Chapter 29
It was a little embarrassing, as it looked like we were going to attack someone in their own house. But after explaining the situation to her, Okayu pretty much agreed with our caution. Although, she wished we didn't bring her here as it could potentially lead to a battle happening in her house. Funny thing about that…
A breath of cold wind blew through the house as Subaru asked, "So… what can we do to keep her safe?"
"Well, first of all, who attacked Miss Towa?" asked Okayu as she closed the door, "She says it's invisible. Was it really? Could it be that she hadn't lit the candles and someone attacked her in the darkness? Or maybe-"
A harsh hiss suddenly echoed through the air. Choco immediately started chanting, just as Towa suddenly gurgled and grabbed her throat. Before everyone's eyes, she was whisked up into the air and a gust of wind blew by as something slammed into her stomach. She was then lifted up and slammed into the ceiling of the house. The fire at the open kitchen began dancing in accordance to the wind as it picked up.
"What in the world is this!?" shouted Matsuri as she ran to the stairs and shot two arrows at the invisible attacker. Her arrows struck something and floated in mid-air as the being shifted around.
"Let her go!" yelled Subaru as she jumped on the table and began swinging her longsword right under the half-devil. Surprisingly, there was some resistance on the blade as she felt the sword cut something.
"My goddess shall light the way," chanted the tiefling as she threw a blast of light at it, its form being outlined by glittering dimness.
"Out of my house!" the cat girl shouted as she got over her surprise and raised her crossbow, planting two bolts into it.
They didn't know who was attacking Towa, but the invisible being seemed to ignore everything they were throwing at it. It continued to pummel Towa into the ceiling, as indicated by her gasps and groans. Two more arrows flew true into it while Rushia recovered and shot a beam of darkness at it. Apparently, it was enough to distract it, as Towa disappeared into a puff of mist and reappeared in the corner of the room. She sent two blasts of crackling energy at the invisible being, which prompted a hollow moan. Then, they only heard the crackling fire.
"Is it gone?" asked the scout.
"I… think so? Nothing is hitting her," said the tiefling as she pointed at the half-devil.
"-cough- hah, sure, laugh it up," growled out Towa with a pout, "Maybe I can summon something invisible and have it attack you instead."
"Are you alright to answer a few questions?" asked Okayu as she walked up to her, "So, any idea as to who might want to hurt you?"
"Really? We're doing this now?" the former snarked, glaring at her, "...Fine, I don't know. I was just as surprised as you were when I was attacked in my own house."
"Can she stay here for the night?" asked Subaru after having gotten off the table, "Sorry for dirtying the table, by the way."
"Well, I guess she can," the cat girl replied, "And you can wash the table in the morning."
She sighed and said, "Alright, let's get Towa to bed."
Thankfully, nobody got attacked in their beds that night. However, when morning came, Towa was still a bit too scared to go back home and pretty much shut herself in the room. Choco went out to do her thing and Rushia spent her time studying in the other room. Strangely enough, Matsuri went out as well. She never mentioned talking to her friends or if she was searching for something else to do. This went on for several days but I never did anything about it. It was her time to herself and after the weirdness we went through, she probably needed it. Strangely, every evening, the time she returned to the house, she seemed to be walking on air. She never told anyone about this, so I got curious. Thus, I decided to ask Rushia to help me with something.
Rushia chanted and waved her hands over the crystal ball. Subaru, Choco, and Towa looked straight at the transparent surface as it suddenly clouded over. When the chanting was over, the clouds cleared up and revealed Matsuri being seen from a third-person view. She was pacing in some sort of waiting room with double doors. The doors open and Luna walks in, much to everyone's surprise. Well, not that much surprise. The sudden proposal the scout suddenly gave to the pink princess was quite memorable.
"What are they saying though..." muttered the fighter as they watched the two sit down and just talk, presumably.
"They are getting to know each other," stated Choco. Feeling the eyes of the other three on her, she elaborated, "I can real lips. As long as I can see them, I can read them." Then, they started making whispering motions, she added, "And now, I can't see them."
The view panned over as the view followed them walking over to the wall with a window. Matsuri then opened it and stood on the sill, extending her hand out. "Please don't tell me…" muttered Subaru. Then, after thinking for a moment, Princess Luna took her hand and they jumped out. They were still visible as the view followed them. Apparently, the ground floor was very accessible and they ran down the path to a side door. "...did she just kidnap the ambassador?" she asked.
"Well, I didn't expect her to be that persuasive," commented Towa, "I should ask her for tips."
"I'm more concerned with an angry bull and a rather annoyed cat girl," stated the tiefling, getting a wide-eyed look from the fighter, "I rather not get in trouble with the law in the capital, Subaru."
