I will not die a Villainess's death

"What is a young and cute thing like you doing here? I am sure my target was supposed to be older than you."

Elysia took small and hesitant steps into the alley, only to hear the voice taunting her. The dark alley made it impossible to see more than a few meters ahead, but that was not all.

The darkness also hid the feeling of magic surrounding Elysia. She knew that there was magic around her but Elysia could not access any of it.

Heck, she could not even access her magic.

"Oi, what should we do now? Should we kill her? Master would be so angry that we failed to capture our target."

Elysia had to guess where the speaker was standing but it was next to impossible. The alley was echoing the voice all around, making it difficult to track the source of that voice.

"Kill her? Of course not. We should capture her and take her back. We cannot go back empty-handed or master would kill us." The same voice yelled back.

To Elysia, it seemed like someone was having a one-man conversation. The same voice was asking questions and answering them at the same time.

"You idiot! At least ask if she knows that halfling before you go and make a plan like that. Master would not be happy to have a random tool brought back to him."

The voice argued back and Elysia finally gathered enough information to make an educated guess.

She had a small knife in her hand which had been hidden carefully in her braid before. It was a small and delicate thing but it was deadly enough.

Elysia aimed at and let it go. It siled past the mist and made an impact.

"Wooooo, be careful. Look, she almost managed to stab us even in this mist. Even if she's not connected with that halfling, she is still a danger. We should eliminate her right now."

Elysia did not like how this sounded. The smoke around her made Elysia's senses dizzy.

Not only that, but it also made her stomach protest. She felt like she was about to vomit her breakfast at any given second.

"I will have to agree. We cannot leave such a dangerous person to walk out of here alive. Let us end her now."

Elysia saw the fog part but she was unable to keep up with the attack.

It was one thing for her mind to know that an attack was coming, it was another for her body to react in time.

'Darn it. The fog is making my reflexes slow down. My body also feels hot and feverish.'

"Got her."

Elysia tried to dodge the next attack but it made contact with her side and send her flying. Her arm hurt at the impact but nothing seemed broken in her body.

But Elysia had not gone down without fighting. Her knife had managed to gaze at her attacker's arm and managed to get him bleeding.

Currently, both he and Elysia were injured and bleeding.

'A precaution. In case my blood doesn't work as a target for tracking spells.'

Elysia threw away the small knife in hopes that it would be discovered soon enough. Lord Dirac would have to send people after Elysia since his reputation will be on the line after Elysia went missing.

"Fuck this bitch. I cannot believe she managed to hurt me even in this state. But it shouldn't matter for much longer. Her body has taken in too many heat pheromones and she would not be able to hold on for long before begging us."

The man who had Elysia in his grip did not sound like a decent man.

Elysia realized that she might have messed up by letting herself be captured by such a man but she could not regret her choice. Especially not when it meant saving the life of someone important to Eve in the future.

"We should not linger around here. I can feel a fatal scent-marking on this girl. Hurry up and give her the suppressant before we are found."

Elysia opened her eyes, only to come face to face with a familiar green. The man had the same green eyes as the thing in her vision.

"Shit, there are here. We need to leave."

Darkness took Elysia over at the same time she felt the drug knock her out. The last thing she heard was a cry of her name coming out of a familiar pair of lips.

"ELYSIA…." Eve's cry was lost in the wind as darkness obstructed everyone's vision. The spell that had been used was a basic one but the suddenness of it took everyone by surprise.

It only took a single second to dispel the area but it was already too late. Elysia had disappeared from the area.

_________________________________

"What should we do now? We need to save Elysia at any cost."

Eve felt her mind panic as soon as she reached the empty alley. Elysia had been taken in front of her eyes and it was still difficult to believe how fast it had happened.

But Eve was not the only one who was taking this matter with a heavy heart. Adam had gone stiff as soon as his eyes landed on the empty alley but Eve could feel his body vibrating with anger.

'Adam is going to explode soon. I need to calm him down and fast.'

Eve felt horrible but she could still control herself. She was lucky that she was a human and has such an advantage.

However, Adam's half-dragon nature made his emotions a ticking time bomb. Eve knew he was dangerous but he had never felt this close to erupting before.

"She was not the intended target. I could hear them talk but my magic did not work in this fog."

