Chapter 33 / Rushdown
Two guards stood idle at the gates of Riyute. Assigned to those positions by the Three Heroes Church, the entire shift had been filled with the boring sight of plains and forests around the village. There were the occasional travelers that were admitted into the village rather easily through the entry fee, but to say that it wasn't boring, that would be a lie.
The most exciting thing that happened so far was the news that a few other knights had captured the Sword Demon. They would be able to see the carriage bringing him out from Riyute in a few minutes, since preparations were all completed. Sister Altara, however, warned them to keep a careful eye out for anything suspicious that comes near the village.
Being vigilant, they tried to make sure nothing would slip past their sights.
However, one of them noticed something strange in the distance all of a sudden.
"H-hey, do you see that?"
"Huh? See what?"
One of the guards pointed in its direction. It caused the other guard to frown, squinting his eyes to try and make it out for himself before scratching his head. Dust looked like it was being kicked up at an alarming rate, making it difficult to determine what it was.
"Wh-what is that…?"
"Is… that a filolial? It can't be, since it's too big…"
"Uhm, I don't want to be the one to point it out, but…" As he sweated a bit, the guard gulped. "D-don't you think that thing is coming towards us too quickly?"
Wary of the incoming abnormality, the two guards drew their weapons. One of them raised their voices, extending a hand upwards to try and get their attention.
"Hey! Slow down! There's an entrance fee for Riyute!"
They did not slow down.
In fact, the guards noticed a light emerging from what was being pulled behind the mysterious monster. It looked as if it was coming from a carriage's front seat. Once the gap closed between them enough, they were able to see that there was someone aiming a bow while a pony-tailed man was controlling the harnesses.
"I'll give you a fee, alright!" Itsuki shouted, releasing his arrow. "[Explosive Arrow]!"
"Dodge that! Hurry!"
The guards in the line of fire leapt out of the way and where they once stood, the arrow connected there and exploded upon impact. The outward force flung them away. The loud noise reverberated through the air, almost deafening the two guards, but by the time they got back to their senses, they were within a few meters of the passing carriage. However, they were able to recognize the two people in front, as well as catching a small glimpse of who was in the back.
"Wait, that's—!"
"Th-the Demons! It's them!"
They couldn't do anything about it.
By the time they realized, the carriage had already entered the village with extreme force. The villagers started running away from the possible paths, while the knights tried to figure out what to do.
With the sounds of Sakura's claws digging into the ground at a high frequency, everyone else was still trying to hang on for themselves.
"Okay, so," Motoyasu shouted back, trying to break the disrupting airstream, "if we were the Three Heroes Church, where would we be holding Ren in a village we just took control of!?"
"That sort of information would have been nice to get from the shadow…!" Naofumi responded from the back, almost whimpering. "Did we really have to go immediately like this!? Couldn't we have gotten more of a plan beforehand!?"
"Huh!? N-now that you mentioned it…!"
"It's already too late! We're committed to this now!"
Itsuki, compared to the others, was starting to get into Motoyasu's rash charge-through of the village. He aimed his arrows towards the guards in the way and fired them. His arrows were far faster than Sakura and reached them first, opening a path through the filolial to run through.
"Hee hee…!" Sakura's feathers rustled violently with her speed. "This is so fun!"
"At least one of us is enjoying this…"
Eclair mulled as she glanced over to the two downed allies they already have on their hands. Naofumi had been fanning Raphtalia's face to make the trip more bearable. Apparently, she suffered from motion sickness when it grew to a certain speed. It wasn't noticed so far since Sakura hadn't been given a reason to pull the carriage so fast before.
On the other hand, there was Rishia, who might have already passed out. Eclair was practically holding her down in order to make sure she wouldn't go flying around the carriage, but it wasn't for the same reason as Raphtalia. If Eclair had to guess, it must have been from the sheer shock.
"Well, Riyute must have their own prison, right!?" Motoyasu asked. "Wouldn't that be the first place we should look!?"
"Cells should be underneath a governor's manor, right!? If we rushed over to the governor, then there's a chance we might be able to find—!"
"What!?" Eclair exclaimed at Itsuki's deduction. "There shouldn't be any cells underneath a governor's manor! At least, not typically!"
"That wouldn't… always be the case…" Raphtalia murmured, only to try to push whatever was coming up her throat back down. Even though Naofumi was close by, he didn't hear what she said, nor did anyone else from the rushing gales.
"I suppose if that was the case, Rishia wouldn't have been locked up in a guest suite…" Itsuki pondered by himself, before raising his voice. "Then we'll have to run through the entire town to find out where it is! We've got no other choice here!"
"We likely have a few more moments before the holy knights are able to get themselves on our tracks!" Eclair guessed. "We shouldn't be wasting too much time investigating the town like that!"
"Then we'll narrow it down to the places that I haven't been to in Riyute!" Naofumi responded. "During my stays in this village, I haven't come across a prison, and I've mainly been keeping myself around the east and the south!"
"And it's not like we had the chance to sightsee and learn the buildings when the wave of destruction was happening," Itsuki followed up. "And if we entered Riyute through the west, then…!
"Alright, Sakura!" Motoyasu could already tell what the answer had been. "Bring us over to the north! Down that road over there! Be careful about running over any villagers!"
