“Your Highness, wait!”

Matthew looked over at someone, who stealthy came out from a few meters away, and widened his eyes. It had been the person that has been following him!

He…He could use stealth?

There were indeed quite a few who had been able to learn upon ‘Stealth’ and Matthew had not thought that the Crowned Prince had gone that far!

‘Stealth’ was indeed something that was temporary, as spiritual essence continuously had to surround your whole body…But, in the time that they could be in ‘Stealth’…What could they have found out!?

Watching as the two men conversed, Matthew had a really bad feeling, as he tried to remember what he had done and where he had been since returning from the wilderness.

If this person did indeed follow him…He probably would have seen…

Closing his eyes and swallowing, Matthew tried to stay calm.

Having someone following him wasn’t a big problem, but if that person had seen Sahara and the witnesses!

Sahara!

Matthew was just about to yell out to Band Two, when the Crowned Prince finally spoke loud again, towards Matthew, “Give the evidence to the one here, this Prince will be going first! I’ll be hoping to see you tomorrow!”

The Crowned Prince turned and saw Gabriella, sneering, he said, “Bring her too! Let’s go!”

Watching as the Crowned Prince and most his men leave, Matthew pondered on what to do. It seemed that the trade was no longer in effect and that meant there was no need to ‘act’ like he cared about Gabriella…

What exactly did the stealth follower say to the Crowned Prince?

“Band Two!” Matthew yelled.

It doesn’t matter what was said, I have to make sure that Sahara is safe!

“Your Highness!”

Matthew growled, “Let’s go!”

“I will not permit it, Your Highness!” The Crowned Prince’s person said, getting into Matthew’s way.

Matthew narrowed his eyes at the lone person left behind to stop him. “You will be killed if you try to stop me, make a choice!”

The person didn’t move and got into a battle stance by letting loose his whip, showing no emotions on his face.

“We’ve got it! Let’s go!” Someone came over to report to the lone person that stayed behind.

There were four of them, and one of them carried a stack of papers and a couple of books, still a bit dirty from being dug up.

“Change of plans, keep as many here to stall the Second Prince!”

Matthew wasn’t able to wait longer, if the Crowned Prince was indeed going to Sahara, they had left before him!

Not questioning anymore, the Second Prince, Band Two and three others tried to force their way through, to let the Second Prince go, yet the ones against them had a clear objective.

Every time Matthew found an opening to run off, the first person who had stayed behind would use his whip to bring him back.

When Matthew tried to use the trees to stop the whip, another opponent would race up to get in his way.

Minutes ticked by, as the Second Prince tried to kill them instead, to be able to leave. They were good at evasion, but a few nicks had been done, stating the difference in rank between them. But for the most part, the Second Prince had to continue to block or dodge, having three people on him most of the time…

Having one use daggers and another using a two-handed sword, Matthew had to concentrate, so that he could find some flaw in their attack methods.

The person holding the daggers was sneaky, he was usually the one that stopped others from Matthew’s group from trying to intervene, by coming up from behind. Not only was he sneaky but it seemed obvious that he had something on the blades of his daggers, so they tried hard not to be hit by them at all.

The two-handed sword person was the one that focused only on attacking Matthew, giving his defence to his subordinates to worry about. In fact, the easiest one to understand was the two-handed man, simply because that was all he did. It didn’t mean that he was weak though, because in fact he had seemed to cultivate strength, making him look like the heavy two-handed sword that he swung around so fluently didn’t weigh as much as it really was.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The other didn’t have a sword, instead, he had the whip, this whip wasn’t anything special, but it was quick and if it hit you, the person used the nature element to release a vine to entrap you. This vine left the whip and encircled the person quickly, giving the person complete usage to use the whip again within moments. These vines had entrapped Matthew once, but he used his Fire element to burn them off of him, then he tried to continue to evade the whip after, knowing of its attack.

Matthew, on the other hand, had a golden one-handed sword. His sword was shiny and had looked to have come out of nowhere, as it hadn’t been around his waist when they had first started to fight. His sword might look ordinary, but after several times of blocking the two-handed sword, the two-handed sword had a small crack in it. What was even more distracting, was that the sword swept through the air, leaving a golden trail behind that seemed to stop sudden attacks that would hit in that place…It was like…The golden trail becomes a shield for a short amount of time.

If Matthew swiped his sword from the left to the right, the golden trail would shield him, so Matthew would be able to hit elsewhere, not having to worry about defending the part where the golden trail was, well until the golden trail disappeared at least.

Through making sure that the Second Prince remained behind, they had already lost a person, but the Second Prince had lost two. The ‘slayers’ were strong, but they were also very loyal. One took the hit from the whip, for the Second Prince, making him unable to continue fighting. The other slayer had been able to cut down the opponents against them by one but hadn’t expected the person to retaliate in their final moments to poison him. This poison was mostly used in case of capture, but they all knew that it could also be used as an attack as well!

