"Thank you..." Ann left go of Kalan and held the dagger close to her heart.

Kalan had found the dagger with the eagle emblem engraved on it that Maria Ashford had given to her. It was one of the most precious things in life that Ann considered as her possession.

During the chase, Ann had thrown the dagger at one of the alpha ogres that almost had her for dinner, as a last resort of self-defense. At that moment, she didn't know she would find herself a weapon that was indomitable.

Still, even the world-class Hero's sword from the tomb couldn't be compared to the small dagger Maria presented her with. For it was the very first acknowledgment a naive little girl was awarded by the person she honored the most.

Nevertheless, the dagger was an important aspect of life for both Angelica and Ann since it was with her through different stages of happiness and grief. It was just as important as the necklace she received from Maria for good luck.

The thought of losing it was weighing hard on her conscience until Kalan returned it to her.

"Thank you so much. I will never forget this"

Ann was feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude. She even considered reducing the over extravagant fee she charged for the escort job, but then changed her mind and said,

"In the future, if you ever need a favor. I'll gladly accept regardless of what your request is"

The ever-conscious Ann had never accepted to giving out favors of any kind that might come back to bite her ass. Even then, she offered a favor to Kalan as gratitude for finding her dagger.

"Kalan?"

In the midst of her joy, Ann had forgotten to notice that the man in front of her had stiffened like a stone.

She was attaching the dagger to the holster tied on her thigh when she noticed him groaning as if he was in pain.

"Kalan? Are you alright?"

For some reason, he had turned away from her with a downcast expression desperately trying to not meet her gaze.

"I... I am happy to be of assistance. I was just taken... taken by surprise" Kalan grumbled, massaging his temple.

Unable to understand his strange behavior Ann poked her head. But she was not the heroine to be an unpenetrable blockhead.

Now that the happiness of finding the dagger had faded away, reality set it. It would take a person with skin as thick as an ogre to ignore the awkwardness she had caused.

'Oh no. I overreacted' Ann scratched her cheek feeling guilty.

Kalan's reaction made sense to her. Being embraced by a stranger you barely knew, would put anybody in an awkward stance. Even more so, if the person feels repulsed by the sudden action.

'He's frowning big time. Looks like he hates me'

Ann took a page right out of the heroine's booklet. As the saying goes, ignorance is bliss.

It was the only thing she found impressive about the heroine. Her ability to escape awkward situations was always outstanding.

In any case, there was no use crying over spilled milk. All one can do is move forward.

Not wanting to take responsibility for her actions, Ann changed the subject.

"By the way, isn't it time?"

Avoiding directly looking into her beaming smile, Kalan checked his pocket watch.

There were only fifteen seconds left till sunrise.

"It's time"

Kalan put the watch back in his coat pocket, as they got into position. He held out his hand for her and started the countdown.

"Ten... nine... eight... seven..."

Ann closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and took Kalan's hand. In order to not be teleported to separate locations, they had agreed to do so.

"Six... five... four..."

As the countdown neared an end, she opened her eyes placing her full trust in the Goddess.

"Three... two... one"

Together Ann and Kalan took a step forward, onto the space beneath the statue, only to be blinded by a bright light.

As she adjusted her eyes to the brightness, Ann could feel a gust of cold wind against her skin.

Reflected in her emerald eyes was the orange sun rising over the horizon in the distance.

"It worked!"

Ann jumped in joy, raising their intertwined hands.

Kalan and Ann were no longer in the tomb. They were teleported to the cliff above the Eldom river, at the base of which their camp was located.

"The enchantment worked! Yay!"

Now all they had to do was get down from the cliff to join the rest of the entourage. It was obvious that their friends would be worried as they had disappeared for nearly half a day.

At that moment, an idea occurred to Ann.

Instead of walking down the cliff and circling back the track to reach the camp which would take hours, it would be easier to jump down the cliff to get back to the camp in a matter of seconds.

Since she had already done it once and made it out in one piece. There wasn't any imminent danger.

"What I'm about to suggest might sound crazy..." Ann tried to persuade him, by putting forth the idea.

"It's been hours and I'm pretty sure the guys are already out there searching for us..."

"If we jump it'll be faster to get back. I swear I'm only suggesting this because everyone would be worried about us and..."

Ann rolled her eyes and sneakily checked Kalan's expression.

