Dulce open her drowsy eyes lightly and saw a beautiful ceiling. She first felt extremely comfortable and warmth of the soft bedding and smile unknowingly, But the smile soon disappeared the next moment and was replaced by violent rage.
"Where am I!?" She yells loudly and quickly stood up.
She clearly remembered what has happened before she fainted and her blood begun to surge in anger. 'That scoundrel thief escapes from my hands and he even has the 'legendary' herb that father and second uncle want.'
When she thought of her father, her face turns white as a ghost. She has made a huge blunder this time around.
She was in the red mountain city to harvest the 'Blood Rose'. Her father the King, only know this was a 'legendary' medicinal herb above golden grade medicinal herb, and it was called the Blood Rose.
They didn't know its medical effect because it was her uncle who found and told them about it in the first place.
The Golden Hammered Kingdom stumble upon this Blood Rose hundred years ago with pure luck.
At that time the Red Mountain City name was only Mountain City and it was only a 3-star city. Because the mountain was not red it was normal. The mountain turns red hundred years ago in one night.
After it turns red there were quite an uproar and rumors starts to spread all over the lands of cities, the rumors even reached the 1-Star Cities. Like someone has massacred the entire city and dyed the mountain red with blood. Or there was a rare natural treasure growing here.
Even the city lord of that time was alarm by this sudden occurrence of red color, even he thinks some kind of treasure was borne here and it was a calamity to a 3-star city.
Because if there was really a natural treasure here his city would be destroyed just to keep its existence a secret. But nobody finds anything no matter how much they searched. Everyone thinks it is just a natural phenomenon so they gave up. The city lord also has a sigh of relief.
The golden hammered kingdom was after all one of the top ten kingdoms of middle-level lands and its territory was quite huge, so they didn't pay any heeds to this barren place much less a 3-star city like a mountain city.
But then the second prince of the golden hammered kingdom who was a Blue Grade Alchemist of the kingdom, like to travel around the lands and explore ancient ruins.
From one of the ancient ruins, he finds an old red scroll. The scroll was made from a powerful demonic beast hide and it was in ancient writing of devils.
The language of devils was not common here, but some people still learn it after all the devils once rule the Azure Wind Continent. But a hero emerges from the ranks of humans and he unites the entire human race. He was the first to fight for the rights and freedom of the human race. He claims the entire continent from devils after a bloody war. At least that is what the story was.
After the human race claim this continent there were many ancient records, runes, and secret realms that devils left behind. That's why it was not impossible to find someone who was well versed in devil language.
After translating the ancient writing, the second prince learns about the process of creating an extremely rare legendary medicine herb. It can only be born after thousand years on a special kind of soil that was dyed in the blood of millions of innocent people, called the 'Blood Rose'.
The blood submerges in special soil gave only birth and mature a single 'Blood Rose' it would never be able to give birth to the second.
It was a pity that he only finds how to create the herb and its name, no further information about its use was given in that ancient writing. He only knows that this medicinal herb was above golden ranked and called it 'Legendary Herb'.
When that second prince of the golden hammered kingdom learns about the Blood Rose he become astonished and thinks it was day-impossible to fulfill all those conditions. Just finding the special soil was a fool's dream.
It was also happened to be the time when the rumors about the red mountain start to spread. The rumors reached the second prince's ears since he likes to travel a lot. He first didn't pay much attention to it and one night suddenly remembered in the ancient scroll it was written the Blood Rose after birth, it would hide deep underground and the red soil would also absorb in the underground to mature it.
Only when the time of its maturity came it would start to emerge from the underground and bloom in hundred years after that. The red soil starts to surface and dyes the land around it in red as well. These were the signs of Blood Rose blooming.
The moment this thought occur in his mind, he quickly goes straight to his first brother who was now the current king of the kingdom. They had a very good relationship and the matter was too big for him to handle alone.
The second prince tells everything about the ancient scroll and mountain city rumors. The first prince was no fool and he also came to the same conjunction as his second brother.
They quickly discuss and chose to relay this information to their father the former king and the former king was also agitated after learning this and immediately gave the order to investigate that city.
It was only a guess but if there was really a 'legendary herb' on that city then they can easily exchange it with any ancient sects for a disciple slot or maybe it can help their peak expert to breakthrough into the next realm and they might become an empire. There were countless possibilities.
The Golden Hammered Kingdom investigates this 'suspicious' city secretly and finds a well-hidden old concealing formation on the mountain peak.
It was also because of this concealing formation that no one from the land of cities finds the unmatured Blood Rose.
After the kingdom confirms the existence of the herb, they quickly shut the rumors and start to support the city from the shadows to protect it from other kingdoms.
After hundred years of wait, the Blood Rose was finally going to bloom and Dulce's second uncle wanted to come in person to harvest it. But the King stop him because he was afraid that spies of the other top kingdoms might get wind of it.
Because a big event was coming and everyone was on their guards against each other. If they made any sudden or reckless move they would alert others instantly. If the Blood Rose exposed even the empires would get involved in this so he doesn't want to risk it.
In the end, the king sends his clever daughter Dulce to personally harvest the Blood Rose. He could have sent any one of his three sons but they were not as bright as his daughter.
Dulce received her father's command and finally understand why they were protecting that little city for all these years. Because the secret of the Blood Rose was only known to the Former King, the Current King, and the former Second Prince.
Now Dulce knows about it as well. She used her schemer mind and carved the whole plan to safely retrieve the Blood Rose without alerting anyone. The New Moon City wants to become a country and she makes them accept the Red-Mountain city as subordinate power.
This will justify her coming here in the disguise of an examiner.
That is the whole reason, a city like Red Mountain City was New Moon City's subordinate city. But it does have the capability because all these years to protect the Blood Rose the Golden Hammered Kingdom spends quite resources on the city lord's family and now they're on par with any of New Moon City's subordinate cities.
Dulce chose to come here in the last but there were still some days before Blood Rose bloomed completely and, in these days, the whole Ace incident transpired.
Just a day before she gets news of Ace, she harvested the completely bloomed Blood Rose and was planning to go back to the New Moon City if she didn't get any news on Ace after a week.
But who would've thought that she would find him the very next day?
She thought that heaven was rewarding her for her efforts. In the end, it was retribution instead.
The thief she was so confident in capturing just a couple of hours ago was now gone. And he even takes all her wealth that she has collected by murde… ahem, 'hardship'.
On top of the most important thing, the Blood Rose was inside her storage ring and if her father finds out about it she would be taking a trip to hell.
"Badly, Liook!" She yells as she called her bodyguards.
The door of the room opens and Baldy and Liook enter in a hurry.
"How long have I been unconscious?" Demand Dulce coldly.
"Two hours." Answer Baldy nervously while his head was low.
Dulce glare and became even angrier. "Where is that thief do you capture him or not?"
Beads of sweat start to form on Baldy's bald head as he answers timidly, "N-no princess we're still searching the city. There is something we find while we're searching for him. The city lord of River Flower city is missing and we can't even find his dead body. We assume that he has run away with that runt."
"Useless trash!! Everyone is trash here!" Dulce exploded at Baldy with a face warped with anger.
At this rate, she might really die from anger.
She stomps her feet in anger and anxiety just thinking about the whole incident.
Greed has truly blinded her reasoning and now she was in huge trouble if she didn't find the culprit!