Late into the night, Hecate found herself staring up into the moonless sky from her office’s window, a serious glint in her eyes traced the location of each star shimmering above, linking them into the many notable consteltions.
It was through their positioning where she was able to read the flow of fate revealed by them, and piece together what little she could pick out into something coherent enough for her to barely understand.
‘Looks like it has been set in motion, after all…’
Her mind returned back to the event that happened earlier in the evening, of the meeting between Emma and the god Aeshima.
She had known that Emma might meet the god’s specifications and had been keeping an eye out for him for months; she didn’t expect for them to encounter each other without her knowing.
‘Guess fate always finds a way…’
While many mortals believed that the gods had ways to read their future, it was actually very difficult to even perceive destiny and fate; only the gods that held a dominion over it had the power to see its flow, though even they had limits to how much they could see.
Hecate was one such goddess, though how little she could perceive had become even more limited with her Arcanum sealed off.
It was why she had resorted to using Astrology to try and make up for what she could make out, though the results would often end up being very vague on the details; not that she would like it any other way.
For what she could see were just the turning points in a person’s life, trials set upon them by fate that would led them down certain paths in life depending on their choice and actions in response to it.
Before then, she had no idea what the outcome of it would be, or if it would be bad or good for the person in question, or it would even result in the person’s destiny being cut.
And months prior to recruiting Emma, she had read in the stars that getting her into the Familia would set in motion a series of trials that her kids needed to face in order to improve and get stronger.
From meeting and getting involved with the three Soma Familia girls, Tetra’s little excursion and eventual success in concurrent chanting, to even whatever trial the expedition party was facing now.
All of those were due to the domino effect set into motion the moment Emma joined the Hecate Familia. And now, one of the biggest turning points that came from it had reared its head on them.
‘I have done all I can for them… it is all up to them now…’
The thought went through her mind, the dim lights of the rising sun shone from beyond the horizon, the night sky slowly making way for the new day ahead.
What would happen from this day onwards would determine the fate of the entire Familia and its members moving forward, both present and possible future ones.
Would they triumph over it and be shaped into becoming legends like many before them, or succumb and plummet into the deepest despair?
The goddess looked forward to seeing the results.
“…First-Css Adventurers really are something else…”
Kyumaru’s words of awe echoed along us all as we witnessed countless monsters being ripped apart by the fast sshes of the Sword Princess’s rapier, Ais Wallenstein seamlessly leaping between hordes and decimating all of them with great ease.
As she wasn’t the only one either; several of the Loki Familia’s expedition party had no trouble taking out any monsters that dared to get in the way of their march, even that one guy that looked unassuming took down a troll like it was nothing.
It was quite the sight to see the amazoness that had broken her greatsword casually throwing the lizardmen around while ughing, as her sister swiftly sshing one to death with her knives before moving to the next one.
Even that werewolf had no trouble cracking the skulls of the hobgoblins with a series of lightning-fast kicks that I had through following; the bastard even gave me a scoff when our eyes met before unching himself towards another horde.
As expected of the Loki Familia, I supposed; them being the strongest after the Freya Familia was definitely no exaggeration.
Never in my life had I ever thought that we would be tagging behind them like this.
“Are you really sure we can just follow them like this?” Drake asked worriedly, “It feels like we are just taking advantage of them…”
Jirou let out a ugh as he waved off his concerns, “Rex, Drake; we’ve already got the consent from both Finn and Riveria. And we have given them something in exchange.”
“What was it, exactly?”
“Information regarding that Irregur Monster Rex.”
“Eh? That’s all?”
“Trust me, that kind of information is worth quite a bit. Besides, it’s only up till we reach the Under Resort, so—”
“Deadly Hornets incoming.”
“On it—”
“Strike, and break through; Electro!”
As my enchantment magic crackled to life, I leapt at the insect monsters that had snuck up behind us, stabbing my hand into the body of one of them and ripped its magic stone out in one motion.
