CHAPTER 84

THE MISS TELEPORTATION

  As Hans looked ahead with ManaVision, he realised that these were not just run-of-the-mill people - each one of them possessed a significant amount of power. Quickly counting, he determined a squad of thirteen, consisting of four mages and the rest were knights. The weakest of them was positioned in the middle, hiding behind the squad like a VIP. However, as Hans increased his focus, he felt that even the weakest one was out of his league.

  Observing the significant power gap, he became more anxious, there was no way he could attack or outrun them if he was a normal mage of two circles that is, but he was special and had a few surprises planned for the approaching party. They were now just a little bit further, well within range of his many Ensnare and SharpDeath spells.

  In addition to the deadly traps they had set, a secret weapon was being formed at a distance. Hans had deliberately slowed its development, but it was taking shape steadily. One thing that perplexed Hans, as to why Rudolf had not shown up yet. He had joked about his grandfather's unreliability many times, but he did not desire it to turn true, at least not when the situation was this uncertain.

  As tension increased he felt time slowing down, calming, he assured himself by believing Rudolf was probably running late and would eventually show up at the right time, like a typical protagonist in a story. Lost in such thoughts, Hans was caught off-guard as the mage who had previously cast FireBolt suddenly interrupted everyone's march, giving a frown to Hans's confident face as a result. They all stopped at an elevated ground, and a knight from the back smiled wickedly at the sight of Delimira and Hans. His eyes were salivating, similar to that of a Batwolf that had just found a herbivore, which gave Hans a shiver in the spine.

  Out of nowhere, the man bellowed, "JACKPOT!" and Hans instinctively took a step back, pulling Delimira closer to him as he shouted, "Shit, these people are perverts." He tightened his grip on her hand as another vine coiled around his leg, ready to fling them away. However, the reaction of the escorting group was peculiar as they suddenly burst into laughter, clutching their stomachs, at the knight who had been named 'pervert' by Hans.

  The man in the centre lifted his sheathed sword slightly, pounded the ground with force, and shouted, "Silence!" The resulting roar was similar to that of the Ursa Major, but several times more powerful. Despite not being even a Dominion Knight, he still had the aura of grade seventy or higher. And as a result, the shockwave unearthed all of Hans's traps, buried in their path. And it was not all, the vine coiling around Hans's leg and his secret weapon, the crying seed, were both destroyed and swept away amidst the foliage and snow.

Witnessing the aggression of their leader, another knight stepped forward, attempting to appease the old man. "Take it easy, sir," he said, "these are just kids."

  However, the elderly man, despite his advanced age, possessed immense power and had shown it first-hand. He raised his hand to smack the knight as if scolding a disobedient child and then glanced at Hans momentarily before addressing his foolish subordinate,

"That kid was planning to take off your head, fool. Never underestimate royal blood. They're made differently."

  As the old man continued scolding his knight, Delimira had a sudden realisation as she recognised the white cloaks that everyone was wearing. It was very bad news, not only for them but for the peaceful world of Genas as well. Seeing her stunned expression, Hans whispered to her with an awkward laugh mixed in.

"Winters, we're dead..."

  Right as Delimira was going to disclose to Hans the identities of the individuals dressed in white cloaks, the group suddenly vanished and popped in front of them. They were too near to Hans to form a crying seed again. Resigning to his fate and expecting the worst, he sighed, but to his surprise, the man in the centre of the group knelt before him and exclaimed,

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you, your majesty, Prince Hans!"

The rest of the group joined in, shouting in unison,

"Your Majesty Prince Hans!!!"

SEVERAL HOURS BEFORE AT CONCORDIA

After sending the kids through the SpaceDoor, Aredhel turned to Rudolf and asked in concern,

"When are you leaving?"

"In a bit," Rudolf replied with a gruff voice. "I sent the kids to a place near the beast zone so they could be ready for the survival exercise that I've prepared first."

Just then, a woman approached them. Rudolf turned towards her and asked,

"What?"

"Nothing, sir. There was an urgent letter for you, scheduled to be delivered only after you sent the kids. I'm just here to give it to you," the woman explained.

