Chapter 38
A twitch of her ears. The swing of her tail. The calm serene smile. The snow-white fox girl stepped into the guild house.
"Good morning, Miss Fubuki," greeted Miyabi with a welcoming smile, "What brings you here this morning?"
"Good morning, Mister Miyabi," she replied politely, "I want to meet the girls that helped me yesterday. Are they here?"
"Oh, well, luckily, they are at the bar right now, having their breakfast," he informed her, "Would you like to wait for them here or-"
"Ah, no worries," she assured him, "I'll be meeting them. Thank you, Mister Miyabi."
She hurriedly turned around and headed straight for Robel's. Inside, she found three of the party busy eating their breakfast while the other two were groaning face-first on the table, their breakfast untouched. Roberu then walked over to them and placed two colorful drinks in front of the two.
"Here," he stated as he pat their heads, "Two hangover cures."
"Thank you," moaned Polka as she moved painfully to gulp down the cure. Lamy mirrored her actions.
"Can I?" asked Botan as she pointed to the fennec fox girl's breakfast.
The monk waved her on but muttered, "I want the milk."
"This is horrible," muttered Lamy as she did her best to munch on some bread.
"Good morning!" greeted the fox girl cheerfully.
"Morning," replied the party at various tones of cheerfulness.
"Is everything alright with the shrine?" asked Nene with curiosity.
"Oh, everything is fine. Thank you for your help," she replied with a beaming smile. That smile dimmed as she continued, "I need to find someone. Can you help me?"
"Of course, we can," the lore bard agreed with a grin, "What do you need help with?"
"Well, you see, I have a friend that has gone missing," she started to explain, "Her name is Choco, a tiefling cleric. She was supposed to come visit me a few days ago but she has yet to turn up. I am worried. Last I saw her, she was heading to a shrine in the mountains, stopping by Dusktown on the way."
"Okay! We can definitely help!" Nene exclaimed cheerfully. After glancing at her two hungover friends, she added sheepishly, "Well, not right away. But we will help!"
"Thank you, friends. It is very comforting that this is in capable hands," replied Fubuki with a radiant smile.
After hiring a cart and paying for the trip, the party headed straight for Dusktown. A few of them noticed some shadows darting through the forest during their journey but nothing out of the ordinary happened. They reached the lakeside town in good time and they thanked the driver for bringing them.
"So… what do we do now?" asked Aloe.
"I suggest asking around for the tiefling. Perhaps someone has seen her passing through here," suggested Lamy.
"Good idea. Do we split up?" asked Nene.
"Why not? We can ask more people that way," agreed Botan.
"If we are, then maybe we should meet back up in the center of town," suggested Polka.
"Ah-ha! Then, it's decided," the lore bard declared with a grin, agreeing with both, "We split up and meet again in the center of town. Let's go!"
An hour later, they met up again to share what they have learned. Plus one guest.
"Who's this, Botan?" asked Polka.
"Everyone, meet Roboco. She's the local tracker and hunter," introduced the archer.
"Hello-bo! Welcome to Dusktown," greeted the strange-looking person. She had wooden limbs instead of normal, fleshy limbs, as well as a pair of wooden cat ears on her head. She wore dark brown leather armor and a welcoming smile.
"Thank you for having us," replied Nene with a mirrored smile, "Has Botan told you why we are here?"
"Yeah. I know the person you wish to find," she confirmed, and then her smile gave way to worry, "I want to find out what happened to her as well. I haven't seen her for a few days and normally, she wouldn't take that long to visit the shrine."
"Hmm, okay. Can you lead us to the shrine?" asked Lamy, "I am afraid we do not know the way."
"Sure, I can do that," replied the hunter with a nod, "If you want to, we can leave right now. It may take a while to get there, but we can reach there by... late evening, I think, and camp out there."
"That sounds great," stated Aloe, trying to sound cheerful, "But I'm not sure if I can go near a shrine."
"Oh, don't worry about that," assured Roboco with a smile, "If the shrine can accept Choco, the grounds can accept you… well, as long as you don't cause any amount of trouble, you should be fine."
"Alright, lead the way, Miss Roboco," requested the lore bard.
She led them away from the town, skirting around the edge of the lake. Soon, they were led away from the lake and headed due east.
"Where is the shrine exactly?" asked Botan curiously.
"Well, it's halfway up the mountain," Roboco explained, "Not to worry, we don't have to go all the way up. There is a single path leading up there so it should be easy to find. I've been up there before. You'd really like the view from up there."
"Just a single path?" asked Polka with mild trepidation.
"Hmm, I guess so." mused the hunter, "I never really strayed from it? I prefer to be in familiar places and I am most familiar in the forests near the town. I've only accompanied Choco to the shrine once."