Instead of letting go of her hand, Kalan had tightened his grip. From the looks of it, he seemed open to the idea.

"It'll be fun too" Ann spilled the actual reason she had saved for last.

"You're right. We need to get back as soon as possible so they won't be worried"

"Exactly! They will be so worried"

Ann looked down the cliff before turning back to Kalan with a twinkle in her eyes.

"How about a countdown to three?"

"Sure"

"Ok then. Get ready"

"One... two... th-..."

But before she could finish her words, Ann felt herself being pulled back by an incredible force, separating their hands that were together.

In her surprised state, she could see a dark fluffy arm holding her against its firm chest away from the cliff.

"!"

Ann was instantly able to recognize who it was.

"Raeden!"

"Grrr..."

Raeden in his beast form was giving Kalan the death glare while bearing his teeth against him.

"Raeden! Calm down!" Ann tapped on Raeden's back.

She could feel the tension in his shoulders from his trembling back. Ann was barely able to hold him off as he almost lost to his beast state eyeing down Kalan as if he was a threat.

Just as Raeden was about to attack Kalan, the rest of the Nero mercenaries appeared out of the trees. They were surprised to find not only Raeden who had took off into the forest without a word again but also Ann and Kalan who were missing since the ogre attack.

Not only was Raeden holding Ann within his arms, but he was also in a defensive stance against Kalan, shielding Ann within his arms, away from his sight.

"Raeden! Come to your senses!"

Ann broke out of his arms and stood between the two. She was holding Raeden at bay from attacking Kalan. It was evident that Raeden misunderstood the situation and acted on instinct.

"Look at me. I'm standing right here!"

She tried talking to convert his focus onto her while signally Kalan to back down.

Kalan on the other hand wasn't helping either. He lowered his outstretched hand and was staring at them with an expressionless face.

"Grrr... Grrr..."

Whereas, Raeden's eyes were fixed on the person behind Ann. It was as if he couldn't see her.

"Follow my voice and look at me. I'm here!"

Ann stepped forward and put a hand on Raeden's cheek. Only then did Raeden lower his gaze.

"?"

Raeden retracted his claws and turned his attention to the woman in his arms.

"Have you calmed down now?" She asked with a small smile.

Ann felt relieved, seeing the light return in his dark eyes. She had never seen Raeden act this way towards people.

After blankly staring at her face for a while, Raeden reverted to his human form and placed a hand on her head.

"You're back?"

"I was never gone"

Right then, Noah and Oliver came running towards the two followed by Jade and Eugene, blocking Kalan's view.

"Hey!"

"Noah! Oliver!"

Raeden removed his hand and separated from her just as Jade put a hand on his shoulder asking if he was alright.

"Where did you go?"

"Did you know how worried we were?"

"How could you leave without us?"

"How dare you leave us!?"

Ann's started spinning from the rapid-fire questions the twins were throwing at her.

"Halt!" Ann exclaimed, raising her hands in the air.

"One at a time"

"Then I'll go first"

An angry-looking Eugene walked in between the twins and raised the question everyone wanted to ask,

"What happened?"

Instead of directly answering him, Ann deliberately beat around the bush.

"Ahh...about that. There was this teeny tiny thing. You see how I accidentally run into trouble. I found this beautiful pond that had a lot of fluffs and it blinded me. And the next thing I know giant ogres are everywhere..."

"What is she saying?"

"I can't understand a word"

Unable to process her words, the twins looked at each other puzzled. They watched as Eugene's face started twitching.

"Then the grass was glowing. I couldn't see properly. Not to mention, it was cold..."

"Stop!"

Eugene roared causing Ann to flinch.

The vein on his forehead was about to pop out from anger. After all that they have been through, he was not in the mood to hear her blatantly made-up nonsense.

"Don't beat around the bush and tell the truth..."

*grumble*

The sound of the rumbling stomach made everyone freeze at the spot. The trio beastmen unanimously turned towards the direction of the sound.

"It's not me" Ann defended herself. There was a tint of red on her cheeks.

"Really?" Eugene raised his eyebrow.

Having traveled all day without taking any breaks none of them had time to eat. And right when they were about to cook food, the ogres attacked sending the group to chaos.

"Yup it's not..."

But before Ann could finish her sentence, her stomach rumbled again.

*grumble*

"You sure?" Egged Noah, controlling his laughter as much as he could.