Rudolf had a bad feeling about the letter as he opened it while glancing at the SpaceDoor. He read:

> Dear Alastor,

>

> I am taking the prince with me as there are assassins in Dead Gorge. I'm not sure whom they came for, but you should go their first. It looks like the world needs to know who they are messing with. I promise to return them safe and sound in the name of my late king.

>

> Arart of Parv.

Rudolf crumpled the letter in anger and grabbed the collar of the SpaceDoor manager. He demanded, "Where did you send the kids?" But as the manager investigate, the SpaceDoor showed the destination as UNKNOWN.

  In a fit of rage, Rudolf almost beat the manager to death. Aredhel was on her knees, regretting ever getting involved with Rudolf. She had hoped her daughter to grow in his shadow peacefully, but the opposite had happened. It had only been a single day, and her daughter was already in the hands of the Parvians.

Rudolf's communication orb lit up, and he heard a very annoying voice.

"Hey, Alastor!! MY FRIEND, how are you doing? So when are you coming?"

Rudolf gritted his teeth in anger."Dijkstra" he responded with a word that he did not want to utter.

The man laughed at the other side and replied,

"Oh, I felt elated hearing your voice, but what's with the lousy tone of yours, Come fast, or else I'll kill all these bastards, and you will never know which of your kid was the target."

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"Where are the kids?" Rudolf shouted at the orb

Bleep...

"Fucking, bastard always cut off in the middle" Rudolf grumbled as the channel closed abruptly, and he almost broke the orb in anger. Calming himself with deep breaths, just as he always did when talking to Dijkstra like an anger management routine. When his nerves were somewhat calmed, he turned to Aredhel who was still in distress and comforted her by saying, "Arat is a man of his word, and he will return them safely."

Aredhel remained in shock, and she did not respond. Rudolf had to raise his voice to snap her out of it,

"For god sake, get a grip woman. You need to find out who is responsible for this."

Aredhel finally responded, saying,

"Somebody... on our side must have leaked the children's itinerary. I'll...I will investigate and find out who sold the information."

"I will go with you," added Sierra supporting her up and detaining the woman who delivered the letter. She then turned to Rudolf, "It looks like your friend is waiting at the Dead Gorge," she said, "make sure you at least capture one before he kills them all."

Rudolf turned to the manager, and shouted,

"Set it to the Dead Gorge and do it correctly this time."

CURRENT TIME AT FROZEN TOOTH

  Hans felt uneasy about the silence. The powerful people in front of him were all kneeling, and he thought in relief the outcome was way better than he was expecting. While he was staring with his mouth open and thoughts running wild, Delimira nudged him, prompting him to speak up. Hans came to his sense and asked while remaining cautious.

"May I know who you are?"

The oldest man who knelt first inquired in response,

"Can I stand first my prince, you see I have bad knees."

Hans thought, who in the world with the bad knees could use Aura burst so wild, but the beckoning and expecting eyes of the kneeling person begged for a response. "Yes, please do," he replied awkwardly.

  The man stood up, brushing off the snow from his right leg and as he stood the rest followed the suit. He removed his hood and wiped his white robe clean. There was a shining golden coat of arms on it, depicting a Gryphon (Griffin) with a sword.

  It was the emblem of Parv and as soon as Hans recognised the emblem, his doubts were confirmed. This was his first time meeting someone from Parv. Sierra had already informed him that Parv would soon realise his presence in Genas and will approach him. However, she also mentioned that there were two factions in Parv: those who supported the monarchy and wanted the royal family to regain power, and those who supported the new democratic laws and opposed the monarchy.

  Hans had a feeling that these people were supporters of the monarchy as they were behaving, but he wasn't sure and was not going to let his guard down like a fool. The daylight had already faded, and the moon was making the snowy forest even colder. He needed a place to rest but these people were nothing but variables. He carefully examined the man's face, and he was surprised by what he saw. He was expecting a man similar age to Rudolf, but instead, he saw a wrinkled face of an elderly man who appeared to be in his eighties, however, that very man exuded a vitality in contrast to his age.

