In the dead of night, near a small village on the outer skirts of a large Elvin city, shadows were shifting in the darkness.
“The Norville family is truly an odd bunch…” spoke one of the shadows, a bit of contempt layering his voice.
“If they’re odd, what does that make you for accepting their money?”
The shadow had no response, so he could only sigh.
“Just shut up and focus on the scouting. We need to find exactly which children have been orphaned and who haven’t. The campaign ended pre-maturely, so the Norville family wants this done now. They’ve even paid extra in all their excitement.
“Whichever homes you see lack an accompanying adult, mark them down. We’ll have to deal with this before the bureaucrats get involved.”
The shadow could only resign himself. Although the Kingdom was filled with occurrences just like these, he had a family to feed too. He could little afford to not take this job. But…
“What do you think are the odds of the government helping them afterwards,” he couldn’t help but ask.
The leader of the group sighed, “if it makes you feel better, this may be the best course for their lives. They’ll receive training in a singularity type technique, and if they’re talented, they’ll have a prosperous future.
“The Royals aren’t in a place to go against the wishes of such a powerful family, and the other powerful families just don’t care… even if everyone knows what’s going on, there’s no real evidence. And truthfully, even if there was evidence, it would be ignored…”
A shadow who was listening to all of this near the back of their 5-man party was confused. He wasn’t sure what was going on at all. All he was told was that they were responsible for transporting orphans to a new place, so he had no choice but to tap on the shoulder of the shadow near him.
“What… what happens to them?…”
The shadow turned to him and whispered in a faint voice, “Norville means desire in our ancient language… you figure it out…”
The group fell silent, a heavy atmosphere reigning. The soft rustling of the wind through the dark forest did little to help their moods as the continued to skirt around the small villages… marking down homes… knowing that every note they made was signing a child off to a life they didn’t choose.
**
The next morning, Dyon was happy to have consolidated his sovereign path at the 3rd level of demonic will. Before, he had been struggling to understand what to do because he couldn’t integrate anymore of the sage essence without the proper treasures; but, thanks to Ri’s stimulation and the gift left by her mother, Dyon had finally found a path. In fact, he thought he might have found two.
Although initially he believed he had found a singular sovereign path. As he pondered, he realized he had muddied the sovereign path and the battle path. The truth was that his demonic will was a layer of the two.
However, when Dyon thought about how useful this secret place of Ri’s was, he couldn’t help but speculate on her background. But, for such a carefree and fiery girl like her to be unwilling to talk about it, despite her knowing that Dyon was trustworthy, meant that it cut deeper than she was willing to admit. So, Dyon decided to not pry into the topic.
He subtly watched Ri sleep, but the sight did nothing to help Dyon refrain from gulping.
Ri might not have been an exceptional beauty, but her appearance had an innocent cuteness to it that made her inviting. It almost seemed like she was only one or two features away from being the reason overlords destroyed entire kingdoms for her, and that was on top of her body and skin being immaculate.
She lay to her side as the soft sound of her breathing filled the air. The flickering ice and snow gently coated her light blue-silver hair, giving her an ethereal feel. Her kilted skirt had hiked up in her sleep, revealing leather that clung tightly to her ass, causing a raging storm to build up in Dyon.
Her chest wasn’t ample, but her cropped armor held them loosely, slowly moving up and down with her breathing. With the armor not being flexible, it had been pulled ever so slightly downwards during Ri’s night of rest. Dyon almost felt as though if he peaked up on the tips of his toes, he might see a sight that would send him to heaven.
The demon qilin blood within Dyon thrummed, but it was even overtaken by the raging sage essence. Dyon immediately closed his eyes, trying to calm the tower that was threatening to make him lose control.
“Breathe… breathe… think of Madeleine… wait, don’t think of Madeleine… think of rainbows and unicorns… sweaty men… smelly bathrooms…. Breathe…”
After 10 minutes of talking to himself, Dyon finally felt that the raging essence within him had calmed, so he slowly opened his eyes.
Dyon started. All he saw was a pair of clear silver eyes, staring at him intently.
“Haha… it seems like you’re awake now,” laughed Dyon awkwardly. 𝘳𝑎.𝗇t
Ri didn’t reply, looking at Dyon with a raised eyebrow. “Did you really need to take off your shirt? Also… you have quite interesting… tastes.”
Dyon could only smile bitterly. It seemed like she had heard what he was saying. Maybe he shouldn’t have been speaking out loud.
“Maybe if you didn’t look so sexy in your sleep, I wouldn’t have to calm down like this. Didn’t you ever learn to not sleep by strange men?”
Ri reached forward and pinched Dyon’s arm hard, causing him to wince, “I knew you weren’t pure. To take something as innocent as sleep and blame me?!”
Dyon only playfully laughed as Ri chased him out of the cave, “I’m taking a bath now! Don’t come in or I’ll chop it off!”𝘪𝑎.𝘤𝑜𝑚
𝘪𝘳.𝒸𝑜𝑚