(From Blue''s Perspective)


    "The weather is kinda gloomy today, isn''t it?" Evan said.


    "Yeah, I think it''s gonna rain," I said.


    "We met on a rainy day as well. Anyway, let''s get to the point," he said. "The paper contains a message. It is written by a dark mage using secretnguage. There are various types of secretnguages. Some of them are hard to make, thus they are hard to read and not all of the mages can read that.


    It is that kind ofnguage. I had a hard time deciphering it. But I did anyway."


    "What does it say?" Dem asked.


    "It says that ''Come near the ck Rill at twelve tomorrow night. Your husband won''t be home at that time. I don''t like to threaten you, but let''s do it just one time, hm? If you don''te, that fruit will rot artificially''," he said. "This is what the first paragraph says. The second paragraph says- ''In case you think it''s a joke and ignore it, go to the cave near ck Rill''."


    "What does that mean?" I asked. "Well, I could not read it in the first ce."


    "I think that dark mage thought that your power is awakened enough to enable you to read that letter. But that dark mage was proven wrong," Evan said. "I think the fruit is rotten by now. But what does this fruit mean anyway?"


    "My spy is dead," Dem said. "Her name is Berry. It''s a fruit''s name. ording to the letter, her dead body is in the cave, I think."


    "Oh my...!" I gasped and pped my hand over my mouth.


    Dem touched my nape and rubbed his hand there. "I don''t understand why that dark mage wanted to meet her. It perhaps is his father. He has been appearing in her dreams, no, nightmares as well. It''s his doing. He has been trying to y with her mind with his words since he can''t control neither her nor me."


    "Do you know what he looks like, Blue?" Evan asked.


    "No... The first time he appeared in my dream, he was wearing a mask. His face was covered."


    I told Evan about all of my dreams and the time when I saw my father from the carriage on the way back to the pce from Ruby''s house. I skipped the part about what he said in my dreams since I did not even tell Dem about it. The words might hurt Dem and trigger his insecurities.


    "So, all these have happened...," Evan muttered. "It is undoubtedly your father. He wants to do something with you."


    "He wants to use her. Since she is a human and a dark mage''s child, she has more ck mana than normal dark mages. That''s why he wants to use her to achieve his goal."


    "We need to get her dead body first," Evan said, looking at Dem. "We might get some clues or something like that."


    "Blue''s mage can take her back. We will go and find the body," Dem said.


    "No," I said quickly. "I want toe with you."


    "... You might get..."


    "I won''t get scared. I will be okay," I said. Though I was sure that the scene was not going to be easy to look at, I still needed to see it. How long was I going to be kept behind just so I would not get scared? I needed to face these kinds of things eventually anyway.


    "Are you sure?" he asked.


    "I also think Blue needs to see this. I can''t see small traces of ck mana. Well, I tried to a lot of times, but it''s hard and I almost never saw it. But Blue could see it as she said before and also absorbed ck mana from those rebels. If it''s the case now, she can help. She won''t need to cut the strings as we are going to follow the traces, so she won''t fall sick," Evan said.


    "I will be fine. Don''t worry," I said, squeezing Dem''s hand.


    "Haa," he sighed. "Alright then. But you have to be careful and if you don''t feel well or feel ufortable, tell me right away."


    "Yes... I will," I nodded.


    "Can you control the people here?" Dem asked, looking at Evan.


    "For ten seconds," Evan replied. "Blue''s mage can teleport the two of you. I wille two secondster. I got to make sure that the trace of ck mana ispletely gone."


    "Can you do that? Luc said it''s hard to remove the trace...," I mumbled.


    "It''s hard, but not impossible. I have made a potion. It will help. This potion will turn into gas the moment you open the lid of the bottle. This gas will purify the air. What I mean is it will remove the trace of the ck mana," Evan exined.


    After that, Flint teleported us in front of the river ck Rill. Flint was a bit exhausted since he had to climb that many stairs and then teleport.


    "Rest for a while. We will take Evan''s help to go back," I said. "The cave is near, right, Dem?"


    "Hm, there...," he said, pointing towards our back. "Are you alright?"


    "Yes..."


    Evan came within a moment. "Did you find that cave? Oh, there it is..."


    Dem held my hand as we moved towards the cave. I was truly scared. Dem seemed to know this very well though I kept denying it. He rubbed my hand again and again as if to make sure that I was alright.


    I could see traces of ck mana on the way. "I can see them... ck mana...," I said.


    "You can? I can''t yet," Evan said.


    The ck mana led us to the cave. As we reached closer to the cave, the amount of ck mana increased and the strings was not as thin as before.


    "I can see them too now," Evan said. "Even though your power is awakened just a bit, you can see that much ck mana. I think the amount of ck mana in you is really too much."


    "Don''t think of anything weird," Dem warned.


    "Don''t worry. I don''t want her or anything. I will be satisfied if we can all work together to defeat that dark mage so our kingdoms won''t be threatened. That''s all I want," Evan said. "That said, is the mage with us trustworthy?"


    "I work for Her Highness. Of course, I am trustworthy. Or, she would not have brought me here," Flint grumbled.


    "You did not greet me," Evan said.


    "Why would I? You didn''t greet Her Highness or His Highness properly either. Besides, you are calling Her Highness by her name," Flint pointed out. "I don''t respect those who don''t respect my master properly."


    ''Master sounds really weird though...''


    "Well, I don''t really mind. It''s alright if you call me ''My lord'' only," Evan said.


    "Why do you all talk too much? Honestly, we are here for work," Dem muttered.


    "The King of Querencia really doesn''t like to rx much," Evan chuckled.


    The moment we reached the entrance of the cave, cold air struck our skin. The night was gloomy and the air was cold. But the coldness did not feel natural here.


    "That...? Is that ice?" I eximed in surprise as I noticed the huge cube of ice. The cube was in perfect shape surprisingly. It was not melting at all. "There is a lot of ck mana around it."


    No one was saying anything. All of them were looking at it intently. I looked around it as well and that was the moment, I found it. The disassembled part of Berry''s body was stuck inside the ice cube. Her eyes were open and the blood that fell from her body parts was frozen as well.


    Dem covered my eyes with his palm, but it was toote. I had seen everything already. Perhaps he was a bit dumbfounded as well. He surely had not expected it.


    "Can you melt it?" Dem asked while pulling me closer to him and covering my eyespletely.


    "Yeah, I will do it now," Evan said.


    "I am okay," I said.


    "Don''t move much. You have seen what you needed to. Not anymore," Dem said.


    I did not argue anymore. Truth be told, I did not want to see something like that again. I wanted to be brave today, just like Dem. But it seemed I needed more time.


    After witnessing today''s incident, I got scared. That dark mage could even kill someone to get what he wanted. What if he started hurting the people, I cared about so he could get me? What if he hurt Dem? Not just Dem, there were more people I cared about. And I could not even think about any of them dying because of me.