet.

  “Baba would be a possible choice. Her mana is powerful. Perhaps you could detect that. However, my confidence in her is high, and if she truly suffered from such a weakness, she would have known about it, and thus I would have known about it. Could it be the princesses? I guess there was a possibility there was a mark on the princesses, in case of kidnapping or the like, but why would the faeries have access to such a mark. Assuredly, if the elves had access to that kind of ability, they would have used it before your lot. That’s when I realized there was only one option.”

  I didn’t need to see Lucil’s eyes flicker to my mother to know I was probably correct, but the confirmation settled things. I let out a long sigh. Mother was a homunculus created by my true mother, the faery queen. Why wouldn’t she have created some way to track her? Whether that woman had considered it at the time, she had also created a way to attract me. Even if I had known this yesterday, I wouldn’t have left my mother behind, so this was truly a conundrum.

  “Enough of this!” Lucil snapped angrily. “You tried to escape despite my warnings! Will I need to tie you down?”

  “Who’s ensving who, I wonder?”

  “You…” She took a step forward, her face flushing with anger.

  Lucil’s name wasn’t the only thing she had in common with Lucy. She also had a lot of pent-up anger toward me. Well, that wasn’t surprising. Most of my sisters hated me for what I had done to them and their family, even if I didn’t have any control of it. However, Lucil’s anger was a bit different from that of Lucy. Lucy wore her hate on her sleeve. Lucil’s emotions were much colder and more repressed. They seemed to be bubbling to the point where they risked exploding. While Lucy was excitable, Lucil felt more like an unlit powder keg. It was that kind of feeling.

  “It doesn’t matter.” I waved my hand before she could say more. “You’ve caught us, we might as well return to your prison.”

  She stared at me for a few moments, and finally snorted, turning her back to us. I had no choice but to get everyone up to begin the long trek back to the outpost. It wasn’t exactly like I had given up. There was just no point in resisting. Our previous attempt to escape had been disastrous. Not only had I lost a guard, but we had lost a lot of supplies and we're banged up too. If we tried to escape in these circumstances, even if I could pull off an escape, the chances of making it through the desert alive were slim.

  We needed a day or two to recover. We needed a bath, clean ourselves, and eat a full meal. In a day or two, we’d try again. That was the only option I could come up with. As for how to get over the issue regarding my mother being a tracking device for Lucil’s group, that was something else we’d have to deal with. I wasn’t immediately willing to abandon her. There had to be a better solution.

  The group was exhausted, having had an extremely rough night, which was leading into a potentially rougher morning. Yet, they didn’t voice any compints as they packed up. Thankfully, we had never unpacked in the first pce, so packing up was quick and easy. We started following Lucil’s group, who escorted us, or should I say surrounded us. The sun was quickly rising overhead and with it an unbearable heat.

  As we trudged along, undoing a long night of escape in a slow, methodical manner, I kept my eyes on our guards. It seemed like they didn’t mind much what we did as long as we didn’t make any sudden movements or attempts to escape. These faeries seemed to hold a degree of arrogance as if holding us against our will was easy for them. The question became, was this arrogance earned?

  I slowly made my way, forcing my aching body to increase my pace until I was once again walking alongside Lucil. She was riding while I was walking, but they had to keep pace with us, so she wasn’t going at a pace where I couldn’t keep up. I did have to look up to see her through. That might have annoyed an arrogant prince, and as my sister looked down on me, did I see just a hint of smugness that seemed to suggest she enjoyed it? Perhaps it was my imagination. I was hot and the sun was getting higher overhead. It was difficult to make out such details.

  “Why won’t you just take my offer and leave?” She demanded.

  “Why won’t you allow me to see Olivia?” I answered with a question of my own.

  Her lips twerked slightly. “It’s not a matter of willingness. It’s a matter of inability. I can’t do what I can’t do.”

  “You’re saying Olivia is somehow being held against her will as well?”

  “She is a guest of the Dongeng. She will not be harmed.”

