บท 53: Journey towards Emir

The morning sun had kissed Arrora awake. Slivers of light peeped through the drawn curtains, forming thin golden stripes across her sleepy face. She opened her eyes and slowly, drowsily and let out a small yawn.

Arrora saw Don still meditating as the bright layer of light covered his body. She didn't want to disturb him and decided to wash her face before going out. Hearing the door opening and closing Don slowly opened his eyes while the light covering his body slowly started to fade away.

After a few minutes, Arrora stepped outside with her hair dripping with water.

Don saw her beauty had risen after she reached the great master realm.

Seeing Don's face she realized there was not even a tinge of tiredness but he looked refreshed yet he quickly covered his face with putting the hood on.

"Let's go"

Arrora nodded and closely followed Don towards the door.

Since Don had already seen the carriages going to Emir, Don led Arrora without asking the direction to anybody. When Don and Arrora walked towards the carriages stand, Don could see some people stepping away from their path when they saw him and Arrora.

"News travels fast huh?" Arrora whispered to him seeing the behavior of those people.

Don noticed some people from the singing cat tavern yesterday leaning on the sides of the buildings and talking with the people beside them while slightly pointing and looking at Don and Arrora.

However, Don didn't mind them and walked in the direction of the carriages without looking back at them. After navigating through narrow streets and pavement Don was able to see the queue of carriages.

Some carriages were hooked to cows as others had horses, Don wanted to quickly end this trip so he chose the fancy carriage which stood away from the carriages hooked with cows. Arrora could see runes and engravings on the carriage that Don was walking towards. Four black sturdy horses were hooked to the red-painted carriage.

Looking from the outside the carriage seemed like it could only carry three or four people inside.

However, when Arrora got closer to the carriages she saw the posters Uncle Dior gave it to Don pasted on the carriages as every single carriage have one pasted on them even some men giving the posters to the people who were passing by the carriage and she could also see a group of blue-robed people stopping everyone before checking their faces with the poster.

One of the blue-robed men suddenly pointed his finger towards Don and Arrora as he started to walk towards them.

"You two take off the hood" Don noticed the moon symbol on the youth's chest.

"Why?"

Don calmly asked the youth as he saw the others reaching for their swords while the girls clenched their staffs like they were expecting a battle

"We are searching for a murderer that's why now do as I say"

"Alright"

Don slowly took off the hood and revealed his new face, the youth raised his one eyebrow as he looked at Don then at the bounty poster then he turned his gaze towards Arrora who was still wearing the hood.

"Take it off Maria"

Before the youth could say anything to Arrora Don told Arrora to take off the hood.

Hearing directly from Don, Arrora didn't hesitate while she took the hood off to reveal her face.

The youth's heart skipped a beat as his eyes went wide when he saw the beautiful half-elf woman before him.

"Can we go now?"

Don could see the youth drooling but when he heard Don the youth regained his previous serious posture and waved them to go.

Don nodded at Arrora and started to walk towards the fancy carriage however unlike Arrora he didn't put his hood again.

When Don and Arrora came closer to the carriage an old man wearing a patch on his left eye greeted them with a smile.

"Young master, are you looking for a carriage to hire?"

Even though the Oldman saw two people coming, he only greeted Don because many young masters kept half-elves and women from other races as their pets or slaves and his name would be tarnished if he greeted a slave.

Obviously, Don saw the old man only greeting him and ignoring Arrora but Don knew it was not the time or place to start a revolution so he just nodded towards the old man

"Yes I'm heading to Emir"

"Young master 50 silver coins, I guarantee the safe and comfortable journey within two days"

Arrora knitted her brows under the hood when she heard the outrageous price but she saw Don throwing a pouch of coins towards the old man and sighed.

The old man didn't count the coins but just weighed it in his hands and let out an ear to ear smile as a confirmation.seeing the old man approving it was indeed 50 silver coins just by weighing using his hands surprised Don a bit.

After giving the coins Don saw the old man opening the door then walking to take the reins. Don turned his head and gestured at Arrora to enter first as Arrora nodded and stepped inside the carriage followed by Don.

"Young master, shall we go?"

Don heard the old man and the horses neighing

"Let's go"

"Young master, did you hear about the bounty?"

After a few hours of a journey, the old man asked Don, seeing the old man trying to break the silence by asking such question Arrora turned her gaze from the carriage windows towards Don

"Yeah I saw the posters in Virnam"

"Hahaha not only in Virnam young master, the posters are everywhere entire empire would recognize their faces"

Arrora had a heavy feeling in her stomach when she heard the old man

"Getting on the bad side of the cold moon mansion, the three of them have nowhere to got they going to be hunted"

"It's a hunt alright"

Arrora saw no fear or worry in his face but his voice had a coldness to it when he answered the old man.

"The Cold Moon Mansion has become more powerful nowadays"

"What do you mean?"

Don asked the old man suddenly when he heard the old man

"Don't you know young master? many-core students there reached the great master realm it's the hot topic in the empire"

Even though Don couldn't see the old man's face, he could still tell the old man was shocked beyond words by hearing his voice

"Young people nowadays making the old generation like us look bad by reaching higher levels just in their teenage"

The old man sighed and continued to talk

"Next Archeron competition is going to be so exciting, young master are you participating?"

if anyone could see the old man they would notice stars in the old man's eyes due to the excitement

"I will be there "

Hearing the youth the old man guessed he wasn't going to participate as he continued to speak

"I'm betting on King Archeron's daughter she reached the great master realm at just thirteen after all who knows what her level is now"

the old man gasped air and sighed heavily when he was mentioning the magical level of King's Daughter.

"Princess Scarlett?"

Arrora didn't know how he knew the name of a princess from a faraway kingdom

"No the younger one, Princess Audrey"

the old man said when he heard the youth's question

"I didn't know King Archeron had two daughters"

Don rubbed his chin as he asked the old man and felt the gaze of Arrora beside him

"I didn't think you know this much"

Arrora though in her mind and heard the conversation without looking the sceneries outside

"Yep two daughters and two sons last time I've heard Prince Harold already started to conquer smaller kingdom with his Uncle Kingdom Archeron is growing every day "

"What about the second prince and princess Scarlett?"

The old man seemed very knowledgeable and gossip lover so Don decided to get much information from him however sitting beside Don, Arrora still couldn't get why he was asking this much questions about the Kingdom Archeron

"You mean the Prince Iron arm Spencer, he was training as a general when I last visited the Kingdom and Princess Scarlette is the next ice maiden of the Trinity Palace "

"Ice maiden huh"

"Is young master planning to visit Kingdom Archeron next?"

"No not until the competitions"

After a while, the old man started to blabber about his old journeys and adventures through the empire as Don listened and answered here and there without giving much notice to the old man's stories.

The rest of the journey was uneventful, the old man slept under the carriage in the night as Don and Arrora cultivated inside the carriage without leaving the carriage.

"Young master, where did you say you want to go in Emir?"

Don could hear the people buzzing and merchants shouting which indicated him that they were getting closer to the capital of Emir

"I didn't just drop us near the thousand arms auction house"

"As you wish young master"

Finally, the carriage had come to a stop before a five-story building looked like glass and steel strung together. They reflected light as well as any mirror and so incredibly the streets seemed brighter when Don stepped outside from the carriage. Don looked up and saw the huge 'TAAH' letters made of a shiny metal hanging from the top of the building.

"It was a pleasure to meet young master I hope we meet again"

As the old man said Don just nodded towards him. After seeing the carriage disappearing from their eyesight Don and Arrora walked towards the front door.