Author's note: Bonus update! This is to celebrate that the book has achieved 100k reads (and I have almost 800 followers, omg)! Thank you everyone ❤.

The flute was still playing despite them getting further and further away. It didn't seem to sound any softer, but there were more pauses in between, as if the owner of the flute was chasing after them. 

"There was a common occurrence before the attack began, according to the victims," Gom sighed, rubbing his face with his hand. "There is always someone playing the flute."

"Bandits?!" Hana gasped, horrified. “Those big scary guys, with sharp teeth and smelly breath? Oh! They said bandits stink as well, like really bad.”

Xue smiled in amusement at Hana’s words, even as she wrinkled her nose to exaggerate the bandits’ “smelly” stench.

It seemed like Hana had completely returned to her normal, cheerful state and Xue was more than happy to witness it.

“They are only bandits,” Cecil suggested, resisting the urge to laugh at Hana’s words and actions. “Why was such a matter brought up at the meeting?” 

Gom glanced out the window this time, seemingly perturbed. The person playing the flute hasn’t stopped, and the flute still sounded just as close.

“These aren’t just normal bandits, they are infamous for their coordinated attacks,” Gom scanned the surroundings carefully, balancing himself easily despite the carriage rocking violently. “Even those escorted by elite bodyguards and skilled mercenaries had a hard time, according to the reports.”

The words “bandits” and “coordinated attacks” engraved into Cecil’s mind, along with the familiar sound of the flute, it all made her frown. 

Bandits. Coordinated attacks, and the flute…

Not the average bandits...and the flute isn’t getting any softer--

The flute!

Cecil gasped, shooting her head up. “Mr. Gom, this is bad! You have to stop the carriage--”

Cecil felt her world tilting, the carriage doing a drastic swerve. 

"Ah!"

"What the--"

"I'm sorry, Milord! There is a--there is a wall beside us, I had to avoid!"

"A wall?!" 

Xue pushed the window open, and all of them could clearly see a wall shooting up from the ground. They all knew it was the work of someone from the earth element. 

"Stop the carriage!" Cecil exclaimed in alarm. "Quickly!"

"Yes, milady--"

At that moment, everyone except Hana and the driver caught an object flashing past them, digging into the ground right beside the driver. The horse immediately neighed loudly, spooked by almost getting hit. The horse started to panic, and the driver quickly lost control over the horse.

"The horse is going mad! I-I can't control it!"

Hana screamed inside the carriage which was extremely unstable now, losing her balance. Xue hastily reached out to hold her, and Hana smiled gratefully at Xue.

Cecil could hear the sounds of the earth rumbling below them, and she could feel the carriage veering.

"They are trying to guide the carriage somewhere forcefully!" the driver warned. 

"Jump off! All of you!" Gom ordered.

"Ev-even me?!" the driver stuttered out. 

"Yes, even you!" Gom barked. 

Xue carried Hana, wanting to jump out when he hesitated, glancing at Cecil. 

"I'll jump out right behind you," Cecil urged. "Don't worry."

"...I'm not worrying." Xue murmured out, jumping out with ease as Hana squealed. 

Xue knew he should not be worrying, he knew Cecil could handle herself...but he was still worried.

Cecil frowned. 

Did I interpret the great lord protagonist's expression wrongly? 

She shrugged, jumping out as well, followed by Gom who was still barking at the scaredy-cat driver. 

The three of them landed smoothly, with the exception of the driver who kissed the ground. Gom picked the driver up easily, shaking his head in disapproval.

"If you don't land properly," Gom sighed, clicking his tongue. "You'll put unnecessary stress on your body."

The driver wanted to cough blood. He had already lost his precious carriage, his landing ability was the least of his problems!

Xue placed Hana gently on the ground, clutching his spear and unsheathing it.

Cecil dusted her clothes, glancing about and she realised that the flute had already stopped playing. It was still silent, and they were surrounded by trees and bushes, and the afternoon sun glaring down on them. Due to the sudden movements of the carriage, they were even further away from the gravel path now. 

Did the attackers want to force us into the woods? 

