Bova quickly regretted going back on the decision. She suddenly felt a soft sensation enshroud her face.

Silvana stretched out her hand, grabbing onto the girl as though it was nothing. Covered by her long, dark robe, her legs exerted their physical prowess.

The wolfkin girl experienced something she hadn’t before. The sudden acceleration caught her off-guard, but it was stopped as quickly as it began.

Silvana crashed her head against a tree she aimed at, creating a dent before the tree eventually collapsed. Fainting for a few moments, Bova quickly regained her consciousness before stabbing into the gril’s arm, only for it be blocked off by the regenerative mana shield.

With her usual, cold blue eyes, she threw the girl in the air. Before she could do anything, Bova felt her stomach concave and squirm in pain.

Flying through the forest, she only stopped once another tree stopped her.

Having trouble collecting herself together, only after a while did she finally raise her head, just to see a beam of mana going right at her face.

With her job finished, she suddenly turned her head to the sounds coming deeper from the woods.

“PLEASE! Don’t kill me! I’m sorry!”

The wolfkin with black hair begged while kneeling on the ground, blood covering his head. Beside him, a detached left arm of his lay on the ground, a small puddle of crimson fluid under it.

In a flash, Juliette’s body disappeared before reappearing behind him.

Not even taking a look at the head that rolled on the ground, Juliette walked away with a simple sentence.

“You should be lucky I killed you off so quickly.”

Leaving the corpse of the slave hunter, she noticed something in the middle of the woods before speaking out loudly.

“Silvana? Did you just finish?”

“We should go and help Conall.”

With a nod, she replied. Her statement lit something inside Juliette, who was already gone with the wind.

However, as she made her way towards the duo a few tens of meters away, she noticed something peculiar that made her stop for a couple of seconds.

A beastman and a human were fighting. Someone with a naturally stronger physicality against a human's mediocre muscles. A Grade B versus Grade C. The winner was obvious from the get-go, but, somehow, it wasn’t so when you actually watched the battle.

Attacking with full speed and power, the wolfkin missed and continued his strikes, following the human. Ten or so attacks were made, yet nothing landed, to the frustration of the beastman.

A swing, slash, jab, and a kick were done consecutively in about a second, but the human boy dodged it with ease, even adding attacks in certain moments.

Shocked by what she had witnessed, a sudden thought occured in her head. Maybe Conall wasn’t lying to her back then, after all.

Suddenly, blue chains erupted from the ground, binding the caught off-guard wolfkin.

At the same time, Juliette awkwardly remembered why she came here in the first place. Sending out a slash of aura at the slave hunter, she walked towards Conall with Silvana, the one who reminded her a second ago.

Sitting on one of the tree roots on the ground, he breathed harshly, heavily, and with some blood starting to appear where he sweated, an aftermath of using everything his body had to offer.

“Thanks, I don’t know If I could have held on any longer.”

“Let’s go back to the camp, I need my sleep back.”

Juliette said, but Conall denied. There was something they had to do before that.

“Sure, after we get the loot. I can strip the men if you’re uncomfortable.”

“I will break into their inventory ring. I saw the boss had one.”

Juliette’s tired eyes lit up all of a sudden, like a kid ready to open birthday presents.

After a bit more than ten minutes, all of them gathered at the campsite, with everything valuable collected. As Conall judged earlier, the slave hunters and their hunts were quite popular, their equipment reflecting it.

Although of the two Grade B, only Bova’s daggers were enchanted, the boss had every piece of his equipment done. Tossing the valuable stuff in his ring, they burned the rest in the fire.

However, the main course was still to be delivered. Just as Conall finished inspecting the armor and weapons, Silvana’s voice reached them.

“I’m done.”

Saying that, she emptied all of the contents on the empty grass beside them.

There were no coins or any treasures of the sort, though if there were, all of them would be disappointed. Hundreds of small and medium beast crystals poured out from the ring, creating a small pile. Riddled in them were random swords and weapons that didn’t have any inscriptions or enchantments on them.

Potions and pills were scattered around, though they as well weren’t of much value.

The most important things lay on the very top of the crystals. Tens of papers, rolled up and tied with a black string. Along with them, there was one book that had a hardcover. Being engraved with intricate and ornate lines, it wasn’t a normal novel to pass time.

The book gave off slight presence and all of them knew exactly what they were.

“I guess we lucked out. Juliette, can you pour your aura inside it?”

“Sure.”

Hearing him out, she did what he asked for, making the book seemingly normal once again. It was as though it had returned to its original state. Also, they could now open it since the soul bind wasn’t there anymore.

Seeing him skim through the Skill Tome, Silvana asked.

“What type is it?”

“It’s an avatar skill coming from the royalty of Vyscarr. I was hoping we could sell it, but now we can’t do anything.”

That didn't mean it had no issues. It was actually quite the opposite.

“I see. It’s better if we don’t enrage them, even if we sell it anonymously.”

Dismissing the skill, they turned to the scrolled up paper. Juliette stretched out her hand to touch one, however, Conall quickly grabbed her.

