Tina had finally returned when it was almost sunset, and the first thing she noticed where the traces of a fight near the fence. What was even more, those were footsteps and not the claws of a beast. As she inspected the ground, a woman’s voice called from behind her.

"We got your husband. Care to come with me?"

Tina slowly looked back. "Find a better lie. If you’re still alive, then you’re guests. Come in." She then turned and started walking toward the house.

"You think I’m joking? You even turn your back to me; can’t you sense that I could easily kill you?" The woman smiled, and Tina just waved her hand. "Yeah, yeah, come in."

The woman then sighed. "You aren’t even flinching. You know how strong that man is, don’t you?"

Tina stopped, "Of course, I know him better than anyone else, and I know that no matter how strong you are, or how far we were, he’ll rip your head off before you could reach me." Tina then went into the house, and the woman followed her.

The Hermit was resting in the living room, while Arad was cooking in the kitchen. Tina dropped her back, looked around, and then called to Arad. "Who are those two?"

"Cultivators at the elder rank, the grandpa is stronger than the girl; she is his daughter. They came here seeking someone strong to help them kill pests that are infecting the roots of the World Tree." He looked back at her, "Beside that, everything else is the same."

"Got it, I’ll be there to help you. I’m going to use the back-room." She walked past the Hermit, opened the door to the back room, and walked in. The moment she closed the door, both the Hermit and his daughter gasped. "ARAD! She disappeared!" The Hermit glared at him, and the daughter rushed in, immediately opening the back-room’s door, finding nothing inside.

"She is fine. Get back to your places." Arad sighed, "You can detect life, that in itself is amazing."

"No! That isn’t it!" The Hermit stared at him. "Where did she go? Someone Aura cannot just disappear like that."

"It can, you just lack such power. I sent her to a safe space where she could change clothes and get ready. You two have nothing to do with that." He looked around the kitchen, "The facilities here are just a bit... less easy to use."

"Just how deep does your power go?" The Hermit slowly walked toward the couch and sat down, prompting his daughter to do the same.

"Remember when you tried to use your all-out attack on me? I pulled you to the same space she is in now." Arad smiled, "Just sit tight. She’ll be back soon."

Inside Arad’s stomach, precisely in the floating mountain that is the private bath, Tina appeared right inside the changing room. She stretched her arms, turned around, and opened the door to the private quarter. Inside, two maids were standing guard beside the bath’s door, and the moment they saw her, they jumped back and bowed.

"I’m taking a bath, send some maids to report to me, we’ve got barely half an hour." As she spoke, one of the two maids lifted her head. "As you say, Headmaid Tina." And with a quick leap, she rushed away at top speed.

Usually, running was forbidden in royal courts and noble houses, so the most a maid could do was fast walking, but here it was different. The maids were encouraged to go all out whenever they could, and so, the maid did indeed explode into a full sprint across the hallways.

Was it dangerous? Yes, but they got healing magic. Was it necessary? No, but it would build their stamina over time. Since the maids always work in a safe and protected environment, if they ever needed to save themselves, it would happen suddenly and without warning. In a real scenario, they won’t have time to think or warm up, so Isdis asked the maids to perform any order they got with an urgent tag at full speed.

When the maid heard Tina say that she only had half an hour, that was her signal. Without thinking much, without doubting or caring about anything else, she immediately exploded into a full sprint.

They have heard stories from Baltos’s royal maids, and all of them were scary. A maid walking alone at midnight, bringing a tray of tea to the royal room. Then suddenly, she sees a stranger jumping in through the window. There is no time to think twice, the maid would have to explode into a full sprint to save herself, and still have the lung capacity to scream and warn everyone else.

It could’ve been a false alarm, but it was better than facing a real assassin and dying in a single stab.

While many of Arad’s maids were monsters on their own, people like Lexi and Camilla, many of them couldn’t fight a cat to save their lives.

"I’ll help you." The maid who remained walked into the changing room after Tina to help her, and soon, Eris walked in out of nowhere. She found the maid stripping Tina down, and so she called Zia to help her strip down.

"Lady Eris, it’s been a while." Tina bowed, and Eris smiled. "You don’t need to bow to me. Besides, we both came from Rita."

"You were a butcher, a killer, and a mortician, while I was a slave being sold." Tina smiled, "Until Arad showed up and flipped the entire place on its head."

"More like, it was Claug who destroyed the city. Arad just caused a lot of Chaos." She then threw a glance at Tina, "Would you mind if I got a taste?"

"I don’t mind. That’s why you came here after all." Tina extended a hand forward, and Eris grabbed it, gently biting one of her fingers. After sucking a bit of blood, Eris broke into a smile. "It is better, your body must be slowly stabilizing. Whatever you’re doing there, it is slowly working."

She then pulled a glass vial and let a few drops of blood in before healing Tina’s finger. A vampire nun appeared from Eris’s shadow in the next moment, and Eris handed her the vial. "Take it to Claug’s lab immediately."

The vampire nun disappeared, and with both Tina and Eris stripped down, they walked into the shower room with Zia and the maid following them soon after.

"We got the wood elves’ princess, she is called Li, and is quite the strong fighter. Diplomatically, this would allow the empire to expand and engulf all of the elves." Eris looked at the shower, "But, logistically, it is nearly impossible to rule all of that at once. Cerilla would keep the high elves in check, Jasmine would rule the dark elves, and in time, Li would guide the wood elves."

Tina looked at her as the maid started washing her hair. "Li won’t inherit the throne?"

"Depends, we don’t know yet. The wood elves don’t have a regular royal family inheritance; the people vote on their new ruler among the royals." Eris shrugged, "So, depending on who the people support, even Li’s uncles could inherit the throne if enough people vote for them."

"So, we have to gain the people’s trust, and let me guess. The reclusive wood elves aren’t fans of outsiders." She sighed, "It would be hard."

"The next vote would happen three hundred years in the future, so we have three centuries to gain support." Eris smiled, "Isdis said that she would help Li build facilities, farms, expand and develop the wood elves until they are entirely dependent on her. That way, they would have to vote for her."

"I see, she wants to play the long game." Tina then looked back, "And, what did Arad have to say?"

"Not much, for now, he’ll get along with Li and her maid Noel, and then we’ll see. Yes, the maid was strong enough to pique his interest. It seems she is like me, a half-elf with a draconic bloodline." Eris then turned around so Zia could scrub her chest. "She is half human, half wood elf, has earth draconic bloodline, and quite the violent woman. But, even though her human side seems to be the dominant one, many refer to her as a wood elf since that is who she is affiliated with."

Tina looked at Eris for a second. "Well, it doesn’t matter how mixed her blood is. Does she have something for feet and hands?"

"Yep,"

"Then she is a wood elf. That is how to tell elves apart from everyone else."