Hidden genius: Black belly snake

"Brother! We can't just leave her like this? What if something happened? Aren't you worried that Salvatore would be disappointed in you?" Xavier worriedly asked as his robe fluttered in the wind.

Though he was talking to Xander, who was flying right next to him, his eyes darted ever so often to the figure flying behind them on a sword, or rather the figure who had been stalking them continuously these past couple of days.

Charlotte looked away in embarrassment every time she met Xavier's gaze. Luckily, Xander never bothered to look at her so she didn't have to face his haughty glare.

In the beginning, she didn't exactly plan on doing this. She had her own pride after all.

But the vast seemingly infinite ocean had managed to beat that pride out of her. 

She had been tirelessly flying above the ocean for days together and had somehow managed to find absolutely nothing at all.

If she didn't know any better she would have assumed that she was only going around in circles.

While she hadn't made any concrete progress, she was also not exactly lost. She could always find her way back to the  Eldorian shores or the southern fairy territory.

This was not an issue. The thing that was problematic was finding the other shore of the ocean, a shore that didn't belong to their mainland consisting of the nine nations.

She always knew that there was a barrier around their mainland that prevented enemies from entering inside, but she didn't know that she couldn't even find this barrier if she wanted to.

So after spending almost a week of fruitless wandering, Charlotte finally lost all hope that she would ever find Tang Yue or where she had gone missing.

But just as she was about to return back and talk to her father about this so-called barrier around their mainland, she luckily spotted someone at a distance.

The damned bastard Xander had finally stepped out of the palace and was also surprisingly loitering over the ocean.

At first, Charlotte found it difficult to believe that he was also out searching for Yue, but then what other possible explanation could there be?

For the sake of helping her love, she placed her pride aside and had started tailing him from then on.

She knew that even though she didn't have much success in reaching the place where Tang Yue had gone to, surely Xander must know more than her!

And the bastard probably had much higher chances of finding things out. Not to mention that he was an entire realm above her in terms of strength and cultivation.

So Charlotte shamelessly started tailing him. She went everywhere he went and stuck on to him like a purple leech.

Soon, another day passed and it looked like Xander was doing no better than herself in the endeavor.

"Good for nothing." She cursed him from behind, making sure that the man heard her.

Xander, of course, had noticed her presence a long time ago but continued to ignore the woman.

He pensively stared at the untameable ocean and then returned back to Eldoria after thinking about something.

Charlotte followed him once again not understanding what he was up to, only to see that the man had brought his brother along with him this time around.

Xander hypothesized that the barrier which was obviously separating them from whatever was outside and wherever Tang Yue had gone to, might possibly contain some sort of runic component.

And since Xavier was far more knowledgeable than him in the craft of runes, he ended up bringing him along even though he didn't intend to, leaving the Eldorian Kingdom in the hands of Xerxes, the second prince.

When Charlotte saw this sudden turn of events, she was nothing short of baffled. 

It was a rare occurrence for Xander to actually act humble and ask someone else's help even if that someone else was his own brother.

"What the hell is he up to now?" She wondered and continued to follow them from afar.

As more hours slipped through, she only got more and more curious, with the behavior of the two rotten elven princes baffling her even more.

They were stopping at several places and when they did, the two of them would start waving their hands around, muttering something between themselves.

Charlotte was going crazy with impatience and at the fact that she herself was not able to help with the situation, but she swallowed it down and continued to observe the two without any other choice left.

This went on for a while when the skies suddenly turned dark and stormy without any explanation.

Huge clouds started gathering and blinding flashes of lightning rained down from the sky.

The two brothers looked at each other and then at Charlotte. 

And seeing her slightly tremble with every growl of thunder, they could tell that none of them had anything to do with what was happening.

They had tried various things but these raging winds and dark clouds were beyond their doing.

Xander immediately considered the possibility of the involvement of the human being who had caused so much chaos in their lands lately.

But before he could even think about that further, another bolt of lightning flashed, and this time despite being a Demi-God he completely blanked out for a second.

Xander felt a strange pull on his body and before he realized he found himself lying on a sandy shore.

He instantly leaped up and checked his body for injuries and only relaxed when he found none. 

He then looked at his brother who was still lazily lying on the shore beside him.

"Brother, are we in heaven? Are there vixens in heaven? Please let there be vixens in heaven!" Xavier absentmindedly muttered, to which Xander responded with a sharp kick to his lazy bottom, making the elf stand up as well.

"Ouch! That hurt, you meanie! It's the elder brother who gets to bully the younger brother! Not the other way around, damn it!"