“Notice how I said that he ‘has’ looose screws, and not that he ‘had’...” Vivian continued. It was a simple phrase, but the moment the words left her mouth, Riven and Pela’s eyes glistened. The former turned around in an attempt to wipe them without anyone noticing and the latter just wiped them with her sleeve normally.

“I don’t think he’s dead, either.” Pela stated confidently. “And if he’s on the brink of death, I swear on my last breath that I’ll bring him back.”

Riven smiled sadly. “You’ll bring him back with the herbs of his own garden, huh? We’ve got to get stronger. Not to save Master Thalorin, no he certainly doesn’t need it. But to be strong enough for him to tell us what the fuck is going on!” Riven’s eyes lit up with motivation.

Vivian and Pela nodded firmly and smiled.

As they were engrossed in their conversation, the exchange was broken by the sound of something ripping followed by a thud on the ground. When the three turned to look at the sound, they were all rooted to the ground in confusion.

The petitle snake that was trapped in the box- it was now the size of half a man. Its blue scales glistened in the daylight, and its azure eyes were focused on the three. The curvy silver markings that ran along its head reflected the light to create a beautiful, divine being. It was eerie but enchanting at the same time.

However, the situation did not make it look very charming. From shifting sizes, it had ripped large holes through the box and the book had fallen on the floor. If the snake was trying to be covert, it would not have just stood there and just fled. In fact, it was even heading towards the three grieving proteges.

The moment it started moving, Riven aimed his crossbow at it, Vivian summoned a blade of ice, and Pela was reciting incantations. Noticing the hostility, the large snake stopped. Since the three were sitting down, the snake was easily larger than them. It couldn’t even be called a snake at this point.

The snake shook its head, seeing them. Riven gripped his crossbow tighter, ready to aim, when Pela stopped reciting. “Wait, the snake might be trying to tell us something.”

The moment she said that, the snake began nodding.

The three looked at each other. “What do you want?” Vivian asked sternly, trying to assert her authority over a predator. She truly was treating it like an unintelligent creature.

The snake blinked a few times, and waved its long tail. When nobody said anything, it started slamming it against the ground, as if frustrated. But Riven, as unintelligent as he was, relied on his primal instincts and interpreted that as “I’m going to eat you!” And his fingers instinctively let go of the bowstring, and the arrow flew to its target.

However, Riven had no intention of killing the snake, so the crossbow was aimed at the snake’s tail. The snake attempted to dodge, but the box it was stuck in prevented it from doing so, resulting in a direct hit. It let out a long hiss, both a whimper and a threat.

In truth, the snake had no malicious intent. It woke up in the middle of the emotional conversation between the three proteges and was merely listening in. After a while, it realised that it had to escape the box and could not just sit here listening to idle talk- it had to find Kael or Felt. But when it tried to escape, the box prevented it from moving efficiently. Sensing that the three humans were nice people, it tried to request them to remove it- only to lead to this fate.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

It truly began to resent humans. First Kael chokes it, then the proteges treat it like some uncivilised beast and reopen the wounds that the swordmaster gave it. It was truly enraged!

Making a mental note to bite Riven when it next saw him, the reptile waved the part of its tail that was not stuck in the damn box and quickly fled. It truly did look like the snake was saying, “Goodbye, bitch.”

The three proteges, after more arguing, realised that the snake, or whatever creature that was, left a thin trail of blood in its wake. Following the trail using Pela’s surveillance skills, the three found themselves halfway down the mountain, using a very steep path. They even found the box that the snake was stuck in, discarded and tumbling down.Then, on the mountain which only sounded of creatures in the sky, a humane grunt suddenly sounded.

“Fuck! Urgh…” It sounded.

The untrained Riven and Vivian could not pick it up, and Thalorin, who was already in the deepest part of the forest, did not have such a long hearing range. However, Pela who specialised in non-offensive tactics heard it loud and clear.

“To the left…I heard a person…grunting…” She gasped out every single word, and broke into a sprint.

The moment the other two processed the words, they both knew why Pela looked so shaken, and they themselves began to wear the same frantic expression. The three sprinted through the canopy of trees and knee-high grass without making a single sound- it was one of the first things that their master had taught them.

When Pela came to a halt, the other two stopped. She stealthily crouched down, like a tiger lurking to catch its next prey. She then led the other two, crawling in the direction of the sound. But when she finally got close enough to see where the sound came from…

A man sat at the foot of a tree, gripping one of his body parts. He grunted as he tore off the surrounding grass in an attempt at a makeshift binding. The blood trail of the snake had long faded, but around the main was a puddle of crimson. The unkept black hair of the man flew in the wind, and his face was covered in various scars and layers of grime, so much that it was hard to make out his features. They could not see much, as they could only see the side of his face- but his body was in full view. His upper half was bare, ridden with bruises and dirt while his muddy pants were rolled up to the knees.

Seeing this, all three proteges thought the same thing.

‘Master Thalorin?’

However, one of them could not keep his thoughts in his head and silently uttered the name. But even the whispered breath of Riven made the man jolt. His head snapped in the direction of the three. At that moment the proteges all saw two azure eyes piercing into their souls from where they were in the grass. As if in realisation, the man’s features relaxed and he shook his head, smiling sadly.

Then, he disappeared into thin air, leaving the three proteges mid-lunge towards him.

Noticing the emptiness of the place where the man was, Riven fell to his knees, Pela persistently tried to trace the man’s location, and Vivian surveyed the blood and the pulled out grass that was all that remained of the mysterious man.

The man was no mystery, actually.

He was none other than their master, the Spellmaster of the Yerr Clan, Thalorin.

“And it was indeed Master Thalorin.” Vivian concluded the recount of what happened.

The Lord squeezed his eyes shut- they were weary and stung, and closing them prevented a new layer of wetness from enveloping them. He just wanted to turn back time to the previous day and stand in front of the rift, waiting for the demon bastards to come through. It would bring him less pain.

If that was too much to ask, then he just wanted to sleep. He cared not for nightmares or trauma- he was too old to be unfamiliar with the vermin of bad dreams. He just wanted to sleep.

But he was the lord, so he opened his eyes and opened his eyes to say something smart. “Bring us where you last saw him, if the man was injured then there should be blood samples that we can use to investigate.”

The three were just about to take their first stride, when a cold voice caused them to flinch and freeze. “Stop.”

Both the lord and the three fledglings turned to look at Kael, whose expression, stoic as ever, almost revealed a trace of unease.

“Follow me.” He said, not directing his words to anyone. He just turned and began to head in the opposite direction.

When he said this, Pela widened her eyes in shock, Riven ground his teeth and Vivian glared at the cold back of Kael. Riven had just earlier complained about Kael’s lacklustre attitude towards Thalorin’s disappearance. At the moment, Thalorin’s beloved proteges decided that it was because he cared not for their master.

But now, the three thought the same thing.

What if he had something to do with Master Thalorin’s disappearance?