A long sigh of relief left the two of them who could leave the cursed forest alive, they looked at each other without any feeling of mistrust or annoyance in their eyes, and then unexpectedly out of joy Eleanor bounced at Francis with a bright smile and happily said,
"we did it! yes! we got out of there alive sir Francis".
Holding her in arms, he looked at Her with a surprised expression because of her sudden act 'this woman, she sure is a fearless one' he thought and returned a smile at her making her finally aware of the situation and leaving his grip with a flushed red face. But Francis somehow knew that it was not out of luck that they could leave this cursed forest and looking at Eleanor he was about to ask,
" say how did you know the way ou....!"
Without finishing his question he went tense and quickly put her behind his back and covered her to protect her from the omnious beasts that were coming their way 'wolves and they are big so they must be mutants' that thought went thorough his mind. They were on an empty road so finding help would be hard, Eleanor gripped him firmly after seeing the monstrous wolves and uttered while trembling in fear.
"what are they?..what should we do sir Francis there are four of them here and we are alone. Why are there no one in this road?"
He didn't give any mind to what she was saying and keep on looking at the mutants wolves and in that moment she saw his eyes turning red and the wolves froze in their place. Then in a flash she saw him take them down one by one with his sword, it was impressive. Eleanor clenched her fist so that he wouldn't notice them tremble, 'this guy is really strong but at the same time I feel in him a murderous intent while killing the wolves, like a beast' she thought but quickly shook her head getting aware of the fact that he just saved her.
Francis put down his sword after killing them all, his eyes were still red and he gasped because of the previous injury that was still hurting him. He then directed his red eyes toward Eleanor and thought, 'these wolves, I wonder why they were squattered in this place. It doesn't look normal, it is surely the work of my enemies, smirk! those idiots seem to be getting ahead of themself. Look like I scared her really good now seeing how much she is trembling in fear, heh! I wonder were that fearless personality of her went to, but I can understand it looking at this sight.'
His wound began to reopen since he pushed it too far and after getting aware of his pained expression, Eleanor went toward him and held his arm to support him, forgetting at the same time the fear she got a few minute ago. Worried, she reprimanded him and said,
"I clearly told you to be careful didn't I? look at your wound now it reopened! sigh!....are you okay? you didn't hurt anywhere else right? tell me if you did...I am here...and also..well, thank you for saving me, you were not bad!"
Her speech going softer, she rewarded him with a smile and tended to his injury. Francis was stunned by the rapid change in her behavior. The trembling woman before him who just a moment ago had as he expected the same facial expression that other often showed him while he was in this state, suddenly ran toward him and yelled, got angry and finally smiled while thanking him. He couldn't believe what happened, for this woman to not avert her eyes while seing that massacre or his red eyes and murderous aura, but at her reaction that didn't reject him his expression relaxed and his eyes turned back to normal. He smiled and said,
" You are as loud as ever! be quiet woman... ."
Eleanor continued to bicker at him and finished to treat his injury, and after some times soldiers began to appear on their horses. They spotted the two of them and ran toward them, got on their knees and greeted Francis with respect and relief from seeing him. Francis looked at them with a serious face and asked,
"How is the situation? did everythink go well?"
A man with brown hair and black eyes, with a scar on his left cheek went forward and said,
"Yes, your majesty we secured the situation but because we were looking for you, that man got away...I am really sorry for my carelessness. Please! punish me for my incompetence in failing to accomplish your order and to protect you, your majesty!!"
Francis glared at him, then he approached the man with the scar and after throwing a heavy punch at him he replied,
"That is to be expected since he planned all this but he will not get away with this, look for him and search in every corners of the empire. He must be thinking that I am dead, so we will keep the part of me being alive secret for the time been. That way he will feel at ease and not leave the empire, we will use that opportunity to capture him."
The man that got the punch shuddered from the pain but quickly got up, he understood from experience that this punch was his punishment and bowed to Francis while answering,
"Yes! I will take care of this your majesty. Ah! and we got you a carriage that will take you to the palace immediately, we will escort you! your majesty this way."
Eleanor was amazed by the turn of events, she knew that Francis wasn't a normal man, but she never could have guessed that he would be the man leading the human kingdom. After getting aware of his identity, she knew that she had to quickly flee from this place because she didn't want to be once again in the center of power struggle nor did she want to be in any way connected to those with power.
To know the reason of her disgust toward powerful people like royalty, we will go back to how her unexpected beginning started....
