Mystical Journey
chapter-440

The female representative was a middle-aged woman nearing forty, she mused for a bit and then discussed it for a while with the companions behind her, eventually nodding.

"Thank you for your faith in us, Chief, we are willing to help develop the auction."

"That’s good." Garen sent the last of the four Guards and two others to escort them to the auction house.

Everyone in the family firmly believed in everything he said, which made him very satisfied. There were all sorts of rumors going around outside, saying that the Kingdom was about to be conquered by monsters, and many families with power had escaped together with the three departments.

The ones who stayed behind weren’t powerless, like Garen or the highest level people such as the Grand Duke or the First Princess, they all had a few trump cards in hand.

And then there were the smarter ones, who saw that most of the biggest powers hadn’t left, so they stayed behind as well.

This caused most of the Kingdom to end up empty, while the remaining nobles were busy snatching up resources and territory, whereas naturally no one bothered with the civilian chaos. Everyone was only bothered with their own territory.

No one at all bothered with the public space.

After dealing with these matters, Garen took the last two Black Fire Palace guards along with him and left the estate, rushing towards his cousin’s house.

On the way there he could see some horse corpses waylaid on the road, houses lit on fire, robbers hustling for supplies, and some noble-looking people crashing up shops and civilian houses.

The three of them rode on three Aberrated Unihorn Horses, rushing straight for the Cloud Light District.

Of the three main districts in the Kingdom, the Cloud Light District was the most chaotic.

Most of the people living here were officials or rich merchants, so there were the most bandits and robberies around here too.

Garen and the two others encountered a blockage by some groups of fearless bandits, but after the Black Fire Palace guards sprayed out poisonous liquids and melted them into pools of acid, no one else dared to stop them.

After more than twenty minutes, Garen arrived straight at his cousin’s door in the Cloud Light District.

Outside the small white building by the roadside, there were a few bodies lying around, and large puddles of bloody water that had nearly dried up on the floor.

Garen had his horse step in the bloody water, emitting wet splashing sounds.

The two Black Fire Palace guards jumped off their horses, and started scanning around their surroundings quickly, eliminating all uncertain elements.

Garen glanced at the second and third floors of the building.

The building was completely quiet, as though there was nobody inside.

Garen rode his horse and took one round around the building. He didn’t see anyone. The two Black Fire Palace guards burst through the doors and searched the place, but couldn’t come up with anything either.

His cousin and the others had evidently left in advance.

Garen was still rather worried, so he turned around and took the other two towards the White Phoenix Forest Academy. This was where he had asked his cousin and the others to go if anything happened.

******************

Dani felt as though today was all just a dream.

She had reached home in the middle of the night, and was planning to have a good night’s beauty sleep, but she was just drifting off when her older sister pulled her up, put the clothes on her and then rushed her out.

Her sister’s best friend, Sylvia, who was also working at the palace, came with them too.

The two of them both looked rather worried and hurried.

She saw her sister and Sylvia meet a middle-aged man at the door, this man had a group of guards with her, and said something to her sister sternly, the two of them seemed to be hesitating at the door.

But Sylvia seemed to say something as well, and then her sister finally agreed.

Her sister pulled Dani away, and followed the middle-aged man as they left their building.

When she left, her mind was still a mess, as she wasn’t properly awake.

Suddenly, there was a piercing siren from the sky, shocking her awake.

The three girls were taken by the middle-aged man to a campsite. It was a large empty space, and there were many white tents standing beside it. There were already many people gathered there.

A nobleman calling himself Cohen came quickly and took them away, the three of them following a group of extravagantly-dressed men and women as they raced towards the large lake at the back of the Kingdom. On the way there, these people kept pointing and whispering about Sylvia, as though they were appraising a product, making her feel terrible.

"I told you we already had too many people. You still insisted on bringing her along! Great, she alone would be fine, but now she brought two burdens with her as well." The female leader’s shrill voice could be vaguely heard.

"She is Little Brother’s only daughter, after all, let’s help her where we can." The man pleaded softly.

After that, the two of them continued complaining and pleading respectively. Dani suddenly felt unspeakably frustrated.

"Relax, it’s fine." A gentle man’s voice came beside Dani. It was a handsome man in white, "I’m like you all, I’m also a hitchhiker following this family as they retreat. My name is Kane. What’s yours?" The man’s gentle smile seemed to have washed away some of Dani’s worries.

"I’m Dani."

"Oh, you’re one of Miss Sylvia two friends." It dawned on Kane. "Where are your sister and Miss Sylvia?"

"Up ahead." Dani looked up straight, and saw her sister and Sylvia standing in front of a woman in a red dress, lowering their heads as they listened to the woman speak with an expression of disgust.

Kane seemed to have seen them as well. He rubbed Dani’s hair, hard. "Relax, it’s okay."

"Kane!"

Suddenly someone called him from a distance.

"Come here!"

"I’ll go over there a bit." Kane turned around and hurried towards the voice.

Dani watched him leave, and then started to survey her surroundings, extremely bored.

They were surrounded by guards in heavy white armor, with a few men and women in differently-colored robes mixed among them. These people all looked arrogant, and looked at others with contempt. They only talked to each other, as though even talking to normal people would damage their status.