"Okayyy!"
As Motoyasu tightened his grip on Sakura's reines, the entire carriage tilted over onto one side of its wheels when Sakura took the corner in a sharp movement. Naofumi and Eclair tried to counterbalance the carriage to bring it back on four wheels, but Motoyasu had it handled.
Motoyasu stood up briefly from his seat and stomped the left side of the carriage, immediately pushing it down for Sakura to properly pull it again. The wheels bounced on the ground slightly before it continued to rumble against the rough roads.
Itsuki barely hung on, almost stumbling out from the carriage.
"A bit of a warning next time!?"
"Don't worry, you're fine!"
"Motoyasu!" Naofumi called out. "It feels like you're a bit too comfortable with handling Sakura and the carriage this way! I thought you would have trouble!"
"Trouble!? This!? No way! I've put in some practice with Sakura already! This is nothing!"
"Wh—!?" Eclair widened her eyes, flabbergasted. "When did you have the time to practice this!? I don't ever recall you going this fast with us before!"
"Don't worry about it!" Motoyasu took another sharp turn, synchronizing his control of the carriage with Sakura. "Let's just say my levels are a bit lower than they should be! We'll leave it at that!"
Naofumi wanted to argue the absurdity of the actions, but he couldn't deny that Motoyasu's thoughts were in the right place. If the shadow's words were to be accurate, there was no telling when they would have Ren taken out of the village. This ridiculous speed ensured their best chances at coming across Ren, but he was still severely worried for Raphtalia and Rishia.
There wasn't much else that he and Eclair could do for them now.
After a few more rough turns, Itsuki noticed a building in the distance. It looked as if it was still under construction, but there hadn't been any emphasis on rebuilding it from what he could see. There were still some guards stationed outside of it, so after confirming that their armor belonged to the Three Heroes Church, Itsuki took his aim.
"There! I think Ren's being held up in that building!"
"Alright then! Hang on!"
Motoyasu readied his grip on the harness, cueing Sakura.
"Sakura! Let's drift to a stop!"
"Okayyy…!"
The guards noticed their approach and tried to stop them, but Sakura grinded to a halt and dragged her talons against the ground. She turned around at the same time, swinging the carriage around like a mace as it slammed into the guards. They were immediately knocked away with extreme force as the carriage fell back onto the four wheels.
"Okay, and when did you learn to do that!?" Itsuki spat. He could have sworn his heart stopped for a moment. "Why did you learn how to do that!?"
"Sakura thought it would be fun when Daddy explained it to Sakura," Sakura giggled. "Daddy helped me learn it."
"Forget about that!" Eclair leapt out from the back of the carriage first, drawing her sword. She could already see some of the nearby knights approaching from a distance. "We need to find Ren quickly before we get swarmed by knights!"
"Yeah, we wouldn't want something like that happening again," Naofumi sighed. Raphtalia and Rishia still looked like they weren't in any shape to take immediate actions, so Naofumi came out from the carriage by himself as he readied his shield. "I'm trusting you on that job!"
"I'm coming too!" Itsuki got off from the front and spun his bow back into preparation.
"Wait! We need ranged support for dealing with something like this and Rishia is down right now!" Naofumi shouted. "I'm sure Eclair can find Ren herself!"
Itsuki stopped in his place, grimacing as he glanced back to see more knights coming from down the streets. Clicking his tongue, he leapt onto the top of the carriage and started taking aim to disrupt the path of the incoming knights.
"Fine! I'm counting on you, Eclair!"
"Of course! Leave Sir Ren to me!"
The door was weak, having barely any solid materials on it. It was evidently thrown together as hastily as possible before the villagers moved on, but it worked in Eclair's favor. All she did to proceed was use her shoulder and bash herself right through to continue, unyielding in her speed.
Itsuki glanced over his shoulder to the entrance as he loaded an arrow into his bow.
"With a prison in such conditions, you don't honestly expect me to believe that you couldn't break yourself out, Ren…" He blindly fired off his first arrow, flying right into a crowd of incoming knights. They were instantly blown away from the sheer power behind such a simple projectile from a Cardinal Hero, even when his mind wasn't focusing on them. "There's no point in dwelling about it right now…"
"Alright, Motoyasu." Naofumi stepped up, stancing himself to intercept the knights that got past Itsuki's first shot. "Don't let a single one of them slip through."
"Should we go lightly on them?" Motoaysu removed himself from the carriage, petting Sakura casually to let her know to stay put for a bit in the meantime. He spun his spear into position and came up next to Naofumi. "If we use everything we've got, we might end up killing them."
"Uhm, try not to kill them. We don't need to give the Queen more problems on her hands."
"Not too problematic. Now then, let's get this party started!"
Motoyasu and Naofumi dashed forwards together to intercept the guards.
-/IV/-
"Out of my way!"
After knocking a knight into the wall, Eclair lowered her sword once she defeated this next cluster of enemies. For a place that looked uncared for, they clearly positioned some guards here to ensure that the Sword Hero wouldn't escape their clutches, but it was still an amount that was lower than she expected. There weren't any other prisoners here, but for what they were planning to do, they shouldn't have spared any space for mistakes if Ren managed to free himself.
She knew if the captain of the Melromarcian Knights were the one in charge of this operation, that would have been something they would have kept in mind in this situation.
