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Chapter 222: Imagine getting a Morality Check from a Demon. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2021-09-19 20:00:35 +0000 UTCThree men were sitting on the ground before us in this alleyway, tied up in Saori’s mana threads, unable to break free. Tasianna had already cast [Air Shield] around us, preventing any sound from escaping, while I had blocked the alleyway with [Terra Wall]. People could still see us from above, but I wasn’t really worried about people witnessing this, I just wanted enough time to interrogate these three.
Not like misunderstandings can happen with how we’re dressed.
The three men's clothes were pretty plain and dirty while their black cloaks made them look sketchy as hell. It was a good combination for not standing out, camouflaging well enough inside a crowd. Well, too bad these spies couldn’t hold up against somebody of Saori’s caliber.
“I’ll ask again, who sent you three? Answer,” I demanded from the three men, but they stayed silent and kept their heads looking at the ground. Sighing, I bent my knees to crouch, looking into the middle man’s eyes. “Come on, you three were daring enough to spy on a group of youn— Huh? What are y—”
Suddenly, I noticed the man’s eyes and mouth twitching a bit, causing me to grow suspicious at what was happening. Their expression didn’t change much, it was practically neutral, but then my memories of watching spy flicks came surging in, reminding me how spies would usually have a poison pill or something inside their mouths to commit suicide in the event that they get caught.
It can’t be?! Mana Eyes!
<Effect: [Poisoned (Moderate)]>
Damn!
“Mouths!” I shouted before grabbing the man’s jaw and forcing his mouth open, despite his struggle to keep it shut. Looking into his mouth, I noticed a broken tooth oozing a purple liquid into his throat. “Poison!”
At that, Saori and Grimnir shook away their surprise and pried open the mouths of the two other men, reporting purple liquid was flowing into their throats as well. Clicking my tongue, I snapped my claws together to produce a crimson spark, before turning it into white flame. Spraying the fire in front of me, the white flames enveloped the men’s faces before entering their mouths and down their throats.
“““Grk?!””” They flinched at the process, expecting the heat to settle in and burn them from the inside out, but after a few seconds of nothing happening, their eyes widened in complete confusion.
“That’s a pretty strong but slow working poison, right? I didn’t want to risk it turning into ‘Major’ and having you guys dying on me, so I had my flames eliminate the poison already inside you guys and the leftovers in your teeth,” I explained. “Don’t worry, those flames don’t hurt when I command it not to. They should have dissipated by now.”
My [White Flames] had the ability of [Cure], allowing it to eliminate abnormal effects like poison, paralyzation, bleeding, and others if they were either minor or moderate in potency. After taking [White Pyromancer], my Job skill [Flames of Purification] could also eliminate even worse afflictions.
However, I didn’t need to give this information to these guys. Most healers could use [Cure], so this shouldn’t be too weird.
“Anyways, you don't have a way out anymore. Mind speaking?” I tilted my head, keeping up a poker face.
“…” There wasn’t even a mumble.
“Hmm, well, since these spies were about to kill themselves with poison, I think they were ready to die to keep themselves from giving up any secrets, lass,” Grimnir mentioned. “We won’t be able to get this information out of them with simple words.”
“Are you suggesting we torture them, Grimnir?” Saori asked, looking a bit apprehensive about the idea. Saori was ready to kill our enemies without hesitation, but it wasn’t as if she had completely lost her sense of morality. Tasianna, Ellaine, and I felt the same as we looked at Grimnir with anxiousness.
“Just say if you want to know it or not. You don’t need to look, I can do it myself.” Grimnir deftly took out the tongs on his belt and used it to pinch the nose of the man on the left, before pulling his head forcefully to face him, breaking his nose as a consequence.
“Urgh!” The man groaned as he began to bleed from his nose.
Grimnir seemed used to this… I thought he was only a blacksmith and runesmith?
“… Well, speaking pragmatically, we should do what we can to get the information out of them,” Saori argued to herself. “Did I not already mention that I noticed people trailing us the moment we returned to the city? If we do not handle this now, these ‘rats’ will continue coming.”
When Ellaine and I returned to Griffonpeak, I didn’t notice any people following us at all, nor that there were people spying on the Helvas mansion. When Saori mentioned it after coming back yesterday, I was a bit skeptical as I had no idea who could have the motivation to do so.
Gael, Krymdar, or Muraina? I don’t think so. If they wanted to keep track of us, they would have done it themselves since anybody below their abilities would have been found out by Saori. Besides, these three were adult humans. Krymdar and Muraina would have used elves or half-elves, while I heard from Muraina that Gael’s spy network was composed of the children that he was taking care of.
“Haaaa, damnit, that is true,” I cursed. “They know us well enough that they won’t come to the upper city, but the moment we stepped foot into the merchant district, I noticed them following us. I’ll give you three one last chance to speak without us having to force you; if you don’t, then we really have to do this the rough way.”
“…” They wouldn’t budge.
I sighed. “Haaaaaa, anybody who doesn’t want to look at this, please leave the air bubble.” I opened up a path through the [Terra Wall] for anybody to leave.
“W-Wait, Hestia, this isn’t the way. Couldn’t we just have the knights handle this? Or the guards? I’m fine with cutting people down if they threaten us, but torture? On people who can’t even defend themselves? I-I really don’t like this at all.” Ellaine probably was the only one among us who was still thinking through the eyes of a normal, good person.
After reincarnating into the bodies of a monster wolf and lizard respectively, Saori and I gained the mentality of our new bodies. We adapted quickly to killing other living beings and our bloodthirst could overwhelm our senses sometimes, as evident through my [Battle Frenzy].
Tasianna and Grimnir, on the other hand, didn’t have that excuse, but it wasn’t as if they were still squeamish. Tasianna still had some animosity for humans and she had already steeled her mind after we fought those bandits, while Grimnir seemed to have seen a lot of shit. He wasn’t a veteran for nothing.
“Lass.” Grimnir tapped Ellaine’s shoulder. “Whether we hand them into the city guards or we do it ourselves, the result will be the same. You aspire to be a knight, your image of a knight, but even they will have to do something to extract information from prisoners if they are uncooperative. If you ask me, the moment they have this information, these three will be executed for stalking a noblewoman of Artorias and the king’s guest.”
Without a doubt, everybody in Artorias’ upper society should know about me after everything that happened at the ball. Knights wouldn’t be an exception nor would the guards, since these reports will land in the hands of people who would be in the know. After all, I was under the king’s protection.
“But, still…” Ellaine was still reluctant. It would be hard to persuade her.
As we were unsure of what to do, the three men suddenly opened their mouths and bit off their tongues, gushing blood out of their mouths like a fountain.
“Shit! Major Heal! Major Heal! Major Heal!” Grimnir and Saori pried their mouths open again, giving me the chance to reattach their tongues. Preventing them from dying from blood loss or drowning themselves in their blood was good and all, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth at how willing they were to commit suicide.
Verdammt, this doesn’t feel good at all. We really need to do something.
These spies should know I was a holy mage, so trying to kill themselves was futile. Still, they tried it anyway. At this point, I just wanted to accept Grimnir’s suggestion and extract information forcefully, but I stopped when somebody’s voice entered my mind.
[“Don’t do it with force, that’s too barbaric. Do it by appealing to their interests, everybody.”] It was Klea’Hatma. [“Torture isn’t the only way to make people speak. Pain and fear are great motivators, but an even better method is to make them feel safe.”]
[“ ‘Safe?’ Are you talking about playing nice with them?”] Saori asked through [Telepathy].
[“Through hostility all you will gain is resistance and lies. That has always been the case. Take Aurena and the other Origin Gods for example. In our home world, the gods control their followers mostly through their ability to totally annihilate any opposition, but this will always create foolhardy people who worship upstart deities to bring these tyrants down. Plesia and Marsven know this very, very well, trust me.”] Klea’Hatma spoke with confidence as if she had personally experienced what she just stated, something we five had to believe since she came from the Origin God’s world.
Pausing for a moment to let our imagination run wild, she continued after a bit, [“However, for some reason, Peolynca is governed completely differently. In fact, when my six other companions and I came to this world, we pretty much belittled how they ruled it. Instead of fear, more people loved them. They worship them through all the gifts they received, such as the Divine System. As the demonic embodiment of the Sin of Lust, I understood their reasoning too well. If a person is kept safe and satisfied, they would do anything to keep it, no?”]
That is true… Verdammt. Imagine getting a lecture on morals from a fucking demon. Urgh.
[“… Is everybody alright with this?”] I asked everybody. Everybody nodded while Grimnir gave a nonchalant shrug, showing he didn’t care how we did it. [“Ellaine, since you’re so stubborn about the laws and so on, are you okay if we let these thieves go?”]
[“Huh?!”] Ellaine flinched. [“W-Well, stalking by itself isn’t exactly outlawed. Disrespecting a noble would if you were a commoner, and, technically, a noble could determine this as being rude to us, Hestia. I mean, they should be handed to the city guard, in my opinion… but, that probably won’t open their mouths, right?”]
[“As Mister Grimnir said, they will be tortured and then executed,”] Tasianna reminded Ellaine.
[“Then… I’m alright with it. I apologize for making this all too difficult for us.”]
Speaking about morals and what the correct decision was will never not be difficult. It’ll get even harder the more people that were involved in the decision.
Saori crouched down, taking over the interrogation. “Alright, we have decided on releasing you three. We will not hand you to the guards.”
“…” They looked at each other, questioning our decision. “Declined.”
Hmm? They finally spoke but why are they declining it?
It was a surprising answer but it seemed Saori had anticipated it as she continued speaking, “You already have an idea why we are letting you three go, right? Are you worried that you would be killed anyways if you spoke about your client? Then let me offer you a way to survive this.”
She then pulled out a wooden vial filled with my toxin from her belt, having placed it there for emergencies. “We can refill that hollow tooth with this poison. Our priestess can heal your wounds. We can make it so that you had never faced any issues, even pretending to walk out of this alley as if we had no idea. I might have detected you three, but you are professionals, right? Are you three members of a gang from Shaturein?”
Shaturein, the undercity of Griffonpeak, located beneath the city in its sewers. It wouldn’t be outlandish to imagine they were recruited there, or at least, somewhere in the slums or red light district.
“…” Saori’s offer did tempt the three spies for a second, but they continued their silence despite what she said.
“It is your choice. If you tell us exactly who your client is — we don’t need to know which gang you belong to — then we will let you leave. We will act ignorant, but we request that you stop this. Inform your gang that we nearly found you out. You have our word that we won’t go back on this deal.” Saori’s actions were right out of a police drama, where the investigators would attempt to bribe potential convicts with deals to fish out the larger prey.
“I don’t go back on a promise, I never will,” I added, activating [Benevolent Aura] and [Royal Presence], my charisma skills. “These aren't the words from a priestess of Goddess Aurena, but as my own person. Please, let us deal with this situation without having to resort to blood.”
“… The cathedral.”
It worked! The man in the middle spoke!
“Our client didn’t say much about who our client was, but that we should get information from you five, especially you, priestess.”
Me?
“Since the rumors of your party, Aurora, have been spreading down in the Shaturein, we already kinda had a feeling who you were, Crimson Saintess. Kinda hard to not ignore the word on the street, so we made a background check on the messenger. They came from the cathedral, more specifically, from the cardinal himself.”
Cardinal?! Wait, did I accidentally anger the church somehow? How? Wait, maybe my stunt at the ball was the cause?
“Why?” Saori questioned.