  “I didn’t ask if she would be harmed. I asked if she was free to move as she wanted.”

  “What does it matter if she can or cannot?”

  “You believe I have brainwashed my other sisters, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth. I’ve come to free them.”

  “Free?” She made a face of disbelief.

  “My sisters were all sent away because of me. They were forced to live in foreign nds. Maybe they made do the best they could. Lucy studied the beastkin form of fighting and even became quite skilled. Meanwhile, Olivia learned magical arts.”

  “She can learn better magic with the faeries than she ever could with the elves!” Lucil stated petuntly.

  “You might be right.” I shrugged. “However, if she’s trapped, then I want to set her free. I wish to set all of my sisters free so that they can live the lives they want to live.”

  “As if I would believe such a thing.”

  “Is it really so hard to believe that I want the best for my sisters? I didn’t grow up with you, and you barely grew up with me. You don’t know what I’m like, and I don’t have memories of you either.”

  “Then why bother?”

  I shrugged. “A sense of duty. You’re my family, and therefore, I must do what I can to fix the mistakes I caused.”

  “You think that you’re saving them by bringing them home?” Her voice sounded uncertain for a moment.

  Maybe I was getting to her. She seemed to react to the use of the word family.

  “I know it. We must come home before father passes away if possible. We must unite the country together. A letter like the one you handed me might look nice on paper, but it won’t help very much in the grand scheme of things. I’d put on a much stronger front if I had all of my sisters with me.”

  For a brief moment, she seemed tempted, but then she started to shake her head. Her movements were slow and heavy as if there was some great weight on her shoulders. It caused me irritation. I was trying to save the entire human realm and maintain the bance of the world. What was her problem?

  “Sister…” I tried to maintain my civil demeanor. “I know that of all my sisters, you’re the one who chose to leave for Dongeng. However, the others weren’t given a choice. They were sent away…”

  Although I had been choosing my words carefully, Lucil’s expression seemed to change violently. Her original hesitation was washed away by anger.

  “What do you know of choice? I had a choice? I had no choice. You stripped it from me just like you did to all of my sisters. You destroyed my life, just like you’ve destroyed the lives of everyone here. You’ve been the puppet master, doing whatever you pleased for as long as you wanted! Mother even made you a puppet of her that you could py with all you want!” She threw a hand out at Mother, who gasped.

  Her eyes met my mother’s for a moment, and then she looked away, a fsh of guilt on her face. Her face suddenly met someone else, whom I hadn’t realized had moved up beside us.

  “You don’t understand what you’re talking about.” Saria snapped.

  Lucil’s eyes widened at being addressed in such a way. However, Saria was a fellow princess, so it wasn’t like their station was any different. They were both the eldest daughter of the king of their respective nations. In another environment, they might have been close friends, like Saria had been with Olivia.

  “What don’t I understand?” She asked, her eyes narrowing.

  “David didn’t destroy my life.” Saria decred. “He’s the one who saved it.”

  I was a bit surprised that she had come to my defense. I had never needed the assistance of another girl to help me navigate a conversation. Although, I had to admit that Lucil was a bit of a ndmine. I was still dwelling on the st thing she said. She had no choice but to leave. Was it because she wanted to be with her mother? In a way, that could feel like you had no choice when you ultimately had to move to stay with a parent. I felt like I was still missing a piece to this puzzle thought. I decided it was best to remain quiet and allow the girls to speak it out. Plus, I was curious about what Saria would say about me.

  “Your life is in such great shape.” Lucil rolled her eyes. “We do get some news. We’re aware that most of your brothers are dead. Peri is in shambles. This can all be id at this man’s feet.”

  “Our country was the victim of a devil plot,” Saria admitted, but when Lucil opened her mouth Saria continued. “However, that wasn’t a plot that David was involved in! Rather, he saw through it, and he was able to keep my sister and me from facing a horrible fate. I won’t say our lives are necessarily better since meeting David, but our lives are our own.”

  “Your own?” Lucil snorted. “You’re just his sve, doing as he wants.”