Cecil grew cautious as she observed the trees closely, and she eventually saw a figure sitting on the thick branch of a large tree. The leaves were wide enough to shelter him from the sun. 

“Who are you?” Gom called out, clenching his fists, moving into defensive stance.

The figure shifted his position, jumping down from the tree and his steps slow. He eventually revealed himself, speaking with a languid voice.

"There wasn't any need to jump out," he said, a hint of smile in his voice. “Now, your precious clothes are dirty.” 

The man sighed, shaking his head, as if pitying them for dirtying their clothes for nothing. 

The moment her onyx eyes laid on his face, Cecil immediately recognised the person. The apprehensive feeling within her, ever since she heard the flute, turned out to be true. 

Leonaut. 

The next alter in the novel that Xue meets after Zasiok. 

The storyline...has deviated again.
 
The lean, hazel-haired man smirked at them, his hazel eyes narrowed and his appearance bore a striking resemblance to Xue. His hair was long enough to be tied into a short ponytail, and he was playing with a bamboo flute in his hands. His outfit was made out entirely of leather, covering him completely except for his head. 

“It’s you, the infamous bandit leader,” Gom recognised Leonaut as well. “The various descriptions of your appearance are accurate.”

Leonaut continued smirking, bowing his head down slightly. “Aye, the name’s Leonaut.”  

In the novel, Leonaut was an notorious bandit leader that was difficult to catch, and there was a large bounty on his head. His trademark was playing the flute to signal for his men to prepare. When Hana and Xue were resting in a secluded town, before setting off to find his next soul. Knowing they were lacking sufficient funds, Xue decided to go back to his old ways of earning money. 

Killing monsters and taking on requests, but they were mostly bounties since they were the easiest.

Hana was waiting for Xue at the tavern, but the tavern was unfortunately raided by bandits, by Leonaut. Alas, the Hana in the original novel had no means of defending herself, and was taken away without much of a resistance. 

Of course, she was only taken away because she caught the attention of Leonaut, another soul of Xue. 

This caused Xue to become unstable, and he went on a killing spree just to find Hana. Due to how coordinated the bandits were because of Leonaut, Xue had a tough time locating Hana. Moreover, Xue didn't have the help of Kai and Alric to locate Leonaut's soul, he could only rely on his instincts to find Leonaut.

When he did finally locate Hana and saved her, Hana was no doubt, happy, but unusually quiet. Leonaut approached Hana for one last time. Xue subdued him before that happened and at that moment, Xue could see the fear in Hana's eyes for both him and Leonaut.

She was truly afraid of what happened while she was kidnapped.

Once again, the author of the novel did not elucidate about the incident, hence, no readers knew what truly happened. There was only speculation and theories after reading about Hana's reactions.

If not for the flute, I would have taken longer to realise it.

The only reason Cecil found the sound familiar was because the author once linked the readers to a video. It was someone playing the flute, and the author imagined that this is how it would sound like.

She was surprised that it sounded exactly the same, since she had replayed the video a few times. Nevertheless, just thinking about these events that happened in the original novel, made Cecil terribly worried.

"What do you want?" Gom hissed out. 

" Money,” Leonaut shrugged and pointed towards Hana. “And her.” 

Hana took a step back, eyes wide in shock. 

Whereas, Xue’s grey eyes became stormy, stepping in front of Hana.

Kai: “It’s that guy, Xue, the next soul.”

Alric: “I-I’ve seen his face before, on bounty posters…”

Zasiok: “The infamous bandit leader? He’s a part of us?” 

Xue has truly given up on telling them to keep quiet, only becoming more gloomy as he narrowed his eyes at Leonaut. 

Cecil slid up right beside Xue, lowering her voice. "This soul of yours is dangerous, Xue."

"...your visions, again?"

This time, Cecil decided to not go with the typical "I had a vision" lie, shaking her head. "No, it's just my instincts, and you heard Mr. Gom clearly."

No matter what, Hana cannot be kidnapped!

If she goes with Leonaut, both Xue and Hana will be in a bad situation!

Just like Zasiok, Cecil did not know much about Leonaut, other than the brief description of his personality and his "occupation".

There were three things that Cecil engraved in her mind about Leonaut.

