Finally, Samantha had given permission that she, Lithanya and Yaithra could travel to Novaria but on a time limit which was one hour. Samantha definitely had to use the transportation spell to go to Novaria then come to the academy before one hour. Because to travel to Novaria and back to the academy was one and a half weeks. Samantha was waiting patiently by the entrance for them to finish their last lesson for the day. It wasn’t for long when Lithanya and Yaithra appeared with books in their hands.

  “Girls, you don’t need to bring your books.”, Samantha mentioned.

  They stopped in front of them. “We would rather bring them because it takes us half an hour to go back to the dorms then come back here.”, Lithanya answered.

  “Good point.”

  “I also want to learn now that we officially got out test dates and assignments.”, Yaithra said.

  “I don’t think we’ll be there for that long because we’re just going to ask him a few questions.”, Samantha said. “Stand close to me.”, she ordered and they listened.

  They slowly started disappearing, heading to Terradawn. Lithanya and Yaithra had never been to Terradawn or Nymphaedra in many years. Hopefully, they wouldn’t face any challenges considering they came from the lower class background. Or the people would bring their past.

  Samantha, Lithanya and Yaithra had arrived in Terradawn by the Xiao’s mansion. They were looking at the massive multiple squared shaped white building with golden borders. The two long big poles by the entrance were also painted in gold. While the three women were walking in the garden, they were looking at the beautiful garden. It looked similar to the garden like Tariuel’s garden in the academy. In the middle of the garden was a long and wide golden lake with a golden floral fountain.

  The women arrived by the entrance. Haoran came out of the building. “Wow, I didn’t expect you to come fifteen minutes early.”, he stopped by them and looked at the books. “Can you make your books disappear yet?”, he asked.

  “No.”, the sisters answered.

  “Have you been feeling your spiritual power?”, he raised a brow.

  “No.”, they answered.

  He nodded. “Okay.”, he flicked his fingers and their books disappeared. “Follow me.”, he walked back to the building.

  The women walked behind him with their hands together. Haoran stopped when he saw Shuchang standing by the top step by the staircase. The women walked into the building but quickly slipped. Luckily, they caught their balance while looking confused.

  “That’s slippery.”, Yaithra looked at the floor.

  “Our family loves the floor waxed.”, Haoran mentioned. “Lithanya, you’ll be questioning Shuchang.”

  Samantha looked confused. “But the questioning must be asked by a senior investigator.”, she mentioned.

  “I made a request that Princess Lithanya will ask me the questions.”, Shuchang said firmly.

  Samantha stared at him for a moment. “Fine but all of us will be in the same room.”, she was also going to use this to test Lithanya.

  “That’s fine.”, he walked down the stairs.

  Haoran looked at them. “We’ll do this in the small dining room.”, he said and walked by the stairs

  Shuchang walked next to his brothers with the women walking behind them. Lithanya and Yaithra were looking at the interior design of the mansion. Everything in this mansion was made out of granite and the main colour was white with another colour creating a marble effect.

  Shuchang was casually sitting on the single sofa while Lithanya was standing in front of him, keeping her distance. She was feeling really nervous because she hadn’t done this before.

  Samantha looked at her with confusion. “Relax.”, she tried to calm Lithanya down. “You don’t need to stand, you can sit down.”

  Lithanya nodded then slowly sat on the chair on the opposite side. Her palms were sitting on her lap while sitting up gracefully without showing that she was nervous. But that was hard to keep hidden. Yaithra came closer to her.

  “It’s almost the same as being a lawyer when you were once one many years ago.”, she reminded Lithanya.

  Lithanya was surprised that Yaithra remembered that Lithanya was a lawyer many years ago. “Good morning…”

  “Good afternoon.”, Samantha corrected her.

  “What a bad start?”, Haoran mentioned softly.

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  Lithanya really wanted to curse herself for that. “Good afternoon, Mr Xiao. How are you feeling today?”

  “Much better, thank you.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. I hope that Haoran is taking care of you properly.”, she glanced at Haoran.

  Haoran shook his head with his muscular arms crossed. Shuchang had a small smirk. “Now my sisters are taking care of me for today so he is taking a break.”

  She nodded and looked back at Shuchang. “I’m going to ask you a few simple questions. What happened thirteen years ago before you were captured by the smuggling diamond merchants?”

  “I was on a ship with a couple of my guards and my wife. I was in the bedroom with my wife and we were about to spend time until the ship tumbled over.”, he answered.