  “Do you think us fools?” Ba had found her way up as well, and start backing up her sister. “Do you think that we’d allow ourselves to be tied to him for no reason? We chose David because we believe in him. If the time came that I wanted to leave, I do not doubt that David would allow that as well. However, I would never choose to leave at this point.”

  Ba was rarely a woman of a lot of words. That was probably one of the longest speeches I had ever heard from her, but it felt somewhat touching to me.

  “Olivia feels the same way!” Saria added with a nod.

  Lucil shook her head. “You’re wrong. He’s fooling you…”

  “And do you think he’s fooling the grand magus because she follows him as well?” Saria snapped.

  “The grand magus has her desires and ambitions. The reason she does anything is difficult and mysterious…”

  “Don’t give us that crap!” Saria continued to press. “This has nothing to do with trust. You have something personal against David, right?

  “What he did to mom…”

  “No, this isn’t about your mother. I can tell. This is about you!”

  By the way her face changed color, it seemed like Saria had struck the nail on the head. I had to admire her. She had managed to tease out something I hadn’t seen myself. I didn’t know if it was female intuition or what, but she was able to see deeper into Lucil than I could.

  Just as I started to grow hopeful that the girls could wear her down, one of the guards let out a shout. “My dy…. There is a group approaching.”

  Lucil shook her head and gave Saria a hard look. Saria stared unblinkingly back before Lucil kicked her horse and rode a few meters ahead. She took the binocurs from the person at the front and then looked. After staring into the distance at the dry brown grassnd, the nd at the edge before breaking into a sandy desert, she nodded to herself.

  “Line up, form a protective perimeter. Prepare defenses until we know more.”

  “Do you think we’ll be attacked?” I asked.

  “Just stay in the middle.”

  “If they’re an enemy, then you’ll need us.”

  “I said get in the middle!”

  Lucil had built her wall back up, and I could only sigh and do as she asked. Her troops formed a circle around us, getting into a defensive formation. It was ten minutes before we could get a good look at the incoming group. They were nearly five times rger than our own. Out here in the middle of the dry grassnds before the desert, there was nothing we could do to take advantage of our smaller numbers. We were at the greatest disadvantage here.

  If I was in charge, I would have ordered us to run. We could use our smaller size to show an increase in mobility. At least we could find a better area more advantageous before forming and preparing for contact. Unfortunately, I wasn’t calling the shots. The group appeared to be faeries. They were all dressed in armor very simir to the ones accompanying Lucil. The only difference I could tell was that the insignia on their fgs were different. This was a different unit.

  Lucil didn’t put her guard down, and the group quickly surrounded our group like how Lucil had surrounded us early that morning. We were still an hour or two away from the outpost. This was pretty bad.

  Lucil rode out from the protection. I wanted to join her, but the guards quickly crossed their weapons, keeping anyone from entering the perimeter, or leaving just the same. Someone who seemed to be in charge came out and met Lucil. I couldn’t hear their words, even with my better hearing. They were too far away and the wind wasn’t right for it. I thought about coming up with a spell to try to listen in, but faeries were magical creatures in the first pce and such a spell probably wouldn’t get very far.

  I might have tried anyway, but their meeting was extremely short. Lucil had argued with the man very briefly, but she quickly lowered her head in defeat. The man guided his steps toward us a bit. He looked over the small group and then shouted in a bellowing voice.

  “There are new orders! Prince David of Pria is to be brought into Dongeng, by order of the queen.”

  AnnouncementHey Readers! I have recently done a redesign and overhaul on my website. You may prefer reading there now. At the least, check it out, and consider becoming a member. This was all done with the help of my Spanish transtor, Kokoadict. He posts many transtions, among them my work at https://gao-nn.com/. You can support him at https:///GAONN. Either way, check out my site, https://whatsawhizzerwebnovels.com/ and become a member if you're interested. Have a great day.

  If you're like to read: https://whatsawhizzerwebnovels.com/ensved/ The rest of the volume is here.