(Location: Ironcrown Palace in the Steel Capital, The Steel Empire.)

"Emperor, we have a handful of reports from all the Guild Executives, and they are all termed to be immediately attended to."

A young man who looked to be in his late fifties or so walked into the Emperor’s chamber after being granted permission to, and the first thing he did was make an announcement about the reports in hand.

"Not until you tell me you also have reports concerning my one and only daughter," the Emperor’s prestigious voice sounded in objection, as he didn’t even care to turn.

His face looked like that of someone who had been suffering from a deep state of worry, and with what he had just said, one could tell what his problem had been.

The messenger hadn’t said a word, and he only stammered a couple of times before the Emperor voiced out.

"Do you receive reports about my daughter?! It’s been three days since she entered the Badlands, and the punks I sent to get her from the Teleport Station haven’t returned or even reached out to us yet!"

"What went wrong?! What happened to my daughter?!"

The Emperor’s face turned dark as he smashed his hand on the table next to him.

"Emm... Errr... Emperor, you have to... you have to calm down," the messenger voiced, stammering. It would be daring to say such to the Great Emperor of the Steel Empire, but he just had to dare.

Why? Because it was already getting to the point where the Emperor would crash out.

"The search teams are already doing their jobs. They are going from one community to another, and some are already on course to interview the Wrath Army men that were on duty on that day. That way, we’ll figure out where she..."

The Emperor raised a hand, and the messenger stopped speaking at once, giving a weak yet noticeable nod.

"Drop the reports and leave. Summon Maximus on your way out," he said, and the messenger nodded before leaving with a bow.

Emperor Jonah Ironcrown gave the bunch of papers a disgusted look before shifting them to the side and moving away.

His mind hadn’t been at rest since the Day of the Red Zenith, and that was because his only daughter and child had vanished after getting summoned into the Badlands.

All through her academy years, he had told her that she would reside in the Steel Empire, where he had built and made one of the strongest communities in the Reach. However, those plans seemed to be crashing now.

She didn’t show up after three days, and the men who were sent to fetch her from the Teleport Station couldn’t find her when they got there, and somehow, there couldn’t be a trace of her.

Emperor Jonah Ironcrown couldn’t be more worried at the moment.

His daughter. His only hope...

His future...

If anything happened to her, all his efforts and fight would only end up with another lineage in the Ironcrown Family. He didn’t want that to happen.

He was in his chamber for a long while before the person he had summoned came in.

"Emperor," Maximus greeted, bowing slightly.

Maximus is the Emperor’s right-hand man, and the one who takes care of outer duties and affairs. The Emperor only steps out when the case is pretty huge, or maybe it’s time to slay a city-destroying monster.

Anything other than that sounded like cheap work to him.

"One of the search teams has returned, Emperor," Maximus spoke.

The Emperor suddenly jolted up and dashed towards the door, without even waiting for Maximus to finish, and even when Maximus tried to call him back, he didn’t even spare a glance.

It was after he had stepped out of the massive steel-built palace building that he realized what he really wouldn’t want to.

There were only four men standing on the vast pavement, and there was no sign of his daughter.

"Where is she?! You didn’t bring her with you? I asked you not to return without her!!!" the Emperor raged in anger and frustration.

And even the search men couldn’t say a single word. Maximus had to step forward and speak, since among all of them, he was the only one who could speak freely.

"They didn’t find her, Emperor," he began. "But they found this."

He brought out an envelope and handed it over to him, and the Emperor didn’t hesitate before collecting it.

There appeared to be a paper inside, which was clearly a letter, and Jonah Ironcrown clenched his lips as he opened it and read.

("Dear Dad, it’s Rena. I hope you get to see this early enough.")

("I tried...")

Jonah was reading it deeply inwardly, and that first line of the letter had already hit him with an impact that devastated him.

("I tried, but I couldn’t. I once told Mom before her retirement that I don’t see my future as an Empress of the Steel Empire. I know you would always say I sound foolish sometimes, but in this case, I don’t think I do.")

("I want to build a new, real identity for myself. I want to create my own legacy, and I believe I can do that on my own. You can’t stop me, no one can, and no one will.")

("Don’t send people looking for me. I’m somewhere safe and fine, and I will continue to be because I can take care of myself. Take care, Dad. I won’t let you down.")

"You already let me down, you...!"

Emperor Jonah tossed the paper angrily, his face already turned red at that instant.

His reaction caused a scene in front of the palace, and Maximus did the needed job by trying to calm him down and leading him back to the chambers, while the search men returned to their homes after over fifty hours of wandering around the Reach.

When Emperor Jonah reached his chamber, he still wasn’t having it. Accepting the decision his daughter had just made was the very last thing he’d do.

"There’s no way I’m going to let her go astray out there. I’m not going to leave her. She must be brought here, where she belongs. She’s blinded by foolishness, and I know that."

He was so angry that he smashed the table every time he let out a word, his eyes gleaming in rage and, most significantly... frustration.

How would the heiress of the Steel Empire turn down her heritage???

If it was told as a story, no one would even believe it, because it was beyond insane!

The Steel Empire is among the top ten strongest and richest communities in the Reach, covering over six different progressing cities and owning one of the best Guilds.

Inheriting all these would be regarded as more than gold for anyone in the Badlands, but somehow, the one who had the privilege was running away from it.

How crazy?!

"You have to calm down, Emperor. The young mistress might be making a bad decision, but you have to remember her potential. She rivaled her seniors in the academy and even went up against them. She was the best in the academy assessments in back-to-back years..."

"If you ask me, I’d say that it’s best we give her that chance to pursue her dreams, and maybe in the near future, she will also inherit the position as Empress of the Steel Empire together with her own achievements."

Maximus had stepped up to speak, and all the while he thought his words made sense, only to get a very unfriendly and cold response from the Emperor.

"And that’s why I didn’t ask you. I don’t need your opinion or advice, Maximus. She’s my daughter, and only I know what’s best for her," Emperor Jonah said.

"We need her to be here now. To learn everything she needs to know. To build her, get her ready before I embark on my journey beyond the Reach. If I don’t return, she will have to be the Empress, or my brother takes over."

"Did you get that?" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Maximus hesitated before nodding, and then, after thinking for a moment, he gave his order.

"Get the search teams alerted. The objective of their mission has changed. They aren’t just looking for her now; they are going to drag her to me by force. She’s too blind to see that she’s in the wrong. I need to make her see that," he said.

"They should search every place. Every community. Even if it has to do with visiting outposts in the extreme lands. Everywhere."

"I want my daughter brought to me before Privilege Day."

******

Back in Blood Trial Outpost, Roman was getting set for a high-spirited journey to hunt alone for the first time since the Blade Ant Colony moment.

He had agreed to hunt at dark with Rena, so today, he had to be fast with whatever he would be doing.

(12:03 PM).

He checked the clock and saw that it was a pretty good time for him to get the job done, so he sighed and set out.

"Today... we are going to hunt with every force we have. We are going to break the valley to the limit," he said to himself, looking at the four souls in the Soul Bank.

"Beautiful souls of mine... you’ve got jobs to do."