Band Two found that none of them seemed to attack him by themselves, they were always on the Second Prince!

Even though they had made some movement away from the commoner home, they hadn’t gone very far…

Wanting to take them from behind, while they were occupied with his Master, one opponent would seem to stop Band Two, but there were still two always on his Master!

“Go Band Two! Keep her safe!”

If he couldn’t go…Somebody else had too!

“Your Highness!” Band Two didn’t want to leave his Master while he was in peril!

“They are only holding me off, they aren’t going to kill me, go and make sure that she’s safe!” Matthew said.

The Crowned Prince’s people let Band Two go, if they were to give chase, they wouldn’t be able to keep Matthew here. They were ranked under Matthew and three of them were having troubles at keeping him here as it was!

But…They had not thought that it would only take a minute for Matthew to be free…

Having used a secret technique, he had even killed one of his own people to keep from having any witnesses. He had wished to not used the technique under any circumstance, but it couldn’t be helped!

He was in too much of a hurry to worry about anything else at the moment, as he left all this behind and went as fast as he could towards the General’s estate!

***

“Arf!”

Growl!

“Arf!”

Sahara was a pretty good sleeper, but the strange noise from Naruto brought her out of dreamland a bit and she sighed, “Naruto?”

“Arf!”

Growl!

Opening her eyes, Sahara was finally aware that Naruto was acting strangely. Sitting up slowly, she looked around to see that Naruto was slowly walking backwards towards her.

Finally awake, Sahara said, “Shh!”

She brought out a star and before she even got to put it in the air, the wall behind her broke opened, and a person slammed into her. “Run, little girl! I can’t hold them all off!”

The man coughed up blood and tried to get up, but a sword pierced through his entire body, as Sahara could see it coming through the other side of his back…Then, she quickly grabbed Naruto and teleported.

Breathing heavily, Sahara tried to calm herself down.

Is someone after me?

Looking around, she saw that there were another two people fighting against two or three others by themselves and Sahara heard someone laughing.

“We’ve been looking for you! Kill him!”

Oh, my friend!

Getting some hair, Sahara put her essence into it, strengthened it, and went straight to see several people trying to surround her friend! In swift moments, Sahara cleared the people away from him and touch his body with the hair. She teleported him away and then opened her eyes to see the other two people who were fighting, fall to the ground.

“Ah! This General is coming to fight!”

Seeing over the other side, the General runs into the battle with a huge smile on his face…

Strange man…

“Arf!”

But Sahara was unable to see anymore, as she was suddenly knocked unconscious.

“Seal her and press her acupuncture points…Let’s go!”

Growl!

“What is that!?”

Naruto speedily bit a leg, then leapt up onto another to bite them on the arm, making him drop the person he had been carrying.

“Arf!”

“Grab it!”

Naruto growled yet again, protecting the unconscious body.

“Plan A, there is no plan B!” Someone said, loudly, reminding those what they had come for.

Within moments, Naruto was surrounded and when he went to bite someone, they tried to grab him but couldn’t, but they walked away from that area, leaving the unconscious body lying there unprotected.

“Don’t you touch her, boy!” The General yelled from across the distance, seeing someone pick the little woman up. He was at least 25 steps away from them and was already in a fight…

Watching his man take the woman away, the Crowned Prince smiled and put his hands up, “Too late!”

“Dammit, boy! When I get my hands on you…”

The General killed two more people, before he realized that fighting had been a diversion, their ‘Plan A’ was always to get that little woman!

“Dammit! He’s ganna kill me!” Needing to vent his rage, the General makes good work to those who were left behind, stabbing them so that they won’t die, but go through agony instead.

The General really wanted to celebrate, for being able to fight, yet, for what had just happened…

Naruto, after biting off the fingers that had tried to take hold of him, jumped off and ran like the wind to where Sahara’s body had been.

“Arf. Arf.”

Smelling the dirt, the little fox, growled, “Arf.”

Circling around the small area, Naruto rapidly smelt the earth and grass. Knowing the scent of his master already, he was just a little upset to find that she wasn’t there when he had returned.

When Naruto continued along with the scent from where the unconscious body had just been, the General tried to run over to him, “Little fella!”

Not taking any notice of the General, the fox continued to follow the scent, his tails swishing from side to side rapidly. “Arf.”

The General followed behind Naruto, as did some of his men that were capable of following, and as they were about to leave the General’s estate Matthew glided to the ground and saw Naruto jump into a tree and go beyond the estate.

Looking at the General, Matthew could hardly speak. And the General, who was sincerely upset that he was unable to protect his friend’s beloved, could only shake his head slightly and point at Naruto.

Clenching his fist, Matthew swallowed and closed his eyes tightly.

Taking a deep breath in, he opened his eyes to see Band Two returning from the direction Naruto was heading in.

“Your…Your Highness.”

With Band Two’s appearance of having wounds, Matthew was already sure upon where his Princess was going.