Voyage Of The Villainess

Waves of laughter were the only noise they can hear.

Malaya immediately grabbed Kayden's hands and pulled him towards her as she made a run for it.

"What are you doing?!"

"Did you not see it? I'm running!" Malaya yelled.

"Tsh I can fight them." Kayden said as he tried to yank Malaya's hold to his right hand. But Malaya just tightened her grip as they ran ahead.

"You can't use your magic. Don't be reckless. I can't let my only companion die here." Malaya said with a serious tone in her voice.

The wind around them continued to grow and it became even stronger along with the laughter that was now trailing behind them as they ran.

Kayden's red ruby eyes rippled with conflict. "Stop running." With one quick motion, he pulled Malaya towards him. Then he carried her in a bridal carry position.

"Kayden?!" Malaya was surprised by the turn of events.

"You are too slow. I run faster."  Kayden said. 

*Ba-dump.* Malaya could hear the loud heartbeat of her heart. She tried to peek at Kayden's face but she immediately reverted her gaze when her heartbeat was even stronger.

'Just what in the world is happening to me? I can just look fine at him before.' She peeked at Kayden who was seriously running and he doesn't even not bother to look at her. 

{"Stop talking already." Kayden said, his red ruby eyes glinting dangerously and glaring completely at Malaya. Malaya winced when she felt that Kayden put more pressure on his hold on her right shoulder. "Just. Stop."}

Malaya remembered the scene earlier. 'Yes, maybe this is a feeling of guiltiness. Just because I thought it would be fine to speak casually about the witch like that to him. I'm being insensitive to his feelings.' Malaya sighed inwardly. 'Why am I even bothered about this? But I guess I should still apologize for being out of line. I should need to be more careful next time about this topic.'

Kayden continued to glide across the bushes until his sight caught a cave. From what he quickly observed the trail ended with this cave. 'This must be the place where we are supposed to go. Tsh. Being led by the enemy.' But compared to the sinister laughter that was chasing behind them, Kayden had no choice but to proceed forward.

As soon as he entered the cave, he dropped Malaya on the ground. 

Malaya who was engulfed with her thoughts and the rose scent of Kayden winced when she dropped on the ground. It was like a wake up call to her.

"Ah, how nice of you." Malaya said as she rubbed her aching butt when she stood up. 

Kayden without saying anything proceeded to walk forward. 

Strangely enough as soon as they entered the cave the laughter was all gone.The only noise that they heard was the strong wind. But from what Malaya could see from the outside, the trees and bushes were still swaying hard due to the wind. There was a lot of dust flying around.

'Whatever or where that laughter came from, don't tell me, they are just waiting outside?'

*Squeak!* Malaya ducked down when multiple bats suddenly flew heading outside. But what shocked her, as soon as she saw the bats flew out from the cave, their body was cut off and disintegrated. 

'Just what in the world is chasing after us.' Malaya stepped back. 

"The inhabitants of this island called them fairies." 

Malaya glanced back inside the cave when she heard Oliver's voice resounded. Kayden, who also watched the scene of the bats a while ago, became more alerted. Both him and Malaya were just looking in one direction, as they heard footsteps approaching towards them.

"They are everywhere on this island's forests and if one caught up with them, they suffered like that. None of the natives know the features of those who caused those laughs. But for both of you to be noticed by them, did the guards not give you any warning about speaking?"

Oliver revealed himself and as soon as he did, Kayden immediately lunged an attack towards him. 

However before he could reach Oliver, something huge from the shadow jumped over to Kayden. The creature locked Kayden on the ground and growled.

"White, just hold onto him but don't do anything."

A huge white tiger, as huge as three adult humans combined, pinned Kayden on the ground. Kayden tried to fight towards the tiger but he struggled to move and the beast was indeed far stronger than him now.

Malaya sighed as she leaned on the wall of the cave. ' Based on the wildness and power of that one. I'm pretty sure that must be the dangerous king of the forest they were talking about. In our situation, we don't truly have any chance of winning over him right now. Oliver is really a frightening character for taming a beast like that.'

"Let's now be clear and direct, Sir Oliver. What do you need with us? For you to bring us here and I presume you don't want the islanders to know whatever that is." Malaya crossed her arms as she glanced directly at Oliver's eye. 

"Haha. You never disappoint me the way you think. You are really smart."

"No," Malaya took a seat with a cross sitting position, "you're still smarter than me. That's why you're always on the top of our batch in the academy back then."

"You surely know how to jest despite everything that happened." Oliver said and stifled a laugh. "But alright as you wish I'll go straight to the point now." Oliver continued. "I need to get out of this island. And in order to do that, I will be needing your assistance. Especially with your skills and knowledge, I know it would be a breeze for you to get out of here."

"Ah, I see." Malaya simply answered. "And so after we get out from this island, that's when you will kill us. Do you think I will just agree like that easily? Then I agree."

"I see, I don't think it would be easy to ask for your operation..." Oliver was flabbergasted when he realized Malaya's answer just now.

"You agree just like that!?" He was surprised, truly. He thought that it would not be easy and would take a while to make Malaya agree with him, and he already thought up different threatening things or deals to made her agree. But all of that was gone in vain with that quick answer. "That was unexpected answer but anyway it's glad to know you agreed to this easily."

Oliver knew that he must be thankful that she agreed without much convincing, it would not become much hassle. But at the same time, this was why he felt annoyed at how surprisingly easy that was. It was like still now, Malaya was not really taking him seriously. Whether it was good or not, it doesn't feel right to him at how he was being toyed like this.

"Hah. Of course, I will, besides I don't want to stay here in the islands forever without having a nice bath."

Oliver just looked at Malaya without any emotions.

Malaya released a deep breath. "Alright! Just kidding. Besides, it will still end up that way since I also need to get out of this island. So you, who have the trust of the people living here already, it will be much easier for me as well."

Malaya stretched her arms and continued speaking. "And besides whether we wanted to do it or not, you will still force us with this collar and even if I asked for a life and death contract, you will not allow it either. So resisting on our part is really futile and a waste of time." Malaya fixated her gaze on Oliver's golden eyes. 

"However, even if you try to kill us after we manage to safely get out of this island, don't expect it to be as simple as you think." Malaya smiled, masking everything she was thinking.

"I see." Oliver grinned back as well. 'Ah she's really just taking my threats lightly. Is it because to her, I'm just a so-called character? Then let's see how you can keep up with that.'

"Then I'm glad that you agreed to this easily and we have a better understanding of the situation. So now that you agree to my plan this would be much easier for the both of us to get off to this island." Oliver said as his golden eyes glinted.

"Then it seems we come to a proper agreement, right?" Malaya simply said. "Now first out of two, would you be kind enough to let that guy go." Malaya gestured to the white tiger. "I don't think he would be repulsive enough to attack you again."

"White, get off him." Oliver said and the white tiger moved away from Kayden. Seeing that Kayden was free now, Malaya moved on to the second thing she was going to say.

"The second one is, this is already pretty obvious but would you be kind enough to tell me everything you know about this island so we can easily help each other?" Malaya said as she looked back at Oliver.

"Yes, I am already going to do that.." Oliver said and thus he began telling everything that he thought would be beneficial for them to get out of this island.