"Does anyone live up there?" asked Nene this time, "It must be lonely up there."
"The attendants there take turns to come down to get supplies at the town, so they are known somewhat," she explained, "Most of the time, they keep to themselves. You can pick them out easily as they are hooded figures in full-bodied green robes. Never showed their faces. They must have taken some vow or something."
One lonely path later, they walked through a sparsely vegetated trail up the mountain. The party was relaxed; with very little place to hide, the thought of ambushes never occurred to them.. True to Roboco's word, they reached the shrine in the evening. They were met outside by a hooded figure in greed robes.
"Greetings… I am Krinko… What brings you here?" the figure asked. It sounded like a guy.
"Hello, we are here to ask about a cleric," stated Nene, "Have you seen Choco Yuzuki? We came here on behalf of her friend, who has been waiting for her in the capital."
"Most concerning… she has not… we have not seen her," he replied, with odd speechlessness in between, "Lost, perhaps?"
"Hmm, I guess," stated the hunter, "Umm, I want to… confer… with my friends for a bit."
"Please," he said as he gestured off to the side.
As they huddled together, she stated, "I'm not sure what to think. Choco has come here many times. Getting lost would be quite impossible unless she went off the path for some reason."
"Something is off about them," spoke up Aloe with a frown as she looked at the hooded figure, who was joined by a few more hooded figures, "There is something off about them."
As the hooded group went back into the shrine, Aloe decided to do something about it. She went after the group, crossing the threshold of the shrine. As she did so, she froze. She was a little surprised that she didn't feel anything. The island shrine had a very saturated feeling before she got blasted back. But here? There was nothing. It was like the shrine was devoid of any influence. Instead, there was a heavy sense of death that radiated from the main hall of the shrine.
"What is this?" she wondered with a sense of foreboding, "It feels like something is wrong..."
A hand was placed on her shoulder and Nene asked, "What's wrong?" Everyone else had joined her at the threshold.
The succubus shook her head and repeated what she thought, "Something is wrong here."
"Eh? Really?" questioned Polka.
Botan growled and muttered, "I can smell blood now."
Lamy then walked past them and headed straight for the hooded group, shouted, "What is the meaning of this!? Where is Choco!?"
Aloe blinked in surprise, wondering why the cleric was behaving like this.
The one that was speaking earlier cleared his throat and replied, "Afraid that you are mistaken… this is not the cleric you're looking for… eh?"
"I do not believe you," said the half-snow elf adamantly with a frown, crossing her arms in front.
"Why?"
"If even a succubus says something feels wrong here, you have to listen," she declared seriously.
Aloe blinked and for a moment, smiled. "Is this friendly acceptance?" she wondered to herself.
The group of hooded attendants looked to each other. A few more started approaching them from the main hall. Their leader then turned to them and spoke in a creepy voice.
"Curiosity killed the cat."
They then pulled their hoods down. Instead of humans, elves, or any other mixed-blood human, they found humanoid crows. As they pulled out their weapons, two suits of armor stepped out from behind the doorway of the main hall of the shrine. The red glow illuminating the insides were very prominent as the suits of armor leaped up, soared through the air, and landed near the others. Both were armed with a longsword and a big shield.
"Are you kidding me..." the succubus muttered in annoyance as she extended her claws, getting ready for a fight.
"Hands off Lamy!" shouted Polka as she jumped into the fight, slamming her heel into one of the kenku's throats. She then followed up the flying kick with a double kick, kicking that same kenku and his neighbor in his beak.
Squawking in surprise, they all converged on her. Swaying back, she nudged one into another, that same crow man screaming in pain as the other's blade injured them. Jumping back to avoid another slash, she felt something strike her from her side, the cleric's blessing flaring up in response. The aura then flickered out with the sound of breaking glass as another shortsword cut her arm. She then leaned back as she heard the sound of a whistling arrow coming her way. One missed but the other clipped her shoulder.
Meanwhile, an arrow slammed into a kenku's chest and sent their body crumpling to the ground. Then, to her surprise, Lamy slammed her mace into the nearest kenku, caving in their head.
"Woah, Mummy Lamy is angry!" she shouted cheekily as she slammed the back of her fist into a kenku's stomach. Then, she leaned back to strike another the chest and the throat, only to flip forward and slam the first one into the ground with her heel. That pretty much finished them off.
"Will you not call me that?" chided the cleric before chanting. She fired a ray of frost at the helmed horrors, who had gone after Nene. "W-what?" she stammered as the ray missed. More importantly, the spirit weapon she summoned didn't seem to affect it. The spectral mace didn't seem to make a single dent when it hit.
Then, the monk as well as the rest of the party shouted in horror as the suits of armor rained their sword slashes on the lore bard, breaking the blessing and driving the blades into her.
