That fucking bitch of a Queen.

I groaned as I sat up, feeling strangely refreshed. That was probably her magic at work. I should have expected the Fae Queen to pull a trick like that. This Monarch was known to be difficult to deal with, and her actions were often as random as her magic.

But this was not the time to think of that. I had to leave.

Quest issued: escape the Eldanveir estate.

Time Limit: 11:59:23

Reward: escape

I blinked. A Quest? That was new. Rowan’s System did not have that.

I felt like you needed additional motivation. Do you like it? I can take it away if you want.

I rolled my eyes at that. The Fae Queen could do as she wished. Saying anything would just cause her to be even more annoying. And dangerous. The Fae Queen might make herself look funny, but she was still a Monarch. Getting into an argument with her was not good for my health.

And besides, I had more important things to take care of.

I looked around my room, finding Elena sitting on the floor with a blank expression on her face.

“The kitchen delivered food, my lord.” she said, apparently having noticed my gaze.

I looked at the table she was sitting below. There was indeed breakfast laid on the table. A lot of breakfast. There looked to be enough for ten people. Why would they—it didn’t matter. I had to leave.

“Come on, we need to go.” I said, throwing the blankets off and hurrying towards the garden. Elena did not follow.

I turned to look at her. “Are you not coming?”

“Coming where, my lord?” she asked, looking very nervous. I looked at her for a second, confused by her reaction. Then I remembered that she did not know what had happened. The last thing she remembered was probably reaching my room while injured. The meeting with the Monarch of Justice and the encounter with the Fae Queen were both things she would not know.

“So I, ugh, met the Monarch of Justice last night. And he gave me twenty-four hours—well, twenty-four hours then, the Fae Queen took twelve, so I only have twelve hours left to escape. So we, ugh, have to leave now.”

Elena got even more nervous as I talked, going from confused to straight up disbelieving.

“I met your brother too.” I said, trying to think of things that would help me convince her. Elena’s expression went straight to murderous. That was the wrong call.

Need a little help?

‘Not from you, Fae Queen. I don’t have time for your trickery.’ I groaned.

“Look I know you don’t believe me, but I really did meet your brother at the Court of Justice yesterday. I don’t really have time to tell you everything that happened, but I have about twelve hours left -”

“The outside.”

“What?” I looked at her. The girl was looking at me with eyes narrowed in suspicion, but there was a determined look in her eyes.

“Are you going to escape to the outside?” Elena asked.

“Oh, ugh, yes. The Monarch said that there’s a forest called the Forest of Tragedy in the estate that we can use. And get Darkness Magic from. I think knowing a bit of magic would help -”

Elena pulled out a knife from under the plate, putting the rest of it down on the table. The knife looked very sharp.

“This was for self-defense.” she explained.

Now I was the one looking at her with suspicion.

“I am going to die anyway, my lord.” she answered my unspoken question.

“Ok.” I nodded, warily. That did sound like something Rowan would do. Perhaps he took after his sister.

“Do you have another knife?” A weapon would be useful. Even if I didn’t know how to use it.

“No. I could only sneak in one.” she answered. Wait, she sneaked that in? How? Did they not check her or something?

“… I guess we shall leave then.” I said, moving to leave. Then my stomach growled in protest. I looked down, embarrassed.

“Perhaps we should have breakfast, my lord.” Elena said, her tone flat, as if she were reading some boring equation.

I ignored that and instead looked at the food on the table. There was no time to eat. But it would be such a waste to just leave it around.

“Do you happen to have anything we can use to pack this food?”

Elena looked at the table and then around the room. “I…did not notice any such thing, my lord. Perhaps outside this room?”

“I guess we are leaving it then.” I said, not able to tear my eyes off the food. Perhaps I should have breakfast and then leave. The Forest of Tragedy did not sound like a place I could have a leisurely meal in. And twelve hours was long enough that I could not simply go hungry.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Verlinaus suggests you leave now. Take the food with you.

The food disappeared from the table, a shoulder bag appearing in its place.

The Duke of Eldanvier shall not remain inside for long. Leave the estate before he leaves his hiding place.

“What was that?” Elena asked, her voice shrill and almost a scream.

“The Fae Queen thinks we should leave now.” I said, heading over to take the bag. This seemed way too light to have so much food inside it.” Do you believe me now?”

The bag shall disappear once the food is eaten, and you can’t add more items to it. So don’t go around depending on it.

I hadn’t expected anything else. I wouldn’t have wanted anything else either. There would be other Monarchs that would come looking for me if the Fae Queen started to get too involved. And I did not want to be involved in their ‘Game’.

The two of us stepped out into the garden and I looked to the sky. The north. The sun was already up, so that meant that I had to go…err. How did one tell the north from the south again?

And where was the sun? I couldn’t see it! A building must be hiding it. Oh fuck, I did not know how to tell directions without a phone.

