We were travelling to The Wasted Continent. The waves and sea breeze were a new experience for me. This was also the first time my Mistress had to travel this long by boat.

  I wasn’t ignorant of the world and I knew this voyage on the ship was just the calm before the storm.

  We all knew that we might not return home, our carcasses eaten or left to rot in a foreign land.

  But it was all worth it. For my Mistress, I’ll do anything. As would Rich and Leo.

  After we disembarked, we had to walk 10 days from the shore of the city of Houston to the designated stronghold closest to the King’s territories, a small place called Hogar.

  On the way, our dear spoiled lady didn’t take well to the sight of the undead up close.

  The first time she saw one up close, she vomited and we had to make an hour stop to calm her down.

  The other team went on without us. They didn’t have the patience to wait for her.

  We arrived at the stronghold without many problems after that.

  After acquiring the “object” by an agent of ours, the first team went first.

  Only the team leaders knew the path we’d take – Mary and Alason.

  The path we were supposed to take was peculiar.

  We could have just gone to get the “object” and then gone to a shipyard to take a ship upwards, allowing us to have a safe trip, but we had to cross the most dangerous place on the Continent.

  My instincts told me something was off about this mission.

  “This was what we were told to do. The Monarch’s orders. We cannot disobey,” was the reply I got from Alason when I found the chance to ask him.

  My Mistress replied the same thing, but didn’t elaborate. She didn’t know much. Neither of them knew much about a supposed “important” operation such as this one.

  We were supposed to go after the first team two days later, as per both leaders' agreement and decision.

  But it wasn’t even noon the next day when we learned that the first team was annihilated when Roosevelt returned, all battered up.

  We were all shocked. They were overall better combat-oriented than we were.

  While they were travelling, they stopped at a forward base where they tried to acquire additional information and decided to stay for the night as it was safer than camping outdoors.

  On the same night, a horde attacked.

  They were caught by surprise and by the time the humans could put up resistance, they had already lost too much ground.

  Some tried retreating into the buildings on the ground, while others went down into the bunker. They were part of the latter.

  After hours of fighting, they knew all hope was lost. The addition of an underground attack made their situation desperate.

  The only ways out they saw were to either kill the Ruler or to make a run for it.

  As the second plan could lead to the loss of the “object” they were transporting, they tried to assassinate the Ruler.

  They failed but managed to wound the Overlord by removing one of its arms.

  That gave them a slight chance to escape and they gambled on it.

  Not all could make it up to the ground area.

  The two that made it were Roosevelt and Alason. The rest were forced to become decoys.

  Before they managed to escape, Alason was taken down.

  Roosevelt said that a fast creature wounded his master’s legs. It stayed hidden afterwards in the darkness of the shadows, where even the moon didn’t shine.

  He wanted to help his master, but it was either him escaping or both of them dying as the undead had already caught up to them.

  Roosevelt couldn’t outrun a Runner while carrying Alason and he required both his hands in case the creature in the shadows attacked him.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Alason realised that and ordered him to run without looking back.

  The “thing” was in Alason’s possession at the time and the urgency of the situation didn’t permit Roosevelt to retrieve the “thing”.

  The creature that wounded Alason was a smart undead. It let Roosevelt go on purpose, but why it did was beyond me.

  We were all grieving, but we had to think of a way to retrieve the “object”.

  After consideration, we decided that we needed to use connections. We had to be fast. Time was of the essence.

  We met with the commander of the Stronghold and decided on a plan to visit the forward base and clear it. While the people do the mission, my team would search for our lost “object”.

  We offered to cover up to 5,000 dollars for him to make a mission, but he had to be fast.

  After a few days, the mission started.

  Since we were five in total and we needed teams of three, we looked for someone.

  My dear Mistress and I decided (she did so herself) to pick someone… peculiar.

  He didn’t give his real name and for his Mercenary rank – he was doing everything to evade the question, but I was sure he kept something hidden.

  He was also the same one who, two days before the mission to retake the “object” started, killed two Mercenaries in broad daylight without a care in the world.

  Mary and I saw the aftermath.

  Those buffoons just managed to anger the biggest lunatic in the entire stronghold.

