"This is your plan? Let the ferocious beast capture the princess directly, and just watch?"
Loranhir's tone was filled with emotions she herself couldn't understand. The Heart of the Red Queen beat especially loud in the silent night.
This questioning and aura made Elaphia clearly feel enormous pressure.
Fortunately, she had already activated her backup plan.
"Simply luring the ferocious beast wouldn't be very useful; the root of the curse remains, and we urgently need to find it. Isn't that right?" Elaphia said. "Now we just need to follow the princess's scent to track her, and we can follow the trail. Not only that, we can also find those missing victims.
Don't worry, this is also part of the plan. We just need to follow the trail of the wind now."
Elaphia looked around, crimson flashing in her eyes. Her vampire senses could easily identify Patunasankus's scent in the air.
A delicious, subtle fragrance, gentle and elegant.
Vampires with insufficient self-control might not resist taking a taste, but Elaphia had no doubt the consequence would be perishing at the hero's hands.
"And there's no need to worry too much about the princess's safety. As far as I know, up until now, no victims' remains have been found. As long as we move quickly enough, nothing will happen," Elaphia continued to deceive.
Loranhir certainly didn't believe this.
"That's still not a reason for you to deliver the princess to the ferocious beast."
She stepped forward, her eyes staring directly at Elaphia. The pounding of the Heart of the Red Queen grew louder.
She didn't know where she got the courage to question and even offend Elaphia, the only person who might be able to find the princess.
Honestly, she didn't even know when she had stood there.
"If I had told you the plan directly, would you have agreed, great Hero?"
Elaphia felt immense pressure.
Under the intense oppression, she quickly realized that if she didn't actually follow the plan and track down the princess by her scent, the hero would undoubtedly kill her.
"No," Loranhir said decisively.
If she had known this white-haired person's plan was so dangerous, she would have definitely dragged the princess away to another city overnight.
Loranhir looked at the scholarly and calmly composed Elaphia before her, feeling a rising urge to smash the other's glasses.
But she simply dared not do so.
How punchable, this four-eyes.
Loranhir clenched her fists, but still didn't dare to strike.
"In that case, you would have forcefully ignored the princess's opinion and refused on her behalf, wouldn't you?"
Elaphia glanced at Loranhir's fists, cold sweat beading on her forehead.
She had heard that Loranhir could kill a bull with one punch even as a child. Who knew how terrifying the power of a punch would be now that she had become a hero?
"If it were Princess Latifa, she would certainly understand, for the sake of saving her best friend Evelyn," Elaphia sensed the wind speed with her hand. "If we don't hurry to the ferocious beast's lair, the princess's scent will disappear in the wind."
"Scent?"
Loranhir was alert.
She deliberately sniffed.
She couldn't smell anything.
"Don't misunderstand. I'm a scholar by nature. My expertise in scent detection is used to distinguish herbs. As a scholar, it's reasonable for me to also study some martial techniques for academic research, isn't it?"
Elaphia hurriedly explained, fearing the hero would identify her as a vampire thrall and immediately punch her to death.
Loranhir reluctantly accepted this explanation, then asked, "You just said we need to follow the scent to the ferocious beast's lair?"
"Yes, what's the matter?" Elaphia asked.
She clearly felt the Heart of the Red Queen of the hero before her becoming louder. She guessed this was the other preparing to enter a pre-battle state.
"Find the lair and then what?" Loranhir said. Though it was a questioning sentence, Elaphia heard it as a commanding tone.
"Naturally, we'll confront the ferocious beast, then search for the method to break the curse in its lair," Elaphia thought for a moment. She could certainly control the ferocious beast, but that would risk exposing her identity as a vampire thrall, which would be disastrous.
She specifically added, "If the great Hero is willing to act, everything can be perfectly resolved."
Loranhir was stunned, her heart pounding wildly again.
She would take action?
In her mind flashed the memory of her first encounter with the ferocious beast, with her as its target.
She remembered how unusually sharp the ferocious beast's teeth were, its claws much sharper than a wildcat's, but to be more precise, the spikes on its bone wings were long enough to impale a person.
Loranhir had no doubt it could easily tear her apart. A fear stemming from instinct arose spontaneously.
Last time was pure luck; the ferocious beast had spared her for some unknown reason. But what if she actively sought it out this time?
Loranhir didn't know what would happen.
She instinctively placed her hand on the hilt of the holy sword.
Rely on the holy sword that she didn't know how to draw?
No, that was absolutely unreliable!
She had never figured out how to make it unsheathe again. No matter how she polished the holy sword, how she prayed with incense, nothing worked.
Loranhir's heart pounded wildly, as if it would leap out of her chest.
She was truly afraid, afraid to the point of wanting to flee from this place.
But...
Loranhir suddenly raised her eyes and saw the bright full moon hanging high in the sky. She remembered a girl dancing under the moon, a girl with dandelion-colored hair.
If she was so afraid, how terrified must the princess be, now captured by the ferocious beast?
Loranhir couldn't help but wonder.
She closed her eyes, allowing various thoughts to float into her mind, and these thoughts were all about one person.
Remembering the warmth felt when holding her.
Remembering the softness touched when kissing her hand.
Remembering the confusion she revealed in the deep night.
Loranhir felt her heart beating "thump thump thump" wildly, and her hands were constantly trembling.
"Even if it's just an experience, having a coward like me as your knight... you really chose the wrong person, Princess."
The hero muttered in her heart.
Loranhir closed her eyes.
Yes, she was a coward, no doubt.
But...
She!
Was not a weakling!
It was as if she heard the crackling of forge fire again in her ears.