Re:Circuit (Redux)
AUTHORS NOTES: No, it will not be Eroge protagonist harem type story… I am not doing an IF Lust story (google it)
Anyways this is a short chapter to tie you over till the end of the month, enjoy
Also please share my story, I wanna be able to read all the comments people have about my fic.
Chapter 13: Clash of souls/ Icy Tomb
It was violence, elegant and true.
That was Juulius, finest Knight.
It was determination, it was a promise he gave and that he would deliver.
That was Subaru.
Wood on wood collided, Juulius was proud, a knight that held all the lessons he had learned to heart, and he was furious.
Being matched by this low brow cur! What manner of wizardry is this?
Yet he could feel that the boy was making him dance to his tune.
It was in the 10th minute that he realised it.
"This bastard…."
All this time… he intentionally left his vitals open for an attack on purpose.
He knew where he could strike and thus could react even without looking.
He had to admit, though suicidal, it was an ingenious technique, one he could NOT use.
He had skill, he had power…
This was something MADE for those who had neither.
A sword of effort and determination.
He begrudgingly had to give him that, this was a good idea against foes of greater strength.
In other words, it was made to fight those higher up, due to his training he would ALWAYS go for the openings, it was a habit drilled on him.
It was also his undoing.
This bastard was exploiting that!
On the sidelines Emilia was holding her hands in prayer, asking the spirits to watch over me. The sword I had materialized with no one noticing still in her arms, cradling it with the outmost care.
Roswaal could not help but marvel at the sword and had asked Emilia if he could hold it, yet the sword violently rejected him. His wounded hand was tended by Ferris who was nearby.
It was a sword of the just. A sword of mankind.
Someone like him, would never be allowed to wield the sword of choosing… not that he knew the history of the blade.
Then again, neither did Subaru, as the blade forced its way on the material plane on its own.
Roswaal marvelled at the sword allowing Emilia to hold it, he could feel a strange energy flowing around the sword, dancing notes of golden lights, visible only to mages of great skill and talent, so only those who are "Colors" could see it.
Then she saw me going against Juulius with all my might.
Blows were sent back and forth, both just doing small amounts of damage, slight bruises, the only concerning wounds they had was Juulius's 3 broken ribs and my dislocated arm, however I reset it back in place by taking a blow there on purpose.
Juulius eyes widened in shock, but schooled it back.
He looked at me, he frowned.
Juulius was in deep thought, "it seems like this brat was not all talk after all, damn it if things keep going this way…"
Juulius is a knight of the Royal Guard, they got a LOT of flak due to the incident about the royal family dying and the kidnapping of the daughter of one of the royal families… they lost a LOT of standing, if he were to lose to someone he had humiliated and looked down upon it was not just HIS honor on the line but also the prestige of the knights of the Royal Guard.
His attacks gained more force and speed.
I kept repelling each and every strike while also delivering my own.
However Juulius was still not going all out, as he was not using any magic. From what I managed to gather he is a self proclaimed spirit knight.
I had to force him to use his spirit magic, I had to be clever about it, the only magic I had from this world was…
Yes… that could work.
I had a cruel and savage grin, I was going to thoroughly bruise his pride.
Emilia knew I was strong, however she could not understand how Juulius had not landed a decisive blow yet, as he was the foremost knight in this kingdom.
As if reading her mind Reinhard smiled at Emilia and answered her unspoken question.
"Subaru, he is exploiting the way knights are trained, even I would be hard pressed if it was only sword fighting against him, of course my blessings would help me, but still, to think of such a way of fighting… does he truly not care about himself?"
"Sir Reinhard, what do you mean?" Emilia asked with trepidation.
He sighed, "Subaru is literally leaving VERY lethal spots open for an attack… on PURPOSE, why is he doing it? Because as knights we are taught to strike any opening, the most vital the better, in other words, he is quite literally gambling his life in order to fight on equal footing against those of superior power and skill, it is equal parts admirable as it is reckless" he said as he continued to watch the attack orbit of our strikes.
However he left out the obvious upset it would be once Juulius decided to use his spirit arts.
Left, right, under, over. Over and over the attack orbit was fast and furious creating a symphony of violence whose notes were done by the strikes of the wooden blades upon each other.
Our faces near each other as we glared and used our strength to push each other away in a bid of dominance.
They could all see the sheer concentration I was displaying in order to fight effectively. I was looking at any and all nuances Juulius had in order to predict his next moves.
