Chapter 54: Someone who ran off
"Huh? Wait-"
The woman was surprised to witness how the man was running off faster than ever. Her yells were pressed against the noise created by the air in his ears.
Her blue hair fluttered as she tried to catch up with the man wearing the white shirt. The irregular breathing of hers was a sign that she was reaching her limits.
Then his run came to a stop after seeing the door to a room in front of him. Realising that it was her chance, the girl collected a mouthful of breath and let it out along with her words.
"STOP RUNNING ALREADY!"
Diona flinched as she heard the loud shout from Eleanor. Blaise facepalmed himself while looking at the two act like that.
Clank
Jaden slowly opened the door after taking a deep breath. The words of Eleanor never reached his ears, as he was too nervous at the moment.
A few minutes had passed by after he reached the room where they were having a talk with Adrienne in the beginning. Soon, he was confused to see Adriene, Claire, and Melanie gone missing.
When he inquired about the three, he got to know that Claire and Melanie were in a certain room at the end of the path outside. As for Adrienne, no one had any idea where he disappeared.
As soon as he understood where the room was, Jaden didn't waste even a single second. He was dashing at his fastest to the said room.
What awaited him there after going through the trouble of wasting his stamina? His jaw dropped at the sight he was witnessing.
"Huh?"
The room was totally empty. Claire and Melanie were nowhere to be seen. It might've been a mistake. Maybe he entered the wrong room?
No, that was definitely the correct room. There was no doubt about that since there were only two rooms that he had come across till now.
The one was where they first sat in after arriving there. And the second one was the one in which he currently stood with a dazed expression.
He managed to get back to his senses by shaking his head sideways. The next thing he did was barge inside the empty room, trying to search every nook and cranny.
'It can't be...'
His lips pursed together when it came to his mind. Aliana had surely told him that she planned to visit the Sabbianyth Empire, but wasn't that too soon?
Not to mention, he had yet to ask Adrienne to teach him some of his sword arts. If Aliana was with him, he would've felt more confident in himself.
Aliana had departed sooner than Jaden was expecting. He couldn't believe it in the beginning, but then that changed when he encountered a piece of paper lying on the small table beside the bed.
-We are leaving for our next destination. I hope you focus on completing the work on your end. Until we meet again. Yours truly, Alia.
It was only Jaden who happened to be reading the note that Aliana had left behind. Noticing the manner of that handwriting, he was certain that it was specifically meant for him.
The peculiarly stunning letters handwritten on the paper were familiar to Jaden, but not for long. The paper got folded into a ball when he wrapped it tightly around in his fist.
"Hah..."
The short sigh that escaped his throat was filled with a sensation of fatigue. His arms fell down loosely, and the strength in his hand solely focused on crumbling the paper.
He couldn't seem to understand how Aliana even managed to leave that place. It had been barely an hour since he had a talk with her, and now she was already gone.
Of course, Jaden had no idea that he had missed the three by one single minute. Aliana had cast a magic spell that could teleport her to the room Claire and Melanie were in.
How she knew where the two were was obviously because of the magic, which was almost like some passive skill of hers. Depending on how much mana she poured into the magic, she was able to increase the range of her detection magic.
Actually, that magic was the rarest of the rare ones, even among the special cases. The distinct nature of that magic to sense a living being's presence was purely due to the attributes combined to cast it.
Combining attributes to create a greater spell wasn't an easy task. Aliana was someone who had an extraordinary talent when it came to such stuff.
The magic to detect the presence of a living being within a certain range of area was a combination of nature and space attributes. And that very magic was used by her to reach the room and then teleport along with the other two back to the inn in the Agustus Kingdom.
Tsk
"Can you let me stay alone for a few minutes...?"
The way he clicked his tongue made Diona understand that he was feeling irritated for some reason. She didn't say a word but walked away from the room silently.
And on the other hand, there was Eleanor. This person was the most clueless of the three standing at the door of the room.
Blaise had taken a hint that Jaden wanted to be alone for the time being. None of them would've been aware of what was going on if not for Jaden mumbling what he was reading unconsciously.
He glared at Eleanor with a hopeless look in his eyes. No matter how careless a person was, there was always a limit as to how much. Yet Eleanor seemed to have broken past it.
Blaise put his hand gently on her right shoulder before gripping it. That made Eleanor turn around with a flushed face, accompanying a fueh voice.
"Are we going to kis-"
She could never complete her words as Blaise put his hand on her mouth. Without wasting a single moment, he rushed out of the spot while carrying Eleanor in his arms.
'Damn it all...!'
How she behaved was nothing new to Blaise, who happened to be the target of her nonsense each and every time they met. Jaden couldn't care less about all of it, though.
"We will see you after a while!"
Thud
Saying that, Blaise shut the door while continuing his sprint. That was the only thing he could think of when he realised what Eleanor was going to say.