However, there wasn't time to think about those logistics, choosing to continue on her way with brute force and agile movements. The remaining guards were frankly no match for Eclair, making her think that they weren't even at the regular level cap like her. She probably wouldn't have been at LV40 either, if it weren't for the constant monster fighting that she wouldn't have engaged in on the journey with the Cardinal Heroes, but that didn't excuse the poor weapon-handling of the holy knights.
She could close in on a knight, disarm them, and knock them out within a few seconds, only then to repeat it almost immediately afterwards when needed. These knights were clearly more suited for keeping appearances and local peacekeeping, rather than any heavy combat.
It didn't take too long for her to come across a few cells that were unbroken. Within one of them, she found Ren slumped against the wall with his arms chained to it.
Eclair couldn't see his downward-panning eyes and despite how skilled she admitted Ren to be in battle, he didn't even hear the echoing footsteps she was making. He might have been asleep.
"Sir Ren?"
"... Huh?"
Groggily making his awakening, there wasn't any energy in his movements. All he did was shift around slightly as his eyes pulled up to see who had been talking to him. A subtle surprise came to him before it was casted away and replaced with a defeated sigh.
"Oh. It's just you."
Eclair frowned. "This isn't the moment to be playing coy. I'm sure you're already aware why I'm—or rather, we're here."
She approached the door and felt how strong the iron bars had been. They weren't as strong as the one in the castle's dungeon, so with a winded blade, she slashed down against it twice to open up a passage to get through. The separated pieces rattled against the cold tiles, as Eclair stepped in to help Ren.
"I suppose roles are reversed this time around," Ren murmured. "With me breaking you out from the castle, you're returning the favor in breaking me out of this prison."
"This has nothing to do with favors, Sir Ren."
Gripping onto her sword tightly, she struck the chains and watched as Ren's arms fell down to his side. He lifted them up gently, glancing at the cufflinks that were still attached to his wrist.
"I'm only doing what I believe is right, after all."
"What you believe is right…"
Ren bit his lips.
"What if that ends up being the wrong choice, making the problem more troublesome than it should have if you didn't do anything about it in the first place?"
Eclair furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm not sure what you're trying to get at here. Leaving you in the hands of the Three Heroes Church isn't an option. We'll discuss what happened to you later."
"Just give me a quick answer then."
"We don't have time for this! As we speak, more knights are realizing what's happening right now, meaning the prison is going to be swarming with more knights! Although I do doubt that we would be in heavy danger, it doesn't change the fact that we need to leave as soon as we can! Sir Naofumi and the others are defending our exit point as we speak!"
"That might be a mistake. Bringing me along with you guys might cause more problems."
Eclair widened her eyes, realizing what Ren's mind was being consumed by. She noted it almost immediately when the shadow revealed what lengths Ren was going in the background, but this mentality of self-deprecation still surprised the former knight.
"You don't… honestly believe that the others wouldn't forgive you for what you've done, right? I might have been agitated at the results that your actions brought, but I can't say that you were entirely wrong for putting everyone else first and foremost."
"There's a part of me that's scared that they might abandon me if they know."
"I've known them for a shorter time than you, but even I can realize that—!"
As Eclair tried to defend Ren from himself, Ren's hands clenched into a fist on his lap. Eclair could even hear the gritting of his teeth, grinding up against each other.
"I know who they are. I know what type of people Naofumi, Motoyasu and Itsuki are. That's why I know they're going to simply overlook my actions and maybe even laugh them off as we continue on our adventure together. That's… That's how they are."
"And where's the problem?"
"What if I mess up again? What if I keep messing up like that? Even if my friends are going to shrug it off like it's nothing, how will I know where the limit is? And even further on, how much misfortune am I going to cause for them through my wrong choices?"
"..."
"It's because I care about them that I don't want to cause these things to happen again. They're my friends, but if all my intentions are good for is to make their lives even harder, then am I really treating them like my friends to begin with? I don't want them to go through trouble like that, something avoidable if I don't cause it to hinder them in the first place!"
"..."
"I know they'll forgive me, but words aren't…"
Ren grimaced underneath the shadow of his bangs.
"Words aren't what make results, now is it?"
It was clear that the weight of his thoughts had been chipping away at Ren, carefully dissecting everything he had in his conviction. This was a completely different person compared to the person Eclair fought back in Errnthon, as if the hard-hitting shell had finally shattered into pieces and left behind the anxious boy underneath.
And frankly, Eclair wasn't sure what to say. She… wasn't exactly good at talking with people like this, but she wasn't going to let Ren waste around like that. Eclair was a person that always spoke from the heart, so she allowed herself to do so now.
"Well, I can't speak for the others," Eclair sighed, "but I certainly won't mind your mistakes."
"You're just saying that."
"You said you were fifteen years old, right?"
"... Sixteen. I'm sixteen years old."
"Either way, I was still in the knight's academy at that age. I was always focused on the path to becoming stronger, but that power isn't all there is to being a knight. Even years after my graduation, the captain still says that I still have much to learn when it comes to anything outside of combat and the vice-captain still says that I play too closely to the books."
Ren vaguely glanced up at Eclair once again. "I don't see what you're trying to get at."