  At first, I gave him the cold shoulder and kept my guard around him, but as we were on the mission, I realised how knowledgeable he was. How much of a threat he was.

  I found a few ways to test him and he passed with flying colours. His results were better than expected.

  Was he actually possessing a red or even the legendary black rank?

  I couldn’t know, but one thing made him even more peculiar to me.

  He managed to survive a fall of unknown length, fought off two Brutes, endured all that beating and remained relatively well afterwards.

  Even though I felt bad about stopping Mary from helping him immediately, I wanted to determine if he was a threat to us.

  As he was just about to come into danger, Mary was unable to bear it and provided him with supporting fire.

  If she hadn’t, it would have been I who did so.

  We retrieved the “thing” from our fallen comrade and returned safely. We were waiting for Mary to decide our next move.

  The problem was that Mary seemed to have wanted to apologise for her mistake that almost killed him.

  We also realised how strong the other agent from our organisation was…

  She was strong. Facing her made me feel fear I never knew existed. If we all had to fight her, we’d lose. My instincts told me to obey her words if I wanted to survive. If I wanted my Mistress to survive.

  It was… I understood I lacked. I knew I was far away from being able to defend my Mistress. I had to change.

  Even though we had rested and could go to our next destination, my Mistress seemed to be wasting more time than needed.

  She was the leader and no one objected. The mission also had no time limit.

  How strange… Why were we allowed to waste time?

  I should have said something to her, objected to this mission and told her nothing added up.

  I was her roommate and could have done so privately. Even if we couldn’t return to our country, we could have defected and saved our skins.

  Now it’s too late. We went too deep. We bit off too big a piece and now we’ll be paying the price.

  One night, I decided to see what was going on after realising that she was stalling for time.

  I only hoped she would stay away from that nameless person.

  I started my questioning by first grabbing her soft chest when we were both in the bath.

  Since we were both girls, it was fine.

  “What are you thinking about, my dear Mary? Why are you stalling for time?”

  I was going to try to beat around the bush, but couldn’t think of a better approach.

  After some hesitation, she replied.

  “You remember the one in our team? The one who didn’t give us his name?”

  This was bad…

  “The one you went twice to see how he was? To that shabby place? Where you…”

  I pray she didn’t mean him.

  “I was thinking of inviting him to travel with us. He said that he also had to travel north. We could help each other.”

  When she makes up her mind, there is nothing one can do.

  I could only support her after I gave her my warning.

  “Mary, he’s more than meets the eye. He is dangerous and I have no idea how much. It’ll be good to talk it over with our compatriots. They’ll support your decision, whatever it might be.”

  A few days later, we had a meeting with him as a team.

  He was mostly healed, which was a miracle in itself.

  All of us, except my innocent Mistress, had our guard up.

  We tested him. We concluded that he had an awful personality to all but my Mistress and was weaker than Roosevelt. At first sight, that is. He hid his real abilities.

  Although he could have tried to deceive us, my guard will always be up.

  I had to watch him. I have to protect my Mistress from all dangers.

  I’ll have to admit to being a bit jealous (not as much as Rich or Leo) after seeing that my Mistress tried to get close to him, maybe even… developing something. Some of their interactions seemed quite… lewd and inappropriate for a man and a woman…

  I fear the worst might have happened between them… No, think positively! My Mistress’ body is a holy temple! She wouldn’t have any man defile her before she marries the one she was looking for!

  But I was mostly worried that he’d kill us all. My instincts were always on edge with him. I felt slight fear. I feared him.

  He had the air of a murderer, but this wasn’t why I was so uneasy. Even when he proved his worth and reliability many times, my instincts screamed he was too dangerous.

  Even my Mistress tried a honey trap on him on a couple of occasions.

  The honey trap our sweet Lady was doing was breaking my heart.

  Not because of jealousy (not this time, at least), but because it often failed. Her only option was to get closer to him within reason, reducing his constant guard and finally getting him to speak more about himself.

  I almost wanted to ask him: ‘What’s with you?! What don’t you like about her!? She’s our most precious! We’d all kill for her and yet you reject her every time?!’.

  I just hope… that even if I could not be by your side, dear Mary, someone will make your wish come true.