"I'm alright, Sheila."

Sheila glances to the king's pale face slowly gaining its color as magic circles lit up to his skin. The incantations she made was working. The markings were similar to a disappearing tattoo.

"Your body is requiring more and more enchantments," Sheila utters. "Nightmare is taking so much toll to your body."

The king smiled, and spoke a different subject as to avoid Sheila's statement. "How was Faustina?"

Sheila's brows twitched at the mention of her name.

"What of her?" Sheila retorted.

"Well, she's a child. Lotheringwood sent me a direct fire message telling me happenstances around the capital. It seemed like the Forsaken is plotting something,"

"What he is conspiring is beyond one could comprehend." Sheila exclaims. "The Diener des Lichts are investigating it, but I doubt we'll find anything more than him wanting to summon Eulalia Fortunatorum from death's door."

"Speaking of Eulalia Fortunatorum," the king adds. "I just had her background investigated, and found out that she was an adopted daughter of the Fortunatorums."

Sheila blinked, "what?"

"I sent Lorenz to find her blood relatives, although that may be a bit hard."

"But that can't be possible! The resemblance is too strong," Sheila says in a matter of factly. Eulalia looked exactly like her parents—the Fortunatorums. Green eyes and red hair.

"Oddly enough, they told my informant they hid her real ident.i.ty because of the resemblance. She was, after all, their only daughter because of the baroness inability to bear a child."

"I see," Sheila scowls. "So this is a bigger problem than we thought?"

The king nods. "It seems the Forsaken is in hunt of Eulalia's biological parents or any family with blood ties to her."

"Which makes it hard because he's been ahead of us since day one." Sheila replies. "It seemed he knew this as a fact so he didn't take the time to attack the Fortunatorums."

Sheila's eyes gleamed, "no . . . wait. Is that why the killings of Gingers were so prevalent? And the rarity of their . . . blood?"

"Yes, it seems so." The king exclaims. "Eulalia is clearly one of the Ging, the family of red-haired individuals with green eyes. Even the Fortunatorums are one. However, this isn't enough for necromancy. It would require the Forsaken blood that has stronger ties to Eula to complete human trans.m.u.tation."

"Then why is he chasing Faustina when he's clearly needing to . . . wait a second," Sheila blinked, realizing something.

"Yes." The king nods. "The forsaken is probably considering Faustina's blood ties to Eulalia, which is why he may be trying to catch her alive. To experiment."

"Then why didn't he just get her in the first place?"

The king snapped his finger. "It's because he's out of options now."

Silence.

"I still don't understand how it works, Your Majesty." Sheila says. "And besides, Faustina is adopted. She's escaped from a slave merchant, right? And their resemblance is far too little . . . Your Majesty?"

Silence.

"Your majesty—"

"Your impertinence, Sheilalev."

Sheila blinks, and then bowed, realizing who she was talking to.

It wasn't the ninth king anymore in the body.

"My king."

"I've been slumbering in this child's body for so long that I have grown weary."

Blue, jeweled eyes gleamed as the face of one who was smiling and filled with warm air earlier just vanished with a cold, piercing gaze replacing it. It was a good thing Sheila was accustomed to these timely changes.

"The warlock is on the move, isn't he?" The king asks.

"Yes, My King."

"Did you do what I told you to?"

"Yes," Sheila answers. "The Diener des Lichts managed to gather the book of records from the hidden archives."

The king stood up. "Get rid of it."

���Pardon?" Sheila frowns.

"Everything about Nebel," the first king adds, "must vanish without trace."

**

"This is delicious,"

"I know, right?"

"But how can boar meat be this good?" Says Faustina as she munched on the freshly-cooked kebab they bought from the shop. The kebab had barbecue sauce and grilled onions and corn. It was the first time Faustina ate one.

They were on their fifth store.

"It's so delicious, M'lady!" Maddie says as she bites on the boar meat.

"Does it?" Orwell grinned. "Back when I was a student, I often come here to feast on some street food. These kebabs helped me succeed my dreams."

"They're that delicious for you, Lord Orwell?" Asks Maddie.

"Haha, no!" Orwell chuckles. "It's because the meat in this is powered by magic flame. It adds energy to the body. It'll make sense once Faustina studies the composition, but that's the gist of it."

Faustina stares at the kebab in her hand.

"Magic is amazing," she says.

"I know." Orwell says. "Well, lunchtime is almost near. Maddie, can you find us a place to have lunch to? Here's this crystal. Just click it and we'll be able to track where you are." Orwell then hands a purple crystal to Maddie.

"Certainly," Maddie answers as she gulped down the meat, accepting the purple crystal as she slides it inside her pocket. Without much haste, Madielyn walked away from them in search of a good restaurant.

"Faustina," says Orwell. "Now we had some fun, I guess we have to track down the Albino."

Faustina nods.

"Well, we haven't explored Magierstadt, technically." Orwell states. "But when you're in the academe, you'll be able to do so. I think it's better than the other way around, after all."

It took them several minutes sauntering down to the streets of Magierstadt. People in Magierstadt really did vary, but there was one thing that was prevalent and similar to all of them.

The majority were mages.

"There he is." Orwell says, withdrawing his staff from his back. Faustina eyed him do this, and sensing the questions coming from her eyes alone, Orwell retorted with a small smile.

"Precautionary." Orwell says, and then eyed Faustina, who was trying to do the same to the staff which was strapped to her back. "You don't need to. I got this." Orwell exclaims, stopping Faustina onto getting her own.

The man was shawled in a dark cloak across the streets. Upon closer look, Faustina noticed the staff in the man's back. It had no gem, instead it had the insignia of two snakes wrapped around each other.

"A thousand sh.e.l.ling for information about the maps." Says the man. His voice was deep and hoa.r.s.e. "And three thousand for the usefulness of some wares."

"Actually," Orwell thuds his staff in odd rhythms. "We're here for that."

"Oho." The man smiles, and through his smile, Faustina sees a sharp fang in paper-white teeth.

"Follow me," the man says, and then turned around as he started to walk to the alleys.

Orwell and Faustina nodded to each other, and proceeded to follow the man.

And for a second, Faustina noticed the insignia on the man's staff.

The snakes weren't wrapped around each other anymore.