"Fine. I'm a little hungry!" Ann snapped and walked away.

Postponing the question session after breakfast, they followed after Ann. It was not only her but the rest of the gang was also starting to feel hungry having spent the entire night searching for her.

"Let's go Raeden. Or else we'll have another mess in our hands"

Jade shook his head, seeing the members of their group on their way to create yet another commotion.

"..."

Raeden cast one last glance at Kalan, before leaving with them.

"Sir Kalan!"

Ezra had finally caught up to the Nero mercenaries after they ditched him in the middle of the search. On his way, he saw Ann storm off like lighting towards the camp.

He traced in the direction they came from to find his master at the edge of the cliff gazing at the rising sun.

"Sir! At last, I found you!"

Ezra cried with tears in his all the while being ignored by Kalan.

Kalan was deep in thought as he saw the sunrise over the horizon.

"Raeden is a bit territorial. He would have done the same for any of us. Don't take it to heart" Eugene's words from before stuck to his mind.

"Territorial?" Kalan smirked.

He couldn't help but laugh at the circumstance.

The preparations were over. He was only holding himself back, not wanting to ruin everything when he almost had what he came for.

Not even God could change what was set in stone.

"She is not his, to begin with"









Meanwhile, back at the camp.

"Haah" Ann let out a satisfied sigh after having three bowls of soup and bread. Gently stroking her bloated tummy, she leaned on Eugene's back, using him as a sofa cushion.

Although she wanted to lie down and take a quick nap, she couldn't ignore the curious stares she was attracting.

It was all because Kalan was taking his sweet time at the cliff. She and Kalan disappeared together, but it was only she who had returned. It obviously rose questions.

Wanting to put an end to the gossip before it spread, Ann confessed about leading the ogres away leaving out the part about the fairies and how they stumbled into a tunnel of caves losing their way out.

It was a scripted story closely based on true events. However, Ann planned on spilling the truth to her friends at a later time when everything was settled.

"So in short. We solved a centuries-old mystery. Although I could say the specifics"

The group of people lingering around the Nero mercenaries dispersed at the sight of Kalan returning with Ezra in tow.

The Orion merchants seemed to have a private meeting with Kalan addressing them.

'He's probably explaining about his sudden disappearance'

Right when Ann was about to close her eyes, she was interrupted by an annoyed cough coming from her side.

"Ahem..." Loki reminded her of his presence.

"Tsk..." Ann clicked her tongue.

'Here I was thinking everything had returned to normal'

She sat up and pulled out her new sword from the sheath. After checking that no one other than the Nero mercenaries was near them, she made the belated introductions.

The Nero mercenaries too hadn't missed the unfamiliar voice coming from the direction of her sword.

"Loki, meet the boys. And boys, meet Loki"

"..."

"Nice to meet you, young lads. Also, don't mind her she's always bad at explaining things"

"Did the sword just talk?" Eugene trembled as he pointed at Loki.

The rest of the gang stared at the brand new longsword in her hands. It was their first time, seeing a talking sword.

"You named the sword?" Oliver was the first one to return to his senses.

He vaguely remembered listening to an old fairy tale about the sword of the sword that belonged to the Hero of Orion.

"Loki? What a peculiar name..." Noah added.

Though they were caught by surprise at first, coming from Ann it was nothing new. She had a tendency to attract crazy.

Each of the members showed a different response to the talking sword. While Eugene remained surprised, the twins seemed curious, as Raeden and Jade were uninterested.

"Yeah he was low-key sarcastic so I made it to a name" Ann smiled awkwardly and put down Loki.

One by one, she started narrating the events of the night starting from when she left the camp till teleporting back to the Eldom cliff without leaving any details.

"Hah... Hah..." Ann was out of breath at the point she finished talking.

"Woww...." The twins exclaimed.

All this happened as a result of the small prank, they pulled on Ann.

Recognizing the guilty look on their faces, Ann declared with a sly smile,

"Now that's want happens when you mess with me"











In the snap of a finger, an entire week had run by.

"We finally made it"

*neigh*

Beauty whined excitedly, on hearing Ann's voice.

After traveling for more than a month, the entourage had reached its final destination. The bustling city of Parthellam was brightly illuminated with street lights and vendors occupying every corner of the streets as if it was a festival night.

As for the people, it was a crazy night they would never forget.