Chapter 31 - Another Way to use [Shadow Stride]
POV: Merilien
After dad and Haliel left with the knight that suddenly came through the door, only me, Gelion and mom were left.
Looking at both of us for a while mom finally sighed deeply and opened her mouth.
“Huff. I didn’t want to do this but looks like I have no other choice…” [Eril]
“What do you mean mom?” [Merilien]
Mom squatted down before she continued talking.
“I don’t think I can stay with your dad anymore honey… remember that I was already married to another man before I married your dad?” [Eril]
“You mean that human you were talking about when Haliel first came?” [Merilien]
“Yeah…” [Eril]
“Why can’t you stay with dad? I mean that human’s dead right? Then why are you leaving?!” [Merilien]
“... because I actually loved him while I was forced to marry Rinor.” [Eril]
“What about us? Do you care about us?” [Merilien]
“H-hey Merilien, d-don’t yell at mom…” [Gelion]
“Don’t you want to know if she loves us?” [Merilien]
“...” [Gelion]
“Of course I do, it’s why it’s hard to tell you this. I love you two, but I don’t love Rinor. I’ve been with him for too long and have yet to apologize to Alan for leaving him alone to take care of Haliel.” [Eril]
“So it’s all because of Haliel? Why do you love that half blood so much!?” [Merilien]
“Merilien you’re being mean….” [Gelion]
“Because she’s also my daughter. How would you feel if you I was never around to take care of you your whole life?” [Eril]
“W-well, I wouldn’t like it…” [Merilien]
“So, how would Haliel feel? We were apart for ten years, that’s exactly how old she is right now. She didn’t have a mom for ten years, and her dad…” [Eril]
“She was just a baby anyways, she probably wouldn’t even have known you if her pet bird wasn’t with her… but me, I know you’re leaving me… why?” [Merilien]
“... Do you really hate your sister that much?” [Eril]
“I do! She came out of nowhere and took everything I owned from me, and now she’s taking you too! I hate her!” [Merilien]
I finally spoke out what I had been holding in for a long time now and tears started dripping down my cheeks.
Not being able to handle it anymore, I ran out of the door and as I did, I saw that Haliel had come back.
“I hate you! Why did you even come!?” [Merilien]
___________________________________________________
POV: Haliel
I woke up early this morning, before the sun even started to rise, and put on my adventure attire before heading out to the gates.
When I got there Blaze and the others were also there, including mom, who was talking to Yoichi.
“I’ll be going with you [Hero] Yoichi.” [Eril]
“Huh? But you don’t have to Empress Eril, this was something ordered by King Grevis for me and my men only.” [Yoichi]
“I already know Yoichi, that my husband was the one you’ll be fighting. At least let me send him off…” [Eril]
“...” [Yoichi]
“I’ll be going too Yoichi.”
Saying so I gave a firm look at Yoichi to show that I was going, whether he agrees to it or not.
Looking at both me and my mom, he sighed after a while and spoke.
“Huff. Does Rinor know about this?” [Yoichi]
“He does.” [Eril]
“Does he approve?” [Yoichi]
“He’ll think of an excuse.” [Eril]
‘God, this… Huff, looks like I have no other choice… Seriously these two mother and daughter.’ [Yoichi]
“Fine, please just don’t do anything rash. I’d hate to be blamed if something happens to members of the Royal family.” [Yoichi]
After some complication with the guards at the gates, we finally started our journey to the other [Hero], Symond.
With only about twenty other people with us, Yoichi decided to go right through the Elisven Forest and meet the rest of his men at the city Glaciem near the Frostshield Mountain ranges.
The reason why he isn’t meeting up with his men earlier is that the delay would be too long and they needed to stop the Shade as soon as possible, leaving the only option to travel separately till Glaciem.
While we were walking, I could feel everyone looking at mom and the ones that were even more surprised were Laurel and the others.
They never expected the Elven Empress to actually leave the palace by herself to fight the shades.
