Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad for fixing my SPAG problems, and Angel Wraith for beta-reading the chapter and providing feed backs.
As always, I will blabber some more in my end note.
In the end, the twice disguised princess wasn't able to make contact with the people of Balafon. When she tries to nonchalantly walk closer to one of the villagers without anyone looking, they quickly turn away from her and leave with their heads low. She suppose it's sensible from the people of balafon to try and avoid contact with their oppressors. But it meant she wasn't able to make contact with any of them without causing a scene and drawing more attention to herself. She doesn't like it, but it seems like the only thing she can do now is to put her faith in Raphtalia and the imp to somehow get her message across.
The rest of her group came together not too long after, and they made their trip outside of the village from the east. Making the appearance of leaving to join Mark Consevatie's group. The enslaved village slowly grows smaller behind them, till they make their way across the first hilltop between two much higher mountains. The Shield Hero almost immediately jumped out of his hiding place to meet them. "All of you returned! I was so worried something would go wrong!"
"Nothing we can't handle." The princess immediately conjured up some a [hydrosphere] and pushed her face into it. To wash her face free of the hardened dirt and mud. It wouldn't do much to improve her burn scar... or the cursed scar underneath, but she still likes to keep herself clean if possible. "Anyone else want to take a dip?"
"We are alright." Ren, the former highwayman, gives her a sideway glance, as if questioning her priorities. The princess shrugs her shoulders, and drops the spell to make all the water she gathered splash on the group. While she's doing that, the ex-bandit turns to the Shield Hero next. "How is Nora doing?"
"She's still sleeping it off. Nothing seems to have changed." The Shield Hero quickly answers the question, and raises one of his own. "How did your trip go? What's the village like? Anything we should watch out for?"
Chapter 114: Shadow's Graffiti
"The village wasn't that well guarded. I counted about twenty templars taking their guard duties seriously. Another ten or so are just walking around. The rest were probably sleeping off their night duty." Oersted began to recount what he observed during their trip.
"They probably aren't very eager to do a good job when their leader is busy killing them." Mein crosses her arms in front of her chest. Seeing Naofumi's clearly confused look, she elaborates. "We walked in a scene where some idiot templar was brutalizing the village elder. Guess he wanted to make a point to Raphtalia because she was trying to help the old man. Well... that idiot got made an example of by Consevatie. Had his head split from the pointy end of an axe."
"So he really doesn't see anyone like a real person. Not even his own men." Naofumi's face recoils back, disgust clear in his expression. "At least it'll make our job easier. Hope he doesn't hurt the innocent people of Balafon too much while we plan our big jail break. Were you able to do what you needed?"
"I put all of my seeds down." The Gallian knight turns his little pouch inside out. The rest of their group, including Mein herself all nod along. "But I wasn't able to talk with anyone from Balafon. They were clearly too scared, and immediately turned around when I walked near them."
So it wasn't only the princess herself. She really shouldn't be too surprised, considering how she witnessed a scene when one of the templars nearly beat the village elder to death. It does mean Mein managed to accomplish more than the rest of her group. "I actually found the imp tied up in a half collapsed shack. You remember him, right? Zylden?"
"Zylden? Yeah, of course I remember him! How is he?"
"I can still see color on his face, but it's not stopping him screaming atop of his lungs. So about as well as can be expected from someone who runs his mouth around a group of unreasonable thugs." Naofumi once again recoils at the image Mein is no doubt painting in his mind. "It's not all hopeless though. I gave him some food I got in the village and told him to bide his time. While his mouth is too busy eating, I feed him the plan we cooked up. Didn't stop him from interrupting me, asking you to run and save yourself though. For a half man, he's probably more sensible than all these Three Heroes' Church idiots put together."
"Good to know you helped him somewhat. But is this going to help us? Because, you know. Isn't he tied up? As in, he can't help spreading the words around the village because he's not going anywhere?" As expected, the Shield Hero immediately picked out the problem of what Mein told him.
"Yes. But I also passed a message to Raphtalia while she's sitting on the sideline watching Consevatie and Firo spar. I wrote the word 'imp' on her arm with my finger. So she'll figure out I'm telling her to go seek out Zylden." The princess nods her head, and explains the second part of her little scheme to the Shield Hero. "Hopefully Consevatie doesn't literally hover over her all the time and she'll figure out a way to pass the message around."
"If all we needed was to tell someone to go find that short guy, I can probably tell my brother. I'll doodle a small picture, and have my skeleton familiar carry it to him. He'll help!" Yukari leaps out of a nearby bush. Jumping up and down on her feet while waving her arms.
