(Brendan POV)

"Hey, can we get that? I like apples! I remember having some of them and they're really sweet!"

I sighed and massaged my temples, "No. Remember what we are here for. We are not shopping!"

"Oh come on! The whole city is going to--"

I covered Sylphy's mouth with my hand, shutting her up.

"Quiet you!" I hissed. "Do you even understand what we're doing here?"

She rolled her eyes and pried her hands off, "Come now, Brendan darling, you doing this would just bring more attention to us."

As though on cue, a pair of guards walked up to us.

"Is there a problem here?"

Sylphy leapt into my arms, "Oh! Forgive us sirs! The two of us are newlyweds on our honeymoon you see! And my husband is really touchy!"

The guards nodded their heads in understanding, "I see, I see. That is understandable. It's good to be young. But do it in moderation young man, or your wife might get sick of you, you know?"

I tried to keep my face neutral, "Thanks for the advice, I'll keep that in mind."

One of them gave me a clap on the shoulder before leaving us with a thumbs up.

"See, I have it under control. I was trained, remember? Da-ar-ling~" Sylphy grinned at me.

"Please don't call me that, I told you I have no interest in you."

"Oh I know~ You like Master, don't you? It's ok, I like Master too~ Just give me your attention sometimes, ok, sweetie?"

I shook my head, "You really are something else."

"I'm a goddess, of course I'm something else!"

"Right right, forgot you were still on about that."

"So can I have the apple?"

I sighed, "Fine…"

She bought six, munching on one herself and offering me one which I declined.

"Oh! Dearie, we can get some bread from there as well~ Oh! Maybe they have cakes too! We can go get some cakes!" She suggested, pointing at a bakery nearby.

"Do I need to remind you that we aren't here to shop?"

"Ehhh… But it's our first date, mushy cakes~"

"This is not a date," I reminded her.

"Awww… Come on. These apples are just snacks. We need some real food!"

"You're really demanding, you know that?"

"I don't hear you disagreeing~"

"Fine…"

I bought a few loaves of bread and since they had some beef jerky, I got those too to chew on.

I'm not sure why she's buying so much food right now when we have our own supplies in my storage ring. What's more, she refused to store it in the ring and insisted on carrying them in her arms.

Deciding it's probably just a weird quirk of hers, I ignored it.

Sylphy took a bite out of her bread roll, "I'm surprised no one's panicking around here, didn't we drop flyers here warning them about an attack coming?"

"No one believes it," I explained simply, looking around to make sure no one was paying attention to us. "They have lived in the comforts of safety for so long that such a thing seems impossible to them."

The self-proclaimed goddess shrugged, "Well, that just means more people to hide amongst later, works for us~"

Well, that was the plan at least.

Earlier, Elaria had somehow scattered flyers all over the city telling them of an imminent attack and to evacuate if they valued their lives.

If the citizens had taken the warnings seriously and evacuated, we would have slipped in with them and followed the refugees.

If they didn't… Well, we'll just have to wait for Elaria's bombardment before 'escaping' with everyone else.

We would actually prefer the latter since it would be easier to slip in during that chaos.

Sylphy pointed to a jewellery shop nearby, "Honey pie~ Do you think that necklace suits me?"

"For the last time, we are not here for a date… So please concentrate on the job, Sylphy. Master's safety is in our hands."

"You worry too much, Brandy~ It's not like we can do anything until High Priestess Elaria starts her thing right? You need to relax a little!"

"I will relax when I see Master safe and sound. Not before."

She shook her head at me, "So uptight. Don't you know this would result in more mistakes? Worrying about things you don't have control over will just make you even more miserable, you know?"

Before I could rebuke her, a high pitched whistle echoed through the air.

Most of the people around us stopped what they were doing and tried to look for the source of the noise, a couple of them quickly realising that the sound was coming from above.

Already knowing what that sound meant, Sylphy and I hurried towards the gates, bracing ourselves for impact.

"What the hell?" I heard someone say, right before one of the rockets from Elaria's artillery exploded right on top of him, splattering pieces of flesh and blood everywhere.

Sylphy erected a wind barrier around us before any of the viscera could reach us, not even batting an eye at the death in front of her.

At this point, most of the people were still confused about what was going on. They were more horrified about the death than the threat of war at the moment.

It was only when more whistling sounds could be heard descending upon us that they realised their folly of not evacuating when they had been given the chance to.

A rain of death fell upon the city, the artillery barrage blasting stone, brick and flesh, filling the entire air with the acrid smell of war.

The soldiers ran for their stations, trying to fight back against an enemy they could not reach.

The civilians scattered in every direction, some of them wanting to gather material possessions before running while others prioritised their lives. It mattered not whether you were rich or poor now, the artillery did not discriminate and killed them all the same.

A couple of guards at the gate began calling out to us, ordering us to evacuate the city.

We followed the crowd out through the gates, making sure to avoid getting ourselves trampled on unlike the few that had been unfortunate.

We had purposely chosen the gate pointing towards the direction of the Dong's capital to run from. With any luck, this crowd would head there as well and we might be able to pick up Master's trail on the way there.

The crowd continued to run even when we were quite a distance away from the city, the sound of explosions still reverberating behind us.

I chanced a look back and saw the city was completely ruined.

The outer walls had all but crumbled while every single one of the buildings within the city had been a victim of an artillery shell.

In the distance, I could see Elaria's tanks rolling down the hill, a few of them firing at the soldiers that tried to rush out to stop them.

Probably seeing the machines of death behind us, our group of refugees started picking up the pace, everyone wanting to get as far away as possible from death that was coming from over the hill.

First phase complete, now to find our dearest Master and free Him from these heathens.

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