Chapter 4 Save

BEFORE the sun would be rise up in the sky, Daffodil, Deja and Princess Nieva continue their journey. They stride to the route wherein no one seemed to pass by since it was too early without further ado. They had nothing to be carried, and only themselves matter the most. The morning breeze welcomed them, and she was truly happy for that, because it evoked the coldness of their beloved kingdom.

"We had a long journey towards the Kingdom of Cervantez, and it would take us a while to arrive there by just walking. We badly needed to ride a wagon that would go there, and it was much more convenient for us, because we wouldn't know what would happen," Daffodil uttered anxiously.

"Yes, it would also be risky for us to stride by our feet, and we could also interact with foes along the way. It would definitely waste our zeal too, and King Amari would be alerted by his allies that could lead us in complete danger," Deja added.

That made sense to her. It was exhausting also to travel by land, if only they could go to the ice path it would definitely be easy peasy to them. But sadly, everything was new for her.

"It would be alright. I don't know if foes would clash with us since we had nothing. Remember, we were concealing ourselves as slaves, and we could fool them with our facade," she reminded.

Daffodil scratched her head. "Ah, yes. I almost forgot about that. But as far as I knew there were slave catchers that usually shackled wanderer slaves to be sold for their superior."

"What would happen to the slaves they had caught?" Deja asked innocently.

Daffodil sighed before answering. "As I remember what Father told me, it would depend on how their client wanted it. It was either they would be their helper around their vicinity, to be gave them pleasure especially to beautiful woman slaves or be their target while practicing their combat skills."

She gasped in horror. She couldn't imagine that slaves that would be caught merciless by a slave catcher, and then be sold for their pleasure. Her jaw clenched, and she felt livid about that cruelty.

'I badly wanted to see them disappear, and innocent wanderers would be free.'

The slave catchers and their superior where all monsters similar to King Amari. They needed to be expunged in this world. In their kingdom, there was no such treatment like that. If any Parzatine saw a wanderer slave, they welcomed it as a family, but because they were located at the last frontier, so it was very seldom for them to had encounter a slave.

"How merciless they were by doing cruelty towards the slaves! I badly wanted to pierce my ice javelin through the slave catchers and even their superior's hearts," Deja snorted.

She nodded in agreement, and would do that too. A slave should be free, and not be treated with cruelty Those heartless people should have severe punishment, so that they would realize their delinquency.

The three of them became silent while striding until they felt the intense heat of the sun. She wiped-off the beads of sweat on her face, and she still wasn't used to it. She was behind Daffodil and Deja who were both holding long wood sticks to balance themselves, and she could also hear them breathing heavily. She was about to call their attention when they heard some delightful cackle of men while there were women screaming for mercy. Her brows furrowed while Daffodil and Deja became alert, and looked in her direction. She nodded her head to signal the both of them to advance to that direction while she dashed as fast as she could since her power was held up by the necklace that was entangled around her neck with a fire amulet. Both Daffodil and Deja weren't the same as her, so she let the two be ahead of her. No one could notice their presence too, since they didn't leave the Kingdom of Parzatine for years to be by her side, and they didn't know who they were.

"How dare the both of you interfere with us! Did you know how herculean I, and my pals were?" The buff man wearing a silk black attire mockingly asked.

His pal had a goatee sneered. "Yeah, we didn't know the both of you, so give us some respect. Get rid of your cloaks, Rude Peculiars!"

Daffodil and Deja removed the hood of their cloaks that revealed their auburn hairs, but they had differences in their characteristics. Daffodil's hair was in a high ponytail with a brown bow while Deja's hair was styled in low pigtails. Parzatines had similar eye colors which were blue, but royal blooded had a tinged gold ring around it. However, Daffodil and Deja's eye color was blue with a green ring.

The other pal of the insolent men whistled amorously. "Oh my, you both had bewitching beauties. Do any of you want to be the mother of my descendants?"

She was annoyed with that man. How dare he say that to Daffodil and Deja. He wasn't worthy to be the father of Daffodil or Deja's descendants.

The man with a goatee butted in. "Don't forget that I would love to have one of them, Brother. Definitely it would be a good union to my genes, and I could make a descendant that could give me fortune."

"Please, release my daughters. I'm begging all of you. . ." The old man pleaded that got her attention, and she saw the two young women that had chains around their hands. Her eyes widened when the buff man punched the old man's face that made him stumbled, and coughed with blood. She couldn't help, but to grab the sharp shard of stone beside her and hold it firmly.

