Alacryan Arthur

Chapter 4

Virion Eralith POV

The last two weeks were a complete mess. Tessia got in an argument with her parents, and as usual she ran away. They let her, normally she would calm down somewhere in the forest and come back some hours later and they would talk it out.

But this time she hasn't come back. First we thought, that she would just need a bit longer than usual, then, that she maybe found something delicious to eat and was still sitting in a sweets shop somewhere and get herself a sugar-shock. But when it got dark, my daughter in law and my son were starting to get extremely worried. I tried to calm them down, saying that she probably just fell asleep somewhere, or asked one of the other noble kids to sleep at their place. She may not like them, but if she needed them they couldn't really deny her.

But even when I said it, I didn't believe it myself. I had already sent out guards, who were turning around every rock in the area. And I contacted the heads of the noble families, who all said she wasn't with them. Even if Tessia wanted to stay hidden, there's no way they would lie to me, with such a pressing matter. Not only because I was the king once, no, most of them are fathers as well. They understood that there was no kidding, when the theme was the wellbeing of our children.

Something must have happened.

Did she run in a mana beast? Maybe a tree golem? Forest hounds? Or maybe even a rare mana bear? This shouldn't have happened, the area around the cities and the teleportation gates are surveyed for beast movements.

I also went to our security room in our palace, and ordered them to track the mana signature of the ring I had gifted her. This ring has some protective properties, like it could shield the user from a single not too strong spell and always sends out a high pitched tone, to keep mana beasts away. Unfortunately the signature was too small, to be traceable.

"Father!"

My son, the current King of Elenoir, barged in the room.

"The search troup found something!" he exclaimed.

We rushed to the nearest teleportation gate and were teleported in the forest. This spot was one of Tessias favorite spots and one of mine too. We had started the search for her on the spots she visited most often. A guard was already waiting at the gate, which was tarned as a big tree.

"Follow me please" He said formally.

He led us for around 10 minutes to a group of guards, the rest of the search party. They showed us what they had found. Before they even started, I had already pieced together what I saw. The ring in the dirt was Tessias, which meant she was here. And the footprints in the moist dirt told the rest. The shallow and small footprints, Tessias obviously, were surrounded by the footprints of multiple big and deep footprints. The spacing between them indicated that Tessia tried to run away, but was eventually reached by the grown ups. They lead to a trail, which probably belongs to a cart, and a lot of paw prints in the dirt. The paws belong to forest hounds, which were probably tied to the cart instead of horses or other mana beasts.

But why would one use forest dogs? They were slow, ate a lot and were quite expensive. They had no advantage over other, cheaper alternatives. But then I realized their one advantage. They found their way through the mist of the forest, which could only mean one thing.

Their Owners couldn't.

"Humans" Alduir realized a few seconds after me.

Arthur Leywin POV

I woke up in a bed. The room I woke up in reminded me of a hospital room in my previous room. I was lying in a bed in the middle of the room, on both of my sides a lot of space for people or devices. To my right was an open door, showing a bathroom. On the left was another door, probably leading to the hallway, and a closet. The wall in front of me was a glass facade. The curtains were opened, which allowed me to enjoy the view. I noticed that it was a different view from Agronas office, so I guessed it was in a different direction.