Chapter 461 Wait and see
Two weeks passed without Drannor and Noemi making any progress with their interactions with Milliendra. Drannor was getting impatient because even though the king and the queen recovered from their previous condition, they still could only rule the capital of the Sairus kingdom. The whole Ashiris kingdom was on Drannor's hands, and while he made preparations for his absence, he couldn't stay six months away from that place. He wished that he could bring Milliendra with him after they improved their relationship and then reveal the whole truth one day. Still, she didn't give anyone a single opening for them to get close. She was guarded with most people, just like Zaos was and that frustrated Drannor to no end… while that could help given that one day she would rule the two biggest countries in the world, it wasn't the way he had planned to raise his daughter.
"You are always wearing those gloves, right?" Drannor asked. "Why do you like them so much?"
"Daddy said that I can't talk to others about it…" Milliendra replied.
"You don't trust us yet?" Noemi asked. "Did we do something that you didn't like?"
"Your people kidnapped us and destroyed my home and hurt Mommy," Milliendra said, visibly annoyed, but then she lowered her head.
"We did that for a reason… did you know that the people there committed crimes?" Noemi asked.
"I know that… but I also know that you people aren't from there," Milliendra replied. "So, you have no right in punishing them. Those who worked for Daddy and Mommy committed some crimes. Still, they were forced to do it by magic, they never hurt or treated us badly… they were good people, and they died trying to protect us."
The mercenaries tried to be as subtle as possible, but it seemed that the kids realized what they had done. No wonder Milliendra was so guarded with them.
"While that is true, some of those people committed crimes in other countries," Noemi said. "Therefore, some of them needed to be punished by people of other countries."
Milliendra lowered her head since he didn't know what to say. Aleni told her that she had done many bad things in the past. She regretted those, even though she was forced to do them. Because of that, Milliendra knew that what Noemi said was true.
"... That looks like a powerful magic item," Noemi said. "Can't you tell us something that it can do? In exchange for that… we can tell you something interesting."
"I am sorry, but I won't say anything," Milliendra said.
"Then why don't we start first?" Noemi said while looking toward Drannor. "We have known Zaos for many years… do you know who Zaos is?"
"It is Daddy…" Milliendra said, slightly interested.
"Drannor has known your father since the time he was smaller than you, right, Drannor?" Noemi asked.
"... Yes," Drannor said.
"See? We aren't your enemies," Noemi said. "You can trust us."
Milliendra looked away because she knew what those two were planning, but she still didn't want to share anything with them. Noemi sighed because Milliendra was too smart for a nine-year-old girl… they will have to tell her a lot more before she can give them anything or open up to them.
"Around thirteen years ago, your daddy and Mommy came to my birthday party on this island," Noemi said. "I became good friends with them. We had a fun time, despite the fact that some bad people tried to hurt us."
Noemi decided to talk about Drannor and Ameria, and while Milliendra was misunderstanding things imagining Zaos and Aleni. Eventually, she wanted to fix those misunderstandings, but for the time being, it was time since she got Milliendra's attention. While on the first day, they didn't get anything from Milliendra, they insisted for several days. As Milliendra listened to them, she confirmed that they knew a lot about Zaos, and even though she didn't want to lower her guard, she could only do so for so long. Despite that, Milliendra was also thinking about something else… if he gives them some information, perhaps she could hear something that might help them escape.
"... This is to protect me," Milliendra said. "But Daddy said that I should only fight when there is no other choice."
"Protect you? From what?" Noemi asked.
"From people that might try to hurt me," Milliendra replied.
Drannor and Noemi didn't see any signs that Milliendra had been trained. While they wanted to ask for a demonstration, maybe it wasn't a good time to ask for it so soon. They did that after a few more days and after telling many things about Zaos' youth. In the end, Milliendra showed them what she could do with the gloves… she grabbed a rock of the size of her hands and then crushed it with only one.
Noemi opened her eyes widely after seeing that… that was a strength that not even some adult warriors had. She wondered how come she didn't hurt any of the mercenaries that Captured her… but then she assumed that she didn't try because she wasn't the only target, and the other kids might be punished for it.
Later that day, Noemi talked about the fact that the magic gloves were weird since they never ran out of mana. She also asked if magic items could have more than one effect because if they couldn't, his theory about the gloves being used to fool her would be wrong. While he said that they could, he also said that they couldn't have effects that were too different from each other. Besides, neither of them saw the magic stones in the gloves.
"Those gloves have some secrets, and we need to discover them," Drannor said. "Milliendra is too wary of us, so we can't take it while she sleeps… we will have to wait and see what more she can tell us. Be careful not to scare her more already, we can't afford to make her close herself to us."
