ZE - Chapter 47: The Unfortunate Princess

Disclaimer:

“Dialogue”

‘Thoughts’

-Author notes-

Chapter 47: The Unfortunate Princess

During the night, they stopped to rest and eat some dried meat since they could not make a fire. That would just give away their position.

“It's cold…” Seth trembled.

The temperature had descended drastically during the night.

“Cover yourself with something. We have already been lucky enough to avoid contact with the Tree Walkers. If we light a fire, we will have the entire tribe on us before dawn,” said Tolfin.

Zephyr leaned his back against a tree and closed his eyes.

His exhaustion won over, and he was soon fast asleep.

<><><><><><><>

“....”

“You are not very talkative, Princess,” he turned to his riding companion.

Instead of answering, she looked back at the Zloria castle in the distance, the place that had been her home for her first seventeen years of life, with tears in her eyes.

He could understand her plight. After cleansing her Kingdom of demons, it was time for the King to pay the price for the Empires' help.

With much pain, the King had to give up his youngest daughter to the Emperor…

His Kingdom was safe, for now, but his daughter's future did not look very bright.

She was off to become the new Emperor's concubine.

It would not have been a terrible fate for someone of a lower class. After all, the Emperor's concubines all live lives of extreme luxury, with their own living accommodations and even their own servants.

They also enjoy the safety of the Empire's palace. The safest place in the world. Even the highest-ranked demons don't dare to approach it.

Of course, a beautiful and young royal Princess like Theresa of Zloria may have wanted something more from life.

The Hero observed the Princess with attention. He will admit that she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen…and he had seen many.

With her long fiery red hair, amber eyes, and perfect doll face.

When he first met her, the Princess had shown to have a personality as fiery as her hair.

He could see none of that fire now.

‘What a waste…to give her to that old man.’

“And pray tell, oh great hero…” The Princess was now looking directly at him. The sadness in her eyes was replaced by anger. ”What should I talk about? Your brave deeds in these lands? Or perhaps we could talk about the man who claimed me like a mere possession.”

“Your father made a deal with the Emperor, there is no need to take your frustrations out on me.”

“My father was desperate! And he was left with no choice but to accept whatever deal the Emperor gave him, and he knew that! And you, are nothing but one of his puppets.” She spat the words, and he could once more see the fire in her eyes.

He shrugged and said nothing afterward. He had no plans on trying to defend his actions or the Emperor’s…she was right after all. Even this young girl could clearly see through it.

What she didn't know was that he was given as little choice in the matter as she had.

He could only hope she was strong enough to survive. After all…the future was filled with possibilities.

<><><><><><><><><><>

Zephyr awoke from his dream with mixed feelings.

After everything he had seen about this Hero, he had developed some fascination as well as admiration for him.

But he didn't like how subservient he was to the Emperor.

It reminded him too much of how his relationship had been with the Celestials.

“Finally awake,” Tolfin said to him before approaching Seth and moving him a bit. “Come on, get ready. We should not waste the daylight.

Zephyr glanced up. It was hard to tell what time it was just by looking at the trees. But there was definitely some light passing through the leaves. Just enough to see where he was putting his feet.

“If we move fast today, we may be able to reach the river by tomorrow,” Tolfin said.

The group gathered their things and started moving again.

A few more hours passed, and Tolfin appeared to become more restless. He constantly moved his eyes around, scanning all the trees. “Is strange…” He finally said.

“Is something wrong?” Seth asked.

“We haven't encountered any of them yet.”

“Isn't that a good thing? You said that if we got lucky, we may not encounter any at all,” Zephyr pointed out.

“I meant any large groups…but we haven't even seen some loose scouts. We are passing far away from the ruins, so I didn't expect many, but…”

“The ruins?” Seth asked.

“Yes, in the center of this forest, you can find some massive ruins. The Tree Walkers have built their settlements very near those ruins. That is the most dangerous place in the entire forest.”

‘Those ruins he mentioned…they must be what remains of the Zloria Castle. The one I saw last night in my dream.’ Zephyr wished he could see what the castle looked like now. He was very curious about that.

It wasn't clear how much time had passed since the events in his dreams to the present.

The only thing he knew for sure was that it happened after the demon invasion started and before the Celestials showed up for the first time to help humanity.

“That's too bad, I would have liked to see those ruins,” Seth commented.

‘It seems like Seth shares my feelings.’

“Ha, don't be ridiculous. It would be suicide to go anywhere near the-”

“Ahh!” Zephyr exclaimed when, all of a sudden, his mount made a sharp turn and started to run at great speed like something had spooked it.

“Oi, where are you going, stop!” Zephyr yelled at it and pulled the reins back, but the beast completely ignored him and started to run faster.

“Stop, you can't go that way!” Tolfin shouted. “Oh no!, we must follow Zephyr and stop him before it's too late…”

“What is it, Tolfin?” Asked Seth.

“He is going straight toward the ruins!”