.The Child Of A Goddess.

-22-

Custos' pov:

The route to the elven kingdom wouldn't be short. The were-creature domain itself is big as it is, plus the territories gained with the war and alliance made it more prominent.

We were walking down a thin road that twisted between the oak trees, heading towards the nearest town. It was small but still had an inn, most likely where we could sleep peacefully instead of sleeping in shifts in the forest. You never know what may attack you. There were still bandits and all those thugs around.

It was calm, with the birds chirping softly as a gentle breeze made the leaves rustle slowly, letting the sun through the foliage.

Before leaving, I had talked to Harmonia. Both of us knew Amata would leave at night. I gave up my role as the protector of the ruler because I couldn't let her leave alone, and I knew she'd have won; my heart didn't accept that Harmonia should be the one I had to protect.

I had returned my mask to her so she could give it to the person that is to replace me... I admit it hurt to hand it back when my whole life up until I put it on was to train to wear it, and now that it was my role to give it up... But I'll survive. What I liked and was surprised to enjoy were the pointless discussions between both of us, talking like old friends. I learned about her life, and she did mine.

"... And just how the fuck did you not lose your mind?! I can barely bear one. I'd have died at three." I rolled my eyes and passed my hand in my short blond hair.

"I was raised to be the royal guard since my birth... And I admit those mages were not completely mentally safe, but they could somehow make it work together." I tried to explain to her how a group of three mages had taught me how to read. You must know by now that they gave up their race and such to get magic and lost their mind, but somehow, if the three remained together, it was bearable... And to say Amata couldn't take the one she knew.

"Hey, don't mock me, the one I know was completely insane! He had weird obsessions... Like to pay for something once, I needed to let him braid my hair like it is right now... He freaking put a nail in the braid!"

"So it was because of him you killed that man."

"Yeah, gotta admit he did a better job than I thought he would since I still keep my hair in a braid like this."

"True."

I sighed. Both she and I had Black T-shirts while she had brown shorts and me green. In addition to the differences, she had a short cape with its hood covering her face and a bow, and I still had my one piece of armor with my dagger.

Right now, I had all I took with me in my bag, similar to hers, and she had taken off her gloves a while back, but she put them back on.

"You like hunting?"

"Yeah, I always went with my father; we'd leave in the morning, get there in the afternoon, trap an animal, and go home the next day... Goddess, I miss doing that... Did you do something? Like a hobby other than your work?"

"Mhm, though, it was more like reading and writing in my diary."

"You have a diary?"

"Well, it's not really a diary to the sense of the term, but yeah."

"Then you could make one hell of a story of whatever will come out of this."

I just stared at her and sighed.

We soon came upon a little town in the forest, and the surroundings became darker with the sun setting.

"We'll stop her for the night and see if a merchant is willing to bring us to the nearest town to the elves."

"You know there is a mountain range in the way. It would take days to go around it."

"We'll go over it."

"Alright."

We crossed a small bridge and went to the inn. To be honest, every inn looks the same inside. We opened the door, and it was relatively empty.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I looked up, and my face palmed instantly...

"Fortis." Amata sighed.