Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

At this moment a cracking noise came from Ted's frozen body alerting the both of them.

Cecilia was surprised when the ice statue started making cracking noises but was relieved to find that there was no further movement. "Don't worry he is completely frozen" Irene assured.

Nodding her head, Cecilia observed her surroundings and seemed to be still in a daze. "What was that white light?" she asked as she had also seen the white light cracking out of the ice and disappearing.

"It was a sound transmission," Irene calmly said, one couldn't see even a trace of worry in her brilliant crystal blue eyes.

Cecilia made a worried face and asked "A sound transmission? If the word gets spread there will be more trouble…".

"Don't worry, most of the content of the sound transmission was destroyed. Even if they received the transmission, they wouldn't be able to understand the main subject of the transmission" Irene gave her a gentle smile and assured.

"Now let's hurry and free your clan members" She said as she walked towards the room at the end of the corridor which was the only place that wasn't frozen.

"Un" Cecilia nodded and strode towards the room where she felt the presence of her brethren. She stopped before the door and took a deep breath, with a determined look on her face she opened the door and entered in. The atmosphere inside the room could only be said as sombre, dark, and gloomy.

The Forest Spring Spirit children had a deadpan look on their faces and it looked like all of them had resolved themselves to their fate. Looking at their miserable and sorry figure, Cecilia's eyes glossed over, tears threatened to leak out of her eyelids.

All of them had a collar inscribed with complex runes and gems on their necks. In the human world, the collar in someone's neck represents their position as a slave. Once one gets enslaved by the collar, they lose all their free will and are subjected as an object of their master.

Unless one gets their collars off, they can never betray their master nor can they go against their order. She tightly clenched her small hands and a cold fury started burning within her.

Cecilia looked at all their faces and called out "Maya, Sara, Jarred, Zen… everyone".

One by one all of them raised their head and looked at Cecilia with wide disbelieving eyes. One of the girls named Maya who appeared to be six or seven years old stood up and hurriedly ran towards her. Hugging her tightly Maya sighed in relief, however, the next moment she asked in a shaken and teary voice "Cecilia what are you doing here? Did those adventurers catch you too?".

Hearing Maya, many of them dejectedly sighed after all Cecilia showing up here suddenly meant that those hateful adventurers were able to catch her too.

Jarred who was the oldest among the children came up to the two of them and asked: "Cecilia what happened? Did the patriarch and the others fail to escape?".

Seeing that she became gloomy at the mention of her father, jarred hurriedly changed the subject. He clenched his hands and said with conviction "Don't worry Cecilia, it was our parents and patriarch's wish to let you escape. So even if it costs us our life, we will help you escape from here". His resolute voice lit a fire inside the other children who had a gloomy and sombre aura. They all agreed with him.

"Yeah we must protect her at any cost"

"I heard my father saying that she was the only hope of her clan"

"Then we must protect her from those evil adventures"

"How do we do that?"

"Those adventurers might be lurking outside… we need a plan".

Discussion of such started sounding out among the Forest Spring Spirit children. Even while being aware that they might die, none of them backed out. Looking at their determined faces, Cecilia couldn't help but get emotional. She hurriedly shook her head and said "It is not what you think".

"Huh? What do you mean?" Jarred asked making a confused face. It was not only them but even the other children and Maya who was a close friend of Cecilia made a similar face.

Maya held Cecilia's hand into hers and asked "What do you mean Cecilia?". Cecilia inhaled a deep breath of air and said in a firm tone "Listen everyone it is not what you think. I haven't been captured by those adventures, I came here to rescue you all".

Maya looked at her in surprise and finally noticed that Cecilia didn't have a slave collar like them.

"What are you saying, Cecilia? If they didn't capture you then why would you come back here on your own accord? Don't you know how dangerous of a place this is?" Jarred pressed for an answer.

"It's true she doesn't have a slave collar," Maya said, joy and relief apparent in her voice.

Hearing Maya many of them finally noticed that Cecilia had no collar but the next moment they became confused once again. If Cecilia wasn't captured by those evil adventurers then what was she doing here, surely she wouldn't be here to save them as she just said right?.

Many of them had such thoughts but they quickly extinguished them as there was no way a Forest Spring Spirit could match those adventurers after all their race wasn't suitable for combat.

She looked at all her friends and said in an unwavering voice "I am here to save you all. Currently, there are no adventurers outside, we must get out of here as soon as possible". Maya, Jarred, and all of them looked at her bewildered at what she was saying.

Maya tightly gripped Cecilia's hands and asked "What do you mean that there are no adventurers outside Cecilia? There should be lots of them stationed outside, they are so strong that even our parents together weren't able to hold them back". She had a distressed and pained expression whenever she recalled those moments.

Observing her best friend, Cecilia understood that she had gone through a similar experience. As if assuring Maya by tightly gripping her hands in return, she directly looked into her eyes and said "Those strong adventurers are currently outside the village and those who remained behind are already dead".

She looked at the wide disbelieving eyes of the other and stated "It is the truth. There are no longer any adventurers outside, so we must run away now. Come with me".

Maya could see hope and pleading in the depths of Cecilia's eyes as she said those words. They were the best of friends and knew the other party very well but she still couldn't bring herself to believe that there were adventurers outside. She asked the question that was on everybody's mind "How is that possible Cecilia? Those strong adventurers… how could they die so easily?".

Cecilia was aware that she sounded ridiculous from their point of view and it was very hard for them to believe her.. However, no matter what she couldn't back out now, she must make sure that they get out of this place.