"Flamie..." Michelle looked at Cold Flame as he flew with her on his back towards the Archduchy. "Do you remember where’s the alley where I bought you?" she asked.
But Cold Flame shook his head. "As I didn’t have an affiliated element back then, I was always drowsy and didn’t even realize where we were," he answered.
Michelle nodded. "Do you know where the market is?" she asked after a while. "Can you take me there?"
Before Cold Flame could answer, Nyxaroth’s voice sounded. "Did that person in black scare you? Is that why you don’t want to go home?" he asked with his lazy raspy voice. Michelle was already used to his voice, but if someone else heard it, they would be uncomfortable. It was a clearly evil voice. Though Michelle didn’t see Nyxaroth show his evil side, she knew that he was evil to the core.
"No..." Michelle shook her head. "To say that the person’s gaze was scary is an understatement, and I don’t even know why, but I wasn’t scared. I just felt that the person was dangerous. More dangerous than anyone I have ever met or heard about."
Just as she said that, Cold Flame started descending towards the market. He landed in a deserted alley behind the market and Michelle got off. Then, he entered her contract space, a space every cultivator had, where they could store their contracted beasts, weapons and items which needed contracting. At the moment, other than Cold Flame, only the sealing book was there.
Michelle walked from the deserted alley into the market and aimlessly wandered it, not wanting to go home. Something deep inside her was warning her that if she went home, a catastrophe would unfold in the Archduchy. So she wandered the market until the sunset and then randomly entered the in and went to the receptionist. She paid for a room and went upstairs, locking the door behind her. She knew that if the person wanted to go after her, the locked door wouldn’t stop him, but she still locked the door to keep others out.
"That monster would be happy if it knew that you buried it..." an amused voice appeared before a person suddenly appeared in front of Michelle, leaning against the locked door. "Did you think the locked door would keep me out?" the person clad in full black asked with a chuckle. "That would disappoint me... I thought you would be smarter, for that bastard to try get rid of you..."
Seeing the person, Michelle’s frown deepened. "Let’s say it’s a habit of mine to always lock the door," she said, trying to calm down. She didn’t know why, but she wasn’t scared, though her heart was beating painfully quickly in her chest.
The person stared at Michelle and suddenly sneered coldly. He looked like a human, but his aura was ancient and completely inhuman. He gave off a nasty feeling. Not as nasty as the runes back in the cave, but nasty. "So you aren’t as stupid as I worried you would be... Your stupidity is still within acceptable rage. But you must be stupid if you aren’t scared of me." He scoffed disdainfully. "What a disappointment," he added.
Hearing that, Michelle frowned. There were safer situations in her past life when she felt scared, but at the moment, she didn’t feel a speck of fear. Just an uncomfortable tightness in her chest which warned her of how dangerous the person in front of her was. "Why aren’t you scared of me?" he asked. "Are you so naive that you think all people are good, and that I won’t harm you? Or are you so arrogant that you think you would be able to escape me or even defeat me if I attacked you? Or do you just not value your life? Because if either of that is the case, I didn’t need to save you..."
Michelle’s eyes widened when she heard that. "You saved me...? When?" she frowned. "I’ve never seen you before..." she was more confused than ever in her life.
The person suddenly laughed before pressing his finger to her lips. "You will get your answers, but not now. Now, answer my question and I’ll leave you alone... Temporarily. Why aren’t you scared of me?"
Hearing that, Michelle raised a brow. The word temporarily didn’t make her happy, but she answered. "I don’t know why I’m not scared." She looked at the person with her deep purple eyes. Through his cloak, she couldn’t even see his face or anything about him. "I know you are dangerous and powerful enough to kill me and everyone I know with a sweep of your hand, and I don’t understand why, but though I knew since seeing you in the forest that you are a horrifying existence, for some strange reason, I wasn’t scared."
Listening to Michelle, the person’s gaze turned cold. "As I promised. I’ll temporarily leave you alone. But I’ll come again once you leave the Land of Exile." With that, he disappeared just like he appeared. Michelle stared at the place where he was and suddenly doubted whether she was sane or if she was hallucinating.
"Nyx... Am I still sane?" she asked as she sat back in her seat.
Nyxaroth moved in her body and rested in her brain. "Your brain seems fine. Nothing’s wrong." His voice was lazy: "And the person you saw was real. I saw him too."
"I see..." Michelle smiled lazily and stood up. "Nyx, let’s go home," she said as she summoned Cold Flame from her contract space. She knew that being the spoiled brat he was, he couldn’t bear being alone in the contracted space for too long.
While Michelle was getting ready to go home, Mare and Snow were fighting against a group of monsters while the Archduke watched them from a distance. Since his daughter was planning to send the two to the middle realm, he would make it so that even with limited power, they could rival anyone they met there. Of course, he knew that it was impossible for them to defeat someone of Thomas Hillberg’s rank, but the disciples of his sect could be felt with by them if he trained them enough.
The last few days, he had taken them out of the Land of Exile so they could cultivate higher, and always made them cultivate for three days and fight monsters above their grade for three days. At first, the two were completely exhausted, and he had to step in a few times while they fought, so they wouldn’t get hurt, but after a while, though with some cuts and bruises, they were able to kill two or three monsters at once without his interference.
But at the moment, it was the first time they were standing against a horde of monsters, so the Archduke was expecting that he would need to save them at some point.
After fighting together for a while, Mare and Snow had their attacks in perfect harmony, so they wouldn’t send contradictory attacks at the monsters at once as they would nullify each other. They covered each other’s back and carefully observed the monsters’ movements so they would get hurt as least as possible.
When Snow and Mare were already fighting with the monsters for a while, and it was getting dangerous, the Archduke stepped in and swiftly knocked the monsters out. For someone from the upper realm like him, the horde of monsters was like a horde of ants which he could just slap with a book, and they would all die. "You are getting better..." he said as he glanced at the two. "The next three days, you will be cultivating in the caves. Make the most out of it."
"Yes, sir!" Mare and Snow nodded. After seeing the Archduke’s powers a few times, they had deep respect for him.
Hearing that they were still calling him "sir", the Archduke chuckled. "You call my daughter by her name but are still so formal with me..."
"Sir, that’s because you have our respect. Michelle has our respect too, but that’s different since we share a bond with her!" Mare answered with a smile and Snow nodded.
The Archduke just smiled a bit and led them to the caves where they would be cultivating for the next three days. In the cave, he had placed a special spirit stone which would speed up their cultivation, so they had better chances of catching up to the people from the middle realm even though they were in the lower realm.
Mare and Snow entered the cave and each sat in a corner of the cave where the spirit energy was the most concentrated and started cultivating. For three days straight, they didn’t open their eyes and continued raising in power. They were both determined to reach the power when they will be able to dominate over the hordes of monsters that the Archduke sent at them. Neither of them liked the feeling of needing him to save them every time. Especially since it was clearly so easy for him to knock all the monsters out.
After the three days passed, they went to fight the monsters again, and lasted longer against them, but as they were exhausted when most of the monsters were dead, so the Archduke had to save them again and commented: "You’re improving quickly. My daughter chose good contract beasts."