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Chapter 456: Distrust. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2023-10-08 12:33:48 +0000 UTCEdit: Some small changes at the end.
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“Ma’am, please, return to your home!” I told the baker, waking her up from her shock.
“Y-yes, Lady Shrine Maiden. Miss—” She was about to grab the cloak person’s hand, but the latter jerked backwards and waved her hand.
“Nah, I’m good.” She then pulled the bread basket up and nodded. “Thanks.”
“Y-you be safe, please. May the Goddess keep you safe in her light.”
With that, the woman ran away, disappearing into the crowded street among the many questioning citizens. The cloak person sighed and turned to us, scratching her head as she looked down at the basket. Saori then walked up to the girl, an unspoken question in her eyes, causing the latter to sigh again.
“Pleading for the Light Goddess to protect me is pretty annoying …” she whispered. She then handed the basket over to Saori. “You guys spoiled me. Now I can’t eat normal, plain, old, good, delicious bread any longer because I think I’m missing out. Terrible mindset.”
“I’ll do something with them …” Saori sighed. “Why are you here ‘Valeria?’”
“Varya, Vidia, ‘Valeria,’ Valeria … Too many people with the same beginning,” Midirn complained, scratching his head as if he was having trouble remembering all the names.
Considering we were in the open and had no idea who was listening to us, Saori correctly surmised to call Vifi by her human name. Which, admittedly, wasn’t my first instinct. I was about to call Vifi by her real name. Good thing Saori thought ahead.
“As always, nothing fishy. No seafood, and—” Fittingly, Vifi was about to give Saori her preferences before Saori stopped her.
“I know, I know. Just answer the question. You should not be here, and why are you wearing the cloak?”
Sadly, before we could continue, our attention was drawn to the incessant shouting. The soldiers sound panicky. “Alarm! Pursue the intruders!”
“We can leave that for later. Jeez, what a coincidence …” I eyed Vifi, but she shook her head. I sighed. “Come on. Let’s—”
“I’m not coming.”
“We are in enemy territory, a place we told you to not follow us, and you are saying we should let you out of our eyesight? Were you spying on us just now? Why did you only react when Hestia noticed your voice?” Saori frowned. “You went against our wishes. Are you trying to make this harder for yourself, or should I start scrutinizing your every single move?”
Vifi scratched her head, scowling with only her mouth being visible. “Urgh, you don’t need to say the obvious. I know being here makes me seem like I’m working for my people. I’m not. It’s just a bad happenstance. And, if you want to keep it that way, let me stay out of this and hide. I’m here on Grimnir’s orders.”
Hearing the name of our blacksmith pacified Saori and I and we nodded at her proposal. Vifi told us to meet her at the secret location in the middle distract on the eastern side of the city, or, whatever that meant. Surprisingly, Saori knew. Once Vifi left, Saori told me she had Song hiding in her shadow, giving us eyes on her.
[“Princess, we should be wary. Her allegiance is still not assured,”] Beth warned me.
With that dealt with, we moved towards the noise as a unit, courtesy of Midirn who warned us we shouldn’t move separately. Considering the knights and soldiers disliked beastmen, they might try something with the twins or Saori if I wasn’t around.
Once we got to our destination, we witnessed the local guards fighting against multiple cloaked figures. In addition, multiple stalls and shops were thrashed and looted, as evidence of the filled leather sacks a tall and muscular thug was carrying around.
Thieves? Mana Eyes.
A quick look on the seven men, all of them were humans and were, strangely, only around level 50. Far too weak to raid Aureolis. Like, were they stupid? A normal holy knight was close to rank B and that should be enough to easily deal with seven rank Cs bandits. Still, these seven were strong enough to overwhelm the local guards.
“More over here! They got through the gates!”
“The highwaymen are running towards the center; protect the upper city and the church! Call for the knights!”
Now closer to the vicinity, my ears managed to catch on the voices of other guards through the chaotic screams of the people before me. Sadly, with so many people running past us, I couldn’t pinpoint the locations of the other attacks. Still, if somebody called the knights, then those other spots should be all right.
For now, I had to deal with this.
“Saori, Shay, Beth flank them and make sure they don’t suddenly take a hostage. Midirn, with me.”
“Your orders!” Everybody declared before getting into position.
