Over the next few days, Drake and Ray took turns fighting the demon tide. Though Ray was powerful in his own right, seeing an eleven-year-old boy fighting almost as well as their master Ray was unbelievable to all the guards. In fact, many guards fought for the position to man the front gates at night, purely for the chance to see if the tales of a war god in a child’s body was true.

While they were protecting the village, Astoria and Sam continued their relationship without reservation. Previously, Astoria was always worried about Holt finding out and how he would react, but now that everything was out in the open, she had made her choice and was determined to take her future into her own hands.

It was morning, and Astoria arrived at the inn where the two met religiously, every day. She looked around for Sam but couldn’t find him anywhere. Thinking that he might just be sleeping late, Astoria ordered a drink and decided to wait.

An hour passed, and then another. Frustrated, she walked over to the inn keeper and asked him if he knew where Sam was.

“Sam? He didn’t show up last night,” the man replied nonchalantly.

“WHAT!?” Astoria gasped. She knew that he had gone to fight a battle and was coming back last night. Knowing that he would be tired, they decided that he should rest overnight, and they could meet in the morning. If he hadn’t turned up, does that mean that something happened to him?

Astoria’s heart fell.

‘What if something happened to him in the battle?’

She couldn’t relax till she found him. Astoria dashed out of the inn and rushed to the infirmary. In a panic, Astoria went to every bed to see the patient while calling out Sam’s name. However, she could not find him at all.

‘Where did you go?’ she cried to herself.

The medical staff did not try to stop her. In war times, it was common for people to come into the infirmary to find their loved ones. Some of them were often anxious, but unless they started causing a lot of disturbance or went crazy, the staff left them alone. They were already working non-stop dealing with all the patients coming through, so they didn’t have the manpower to help calm down every single worried friend or relative.

Hence, Astoria went from one bed to another, and when she couldn’t find Sam, went to a new infirmary. She searched every infirmary in the village but couldn’t find Sam anywhere.

Astoria’s heart dropped.

What if…

She didn’t want to go there, but she couldn’t see what else could have happened to him.

Deciding that she didn’t have a choice, she decided to run back to her mansion and barged into Hazezel’s office.

“Hazezel!” she yelled.

“What!?” he gasped in response, surprised to see her in such a panic. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Sam, I can’t find him anywhere. I’ve already checked all the infirmaries. What happened to him?”

Hazezel frowned. He knew the mission Sam had gone on so he pulled up the report and started looking through the list of casualties. However, before he could even get through the first few, Astoria snatched the report and started reading through it herself.

Her eyes scanned the list of casualties and at the end, heaved a sigh of relief as his name wasn’t there. She went through the injured and missing persons list, and he wasn’t there too.

‘Where did he go then?’ she wondered.

Hazezel took the report back and read through it too, wondering the same himself. Finally, he had a thought.

“What if…” Hazezel began, but then shook his head as if to dismiss his own idea.

“What!?” Astoria asked, banging her hands on his desk. “What if what? Tell me Hazezel, if you have any ideas at all, then tell ME!”

“Nothing!” he gasped in response, then sighed. “I just thought… what if father…” his voice trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

However, it was clear to Astoria what he was insinuating.

‘What if father did something to him?’ is what he wanted to ask, but they couldn’t imagine their dad harming an innocent man.

Sam had done a lot fighting for the village, and even more for their family as he helped Astoria get them the zenith pill, and also went through the life-threatening ritual to help them as well. It would not be an exaggeration to say that their entire family, and even the village, owed a large debt to him.

Sure, he may have had his own motivations to do so, but the fact remains that without his help, they and their village would be in a far worse position.

Hence, the thought that their honest, righteous father would do anything underhanded to a man they were indebted to, is something that didn’t even cross Astoria’s mind.

But now that Hazezel mentioned it, it seemed like the only possibility. What else could have happened to him then? He couldn’t just disappear! Not unless… someone made him disappear.

Astoria clenched her fists, and turned around, heading straight for the door.

Hazezel raised his arm, about to protest, but then he sighed and sat back down.

‘Father, I really hope I’m wrong about this,’ thought Astoria as she walked out of the door.

