Chapter 36 - Approaching Malice!
After the day of festivities, all good things have to come to an end so when we woke up our team was prepared to go and search the vicinity for any traces that might have been left by the doctor and that shadow mage when they left.
In this time, we finally got to understand the identity of the Beast folk that we had freed from the lab. That Golden Lion was actually a member of the royalty among the Beast Folk.
"You're royalty?!"
It seems that I was not the only one surprised as both Luke and Wendy were as well. Now that the next day had arrived, the Golden Lion man had finally freshened up his appearance and has now turned from his original disheveled and dirtied blonde brown colors to a now more prideful and magnificence pure golden mane.
"Hahaha! All sorts of people tell me that, but normally they would not have seen me ion such a disheveled state. I was originally banished from the territory for causing a ruckus in the territory and thus was banished to the far end of the territory."
With an inquisitive tone, Vanessa asked him how he had ended up in that kind of situation. He then elaborated and stated that when he arrived in the border territory that he was originally taking care of things and was preparing to organize a trained militia for the settlement but was suddenly attacked by an unknown group of attackers.
They were either Beast Folk with barely visible beast like parts or they were all pure humans who snuck in and attacked him. At that time, he was away from his guards and they had been also attacked so they could not come to his aide as he was poisoned and knocked out before being carried away.
Although his resilience was strong and his will allowed him to remain conscious for a while, the attackers provided no commentary like they were dead soldiers so he simply had to listen as the others were mostly slaughtered. In the end, the guards who had remained were all then split up and separated from him as they were all also knocked out and taken away.
Because he was taken away so abruptly, he was originally going to head straight over to that settlement to check on the situation and stabilize the situation should the situation call for it. Then when they were able to stand on their own, he would head back to rendezvous with his family and find out what the situation is while searching for his separated guards.
Hearing the situation, Luke ultimately decided to intervene with the situation.
"Hey, Lion Prince, such a plan won't likely work that well. There is the fact that those guys might be around and with no guards to accompany you that you may fall into the same situation again. In addition, since they had kidnapped you in a stealthy manner like that with dead soldiers they may react violently if you show up back alright like this. If they were targeting you, that means that they were likely not confident in taking you from your family territory. If it is more random it would only be alerting them of this problem if they have not been informed by that doctor or shadow mage already. Instead of you heading to that place, you can tell us about the location and we will check for you. Then you can meet your family in secret and investigate the situation while in the shadows as we protect the place in your stead."
Hearing him say that, the lion man was surprised. He then asked what we had to gain from such a thing and Luke simply responded that it was the right thing to do for him right now.
Staying silent for a moment, he seemed to calculate the operation and he eventually sighed and patted Luke's shoulder solemnly.
"Then can I trust you?"
Both sides stared straight into each other's eyes as the lion man attempted to see any trace of reluctance or scheming in Luke's eyes. After some time that felt like it stretched to eternity, he laughed and roughly pat his shoulders.
"Alright, I will trust my gut and leave those civilians to you. When I finish this ordeal I will make sure that this time you took to help our Beast Empire of Leongar will not be in vain!"
With that promise, he asked one of the remaining warriors who were locked with him and chose to serve him to hand him a paper in which he drew down a simple map of the surrounding area. After marking this town and the way to head over to the settlement we would be heading, he sighed and now solemnly asked for our help to take care of this territory that was originally his responsibility.
"Will you help the guys there and keep the place safe till I return there in glory?"
"Of course we shall defend the weak and fight the corrupt." Luke responded firmly with a promise of his own. A firm handshake and we both went our separate ways as we went to get supplies for our next journey as he left with his group.
Walking towards the town, we were all splitting up to make our own final preparation to leave soon to fulfill that promise. With my space I already had all that I had what I needed to explore with, but there was something that I indeed had to do before leaving. Quietly heading towards the ruined area of the clinic, I saw that the place was still quite empty with no one willing to enter there.
Since I was here, I knew that the clone who spoke to me was likely here so I quietly whispered with a low breath.
"Alice."
"I am here."
Unlike what I was expecting, the one who appeared had a different personality and tone from the previous one who met me. The biggest indicator was that she was wearing a more cold expression and her outfit which was a rather classical and old fashioned wizard robe.
"You are... What happened to the previous?"
"She is currently busy so she told me to watch you for now. I will quickly do what I was asked to. I need to hurry back and help with other things so I will make this quick."
