There are some things you can never hide no matter how hard you try. Some can be hidden plainly in sight, some require internal or external powers to keep that out of sight, but the ones that can’t be hidden, need to be covered properly at all times. In this world, some secrets need to be kept hidden even after death, or else the chaos it could bring up to everyone around would be disastrous.

It was almost morning, and the fire someone made had run out a long time ago. The weather was a little cold as a feminine figure pulled her small body Into a sitting position. Locks of rose-red hair ran down her shoulders, stopping right around her waist. A love-shaped face with coal eyes, and pink full heart-shaped lips greeted the morning sun. She was putting on a small old blue dress, covered by a long cloak.

The first thing she looked at was the tent that sat just a few steps away from her. They were in the middle of nowhere in particular, trekking for hours last night and it had taken a toll on her body. Though she had no choice but to keep following him because that was the only way she could repay him.

She stepped closer to the tent whispering, "Your highness?"

He didn’t reply, so she tried again with a light swallow, "Your highness? Are you up? Shall we continue our journey before the sun becomes..."

"Come here!" His masculine voice rang through from inside, and her heart skipped two beats. They’ve been together for more than a month now, and he’s never asked her to come into the tent...ever.

She gulped again, forcing herself to be calm. Staying close to him was already hassle enough for her, and now he’s telling her to come into a small space with him in it? First of all, an ordinary person wouldn’t be able to handle his intense presence, and she was just small and frail. Wait, why would he even ask her to come in? She’s always been the type to overthink things, rushing to conclusions that sometimes didn’t make any sense, so this time she decided not to think of it that much.

Taking another deep breath with her hand pressed against her beating heart, she mentally prepared herself for whatever it is to come. Pulling the zip open, she walked into the darkness. The tent was so thick that not even a ray of sunlight could pass through, and he’s always loved to spend his morning this way. The tent looked bigger on the inside through, and she could sight his creamy white hair, and those shrilling porcelain white irises staring at her.

But even before she could fully come inside, His knuckles came down right in the middle of her head as he gave her a big knock.

"Ah!" She moaned in pain. He didn’t care to hold back on her, and the force of the knock was enough to Pierce through her voluptuous hair, and she could already tell she was bleeding.

"Leave, you’re choking me." Zoan then turned away from her, but the woman frowned at his back. This was the first time he was hitting her, and she was sort of expecting it because after all her extreme clumsiness while working for him, he ought to have thrown her into a hole by now.

"Can I say something?" She gently asked, hoping for some miracle to occur so he would say yes, but that familiar look he gave her was enough for her to throw herself backward and crawl away from him. Aletta was still rubbing her aching head, and she was sure it was gonna hurt completely anytime from now. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Coal!" Zoan called out, and she turned around to see a gloomy and dangerous look in his eyes. He was simply watching her from where he sat down, and those eyes of his were making her almost giddy. She’s never met a man who portrayed such beautiful eyes and hair - like a perfect painting. She wanted to paint him, and she’s asked for his permission several times but the answer remains the same. When he remained quiet and his glare even harder, she began panicking and asking herself what she could have done wrong again.

Then, he walked out of the tent...and she gasped.

"I’m so sorry, what did I..." Before she could say anything else, another heavy knock pounded straight on her head again, at that same spot he hit the last time, and Aletta fell backward while clutching her throbbing head. God, this man was planning to kill her slowly!

"Ah, ah ah..." She groaned, rolling Into a ball while holding back tears. It felt like someone had used a hammer on her head, and she was surprised she hadn’t fainted from that second knock. It wasn’t so long after when she felt him kicking her softly on the back, and her puffy eyes turned back to him with a slight frown.

"We are leaving." He stated, Making Aletta jump back up to her feet. He always gave her only two minutes to pack up everything, and the time was nowhere near enough and he didn’t care about her, so he would always leave her behind to trace his footsteps-that is if she could even find them imprinted. Aletta began undoing everything she had made last night, folding it back into the bag. She pressed down on it with her butt so it would fit in, then she immediately picked up everything they would need.

By the time she was done, Zoan was already gone.

Hands full with an aching head, she ran after him in the direction she saw him walking earlier. He never leaves in the morning, so what could be different today?

.

.

.

Last night...

"Give us the kid, and we’ll let you go without a scar on that gorgeous face."

They were slowly surrounding her, making absolutely no noise with their legs, but that didn’t mean their legs doesn’t give even the slightest vibration to the earth, and Raziah could feel it all. Fighting over twenty people would have been a piece of cake, but they weren’t ordinary in this case. And there was absolutely no way she was letting people who gave us menacing moods touch even a strand of Caius’s hair.

"She’s not listening." Another responded to the first, then he took a few steps close to her, his eyes checking her out from head to toe, "She’s ordinary. Must be that she doesn’t know who she’s dealing with."

A perplexed look was Last seen on his face, right before her foot came colliding with his neck. He had stepped close enough for her to deliver her first move, and this time she made sure it was even more powerful than the last ones she had delivered, recalling how the beefy guy back there had gotten up again. Maybe when it came to handling them, she would need to be much more vile than normal.

He collapsed on the floor, and Raziah didn’t wait for them to attack her. The heaviness that was around her body didn’t hold her back much because at some point in her life she had carried something much heavier as she had literally carried it on her back, and if she were to compare it to the weight she was carrying now - then it was as if she wasn’t carrying anything. All Caius needed to do was to hold onto her like his life depended on it, and she would be responsible for the rest.

And since she wasn’t holding back anymore, Raziah attacked them roughly. She mostly aimed for a part of the body that would knock them out, and only Parred with her sword whenever their sharp claws came towards her, or they threw blades at her. Blood-red eyes growled at her, and their movements became even faster than before.

Raziah steeled her mind, and let her instincts take over. Some things were just very hard to explain, like how she was still able to keep up with them when she didn’t take any drugs. Who would have thought that the suffocating training she went through would pay off dearly like this? But that didn’t mean she could evade every attack completely as they were already several claw cuts on her skin.

Sweat glistened on her determined face as she kept trying to evade them while they all made to either pull Caius away from her or try to kill them both.

There was a sharp intake of breath, and Caius’s body trembled softly right before he mumbled something barely audible against her shoulders, but she could make out a few words..."Coming...again.."

At that second, the earth trembled and shook again.

And that distraction was enough for the last opponent to have a huge opening against her. He hissed loudly as his claws came baring straight for Caius’s back, and Raziah knew her sword wouldn’t reach right in time to block him because her footing was amiss. She did know she could land one good kick with the distance between them, so she instantly let go of her sword, wrapped her hand around Caius’s back, and pulled him away from her body and out of the way, just as the incoming attack barely missed his body, grazing past his waist then came piercing deep into the side of her belly.

At the same time, still holding onto Caius on her other side who was suspended in mid-air with the strength of her grip around his body, her eyes blazed with intense fury on sighting that injury on Caius, and she lost control and finished off the last man. The sharp sound of his broken neck echoed through the sudden silent night, and a hot chill ran down her cold body.

Holy hell...what did she just do?

His lifeless pale skin and eyes stared back into hers with blood running down his nose, lips, eyes, and ears, right before he fell back to the ground, taking his claw with him.