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***Rushka’s POV***
“Don’t ‘sorry’ me, you had me and your sister worried! I went to the orphanage and they told me you just left! I had to ask for directions and I found you out of town, what were you thinking Ellie!?”
“I... I just...”
...Then little Ellie told me the whole story, honestly now I feel kinda bad scolding her when she just wanted to help her friend, even the father of the other girl it’s apologizing and making her child apologize as well. It’s not their fault, if anything I also apologized for having to put up with Ellie’s weird ideas, and thank them for looking after her.
“Let’s just go back home, ok Ellie?”
“Un... Rusha?...”
“Yes Ellie?”
“C-Could you not say anything to big sister?”
“Oh baby, don’t worry, I won’t say anything, as long as you promise to not leave without telling us beforehand, ok?”
“O-Ok!”
I mean she’s young, I get the point of wanting to avoid a scolding, I know better than anyone how awful the scoldings feel, Dad would constantly do so back home after all, in a sense it makes me feel nostalgic, although I prefer when no one is hand holding me with my experiments.
For now we’re simply walking back to the pace, holding Ellie’s hand and well, there’s something that’s caught my attention, we entered town from the forest way, and obviously there wouldn’t be much people there, so why is it that this random guy was loitering on the borders, and is now following us?
It is quite obvious, if anything, I feel like I’ve seen his face somewhere else. Has he been following me since I left the pace? Fortunately there’s guards coming to and from all around town, so I’m guessing he hasn’t gotten a chance to make a scene, but then why didn’t he follow me outside of town?
“Let’s stick to crowded streets, ok Ellie?”
“Ok?”
Yeah, I know it would be faster to go in a straight line but better not take any risks, and-
*BOOOOOOM*
“Rusha!”
“Hold onto me Ellie!”
The ground is shaking! Was this another earthquake!? No it can’t be, it felt very directly under us! Heather, Adele and Az went to the abandoned sewer system, is this their doing!? Honestly it’s hard to tell, I guess people here are not as accustomed to earth shakes, cave-ins and the like are common in Dagdar, so the movement doesn’t affect me in the slightest, but now everyone fled in terror.
Leaving us alone with the weird shady stalker, he’s also a bit shaken by the quake, but not as much as the rest of the people.
“Say-”
“Nope!”
I took Ellie’s hand and fled, I didn’t even bother to wait for him to finish his sentence, I’m not falling for another ambush! Much less with Ellie with me!
Or so was my pn, we were intercepted by a group of armed thugs as we turned the corner into a rather dipidated part of town, all of them covering their face with a mask and holding things that range from swords, to wooden clubs with nails on them.
“You’re that little town lord’s wife no? Come with us and we won’t harm you!”
“Hah, As if I could trust street thugs!”
“Well it’s not like you have many options”
Said the guy following us, closing our access from the alleyway, so we don’t exactly have anywhere to run now.
“Sister Rusha...”
“‘Rushka’ Ellie, and don’t worry about this, can you close your eyes for a minute?”
I whispered very quietly to the child, it was really, really quietly. She has Marisa’s super senses to a certain degree, I’m sure she listened to me, good thing that after that little night incident, I decided to make these things as weapons.
I pce my hand into my pocket.
“Don’t try anything funny missy!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t”
It’s a fshbang, engineered from the night mps, but of immediate use, I knew something like this would come in handy, I tossed it into the air and it blew up in a blinding light! The group of criminals were squirming and covering their eyes, it was really potent, even though I closed my eyes I could still see the light through my eyelids!
“This way Ellie!”
I took her hand and went past the shady stalker, better to slip through one and not the other group, still the town is still in a panic! I look around looking for a way to escape but it would be quite hard with the chaos going in town, more so since the explosions are still happening underground!
“Come, we need to hide!”
“O-Ok!”
No clue who’s house is this, in fact it looks like an abandoned apartment complex, but better than try to escape through the panicking crowd, We jumped through the opened window, and closed it immediately.
“Phew... let’s hope we can miss them here, or at least that the situation calms down to go out”
“O-Ok! Who were they anyway!?”
