Ning looked at them with a confused look on his face for a second before the severity of the situation became real to him.
"What? The princess has been kidnapped? When? How?" Ning asked.
"2 or so hours ago. She was in her room at one point, then in the next, she wasn't," the queen said as she tried her hardest to not think of the worst.
'System, is the princess fine?' Ning asked without wasting any time.
<The princess is alive and well at the moment.>
Ning sighed in relief when he heard that.
"Did you truly not take our daughter?" the King asked, hoping that the news was still not true.
"No, your majesty. I was busy fighting all day today," Ning said. "Was no one around the princess when she disappeared?"
"This one was, but her words don't make sense at all," the queen said as she gestured to Joann who was kneeling on the ground.
"Joann, can you tell me what happened?" Ning asked.
"I… I don't know what really happened. One moment she was there. Then the next moment, she was taken away from right in front of my eyes by a beast," she said.
"What beast?" Ning asked.
"I… I didn't see. The beast was invisible," Joann said.
Ning looked at her weirdly. "If it was invisible then why was it a beast and not a human?" he asked.
"Because the beast was summoned away after taking her," Joann said.
"Wait, wait, wait, what?" Ning looked at Joann with a confused expression.
"See? It doesn't make sense," the queen said.
Ning nodded. It indeed didn't make sense at all. "Joann, did you see the summoning circle yourself?" Ning asked.
"Yes," she said.
"But if there was a summoning circle, then the beast could only be unsummoned that way. It cant' take things through its own summoning circle," Ning said. "You either didn't see a summoning circle, or the princess was taken in other ways."
"I know what I saw, teacher," Joann said.
"Tell me exactly what happened," Ning asked.
"Well, the princess was learning from your book and then suddenly she stood up straight saying that she will reach Rank 2 very soon. But before she could say anything else, a beast arrived, and then a summoning circle took her and the beast away," Joann said.
Ning thought for a moment. "But you didn't see the beast," he asked.
"No," Joann said.
"Did you hear the beast? Smell it or see its feet walk on the bed?" Ning asked.
"No… not really," Joann said. "But what else could it be then?"
"Tell me what you saw exactly," Ning asked.
"Well, what I saw exactly was a summoning circle appearing beneath the princess and her disappearing away," Joann explained.
When put like that, Ning could only think of one thing that happened. But was it possible?
There was one way to find out. "System, was the princess summoned away?" Ning asked.
<Yes.>
Ning gave a wry smile. He couldn't believe that the princess had actually been summoned away. But what could a small child like her even do?
Whatever it was, he needed to get her back.
"Your majesty, I think I know what happened," Ning said.
The crowd got silent to hear him.
Ning looked around and said, "I believe the princess was summoned away."
"Summoned away?"
"What nonsense is this?"
"That doesn't even make sense."
"Who would want a small child."
The king looked at him with a look of subdued anger. "Brother Ning, this is not the time to be making jokes. How can a human possibly be summoned?" he asked.
"Why can't a human be summoned?" Ning asked. "Why would a human not be summoned?"
"Who would summon a human?" the king asked.
"I don't know, but it's certainly not another human," Ning said. "Since you can't bond with someone from your own species, whoever summoned the princess is a beast for sure."
The queen gasped. "Are you certain?" she asked.
"Yes, no doubt," Ning said.
"Please. Please help bring my child back," the queen pleaded.
"Don't worry, I will," Ning said.
He closed his eyes and asked the system where the princess was. When he got the answer, he couldn't help but be a little surprised.
"That's… that's gonna be hard to get to," Ning said softly.
"Can you do it?" the queen asked.
"Don't worry, I'm leaving right now," Ning said and walked out of the room.
The queen quickly followed him out, and reluctantly, the king did so as well. With both the king and the queen walking out, the rest of the people walked out as well.
Ning walked over to the beach, confusing the queen as to why he wasn't leaving already.
"Why aren't you teleporting?" she asked.
"It's not a place I can go to by teleporting," Ning said. At least, he couldn't teleport right now.
"So? What will you do?" the queen asked.
"I will fly there. Don't worry, I will return as soon as I can, but it might take me a few days to do so," Ning said.
"Where are you going?" the queen asked.
Ning was about to answer, but he decided not to. That would only make the queen more scared than she already was.
"The princess is fine for now, but I can't promise she will continue being fine. So, I will leave right now," Ning said. "Wait for me."
Ning looked towards the setting sun to the west and suddenly flew off without telling anyone anything about where he was going.
Each second, he slowly increased his speed until he could feel his body burning with heat. However, that didn't cause him much problem, so he continued flying.
Slowly, the sun got brighter and brighter the more he went west. However, soon he was no longer going west from his perspective, but rather up.
He would have to soon leave the planet Nulwurn. After all, the princess had in fact been summoned away to another planet far away.