"Get off her!" she yelled as she rushed up to the nearest horror and started punching its armor. Feeling that her drunken boxing might not work too well on this kind of enemy, she went with brute force instead. She seemed to be making headway as her punches seemed to be able to crack the metal armor.
At the same time, Roboco and Botan rained arrows on them, the distraction allowing Nene to grab her rapier and make a tactical retreat. Their prey gone, the helmed horrors turned to the nearest target, the monk. She yelled out in pain as her arm and leg was gashed open by one horror. She grit her teeth as she tried dodging out of the way, the other horror's longsword drawing blood from her other arm. She ducked the follow-up swing, the attack going wide and chipping the other's armor. Suddenly, that one staggered back, the hunter's arrow slamming into the glowing, emptiness occupying the inner space of its helm. A momentary reprieve, she took a hasty swig of her brew, excess spilling out over her arms. It stung, but she used the pain to drive her forward. The kick slammed into its shield, putting it off-balance. A punch to the helmet space caused it to seize up and flinch. A roundhouse kick sent the helmet flying away and the rest of the armor toppling over backward.
"Turn away now, soulless chunk of metal," Nene shouted at the remaining helmed horror in a halting, mocking tone.
It ignored her jeers, as well as the spectral weapon hammering on it uselessly. It weathered the ray of frost and the lion archer's arrows and continued to swing at the monk. She leaped back from the swings, though with a new gash on her thigh. Another miraculous shot from the hunter staggered it again and she capitalized on this. She landed a punch on its chest piece but subsequent blows were blocked as it took a few steps back to put its shield in the way.
"We fight with trash!" the lore bard mocked with more conviction.
The armor shuddered as it lowered its shield, allowing Botan a clear shot at its helm. The red glow died and the armor collapsed to a heap after her bullseye disrupted whatever was holding it together.
As Lamy hurried over to heal Polka and Nene, Roboco ran ahead to check the shrine. The main hall. The side buildings. Botan and Aloe kept an eye outward, making sure nothing else showed up behind them while the other two got healed. Soon, the hunter rejoined them, silent and frowning.
"She isn't here?" asked the archer.
The hunter shook her head, "No, but I found the attendants. It seems they died trying to protect the shrine. There were also several patches of melting frost around the main building as well. I can't really tell where it came from."
"Hng, who were those guys?" asked the succubus as she glanced over the slain crow people, "I wonder if someone hired them or something." Having said then, she went over to search the bodies.
The lion girl grimaced, but she went over and helped. Each crow person had nothing on them except the clothes on their backs, their weapons, and a strange symbol painted on their right arm. Motioning over the recently healed party members, they pointed it out.
"Hmm… I don't think I have seen this before," muttered Nene in thought, "Although, a similar-looking symbol has been seen on magic circles used to… enthrall people."
"This is very suspicious already," muttered Roboco, pausing to mull over what to do. Eventually, she said, "Right now… it's getting late and I think we should turn in for the night."
"What do we do about the bodies?" asked Botan.
"I know what to do. But, everyone has to help me," Lamy told them.
What she wanted them to help her do was build a funeral pyre for all the slain people, both good and bad. The shrine compound had a stack of logs that they used to build it. Then, they dragged the bodies over and piled it on the pyre, while the armor that the horrors animated was dragged over to the side of the pyre. After that was done, the lion girl lit it with her tinderbox. As the blaze of the fire burned brightly, the half-snow elf muttered prayers for the departed while the others paid their respects. Dinner was taken in silence, everyone having varying levels of worry either for Choco or for the condition of the party. They made use of the sleeping quarters, where they turned in for the night. The hunter volunteered to take the first watch.
Thus, she found herself outside the building, keeping her eyes peeled to the outside of the compound. Morning could not come quickly enough.
AN: Hello again, readers. Welcome back to the next arc.
Right, we begin with Fubuki the wai-friend hiring the holo5 party to find Choco-sensei. Their destination is the shrine that was only mentioned in the first Wanderlust. Of course, since they will be stopping by Dusktown on the way there, they will meet Roboco. She leads our party to the shrine, where they make a gruesome discovery. And this begs the question. Where's Choco? They also found strange patches of frost. Ice. What gives?
More Mummy Lamy. It's nice that the Mama Mio nickname is going around after last week's shitposting review. Can we get the Mummy Lamy nickname popular as well?
Next chapter, unexpected things will happen. I hope they can 'sortie' it out. Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.
PS: Has anyone made Bohemian Rhapsody, Hololive version? I am interested in knowing.
MAMA MIO, MAMA MIO (SHE WILL NEVER LET ME GO)
AND HAACHAMA HAS SET ASIDE A PLACE FOR ME