"What I'm trying to say is…" Eclair stumbled a bit on her words, trying to make herself clear to Ren. "You're still very young. You're allowed to make mistakes, but if you start doubting yourself here, those mistakes will only grow. Knights that are unable to calm their nerves over making a mistake should not become knights to begin with and I assume the criteria is similar to being a hero."
"You forget that I didn't have a choice in the matter," Ren mulled, shaking his head. "I was summoned as a Cardinal Hero, whether I like it or not, and so was everyone else."
"If you don't believe me, you should actually talk to Sir Itsuki or the others. No person is meant to learn by themselves. Even I had multiple teachers over the course of my training in order to hone my swordplay. They each might say something different to one another, but I'm certain the message will be quite similar through the way that they care about you, just as you do for them."
Eclair extended her hand outwards to Ren.
"Anyhow, now's not the time to be wondering about such matters. I'd suggest that we make it out of Riyute first before you continue to ponder on possible answers. After all, everyone else has their hands busy right now. You don't want to make their lives difficult, right? You can start here, by leaving this place as soon as possible."
"..."
Seeing Ren build a pained expression, twisted his mouth into a staggered frown, Eclair realized that might not have been the right thing to say. As she was figuring out how to persuade Ren to hurry up onto his feet, she felt another hand grabbing onto hers.
"Damned if I do, damned if I don't, huh…? Not much of a choice I have here, is there…?"
"If you weren't coming along after all of that, I'd have to carry you out on my shoulder instead, whether you want it or not."
"... You mean, on your back, right?"
"I'm fairly certain I can carry you over my shoulder. I wouldn't be able to properly fight if I were to carry you on my back, if needed."
"... Dutifully noted," Ren said, sighing defeatedly. "I'll come along."
Eclair pulled Ren up onto his feet and while Ren's body looked like it was going to collapse at any moment, he reassured her that he would be fine to follow behind her. His tone still showed signs of melancholy, being brought around as if he had no solid movements of his own, but Eclair was forced to move on from that.
"By the way, do you… have any potions to restore SP on you right now?"
"... I don't carry potions on me unless I'm heading out by myself." Eclair wouldn't even have any reason to use them, since these supposed SP potions would improve her magic and spell-concentration instead, attributes that she frankly didn't need. "If you need SP potions, you should ask Sir Naofumi or the others"
About to move on, Eclair then frowned, realizing the strangeness of the question. "Hold on, Sir Ren? How did you lose your SP while being idle inside the prison?"
Although she didn't look to see if those chains were similar to the ones found in the castle's dungeons, she was doubtful that Ren made an attempt to escape for himself, especially looking like that.
"I… I'm not sure. I woke up in the prison earlier this morning, but I didn't bother to check my resources before I fell unconscious again. It's only now that I've looked at it where I'm missing almost my entire SP bar, not to mention even some of my MP bar as well."
She didn't have any response to the phenomenon, so Eclair could only assume that the Three Heroes Church did something to Ren while he was in their captivity, but what it had been was uncertain. His lack of energy was starting to make a little more sense though.
"Sorry, I… I didn't mean to slow us down with something weird like that…"
"It's fine."
Despite all of that though, Eclair noticed how weak-willed Ren became in comparison to his usual self, energy or not. Beforehand, she would have been certain that Ren would have simply explained himself or dismissed it coldly, rather than retreat with his words being possessed by a timid nature.
It… almost reminded her of Rishia, in a way.
(Should I really be thinking like that…?)
"Let's simply move out."
With her part of the objective completed, Eclair made her way back out from the prison.
-/IV/-
Raphtalia managed to shake her spinning head off, but only through brute force. She knew what was going on outside of the carriage, hearing Naofumi and the others unleashing their attacks and standing guard in order to give Eclair time to retrieve Ren. Her first sight came around to Rishia, who was still passed out on the floor of the carriage.
It would seem like she hadn't recovered from her fright yet, still whimpering in her daze.
Nevertheless, Raphtalia wasn't going to stay put. Though still suffering slightly under her motion sickness, she grabbed her sword and climbed out from the carriage to see what was happening.
"Motoyasu! Now!"
"A special side of the spear, coming right up!"
Naofumi had just parried an attack from a knight, allowing Motoyasu to close right in and swing his spear. The impact of the shaft crashed into the knight's armor, sending them flying into the distance. Another knight tried to close in while Motoyasu was pulling back, but Naofumi stepped in quickly to bump their attack away. It allowed Motoyasu to bounce right back and crash his spear right into them, turning the knight into a projectile towards their allies.
Without another word, the two heroes moved together in perfect unison, putting up the ultimate defense and retaliation against the knights. Raphtalia could see how many knights they've already dealt with and despite it being a plentiful amount, they both had much energy to spare. It was nothing like when they were fighting together back at the castle. Instead of looking cornered and out-of-breath, they looked unstoppable as a duo, not even considering the fact that Itsuki was perfectly sniping off enemies from the top of the carriage.
She started to wonder if she needed to do anything here.
Even on paper, having three of the four Cardinal Heroes fight against a small fraction of the holy knights made it sound like a one-sided battle. That wasn't even including the idea that the three of them fought as a group excellently together because of their bonds as friends.
"We've got ranged support incoming, Naofumi!"
"Itsuki! I'm leaving them to you!"
