Lucky's POV

Later on, I was surprised that in the blink of an eye the rebels were in front of me, my clothes were back to normal.

I was surprised when they all bowed down and knelt in front of me, I slowly stood up and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“What the...” What I was about to say hung in the air, Hanno spoke even though he was still on his knees.

“We took an oath, whoever defeats our recognized leader will be our new leader who will follow and dedicate our lives and serve for life if no one has defeated him/her yet,” He stopped speaking for a moment and looked into my eyes. “And since you defeated him, from now on, you will be our new Impératrice.” Nag bukas-sara ang labi ko't napakurap-kurap ang mga mata dahil sa 'king narinig. Kinakapa ko ang mga salitang dapat kong sabihin pero walang lumalabas na salita sa bibig ko, I become speechless.

“Lucky, you still lucky.” When Zaphael said that, that was followed by laughter, so I rolled my eyes at him and then sneezed.

Is that lucky? Saan namang banda?

“Paano kung sabihin kong ayoko?” I asked them defiantly, and I heard their heavy breathing, Hanno scratched and then they spoke something I couldn't understand, so I frowned.

“Ang salitang binitiwan namin ay kasing lakas ng salita ng mga salita ng panginoon kaya sa ayaw mo man o sa gusto, wala kang magagawa kun'di...ang pumayag.” My eyes widened at what Hanno said, and all the rebels nodded.

I close my eyes then sigh.
It seemed like I could do nothing but agree to what they wanted.

After that conversation, we left the forest while the rebels took us to the top of the mountain. Sabi ko hindi naman kailangan pero nag matigas sila na ihatid kami dahil baka may mangyari sa amin na masama.

Sabi ko kaya na namin ang aming mga sarili. Nagawa nga naming patumbahin sila. Ano pa kaya ang iba?

Napataas ang kilay ni Jorvina nang makasalubong namin ito pag dating namin sa taas ng bundok, umakyat na lang kami sa bundok at hindi na ginamit ang portal dahil hindi sila kasya sa portal na gawa ko.

“Where did you go?” Jorvina asked while Linglie just looked at us all with serious expression.

Inabot na kami ng gabi dahil kakaakyat lang namin ng bundok pero hindi ako nakaramdam ng pagod dahil binuhat ako ng isa sa mga rebelde.

I felt so deprived kasi ayoko ng gano'n pero wala akong nagawa kundi ang pumayag. Bakit ba hindi ko sila magawang tanggihan?

Pero hinayaan ko na lang sila kasi may atraso sila sa 'min ni Zaphael, iyong ginawa nila noong una.

“You left alone and now when you come back, you have a lot with you.” I bit my lower lip because of what Linglie said, there was no emotion and she seemed impatient with what she said.

“You don't intend to turn my house into an orphanage, do you?” I laughed at what Jorvina said and then shook my head.

“It's not like that, those Anthegwere will also leave, they just brought us here. But can Alas live here from now on?” I hesitated to ask them, Jorvina sighed and then nodded slowly.

The rebels were about to leave when they were stopped because Jorvina said something.

“Tomorrow morning we will leave for the Atlantic Kingdom.” I nodded then looked at Hanno as he spoke.

“We will accompany you, Impératrice.” I frowned at what he called me.

Impératrice?
That's a french language—maybe these Anthegwere acquired the French language before being locked inside this book.

“They call their leader Impérator or Impératrice.” Maybe Jorvina noticed that I was unaware of that thing, so she answered, I nodded and in surprise turned my gaze back to Jorvina because she didn't seem to even wonder why I was called the Impératrice by the Anthegweres.

It was as if she already knew that I had defeated the evil and former leader of the rebels.

Tumango lang ako kay Hanno tapos nag lakad na sila pababa ng bundok, paglingon ko sa kanila wala na si na Zaphael, Jorvina at Linglie. Si Alas lang ang nandito sa tabi ko habang nakatitig sa akin kaya napakunot ang noo ko.

“What?”

He shook his head and then smiled, I was surprised by his actions and then we went inside.

When we entered, Linglie accompanied Alas to his room, I was very surprised because as far as I know, there is no room available but Jorvina said, Linglie would use her power to have another room which really amazed me.

“How about Khael?” Hindi ako makapaniwala tumingin kay Jorvina nang tanungin niya iyon.

My eyes narrowed.
“What's with Khael?” She averted her gaze then I noticed that her cheek was turning red but she laughed, maybe to remove the disgust she felt.

“If you are looking for Khael he is gone, he went to the Celestial World and maybe tomorrow he will show up to me because we are going to the Atlantic Kingdom,” I smiled but immediately frowned. “What Continental is the Atlantic Kingdom?”

“It's a Water Continent, an underwater Kingdom.” I stared in shock.

Wow! Ngayon palang ay nasasabik na ako pumunta sa kaharian na iyon.

Naging malikot ang isip ko't naisip agad ang ganda ng Atlantic Kingdom.

How can we get there? Will we go underwater? I used to only watch such movies but now I can go there tomorrow!

