Chapter 5

*Tok tok tok* “Alice!”

Brushing my long blonde hair, I was interrupted from a trance induced by the brushing by a knock that came to the door.

I looked through the peephole of the door.

“Come in Rachel” I told the person on the other side of the door to come in.

Rachel and I were friends since we were kids and have been together ever since.

In my eyes, Rachel is the prettiest person I’ve seen. she is so much more beautiful than I, or even any of those in nobility.

Her silky black hair that goes all the way down to the middle of her back is tied in a very neat ponytail like always.

Her small 4’9” body makes her look so cute wearing her shirt topped with a leather coat and her pants. Her pretty face and amber eyes just mesmerizes me. While I do think she’s very appealing, I don’t have any feelings towards her as I would have for the opposite sex.

“You look so cute as always Rachel!” I walked up to her and gave her a big hug, like how one would cuddle a life-sized stuffed animal.

She tried to push me away from her. “C-calm down!” At her words I stopped trying to cuddle her.

“Guess what?” she asks me. Knowing her, I’m pretty sure it has something to do with Magic. Ever since we were saved by a Magician from a pack of wolves, she’s been dedicated to learning more about Magic. Although, I haven’t been really interested in it.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I was able to conjure two fireballs!”

“Ooooh! That’s amazing!” I was genuinely glad for her, as she has been trying for months to do what she just did.

*Tok, tok, tok* Another knock came to the door. I went a peeked through a hole through the wooden door that acts as a peephole.

I peeked and saw it was a figure that I knew, it was an old man wearing white robes. It was the Sage named Daniel.

I opened the door to inquire what he wants. “What is it?”

“Ah! Alice, quickly, you must hide.” He came into the house and beckoned for both me and Rachel to come to him.

“Don’t tell me it’s him again…” I had a feeling it was about this.

“Yes, Prince Hector still wants to have you as his concubine.” Daniel drooped his head. Daniel worked with the Lord of the city as his Sage. The Lord and his family rules this city, and their influence stretches as far as the corners of the continent. All of the places where their power reaches out are suffering from poverty as these “Lords” rules with fear, corruption and violence.

“So, what do you want to do?” The Sage named Daniel looked at me as he asked the question.

Unknown to my knowledge, I had apparently attracted the attention of the King of the country’s son. This prince’s family is corrupt, cruel and malicious. His… “courtship” has been going on for about three weeks and since then our household has been harassed, subjected to attempted bribery, blackmailed and at some point I was almost kidnapped.

We wanted to get away but the whole continent of Listeria is entirely under the Lord’s control, and getting to another continent is another thing entirely as we are just commoners.

“It would be nice if I can hide out somewhere for the time being.” I said aloud my thoughts.

“But where…? This country’s Lord served the Emperor of the world. He can easily use his connections to find you.” Rachel stated as if saying there’s nowhere safe to hide from the prince’s bastard family.

“I know a place out of the continent.” Rachel and I just turned to looked at Daniel who told us this information.

“Why didn’t you tell us this…? Our family could’ve gotten out of this predicament already…”

“Well… The place isn’t exactly safe, there are huge powerful beasts prowling the whole continent even more so at night time, I’m also not sure if my friend over there will be there.” Daniel spoke. “Also I can’t cast Teleport so often, I can only teleport twice a day, I can only take two people with me at a time and it will also take me about eight hours to cast the spell again.”

“I guess it can’t be helped.” A sigh and a shrug escaped me.

Rachel spoke up “Wait, you said it’s prowling with powerful beasts. You can protect us from them… Right?”

“Umm… I know a place that they avoid. We just need to get there.” Daniel averted his eyes from Rachel. I’m guessing he has no confidence about the topic.

“Hey, you didn’t answer my question.”

“Unfortunately… I’m too weak to kill these beasts.” Daniel confessed.

“Then why are we going there in the first place??” Rachel asked him for an answer.

“Well… It’s either that or a life with the oppressing Prince.”

There was no need to think about it. I refuse to go with that perverted lowly bastard. Just thinking about being with that guy for even a second sends shivers down my spine.

How in the world did he even got attracted at me?

“Let’s go, you said you have a friend there right?”

“Yes, I can contact him once we get there. If I can’t we’ll just have to run there.”

