75 Subjugation 1

"Farma, did you, by any chance, saw Elodiaren?"

"Oh! Emersyn. Yes, I saw him when he came down to eat lunch, and I never saw him go down. Maybe you should ask Diamond, Kisha and Derek. They were the people that cleaned the rooms this afternoon."

"Thank you," she said.

"No problem. Glad I could help," Farma smiled then continued eating.

Emersyn left and went towards the spot where she could feel Diamond's aura. She saw the man swinging his sword in the field with deep concentration. He was only on his training pants and was sweating profusely. Sensing that it wouldn't be good to disturb him, she went to the second person named Kisha. Moreover, Kisha was serving in the restaurant. Emersyn didn't have any choice and went for Derek. Fortunately, he was only reading under a tree.

"Excuse me?" She called.

Derek looked up as he fixed his glasses and a smile erupted from his face. "Emersyn," he called.

"Hi, Derek. I was looking for you."

"What is it?"

"Did you enter the room where Elodiaren was residing when you cleaned this afternoon?"

"Yes, I did. What's the matter though?"

"He was missing when I arrived. I couldn't find him too, so I assumed that you might have seen him before that time."

"Ah… not at all. When I entered his room after knocking, since there weren't any replies, I just went in and there was no one else. Though… there was a residual essence of a gate opening..."

"..."

"So, I thought that you left with him."

"..."

"Emersyn?"

"I was just baffled… so, he was already gone when you arrived…," she mused.

"Yes, that would be thirty minutes after lunch."

"Thank you very much, Derek. I'm sorry if I ever disturbed you."

"It's no problem. You won't disturb me no matter what."

"See you later."

"Yes, see you."

Emersyn sat down on the bed once she entered Elodiaren's room. She clutched her head and sighed. She was only gone for a few hours and then she arrived here just to hear that Elodiaren got taken away. What should she do now? Though there was still the plan to cultivate, she needed Elodiaren for her other plans. Should she retrieve him back? Could she even trace back where the portal had gone to? With that in mind, she opened up the holographic screen from her wrist and saw that there was another available set of coordinates in the portal function. She didn't hesitate and tapped that coordinate then a small portal opened up in front of her, enough to fit her body into it.

"..."

Emersyn took a defensive position as she crossed both of her arms in front of her face, taking the hit head on. Her clothes, that she made using the strong hide of the animals she killed, were burnt as she stood naked in front of the dragon. When the red dragon stopped breathing its fire, it roared in victory as it flapped its wings, but when the fire died down, the female human was still standing tall and confident. It was enraged. However, before it knew, it was already falling down to the ground.

As Emersyn landed on the hot ground, she sighed as she stared at her naked body. Clothes materialized in her hands, quickly dressing herself in a comfortable skirt, shirt, leggings and boots. Then, she approached the dragon as it shook its head off. When it saw Emersyn approaching, it released a loud roar that shook the earth. The female human wasn't fazed at all.

"GRAAAAAR!!!"

"..."

Emersyn retrieved a sword from her inventory and immediately ran towards the dragon at a speed of light. She jumped before the dragon and then spun as she struck her sword at the dragon's neck. It easily tore through as blood spurted out from the deep wound.

"... tough hide there, Draggy."

The dragon whined as it grabbed its neck to stop the bleeding. It roared louder. In return, multiple roars rang out from the distance.

"Oh dear..." Emersyn mumbled as she retrieved another sword that could contain her energy. For the meantime, as she waited for the other dragons to arrive, she killed the one before her and immediately stored the carcass in her inventory. Seeing that the environment wasn't good, she ran towards the barren land she could see in the distance. Then, once she arrived there, she turned to look towards the holographic screen hovering on her wrist and browsed through the food section. A thermos appeared and she poured the hot latte in the cup then drank it leisurely. Once she was satisfied, she stored the thermos and got a tuna sandwich to gorge on. She sat on the dirty ground as she waited. Nobody came in the radius of 10 kilometers.

"..."

Realizing that nobody would come, a holographic screen appeared before her and searched for Elodiaren's location. She took a big bite of another sandwich as she looked at the screen.

"Hmmm…"

No indication.

She sighed. Anyway, she stood up and just went towards the nearest indicated location in the map.

***

Emersyn was flabbergasted as she looked at the people who had shabby clothing and chipping weapons going in and out of that city. Now that she noticed, the density of the mana here was so low. Then how about the dragon she met? And those that she had heard? In any case, she looked at her clothing and to the clothes that the folks were wearing. For now, she should cover her body with a cloak. Once she donned herself, she let the hood down and entered the town through a huge gate. There were guards with spears as they stopped Emersyn from entering.

"Fee," one of them tersed.

"Oh. How much?"

"One silver coin."

Emersyn pretended to take something from her pocket, even under the restraining cloak, and pulled out a silver coin from her inventory. She handed that small coin and they let her enter without any forms of identification. Then, looking at the sign of a pub, she entered and ordered Rye porridge and a mug of beer.

"How much would it be?"

"That would be three silver coins, madame."

"Here you go," she unhesitatingly handed over three coins.

"Enjoy."

"Thanks."

Then she heightened her hearing sense as she listened on in the pub.

"Ahahaha! I earned five silvers today!"

"Buy us some booze then!"

"Nah! Treat yourselves!"

...

"Have you heard? The hero this time was so handsome. Che."

"Why are you mad? Something wrong with it?"

"Everything is wrong! What if my lover fell in love with that prick?!"

...

"I heard that the previous heroes will join in the mission."

"Are you going to join the mission?"

"I don't know if I can…"

"The reward will be enormous!"

"It's dangerous!"

...

"Hey, hey. That woman is so beautiful. Is she royalty?"

"Should we follow her?"

"Hey! What are you lots going to do, huh?!"

"Nothing, ma'am!"

"I'll cut all your precious jewels! Huh!"

"..."

"You better go with me this time, you cowards!"

"But! We are going to kill the demi-dragons!"

"I don't care, you louts! We have to help the hero this time!"

"Can't we just stand back like what we did with the previous heroes?"

"I said to participate!"

"Boss, is it because you fell in love with the new hero?"

"Wha- SHUT UP!"

"Ooh!!!"

"What about it?!"

"You fell in love with Hero Cone~."

…

Emersyn downed the beer until its last drop then stood up. The clamoring paused for a moment as they gazed at her before continuing. Some didn't pay attention anymore and some stood up too. Emersyn dropped two more silvers on the table and then went out. The waitress who came to collect the mug and bowl was baffled as she saw a tip for her. She gazed at the retreating back of that mysterious woman before bowing deeply.

Emersyn disappeared into the shadows once she knew that people were following her. She gazed at the towering castle and immediately went there.

'Aren might be there,' she mused.

She arrived at the basement when she felt the strongest undulations. However, she never expected that the basement was filled with corpses and the dark energy was thick here.

Suddenly, something moved.