Everyone saw that coming. Estelle frowned and the news didn't catch me by surprise. However, it surprised me that the elf wasn't happy. We all know he's madly in love with me. I thought he'd be overjoyed to find out that I'd be all his now.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked.
"It's just… this isn't the way I wanted to claim you. You won't be happy this way." The elf responded.
"I see." It took me a while to tell them my decision but after a long pause and the tension decreased a little, I told them my plan. "I'm leaving Zaphias for a while."
"Yuri…!" Estelle yelled.
"There's no other option right now. I won't be far. I promise."
She sighed with her watery green eyes.
"I just got to find Flynn and Repede and we'll be out of here by tomorrow night. Thanks for letting us stay here. It really was fun."
I smiled at them.
The problem is what if Flynn doesn't want to come? Also, once we do leave, where exactly are we going to go? We don't have any money to buy a house in a different city and we also can't afford to stay here until we do have enough to at least stay at an inn for a night or two. I guess sleeping outside without food for a few days is okay, after all, we were raised in the lower quarter. The longest we went without food was about a week or half of a week. We'll be fine… I hope.
"I'm going with you!" Estelle said.
"Whoa. You can't come. You're the princess."
"I don't care! I'm coming with you!"
Once she crossed her arms, I knew I wasn't going to win this one. How am I going to sneak out here with the princess of Terca Lumireis? There has to be some way to leave her behind. I don't want to be charged with another crime and "kidnapping" the princess seems too much for even me to handle.
"We're leaving tonight." She insisted. "Go find Flynn."
"Um, okay."
I put on the coat that I received for Christmas and set out to find my boyfriend immediately. Estelle took over the operation so I might as well follow them before she gets scary. Somewhere under that cover, Estelle must be a very demanding person. I really don't want to see her at her worst.
Out of all of the places Flynn could possibly be, the nobles' quarter is definitely off of the list. The public quarter is my best bet so I went there.
There were a lot more people there than usual. The nobles were all gathered around the fountain at the very center of the public quarter. It looked like they were listening to a motivational speaker. The man speaking was talking about scum. I couldn't help but notice that he pointed at me as an example. I hate when people do that. It happens a lot in the nobles' quarter. Anybody can be walking by minding their own business and then out of nowhere, someone points and laughs.
When the nobles turned to look at me all I did was roll my eyes. Normally, I would have made a smart-ass remark but I don't feel like getting into an argument right now. I had enough of rich people. I want to vomit just by looking at those "scum."
In the area in the public quarter closer to the lower quarter, I spotted Flynn with Repede. He was sitting on a bench with Repede lying at his feet. I approached him quietly from behind. The bench was ice cold. How the hell can he sit on this block of ice?
Repede sat up with his tail wagging which lead to Flynn turning around to face me. I decided to sit on the block of ice next to him. It's even colder when you sit down. The frozen seat sent shivers up my spine and numbed my ass.
I drew a deep breath before I spoke to my lover. It's so hard to talk to him. Every time I want to talk about something important, my throat gets dry and it aches like something is stuck in it. With my raspy voice, I asked my lover "How do you feel about leaving Zaphias with me… and possibly Estelle? We have to leave."
He sighed heavily. "We shouldn't have to go anywhere."
"I know but don't you think it's for the best? I don't feel like having anymore drama. Heh, I'm already on the brink of suicide." I joked.
Flynn hunched over with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands balled up resting on his chin. If he doesn't come with me, I don't think that I can leave without him. I'll worry too much about him if I can't keep an eye on him. Not only that, I love Flynn too much to leave him behind.
"Alright." He mumbled. "Where are we going?"
"Don't know yet." It was hard for me to mask my enthusiasm from his answer. "Let's go to a different continent though. We can't risk King Reinhold sending imperial guards after us in Halure, Aspio, or Capua Nor."
"Yeah… We need to hurry then."
Estelle already finished packing by the time Flynn, Repede, and I got back to the castle. Flynn and I didn't pack too many things. All we brought were five pairs of clothing, our toothbrushes, underwear, bottled holy water (to ward off the monsters), a tent, soap, and dried food to carry in our backpacks. Estelle brought money along with her essentials. We planned to find an inn first but we'll see if we have to sleep out in the woods or something.
Around midnight, the four of us snuck out through the back of the castle. No guards were in sight as we successfully got off of the castle's jurisdiction. In fact, no one was outside at all. Just to make sure that we wouldn't get caught, we took the exit in the lower quarter because they have no cameras.
