Freedom's Heart

Chapter 9

Is it too much to ask for people to forget about the wyvern incident?

I wish they would hurry up and move on to something else. When I entered the guild with my father and brother, I kept myself busy reading a book, but I could not concentrate on it as my ears burned. My dad argued with the guild staff to locate my adventure persona. Then adventures would not shut up about recruiting me for their parties. The adventures wanting to recruit me is nothing new. Still, they have become more determined to recruit me ever since I dealt with the wyverns.

As my family waited in a seating area to make things worse, he appeared. Zeno Facaryn. He. Is the second elf prince and another love interest. He is also the one that I need to be careful around the most. During the game, that village I would have burned down belonged to the elves. Ever since I burned it, Zeno made it his life mission to bring me down and was the person to expose my miss deeds no matter what route the heroine took. I may have avoided burning that village, but I still do not want to meet up with him.

If he is anything like his character in the game, he is a sexist fool that only sees women as sources of entrainment during the night. The heroine slowly changes him throughout the game, but I would have dumped him in a heartbeat if it were me. He was not worth the time or effort, and I only played his route once and never touched it again. Surprisingly, Zeno is one of the most popular love interests. I think it is due to him starting off as a rouge bad boy and slowly changing his ways, but the bad boy type never attracted me.

"What do you mean she still hasn't reported to the guild?" I jump as he slams his hands into the desk, making me drop my book. "Just command her to return already!"

"I'm sorry, sir, but adventures can only be forced to return by order of the king," The receptionist replies lowing her head.

"Worthless," The Zeno growls. "Let me talk to a man. That way, things will get done."

Bastard. The girl behind the desk is someone I have had come to rely on a lot since becoming an adventure. She is friendly and will help you with whatever problem you have, and he has almost brought her to tears. I should sneak in here and speak to the guild master about this as my adventurer persona. I hear he has been forcing her to deal with Zeno for the past several days because he does not want to.

"I'm sorry, sir. I am the only one free right now,"

"I am surprised this guild is still open with people like you working h... ahh...."

I could not stop myself. The moment I saw his hand raised to strike the girl, I acted and turned the floor to ice before beneath his feet. Zeno instantly slips and lands on his behind before angrily looking around to see who had done such a thing to him. Luckily, no one suspects me, and the mage he does accuse is someone who deserves the hassle.

Now that things have started to settle down again, I go back to my book. There is still that argument between the mage and Zeno, but fights like that happen daily at the guild, so I have grown used to them. But judging from the look, I see Noah give me, at least one person suspects I am behind what happened to the elf prince.

"I will deal with you later," Unfortunately, the peace does not last long before Zeno returns to the desk. "Let me know the moment that adventure returns. The fate of my kingdom is at stake here."

He cannot mean that, can he? If what I am thinking is true, he must be talking about the lesser dragon attacking his kingdom. In the game, the elf king would take a loan from my grandpa, but since he had no idea about human money, my grandpa took advantage of him. Before he knew it, the elf king was forced to pay back my grandpa unreasonable sums of money every week, bankrupting his kingdom. When he finally could not pay any more, I was sent to burn down that village. If that is the case...

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This might be a mistake, but I have no choice but to check his story out. Usually, sneaking into a prince's room would be impossible. Still, thanks to the lousy security of the inn he is staying at, I manage to slip in unnoticed. But it seems even being as ninja-like as possible, Zeno still detected me breaking into his room. When I slip inside, instead of finding a sleeping prince, I find myself face to face with a loaded arrow.

"Give me one reason I should not kill you now," He hisses, but I just smile back. It is cute that he thinks he can hurt me with just a simple bow and arrow.

Since what happened with grandpa, I have been practising defensive magic. The light magic barrier has become second nature to me. It still will not stop any magical attacks, but a plain old arrow has no chance of harming me.

"Because I heard you were looking for me," I calmly reply. "It was something about the fate of your kingdom, so I came as quickly as possible."

"You? A woman defeated those wyverns. Stop joking around and let me sleep," He lowers his bow and steps closer. "Although well you are here, we could have some fun together...."

I do not let him finish and use wind magic to throw him into the far wall of the room. I held back enough so he would not be injured, but it still looked painful. I walk up to him and pick him up with a single hand, causing Zeno's eyes to widen slightly.

"If you wish to continue to insult me, I will leave, and we will never meet," I tell him as I let go. "But then you father the king will have to take out that loan to pay for anti-dragon armaments."

"How did you...."

I knew it. This is just like what happened in the game. If I do not do something about this, then grandpa will bankrupt the elves kingdom and nearly spark a war with them. It could also lead to my own death flag if I leave things as they are.

"Is it that surprising to find a woman more powerful than you?" I ask in a mocking tone.

"You are n...." He bites his tongue halfway through, but I think I can guess what he wanted to say. Instead, he looks like he swallows his pride as he stares at me. "If you really are the one that defeated those wyverns, then please help me." I am surprised he really drops to his knees and begs me. He must really be desperate. "Please. You must help us."

"I will," He quickly gets to his feet, and I take a step back when he reaches for my hands. "I will meet you here tomorrow at the first bell. You can use your teleportation magic to take us to the dragon."

"How did you...." When it does not look like I will answer him, he shakes his head. "Fine, I will be here. Just don't keep me waiting."

Zeno can use teleportation magic like me, but the way he uses it gives me more reasons to keep my distance from him. In the game, he had a reputation of teleporting into the women's bath and bedrooms. He even teleports into the heroine's room on more than one occasion during the game. After this, I will have nothing more to do with the elf prince.

I return to my room and send for Noah before I prepare for tomorrow. It will be a long fight, so I open my hidden stash. Inside I have hidden multiple potions for both healing and curing poisons. I know from the game that plenty of poisonous plants and monsters make their home in the elf forest. But still, fighting a dragon, even a lesser one, will take some time, so there are other preparations I need to make.

"Sister," Noah enters after lightly knocking on the door. He must have been sleeping as he rubbed his eyes and still wore his pyjamas. "Why did you call for me so late at night?"

"I need your help," I smile as I move closer. "I need you to cover for tomorrow while I am away fighting a dragon."

"A... a dragon...." Well, that woke him up. "Sister, you can't fight something like that. A dragon is too powerful even for someone like you to handle."

"It will be fine," I assure him with a hug, but he struggles to get free. "It is only a lesser dragon."

"Only a..." He final escapes my hug and stares at me. "Even a lesser dragon can kill a thousand people before it is repelled. You can't go, sister."

"It's ok," I continue to smile. "I will beat the dragon in no time at all, so please cover for me while I am gone tomorrow."