I woke up late the next day with an alarm snoozed over a million times to find Beth already gone. I rested my head on my hand, rubbing my temples. The terrible headache prevented me from recollecting what that bizzare dream was about.

Due to time constraints, I skipped the bath and finished the rest of my chores before heading out for the royal breakfast.

[Heh. Who needs bath anyways, I can just augment my pheromones and oil glands instead.]

I descended from the escalator and moved towards the main hall where I saw the Ice-Queen elegantly enter through the extravagant door and her guards beside her.

[One of those guards looks cool. Hmm. He must be having girls swoon over him like crazy~]

On meeting the Ice-Queen, she extended her right arm to my direction, to which I responded by bowing down and gently kissing it.

The relatively quiet room bloomed with lively sounds once my parents, my younger brother, Beth, and other nobles arrived. We all sat around the roundtable, while the Ice-Queen had her own special Ice-throne to sit, which was a replica of her original throne from the throne room.

She had a very special appeal to her; her blue blood pulsing through her frost-white body, gave off an aura that every person in the room could feel touching their hearts. This divine presence that she emanated was different from Alyssa's; it was more vivid and holy.

However, her aura was soon replaced by the fragrance of the delicious food which was served to us, making my tummy growl like a beast it was.

[Was that too loud?]

I blushed.

The growl made the nobles uncomfortable, and all eyes were then focussed on me. My brother blushed with embarrassment; my father sighed disappointedly; my mother blatantly ignored it. But, the Ice-Queen seemed amused with a sly smile forming on her face.

"Prince Charles, I did notice earlier that your actions weren't like that of royalty. But I didn't expect them to be below a noble as well," Ice-Queen spoke with her head lifted high and chin jutted forward.

[Below a noble, so like a commoner? Ahh... Sure, give my father more reasons to be disappointed in me. Not that I care.]

I immediately apologized for the sound that I produced and addressed Ice-Queen's remark with a smile.

While devouring the chicken's flesh stuffed inside a goat, marinated with exotic spices, I noticed Beth glaring at me from the other end of the round table. The atmosphere around her was intense, and I could easily tell that she was still upset about ghosting her.

Trying to approach her after the lunch made her act more pricey, which annoyed me.

[Well, I don't really mind, to be honest. I get a free excuse to spend time with Alyssa.]

Alyssa wasn't present at the round table, inquiring about which from the Queen left me with no satisfactory answers.

After leaving the guest palace, I went to the throne room to find Alyssa tending an injured fawn. The fawn was brought to her by one of the soldiers who found it lying on the city roads while patrolling. He found it to be an abnormal incident as fawns and other wild animals on this planet reside strictly in the forests.

"You didn't come for breakfast? You do remember we are leaving today, right?" I asked while ignoring the fawn's subtle cries.

"Hmm. Yes, but what does my not coming for breakfast have to do with you leaving, prince? I am not very fond of social gatherings," She stated blatantly, temporarily diverting her attention from the fawn to me.

Following which, the fawn gave off a louder cry as if demanding her attention.

"Well, after what you said yesterday, I thought maybe you would miss me if I left. So, you — might want to spend more time with me."

My cheeks blushed as I tried to hide my emotions from that stuttering statement.

"Ha-ha! How cute. I did say I was happy meeting you, but please don't bend my words to suit your perverted fantasies."

[Ouch. Cold.]

After our small exchange of words, my attention diverted to the creature in her arms. I noticed the fawn's wounds were deeper than how much treatment Alyssa could provide: they seemed to be more diffuse and a pressure-type of wound rather than sharp physical damage. I bent forward, palpated, and examined his wounds.

"As I thought, this is a crush injury. That, along with its history to be found in the city, I would say he was crushed by other animals while they were running ferociously in some city! First Aid won't help much, take him to a Veterinary," I said with my eyes directly looking at hers and expressing a sense of confidence.

Alyssa raised one of her brows and looked at me skeptically.

"I can agree until the crush injury. But the animals running ferociously in some city? Isn't that too wild a conclusion to make?" she asked.

"Ahem, do not underestimate my tic's capabilities, princess. I can pick up the tiniest of the signs to come up with a perfect far fetched conclusion using my enhanced observation." I reassured her.

"Humph, what a convenient tic. Please don't think low of our government; the animals of our Shura forest are very peaceful. Even though my mother doesn't have complete authority over that place, Forest-spirits, its guardians, protect it using magic. No tic nor technology is a match for them!" she boasted, disregarding the remarks that I just made.

However, she agreed to contact a Vet. But, after many failed attempts to call nearby city Vets, she took the initiative herself to deliver the creature to a nearby city clinic.

[How did I end up stuck in this matter though? She sure has ego issues.]

As we passed through the busy roads hovering at Mach 5, in a mini hovercraft called Farcaster, along with her guards, I noticed the frozen chunks of ice slowly transitioning to frost droplets and then vanishing, as greenery replaced their view followed by skyscrapers and Air-metro. We had arrived at a nearby city, Landsort.