"Good, you do that, Yukari." The Shield Hero turns his head towards the apprentice necromancer. She pumps her fist up, and runs away. Likely going to find something to make the drawing she was talking about. Naofumi turns to Mein next. "You saw Raphtalia and Firo? How are they?"
"Jackson wasn't lying. They weren't mistreated. At least not by Consevatie. His band of sycophants is a different matter. Remember that idiot who got made an example of by Consevatie? He tried to kick the village elder to death, just because Raphtalia was the one trying to help him. Oh, and remember that four eyed witch? She shoot air arrows at Raphtalia during her 'training' session with Consevatie. He probably got annoyed at her for running away from him rather than facing him heads on, so he allowed Sister Amelia to try and hit Rapthalia. That fool either didn't realize Amelia was taking her anger on Raphtalia under the guise of training, or didn't care." Mein's description makes the Shield Hero recoil back once again. "But if it's any consolation, Firo seems to be having a good time. She just ran straight at Consevatie during her turn, and they started beating at each other like they were hammering anvils."
The Shield Hero begins to walk in a circle after hearing what Mein had to say. "That's it. We need to get them out tonight. Any of you have something to add, better do it now. Because I'm not leaving Raphtalia and Firo with that creep another day longer!"
"About that, I have something to ask of you." The princess turns towards Logan. "That Set guy we met in Balafon Inn. You mentioned he was a Free Fighter? Anyone like him in Consevatie's group? Not his usual band of sycophants from the church, or his daddy's men. Some sellswords we don't know about in the village, or someone he can pay to join him when we aren't looking? Fifty men isn't a lot to guard a farming village. It would make sense he's trying to bring in reinforcements even if he didn't talk about it."
"Set is the only one from Commander Bright's group who came north with Consevatie. The others stayed with House Amelia, or ran away after Commander Bright got thrown into the dungeon." The renegade shakes his head. "Honestly, I think Set only came along, because Consevatie said he'll promote Set to a captain. I didn't know him too well, but every time I see him talk with the Commander, he talks about how he wants a promotion. I'm not sure if he considers sitting behind a desk looking after everyone's supply as a promotion. As for paid sellswords... maybe? Not like they'll tell us about it."
"So we should expect there to be possible reinforcements just like that night at Graile. Wonderful. Well, we are committing to tonight anyway, if Mein already told Zylden about it, and left a clue for Rapthalia to see him." Naofumi shakes his head, clearly frustrated at realizing more variables. His annoyance is perfectly understandable, considering they are working under almost as many unknown variables as their previous failed revolt. They have vastly less resources on their hands. And they actually want to save the people this time, as opposed to it being a desperate gambit to save their own skin.
"We need to focus on disorienting our enemy in that case. Make them panic, confused about who, or even what's attacking them. So they can't effectively fight back against us, while we disable them." The princess looks around their group, making sure everyone fully knows the severeness of the situation. "We can't plan around everything, because we don't know what'll happen. But if you see an opportunity you can exploit to sow further discord on Consevatie's men, you take it."
"OKAY! I got it ready!" Yukari jumps out of the bush she ran off to earlier and waves a large piece of leaf from her hand. She hands it over to the Shield Hero, and Mein moves her head over to look at what she wrote. The Shield Hero still can't read their language perfectly, and she's curious what message Yukari left her brother. If it gets intercepted or discovered, it might give their plan away to their enemy. Although the presence of a skeleton rat should let them know something is going on regardless.
The princess is surprised to find out there's no word written on the small piece of leaf. Instead, it's some kind of strange looking doodle written by what looks like charcoal markings. It looks like something a toddler might randomly make after dirtying their hand with ink. "What am I looking at?"
"Oh, it's something I used to do with my brother when we were young. We used to pretend we were super secret ninjas, working for one of those old Kyutenrou noble families." Yukari pokes her tongue out for a quick moment, before quickly turning her head away to avoid their gaze. "Anyways! Big Brother will know to seek out the shortest man in the village. And there's no mistake who that'll be. You don't have to worry if our message gets intercepted this way."
"What about your skeleton familiars? Wouldn't an undead rat immediately raise some attention?"
"Oh! You don't have to worry about that!" The raccoon girl nonchalantly waves her hand. Except her attitude does make Mein worry that she might not be taking the threat seriously. Fortunately, Yukari elaborates, probably because she saw the unimpressed look Mein is giving her. She brings her hands up, in the middle of her opened palms is a... live rat? "Bed-Chan has been helping me while you guys are gone. Remember those beak-thing skeletons grown over by her vines? She did something similar to my skeleton rats. But she had them grow to look like the fur of a real rat. Pretty neat, huh?"