Holt was sitting in a meeting room. He had just finished a meeting and the guests had left, so he was taking a small break, drinking some tea.

Suddenly, the door burst open. There was not even a knock.

Wondering who would be so bold, Holt was prepared to admonish them when he saw that it was Astoria.

“Father!” she yelled, but then paused.

Originally, she was just going to ask him if he did something to Sam, but what if she was wrong about this? How would Holt feel as a father, knowing that his own daughter suspected him of hurting an innocent man, when he actually didn’t do anything?

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She thought this might have been what Hazezel wanted to say before she left.

She loved her dad a lot; she trusted and respected him too. Naturally, she didn’t want to hurt him unnecessarily.

However, if Holt didn’t do anything then that meant that something else must have happened to him. Maybe he got into some street fight, or maybe he was kidnapped or harmed in some other way.

In any case, she couldn’t search the entire village herself and needed her father’s help.

She suppressed her hesitation and looked Holt in the eye.

“Father, something has happened to Sam. I can’t find him anywhere.”

Holt looked at his daughter and replied calmly, “I thought I told you to cut off all ties with that boy, why are you looking for him?”

“That’s what you told me to do, but I never agreed to it,” she retorted, staring straight back at Holt.

Holt looked at Astoria meaningfully, before sighing to himself.

“I see…” he mumbled. “Then what I did was the right thing.”

Astoria’s heart sank.

“What do you mean? What are you talking about dad? What did you do?” she asked quietly, tears welling up in her eyes.

“Don’t worry, I haven’t hurt him or anything,” Holt replied. “I have locked him up for now. Once the war ends and the villages are safe again, I will have the guards escort him back to his village, that’s all.”

“You can’t do that!” yelled Astoria.

“Yes, I can, and I will. This is my village, and I have the right to remove anyone I want at any time.”

Astoria bit her lip and clenched her fist. Holt was clearly abusing his power to forcefully separate them, and there was nothing she could do about it.

She did not expect this at all.

She thought Holt would argue with her more, fight with her, get mad at her, or even hit her. Astoria had prepared herself to face his entire wrath, confident that she could eventually convince him to see things her way; that this is what would make her happy.

However, she never thought that Holt would go after Sam directly. She was glad that Holt didn’t try to secretly assassinate him or something; though she did consider that possibility, she knew her father would never do that. However, this was not much better. He was using his authority to stop them from seeing each other.

“You can’t do this dad! This is an abuse of power! You are supposed to use your power for the welfare of the village, not use it to attack individuals you don’t like!” she protested.

“On the contrary, your future is something that does affect stability and welfare of the entire village. Hence, what I am doing is for the welfare of the village too,” Holt calmly responded.

Astoria closed her eyes to hide her tears and turned around. She tried to use his sense of righteousness against him, but it did not work.

She didn’t want to waste time with him anymore.

‘I hate you…’ she mumbled, before storming out of the room.

Even though she was quiet, Holt was a powerful martial artist so he could clearly hear what she said.

Once she left, Holt sighed and sat back down.

‘I know it maybe painful now, but I’m sure you’ll see that this was for the best eventually,’ he muttered to himself.

After leaving, Astoria rushed straight underground into the prisons. However, two guards stopped her at the entrance.

“Sorry miss, but we are under strict orders from lord Holt himself to not allow you to enter the prison,” one of them said.

But Astoria was furious.

“LET ME GO!” she screamed and tried to force her way through.

However, the guards reacted and blocked her path. She kept trying to break through them, but they eventually had enough and pushed her back forcefully and she fell on the floor.

Although she was a true mage and a tempered body martial artist now, the two guards were also martial artists so she couldn’t resist them both easily.

She winced in pain and glared at the guards menacingly.

“We’re really sorry miss but we cannot let you pass!”

Astoria bit her lip in frustration again and ran back to her room.

They could not see the tears that were now flowing down her face.

“I hate them, I hate them, I hate them all!” Astoria cried, yelling at the ceiling.

She sat on the floor, her back against the door of her room, holding her face in her palms, in between her knees. Tears fell uncontrollably from her eyes as she sobbed and wailed in despair.

A million thoughts raced through her head.

Was this it? Was there nothing she could do?

It wasn’t fair!

