148 Tracked [2]
A slight frown formed on Arvell's lips, but internally he was furious.
He had heard of Lillianna's current fiance from other the gossiping of other students, but he hadn't thought Cyprian would be the one behind this incident.
'Why would he do that? Isn't marrying a bonafide princess good for him? Why jeopardize that?'
It would have been far easier if Cyprian had made moves to kidnap Lillianna after he married her.
Why resort to sabotaging her while she's under the academy's protection?
'Not that their 'protection' ever amounted to anything.'
After the whole entrance exam fiasco, Arvell had understandably decided not to put much trust in whatever protective measures the academy offered.
But his current predicament was far worse than whatever happened last time.
The safety of the sole princess of the country was at stake now, and even if they got out, Arvell was 100% confident that heads would roll after this incident.
There was no way the academy could just pull the rug over this.
Even so, for a student to be able to orchestrate something like this single-handedly, it was too far-fetched.
'Cyprian must have had help, possibly from his family? Or perhaps was it someone from Vispia?'
If a ducal house was planning something like this, it would be seen as nothing short of a coup d'etat.
Either of those two options would be the spark that would lead to the start of another war.
While the thought of war caused him to frown, the idea that someone was targeting Lily caused him to seethe internally.
He didn't care who was behind this or how strong or influential they were.
Arvell would arrange a one-way ticket to hell for all of them.
He would make sure they didn't die fast but, instead, a slow, agonizing death.
After all… Lily's situation was exactly the same as him.
Both of them had been betrayed by their fiance and given a gift with tracking magic.
This was just too personal for Arvell to let them off easy.
Furthermore, there was no way he would let Lily meet the same fate as him.
If it weren't for Lykos, he would have been a decomposed corpse by now.
Arvell exhaled to calm the whirlwind of emotions in his heart.
Reaching out his hand, Arvell laid it outstretched before Lillianna.
Lillianna looked at the pendant and then back at Arvell.
"I-I can't just throw this away… Are you sure it's the cause? Did Cyprian really… did he really try to kill me?"
Arvell looked her in the eyes with a determined expression.
"I need you to trust me on this. If you keep that on, we could possibly end up dead."
Faced with only two options, Lillianna resolved herself and handed her pendant to Arvell.
She didn't know why but felt she could trust the silver-haired youth before her.
It wasn't like she cared too much about that pendant either way, given that she didn't think much of Cyprian in the first place, with all the nasty rumours surrounding him.
Lillianna didn't want to be blamed for losing an engagement gift her 'precious fiance' bought.
But with her current predicament, she could claim she lost it while running for her life. It wasn't like people could fault her for that.
Seeing that Lillianna decided to believe in him, Arvell smiled lightly before taking the pendant from her hand.
Gripping it tightly, Arvell chucked it down the tunnel as far as he could before instructing Sepis to pick it up.
If he could make Sepis run around while holding that, he could keep Queen Slime and her army busy while the two of them made their way out.
Arvell debated keeping the pendant in his inventory as 'proof' of foul play, but he didn't want to risk accidentally running into the queen slime.
He could not beat it without revealing his full power; even then, it would be a close battle.
As much as Arvell would love to cut that giant blob down to size, he didn't want to needlessly jeopardize Lillianna or reveal his true power in front of her.
He would much rather take the safer route and constantly lure it further and further away from them.
'Plus, I would rather have them not know we caught onto their actions.'
Breaking the pendant would notify Cyprian that they knew he was behind the plot and might force him into a corner.
Usually, Arvell would prefer such a method, but right now, he didn't have any insurance to handle whatever Cyprian would throw at him.
It was best to just throw it away and pretend they lost it.
"Ok, we should get moving. We must get as far away as possible to put some distance."
Rising to his feet, Arvell offered Lillianna a hand.
Eyeing his outstretched hand, Lily prepared to grab it to pull herself up but paused.
"H-hey do you think… Do you think Cyprian really tried to hurt me?"
Even if he wasn't the best personality-wise, finding out that someone she knew would stoop that low… It caused her to feel a sharp pain in her heart.
Arvell looked down at Lillianna with a sorrowful gaze.
Arvell was quite familiar with the feeling she was experiencing right now… The gnawing feeling of betrayal in her heart… Wanting to believe the offending party didn't actually mean to hurt them… The loss of trust in everyone else after being burned once…
He felt conflicted. While Arvell didn't want to hold the truth back from Lillianna, he also didn't want her to go down the same route as him, alienating himself from everyone else to protect himself from ever going through that again.
Even now, Arvell kept up walls between those around him, constantly second-guessing the true intentions of those around him.
While he didn't want to admit it, living like that was taking a toll on his mind and body.
He didn't want Lillianna to go through that.
While he was in the middle of his mental battle, Lykos decided to intervene.
'If someone is after her life, she has a right to know. If she ends up distrusting everyone, then simply work to earn her trust afterwords.'
Arvell paused for a moment before following his mentor's words.
"It's the most likely scenario," Arvell answered with a slight exhale.
Lillianna put her head down, letting her hair fall and cover her face.
"I… I see…"
Dropping down to one knee, Arvell tightly clasped Lillianna's shaking hand.
"Don't worry, no matter what, I won't let you get hurt by that bastard."
Lillianna raised her head, and for a brief moment, the appearance of someone she hadn't seen in a while overlapped with Arvell's.
While the two were nothing alike appearance-wise, she felt they were similar in some aspects, along with their name.
Light returned to Lillianna's clouded eyes as she slowly nodded her head.
For some reason, she felt that nothing could hurt her as long as he was there.
Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been too busy these past few months.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