"Subaru? They are getting chased," spoked up Rushia.
"What!?" shouted the rest and they crowded around the crystal ball. True enough, two guards seem to be chasing them through the streets.
"Princess, please come back," read Choco, who then giggled and said, "Oh, my, so they were found out."
They seem to be keeping the chase to the back alley. Suddenly, Matsuri skidded to a halt and made a left. Luna followed after her and both of them continued to run. The scout went down and slid under a low gap under a wooden fence. At the same time, the princess ran and jumped onto a nearby box and then took a flying leap over the fence. She then landed in the scout's arms, who then quickly let her down. They then ran off, leaving the guards behind the fence.
"...That was cool," muttered Subaru in awe.
The two then slowed down and walked hand in hand. They encountered some children playing in a cul-de-sac. Luna watched for a while and pointed at them. Matsuri nodded and followed after the princess.
"Huh… the princess wants to play with them," summed up the tiefling. The two approached the group of children, to which she said, "They are introducing themselves. The princess expresses her wishes to play with them… eh?"
"Ah, sorry," apologized Rushia as the ball suddenly cleared up, "Time is up."
"Hmm, maybe we should find them," stated Subaru. Turning to the others, she asked, "What do you think, everyone?"
"Sure, let's go," agreed Choco, with everyone nodding in response, "I believe I know the place. Not to worry, I'll show the way."
When they reached the cul-de-sac, they found Matsuri and Luna playing with the kids. They had cloth pillows arranged in a diamond and they were playing a strange ball game. The princess hit the thrown ball and she ran around the diamond until the end while some of the other children scrambled to get the ball and throw it back to the diamond. The little girl was faster.
"Nice!" cheered the scout with joy.
"Hoh, they seem to be doing alright," commented Choco.
"Never seen this game before," muttered Subaru. It made her wonder how to play.
"Hmm, you will have to ask her majesty about it."
They spun around and found the minotaur bodyguard looming behind them, his arms crossed in front and eyes staring straight ahead. "It is rare to see my master enjoying herself," it continued, "Rarely does she ever get time to herself. It is good to see her unwind."
The two players then caught sight of the party and looked at each other. They whispered between each other and then Matsuri said, "Alright, kids. We have to go now." Cue the sounds of disappointment. "Now, now, we don't always have time to play around. But, thanks for playing with us. I'm sure Luna liked it a lot." To which, the princess nodded. With a beaming smile. "So, no worries. If we have time, we'll definitely come back and play with you all again," declared the scout, to much cheering.
The two then approached the group. "Ah, I guess you found out," she said sheepishly. Then, motioning to the princess, "Well, this is Princess Luna Himemori."
The royal ambassador was beaming even though her pink dress was stained with dust and dirt. She curtsied and said, "Hello, everyone. Nice to meet you, Luna says."
"Master, we should return to the house," stated the minotaur.
"Very well, Luna says," she replied, taking on a formal reply, Turning back to Matsuri, she said, "Thank you for accompanying me for today, Luna says." She then motioned her down, which the scout knelt down. She kissed the scout on the cheek, whispered something, and went on to return to her house, minotaur walking in step with her.
Matsuri just knelt there, shock etched on her blushing face. The shock then morphed into a smile that got bigger by the moment.
"Well, she's very happy right now," commented Towa.
"Very obvious," said Okayu, surprising everyone else there. Except the scout, who was still on cloud nine.
"When did you get here?" asked Subaru incredulously.
"I move fast," was the mysterious reply. Glancing at the scout, she continued, "Still, I wish you didn't run off with the princess. I'm supposed to help protect her and you make things difficult when you run off with her like that. The guard captain doesn't want a repeat of what happened to the previous one, after all. So, could you please not do that again?"
This shook the scout out of her daydream. "I just want to spend some time with her," she muttered bashfully.
"Matsuri, that's fine and all but… what!?" she suddenly yelled as she raised her shield, She caught sight of someone popping out of the roof in the building opposite and shooting at her. The crossbow bolt buried itself into the shield. She noted a drop of green liquid falling off it, hissing as it splashed on the floor.
"After him!" she shouted as she raced towards the building, pulling the bolt out of her shield. The rest raced after her. Immediately, the cloaked figure booked it.
On the approach, Okayu shouted, "I'll go to the roof for the chase. The rest take to the ground and keep an eye on him." She then raced up the wall, making use of footholds in the wall to help her scale up to the roof quickly. Choco let loose her wings and flew up to assist. The rest split up; Matsuri and Towa went round the back alley while Subaru and Rushia went round the main road.
