Chapter 8:
It was obvious to even the most socially inept person that the girl was about to suffer a panic attack. She was hyperventilating, her eyes were moving in all directions, and she was starting to curl up into a fetal position.
F.B. calmly stood up and gave her space, "You're safe here. No one can hurt you."
The girl peeked at him, she was about to pass out again.
"W-what?" she stammered.
"My name is F.B., I'm a hero. I found you and brought you to the palace. You're healed now and the people who hurt you are gone."
She didn't respond. She just stared at him like he was a hallucination.
"I killed them. Brutally."
F.B. didn't trust the girl to be by herself, but at the same time knew the importance of giving people space. So instead he decided to leave for a short while and come back.
"I'm going to get you some food. Try and calm down. There's no rush."
F.B. left the room. He had been prepared for this situation, and there was a bowl of thin broth already waiting. After purposely waiting for ten minutes to give her some time, he knocked on the door.
"I'm coming in." And with that he opened the door slowly.
The girl had stopped hyperventilating. She was slowly adjusting to her surroundings. It'd take a while for her to make a complete recovery of course, but they were off to a good start.
Even after setting down the tray in front of her the girl didn't eat anything. Instead she sniffed it dubiously, as if it were drugged. F.B. floated some of the liquid to his mouth and ate it.
"See. No poison."
After a long silence, she spoke. It was a muffled mumble, but it was something.
"... Am I really safe?" The girl seemed to be on the verge of tears.
F.B. smiled at her, "Yeah."
Although she didn't believe him yet, tears still began to fall from her eyes. She let out a steady whining noise that gradually grew louder and louder, until she began to sob uncontrollably into her hands.
F.B. had a stiff expression on his face, 'I hate sentimental scenes, I never react well…' So he chose to leave the room again and give her time. Healers tried to go into the room, but F.B. was floating on a cloud right next to the door, shooting them glares.
'When is she going to stop crying?'
Hours later, the sobs began to ebb. Eventually they turned into soft snores, F.B. quietly opened the door to check in on her. She had collapsed forward, spilling her soup everywhere. He lifted the soup out of the blankets and clothing, and dropped it into the garden that was right outside of the window. Then he slowly set her in a more cozy position and placed blankets over her. F.B. was a cold man, but he genuinely worried about the girl.
'I hope she doesn't have nightmares tonight.' With that thought F.B. went to the library to see if there were any alchemical ingredients with anti-dream properties, careful to make sure they weren't addictive or too sedative.
The Next Day:
Hoka was standing alone in an ominous clearing of a forest. Countless bodies of dire wolves were strung about, pieces of them in every way you turned. There were trees ripped out of the ground from the roots, and fire had set everything ablaze. Bodies were burning, plants were burning, everything was burning. But as it was about to turn into a full on forest fire all the flames suddenly got sucked into the palm of Hoka's hand. It was as if there was a miniature sun in his fist. The fire had turned into a white golf sized compressed ball of death. Hoka considered extinguishing it, but decided against it.
'I can't waste such a good weapon.' All of a sudden he felt something change.
'What was this thing again? Oh yeah.' He brought up his profile.
[Profile:
Name: Hoka Mosu
HP - 1000/986
SP - 6000/4444
Level: 31
Mana Spells:N/A.
Stats -
Strength of the inner nova.
Vision of heat.
Persistence of flame.
Speed of a wildfire.
Power of the flame.
Talents -
Elemental hero:
The elemental hero has what is called SP, short for Stamina points, these points are used to use spells that are special to the hero alone, spells are also harder to get a hold of as they must be created by the individual hero.
Connection of Flame:
Heat Lungs - Capable of breathing perfectly fine in any hot conditions such as being inside of fire or extremely hot air, can breath smoke as though it's air, and can even breath perfectly fine submerged in lava.
Heated Sense's- because of the attribute of being the Hero of Flame, the individual's senses are tuned to be completely unaffected by a heated environment, Ex. Can look at the sun for as long as they want, can smell perfectly fine even when surrounded by fire, the sense of touch is unhindered by fire making contact with individual, can eat extremely hot things with no problem and still be able to taste, the sound of fire is dimmed to the individual allowing unhindered hearing.
Fire Resistance - Individual is incapable of being harmed by Fire spells.
Flaming synergy - Individual's mana recharges faster when they have contact with Fire.
