Elise hampir tidak bisa tidur saat fajar. Namun, ia tidak bisa tidur cukup.
Tepat saat dia tertidur, Uls menggeram.
Karan membawa Uls menemui Elise sebelum tidur.
Elise, mengenakan baju tidur tipis dan jubah, turun dari tempat tidur dan membelai surai Uls.
“Ssst, Uls. Diamlah. Karan sedang tidur.”
Meski Elise menenangkannya, bulu Uls masih saja berdiri tegak.
Elise menoleh ke arah Karan yang sedang tertidur lelap. Biasanya, Karan akan terbangun meskipun Elise hanya berguling-guling, tetapi hari ini Karan tertidur lelap.
Mengira dia pasti lelah, Elise mengenakan selendang lain dan membawa Uls keluar.
Para prajurit yang berpatroli menundukkan kepala saat melihat Elise. Elise menanggapinya dengan senyuman.
“Apakah kamu butuh sesuatu?” tanya Joseph.
“Aku hanya keluar untuk menghirup udara segar. Jangan pedulikan aku, Joseph. Lanjutkan pekerjaanmu.”
Joseph memberikan jawaban singkat lalu beranjak pergi.
“Uls, tenanglah sekarang.”
Elise berjongkok di samping Uls yang masih menggeram. Uls menatap tajam ke satu titik.
Suara gemuruh rendah di tenggorokannya menyerupai peringatan manusia.
“Uls, apakah ada sesuatu di sana?”
Mata Elise menyipit, mengingat pengalaman khusus yang pernah dialaminya dengan Uls.
“Apakah ada monster atau semacamnya?”
Uls tidak bereaksi tetapi menggerakkan rahangnya.
“Kau tidak bisa lari sendirian, Uls.”
Elise mencengkeram erat tali pengikat yang terikat pada tanda nama Uls.
Genggaman itu lemah dan Uls dapat dengan mudah melepaskannya. Namun, alih-alih melepaskannya, Uls malah menggigit kerah Elise dan menariknya.
“Kau ingin aku ikut denganmu?”
Kerahnya mengencang. Setelah melirik sebentar ke arah tenda, Elise mengikuti Uls.
Meskipun Karan telah mengatakan padanya untuk tidak melakukan sesuatu yang berbahaya, dia tidak bisa membiarkan Uls pergi sendirian.
‘Yang Mulia berkata dia bisa mendengar suaraku dari mana saja.’
Elise memercayai Karan.
Uls melewati perkemahan dan memasuki hutan. Hutan lebat, tempat monster bisa melompat keluar dari mana saja, dipenuhi pepohonan yang lebat sehingga tidak ada seberkas cahaya pun yang menembusnya. Dengan jarak pandang yang sangat rendah, Elise berusaha keras untuk memejamkan matanya.
“Uls, seberapa jauh kita akan pergi?”
Uls berhenti tidak lama setelah pertanyaan Elise.
Uls menundukkan tubuhnya. Elise juga menegang dan bersembunyi di balik pohon.
Lalu, suara-suara samar mulai terdengar.
“…tolong dukung Menara Gading, Yang Mulia David. Kalau tidak… celaka… Tetris…”
Yang Mulia David?
Elise mengintip keluar dan fokus ke arah datangnya suara itu. Melalui semak-semak, samar-samar ia bisa melihat dua sosok.
Pemilik jubah ungu yang disulam dengan emas adalah Ember.
“Saya menolak.”
Teman bicaranya adalah David.
“Yang Mulia David!”
Suara Ember meninggi. Percikan api! Api menyembur dari tangan Ember.
David dalam bahaya.
‘Karan, kumohon bangunlah, Yang Mulia.’
Elise memanggil Karan dengan sekuat tenaganya.
“Apakah kamu meneleponku?”
Then, in less than a second, Karan appeared. He enveloped Elise from behind as if pouncing on her.
“Your Highness? You, you can come this quickly?”
Shh. Karan put his finger on Elise’s lips and whispered.
“The concealment bird moved. Chase is nearby.”
Shortly after Elise had left, the concealment bird had come to find Karan. Chase’s movement had been detected.
Elise looked around.
At that moment, Uls’s fur bristled greatly. Elise and Karan turned their heads following Uls’s gaze.
They saw someone moving stealthily. It wasn’t Chase. It was a woman.
Uls’s growling grew more intense.
When attempts to calm him with “Shh, shh” proved futile, Karan moved his hand. He cast a concealment spell on Uls.
“Elise, stay here with Uls.”
Karan patted Elise’s shoulder.
“Are you going over there?”
“The atmosphere doesn’t seem right.”
In the brief moment they had focused elsewhere, David and Ember had started raising their voices.
“Are you going to rule Bedrokka with such a weak heart? It’s a misfortune for the people of Bedrokka!”
“Why are you doing this, Sage! What exactly are you coveting? Our goal is one. To catch Ragnaros!”
“That’s right! And the Ivory Tower will lead that capture! I’m saying incompetent humans should step aside.”
“Sage!”
David struck his chest as if frustrated. He, who rarely got excited, put his hands on his waist and fumed.
“It seems we can’t communicate. If that’s the case, there’s no choice. I’ll have to talk to someone who understands.”
A ball of light formed in Ember’s hand.
Elise, watching from afar, covered her mouth with her hand.
It was a magic that attacks the opponent by shooting lightning like a spear.
‘Ember intends to kill His Highness David. Suddenly, why?’
