After the man from earlier studied his environment, he turned right and grinned at us. "Looks like those guys are searching for the princess," he declared as he followed after us. "This will be so much fun."

He chuckled a bit and had his eyes searched for any incoming guards. He was lucky none of them showed up yet, nor had we noticed him.

He now searched half of the kingdom while making sure not to be detected by the guards, and he hasn't found the missing princess with us as of yet. He noticed we grew tired by walking a bit slower than usual.

"Hmm…this is about to become disappointing, isn't it?" The black cloaked man said to himself in an annoyed, low voice.

Gideon placed his hand on my shoulder to prevent me from moving any further. The same man from earlier hid himself in the shadows and leaned against the wall to prevent us from detecting him.

"Okay, Mike. Let's go back home and rest up. We're too tired to search for her the whole night. We'll find her," Gideon said.

I immediately turned to Gideon. "What?! Right now?! Never!"

"But Gideon-"

"Like I said before…if you don't help me find the princess tonight, you get no gold. Do you understand?"

Gideon sighed and frowned all at the same time. "Alright, you win. Let's keep searching for her then."

I grinned at Gideon. "Good." I turned back to my destination. "Let's go!"

"Okay." Gideon said as he continued to search for the missing princess all over Basilia.

The black hooded man also wanted to keep following us, yet a banging sound on the ground echoed his ears. He stopped moving and turned to the right. "Hmm?"

There he saw a fat person holding onto a holey cloak with a couple guards with torches standing that person. The hoodie protected that person's identity and was reading something from the paper.

That person was a bit far away from them and pointed at the destination who wanted to lead the guards to. The blue luster reflected from the moonlight and that person and the guards walked past the rock on their path.

"The princess went in this direction there," the holey cloaked person said, whose voice was feminine. "I'm sure of it. She left her map on her table in her room. Forty golden coins here I come!"

The guards were silent and simply followed her lead.

"Oh? What's this now? Someone's also looking for a princess as well? And she got a map?" The black hooded man grinned viciously. "Excellent. The princess isn't as smart as I thought she is, isn't she? Well, that doesn't really matter. I'm just going to take out the guards and have her lead me to the princess instead. Such a brilliant, brilliant plan."

The black hooded man turned to me and Gideon, seeing us walk further distances away from him. Then he turned to the person in the holey cloak and the guards.

He followed them without the guards being spotted and waited for the group to stop moving to strike the guards. As soon as they arrived, they made it to the abandoned tavern.

It was pretty small for a tavern. In fact, it was too small. The black hooded man made sure to hide in the shadows from any incoming guards and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms.

The woman in a holey cloak examined the map, then the tavern back and forth a couple times. "Here it is," she declared, "She's in there. Let's go find her."

The guards shook their heads and one of them opened the tavern door. All of them headed inside to investigate.

"Excellent," the black hooded man whispered to himself, smiling viciously, "My perfect opportunity to take out the guards and get that woman to take me to the princess. I shall have that royal necklace and the princess…for the dark lord."

The black hooded man grinned as soon as he got out of the shadows and headed inside. The guards and that woman studied their surroundings, then turned to one another.

While the woman looked down at her map, the dark smoke put out the fires from the torches and cooled them off. "Huh?!" All three of them looked up at those torches from the moonlight.

They noticed the fires were gone. Not even the smoke ascended towards the ceiling.

"What the hell? Somebody put out the fires and I don't see any smoke," one guard said as he touched the torch and it felt cold. "It's not even hot anymore."

Another guard also touched his torch and it also felt cold, "Well, that's strange."

Then the door was shut behind them, causing the group to turn around. "What the hell?!"

"Looks like your little search party's over," the black hooded man said when he summoned his black, smokey claws upon his right hand and smiled. "Time to end it. The princess is all mine!"

While the guards pulled out their swords from their shaves and pointed them at the black hooded man, the woman ran for her life and searched for a hiding place. The black hooded man smiled at them while the two guards gritted their teeths at him.

"Oh, yeah?" Another guard said, "Well, you're not going to take the princess, pal!"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"We'll make sure you're killed before you can take her," one guard reassured.

"Hmph, very well as you insist," the black hooded man said when he jumped forward fast and struck the guards with his claws; he was in fact too quick for them to react to his attack.

The guards screamed in agony and collapsed to the floor, with blood oozed from their wounds. Out of curiosity, she turned around and gasped out of shock as she couldn't believe how quick that man fought the guards.

She shivered and watched him smile at her while he quickly walked up to her. She tried to run for her life, yet he quickly dashed towards her and grabbed her hand tightly, glaring at her, pointing his claw towards her neck.

"You! Take me to the princess!" The black hooded man demanded.

But she stood there in silence, still panting, swallowing her spit. Fear struck her eyes and the black hooded man could sense this.