Flaming Friend - When the individual is attacked by a fire spell, they instead absorb the attack and add it to their mana.
Flame power - Is used when the hero of Flame uses their power to control the heat around them, is connected to their stamina. Acts similarly to a muscle.]
"Hmm, none applicable huh? Hah, sucks I can't use any magic spells yet, at least I've still got my fire powers."
As Hoka left the clearing to go back to his party, out of nowhere he got goosebumps.
'Well that's never a good sign.' Hoka sped up, but when he got to the clearing it was completely empty. He immediately opened his heat vision, there were spots in the grass that were still warm, which meant that they left fairly recently.
Hoka began to chuckle, "Malty Malty Malty. Let's have some fun." And with that he followed the tracks.
1 hour prior:
Every time Hoka went ahead he wouldn't come back for at least a couple hours, which meant that she could rest for a bit before framing him. In the meanwhile she went over her observations.
'Hoka isn't smart, he doesn't use his abilities efficiently. He only uses it in bursts. This means he won't be able to use his fire powers to the best it can be. He is also very naive considering how he ate up my praise in an instant.' Malty was confident she had him all figured out, and couldn't help but giggle at the thought of his face when he came back and they were all gone.
It wasn't hard to convince Rino and Katsumi to leave with her. All she had to do was tell Rino that by staying she would be a burden to Hoka, and Katsumi was afraid of being alone so once the two of them began to leave so did Katsumi. It was even easier to drug them.
'They're so delightfully dumb.' Malty thought, as she sipped her tea. In front of her were Katsumi and Rino, slumped in their chairs, both out cold.
Malty laughed at their stupidity. All she did was act hungry and say, "Let's eat something!" They were so pitifully idiotic. But it was fun to take advantage of them. Neither of them even realized that the 'restaurant' was completely empty except for them. Four men came out from the shadows. They had black masks on and were carrying big body bags.
"Take them, make sure they're never found unless I allow it."
They nodded and began to place the girls in the bags.
Elsewhere:
Hoka and F.B. were sitting in Hoka's room. F.B. was lounging about on the sofa, while Hoka was silent, sipping his tea quietly.
"You have the evidence right?" Hoka spoke up.
"Yeah." F.B. nodded his head.
"Here's what we know: Malty is trying to take out you and Emma to gain more power. I followed her at night, she went to the cathedral. I couldn't actually infiltrate the church itself but-"
"It's highly likely the Pope or at least some higher up ordered it and cut out a deal. I know." Hoka cut F.B. off.
Albeit a tad miffed that he was interrupted, F.B. just nodded again.
"...so now we know how Malty's going to frame me. Does Emma know?"
All of a sudden F.B. grimaced, "about that… Emma left. She went exploring or something. Really deep into some ancient ruin, she said she'll be back within the week."
Hoka scowled, "There'll probably be no time to tell her when she gets back, and it'll be too resource consuming to go out and find her."
"So what'll you do about Rino and Katsumi?" F.B. asked.
Hoka smiled, "I know where they are. But it'll work out for us better to let Malty run her train on the tracks and derail rather than stop the train and then restart it for it to derail later. Her using them as 'evidence' against us will only further prove our point. As for the Queen, well, if I go to the queen and tell her about Malty I have no reason to believe that the queen will take my side. Let's leave them in Malty's clutches for now, let her think everything's going fine. Then we'll crash everything on her at once. I've been leading Malty on, she'll underestimate me now, thinking I'm some stupid beast or something."
F.B. laughed.
"What?" Hoka seemed confused.
"You're smarter than I thought you were." With that F.B. stood up, patted Hoka on his shoulder, and left.
As he was about to walk through the doorway F.B. left Hoka with some words, "Rino and Katsumi won't be the only ones being used. Melty recently left on a diplomatic journey, and the girl I saved both have high chances of being used in some way."
As F.B. walking back to his room, he couldn't help but remember Hoka's eyes. They were cold, as if used to this type of situation.
'Hoka Mosu… who are you?'
Two days later Melty was reported missing. Merely hours later Malty reported the Flame Hero and the Earth Hero to the Royal Court. Two days after the report Emma returned, but was immediately arrested and taken to the royal chamber for questioning.
