Third Person's POV
This time, a true alarm entered Arlene's heart, and a cold unease spread through her chest as her aunt's earlier warning resurfaced in her memory with renewed force.
The fears she had buried beneath battles, exhaustion, and confusion now rose again like something waking from beneath ice.
Trusting her aunt, Arlene replied through the same secretive method while keeping her expression calm and unchanged so that no one in the group would realize that another conversation was taking place in that very moment.
Her lips did not move, and her pace did not falter.
Only her thoughts carried sound.
'Do not worry, Mister. My aunt assured me that her ice golem can defend us from any threat.'
The message was brief and steady, carrying the confidence expected of a princess, yet the moment she sent it, unease stirred inside her heart.
She had not spoken the complete truth.
