CHAPTER 6

SOLLEL, Cira, and Hakken left the town of Ashmire early in the morning in a wagon after readying their provisions for their travel. The three were headed for the Kingdom of Treterra, and according to Hakken, they needed to pass three towns before they reach the City of Ager, the capital of the Kingdom of Treterra. Based on the movement of the wagon, it would be a long journey, but at least, they were safe.

The wooden wagon that Hakken brought had a canopy, so it would be easy for them to rest; it had become Cira's new favorite place to sleep. Hakken and Sollel sat on the front, manning the wagon and reining the horse.

Hakken told Sollel a couple of times to get in the wagon and rest like what Cira was doing, but Sollel declined. She had trust issues, and she didn't trust the hunter. What if he brought them to some unknown place? She had to stay alert.

After staying alert for three days straight, Sollel started to get tired and sleepy, and Hakken could see that. Sollel's head was wobbling while trying to fight her sleepiness, and she would immediately sit up straight after realizing she had fallen asleep.

Hakken sighed. "My lady, you should sleep inside."

"I'm fine. And please stop calling me 'my lady.' I prefer to be called El." Sollel spoke sternly.

"You're 'my lady' to me."

Sollel didn't argue anymore because she was really tired.

"You know, my lady, you have to talk to me if you didn't want to fall asleep," Hakken said with a smile. "You'd been awake for three days. I sometimes wonder what kind of person are you. Even I sleep at night to rest—" Hakken's words halted when he saw his lady's head dropping.

Hakken swiftly caught his lady's head and carefully guided her body to sit upright, waiting for her to wake up. When she didn't, Hakken scooted closer to El—but with a safe and appropriate distance so his lady wouldn't think badly of him—and let his lady's head rest on his shoulder so she could sleep better. Hakken even signaled the horse pulling the wagon to slow down a bit so his lady could comfortably sleep.

Hakken's hold on the horse's rein tightened when he felt his lady beside him scooting closer to him. She felt soft and warm, and she smelled nice. He had to keep taking deep breaths to control himself and focus on the road. This was a long journey, and if this kept up, Hakken was not sure if he could keep his mind sane before reaching Treterra.

Meanwhile, inside the wagon, Cira was not really asleep. She was watching the two on the front and couldn't help smiling seeing Queen Sollel leaning on Hakken. According to the stories, the queens of Yther didn't have lovers because no one was worthy of them.

Cira grinned mischievously and thought, With Hakken's handsome face, strength, and body, he is definitely worthy to be Queen Sollel's first lover. But Cira's smiled slowly disappeared when she remembered how indifferent the queen was toward Hakken. She knew Queen Sollel would never waste her precious time on a man. They had an important mission to do.

I should stop thinking about pairing them, Cira scolded herself. I should focus on my sacred stone research so I can help Queen Sollel.

Taking a deep breath, Cira closed her eyes and went back to sleep, while Hakken continued to suffer from his lady's closeness. He was a very healthy man after all.

***

SOLLEL WOKE up leaning on Hakken's shoulder. It was already night, and the wagon was pulled over meters away from the path to not block other travelers passing through. As Sollel sat up straight, she saw the horse resting, and Cira was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Cira?" Sollel asked as she fixed herself.

Hakken handed her a piece of bread. "She said she needs some personal time."

Sollel accepted. "How long has it been?"

"Half an hour?"

"And you didn't check up on her?" Sollel gave back the bread before jumping down from the wagon.

"I didn't want to leave you," Hakken reasoned, his eyes following Sollel. "And this path is safe. No bandits or beasts."

Sollel didn't listen to Hakken and was about to go after Cira when she felt that familiar draining of her strength.

Moonrite! Sollel staggered back.

"You okay, my lady?"

"I'm fine." Sollel tried to stand straight, but her strength was being drained fast that she couldn't help it when her body swayed and fell on her knees. The empire found us again?

Hakken hurriedly jumped down from the wagon, seeing Sollel fell to the ground, on her knees. "My lady!"

Just when Sollel's strength was down to its last drop, the feeling of her strength being drained disappeared. But before she could recover, she saw Cira come out of the woods, holding the sealing pouch in her hand.

Immediately after Sollel understood what happened, Cira saw Sollel being supported by Hakken.

"Your Highness!" Cira ran to Sollel with worry. "What happened?"

Sollel reached out her hand to tap the sealing pouch as her answer to Cira, and Cira instantly understood what Sollel meant.

"I'm so sorry!" Cira kneeled on the ground in front of Sollel to show her sincerity. "I left the wagon so I could inspect the stone and study it. I thought I was in a safe distance."

Sollel sighed and pulled Cira up. "Stop kneeling. I'm fine."

Cira was still worried. "Are you feeling better now?"

Sollel nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. Go back to the wagon and rest. We will leave early tomorrow."

Cira's shoulders fell as she went back to the wagon and rested, while Sollel took a deep breath and was about to go back to the wagon as well when a piece of bread appeared before her.

"You should eat." It was the same bread Hakken gave her earlier. "And then have a good rest. We're still in the Infernal Empire. This path we're taking to Treterra is not dangerous to travelers. But three days from now, we'll be entering the Kingdom of Treterra and trust me, it'll be a dangerous journey then."

Sollel silently accepted the bread and went back to the wagon's front, while Hakken just shook his head at how indifferent his lady was. Though uncaring as she appeared, she was worried about her companion, Cira.

Looks like my lady has a heart after all. Hakken smiled and went back to the front of the wagon as well and sat beside Sollel with a safe distance.

While eating the bread Hakken gave her, Sollel heard Hakken speak. "Your Highness, huh?"

Sollel halted from biting the bread to glance at Hakken. "Don't mind Cira. I'm no highness."

