(From Blue's Perspective)
"The weather is kinda gloomy today, isn't it?" Evan said.
"Yeah, I think it's gonna rain," I said.
"We t on a rainy day as well. Anyway, let's get to the point," he said. "The paper contains a ssage. It is written by a dark mage using secret language. There are various types of secret languages. So of them are hard to make, thus they are hard to read and not all of the mages can read that.
It is that kind of language. I had a hard ti deciphering it. But I did anyway."
"What does it say?" Dem asked.
"It says that 'Co near the Black Rill at twelve tomorrow night. Your husband won't be ho at that ti. I don't like to threaten you, but let's do it just one ti, hm? If you don't co, that fruit will rot artificially'," he said. "This is what the first paragraph says. The second paragraph says- 'In case you think it's a joke and ignore it, go to the cave near Black Rill'."
"What does that an?" I asked. "Well, I could not read it in the first place."
"I think that dark mage thought that your power is awakened enough to enable you to read that letter. But that dark mage was proven wrong," Evan said. "I think the fruit is rotten by now. But what does this fruit an anyway?"
"My spy is dead," Dem said. "Her na is Berry. It's a fruit's na. According to the letter, her dead body is in the cave, I think."
"Oh my...!" I gasped and clapped my hand over my mouth.
Dem touched my nape and rubbed his hand there. "I don't understand why that dark mage wanted to et her. It perhaps is his father. He has been appearing in her dreams, no, nightmares as well. It's his doing. He has been trying to play with her mind with his words since he can't control neither her nor ."
"Do you know what he looks like, Blue?" Evan asked.
"No... The first ti he appeared in my dream, he was wearing a mask. His face was covered."
I told Evan about all of my dreams and the ti when I saw my father from the carriage on the way back to the palace from Ruby's house. I skipped the part about what he said in my dreams since I did not even tell Dem about it. The words might hurt Dem and trigger his insecurities.
"So, all these have happened...," Evan muttered. "It is undoubtedly your father. He wants to do sothing with you."
"He wants to use her. Since she is a human and a dark mage's child, she has more black mana than normal dark mages. That's why he wants to use her to achieve his goal."
"We need to get her dead body first," Evan said, looking at Dem. "We might get so clues or sothing like that."
"Blue's mage can take her back. We will go and find the body," Dem said.
"No," I said quickly. "I want to co with you."
"... You might get..."
"I won't get scared. I will be okay," I said. Though I was sure that the scene was not going to be easy to look at, I still needed to see it. How long was I going to be kept behind just so I would not get scared? I needed to face these kinds of things eventually anyway.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"I also think Blue needs to see this. I can't see small traces of black mana. Well, I tried to a lot of tis, but it's hard and I almost never saw it. But Blue could see it as she said before and also absorbed black mana from those rebels. If it's the case now, she can help. She won't need to cut the strings as we are going to follow the traces, so she won't fall sick," Evan said.
"I will be fine. Don't worry," I said, squeezing Dem's hand.
"Haa," he sighed. "Alright then. But you have to be careful and if you don't feel well or feel uncomfortable, tell right away."
"Yes... I will," I nodded.
"Can you control the people here?" Dem asked, looking at Evan.
"For ten seconds," Evan replied. "Blue's mage can teleport the two of you. I will co two seconds later. I got to make sure that the trace of black mana is completely gone."
"Can you do that? Luc said it's hard to remove the trace...," I mumbled.
"It's hard, but not impossible. I have made a potion. It will help. This potion will turn into gas the mont you open the lid of the bottle. This gas will purify the air. What I an is it will remove the trace of the black mana," Evan explained.
After that, Flint teleported us in front of the river Black Rill. Flint was a bit exhausted since he had to climb that many stairs and then teleport.
"Rest for a while. We will take Evan's help to go back," I said. "The cave is near, right, Dem?"
"Hm, there...," he said, pointing towards our back. "Are you alright?"
"Yes..."
Evan ca within a mont. "Did you find that cave? Oh, there it is..."
Dem held my hand as we moved towards the cave. I was truly scared. Dem seed to know this very well though I kept denying it. He rubbed my hand again and again as if to make sure that I was alright.
I could see traces of black mana on the way. "I can see them... black mana...," I said.
"You can? I can't yet," Evan said.
The black mana led us to the cave. As we reached closer to the cave, the amount of black mana increased and the strings was not as thin as before.
"I can see them too now," Evan said. "Even though your power is awakened just a bit, you can see that much black mana. I think the amount of black mana in you is really too much."
"Don't think of anything weird," Dem warned.
"Don't worry. I don't want her or anything. I will be satisfied if we can all work together to defeat that dark mage so our kingdoms won't be threatened. That's all I want," Evan said. "That said, is the mage with us trustworthy?"
"I work for Her Highness. Of course, I am trustworthy. Or, she would not have brought here," Flint grumbled.
"You did not greet ," Evan said.
"Why would I? You didn't greet Her Highness or His Highness properly either. Besides, you are calling Her Highness by her na," Flint pointed out. "I don't respect those who don't respect my master properly."
'Master sounds really weird though...'
"Well, I don't really mind. It's alright if you call 'My lord' only," Evan said.
"Why do you all talk too much? Honestly, we are here for work," Dem muttered.
"The King of Querencia really doesn't like to relax much," Evan chuckled.
The mont we reached the entrance of the cave, cold air struck our skin. The night was gloomy and the air was cold. But the coldness did not feel natural here.
"That...? Is that ice?" I exclaid in surprise as I noticed the huge cube of ice. The cube was in perfect shape surprisingly. It was not lting at all. "There is a lot of black mana around it."
No one was saying anything. All of them were looking at it intently. I looked around it as well and that was the mont, I found it. The disassembled part of Berry's body was stuck inside the ice cube. Her eyes were open and the blood that fell from her body parts was frozen as well.
Dem covered my eyes with his palm, but it was too late. I had seen everything already. Perhaps he was a bit dumbfounded as well. He surely had not expected it.
"Can you lt it?" Dem asked while pulling closer to him and covering my eyes completely.
"Yeah, I will do it now," Evan said.
"I am okay," I said.
"Don't move much. You have seen what you needed to. Not anymore," Dem said.
I did not argue anymore. Truth be told, I did not want to see sothing like that again. I wanted to be brave today, just like Dem. But it seed I needed more ti.
After witnessing today's incident, I got scared. That dark mage could even kill soone to get what he wanted. What if he started hurting the people, I cared about so he could get ? What if he hurt Dem? Not just Dem, there were more people I cared about. And I could not even think about any of them dying because of .
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