Chapter 15
The sounds of steps in the halls of an unnamed castle brought the attention of the dragon with white scales, he is known in the world as the Platinum Dragon Lord. A defender of humanity against all evil deities who wish to harm them or that is what he called himself.
He saw an older woman approach him with a slight smile on her face. He stood up from his slumber to receive his old friend.
"Rigrit, it's been a long time," the Dragon Lord said.
"Ha, indeed it has been, how you been?" she said with a mischievous smile.
"I doubt you came all the way here to nag me, Rigrit," the Dragon Lord said amused.
"Ha, you know me too well," the old lady sighs as the dragon lord looks curious about the sudden change in her posture.
"What is it?" he asks.
"I brought some news of the world, and I need you to tell me I am not paranoid," she said.
"What do you mean by this?"
"There has been a sudden... Well and spontaneous rise of powerful people in the last few months," Dragon face frown.
"Powerful people, you say? How powerful?" The dragon lord asked.
"The Dangerous type, that kind of powerful, very dangerous people," she said seriously.
"Explain," the Dragon Lord's wings spread inside the compact room, showing his size.
"First, there is a new magic caster in the world, who seems to be powerful, she calls herself, the Witch Queen of Nazarick, from what my little friends have told me, she has been causing many problems in the south," Rigrit said.
"She is quite the force to be reckoned with, from what I understand, she fought against the Black Scripture when some kind of negotiation went awry," The Dragon Lord only hummed, knowing full well the power that the Slane Theocracy has.
The Black Scripture has one of the strongest people in the world.
"What happened?"
"She could push them to the edge, Tsa... She fought one on one against that petty girl, Zesshi... And she is a magic caster," Rigrit said with a grim look on her face.
"Are you sure about this?" he said, preoccupied. As the thought of a magic caster able to fend off, one of the strongest beings currently in the world in combat was something to be worried about.
"Yes, after that, she has been attacking everyone in the south, the Holy kingdom, the Theocracy, and the Elf kingdom. They had been looking for her for a while now. She seems to have an item, a powerful item, strong enough to create armies of the undead and Skeleton dragons. And she is getting stronger as some reports said."
"That's indeed horrible news, Rigrit, what do we know about... this Witch Queen? besides that, she is a magic caster? Where is she from? Is she a... a Player?" he said with incredible intensity on his dragonic eyes.
"I don't know, Tsa... Truly I can't answer you that, if she is indeed a Player, we must prepare for the worst." Rigrit said tensely.
"It's been 200 years since the evil deities attacked this world, and 500 years since the Eight Greed Kings tried to conquer it... " he then went quiet, as he is brooding. Something that Rigrit saw right away.
"What are you thinking about?" she asks.
"I am worried, old friend. Since this world is waiting for our biggest foe yet..." he said while looking behind him, and the statue of a woman, who seems to watch them intensely, Rigrit felt shivers down her spine, as she looks at the statue with fear.
Even after all this time, she could barely look at the figure, the painting, the temples build at her name, everything about this person made her feel weak.
"Do you remember what that kid used to say to us about her?" Rigrit let a soft smile, thinking about that inexperienced boy 200 years ago.
"How could I not? He was very vocal about it."
"Indeed. But I still remember. He said that she was a unique kind of Player, someone who rose to the top in their world before ending. How she created those swords by killing thousands of demon gods like it was nothing, how she was just... On another level," the Dragon Lord said with worry.
"She was the one who the great six gods pray to, the one who the Eight Greed Kings feared, and the one who the leader of the thirteen heroes respected about all, Galadriel Melkor, the goddess of Yggdrasil, what are we going to do about her if one day she appears here?" Rigrit always asked herself the same thing.
"You think she would be evil?"
"From what we know, she is a goddess of war, someone who enjoys fighting and conquering, if she comes to this world, there is only one thing she would do, she will try to conquer this world," the Dragon Lord said with certainty.
"You sound sure about it," Rigrit replies.
"I am. And I don't think she will have any problem to do so, at least not like those Eight Greed Kings, but I will protect humanity, Rigrit, against anyone. Even her," he said and Rigrit could only sigh.
"That is for the future, but now we have to deal with this Witch Queen. Besides, there is something else I haven't told you, it's about this new adamantite team in the kingdom, called Darkness, the other ones who suddenly appear out of nowhere," that brought the attention of the dragon lord.
"What about them?"
"Well, let me tell you that, there a 3 in the group and they seem to raise to adamantite quite fast, too fast, in fact," she said with a frown on her face.
"How so? What are their accomplishments?"
"First, the subdued the wise king of the forest of Tob, a powerful beast that lived in the forest nearby E-Rantel, then they solved a problem with an army of undead threatening the city, then they manage to destroy a hive of Basilisks in the empire, they also manage completed in record time may I add, the recovery of a mythical herb, a quest that has been in the adventurous guild for a quite some time... Oh! They are also said to be quite beautiful, like really gorgeous!" Rigrit said with a smile.
"That's really impressive, it seems that the world is being filled with heroes and villains once more," he said looking at the stars.
"Indeed, it seems that we need to be prepared for what is to come," the Dragon Lord only nodded, feeling the brass of the wind on his scales.
"We need to be prepared..." he whispered to the night.
In the streets of the empire, a small blonde girl seems to be in a hurry as she got close to the small bar that serves as a meeting point.
"I apologize!" she said, trying to catch her breath.
"Now, Arche, you did take quite some time," a short blond man said with a smile on his face.
"Leave her alone, Hekkeran, now Arche, come here, you are not late," the elf woman with violet hair said.