“They’re bad people Ellie, now don’t make much noise, come”
“Oky Doky”
Now this pce it’s quite dark inside, and dusty, even though there’s footsteps in the dust surfaces, so it’s not entirely abandoned, and-
“Rusha, there’s someone here...”
“Eh?”
I looked back, to where Ellie was pointing towards on this hallway straight out of a horror novel, and saw a little girl holding what seemed to be an old broom, trembling and with what seemed to be an attacking stance, where have I seen her before and-
“W-Wait, you’re Rushka!? What are you doing here!?”
“Piggy!? I can ask the same thing!”
“Shh...”
Ah! I spped my mouth at Ellie’s remark, we were meant to be quiet, I was just taken aback, to see the ex-town lord trying to assault us with a broom.
“I live here, what do you mean what I’m doing here?”
“You live here? That’s news, I was told you worked with Adele”
“Yes, this is that abusive woman’s home”
She lives in this dump!? And do research here!? She really needs to move to the pace, this pce is kinda sad! Although convenient for us, since at least we know the owner to apologize for barging in uninvited.
“We’ll expin ter, for now let’s hide and not make noise”
“But-”
“COME OUT OF WHEREVER YOU TWO ARE HIDING!”
We were interrupted by the sound of a door smming open, followed by the whole gang of thugs going through the front entrance.
Tch, they don’t even look like they want to negotiate, I’m sorry for Adele, but I might need to blow up her home! I start rummaging through the pockets of my shirt getting a weapon ready but a moment after they entered, a bunch of skeletons wielding somewhat rusty weapons came out of different rooms and dashed to meet the thugs.
“W-What the hell are those!?”
Both my, and the enemy’s reaction, the skeletons were ruthless, slicing at the thugs like they were nothing, filleting them in such a gruesome manner that I had to cover little Ellie’s eyes with my hands, no matter how hard they tried, the bones would simply rearrange after being dismantled and continue with the attack.
It really is a nightmarish scene! I wish I could cover Ellie’s ears, as she’s trembling from the guttural screams of the fallen.
“Those are that insane woman house defense troop! They attack any stranger that enters, which is why I got scared when you two entered through the window, since these guys didn’t attack!”
“I-I see...”
What a gruesome home defense system! Who are the skeletons anyways!? I always wondered how Adele always kept bones to use for spells, but this is on a whole different level!
Oh the thugs tried to flee, but the skeletons are circling around them to avoid their escape, which is leading to more casualties...
“A-Are they not gonna let them go?”
“No... how do you think Adele gets the corpses?”
“I-Is that so...”
Gruesome, eventually all of the thugs bare one died, the remaining one was different, rather small, holding his weapon and shaking in fear, I can see the tears rolling wetting his cloth mask.
“Are they gonna-”
“No, Adele told me she made them to never attack children”
“Well better than nothing...”
If he’s human then he’s probably 10 years old tops!
Once the skeletons realized there were no more threats, they slowly walked back to the room they came out of, dragging the corpses across the floor. It was chilling having them march next to us leaving behind a trail of blood, but at least they don’t seem interested in us whatsoever.
“WAAAAAAH!!”
“Wait, boy!”
Ah, he left, poor little kid, he’s gonna be traumatized for ages, nothing to do about it I guess, at least he got away with his life...
“Ellie let’s just, wait here until things calm down, at least we’ll be safe...”
“Ok”
“Do whatever you want”
The piggy simply told us and went on her merry way to what seemed to be a somewhat rundown community kitchen in the apartment building.
Wait a minute, I doubt Adele got time to register me in her spells as a non threat! And if they don’t attack children, that would make sense for the piggy and Ellie, but me!? Did they seriously think I was a child just because I’m small!?
I’m a dwarf! Not a kid, I won’t grow any taller, somehow that irritates me a bit, I’ll have to ease my nerves with alcohol once I get back to the pace, hopefully I can convince Heather to get something stronger just this once...
“Why are you eating just a piece of bread and water?”
“Shut it, what else am I supposed to have?”
“Does Adele keep you this malnourished?”
“Yes! That whore doesn’t even eat, what am I supposed to eat then!?”
Adele might be ruthless in certain aspects, but even I wouldn’t believe she does something this vile, I went to the pantry and it was filled with fruits, vegetables and other things to eat!
