Chapter 33 Expectations

　　"Have you ever thought that if I see you like this now, I might storm out. After all, taking out a third-ranked contender would benefit me a lot?" Allen suddenly said.

　　Lucy thought for a moment and flashed a smile, "I hadn't really thought about it."

　　"That's it, that's why you came here as originally agreed upon by us. You subconsciously chose to trust me, so, again, I won't give up on you!" Alan turned back, and the sunlight fell softly on the side of his face. Despite the blood stains on his face, this face, instead of being the slightest bit hideous, had a trusting peace of mind.

　　Showing his teeth, Alan waved his hand and turned away. He jumped up the hill and disappeared from Lucy's eyes.

　　Lucy levied, a blush sweeping across her pale little face. She giggled, "Won't give up on you? Hey, that sounds awesome."

　　"Well, then I have to be good too. Let's find a place to hide first, or at least, not get killed." Lucy stood up, holding onto the trunk of a tree.

　　The toxicity she had been hit with wasn't too violent, and she had suppressed it with her own source power. Even though her physical ability had been discounted as a result, it wasn't so serious that she couldn't move. It was just that when she walked, her pace was inevitably a bit weak.

　　Only a few steps moved forward when a gust of mountain wind blew past Lucy. The young girl's eyes suddenly lit up with a stern look, and her pistol popped up, swinging back quickly. A silhouette swung out as the muzzle pointed.

　　"Your Highness it's me!" A broad palm pressed down the muzzle of the gun, and the owner of the hand, a mighty old man with gray hair.

　　The tower-like body was like steel casting, and even the skin surprisingly glowed with a metal-like luster in the sunlight. The old man wore a black power suit, brown leather-colored armor, and carried two crossed two-handed broadswords on his back. On the partitions of the broadswords, there was a single wing engraved in the opposite direction.

　　"Teacher?" Lucy looked embarrassed for a moment and stammered, "How did you find me?"

　　"Your Highness you're such a fool to come to some death ring in the Federation and buy an official to impersonate a child. If your father knew, he would be furious." The old man shook his head loudly.

　　Lucy grunted through her nostrils, "Father has no time for me."

　　"Your Highness, you are his favorite." The old man frowned.

　　Lucy wrinkled her nose, "He loves those women, not me."

　　"But he gave you all the golden roses."

　　"That's because I'm the only one who can drive the Golden Rose." Lucy said forcefully, not expecting to cough violently at the end of her sentence.

　　The old man's eyes lit up and grew brighter and brighter, as if silvery-white flames were spewing out of his eyes. He lost his voice and said, "Your Highness, you've been poisoned?"

　　Then without any further ado, he grabbed one of Lucy's arms and spread her palm out. The old man stretched out a finger, and a silver-white flame of source power light erupted from the tip. The light flame condensed and formed a tiny silver needle. The old man gently stuck this silver needle into Lucy's palm, and immediately a silver-colored pattern spread out from her palm like a circuit, instantly flowing through her entire body.

　　"Fortunately, it's not something powerful." The old man withdrew the source power needle and instead pulled out a box from the inside of his leather armor. The box opened and an injection was pulled out from it. In the injection was a blue liquid, and the old man stuck the needle into Lucy's arm before pressing all of the antidote from it in.

　　A few moments later, the pallor on Lucy's face faded and a hint of blood rose to her small face.

　　"Well, in at most an hour, the toxin in your highness's body will be completely cleared. But you have to tell me just who is so bold as to dare to poison you!" There was already more than a hint of killing intent between the old man's tones.

　　Lucy spread her hands and said, "That's a question for me, I don't know who did it."

　　"In that case, Your Highness please leave with me." The old man frowned and said, "I am responsible for the safety and security of Your Highness, so I really can't let Your Highness continue this nonsense."

　　"Alright, alright." Lucy blinked, circled the old man's hand and shook it saying, "Teacher, I promise to go back with you is all. However, you have to give me a little more time."

　　"Your Highness!" The old man's voice raised a little, his eyes round and unruffled.

　　"I can't go back with you now anyway." Lucy said, crossing her arms.

　　The old man had a headache and said, "Why is that?"

　　"Because I promised someone I'd wait for him to come back."

　　"That brat?" The old man shook his head, "Your Highness, that's just a brat from the Surface Remnant, how can I let you risk your thousand dollars?"

　　"Marquis Metallon, my mind is made up!" Lucie said in a tone that could not be refuted, "In short, after the death ring is over, I'll go back with you."

　　The old man's expression stiffened, Lucy changed her title from teacher to knighthood, both taking out another identity to show her position. He could only smile bitterly and say, "Well, since Your Highness' mind is made up, then the minister can only accompany and protect."

　　Again, he said, "Your Highness, this is the first time you've called me by my name. That boy, is he really that important to you?"

　　Lucy apologized, "I'm sorry, teacher. It's just that, that man is my friend. And, he's someone I should look forward to."

