After parting ways with Kent and Uncle Drew, Saden, the second Night Rider who was previously known as Aria, made her way toward the Varyndor Kingdom, where she planned to exact revenge on the one she once thought was her sister.
It turned out she wasn’t, and in the end, Saden ended up with a dagger through her back. It was the classic backstab one would expect from a jealous friend.
Melody… She was practically her sister, but due to her jealousy of Aria—now called Saden after becoming a Night Rider—she colluded with Darren, the aloof heir of the Malric noble family.
Saden just couldn’t understand how it all went downhill, but now she wanted revenge, for she had promised it before becoming a Night Rider.
Riding through the night, she sped toward the Varyndor Kingdom, knowing from what she had overheard before her supposed death that Darren and Melody would be heading to the Althea Kingdom to attend the annual auction and sell the Ten-Year-Old Gold Essence Mushroom.
She wouldn’t let that happen.
Thankfully, in her Night Rider form, she quickly reached the borders of the Varyndor Kingdom and reverted to her human form. But instead of walking with an uncovered face, she donned a mask that obscured her eyes and pulled up a hoodie.
Moving swiftly, she soon found herself outside the mansion of the Malric noble family in Stonehaven. She waited for something to happen, and an hour later, a maid attending to her duties passed by the spot where she was hiding.
Saden used a technique she had learned as a Night Rider to subdue the maid. Then, she extracted the needed information using another skill that allowed her to only place her hand on the maid’s forehead.
When she was done, she employed yet another skill to wipe the maid’s memory of the sudden ambush and left. When the maid woke up, she was drowsy but couldn’t remember anything.
Afterwards, Saden reverted to her Night Rider form and rode off on her shadow mare.
From the information she extracted, she learned about the sudden movements of the Malric family. They had left a few days ago and were now headed to the Althea Kingdom, specifically Raden City, one of the major trading hubs in the kingdom.
This puzzled Saden, as she knew they should be heading to Vastport City, where the auction would take place in less than three weeks.
She knew Darren and Melody planned to sell the herb, so why were they going to Raden City instead of Vastport?
She didn’t dwell on it for long. After leaving, she refrained from using the Realm of the Night to travel. Instead, she moved like an ordinary person, riding a terrifying-looking horse.
Two days later, she picked up the trail of people from the Malric family.
As soon as she did, she activated a skill all Night Riders possess: [Veil of Death].
It is a concealment skill that prevents the living from seeing them. Only the dead or those dying can perceive them. Of course, if one possesses an affinity for death energy, they can also see them.
She moved faster, steadily closing the gap. A few hours later, she came within range of a camp they had set up.
Sneakily, she made her way closer, scanning for the two individuals she was after. It didn’t take long to find Darren inside a tent discussing something with a few of his right-hand men.
“Young Master Darren, that bitch you mentioned—we couldn’t find her body, but we did find trails of blood. It’s likely a beast got to her first and feasted on the remains,” reported a young man with razor-sharp eyebrows.
There are three others with him, and then there’s Darren, the heir of the Malric family.
“I guess you’re right. Though I never planned to kill her at first, she isn’t as weak-minded as her friend, who was easily manipulated, so she had to die, tragicly… I guess it all worked out,” Darren said with a grin.
“The young master is indeed a genius in mind cultivation. Even the patriarch regularly praises you for finding all the best gems for the family,” the razor-sharp-eyebrowed young man said shamelessly, sucking up to his young master.
“Thanks for the compliment, but if it hadn’t been for Kiln here, we wouldn’t have known she possesses that high-grade spirit root. Now, when we sell her, we won’t only be walking away with a bountiful harvest, but we’ll also be walking away with the Ten-Year-Old Gold Essence Mushroom.”
The heir and his retainers laughed, looking in a certain direction.
Saden, who was listening in on their conversation, followed their gaze. She felt something wasn’t right, so she moved in that direction.
Truthfully, something indeed wasn’t right. When she came within range of a certain tent, she saw six Root Saints guarding it. Each of them was a powerful Root Saint, heavily armed and alert.
However, since none of them was dying or showed an affinity for death, she moved past them and glanced inside the tent.
There, she saw three girls in cages bound by runic-enforced chains. One of these girls was her sister, Melody, who was supposed to be basking in the sunlight with her one true love, Darren.
‘Well, that was unexpected.’ He thought inwardly, but a cold glint appeared in her eyes.
She spent a few seconds inside the tent looking at the three caged ladies, and then she moved back and sped away from the camp. Once she was far enough, she shifted to her human form and sighed deeply.
A guilty look appeared in her eyes, forcing her to let out another sigh.
“So, she didn’t betray me… she was forced to betray me,” Saden murmured, a cold glint flashing through her eyes.
Her mind replayed the times she had spent with Melody—precious moments she had spent with her. She cherished them all even today, despite the betrayal that had once pierced her heart.
Melody was the most cheerful person she had ever known. She was so full of life that even when things weren’t going well for them, she would always find a way to cheer her up.
It was why, when she betrayed her, she couldn’t believe it herself. She asked why a couple of times, but Melody only looked at her with no hesitation in her eyes. Back then, she was so shocked that she made up her mind to kill her.
But now, seeing things from a new perspective, it appeared Melody was that cold due to being controlled mentally.
“But how come I never noticed it?” She clenched her fists. She spent most days with Melody, so how come she never suspected she was being controlled mentally?
She sighed again and chose to focus…
The events she had just discovered were clearly something that made her immediately come up with two solutions, each for a different mission.
The first was to kill every last one of the cohort heading to Raden City. The second was to investigate just how deep this human trafficking went within the Malric family.
It was clear from what she saw and overheard that the patriarch of the Malric Noble Family was aware of this, and thus, she wouldn’t let it slide. Of course, she would have to handle it in her free time with her captain’s permission, but she wouldn’t stop.
The fact that her sister was manipulated to that extent pissed her off…
“You know, sometimes you have to stand back and see things from a different perspective before making a decision. You would be surprised how different things will play out from how you see them.”
Just when she was seething, she heard someone speak from behind. Turning around, she saw her captain in his human form standing there.
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