"No, they were mine for my own pleasure, since they were both appealing even though they dumped on dirt. How dare you to try to control a superior by just a mere penniless slave like you, Old Rat! You should rotten under the ground-"

The buff man was stopped from his nasty remark towards the old man when she threw the sharp shard of stone as far as she could, and it smacked in his head that made him groan in pain while blood dripped on it. They looked in her direction, and she stared coldly at the men who treated the old man and his daughters heartlessly.

"Why did you do that to my brother, ha!" The man with the goatee yelled while pointing his finger at her.

In a blink of the eye, his finger was slash by Deja using the ice javelin that immediately fade away that made him scream in terror while holding his uneven hand while stumbling on the ground. Daffodil pierced the ice arrow in the chest of the pervert man that made his lifeless body drop to the ground.

The two young women screamed in horror while looking at Daffodil and Deja who viciously perished the three men. She walked closer to the two young women that were shaking in fear, and sat to level herself to them.

"Deja, heal the old man," she commanded.

Deja bowed, and grabbed some remedy that was especially made in Parzatine from its pocket then blew it with magic ice. This was one of the special skills that Deja had, and that was to heal with magic ice.

She smiled reassuringly, and then looked at the two young women. "Don't be petrified to us, and we would let all of you escape from here. May I ask where you all lived?"

"We lived on the other side of the boundary of Kingdom Cervantez. We were traveling with our old wagon with off-white canopy to hoard up our root crops and other herbs that we got near the hills to be sold in the town to earn coins, so we could live. But these bandits hindered us, and shackled me then also my youngest sister to abduct for their pleasure. Father was awfully beaten, because he wanted to defend us from them. Thank you for saving us," the young woman, who was full of tears that was older than the other, answered.

Her heart clenched while looking at them full of concern.

'What if we weren't striding here? For sure, the young women would be abducted while their father, who was an old man, could be perish while defending his daughters from these cruel perverted men.'

"Please, spare my life. . . Help me, and I would give you all of my gold coins. . ." The buff man that a while ago she had hit by a sharp stone on his head begged while whimpering, and still battling himself to breath.

She looked at the buff man's direction where Daffodil was standing. Her sharp stare pierced him while jaw was clenched with complete displeasure.

'How dare he plead us to spare his life if he did cruelty towards these innocent people. I wondered how many of his victims suffered around his hands.'

"No, you should be perished," she lashed out.

Without further ado Daffodil tugged his hair using her left hand. A sharp ice dagger appeared from her right hand, and gashed the neck of the buff man that made the two young women shrilled in fear.

"I badly wanted to do that, but I'm too old to fight with them. I owe you my life, and also my daughters too. I didn't know how to give back your benevolence to save us. It was rude to not introduce ourselves to our mighty saviors. I'm Helmar, and these were my two daughters, Helena, my eldest while Hestia, my youngest."

She looked at Helmar who said that, and she could tell that he was fully healed now.

Deja stood up beside her. "You could give back to us too in a simple way."

Helmar's face lightened, and asked. "How?"

"Let us ride on your wagon. We wanted to enter the Kingdom of Cervantez to be slaves especially to the palace wherein King Thesaurus, and his descendants were," Deja answered that made the Helmar gawked.

"Gee! All of you wanted to be slaves of our beloved kingdom? How come that would happen? I mean, all of you had an alluring beauty and fighting skills like that, but you could marry a high rank warrior of the Kingdom of Cervantez."

She chuckled amusingly from what Helena exclaimed.

"Please, make all of you known," Helmar whispered, which caught her attention.

She smiled. "We were just wanderers from the last frontier heading towards the Kingdom of Cervantez to be slaves."

Helmar looked at her intently. "Your face was somehow familiar." Then he moved his gaze towards the direction of Daffodil and Deja who were standing. "While the both of you possessed agility and the power of ice. I only knew from what kingdom possessed that kind of power, but as far as I remembered that kingdom had been diminished. I felt devastated, because their princess was perished who would bring forth the most powerful descendant according to the prophecy."

Her heart thumped loudly, and felt tense. She was frozen from where she was.

"We could help all of you to set foot effortlessly at the barriers of the Kingdom Cervantez with the help of our old wagon." Helena chimed in.

"How?" Daffodil asked.

Helena's face blushed, and became coy. "My beloved was one of the warriors of the barrier, and he could help, so the three of you could enter easily."

"Alright. Make sure that none of you would say about what happened here. We didn't want to be known by other people. Just let others know that we were just wanderers that wanted to be slaves of Kingdom Cervantez," Daffodil reminded.