She loved Sam and just wanted to be with him, but couldn’t do so… why? Because she was the village head’s daughter? Because she had responsibility towards the village?

Screw the village!

Am I not doing enough already? Am I not training hard, fighting in the front lines, and helping with administration? Why do I also need to sacrifice my happiness and my marriage for the village? That was too much!

She couldn’t do it! She would rather give up her position and run away from the village instead.

If she could be with Sam, then nothing else mattered.

But she couldn’t because of her stupid father!

Astoria cried and cried, feeling helpless about her situation. She didn’t know how many hours had passed. She didn’t feel like eating, or sleeping, or doing anything.

She would have just sat there crying endlessly but was interrupted by a knock. She thought it was some stupid maid who came to deliver her food or something and was about to yell at them to go away.

“Astoria, it’s me.”

Hazezel!

Her twin brother was the only person she felt understood her situation. If it was anyone else, she would have given them a piece of her mind, but for Hazezel, she wiped her tears and opened the door.

Hazezel walked in to see his sister. Her usually beautiful blue eyes were now baggy, red, and lifeless. Her short, silky black hair was a dishevelled mess. It was clear that she had spent a long time crying.

“Oh Astoria…” he whispered, before giving her a hug. Feeling his embrace, Astoria broke down once more and started crying.

Hazezel was also depressed. He could understand both Astoria and Holt’s perspective, however, he couldn’t bear to see his sister suffer like this.

So, he came up with a plan.

“Do you want to be with Sam?” he asked.

“Course I do!” she replied weakly.

Hazezel pulled her away and stared into her eyes.

“Even if it meant making a sacrifice?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied without hesitation.

Hazezel sighed.

“I see…” he reached into his pocket and brought out two plain looking pills

“Take this. These are not ordinary pills but special, rank three pills that have the ability to tremendously increase your aura, enough to scare away low-class demons and onis. At the very least, any demon and oni below the commander class would not attack you for as long as their effects are active,” he explained, placing the pills in her palm and closing her hands.

“What do… you want me to do with these?” Astoria asked blankly.

She spent so long crying that her mind wasn’t working anymore.

“Run away, Astoria,” he replied, staring straight into her eyes.

Her eyes widened.

“Run away from this war, run away from this village, and run away from this family. Take these pills and start a new life. Unfortunately, their effects won’t last forever, but it will last long enough for you to escape. I will prepare a carriage with some money for you. Take them and flee east. You will find larger human towns there where the two of you can start a life anew.”

“But… I can’t just leave you guys!” she protested.

“Didn’t you just say that you were willing to make a sacrifice?” asked Hazezel sternly.

Astoria bit her lip.

“This is the only way – you know it is!”

Astoria agreed that this was the only way, however she didn’t want to leave her family while they were fighting a war.

Maybe if I stay, I can eventually convince dad, she thought.

She was confused, her heart was split again.

“Dad won’t change his mind,” Hazezel spoke, as if reading her mind. “Beyond that, this war is getting more dangerous by the minute. And in case something happens to us, if you’re alive, at least the Reynard family line will survive.”

“No!” she protested vehemently.

Is this what Hazezel wanted? Was he just trying to protect her from this war? She wasn’t the same weak little girl from before!

“I cannot just run for my life while you guys are fighting to your deaths!”

“You’re not,” Hazezel responded calmly. “You are not running for your life. You are running for your future with Sam. Beyond that, if father sees you run away, he will realise how much you love Sam and how determined you are. And once the war ends, he will likely change his mind, at which point I can send you a letter, or bring him to the town, and you can return.”

Astoria hesitated. The plan made sense, and it also gave her the best chance to be with Sam.

But she still felt terrible to abandon her family in a crisis.

Hazezel hugged her once more. They hugged for a few minutes before he pulled back again and gave her a slight kiss on the cheek.

“I love you Astoria, and I will miss you greatly. However, I want you to be happy and this is the only way. I will distract the guards and have the carriage and money prepared tonight. You sneak into the prison, rescue Sam, and meet me at the south gate of the village.”

Without waiting for her response, Hazezel turned around and left, closing the door behind him, leaving a confused and heartbroken Astoria alone in her room.