"I know there are animals from my world that use Mimicry to look like something else. Either to scare away, or hide from their predators. Although I never realized it can work in reverse. Having an undead monster disguises itself to look like a regular house pest. The more you live in a fantasy world, hmm..." The princess stopped listening to the Shield Hero's ramble this time. She moves her hand over to touch the undead rat, trying to get a feel of the disguised undead familiar. To be fair, she never tried to reach her hand over to poke, or pet at a dirty thing like a rat. But the touch doesn't feel that different from when she pets a filorial. While she turns Naofumi out, she can definitely understand his amazement.
"Okay, I'll let my familiar into the village to look for my big brother. Wish me luck." Yukari bends over, and lets the disguised undead rat leap off her hand and into the tall grass.
"Better make all your mimicry creatures into the village. They can cover the area, and inform us if a large group of reinforcements arrives." The Shield Hero quickly adds.
"Oh, good idea!" Yukari swats her own head, and begins to release a handful of more disguised undead creatures from her cloth onto the ground.
"Since we can't rule out the possibility of Consevatie gets more men through reinforcements, we need to talk about what we'll have to do if it does happen. Come out, Bed-Chan." The Shield Hero turns to the rest of their group. A few moments later, a single branch with a bulbous 'head' at the tip swung out of the bush that Yukari was skulking around while making her drawing. "Okay, now everyone awake and conscious is here. Let's talk about how we are going to do our jail break. Obviously, we can't take all of them with us across the mountain. I doubt Bed-Chan will be able to carry the people from an entire farming village."
"She most certainly can't." The princess turns around to look at the 'head' of the Bed of Chaos. While she can grow quite large, the giant dryad still isn't nearly big enough to have a few hundred people all clinging to her surface, let alone carrying them all.
"Yes. Obviously it's not practical to take all of them with us while we try to skip the country. They'll slow us down too much, and leave the trail to have us found. Not to mention all of them still have their slave seals that need to be taken care of. And obviously, they wouldn't make it far on their own." The Shield Hero raises a single finger from his fist, and starts to drum against air. "So my thought is for Yukari, with Bed-Chan's help, to guide them to the Lestrange's tower. Where hopefully their slave seal can be subverted like Mein's. Maybe having Jarl Balgruuf, their lord as their current owner. Obviously, it's still not the ideal solution, but it's the best one we can hope for. From what I have seen of him, I think Jarl Balgruuf is honorable enough to not abuse his own people."
"You do realize you would deprive yourself of the most valuable help to get you across Griffin's Spine?" The princess gives the 'head' branch of the Bed of Chaos another long look before turning back to stare at Naofumi. She honestly should have expected him to start worrying about other people as soon as his situation isn't immediately dire. But he'd be still taking a lot of extra risk for the people of Balafon by sending the dryad away with them.
Granted, the Bed of Chaos towers over an entire forest except the most ancient trees. So there's a good chance she'll attract the attention of griffins while they climb through the mountain range to the north. But she can also change her shape, judging from the spindly, almost arachnid shape when she used to climb down the mountain, compared to the towering tree form she took when she ran from the church. So there's always a good chance that the dryad can simply out run, or out maneuvering her pursuers even when they are griffins.
"We didn't even know we'd have Bed-Chan's help a day ago. I think we can manage without her. Plus, she did already help us by enhancing the armor we got from the Lestrange." The Shield Hero spoke the truth. While the dryad wood the Bed of Chaos woven into their armor is about the same grade of regular castle forged steel, them being actual live plants did give their new armor a special advantage even compared to enchanted armor.
While the dryad wood she added to their respective armors isn't fully sentient like herself or even as smart as some monsters, they do still seem to be alive and possess some rudimentary intelligence. Learning how to move with them as they wear their armor more and more. It makes their movement much easier, and they'll surely tire less frequently with what Naofumi called these 'bio booster power armor'.
"You are right, Master Naofumi. I suppose the people of Balafon... like Zylden, need her help much more than we do." The princess shakes her head. She knows a lost argument when she hears one, and there's not much point to insist on the Bed of Chaos to stick with them when the Shield Hero's mind is already made.
