"So, what's your name again?" Roysia's words brought her back from the daze.
"Ah! Sorry for my late introductions, My Lady. I'm Fennelis, and this is my daughter Umi." Fennelis pointed her finger at Umi and responded politely.
Roysia nodded at both and stepped on the dirt road. Although a few merchant carts and adventurers were allied up ahead and started moving in groups, Fennelis and others didn't even think of joining them and started the journey on their own.
"Have you been to Keris kingdom before, Lady Roysia?" Fennelis asked as she followed Roysia and glanced at the surrounding woods cautiously.
"Nah, it's the first time for me. From the looks, I can guess you are also the same, right?" Fennelis was a bit surprised by Roysia's guess and nodded.
Meanwhile, Roysia thought of something and asked in confusion.
"Why are you here in the southern Mainland?" At first, Fennelis thought of hiding their goal but soon decided to tell everything.
"We came here to search for my husband, My Lady. He and his team came to Taiga Sloth woods to search for something. But later, I discovered that this search mission was a trap set by a big shot. So, I came after them to warn them. What about you?"
"You don't have to use the polite tone. Call me, Roysia. I'm also searching for a clue about a certain organization." Roysia suddenly paused and soon noticed that Fennelis didn't carry any belongings.
"You have a spatial ring?" A flash of surprise appeared on her face. She knew the ones who held such artifacts were nobles or powerful mages!
"No wonder my sister asked you guys to accompany me. Can you also store my things inside?" She asked with a little hesitant look.
Meanwhile, Fennelis smiled and nodded.
"Please give me your backpack, My Lady. I'll store them inside."
"Oh! Wait a minute. I'll take the important items first." While saying so, Roysia took out a small leather bag, a small pouch, a strange crystalline card, and finally a unique necklace made of gold from the backpack and stored everything in the leather bag.
After that, she passed the leather bag to Fennelis and breathed a deep sigh.
"I can move freely now."
On the other hand, Fennelis caught the backpack from Roysia and stored it in her spatial ring.
Then, she thought for a moment and asked.
"Are you after the Red Python?" Fennelis remembered the name from Roysia's earlier discussion with Elianor and became more curious about the mysterious organization.
"Yeah, those bastards caused great chaos in the royal castle. I got my knight title revoked due to their action." Roysia said while fuming in rage.
"Sorry to hear that. So, did you find any way to track down that organization? I heard that the organization is one of the famous slave organizations around here." Fennelis said while looking up at the sky to guess the time. Midday sun hung above their heads at that moment and appeared to be glaring at the mortals for showing themselves in front of it.
"Yeah, the organization members all escaped somewhere after that chaos. Thankfully, I managed to get one clue to find more information about them." Roysia said while taking out a scroll from her waist and showing it to Fennelis.
'Aren't you trusting us too much?' Fennelis rolled her eyes and decided to take a look at the content.
No, it wasn't a letter-type scroll but an image!
It was a wanted poster!
In the scroll, Fennelis saw a wavy black-haired girl with upturned black eyes standing on top of some building. She had a celestial nose, extra-long eyebrows, tan skin, and a pear-shaped face.
"Who is she?" Fennelis asked curiously.
"Hm? You don't know? Her name is Sara, and she is the one who started all the chaos. Royal Knights had already put a bounty on her head and added her crime data to the Light Church's and Adventurers' Guild's wanted list." Roysia said with a grim expression.
She hadn't expected her knight title revoked because of the vice captain's mistake and felt infuriated.
Meanwhile, Fennelis was also startled by the news and quickly engraved that girl's picture in her mind.
"Let's go! We don't know how many days it will take to cross this forest. I heard this forest is one of the largest in the surrounding kingdoms." Fennelis said solemnly.
After that, the trio didn't discuss much and continued their journey silently.
During the journey, they also asked the other adventurers about this Birch forest and got some useful information. The adventurers told them it would take at least two days to cross this Birch forest, and some even invited them to join their party. But Roysia and Fennelis refused their kindness and went on their own. As for Umi, she quietly followed after her mother and only spoke if she needed anything.
