Eaten By The Tyrant I Raised

Nabel escorted Rone to the carriage that awaited them behind the mansion. The carriage was loaded minimally in order to travel as fast as possible. There were two of them.

Ryne rode in the second carriage with the others. She understood that it could not be helped to let Rone travel more comfortably.

The carriage rattled as it sped off. Rone had only ridden a carriage a few times before in her life. She felt like she had ridden in a carriage often when she was a young child, but then her stepmother had arrived and such opportunities had diminished.

As such, riding a carriage as an adult was yet unfamiliar to her. Rone watched the black-clad riders following beside them.

Theyre all people we can trust, Nabel said quietly, smiling.

I see you met many good people while we were apart.

That was a relief. She had worried so much that he had been suffering alone. A tender smile formed on Rones face. Of course, it must have been hard for him. But she was relieved that he was safe.

Its not as meaningful now as it used to be, Nabel smiled. The first good person he had ever met in his life was staring out of the window, illuminated by a shaft of warm sunlight.

They traveled by carriage for a long time. Fortunately, there was no need for them to voyage across the rough sea. He had dreamed of the wide ocean since he was young, but he had put it off for now. Rones body was too weak. He did not want to make the journey any longer than it had to be.

The Western Continent where they arrived after traveling for more than ten days certainly was different to the Eastern Continent.

In the distance, Rone could see trees that towered so high that you could not see the whole thing in one glance. She did not think that even ten people linking arms could encircle the trunks of those trees.

As the carriage drew a little closer, the sky cleared, casting sunlight over the trees that had been shrouded in shadow and she saw that they were, in fact, all connected to one trunk.

Wow

It was just as Nabel had said. This place was completely different from the Eastern Continent. If that kind of immense tree could exist here, the monsters too must be as big as Nabel had said.

That was how dangerous this place was. It was all unfamiliar. Suddenly, the carriage jolted violently, rattling.

A black-clad rider saw her blanch and bury her head. He was the one guarding the area around the carriages.

Rone tried to bob her head towards him to show that she was okay, but the man was clearly looking right past her to meet Nabels eyes. Eyes which warned against letting the same mistake happen a second time.

The man passed the message on to the carriage driver with a nervous look. The carriage sped onwards, quickly but carefully.

Rone peered ahead to a distant place beyond the huge tree. On top of a hill, animals that Rone had never seen before were chasing each other. They yowled.

Perhaps they were not animals, in fact, but monsters. The brown monster that was leading the chase pounced on the monster that was fleeing and bit into its neck.

At that moment, Nabel gently covered her eyes with a warm hand. I dont think youll enjoy seeing what comes next.

No, I dont think I will, Rone agreed and turned her gaze to the inside of the carriage. The structure of the carriage was also very different from what she remembered from her childhood.

Rone had to admit: the Western Continent certainly was a strange and dangerous place. Yet she was not uneasy. She still felt much freer than when she had lived at the Rieda Manor. She felt like she could breathe for the first time.

She sucked in as much air as she could fit in her lungs and let it out again, laughing. Her heart pounded. Nabel kissed the back of her hand again.

Her hand felt so delicate that he thought it might break if he squeezed it too hard. Nabel closed his eyes. He needed to be patient. He wanted to ask if something had happened. He wanted to ask if there were people who had wronged her and if they were unharmed.

He could not bear to just leave them to remain in the world. But he did not want to dig up Rones bad memories. Theres no need to insist on hearing about her painful past, he thought to himself, just as a young Rone once had.

Nabel took a short and quiet gulp of air. He already had many plans made inside his head among them was a plan to drive the loathsome House of Rieda to ruin.

He already had the way to do it within his grasp. He placed his hand over Rones again as he mulled over Neshas report.