"You'll go with Bed-Chan, Yukari. You know the terrain best, help guide them away from danger, like monsters, bandits or more of those bad church people. Your mimicry undead rats are great at scouting around for danger. And obviously, you need to explain what happened to your mentors. You already guided us around Balafon, so your job is mostly done with me." The raccoon girl mindlessly nods her head at Naofumi's instruction. She's probably more focused on guiding her disguised familiars towards Balafon to look for her brother. The Shield Hero doesn't seem to mind her nonchalant attitude, as he turns towards the others in their group. "Since Nora is still down, it makes most sense for her to go back with Bed-Chan. I'll understand if you want to go with your friend, Ren. And Oersted... you might also end up going to the Lestrange if things get bad enough-"
"Are you going to discharge me from my duty, Master Shield Hero? Have I done something wrong, or offended you in some way?" The young Gallian knight immediately throws his hands up, looking dismayed at the prospect Naofumi is laying down for him. "The rest of my companions have all fallen for one reason or another. It's not right for me to forsake my duty now without seeing it through!"
"Are you going to have everyone leave, till it's only you and me again. Master Naofumi?" The princess crosses over her arms, getting a bit annoyed at the Shield Hero. "Well... I suppose we'll get Raphtalia and Firo back if everything goes to plan. Unless you want to send them to the Lestranges too. It would make sense, wouldn't it? Since they can do something about their slave seals. But do you have to dismiss our guide across the northern province too?"
"Look, let me finish." The Shield Hero holds his hands up in a placating way and takes a step back. "I'm not telling Ren, Oersted. Or anyone else to just pack up and go. What I am saying is if things get unexpected in some way. They should go with the bigger group. Because if we get Firo back, we can escape on her back. She can probably outrun anything, even Bed-Chan. But she can only carry so many people on her. You, me and Raphtalia... Can you imagine anyone else fitting her?"
The princess scratches her own chin, pondering over the Shield Hero's hypothetical scenario. She realizes he does have a point, except he made one small mistake. "Maybe one more. Don't forget, Raphtalia can change into her animal form. So technically the three of us only take two 'seats' on Firo's back."
"Right! You are right, Mein. Thanks for reminding me." The Shield Hero slaps his own forehead, and nods back at the princess. He looks over at Oersted and Ren, who are now staring at each other. "I'll let you guys talk it out who wants to stick with our group."
"You don't have to worry about the two of us." Jackson's voice actually drips with sarcasm this time. He definitely gotten some of his belligerence back now he helped them twice... or maybe three times? Counting that time he tackled his own comrade away from Mein. "Since you killed most of the people Consevatie sent out, and he hasn't tried to take my head off. It's clear he doesn't realize I betrayed him yet. So worst case, I can just go back to him, and quietly disappear from his group later."
"Alright, looks like we got most things settled. Now let's take a rest, maybe get something to eat if you are hungry. We want to be at our top game when we do our jail break at night-" The Shield Hero claps his hands together, he is once again interrupted. This time by Yukari.
"Huh?! That's strange." Everyone turns to look at the novice necromancer. "One of my familiars got close to some old shacks, and I can definitely tell it's the short man with how small he feels. But there's something weird... something even smaller is with him. Like some kind of small animal. But it's giving the energy of a fully grown person..."
"That must be Raphtalia! She has the ability to transform into a small animal." The princess fights back the urge to pump her own fist like Yukari did not too long ago. It seems like she was right trusting in Raphtalia's ability, and her little girl managed to shake away Consevatie and made contact with the imp. She can't feel more proud. "Now she just has to find a way to pass the information around."
"That's great!" The Shield Hero has a similar reaction. But he quickly schools his face and turns to look at Yukari. "Should you call back your familiars if Raphtalia already contacted Zylden? There's more chance your familiar, or your brother gets discovered by Consevatie, right?"
"I think my familiar, or my brother, are going to be fine. The bad church people will think they found a rat nibbling at a fallen leaf if they saw my little ones. As for my brother, I have faith in him. He's careful." Yukari does wave away their worry this time.
Mein doesn't share the same faith Yukari has for her brother, considering she doesn't personally know the man. But then again, the people of Balafon are skittish around their oppressors judging from their reaction when she tried to approach them. So her brother should at least be careful enough to stay out of the way. But if he can approach Zylden safely, he'll have a much easier time getting the message around the villagers. All they can do now is rest and wait, while hoping for the best.
The sun has long sunken under the mountains, and the moon once again takes the stage high in the sky. It might be Mein's imagination, but the light feels much more dim on this night. Almost as bad as the night before when they first encountered the Bed of Chaos. Hope the men under Consevatie is equally unnerved this night, and might be less alert than normal. Whatever passes for their 'normal'.