After we left Zaphias, we traveled to Quoi Woods to sleep there. Resting in any city didn't seem safe. By the time we reached Quoi Woods, it was two o' clock in the morning. It didn't take long to fall asleep.
As soon as the sun rose, Flynn woke us up to eat quickly, drink some water, and then we kept moving. I'm surprised that the princess is doing this well outside of the lap of luxury. She hasn't complained once so far or worried about the monsters. I know she will though. I'm not looking forward to hearing it.
Maybe within a half-an-hour, we saw Halure from the woods. No one was in sight that seemed suspicious (not that anyone would be at six in the morning).
Everyone entered the city to get any essential supplies since guards are less likely to be here than in Aspio. I felt a little nervous about getting spotted still.
Flynn got the supplies from the merchant. Estelle and I stood a few feet away from Flynn as he got the items. From afar, I noticed several men standing by the tree of Halure staring at me. They were wearing black hooded jackets with the hood over their heads. Claws hung out from their long sleeves and they had red glowing eyes. They didn't look like friendly people so we'll definitely try to avoid them. Somehow, they looked familiar.
"Are we going to stop at Capua Nor next?" Flynn asked.
"Yeah." I answered taking my attention away from the red-eyed men. "Then we can take a boat to Capua Torim. Hopefully we can go unseen."
"This is kind of exciting!" Estelle said. "It's just like an adventure!"
"It's only fun for you because you're not being chased." I mumbled. "Let's keep moving."
As we made our way out of Halure, the men watched us. They looked like they knew me from somewhere. I HOPE they are not guards in disguise.
It took about five hours on foot to get to Capua Nor. Our feet hurt from walking non-stop. On top of that, it was cold outside. If we thought it felt cold before, then we didn't even know the meaning of freezing after we found our way through Ehmead Hill. The Blade Drifts of Zopheir really made the area near the port town bitter cold. Because of the weather, the boats might not be running in this weather. If they aren't, I don't know what we'll do.
We went straight for the inn as soon as we entered the town. Our feet ached badly. I never walked so much in my life. We might have to stay here after all and head out first thing in the morning.
"I can really go for some of your cooking now, Flynn." I whined. "… And then take a nap."
"Be patient, Yuri." He told me this as he was drying Repede off. It was snowing for a while after we left Ehmead Hill and Repede was shivering like a Chihuahua.
In the meantime, I lit the fire in the fireplace so all of us could warm up. Everyone appeared to be in healthy condition. The only thing we needed was a night off of our feet and something in our stomachs.
"Um, I have wanted to ask for a while now but, um, how far are we going exactly?" Estelle asked as she sat down in front of the fireplace.
"Good question." I said. I then turned to Flynn. "How far do you feel like travelling?"
Flynn pulled a few ingredients out of his bag to make cream stew. "Dahngrest. If we want to escape the knights for good then Dahngrest is the best city to go to since guilds are running it."
"That'll be difficult to get to in a day. The next stop is Capua Torim and it only takes an hour to get there by boat so there's no point in resting there. After that is Heliord and it's strictly ran by knights." I said.
"Don't we have to pass through Heliord to get to Dahngrest?" Estelle asked.
"Yeah. If we're lucky, our faces won't be on the news."
"Let's not worry about this right now." Flynn said.
My blonde lover began to prepare the stew. I couldn't help but noticed how troubled he looked. I wonder what he's thinking. Could he be thinking that this will never work? Honestly, even I think that this plan is pretty stupid. No one alive has ever escaped the knights and I doubt that we'll be the ones to successfully do it any time soon.
This on-the-run thing may be what's weighing on Flynn's mind but I can't help but feel that there is something else that's bothering him. I don't want to ask him if it's something personal with Estelle in the room. When Flynn's upset, I get upset too.
Within half an hour or so, the stew was finished. We ate the stew and then I laid down with my lover. Estelle went to sleep in the bed next to ours. We only slept for about three hours when Flynn violently woke me up. Repede was growling beside our beds. When I decided to officially get up I realized what was wrong. The red-eyed men from Halure were in our room. Did they follow us here?
One of the men raised a hand into the air and threw down a smoke bomb. The room filled with mist and soon we all were overcame with lethargy. I was the last to collapse. Before I lost consciousness, I saw some of the men approach us. They carried us out into the night and onto a boat. I wish that I was awake for the rest. I lost consciousness on the boat. What the hell is going on?
To be continued…