What was happening?
Lian was completely at a loss.
She felt raindrops hitting the burlap sack covering her body.
Soon, water seeped through the ventilation holes, bringing a damp sensation to her cheeks.
Contrary to what Luc and Selene expected, the kidnapping victim they had stuffed into the bag had woken up long ago.
Early that morning, as they passed through a town where bounty posters were being announced, Lian had quietly stirred to consciousness on the wooden cart they were pushing.
The first thing she heard from inside the bag was the loud voice of a magistrate reading out the wanted notice.
She gathered her foggy thoughts and began to deduce her current situation.
The Daughter of the Demon King had escaped from the Duchess’s dungeon… There was no need to wonder; this was clearly Feiyin’s handiwork.
After knocking Lian out, did she actually go to the prison to release that girl?
Lian did not make any sudden moves, guessing she might have fallen into enemy hands.
The two small air holes in the burlap sack weren’t enough for her to see the outside clearly, but her hearing remained largely unaffected.
“That dangerous Daughter of the Demon King actually escaped? And they say the Princess has gone missing as well… Do you think she was kidnapped by—”
“Impossible. That girl was defeated by the Princess. Besides, the wanted notice says the person missing, likely kidnapped, is a nineteen-year-old black-haired maid. The age and appearance don’t match at all.”
“Exactly! The Princess’s disappearance is just a rumor. Instead of wasting time spreading gossip, we should find that damned demon woman!”
“Forget it… No matter what, she’s the Daughter of the Demon King, a High Demonkind. Why should ordinary people like us get involved? Leave it to the Guard and the police.”
“She wouldn’t flee to our town, would she? May the Great Saint protect us from such a thing…”
Lian heard many people nearby discussing the contents of the wanted notice.
It seemed they were in a small town near the border.
Just as she tried to gather more information from the surrounding voices, she felt the cart carrying her being slowly pushed away, distancing itself from the crowd.
“Did you hear all that? You’re a wanted criminal now.”
“Yes. That’s why we need to pick up the pace… From now on, we’ll avoid towns and villages where people gather as much as possible.”
Lian heard the voices of two young girls and immediately realized that one of them was the escaped Daughter of the Demon King.
It seemed Feiyin had handed her over to them.
Lian didn’t struggle or make a sound. Her first instinct was to call upon her Magic Power—but there was absolutely no response.
The result didn’t surprise her. Feiyin wasn’t stupid enough to hand over an unrestricted Hero to a couple of demon children.
Lian soon found the cause. There was a bracelet on her right forearm that she had never seen before.
She quickly guessed it might be a Relic, as an ordinary magic-sealing tool wouldn’t be able to suppress the power of the Hero within her.
But that didn’t mean she was helpless.
While she couldn’t subdue two High Demonkind girls capable of protecting themselves with Mana Barriers without her magic, she was confident she could break out of a mere burlap sack and escape—even right under their noses.
So, she waited for the right moment inside the bag. Originally, she had planned to flee once they were far from the town.
However, during the bumpy journey through the countryside, a conversation between the two girls changed her mind.
“I didn’t expect the guards at the gate of the Honglian Palace to actually let us out without a word after seeing the brooch the Magus gave us.”
“Those people must have been arranged by the Master long ago. Having been undercover among the humans for so many years, she must have established her own faction… This brooch is likely the token of that organization.”
“You’re right. Does that mean the contact waiting for us in the Sea of Trees will also be from the Magus’s faction?”
“Most likely.”
This brief dialogue contained far too much information for Lian to ignore.
The guards at the gates of the Honglian Palace had let them go simply because they saw a token from Feiyin?
And they mentioned a contact in the Sea of Trees… Had even the Kingdom of Elves, known for its xenophobia, been infiltrated by Feiyin and her subordinates?
Lian couldn’t just sit back and watch.
From the townspeople’s conversation, she deduced that nothing major had happened at the Honglian Palace yet, though the rumor about Milin’s disappearance bothered her.
Besides, Sephy and Vera were still there to hold the fort.
Therefore, she decided to play along and let these two girls take her into the Sea of Trees to meet their so-called contact.
She needed to figure out exactly what kind of conspiracy Feiyin and her followers were plotting.
She thought she would wait until that moment, but on this rainy night, the white-haired demon girl named Selene suddenly seemed to go mad.
She dragged Lian out of the bag, tied her hands and feet with rope, blindfolded her, stuffed cloth into her mouth and ears, and finally shoved her back into the burlap sack.
Now, her face stung from the friction of the coarse burlap. Because her ears were stuffed with cloth and cotton balls, every sound she heard felt like it was blocked by a thick wall.
It was a muffled, chaotic jumble of noises. The vibration of rain hitting the tarpaulin and the sack, followed by the crackling of a campfire being overturned… and then the sound of someone rolling and stumbling in the mud.
But the most distinct sound was the gunfire. It was short and sharp; even muffled, it was enough to overpower everything else, dominating the noisy night rain.
These gunshots were different from any Lian had heard before.
Compared to the City Defense Force’s muskets that fired lead balls, the firing of this weapon was lighter and faster, sounding more like the guns she had heard in movies and television shows in the past.