The other Deadly Hornets then surrounded me from all sides, before charging at me with their massive stingers aimed right at me, but they wouldn’t get the chance to do so.
Redirecting most of my magic through my hand, the lightning aura extended out of my fingers into a bde, which I then swung at the insect monsters in a flurry of sshes, slicing them into many pieces along with their magic stones.
I then gathered the magic stones that were still intact before returning to the party, where I deposited them into the bag with the rest of them.
“…I’m closer, you know.” Kyumaru pointed out.
“Ah, right. Sorry…” I apologized.
“Dae, you need to conserve your strength.” Jeanne told me, “We can’t have you exhausting yourself before we even reach Riviera.”
“I-I know that…”
“…is what Bete said still bothering you?” Garos asked me, “Most of the stuff he says is just to spite you. You don’t have to take it to heart.”
“…I’m aware, but…” I let out a growl, “I’m pissed that I couldn’t even shut that bastard up…”
“Wow, you must really hate his guts.” Lisa noted with an eyebrow raised, “This is the first time I see you this vindictive.”
“Though this is Bete we are talking about here.” Jirou let out a sigh, “The guy can easily make enemies with anyone just by being next to them.”
“You know him?” I asked him.
“Back when he was the Familia Captain of another Familia. He believed that ‘might make right’ and looked down on anyone that is weaker than him. Which is a lot of people; he even picked a fight with me a few times.”
“So he was just as big of an asshole as he is now…”
“Unfortunately, yeah. Last I’ve heard of him was when his Familia broke up a couple of years back; I didn’t expect him to end up joining the Loki Familia.”
That really cemented my impression of him as being a bastard with a superiority complex and possibly sadistic tendencies, and it didn’t look like any of his own Familia had any positive feelings towards him either.
Still, as much as I hate him, it didn’t change the fact that he was indeed one of the strongest Adventurers I had the displeasure of interacting with; and that fact alone really pissed me off.
My eyes met his again when he took down a Mad Beetle, the bastard gave me a snarl and a huff before leaping away to fight another monster.
Yeah, I really hate that guy…
We all let out a collective sigh the moment we stepped out of the Babel Tower and into Orario once more, the te evening sun slowly sinking into the horizon was a sight for sore eyes.
“Finally…! We made it back…!” Tetra tiredly cheered.
“Yeah, I didn’t think we would take this long…” Garos noted with a sigh, “To think they would choose to fight the Goliath now of all times…”
“At least Bors didn’t ask for our help this time.” Jirou pointed out, “Though the fight would have ended a lot sooner if he had allowed the Loki Familia to help…”
The moment we reached Under Resort, we parted ways with the Loki Familia and started making our way back to the surface as quickly as we could.
Only to find out that the town of Rivira had started their monthly battle with the Monster Rex Goliath, which meant we had little choice but to wait for them to finish if we wanted to proceed past them.
It ended up taking several hours for them to finish it off, time we had used to have lunch and get some overpriced potions in the Adventurer town; we barely had enough to get everyone into fighting condition.
Though it allowed us to quickly head up the floors without any real casualties slowing us down and swiftly dealing with any monsters that got in our way.
“It’s getting te…We should head back home.” Jeanne noted, “We can hand in the Quest tomorrow. Is that alright with you, Otto?”
“No problems here; as long you have my share by then.” Otto nodded in agreement, “Shall we meet up in front of the Guild?”
“First thing, tomorrow morning. In front of the statue.”
“Got it. Now, if you excuse me.”
We parted ways with the bcksmith and made our way back to our Home, our footsteps heavy with exhaustion as we slowly walked down the familiar streets.
Drake let out a tired sigh as he stretched his arms up into the air, “I can’t wait to get into my bed…”
“You and me both.” Lisa nodded in agreement, “Not before taking a good long shower first.”
“A shower would be nice…” I noted with a sigh.
“Yes, it would be…” Jeanne nodded.
Though the moment we reached the fence surrounding the Arcane Manor, all thoughts of rexation immediately went out the window when we saw the devastation before us.