Okayu pulled herself up and the race was on. Having lived in the city for most of her life, it was inevitable that she picked up a few skills here and there. Traversing on roofs was something that was of great benefit in her line of work. She raced across the rooftop, the target running ahead of her as nimbly as she moved. Still, she had more experience here and the distance between them slowly but surely decreased. Suddenly, the assassin made a turn and began jumping to another row. She was still able to keep up, even as the assassin continued hopping over to other rows, as the assassin had a few near misses and almost fell off the roof. However, she noticed that they were nearing the nobles district. He leaped off at the last row and she saw him land in the bushes that lined the boundary. She narrowed her eyes.
As she stopped at the top of the final roof's ridge, she noticed the would-be assassin continue running across the road and scaled one of the buildings there. As far as she knew, the building didn't seem to be lived in for a time, as shown by the messy entrance. Normally, a noble or rich person's home would be prideful of its kept appearance. There didn't seem to be anyone living there, not even a hint of a servant. Strange.
"Choco, mind getting the others here?" she requested as she heard the tiefling touching down next to her, her eyes keeping the assassin in her sight. She watched as the perpetrator scaled up the wall nimbly and entered through an open window at the very top of the roof, where she presumed the attic would be.
"I see," muttered the cleric, making her think that she probably noticed the same thing, "I'll be back soon." She then felt a breeze, signifying the departure. She skillfully made her way down to the edge of the roof and waited. It didn't take long before the rest of Subaru's party arrived. She jumped down and landed on her feet.
"Alright, here's what we have now," she informed them as she kept her eyes peeled to the roof, "We might have them cornered in that building over there. I don't know the layout, so we'll have to make do. We cover both the front and the back while Choco and I go up through the roof. Hopefully, we catch them before they throw themselves out the window and escape again."
Everyone looked determined, the supposed target for assassination even more so. They nodded and everyone went on to their positions.
"I hope we don't run into a fight," muttered Choco as they arrived at the open attic window, "Not sure if we are ready."
"I think it's a bit too late for that now," she replied as she peeked inside, "Clear."
She slunk in the bare attic. The trapdoor down was open. Quietly going over and peeking down, she noticed the ladder and nothing else. She slowly stepped down the ladder without a sound. Nothing. Strange enough, all the doors on the floor were open.
"Something weird is going on," she stated as she stepped off the ladder, "It sounds empty."
"Seems so," agreed the tiefling, following after her.
After taking a moment to check the rooms, which were empty despite having signs of being lived in before, they headed downstairs. What she found were four very puzzled adventurers.
"Nobody down here," informed Subaru, "Strange thing is that the study is fully furnished. Everything else is just… not all there. We didn't find anyone here."
That definitely sounded extremely strange to Okayu. "Alright, in that case, let's check the study. Lead the way. Don't forget to keep your eyes and ears open just in case."
Hopefully, they could find some real answers. The study was indeed fully furnished. A whole row of bookshelves on one side, a desk and chair in the middle opposite the door, and many, many decorations. Two large rugs paved the way to the main desk with a leather-padded chair and wide table on each. Four swords and a suit of exotic plate armor complete with a sword and shield decorated the other side of the wall. The bottom portion of the wall was paneled hardwood while the upper portion was covered with a set of wallpaper that depicted floral paints.
"Wow, rather fancy," commented Towa as she sat in one of the chairs while Matsuri sat in the other.
While the rest marveled at the decor, the cat girl walked up to the desk and started poking around in the drawers. Strange enough, there weren't that many things to be found, leading her to wonder why decorate this place so extravagantly at all. Then, she found a piece of paper with the words 'My Apologies'. Her ears twitched and wondered what the words could mean. Then, she heard the crash of metal. Looking up, she noticed the doorway suddenly barred by multiple iron bars which she noticed had pierced through the wooden floor. To their credit, some of the party took this in stride as everyone drew out what weapons they had while Choco started chanting in preparation.
"Erm, did anyone pull anything or press anything?" asked Matsuri worriedly.
However, the cat girl had her brow furrow when she noticed one of the carpets beginning to twitch a little. And then…
"Well, it seems you have bitten off more than you could chew."
AN: Hello, readers. So... if it wasn't so obvious, I used an Invisible Stalker. It is an air elemental that can be summoned to assassinate people. This merely a hint of things to come. After that night, we have some... Matsuri gets to know Luna a little better. Nanora being just referring to oneself, so it becomes Luna says. Fits since it says she refers to herself in third person. And then, another assassination attempt. This time, target: Subaru. Time for Okayu to pull out some Assassin's Creed rooftop running. The chase ends in someone else's house and the party pretty much walks into a trap.
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.