Chapter 209

CHAPTER 9: BARREN LAND

Before leaving, Alessandro asked Sirius to take care of April, to protect her and bring her back safe and sound, he told Taren the same; he left his most precious treasure in her hands.

Alessandro gave his wife a long kiss, he would have liked to accompany her to the door, to say goodbye until the last moment, but with that he would only attract attention, something they did not want, since April’s trip was secret.

The last words before April, before leaving Alessandro’s office, were:

"Take care of Lissana and keep her close, we do not know what may lurk in the shadows."

Upon leaving, they headed to the entrance, April was wearing the hood of her cloak even though it was hot, she did not want anyone to see her leave, to realize that she would not be in the palace.

At the entrance was the carriage in which she had arrived, which took them to the outskirts of the city. Sirius asked him to leave them on the road and return to the wizard tower. Once alone, Taren asked.

“How will we continue our journey without a transport?”

Sirius took out some bracelets from his bag, handing one to April and one to Taren. “We will use this.”

“We will use a bracelet? Tell me this is a joke!”

“This is not a joke.”

Taren examined the bracelet skeptically and said.

“You should have taken out a teleportation scroll at the very least.”

“This is better than any scroll, these bracelets will allow us to teleport more easily, although it is used personally, each one will have to use their teleportation artifact, which is an advantage in case there are problems.

April put on the bracelet and asked.

“What do you mean by that?”

“We are going to the enemy kingdom, they could attack us, if that happens escaping will be our top priority, the scrolls can only be used by the one who carries them, it would be dangerous if we separate, with the bracelets even if we separate we can escape.”

Taren stared at the bracelet he wore on his wrist and asked.

“And how do they work?”

“You just have to press the jewel in the center twice.”

“What if we press it by mistake?”

“Hmm… Try not to.”

Taren was a little suspicious of the artifact he had given them.

“One question. How long ago did you create these artifacts?”

“Recently.”

“But you have already tried them. Right?”

“Of course, a couple of times and there have been no problems. Sirius approached April and said.

“In the kingdom of Laios there is a barrier that protects it, we can only transport ourselves to the outskirts of the kingdom, there try not to separate from us at any time.”

Sirius pointed to the magic ring that April wore on her hand and said to her while pointing at it.

“Your hair color stands out a lot so change it and try to cover your face with the hood, we don’t want anyone to recognize you.”

April changed the vibrant red color of her hair to a honey blonde and answered.

“I don’t think anyone can recognize my face, I was only a princess in name, I was always locked in the farthest part of the main palace, the only ones who could recognize my face are my brothers and the maid who brought me food from time to time and the guards who brought me here on my wedding day.”

“That’s good, we won’t have to be so cautious then, we should be close to appear in the same place.”

Taren approached and said.

“I just hope we arrive at our destination in one piece.”

“Stop complaining, everything will be fine, on the count of three.”

They all brought their hands to the magic artifact and pressed it twice, in the blink of an eye, they arrived at the outskirts of the kingdom of Laios.

The golden towers of the immense palace shone in the distance. Taren walked away and started to vomit, feeling like his stomach had turned inside out.

April and Sirius were fine. Taren glared at him as if he wanted to kill him with his eyes. April walked over, took his hand, infused her magic into it and asked.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine now.”

She glared at Sirius and said.

“We better use a teleportation scroll, I’m not using that damn thing again.”

“You’re just complaining for nothing.”

April asked Sirius. “Are you okay?

” “Yes, perfectly.”

April stared at the kingdom of Laios from a distance and said.

“I never thought I would return to Laios.”

Sirius asked her.

“Do you hate this place?”

“I don’t have any good memories of this place, but I know if I hate it or if it makes me uneasy, so let’s hurry up and complete our mission so we can return home.”

Tarren seeing that they were still quite far away said.

“Your majesty is right, we have a long way to go, so let’s walk.”

Sirius started walking and said to them.

“We will stop at the first village and get a carriage to continue, it is not too far so we won’t have to walk

too much.” They walked for half a day, when they reached the first village, April was surprised to see that all the land was contaminated and what previously seemed to have been a rice field, had become an arid field where not even weeds grew.

Tarren said.

“I thought the kingdom of Laios was very prosperous.”

Sirius answered.

“And until a few months ago it was, one of the wizards from my tower has family in Laios, when he came, he passed by these fields and it wasn’t like this, I remember clearly why he was saying that the rice from these fields was the best.”

April approached the field, took a handful of soil, felt a darkness coming from that land.

Some sickly-looking villagers approached them and asked if they came from the city, if things were better there.

April answered.

“We don’t come from the city, but. Could you tell us what happened here?”

An old man, who was barely supporting himself with a cane, answered.

“A few months ago there was a great earthquake, a black miasma covered the rice fields, withered everything and contaminated the water; if you are passing by it would be better for you to leave immediately, many of us are sick.

April couldn’t leave that place without helping those people, although she didn’t live in Laios, she was still a Venobich, she took his hand and infused a small amount of magic into him, so that he wouldn’t notice that she had done it and said to him.

"Don’t worry about us, we are healers, let us help you in whatever we can."

That old man felt great relief and said to him.

"Thank you very much, we will be immensely grateful if you help us."