"I'll make easy work of them! You won't even need to think about them after I'm done!"
If anything, she could probably sit out during the fight and the results wouldn't change in the slightest. It felt a little disappointing that her involvement isn't required here, but she glanced over to see that Sakura was simply sitting down, almost as if she could sleep at any moment despite what was going around her.
From the distance, Raphtalia noticed that a stray magic spell was flying straight to the filolial. Drawing her sword, she thought it might have been bst to defend Sakura from the attack, but before it could even get close, Itsuki shouted out to Naofumi.
"A wind spell slipped by! Naofumi! On Sakura's right!"
"Got it! [Air Strike Shield]!"
A transparent shield appeared right in front of Sakura and Raphtalia, negating any damage that the spell could have made. Raphtalia looked over to Naofumi to see that he wasn't even looking over to the magic spell, trusting only on Itsuki's callout to mentally project where the skill should be.
Itsuki noticed Raphtalia's presence, keeping his steady rate of fire in the meantime.
"Oh, you're already up, Raphtalia?"
"Yes, and while I thought I could lend some help in pushing back the knights, it looks like it's not required. Master Naofumi and Mister Motoyasu appear to be more than enough for the knights to handle."
Sakura yawned a bit, a mystery considering the constant clashes of weapons happening around her. "Are we done yet? Can we go already?"
Raphtalia checked her surroundings. "Not yet. Miss Eclair hasn't returned with Mister Ren."
"He's soooo slow…"
"Any moment now, Sakura," Itsuki reassured. "Hold on for a little longer."
"Is there anything else you need us to do while we wait?" Raphtalia asked.
"Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything, but be ready if Naofumi and Motoyasu need your help. An extra hand can make a smooth ride even smoother." Even through a casual conversation, Itsuki's haphazard attacks were still landing without fail. "Although, I'm surprised you were able to shrug off your motion sickness so easily."
"Trust me, I'm still feeling it a bit, and I'm preparing myself to suffer through it again when we end up rushing out of here with Mister Ren…"
"I guess that makes more sense. From what I've seen from people with motion sickness, it takes a while for them to recover."
"You know someone else that has motion—?"
Just as they were talking, Raphtalia heard footsteps coming from behind them. She looked over her shoulder to see Eclair escaping the building with Ren tagging along right behind her.
"Miss Eclair has Mister Ren!"
"She's coming out?" Itsuki looked over, confirming the sight for himself.
"Finally…" Sakura stood back up from her resting position and stretched out her talons. Despite looking bored a moment ago, she was raring to go already. "C'mon, Daddy! Sakura wants to run again like that! It's really fun!"
"Alright, I hear you guys!"
"I got us covered!" Naofumi shouted. "We're pulling back to the carriage!"
"I'll stay on the top here! There's a handle on the roof I'll use to make sure I won't go flying!"
"Sounds good to me! Keep the knights away as much as you can while we leave!"
Raphtalia rushed over to help Ren into the carriage. He looked like he was moving slower than usual, but she thought that Ren might have dismissed her, saying that he could handle himself just fine. No matter how close and obvious her intent was though, Ren didn't say anything and allowed Raphtalia to pull him into their ride out. Of course, she was careful of the passed-out Rishia and while Ren noticed her, he didn't make any comments about it.
Eclair did one final check of their surroundings as Naofumi and Motoyasu returned to the carriage, but as Motoyasu got back on the driver's seat, another small wave of knights were coming from the northside. That was likely the fastest way out of the village, but considering Sakura's speed, going on a detour wasn't too much of a problem.
However, Motoyasu noticed something as a small wave of knights were coming by. The other knights stayed on standby as the center of attention was given to a woman in the middle. Motoyasu didn't recognize her at first, but a few seconds of seeing her garbs made him remember.
"You're… Sister Altara…?"
"To think that the Spear Demon would remember me, but I'd be lying to say that I am surprised."
"Motoyasu?" Naofumi asked, seeing his friend stiffening. "What's with the hold-up? Do you know her or something like that?"
"Well, it wouldn't be shocking to me if so," Itsuki mumbled.
"I met her a few times when I was still with Myne." Motoyasu narrowed his eyes. "She's the head nun of the Three Heroes Church."
"The head nun? Isn't that someone important?" Itsuki frowned. "What the hell is someone that important doing here? There's no way that someone like that came down to Riyute to see Ren for themselves in that little amount of time!"
"Now that I think about it, the shadow mentioned something about a representative from the Church meeting up with the governor," Naofumi deduced. "Does this mean she's the one representative? If so, that's unlucky of us that Ren got captured around the same timeframe."
"How would that be unlucky!?" Itsuki readied his bow, aiming right at her head. "We'll run right through her! If her knights can't beat us in swarms, how is one more person going to change the tides!? And if she's so important, killing her right now will—!"
"Tread carefully, Sir Itsuki!" Eclair reprimanded sternly. "If we do something dangerous towards someone of high influence like that, we'll only receive further backlash from the country, leaving more work to be done by the queen to unravel it! Don't forget how much favor the Three Heroes Church has in Melromarc!"
Itsuki clicked his tongue, choosing to lower his aim towards the ground in front of Altara.