The man finally introduced himself,

"I am Arat, the prime minister and current ruler of Parv."

"What do you want with me, prime minister?" asked Hans at point blank.

Arat shook his head, appearing relaxed, and wanting Hans to do the same as he said,

"Don't worry, my prince. We didn't come here for you."

Hans covered Delimira even more, "She ain't going nowhere." he declared raising his voice.

Arat smiled and replied,

"Don't worry, my prince. We didn't come for her either"

  Hans was bewildered and wondered what was the purpose of this meeting and Arat cleared his confusion, stating, "You see, my prince, you were not supposed to come here either. I received information that assassins were in Dead Gorge". He paused to take a look at his listener and added, "So I simply hijacked the SpaceDoor to get you out of there."

Hans interrupted, surprised,

"You can do that?"

"Of course, we can. We are from Parv". replied Arat, smiling proudly.

  Upon hearing this, Hans felt a surge of pride. Earlier, Dietrich had dispelled his doubts and he had come to accept that he was a member of Parv's royalty, regardless of the reasons or methods involved. Now, hearing Arat speak of these events with such nonchalance, Hans felt that same sense of pride. Despite being labelled as a defeated and divided nation, Parv had once stood tall, taller than everyone else in terms of mana technology.

  As Arat continued, Hans came back from his thoughts "Anyway," Arat said, "I was supposed to send you back to your county, but I couldn't resist meeting you in person. I'm sorry for that," he added, though his body language strongly denied any apology.

Hans caught that and replied sharply,

"Well, you certainly have a unique way of showing someone you miss them, Prime Minister Arat. You threw me into a four-star beast zone."

  Arat felt awkward. No one, not even this young prince's father, had ever spoken to him in such a manner before. The rest of the escort were agape, witnessing Arat being rendered speechless. It was a rare occurrence indeed.

"My apologies for the trouble, my prince," Arat said, still feeling embarrassed. "We were already here, and your descent point suddenly got surrounded by Evil monkeys, so we had to lure them out. Sorry for the inconvenience." This time, he genuinely meant those words.

  Hans chose not to argue, realizing that being dropped into a group of Evil monkeys would have been a cruel and terrifying way to go out. Arat looked at both children and reached into his spatial storage to retrieve some winter wear. Delimira was familiar with this device and its rarity. It was so scarce that only a select few well-known individuals possessed it. The rest of the world relied on space compression to make objects smaller and fit them into their pockets, but this technology was something entirely different.

  Even the clothes shrank to fit their wearers. Parv's advanced mana technology was being demonstrated by Arat, and he felt a sense of pride looking at Hans, who was covered in Parvian insignia and the rest of the escort shared the same feeling.

  Arat commanded his escorts to warm up the frozen cave of Ursas, and the knight who had been labelled a pervert, ignited the cave from within with his fire aura, while his colleagues continued to tease him with his new monicker awarded to him by the royalty.

  As the cave became somewhat decent and warmer than the frigid outside, Arat escorted the children in and ordered his people to prepare warm food for the children. Soon they were sitting with hot bowls of soup, a standard military ration, surrounded by warm clothing and a comfortable environment. It would have felt like heaven if it weren't for the fact that these luxuries were given to them by powerful people with unclear intentions.

Hans began eating the soup without hesitation, and once he confirmed it was safe, Delimira followed suit. However, Arat interrupted Hans, "Were you not taught that eating food given by strangers might turn into something bad?" he asked with some concern.

Hans retorted sarcastically,

"Just like how you were not taught that kidnapping someone just because you want to see them is bad too."

Arat was once again at a loss for words, not because he was incapable of countering a child in a word game, but because he chose not to. He smiled slightly and commented,

"You have a sharp tongue like your father."

There was a reason for Hans to suddenly have the courage to retort, these people did not mean harm at least not until whatever their objectives were achieved So He finished his soup and turned to Arat, his eyes sharp and serious, similar to the chilling environment outside. He asked,

"So who is aiming for my head?"

***