The beast had just slowly followed us the whole way, not doing any weird movements. At least, that’s what Hank was saying since he was the only one even able to see it from where he was currently standing.

None of us could even see it for some reason when it was so “obvious” from his point of view. He was even ridiculing me for it. After all, we were around the same strength level, with me being a tiny bit stronger since I was putting in actual work compared to Hank. However, when it came to things like that, Hank’s talent was miles ahead of mine, especially in terms of asserting his surroundings.

He was extremely good at it, much better than me, which was also one of the reasons why seeing that invisible creature was so simple to him. Nevertheless, I was happy to have him around; it made things a lot easier when it came to taking care of both Phoebe and Amelia.

“Before we arrive to the Icy Lake, I want to talk to you two,” I said, clearly talking to Phoebe and Amelia.

The two of them looked over at me with slight frowns, unsure why I was talking to them out of nowhere. After all, for the past hour, we had all been quiet, waiting for something strange to happen since we were getting closer and closer to Zero.

“What is it?” Amelia asked.

“Once we arrive at the Icy Lake. I want the two of you to hide. Don’t even think of taking part in this fight. You will only get hurt as a result. Me and Hank will deal with it ourselves, we are much stronger than the two of you, and it shouldn’t be too hard to capture Zero if we are the two of us.”

Phoebe’s eyes widened. “But—” Continue your journey with empire

“No buts. Don’t you remember what happened when we last met Zero?” I shook my head. “You might freeze out of fear once you see him because of what happened in the past. And don’t you remember how long it took you to agree to come with me?” I didn’t want to hurt her with my words, but she needed to hear the truth about this matter. “You are scared of him, and if you take part in this fight you will only make things harder for both me and Hank.”

Amelia, who was listening, also frowned. “What about me? You don’t even know how strong I am! I’m sure I can be of help to the two of you!”

I shook my head again. “You said it yourself. I have no clue about your strength. I do not know how powerful you are, and if you aren’t up to par, then you will also be dead weight in this fight.”

“D-Dead weight?! How do you think I became the Queen of the Ice Elves!” she said with a clear frown on her face. I could even hear it in her voice that she was definitely angry at me.

“You two won’t participate in the fight. This discussion ends here, and I don’t want to hear anyone complaining anymore. Am I clear?”

I had no choice but to be firm with my words. I usually tried to be nice to the two of them. However, this was serious; I could not fail in taking down Zero since if I did, I had no idea how much time it would take me to have a clue of where he hid himself once again.

This was my one and only chance at this. I wouldn’t take any risks no matter what.

Both Phoebe and Amelia also understood that, as their mouths both shut once they saw the look on my face. I was not playing around like usual, and my choice would never change. I didn’t get angry or serious often, but when I did, it meant that the situation truly required it.

The two of them sulked as we walked forward, their shoulders dropping and their mouths pouting.

It was as if they were trying to act as cute as possible to make me change my mind. However, there was no chance that I would. Still, I had to admit that the two of them did look quite cute as they walked forward. Amelia kept looking back in my direction, averting my gaze every time, her face turning red from just a glance.

I honestly still had no clue why she was feeling so shy around me. I hadn’t done anything weird to her as far as I knew, so I could only guess what was going through her mind, and right now it wasn’t anything that made sense to me. After all, she had no reason to be embarrassed. The only embarrassing thing she had done was crying in front of me. It really wasn’t anything that should cause such a reaction.

Nevertheless, we were now getting extremely close to the Icy Lake. Amelia had told us that we were less than ten minutes away from the Icy Lake.

I looked over to Hank, and he was still unbothered by everything.

“Hank, I hope you know that this is a serious situation,” I uttered. I did not want him to act his usual way, not caring about anything.

He sighed. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll make sure that we will capture this bastard. After all, I need to do so if I want what the Emperor promised me.”

As he said those words, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of rewards the Emperor had promised Hank. He was one of the laziest people in the Human Kingdom. He wouldn’t even move if I asked him to; it was just how he was. So, whatever the Emperor, a complete stranger to Hank, had promised him, it had to be very important.

“Good. And remember, if we can’t capture him, we need to kill him before he escapes our grasp. We have one shot at this, and we don’t want to throw it away.”

Hank just waved his hand in a dismissive manner. “You worry too much. There’s no way in hell that he’ll be able to handle the two of us.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep