Chapter 28
We stayed in Merkath for another night before leaving. At the gate of the city, we found a trade caravan that was heading out with a shipment for the capital. Since we were heading the same way, we joined them. Maybe we could stop by Dusktown and visit Roboco. I wonder how she is doing right now…
"HOLD!"
Subaru wondered why the caravan train suddenly stopped. A dwarven guard motioned them to speak with him. "Something strange in front. One of the help noticed a gold piece on the ground and noticed a trail of them going into the forest," he told them as he led them to the front.
Sure enough, there was a trail of gold pieces leading into the forest at one piece per foot. "If you want to head in, be our guest," stated the dwarf, "We'll wait for you lot to come back."
"Sure, thanks for letting us know," she replied with a grin.
"Aye, don't take too long now, you hear, or we'll leave without you."
Heading into the underbrush, they followed the trail into the forest. At times, the pieces were hard to see but thanks to Matsuri, they could follow the trail just fine. Soon, they collected a hundred gold pieces and it led into a clearing. Right in the middle of the clearing was a sturdy looking treasure chest.
"...This screams ambush," muttered the fighter after a moment of thought.
"But we won't be able to find out what's in the chest without triggering it," countered Towa.
"Well, we just have to be cautious and alert, right? Shouldn't be much of a problem," reasoned Choco.
"Alright, let's go," decided Subaru as she was the first to step out of the treeline.
The party of five surrounded the treasure chest. Almost immediately, shouts started sounding out and six bugbears ran from behind the trees. They immediately went for everyone else except the fighter, which surprised her to no end. Granted, all she did was stay in place and on the defensive. Meanwhile, Choco and Matsuri quickly retaliated with spell and weapon. The signature spirit mace materialized, missing one bugbear entirely.
Subaru quickly went to Rushia's side and attacked the bugbear that gouged her arm while the young necromancer grabbed its face with a shadow-wreathed hand and took back some health. The fighter then stabbed it through the heart and moved on to help the tiefling. At the same time, Towa roasted the bugbear that bled her arm in retaliation. Then she stepped through the mist, reappearing and blasting another. Matsuri skewered that one in the heart and fended off another persistent bugbear.
However, with their numbers cut down by half, the two, more injured, bugbears started running away. Subaru and Choco tried to strike them down as they ran but to no avail. Rushia sent a sickly green ray at the remaining bugbear that Choco smashed to the ground with the spirit mace. Meanwhile, Towa laughed and sent two separate beams of crackling energy flying into the trees. Much to the fighter's awe, it swerved between the trees and hit the fleeing bugbears. One got sent flying into a tree and breaking its back. The other just got vaporized into ashes.
"Hah, nobody escapes this devil," she gloated proudly.
"You can certainly be brutal at times," snarked the tiefling as she healed Matsuri's wounds.
"Yes, praise me more," the half-devil encouraged.
Shaking her head, Subaru turned her attention to the treasure chest. It was a normal wooden chest, large enough to fit probably some smaller equipment or maybe even many bags of coin.
"Subaru, there's something strange about this chest," said the scout.
"Hmm? What's so strange?" asked the fighter, wondering what this was about.
"Some of the grass is bending and sticking to the chest."
"Eh?" she murmured as she took a little closer. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, even with what the scout said. "I don't really see anything different," she admitted.
"You really should listen to your friend."
"...Eh?" she sounded.
The chest suddenly smiled with big monstrous teeth. Four ember-colored eyes opened on the lid. It then moved its mouth, saying in a growling sort of voice, "Greetings, and thank you for killing those bugbears."
They just stared at it, mouths agape.
"Oh, shut your mouths, I am not an apothecary like your friend there," it faux scolded. After a few seconds of inactivity, it sighed and said, "Well, I would ask you to take me back to my master, but apparently you would prefer to gawk and stare like I'm a ghost."
"...I want a pet like you," muttered Towa in awe.
"You already have one shapechanger, so no."
"Wait! Let… me get this right," shouted Subaru, silencing everyone else. After taking a breath to calm down, she said, "The chest is alive and it wants us to take it back to its master. Am I right, so far?"
"Yes."
"...We can do that. Just… it will be very strange to move you around like this," she admitted.
"And I cannot change back, else I drop my master's belongings," it murmured, "And my body is very sticky."
"Can you make your form have handles on the side? We can wrap them with leaves to hold on to them," suggested Rushia suddenly.
"...Clever girl." It then sprouted a pair of bronze-colored handles on its side.
"Alright, we should be able to get you to your master with no problem at all," declared the fighter. Then, she asked, "Also… who is your master and where does he live."
"Ah, his name is Lord Wilford and I served his family for hundreds of years," it stated, "Just tell him that you are here to return Barry. And thank you for your help."
It fell to Choco and I to carry Barry back to the caravan. We had trouble trying to get it on the cart and in the end, Choco wrapped it in her displacement cloak and pushed it in with the ingots. Hopefully, it doesn't do anything… dumb… Anyway, we continued on our way to the capital. Eventually, we arrived at Dusktown. It seems the caravan train usually stops here and they stay for the night. The locals still welcomed us warmly. And to our surprise, we were directed to Roboco's house.
"Haroboo," Roboco greeted them with a radiant smile, "It's nice to see you again."
"Roboco! You have a new house!" exclaimed Subaru as she hugged the archer.
"It's thanks to the mayor," she replied as she returned the hug, "I'm eternally thankful to the town. So, I do my best to help support in any way I can."
"I'm wondering though, why were we directed here?" asked Choco.
"Well, this is a relatively big house, so I have a few extra rooms here," she informed them as she moved to hug everyone else, "The mayor said the extra rooms are for you to use in case you come here again. A home away from home, in his words."
"Cool," Matsuri muttered in awe, "I don't know what you did here but I'm glad to be here all the same."
"Very impressive," commented Towa.
"Well, what brings you to Dusktown, Subaru?" asked the archer. After getting filled in with what they were doing, she continued, "Well, make yourselves a home. This house is yours to use as well as mine."
They spent a peaceful, uneventful night in the house. Fully rested, they got ready to leave with the caravan. Getting well-wishes from Roboco and the rest of the townspeople, they continued their journey. It was uneventful, but Matsuri had a bright idea to help Subaru with her dwarvish lessons. Between the scout and another dwarven guard, the fighter had ample practice and she was very thankful for it.
They reached Rivirapolis safely and after saying goodbye to the caravan, they made their way to the nobles district. After asking guards for directions to the home of a 'Lord Wilford', they made their way with Barry in tow. It wasn't walled off nor was it surrounded by a garden. It was simply just a large house. Knocking the door, a handsome man with a perfectly sculpted mustache answered the door. He wore a night robe the color of crushed velvet with black trim. He asked in a deep and smooth voice, "Yes?"
"Erm, are you Lord Wilford?" asked the fighter with a grin, "We are here to return Barry to you."
"Do you now?" he muttered as he widened his eyes. He opened his door wide and said, "Please, come in."
They entered with the mimic in tow. They set it down in the middle of the floor as the lord closed the door. "Alright, we're here Barry," she said.
"Thank you," it sounded as the wrapped up chest suddenly shuddered and a black, slimy thing oozed out from the cloak. It then reformed into the chest with eyes and teeth. "Hello again, sir. Your things are in the cloak," it stated.
"Big Box Barry. Welcome home, old bean," he said jovially as he parted the cloak and picked up several heavy bags, "I trust the journey to be pleasant?"
"Other than bugbears kidnapping me, yes," snarked the mimic as Choco retrieved her cloak.
"Wonderful," he exclaimed. Turning to face the party, he said gratefully, "Thank you for returning my dear friend to me. Mmm, I suppose I should reward you for this… if only to keep you quiet."
He spun around and declared, "Well! Follow me! That includes you, Barry. A dear friend would like to see you again."
"Ah, I see," it droned as it suddenly grew legs and plodded along after him. The party looked at each other for a moment before following after them.
Going behind the staircase and taking several turns, they ended up in front of a door. The sign above it read 'Armory'. Pushing open the double doors, he went to the center of the room and turned to face them. "Now, as much as I would like to reward all of you with stuff of your own, but what I have is limited. I can allow you to choose one thing here. Well, except Tiny Box Tim here. He's off-limits."
The small box shuffled around on the table and looked at them with two beady blue eyes, greeting with a rough but squeaky voice, "Hi." It then caught sight of Barry and exclaimed, "Welcome back, Barry!"
"Indeed," said the chest as it settled under the table.
While the exchange happened, the party looked around the armory. A lot of different sets of leather armor as well as a variety of martial weapons. Several had a magical shine to them. Rushia and Towa stayed put while the other three looked around, lifting up some weapons and checking their balance. Subaru and Matsuri eventually rejoined them, none of the weapons seemingly interesting enough. Choco, however, still held on to a mace. Four flanges with gold trim, a symbol of the sun mounted on top, and a floating symbol of the moon in the middle of the mace's head.
"So you've made your choice?" asked Lord Wilford with a smile.
"I have. I can feel something guiding me to this," stated Choco as she returned to her friends.
"Very well. Thus is the extent of my hospitality. Now, if you don't mind, I wish to converse with my friend. Please, allow me to show you to the door," he announced gracefully.
"That was… weird," admitted Subaru as the door to the house closed behind them.
"Weird guy, living with mimics," muttered Choco as the party started heading out of the district.
"Well, most nobles have some oddity one way or another… speaking from experience of course," Matsuri informed them.
Nothing else was said between them as they slowly made their way out of the district. Then, Towa turned to face them and say, "Well, now that we have reached the capital, I shall take my leave. Goodbye."
"Hmm, well, hopefully, you don't decide to do anything bad in the city," the fighter warned.
"Those are few and far between," the half-devil waved it off nonchalantly, "No worries."
"That doesn't assure me," she muttered as the latter walked away.
"Well, we'll have to make do if she does do something wrong," said Choco as she draped her arm around the fighter's shoulders, "Come on, let's check in on Okayu and see if her investigation made any progress."
"Okay."
"Mogu, mogu, welcome back," greeted the cat girl as she waved them over to her table. Strange enough, she was sitting alone in Farun's tavern.
"Hello! Where's Korone?" replied Subaru as the party walked over and sat around the table.
"Ah, another job. She works really hard," she stated with a smile, "Well, not like I'm starved for jobs either."
"Oh? What do you have?" asked Choco, "Anything we can help with?"
"Security detail with the new ambassador. No worries, I got it covered..."
"Eh, new ambassador? Pink clothes? Looks really small with a cute crown on her head?" Matsuri suddenly asked eagerly.
"Er… yes? Why?" she asked, suddenly narrowing her eyes in suspicion.
"Nothing..." the scout trailed off, her face slowly going red as she looked away.
"Anyway, what has your party been up to?" asked the cat girl as her food got served.
While Choco ordered food for the party, the fighter regaled her with their adventure, from the forest to the wastes ruins and to Merkath. Of course, the water pools came up, much to Subaru's embarrassment.
"I think Korone would be jealous," Okayu said after the story was finished, "You got to fight so many enemies. If she heard this, she might have wanted to drag you to Merkath just to find an umber hulk finger."
"Nope. No, no, no, no, no, not doing it," exclaimed the fighter as she waved her hands in fear.
The former giggled and said, "Just kidding. So, what will you do now?"
"Honestly, I don't know," admitted the latter, "Maybe try and find out why there were so many kobolds there? There were so many. And that half-black dragon. Where did it come from?"
"That does sound strange… but, we have other things to worry about now," Okayu stated as she finished her food, "Right, time to check on her guards. Until later. My door is always open to you."
The party waved to her goodbye as they continued eating. Things were relaxed and they enjoyed themselves. Matsuri and Rushia even found out about her experiences before they met.
They left the tavern after paying for dinner. They took a slow walk back to Okayu's house, deciding to take her on her offer once more. However, after walking down a few streets, they were surprised to find Towa, out of all people. She looked tired and was breathing heavily. When she saw them, she ran over to them and grabbed Subaru by the shoulders, an anxious look in her eyes.
"Thank the gods I found you," she exclaimed gratefully, "Please… help me."
She then passed out.
"Towa!" they shouted out with worry.
Subaru picked her up and they hurried over to Okayu's house. Pulling out the bench and laying her down on it, she then moved aside to let Choco check-up on her.
"She is tired out. She'll recover soon after resting a little," the tiefling announced, "There is also bruising over her hands and knees, like she fell down or something. Based on how tired she is, she's been running hard, like she was being chased. I think she's been trying to escape an attacker or attackers"
"Who in the world would attack her?" muttered the fighter, "Did someone find out about her… devil thing?"
"It could be many other things," the former admitted, "Thankfully, she escaped and found us instead. Who knows-"
Towa woke up with a yell. "Shh, you are in safe hands," she assured the half-devil as she hugged her by the shoulders.
"Did you see who attacked you?" asked the scout.
"I… Invisible..." was all the half-devil sputtered out as she caught her breath.
"Invisible? What-" started Subaru but she froze as she could suddenly feel her hair stand on end. Looking around, she could see Choco and Matsuri tense up as well. Slowly they got to their feet and drew their weapons. Rushia copied their actions, though she didn't understand why they were suddenly acting like this.
"Is it here?" the fighter asked.
"Maybe. Stay alert just in case," muttered the scout.
Suddenly, the door was flung open. "Mogu, mogu… what are you doing?" started Okayu but was very confused as to why everyone had drawn their weapons.
"Erm, you see..."
AN: Hello, readers. As you can see, I've decided to do something weird. A cameo of a Youtuber not involved with Hololive. Who owns and is friends with mimics. Two of them named Big Box Barry and Tiny Box Tim. I am not sorry. Anyway, that little sidetrack will give way to another troubling development. Why is Towa being hunted? Hmmmmmmmmm...
Alright, this is it for this chapter. Next chapter, we will pick a fight. Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.