“The nobility don’t do business with Shaturein if they don’t trust us. Our boss broke a taboo by researching the background of our client, and we are breaking another unspoken rule right now by speaking with you,” the man insisted. “We answered your question. Let us go.”
Saori looked at me, and I gave her a nod. They did exactly what we wanted. Asking any more would be going back on the deal. As agreed, I healed their wounds and any signs of them getting captured, while also filling their poison tooth with some toxic sludge before placing it back in. Saori then summoned Shoyi from her shadow, who had evolved into an E rank. Apparently, the reason why they took three days to come back was ’cause Saori went hunting with the slime to level it up.
As a E rank [Shadow Devourer Slime], Shoyi was like a black hole of consumption, able to eat everything while still exuding an aromatic smell. It was even able to divide itself now. Saori chose this evolution for it since it could also devour and dissolve a whole human body. She was honestly scary with her assassin cosplay.
Shoyi, slightly famished since it hadn’t eaten any breakfast, swiftly cleaned up the blood on the ground and the stains on the spies’ clothes. After we untied them, Saori once again reiterated that they should inform the cardinal what they had learned, but that they should break off the contract. She warned that we wouldn’t be so nice a second time.
After they left, we released the [Air Shield] and deconstructed the [Terra Wall]. Saori then summoned Uno from her shadow and told him to follow the spies. We told them we would act ignorant, but we didn’t promise that we wouldn’t follow and spy on them in turn. Turnabout is fair play.
Saori had good ears, she could listen to their heartbeats and determine if they were lying, but this trick wouldn’t work if they knew how to control their heart rates. As such, we were making sure they gave us the correct information. We didn’t care about their gang, though. We didn’t want to risk sending Uno to Shaturein.
After leaving the alley as if nothing had happened, we decided to finish some grocery shopping and moved to the marketplace. Once there, I noticed a familiar group in the midst of bartering with a farmer. The person who was speaking with the farmerm was a woman in a white robe flanked by two armored knights and surrounded by a group of noisy children who were being supervised by a couple of grey-robed priestesses.
Eshe!
As I walked over to greet her, I overheard the discussion she was having with the farmer.
“Oh, thank ye, thank ye very much, M’Lady Shrine Maiden. Thank ye. Please, take these fresh eggs and milk! It is the least I can do to repay you for healing my children’s illness!” the farmer gushed to Eshe, showing his gratitude through gifting some of his dairy products.
Eshe looked thankful, however she humbly shook her hand, declining the offer. “Oh no, it is alright. This is my duty to the Goddess. The donation for the white grace is all I can accept, so please, allow me to buy your products. Your hard work deserves proper compensation.”
“Oooh, may the Goddess bless you, M’lady! May your generosity be blessed!”
After they finished the transaction, I greeted Eshe. “Lady Eshe, I didn’t expect you to be here! How are you?”
“Oh, Lady Hestia! How wonderful it is to meet you today, may Goddess Plesia bless you on this wonderful WaterDay. We’re here to buy some groceries. How was your trip?” We made small talk before the rest of Aurora caught up, where I introduced Eshe to Ellaine and Grimnir, who hadn’t met her yet. As our talks went on, the kids from the orphanage finally noticed me, beaming bright smiles as they ran up to greet me.
“Lady Hestia, Lady Hestia! Where were you? Lady Eshe told us you went on a trip but you didn’t tell us anything.”
“Yeah, yeah! We were planning a game to play with you when you came over. Something that we can win! We were so excited but you didn’t come back, Big Sis!”
“Hey, you two! You know you shouldn’t act like this around Lady Hestia, at least, not when we’re outside the orphanage! Come on, apologize to her for your behavior!”
““We’re sorry, Lady Hestia.””
Jeez, these guys are adorable!
Visiting the orphanage for Eshe’s theology lessons also gave me the chance to get quite close to the kids there, since there wasn’t much to do during the breaks. With how the orphanage tried to instill good manners into them, since the primary goal of the place was to produce either new grey-robed priests or pious, working adults, it was pretty easy to get along with them. They even liked my singing, so I naturally adored them.
Since they were basically a large family, the orphans naturally were close to each other, including the grey-robed priestesses. The younger kids were still learning how to act properly, actively adapting to their new situation, while the older kids tried to take care of them according to how they were treated when they were their age.
“It’s alright, nothing wrong happened,” I said to let the young kids off. A couple of people were watching, but most of the surrounding folk were more interested in their own lives than ours. “Sorry, I was out with my friends doing some adventurer stuff. I’ll tell you guys all about it the next time I visit, alright?”
“Yay! Awesome, more stories! How about today? We’re going back after buying some stuff!”
“Sorry, but I can’t. I have something to do today and tomorrow. However, I promise I will come over when I’m done with my business, alright?”
“Oooooh,” the young kids pouted, but quickly accepted it. “It can’t be helped. Please, finish your business fast, Big Sis!”
Hiehie. ‘Big Sis’ has a good sound to it.
Since we also had to buy groceries too, my party followed Eshe. Since the kids had never seen a dwarf before, they were super excited as they spoke with Grimnir. The old grumbler, though, was less delighted about it, but looking at his bashful expressions, it seemed like he didn’t hate it. Such a tsundere.
Once we were done at the marketplace, we separated and went back to our respective homes. Back at the mansion, I asked Grimnir to prioritize making some more [Room] runes after I explained to him what I learned when I went to the royal academy. Grimnir agreed, thinking my teleportation idea was interesting, but he required a whole night to prepare everything.
By the next day, with everything prepared, we all managed to make three more [Room] runes using the geisenlarg queen’s blood we harvested. We didn’t make more as Grimnir wanted to take a break, having worked on his projects on the trip back to Griffonpeak. Before I began working on this portal, our party headed to the mage’s guild and handed Maverina Saori’s and my catalysts for enchanting before returning home.
Now, it was time to create something revolutionary.
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“Hmm, so the geisenlarg nest and queen were exterminated. The elves have cleaned up the mess, and only this egg is left, huh?” A man determined after inspecting the scorched remains of the geisenlarg’s colony, holding onto a large egg. The geisenlarg worker who once carried it was nowhere to be seen.
“Hmm, there goes the original attack plan. Guess I’ll have to report this to the Prince of Pride. Hmm, still… Ah, I have an idea.” The being’s eyes turned to the egg in his arm, showing an impish smile as a grand plan appeared in his mind. He held the egg up, whispering enticing words at it. “How about this, Your Majesty? Your army, your colony, your prestige. All gone, destroyed by some elven woman’s pawns. Do you seek revenge?”
The being inside the egg hadn’t fully developed yet. It still needed time to grow. It couldn’t have understood anything, but somehow, it was able to. The egg pulsated. If Klea’Hatma were here, the anger the egg displayed would have been audible as a raging roar.
The man licked his lips, showing off a set of fangs. “I can provide you with an army to lead. Will you serve my request?”
The egg pulsated even louder. The being inside the egg was actively ramming itself against the shell.
“We have a contract.” The face of a demon appeared. He pulled a vial of black liquid from his pocket, flaunting it in front of the egg. “Drink and survive, King of the Geiseinlarg. Grow and become strong. Allow us to bring down the griffon.”
The presence of the man disappeared. In the darkness, nothing could be seen, as if the presence from before had been a ghost. No clues or tricks were left behind.
An omen of disaster was approaching.
Comments
Who's the bad and who's the good?
Termac
Accidental good cop/bad cop.
The reference is from HunterXHunter. In one of its arc, the main antagonist was an ant king who was killed by a nuclear bomb named "Poor Man's Rose."
Diego Rossi
I admit that I am missing the reference. But, as I suspected, the geisenlarg wasn't a consequence of Aurora use of magic.
Muraina probably isn’t poor enough of a woman for a rose.
Frostbutt
An Evil Ant King? Do we have to sacrifice the leader of the adventurers guild?