"All right." Hakken didn't press for more, and Sollel was grateful for that. But he added, "But you're definitely 'my lady,'" annoying Sollel.

"I am not your lady."

Hakken just smiled and started eating his dried meat provision and offered it to Sollel. "Want some, my lady?"

"No, thank you."

Hakken shrugged and continued eating. Then after a while, as the night deepened, they could hear Cira snore from the back of the wagon. Hakken turned to Sollel.

"It's humid even at night. You can rest in the back and take off your cloak." Hakken raised his right hand like he was promising. "Hunter's honor, I won't peak."

"I'm good."

Hakken sighed at El's short answers. "You know, too much heat can make you light-headed."

That phrase actually made Sollel smile inwardly. "I'm okay with heat."

Hakken sighed again. He could feel it; he knew when someone didn't want to talk, and that's the feeling El was giving him. She didn't want to talk, so to respect that, he closed his mouth and just focused on his dried meat.

Hakken was used to silence. He liked silence. But beside his lady, he couldn't seem to shut up. It seemed to him that he enjoyed talking to her even though her answers were short. Her voice was stern but pleasing to his ears.

Hakken sighed at that. Since when did a voice become a reason for his interest? Shaking his head, he leaned on the side of the wagon and closed his eyes.

While Hakken was asleep, Sollel slightly pulled back her hood, just enough to show her face, and glanced at Hakken to study the hunter.

Traveling with Hakken for a few days now, Sollel couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity, as if she had seen this hunter before, though that's impossible because she had been imprisoned half of her life. But his face was indeed familiar, like she had seen it already back in the day. It's one of the reasons she approached him in the guild of hunters.

It's a shame that she couldn't remember all the miniscule details of her life before the siege. Maybe she had seen him before, and the fact that Hakken didn't feel human to her fits her suspicion. That's why she couldn't let her guard down around this hunter like how she did with Cira.

"My lady, if you keep staring at my face, I might blush."

Sollel hastily put her hood on and pretended that she was not staring at the hunter, while the hunter just smiled and went back to resting.

After a while, Sollel got bored being the only one awake. She got off the wagon and started stretching her arms and body, and then she picked up a tree branch from the ground and started practicing her sword skill, pretending that the tree branch was a sword.

Her sword skill had become rusty. If Gatria found out about this, she'd scold her for sure. Out of the four queens of Yther, Gatria was the one who exceled in sword fighting the most. Sollel learned all her sword kills from Gatria to help her have better control of her flame.

Unbeknownst to Sollel, while she was practicing her sword skill, a hunter was subtly watching, admiring her stance and her graceful movement. He was enthralled.

***

"WE'RE ABOUT TO enter the Kingdom of Treterra," Hakken said, like he was warning the two women in the wagon with him. "This is the only path to the town of Belrac, one of the towns we need to pass to get to the City of Ager. It's dangerous, but the shortcuts are more treacherous, so stay alert. We're not stopping to rest at night like we used to these past few days."

Both Sollel and Cira nodded.

"Cira, you should stay inside the wagon," Hakken advised. "A pretty elf like you is a target for slavery."

Sollel's hand inside her cloak clenched. "I thought they only take halflings as slaves."

"In the Infernal Empire, that might be the case, but not in other kingdoms," said Hakken. "They don't really care if you're a halfling or not. As long as you are a 'monster' in their book and can give them a good profit, they will catch you and sell you."

Cira hurriedly went inside the wagon and wrapped herself with a thick cloak.

"Monster." Sollel clenched hand tightened even more. "Define monsters."

"Anything that is not human," Hakken gave it to El straight. "Humans have been a prosperous and supreme race for more than a century now, and to them, if you're not human, then you're categorized as a monster."

Sollel could feel her fist heating up, her blood boiling with rage. "And where do you stand in all of this?"

Hakken glanced at the woman beside him. "My lady, human or not, as long as they have conscience, I'm good with that."

Sollel took a deep breath to control her anger. "The town Belrac...what kind of town is it?"

Hakken was silent for a few seconds before he said, "You should see for yourself, my lady."

Sollel gritted her teeth, and a tensed atmosphere fell on the whole wagon as they entered a forest. After traveling on the plains, this was the first forest they entered, and Sollel immediately sensed danger.

Only a few meters from the forest's entrance, from out of nowhere, a halfling came running in their direction. He was ragged and exhausted, and he was asking for help.

"Help! Help me! Please help me!"

"Stop the wagon," Sollel ordered Hakken.

Hakken was against it. "My lady, this is obviously a trap."

"I know. Just stop the wagon."

Hakken sighed and pulled the horse's rein to make it stop. And the moment they did, from the trees, bandits with burly bodies appeared one after another, blocking their path.

"Great," Hakken muttered with thick sarcasm.

"You did a good job, halfling," the tallest bandit with the burliest body complemented the halfling before smacking the halfling's head. "Now beat it."

The halfling hesitated for a bit before facing the man who smacked his head. "Y-you promised y-you'll give me money if I stopped them."

The bandit laughed, like he was taunting the halfling. "And you believed that?"

"You promised!" The halfling looked like he was ready to cry.

"Well, I lied." The bandit grinned deviously. "What are you going to do about it?"

The halfling knew he didn't have a fighting chance against the Thew Bandits, but he still attacked their leader out of anger and desperation, and as expected, the halfling was beaten up to a pulp.

Sollel's flame was ready to burn the scums in front of her when she felt Hakken jumped down from the wagon. While pulling out the war blades on his back, he asked "What's your order, my lady?"

Seeing Hakken's broad back, his hands both holding war blades, Sollel smiled at how reliable he looked.

"Kill them all, except for the halfling."

Hakken smiled. "By your will, my lady."



CECELIB | C.C.