❝ SANCTUARY. ❞ ↫ᵏ. ᵇᵃᵏᵘᵍᵒᵘ | ᵇⁿʰᵃ

•●•chapter 10 ~•: in search of...

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East Nation Troops scattered across the four cross border village, known to be the Ever-realm's intercultural capital.

The whole ville was mostly known for being alive at night, lit up with brighter lights and people looking forward to having a good time. But the people felt tense around the dark knights of the East, trying their best to ignore them. There were barely even people around the streets. It was surrounded by black knights. Striking back wasn't optional anymore. "The princess couldn't have gotten far. We need to hurry. Her majesty is getting restless."

"We have scouts all around this ville," the masked, purple-haired knight droned. "And why would she be here? Besides, moonrise isn't far from now."

"Because Hitoshi, she's trying to lift her curse. And the only way she could do that was to find wizards, using the spell book she stole. Ones who don't obey the Wizard Conducts. She also had several others as her entourage. One of which...was a barbarian."

"A barbarian? But aren't they..."

"I thought so too."

"What should we report to the Queen?" Hitoshi thought.

"We're still searching. Some men captured a few lone wanderers on the trails. They're headed back to East Castle as we speak." The blonde knight explained.

"And as for the traitor to her majesty's court...we still don't know who set the princess free and showed her the way to the spell book," Monoma noted, darting over at his fellow masked knight.

"No one in the whole Ever-realm knows the princess is still around. And apart from the Queen and Sir. Aizawa. We knew where the spell book was kept."

Hitoshi furrowed his brows and narrowed his restless eyes at the blonde. "Accusing me already, Monoma?"

"Who said I was accusing you?"

"You're giving off riddles. For whatever you think I did, I would never betray the Queen."

Monoma scoffed a chortle as he continued trotting along.

[F/n] and the seven adventurers made it into the village, all of the following Mineta whilst under disguises. Tsu offered them all cloaks to conceal them from public eyes. There were crowds of people scattering the roads of the village, and getting around while remaining hidden became surprisingly easy. Shouto had to leave his steed behind at Tsu's cottage.

Mineta questioned this at first, but Tsu told him that since two royals of both Nations; Tenya and Shouto, were on this quest, but they asked not for unwanted attention. "Are you sure this discreet person of yours can aid us, Mineta?" [F/n] asked the midget.

"He knows a lot of people across the Ever-Realm, cannot say I am completely affirmative," Mineta explained. Passing a few markets, the red-headed boy's snout couldn't get over the mouth-watering aroma of Sato's bakery just across the street. Even Kaminari could smell a freshly baked blueberry pie.