Emma POV:
Emma was absolutely ecstatic. She had found a treasure that was incredibly powerful that it was like she hit every lottery available simultaneously. And then as she was skipping home and humming to herself she was suddenly treated like a scummy, bottom of the barrel criminal. As she walked towards the gates the guards that she had previously been friends with pointed their spears at her.
"HALT!"
"Whoa whoa whoa, guys it's me! Emma! Ya'know… the earth hero?" Emma was confused.
Suddenly Sir Wilhelm appeared. There were multiple Royal Knights, each in charge of different duties. Two of which were Sir Alberic and Sir Wilhelm. Sir Alberic's highest duty was protecting the Royal Family, while Sir Wilhelm's duty was leading the knights in battle and training them. It was funny because Sir Wilhelm was a kind, gentle man. He was a very handsome fellow, not overly muscular like Alberic and with smooth skin. Alberic's personality as well as appearance was more like a commander than Wilhelm's. However as of now, Wilhelm's smiling face was nowhere to be seen.
"Ms. Lameria, you are under arrest. Come with me at once."
"Wilhelm? B-but… I-"
"NOW!" Wilhelm roared. Emma almost jumped, she didn't know what was going on.
5 minutes later and Emma was locked in a humid, moldy dungeon. She was being asked stupid questions like, "Did you kidnap the heiress?" and "Where do you keep your victims?" and "Who are your clients?". Absolute horseshit. She still didn't know what was going on in the slightest, but no matter how much she denied everything, the man questioning her just looked more and more convinced.
Later, Emma curled up in the corner and thought back to the beginning of the day. One of the coolest moments of her life. Four days earlier Emma went camping. After all Emma was most at peace in the wilderness. Now that she was in a fantasy world, it would be one of the first things that she did. So she packed her things, and went to the jungle in the south west. It took a day to reach the jungle, but ever since they were transported her constitution was superhuman. Emma didn't even sleep, she just hiked until she found a nice spot with a good view and meditated the rest of the night. Meditation helped her become more in tune with the earth around her. She could feel time slow down, and her perception increase. The vibrations of insects, the wind in the trees, she felt it all. It cleared her mind and energized her. It wasn't as efficient as sleep but just still better than a power nap.
She spent a day of relaxation (or what she called relaxation, which was actually serious hiking and hanging off mountain sides) before the unspeakable happened. She found an ancient ruin. Even with her enhanced senses she never would've found it, it was only by meditation that she accidentally realized that there was a disturbance underground, a large hollow space that was formulated like a labyrinth. The entrance was quite literally right next to her. It was caved in, but she just shifted the earth away.
[Ruins Discovered!]
[1 level gained!]
Emme fistbumped herself.
"Yes! I'm the greatest!"
There wasn't much inside. Well, there were many tests that would've been lethal for even the strongest people. But since Emma controlled earth and had earth sense there was nothing standing in her way. Every one of the puzzles were earth related, which turned the tides enormously in her favor. There were times 10 huge boulders would fall on her, only for her to move them out of the way. Or a deadly labyrinth with poison or spikes. But Emma just created a doorway in the walls and walked straight through the walls, not even attempting to solve the labyrinth.
'I almost feel bad for the engineer who had to make this, only for me to completely disregard everything.' But the thought slipped from her mind. What she was in front of her was a
"A fucking BOOK? Some musty, dirty textbook? What the fuck!?" Emma grabbed the book and almost ripped it in half before a notification stopped her.
[Soul Catalyst Discovered!]
'Soul… Catalyst?' Emma clicked on the blurb.
[Soul Catalyst - A book, crafted by a transcendent human in their attempt to pass on their legacy in the world before they perish. This manuscript is their inheritance to whomever comes in contact with it.]
'Oh… so that's what the tests were for. So if I open this I get a new power?' Then Emma thought of something, 'If the tests were earth based, then wouldn't the power be earth based? So what's the point if I already have earth powers? Surely the Earth hero would have the strongest earth related powers. If the other heroes get this book, could they control their elements and whatever earth power this has?' Emma wondered if instead of taking the book for herself, to instead save it for someone that would be her companion and would help them more, which in turn would help her more.
'Fuck it.' And Emma opened the book. She'd rather control the power herself than give it to someone else. She'd keep an open mind, but in the end, isekais were full of shitty and deceitful people. She didn't want to be one of the cliche characters who got betrayed and then started to take all the power for themself. She'd rather start now and save herself the trouble.
