AN: English is not my native language and this is my first fanfiction.
"I love cookies" → thoughts
"I love cookies" → speech
"I love cookies" → spell, Martial art
please review
Chapter 17
→ Re-Estice / Blue roses and the rest their companions ←
Blue roses and the rest of their group had prepared themselves and moved out the day after their last meeting with Renner. They would first move towards E-Triar and then split up. Blue roses would then move towards E-Rantel while Litzelot and his new companions would move towards Re-Commetis. Luckily E-Triar is right on the way to either city.
On their way the group learned new things about their former prisoners. For instance, Zesshi was a half-elf. That "Infinite Magics" name was Opal Longeye and "Astrologer" was born as Lore Argon. Sadly Opal and Lore kept their distance to Litzelot, because they feared Zesshi would flay them if they were too close to him.
Lakyus also decided to inform Litzelot about the city of E-Triar, since this city had a strong reputation for being governed by greed for generations.
"When we reach the city, we will call ourselves travelers, since then we will only pay normal entry fees." Lakyus stated.
"Technically me and my new companions ARE travelers, if I remember correctly." Litzelot deadpanned, while Lakyus facepalmed mentally.
"Yes. But me and my group arent. We would like to only pay the normal fees. Thank you very much." Lakyus said.
"If you wish. Do you have any other information that could prove useful?" Litzelot asked.
"We will do nothing that could potentially draw attention towards us. If we go after the documents, more than a quarter of the city works for eight fingers. If we were seen, they would know that we would be coming." Lakyus said, slightly paranoid.
"Then why not camp outside of the city?" Litzelot asked.
"That is a good question." Lakyus answered stunned. She looked over her group and found that all were ready to camp outside of the city. Seeing that Litzelot got her there, she relented with a sight.
"Ok. We will stay outside of the city. Could we use the same plan as in Re-Limetane? We could also use your "Headless Horsemen" for safety." Lakyus continued.
"That is no problem. But we should continue our trip." Litzelot stated.
The rest of the trip went without trouble, if you don't count Zesshi and her advances towards Litzelot in.
→ Re-Estice Nazarick´s Mansion / Solution ←
Solution was furious as she stomped through the building. Since Sebas had caught a rumor about a strong warrior walking in and out of the palace, he was convinced that it was Litzelot. Right now, Sebas was checking the inn, which the big group of adventurers were frequenting, for their names. Solution meanwhile was forced to help a stray. The stray had blond, long hair, turquoise eyes and was beaten up, when Sebas found her. Sebas had brought her here and ordered Solution to heal her, which she did.
What angered her wasn't the fact that Sebas brought in a stray, she expected it to some degree because he was among the few in Nazarick, which didn't outright hate humans. She could forgive that. She could even forgive him for looking for that Litzelot, even though he deserved to be destroyed, as he did not join Nazarick when being offered a chance to do so. He was following orders there. What she couldn't forgive was that Sebas did not bring the stray to their master's attention, since the stray could either prove useful or a burden.
Solution thought an entire week about what should be done and waiting for an opportunity. Once Sebas announced that he would move and look for the names of the famous adventurers, Solution had everything prepared. She waited for Sebas to leave and then moved into his room to take a scroll with the spell "Message". She was immediately connected with her master.
"Hello?" asked the voice of Ainz.
"Good Afternoon master. I have important information. I have reason to believe that Sebas betrayed us." Solution told Ainz.
→ Re-Estice Palace / Zanac and Raeven ←
Zanac and Raeven were talking in Zanacs room. Their topics went from eight-fingers over adventurers, especially blue roses and darkness, to Litzelot. Even when it was weeks after the tournament, Litzelot had made a big impression of himself.
"What do we even know about him? I only know that he travels with blue roses." Zanac said.
"If my birds are to be believed he helps them with their new client, Princess Renner. It also seems that he is quite capable of magic and close combat." Raeven stated.
"So my sister got him under her thumb?" Zanac sight
"Such a loss. I could have used such strength to make Barbo lose his crown." Thought Zanac.
"It seems so, even if the control is over a third party, but still." Raeven stated.
"How strong do you think he is? I know that he is strong, but I have no measurement of his strength." Zanac bit his lower lip while speaking.
"It is rumored that he was able to defeat blue roses in a spar." Raeven said. He was shocked when he heard the rumor. While he did not necessarily believe that Litzelot could defeat all of them at once, he saw him beat at least one of the blue roses.
"Could he beat Gazef Stronoff?" Zanac asked.