“Wh-What the…!?”
The front gate had been wrenched open and was barely hanging on its hinges, while the front door had completely broken free from its frame with the window next to it smashed apart, all signs of a forced entry and an alteration between the invaders and the residents.
Kyumaru was the first to rush into the manor, the rest of us quickly following behind with weapons drawn and ready for a possible fight.
What we found as we entered was the entrance lobby being completely wrecked, its furniture smashed in and the floors having several cracks like something hard had smashed into it.
Even the walls had simir cracks on it, with long thin marks that was clearly made by something long and sharp, a longsword and a mace most likely.
A huge fight had occurred here, between Tris and the intruder; and with this much wanton destruction, there had to be at least more than one intruder.
“What the hell happened here…!?” Jirou all but cried out, “Did we get robbed…!?”
“Who would even consider robbing this pce?” Drake pointed out, “I mean, our Home is…”
“…true, but that is a low blow.”
“Still, this is troubling…”
I gnced over near the walls, and my blood froze at the sight of a worrisome-sized sptter of dried blood on the floor; whether this came from the intruders, or the girls was unknown, and I was really hoping it was the tter.
And with this amount, it must have been either a really bad wound, or multiple small wounds; neither sound like it would be any better than the other.
“Oh, good. You guys are finally back.”
From the floor above, our patron goddess made her known to us, a look of relief on her face the moment she id her eyes on us as she quickly came down the stairs three steps at a time.
Her usual dress was ruffled at the edges and covered in dirt, her rge hat was notably missing, even her eyepatch was slightly lopsided; and none of her usual theatrics was to be found.
“What happened when we were gone, Lady Hecate?” Jeanne asked, “And, and are the girls alright…?”
“As you can tell, we were attacked…” Hecate expined, “I wasn’t here when it happened, so I wasn’t privy to the details.”
“And the girls!? Are they alright!?”
“…they have fought back the best they can, but…”
Jirou then asked with a grim look, “How bad is it?”
“Ah!! Yo-You’re back!!”
“Th-This is…!”
When Hecate guided us to one of the bedrooms, we were greeted with the sight of an unconscious Kaede ying in the bed wrapped from head to toe in bandages; the rising and falling of her chest being the only signs that she was still alive.
Her renard friend and Emma sitting close by, both were wrapped in bandages as well though not to the extent of the hume bunny; Momiji’s eyes were also puffy and red, signs that she had been bawling not too long ago.
To say their injuries were bad was a huge understatement, especially when one of them was literally unconscious.
“They were like this when I returned home.” Hecate expined, “Thankfully, the potions we have for emergency purposes were enough to save her life.”
“Looks like severe blood loss.” Drake noted as he checked on Kaede, “If you had been just a few seconds ter…”
“Small mercies, I suppose…” Jirou noted with a sigh.
“What happened here…?” Lisa asked, “Who did this to you…?”
“…The Soma Familia…” Emma told us, her hand grasping on the sleeves of her shirt, “They suddenly barged in here, shouting about looking for someone. We tried to fight them off, but…”
“There were too many of them, and they were all stronger than any of us.” Momiji gnced over at her unconscious friend, “Among them were the bastards that tried to shake us down months ago… they were the one that made Kaede like this.”
“So they came for revenge…” Garos noted, “We knew there was a chance they might, but to think they would come when we’re not around…”
“I guess they are smarter than what we gave them credit for.” Jeanne noted with a grimace.
“Mn…”
A soft moan got all our attention, Momiji all but leaped to her friend’s side as Kaede’s eyes fluttered open, “Huh…? Where…?”
“Kaede!!”
“Momiji…? Why…? Ah! Coco—Argh!!”
The hume bunny suddenly shot up from her bed, and immediately regretted it as she flinched from the intense pain she was no doubt in before falling back down onto the soft mattress.
“Don’t get up, you idiot!” Momiji told her, “You are injured!”
“Bu-But… Coco!! An-And Tris!! They’re…!!”