Their entire group slowly, and carefully crawl their way towards the farming village in the distance. Including the Bed of Chaos. The giant dryad has once again taken her more spindly form. And she spread her many branches and vines across the ground, giving her a much more arachnid appearance even compared to their first encounter. The princess has to admit, she's very much spooked by the giant dryad. Her 'normal' appearance is eldritch enough, now the unease is increased tenfold with the monster crawling on a few dozen 'limbs'.
"Are you okay, Nora?" Ren whispers a little to her right. Mein can't see it, but she's willing to bet Nora is right there, and it sounds like the hellion is having some difficulties for some reason.
"Yeah, I'm totally alright- OW!" Nora suddenly lets out a rather loud yelp, which makes Mein's breath caught in her throat. They are still a good distance away from Balafon village, as they only crossed over the hill and started crawling. But Nora could still give their positions away if they get any closer.
Everyone else, including the giant dryad, seemed to stop their movement at Nora's loud noise. The Shield Hero ends up being the one to give a conclusion. "That doesn't sound alright."
"It's something with my leg, the one that a subordinate of the noble bitch shot a metal hook into. My leg isn't working right." Nora's voice raises in volume for a brief moment, like she's about to launch one of her anger filled tirades. But she managed to catch onto how they are trying to be stealthy this time, and it ends up sounding like a whine instead.
"It was deep enough to reach your bones. I don't think we set your leg right when Lord Shield Hero healed you." Oersted's explanation makes the princess wince a little. That sounds very nasty, even for someone like Nora who thoroughly annoyed her. "I heard stories about war veterans from the Great War. Some of them didn't have their broken bones set right when the healer was tired, or in a hurry to get to someone with more severe injuries. And they end up with problems for the rest of their life."
"I'm sorry." The Shield Hero replies after a long pause of silence.
"It's not your fault. Master Naofumi. You never had proper healer's training. So you can't know advanced techniques like how to fix broken bones. And if you didn't heal Nora, she might have bled to death." The princess wants to reach over and give the Shield Hero a comforting pat, but she doesn't want to stand up and risk having Consevatie's men notice something going amiss. "Have the Bed of Chaos carry her."
"No! I'm alright- ow!" Once again, the hellion lets out some sounds that's much louder than Mein would have liked. Even if she's fairly certain it's not enough to carry its way straight to Balafon. Hopefully, they'll be misinterpreted as a wild beast by anyone who managed to catch it. "Okay... maybe I'm not alright."
The princess breathes a sigh of relief as she sees some shadow shifting further to her right. It seems like the dryad took some initiative to pick Nora up. At least that's what she hopes to be happening. She can't see things clearly enough. With that problem taken care of, they continue their way towards Balafon village. The rest of the trip is thankfully uneventful, if extremely long and tedious. She can't exactly say she enjoys the experience of crawling through the grass, dragging her body through all the dirt, grim and chief god knows what else. But after what feels like an eternity, they are near the gate where only a pair of templars are standing guard, yawning all the while.
"Is there any ambush, Yukari?" Naofumi whispers to their unofficial scout. He has clearly taken the lesson of his last capture to not blindly charge into a situation.
"My undead familiar didn't pick out any more energy signatures around the gate. There's about a dozen more people walking inside the village, but that's it. I think we are in the clear." The raccoon girl helpfully informs him.
"Nobody is around the gate? As in, no villagers are inside the houses near the gate?" The princess turns her head in the direction of Yukari.
"It makes sense. With Consevatie spending most of his fighting men away chasing after the Bed Chain, he has vastly less guards then there are the people he's guarding." Oersted helpfully explains, likely relying on his training and knowledge as a knight again. Although he also seems to be making the same mistake for the nickname Naofumi gave to the Bed of Chaos like Mein. "So it makes sense he has all the villagers gathered at one spot at night, rather than have them go home and spread around the entire village. It's harder for them to disappear into the night, run for the hill and hope for the best."
"Even with the slave seal that'll kill them if it's properly set up? Something tells me that fucker is insecure." The princess makes another pause at the fragile pride of Consevatie The Younger. She turns back to Yukari's direction next. "Can you confirm what Sir Oersted said, Yukari?"
"Give me a few moments." Yukari falls into silence right after. With her directing her undead rats further into the village, there's not anything anyone else can do. So all of them stay on the ground, not daring to move a muscle or a branch lest they give themselves away to the two gate sentries. After an agonizing period that felt longer than their entire crawl, Yukari finally responded. "Yeah. I think Sir Oersted was right. There's a lot of energy gathered in the middle of the village. I can't even make out their individual shape with them all huddled together."
