Chapter 85
Not knowing the hiding place that Lily took the civilians was meant to be, I figured I would just be wasting time trying to search for her myself. So instead, I tried issuing a command via the seal.
As far as I could tell, the punishment effect only activated if she resisted. However, if I commanded something like ‘come to me’ and she was unable to do so, would it still take effect?
I wasn't looking to hurt her, so I tried expressing my intent very specifically. My command ended up being ‘find me outside the academy main building if it is feasible and risk-free for you to do so.’
Nothing happened for a while, but then a high-pitched laughter filled my head.
“
I had felt telepathic communication before, but it still caught me off guard. In the past, I was always in the presence of a powerful being before it happened.
“Since when could you do this?”
I asked aloud, causing Fleur to look at me strangely.
“
“No. I certainly did not. Are you coming?”
“Who are you talking to?”
Fleur asked.
“Lily.”
“
“Nothing, I'm talking to Fleur.”
“
“Telepathy?”
Fleur tilted her head.
“Yeah.”
“Wait, no! Ah, just get down here, this is too confusing.”
“She's on the way.”
I turned to Fleur.
She nodded quietly, and we found a bench to sit on while we waited. Tiara settled onto my lap and purred away happily.
“Strange to think this creature could defeat the one who held me captive.”
Fleur softly brushed Tiara’s head.
“Why has she returned to this form?”
She asked me.
“The real question is: Why did she change to begin with?”
I scratched just above her tail, making sure my petting was better than Fleur's.
“That was not your doing?”
“Nope. She originally looked something like that, but the blue eyes and star-patterned fur were different from what I know.”
“How she looked?”
“Mm. Long story.”
I shrugged. Explaining everything about Tiara and me would require mentioning the Feral Abyss. I was too exhausted to get into all that at the moment.
“She ate a magic pill. I guess that unlocked something in her. When we fused, I did feel like her mana had changed somehow… I’ll talk to my master about it when I get a chance.”
“By ‘master’ I take it you mean the oft-spoken about mystery druid?”
“That’s right. If anyone knows the answer, it would be him. Whether he wants to give me an answer is another question altogether.”
I laughed briefly before falling silent.
It hadn’t been terribly long since I had seen Poggy, but I still kind of missed him. Not that I would ever admit this to his face.
“Oh, Soot.”
Fleur stood up from the bench and knelt down as the clopping of hoofed feet approached.
My boar friend was in no hurry. In fact, his approach could best be described as laxadaisical. If my earlier attempt at summoning him had worked, this pace was outright defiant. He was lucky I didn't desperately need him back then.
Interestingly, though, he was not alone.
“Where are you going, Mr Pig?”
“A-are we allowed here?”
Two young children—a boy and a girl, no older than eight—were walking alongside Soot and clutching onto his fur.
Their clothing was ragged and torn, but made from high-quality material. It wasn’t likely they had just been living rough.
“
Soot ignored Fleur’s attempt to pet him and aggressively nuzzled into my leg.
“Hold still.”
I similarly ignored the unknown children and immediately set about checking Soot for injuries.
There were shallow cuts and indentations, likely from blades that lacked the edge to draw blood and spears that could not pierce his thick hide. His tusks were chipped from heavy use and stained with dry blood, but there was nothing requiring any medical attention.
“Good boy.”
I thumped his side and stood back up.
“And who might you two be?”
The children shrank back behind Soot, but the girl managed to muster the bravery to speak up.
“We’re from Kronenstadt. I’m Michaela, and this is my younger brother Lukas.”
“B-Becker… our family name.”
The boy spoke up hesitantly.
“Um… do you know Mr Pig?”
Michaela asked, still clutching onto Soot.
“Mr Pig and I are partners.”
I paused as I considered my choice of words carefully. Asking about the whereabouts of their parents was the obvious first question, but they had clearly been through a lot. It was possible their parents were already dead.
“Where are you two staying? I can take you there if you need help.”
“Our dad’s friend lives here, we were staying with him until…”
Michaela looked to the floor and trailed off.
“It’s alright, you’re safe now. Can you remember which house it was?”
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“T-the one with the red roof… behind the pet store.”
Lukas called out.
“I know the one. How about you two stay and play with Mr Pig while I go check it out?”
I smiled at the two children and paid careful attention to their expressions.
There was no sudden twitch or wince to indicate that I was likely to find something bad at the house, although they still looked a little scared.
“I’ll go.”
Fleur immediately began walking away.
“Are you sure? I think it would be better if you stayed here.”
“I will not run away. Besides, I am faster than you, and you seem to be good with the children.”
“That’s not what I meant. Just watch your back if you’re going alone.”
I looked back at the group of soldiers who were staring at Fleur and gripping the hilts of their weapons. I wasn’t displeased with them; if anything, I was wondering why nobody had already come and started questioning her.