Blaze on the other hand was nonchalantly talking with mom and talking about the past when they were adventuring together.
“Who knew Empress Eril would actually come with you Princess.” [Laurel]
“I can’t believe it either, for her to not be in a dress. Empress still looks so beautiful even in adventure clothings though.” [Alissa]
“I did hear that she pretty strong too. Guess we’ll have to wait and see about that.” [Nym]
I listened to the chat that was going on between Alissa, Laurel, and Nym for a while when mom suddenly called me over.
“Haliel, sweetie come over here for a bit. Mom heard from Blaze that you learned magic when you were only three?” [Eril]
“Yeah, I did.”
“Amazing! My little girl is so skilled. Even for elves, the earliest when they can actually start using magic is age six, the age I was when I used my first spell.” [Eril]
Following that, we continued to talk about my progression in magic and my training after dad’s death.
Often mom would give a sad face as I talked eagerly with her and I myself was shocked at how much I was saying to her while sounding childish.
Hmm… I guess even if I am mentally matured, my brain itself is still that of a child’s. I feel strangely happy just being with mom.
Soon night fell and everyone started setting up camp while the others prepared food for the rest.
When everything was done, I went to look for Yoichi and found him sitting with Lilith and Fernand, of course mom and the others were also with me.
“We traveled a considerable distance today. With this pace we might make it in about two or so months, but that shouldn’t be so once we exit the forest. Still this pace is not fast enough if we want to stop the Shade’s threat as soon as possible.” [Lilith]
“That’s true, but the forest does cover about 60% of our way there. The last 40% would be mostly flatlands to Glaciem, so considering our speed in the forest and how much faster we can go on the flatlands, we’d make it there in about one month and a week. More or less.” [Fernand]
“I see, hmm. We could make this journey much faster if everyone had a flying mount but only one third of everyone here has summoned beasts that can fly. We couldn’t really ask the Elves either since this involves the Oulene Kingdom that isn’t in the Alliance.” [Yoichi]
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
I heard them talking about the course of this journey and it seems that weren’t happy with how fast we’re going now.
“Hey Yoichi.”
“Ah, hey Princess Haliel and Empress Eril.” [Yoichi]
“Sounds like you have a problem, why didn’t you ask for some griffins?” [Eril]
“Highness, I couldn’t possibly. Since Oulene didn’t sign the Alliance contract, there was no way I could ask for Glaswen’s assistance. Especially since I myself didn’t sign it and came to this world only after it was already made. Anyways I appreciate your offer.” [Yoichi]
While everyone sat down and was eating, Yoichi continued to look at the map in his hand.
“Hey, are there any monsters that can fly or swim around this area Highness?” [Yoichi]
“Hmm, there are but if you’re talking about those that can be used as mounts then there’s only a few of those and they are all high leveled.” [Eril]
“Hey Yoichi, how about using the Shadow Wolf’s ability [Shadow Stride]? As long as there’s a shadow then traveling that distance should be easy. Though the further the distance the more mana is needed it is still a cheap cost.”
“!” [Everyone]
“That is true Yoichi. It will also be extremely useful especially at night. I think Nox has one as a summoned beast actually.” [Lilith]
“Yes, but can it carry other people along with it?” [Yoichi]
“How about we try it. I just so happened to have [Shadow Stride]. Though I think it should work, I mean if [Shadow Stride] could only take the user's body then I would be completely naked once I come back out right? Since my clothes aren’t part of my body, but using this logic couldn’t it also be implied that as long as the other party is touching me, we could travel through the shadow together?”
“!” [Everyone]
“T-that’s amazing reasoning, but in the end I want proof before trying it. It might not work in the end and is actually functioning in a different way.” [Yoichi]
Everyone there was once more shocked, but Yoichi was still not convinced as it’s nothing but speculations.
I understood his concern so volunteered to try it out with Laurel, who volunteered to be an eyewitness.
“Okay you ready Laurel?”