"Hein?! what did you just say? you recently discovered that you were a witch? how is that possible?" Lise had a surprised expression while saying that and looked at Eleanor with her eyes wide from curiosity."Ah well, I cannot tell you all my story but the main point is that, I was in the cursed forest when I meet the emperor and found a book that belonged to a witch. There was many spells and all kinds of things inside. But I could understand what was written in the book and when I tried to read aloud a spell, it immediately worked. Thanks to that, we were able to escape the forest safely.""The cursed forest.....So, that's were you found out about you been a witch?! is that it?" Lise looked absent minded while saying those words as if her mind was elsewhere."Yes, why do you ask?"When Eleanor asked that question, Lise snapped out of her thoughts and answered,"Well, that is because of my reason for being her...Also, can you tell me the spell you used to get out of the forest? Becau
If someone asked if there was a way to escape the imperial palace's heavily guarded jail, then the answer will obviously be negative. Each cell in the basement of the imperial palace was designed to be unbreakable and without a way out. In addition to that, they made sure that it was guarded by a lot of knights night and day when there was a criminal locked up. It wasn't common to see someone locked inside the prison of the imperal palace, because the empire already had a big jail used to imprison all kind of criminals. Only the most evil one or those who attempted to assassinate the imperial family were locked in the imperial jail until the execution day. And of course, without fail, all the people residing in the imperial palace knew that every person that stepped their foots on the imperial jail would undeniably die by the next few days. That's why the palace was noisy from all the workers gossiping about the fact that the young woman named Eleanor, who was treated like a princess
Escorted by Val and Sebastian, Eleanor didn't feel like a criminal because despite knowing her identity they treated her Kindly, contrary to how they treated the witch locked in the basement. As soon as they left Francis's office, she saw Miel worried sick with a face full of tears.With a faint smile, Eleanor thought that she was truly kind to still worry about her even though she heard the fact that she was a witch.'She must have overheard the conversation but still she is worrying about me and crying for my sake. You are the first human that I thought of as a friend.' She looked at her and took her hand before saying,"Miel, you don't need to worry, I am okay.....everything will be fine. You know, after I came here I always felt out of place and I worried that I wouldn't be able to get used to this place....But thank to you Miel and Elise and Anne, though short I liked my stay here. For that I want to thank you since
At that moment Eleanor felt a great loss, something inside her broke. It wasn't like she felt all that because of the witch's sad fate but because of the fact that she saw herself in her place. She imagined how they would look at her,....how he would look at her if he knew her identity.The simple thought of seeing him reject her or condemn her, hurt her more than she could fantom. But despite her fear, she believed that something must be done in order to save an innocent life. She looked at him for what seemed like an eternity and thougth,'Do you have to go this far?....must it end up like this? I don't want to make thing hard for you, I get what you must have went through. That's why I wouldn't mind it if you cursed at me for the things I am gonna do. It is okay, I am willing to be the bad guy here...maybe one day you will understand what I meant while doing this.'Thinking that the meeting ended Sebastian and Val were
Eleanor couldn't read in Francis's mind, he was indecipherable and his expression didn't show his inner thought. So, she was worried that behind those cold eyes, an inreversible decision may be pronounced and change the course of fate. She prayed deep inside that he would resolve the matter without killing anyone.'Please Francis! don't take that path, it will only end up hurting others and you too...' she tried to forward him those thoughts while looking at him with a sad expression. She couldn't understand his hatred toward witches and wondered why he felt that way toward them.Then suddenly, she saw an image of a young boy who looked like Francis standing at the same place she stood, looking at a man sitting on Francis's office. As she looked at the young boy that was nearly 12 year old, she reconized the familiar golden eyes and dark blue hair. He was looking firmly at the man behind the office desk, standing straigh like a soldier.
He looked at her sharply as he asked her that question. She didn't react to it because she knew that Francis and his closest friends were all smart enough to figure out the tiniest change in her expression. Hence, with a calm tone she answered,"Back then, my grand mother told me all kinds of stories..." Before she could finish, Valeria burst in laughter and said mockingly,"Pfff!Haha! Are you saying that you were telling us child's stories, right now?!This is ridicilous, you are wasting our times""Well, I don't really care about your time miss, but if you could refrain from interrupting me, that would be helpful." At her reply, Alphonse and Sebastian were having a hard time hidding their laughter, it infuriated Valeria who felt mocked."Whaa?!.." Before she could retort Eleanor continued,"She once got a gift by a wandering traveler, it was a book about the witches. I love reading a lot so my gran