The Flower of Separation

Zushi woke up from her dream-like state when she felt a familiar blood lust headed towards her. She has never met these people before, but this way of doing things was familiar to her.

Considering how she was in the Ageha family forest participating in their little game, naturally, the attacker was somebody from the Ageha family.

The person that stood in the center was a woman with mid-length curly black hair. At a glance, she looked older than she ought to; it didn't help how the girl wore thick makeup and tried to dress elegantly. The moment she got closer, Zushi understood.

A young girl.. "The seventh miss."

"Dam, when you put it that way, I don't sound important at all."

Her sweat fell when she heard those words. Does that matter in this situation? Zushi's gaze fell on the people beside the girl. "Correct me if I am wrong, but surely you are not allowed to bring your knights here?"

This is a survival challenge to see which is the strongest, a battle of strength, intelligence, and survival. So it made more sense to do the challenge alone. How did she bring these people in? Surely they couldn't have gone through the gate together?

As she thought this, she suddenly felt a sharp pain on her cheek and discovered that the girl had thrown a throwing knife in her direction.

Zushi sighed deeply. "You do know that attacks like that won't work on me, right?"

The cut on her cheek from moments ago seemed to heal when her butterfly familiars went near her. That's right, while she can heal. She cannot use it in public. But that doesn't matter since her familiars also have the same ability.

The power to heal is very rare in this Empire. If it was easy to obtain, then wars would never end since both sides could simply use healers to heal their wounded and fight endlessly. However, sacred creatures have this rare ability. But only those with pure light mana could control them.

So not only did she have the power to heal wounds, but her familiars also had the same. This is one of the reasons why nobody has attacked her yet since she became the Empress. Other than her eye power that commands people, she also had the power to heal. Even if they fought with her, she would heal her wounds.

There is a weakness in her familiar's healing abilities bit her actual ability was unlimited. She has never tried it before, but she can most likely bring somebody back from the dead if there are no restrictions.

Rosa clenched her fist. "You're brave, but even you have your limits. Besides, I think you forget what this place does to outsiders."

"The longer I stay here, the more disadvantageous it will be for me since I am an outsider; the forest spirit will drain my mana."

Rosa seemed startled that she knew the details. "Then, if you know that surrender quickly, give me your ribbon, and I will consider sparing your life."

The ribbon Rosa was talking about was her proof of participation in the game. While there was no direct rule about collecting another participant's ribbon, it seems it has become a tradition for the survivors. The more ribbons they collect, the more fear they will gather.

It is easy to swipe somebody's ribbon though harder to obtain the victim's blood on the ribbon. The ribbon they gave her was pure white, almost like they expected her to lose. They want whoever successfully steals her ribbon to paint it with the color of her blood.

Sir Lucas did say they would target her, but she didn't think it would be over something like this.

Zushi was about to say something when she caught something from the corner of her eye. One of Ageha Rosa's guards dragged somebody from the corner of her eye. Her eyes widened, alarmed when she saw who it was.

It was the young boy Mo had been searching for.

"Miss, what do we do about this?"

Rosa angrily turned to her guard. "Can't you see Im busy? Just toss that thing into the ditch. Geez, these outsiders, every single year, they try to snoop in here only to end up this way."

"Ugh, actually miss, it seemed like somebody dragged him here."

"Oh?"

"They say Miss Lillian has been searching for this kid too."

At those words, Rosa suddenly seemed interested. She quickly turned to the child. "Now that I have a closer look, isn't this the brat that was doing interviews around the mansion? Father gave special permission that day, but he ended up letting one of the guests escape, so Lillian dealt with him." Rosa scanned the boy up and down and sighed. "Geez, she is too soft; if she cut off his limbs before then, he wouldn't have been able to run off."

Zushi, who had been silently observing, got a very bad feeling after she heard those words. Before she could even react, she heard a screeching pain escape the boy's lips.

"Aaaaaaaghhh!"

In that second, she watched as they cut off the boy's right arm in one clean cut. The bloodied arm landed right in front of her feet. Zushi stood there frozen; her face color turned pale.

It is not like she doesn't know. Mo was so frantic about finding this child because she knew what would happen if the Ageha family caught him again.

Zushi, there is no reasoning with those people. Have you ever heard the saying that some people out there are monsters in human skin? That phrase mainly applies to the Ageha family. They have stepped over the boundary of what makes a person human and are more vicious than actual monsters.

I have to find him before they do. It is better to die than get caught again.

A few moments ago, Zushi did not find Rosa very threatening, but the situation has changed now. The naive-looking girl from moments ago had changed. There was a similar dark aura around her like she saw from Miss Lillian and from the Ageha family head. A feeling of oppression, no danger.

The girl's face was devoid of expression other than the murderous glint in her eyes. She walked over to Liam, who was tossing and turning on the ground, clenching the spot where his arm used to be.

Rosa immediately placed her foot on his face. "Unlike Lillian, I won't bother with games. There is no need to waste my weapon or even magic on vermin like you."