“…hm?”
That was when I noticed that two people were missing from this room, a certain rookie Adventurer and the stuttering shy pallum.
“Hey, where are Tris and Coco?”
When I asked them that, Emma flinched as her grasp on her sleeves tightened to the point that it looked like she was about to tear it off at any moment; even Momiji had her hands clenched into a fist so tightly that her knuckles could be seen.
Those sorts of reactions did not bode well, because this meant that the only possible answer to my question would be…
“…looking for someone…” Kyumaru’s eyes widened in realization, “Yo-You don’t mean…!?”
“They took them both.” Hecate nodded in confirmation, “Both Coco and Tris are in their hands right now; and they even demanded a ransom for their release.”
“I-I tried to stop them! But they were…” Kaede lowered her head, “I’m so sorry!”
“Damn them…! Resorting to kidnapping…!?” Jirou growled as he smmed his fist into his palm, “To go that far just for revenge…!?”
“No, wait; if that’s the case, something’s off here…” Drake pointed out, “If it is revenge, they are after, wouldn’t kidnapping Coco be enough? Why take Tris?”
Yeah, the ones they were after should only be those three girls, including me if they wanted to be thorough; Tris didn’t even show up until I knocked them out, so they shouldn’t have known about her.
And yet they did. Why was that the case here?
“…what if they weren’t meant to take Coco at all?” Kyumaru pointed out, “Maybe Tris was their actual target?”
“They were after Tris!? What for!?” I asked, “She had nothing to do with the Soma Familia!”
“I’m aware, but that’s the only way it makes sense. Though it feels like we are missing something…”
Indeed, we had too little information pertaining to this whole event; like there was some key information that we were missing for any of it to make any sense.
“We-We’re really sorry for all of this!!”
We were all brought out of our pondering when Momiji suddenly dropped to her knees before bowing her head to us while apologising profusely.
Even her friend was shocked at her sudden apology, “Momiji…?”
“All of this trouble started because you took us in!” She cried out, “If you hadn't helped us with our troubles, none of these problems would have ever occurred! For that, I must deeply apologize!”
Lisa stepped forward to assure her, “There’s no need to apologize for—”
The renard cut her off by adding on, “And yet, I must once again ask for your assistance in rescuing our friend! I know that it is shameless of us after causing you so much trouble, but we have no other options left for us! So please!! Lend us your aid! Afterwards, we would leave, and you will never see or hear from us ever again—”
“Okay, I’m going to need you to stop right there.”
Jeanne took a step forward before kneeling down next to her, pcing her hand on the renard’s shoulder as she told her, “There’s no need for apologies, Momiji. We choose to help you, along with all the consequences that came with it.”
“She’s right.” Jirou pointed out, “We were all prepared for this the moment we took you guys in. So you have nothing to feel guilty about.”
Momiji raised her head with shaky lips, “Bu-But if we didn’t…”
“Who cares about that!?” Tetra cried out with a huff, “Even if it is only for a little while, you guys are one of us now!!”
Kyumaru nodded, “What she said.”
“And this time they even messed with us.” Drake pointed out as he cracked his knuckles, “So it is natural we pay them back in full.”
“Heh, I couldn't say it better myself.” Garos nodded with a grin, “And we have every justification to do so.”
“Even if it meant our rep would take a dive after this?” Lisa asked.
“It’s simply retaliation; they were the ones that struck first.”
Tears filled up her eyes as Momiji bit her lip to keep the sobs from leaving her, “…Why are you all so…?”
I walked up to her before offering her my hand as I smiled at her, “Because we promised to help you. And we fully intend on keeping it.”
“…we should have joined your Familia first…” Momiji noted as she took my hand and allowed herself to be pulled back onto her feet, “But thank you, truly.”
“You can thank us after we rescued Tris and Coco.”
“Speaking of which…” Jeanne got back onto her feet and turned to the renard, “Have those bastards told you where to meet them with the ransom?”