I took my shot.
"Shamack!"
The whole area was filled with a dark smog.
Juulius rose an eyebrow, this kind of thing it would only limit everyone's senses, no one would be able to see where to attack as all senses save for touch would be blocked in this fog. "Probably trying to catch his breath" he thought derisively.
WACK
He felt a hit in the face, the on his chest and legs, it was random, some barely hitting his skin, but…
"How is he doing this?"
The attacks begun to hit faster and harder.
He coughed out blood and was sent flying to the wall.
His face had a lot of bruises.
I dissipated shamack as I jumped back with my sword in hand.
During the time inside shamack I managed to tap into the imaginary 6th element and used it to attack him by tracking his magical signature and used the darkness to both cover his magic and used it to manipulate the inherent darkness with his element, solidify it and sending a barrage of attacks at Juulius.
A bit of blood came from my mouth, I overdid it a bit, but did not have too big a damage due to using a spell over my skill level, it seems I have to use small scale magecraft that would be easy on my circuits.
He glared at me as he spat blood.
Multicolored lights begun to emanate.
"So you finally getting serious uh? But I am not done, not by a longshot!" I yelled.
He was getting serious, he was using spirit arts like what Emilia did with Puck.
Yet, I was also tyring, my Od was going to run out sooner rather than later, my brow was caked with sweat and dirt.
I managed, however, to get my objective, I had FORCED Juulius to get serious.
He rushed at me attempting to burn me with a spirit art, however Archer and I already had a plan.
Runic magecraft.
Thankfully due to my being an Otaku and avid gamer, I knew a fair bit about the lore behind the runes, so with his help I actualized magic using words of the proto-germanic origin.
He said he managed to learn a bit, thanks to a dog or something, I did not know dogs could use magecraft… good to know.
He swung at me with his sword caught in fire, I tanked the hit and touched his clothes, I made a small drawing with blood from my internal injury that I had coughed up.
Rune of Fire and the rune of Hail.
"Kaunaz, Isa"
He looked down as fire and ice erupted and exploded. Both polar elements creating an explosion and harming him.
His chest now had an angry red wound.
Writting runes on my weapons I begun to link them.
Teiwaz, the rune of warriors, Thurisaz, the rune of protection and Mannaz the rune of manifestation.
With that I managed to hoodwink a mystic code of great power in the form and shape of a training weapon.
"What's wrong, oh great knight? Having to fight me seriously? What happened to your boasts before? It seems like a waste of my time to try to be a knight when all they are is just full of hot air" I said viciously.
Unlike Archer, I am not able to dictate the flow of battle with skill and technique, all I had was my big mouth.
Time to use it.
Fire, light, darkness, a myriad of elements at his disposal due to the sports he formed a contract with, if I used my imaginary numbers here… I could even kill them.
However this would upset Emilia and her overly doting papa.
Having a magic specially geared to killing spiritual beings… is like living with a knife allways pointed until your belly.
So I would use this element along with Shamack to drain him of power and beat him up a bit more.
"Ok… who wants daddy's belt?" I said with a smirk.
Juulius was furious, bad enough he got beaten quite a bit, but now he was trampling on the pride of all his comarades.
"You have no shame!?" You have no honor?!"
"None! So what if my actions are dark and not fit for a knight? Disgrace can be washed away with results afterall!" I yelled as I attacked once more.
He blocked, but was pushed back.
He gritted his teeth as he begun to attack using a combination of magic and swordsmanship.
On the other hand I used Shamack liberally and attacked him from within using attacks made from imaginary numbers, who would have thought that my hinge watching fantasy isekai animes and playing JRPGs would come in handy? I could only hold shamack and attack for just a few seconds as he would dispel it and counter in the same breath otherwise as I painfully learned.
With my blade I was drawing something on the ground, along with my feet, everytime I was rebuffed physically, I traced lines on the floor. Making sigils that increased my performance while decreasing Juulius's own.
I would not win with honor, so LETS GO ALL OUT WITH CHEAPSHOTS!
Making small explosions using pebbles, reinforcing then to their limits and making them blow up like a frag grenade was a stroke of genius! Using his covering from the shrapnel I took advantage and closed the distance to engage him, striking him as fast as possible and promptly retreating to avoid retaliation, a but of an insane game of cat and mouse. He got a few hits on me but I got just as many on him.
His body was riddled with lots of wounds, not like I was fearing any better, I looked AND FELT like shit.
