The Crown's Entrapment

[Second night inside the Element Forest]

Xenia journeyed nonstop through the forest, following Osman’s directions to let the wind take her to her next destination. The admiral had told her that it was one of the ways the Queen Fairy would try and help her out on her journey, especially if she was about to face the guardian of the land who had a habit of making intruders go around in circles and get lost in the wilderness.

Seeing all the help she was getting, Xenia couldn’t help but smile at the thought of how lucky she was to have someone like Osman. Compared to the others that went through the trials before her, she was probably the only one that had help from someone that already went through the forest themselves. If not for Osman, she probably would’ve already had a hard time dealing with the forest.

Currently, she was inside a cave she found, having made a fire to roast a rabbit that she had caught along the way. Grabbing the roasted rabbit, she blew on it for a while to cool it off before she murmured, “Hmm… This is good enough.”

‘I guess neither the sphinx nor the mermaid has the time to deal with me just yet,’ Xenia mused as she began biting off the tender meat from her skewer. She was still eating when a raven suddenly perched itself on the nearest rock to her. Seeing the symbol on the bird’s forehead, she smiled. She couldn’t help but wonder if Darius was watching her right now.

“Don’t worry about me, alright?” she greeted the raven with a reassuring smile as if she was talking to Darius in front of her. “I’ll come back to you soon…”

Xenia chuckled. She didn’t care at all if any other people would be able to see her right now.

“That’s too sweet of you, Princess Xenia.”

Suddenly, a man’s voice roared inside the cave. Xenia gulped, wondering if it was the Sphinx or the Merman. Looking around, there was no water inside the cave, so the one that spoke must be the sphinx.

‘Wait, mermen can also walk and transform their bodies into human form once they’re on land,’ Xenia inwardly thought. Before long, she finally asked, “Who is it?”

“I am Devas, the ruler of the lands within this realm,” the man answered. This time, his voice sounded normal, as if he was simply near her at the moment. Xenia squinted her eyes toward a particular direction, and she saw a man approaching her from out of nowhere.

‘It’s the sphinx,’ she mused upon seeing a handsome man with the masculine upper body of a human, but with the lower body of a lion with four legs. He had a wide smile on his face as he walked near her.

“Would you mind if I join you?” Devas asked with a warm smile.

Xenia simply nodded, and the guardian comfortably sat beside her. He stared at what Xenia was eating, looking curious despite his demeanor.

Seeing where his attention was aimed, Xenia looked at the roasted rabbit she was holding before offering it to Devas. “Do you want some?”

Taking the offer, Devas grabbed the skewer from hers and started eating. As if to return the favor, he then offered her a bottle and said, “Here. Drink some wine. This came from the caravan of gifts that came for us, so let me share it with you.”

Humbly, Xenia didn’t reject the offer as she whispered, “Thank you, Lord Devas.”

The man chuckled as he then looked at the raven and said, “I bet the ones watching right now are yawning. They should just sleep and not waste their time watching us.” He scoffed, “I have no plans to give you my trial by earth just yet anyway. I simply want to know more about you, perhaps even have a good talk while we share this wine from Cordon. I don’t think that being watched right now is necessary.”

The sphinx then snapped his fingers, the raven immediately leaving them to their lonesome as if guided by some other power.

Once that was done, Devas then turned to her and straightforwardly asked, “Tell me, princess, you already know of us right before you even entered the forest, correct? I have a feeling that you already know what you’re doing. It’s as if you’ve been guided well enough on what to expect inside this forest.”

“Why did you say so, milord?” Xenia asked back. She was curious to know how Devas came to such a suspicion.

“Well, for one… You simply went with the flow when the ground shook and opened from underneath you. You let it swallow you whole, unlike the others that came before you who tried their best to survive and not be swallowed by the ground,” Devas pointed out with a chuckle.

“Why, I can still remember how some of those women climbed from three to tree, only to fall and be eaten by the ground all the same. But you… that smile you made when the ground swallowed you means that you expected to arrive at Saha’s territory before then. Even when you woke up in the darkness, you showed no fear. In fact, you embraced it.”

Xenia stared at him keenly, waiting for the latter to point out more observations. Soon enough, he continued. “Even now, you’re following the movement of the winds even without prompting. You clearly know what you’re doing, and it’s definitely not because you have angel blood in you. That alone doesn’t give you power over someone’s mind and thinking.”

Having heard enough, Xenia had a genuine smile on her face as she replied, “You’re right, Lord Devas. I’m quite prepared for this trial, all with the help of studying the previous trials from the history books of Cordon and a man who had survived this forest thirteen years ago.”

Devas’s eyes widened as he exclaimed, “Right! That pirate!”

Xenia chuckled. “Indeed,” Xenia chuckled. “His name is Osman, and he’s now an Admiral at Cordon. And he told me to send his regards to everyone if his name was mentioned somehow in a conversation. So I guess it’s me who’s sending his regards to you, milord.”

Devas squinted his eyes at her. With a loud scoff, he remarked, “Hah! You’re too honest, Princess. And because of that, I’ll spare you another day and night of torture of going around in circles inside the forest…”

He smirked, “I’ll give you a real trial tomorrow. But tell me, why did you answer me truthfully when you could’ve simply hidden it from me? Aren’t you afraid that I will give you a much harder trial if you spoke freely? Especially now that you’ve mentioned how that man had trained you well.”

Xenia simply smiled and said, “You’re treating me sincerely, so I want to do the same, milord.”

Devas nodded in satisfaction. “You’re an interesting lady, Princess Xenia,” he smiled. “Come. Have a drink with me while telling me more about yourself and the outside world.”

“I would be delighted to, milord,” Xenia sincerely replied before drinking from the bottle that Devas shared with her.