“There’s a bunch of stuff here, what are you talking about!?”
“It reminds me of my pantry when we didn’t live in the pace”
“Well what else but eat them raw! It’s not food as they are, are they?”
“Piggy you... don’t tell me you don’t know how to cook?”
“Do you!?”
So she’s been eating raw ingredients all this time!? Did she seriously expect Adele to cook for her? Although it’s true my skill in the kitchen is cking quite a bit, Ellie on the other hand apparently knows how to cook. She's such an angel, cooking for the piggy and even trying to teach him the basics. I wonder where the tension from moments ago went? I hope Heather and the rest are doing ok underground.
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***Elizabeth’s POV***
“H-hi...”
I can’t believe they had the entirety of the town’s guards looking for me!
“Elizabeth, you’re ok, what happened!?”
“W-What do you mean? I don’t know”
“Weren’t you kidnapped!? And your bakery burned down!?”
“My bakery got burned down!?”
That doesn’t sound good! I need to go and check! I don’t want my stuff burning! I-
“Where are you going?”
“To my shop of course! What-”
“Calm down Faun girl, the guards already put out the fire, now tell us what happened”
“I-I see, well I...”
I don’t even know what to say, truth be told I was minding my own business tending my shop, and then I saw some shady figures lurking around, but they didn’t try anything, and I didn’t want to get in troubles, so as soon as I served the st customer I had at the time, I closed the shop and left.
I guess for now I would simply expin with details my actions at that time.
“...ok? And where were you?”
Guh! Miss dragon is scary! I know the other girl can’t speak, but I really wish for anyone else to be in the castle at the moment!
“I... nobody was following me so I decided to buy the supplies for tomorrow...”
“You know that’s dangerous when people were stalking you, you should’ve go straight with us or the knights”
“Yeah... still I can’t believe they would burn down the bakery! They wanted the building to begin with for other unsuspected soon-to-be shopkeepers!”
The loan sharks might be criminals, but it just seems wasteful to burn it down, something that those money hungry bastards would never let slip, maybe they wanted to demolish it, and that’s why they burnt it? But the oven can be used for more than just a bakery, maybe a restaurant or food local...
“Ah!”
“Hmm?”
I made the noise by accident, I uh...
“Errm...”
“What is it Faun girl, did you piece something? Any lead can help”
“I umm... n-no...”
D-Don’t look at me like that you two! You’ll burn a hole through me!
Look, I may or may not have left the oven on in my hurry, I can’t say that now! How am I gonna tell them ‘I’ was the one that accidentally set the bakery on fire!
“Right... Anyways, since you’re here, stay until everyone comes back, things are hectic in town”
“But-”
“No buts, I rather keep an eye on you two”
“Yes...”
Poor little lizard girl is dejected as well...
Are they onto me? Look I didn’t do it on purpose, I hope my stuff it's ok...
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***Adele’s POV***
“I-It sure is dark...”
Hmm? Oh yeah, I guess the two of them wouldn’t be accustomed to navigating dark corridors! It’s just that darkness it’s such a natural thing to me, I didn’t even question it.
“Allow me”
I said, lifting my staff to create a light, but Heather immediately grabbed my shoulder.
“Turn it off, we don’t want to reveal our position”
“Oh! Alright then, do you not have problems with the dark?”
“A bit, but it’s part of the knights training to have some experience in dark pces, you never know what kind of situations you might find yourself in after all”
Hmm, as expected of the ex-captain of the pace knights, she’s clearly better trained than most adventurers, Az on the other hand… Well, she already crashed on the wall of the tunnels at least twice.
“Az, didn’t you mention that you have participated in war? Did you not receive any training?”
“I was a barracks medic! The most action I’ve seen was when the camp was attacked, and even then we mostly hide in those cases!”
“Is that so?”
War tactics sure have changed huh? I remember a long time ago when there weren’t any mages specialized in just healing, most of them were also offensive mages, then again the world is not as sunk in war as it used to.
We continued walking, the sound of our footsteps echoing in the dark and humid corridors, it kinda makes me nostalgic, it’s been a bit since I entered a dungeon, st time was with Marisa and while this is not the same, it gives a close enough vibes, maybe I should take some time off to look for dungeons elsewhere. Who knows maybe-
“Careful!”