"What’s so good about them!" Dani pursed her little lips.

Suddenly, there came a sound she might never forget for the rest of her life.

Not too far away from her, a sudden scream gave her a huge shock.

Dani instantly woke up, and she stared towards that direction. Kane, who had just left, was now holding his stomach, kneeling on the ground as blood kept flowing from his body, pooling on the ground. His gaze was painful and despairing, helpless and powerless.

Just like them, he was someone who followed this group afterward, according to what they said, he was also a friend brought by some other family member.

Dani seemed to have frozen utterly.

She felt as though the only one left in the world was that man moaning in agony, there was a golden-haired man with a twisted expression in front of him shaking the blood off his blade, his face full of contempt.

"Mur… murder…" Dani felt her mind go blank.

The man who was just standing in front of her, who had just been speaking with her, that man with the gentle smile. Right now his body slanted down, and fell down with a whumph, while none of the surrounding guards even gave him a glance, their expressions cold.

Dani felt her mouth go dry, an unprecedented terror suddenly gushing out of her brain.

The person who was just alive and kicking and standing in front of her, was now lying on the floor, rapidly becoming an icy cold body.

This was the first time she witnessed a murder.

Her first time seeing a dead person, a person who died in front of her…

Her mind was a total blank. She didn’t know when her sister came up to her, and didn’t know when Big Sister Sylvia pulled her into her arms.

She just kept replaying Kane’s final helpless gaze in her brain. That gaze seemed to be looking at him.

"It’s fine… it’s fine." Her sister’s voice kept coming from beside her ear.

"How do we deal with these burdens?"

"We’ve no time, put them in Cabin Three."

"But that’s for livestock…"

"We have no more space for them, if they want to come then come, if they don’t then scram!" A piercing woman’s voice reached their ears.

Dani felt cold all over. She had seen what happened to Kane, their status was just like his, maybe that would happen to them as well…

It was her first time feeling, that the world outside could be so dangerous.

All her life, she had lived under her sister’s protection, but this was the first time, the first time she saw the cruelty of the real world outside.

When these normally polite and graceful nobles revealed their fangs, they were even crueler than beasts, treating human lives like livestock.

The girls forced themselves to follow behind this group of people, there were about a dozen more people like them, all with the same status.

The disgusted faces and impatient voices of the nobles in front of them kept reaching Dani’s ears, and she realized for the first time just how childish and ignorant her previous life was.

Every day she fought with her sister self-indulgently, over trivial matters, over small allowances, she became stubborn and illogical, occasionally taking some things out to sell, until she thought herself familiar with the Kingdom’s Cloud Light District. She dealt generously with the hooligans on the street, calling them her sisters.

But now that it had come to this time, these surroundings, those normal little hooligan bosses were as helpless as chicks faced with the powerful guards and totem users around her.

On the following journey, the group kept encountering attacks by hooligans and bandits, people kept dying around her, while those who were badly hurt were quickly abandoned.

Dani’s heart grew colder and colder, and more and more scared.

She saw the same hint of worry on her sister’s face, and the shadow on Sister Sylvia’s.

Before they knew it, their team was nearing the large lake behind the Kingdom.

Dani’s mind was in complete chaos, and she was barely aware of anything.

Vaguely, she heard shouts of surprise from up ahead, and the whole group had stopped instantly. It seemed that someone had blocked the road.

"Scram!"

A cold man’s voice came from the distance.

"Lord Earl! We truly don’t have the person you’re…" That shrill woman’s voice kept pleading. As though the power of the person ahead was way beyond hers. She had lost all of her confidence from before.

Bam! Ahh!!

After one scream, the woman’s voice vanished.

"Everyone stop right there, stay where you are, and let milord examine you!" One of the group’s female totem users called out, trying to appease them. The guards began maintaining order.

There were almost a hundred people here, the front was slightly panicky, but they quickly quieted down.

The time ticked by.

"Big Sister!? Why are you guys here?" Suddenly, a surprised man’s voice came from the front.

Dani raised her head from her sister’s embrace, and glanced over.

But she saw a familiar figure.

It was Acacia! But how did he find them?

Dani was instantly like a drowning person who saw someone familiar, her heart surging with warmth and a sense of security, as though her body was instantly filled up.

Dressed in white, he rushed over hurriedly. A few opportunistic nobles and totem users came with him.

"I’ve been looking for you guys for so long! Why didn’t you listen to me, why did you come all the way here!? If it weren’t for the fact that someone saw you all and told me, I might not have made it in time to catch up with you! What’s the matter with Dani?"

"She was shocked…" Her sister’s replied softly.

"Come!" Acacia turned around and barked.

Soon enough a figure dressed fully in black armor came up to them, and lowered his head wordlessly.

"Carry her, we’re going straight to the Royal Hospital! Forget it, I’ll do it myself!"

Dazedly. Dani felt herself lifted by a broad chest, and an unprecedented sense of security flowed out of her heart.

Huh, so Cia had a side like this too. Dani had never seen this side of his, as though her companion since childhood was suddenly unfamiliar to her. He became more blinding, more sparkling, and was beginning to merge with some fantasy in her heart…

She plastered her face to his chest tightly, and finally fell asleep in a short while.