“Do you happen to know what direction north is?” I asked Elena.

The girl just looked at me and shrugged. “No. Is that important, my lord?”

“The Monarch said we had to go north.” I replied, feeling more than a little embarrassed.

Elena let out a groan before she managed to straighten herself, her face going back to her usual blank expression.

The System map has been activated.

An old yellowed map appeared before me, the features hard to read and interpret. But it had a compass. I turned towards the direction it showed as north, and saw the compass tilt until the directions were straight and proper. The compass could be used to check directions.

Ok, I could do this.

“The Fae Queen gave me a map.” I told Elena as I started walking towards the North. The girl narrowed her eyes at me, but did not question it. I guess the bag appearing had convinced her that something was going on.

The walk was not far. The Forest of Tragedy appeared to be very close to my room. But that was not all I saw on the map. The area marked as the Forest was very large, so large that I was not sure I could cover it in twelve hours.

And that wasn’t even considering the rest of the Eldanveir territory. The fuckers ruled this entire continent. I did not think I could cover it today. Not unless I somehow learned to fly.

That meant I would need a way to hide. I guess that's why the Monarch of Justice pointed me towards the Darkness element. The spell the butler had got me. I ran back to my room to collect it, thankfully finding the spellbook still on my bed.

This spell would be of great use when hiding from the Duke. At least I hoped it would. I did not really have any better ones. I walked back out to find Elena waiting for me with that blank expression on her face.

I guess she thought I was stupid.

“I forgot the book.” I said, trying to explain myself. The expression on her face told me that I did not convince her.

The two of us headed north once again without speaking another word. What I did notice though, that she looked much better than she had yesterday. There was no sunkennes to her cheeks, and the scars that had been visible yesterday looked much more faded.

I guess she had the same magic recovery as her brother. That was good. Rowan had made great use of this skill.

“Do you want to eat anything? I just rushed out, but if you want to stay and eat…” I asked awkwardly. The expression on her face did not change.

“I would prefer to leave the estate first.”

“That’s going to be a while. The Forest of Tragedy is still inside the estate.” I replied. The fucking estate looked large enough to be a country of its own. I did not know why they even wanted so much land to themselves.

On second thought, I did not want to know.

The two of us walked in an awkward silence through the buildings. The windows were closed with the same black stone that had covered mine yesterday. I was sure the doors were shut too. The Monarch probably opened mine.

This really was a good opportunity to escape. I could not imagine being able to sneak through so many buildings while there were people around. The garden was in clear view from too many of them.

I needed to get that magic. If I had that spell then I could hide away from those eyes. Well, maybe not here. The Eldanveir probably had too many powerful people for a beginner like me to hide from them. But if I was able to get lost among the people of the continent, then I could use that spell to hide.

The Forest’s boundary appeared as I was thinking, my feet stopping before the treeline. Elena’s did not. The girl passed through the boundary without any trouble, safely entering the Forest. I followed her.

The trees looked old, their trunks thick and their branches long. There was little in the way of vegetation on the floor, and I could not even see any broken branches scattered around. The ground was just rocks and dry soil.

But the trees were green and looked healthy. There weren’t even any birds or squirrels on them, and now that I thought about it, I hadn’t heard a single animal sound. Not even the sound of leaves swaying.

I heard the sound of a muffled scream beside me as I turned to find Elena crouching, holding her knife before her as if protecting herself from a threat. I followed her gaze, finding myself staring at a rabbit.

A white, fluffy rabbit that seemed to have made no noise as it approached us. A monster, probably. I could sense something from it, though it might not be mana. But it probably was.

The rabbit turned its head, as if analyzing us. I looked at it too, bending down to pick up a stone. I did not want to rely on my fists if it came down to a fight.

The rabbit lunged at me as soon as I crouched, its teeth flashing red as it aimed at my leg. I scrambled back, swiping at it with my stone. The rabbit evaded my attack, bouncing towards the left and then looking at me.

I waited for it to attack again, my breath short and me chest heaving as I stood ready to swipe down. The rabbit just looked at me, tilting its head once more as if waiting for me to do something.

Did it want me to attack it? I could do that. Wait, no, I shouldn’t do something the monster clearly wants me to do. That was foolish.

The rabbit had apparently had enough of my waiting, as it rushed at me. I swung down, and missed. The aim wasn’t even close. The rabbit had come too fast, and my swing simply wasn’t fast enough to catch it.

I could have sworn I saw a grin pass across the rabbit’s face as it evaded my fist. The red eyes looked at me, a silent promise of pain in them. The rabbit’s claws extended towards my leg, and I winced in anticipation of the pain that was coming.

What I got was a notification.

Test 1 concluded.

Aphra Eldanveir

FAIL

Elena of Burtinder

PASS

The Darkness welcomes you, Elena of Burtinder.