Chapter 310: Feeling Uneasy

When Aalto was still immersed in the sorrow from the funeral earlier, in the suburb area, in the air above the Melzer Black Forest, Lucien was bidding farewell to Natasha.

"Please take care of my family, Natasha. I have this feeling that my mission to take the letter to the Dark Mountain Range will change my life greatly in a short period of time. Maybe I'll become stronger, but this would bring me more attention from the Church, and they probably will know that my death is a lie. So, if my family does not report me to the Church, be careful, so you can be more prepared when the Church finds it out. This is also another reason why I did not let you kill Clown on the spot. Normally, if we had colluded, you would have killed Clown directly," said Lucien gently and sincerely.

Natasha was still wearing the black plain dress, and she was quite impressed, "I feel the pressure of being a sorcerer's friend. You guys always have more than one purpose when doing things. Come on, Lucien, are you still hiding anything from me?"

In fact, yes, there was still a lot, but Lucien put on an embarrassed smile and hurriedly denied it.

Natasha was just joking. And she did not really care if Lucien was telling her everything. So she nodded, "If the family still doesn't report you to the Church in half a year, I'll put more pressure on them and force them to do so. Don't worry. I won't hurt them."

After promising Lucien, Natasha said a little excitedly, "There are many powerful creatures in the Dark Mountain Range, more than several hundred as we know... Dragons, evil elves, trolls, mutated spiders, scarlet trees, lightning eagles... Be careful, Lucien. Also, most sorcerers who follow the ancient magic system are cruel and ruthless. They do forbidden experiments, and they control people's will. Their own desires are more important than anything else. Be very cautious, Lucien, they're not like the arcanists in the Congress. Although you're bringing the letter for some important person, and normally the Congress should be prepared and would not send a promising young arcanist to die there for nothing, you still have to rely on yourself."

Natasha's caring words comforted Lucien who had just bid farewell to his family, so he joked, "I hear you. But why do you look so excited?"

"Of course! It's gonna be a great adventure! Don't you think it's super exciting adventuring in the Dark Mountain Range, fighting against different powerful creatures, and seeing extraordinary powers?" said Natasha full of passion. Then, she sighed. "I wish I could go with you when I first heard about your mission so I could protect you, but I can't. I'm the future grand duchess, so I have to live and fight for the duchy. I can't just leave."

Although she saw it as a great pity, Natasha was not complaining. She knew her job very well, as she was trained to be the leader of the duchy since she was a young girl.

Lucien felt a bit embarrassed when hearing that Natasha once planned to protect him. "It's okay, Natasha. I believe that as long as I'm careful enough and I don't wander around in the mountains, I should be able to handle most of the dark creatures. When I come back, I'll tell you all the stories."

"Of course, I believe in your power. You've got a Holm Crown Ring!" Natasha nodded. But then she took out a pair of earrings in the shape of violet petals, "This is a gift given to me enchanted with the spell called Fernando's Electromagnetic Message. If you are in trouble, you can find me through this. I know you have something similar to this. Although the thunder and lightning in the Storm Strait cut off the connection between you and the Congress, in Aalto, you've still got someone who you can ask for help."

As a knight, and because of her more masculine character, except for every year's New Year Banquet, Natasha usually did not wear any accessories. Therefore, Lucien did not know that the princess also had a magic item, and according to Lucien, the earrings were possibly a gift from Hathaway.

"I'll ask for help for sure if I'm in trouble." Lucien nodded seriously. At the same time, he said to Natasha, "It's a pity that we can't contact each other because of the Storm Strait..."

"That's true... What a pity." Natasha sincerely nodded.

It suddenly came to Lucien that maybe he should work on studying sending some magic satellites to the sky as signal stations, so they could talk to each other very often.

But what if other people somehow knew that the birth of magic satellite and the development of telecommunication was because a sorcerer wanted to contact a girl far away? That was not good... too embarrassing. That was Lucien's thought. Then, more thoughts came to him. He still had to first figure out if there were planets in this world and whether they followed any orbits...

"Lucien, what are you thinking?" asked Natasha, "It's okay. We can still write, you know. I like writing letters."

Natasha's voice dragged Lucien back from his boundless thoughts. Lucien panicked a bit when he realized what he was thinking... They were just good friends! Natasha was not interested in men!

Lucien quickly threw out his many weird thoughts and nodded, "That's right... Writing is good. But...but we should have a new set of code in case the Church notices."

After agreeing on the new writing code, Natasha smiled and said, "I don't know how long it's going to take for you to come back from the Dark Mountain Range, but very possibly, I'll miss your birthday again. Seriously, since we first got to know each other, I was never there for your birthday. So right now, may I have an opening dance with you, and wish you happy birthday in advance?"

She slightly bowed. With right hand on her chest, she reached out her left hand, which was a typical manner of men.

Lucien was a bit amused, "I'm the man, Your Highness. I shall be the one to invite. Seriously, I've never been there for your birthday either. So please allow me to be the one inviting you for the opening dance."

Then Lucien followed the same manner.

Natasha grinned and slightly lifted her eyebrows. Then she stood up straight, reached out her right hand, and put it on Lucien's left hand.

There was no music but only quite strong wind and clouds. But both Lucien and Natasha were good at music. And their dance steps were neat and elegant.

Although Lucien was still a bit shorter than Natasha, he had grown quite taller in the past several years. When they were dancing, they could look directly into each other's eyes, and their breaths were also very close.

Looking into Natasha's silvery-purple eyes and gorgeous face, feeling her sweet breaths and soft body, Lucien suddenly felt very uneasy. Although this was not his first time dancing with the princess, he felt very different this time—his heart was beating very fast.

Seeing that Lucien's eyes somehow started to look away and his face slightly blushed, feeling that his steps were getting slower and his hands stiff, Natasha also sensed the difference. When Lucien's breaths started to get heavier and heavier, Natasha was sure that the atmosphere was not normal—in fact, it was very strange, and she somehow felt nervous.

"Are you alright?" asked Natasha directly. "Are you worrying about something?"

Lucien was very embarrassed. He shook his head and answered, "Not really. Just my first time dancing in the air surrounded by clouds..."

"I see. That's true." Natasha grinned, "The wind is quite strong."

Trying his best, Lucien finally finished the dance with Natasha relatively perfectly.

"Lucien, happy birthday."

"Happy birthday, Natasha."

They said it at the same time when the dance was over. Then they smiled at each other.

...

After saying goodbye to Natasha, Lucien was now flying toward the Dark Mountain Range with his eyebrows slightly frowned. After a while, he murmured to himself, "That wasn't true. I just haven't been that close to a woman for a long time. I can't have these thoughts with Natasha, and she doesn't even like men!"

...

Flying back to Aalto with Camil, Natasha slowly stopped in the air and put on the violet-petal earrings. Feeling a bit strange, she slightly shook her head.

Then, she noticed that Camil was looking at her ears carefully, so she asked, "What? I have to wear them, or I might miss Lucien's signal."

"Nothing. You have beautiful ears," answered Camil casually. "Even better with the earrings."