Are there mermaids there? Napaisip ako bigla kung isda ba ang mga tao sa kahariang iyon pati na rin ang Hari at Reyna? Ngunit kung sila ay isda o may lahi ng isda, anong uri ng pagkain ang kanilang kinakain? Kumakain rin ba sila ng isda? I winced suddenly at the thought, as if it made me sick to know that what they eat is like them, but I don't know if that's true and I want to know.

“Why are we going there? Will there be another war?” I placed my right palm on my chin and stared at her.

She sighed before answering.
“Yes there is, we received recently that they have a late spy roaming the kingdom and they did everything they could to convince that man.” She explained.

“Did he admit it?”

“Yes but the only thing he said was the imminent attack of his members, he did not say who was plotting the impending war and because of that, the King called us to help in the war.” I nodded and just kept quiet until Linglie came and cooked our food.

Habang nagluluto si Linglie ay nag-uusap lang sila ni Jorvina at ako naman ay nakikinig lang sa kanila, nang matapos magluto si Linglie ay inutusan niya 'kong tawagan ang iba dahil kakain na, kaya lumabas na ako ng kusina.

The first person I went to was Nizza, who was in her room and she was busy writing something, she just nodded at pinapunta ko na siya sa kusina kasi dalawa pa ang tatwagin ko.

Alas was the next one I went to, I knocked and I saw him sitting on the bed as I looked around the whole of his room. Wala sa oras na napangiti ako because he would experience sleeping on something soft and not just on a hard rock inside the cave.

“Alas, the food is cooked, you can now go to the kitchen.” He was still confused, so I also told him where the kitchen was, he still doesn't know the ins and outs here inside the house and this house is wide but on the outside it's just small when you look at it.

I walked for a while until I reached Zaphael's room, just opposite to my room.

Kumatok ako pero walang nag bukas ng pinto, nagsalubong ang kilay ko nang malaman kong hindi nakasara ang pinto ng kwarto niya, kaya pumasok ako pero nagulat ako kasi sobrang dilim sa loob.

Habang dahan-dahan sa paglalakad nagulat ako ng biglang may tumunog kaya napatakbo ako sa gulat at napasigaw ako nang matumba ako kasi may nabangga ako.

My eyes widened as from the light of the moon I saw Zaphael's face just staring at me, I felt like he was wearing no clothes.

H-he's N-naked! Damn it!

I could feel his skin on my bare skin, I blinked as I felt a lump in my abdomen. Matigas na bagay—I hope I don’t know what it is, but I can’t be wrong because that’s his—darn it!

I quickly got up and moved away from him, my eyes widened even more when he stood up I could see his nakedness even the salute in the middle part of his body, he quickly covered it with his palm and I turned around and covered my eyes even though it was dark.

“Y-you Jerk!” I stuttered, and I heard him cursing softly and eventually he stopped cursing, so I turned a little bit only to turn back again and then I saw him turn back and still not getting dressed.

Nagdadalawang isip akong lumabas ng kwartong iyon out of awkwardness at nang maramdaman kong malapit na ako sa pinto ay nag salita ako.

“Just go to the kitchen to e-eat.” I stuttered at the last word I said,

Nakahinga na ako ng maluwag pagkalabas ko. I suddenly grabbed my chest because of its strong beating, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath then walked to the kitchen.

Pag dating ko sa kusina napansin ko agad ang kakaibang tingin sa akin ni Jorvina, kaya napakunot ang noo ko. Bakit parang alam na niya agad ang nangyari? Bakit parang ang bilis niya lagi?

Hindi ko na lang pinansin ang kakaibang tingin niya at umupo na ako sa upuan at saka kumuha ng pag kain. Makalipas ang ilang oras ay dumating na si Zaphael.

There was food in my mouth when our eyes met so I suddenly choked. Fortunately, Nizza handed me water because she was just next to me.

After that Zaphael sat in his chair, we both avoided looking when our eyes met again and after that, we never spoke.

Hanggang sa matapos ang pagkain ay isa-isa silang nagpaalam na matutulog na habang naiwan si Jorvina dahil maghuhugas ng pinggan, sabay pa kaming nag lakad ni Zaphael papunta sa mga kwarto namin.

Biglang hindi ko maintindihan yung sarili ko n'ong biglang magkadikit ang aming mga braso, feeling ko masusunog ako na ewan.

Pag pasok ko ay napabuntong-hininga ako saka pumikit at napahawak sa dibdib ko kung nasaan ang puso, hindi naman mabilis tumibok pero masakit sa hindi ko malamang dahilan.

Suddenly a scene came to my mind, a scene where the tattoo gradually spread and I also saw a heart surrounded by thorns. Those thorns seemed to sink deep and constrict a heart until little by little it seemed like the heart would explode and only five digits of the heart would explode.

I opened my eyes and I was holding the wall with my right hand, I was breathing fast and my heart hurt a bit. Suddenly I felt dizzy, my eyes were spinning and I felt like I was slowly running out of breath for reasons unknown to me.

Oh! God!

What does this feel like?
Why do I need to feel this?

To be continued...