With Midirn moving in slightly in front of me, we saw the guards bravely engaging the thugs and trying to gang up on them to prevent them from running away. Unfortunately, the guards were no match for the thieves, being outmaneuvered and overpowered, to the point I saw multiple guards gasping for air or crying out in pain on the ground. Blood covered the ground as some of the guards helped the injured escape.
Sacred Field.
Playing it safe, I materialized a blinding white magic circle to heal the injured, momentarily distracting everybody fighting, giving Midirn an opening to use [Gale Steps] to bodycheck a thug away from a soldier. With a loud roar, he turned his back to the guards while glaring down the criminals.
“I am Champion Hestia. You are trespassing on the Goddess’s holy ground, given to her followers as a place of worship and faith! Surrender your weapons now, or I will deal with you like any other bandit!”
“Dammit! Wrong location!” one of the thugs shouted. “Move back!”
All seven pulled out their masks and put them on before two of them threw bombs onto the ground. Anticipating something the moment I saw the masks, I narrowly managed to stop one of them by catching it with my scales, only for the second to release a brown-colored smokescreen.
Midirn’s nose and mine instantly picked up the rotten egg smell, jerking back as our higher leveled [Enhanced Olfactory Sense] made us almost want to puke. The stench kept prickling my nose, creating this nauseous feeling inside my throat and mouth … Sadly for them, using something like that to stun us was futile.
With my eyes all watery from the pain, I shot seven [Sacred Smite] at the fleeing thugs, but only two screamed and fell on the ground. [Detection Sensor] sure helped, but [Sacred Smite] was still a straight-shot spell so if somebody stood in the way or dodged, it could miss. Didn’t help that my nose and eyes were running!
“They’re escaping!” The guards shouting before I suppressed my urge to retch.
Having mostly recovered, I was about to follow up on them, only for Midirn to suddenly grab me under my arms to sling me on his back. Feeling like a kindergartner riding on the back of my Papa, I went a bit red, before he asked me for “air.”
Nodding, I cast [Air Shield] around us to stop the stink, before he charged right into the smoke and into an alleyway. More stink clouds were laid on the ground, but I was more fascinated by how quickly they managed to run. Did they drink an agility potion? Guess you needed some help for such a stunt.
I’ll pocket this for now. I placed the stink bomb my scales caught into my storage, since nobody could see me do so.
“You got their location?” Midirn asked.
“Yeah, go straight left and avoid the citizens. Then hard right into another alley!” I relayed what I was picking up from my skills. “Also, why are you carrying me? We can fly!”
“And spook the people here with a giant dragonewt large enough to squash a human’s head casting his shadow over them like a bird-of-prey? That’s how you scare humans unfamiliar and prejudiced against beastmen, Princess,” he insisted. “Besides, we don’t need to catch them. All we need is to chase after them so we can hit them all together!”
“The other groups!”
“Exactly! Couldn’t catch everything, but from the way they moved, I suspect there are multiple groups operating in different spots from each other. That’s why the city is in such turmoil, even here,” he said after he passed into the street and into the alleyway per my directions. “One of them said ‘Wrong location,’ right? Weak or not, these aren’t normal bandits with how well prepared they seemed.”
“Making stink bombs strong enough to stun a beastman’s, or dragon’s, nose takes pre-planning inside a city made for only humans. They expected us. They also had stat-boosting tonics with them, something even normal adventurer groups will have trouble acquiring for all their members.” I raised my head, noticing a bandit’s shadow slip right into the midst of a crowd. “Got it. Saori, Shay, and Beth are ahead of us. They’re moving in.”
“Bit too early. Have them stay close, but not until we get to another group. More efficient, and we also have to deal with this quickly and get back to the others. I don’t like how that guy spoke.”
Fitting for an army veteran. Quick decision making and reasoning skills with only minimal information.
I focused my hearing on the sounds around me, letting the shouting and screaming of the townsfolk enter one ear and let it out through the other, only registering stuff I found interesting. With my parallel minds, I tracked down the other groups, quickly discovering that there were three more of them.
One group managed to defeat the guards and were robbing and attacking people without any pause—one was actually close to the eatery to the point I heard Tatsuya’s loud howling before he shouted his attacks—while the group farthest away from us wasn’t conspicuous enough for me to hear from this side of the city.
I informed Saori and the twins of everything I discovered using [Telepathy]—thankfully, they were close enough—before instructing them to lead the thugs who were chasing towards the rampaging one. However, Saori had to dip out, informing me she had to make sure her students were all right, despite the fact she knew heavy hitters like Master and Neill were there.
I couldn’t stop a sensei from protecting her students, so I let her go. Thankfully, Rajah would stick with me. Even if he couldn’t appear just anywhere due to his size, he could still shoot his hardened fur like projectiles for sabotage. We just had to make sure to clean it up later.
In any case, with the twin’s and Rajah’s help, we managed to follow the thugs away from any hotspot where they could hurt people and into the vicinity of their allies. Midway through the chase, I also jumped off Midirn’s back and went to the nearby guards. As I was supposed to garner people’s support, healing them up was the best way to do so.
“Thank you very much, my lady!” The conscious soldiers thanked me, before giving me information on what group attacked them.
14 people ambushed them while they were chasing after another group, with some speculating these people were hiding inside the city before the alarm got triggered. They warned me how all the members were seen ingested potions and tonics, with some even wielding monster material-made weapons and armor. The attack itself was well coordinated, embarrassing the guards as they sheepishly recounted everything, making it obvious they didn’t want to tell me before I reminded them the city’s safety was at stake.
“The only other way into the city is through the underground sewers. The guard captain and the clergy inspect the outer and inner walls every week for any damage or cracks. Her Holiness’s walls keep our city safe in time of dire need, after all.”
“We failed, Lady Champion. Please, help us.”
It’s already been a while. Where the hell are the knights? Oh come on, is this another priority issue again? Tsk, good thing Fleindia is with Krim and the other saurians. I can rest assured they can protect her … Hopefully, these bandits won’t turn out to be a distraction for some assassins.
“Understood. I healed everybody, but if anybody is still hurt, get them to a priest, right away! Goddess be with you,” I said, keeping my thoughts to myself.
I dashed towards the locations on my sensor, rushing to assure the other four wouldn’t be in trouble. However, I guess that was unnecessary. The moment I arrived, I saw Midirn literally picking up the large muscular thug from before and slamming him right into the hard, frozen ground, smearing the ground with the blood coming from his broken nose.
At the same time, the twins were hawking around the remaining thugs, using their aerial superiority to take each out with a swift kick to the head and chest, or by grabbing them on the shoulder to throw them onto the ground while they were high to let gravity do their job for them. I could even spy Rajah throwing out his hair projectiles whenever Midirn rampaged around, making it seem like he kicked up rocks.
Even without a halberd, that dragonewt is pure menace. Jeez, these elder scales …
I internally thanked them for going easy on all of the thugs before joining the fight myself, ending it pretty quickly since they were all distracted and I had a free shot on all of them with my spells. Once we managed to capture all of them, Beth bragged how, had I come a bit earlier, I would have seen them ambush the bandits.
In fact, she even showed me what happened since three bandits were caught in the twins’ icy breath. There, I also saw multiple bombs frozen alongside the three struggling thugs. Well, once they saw the stink bombs, I didn’t think two wyverns would risk getting stunned by that horrible smell.
After we handed the thugs over to the guards I healed, we rushed over to the eatery, happily learning they managed to handle everything pretty well. As I expected, Saori wasn’t needed with Tasianna, Ellaine, Yorshka, Neill, and Master around, but to my surprise, they didn’t really lift a finger since the students handled everything, despite not having weapons! Sure, they had magic, but from the look of it, all of them stole the weapons from the thugs and used them against their previous owners.
“I had to tank a stink bomb with a damn table as a shield, though …” Kyouya complained, looking like he had just finished crying. The only “casualty” of the encounter.
Glad to know they can fend off rank C threats without weapons.
After the guards took over, I asked them if the bandits had mentioned anything strange when they arrived, but it was all the usual things about thugs stealing and robbing, before they shouted for retreat when they realized the students were overpowering them. From the sound of it, this group of bandits were far less organized compared to the one the guards told me about, the one Midirn, the twins, and Rajah treated like fodder.
That only confused me further, as it left too many questions open for me to be comfortable with. The most important one was why the hell would they attack this place when it was guarded by Knights of Aurena? This place had two sets of walls, and even if they took the sewer route, they would still contend against people knowing the way out of it. This was foolhardy. Why would any—
“C-Champion Hestia! Help! Help! Champion Hestia!”
I snapped my head around as I heard my name, only to see a guard, half covered in dirt and blood, run up to me with the sorta expression I could never forget. The horror widening his eyes, the shock pulsating through his body like electricity causing him to stumble over his words, and the almost cough-like breathing indicating a minor hyperventilation caused by his fight-or-flight response.
Dread filled my chest. My mind zoned out, too occupied with listening to his next words.
“Saintess Fleindia sent me! A mage attacked us! A wind mage! P-people died! Blo—Focus—Goddess’s mercy! Huuuh, she needs your help!”
Wind mage? Is that—Is that why my ears couldn’t get anything? Damn, it wasn’t the city’s noise!
“Fleindia! Is she okay? The guards with her?”
“Fine! Fine! The knights came to save us,” he spat out so fast his words almost blended together. “Healing! Just healing! Please! The-there is too much!”
Traumatized. Definitely. Oh gosh, why didn’t I use [Mana Eyes] earlier?
Without giving the man a proper answer, I actually used my damn mana-seeking eyes now and pinpointed the location, identifying a large dome-like construct made from mana. [Air Shield] or something similar, definitely. Even with blue color covering everything like a mist, I noticed a large fellow pounding on the ground, trying to head towards a tight concentration of mana, something that looked like a mana core for a golem.
With my boosters, I propelled myself over, only to wince as I saw the reason for that guard’s erratic behavior—a field fully drenched in the blood of countless guards and townspeople. Their bodies laid everywhere, with many crushed under rocks and others sliced into pieces with their remains littered in large cuts, almost too similar to the results of a high tier storm spell like [Cyclone Madness] … No, it looked exactly like it, especially with all the cutting marks on the ground.
Urgh, after what happened in Elyonda with those water zombies, something like this isn’t that … I hate this.
I gritted my teeth, feeling like I could blow up on somebody right about now.
Just as I approached the barrier, though, my senses suddenly picked up on some hostile intents, specifically [Foresight] warning me of a few approaching attacks. I looked down, noticing multiple Knights of Aurena that were pointing their bows at me, causing me to click my tongue. Guess Midirn was right, people didn’t like flying beastmen.
After I descended, the knights quickly identified me and apologized, pleading that they be forgiven for pointing their bows. I didn’t know if these were the same people who harassed Saori, but I took their apology anyway. It didn't really matter to me since there was something more problematic here.
“The Saintess went inside, but the barrier is inversely protected so she can’t come out,” the knight told me, prompting me to ask him to elaborate. “Huh? It’s inversed, Champion Hestia. It lets things in easily, but keeps things in with a tight barrier. They use them for prisons and jails? House arrest?”
Ah, it was like a switch activated in my brain when he mentioned that. It might have been obvious for him, but it wasn’t like I ever had the pleasure of seeing something like that in action before. I’ve never visited a jail nor was I ever on house arrest. Even the place I raided to rescue the students from those dwarven yakuza didn’t have something like that. The dwarves had restrictions on mana use, after all.
With the mana barrier inverted, the only way to bring it down was from the inside. As he mentioned, Fleindia was inside trying to help the few survivors, while her guards, the saurians, were trying to get out but without any weapons their punches weren’t denting it. The blue lumbering figure I spotted from before was even Akast, trying to attack something in the middle.
I had heard enough at this point. I could have grilled him for mre answers, but I had to enter the barrier now. Telling the knights I would help, I entered the barrier, only to be welcomed by the ear-piercing shrieks of women. It confirmed there was a silence rune at work—the one used within buildings, not the one Renee could conjure up. Pretty elaborate set up from those who murdered all these people.
In addition, I was greeted by something else.
<[Dhuinn Rune: Turtle’s Patience] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>
<Turtle’s Patience: Projects an inverse protective mana barrier that reduces Strength and Intelligence by 50%, all while increasing Vitality and Wisdom by 50%. Mana is continuously consumed until turned off>
A Dhuinn, okay, at this point it was clear these “bandits” were a bit too well prepared. These things were expensive and hard to make; a fact I knew very well since Grimnir made one for my breastplate.
“Hestia! Critical condition, I need help now!” Fleindia shouted from within a [Sacred Field], trying to staunch the bleeding of a person.
“Young scale, you got any ideas? We can’t do shit with this effect!” Krim shouted as he and Grazlahta were banging on the barrier to little effect.
I tested the barrier myself by slashing it, but it only made me feel like I was scratching on extra tough concrete. As such, I headed over to Fleindia, only to notice why she was saying that. A person actually died while the [Sacred Field] was active, right before my eyes, due to all the bleeding dripping from his opened stomach. Healing magic could do much, but it couldn’t magically restore blood, only accelerate its production.
My parallel minds went into action the moment I realized this, identifying the people who needed my help the most … and those with the least chance of being saved, to the point my minds told me to abandon them. By reducing our intelligence with the barrier, it meant our healing magic was weaker than ever.
To hell with that though!
Kriffiek kllk gaaung! Buffs on. Music on! Double songs, now!
<[Battle Frenzy (Minor)] [Music Resonation (Minor)] [Various Spell Buffs] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>
I chose [The Heir of Hope] and [Strength and Wisdom] for this, obviously taking the “Wisdom” side of the latter to boost my intelligence back up by 25%—Fleindia did the same, probably. With the former song also boosting healing effectiveness by 50% and all stats by 10%, I’ve practically mitigated the negative bonuses for healing from the Dhuinn rune, and this wasn’t even mentioning the buffs coming from my spells.
<[Strength and Wisdom (Wisdom)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>
My body lit up like a neon light sign at this point, glowing white on certain patches of my scales and hair. I then snapped my fingers and produced two flames on my hand, prompting Fleindia to quickly warn everybody this was the Goddess’s mercy, that was I performing a white grace upon everybody to save them.
Not like any of the people really cared about it, as they were on the point of insanity and death. Their fear for death overwhelmed them, having not even registered I was here. It helped, since I was turning my crimson flames into white, readying to spread them onto everybody.
“I’ll leave the rest to you!” Fleindia stated before sitting down on the ground, staining her beautiful robes scarlet red. She then performed a prayer before a new white circle appeared around us.
<[Noble Prayer (Sanctified Grounds)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>
<Sanctified Grounds: Increases healing effectiveness by 50%. Increases mana regeneration and arcane corruption resistance by 30%. Reduces health drain through blood loss by 40%>
Her unique skill didn’t allow her to cast any spells during her prayer, so she needed me to be here for her to stop healing. I was now completely in control, and I would not let anybody die.
With a clap of my heads, my white flames exploded, spreading throughout the clinic before I prepared [Halo of Consecration] and [Miraculous Grace]. With a white flaming halo levitating over my head, constantly shooting our white flames to heal everybody, I began the surgery for the 38 people hanging on the thread of life.
I did hear some commotion behind me, but that was quickly muffled by Krim and Graz handling the situation. I even heard Akasht coming over, asking me if he could do anything. The gentle giant really was too nice, and, regretfully, I gave him the most unpleasant duty—removing any corpses and any stabilized people. Thankfully, he accepted it as if it was just another monday.
Exhausting as it might be, I eventually managed to get through all my patients. Practice made perfect, although I was sure no hospital would issue me a surgeon’s license.
Feeling drained from how much mana I had to expend in such a short time, I felt dizzy as I stood up, proud and relieved I managed to do it. My mind, though, felt all fuzzy and furious. The time limit for my [Battle Frenzy] was coming to an end soon, hastened by the rage kept inside my chest.
I patted Fleindia and handed the rest to her, before I went over to where Akast was smashing when I first came over. The saurians explained one of the assailants used [Terra Wall] to harden the specific spot where they stored the triggering item for the barrier. With its enfeebling effect and with how they didn’t have any weapons or shovels, it made the digging process extremely hard.
Since I had no time for this, I lit my claws aflame with [Hellblade Edge] before digging into stone, melting it to the point I could use [Volcanic Blaze] to swim into the ground. Once I got to the item with the rune, only to realize there wasn’t a way to safely disable the rune, unless I wanted to wait for the mana to be drained.
Well, best time to finally use that ‘useless’ blessing. Rune Absorption!
With the blessing I usurped from Grimnir’s title, I “usurped” this piece of rune and absorbed the mana stored within, disabling it from being used for a while. With the large, heavy metal box in hand, I resurfaced and threw it onto the ground as noise returned to my ears, including those from outside as the barrier fell.
The situation was solved for now, but it wouldn’t be long until things got really annoying.
More knights, finally, arrived. Anticipating they had to break the barrier, they also brought some priests with them. All of them were glad nothing happened to Fleindia, with some even thanking the saurians for protecting her from the attackers. Sadly, some still decided to give me the eye, even having the audacity to call me out for not being there for her when the attack happened. The nerve!
However, I was too mentally and emotionally exhausted to give a damn. All I wanted to know was what happened here and why. As such, I listened in on Fleindia’s recollection of the events when the knights question her, helping me learn this was actually an orchestrated attack by the demonkin.
“Two demonkin. My unique skill visibly weakened them while Sir Krim-Slak and Sir Grazlahta protected me from two incoming attacks. However, strangely, the moment I did so they turned away from us and ran over here, only to mercilessly slaughter—Goddess’s mercy—all these innocent people. I couldn’t do anything but watch as they unleashed arcane destruction.” She looked like she was about to cry. “They activated the barrier after a few died, which led to me entering the barrier to save the survivors. Sadly, they escaped in the confusion.”
The knights weren’t here at first, only having arrived after what had happened. From context, I was right to assume they would rush over here for her, something I should have done myself, but blaming myself right now wouldn’t do anything good. In any case, that was all I needed to know. I had my targets.
I slipped past the knights’ attention and went back to Saori and the others, only to learn not a single knight came over here. Sad to see the truth. Nevertheless, I recounted what happened to everybody.
“They did what?” Saori frowned. “So, all those thugs were distractions? All so they could hit Fleindia and threaten her life? But then they just turned around and killed the people? That … that does not add up properly.”
“If you ask me, this sounds more like a way to discredit you, my lady,” Tasianna expressed. “The priests were already questioning your ability to save a Saintess, and now another got attacked while you were prioritizing everybody else but her life. Not to mention, many people died from the demonkin’s rampage.”
Oh no …
“Cleaning up some thugs won’t do anything for you.” Ellaine grimaced. “In fact, that would only put your decision making to question. Your mark as a leader. Your capabilities to lead the church with your directive.”
“… They got us,” Tatsuya voiced everybody’s thought.
“Shit!” I turned around and began walking, only for Neill to grab my arm.
“Woah, you aren’t going anywhere with that killer’s face. Midirn reported to us. With how you’re now, you’re just looking for a scapegoat and a target to punch.”
I tore my arm away. “Shut it! Grk!”
Sis pushed me. “At least turn your [Battle Frenzy] off then, or do you want me to punch it out of you, you little brat? Love you to bits, but you know I won’t take this kinda attitude lying down. I taught you how to properly manage Minor, so stop embarrassing yourself and our bloodline by getting consumed by it!”
She pushed me again, this time more forceful than before, but I stomped my feet down, anchoring myself in my spot as I glared at her. I grit my teeth, having this urge to fight her right now as she was standing in my way. I could hear my breathing in my head. As if time had stopped.
I looked around at my friends, at their worried and confused looks. I looked down at my arms, only now realizing there were white neon lights covering my scales. I touched my hair, pulling some of them in front of my eyes where I could see evidence of [Battle Frenzy] still being active. Hard to ignore myself glowing like a light bulb, but somehow I did.
… Didn’t I deactivate it? Did I leave it on all this time? Wait, hold on, where was the box with the Dhuinn rune at? Did I forget … I did, huh?
I calmed myself, even turning down my [Aerokinesis] stereo. I groaned, caressing my face as I finally understood what happened to me today. I got played, and this would only get more troublesome down the road.
I apologized to Neill and everybody in attendance for my behavior, before standing up. Neill, Saori, and Tasianna wanted to come with me considering who I was about to question, and they wouldn’t allow me to go otherwise. Master and Yorshka also insisted for my protection.
Leaving Yorshka, the twins, and Ellaine behind to protect the students and everybody else from any potential attacks, my group went to the eastern side of the city, where Saori led us into a small eatery with a hidden entrance called the “Noble’s Secret.” This was where Vifi wanted us to go.
There, we questioned the bartender as we couldn’t find the demonkin, where the man handed us a piece of parchment that told us to meet her in the sewers. After getting directions, we ventured towards the southeastern part of the city, where we found out an entire checkpoint was placed at the sewer’s entrance.
It took a bit of persuading for them to let us in since the guards were given instructions to not let anybody in or out of it, but I overruled them since I was a Champion. My main argument was that I had to search for any clues since I assumed the thieves came from the sewers. Once inside, Song showed herself and guided us towards Vifi, who was waiting next to a wooden crate.
“Yo, gues—”
I charged up to her, leaving barely any space in between us. Tapping her shoulder, I glared at the demonkin. “Coincidence or not? You’ve told us countless times to not put all our trust in you, but I did want to believe, you know? I did. I’m not the type of person who wants to be paranoid about anything, and I strongly believe in the concept of spreading happiness. Not pain, suffering, or all that crap. So, tell me straight here and now, did you backstab us? Was the reason why you tried to hide from us the reason why a demonkin attack happened today?”
“Hestia!” Saori pulled me back. Clicking her tongue, she turned her head to the slightly baffled Vifi. “Got the context?”
Wrinkling her mouth, she sighed. “The gist of it. People got killed, I guess?”
“We can do it now and here,” Neill stated as her scales formed her gauntlets and sabatons. “A real rematch, and I don’t think my little sister has any shred of mercy in her this time. You can launch the trap, we’re ready.”
“Ha, not to implicate myself, but if I wanted to get back at you guys, it would be better planned out, since I do know I can’t exactly win against you and your sister’s song in my current form. A 15% emotional surge isn’t worth anything since I know your top limit.” She smiled smugly, but didn’t possess an inkling of hostility.
“You don’t need to fight alone since we’re in enemy territory,” Tasianna argued. “You could call for the Prince of Envy and his sin heir, and it’ll turn into a real battle. There are many ways for you to turn on us to your advantage.”
“And can I remind you that I am a deserter? If I were to return, they would execute me. Even if I brought the newest Champion’s head to them, they wouldn’t be happy about it. The initial plan to get rid of Melloxtressa is gone, so harming you now would only incur her wrath. She’ll wake up eventually, sooner rather than later when the [Room] disappears with your death.” Vifi shrugged before turning around and opening the wooden crate. “Here’s the real reason why I came. Look.”
Midirn and Master went up for us, inspecting the stuff inside before they jerked forward. Master then pulled out what looked like a black tanto.
“Grimnir made this. Here, catch, Saori.” He threw it over.
Once in her hand, she appraised the item before her eyes also widened in surprise. Black lightning crackled around her arms before they gathered around her blade, elongating it until it was the length of a sword.
“… From the look of it, my dagger skills still apply its bonuses to it. The length of a—No, I can adjust the length of the lightning blade however I want, but it is still a tanto at the end of the day. Exactly like mine, but, couldn’t I use this in my fenrir form?” Saori then caressed the handle, showing me the shine of three runes. “This is obviously Grimnir’s work.”
“The old man told me to sneak them to you since you won’t have any weapons inside. Sneak it past the checkpoint with your storage, and you’re all good! That’s why I came. The only reason,” she reiterated that last part. “I’m a soldier. It doesn’t feel good if I have nothing to do but stare into the sky.”
“I get that,” Midirn nodded. “Nothing feels worse than being sidelined, all while you know that a battle is about to happen. Those thoughts, right? Can’t get it out of your mind, not even during sleep, and you feel so antsy. Useless.”
Vifi chortled, shaking her head a bit, but nodding in agreement. Military people understood each other.
“But, then, why so soon?” Tasianna questioned. “We’ve only been here for three days. And how did you sneak into the city without any issues? We had to go through a checkpoint. What about the barrier? Shouldn’t you have sounded the alarm by entering the city?”
“Just like in Shaturein, mana barriers don’t go into the ground. That’s why the sewer is the perfect way to enter, you see. Also, sneak past a checkpoint? Who do you think you’re talking to? I can do that even without my voltaic lightning!” She scoffed, looking insulted for the first time in this discussion. She then calmed down before pointing at her cloak. “This trench coat is actually the reason why I was so confident in going in and out. I was intending on hiring a courier to hand you a letter, but color me surprised when I encountered a demonkin operative.”
<Shrouded Vigilance Jacket: A normal black jacket used to hide one’s figure>
An actually worthless description, huh? I guess I could usurp it, maybe.
This “cloak” as I had called it up until now was actually a [Shrouded Vigilance Jacket], an invention created by the Prince of Sloth, Bole’Taria’s top inventor. The jacket was made to hide a demonkin’s demonic aura and also hide their Profile from any snooping subordinate god, making it one of the best tools for a field operative. Vifi, in fact, used it for the Elyonda siege.
Which begged me to ask her why she had one. She had nothing on her when we met, aside from some rundown weapons and armor she repossessed from bandits. This brought her back to how she encountered a demonkin on her way here.
She noticed the person was fending off against a group of bandits. Seeing an opportunity, she helped the bandits by throwing a rock at the demonkin, cleanly knocking them out and leaving them vulnerable for the bandits to rob. To her fortune, the demonkin killed over the vast majority of the bandits, so any who were left were too exhausted to fully rob the demonkin, only stealing any money or valuables, but leaving the jacket behind.
Vifi stripped the person and donned the jacket, using it to sneak in and out without any issue. Sadly, there were some caveats with it.
“It can only be used by those with demonic mana and it requires some type of fuel or something to recharge it. Lord Sloth never explained it to me, but I presume it’s some ritual or special mana thread. Anyways, the point is that this thing won’t last forever,” she explained. “That’s why I left the operative alive. Would be more problematic if they died, and losing the jacket, while expensive to make, isn’t the end of the world since humans can’t use, properly appraise, or even recharge it. That’s why I had some bandits flee.”
“But now you’re telling us you made contact with a demonkin,” Master brought up.
“Yeah, and it’s your choice now to believe me or not. I would suggest not to, since, you know, I’m a demonkin.”
I frowned. “There is also that time you got affected by [Original Sin: Jaldaboath]. That is the perfect time for that sin heir to speak to you, make a deal with you.”
“And you’ve all the right to suspect me. Kick me out if you want. At this point, that self-righteous cousin of yours can’t do anything since I’m exposed … I don’t want to kill my own people. If you ask me, if you want me to go, then say so. I would enjoy proper exile better.”
“Then do it, why are you still here then? Do you need my permission?”
“But, that’s the problem, Donut.” She sighed. “Tell me that I should leave, then I will. If you won’t, then you can continue living with paranoia.”
Why is she being like this? She’s like a clingy cat who keeps telling you she doesn’t want to be with you, only to always come back. Why does she need me to tell her to leave? She can do that any time!
I don’t understand. I don’t understand her thinking at all. Is she a traitor? Is she just being misunderstood? I … As the leader, what is my choice here? If I would appraise her to see how her emotional levels were. If I could understand how she was feeling, then I could probably do something.
“Would you like to share what you experienced?” But to my surprise, Saori was the first to speak up. “What you saw in Jaldaboath? I saw my personal experiences, so I might be able to understand where you come from? I mean, Hestia tries not to be paranoid, but I didn’t stop indulging my own paranoia this whole time. I admit that I was not being polite to you. So, would you like to tell us more about yourself? Maybe it would help alleviate our distrist?”
And the surprises wouldn’t stop. For a moment, I saw Vifi break her poker face, making this sad, vulnerable face I haven’t seen her make before. She had always been more melancholic and standoffish whenever she wasn’t arguing or fighting me. It fitted the manner she wanted to interact with us by keeping all of us at an arm’s length, until, well, Grimnir began pushing her to build rapport. He even got her to attend my concerts.
Sadly, this moment was fleeting. She sighed and glared at us. “Yeah, suuure. Get to know me better so when the backstabbing part happens it would hurt even worse. I’m a wrathie. I know exactly how much anger can fuel your strength, and Donut nearly unleashed that on me, today. I’m done. Take the crate. I’ll come back in a few days with the rest, since, as you said, three days isn’t a lot. Old man needs more time, but he’ll get your kitted up. Bye.”
Vifi turned around and began walking away, leaving us in the dark to everything going inside her mind. After sneaking the crate of weapons back to the church area, Fleindia informed us that the church would perform an emergency meeting at tomorrow’s morning prayer, wanting to speak about what happened today. The vicar would personally attend and he wanted the entirety of Aurora to attend, especially me.
With a throbbing headache, I asked Saori to bring me to the shadow world so we could enter my subspace. Once inside, it was fully confirmed we could come and go from the [Room] while keeping its existence a complete secret. Once I greeted Svena, Haati, Lorena, and Priscilla, and told them what happened since I arrived in Aureolis, I then went over to Gravy where I had him spawn two slimes for my monster room.
I see … if we can evolve them into those toilet slimes, we can promote Shoyi from cleaning duty.
My monster room was still immature and required some time before it could transform into the same one I encountered, but for now, it was all okay. For now, Gravy deserved a head pat! … To Rajah’s chagrin as he glared at the golem pebble with pure envy.
Once Saori came back with Master, we went over to Grimnir to inform him of everything. “Lass was bored, so I sent her out,” he told us why Vifi was around. We then talked about the Dhuinn rune, where he told me he would ask around. Dhuinn rune creation wasn’t documented, but the runesmiths who could make one were.
Master then handed Grimnir a letter he wanted him to send to Caedhul, informing us he just wanted his adventure to be chronicled. After that was done, we returned to my room in Aureolis, readying ourselves for tomorrow.
