Chapter 337: A Male?
A woman stood in front of Erin, the leader of the hunting groups that Akira belonged to. When Erin was asking the others about Akira, this woman had not been around, and there was a reason for this.
After hearing Erin's alarm, all the powerful women had abandoned whatever they were doing and formed a relatively small circle with Erin and the woman in question. They were all equally curious because they had spread out and thoroughly searched their surroundings, including the lake she had been at the other day. Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire
Yet the search had yielded no results, which led them to believe that something terrible had happened to Akira.
Erin folded her arms across her chest, her emerald eyes as sharp as blades as she demanded in a tone that left no room for hesitation: "Go on, tell me what you saw."
The woman hesitated for a brief moment, her expression uneasy as all eyes fell on her. She swallowed hard under Erin's piercing gaze but steeled herself and said, her voice shaky but clear enough for everyone to hear:
"General... I— I was in my tent last night, not far from Princess Akira's tent," she began, fidgeting slightly with her fingers. "At some point in the night, I woke up... because I thought I heard something outside. I looked out to check, and..." She paused, her eyes darting around nervously before settling on Erin. "...I saw an outline."
"An outline?" Erin repeated, her brows knitting together.
"Yes!" The woman nodded firmly. "It was faint, but it was clearly a figure. It looked... human. The way it moved, it was as though it knew exactly where it was going. It passed through the shadows, heading in the direction of the Princess's tent."
Gasp! Gasp!
"A human, in our Kingdom? This doesn't make sense."
"How did they get into the dimension? How did they bypass the security at the entrance?"
A collective gasp rippled through the circle of Valkyries. Some exchanged glances, while others began whispering among themselves. Erin was equally shocked in her heart; however, she stood rooted to the spot, her expression dark and contemplative.
"A human figure?" Erin muttered to herself, her eyes narrowing as fragments of memory pieced together in her mind.
It was that strange feeling...
When she had gone to find Akira by the lake the night before, Erin remembered feeling a faint, almost imperceptible disturbance in the air—as if something unseen had brushed past her. It was brief, so she dismissed it as nothing. But now...
Her jaw clenched, and she turned sharply to the woman. "Are you certain of what you saw?"
"Yes, General," the woman replied, nodding again. "I didn't think much of it at first. I thought it might have been my imagination, but now the Princess is missing..."
Silence fell again, heavier than before, as everyone tried to register what had been said. Some of the Valkyries were still in doubt. How did she see this outline, and they didn't? It just didn't make sense... Was she indirectly trying to say their senses were much weaker?
The woman sensed their doubts and hurriedly said, "Also, my class, Seer, grants me the ability to see spirits or those who use invisibility skills. Usually, I can see them clearly as my skill is at the Advanced level, but for some reason, I could only see the outline of that figure."
Hearing this, Erin's eyes burned with determination as her voice echoed across the circle. "If what you say is true, then there's no doubt someone infiltrated our camp and kidnapped the Princess."
"How could this happen?!" one of the women exclaimed.
"Whoever it was must be extremely powerful," another added grimly. "To bypass our security unnoticed..."
Erin raised a hand, silencing the murmurs. Her face was calm, but her eyes glinted with a dangerous light.
"No matter who or what they are, they've made a grave mistake," Erin said coldly. "We will find this intruder, and we will bring the Princess back."
With that being said, the Valkyries dispatched to find this intruder.
---
Meanwhile, far from the Valkyrie camp, Nox and Akira stood on an open plain bathed in the soft glow of dawn. The golden hues of the rising sun stretched across the horizon, casting long shadows across the tall grass.
Akira looked slightly disheveled, her silver-grey hair falling loosely over her shoulders, her cheeks still tinted pink from the events of the night before. She folded her arms and stared at Nox, her expression caught somewhere between fascination and irritation.
"Are you always this reckless?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as Nox stretched his arms lazily.
"I wouldn't call it reckless," Nox replied with a casual grin, his dangerous dark eyes glinting with confidence. "I'd call it... efficient."
Akira let out a soft sigh and ran a hand through her hair. "We're lucky Erin didn't catch you back there. If she had..." She shuddered. "I don't even want to think about what she would've done to you."
Nox chuckled softly, unfazed. "You worry too much. I had everything under control."
Akira narrowed her eyes at him, but her expression softened slightly. She couldn't deny that there was something... mesmerizing about him. He carried himself with an air of self-assurance that most people didn't have—like someone who was always one step ahead.
She liked this a lot! Or were all humans just like this?
---
Meanwhile,
"General, I see footprints!" one of the women reported their findings to Erin, who had an extremely dangerous expression on her face.
The woman added with her brows furrowed: "And from the footprints, it doesn't belong to a Valkyrie. Cassandra is right; a male has infiltrated our land."
"Good, let's keep moving in that direction. This male has a lot of explaining to do." She narrowed her eyes as she said dangerously, "If his explanation isn't tangible enough, I'll be forced to use him to set another exam for those lowly beings."
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