“Yeah.” [Laurel]
“Alright then, [Shadow Stride]!”
Grabbing onto his hand I entered the shadow and Laurel quickly followed.
Inside of the I maneuvered to the edge of the forest with Laurel’s direction and deactivated it when we got there.
We both appeared from the darkness of the forest and in front of us was the flatlands that Yoichi and the others were talking about earlier.
Checking my status before we left I saw that [Shadow Stride] used up 1,500 mana for the distance we traveled.
Using [Shadow Stride] again we reappeared in front of Yoichi and company.
It hasn’t even been a couple of minutes and we had went to the edge of the forest and back.
“So it looks like he did go with you, but how far did you get?” [Yoichi]
“We went to the edge of the forest, saw the flatlands, and came back.”
“I-it’s true. I couldn’t believe it either. It went by so fast, but it felt weird being in the shadow.” [Laurel]
“Navigating would be difficult if the user doesn’t know where to go. You can easily get lost and it costs 1,500 mana per use for the distance from here to the forest exit. Usually [Shadow Stride] only cost 25 mana for short distances.”
“Hmm. I see. This discovery will make traveling faster.”[Lilith]
“Call Nox over here Fernand.” [Yoichi]
Fernand left and returned quickly with Nox behind him as he came back.
Nox is a big man, well built with dark hair, and appears to be in his later thirties.
“What is it Yoichi?” [Nox]
“You have a Shadow Wolf as your summoned beast right?” [Yoichi]
“Yeah, I do.” [Nox]
“Can you call for it? I want to confirm something.” [Yoichi]
“Alright.” [Nox]
Saying so he pulled out a whistle from within his shirt and blew it.
When he did the marking on the whistle shone a violet color and a magic circle formed in front of Nox.
From the magic circle a shadow began forming the shape of a wolf, but instantly I noticed that it was different than the Shadow Wolves I’ve seen before.
It was much larger and when it finally formed, there were also red markings along the tips of its fur and also formed a lightning like marking on its side.
“It’s an Alpha Shadow Wolf right?”
“Huh? Yeah it is, I was really happy when I got it since these are rare to find even in the wild. Not much is known about them since they’re slippery to catch too.” [Nox]
“Heh, great! Yoichi you said that you wanted to get there faster? This Alpha Shadow Wolf is your answer.”
“Why is that? It’s just one right? It can’t possibly carry everyone.” [Yoichi]
“That’s a normal Shadow Wolf who hasn’t completely matured. Even in those packs, most don’t actually have a real Alpha, they just follow the strongest one’s order. This is a true Alpha, and its fully matured too. It can call in other Shadow Wolves and make them completely obey.”
“H-how do you know so much little girl? Even I didn’t know that. I though they are lone wolves?” [Nox]
“Well I fought with one before, it was such a pain…. Anyways, why else would it be called [Alpha] if it’s just alone? But it is true that they are usually alone, when needed it’ll call for its followers. Well that’s pretty much it for what I know about it hehe.”
“Hmm. Lilith call everyone over.” [Yoichi]
“Right away.” [Lilith]
After a couple of minutes, everyone came and surrounded us, with Yoichi in the center.
“Okay everyone, I have something to say. Get as much sleep as possible, in about four hours I’ll wake everyone up and we start moving again. Nox at that time call your Alpha Shadow Wolf and summon other Shadow Wolves and we’ll leave the forest.” [Yoichi]
Some of them asked how we would leave the forest so soon, so Yoichi explained to everyone what we had just discussed and experimented on.
Though it still wasn’t solid confirmation, it was the best option to get to Glaciem quickly, where some of his men had already been sent.
With all questions answered, everyone went to clean up the cookwares and placed them back in [Inventory] before heading to their respective tents and fell asleep.
In four hours we would be more than halfway to Glaciem and would only take a week or so to get through the flatlands.
***
PS. Haven't proofread it, as always, so hopefully there's not a lot of mistakes and enjoy!