"We don't want to do something that's irreversibl—Ah… I-I mean…"
For some reason, Eclair stopped what she was saying. Itsuki didn't understand the reason for it, but inside the carriage, Raphtalia saw that Eclair stole a glance at Ren for a brief moment.
"Whatever it is, ignore her already, Motoyasu! Get Sakura to start leaving!"
"... Give me a moment."
Itsuki frowned, widened his eyes in disbelief. "You have to be kidding me! Really!?"
"Please, I'm serious," Motoyasu spat. He placed his foot back onto the ground, slowly getting off to make sure Sakura won't rush off so suddenly. "I don't think I'll get another chance like this."
"You…!"
Hearing Motoyasu sound so focused made Itsuki reluctantly step back on his insistence.
"Ugh, fine, but make it quick! We don't know what else they have in store here!"
If he was so intent on speaking with Altara, he might as well keep an eye on any knights that might want to use this time to approach them, but he noticed that all of them were distancing themselves the moment Altara made her appearance.
"Any reason that you came to see us, Sister Altara?" Motoyasu lowered his spear, intending to show no immediate threats towards the head nun. He simply wanted to have a small conversation with the woman. "Did you come by to try and stop us yourself from saving our friend?"
"Your assumption would be wrong." Altara shook her head slightly. "My reason for showing myself is to observe what type of power you demons have as we speak. To repel a squadron of holy knights meant to protect a village is no easy task, but you ended up doing so without any damage reportedly landing on anyone. Quite the dangerous villains."
"Would I be right in assuming that you won't be stopping us?"
Altara stared at the heroes before gesturing to her knights to stand down.
Of course, they were surprised by the command.
"How can we do that!? We have those demons right in our clutches! We can't allow them to escape, now that they're right there with their backs against the wall!"
"Back against the wall?" Altara narrowed her eyes at the outburst. "From what I've seen, that does not look to be the case. This is a battle we will lose if we choose to commit to it and if those demons wish to depart without any further destruction and chaos, I'd like for us to come to an impasse to make sure we will be properly prepared for our next encounter."
"It already took a few weeks to have a chance like this though!"
A cold gaze reached the outspoken knight, shivering his spine.
"Are you defying my orders?"
"I… Uhm…" The knight bowed his head. "N-no, Sister Altara…"
A brief silence came about as her attention returned to the heroes. "Besides, I've observed the battle for a bit before making my presence known."
"Seen? Observing the battle?" Naofumi whispered under his breath. "Was she already close by when we started to siege the prison for Ren?"
"No point in figuring that out now," Itsuki whispered similarly.
"I have enough to report back on Pope Balmus and His Majesty on what they're capable of," Altara continued, "not to mention that I thought this might have been a possibility."
"Get to the reason, Sister Altara," Motoyasu said firmly. "I don't think you came, simply to tell your knights to stand down and allow us to go through."
"No, that truly is my reason to come here. I have a responsibility to the families of these valiant knights that the lives of their loved ones won't be recklessly and vainly thrown away in the line of duty. I cannot lie to myself that I see a way for us to achieve victory here, so I must concede for their sake."
Naofumi studied the gentle expression made by the head nun and while she felt dangerous on a psychological level, the words felt like they were meticulously crafted to every step of the way.
"There is a saying about that. Have you heard about it? For someone to win the war, losing a few battles is worthwhile."
Altara smiled, as Motoyasu figured that it was all that she was going to say to them, but it wasn't the end of the conversation. Motoyasu took a deep breath and released the tension in his hand, causing Altara to notice his state of mind.
"We'll leave now and put Riyute behind us, but I want you to answer a question for me."
"What makes you so sure that I'll answer it?"
"You don't need to. I'm asking for myself and whether I get a response is up to you."
"..."
Motoyasu glanced up to Altara, brimming with resolve.
"Where's Myne?"
"... Excuse me?"
"You heard me. Where is she right now? Where is the princess?"
"Do you really think I'll give you the location of the princess? The king wouldn't appreciate it if that sort of information was given freely to the demons plaguing this land."
"I didn't think it would have been that easy, but I guess it was worth a shot."
Motoyasu sighed and climbed back onto the carriage.
"At the very least, I see that she's not staying in the capital."
Thinking that a princess is staying in a capital would have been the obvious assumption to make, but considering the nature of Altara's response, it might have been the opposite in this case. If he heard something like, "away from danger," or something similar, it would have tipped off to that direction. Then if she was outside of those walls, the chance of meeting her only grew ever so slightly, which might have been better than a zero percent chance if she chose to stay in the castle.
Although, that does beg the question as to why Myne was outside of the capital.
He could already assume that the queen's shadows would be unwilling to part with that information as well, if they have it on hand to begin with. They look for the heroes to avoid conflict and Myne, whether Motoyasu wanted it or not, was one source of that problem.
Especially if he considered Rino's unknown whereabouts.
"I'm good now. We're leaving."
"Was that really all you wanted to ask…?"
"Don't worry about it, Itsuki." Motoyasu turned his solemn expression upside-down the moment he looked over to his friend, even trying to laugh it off. "It's nothing too serious."
Itsuki couldn't really say much after that and once Naofumi and Eclair got onto the carriage, Motoyasu grabbed onto the reines and gave his command to Sakura.
Although, Rishia was starting to come around at this point.