"Now!" The black hooded man roared, getting ready to slice her neck. "Oh, I'll kill you! Understand?!"

Sweating, the woman shook her head. "Y-Y-Yes, of course, sir! I'll definitely take you to the princess!"

The black hooded man smiled at the woman. "Lovely."

The woman looked down at the map but she could barely see anything with very little moonlight lighting the room. "Um…" She turned to the black hooded man. "Can you chant a lighting spell for me, sir? I can't see the map without any light."

"My pleasure." The black hooded man raised his hand and it glowed green-yellowish light on it.

The woman and the black hooded man looked down at the map. But the map only showed the princess' route that leads to this abandoned building from the kingdom, with a writing in a strange foreign language pointing to the outside of the kingdom.

The kingdom appeared to be big in size and contained a lot of buildings and land sites.

The woman pointed at the writing near the abandoned building. "So it looks like she took a secret cellar in here." She turned to the black hooded man. "We have to go find it."

But the black hooded man stared at the map a bit longer than usual. "Hmmm…are you sure this is a correct map?"

"What do you mean, sir?"

"It looks kinda dated."

"Really?" She turned to the map and the black hooded man back and forth. "Well, I don't understand."

"The map color's yellow instead of white, and the kingdom doesn't look that medium-sized. It should be a lot bigger nowadays." The black hooded man turned back to the woman. "You're not lying to me, are you?"

The woman widened her fearful eyes and shivered a bit. "Why, of course not, sir. I found this map lying on her desk before I reported her missing to the king. I swear!"

The black hooded man grabbed the woman's arm and pulled her towards him, pointing his blade at her neck again. "I will end your life if you ever lie to me, do you understand me?!"

The woman shook her head in fear, looking at the blade and the black hooded man back and forth. "Y-Y-Yes, sir!"

The black hooded man moved his blade away from the woman. "Good, now let's go find that cellar."

The woman shook her head again. "Right! We should split up."

But the black hooded man held her arm tightly and pointed his blade at her. "Don't even think about it, woman! Either you find her with me or have me end your life! Which one is it going to be? Hm?"

The woman sighed and shook her head. "Alright, alright. I'll go find her with you."

Lowering his blade, the black hooded man smiled at her and let go of her arm. "Good, let's go find her, shall we?"

The woman and the black hooded man searched for the secret cellar within the tavern. They searched everywhere and yet they failed to find it, no matter how hard they tried.

While the black hooded man turned to the woman, she shivered and took a couple steps back. With fear striking her eyes, she swallowed her spit and her sweat poured down on her face. She turned to the wall, then the black hooded man as he approached her with his blade pointing at her and his gritted teeth.

"You!" The black hooded man grabbed her dress and pulled her towards his blade.

"Wait, sir! Please! There has to be a huge misunderstanding! The cellar has to be in here somewhere! The map said so!" The woman pleaded with her sad tears coming out of her eyes, as she knew that her death was near.

"You lied to me and completely wasted my time!" He pushed her towards the wooden wall and was about to stab her with the blade, until he felt the wall pulling her in a bit. "Huh?"

He and the woman turned to the wall and saw it opened to the side. Seeing a really dark, stony hole inside with no torches inside it; a few rats roamed inside and headed north.

He smiled at the opening and let go of the woman, lighting up that hole. There were more stones on the sides and above alongside the wooden floor.

"Excellent, we finally found it at long last." He turned to the woman. "Let's go find the princess…together, shall we?"

The woman shook her head in fear, forcing her smile. "Why, yes, of course, sir. We shall continue."

"Excellent."

The black hooded man and the woman began to walk through the hole, ignoring the rats. They saw nothing so far besides the rats.

The black hooded man turned to the woman. "So why are you out here with the guards this late at night? Doesn't Basilia have a curfew?"

"Why, yes, it does, sir. I searched for the princess because I'm her handmaiden."

"Ah, the princess' handmaiden, eh? Very interesting. Very interesting indeed. And you're not sure you're only in it for the money?"

"Wh-What makes you say that?!"

"I heard you told the late guards about getting forty golden coins?"

"Oh, that?!" The woman chuckled a bit. "Well, well, well…"

The black hooded man grinned. "My, my, you really are a terrible handmaiden, aren't you?"

The woman turned to silence, and didn't even bother answering him. The man let it slide as he and the handmaiden finally made it to the end of the cellar.

There were four stony pillars standing in front of six barrels on each side. The barrels were stacked on top of each other and rats roamed around in there. There was no window to lighten up the room, not even torches.

The black hooded man turned to the woman. "Let's go search for another secret door together."

The woman shook her head from fear. "Y-Yes, sir!"

The black hooded man and the woman began to search for the secret door of the missing princess' escape.