[Class: Druid, Obtained!]
[This class allows the wielder to have an overall deeper understanding of the world around them, making them stronger out in the wild. There is nothing in nature that can escape their notice, also making them the perfect tracker and survivalist. The closer to nature the person is, the more animals will listen to them, allowing them to command and communicate with animals, allowing them to talk with them, or even share sense's with them.]
[Sync rate: 97%]
[Danger has been lowered due to abnormally high sync rate!]
[Due to high sync rate, Druid Class will be altered to the user's personality!]
[Notice! You already have a class. Earth Hero will combine with Druid!]
[Notice! Earth Hero Tier is above Druid Class Tier]
[Earth Hero and Druid Classes are extremely similar!]
[Druid class will merge with Earth Hero and support it!]
[New Class Created! Sovereign Terramancer!]
[Ruins Cleared! 10 Levels Gained!]
'Holy shit that's a lot of levels!'
Emma grinded every day, and one thing she learned was that leveling is pretty difficult.
'Maybe I should move on to harder monsters instead of balloons and goblins.'
As Emma checked her status she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't lose anything, actually she only gained. Instead of just wasting earth power, the Druid class supported her Hero class very well. The more she scanned her page the more she smiled, by the end she was smiling like an idiot.
'This… this is awesome!' Emma yelled as she jumped up in excitement, 'I can't wait to show the others!' if only she knew…
[Profile:
Name: Emma Lameria
HP 2000/2000
MP - 1000/1000
SP - 7000/7000
Level: 41
Class: LVL. 1 Sovereign Terramancer.
spells-Earthen Terrain, Dirt Spear.
Stats:
Strength of the earth.
Sight of the world.
Hardiness of the mountains.
Swiftness of life.
Power of the earth hero.
Power of a druid
Talents -
Sovereign Terramancer:
Through the special combination of the classes of the earth hero and the highest class of druid, the being has become the ruler of the very of the land metaphorically, druids specialize in plant like elements, a special bond to the world allows the user to have an easier time creating spells, the user also has the a special access to a new set of spells special to the hero of the earth, ascended druid, and sovereign terramancer
Hero of the earth and plants:
The elemental hero has what is called SP, short for Stamina points, these points are used to use spells that are special to the hero alone, these spells are also hard to get a hold of as they must be created by the individual hero.
Resonance of Earth:
Fall Resistance - Inability to be hurt if the individual falls from a large distance, as long as they land on soil or something forestial.
Earth Resistance - Individual is incapable of being harmed by earthen and forestial spells.
Forest Synergy - Individual's mana recharges faster when they have contact with soil, mainly in heavily forested areas.
Earth's friend - When the individual is attacked by an earth or plant spell, they instead absorb the attack and add it to their mana.
Terraformer- Is used when the hero of earth uses their power to control the earth and plants around them, is connected to their stamina. Acts similarly to a muscle.]
'It's exactly like a game with higher stakes…' Emma immediately closed her eyes and focused. She didn't need to meditate for her senses to expand, and the expansion came much quicker and she felt much more. She smiled, and skipped out of the ruins.
"Let's go back and tell the others!"
And that was how she cut her adventure short only to be greeted as a villain.
Emma gazed up at the dusty ceiling, "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED WHILE I WAS GONE?" Sure she could escape, but then she'd look even more guilty.
"Hey… Emma." F.B. was standing right outside of the bars of the cell. Emma ran to him.
"F.B.! What's happening? Why did I get imprisoned?"
"Slow down kid. One question at a time."
Emma bit her lip, "...is Hoka and Avi ok?"
"Yeah. Hoka was unceremoniously taken to his room and kindly asked not to leave. Avi hasn't been retrieved yet. I wouldn't worry about Avi. He's capable so he won't do anything stupid."
Emma nodded, "So what happened?"
F.B. sighed, "Malty… she accused you and Hoka of collusion in creating an underground slave network."
"WHAT?!"
"Be quiet." F.B. looked to the left, as if waiting for someone to burst in on them. Once he determined no one would come in he leaned forward and whispered in her ear.
"Don't worry. She'll try to spin it off as if your constant adventures are actually kidnapping and enslavement sessions. She'll also try to make it look like Hoka is enslaving his party members and selling them and that she saved them. Hoka and I have been collecting evidence. So we'll shatter her, but even if we do, the Hero image will be tainted and I'm not sure Malty will be punished."