"In my personal opinion, it is quite a possibility. But I wouldn't bet on that." Raeven sight
"Argh. It is quite an interesting time, wouldn't you say Raeven? We have the new group of adamantite adventurers in E-Rantel, under the name of darkness. Eight fingers seems to have big problems. My sister is planning, and succeeding, in getting her wish. There is a magic caster, who is far stronger than a scripture of the Slane Theocracy. And not to forget we have an unknown warrior, who suddenly appeared and turned into an important pawn in the game of the crown. Interesting times indeed, wouldn't you agree?" Zanac stated, with fear and wonder in his voice.
"That is right Zanac. I wonder what the history books will tell about us. Last time there was so much uncertainty, the "Eight Greed Kings" were beaten by the "Thirteen Heroes". Will we be on the side of the winners or will we simply go down" Raeven answered.
"Let's hope that it will be the former." Zanac stated.
→ Arwintar Baharut Empire / Jircniv and Fluder Paradyne ←
Arwintar was a big city, with well made streets and buildings. The markets were busy with business and the economy was booming. There was a military presence, and therefore the crime with Arwintar was nearly nothing. right in the middle of the city was the royal palace of the emperor. This emperor was Jircniv Rune Farlord El-Nix. He was blond, wore a golden crown and red and golden Tunics. He was called the "bloody emperor" thanks to his policy against useless nobles, which hampered his emperiums growth. Jircniv was standing at a window and overlooked his capitol.
Beside Jircniv stood an old man. He had gray hair and a long gray beard. HIs clothes were the typical, beige tunics, which older casters tended to use. He was Fluder Paradyne. He was over 200 years old and had accompanied Jircniv from an early age, taught him and gave him advice once Jircniv took over the realm. He was also the ace in the hole, if there would ever be a problem. He was one of, if not the, strongest wizard.
The third in the room was one of the emperor's "four imperial knights", Leinas Rockbruise. She was a blond woman, who hid half of her face, since it was cursed. She had tried to remove it, but nothing worked so far. She wore the standard uniform of the "four imperial knights", a dark armor with golden trim. She also had a black hairband and used a spear. The main reason for her service to the emperor was that she would be able to get a cure for her curse.
Both, Jircniv and Fluder, stood there and looked over the city and talked to each other.
"Tell me old man, did our spies tell you more about the happenings?" Jircniv asked. Since he heard about the new appearances Jircniv wanted to know if they would be a threat and if he could attain such strong people.
"We have an unknown magic caster. He is named Ainz Ooal Gown. He was only sighted once, by Gazef Stronoff. If we believe Gazef Stronoff, I estimate that the caster is able to cast tier five magic." Fluder begann, knowing that he should let the emperor react to the news.
"Seems strong, but we cant do anything, if we don't know where he is. At least he isn't involved with the kingdom." Jircniv stated.
"So it seems. It would be interesting to meet him." Fluder stated.
"Sadly you have to wait and hope old man." Jircniv said.
"Next we have a new adamantite team named "darkness". This group has two members. It is said that they were able to hold back the waves of undead, which nearly destroyed E-Rantel. They then defeated a strong vampire. They were also able to defeat a basilisk.
The leading figure is an adventurer named Momon, or "black knight" as some call him. He is accompanied by a woman called nabe, or "beautiful princess". She is a magic caster, as far as I have heard." Fluder continued to tell Jircniv.
This gained an interest from Jircniv. While adventurers were sometimes strong, especially the higher their rank, they most of the time kept out of politics. That meant that this group, while strong, would probably not be a risk.
"No threat at the moment. If possible we should try to get him to settle in the empire. If all goes well we could even convince him to join our army." Jircniv stated.
"I will look into it. We could make first contact through a proxy and give easy, but well payed quests, afterwards make them longer and more frequent." recommended Fluder, while Jircniv nodded.
"I will leave it to you then, old man." Jircniv stated.
"I heard that there were sightings of a dullahan near our border. The Slane Theocracy got wind of it and had sent parts of the black scripture." Fluder stated.
"Where did they go?" Jircniv asked, sweat building on his forehead. The scriptures were dangerous, so he wanted to keep them away from his empire.
"The spies, which reported about the scripture live near Re-Limetane. It seems that they had splitted up, since three of them were also reported near E-Rantel. The larger portion of the group seemed to have fought something stronger, since they had wounded and retreated slightly south into the mountains." answered Fluder.
"If we believe that they fought the dullahan, then it is likely that it is strong. We hope that it does not cross our borders." Jircniv stated.