"At least this'll make it easier for them to join us if they are together. Alright, you know what to do, Bed-Chan." Mein can't tell if Naofumi did anything else, or the Bed of Chaos for that matter. In fact, for a few minutes after the Shield Hero's command, nothing seems to happen.
Just as the princess wonders if the dryad had somehow managed to fall asleep, she hears a strange noise in the distance. It's hard to describe, but she suppose it's the sound of whatever her group planted into the dirt bursting out in the open. One of the templars turned to look at his partner. "You heard that? What's-"
The man didn't finish his sentence, as a thick root burst out of the dirt behind each of them, binding them in place and wrapping around their mouth, so they couldn't make any cry of help and alarm to inform their resting companions. It looks like a very large snake has coiled around their bodies. Completely wrapped around some parts of their bodies, but leaving other parts exposed and vulnerable.
"Go! Go Go GO!" Naofumi's louder voice helps convey the sense of urgency. Mein quickly pushes herself onto her feet, and runs forward alongside the Shield Hero. Their group quickly runs towards the village gate, at the two helpless templars. She doesn't know what restrained them is the seed they planted during the day, or the Bed of Chaos sending some of her own body through the ground. But it works either way, and they want to sow as much chaos among those left to defend Consevatie while letting the villagers know their chance to escape has come upon them.
Hopefully Raphtalia, or Yukari's brother, managed to pass the words around the villagers. Because she doesn't want an entire village of people running around like blindfolded filorials when they saw the shape of their would be rescuers.
As they pass along the gate sentry, Oersted takes his sword out, and hits the left guard on the head as hard as he can with his hilt. Knocking the poor templar out. The other one isn't nearly as lucky, as Ren simply pulls out his knife and slides his throat.
"That's for abusing all those innocent village folks, you church fuck!" Mein turns her head back towards the guard Oersted knocked out after seeing the sound of something go snap. His head now bent in a decidedly unnatural way, probably courtesy of the hellion's warhammer. And speaking of Nora, she's definitely dragging the feet of her previously wounded leg. It seems like Oersted was right, and now she's walking with a visible limb.
The princess shakes her head, and runs further into the village following the Shield Hero and the rest of their group. As she does, she begins to shoot as many fire bolts onto the building around her. Lighting them all up like giant bundles of bonfires. The entirely wooden structure of the farming village makes the task rather easy. She can hear the Shield Hero's exasperated voice around her. "What are you doing, Mein?!"
"Creating as much chaos as possible for Consevatie and his men. I want them to think they are under a large scale assault and panic till it's too late." The princess doesn't stop despite Naofumi's clear protest. In fact, his words only made her hands move much faster.
"By burning down the livelihood of Balafon's people?!"
"This was what I talked about when I said we'll have to exploit every opportunity! We'll worry about how the Balafon people will survive later after they survive tonight. What do you think will happen to them if our rescue fails?" The Shield Hero instantly shuts down after hearing Mein's argument. Realizing she was being too harsh, she quickly adds. "I'm sure the Bed of Chaos will help them rebuild! Let's give us the best chance to take Consevatie and his thugs down first!"
"You are right... but won't the fire harm Bed-Chan?" The Shield Hero's question makes Mein immediately snap her neck back, looking at their most valuable companion. It would definitely be very counterproductive if her sudden urge of pyromania ends up killing the giant tree monster or worse, making the Bed of Chaos panic and turn on them.
To her surprise, it seems like the dryad monster is fine. Not saying that the Bed of Chaos is walking through the raging inferno like she's leisurely taking a walk in a garden, but she doesn't seem to be scared as she contorts her body around the place. Upon a closer look, it seems like the dryad monster has covered her body with some kind of liquid with the way its surface suddenly gained an oil-like shine. Some kind of resin to make her more resistant to fire? Considering the broad collection of amazing feats she demonstrated already, that definitely sounds like something right in her arsenal. She shouldn't have expected anything less from an angel created out of the Chief God's power.
"She'll be fine. Let's worry about ourselves first." The princess turns around to face the direction they are going once again. Although this time, she makes sure to throw her fire spells further away from the path they are taking. It wouldn't be good to spook the villagers, and make them run around due to the fire after all.
They saw more templars as they made their way towards the center of the village. Yukari pointed to them at the place where the villagers were supposedly gathered. Some of them are restrained in the middle of the street, others barely step outside the door of a building before literally rooted in place. All of them are bonded by more roots, and vines. While some creatures clearly made of different combinations of bark, vines and leaves run amok on the street. It seems like the Bed of Chaos also created some minions for herself with the seed she gave out, in addition to all the traps she laid to immobilize Consevatie's rear lines. Sir Oersted, and Ren quickly dealt with them with their varied methods.