“They’re slave contracts. They will disperse the moment you touch them since the owner is dead. Let’s just leave them for now.”

“I had no idea, sorry.”

Juliette apologised, but he of course wasn’t offended by her actions.

“Don’t be, It’s just a precautious measure.”

Allowing Silvana to gently store the scrolls in her own ring using mana, Juliette took care of the potions and pills using her blood to operate her inventory, which was too small for a Grade A like her.

After taking care of the mess, they went back to the tents, leaving Silvana with watching over the forest while they slept.

…

Juliette felt the soft, dense grass tickle her body as she played around in it. Sitting under the large tree, in the shadow, they had just stepped into the beginning of the mountains’ base. After walking for a few hours, they decided to stop here for a while.

With a smile on her face, the silver-haired girl moved her arms around to feel the gentleness of the managrass. With a dreamy expression still lingering on her face, she heard Conall walk up to her.

Giving her a hand, she grabbed it before being brought to her feet.

“Are we going already?”

On top of a nod, he added.

“We rested for ten minutes already and we have to start searching as soon as we can.”

“I know, but the grass here is so nice.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

With a pitiful look, she complained, making him wear a helpless smile.

Without further a do, they began walking closer to the mountains, slowly but surely. On the way, they began seeing more and more blue, pine-like trees, which prompted them to cut some down for firewood.

Conall knew where the dragonheart was, which was a few days worth of a journey through the mountains because of the inability of flight here. However, it didn’t discourage him in any way. The bluish-purple contrast that the mountains created along with the bright sun made up some of the most breathtaking sceneries he had seen in Hestrea.

Although it took them a while, their party finally reached an enormous lake where the Lohi river stopped flowing. In front of them, separating the two tall masses of land, a large, open space valley could be seen, the stream of water right in the middle.

Through the sky, as well as on the land, countless dragons roamed around the place, though most of them were of the lower grade. They were basically only offspring of the real dragons that occupied the mountain peaks covered in snow.

Nonetheless, it was a bizarre sight compared to the daily life of the academy, well portrayed by Juliette’s reactions.

“Whoaaaaa! I’ve never a dragon as tiny as this.”

She pointed at a Grade C dragon whelp whose scales hadn’t even hardened properly yet. Flying across the small river, it tried to catch any fish that made its way through the mountain range.

Chasing a certain fast fish along the river, it quickly made its way towards the large lake surrounded by pine trees, only for the Grade B fish to jump up and make the dragon lose its balance.

Just like that, the dragon baby fell inside the cold waters, flopping its weak wings around to try and go out, all for naught.

Juliette wanted to quickly go and help the relatively small creature, but she was promptly stopped by the witch.

She was about to ask what that was about, however, they quickly witnessed something around the whelp’s body.

A blue glow surrounded it and the dragon was immediately being lifted up into the air, away from the dangerous fish. Feeling safe all of a sudden, the baby puffed its cheeks up in arrogance before breathing smoke with embers at the lake.

Before anything further could happen, though, the baby was dragged back by something to the back of the valley.

“What was that?”

Juliette asked and Silvana replied.

“A dragon helping its child.”

“Ah!”

Juliette quickly realized something. The dragons were hailed as innate mana masters, and she could see why that was.

Moving further up the valley, they walked with the creatures near them. Since they weren’t hostile unless they felt killing intent, the dragons didn’t do anything to them.

In fact, they curiously stared at the humans while flying around the mountains to cool themselves off.

Obviously, all three of them knew better than to enrage any of the dragons. Once one of them started attacking, they could do nothing but run. If they hurt, not to mention killed a dragon, the rest would come in flocks to retaliate.

If they wanted to do it, they would have to do so discreetly, yet there seemed no place like that in these mountains, where there was a dragon on every corner.

Luckily, the dragonheart was located somewhere advantageous for them.

In the day, they did nothing but move, camping near the river at night to refill their stomachs and refresh their minds.

After two days, Conall told them that it was time to venture into the heart of the mountains, where mostly the rocky terrain was, as well as a smaller amount of dragons.

However, in exchange for their numbers, Grade A dragons began appearing. Sometimes, when they walked along the ridge to reach the other side of the range, they saw them.

High up in the sky, they could see gigantic creatures flying around in circles a few times before descending down onto their respective mountain peaks.

Nonetheless, they walked for another two days, the girls spectating if any of the dragons they met used possible skills.

There were many candidates in their minds, but Conall addressed to them that it was just normal, advanced draconic magic.

Finally, in the high, cold air, Conall noticed a specific lair.

Up from above, it looked as if nothing was there, just a large, black tree with red and yellow leaves that drooped down like a willow.

“Dragonberry Tree.”

Juliette said while holding onto her hood. Although she didn’t have any issues standing in the harsh wind, it was still cold standing so high above the ground level.

Looking at the tree hundreds of meters away from them, her eyes looked excited. The tree itself was hard to find, while obtaining the berry was almost an impossible task.

“It’s here.”

Conall suddenly said, catching the attention of the two girls.

“What is?”

Silvana asked, looking at the area he was scouring.

It was a simple, sole dragonberry willow, which was in itself weird.