The voices of Felt cheering me had long stopped being heard as they saw how bloody we bith where.
"Is that… all you got? Is not all… I got" I said as I felt wobbly due to the blood loss.
I had many angry welts over my body from Juulius own strikes that I was unable to dodge.
This meant he now had no choice but to see me as someone of similar threat skill-wise to a knight of his level, give or take.
The cheering and jeering stopped as the peanut gallery stood in silent contemplation over this fight. They all thought it would be a one sided beatdown, not this.
I knew I could not beat him… if I did, I would TRULY ridicule and destroy him. I would no doubt put his abilities to question. Also my body would not be able to hold as my power was too low, my body still not quite used to combat, still little by little my body began to adapt… or you could say that the more I fight the more I am able to understand the flow of battle and act on it. I was able to somehow do it at a very much reduced skill level than Archer, obviously, as I did not have his sheer battle sense and skill as well as well as experience, still having the Eye of the Mind (false) due to having shared experiences, even if I did hit have the ability to have the (True) version gained by edperience, I had the version that relied in instinct and 6th sense, it's that what saved me from a complete one sided beatdown.
There was no reason to do so… Winning I mean, other than my being petty.
But against my desire to be petty I opted for the best way to end this, in a way none could complain.
Over reinforcement.
I flooded the training weapon to the brim, making it highly unstable.
One hit, the last hit of the match, it had to be perfectly executed.
He charged at me and used that as the "out" I was hoping to get.
Both blades made contact.
Boom
Both blades broke as wooden shrapnel shot at us… many piercing our bodies.
We yelled in pain as we fell to the ground, shrapnel of wooden splinters on the chest, some around the face, and legs.
Still we held our swords at each other's faces with just the handle.
Both panting as hard as one would when running a marathon.
Our weapons lay useless now.
Yet we both pointed at each other, it seems that Juulius did not wish to end on a draw, and I could not give up else my plan would be ruined.
Thankfully Reinhard jumped in.
"That's enough Juulius, young Subaru had proven to be at a skill level similar to your own, so, anymore would only be meaningless violence" he said.
Juulius looked at him and then at me.
I could barely stand up, I used too much mental power to keep up with him by being a step or 2 ahead and being careful of any attacks to the holes I left.
I was ragged and tired to high hell… yet I forced myself to stand up.
So long as he kept coming I could not allow myself to stop.
"If you keep going, you will only prove yourself wrong, so old friend, accept this as a draw" Reinhard said solemnly. "After all, both of your weapons have been broken"
Juulius grunted, but relented, any more and it would stain his honor… wait… was this all planned?
Looking at me panting, still with a look of defiance.
Juulius relented seeing the determination and cunning I showed.
We both collapsed, unable to move an inch, only the yells of worry from Emilia could be heard as everything began to fade to black.
In her arms, the sword began to vanish into motes of golden light.
I saw a woman with hair as gold as wheat and eyes as green as jade smile proudly at me.
"To think… even Cali*** would react like so, while it did not choose you as a ruler, it acknowledged your ability to find one such a person, it seems you have ideals similar to her" Archer said to himself.
4 hours later
I blinked as I felt some discomfort, I was bandaged quite a bit, I had a lot of nasty looking bruises, and a fractured arm and 2 broken ribs and lots and LOTS of concussions.
"This is another unfamiliar ceiling" I said.
"Ohnya? It seems Subawuu is awake" said a familiar voice.
I blinked a few more times to get rid of the drowsiness and fully wake up, my throat was parched, thankfully Ferris had a glass of water for me which I drank greedily. On a bed besides me was Juulius contemplating the wall.
"Gotta say, you were meowtastic, I did not think you would be able to fight at such a level to match Juulius there you meow?"
"What can I say… I am full of surprises"
"You are very meowky I was here, lady Crush asked me to heal you, as she was impeowsed with you, even grandpa Will was quite taken by meow"
"So, give it to me straight doc, am I cleared to get up?" I asked.
He blinked a couple times and chuckled.
"Yeah, you are mostly healed, your gate was stressed a bit, same as those magical grooves meow made and had poor wlittle me widened for gowd nyous what, this pretty nurse recommends you take it easy for at least a week"
"Thanks doc"
"You are nyo fun at all" he said with a deadpan stare.
"What about…" I said motioning towards Juulius
"Uhhmmm him, that would be tricky, he is also healed, his arm was badly damaged, but nyathing that cannot be hewed by cute Ferris here, however… his ego took quite a beating, why the person was so savage with that, a man's ego is very fragile" Ferris said.