"I also heard of a relatively new warrior. He is called Litzelot. He won the royal tournament with ease and is said to be able to beat blue roses easily. He is working with blue roses and has a rather unusual client at the moment." Fluder goaded Jircniv.
"And who would that client be?" asked Jircniv, knowing that Fluder was gleeful to answer that question.
"We have spiese within the palace of Re-Estice, Those spies tell me that princess Renner is the client of Litzelot, alongside blue roses, to decimate eight fingers. More interesting for us are two other things. One would be that he stated on multiple occasions that he doesn't know what he will do after eight fingers are dealt with. The second is that their group got bigger after they were in Re-Limetane." Fluder stated.
"Re-Limetane seems to be tumultuous right now. But could it be that the members of the scripture fought them there?" Jircniv asked.
"It is unusual for the city to have so much high personal wandering around." thought Jircniv.
"Since one of the nobles was able to recognize one of the newer members of the group I would say yes. It seems that Litzelot and blue roses were able to fight them off. They also took three prisoners, who are now working with Litzelot." Fluder stated.
"That makes it more interesting. Could we probably get them on our side," thought Jircniv loud.
"I heard Litzelot is quite capable with melee and magic. This could be interesting. I would recommend the following. Why not propose to work together with princess Renner, secretly, she will not like it. Therefore we would need a proxy and we would sugarcoat the proposal. After we made contact we could ask him to look at Sir Leinas Rockbruise. It likely would cure her, but it would be a foot in the door" Fluder said.
"That sounds good. With luck we can make our empire even stronger than before. See it done." Jircniv ordered.
"Hopefully he can cure me. I would do anything to get this curse cured." Thought a certain, more or less loyal knight
→ Near the mountains, south of E-Rantel / rest of the black scripture ←
Once the scripture, or what was left of it, regrouped, the Captain was furious. Not only would he need to explain that a valuable item was lost and the traitor not killed by them. He would also have to explain the loss of three members, one of which was a known descendant of one of their gods. And all of that thanks to Spirits and the others. The operation was a resounding disaster.
One of the strongest members of the scripture, possibly the strongest ever, was gone. Either she was dead, taken prisoner or switched sides. Either case was a loss for the Theocracy.
The loss of Astrologer is equally terrible, since without her the cardinals couldn't get information as easily as before. She was a master of divination magic and therefore crucial for the plans of the Theocracy.
The loss of Infinite Magic, while not fully compatible with the loss of the other two, was still a hard blow.
That and the wounded of both parts did only leave one option for the Captain of the scripture, retreat. They would not be able to take on the dullahan and the traitor and the valuable item she had are gone.
"We will retreat over the mountain range. Then we will cross the borders towards Slane. Once we are there, you will accompany me to the cardinals, Spirit." The Captain stated, a cold voice sending down shivers the backs of the warriors.
"As you say Captain" was heard and they moved out.
The way towards Slane proved hard. Sadly they didn't have many options. The wounded didn't make it easier to travel through the terrain. But after a long three weeks the scripture made it back to the borders of the Slane Theocracy.
→ Nazarick Ainz Office / Ainz ←
Ainz was stunned. After he tested Sebas for his loyalty, which showed that Sebas was still loyal towards him, he also got information. He was sitting in his chair and thought.
"What can I do for you Ainz-sama?" Albedo asked.
"I am only going over the information that Sebas gathered.
"Is it about that threat called Litzelot?" Albedo stated.
"He is not a threat. I am thinking about sending Sebas with a message.I am also thinking about what could be considered agreeable to him, since I don't want to have him as an enemy." stated Ainz.
Sadly for Ainz, Albedo took it slightly differently and prepared a task-force, to deal with a certain vermin.
On the other side of the "plans" it went well for Nazarick. The happy farms were doing well and gave Nazarick a stable supply of scrolls. The coming operation called "Gehenna" was nearly prepared and would take place soon.
Their spies were able to infiltrate into the royal palace of Re-Estice, which gave them good information about the political situation.
Sadly Nazarick was unable to track the ones that crossed his path, by controlling Shalltear, forcing him to kill the true vampire and revive her. This had cost a lot of money and nerves. It also had, for a time, destroyed her mentally.
Ainz had filled out many documents, when he went back to Nabe, after which they would start to move out. They were hired by a rich woman called Hilma, and since they needed money they had accepted.
AN: A slightly shorter chapter, since I am preparing the birthday of my mother. I hope you can forgive me for that. Please review, since I like tips and to read. Till next time