I immediately noticed and stopped my train of thought, but in all honesty, before my words could come out, Heather had already unsheathed her bde, I quickly swung my staff, and summoned some of my skeletons to cover from the arrows that were shot as soon as we turned a corner.
Heather on the other hand parried the arrows with her sword, using the wide side to stop them from hitting her, Az on the other side wasn’t that lucky, an arrow managed to grace her wings as she fled to hide behind my wall of bones.
“Az!”
“I got her!”
I covered Az, and then I saw Heather running at quite an astounding speed towards the assaints on the right, I simply made a hole big enough in my wall to see them, and then I shot sharpened ribs at the people on the left, piercing their torso and falling to the ground, Heather made a clean slice, and the other 2 guys also fell.
It was a deep enough cut to disembowel them so they died pretty quickly, unlike the ones I hit that are squirming on the ground. I simply controlled the spine from here to pierce their hearts, and finally stop their movement.
“Are you ok?”
I said, looking back on the grumpy angel woman, healing her own wing with magic.
“Yeah! Ugh...”
She’s really shaken, I think we may have overestimated her ability for this sort of thing.
“Maybe having you tag along was a bad idea huh?”
“Hey! I...”
“Adele, don’t say that, having a medic with us is reassuring! Can you heal our injuries if needed?”
“Hmm... My knowledge of healing magic is very basic”
“I know first aids but it’s still better to have her don’t you think”
Well, I guess but honestly, I’m more worried about her getting accidentally killed here, more than afraid of the people inside, I guess since I turned into what I am, I have never actually suffered grievous injuries.
“Ok, ok, sorry Az, I wasn’t trying to shoo you away, I was just worried”
“I know... I promised Marisa to atone for what I did and that includes helping you girls, I will try to pull my own weight!”
“That’s the spirit Az, let’s continue”
“Still, they clearly already know we’re here, is there any point in continuing stealthily?”
At least with a light Az would be able to see where she’s going, plus it’s not that difficult to maintain.
“I rather not, won’t that drain your mana?”
“I can make do”
“I-If it’s only for me, then I’m ok! I’m starting to get used to the dark!”
Well, if Az says so, honestly better for me, since we’re gonna be going around in the dark, I’m not gonna need to be covering my head, so I grab ahold of the hood and pull it back to not feel stuffy, I would say fresh air but, there’s none down here.
“Adele...”“Waa...”
“...”
W-why do they look at me like that?...
“I-Is there something in my face?...”
“Ah, sorry! no, it’s just, we never seen your face, it’s a first”
“You look like a ghost! Are you ok!?”
“Yeah, this is normal for me, and the sun weakens me to some degree, so that’s why I always wear the hood”
I find it curious how they react, not many people have seen my face, most call me a walking corpse, it’s interesting that just like with Marisa, they showed curiosity instead of aversion to my appearance.
Unlike the ex-town lord, she’s seen my face since we live together now, but I can scold her so it wasn’t all that bad.
“Well it’s fine, we’re all a very weird group anyways, I’m sure you fit just fine, so take the hood down more often, we would love to see your face more”
“Heather...”
This somehow moved my non-beating heart, seriously these two! I haven’t felt like blushing for so long, I’m just gd that they accept me just the way I am, I wonder if it’s Marisa’s ideology rubbing off on them.
The little chat was nice but we have something to do here after all, so we continued down the different winding paths, it almost looked like a maze. Fortunately, the random attacks every so often are enough to indicate that we’re going in the right direction. Az simply walked behind me all the way, so I can cover her in case of danger.
“How curious there’s no waste in these ducts...”
“It’s been unused for almost 5000 years, I’d be surprised if any organic material survives past that amount of time”
The only organic matter in these ducts are the rats and other critters we’ve found along the way.
“They’re that old? How do they remain standing?”
“They don’t look”
I pointed with my staff to the ceiling of the ducts, it’s clear many of the bricks are starting to deteriorate, also thanks to the shaking from not long ago, they probably lost more structural integrity than before.