"Uhmm I see, that person must've been quite the savage, yet I also did sense that the person in question was also looking for it, as he asked for the duel himself" I said with a flat stare.
"Nyahaha, you have a cruel sense of kindness ya nyow? Did you act that way to make him realise that his world view was rather narrow? That is very sneaky almost as sneaky on how nyou made the fight end"
I smirked
"Who, me? Do I look that clever to you?" I said with a smile.
"You are right, you certainly look meow like an idiot Subawuu"
"Ok, I am man enough to admit that I walked into that one" I said raising both arms in sign of defeat.
I rotated my arms and heard the pleasing popping sounds and stood up.
"Please give my regards to lady Crush" I said.
"Myah? Why would I do that? She actually asked meow to tell you that you are invited to her state, as she wishes to talk with nyou"
"Ah, how troublesome, first that crazy bitch now this one, Emilia-tan is gonna think I am flirting with all the candidates at this point" I said.
"Nyahahahaha taste some of the despair nyou made poor Ferris taste back then"
I hung my head in defeat.
Payback is a bitch.
I managed to procure a fresh shirt, as the one I used was damaged beyond repair during the 'spar' (dubbed "The Subaru incident"), and thus I dressed once more in my butler outfit that I had the sense to take off before fighting.
I noted that Roswaal is quite possessive… as I found that in the clothes we (meaning Rem, Ram, Emilia, and myself) wore had in someplace the emblem of his house… quite greedy if you ask me. Still many of the knights now began to see me in a new light, whether than is good or bad that's a coin toss here.
It seems Emilia was back at the estate in the capital along with Roswaal, he had to reason with her to leave for a rather long time, albeit he was quite amused by this, Rem was also worried but all worries were assuaged by Roswaal and ga e the news that I would be accepted as Emilia's knight. Or rather, Subaru had forced them to accept him, as denying someone of this skill level would be rather ridiculously stupid and nearsighted for a group of so called wise men.
Roswaal was quite amused indeed, however he asked for Rem to stay in the capital along with Subaru for a week, as he felt he had earned that and for providing him with the best entertainment he had in a long time. Thus he gave Rem a bag with 100 gold coins to use as they wished.
She was quite taken back by this but vowed to Roswaal as both himself and Emilia headed back to his territory.
"The boy… young Subaaaru managed to do something ridiculous… sooo as a way to thaaaank him for the show I am giving you to him for a week, as he would need to reeeest, he did took a challange from the finest knight of the kingdom and managed to tiiiiiiie with him"
Her eyes widened, her Subaru… was strong… she smiled and nodded.
"Understood! Rem will do everything in her power to pamper and help Subaru relax"
Roswaal smiled "see that you do, now… taaaake caaare" he said as he and emilia boarded the expensive carriage.
An hour later
I arrived back and was told that due to my little stunt, I had elevated Emilia's candidacy a peg, and thus Roswaal had graciously gifted me a whole week to be pampered and to recover.
Rem was at my beck and call, but it felt weird, so we did all the chores together.
Being with Rem… was nice, and I could not help but notice her quite a bit. However it did feel a bit (mighty) awkward as I had memories of her when she killed me. Gotta say, hormones are not fun.
It was 2 days later when we both went to Lady Crush mansion. I did my best to mind my manners and, barring the crazy orange haired shedemon Priscilla being there, it should be a quiet evening.
Lady Crush was, in a few words, a good woman, militaristic, organized and focused, as I thought she would be a good ruler, even her goal on becoming self-sufficient was novel, if scary to the old coots. I wished I could say Emilia should be the only one, but I had to be realistic, she is a good girl, but still too naive to the world, is like a girl my age with the mentality of a small child, though she does use some archaic words from time to time. For a young girl, she sure used some old timey words.
Dinner was a rather quiet affair as I asked Rem to not dress as a maid but rather as my companion for this dinner, she was quite taken back and embarrassed that she did not have any formal wear, thankfully we managed to get some good clothing from a store that surprisingly had clothing similar to that of my homeland, we got her a furisode that enhanced her beauty and color. She looked like a yuki-onna, beautiful and breathtaking.
Everyone in the mansion could not help but take notice of her charm and beauty, enhanced by the clothing we bought with a bit of pressure from me.
A bit into the dinner lady Crush decided to ask me some questions, I answered as many as I could, so long that they were not rather… classified, and some I answered in a way that could be taken as nonsense.