Without leaving her enough time to react, a giant spell circle appeared in her palm as she casually waved her hand. Looking at the scene, I saw as a bunch of blue lights flew out of the depths of the lab without moving any of the rubble. Then those lights converged into blue orbs that all were attracted to a small crystal ball that the clone took out of her own personal storage.
"Excuse me, can you tell me what they would be used for?"
I wanted to ask this as I did not know the personality of the other clones since I simply knew that one Alchemist. I did not want them to be taken away only to be used and abused again.
Glancing over to me, she stood silent for a moment with her gaze seeming to penetrate through me. After a while I was starting to feel a little self conscious before she finally clicked her tongue and spat with her words her disdain for these souls.
"If I really need workers I can easily achieve better efficiency and convenience simply by raising the corpses of the dead as undead. There are also the clones I have split up as well as simply paying elemental spirits who would also be willing to work with enough strength."
After saying that, she turned to ignore me as the last soul appeared within that crystal and as she turned to disappear, I finally mustered the courage to ask her a question.
"What should I call you?"
Pausing for a moment, she quietly whispered something that I could barely catch.
"How troublesome, just call me the Mage."
Disappearing in a flash, I was left there standing and staring at the spot thinking to myself. It was only a while later that I came to my senses as a figure approached behind me.
Turning to look, I found that it was Mellie except she had changed into a more ornamental outfit.
"Oh? Are you here to send off these souls as well?" She asked.
"Sending off?" I asked. After all, such rituals are not something that I had encountered before.
Standing next to me, she then began to explain the ritual of passing off the dead that is taught and recorded within the Church.
"Sending off is a prayer ritual that is taught and passed down the Church as a way to comfort the souls of the living. I shouldn't say this to just anyone, but since you are a demon it shouldn't hurt to tell you. Our Church has long banned the usage of Soul based techniques so all we can do as clergy is to bless the living and give our prayers to the deceased."
Oh, so it was more a symbolic thing. A part of me was happy that this was the case because if this sending off had produced any effects and revealed that the souls within these bodies were gone then it might be a big or small problem depending on how she sees it. Thankfully such worries could be sent to the back of my head as I watched as she kneeled down on her knees and clasped her hand together as she quietly prayed.
Listening to her voice echoing through the silent ruins was a rather solemn and quiet thing and soon after she was done she stood in place and asked if I still had some preparations to finish. If I didn't then the two of us could head back together but I eventually declined after some thought and decided to stay here thinking for a while.
Respecting my decision, she excused herself and headed back on her own and once more I was left alone here.
Looking up at the empty sky and blazing sun and then at the crumbling ruins, all kinds of thoughts were floating in my mind but I eventually made up my mind and left the area resolving myself to learn more and work with Luke to make this world a better place one step at a time.
All of this thinking had allowed her to fully process all that had gone on today and thus she was able to see every decision and found that her previous actions were quite frivolous and found that some of her previous decisions she had grown slightly to regret. But nothing too major of a decision had been made thankfully so she had the time to make up her wrongs.
Looking at the world and the role that she wanted to play in it, she decided that she would be taking things as serious as she can. Of course, Alice as her mother would be a high priority, but now she felt that she can make a grander vision for herself now that she had settled down for some time.
Heading back to the others, some distance away there were many figures hiding in the dark that had been disturbed by the actions that their hero party had taken and many undercurrents were beginning to flow beneath the surface. But all tricks and conspiracies would all fall moot when compared to strength.
So now she started to inwardly desire for strength as she headed back to reunite with the others.
When she arrived, she found that although she was not the last one to arrive, it was only barely as Luke, Vanessa and Mellie had all arrived first.
"Took you long enough." Vanessa spoke with lightened sarcasm today.
I simply nodded quietly and calmly which surprised her quite a bit and resulted in a few more glances before returning to her waiting posture. But we would not have to wait that long as Wendy was soon seen waving her farewells from a larger building as she left with a stack of parchment that was held haphazardly. Rushing over while storing the papers away, she finally arrived and the hero party was once again reunited with a new goal.
"We have a new destination and mission. Help take over the defense of the border area that the Lion Prince had been previously stationed at and see if we can find some clues on the greater conspiracy headed towards the Beast Folk Capital." Luke announced as he then raised his right hand in a fist bump posture.
The others also raised their hands and all looked to me. Seeing this, I also raised my hand and smiled as well all fist bumped in a circle before heading out in the directions left to us on a map by the Lion man.
Bidding our farewells to this small town, we confidently headed on our way out as the town was left far behind us as we followed the direction of the setting sun.
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