"I think the decision to cancel the mission is the right one," said Meryl, her heart heavy with worry. This mission had been dangerous from the start, but they hadn't realized it due to the absence of their planets at the time—there was no one to consult about it.
"You're right," Elena replied and immediately went to the system to cancel the mission. She just needed a little encouragement—and Meryl had given it.
Alvin held the confused Tulip close in his arms, running his fingers through the child's hair in an attempt to help him relax a bit. "Are you okay?" he whispered into the child's ear. Tulip nodded with a small smile.
Alvin leaned slightly to reach the stuffed bear on the couch, then placed it in Tulip's lap and whispered, "Your friend feels lonely without you."
Tulip smiled happily when he saw his stuffed bear and took it with joy. He frowned for a moment upon noticing that the red bow tie was slightly crooked. He gently adjusted it while Meryl and Alvin turned their gaze toward Elena's expression.
Her eyes were wide open, and her lips parted in shock. "What happened?" Meryl asked, a gut feeling warning her that disaster was looming.
"The mission can't be canceled," Elena whispered nervously. That meant they were stuck with it until the end date.
"Are you sure? I once accepted a daily mission in the past and later canceled it," Meryl said nervously. She clearly remembered the 'Cancel' button and was certain it had been there.
Alvin sighed in frustration as he realized the situation. Since this mission was a test for one of their experiments, they hadn't added a 'Cancel' button—intending to force the hunter to complete the mission to the end.
"What happens if you fail the mission?" Tulip typed in the chat. The whole thing seemed far too dangerous, judging by Bluebell's fear, Alvin's tension, and the girls' anxiety. Tulip wanted to make them all feel better, but he didn't know how!
Elena slammed her hand on the table in anger after reading the lines at the end of the mission details. "Those bastards!" she shouted in outrage.
"What happened?" Meryl asked anxiously.
"It says here that the mission became bound to my soul the moment I accepted it. If the mission fails, I'll die. If it succeeds, I live."
"What kind of sick joke is this?!" Alvin roared, smashing the table under his fist.
"Calm down!" Meryl snapped, forcing him back into his seat. She pulled Tulip from his lap and placed him beside her, then continued, "There has to be a solution to this."
"The only solution was to cancel the mission—and that option doesn't exist!" Alvin shouted in anger.
Meryl exhaled deeply, trying to steady her nerves, then said as calmly as she could, "My master said the Severins are weaker than planets. If Elena owns a planet, they might get scared and add a 'Cancel' button to the mission!"
"And what guarantees that the planet she chooses will be of any use? It could be complete trash!"
Amid the argument between Alvin and Meryl, Tulip looked at the confused Elena with a frown. He didn't want Elena to get hurt—she was a good person!
"Elena, do you want Bluebell to be your friend?" Tulip typed in the public chat. He didn't know what else to do to help her feel better.
"Come here," she called gently. Tulip stood up and walked over to her quietly. She hugged him and gently stroked his back. "You're so sweet, little Tulip."
The child's cheeks flushed with embarrassment, and he lowered his head, staring at the floor as the warm hug ended.
"Tulip, would you like to help me?"
He nodded immediately with a happy smile, eager to be of help.
"I want you to ask Bluebell how I can find the hybrid Drivalsk."
"Are you sure?" Meryl asked with concern. Going through with the mission felt no different than abandoning her—every possible outcome pointed to death.
"We can beat them," Elena said, with a bit of courage. Meryl and Alvin exchanged glances for a moment, then were taken aback by Elena's next words: "We'll ambush them!"
"Bluebell says Elena's decision is the right one—and better than Meryl and Alvin's ideas," Tulip typed in the chat, earning a wide smile from Elena and a gentle kiss on his forehead.
There was a warmth in Elena's actions, and Tulip wanted more of it, so he typed another message: "Bluebell says this is the first attempt to resurrect extinct creatures, so the chances of failure are very high, and there are many weaknesses we could exploit."
Elena gently pinched the shy child's cheeks. His words had calmed her nerves—unlike the arguing between the other two. "Now, dear Tulip, how do we find them?"
Tulip stared blankly into space for a moment as Bluebell spoke directly into his mind, then began typing: "There's a pen called 'Lady Venatera's Pen.' When you write on the map with it, the map reveals its contents."
He quickly followed with a second message: "Bluebell's not sure if it's available in the store."
"Ah…" Meryl murmured in embarrassment. "Dear Tulip, I didn't quite understand—how exactly do we use the pen?"
"You're looking for the 'Drivalsk'? Write its name with this pen on the map, and its location will appear."
"We are," Alvin corrected Tulip. He pinched the boy's cheeks until they turned red and sore, then added, "You're one of us."
"You're right, Mr. Alvin, but don't you think there are more important things to focus on?" said Meryl with a smile that Alvin saw as full of greed. "I already found the pen and sent its link in the chat. We need you to buy it."
"And why don't you buy it yourselves?" Alvin objected. They had grown far too greedy thanks to his constant generosity!
"The pen is expensive, and I don't have enough money. Elena is more broke than all of us, and if she could, she'd rob us blind. And you definitely don't want little Tulip to pay!"
Elena was about to protest but stopped at the last moment—because Meryl was right. If she had the means, she would have taken their money under the excuse of "sharing" and ended up richer than all of them!
"I think you're a cheeky little brat!" Alvin muttered with exasperation as he clicked on the product link. The price was: 1,000,000 coins! Outrageously expensive! All that for a pen?
"How dare you?! I am not a little brat!" Meryl shouted, flustered. Alvin ignored her and focused on the pen in his hand... It had a faint pink feather tip, with a cracked pearl at the base, almost ready to snap.
It came with a cracked white box containing white ink, and a broken pearl soaked in the cap.
"It is said that there was a princess named Vinatera. Her father favored her over all her siblings, which made them hate her and resent her." Tulip sent the message, then proceeded to write other letters.
"The princess fell in love with one of her guards and used this pen to write letters to him. When one of her sisters discovered this, she went and told their father, and the king ordered the guard to be executed."
"The princess was terrified, so she created this map we now possess, which includes all the realms. She then told her beloved to run away, promising she would follow him later using the map… but she never found him!"
"There are rumors that one of the princess's brothers killed her beloved before he could escape, and others say there was never a lover to begin with—that he was merely a delusion created by the princess because of her illness. No one knows the truth."
Meryl felt the urge to cry; she felt sorrow for Princess Vinatera. Whether the guard had truly existed or not, she had surely loved him deeply.
Alvin wasn't really interested in these details, nor did he care about the feelings of that princess. Still, he didn't open his mouth to say anything. He knew that revealing his true thoughts and feelings would only worsen Elena's opinion of him, and he had no need for that.
"That was truly sad," Elena spoke awkwardly, and everyone turned to look at her. "But… can we focus on our mission? I fear I might die like the princess if we don't finish what we're doing!"
Alvin wanted to say, "You're right," but since the two of them weren't speaking to each other, he kept the words to himself. The tip of the pen hummed in the white ink, then moved to the blank paper to write the name Drivalisk…