Hello, dear reader! We've passed our first evaluation, so I want to thank God for granting me a fertile imagination and standing with me through this initial assessment. I also want to thank you, dear reader, for following this novel, and I thank WedNovel for evaluating my story and allowing it to continue.
I apologize for my disappearance, and now, I leave you with the chapter.
....
"You should have punished them."
Athena and Queen Arethusa were sitting, drinking tea on a balcony at the back of the palace, overlooking the forest.
"Athena, they are acting this way out of their desperation and worry for their children. If you and I both had children and they were kidnapped, how do you think we would act?"
Athena fell silent, thinking, and after a moment, she sighed and said, "You're right. But perhaps they'll take it too far, and every time there's a problem, they'll threaten you with rebellion, thinking you're afraid of them."
"Don't worry, if they go too far, you can handle them. So, what brings you here?"
"Oh, I almost forgot. It's about the human we captured two days ago."
"What about him?"
"We interrogated him and learned he's from another world, and he has nothing to do with the elves' disappearance."
Queen Arethusa nodded, having processed the information.
"Thank you, Athena, for all your efforts."
"No problem. Now, how do we deal with him?"
"I'm thinking of releasing him and getting him out of the kingdom, because his continued presence here poses a danger to the kingdom should the elves discover a human captive. So, I want you to get him out of the kingdom tonight, secretly."
"Unders."
Athena stopped speaking and she and Arethusa turned their gaze to the forest with a serious expression, then they vanished.
....
Half an hour earlier
Hector forcibly brought Mina out of the training room, appearing in the cell. Mina stood, trying to comprehend what was happening, but he didn't have long as the cell door began to open. Three soldiers entered.
One of the soldiers said, "Put your hands behind your back, and if you make any move, we will attack."
Mina put his hands behind his back. One soldier approached Mina while the other two stood, gripping their swords tightly, in case Mina made any move. The soldier who approached Mina put handcuffs on his hands. Mina noticed that the handcuffs were the same ones they'd placed on him when he entered the city. Since these handcuffs were easy to break, he began to think of a way to escape. They led him out of the cell.
"Here's the prisoner, Commander Richard."
Richard was a man of 45, with fair skin, black eyes, and black hair, and a smile on his face.
"Excellent, soldiers. I'll try to persuade Lady Athena to promote you."
The soldiers rejoiced and said, "Thank you, Commander, but we were only carrying out the mission assigned to us."
"No, you deserve the promotion, because if anyone discovers there's a human captive, chaos will ensue. So, I'll take the prisoner now."
Commander Richard approached Mina and placed a cloth bag over his head.
"Be careful, Commander, that he doesn't escape."
"Don't worry."
Commander Richard took Mina and walked away, heading towards the forest. Mina began thinking of any way to escape, but he couldn't see and didn't know the layout of the city to plan a good escape, nor did he know the power of this Lady Athena. So, he would try to escape while being returned to the cell.
"We've arrived."
The cloth bag was removed from Mina's head. Mina closed and opened his eyes several times to get used to the sunlight. When his vision cleared, Mina was surprised to find himself in a place full of trees, like a forest, and Lady Athena, who wanted to see him, was nowhere to be found.
"Where are they?"
Mina turned his gaze towards the source of the voice and found it was Commander Richard's, who was pointing the tip of his sword towards his heart. Mina tensed slightly but didn't show it. "Where what?"
"Where are the elves that you and your group kidnapped?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Richard said angrily, "Don't play dumb, you humans are deceivers. I won't fall for your lies. Where are they?"
"I'm not lying to you, I truly don't know the people you're talking about."
"Then you insist on lying. Blame no one but yourself."
Richard stabbed Mina's heart, but he changed the angle of the sword to stab next to the heart, as he didn't want to kill Mina since he was the only source of information.
Mina was afraid this might be the end, but he found Richard's movements seemed slow. So, Mina tilted his body to the right and broke the handcuffs. With lightning speed, he grabbed Richard's neck with his right hand and lifted him off the ground, and with his left hand, he punched the hand holding the sword, causing the sword to fall from Richard's grip. Richard tried to remove Mina's hand from his neck, but he couldn't; he felt as if Mina's hand was made of iron.
"Kill me, come on, kill me!"
"Can you calm down?"
"Calm down? You killed my wife, and now you've kidnapped my daughter, and I don't know if
she's alive or dead, and there's someone in front of me who might know where she is, and you ask me to calm down!"
Mina tried to speak, but he felt a danger coming from the right at high speed. So, he let go of Richard and jumped backward as an arrow shot past him quickly. When Mina landed, he felt a great danger coming from the left and that he didn't have time to evade it. So, he turned his face to the right. Mina felt pain in his left cheek as the arrow left a wound on his cheek. Mina felt someone coming behind him, so he turned and threw a punch with his right hand which the person dodged. The person then grabbed Mina's left arm and placed it behind Mina's back. Then the person grabbed Mina's head from behind, putting Mina on the ground and pinning him.