Adam's words came out as growls. Eve understood his feeling of frustration and pain but she also knew wallowing around would not help.

"Fortunately, Elysia is smart and left us with clues on how to find her. You need to calm down or you will be of no help to her. Or, does the only thing you know how to do is to growl fruitlessly."

Adam's growl was a testament to how much that statement got to him. But the jab did not go unnoticed by him as well.

It was a testament to his willpower and his desire to help Elysia out that managed to calm him out.

Frankly, Elysia's familiar had managed to arrive at the right time and stop Adam from exploding all over the town. No one would have been safe if Adam's massive amount of magic had managed to pour itself over this town.

"I don't want to hear this come from a useless familiar like you. You didn't even manage to keep her safe."

Adam's words still had a hint of growl but they came out normally. However, Lord Sorias did not even flinch at the accusation that was made against him.

"I admit that I am also at fault here for following along with Elysia's wishes. She will not get another chance to trick me."

Lord Sorias's words sounded serious. The man was not playing around and his serious tone finally calmed Adam down.

But that did not eliminate the danger Elysia was in. They still needed to find her as soon as possible.

"It is as we expected. I cannot track Elysia even using her blood. Something is blocking me from being able to reach her. Our enemy is likely a magical beast as well who can block magic."

Eve had not noticed but Sara was nearby as well. The elder female seemed to be trying to get her magic working on the pool of blood but it seemed to be unreactive.

Eve was surprised to see her speak without her usual joy but the situation didn't exactly call for a cheerful response.

"I can always torch the whole village up and we can force our culprit our that way."

"You are joking, right? You do know that you are a Crown Prince and responsible for these people's lives? You will risk them all for one person?"

Eve had to say that Sara had some balls to talk back at Adam even when he was in such a bad mood. The teen was practically foaming at the mouth.

But Eve knew that Adam was not joking. If they did not give him a solution soon then he would carry out his threat.

"Anyway, you should calm your hormones down now or this fog would trigger your rut. Besides, Elysia left us with a parting gift so it will be rude of us not to use it."

Lord Sorias was the lord and savior of this situation. His hand had a small needle with a hint of blood on its surface.

But unlike the bloodstain from before, this time the needle seemed to be reacting to the spell.

Eve was not an expert in tracking magic but even she could tell that the spell had taken effect.

"Oi human, you take care of this dragon kit and make sure he doesn't go into a rut. Pump him with healing magic and sedatives to keep him under. Meanwhile, I will go and retrieve Elysia."

Eve did not need a reminder to do that. She knew Adam and she knew how he thought in these situations.

It would be impossible to hold him back so all Eve could do was try and calm his hormones down a little. She did not want any unfortunate accident to happen when they reach Elysia.

"No, I won't stay back. I will be going after Elysia whether you want me to or not."

Adam did not even wait until Eve was finished to snatch the knife and make it off. Eve somehow managed to keep a hold on to him and her body got transported along with him.

The fog had affected her as well, making her body feel hot and bothered but Eve would manage to hold out for some time.

And she would also make sure Adam doesn't do anything unwanted to Elysia. (And if something was going to happen then Eve wanted to be a part of it. She would not let Adam have Elysia alone.)

Meanwhile, the other two could only watch the chosen pair do what they wanted to.

"They took away the knife with them. How are we going to follow them?"

Sara almost cursed before she stopped herself. Now was not the time for her to be showing her spectacular vocabulary.

She did feel guilty to be the cause of this mess but she also knew that this was the best-case scenario.

It was fortunate that Elysia was the one who got taken instead of her. Sara would not have had enough presence of mind to leave a clue like this behind.

"Those impatient teenagers have no idea what they are doing and I will kill them if anything happens to Elysia because of them. But they are a hundred years too young to trick me."

Lord Sorias opened his hand and it contained a small compass made of blood. It seemed like he had a few tricks up his sleeve as well.

"Let's find Elysia before her brother decided to make an appearance. Lucas is not someone we can handle and I refuse to hear his lecture today."

The beast pair left the alley and headed toward their next destination.

Meanwhile, the Dirac guards were busy evacuating the Kelvin town in an emergency-case scenario. It was going to become a battleground soon enough.