The Princess And The Lord

1264  The Past and Present II

Lory remembers when they were stranded after defeating Maren, they accidentally found a small airport, from there they planned to rent a small plane to go home, that's where they met Samuel Albrecht, a Dragna user, a Dragxtarn if that's not surprising enough, he was also a man who rumored to be dead, yet here he is, alive and well. Strangely, for some reason he is being hunted by the other Dragxtarn but for what reason? They never know but from Serena's explanation, it might have something to do with the flower symbol they are investigating.

"Samuel Albrecht, commander of the Special Black Fang unit?" Garrof reiterated.

Serena was taken aback by Garrof's heavy tone, "Yeah, who else?"

The shock automatically cooled Lory down. "Was there anything else he said about the symbol?" Concern oozes from Lory's voice.

"No, he didn't say anything, he just said to keep this a secret for our own good...wait, is there something I need to know about this? Lloyd - Garrof?" Serena's voice hinted with a warning.

Garrof and Lloyd simultaneously turned to Lory waiting for her opinion, even though they trusted Serena but they felt the need to ask for Lory's opinion, they didn't realize they had already made Lory their leader.

Lory also unconsciously treats them not only as friends but also as subordinates so that she doesn't feel strange about making decisions for them.

After considering the situation, Lory thought that Serena deserved to know considering that she had interacted with Albert before he was declared 'dead'.

Lory gave a nod after that Loyd leaned closer to the phone then spoke with a low voice, "Samuel Albrecht is still alive,"

"Wait, what do you mean? forensics have confirmed that it was his and his family's bodies in the car, there's no way he's still alive, wait a minute where did you get the information, is it legit" There was clear doubt in Serena's voice which was understandable.

"We met him and his daughter too, better yet we talked to him, more or less…" Lloyd remembered their interactions could not be said friendly.

"He's an a*s!" Garrof chimed in. He's still upset about the battered plane that almost killed them.

"So he really alive?" Serena was bewildered.

"Yeah, he's alive and kicking, to be precise he kicked the other Dragxtarn's a*s, It's not like I have any complaints about that though," Garrof scoffed.

"...What's going on here?" Serena said absently.

"That, we don't know" Garrof casually replies.

"But why are the other Dragxtarns hunting him, what could he have done to make his former comrades hunt him and his family?" so many questions were running through her head.

"We don't know, even though we wanted to sit and chat about what happened but we have the same enemy chasing our tail, maybe that's the reason we didn't bash each other head, even though he tried" Garrof was still upset about the plane.

"Serena, I want you to find out whatever you can about that symbol but I remind you to be extra careful, my gut feeling tells me if they are willing to kill their own elite commanders, they will definitely have no trouble finishing you off, therefore, your situation will become more serious than already are so don't be careless and think about this again," Lloyd sincerely warned her.

"Are you crazy, after knowing all of this how can I stop, no way! I need to know what it is about this symbol that is worthy enough to kill their own people!" rather than being worried she sounds ecstatic.

"Are you sure?" Lloyd sincerely advises Serena to think again.

"Don't worry about me baby, Your girl is not easy to kill" she coyly said.

"Huh, you are not my—"

"I call you again when I find something else, but you can call me anytime darling" she coquettishly said after that she hung up.

Lloyd's mouth was open but he didn't have the chance to say anything as Serena already ran away.

The conversation ended with the unexpected news that shocked everyone for a long moment the room fell into a dead silence as they were all lost in their thoughts, suddenly there was a knock on the door only then did they snap out of their thoughts.

Lloyd walked towards the door then he peeked through the peephole, perhaps it was a habit for a soldier that they would not open the door boldly without knowing who was visiting him. After Lloyd made sure it was the waiter delivering food, he then remembered that Lory had indeed ordered food.

Lloyd opened the door to let the waiter push the cart in after Lloyd gave him a tip, the waiter excused himself. Lloyd and Garrof also didn't want to bother Lory any more than they had to.

"Princess, we came to give you tomorrow's schedule, I will put the schedule here," Garrof placed the schedule paper on the coffee table after that he nodded politely at Lory and left the room with Lloyd.