"Why is she doing this?"
"A power play, a way for her to gain power and get rid of her sister. It's a way to get rid of the pillars that are heroes so that the people instead of relying on us and the queen who summoned us, but her."
Emma went silent, she was fuming with rage.
"Everything is going to be ok. If we present a good case the queen will believe us."
Emma clenched her fist.
"And… if Malty doesn't get punished, we'll kill her ourselves."
Emma relaxed her knuckles by the tiniest bit.
"What about the king?" She asked.
F.B. was confused, "The king? I doubt he's corrupt. Just stupid and ignorant."
"If he helps Malty I want to eliminate him too."
F.B. frowned, "Naivety may be frustrating, but it's not worthy of death."
Emma shook her head, she was getting so mad she felt like she was bubbling, "I. Don't. Care." Emma did not like how she was basically kidnapped and then expected to willingly become a meatshield, but due to the Queen and the kind blacksmith, she decided to help this kingdom whenever she could. But now…
"Corruption is everywhere. It might be better if this entire country was scourged." Emma knew she was acting irrational, but even then. After this 'incident' she was leaving Melromarc completely.
"Fuck this shit."
F.B. continued to be silent, "The guard will wake soon, so I have to go."
He was about to leave, but said one last thing.
"I wouldn't advise this, however if you are going to forsake Melromarc, then what's stopping you from causing a scene and venting your rage before you leave? Obviously your reputation will suffer. But your image won't affect you since at the end of the day, we are heroes, and therefore irreplaceable, despite what Malty tries."
Malty was fuming as well, but for a different reason. She had used her status to raise the stakes of the accusations, but she didn't expect her mother to not trust her.
'What the hell is wrong with that woman!? I'm her daughter for chrissake.' Of course her father believed her like the stupid man he was. All she had to do was play to his insecurities and trauma and he was ready to say, "Off With Their Heads!" But she couldn't do anything about the mom. Malty had been planning on killing Katsumi, Melty, and Rino after she had Hoka and Emma exiled to shut their mouths permanently, and then blame it on the heroes again. But things weren't going as smoothly as she had expected.
"Mother!" Malty let out a high pitched wail, "Why do you need to listen to their side of the story? I'm your DAUGHTER!"
The Queen resisted the urge to slap a bitch, (ahem… uhm… I mean roll her eyes of course), "Because they're heroes and we need standard courtly procedure before proceeding." Malty wasn't worried, she made sure not to leave tracks. But she just couldn't shake the bad feeling she had. There was also the fact that the church of the three heroes kept asking her over and over again about how things were going.
"Innocent before proven guilty. Remember your lessons Malty?"
"But moooooom! They KIDNAPPED MELTY!" But alas, her effort was of no avail.
"Who knows how long she's been gone?" Malty tried to get to the Queen's motherly side, "I mean, it wasn't until days later that she was reported missing! There could be horrible things being done to her as we speak."
The Queen didn't respond until after a long pause, "The trial will be held tomorrow morning. It will be a private trial." The Queen pointedly looked at Malty as she said the last part, as if inferring, 'If this is one of your stupid plots, the damage will be minimized. But you better be scared of what I'll do to you if that's true.'
But Malty didn't care, "No. I want it to be public." After the whole point of this was to completely ruin the heroes. If the citizens didn't see the trial themselves then what would be the point? It's not like her plan would go awry, right?
The Queen sighed, she didn't really believe Malty. Malty thought she was smart, when in reality she overestimated herself and underestimated everyone around her.
'I guess you need to feel the pain to learn not to do this again.' Even so, the Queen loved her daughter, and couldn't help but worry.
Elsewhere:
F.B. and Hoka were having another meeting. Actually it was more of a F.B. napping and Hoka created a fire hazard.
Hoka suddenly stopped, and murmured something inaudible. F.B. opened his eyes and looked at Hoka
"What?"
Hoka turned his eyes to F.B., "She'll accuse me of rape."
F.B. frowned, but slowly began to nod, "Yeah. She wants to completely bury you."
But the F.B. abruptly stood up, "... how come you're smiling?"