The design of the city didn't surprise me as it was a lot similar to my homeland, after all, the best of Bezereck's architects and engineers are appointed here to build and maintain their cities.

The slender Skyscrapers crossed the clouds, intertwined with hovering rails of the Air-metro, at such a height from the ground that it never ceased to amaze me.

We were traveling in the middle zone of the sky: fast-moving Farcaster and other military vehicles hovered here. Above us was the top zone, where the public transport vehicle, Air-metro, hovered. And below us was the bottom zone where slower pedestrian vehicles designed for a single person or double person hovered.

The sky was as busy as ever, but the noise cancelers inside our Farcaster didn't let a single sonic boom nor thrust enter its glass shields, providing us with utmost silence.

Arriving at our destination, the Vet clinic, its nanosensor guided large doors opened as our vehicle approached it from a distance. The driver parked the vehicle at its designated lot and we went ahead to meet the Vet.

Upon arriving at the Vet's ward, to our surprise, we heard loud howls and high pitched cries of panic which later turned into a horrifying scene where injured and critical animals were over-flooding the clinic rooms.

"What happened here? Why are so many animals from the forest injured? And why wasn't this reported to the throne room?" Alyssa raised her voice and fanned out her fingers furiously.

Her eyes suggested that she demanded what she asked, and she won't be tolerating any excuse.

[Somehow she is scarier than Beth now.]

They explained that a stampede took place in the nearby cities, as I had already stated. For some reason, all animals and Forest-spirits were in chaos and ran out of the forest into the nearby cities.

While this happened, many of the animals got crushed by each other and some even got killed by the guards when they attacked the citizens. They tried to call the throne room's reception but only resulted in failed attempts.

[Ahh, we also had trouble calling Vet. Is there a silent range problem in this city?]

They mentioned reporting it to Minister Vazer.

[Fuck. Nothing good can come if that backstabbing bastard is involved.]

"That's abnormal: the animals of the Great Shura forest are very friendly. They have no reason to run away and attack the citizens." Her little face slackened, her brow furrowed, and eyes darted with concern and impatience.

In fact, it was indeed a worrisome situation. The Shura forest was the ideal location for invasion by other planets. And, since UU1, the Ice-planet, was constantly bitter against UU6 (the planet of demons),invasions were quite common.

Till now, the Forest-spirits defended that place using magic as the demons are weak to magic. But now that the Forest-spirits also ran away in the chaos, Alyssa's worries were justified.

Arriving at the Forest at Mach 5, presented us with a bizarre scene.

The purple trees, fallen on the ground, covered by uprooted red grasses; as if grazed upon by some meteor, produced a grave sense of fear within us.

There was a fresh aroma of honey spread in its atmosphere, probably from the nectar of the giant velvety flowers that were torn apart and broken down to shreds in the nearby lands.

On seeing this disastrous situation, Alyssa tried to call her mother to inform her of the details. However, just like before, the silent range issue of the city didn't let her do it.

"Oh, so great and pure soul, soon to be Ice-Queen! Please take mercy on our dire situation. Our trees are in peril, animals in a drill! Must we all perish? There are invisible monsters all around us, and they are getting stronger each second!" A small flying creature appeared with wings of the size of its body and a golden light dispersing from its head, reciting this poem to us.

"Calm down, Blessed One! I won't understand anything If you speak this vaguely! Explain from the start," Alyssa said with a tone much softer than the one she used to speak with others, and that was when it clicked to me: that small creature was a Forest-fairy.

"It was 7 am when it all began; a foreign object is what we sensed. Friend or foe? We couldn't tell. But terrifying is what we thought, for it moved at speeds faster than light, flipping and flopping chaotically. We tried to stop it, that I don't deny, used energy fields as those seemed fit. But, to our surprise and this forest's demise, It grew stronger the more we tried, broke our energy fields and these animals' spirits," The forest fairy said in a musical tone, while its wings buzzed, flying around Alyssa.

Alyssa, noticing that I wasn't used to the fairy's speech, asked it to speak in a way that foreigners could pick up more easily. Following which the Fairy chanted some words to cast a speech translation magic.

"We tried our best, but the more we prevented it from moving, the faster it became! It was just a matter of minutes from then, all spirits and animals of this forest panicked and ran away from here. It is definitely a monster beyond our imagination," the fairy continued.

[An object which increases its speed the more they tried to stop it? Doesn't that sound familiar?]

"Blessed One, did you use the energy field with accuracy? Did it actually become stronger the more you hindered its movement? I cannot fathom the existence of such a monster! It must have some incredible tic!"

She tried to swallow and talk at the same time but ended up choking on her shock. If observed carefully, I could even see her goosebumps. But, at the same time, she also radiated a feeling of excitement, in anticipation of meeting that monster.

Not even 5 seconds passed after Alyssa's comment that we heard nearby trees crashing down along with bouts of sonic booms that ringed our ears.

Looking towards the direction of the sound, no object could be seen as if our enemy was invisible; however, there were trails of super-luminant blue light that passed through the edges of the broken trees forming a track for the supposed monster.