"I apologize, Imina, Roberdyck, Hekkeran," Arche responds as she sits down with her team.
"Well, now that we are here, I must tell you that I have received a wonderful offer for a job," Hekkeran said with a smirk on his face.
"What is it?" Roberdyck asks.
"There is an offer from a certain noble lady who wishes us to be her bodyguards," he said, bringing confusion to the rest of the team.
"What would she need bodyguards?" Imina asks.
"She must be in genuine danger if she requests something like that, but still why a team of workers?" Roberdycks asks, a little confused.
"Who knows, but what is it exactly, Hekkeran? There is a history there, I know it," everyone heard Imina's question, and they felt that it was a solid one.
"I don't know the details, but the pay is quite good, like very good," everyone was paying more attention now, as they saw their leader holding a smile.
"We will get paid around, 10 gold coins... Per day," all of them had their mouth wide open.
"That's...! That's a lot of gold!" Arche was already doing the maths on her head, thinking that even if is only one day, 10 gold coins, was too much to let it past.
"So let me get this straight, there is this noble girl, who is scared because of something, and she will pay 10 gold coins a day to anyone who can protect her?" Imina said very slowly.
"That's pretty much it, yeah," Hekkeran said with a smile on his own.
"Signed me up!" she said as everyone laughs.
"We will meet her today, so let's get ready!"
After a few hours, the team of workers, also known as Foresight, was standing in front of an enormous mansion. They promptly knew that this was the correct place.
When the doors open, Arche immediately recognizes the maid in front of her.
"Welcome. You must be Foresight, please come in," the graceful and stunning woman struck all of them. They hurry to the living room, where a child seems to drink tea. She didn't seem to notice them, or rather she was ignoring them.
Arche knew about them. She saw them at the party, the rich heiress that came from the south, shrouded in mystery.
"Miss Espinela, here they are, the worker's team, Foresight," the maid said.
"Mm, are you sure they are strong?" she said looking at them.
They look quite offended at the comment but quickly dismissed it.
"Miss Espinela, I am the leader, Hekkeran Termite, this is Roberdyck Goltron, Imina, and Arche Eeb Rile Furt, we are here for the job," he said in the best professional way.
"Mm, are you strong? You don't look that strong," the girl said with a bored look on her face.
Imina eyebrow was twitching in anger but remain in silence since they didn't want to lose this job.
"We are capable, miss Espinela I can assure you," he said with a smile, Miss Espinela's gaze made them nervous, it was a strange feeling that they couldn't describe.
But they didn't leave and didn't look away, making the young girl sigh.
"I hope you are right, Yuri, take care of the rest, I am tired," the girl said as she quickly left the room. Yuri could only sigh.
"I apologize for my lady's behavior," Yuri bowed deeply.
"D-don't worry about it, we understand, you know? Kids are like that in that age," Hekkeran said, blushing while a very irritated Imina was looking at him.
"Thank you, I will prepare some tea, then you can ask me every question you have."
After a few minutes, Yuri came back with tea and some cookies. The flavor of the tea impressed the workers. It is the most delicious thing they have ever tasted.
"Wow, this is good, and I normally despise tea," said Imina.
"It's delicious," Roberdyck said.
"Yeah," was the only thing that Arche said, as she was enjoying the cookies.
"Now, not that I didn't enjoy the tea, Miss Yuri, but we are here for business, before we agreed to anything I need to know, what exactly are we dealing with," Yuri sighed, as she was preparing to tell them the made-up history that Demiurge created for them.
"We came from the Holy Kingdom, my lady is the only one left of her family," she said with a sad face.
"What happened?" Arche asks, a little more interested. She wanted to hear the history of the arrogant girl before judging her.
"A rival family wanted to get hold of the richest of my lady's family. So they sent an assassin in the night and killed them all. My lady saw her mother and father being decapitated in front of her. We barely escape, since thankfully she possesses a set of peculiar talents," that brought the attention of everyone, specially Arche.
"Talents? Is she a magic caster?" Hekkeran asks.
"Yes but, is her abilities that make her unique. She can cast a shield and a shock-wave, and be able to see other people's souls and intentions, as you just felt a couple of minutes ago," everyone in Foresight look uncomfortable at the thought of someone invading their privacy. But it explained what they felt when they saw her eyes.
"Wait, you say that she sees people's minds?" Imina looks startled and furious.
"Please, it's not like that! She can't turn it off... She can't help it," Yuri said with sorrow.
"You must understand, such ability comes with great pain, ever since she was a child, she could see people's intentions and souls, how would you feel, when at the age of three you can see in the mind of a pedophile or a brutal killer? Her ability was abuse from a young age. It took away her innocence," Yuri said, cleaning the tears in her eyes.
Arche and the rest look abashed. They now feel a lot of pity for the childish girl.
"It's because of that, my lady is the way she is, she doesn't trust easily, and now that she lost all her family, she is alone," Yuri said openly crying, but in her mind, she is happy about her performance, those acting classes with Pandora's Actor were actually working.
"Please, Miss Yuri, we understand," Imina said with a soft voice.
"I am sorry, it's just, I am the only one she has... If I die, she would be alone, I can't stop thinking about it. We know that the rival family will try to finish what they started. We need to be prepared," Yuri said.
"We understand, don't worry. We'll take of it," Hekkeran said with conviction in his voice.
"Thank you so much!"
Meanwhile, on the second floor, in the room where the supposed heiress is resting, she was instead looking at the scene, using a mirror item that allows her to see any place in the mansion.
"Wow, Yuri is truly a talented actor, anyway we have the bait now, we need only to see how good they are," Rubedo said with a smile.
"I hope they don't die~"