He wasn't one of the good alters, and his element is water to which he had evolved to the second form, ice. Lastly, his weapon was a flute.

“Do you think we’ll give up that easily?” Gom glared at Leonaut, cracking his fists.

“Of course not,” his smirk became an impish grin. “This is why I rob carriages that bear the mark of any academies.”

Leonaut took the canteen hanging at the side of his hip, uncapping it and throwing it into the air. A stream of water flew out from its opening.

“Let’s get ‘em, boys!” he hollered, the impish grin remained on his lips.

A group of ruffians camouflaging within the bushes rushed out, brandishing their weapons. Within a few seconds, the four of them found themselves surrounded by more than a dozen bandits. Left with no other choice, the four of them made a defensive stance. 

Hana wasn’t used to confrontations and took a moment to recover, opening the canteen that hung by her hip as well and tossing her scarf out, drenching it in water as it hovered in the air.

Unbeknownst to them, Leonaut who had kept his eyes on Hana the entire time, was floored by her actions.

“Boss?”

His subordinate called out when he realised his leader was standing still with a stupefied expression. They would only attack if their leader made the first move, which was uncommon in bandits who were known to be a ragtag group of thugs. 

“Ah,” Leonaut blinked awake. “My bad.” 

“...?” the subordinate by his leader’s strange reaction. 

It was even more strange that Leonaut had gathered more of them than usual, leaving their fort almost abandoned. In addition to that, Leonaut was being extra careful in approaching these people. They had been following the carriage for a while, hidden within the bushes, and Leonaut was threatening them to not slip up in any manner. 

"Go!" Leonaut launched the first attack, aiming straight for the Hana and the rest of the bandits followed.

Xue easily deflected the attack by giving one big sweep with his spear, causing the water blades to hit the ground instead. 

"Fight me if you dare, weak bastards!" Gom engaged with the bandits eagerly, luring the attention of a few of them that were aiming for Hana and Xue.

“Xue, remain by Hana’s side. I’ll keep your soul back for a moment, while you get rid of the others.” Cecil tightened her hold on her daggers.

"You don't have to--" Xue started to say with a frown.

“You need to be able to absorb the soul safely, and ensure Hana's safety too." Cecil interrupted, staring at Xue. Her pellucid eyes reflecting how determined she was.

With her staring intently at him, Xue found it difficult to refute her.

Cecil knew the only way for Xue to absorb his alter without any repercussions, was to get rid of the other bandits to prevent them from interfering. For once, Cecil did not want to discourage Xue from absorbing Leonaut’s soul immediately, since it wouldn’t do Hana well if Leonaut was here.

"Cecil!" Hana called out, grabbing Cecil's arm. "Will...will you be okay?"

Cecil smiled softly, nodding and she dashed forward. Evading the bandits adeptly, she went straight for Leonaut.

Leonaut noticed Cecil making her way towards him and he took out his flute, gathering the water in his hands, sliding it over his flute. The water coalesced over the part he slid over transmuting into a crystal, clear ice.

The flute has transformed into an ice sword that glimmered in the sun, and Leonaut lifted his sword in front of him.

Something clashed against his sword within seconds, the sound ringing across their surroundings.

Cecil narrowed her eyes, her daggers were struggling against Leonaut's ice sword.

"A beautiful woman that dares to fight." Leonaut raised his eyebrows.

"A woman, a man, they can all fight," Cecil retorted, wearing her usual haughty expression. "It doesn't matter which gender they are, or how they look like."

"Feisty too." Leonaut remarked, smirking roguishly, leaning in. "I don't dislike women like you, not at all."

***

Pt. 1

《 start 》

There is only one chance at this.

I will rob them, steal Hana and escape.

Telling me that my soul is not actually real, and it belongs to somebody else?

Utter bullshit!

Wait a minute.

That is...Hana?

The Hana I remember cannot fight in any manner.

In our memories as well, I do not ever recall a raven-haired woman with us.

Who is she?

《 stop 》

***

Pt. 2

《 start 》

You do not need to do that.

You do not need to do anything.

You only need to stay by my side.

...that's right, I said this once before.

Do I have to say it once more?

《 stop 》