A few hours later, the sun started to fall while painting the sky with dim orange light. Before dusk could arrive, they built a tent and made a small campfire near the trodden path. Some monsters like goblins attacked them during the night watch, but Fennelis or Roysia, who was on the watch, killed those monsters efficiently. Unlike other adventurers' parties and merchants' carts moving towards the north at a rapid pace, the trio walked with no worries.
Along the way, three merchant carts noticed the trio's strength during a goblin raid and began to stick with them like snails. Well, they tagged along with the trio for protection from the monsters.
If they had faced the goblins alone, they knew some of their guards would lose their lives. Meeting strong people during the journey like this was a rare opportunity for the greedy merchants. Fennelis and Roysia didn't say anything and even helped them a few times when they were in a pinch.
By the end of the third day evening, the trio and the three merchant carts got out of the forest and soon noticed a well-fortified town from afar.
It was located at least two kilometers away from the forest outskirts and appeared too quiet.
"Finally! we arrived at Roguedale town with fewer casualties this time." One of the merchants shouted excitedly and drove his cart towards the town. Meanwhile, his eight personal guards showed bright smiles and ran after the cart.
Before Fennelis could say anything, the other two merchants also whipped their horses and drove their carts towards the town. Within seconds, they disappeared from the trio's sights, leaving Fennelis and Roysia speechless.
"Those bastards must have thought that we might charge money for protection," Roysia said with a sigh.
Not minding their rude behaviors, Fennelis shook her head and noticed Umi was rubbing her tiny belly with an innocent face. Within seconds, she started drooling.
"Mama, I want to eat some sweets." Umi licked her lips while perking her golden ears and stared at her mother with puppy eyes.
"Let's go to Roguedale town first," Roysia smiled and started walking.
Nodding her head, Fennelis grabbed Umi's hand and followed her towards the fortified town. But a heartbeat later, her expression stiffened as she saw a scene at the entrance gate.
"What is that?" Her sky blue eyes squinted sharper. Roysia also halted her footsteps and creased her eyebrows in surprise.
"Soldiers? What are they doing at the southern gate?" Roysia frowned.
Indeed, they saw many soldiers standing at the town's entrance!
While Fennelis and Roysia were discussing, the three merchants' carts moved closer to the town and soon arrived at the entrance gate. But before the merchants could show their identities, a squad of fifty well-trained soldiers surrounded those three carts and attacked them from all sides.
They arrested them within a few minutes and put chains around their necks.
Meanwhile, Fennelis and Roysia stood there with dumbfounded expressions and glanced at each other in confusion.
As they were about to back away, the soldiers moved forward a little and shifted their gaze toward the trios' direction.
"Oh, sh*t! They noticed us!" Roysia muttered out loud in shock and took a step back in anxiety. She didn't expect this type of welcome from the Keris kingdom and gripped her sword tighter.
"Lady Roysia, let's go. Don't worry; we have our identification cards. They will not arrest us without any proper evidence." Fennelis tapped on Roysia's shoulder and spoke with a comforting tone. Roysia quickly calmed down with a nod and moved towards the southern gate entrance.
Soon, the trio arrived in front of the squad of fifty stern-faced soldiers who wore black uniforms and looked at them curiously.
"Halt! Show your identity cards." A pale-faced slim guy with average height stepped forward and asked with a low voice. He was younger, around 25 years old, and looked more like a scholar than a soldier. He had hooded jade eyes, frizzy chestnut-colored hair, and ordinary eyebrows.
Unlike other soldiers' uniforms, he wore an extra red scarf and two golden metals on both of his shoulders. Anyone could guess that he was just an ordinary officer at a glance and appeared to be unaware of leading any military squad.
Without wasting any time, Fennelis and Roysia took out their identification cards and presented them to him. Soon, that officer gave an in-depth look at those identifications and frowned.
"Can you explain the reason for your arrival here, ma'am?" He asked while glancing at Fennelis. Without removing the hoods, he appeared to be already guessed her race and gave a puzzled look.
"Sir, my daughter and I are here to search for clues about my husband." Without hiding anything, Fennelis answered politely. She knew telling the original reason wouldn't give them many problems and didn't hide anything.