He reached one house at that moment. The front door was wide open and the street was deserted. What caught his attention was the woman in a cloth that wrapped up to her chest, lying by the door.

Normally, Abdin wouldn't have tried to enter the house. But the cloth around the woman only covered her chest downwards, and now it was mostly undone. She was probably dead, but he felt the need to cover her up.

He entered the house. What he did first was to check her pulse. It wasn't beating and the body was already turning cold.

He stretched the wrapper and covered her. There were clothes on the washing line and he picked another wrapper to cover her up.

He turned to leave and was almost to the door when he heard the bawling of a baby.

He returned with a frown and traced his steps to where he heard the cry.

On the settee was a newborn baby swaddled in a cloth.

Abdin silently watched the baby for a long time before he finally reached out to pick him up. How long had it been since he held a baby?

He started playing with him. Gradually, the baby's cries ceased. He held him to his chest and sang him a lullaby.

~Father's baby~

~Mother's baby~

~Abdin's baby~

He shook his head at that last verse. His name didn't belong there, being the killer of the baby's mother. But since he was the one that composed the song, there was no way his name would be left out.

After a while, he placed the baby back on the settee and turned to leave, but before he could reach the door, the baby resumed its bawling.

Abdin activated his spiritual sense and searched the whole house. He was alone with the baby. What was he going to do with it?

Yes, the neighbors.

He would just take him to the neighbors. He wasn't sure if they would take him, but he had no other option. He couldn't possibly go around with a baby, and leaving him alone here would make him starve before his father returned.

***

Meanwhile, Juwaira and her team had already gone far in Biyakis. They had reached the city of Enula, the nearest stop around the empire's capital.

Sometime after they had arrived, Laluri climbed down the carriage and led the way. She was no longer a slave.

They soon arrived at a large unpainted house in the suburbs. The house looked unassuming despite its size. Uncompleted in parts, it looked unfinished at first glance.

The doorman stopped them with a wave of his hand. Laluri removed an ID card from her pocket and flung it toward him.

He caught it and screened it with his spiritual sense before nodding, and then his eyes rested on Juwaira for some time before he finally opened the entrance door.

Juwaira didn't move throughout their little exchange. Her face was covered and was simply staring upwards at an angle.

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Laluri and the doorman had no inkling that Juwaira's pose was a message.

The slave girl was busy leading them on. She was a bit ahead when she noticed that they weren't following. "What is it now?" She asked furiously.

"Is this where my father awaits us?" Juwaira calmly asked. "I am not moving a step further until I see him. If you think you can kill me in the middle of Biyakis and go scot-free then you are welcome to try."

Laluri shook her head. From the moment she marked them, she already had the chance to kill or make them do her bidding. It was her wish to leave them still breathing up to this moment.

Though she couldn't kill the princess, the rest of the procession meant nothing to her. True, getting rid of them before now would have made her trek through the forest of Biyakis and infiltration of the empire harder. But they were here now, and the team had already served its purpose.

"I shall count to three." Laluri raised a finger ready to start. But just then, a spear appeared inches away from her face.

The young woman never noticed the spear or who the archer was until late. But still, they were wrong to think they could take her down with that trivial shot. She would show them the perfect way to kill.

She released all the pressure of her pol towards the spear and the atmosphere around it petrified.

But that couldn't stop the spear or even slow it down.

The distance between the spear and her right eye wasn't up to an inch. She had been expecting the princess to attack her but she didn't expect her pol not to hold the spear. She suddenly realized it wasn't just a spear. A demon hair was interwoven along the tip of the spear, and a tiny white charm was embedded in it.

But it was already too late for her when she saw all these. She couldn't begin to imagine how badly she would be hurt if she allowed that spear to touch her eye.

Still, death or not, she couldn't allow Juwaira to escape. She had to finish the assignment of the tribe matriarch.

Laluri gritted her teeth and concentrated her pol on the targeted eye. Both eyes became bloodshot and glowered red.

But already, Juwaira and her team had pivoted around and fled.

They didn't need to stay and watch how the struggle would unfold.

They had plotted for more than two months now, how to kill her. They did everything surreptitiously, using eye contact and hand gestures since she was always with them and they didn't know the limit of her skills.

Laran was the one who made the shot. But since they were not sure it would work, they needed to reach a place where they could be helped if need be. Hence they waited until now.

In less than a minute, they were already at the end of the street where they took a turn to a wider street.

As for Laluri, she was left there struggling with the arrow. But just then, the doorman they left behind, who didn't even look like a cultivator at all, appeared before them.

Laran and Janta leaped up and faced him while the rest of them tried to escape.

But that didn't go as they expected. The doorman merely raised a finger and pointed at the two men, and in the next second, both the core experts vanished as if they had never been. He turned and pointed at the rest of the team.

"Princess!"

Denyanu and three other men circled Juwaira protectively, while the others engaged the attacker.

But all that didn't work. The next thing Juwaira saw before she fainted was a red glow raising from her left shoulder where the ant tattoo was.

She was unaware of the time that passed when she awoke to find herself bound in a room. There were about ten others in the room beside her. There were both men and women, all of them young and none was from her team.

"Hmm? You are awake?" Said a young man who was resting on the wall beside her. He was not in bindings, but a rope lay beside him, showing he had just untied himself.

The princess' eyes were still hazy, and her sight was tinted with red beside the haze. This was probably from the glow that blinded her when the doorman intercepted them, or maybe not. But the doorman had succeeded in capturing her. What happened after? Where was she? What happened to her men?

"What is your name?" Asked the man. She was fully clothed but her armor and the veil were gone and everyone could recognize her as a woman.

With a lot of effort, Juwaira hoisted herself up. The rope was surprisingly not so tout, and she felt that she could unbind herself if she tried hard enough.

Before she could speak, the young man frowned and said, "Juwaira?"

He paused again before he roared with laughter. "Juwaira, Juwaira, so even you aren't spared in your flight."

Juwaira looked at the young man. Now she recognized him. "Ni... Nimu? What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same thing," replied Nimu. He seemed vaguely intrigued. "With what happened between you and your family, I wouldn't expect to see you so soon. At least not in a cell."

"A cell?"