18. Antonie?

She got the point. There was something I kept from her. And I was wondering if I kept hiding this from her as Antonie asked or listened to my own heart more. I took a deep breath, breathed it out slowly, and spoke up, "As a matter of fact, I am running away." I admitted.

Again, she looked confused. "What are you running from?" To be honest, I was still unsure if telling my whole problems of mine was a good choice.

However, I decided to tell her. "Forty years ago, there was a mass death of a half-blood. Initially they looked fine in the morning, but they suddenly died in the afternoon. Even Jthe healing wizards could not do much to help them, their spells didn't work at all to face what they were facing at that time. Today, this creature is showing up in a forest on the border of my village."

A shocked expression was so visible on her face that she could not hide it. I saw it very clearly. "How did you know this?" I was stunned when she raised her voice high.

"I won't tell you where I got the information from." I looked back at the eyes that had the nuance of intimidating. "The purpose of my coming here is to avoid the same thing happening again. I don't know where to go. And because I am from the half-blood, there are many possible bad things that could happen to me if such things happen again."

Some moment passed in silence. Azalea and I were looking at each other but with different thoughts in our minds until I finally decided to leave the room. But she stopped me.

"I will ask you one more time, who told you all these things?" she looked angry. Perhaps it was the reason why Antonie asked me not to tell Azalea what really happened, because she would be very outrageous.

"I am sorry but I can't." I was so sorry. "He is the one who has saved me, and helped me until I am here, right now."

"Antonie?!" I was just silent when she mentioned that name. "Am I correct?!" Under her intimidating gaze, I felt like I was hypnotized, and I simply nodded my head.

"It is only he who knows that no wizards were able to heal them," I thought I would face another fury that Azalea would demonstrate once she knew that Antonie was still alive, and he even helped me come to this place. But I was wrong. On the contrary, I saw panic in her expression. "So, you are here to escape?"

I nodded. "I was advised to run here because he said this place was the only safe place I could run to." In the end, I could not hide anything from Azalea, and she would easily guess it. "You are not surprised knowing that Antonie is still alive?" I asked her out of curiosity.

"Not a glance." She replied with a flat expression. "He is a die hard type. Tha. I'm tired of chasing that half-man. Perhaps he is getting sane a bit by sending you here." From her tone, I could feel that she hated Antonie so badly.

Azalea took that dried leaf from a pair of camellias and asked me to return to my room. Before I got up from my chair, she asked me not to go too far and to go alone.

…

That salmon orchid I had given to Hana was still in this place. Apparently, after Hana's leaving, other maids were taking care of that flower in turn. I once saw one of them water the orchid, which was placed by the window of the kitchen.

"Miss, Tha?" A maid walked toward me with a happy and grateful expression. "The story about you has been known by many people." She continued talking, and that made me confused.

"A story?" I didn't get what the maid talked about.

"A human who can calm down Aras." She spoke happily. "You may be the first human who can approach that creature. So far, we only got the stories from books or stories narrated mouth to mouth by people."

'I saw him every day and it got me really bored,' I thought, grinning. "It is certainly not something to be blown up. I just happened to find ways to make that creature calm down" She looked very interested in my stories because, after that, she asked me to sit down and served me some snacks and drinks so that I had more to tell.

That maid said that she had never heard stories about Aras from people but from books, so she listened to me enthusiastically to follow my story. I didn't tell everything, though, because there were many dark sides that I had to keep a secret from people about our missions.

Yoru came to interrupt me. He put down some broken bows right in front of me. "Miss wants you to fix these." He spoke fast and then left us.

At first, I was surprised, but it seemed that I didn't stay here for free. "I'm sorry, I've got things to do." I said goodbye to that maid and headed to the training room.

I needed to pick up some tools I would use to fix the bows. After some time, I realized that this training room was so quiet today. Usually, I could see at least ten to twenty people using this room for training in the morning. I ran my eyes around to see if they were not in the archery training, but I saw none. The place was really quiet. "Why on earth is it so quiet today?" 'Are they really busy?' I thought.

After fixing all of them, I went to the detention room. Azalea never knew that I could come to that place anytime. I stood on the edge of that huge hole of hanging prison, assessing where Winnter and Mirai cages would be likely. "Mirai?!" I yelled.

At first, I didn't hear any replying voice, but when I yelled again, "Sister Tha?!" A little cheerful voice was so easily recognized. I ran down to the closed part of her cage.