　　"Someone to look forward to?" Metallon said, "Well then, Your Highness. I'll wipe my eyes and take a good look at what this boy has to offer you to look forward to."

　　Alan was suddenly chilled.

　　He crouched down mechanically, ducked behind a clump of bushes, and swept cautiously around him. Just now he had the feeling that he was being watched by a vicious wolf, which made all the downy hairs on the back of his neck stand up. But the surrounding woodland was very quiet, except for the occasional wind blowing through, dropping a few leaves to flutter.

　　Could it be an illusion? he thought, shaking his head before Alan got back on his feet.

　　He was moving toward the forest to the northwest.

　　The two directions to the southeast were both plains, with nothing to cover them. If someone wanted to hang behind Lucy and take advantage of the situation, they would definitely not choose such an open place that could be easily discovered. Then, the sea of forests slanting from the north to the west was undoubtedly the best choice. As for the range, it wouldn't be too big, according to Lucy's own estimation of the time of the onset of the poison, the limit of the distance of the person who poisoned her wouldn't be more than 30 kilometers.

　　Once this distance was exceeded, it was hard for Ellen to imagine how the other side was going to make it to Lucy's hideout in only fifteen bells. In fact, the distance would be even shorter. As a result, Alan's search became much less difficult.

　　He hid his tactical longsword in the bushes while the man climbed this tall arbor in front of him. As he emerged from the canopy, Alan saw a sea of forest. To the east, the sun was shining. As for the belt of forest that stretched towards the north, it was whipping up gusts of leaves with the wind. The forest looked calm, and Allen was just about to drill back, when suddenly, about a kilometer away to the northwest, a flying bird rushed into the sky.

　　Alan immediately slid down from the tree, picked up his tactical long knife, and dived in the direction where the flying bird had appeared.

　　There must have been signs of human activity there to startle the forest birds. Regardless of whether or not it was the poisoner, since the traces of activity were so close together, they had to be confirmed, and if necessary, they had to be removed.

　　The distance of a thousand meters was a matter of 5 minutes at Allen's feet. As he approached the vicinity of his destination, he heard a girl's cry of alarm. Allen immediately stopped and climbed up to the canopy of a nearby old tree. Just as he hid himself with forest leaves, he saw a girl running his way. Suddenly a javelin was thrown and stuck in front of her. The girl braked, and whoosh, three more javelins fell, blocking her retreat.

　　The girl under the tree was none other than Emily.

　　Emily turned her back to Ellen, which prevented Ellen from seeing the young girl's expression. But from her rapid breathing, the girl was in a very nervous mood. Not far away from a camphor tree, two teenagers came out. The one in front was a boy with light brown curly hair and freckles on his still childish face. In his hand was a javelin, and it looked like he was the one who had blocked Emily's retreat.

　　Another tall black teenager with short dyed blonde hair and a lip ring around his mouth was looking at Emily with a playful expression.

　　Alan quickly recalled their information in his mind. The boy using the javelin was Rafi, and the other black man was Kanon. These two were only in the middle of the pack, and in Allen's eyes, they were permeated with a source power glow like morning mist. Within their bodies, there were four points of light shining.

　　Alan now knew that not everyone's source power glow could be observed. Like Hughton, Alan could only see it when he used his source power, unlike Ensign Ron and the others, who had a clearly visible source power glow on them. And when visible, the strength of the glow was usually directly linked to the degree of source power, so a teenager like Rafi, who only possessed four source power vortices, had a source power glow that was neither bright nor clear.

　　Of course, Allen is no better than they are.

　　Two fourth level source power users, Alan asked himself that he was still sure of how to deal with them. After all, Joe and Hera weren't weaker than the two in front of him, so he held his breath and hid himself, waiting to see what would happen.

　　"Well, Emily. You can't escape, let me guess, you want to rendezvous with Lucy so you can get her shelter again?" Kanon, the black teenager, said in an unpleasant tone.

　　Rafi flicked the javelin and said in an icy voice, "Tell us where Lucy is, or, if you'd rather have Kanon torture and then say it again, that's fine. I'm sure it was an unpleasant experience, though."

　　"You're going after Lucy?" Emily's voice was chirpy, but her hand, which was behind her back, quietly slipped a dagger out of her sleeve tube.

　　Of course, Rafi and Kanon certainly didn't know that. Ellen, on the other hand, saw it clearly, and as his eyes fell on the dagger, Ellen looked at Emily with more than a couple of wary eyes.

　　"I can tell you where she is, and I can also guarantee that you can easily clean her up." Emily's voice was petulant, "She should be on her own by now, and if you guys make a move, she won't have any resistance at all."

　　"Oh, why?" Rafi frowned, "She's a ranked good fighter, I don't think she's that good."

　　"The toughest person who is poisoned has nothing to fear." Emily spoke up.