“Ah! I see it.”

Juliette exclaimed while pouring aura into her eyes. Seeing that, the witch herself poured some of her weak spiritual energy to enhance her vision.

On top of the tree, or rather, lay on the leaves and blending in with them, the dragon slept calmly, awaiting if any dragon was willing to steal its precious fruits.

Immediately, she, along with Juliette, understood that the monster before them was the mythical dragonheart.

They both turned to the boy, who was smiling lightly to himself.

“All we have to do now is go down and lure him to a secluded place.”

Changing their glance between him and the Grade B dragon, they nodded and started their descent. Finding a relatively safe route wasn’t hard, however, to get down onto the ground, it still took them a few hours, just in time for the sun to start setting.

Though they got to ground level in time, they were stil a couple of kilometers away from the tree and the dragon. But, Conall didn’t stress about it since the monster wouldn’t just let go of the precious berries that enhanced its mana.

Finding a place that protected them from the wind, they set up their tents and started a fire before grilling two large fish they got from the river at the valley. Since his ring stopped the flow of time, he stored a few of them for later.

Eating their fill, midnight was just around the corner. This time, it was Conall and Juliette who had remained by the campfire. The witch girl hasn’t slept in at least five days, so she herself finally asked for some sleep time.

Juliette happily took the job of watching over them because she could finally train with her new sword after a few days of a break.

She already felt it back when the slave hunters attacked them, but the sword was exceptionally well fit in her hand, almost as though it was designed specifically for her and her only.

Still, while she thought about the sword, something clouded her mind, ever since the dreadful assassin came after her. Sitting opposite to Conall, who was performing his daily physical training, she continued to stare at him for who knew how long.

Watching as his muscles tensed and relaxed while he did push-ups with a heavy stone on top of him, she didn’t know why, but she couldn’t look away.

The only thing that brought her back to reality was his sudden stop of actions as he pulled out a towel from his ring and dried the scarred body of his.

Getting some water from the inventory, he washed his dirty red hair before also drying it.

Putting the uniform back on himself, he suddenly felt satisfied as it did its job as an enchanted equipment and cleaned him.

Juliette witnessed as he stared at her confusedly, putting on the robe awkwardly.

“What’s the matter?”

He asked, making her flustered. Panicking slightly, her cheeks turned rosey.

“N-no, it’s nothing.”

“Is that so? Alright.”

He said before sitting on one of the tree logs and waiting as the campfire completely dried his hair. Seeing as she wanted to say something, he calmly waited for her, even if it meant he wouldn’t get sleep today.

Still, it wasn’t long before she finally battled her cowardice.

Juliette raised her lowered head and stared at him and his yellow eyes. Not speaking for a while because of a certain image overlapping with his face, she hesitated, though eventually opened her lips.

“You know, being the only public daughter, there's many hateful people out there. Actually, I was even attacked before the academy year began. It was an assassin from the empire, a Grade Ex. Whenever he attacked, I was sure that day was going to be the end, especially when he broke my sword.”

As she recalled the attacks, her body shook in fright, nervousness intertwinning through it.

“I was meant to die.”

Said her wide eyes, realizing the fearsome truth she didn’t want to face up to this point, always thinking about something else.

Fire reflected in them as she watched the campfire. Juliette didn’t know anymore. If she should be dead right now, if this was the right course of actions, her being alive.

“However, just when I lost myself, something interfered. Someone saved me from the assassin. For the longest time, I thought that it was a magical fairy that came.”

Conall stared at her with a calm face as she giggled at herself.

“Thank you, Conall, for saving me.”

She looked straight at him, a sincere smile on her face. As though it was contagious, he couldn’t help but lightly smile as well.

“You’re welcome.”

“But, I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that you were able to save me. How did you do it, against that assassin?”

She asked, a foggy memory rippling in her head. The last thing she remembered before the fairy was her being sent backwards by the assassin.

“I killed him.”

Her eyes widened somewhat, not believing what he spouted, yet knowing that it was the only way.

“How?”

Rummaging through his ring inventory with aura, which was also always confusing her, he took two empty potion flasks. Well, to call them potions was like calling a Grade Ex Grade C.

They were extravagant flasks filled with trace remnants of elixirs.

Throwing them, he quickly explained, to which she almost dropped them from the shock she experienced.

“The one with a red hue to it is the Elixir of Power, while the white hue is the Elixir of Concealment. I wouldn’t be able to save you without those two.”

He said with indifference filling his voice, as though it was nothing but scrap, but what she was holding her hands was something more precious than anything in the whole world. At least to the eyes of public, there was no recorded use of an Elixir for decades long.

For two to suddenly appear, her mind clustered up.

“Where did you get this?”

With a quick finger at his lips, he replied.

“That’s a secret.”

Then, she quickly realized something. He used two of the most precious things one could encounter. On her life.

“Why? To waste such a-”

“Waste? I didn’t waste it, though?”

With a confused look, he stood up, coming closer to Juliette. She herself also looked confused, especially at the outstretched hand.

“How long are you going to keep me waiting?”

“Ah!”