“Ah, yes. The warehouse district.” Momiji told her, “He said to meet him at midnight with the money.”
“Then that’s where you’ll go. Alright, everyone listen up! Here’s how we are going to go about this…”
“Here you are, sir! Just as you god had requested!”
“Hmph, you have done well to accomplish it so quickly.”
“Your thanks is most appreciated!”
Tris couldn’t help gagging in disgust at how much brown nosing the man before her was doing towards his client; she could see how the Soma Familia was what it had become with him as its captain.
‘To think such a man is responsible for Kaede and her friends’ problems…’
Though right now, the real threat was the blonde man before her, purple eyes looking down at her from behind the bars of her cell, like she wasn’t even a human being in his eyes.
From what she could understand from their small interaction, the Soma Familia had been hired by this man’s patron god to kidnap her for reasons only he would be privy to.
That meant that Coco getting kidnapped alongside her was the sole machinations of the bastards Dae had beaten the crap out of months ago, which expined why the pallum wasn’t in the cell with her.
‘I hope she is okay…’
“Hey, you.”
Tris was brought out of her thoughts when she was pulled onto her feet by her bound arms, the blonde man scowled at her before he dragged her out of the cell with him.
And the moment the iron bars were next to them, she shoved into him as hard as she could before releasing her Skill that she had built up via taunting her guards into striking her moments before he arrived.
“Counter!”
“Grgk!?”
The blonde man was sent crashing into the iron bars by a bst of kinetic force, stunning everyone around them as Tris took the chance to make a mad dash for the stairs.
Whatever the man was pnning to with her, she had no pns on ever finding out—
“Hrgk!?”
“Damn bitch!!”
Before she could even take the first step up, the blonde man grabbed her by the back of her head and smmed her onto the stairs, her nose breaking as her face was smashed into the edge of one.
With her senses disoriented from a concussion and the overwhelming smell of iron, Tris couldn’t even react when he kicked her in the gut hard, air escaping her lungs as she tasted blood before smming back-first into the wall.
The blonde man then held her up via a tight grip on her throat, a pain-filled yelp escaping her lips as she gasped for air while he gred into her tear-filled eyes.
“You dare hurt me!? Me!?” He all but yelled at her, “You are just some worthless Low-Css Adventurer! I can easily break you with my bare hands!”
“Grgggkkk…!”
Tris’s vision slowly began to blur from the ck of air in her lungs, her consciousness fading away with each passing second the man’s tight grip on her throat remained.
Then his grip loosened, allowing air to rush into her empty lungs as she inhaled as much as she could while her vision was slowly brought back into focus.
“You are lucky that Lord Aeshima needs you alive…”
He let her throat free and grabbed onto her bound arms once more before dragging her behind him up the stairs, not caring that Tris was struggling to keep up with his fast pace.
Not that she cared about that, considering that she heard the name of his patron god; all the pieces in her mind immediately clicked into pce.
‘Aeshima!? Was my kidnapping just a ploy from him to force Emma to join his Familia…!?’
The thought of Emma possibly forced to pair herself with the man holding her had Tris disgusted beyond all belief, yet she didn’t possess the strength to wrench herself free from him, no matter how much she struggled.
She could only helplessly follow along after him as they climbed onto the first floor, and began to make their way towards the front gates—
*BANG*
Which were sent flying off its hinges, alongside its two guards that flew over their heads and into the drunkards lying about the pce.
Tris could only gasp in a mix of relief and joy at the sight of the three individuals waltzing into the establishment, one of them having an aura of lightning crackling off her body.
Blue eyes meeting purple ones as all it took for the half-elf to unch herself at the blonde man with her fist reared back for a strike.
“Get your hands off of my friend!!”
…To be continued…
The Aeshima arc is a go!
You would not believe how excited I am to finally reach this part of my fic; this is one of my original arcs that I looked forward to writing the most.
Oh, writing the Soma Familia getting their asses kicked is going to be so fun!
With that, I thank you all for reading this!