Everyone leaving him alone was actually a good thing for Jaden, who was already at his limits. The paper he held in his hand seemed to have shrunk down a lot.
Hah
He took a huge breath and held it in for a while. His face became red like a tomato due to the lack of oxygen in the blood vessels.
"WHY CAN'T I JUST TAKE IT EASY ALREADY?!"
The shouts he had been bottling up for the past few weeks echoed throughout the empty room. Everyone who happened to be at a nearby distance flinched at the sound.
-------------------
"She left just like that?"
Sierra gasped upon hearing that Aliana had already left the place. She had a bunch of questions for her relating to everything that happened earlier.
"At least that's what that guy said while reading the contents of the note she left behind."
Diona shook her head lightly in agreement. Leaving Jaden behind, she, along with the other two, had come back to the room Sierra was waiting in.
Claire and Melanie happened to have left along with Aliana, but where was one more person? Even if others were to forget about him, Sierra could feel anxious because of his abrupt absence.
"What about Adrienne? Where did he go...?"
The soft voice, laced with concern, made Diona feel worried too. Unlike Blaise and Eleanor, who were rather indulged in their own thoughts, Diona was actually paying attention to the situation.
Tap tap tap
She was about to open her mouth when some sound fell on her ears. Someone was walking out of the darkness outside the door.
"Where would I even go?"
As she heard that voice, Sierra's expression brightened up. Without realising it, she was smiling lightly. The feeling of relief made her body feel light.
She was expecting Adrienne to run off somewhere again. Surely, she never hoped for that to happen since there was a lot more stuff she wanted to know.
Everyone within the room, aside from Blaise, had no clue where he was during the past few minutes. It was because their timing of disappearing seemed odd to him that Blaise suspected that Adrienne went to have a talk with Aliana.
He shut his mouth, thinking that he shouldn't be poking his nose into their business. Whether Adrienne felt like talking about it or not was solely up to him.
"Where were you?"
Unknowingly, a thin layer of water formed in Sierra's eyes. It went unnoticed, as everyone's eyes were fixed on Adrienne alone.
Soon, those drops vanished as Sierra stood up with an angry face. Diona was witnessing her act like that for the first time. They had been close to each other for a relatively long time.
Diona was the very person who infiltrated the Agustus Kingdom fifteen years ago, along with a few more of her companions. Her goal was to pry into the matters that Sierra told her about.
That was the reason she spent five years hiding and mingling with humans. Once Adrienne returned and discovered the truth behind his miserable life, he declared war on the Elven Forest. He had his fair share of reasons for doing so.
Even though he called it a war, there was no blood shed on either side. The main point was to stop the intruders from trying to enter the forest. His efforts were truly worth it because he had managed to protect Sierra until then.
Further north from the Elven Forest, there lies a snowy terrain. No living being knew what lay past the white-coated mountain range. It extended to as far as one could see it fade away.
"I'll explain that later..."
Sierra could feel the anger growing from within her mind at his words. What did he mean by that when they patiently waited for him to return?
That was the first thing both Blaise and Sierra could think of. Blaise shuddered at the unexpected continuation of the words.
"Before that..."
He first scanned the whole room with his stern eyes before speaking. His eyebrows furrowed, observing that the number of people he had expected to be present there had been reduced by one.
That expression on his face made Sierra refrain from asking any further questions. She couldn't comprehend why he was acting like that, but being aware of what kind of person he was, she stayed silent.
"Where is the man that lady brought along?"
Adrienne never addressed Aliana by her name because of various reasons. It was something related to their second encounter, so he thought that turning an eye away from it was the better option.
That case was a totally different story, meant for some other time in the near future. Blaise tried to swallow bitter feelings along with his own saliva.
This time it wasn't because he was envious of Adrienne's looks, but because of how Aliana didn't even inform him before leaving. Why was she supposed to do so, though?
Blaise was thinking too highly of himself due to the fact that he had interfered during the birthday banquet. Aliana had never asked him to meddle in her business. He had done it willingly.
"Why do you want him now?"
Sierra was a bit annoyed because Adrienne seemed more interested in someone he had met for the first time than herself, whom he had known for over five years. Those minor emotions aside, she was just clueless as to why he wanted to meet Jaden.
She maintained her calm expression while hiding the confusion she was feeling. The next words Adrienne spoke left everyone frozen in one place.
"There's a deal I made with a certain someone, you see."
His words made it clear who he was talking about. His timing of disappearance matched a bit to that of Aliana's.
Once Aliana had left the place using her magic, Adrienne showed up. It couldn't have been any more obvious.
His tone remained unhinged as he continued adding to what he said. The only thing that changed were the wrinkles on his forehead, which disappeared as his words came to an end.
"I need him to complete the deal."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
AbyssKun00
AbyssKun00 Thoughts died.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
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