She smirked, I did not lie, however I said no truth either, I felt a strange presence on her, a scent not dissimilar to Felt's, and something warned me to be honest with her.
It was late at night where she invited me for a private drinking, I declined to drink on grounds of me being still a minor but would accompany her.
"It seems Wilhelm has taken a liking to you, after witnessing the fight his thoughts had been all but confirmed."
"I-I See? Excuse me but I am not very knowledgeable about this kingdom as from where I come from is a very far away land and had no knowledge from this land at all" I said
Lady Crush nodded and began to explain a bit of this land's history.
Combined with what I had gleaned on the swords of the bigshots I had the fortune to meet I gained a clear picture.
What Lady Crush said was indeed the best, the country had gotten complacent due to the dragon. However, I thought… wouldn't there be a way to reach a middle ground where we can get the best of all things?
Unfortunately no… the old colts were set in their ways, why fix what's not broken mentality taken to the extreme.
I sighed as I drank a bit of juice "you seem to have quite an uphill battle once you manage to win your bid to the throne there lady Crush" I said with sincerity.
She smiled "indeed, it does seem that way"
As we began to chat about other topics a little interloper arrived.
"NYAAAH! L-l- Lady Crush? Why are you all alone with him? Don't you know that all men are wolves?!" He said.
I stared at him "you do realise that you are a man too, right?"
He pouted.
"That's alright, as this young knight would not do such a thing, he might have a somewhat twisted personality but he is not a bad person" she said.
"Uh… thanks? I guess?"
It was asked of me to entertain Wilhelm as he had felt something within me, he asked for a match, in order to understand something better.
"So long as my injuries are healed afterwards I have no qualms to complain" I answered.
"Is that wise?"
"Is not if it wise or not, but what I can learn from him as well, still we should go all out, without using our trump cards"
"Indeed, that man is an old war dog, best be careful"
We where allowed room within her estate as Rem and I had a double room for ourselves while Ferris teased me about being able to sleep alongside Rem, but I shot him down by stating that we had separate beds.
It was early morning as I dressed up in my original outfit, as it allowed optimal mobility. Against this dandy old man, I may have to resort to tracing.
Fortunately it was done with training weapons, however I had another hidden ace. During my time unconscious back with the fight with Juulius I gained some more knowledge on how to use the 6th imaginary element. It really made me shiver in fright in how… deadly it could be.
I would have to use it along the meager skills I had with the blade.
The match started, for an old man he moved like a motorcycle at full speed, I barely managed to dodge, he got close to me and managed to disarm me.
Congregate, gather, darken strengthen.
A single drop of blood dripping from my own slashed neck upon the ground below … that was my trigger for my magecraft. As my death was the strongest image I had.
Actualization of magecraft.
A blade made of shadow appeared and parried the attack.
I managed to trace his own training weapon and its history, and further enhanced it with the 6th imaginary element to deny dispersion of it.
He looked at me carefully.
It was like fighting a mirror, albeit a cracked mirror image, the moves were nearly spot on, but due to some minor mistakes of position of the leg, or the reach of arms due to size difference some mistakes was bound to happen, yet it was as if he was fighting himself.
However the "sword" was strange.
Wilhelm felt his stamina was draining away as he hit the blade.
"Could it be… mana drain?"
It was not 'mana drain' in the way he thought, as any many drained this way would not go towards me but towards the void which is the imaginary numbers. It would strengthen itself, yet not me. For example it it drained 40 units if power 25 would be lost as it would be used to process it, and the remaining left over would be used as backup energy to empower itself, if enough power is taken it could, in theory, make a spell self sustaining, but I was NOWHERE near that level, also what the hell would I use such a thing?
With the look of shock at this ability he lost track of me, I appeared over him with a downward slash to his head.
Almost immediately he saw where I was and parried the attack with new speed and power and then delivered his own counter. While I managed to block it, the sheer force behind it sent me flying against one of the estate's wall, I coughed up blood, my arm almost completely broke due to the sheer power behind it.
Rem, Ferris and lady Crush rushed towards me, worried quite a bit.
"Ah! M-my apologies… it seems I still lack training" he said with his head hung in shame.
I was healed by both Rem and Ferris and smirked a bit, "Nah, that was my own folly, I shouldn't have tried to use your own moves against you" I said as I winced as my bones mended.
