Chapter 658 231 - The Journey Continues (Part 3)

"Go out there, you can fight. You fought with monsters, you fended off bandits together with grandpa too. You can't just stand there, that's not who you are. Water bubble."

The first thing that Rokiana Grea Perserios, the thirteen years old eldest daughter of the Perserios family did after standing up was to activate her defensive spell while adding the twist her grandfather personally taught her before taking her with him on many monster hunts and turned herself invisible by reflecting the light in a certain way off the bubble's surface.

"GHYAAAAAA...!"

"G-GET AWAY FROM M-BFGHRAAaahhh..."

"DON'T SPLIT UP! BUNH UP AND GET HIM TOGETHER!"

The first thing she saw after that was the screams dying screams of an unspecified group of people that made her flinch and step back in fear.

The difference between this situation and all the other life-threatening dangers she went through until that point, was that thorough every other encounter, she always knew who her allies and enemies were.

This time, it was different.

The bloodlust given by the light-blue-haired ice magician was so thick that the blue-haired girl almost choked on it.

She was clearly hated – although it was definitely her own fault if she would just keep her mouth shut, it was very plausible that the ice magician's anger would never focus on her.

Rokiana also realized that the father and son duo was expecting the attack – it made her feel really stupid too, she acted as she did because she felt offended that someone was suspicious and hostile to her without any immediate reason...

...well, getting a fireball shot at your back was definitely a reason for wariness...

|If I will help them pacify the thugs, they should forgive me, right? In the first place, the child didn't seem to treat me as a threat!|

Rokiana sneaked her way to the line of trees and thought to herself, pulling out a saber fit for her height and arm's length and nodding to herself.

|...hold on... he wasn't wary of me at all... did... did he think that I wasn't strong enough?!|

Suddenly another thought came to her mind and the blue-haired girl straightened her back as her expression hardened.

She entered the forest and...

"...?"

Became confused at how silent her surroundings became.

Only a few moments later the air was filled with the bustle of metal hitting against metal and the voices of humans, but now...

The light of the stars and the moon passing through the leaves was barely enough to allow Rokiana to see what was in front of her.

As her eyes were only getting used to the darkness, each shadow looked like a potential threat.

"...!"

*shing*

One looked so much like a human hiding behind a tree to jump her that she actually swung her saber at it!

*stab*

Which resulted in her sinking the blade of her weapon into the chest of a corpse...

Hold up...

"?!?!?!"

Rokiana jolted and pulled back the saber.

The deadman didn't even budge – he appeared to be stuck, frozen to the tree by the wound on his throat that was completely covered in pinkish ice.

The blue-haired girl shook off the initial shock and cautiously leaned toward the corpse.

She kind of recognized the person – he was one of the people that enlisted for the knight training but didn't have the chance to duel the instructor!

|...this isn't right... Since when do bandits want to become knights...? Or... Did he turn to banditry in order to pay the fee for the training...? Wait...!|

Rokiana furrowed her brows and thought to herself before flinching and looking over her shoulder.

|How did he even get here before us...?! He didn't even leave the training ground as I was leaving...!|

She thought to herself in shock, realizing that there was more than one thing off about this whole situation.

At least she now knew where one of the bandits – but not really bandits – was, but what about the rest?

"The voices she hear before suggested multiple people being in the group – not to mention, the dead one is just a commoner. There was no way that he could be behind the fireball aimed at the light-blue-haired man."

"?!?!?!"

The black-haired boy jumped down a tree and landed next to the blue-haired girl, causing her to almost trip from shock.

In the first place – he should not be able to know where she was. That was the whole point of the water bubble spell making her invisible!

"Your water bubble might make you invisible and mask your heat signature from the fire magicians, but you don't stop making noises... also..."

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and pointed at the spot near Rokiana's feet with the end of the clean heavy dagger's blade.

The blue-haired teenager, who was now even holding her breath just to not make another noise, looked down, just to realize that the because of the contact with the frosted ground and plants, the edges of her water bubble began to freeze over, very clearly indicating her position.

"...whew... so? What happened with the others? Did you and your dad capture them all?"

Rokiana breathed out and dropped the defensive spell and breathed out, before rubbing her forehead and asking.

"Capture them? Like, alive...?"

Zoemi furrowed his brows and looked to the sides awkwardly.

"Yes – there's no blood on either your dagger or clothes so you didn't kill anyone this time. Clearly only the most threatening ones got killed."

The blue-haired girl rolled her eyes and pointed out as if it was obvious, and pointed at the corpse stuck to the tree behind her with her thumb.

"Oh. Umm... no. You are right about me not killing anyone – but it is because I was too slow, dad got to them all first. I need to master at least one if not two more star levels in the law of Capricorn to be able to overtake him. I am just making sure that no one escapes."

"...star level..."

The black-haired child made an awkward expression and explained – although judging by Rokiana's expression, his answer didn't seem believable to her.

"Anyway, you are making it sound like your father isn't going to let any bandit survive, but how are you going to learn about their motives if that would be the case?"

Rokaiana waved her hand dismissively and declared with forced confidence as if she felt the need to show off that she is smarter than the black-haired child.