PART 5
Tons of rumors had began circulating among the nobles. Where was the older lady of Enidia? She had not been showing up to any tea parties or social events for weeks. Most minor illnesses would have vanished by now. It either had to be some life threatening illness or there was something else they were not being told about.
Piles of unreturned letters were stuffed into the empty room of the missing noble. Their contents were predictable even without opening them.
Zenith sat down on her chair with her hands covering her face. How much more was that brat going to cause her problems?
The duchess hadn't announced her as missing just yet in hopes of her returning. It looked to be futile though, her daughter didn't look like she had any intentions on coming back.
Zenith began pacing around her room. Cyeen wasn't fit for leading Enidia. All that girl wanted was to see fights break out among people. She had always been like this, the problematic sibling. She didn't care about her lessons half as much as she cared about combat. Giving the silver necklace of Enidia up to someone like that would be the worst decision Zenith could make. For that, her sister had to be included in her plans.
The duchess received another letter from the ladies again. She ripped it open and read it instead of throwing it away this time. A tea party, for Cyeen. Fine, you want her that bad? Zenith quickly alerted her carriage driver to ready up her ride.
***
The noble ladies were getting a bit anxious at their seats now. Their invite had gotten accepted by Duchess Zenith instead of her daughter. The Duchess elegantly sipped the tea she was offered before glaring into the eyes of each lady. She put down her tea cup onto the table before speaking.
"Would you young ladies please refrain from sending my daughter any more invites? She needs any rest she can get and I can't have you making her worry over missing tea parties."
Alysion spoke up,
"Of course we wouldn't want that your grace." smiling thinly. "We just wanted to check up on her wellbeing."
Zenith looked her up and down. She had been that age before too, her lies fell weak.
"And I am requesting you stop bothering her. Heed my words while I'm still only requesting, young lady Alysion."
The young lady's smile had been wiped off her face.
"Of course, your grace."
After hearing those words, she got up from her seat and slowly walked back to her carriage. If only a certain someone wasn't absent she would have to deal with all these headaches. Did Cyeen even know when to stop pouting like a child and behave like an adult?
Zenith entered her carriage while in deep thought. It was not about Cyeen's wellfare though, she was thinking of how she'd pull off the change in heirship. Zenith had always thought that Evelyn was better at everything Cyeen could do.
That girl couldn't be trusted with power. The duchess had made her take the bare minimum of fighting lessons for this exact reason. She didn't want her declaring war on others the moment she got her hands on Enidia.
Even now, the territory wasn't doing that good, it would be razed to the ground if it was handed to someone like Cyeen. The food suppliers had been getting attacked by bandits in the nearby forests for a while now and the fishers near the coasts had decreased a lot because of the season. The sea didn't contain that many fish to catch on spring in Enidia so it struggled mostly on springs but it was worse this year around.
There were guards assigned on nearby trade routes for bandit control but even that was not enough. Zenith stared out of the carriage and took a good look at the surrounding place. She would be back at Enidia in about six hours.
***
Cyeen had been walking for half a day now. She was hungry as the mostly raw steak she ate yesterday was not helping her much about the hunger situation. In fact, it was making her stomach scream out for help. The noble couldn't guess she would feel this miserable just from eating bad meals. The feeling of freedom she had yesterday had diminished by now.
While her stomach was growling as if to mock her, Cyeen tripped on a small rock, rendering her parallel to the ground. She sat back up and struck the ground with tears of frustration forming on her eyes. Why was it this hard? She was merely going on an adventure and adventures didn't have major inconveniences like these. She wanted her money back for all the fake adventure books she had read.
Cyeen looked up. Maybe it was because she was missing party members that these were happening. Yes, yes that was it! It wasn't because she was terrible at surviving out in the wild but it was because of the lack of manpower!
She proudly broadened her shoulders before getting up from the ground and getting back on her way. A little bit of dirt wouldn't matter when she had gathered a party now, would it?
***
Still walking. It had been a while now. Cyeen looked at the trees nearby. They all looked the same. Couldn't trees be planted with better indications? She got angry at the commoners for not planing out the forest properly beforehand. Why would someone plant them randomly?
Cyeen went up to one of the trees to carve a 'C' so she could find her way back home if she ever got lost, not that she had any intention of going back. The noble kept repeating this process every tent minutes. After approximately a hour, she went up to carve another one just to be met with a tree that was already marked by her.
No words. She just froze in place. A full loop. Cyeen diverted her eyes from the tree to keep walking, otherwise she'd lose the will to keep going.
***
The noble wasn't just walking now, she was also training with her knives every chance she got. Since she hadn't even reached the first stage of using her essence, control, she had to throw or activate her skills by touching them, it was important she could fight up close.
Cyeen took in her surroundings. It seemed like she had finally left the forest and found a dirt path. It most likely lead to a nearby village. Just what she was searching for.
The girl took a step, and another, and another, and another... Still a dirt path.
"God damn it!" She shouted, trying to display her unsatisfaction to the entire forest. Who the hell made these villages, a god damn toddler? Why were they so scarce? She should have passed a dozen of them by now!
Her right hand was raised up to her mouth as Cyeen began biting the nail of her index finger. This was a habit she just couldn't get over. It always happened whenever she was stressed. Along with it persisting all throughout her childhood, she just couldn't stop herself upon realizing that she was doing it. It somehow brought her comfort.
The noble kept walking, her fingernail clenched between her teeth. After another thirty minutes had passed walking she saw two silhouettes in the distance. That was the first sign of human life she had seen in days. Her hand was lowered while some blood oozed out of her index finger.
A look of hope appeared on her face. They looked like peasants so they could probably point her towards a village right?
Cyeen went up to the arguing pair. She opened her mouth after poking the silhouette that was taller, her throat felt dry but she tried ignoring the pain it caused her.
"How far is the closest village?" she asked rudely.
The taller silhouette turned around, it was a green haired woman, there were tons of scars on her face, possibly in her thirties and most importantly, she didn't look friendly at all. Ugh, stinky commoners. Great. The woman opened her mouth, speaking in a monotone tone.
"Just follow this path for about a hour and you'll-"
Her words were interrupted by the second person stepping on her toe. This time it was a short guy with black hair, he looked about eight centimeters shorter than the girl and again, looked like he was in his thirties. The short guy got up on his toes to whisper something to the woman.
The woman grinned after his words but quickly changed her expression. Now a wide smile was present on her face.
"Oh I meant we could take you there." the woman said kindly.
Cyeen looked at the smile. It was faker than the ones she saw on the faces of the nobles. And her eyes, there wasn't a hint of kindness located inside them.
The noble took two steps back, summoning a violet knife in each hand while trying to remember the fighting stances she was taught. The voice she thought had left her alone whispered in her ear once again,
Fight.