An eerie silence appeared on the terrace.
After a long silence, Sara placed her hand on Lily's shoulder and spoke.
"Let's agree to his words, Lily."
"But-" Lily was about to say something, but Sara shook her head and interrupted.
"Even if we go on our own, there will be an endless amount of assassins and Royal soldiers come after us. There is a high possibility that the Royal Family might put some big amount on my head as bounty and try to corner us using every method."
"Then, there are the Academic Mages..." Sara's words trailed off as she ended the sentence.
Lily also long knew of their current situation and finally nodded her head.
Still, there was something that bothered her too much.
"Why are you helping us? If you captured us and handed us over to the Royal Family, you'll receive more rewards, right?" She looked at Abium and asked with a suspicious look.
Meanwhile, Abium let out a chuckle and shook his head.
"What can I do with those rewards? Built some castle in that forest land? Then, what? To survive in this chaotic world, I need more than those rewards and money." He paused for a moment as he slowly sheathed his sword and added.
"One of the things that piqued my interest is your unique skill. I want to learn your 'Spatial Grasp' skill."
Meanwhile, Lily got tensed up and took a step back.
"H-How did you know about our family's secret art skill?"
Abium smiled instead of responding, turned his gaze towards Sara, and ordered.
"Sara, go to Baron Auguinare's mansion and stay over there until we come back. Also, don't let anyone see your face."
"You haven't responded to my question yet!" Lily shouted at him, but he didn't even take a glance at her.
He quickly turned around and spoke.
"From today onwards, you'll be under my watch. Follow me."
Saying so, he started walking towards the building's edge and looked below.
At that moment, more than a hundred guards were gathered below and looked in his direction.
"This is going to be a headache." A frown appeared on his forehead.
Meanwhile, Lily remained silent for the next few seconds and turned her gaze towards Sara.
"Sara, go to Baron Auguinare's mansion and wait for me. Although I don't like our current situation, we should wait and see what happens next." She said with a gloomy tone.
Sara also nodded her head and agreed.
"At least, we managed to free ourselves from the slave mark. Take care, sister."
After saying this, Sara turned around, moved towards the edge of the terrace, and started climbing down.
Due to the darkness, she didn't attract anyone's attention and quickly entered the nearby gloomy alley.
After a short pause, Lily slowly turned her gaze towards Abium, looked at his back, and asked with a frown.
"Where do you want to go next?"
"Where? Of course, we are going back to the Royal Palace," Abium said calmly and jumped down from the terrace. Lily also ran after him and quickly jumped down from the terrace.
Both soon landed on the street and started running towards the opposite alley.
Although a few elite guards tried to block their way, Abium and Lily didn't face any obstacle to overpower them and soon disappeared from everyone's sight.
Within a few seconds, both reached the end of the alley and soon saw the Royal Palace's compound wall.
Once they arrived much closer to the two-meter tall wall, Abium touched his space ring and took out a black-hooded cloak from his space ring.
"Wear it. If not, someone from the Intelligent Department might recognise you easily." He gave the cloak to her.
In truth, even Abium knew little about this Intelligence Department's whereabouts or the members and only heard of it from Prince Raollet during one rescue mission from the Wadel Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Lily looked surprised and took the cloak from his hand before wearing it.
"You are the strangest person I've ever met. It took more than seven years to even confirm such department exists in this kingdom but here you are. An elf with unknown origin talking like you has been with them all along-" She abruptly paused for a second and widened her eyes.
"Don't tell me-! Are you one of them?"
"I'm not." Abium shook his head and quickly jumped up before leaping towards the other side.
Lily followed his action, and both moved towards the Palace's entrance.
'Why there is no one guarding the entrance?' Abium only saw a few panicking nobles walking out of the Royal Palace and fleeing away.
"Lower your head and follow me quietly like my personal guard." Abium said solemnly and entered the palace building.