Hoka just laughed mysteriously, "Malty by herself is condemning her entire country to death. She thinks she can shoulder the burden of the waves without us… how stupid…"
F.B. remembered the waves, the first one was coming quite soon, which was why Malty was rushing to get this done before the savior = hero status grew larger. Or she was just stupid and impatient.
'Probably the latter.'
"Looks like Emma decided to cooperate, which is surprising considering I thought she would go crazy with anger." F.B. was proud of her.
"She's mature for her age. The opposite of Malty, who's a kid that thinks they're an adult." Hoka spoke as their conversation quickly ended.
With that F.B. went to visit the girl he had saved, and Hoka focused on helping the egg grow.
10 hours passed in an instant, and the trial began…
The King was fidgeting in his seat, looking ready to send them to the guillotine already. The Queen seemed tired, conflicted. She had a deep set frown on her face. In the end she had relented under the combined forces of her husband and daughter, making the trial public.
Emma and Hoka were brought in chains. F.B. was present, guarded by 10 knights, Avi couldn't be located but when the information about what the trial was about had been released the public demanded justice immediately.
It felt like a frenzy, the public was going crazy for blood, and the nobles were sneering down at them. Emma wanted to kill them all. By the time she got a hold of herself it had already begun.
"Malty, what exactly are you accusing the heroes of?" The Queen's voice boomed, enhanced by magic.
Malty stood up straight, but instead of looking at the Queen, she haughtily glanced at the heroes, mocking them, before putting on a scared expression and looking at the camera. It was only for a moment, a fraction of a second, but Emma felt like she was going to explode. Then F.B. gave her a pitying look, and she stopped.
'Don't even give her the satisfaction of a reaction. Play this calm and coldly, be cooperative. Like Martin Luther King Junior. Let her make a fool of herself.'
"Your esteemed majesty, the Flame Hero and the Earth Hero are corrupt!" She began dramatically, "They are colluding to create an underground slave network! Now slavery may be legal, but the people that they are enslaving are humans! Not beast people! Humans like you and me! Not only that, but their own party members. If they were beginning with slavery, who knows what they would get into in the future. These aren't heroes we summoned, but demons. They abuse the hero statues that they received by luck. They forget that their hero status only comes from the citizens of this country and not themselves and their own abilities. It is us that holds the power. NOT YOU!"
She said the last part glaring at Emma and Hoka. Hoka was just standing there. A serene expression on his face, as if everything was normal.
'What a nice day.'
But Emma was done putting up with this utter crapfest.
'Yeah, no. Fuck this."
"Then why does my profile fucking say Hero you dumb fucking whore."
"Excuse me?" Malty was taken aback, she thought Emma was the quiet shy pushover. This was why she chose Emma and Hoka, Hoka acted insane, so he'd be hard to believe. And Emma was a pushover who'd roll over and beg the moment she put the pressure on.
"See how stupid it is to accuse us of something like this." Emma drawled.
"What?" Malty faltered again, unsure of what to do. The King's vein on his forehead was about to pop and the Queen just looked embarrassed, for who it wasn't known.
"When I was arrested why not just run away. I'm the fucking earth hero, you know I could've."
'So much for calm and collected.' Hoka began to chuckle.
"I DEMAND SILENCE!" The King roared.
Emma smirked, "You're not the one in power here buddy. Your wife is. You're just a fucking addon for a pretty family picture to act like everything is sunshine and flowers. Well guess what, it's not. So why don't you shut the fuck-"
"Please, we'll get to you later." The queen's voice came out softer, but it had a steely edge. Emma did not give a singular flying fuck.
'Fine. I learned my lesson. Once this is over I'm leaving, I don't care if this place gets wiped out.'
"See her outburst? She knows she's about to get caught red handed."
"That's not how red-handed is used you dumb bitch." Emma retorted.
Hoka couldn't stop laughing, he was gasping for air. If it weren't for the guards holding him up he would've been on the ground spasming. Even F.B., who liked the quieter route, snickered a bit.
Wilhelm ended up having to gag Emma, to which she almost shot a pillar of stone right into his crotch. She resisted her temptation of course. Barely.
"Emma Lameria, the earth hero, ventures out where no one can see her all the time. She doesn't come back for days sometimes. Every time she goes missing, people go missing. When I joined the flame hero I was a naive girl, infatuated by his power and looks."
"Why thank you!" Hoka gave an exaggerated bow. A guard tried to punch him in the head but he just dodged. The guard tripped over his own feet, knocking over three other guards next to him. Hoka just laughed at them. Everyone ignored the mess.
