The first thing Callista saw was the sun hitting her face that almost seemed to blind her as the beautiful woman sitting in front of the window was staring outside with a cigarette between her fingers.

This scene was all too familiar with her, it was the same scenery that welcomed her every morning whenever she woke up and always managed to give her a peaceful and refreshing feeling.

The woman turned to her with a fond smile "Why are you staring at me like that child?" she asked before she looked at the window again.

"Do you like to know something Callista?" she asked and looked as if she was reminiscing about something before turning back to her.

"A day will come where you will be stuck in a dilemma, when that time comes I hope there will be others to support you." she said as the smile sent a tingling feeling in her heart as she smiled back and run towards her before hugging her waist.

"Yes, Grandma" she said with a big smile.

****

"Callista!"

Callista immediately woke up from the dream and saw Anastasia's worried face as her vision adjusted to the light, she slowly sat up from the sudden ache of her head.

"A-Ana? Where are we?" she asked when she noticed that they were in a forest "Thank god you're awake!" Anastasia exclaimed in relief "What happened?" Callista asked again and tried moving her hands but realized that her arms and wrists are tied to her back.

"Is she awake?" she heard a man's voice as she struggled "Yes" Callista looked at the man Anastasia was talking to and widened her eyes when she saw Lance.

"What the!? You again!? I thought you were a member of the Order or something, why do you keep getting kidnapped!?" Callista exclaimed with pure disbelief and suspiciously looked at him "Nice to see you again, Young Miss" he said with a smile, ignoring her insult.

"There's something wrong Callista" Anastasia started so she sighed "I know. It seems like the kidnappers are magicians as well. The man's hand was disgustingly smelly." Callista winced like she was about to barf "Not only that. I couldn't use my magic while I was being taken away from you" Anastasia explained.

"It's most likely that they are using black magic. I'm surprised that you can sense that, Young Miss" Lance said and glanced at Callista.

"Oh, that? I'm sensitive to magic so I get extra alert when I sense it. I also can differentiate black magic from holy magic" she explained "Really? What do they smell like?" Anastasia curiously asked.

"Hmm... Holy magic smells like flowers in spring while black magic just smells disgusting enough for me to vomit" she said in disgust and looked at her surroundings to see that they were not alone.

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There were many people along with them, both men and women, the only thing she can find similar was that they were all pretty.

"By the way, why were you in the Capital? It's unusual to see the Princess leaving the Academy" Lance asked when he realized something.

"We were there to survey on our assignment about the World's Protectors. We didn't think it will come to this." Anastasia said with a tired sigh.

"The myth?" they both turned to him with shocked faces "You know about it?" Callista asked, awestruck "Why won't I know about it?" Lance asked back in confusion.

"Because our Professor told us that not anyone knows about it" Anastasia said as they both stared at Lance "How about this? I'll tell you some information about them in exchange for saving me earlier when we get out of here" he said with a smile and winked.

"Get out of here?" Anastasia asked, a little confused at his words "Oh, yes. Well, the Captain of the First Platoon is missing it's obvious for them to look for me, right? I think they'll arrive in about a few hours" he said but then blinked innocently at them when he noticed their blank stares.

"Eh? Why are guys looking at me like that?" he asked and tilted his head "It's just... We didn't expect you to be the Captain of the First Platoon" Anastasia said while her voice became silent as she spoke making Lance froze.

"No way..." he muttered and made an expression as if he was in disbelief "No shit! Would you get rid of that look on your face as if it's impossible for us to think like that! Do you expect us to think that you're their Captain when you've been kidnapped two times in a day already?" Callista scowled as if he was a total moron.

Anastasia could see smoke coming out of Callista's nose at how pissed she was. What can she expect? Callista was always the one to say things if she truly couldn't take it anymore.

"Oh, my. Young Miss is more violent than I thought" Lance said, bewildered as he stared at Callista who was glaring at him.

"Shit.." Callista whispered and covered her nose as her face showed a look of disgust "What's wrong? Do you sense black magic?" Anastasia asked in alert.

"Someone is approaching.." Lance alerted them and became cautious "And they stink of black magic to be precise" Callista said and huffed at the air so she can finally breathe.

"So that's how you take care of the smell" Lance said in realization "What? Did she do something?" Anastasia asked while looking back and forth at the two in confusion.

"When she huffed she let out a small amount of magic to get rid of the dark entity" he explained and Anastasia was about to say something when they heard numerous footsteps.

As they all became alert, a group of big-bodied men came into view, they couldn't fully see their faces as they have masks on like normal bandits that you see in the journey.

But it might be hard to escape now as they all have rifles in their hands and could kill them if they made a wrong move.

"All of you listen up!" the guy with tanned skin shouted as the people trembled at his authority.

"You'll be meeting the Young Master, so don't you even dare to escape or my men will shoot you with no hesitation" he said as they looked down upon them and it obviously caused a stir amongst them in panic "Young Master?" Anastasia muttered.

"It might be that the mastermind behind this is a noble" Callista said "Seeing how they were able to get guns and how rare it is to posses. It seems like that is the case" Lance agreed.

The man suddenly aimed a warning shot in the air startling all of them, silencing them.

"Now, please be obedient" the tanned man said again when he successfully managed to scare them, Callista suddenly felt a wave of magic hit her body as she winced at the pain that suddenly hit her.

She looked at Anastasia in between her groans and saw that she had already collapsed.

'So that's it, huh? They have a mage in the group that was able to send a wave of magic that even mages can't dodge. I'll kill you once I wake up!' She thought before she lost consciousness.