"What are you fools doing- SHIELD HERO?!" A familiar smug drawl quickly turns into a loud exclamation. Consevatie The Younger is currently frozen on the step of a nicer looking building. His eyes glaring comically large at Naofumi, but he quickly covers his look of shock with his usual sneer. "If you want to have another round of battering from me, you only have to a- MMMPPPHHH!"
And... the fool wasted whatever chance he might have taunting and gloating at Naofumi rather than doing something more useful. Just like the rest of his band of sycophants, he is completely ensnared by the Bed of Chaos. The princess looks at the building he's in, wondering if Sister Amelia is anywhere near him, considering her tendency to stay close to the heir of House Consevatie and try to gain favor from him. To Mein's disappointment and surprise, Sister Amelia seems to be nowhere to be found. It seems like she's either not close enough with the reincarnate to share a room with him, or she has the good sense to not immediately show her face against an unknown threat.
Regardless, Mein has to fight against her urge to set the building on fire just to be safe. One, Consevatie is still very close to it, and it might burn him to death. While she wouldn't lose any sleep about cooking this particular boy who used to 'court' (she uses the term lightly. As it's more about Consevatie boasting about himself, while the princess forcing herself to not fall asleep in his presence or stab him in the eyes), she doesn't want to test if his death would trigger a kill command on all the Balafon people, or Raphtalia and Firo. And speaking of them, and her second reason for trepidation.
"FATHER! I knew you would come for us! I knew you didn't give up on us like the bad church man said!" A white blur shoots out of the same doorway, and flies into the Shield Hero with the force of a giant bolt from a siege ballista. Naofumi is knocked right on his back, by a laughing and crying Firo.
"Hi, Firo. Nice to see you are as spirited as ever." Naofumi wraps his arms around the angel-faced devil bird. His hand ruffled her hair.
The princess in disguise noticed something else. From the corner of the same doorway, Raphtalia slowly steps out. Taking a pause after each step, as if she's unsure where to put her feet down. Her face is mostly pointing towards the ground, but Mein can catch the occasional glance she throws their way through her hair, which is now half drooped down her face. So she takes the initiation, quickly running over to Raphtalia and reaches out for their raccoon girl.
As soon as Mein's hand brushes against Raphtalia's close, the raccoon girl instantly jerks back. Almost as if her body is burnt by Mein's touches. The disguised princess bends her head down, trying to get a better read of Raphtalia and sees the raccoon girl biting her own lips. "What happened, Rapthalia? Did that monster... do something to you?"
"NO! No... he didn't do anything to me. He talked badly about Master Naofumi... and you. But he didn't do anything bad to me." Raphtalia slowly nudges her feet back, her fingers pinching, and rubbing against the fabric of her sleeves. "I'm fine... everything is fine."
"You are clearly not fine. Raphtalia. Tell me, did something happen? Maybe one of Consevatie's men, or that harpy Sister Amelia?"
"NO! They didn't do anything to me either. Not directly." Raphtalia jumps on her feet for a brief moment, looking spooked by Mein's voice. "They hurt people I tried to be nice to... because Consevatie doesn't let them hurt me. That's all I do. Hurt other people. Mother and Father died, trying to protect me. Big Sister Sadina probably died too... or else she wouldn't have let it happen to us. And I betrayed you and Master Naofumi. I was the reason you were captured back near the capital..."
It's clear Raphtalia is suffering from a severe attack of survivor's guilt... and regular kind of guilt too. That's not good, she can't get into this mindset of everything happening because of her own fault. The disguised princess quickly reaches her hand out, grabbing both sides of Raphtalia's face and forces her to look up, to look into Mein's own face. Raphtalia's eyes move around frantically, Mein can feel her trying to resist and turn her face away. So she speaks loud and clear to the raccoon girl. "Look at me. Look at me! Raphtalia! You remember what I told you after we came out of the abandoned mine near Lute?"
Raphtalia slowly calms down in Mein's hand. Her ragged breath slowly becomes more even as her eyes blink, now focused completely on Mein. "You said this world is unfair, and you need to take what you want with your hands if you want to be happy?"
"Yes, exactly! Nobody, and I mean nobody has the right to stop you from living a happy life. Let alone trying to live at all. You were enslaved. If you didn't do what your master told you, they'd kill you, or hurt Firo and make you watch. Naofumi, or I never blamed you for casting that illusion. I'm sure Consevatie can find someone else to do it if you didn't and it'll end up the same for us. Captured by him. The only difference is you, and Firo would have died before us." Feeling Raphtalia's resistance stop completely, Mein releases her hand on the raccoon girl's face. "So don't keep beating yourself over it. Both of us are fine! Let's focus on helping these people escape Consevatie."
