My whole body feels numb. What happened?

Sofia opened her heavy eyelids. Her whole body felt weak and she can't even muster force to move her body. The rainbow lights in the sky greeted her face, she had to blink for a few times to let her eyes adapt to the brightness. She felt the fresh air and the scent of trees, and the familiar feathery sensation caressed her back.

Am I at a high altitude? And forest per se? Am I on Aoi's back? These questions popped up in Sofia's head.

When her eyes had finally adjusted to the light, she confirmed her doubts. She looked at the Blue Feathers where she was lying down.I'm really on my partner's back. But where are Fein and Voli?

Sofia looked dazed, she only remembered that she fought the golden-eyed golem and she blacked out. But she has speculation about what happened. She must have experienced what Fein had experienced, draining their degu reserves or the so-called degu poisoning.

p I didn't expect degu poisoning was this serious, I feel that someone treated my body like a punching bag.

After resting for a few minutes Sofia stood up, destroyed fallen trees, and several deep pits in the ground entered her sight. She instantly determines that Fein and Voli have encountered something and fought with it.

Did they fight monsters? Sofia frantically scanned the area hoping two see their silhouettes.

It didn't take long for her, she saw an eye-catching giant head and a headless body covered with blood.Wtf is that!?

She took two steps back, her heart rate jumped, and she felt cold all over her body.Aoi who was busy flying felt the movement on her back, she tilted her head excitedly and saw her master had woken up. She chirped happily and began to do some acrobatics in the air.

"Aoi stop!" Sofia felt dizzy.

She tried to Aoi from doing acrobatics in the air. Aoi instantly stopped, and it flew towards Fein's position with her ears that wiggled every now and then.

Sofia felt warmth seeing her excited partner.

She must be very worried about me.

After she calmed down, she began to analyze the traces in the surroundings. From the separated head on the ground and the headless body. It was already obvious they fought with humans. Because they haven't encountered any humanoid monster yet except the two golden statues. And statues don't shed blood. But she knew that fighting between explorers isn't rare, because everyone is wary of each other, the resources in the Secret Realm are valuable, and robbing others could get them rich quickly. In the face of benefits, even allies might turn to each other.

Sofia's thoughts were interrupted because she felt Aoi descend slowly. She shifted her gaze to the ground. Two familiar silhouettes and two that aren't. She saw Fein holding a sword as he seems to be talking to them, he casually swung the sword, and three fingers flew up and blood flowed rapidly.

Sofia heard only heard them scream like a pig. She knew what Fein was doing in an instant.

Those poor guys got tortured for information. Sofia wasn't new to things like this. Because as the one who would inherit her father's mantle, she was groomed to be one, and she had already seen a lot of dark things such as torturing a spy for intel. The only thing she really lacked is an experience in the outside world. that's why she was venturing through the mountain in the first place to expand her worldview.

Fein turned his gaze at met Sofia's eyes, his eyes squinted for a moment before he smiled at her. "I'm sorry that you have to witness such a scene after waking up.""Don't worry, I'm already used to this." Sofia jumped to the ground after measuring the altitude.

The corner of his mouth twitched after hearing her unexpected answer. "These guys aren't willing to divulge anything at all."

Sofia looks at the twins curiously, the two only stared in the air with red teary eyes and their kimonos which has their snots everywhere, then she looks at bloody fingers and nails scattered on the ground.

"They are a tough nut to crack huh?" Sofa muttered.

Fein nodded, he shifted his eyes at the two again causing them to flinch. Their toes shook, and they looked at him tremblingly.

"Please just kill us!"

"We won't say anything no matter what! Even if we say anything, the leader would hunt us and our family would be implicated!"

Fein sighed and gripped his sword. "It seems you two aren't really willing to talk."

"Oh, are they the ones sent by my father's arch-enemy?" Sofia raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah, the one who was called Maxwell Grayfold? What's up with that guy and your father?" Fein asked curiously hoping to get some information from Sofia's mouth.

Sofia shook her head at this and looked at the twins thoughtfully. "I also don't know. When I asked my father about that guy, he only talked about their rivalry when they were teens, but apart from that, he wasn't willing to tell his story even to me."

"Some secret must be involved in this. Well, I would investigate this myself, I can't let that bastard just walk like this over me without doing anything."

Sofia's face shook after hearing Fein's declaration. "But that old man is an S-class. And he has a lot of power on his hand as the leader of a faction. And he was ruthless enough to kill innocent people."

"Don't worry about that, your father is there to keep him in check. Why do you think he sends his subordinates instead of killing me personally? There might be a reason for this. So it wouldn't be too risky for me. I'm not the type of person that would just swallow things when they spit at me." A cold glint appeared in his eyes.

Even Sofia and the twins shuddered inexplicably.