The main concern was that they would not hold themselves back any longer if they spotted her wandering through town alone.
Fleur nodded back slightly and quickly darted out of sight.
“So, how did you two end up following my friend here around?”
Lukas, possibly feeling more comfortable with just the three of us, stepped out from behind Soot.
“W-we were running like dad told us, but some scary people tried to pull us into a house. Then Mr Pig came and pushed them all over until they stopped chasing us.”
“
Soot poked my leg with his tusks and stamped one foot. It was unlikely that those people were simply pushed to the ground.
“Mr Pig was amazing!”
Michaela piped up, her voice so loud that Tiara perked up and narrowed her eyes at the child.
“He kept scaring the bad guys away and knocked a whole wall down!”
“And the horse! Tell him about the horse!”
“Oh, yeah! Mr Pig ran into a horse and threw it into the air, like
I listened as they continued to excitedly recount to me Soot’s feats. Trying to piece together the reality from the fiction was difficult, but I was fairly certain Soot couldn’t fly, so that part was probably Michaela's imagination running wild. I let them believe whatever they wanted, though, as it was visibly lifting their moods.
From what I gathered, their family were outside the arena at the time of the attack, but they all got separated. It wasn’t clear whether that was the result of being attacked or if they had simply been swept up in the crowd.
I managed to keep myself from jumping in surprise, containing myself to a silent cringe before muttering.
“You’re still there?”
“
I sighed deeply and killed time playing with the kids, ignoring Lily’s constant comments.
***
Surprisingly, both Lily and Fleur arrived at the same time, seemingly having met up together on the way.
“The house was empty, but there were no signs of a struggle.”
Fleur reported immediately.
I nodded to show that I heard, but I couldn’t call it good news. In a way, if the parents had been found injured or dead, it would at least let us know definitively what happened. As it was, these results told us nothing.
“Ya-hoo!”
Lily waved jubilantly at me, then knelt down to talk to the kids. Thankfully, she seemed to have been able to reapply her illusion magic before coming.
“Do you two want to see a magic trick?”
Lukas and Michaela looked at each other and took a small step back to Soot for comfort.
“You’ll love it, I promise!”
Lily, undeterred by their reluctance, reached a hand out down to the ground. With the sun nearly completely out of sight, there were plenty of long shadows for her to grasp. Her hand sank into the brick ground as if it were a pool of black water.
“Watch carefully…”
She yanked her hand out, pulling with it an animated, shadowy rabbit by the ears.
“Whoa!”
Michaela ran forward to pet the creature.
“It feels so weird!”
She giggled as the rabbit’s body warped and bounced as if made from an elastic substance.
“His name is Professor Hops!”
Lily giggled and reached into the ground again.
“And these are his little friends.”
She pulled both arms out and theatrically tossed an armful of similar creatures into the air, showering the children with fluffy friends.
“Have fun!”
She stood and beamed at me while the children lost themselves chasing the rabbits around.
“Miss me?”
“No. Did something happen?”
She was as hyperactive as always, but her eyes seemed to gleam with greater shine than before, and her movements were filled with energy.
“Yep! Something .”
She skipped up and placed her hands on my shoulders before standing on her tiptoes and whispering right into my ear.
“I had my first taste of human souls today.”
She kept her face close enough for me to feel her breath as she studied my reaction.
“Is that so? You’ll need to tell me more in detail sometime.”
My tone was neutral and my expression blank. She appeared annoyed by this and backed off in a huff.
She likely meant to upset me with that knowledge, but devils claiming souls was no different in my mind to the gods taking them after death. In fact, since devils were not eternal beings, all their souls would end up in the hands of the gods either way. As far as I was concerned, if someone wanted to sell their soul, that was their choice.
If not for the technique, which requires a soul to work, I would probably have done the same. Hell, I still considered doing it as an option should all else fail. Better to let Lily mess with my soul for a few centuries than go straight to the Soul Stream again, after all.
“No problems, Fleur?”
I momentarily turned my attention away from the devil.
“None.”
She responded while keeping her head angled to the side.
A blind man could see she was hiding something, so I grabbed her chin and forced her to look at me.
“You’re bleeding.”
A cut had been opened just above her temple and was still oozing with blood. Her hand, which she had also kept behind her back, was sticky due to attempts made to wipe it away.
“It is not serious.”
Our eyes locked, allowing me to pressure her silently.
“...It was just a child. They lost a loved one, so they threw a rock.”
“I’ve seen you move. No way a kid is hitting you that accurately with a pebble.”
The wound was shallow enough that she was probably telling the truth about the offender, but it was what she didn’t say that caught my attention.
“You let it happen, didn’t you?”
“The matter is settled, does it matter?”
I let go of her face, my disappointment visible even with the mask.