Elise was confused. The move Ember was making was so crude it was hard to believe she was an intelligent sage.
“What’s that in your hand? Put it away immediately. Sage, calm down.”
David, feeling his life threatened, stepped back one step, then two.
“It won’t be too painful. I’ll report that you died bravely confronting monsters.”
Ember raised her hand high. At the moment lightning flashed from her fingertips.
“No!”
A woman hiding in the bushes sprang out.
“Iris!”
Iris rushed forward, casting a protective spell in front of David.
Grr, woof!
This time, Uls chased after Iris.
“Finally caught you!”
From the opposite side of where Iris had emerged, Chase jumped out and pulled his bowstring.
“Iris, what are you doing!”
Ember shouted, just about to complete her casting.
“Sage, what are you doing! Your Highness David, I’ll save you!”
Iris blocked David’s front. Ember tried to nullify her magic belatedly, but it was too late.
If she abandoned the casting now, she would be in danger. With no choice, Ember finished the casting.
Her hand flashed.
At this rate, Iris would be hit!
Elise immediately realized what Iris was up to.
‘She plans to cover up her crimes by saving His Highness! Then was it also Iris who made Ember and His Highness David fight?’
She felt goosebumps.
She couldn’t let Iris create a foothold for her comeback. Just as Elise was about to move.
Whoosh, an arrow cut through the air and thud, it struck Iris’s shoulder.
“Aagh!”
As Iris’s body crumpled, the lightning that barely grazed her tore through her shield and struck David’s body.
“Aaaagh!”
It was lightning that Ember had shot with the intention to kill.
On the other hand, Iris had only put up a weak shield, thinking only of saving herself.
Though weakened by tearing through the shield, it was enough to cause David intense pain.
“Your Highness David!”
Elise rushed out.
Karan subdued Ember, and Uls pounced on Iris’s body.
Smoke rose from various parts of David’s clothes.
“Your Highness, you must stay conscious!”
Elise held him and shouted. David’s eyelids were fluttering, about to close.
“El, Elise… if I…”
David tried to leave his last words.
“No! I will definitely save you. Your Highness, you can’t die like this!”
Elise, who owed a debt from David’s past death, wanted to save him this time.
Wiping away falling tears, Elise looked back at Karan.
Karan, who had knocked Ember unconscious, handed her over to the concealment bird and approached.
“The magician’s state is strange. She’s rambling like someone intoxicated, her eyes completely unfocused.”
From the conversation with David to using attack magic without rhyme or reason, it wasn’t like a sage at all.
“Later, Your Highness. We need to move His Highness David quickly.”
Karan looked down at David. He picked up David, who was in poor condition.
At that moment, the concealment bird that had subdued Chase approached.
Chase was overflowing with composure.
“Elise, did you see? I caught Iris. I caught that wicked woman.”
Chase’s eyes didn’t seem to even see that David was dying. Or perhaps he was acting so composed because he did see it.
When one of the concealment birds tried to stop Chase from moving forward, he became angry.
“Let go! I am the prince of Bedrokka. Now that His Highness David, the crown prince, has fallen, I am the only prince who can act on his behalf.”
Karan’s eyebrows twitched.
“If you don’t want to create a diplomatic dispute, let go!”
“You’re an attempted murderer.”
Karan smirked, raising the corner of his mouth. Chase returned the same smile.
“Who could punish me? This isn’t Tetris land, is it?”
The Abandoned Land was a neutral zone. A stateless area, where those who had committed serious crimes sometimes fled. And they all became monster food.
“It’s not Bedrokka land either.”
“If I have committed a crime, I’ll be judged in Bedrokka’s court. Right, Elise?”
Elise, not hiding her irritated expression, grabbed Karan’s collar.
“Your Highness, according to international law, Chase is…right. And right now, His Highness David is urgent.”
Karan, looking at David who was breathing faintly, nodded to the concealment birds.
They released Chase and stepped back a couple of paces.
Chase grinned.
“Elise, I’ll give that criminal to you. It’s my gift.”
Chase pointed at Iris, who was unconscious and pinned under Uls.
“Baiklah, sampai jumpa di pertemuan berikutnya.”
Chase yakin dia akan menggantikan posisi David.
Rahang Elise mengatup erat.
Dalam permainan yang dibuat oleh Iris, Chase telah mengklaim trofi kemenangan.
‘Saya pasti akan membalikkan keadaan ini.’
Elise melotot ke arah Chase sampai akhir.
****
Ketika Chase muncul di perkemahan Bedrokka, keributan kecil terjadi.
“Adikku diserang oleh penyihir jahat. Lukanya parah, jadi kami memutuskan untuk memindahkannya ke wilayah Tetris terdekat. Semua orang harus kembali ke Bedrokka.”
“Apa kamu yakin?”
Ajudan David bertanya. Wajah Chase yang tadinya dipenuhi kesedihan, langsung berubah dingin.
“Kau tidak percaya padaku? Seorang pangeran Bedrokka? Beraninya kau?”
Merasa nyawanya terancam, ajudan itu segera membungkuk.
“Sama sekali tidak!”
“Jika kamu ragu, tanyakan saja pada pangeran Tetris. Dia juga ada di sana.”
Dengan tatapan dingin dan penyebutan seorang saksi mata, mereka yang memendam keraguan menutup mulut mereka seperti kerang.
“Kami akan kembali ke Bedrokka. Saya akan melapor langsung kepada Yang Mulia.”
Chase bergegas kembali ke Bedrokka.