Both then stepped into the long corridor and soon noticed many nobles were shouting at the royal knights near the Banquet Hall's entrance.
On the other hand, the royal knights were trying their best to calm down the nobles, but it seemed no one was listening to them, leaving the Banquet Hall one by one.
'If they were the elite Royal Knights, things would've become messier by now.'
Abium sighed as he arrived near the Banquet Hall's entrance and looked inside to find Helena and Baron Auguinare. But to his surprise, he couldn't find them inside.
'Where did they go?' As he was pondering, he heard a familiar voice from behind.
"Baron Abium, What are you doing here?"
He turned his gaze towards the voice and spotted a young guy with black hair walking toward him with a smile on his face.
He had an average body, a low-nose bridge, brown eyes, and looked around 25 to 30 years old.
'Baron Wido.'
Upon seeing the familiar face, Abium also smiled politely in response and spoke.
"Hello, Mr. Baron. I am searching for Baron Auguinare and my friend Helena. Do you see them anywhere?"
"No, I'm also looking for him." He paused for a moment as he glanced at the Royal Knights and added grimly.
"I suspect they must have been chased after the Former King Lucius." When Baron Wido finished his words, a strong fire-elemental fluctuation came from the Palace's other side and caused the whole Palace building to tremble.
'Fight?' Abium narrowed his eyes.
At the same time, the surrounding air around the Palace began to vibrate, followed by a loud explosion.
"I've a bad feeling about this!" Abium muttered in a grim tone and hurriedly sprinted towards the other side.
He quickly ran past many halls and rooms, made a few turns, and finally reached the other end of the corridor.
A scene full of greenery began to appear in front of his eyes the next second.
It was the Royal Garden!
But instead of walking ahead, Abium stealthily moved towards the nearby ornamental tree and hid behind it.
Lily also followed after him closely all this time and hid behind the large tree trunk.
"Why are we hiding here?" She couldn't help but ask.
Instead of responding to her question, Abium quietly looked ahead and saw a three-meter tall metallic gate attached to the other side palace wall.
For normal people, it was just a Royal Garden. But Abium knew that gate was the only passage to the Royal Treasury and was a restricted area. Even Queen Christine and other Royal members had no authority to get near the gate.
The only people who could enter this Royal Treasury without difficulty were the late King Sewallus and the Former King Lucius.
As Abium looked at the Royal Gate's entrance, he soon saw the former King Lucius standing before the metallic gate and seemed to be attacking it from outside to open it.
Behind him were 20 well-armored warriors with swords hanging on their waist, and they appeared more organized than the Royal Knights. As he looked further, he saw a symbol of the unicorn with cross swords on their mantles and was surprised a little.
"Duchess Margery's Elite Guards?"
But what made Abium almost stumble was the appearance of two people in the elite group.
Indeed! At that moment, Helena and Baron Auguinare stood among the group like military soldiers and held their swords with both hands.
'What the hell are they doing here? Haa, I forgot that Baron is a former military commander. He must've dragged Helena from the Banquet Hall and brought her to this place.' Abium couldn't help but shake his head in disappointment.
...
A few minutes ago,
"The enemy is after the stone tablet, huh?"
As the former King Lucius left the banquet hall while muttering something, Helena slowly woke up from the shock and glanced around. The King's assassination was too swift, which caused her to wonder if she was still in a dream.
As she was about to turn around and ask Abium what had happened earlier, she suddenly noticed another anomaly.
Abium was nowhere to be seen!
'Huh? Where did he go?'
"Camilla, did you see where Abium went?" She asked her sister in whispers.
Meanwhile, Camilla looked at the Banquet Entrance Gate and said with sparkling eyes.
"Yes. I saw! I saw him. He moved like a cat towards that decorated gate and suddenly went poof. He disappeared." She raised both hands and made hand movements to express her excited emotion.
Meanwhile, a frown appeared on Helena's forehead.
'He went on his own again?'
...