“You can’t be held accountable for other people’s actions. And you certainly can’t let others take their pound of flesh, or they’ll never stop until they’ve ripped you down to your bones.”
It was frustrating to see a friend try to martyr herself for the sins of others as if she were in any way responsible.
“This kind of thing doesn’t earn their forgiveness; it just encourages them to keep pushing. Defend yourself or ignore them altogether next time.”
Fleur did not respond; she only turned her head back to hide her wound and stared off into the air.
“Did you call me here just so I can watch you make the elf feel bad? Because I’m totally okay with that.”
Lily grinned, her mood restored at the sight of friction.
“No, Guy is throwing a hissy fit. I want you to monitor him.”
“That’s it? Sounds easy enough. Say, have you seen Merk? I should be reporting in, but I couldn’t find him anywhere.”
“Huh, now that you mention it, he didn’t come back with Draven and the others. He wasn’t at the eastern gate?”
“Nope. Checked there already. There's just a big pile of dead guys. You should see how many people they’ve got over there cleaning up.”
“No idea then… where did all those civvies you had with you go?”
“Oh, Merk and I have a few pocket spaces set up around town for when I need to report in. I just stuck them all in one of those and waited for everything to go quiet.”
I made a deliberate show of looking at Fleur, then back at Lily.
“She can hear it, I don’t care. Borderton will no doubt be turned into a military outpost until we turn Soleo into a pile of smouldering ash, which means the branch campus will be closed and I’ll get moved somewhere else.”
Fleur seemed lost in thought, and the kids were chasing shadow bunnies, so it was probably fine to just let Lily say what she wanted.
“You really think they’ll shut the place down?”
I was a little concerned about that comment. This would delay my timeline for obtaining knighthood qualifications.
“Oh, absolutely. Although I bet the rich kids are all sent to the main campus. Maybe you could ask your mama to get you in if you want to stay in school so bad?”
“That’s not a terrible idea, actually… good girl.”
“What am I, a dog?”
She snickered and snapped her fingers, dismissing all the rabbits.
“Awww!”
Lukas slumped down, disappointed.
“I’ll get on that task of yours, but we probably won’t be seeing much of each other once I’m reassigned. It’s been fun, Rex!”
She skipped away a little too happily for an apparent goodbye.
Did she forget I could just command her to come back whenever I felt like it? Or did she know I wouldn’t abuse my power like that?
Either way, I simply let her go without a word.
“Hey, mister?”
Michaela tugged on my jacket.
“Hm? What’s up?”
“Can we go home? Mum doesn’t like it when we’re out after dark.”
Sure enough, we had already approached nightfall, and I would soon need to meet back with Professor Kuhn.
“Ah… sorry, I need to be somewhere. I know someone reliable.”
I could still see Felicia and Klaus excitedly chatting and reenacting their fights, and I led the children in their direction.
But before I could make it, another voice called out.
“Lukas? Michaela?”
Linus Lang had removed most of his armour and was in the middle of drinking a potion when he spotted us.
He dropped the bottle and immediately came running over.
“Uncle!”
Both children ran into his embrace and were quickly swept into the air.
“Thank the gods! I was so worried when I saw—”
He stopped abruptly.
“I was so worried for you two.”
He corrected himself awkwardly and turned to me.
“Thanks for looking out for them. They’re my sister’s kids.”
He explained.
“Their mother. Is she…?”
“She’s alright. That Isolde girl is seeing to her…”
He trailed off again. I mouthed the words “Father?” while the kids had their backs to me, but Linus only shook his head solemnly.
I felt my heart sink for the children, but I made an effort not to let anything show in front of them. This was the kind of thing an outsider shouldn’t get involved with.
“Can I leave them with you then?”
I kept my voice level.
“Yeah, I’ve got it from here, thanks, Rex.”
I nodded and left them to their reunion. I still overheard their exchange as I was walking away, though.
“Uncle, guess what? Mr Pig saved us!”
“Really? Tell me all about Mr Pig, Luke.”
“He’s sooooo strong! I bet he could even beat you!”
“O-oh, that’s amazing…”
“He could beat uncles!”
“Haha… you really think so, Michaela?”
“Definitely!”
I returned to Soot and placed my palm flat on his snout.
“You did good, boy.”
“
I made a mental note to get him something nice as a reward for all his hard work. Then, as the last of the sun's rays disappeared, my attention was drawn to the window of Professor Kuhn's office. There, Emperor Albrecht was looking down in my direction.
"It's about time I go, Fleur. Can you do me a favour and keep an eye on Paris? I want to get a feel for the room before I decide what to do with her."
"Okay."
She nodded and immediately left my side.
I watched her go. What action—or inaction—that she took would determine her worth both in my eyes and that of the Imperials at large. I could only hope she would act as hoped.