Alone in the room feeling a little lost she finding hard to describe her feelings right now. Lory walked towards the cart, then took a cup of hot chocolate then headed to the small balcony leaning on the railing while sipping hot chocolate she stared at the flickering city light with a flat expression.

After everything she's been through, Lory knows that life isn't always black and white, sometimes just because you witnessed everything doesn't mean you know everything. Therefore, she had learned firsthand how things were not as they seemed, but at least when it came to Nazareth's existence in this world was always clear but now she was told that there might be another hidden story behind it.

But so what? The beast had brought disaster to her beautiful kingdom, she watched millions of people, men, women...children burn like helpless moths, their terrified screams still hunted her sleepless nights for a long time if not because of Zhao Li Xin she might not have able to get free from that horror for the rest of her life. Though is not as bad as before she still vividly remembers the unbearable intense heat at that night and the desperation she felt when she was forced to say goodbye to her father and leave all those men that she considered to be her own uncles without seeing goodbye...should she understand it - accept it just because she knew the reason behind it?

How could she, that creature had taken everything from her! To be honest she hated Nazareth more than Lazarus cause Lazarus was not the one who killed her father and uncles.

The cold wind blew her cheeks as Lory quietly took another sip, For inexplicable reason she felt the world had suddenly become big it made her feel like she was the only one in the world. Lory took out her phone after that she made a call then pressed the phone to her ear after waiting quite a while she heard a female robot voice telling her the number she was calling couldn't be reached.

Lory hung up the phone and then called again, she bit her lower lip nervously while waiting for the dial tone however, the same annoying robotic voice came again. Lory let out a long sigh as her shoulder dropped weakly, later, she looked at her cellphone screen with a look full of longing.

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After she hung up the phone Serena stared at the ceiling and blew her cheeks, too many things happened she felt quite overwhelmed.

She knew there were many secrets in the world waiting to be uncovered, that's why she became a historian but that wasn't enough so she became an archaeologist but even that still wasn't enough to quench her thirst that's why she became a bounty hunter to hunt down looters and smugglers historical items.

Among all, the Lucient family was one of her biggest obsessions. For a long time, she studied the history of Lucient but then she realized the more she learned about them the less she knew about the family. Sadly, she couldn't do anything to dig further because all important documents about The Lucient family were hidden behind the Cestine Palace which was guarded by the Archknight.

No matter how crazy he was, he wouldn't dare challenge Lucient's strongest sword and shield, after all, it was well-known how protective the Archknights were of their king, people said that Archknights were different from the others because they didn't devote themselves to the kingdom and king but instead to the Lucient family, so whoever becomes king if it is not the Lucient family the Archknight will not acknowledge that person nor they will serve the kingdom without the Lucient family, therefore there has never been a story of a coup occurring during Harland's long history.

Serena supported her chin and then shifted her gaze to the strange rock on her desk. She had checked what kinda of minerals contained inside the rock is but the result unlike anything she had ever seen, therefore she asked Garrof where he found this rock, but that cheap man didn't want to tell her but that understandable considering his line of profession.

Serena nudged the rock with her index finger, It was not only the rock that troubled her it was also the symbol on it regardless that symbol was similar to the symbol she said previously but that's the problem it was only similar, the flower symbol on the rock shape is more fluid, it looks like a flower but it looks like water or wind...or is it vines?

Suddenly she was startled by a loud ringing from her cell phone which caused him to lose focus. annoyed Serena checked her phone but it was from an unknown number, she wanted to reject it but she hesitated since only a few people knew her phone so who could it be, is it friend or foe? Serena pondered for a few seconds out of curiosity she decided to take the call.

Serena didn't immediately say hello, instead, she stared at the time on her watch in case something suspicious happened, she would hang up before ten seconds because if it was longer than that the enemy would be able to find her location.

"Serena, are you there?" a familiar voice of a man was heard. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Who is this?" other than Lloyd she never bothered to remember other people's voices.

"It's Gavin, I need your help!" Gavin's voice sounds in a hurry.

"Gavin? Gavin Austin?" she was stunned.

"Yes, Serena, this is Gavin Austin, how do you do?" Gavin replied sarcastically.

Serena rolled her eyes "What do you want Gavin?"

"Like I said I need help, I need a safe passage to enter Eagle Rock City," Gavin said.