"Ugh… Where… are we…? The last thing I remember is that we were suddenly going really—"
"Alright, full speed!"
"Okayyy…!"
"—fast!? FUE!?"
Altara and the holy knights watched as the carriage drove off towards an exit, but there were still some knights that were skeptical of the decision.
"Are you sure this is a wise choice to let those damned demons go like that? I know we already extracted some of the Holy Sword's power to bring back to Pope Balmus, but surely this can't—"
"I wondered why the Cardinal Demons returned to Riyute when they were last reported to be in Errnthon, heading in the direction of the border. For what reason would they need to make a return?"
"Sister Altara…?"
As the distance of the carriage was getting further away, Altara glanced up to the rooftops of the buildings. There were a few shadows awaiting orders and a mere gaze gave them the command. They seemingly disappeared from their position, heading off to keep an eye on the heroes, now that they were able to find them. Although Altara was willing to let them go, they weren't leaving her sight.
"Our shadows were preoccupied over the last few days, trying to keep somebody else's shadows out from our hairs. There have been a few of them to have slipped through, but I don't believe this is a coincidence. They may have somebody within Melromarc working with them. They've returned towards Melromarc territory in order to meet up with them, or so I may hypothesize."
She kept a steady gaze to the carriage's direction.
"If they hear myself outright telling them that they can leave without any further struggle, they may not think twice about it. Even if our shadows are taken out by theirs, we can at least pinpoint a general area or direction that they're heading to. After that, it's merely a process of elimination."
"And by doing this, we'll find out who this ally of theirs is?"
Altara smiled softly with a nod.
"By the grace of our Gods, the Three Heroes Church will be the ones to defeat those demons and save this land from their influence. We'll defeat all who will assist them, in one way or another." Altara started walking off, away from the scene. "And speaking of which, I should return to Riyute's governor for another… little chat. I hope he has time to think about our offer."
-/IV/-
They were traveling for most of the morning, even heading a bit into the afternoon. After the initial burst out from the village, Motoyasu had Sakura slow down after they were running for thirty minutes straight. No one had any proper meals during the entire time, merely resorting to leftovers the heroes kept in their inventories, but it was enough to keep the tank running. Raphtalia unfortunately vomited out hers though from the accelerated ride.
They would have to stop to have an actual meal, but the mention of it was likely the first solid conversation that happened after their departure from Riyute. While Naofumi and the others had many questions for Ren, Eclair silently insisted to leave him alone for now. Not that Naofumi needed any hints to know that, seeing Ren had been keeping to himself in the corner of the carriage.
"I'll get something sorted out for us." Naofumi glanced at Motoyasu and Raphtalia as he was setting up the fire. "It'll go by faster if you two help me out."
"No problem. You're the boss."
"I'll help out with anything you need from me, Master Naofumi."
As those three had been working away at their lunch, Itsuki noticed Ren was about to head off by himself again. Itsuki wanted to see if anyone else noticed, but Eclair was off fanning Rishia off in the carriage to bring her back to life, while Sakura was following Motoyasu around as normal. He didn't plan on making a big scene about it, so Itsuki trailed behind his childhood friend and once they were far enough out from the group, Itsuki reached out to grab Ren, stopping him in his tracks.
"Itsuki? You surprised me…"
"I shouldn't have. I wasn't making my footsteps quiet or anything. You should have heard someone following you almost immediately. Now spill it and tell me, because this is making me awfully concerned for you. What happened that caused you to be captured like that so randomly?"
"..."
Ren looked away.
Even when Eclair suggested for him to properly talk to someone about his fears, he couldn't get the words out from his throat. They were stuck there, unable to move and brought out an excuse he was far more accustomed to.
"I got careless. When they approached me, my guard was down. That's all."
Itsuki frowned. "You say that, but you've been acting weird ever since we've entered that dungeon near Lerno—no." He shook his head, correcting himself. "No, it started happening ever since you came back from scouting Grenze with Eclair. You started becoming far more reserved and quiet."
"It's… I…" Ren looked as if he wanted to find the words to explain it, but kept coming up short every time. "Never mind. I can't really…"
Ren wasn't sure why he could talk to Eclair about this just fine, but it might have been because she was right there when the results of his actions were brought up. Compared to Itsuki and what he had done in Errnthon for himself, his friend looked as if he could easily move forwards, despite what troubles he helped in bringing. His resolve and determination were stubborn as they were strong.
Just when did Itsuki change like that? Why couldn't Ren simply feel the same way? He couldn't pinpoint any of those answers.
His words trailed off to silence, leaving nothing except the empty pause between the two friends. Only then, a restless sigh emerged from Itsuki before he took a few steps towards Ren.
"... Clench your teeth."
"What are you—?"
Almost immediately after he gave his warning, Itsuki punched Ren across the face, causing him to stagger backwards and catch himself from falling over. The stinging sensation burned against his cheek as he looked back in surprise, seeing Itsuki stretch his fingers from the impact.
"Itsuki…!?"
"Obviously, this isn't a problem you can handle by yourself! I trusted that you can make your judgements if you need help or not, but right now as it stands, I'm suddenly not so sure about that. And if you still think that you should deal with whatever you're going through by yourself, go ahead and take another guess. I'll force it out of you if I have to."
"There's no reason for us to—!?"
