Chapter 160: Arriving at the Hotstone kingdom

Once Helena said that, Sylla and the rest couldn't help but have their eyes open wide with tremendous degrees of shock in them.

"Wow! Helena, you are discovering more usefulness of your abilities everyday." Lydia said while Helena nodded her head with a smile in her face.

"Alright, Sylla. We would be heading out now. You can return to our kingdom. But keep in mind that we would come visiting again soon." Helena said while Sylla nodded her head with a smile appearing in her face.

Then they began to walk back to the lagoon where that boat owner parked his boat on.

When they got there, they didn't meet him and felt that he had long left since they wasted a lot of time in returning.

"I guess we would have to wait here for another boat owner to return so that he can convey us to the Hotstone kingdom where we would carry out our first witch-hunting mission. Haha!" Lucretia said and grinned while the others nodded their heads with smiles in their faces.

So, they began to patiently wait for a boat owner to arrive at this side of the lagoon.

After they have stood for about five minutes and didn't see any boat approaching them from far, Lauren looked at Helena and asked "Senior Helena, since it seems you have the power to possibly create something from nothing, why don't you try crafting a boat out of thin air so that we can transport ourselves with it to the other kingdoms and start out missions. We have dated for too long, you know. The Camp Overseer would be impatiently waiting for our return." 

Helena heard what Lauren said and only shook her head with an amused smile appearing in her face. 

"Dear Lauren, I don't think my powers work like that." She said while Lauren nodded her head sadly. 

She was seriously hoping to see Helena magically create out a large boat out of thin air. But alas, she was disappointed with Helena's response. 

However, being someone who was sharp-mouthed and at the same time persistent, she asked Helena to just give it a try. 

However, Helena plainly refused with a bright, amiable smile in her face. 

Lauren then began to beg Helena with glistening tears in her eyes, giving the feeling that she would break down on tears if Helena didn't acquiesce to her constant demands. 

Seeing her eyes that glistened due to the tears that had welled up in them, Helena approached Lauren and said with a calm, friendly tone "I will try this another time, Lauren. You should know that I have been using my bloodline powers a lot lately, so I am beginning to have severely painful aches begin to rack my head and body once again. But when I have rested enough and have totally recovered from the agonizing pain afflictions going on in my body, I will try to do what you said with you there to witness it. I promise." 

It was only after Helena said this that Lauren broke a bright smile in her face and delightedly nodded her head. 

Deborah who had been greatly annoyed since Lauren started demanding that Helena do some things in front of her and didn't want to angrily and harshly talk to her due to fear of being admonished by Helena, looked at her younger sister, Lauren with both a smirk and a really annoyed expression in her face. 

Lauren saw the dual expressions in her older sister's face and only ignored her. 

So, since all had been settled with all parties happy, they began to wait for any boat to draw closer to them so that they can pay the owner to transport them to the kingdom that they had in mind of first visiting. 

A few hours later, whilst under the glaring, sweltering sun, a large boat transporting some traders appeared in the far distance on the lagoon.

Then not long, about twenty minutes later, the boat finally arrived in front of them.

When the traders that it carried stepped out of it, paid their fees for the service rendered and went on their different ways to carry on with the businesses that they were here in this region for, Helena and the rest quickly approached the boat owner before he could row away and ask that could he transport them to the Hotstone kingdom.

The boat owner frowned his face and was about to refuse when Helena shut him up by abruptly saying the amount of money that she would pay him for his service rendered to them.

The boat owner's eyes glowed with great shock before intense delight totally replaced it.

That was the money that he would make from ten to-and-fro trips in a single trip.

Then without wasting time, he quickly agreed before they would change their minds and nicely asked them to step on the boat.

Helena smiled.

Money is power, she thought within herself and shook her head.

Although knowledge is power, as she was taught by her loving, late deceased parents, money was however power too. Just like in this case where it had made the boat owner to quickly change his mind and yield to her request like he was under some strong mental influence or overbearing, mind-compulsion power.

Helena would have possibly tried to control his mind by using her magical persuasion power on him if she was short on money, as in gold coins. But now that they had visited the Fey kingdom with Sylla giving her large amounts of golden coins to buy a lot of stuffs that took her fancy as she was a Deputy Chief of the Fey race, and even gifted her friends staggering amounts of golden coins too, she saw no need in trying to use her mind-coercion powers on the boat owner who was striving hard to make a substantial living for himself and probably his family.

With a smile in her face and in that of her friends too, they climbed atop the boat which then began to move since it had started being rowed by the blissful and energized boat owner.

***

Many hours later when it was almost night, they finally arrived at the massive region where the Hotstone kingdom could be found in.

When the boat stopped near the land of the region for Helena and her friends to come down, he was paid and then began to quickly row back to where he came from. 

He definitely wouldn't operate his boat for anyone this night since he had gotten many times the money for a to-and-fro trip. Now, it was to go relax with his wife and kids and buy them stuffs that he sadly couldn't get for them before.

"Well, here we are, the region where the Hotstone kingdom can be found." Lydia said with a smile in her face while everyone else nodded their heads in agreement and with enticing, beautiful smiles in their faces.

"Girls, let's move." Helena ordered.

Then they began to walk by her sides to where the kingdom was, using the map that was given to her by the Mission House at the Great Sisterhood Training Camp.

After a few hours of walking, they finally got there.

Although it was night, a lot of people could still be seen going in and coming out through the kingdom's gate. Then noises of a lot of people selling things and jubilatory cheers that seemed to come from some sorts of festivals currently taking place could be loudly heard by Helena and her friends who stood before the gate of the kingdom, preparing themselves to enter. 

"Wow! Such a bustling kingdom" Lauren said not failing to express her shock. 

Helena and the rest agreed to what she said by slightly nodding their heads. 

Helena at the moment was feeling greatly envious. 

The kind of businesses going on in here at this time and also the bustling should also be happening at her kingdom. But alas, wars and a lot of killings and bloodshed and everything else could not make such to happen. 

She however felt that now that she had put the kingdom in order by swallowing up the lands of ten kingdoms to expand the landsize of her kingdom, and transforming the owners of those large pieces of lands that her kingdom swallowed up into the death-sworn protectors of her kingdom, building a lot more structures that had lots of rooms to house a lot of people, including the Fey people, guests, traders and investors from afar, then a type of astonishing security system that no other kingdom should be able to boast off, she felt that the kind of liveliness in this city would also surface in hers very soon.

Then with a smile appearing in her face as she shredded off the heavy feeling of envy that had manifested in her heart, she said to her girls "Let's go in, girls."

Her friends smilingly nodded their heads when she gave that instruction. Then they began to walk alongside her towards the widely opened gates of the kingdom to go in and carry out their delayed and long overdue missions.