"Yeah, yes!" Raphtalia furiously nods her head. She's either convinced by Mein, or managed to push her insecurities and sense of guilt down to focus on the task at hand. Either way, she's not going to be useless on this night or worse, being a liability because she's mired in despair enough to become suicidal. She seems to suddenly remember something, as she takes the sword the princess commissioned out. "You should take your sword back, Big Sister Mein."
"No, you keep it. Raphtalia. I can't use it even if I want to. Because the king passed his hero wand to me." The princess brings her wand up for the raccoon girl to see. To show that it really is a form changing hero weapon, she has it turn into a sword wand, and then back to the wand's default form.
"Oh... so the king really did..." Raphtalia's eyes wander off from the disguised princess. Mumbling under her breath. Maybe she assumed the death of her king, even if a demi-human like her never experienced any help or mercy from Mein's father.
The princess turns her head to look at Consevatie The Younger next. The reincarnate looks quite pathetic, with his body completely restrained by the roots of the Bed of Chaos. He can't even defend himself with his usually arrogant, harsh words. Mein can't help, but smirk at the fop in return. "Well, well, well... how the mighty has fallen. Although I suppose you technically can't fall, since your own creation has turned on you and binds you in place. Then again, a daddy's boy like you was never mighty either."
She'd give the fucker a good, hard kick on his groin for what he forced Raphtalia through. Alas, his nether region is conveniently covered by roots created by the Bed of Chaos. But his feet are exposed, and he isn't wearing armored boots. So the princess stomps on his toes, hearing a satisfying yield of pain behind the bark, even if it's muffled. Transforming her wand into a standard sword wand again, she gives the reincarnate a good hammer on his temple. "That was for Raphtalia, you piece of trash."
Grabbing Raphtalia by the hand, she quickly leads their raccoon girl over to the rest of their group. Naofumi has finally managed to get up from Firo's furious 'assault'. "I see you got Raphtalia, Mein. Let's go rescue all the villagers."
"There's also Mr. Zylden, and some other prisoners they took in some other houses." Raphtalia quickly adds. Good thing she reminded them, or else the prisoners might be left to Consevatie's wrath afterwards.
"Thanks for reminding us, Rapthalia. Is Zylden still in the same shack where I found him?"
"They didn't move Mr. Zylden. No." Raphtalia shakes her head.
"Good. You take someone with you with other prisoners. I'll go free Zylden. We'll meet up at the center of the village, help Master Naofumi get all the villagers and we'll break out of here!" Not leaving any room for argument, Mein immediately breaks from their group and runs towards the opposite side of the village towards the captured imp.
"Wait, Mein! Do we want to split up?" Naofumi's voice can be heard behind her. Shouting words of worry.
"We don't have time to take it slow! Something might happen if we take too long!" Leaving her voice as her farewell to the Shield Hero, the princess focuses all her strength in putting one foot ahead of the other as soon as possible. To save Zylden before the situation will undoubtedly take a turn for the worse. Things are going well so far, but so was their previous experience in Graile, or around Lute.
The princess flies towards the hovel where she found the imp. Completely ignoring arboreal abominations running on the street, or more bonded up templars she occasionally sees. Even with the enhanced dryad armor she got from the Bed of Chaos, her lungs still begin to burn as she sees Zylden's prison in her vision. She's about to release another puff of hot air from her mouth when she feels like her hair stood up behind her back. She puts up a spell from instinct alone. "[Hydrosphere]!"
That's when she feels a deep, drilling pain digging into her shoulder.
End Note:
Just in case everyone forgot. Malty is still not a nice person. And she will set things on fire if it suits her purpose.
XD
And of course, Malty gets a little payback on SIOC. Even if it's mostly just gloating in his face a little. Then again, for an egomaniac like him, that's probably the worst kind of torture.
So yeah. Going down my usual lay of deconstructing fantasy stuff... healing magic makes healing wound easier than real life, but I kind of imagine it could 'heal' someone up improperly if it's a severe injury like a damaged bone that's not set properly. Which kind of brings us to how this chapter ended...
Do you guys think I should have Malty gets a permnant injury that affects her right arm? Or am I being too mean to one of my main characters? On the one hand, having a wound similar to Nora's (which caused her to walk with a limp) perfectly healed up like it never happened really goes against my 'action have consequences' principle. On the other hand... I think I tortured Malty enough in this story without making her lose her dominant hand.