"The fact that you're already trying to back out like this means that something really happened in Grenze that changed your perspective upside-down. If this was any moment after our summoning and before our arrival in Grenze, you would have thrown out a fist in your retaliation already. I was right. This really isn't like you."
"I…"
"As a kid, you were always careful of your words, as if you were scared of something. All until we were kidnapped by that serial killer and just like that, you started becoming more resolute in your actions. And even now, I'm not entirely sure why that ever happened, nor do I know the reasons as to why you've returned to being similar to your younger self. We've been friends for so long, but I've only been taking those things for granted."
Itsuki rolled his wrist and tightened his fist, pulling his hands up.
"Now, I think it's time for me to know for real!"
Taking a step back, Ren sweated as Itsuki closed the distance quickly.
"No magic! No skills! No holy weapons either! Just me! And you!" Itsuki screamed. "Pull up those hands, Ren! Prepare to fight back!"
[SKIT 127 : Never Again]
[Motoyasu] : "Barring the fact that we needed to save Ren, and as well as that encounter with the head nun, I think that was pretty fun!"
[Sakura] : "Let's go again!"
[Raphtalia] : "Please no! I won't be able to handle it!"
[Rishia] : "I don't think I even remember anything that happened."
[Rishia] : "The moment that the world started to shake, my consciousness cut itself off from my body..."
[Raphtalia] : "Aah... You're the lucky one, Rishia..."
[Raphtalia] : "I wished I could have passed out instead..."
[Naofumi] : "So that's that."
[Naofumi] : "I'm banning any top speeds that come close to that while everyone is on board."
[Sakura] : "Naofumi is being a meanieee!"
[Motoyasu] : "Oh, come on, Naofumi! You have to admit that if things get tight, Sakura knowing how to run as fast as that comes in handy!"
[Motoyasu] : "We're obviously not going to go that fast casually."
[Sakura] : "We're not?"
[Motoyasu] : "We're not. However, if an emergency requires it, I think an exception to the ban is in order."
[Naofumi] : "Erhm..."
[Naofumi] : "Ah, fine. But only in emergencies, alright!?"
[Raphtalia] : "... Rishia? Please teach me how to pass out at high speeds."
[Rishia] : "FUE!? You think I do it on purpose!?"
[SKIT 128 : The Reasons of His Question]
[Itsuki] : "I still can't wrap my head around it."
[Itsuki] : "why was the head nun of the Three Heroes Church in Riyute?"
[Itsuki] : "What business would be so important that they would send one of the highest positions of their organizations to a village like that?"
[Eclair] : "I wish I had the answers to that, but alas, it's not something we can come close to solving."
[Naofumi] : "We thought that the Church might have been simply helping out the village to recover, but with her appearance there, I'm suddenly not so sure. I mean, they still could be present for such things, but I think there's another reason for their appearance there."
[Motoyasu] : "..."
[Naofumi] : "Motoyasu? You look a little distant."
[Motoyasu] : "A-ah, well, I had something on my mind."
[Eclair] : "Speaking of which, I find it interesting that you were asking about the princess? Is there a reason for that?"
[Motoyasu] : "I think the best answer for that is that it's a personal affair."
[Motoyasu] : "You guys don't mind if I leave it at that, right?
[Itsuki] : "I'm not so sure if I even want to know."
[Itsuki] : "You don't still have a thing for Myne, do you?"
[Motoyasu] : "..."
[Itsuki] : "Are you serious!?"
[Motoyasu] : "Wait, no! That's not why I hesitated! Please believe me!"
[Motoyasu] : "It's just that..."
[Motoyasu] : "It's one complicated mess if you ask me about her to a point where even I'm not sure what I feel."
[Itsuki] : "..."
[Itsuki] : "You did sleep with her, right?"
[Motoyasu] : "... Yeah? Why? Do you think it's weird?"
[Eclair] : "I think that was too much information."
[Naofumi] : "Ah haha... You, uh, get used to it..."
[SKIT 129 : Missing MP/SP]
[Eclair] : "Sir Motoyasu? Do have anything on hand that could restore MP and SP?"
[Motoyasu] : "Yeah, I got a bunch of potions for that."
[Motoyasu] : "Wait, I thought non-heroes didn't use SP."
[Eclair] : "It's not for me. It's for Sir Ren."
[Motoyasu] : "Why is he asking for those potions? Doesn't he already have some in his inventory?"
[Motoyasu] : "I'm sure Naofumi split him a good stash of of them when we were dividing resources between ourselves."
[Eclair] : "I..."
[Eclair] : "... Now that you mention it, he does, doesn't he? Perhaps it slipped his mind when we were leaving the prison."
[Eclair] : "I'll go remind him soon, but I think at this point, he would have either remembered, or let natural regeneration takes its course..."
[Motoyasu] : "Why the hell would Ren be missing MP and SP anyways? He was locked up for most of that time, right?"
[Motoyasu] : "And it's pretty rare for any of us to have empty tanks on both resources. One or the other, but both at the same time?"
[Motoyasu] : "I don't think any of us have come across such a dilemma before."
[Motoyasu] : "Wait, but there was that one time where I..."
[Eclair] : "Sir Motoyasu?"
[Motoyasu] : "... Nah, it's nothing. There's no way something like that would be what is happening."