“That’s still impressive given their age”
“Well, Elves are very long lived, so they tend to make things to st, look”
I poked my staff into the wall of the duct, and shot mana across the tip, making the entire duct faintly illuminate in runes glowing all across the abandoned sewers.
“Wow... what are those runes for? Do they keep the pce standing?”
“I doubt it, I’m not an expert in elven rune standards, more so since they’re so old, they might have changed stuff, but from what I managed to pick up, they would probably help to indicate structural damage for repairs, what’s keeping it in pce is the material”
“I see...”
And also probably the reason Marisa never realized they were hiding so deep underground.
These bricks are made of a special alloy that very few races can construct, in fact to my knowledge only two, elves and...
“Rushka would have a field day in this pce, maybe she could reverse engineer the construction methods now that I think about it”
“Hmm, maybe once we make sure it’s safe!”
Although, didn’t Celestial mention going to the elves for old journals? Wouldn’t their modern methods be better than those used almost 5 millennia ago? Although I seriously doubt they would just hand over their technology, aren’t the elves close to the dwarves? Shouldn’t Rushka know something to begin with?
I’ll ask her ter, there’s more pressing matters at hand, like why did the attacks cease all of a sudden.
“Are we going the right way?”
“I hope so, I detected a rge opening when I hit the runes, let’s go there, even if it’s not where Elizabeth is, it’s as good a pce to look as any”
What greeted us at the end of the current duct was a makeshift barricade, it seems to be an intersection between two sewer lines, that were bastardized to make it more spacious, and then covered with pnks and other assortments to give the resembnce of a room.
“Ah, I was informed of rats crawling here on our domain, but I find three charming dies instead~”
“Who are you?”
Heather asked, pulling her bde out without hesitation. I don’t know the guy but he seems dangerous, more so than the goons we were dealing with so far...
The man is so out of pce, dapper and with such high quality garments, I wouldn’t doubt it if he presented himself as a noble of sorts.
“Oh where are my manners? The name’s Very, I’m sure you heard of me before”
“Very? Never heard of you”
Honestly, I barely know the name of the current king, let alone a random nobody noble.
“Marquess Very correct?”
“Do you know him Heather?”
Both Az and I turned to Heather with a question mark on our face.
“Not personally, he sends letters constantly requesting an audience with Marisa”
She mentioned, not letting go of the grip on her bde, pointing it towards the unarmed noble.
“And she’s so rude, rejecting my request so many times, I wonder what goes through her head? Gwendal did a much better job than her”
The man gloated not even fazed by the threat we posed to him, in fact he even turned around and walked sideways while talking.
“You know nothing! Knowing who’s behind this makes things easier!”
Heather was about to make a move but the man simply lifted his hand towards us, and a fireball was casted towards Heather, she had no other choice but to sidestep to avoid it.
“I would keep my distance, you’re the one that knows nothing! Or perhaps you’d want to risk the life of that precious little sister of yours~”
“YOU!”
“Stay, I know she’s all on her own in town, oh how careless of her big sister to let her wander on her own like that~”
The man is literally mocking Heather with his expressions, Heather on the other side is about to shoot steam from her ears, I have never seen her so angry before.
“Heather, calm down, Ellie is fine, she’s strong after all”
“I wouldn’t be so sure Adele, first time seeing your face, Hard to believe you finally settle down for the government of that insane chick”
“Yes, she made an offer I simply can’t refuse, but you seem to know us well, a bit too well perhaps?”
“Of course, Heather the ex-captain of the pace knights, Adele the gold rank adventurer and Azaquiel, the church’s p dog”
“Hey!”
“It was a pleasure meeting you three damsels, but unfortunately, this is where we part ways”
“Wait!”
“Heather, careful!”
Next thing I saw was a light so blinding, I had to avert my gaze for a moment, as I thought a man like that wouldn’t gloat without a pn, the walls showed imperfections but I never questioned it since the whole pce is starting to decay, but now I realize they covered the walls as well as the makeshift wooden structures in gunpowder.
I managed to cover myself and Az in a makeshift bunker of bones, but Heather was too far away! She seemed to have realized what happened at the st second, I just hope she’s ok!
Joanne_carper
