CHAPTER 20: That Was The Case

Ezekiel and Hamlet's eyes turned wide upon hearing this.

They had completely forgotten that the Imperial Family was actually the host of Qirin.

And that the crown prince was the current host of this mythological beast.

And because Hunter had used the power of Qirin giving more strength in his earth ability, his hair had a tinge of gold in it, together with his eyes.

This was the appearance of the royal lineage of Qillian Empire.

Qirin's unique color of golden tinge.

When Leon saw the look that Ezekiel and Hamlet had, he couldn't help but laugh.

"I apologize with the way these guys are unaware. They are so focused in their military and knightly duties that they neglected detail regarding the Imperial Family of the other Empires and Kingdoms."

Hunter shook his head, "In the battlefield, I am but a knight sent to fulfill our duties. I am no crown prince or of royal blood."

Leon nodded his head and became even more fond of him.

"If you may, may I have the honor of clashing swords with you?" Leon asked him.

Hamlet was actually defeated by Hunter on the night before they killed the snake.

Though it was not that big of a margin but after knowing his identity, and seeing his capability, Hamlet laughed to himself.

Hunter who was seven or so years younger than him, went easy on him.

"It will be my honor instead," Hunter agreed.

As the rest were having the time of their lives, Saphira stepped away without anyone noticing it.

She walked towards the forest that was infested by the miasma and was silently staring at it for a good while.

She squatted down at the center of the forest and placed her hand on the ground.

She stayed there for half an hour before she stood up and nodded her head.

"Saphira? Where did you go? Why do you look so pale?" Stormie was the first one to see her.

"The tiredness must have caught up already, I am going to rest for now, just wake me up if there is anything urgent," she waved her hand at Stormie and Willow before entering the tent.

It was much better than the first because Ezekiel and Hamlet were adamant that they should improve their sleeping quarters at least.

The two ladies could only look at one another before shrugging and letting her rest.

*****

Six five year old children are facing one another on another part of the forest.

They have long hair that is tied into a ponytail.

Their hair color matching their eye color.

All of them were young boys.

"What do you all think?" the brown haired kid asked.

"Isn't it that her Phoenix died back then protecting her?" the white haired one answered.

"But don't you feel it to be a bit weird? Her reactions weren't something a normal ability user would usually react," the silver haired one commented.

"Indeed and the way she asked to go to the cliff to get a sample before the shore. And her not being shock to find out that the shore has more poison than the cliff, when the snake was spotted there," the blue haired one added.

"And when she spoke of the snake with certainty," the violet haired said.

"She even found the track of the snake without anyone pointing it to her when it was well hidden because of the changes in the forest," the green haired pointed out.

All six had their brows furrowed as they spoke about this matter.

"I will never get used to watching this," Nixon commented.

All six of them are on the side watching the children talking so seriously to one another.

"Imagine if others were to see them and hear what they are talking about," Stormie commented next.

The six five year old children were actually the mythological beasts.

They have the capability of turning into humans but they are limited to these young bodies.

"They would surely think that we have abducted these children," Willow followed.

"But don't you think that this is a reason to talk about?" Ridge nudged his glasses up and commented.

They were never the clueless ones, they have noticed all the changes as well.

The way she fights and the way she carries herself, everything was completely different than before.

And even if 8 years has passed this change isn't something that would have occurred with her personality in the past.

The drastic change does not apply to any of them, only her in particular.

"What do you think?" the brown haired kid, which is Qirin, asked the rest.

He was referring to the fact that she could still have Phoenix and it's death was something that was not true.

"I don't think that was the case," the silver haired kid, White Tiger, replied.

"Why don't you think so?" the blue haired one, Black Tortoise, asked this time.

"Her fire power is far weaker than when she has the Phoenix."

This was what he had observed, especially since Drake had been watching her closely.

Drake nodded his head in agreement to this.

He was indeed watching her closely that he could tell this much, her fire wasn't as intense as before.

Hunter gave it a thought before looking at everyone, "Have you not felt any spirituality within her?"

All the mythological beasts shook their heads at his question.

"So what did she trained on for her to have such strong sense? And quite different as well," Nixon asked.

"Could it be a specialty of Scorpius Empire?" Willow followed.

"I don't think so. Usually the Empires would teach their knights their own specialty once they are already knights. While in the academy, they teach the basics and bare minimum of everything."

Hunter's answer made all of them fall into deep thoughts.

"Anyway, since we didn't see anything unusual then I guess we are just overthinking things. Phoenix really did die back then," Qilin said with finality.

He asked for this conversation because maybe her beast was still alive, which means they still have more power on their side.

But if Phoenix really died then that's just it. There is nothing they could do more about it.

Hunter clapped his hands seeing as the meeting was over.

Plus if they take any longer some might see the mythological beasts in their human forms and that is not a good thing because barely anyone knew about this capability of the mythological beasts.

Sometimes they do this when they wanted to scout about other beasts closer, this form allowed them to feel the spirituality much stronger than being inside their hosts.

Each of them returned inside Hunter and the other's bodies before Hunter looked at the rest of them.

"I have received the next command from the Emperor, we are to return to the Empire but we will be going through the forests and the air in order to inspect the land better."

Returning back using the portals will give them about a week of travel to get back to the imperial city of Qillian Empire.

But if they are to take the forests and air to get back, it might take them about three weeks.

At the same time, they will mostly sleep in the forest instead of the inns.

"We will depart after we give our respects to the emperor of this Empire," he added before dismissing them.

He checked on Saphira when Willow and Stormie told him that she didn't look well.

Seeing as she was in deep sleep and her face not looking good, he can just inform her of such once she wakes up.

Plus she had already told him that she will follow what the Emperor will tell them to do.

"Hunter."

After they got back to the main camp, Nixon and Stormie approached him.

"What is it?" he asked.

"We haven't spoken with Saphira yet because of how everything unfold and the rest of the army of Alquira Empire surrounding us. But..." Nixon started and both of them couldn't really look straight in his eyes.

"Are you currently referring to when she commanded you and you really didn't follow?" he finished what they wanted to talk about.

Both of them nodded their heads.

In reality, they always followed her commands in the past but because it has been so long and after what happened 8 years ago, their mentality towards her have been affected as well.

Even though they still treat her as their precious friend, what happened caused too much trauma on each of them that a strain still occured in their relationship.

"Since she didn't say anything about it, why are you still worrying?" Hunter asked them directly.

"But we knew, if we listened properly then there would be lesser injury and even she wouldn't have been poisoned and wounded. I didn't get the chance to protect her as well because I was focused on attacking," Stormie confessed.

Hunter sighed, "So what was your mistake?"