"But I saw him repeatedly go to the slave market." Malty continued her dramatic speech, "Instead of buying, however, he would go into the back room where he paid for storage. What was he storing? People, humans with mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, and children! A family. How would you feel if the heroes you trusted so much, enslaved your child? Your wife? They know they are trusted and use that trust to hurt us! The very people they are honor bound to protect!" The public began clamoring for blood.
'Please, you kidnapped us.' Emma huffed, unable to speak.
"He was transporting them to Emma, who would use her earth powers to move them more efficiently. I guess he thought he could trust an innocent young girl like me. Are these the heroes we want?" Her speech was directed more towards the public than the Queen, making the trial a show instead of a fair judging.
'You really can't fucking help yourself can you.' Emma thought to herself. But she was surprised, Hoka was a beastial-like human. She thought he'd be even madder than her. But he looked like he was having fun.
"So why didn't you say anything earlier?" The Queen questioned.
Malty bit her lip, "I- I was terrified of him. He abused his party members terribly, beating and starving us when we weren't up to par with his insane standards."
Hoka shrugged his shoulders, "I do have high standards." He smiled.
Everyone ignored his joke, the public was creating havoc below. Screaming slurs and insults, F.B. looked at them disdainfully.
'The public opinion changes so quickly. How ignorant.'
Malty continued, "He… he even raped me…" she whispered in the most timid voice she could manage.
"WHAT!?" The King jumped to his feet, "HIS HEAD! NOW!"
But the Queen stopped him.
"FOOL! SHUT UP AND LISTEN!"
The King's face crumpled, "But darling…"
Emma started laughing at him. It was faint due to the gag, but the King could see the absolute mockery on her face.
'Haha, bitch boy.'
The King almost stood up and attacked her right then and there.
Emma saw this and goaded him on, 'Come on. I dare you. You can't even do that can you, you pitiful useless sack of shit. Do you need permission to take a dump too? Do you bark when she tells you to?' Emma almost felt bad comparing such a stupid man to a dog. Dogs were too good for him.
But the king laid back in his chair. Subdued.
The Queen let out a breath, a wisp of cold air leaking from her mouth, the action revealing that she was reaching the end of her patience, "There can be no room for error. Malty, go on."
'Oh darn, I thought that would be enough.' Malty was disappointed, but didn't skip a beat.
"In the end, when he thought we were of no use, he invited us to dinner. I should've known something was off, the diner was empty, and he had never bought us good nutritious food before. But we were stupid, and dug in happily. We thought he had finally grown to like us. All we wanted was for our crush to pay attention to us. We would do anything for him." Malty sniffled, a tear escaped her eyes. She took a deep breath, as if to calm herself. The public ate it up, but Emma just rolled her eyes and Hoka snorted.
"Halfway through the meal Rino and Katsumi, my dear friends, collapsed. He had drugged us and was going to sell us as slaves. Luckily I had an artifact that negated poison, but I knew I couldn't fight him. So I pretended to fall asleep as well. He took us to the storage area, and he had not only kidnapped us, but my dear sister! She hadn't been reported missing due to her free behavior, but he had taken advantage of her trip and taken her. Hoka then violated me in that dirty room right then and there while he thought I was asleep, taking pleasure in the nonconsenting." Malty's voice broke, and the tears flowed faster. The King's trembling grew stronger, and the onlookers hushed.
Hoka showed no reaction at this, as if he had been expecting it.
Malty was a bit sad at that, she wanted to see the heroes cry out in rage or scream in despair. But whatever.
"After he left I escaped. I couldn't take my friends, as they were still drugged, and I was almost caught multiple times. If not for my amazing stealth prowess and adaptability I would've been killed." The public muttered, praising her courage.
"I ran to the palace immediately, telling mother everything. Who knows who else he raped and Emma enslaved." With that, all was quiet.
The Queen looked to Hoka and Emma.
Hoka stepped forward, it was a powerful step. The knights holding his chains actually slipped and fell.
"F.B." Hoka smiled.
"Show them the evidence."
F.B. smirked back, "Gladly."
Malty, who had been drinking water after her speech (bullshitting is tiring after all), spewed it all out of her mouth, having a coughing fit as her face went red.
"W-what?!"