Chapter 24

24 The one who got it bad

“Vale? What are you doing here?”

Anne was so surprised, the man that he knew back in the Viora village is here, wearing a cloak like usual, although this time the color is not black, but grey with a large insignia on the back.

“There’s not time to explain, I want you to stay here, inside this bubble, let me and my friends handle the monster.” Said, Vale.

Before Vale takes a step outside the protection ward, Anne grabs his hand, “Wait, what about my friends?”

He could see her concerned face, Vale then tried to calm her down. “Don’t worry, they will be safe.”

Vale steps out from the protection ward, while Anne observes the fight from inside the protection ward. Brom the wild Magi is taking care of David and Darla, Vale and Martin fighting the Snaillog, he cast wind magic to prevent the Snaillog charge its humongous body at them, Martin then cast a similar protection ward, but in a slightly different variant, a firewall.

“Wait, Martin, be careful this is Wismushroom habitat, do not cast a fire spell.”

“Calm down, it will be fine, it’s just a firewall, not a firestorm!” Martin says to Vale with a scoff in his voice.

“That’s a bit risky, I’m using the wind spell right now, what if the fire spread out and got caught into my wind spell?!”

.....

Martin grumbled in his breath, he knows about Vale the gifted Magi, and everyone considers it as an honor to work with him, but not for Martin. He doesn’t like how everyone praises him, adores him, and also become the crown prince’s inner circle.

Anne looks at the two of them seem to argue behind the firewall, and when he saw the Snaillog breaking free from the wind spell. To make matter worse, the fire on the firewall is getting larger with the wind blowing from the wind spell.

She screamed as loud as she can, warning Vale about the Snaillog, “Vale! Watch out!”

Thankfully, Vale saw everything on time, he cast another spell, a binding spell to trap the Snaillog, and then a water spell to ease the fire. His quick minded makes the destruction minimal. After the fire was subsidized, Anne, run as fast as she could to her friends, while Vale instructed his subordinate to cast an earth spell.

“What for?” Asked Brom, tilting his head, confused by his captain’s request.

“The Snaillog Habitat is actually deep inside the earth, they go out often just to seek a place to laid their eggs.” Said, Vale while his finger pointed on a dug-up ground, beside one of the WisMushrooms.

“Cap, you sounded like a Huntsman.”

Vale answered Brom’s question while drinking a sparkling liquid from a small vial, “One of my best friends is a Huntsman, we go hunting together sometimes.”

Anne, who’s in the middle of treating her friend’s injury, got distracted by the look of the liquid on the small vial. She has never seen that kind of liquid before.

Martin and Brom are casting the earth spell together, they make a big hole for the Snaillog to go under, and when the Snaillog has finally gone, they close the hole once more. Martin never said any words to Vale, he only take his order and afterward retreated into one spot. The tension between Vale and his subordinate is giving Anne an uncomfortable feeling.

To ease the tension she asked them if they sustained any injury. Martin and Vale got a slight burn injury on their hand, probably from the fire and wind spell.

“Please sit down, I’ll go and take my bag.”

Martin, who’s trying to be stubborn, pull his hand away from Anne and said, “Thank you, miss, but it will be just...”

Before he could finish the sentence, Anne glared at him and talked back to the arrogant Magi.

“Don’t you try to be a stubborn *ss, Magi! You’re hurt and need to be treated, I have the means to heal, so just freaking sit down and wait!”

The looks on Martin and Vale are so priceless, they were dumbfounded by how the petite girl with purple hair, dared to defy an adult, her senior, plus with some cursing on it. Vale is chuckling, for him, this is the new side of Anne that he never saw.

“Captain, you seem to know this young girl. As I recall, you call her name before.”

Vale turns his attention to Martin, his subordinate is so curious about Anne and Vale, that he forgot completely about his anger towards his own captain.

Vale let out a sigh and tried to answer the question as vague as possible, “Yeah, I know her, I met her when I go hunting, not long ago.”

“Hunting? With your best friends, I presume.”

He massaged his forehead and said yes to Martin. Vale loves to work with his new subordinate, if only Martin could stop questioning Vale’s private life. Vale can endure his arrogancy about his birthright as a pure noble, but not about his certain hostility knowing that Henry and Justice prefer to befriend him and Xavier, rather than mingle with other nobles.

Avoiding Martin, Vale tried to converse with Anne, who was in the middle of treating his hand.

“What are you doing here?”

Her eyes go to Vale, deep onyx eyes, a contrast to Vale’s emerald green eyes, “Actually we are going to spend the night under the Wismushroom.”

Martin and Brom, gasped, they couldn’t believe their ears, “You’re going to spend the night inside The forest of the lost?!” Shouted the two of them.

Anne is dumbfounded, “Yes, is there something wrong?”

“Anne, the forest, although it’s not forbidden to enter has some dangerous elements on it, not to mention tonight will be a full moon.”

Darla and David step into the conversation.

“I’m sorry sir, but we have prepared everything so that we could be protected.” Said Darla, David is behind her, and nods his head.

“I’m sorry, miss, but this is different, when the full moon is rise to the fullest, there will be chaos inside the forest,” Vale is trying to reason with the three of them, he looks at them, with a frown on his face, “We have a cultivated Wismushroom inside the library now, why do you have to risk your life to be here?”

The question, although sounded for the three of them, it was intended more for Anne, he looks at her, and in every being on his body just wanted to go to her and protect her, forever.

Of course, their meeting in Viora village was brief, but for him, it last for a long time. He remembered her smile when they have a conversation, her smirk when she won a bickered with Justice, or when her shiny purple hair reflected the sun in its own magical light. Vale is smitten, and he got it so bad, to this girl with purple hair.