She suddenly tensed her body inside the sack and began shaking her head.
After a difficult and brief effort, she managed to shake the cloth and cotton ball out of one ear.
The surrounding sounds became much clearer.
Amidst the continuous gunshots, she heard the Daughter of the Demon King, Luc, shouting.
“Selene… watch out!”
“Don’t talk… The Mana Barrier can’t stop those bullets! If you get hit, you’ll die instantly!”
They had encountered a powerful enemy.
This brought a surge of joy to Lian.
Without her magic, she might not be able to restrain the two girls, but if there was a strong ally with a way to break through a Mana Barrier, she was confident she could subdue both of them!
Lian made a decision immediately. She curled up in the sack and began twisting her bound wrists.
She couldn’t use a burst of Magic Power to break the restraints with brute force, so she dislocated her bones and joints, forcing her bound hands to slip free from the knots.
It was painful, of course. But it was far from the “girl’s pain” Feiyin had made her feel earlier.
Besides, during her past travels, she had used this method to escape being tied up many times.
After exerting a great deal of effort, she finally regained freedom for her hands.
She snapped her joints back into place and pulled the cloth out of her mouth, which had been pressing against the back of her throat.
“Cough, cough…!”
Her eyes stung as she choked, and she spat out the soaked clump of cotton fabric.
Then, she dug out the cloth and cotton from her other ear.
The sudden rush of amplified sound made her eardrums ache.
She tore off the blindfold and used her hands to prop up the burlap bag that was rubbing against her cheeks.
With a sharp tug, she ripped a hole in the bag.
Boom!
She tore the sack further along the rip. She crawled out of the burlap bag but didn’t stand up immediately.
“…You damned woman, don’t think you’re the only one who can keep shooting like that!”
The gunfire hadn’t stopped, and she saw the bright glare of Fireball Techniques exploding.
Without magic, she didn’t want to be hit by a spell or a bullet.
She peeked her head out from the gap between the layers of tarpaulin and burlap, observing the situation.
Cold rain lashed at her face, and the light from another Fireball Technique exploding nearby stung her eyes, which hadn’t seen light for a long time.
She saw Selene protecting Luc, flickering through the shadows cast by the flickering flames, firing fireballs at the enemy and the surroundings.
She was a Shadow Demon, and she used this strategy to constantly create shadows, using the Shadow Demon’s unique movement method, Shadow Shift, to dodge incoming bullets and find openings to counterattack.
Lian turned her head and saw that the campfire not far away had been scattered.
Its residual light was being snuffed out by the rain, leaving only a blurry smudge of orange.
In that orange glow, Lian saw a blurred figure wearing a cowboy-style hat.
The person held their hat down with one hand, performing a swift and clean side-roll to dodge Selene’s incoming fireballs.
Then, straightening their posture, the figure raised their gun arm, and the muzzle flashed with fire—
Lian’s heart skipped a beat at that moment.
She felt the silhouette of this person was somewhat familiar.
But the rain was heavy and the surroundings were dark… She could only tell that the person firing was a woman and that she was alone.
Lian didn’t have time to hesitate anymore.
She took a deep breath, scrambled to her feet, and shouted at the woman with the gun.
“Help—me! I’m over here! I’m not their accomplice—!”
She deliberately raised her voice, and her near-screaming plea for help pierced through the gaps in the gunfire and explosions.
The two sides locked in combat paused for a split second, turning their gaze toward her.
Selene raised her hand and threw a fireball.
Fortunately, Luc grabbed her arm, causing the fireball to miss its target.
“What are you doing?!”
“Are you going to kill her?”
“What else? I’d rather finish off the Hero’s Daughter right here than let her be rescued—”
“Don’t you dare!”
A cold, stern shout rang out… accompanied by suppressive fire that grazed past Lian.
This person really was here to save her.
And her voice sounded even more familiar to Lian. Without thinking further, she shouted to the woman.
“Keep firing like that to help me break their Mana Barriers! I’m going over there to take care of them!”
“…Didn’t you just ask me to save you?”
The figure’s voice sounded a bit bewildered.
Nevertheless, she followed Lian’s instructions and continued to provide cover fire.
With her support, Lian’s confidence soared, and she turned to charge straight at Luc and Selene.
“So fast…! How can someone without magic be this fast?”
Luc, protected by Selene’s shadows, cried out in surprise.
Logically, Selene shouldn’t have been afraid of a girl rushing at her without magic.
However, seeing her charging forward with such momentum reminded her of the feeling of Lian’s silver-armored arm gripping her throat back at the mansion.
The fear almost suffocated Selene.
But despite this deep-seated dread, Selene forced herself to pull it together, retreating while dodging the incoming bullets.
“We have to go! Luc! Grab onto me!”
Luc knew Selene’s judgment was correct.
The bullets grazing past them were even more powerful than a Fireball Technique… and they were being fired at an incredible rate.
In her understanding, human muskets couldn’t do such a thing.
Furthermore, she saw that every bullet that passed Selene’s side carved away large chunks of the magic power she had dissolved into shadows.
She didn’t have time to think any further; she grabbed Selene’s arm tightly and dove into the shadows with her.