Helena nodded. "We would respect your decision. Let's move now, because when twilight came the barriers of the Kingdom Cervantez would be more austere. It was verboten to any Cervantezians to go out, and wanderers to enter, because the sorceresses would cast a spell around the four barriers of Kingdom Cervantez that were entangled with lightning."

She was dumbfounded about that. The Kingdom Cervantez surely had a huge surprise for her, since she didn't know it personally and only from hearsays and tittle-tattles of the Parzatine or her parents.

Deja nodded, and then tapped her shoulder. "Alright. It was all settled. We need to proceed there as soon as possible."

She sighed. "Yeah. . ."

They all left the lifeless bodies of the cruel perverted men, and they went to ride the old wagon with off-white canopy that had some vessels inside full of root crops and herbs that was going to be towed by a horse. Helmar beside Helena were seated at the front while Daffodil, Deja, Hestia and her were seated quietly inside the wagon beside the vessels.

She whispered. "Take some rest, Daffodil and Deja."

Daffodil and Deja looked at her, but she motioned them, so they obeyed her. Throughout their journey, she noticed Hestia's stare towards her. She ignored it, and closed her eyes to take a rest. Little did she know that it made her slumber into deep sleep due to exhaustion.

She moaned when someone shook her from his shoulder, and that made her eyes flutter open, and she saw Hestia in front of her. She sat decently, and gazed around the wagon.

"Lady Daffodil and Lady Deja were outside speaking to the warriors outside. We were here at the front barrier of the Kingdom Cervantez," Hestia uttered.

She nodded, and was about to stand when Hestia held her arm.

"You weren't an ordinary woman, and I had a perception that you were mightier than them. I don't know who you were, and what was the reason that you would be a slave inside the palace wherein our beloved king, and his descendants were. But I could see hope and determination in your eyes. I greatly appreciate you and your colleagues' help, and I prayed that all of your plans would be triumphant."

Hestia bowed at her, and then took from her pocket a small crystal with the size of her tooth. Her brows furrowed with confusion while looking at it.

"This small crystal was blessed, and could defend you against any poison. My mother gave it to me when I was young."

She looked at it, and then shook her head. "No, this possession of yours must be with you until the end. Let your descendants have it to protect them until the next generation."

Hestia worriedly looked at her. "Be vigilant to cross-paths with the cursed princes, and especially Princess Tabitha."

"Hmm. . . Why?" she asked curiously.

Hestia was about to answer her question when Daffodil and Deja came.

"Eva, we were now inside the first boundary of Kingdom Cervantez," Daffodil announced to her. Deja sat beside her. But her gaze was in Hestia who was sitting while holding the small crystal.

She smiled at Hestia. "Don't worry, I'll take that in my mind. No need to give me your possession, and keep it. I would be cautious around to be safe. Thank you."

Hestia sighed in relief, and nodded. While Daffodil also sat beside Deja, and the old wagon continued to move again.

"When would we arrive at the Palace of Kingdom Cervantez?" she asked.

"Within two nights, we were in the town of the kingdom. But it depends if our horse needed to rest or any delays would happen. We would need to approach the warriors to the barrier of the palace, so we needed to speak with the Emissary to guide the three of you towards the Head of the Slaves," Hestia answered. "Did you want to eat?"

She nodded, and felt famished.

Hestia rummaged through the other vessel, and they inhaled the scent of tasty foods. "These were bread and cheese that we bought from the merchants at the mountain."

Daffodil got that, and smelled it before biting it. They didn't know these kinds of foods, since they were always eating meat from animals at Parzatine. Deja bit a small amount of cheese. Both of them seemed delighted, so they gave her a portion.

Hestia looked dumbfounded at them, but regained composure. "You could put the cheese on the bread too. Try it."

She nodded, and did what Hestia suggested. She bit the bread with cheese, and her eyes shone in delight. She couldn't help, but eat heartily. Daffodil and Deja mimicked her, and they were both munching and relishing the bread with cheese. Hestia also gave them water to quench their thirst. When they finished eating, she burped like a madman. Her cheeks flushed that made Daffodil, Deja and Hestia chuckled.

"You love bread and cheese, Lady Eva. Before you go to the palace, I would give you a bag full of bread and cheese. That would be a small gratitude from us."

She smiled. "Oh, I wouldn't say no to that, Hestia. Thank you also for sharing with us these relished foods too."

Hestia bowed a little. "My pleasure, Lady Eva."

'I needed to get used to hearing my pseudonym. But I'm delighted that I'm finally here at Kingdom Cervantez with the help of Helena, Helmar and Hestia.'