  “So, you were involved in a shipwreck?”

  “Yes.”

  “Were you the only one who managed to get out alive?”

  “Yes, everyone else didn’t make it.”, he answered firmly.

  Lithanya nodded. “Then what happened after the shipwreck?”

  “I managed to get onto land but within a minute I was captured by a group of gangs. Then I was put into the mine to collect diamond stones for ten years. In the eleventh year, I was transported to The Golden Snake Island to work under Heston until I tried to escape. Unfortunately, I was put into the dungeon a few hours before you arrived.”, he explained steadily.

  Lithanya nodded. But one thing she found was something quite confusing. If Shuchang was a slave for so many years, wouldn’t his body look fragile and skinny? When Lithanya was a lawyer, she did cases for clients that were continuously abused and they were covered in bruises. Some of them were starving as part of their punishments.

  On the other hand, Shuchang was looking extremely muscular, more muscular than Haoran. Shuchang’s hair was looking very thick. And Shuchang looked like he was fed well and taken good care of unless he did something wrong that led to the bruises.

  “Were you only a slave to some smuggling merchants?”, she continued.

  “There were some evenings, I’ll be like a sex worker.”, he answered.

  Lithanya’s eyes widened for a moment. “What?”, she was stunned.

  “Yes. Sometimes, to the merchants’ wives or their female companions.”

  Haoran was stunned to hear that. “That’s really disgusting.”, he hissed softly.

  Lithanya couldn’t disagree with Haoran. “Merchants’ wives?”, she was stunned to hear that.

  “Yes.”, Shuchang clarified again.

  “Where were you during the ten years?”

  “Novaria. It's really easy to enter but difficult to come to the continent unless you’re the friend of the merchants or going for their banquets.”, he explained.

  “Do you know the map of the continent like where the slaves are and the merchants? It’ll be really helpful in this case.”

  Shuchang nodded slightly but firmly. “Yes.”

  Samantha came closer to her. “Do you think it’s a good idea for Shuchang to join us?”

  “He is the only one who is out of Novaria alive. We haven’t been to Novaria before so Shuchang is our only option.”, she whispered.

  Yaithra also fully agreed with Lithanya. Samantha was feeling slightly doubtful about Yuxuan indirectly joining the case. Lithanya was waiting for Samantha to respond.

  “Fine but we must be extra careful. If we lose Mr Xiao again, we’ll be in bigger trouble. He is still a target now that he is the only person that was once a Novarian slave alive and exposing everything.”, she whispered.

  “We’ll put some protection while Mr Xiao is with us.”, Lithanya whispered back.

  Samantha was fine with that. “Continue.”, she moved away.

  Lithanya turned back to Shuchang. “Your wife? Did they manage to find her body, also the guards?”

  “No.”, he answered coldly.

  She nodded. “That’s enough for now. If there is anything else you have to say that’s related to the case, you can send Miss Moonshadow or…Mr Xiao a letter.”

  Shuchang looked at Haoran. “Okay.”

  “Thank you for your time.”, she got up as Shuchang.

  Haoran took the women and escorted them to the doors. Shuchang was left alone in the sitting room, staring at the doors.

  Lithanya, Yaithra, Haoran and Samantha came out of the building together. They stopped by the entrance to have a conversation about Shuchang’s answers. The women could see the anger in his eyes after listening to Shuchang being a sex worker.

  “We also need to find the merchants’ wives and his companions. They need to be put into the dungeons as well.”, he said with anger.

  “Then Shuchang must give us the list of names of the companions. This case is getting bigger than we thought.”, Yaithra mentioned.

  Lithanya looked at Haoran. “I’ll ask him to write down the names. If he remembers.”, she said firmly.

  “I’ll ask him. You ladies continue with the rest of the case.”, Haoran said firmly.

  “We know that you want to help but your first priority is taking care of Shuchang”, Samantha mentioned and tapped his broad shoulders.

  “No, I’m getting bored at home so let me do some investigation to keep myself busy. I don’t need to worry too much about Shuchang because the triplets are taking care of him.”

  “Triplets?”, Lithanya and Yaithra asked.

  “Identical triplet sisters.”, he answered.

  The sisters were stunned that he had sisters. “Okay. But also take care of Shuchang. We’ll see you next week.”, Samantha said then looked at the sisters. “Come on, girls.”

  Lithanya and Yaithra followed behind Samantha. Samantha walked back into the building to get some work done.