Ning frowned, seeing the man look at him and Shara directly as he asked that question. Before he could say anything in return, the old woman spoke.

“People are coming to meet me?” she asked.

“Yes!” the man said. “They are describing you as well as these two kids. I don’t know what they are doing, but they are-“

Ning stood up, listening no more. He walked over to the other room and brought out his spear, still wrapped in a rag cloth. “Shara, hide in this room. I’ll go see if they’re here for us or not.”

“No, I will go out,” Shara said. “I’ll help you.”

“You cannot,” Ning said. “You can’t do much to help me. You don’t even have any training to use your powers properly.”

“But I…” Shara couldn’t think of what to say. It was true that she was weak, and it was true that she couldn’t help Ning much should a problem arise in the next few minutes.

“Alright, I’ll stay in here,” she said in the end.

Ning walked out of the house, walking onto the road, standing by the shade of the large tree before the house. He looked into the distance and saw a group of people coming toward the house.

Riding strong horses and carriages, there were about 10 people in the group. Ning could see 9 people on the outside, and he assumed the last one was in the carriage. If there were more, then there were more than 10 people in total.

Ning saw the uniform of the people who rode around the carriage, not exactly recognizing them. It was no guard uniform as far as he could tell. So maybe it was not the guards as he had been fearing beforehand.

However, given that they were in uniform, they had to belong to some sort of organization at the very least. No memory of his helped him in answering that question.

He had no memory of any knight in shiny metallic blue armor.

As the carriage rode to a half, Ning watched as the door opened and a somewhat young man walked out. He stepped down the carriage, combing through his majestic locks with his fingers before looking at Ning.

3 people arrived before the man, putting themselves between Ning and the man. Ning could only stare and wonder who this handsome man was.

“Des, is this where you said they were?” the man asked, his voice holding a rather elegant tone that Ning hadn’t heard before. It was similar to how nobles spoke, so Ning believed the man to have some sort of nobility in his lineage.

One of the soldiers, the only one without a helm, walked up next to the young man and said something into his ears that Ning couldn’t hear. However, around that very time, he saw something streak past the entire crowd and arrive close to the armored guard who had spoken next to the young man.

Ning recognized the spirit. It belonged to the man he had seen earlier today.

‘Shit! They knew who was where already?’ Ning thought. Since the Spirit had been watching

him the entire time, trying to lie wouldn’t work here. On top of that, he began feeling that the man had come specifically for them.

Were they sent by Whitebridge too?

He hadn’t expected others to come to find him so quickly.

“Bring out the girl and the old woman,” the young man said. “There is no point in them hiding.”

Ning frowned.

By now, there was already a gathering of people outside of the house. They had all come to watch what was happening.

“Stop it, you fools!” the old woman said as she walked out. She went straight toward the young man, but the three guards in front of him their spears to stop the old woman from getting too close.

“Stop this nonsense or this will all end in pain,” she said.

“Oh, is that so?” the young man asked, laughing hysterically at the suggestion. “Grandma, you shouldn’t start threatening people you’ve just seen.”

“I’m not threatening you, child. I’m giving a warning,” the old woman said, looking at not the man, but the thing that hovered just above his head. “I do not know what you are doing here, but if you continue down this path, it will only end in pain.”

The young man looked at the woman for a long second before scoffing at her. “I don’t have the time to deal with you. Where is the girl?”

“Why do you want her?” Ning asked.

“You must be the one that took her away,” the young man said. “We had to change course halfway through because we were told you had taken her. Honestly, thank you for making our journey easier. We can go back to the Empire faster this way.”

Those words caused Ning to realize something. “You are… someone from the Empire?” he asked.

“I am Earl Visand, son of Marquess Gorsand, leader of the 10th Battalion,” the young man announced. “I have come here today to take with me the girl who had been found on your land. Bring her out!”

Ning frowned, hearing his title. Not only was he a man of high nobility, but he was also part of the army. He couldn’t imagine that the Empire had sent people to come after Shara so early. He should’ve guessed.

Worse, he hadn’t expected them to catch up with them on the way to the empire. This was a bad situation. His eyes flashed to the people around the group, seeing the 9 different soldiers in fully suited armor, with not even their eyes being visible.

They each held weapons that looked higher quality than anything Ning had seen in a long while.

The surrounding crowd was now shocked at the man’s origin and looked forward to seeing what they had come here for. Ning was concerned as well.

He took a step back but placed himself between the man and the house. “What do you want with the girl?” Sёarᴄh the nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

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