The thing I rather enjoyed about lady Crush, besides her hospitality, was the fact that not once had she ever looked down upon me and Rem, and treated us as equals.
We continued our chats and began to hold friendly banter, much to Ferris annoyance.
Something that I noted thanks to Archer, was that there was quite a bit of movement around, as we passed a coach I noted with structural grasping that inside were quite a fair bit of armor and weapons. enough for a few platoons.
It seems she was gearing up for quite a battle.
Well, so long as it does not involve us…
I never knew that I would regret his words so soon.
Wilhelm apologized and asked me what I should want in return for him harming the esteemed guest of Lady Crush.
"I would not be opposed to some training with you when you have the time" I said with a smile.
He blinked and gave a melancholic smile… "yes, that would be good" he said.
With our goodbyes we went back to get ready to get back to the others at Roswaal's fief.
Rem had a strange look on her face.
"Rem… what's wrong?" I asked with trepidation.
"My link to my sister… it has been suddenly broken!" She exclaimed
We hurried as fast as we could, only to see…
The village was burned to the ground, many of the villager's bodies laid on the floor broken, defiled by swords and magic. Even the brats… nine were spared.
My mind could not process this…
How… why?!
I threw up as I watched the twisted faces of the kids as they showed pain and misery only found on my own as I died many times.
There was no doubt similar if not the same expression.
We hurried inside to see if there was anyone in.
On the floor was Beako… dead.
My eyes began to fill with tears of sorrow and rage at the ones who had done this. On her back I saw a dagger and analyzed it.
"Witch cultists" I muttered in anger.
Grabbing the weapon I threw it at one that had remained back, apparently he had hopped to pick off any stragglers.
I continued going further in, I saw Ram, dead in the kitchen, a single knife on her forehead.
As I ventured further I saw Roswaal's office wide open… I entered and found a bookcase slightly ajar.
A secret passageway.
As I continued going further deeper into the secret passageway I found many ice statues.
Until…
I exited the passageway, I was now located a fair way from the mansion, apparently a secret exit of sorts.
Yet what I saw broke me.
"No...no...nonononono!" I rushed to hold her, but her body no longer held any warmth.
Emilia… was dead.
Her blood spilled in the white snow.
Wait… snow?
I felt an enormous magical signature… my kstril felt as if they caught on fire.
"Since she is dead I shall fulfill my pact… this whole world shall slumber in ice along my daughter"
I held Emilia's body as I cried, my body freezing along my tears as I took my last breath with Emilia's body in my arms.
Return by death S/FX
I woke up with a shiver...Archer was silent.
I huddled up grabbing my knees with my hands.
I died again…
Rem… the villagers, the brats… Emilia… Beako.
I grabbed a nearby pillow and placed it on my face.
I screamed until I could not make any more noise.
It seems that I was once more put in a new death loop, I had to calm down, I now know a few nuggets of information, the first was that the Witch's Cult was involved, but how had no one noticed movements of said group.
It was then that I placed another piece of the puzzle.
The armor and weapons being brought to lady Crush's estate… it may have been a coincidence… or…
"Did she perhaps not tell me on purpose so that Emilia would die, or did she not know?" I wondered.
"Either of those scenarios are likely, another such woukd be of Priscilla covering them, but due to her arrogance I highly doubt it"
So I needed a plan… one was to evacuate the villagers first, but for that we need transportation.
Thankfully my Save Point got updated as well.
So, Crush would know someone who had contacts that could help us… maybe I would be able to worm my way into a favor or something.
Unfortunately she had no one, but was quite taken back that I had figured something was afoot. She had heard of some movement near Roswaal estate, but ignored it due to not being her territory and her hunting a much bigger quarry.
While it made sense in a pragmatic way, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. She was a woman that followed cold logic.
She did, however, give me a useful piece of information.
Anastacia Hoshin…
Ah… that is the princess that had Juulius as her knight.
I mulled on how to approach such a person, what can I give a person that could get anything she wants due to her financial power, and whose knight I managed to humble?
And what's worst, Juulius would try to block me as well out of spite.
Damn it… I was placed in between a rock and a hard place.
I had around 7 to 8 days for the imminent attack, it was clear by what Archer told me that they were a large group that had no qualms on destruction if what we saw was any indicator.
Still a cult needs a leader, we needed to get information on them.
But first we need to procure an exit for the villagers and thus finding Anastacia had become paramount.
I hope Juulius is not around for when we meet.
Otherwise… an icy ends awaits me.
Chapter end.