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“Are you sure about this Alice?” Rachel asked me as I was getting my clothes for the day.

“Of course, I refuse to be with that bastard.”

“If you say so…” Rachel hung her head and sighed. “I’m ready whenever.”

I went inside my room, there, I changed into pants that are comfortable to move with and a shirt. I went out of the closet fully dressed. “Ok, I’m ready.”

Daniel held out his hands. “Hold my hand. I’ll start the spell.”

Me and Rachel both held his hand and prepared for the spell to activate.

“Wait!” I interrupted Daniel and he broke the spell.

“What is it?” He asked dumbfounded.

“Send a telepathic message to my Dad first. Tell him we’ll be gone for the day.”

Daniel closed his eyes, focusing on the message, then “He says good move.”

I smiled. “Ok, now you can teleport us to this place.”

Once again, we held his hand and he started casting the teleport spell.

Even though Daniel works for the corrupt Lord, he is far different from them. What the Lord corrupts in his wake, Daniel tries to help those caught up in it.

A moment later, the scenery around us changed little by little into that of a forest with tall and beautiful lush trees with the sun’s rays barely touching the ground.

“Wow…” Me and Rachel both were awed; we haven’t seen anything like that. In fact, there’s no place in the continent of Listeria that was like this.

“Don’t let it fool you. The beasts here can kill you just by breathing.”

His statement snapped us back into focus. I was skeptic at him, surely that’s not possible.

“Hold on, I’ll try to communicate with him right now.” We waited for him for a while until he finally turned around back to us. “He said he will be here in a little bit. He has some business to attend to. For now, let’s just hide.”

We nodded agreeing with him. Not long after we hid in a bush, we started feeling tremors which were getting more and more intense.

“Um… What is that?” I turned to Daniel who was covering his mouth.

“Don’t make a sound” He said with a low whisper.

I nodded and looked around for the source.

After a while, Rachel gasped which made me turn to where she was looking. What I saw was a huge animal the size of a small house, it had big fat legs and spikes on its back. My eyes widened and held my mouth to not make a sound.

From my side I can feel Daniel shaking profusely. ~ With all that shaking, you’ll give away our position! ~ I thought as I looked at him.

It was then that a man had appeared in front of the beast. The man who was slightly taller than I was wearing a yellow shirt and brown pants. The beast was startled and tried to attack the man, the beast tried to use a sweeping motion to attack the man but before its claws could reach, the beast suddenly plopped on the ground with so much force that it created an outline of the beast on the ground.

The man then walked up to the beast and rubbed its head as one would rub a pet. The beast was then able to get up and ran off from where it came from.

“It’s safe now guys!” He shouted, I’m assuming he’s talking to us. Daniel then stood up and walked towards him.

“Thank you Chris, you saved me again.” Rachel and I stood up from our hiding spot as Daniel talked to the man named Chris.

“Hey old man, didn’t I tell you how to invoke Magic more efficiently…”

“Uh… yeah…”

“Don’t ‘uh yeah’ me, I saw you were trying to cast a spell, it was such a weak Fireball too. I taught you how to invoke more powerful spells.”

“I was scared!” retorted Daniel.

“A Magician needs to be calm. Or else he will not be able to cast spells efficiently. You know this…”

“Ugh…” Daniel lost the argument and started to scratch the back of his head.

This man was at least as old as Rachel and I, but he was already able to surpass Daniel in terms of Magic, which Daniel dedicated most of his life to.

“Well then, you’re getting remedial lessons.” Chris turned around. “Also… You didn’t say you were bringing guests. What if they died because of your weakness…?”

The man named Chris walked towards us and held out his hand.

“I’m Chris, as you may have heard before from this old man. I’m also his teacher.”

“I’m Alice, and this is Rachel. Thank you for saving us from the beast.” Rachel and I bowed our heads in gratitude. I also spoke for Rachel who is shy towards strangers.

“Oh, no, no, that beast was harmless unless provoked. Probably just wanted to play around.”

“Hmm? Why did it attack you though?” Daniel inquired.

“Ah, he was probably just startled since I just appeared out of nowhere in front of him.” He explained as he casted a look of mockery at Daniel. “Come, we might not be lucky enough to meet another harmless beast.”

And with that, he gestured for us to follow him.