I Just Inherited The Arcane Emperor's Legacy

Leo looked at the peaceful sleeping face of Mira from the top of the tree. After staring for a few minutes, he snapped back to reality. He couldn't afford to lose track of time given his current situation. As he gazed at her, he heard a faint breaking noise. 

Below him, the branch he was standing on was starting to give away. A few cracks were starting to form where the thin branch met its parent's trunk. He sighed and jumped, completely breaking the branch with his force. The sound of the branch breaking was enough for Mira to wake up.

She opened her eyes instantly and shot up, alert and looking for any threats around her. As her fearful eyes scanned the environment around her, Leo landed on the ground with a small thud. The thud scared her even more. The entire forest was shrouded in darkness owing to the sun setting a few hours ago.

Everywhere she looked, she could only make out vague shapes from the sparse moonlight rays peeking out from the clouds. She faced the source of the thud while instinctively taking a step back. In front of her, a silhouette was slowly creeping toward her, making her take a couple more steps back.

Unlike her, Leo had a perfect view of what was going on. He saw the fear in her eyes and immediately called out to her.

"Don't worry. It's me, Leo," he said.

The moment she heard him speak, she recognized who it was. Her entire demeanor relaxed as Leo came closer. His features became recognizable and his appearance seemed to take away the fear in her eyes, letting her calm down. Her quickened breathing calmed down as Leo walked toward her.

"Did you get enough rest?" He asked her. His question only elicited a small nod, but it was enough for him.

"Good. I want to start immediately so that we get to the capital quickly." He said.

Mira responded with a nod again. Her response was enough for him though. While he was unconcerned about the pursuers after them, he wanted to make it to the capital as quickly as possible to meet up with the rest of the Eldridge Academy group. He tried to get away from the Head Master because he was afraid of him, but Leo still needed his help to hide his magic during the Phoenix Trials. 

"I'm picking you up again," Leo warned her as he walked closer to her. He stopped right in front of her and put his left hand around her waist, holding her tightly to his body. This time, a blood-red tendril emerged from his left hand, encircling Mira and him, locking them together.

"I will be a little faster today, so please bear with me."

He jumped up and started swinging through the forest with a blood tendril spawned from his right hand. She held tightly onto his body, burying her face into his ribs. If she peeked a little, the tremendous winds from the speed they were going would make her hide her face again.

As they were making their way through the forest, Nefrati asked Leo a question.

"You are obviously in such a hurry. Why don't you fly over the forest to the capital? You will be there in less than a day."

Leo smiled bitterly as he kept swinging through the forest like a monkey.

"I thought of that too, but I discarded the idea because of the girl. Even if I knock her out, she will know that she reached the capital in a suspiciously short period. The intelligence she showed in the short time I interacted with her scared me. Anything she suspects, she could tell whoever is going to be her guardian."

"Guarding the girl is too much of a hassle. You should be prepared to be disappointed though. She is only the illegitimate daughter of a second son, so there is a high chance she won't even be claimed by the family you want to impress. I am not saying that she is useless, but be prepared for every outcome," Nefrati said.

Leo nodded while making his way through the forest. As he covered a lot of ground, he noticed something with his perception. In the distance, the forest touched a road. He didn't know where the road led, but he knew it would be a lot easier if he just stuck to a proper road until he found human settlements.

The road was two kilometers away, so the two reached it within five minutes. They launched themselves out of the trees and landed on the paved road that ran through the forest. Leo quickly scanned the area for any threats and signs that would give him information.

He quickly found what he needed - a signboard almost a kilometer away from him. Once he perceived the vague shape of a signboard in the distance, he started concentrating and tried to read what was on it.

As he put in magic, the shape became clearer to him, but the words were still blurry and illegible. He frowned and increased the magic he was using, pushing his brain to its limits. His neck had a visible vein throbbing as blood rushed to his head. His neck started turning a pale red, indicating the large amount of blood rushing into it. 

When he tried to make out the characters on the signboard again, he saw that they weren't as blurry as before, but still illegible. He sighed and released his perception, allowing all the blood in his head to flow back to the rest of his body.

The only way he knew what was going to be on the board would be if he read it in person. Before he started going toward it, he looked down at the girl in his arms to make sure she was okay. Mira had noticed that they weren't moving anymore and was looking around. Her wandering eyes met Leo's gaze averting it.

"I will be looking for any directions on this road to help us find our way to the capital," he said. His words were met with silence, a norm that he had become accustomed to. After she had rested, she became completely anti-social with him. They still haven't had a proper conversation since they exchanged names.

Leo shot a tendril toward the tree right beside the road and swung toward the sign board. While there was a road for him to walk on, using his tendrils was a lot faster for him. It increased his speed dramatically and gave him practice in controlling his blood tendrils.

In a couple of minutes, he reached the signboard that he had seen. Once it was in sight, he landed back on the road from the trees. As soon as they were on the ground, he withdrew the blood tendril hugging Mira. She almost fell to the ground because of the force of landing on the ground, but his hand that was still on her waist kept her in place.

Once she gained stability, he let go of her and walked to the signboard. He read out what it said so that Mira would know as well.

"Capital City Road. The capital is 650 kilometers from here."