The villainess shall be mine

It took a certain amount of time to travel through the huge city, even with the floating vehicle.

This was because as we went deeper to the heart of the city, there were too many vehicles causing traffic jams. The number of people increased too and it almost reminded me of these big cities on Earth. Still, the flying cars roaming around were not something that I was used to seeing.

I lived inside a castle after all, and the capital of Kepalta was rather peaceful most of the time.

There was the option of following a way around the city, but it will waste too much time according to Cristal who became our guide. She gave the coordinate of our destination to Zax and the two of them discussed the best route to follow. The two of them sat in a separate compartment of the vehicle; Zax drove and Cristal navigated.

It helped that we had the Royal Pass so we could take routes that ordinary citizens weren't allowed to pass through.

Maybe it was because of the atmosphere around the city or the color buildings that had interesting designs, or the various models of vehicles that we saw passing by, but the atmosphere inside our vehicles turned quite lively.

Feldenis who was rather quiet before began to showcase his knowledge. From the discussion between Feldenis and the others, I learned that this city was called Mahanoro. He was more familiar with this city, with this planet, more than I expected. Well, we headed to a Zelphyre's village, so I guess he was excited to meet his peers.

"Do you see that particular building? That is the building where the noble of this province reside." Feldenis explained, pointing at a certain building that was very eye-catching. Even among the tall skyscrapers inside this huge city, which was as big as two Tokyo, this building managed to stand out.

The building was something like a traditional Japanese house but built with shiny metals and adorned with some kind of red materials.

But in my opinion…

'What's up with this, it's so ugly… And it's too big, and has almost hundreds of floors? What the heck is that… I feel bad for the Japanese who designed these beautiful houses.'

But unlike me, Timothy, Yelena, and Brodon looked at the building with interest.

"How about visiting that place? We are not in a hurry right?" Timothy commented. "I mean, that so-called master can wait another day, right?"

After Timothy ruined the mood by saying said that, everyone else looked at me.

Facing me was Liu, and next to her was Yelena, and then a noisy guy, Timothy.

Feldenenis who sat opposite Timothy commented. "It's not open to the public, so unless Adam or Miss Liu go with you there, then you won't be able to take a step inside. And I believe that none of them want to come with you."

Feldenis had an unwavering mature smile on his face as he put Timothy in his place.

'Nice, Feldenis!'

Timothy wanted to add something, but Yelena elbowed him on the side.

"Just shut up!"

Liu was looking outside the window during all of that, and Verte was sitting on her lap.

She took a glance at me, and I smiled at her, and then she averted her eyes.

'I wonder what she might be thinking...'

Liu changed her clothes into two pieces of outfits: A sleeveless garment and pants. I was no specialist in Chinese outfits so I didn't know what these clothes were called, but the azure color looked good on her.

I didn't want people to see that I stared at her too much so I turned my head and looked outside.

******

After we managed to travel through the city of Mahanoro, we could finally see huge trees on the horizon. These trees looked like they were about to graze the sky, and we were all stunned by this amazing sight.

"This is it," Feldenis announced. "This is the divine forest."

Everyone was excited to see these unusual trees, and even Liu looked like she was curious about how tall these trees were.

We took a little break, admiring the majestic trees, and ate something prepared by Brondon, then continued our journey.

As we moved forward, Feldenis began to tell stories related to this forest, about how it was protected by the gods, and about the mystical beasts that lived there. He also said that it was hard to navigate through this forest as the huge trees masked the sunlight.

According to him, the fauna and flora of this forest, which covered a relatively vast area, were very different from everything we saw before and it was very dangerous to travel there without any preparation.

Fortunately, we had Cristal and the vehicle was also customized by Zax to be able to go through a lot of harsh conditions.

With all of that in mind, we continued our journey and entered the forest.

As soon as we advanced for more than two hundred meters, the atmosphere changed dramatically.

First of all, it was extremely hot, and the surrounding was dark, almost as if was late in the evening.

'This will be tougher than I expected…'

Zax slowed down and turned on the lights inside the vehicle and outside.

The trees vines and roots which were bigger than a whole house stood in our way, and so Zax needed to drive carefully and skillfully.

I was very impressed with her skill, it was as if the vehicle was a part of her body.

"It's so hot!" Timothy complained. He was wearing his usual full-body armor.

Feldenis took off his coat and I also took off my jacket. It was particularly bad for me because I went full black for this trip. The vehicle had an air conditioner built-in, but it was not enough, because it was a rather small and confined space.

Seeing this, Liu activated her power to cool down the heat inside this confined space.

She was very considerate despite her expressionless face.

"Thank you," I said.

Liu looked at me and nodded a little bit. They checked on Verte and used a handkerchief to wipe her sweat.

I didn't know why, but I found this scene a bit heartwarming.

As we advanced, I wondered why we just traveled above the trees, but when I thought about it, I understood that it will be hard to find the village that way. After all, who knows if this village was hidden underground.

Cristal found the coordinates to this place after studying the story of this legendary swordsman, and there was also Feldenis who was rather familiar with the tales related to this place, but it was hard to find the place.

As I was thinking about these things, the vehicle stopped suddenly…

"There are two many vines in the way and it's dangerous to take make a detour," Zax said through a window that connected the two compartments of the vehicle.

"It seems like we don't have a choice but to cut them down," Feldenis said. "Still, it is dangerous to stay here for too long… The beasts living in the forest must have already followed us."

"Beasts?" Timothy snorted, and then he made a very cringeworthy declaration. "There's no need to be scared as long as I am here."

Yelena shook her head after hearing Timothy's words.

"Ah!" Yelena looked like an idea popped inside of her mind. "Timothy, you are strong, right?"

"What? Are you doubting me?"

"It's not that, it's just that I haven't seen you use your full power lately…"

"Humph! We only met with small fries these days."

"I see, you are right! But wait, isn't this an opportunity for you to break some leg? You can use your incredible power to destroy these vines and fight the beasts at the same time. You don't want Miss Liu to take care of such a thing right?"

"Hahaha! Of course, I can take care of this alone. Zax, open the door."

He was an easy guy.

After that Timothy hopped on top of the vehicle outside and began to take care of the vines, but the vines were not the only problem.

Numerous dots of light appeared around us, and they moved around followed by intimidating shadows.

Timothy activated his power which was an elemental lightning gift. I didn't know what he was doing outside, but I could hear thunderous noises every time he struck the vines.

The sound of the impact caused by the huge vines that fell to the ground echoed throughout the quiet forest.

Because of that, there were alarming movements among the beasts who lived inside this forest.

"We need to move," Feldenis said.

After hearing Feldenis's comment, Yelena asked Timothy. "Timothy, are you done?!"

"Just a little bit, these vines are harder than they look."

It looked like Timothy had a hard time with the vines, and I wasn't surprised, because I wouldn't be able to do anything much about it myself.

However, the shadows that loomed around began to move toward us.

"Zax, open the door," Liu said.

Then she asked me to hold Verte.

After that Liu hopped on top of the car.

"Miss Liu? W-what are you doing here?" Timothy asked.

I couldn't see what happened but a few minutes after that Liu and Timothy came back, and we began to advance again.

The presence of the beats that loomed in the shadow also disappeared and Liu was still expressionless.

Only the sound of crackling and falling vines could be heard.

I looked outside and even though it was a bit dark, I could see that most of the trees' roots that we passed by had a glimmer of white shade as the vehicle's light illuminated them.

'What did she do?' I thought. 'How strong is she? Can I win against her?'

Even Timothy didn't say anything and looked like he was a little bit frustrated.

"As expected of Miss Liu," Yelena commented.