Rupegia

Chapter 58: Meteor – Part 3

Today is the 4th.

Alissa wakes me up with a mischievous smirk and our day starts perfectly, just like it always should.

Then I look at my "Status" and frown.

"You girls are using me too much," I say.

"I told you he was going to complain," Hana says, lowly.

"But I'm growing! You drink less!" Aoi protests.

"But I'm thirsty!" Hana shoots back.

"Aren't you always?" Roxanne says and kisses her cheek.

"You two need to decide who gets first dibs. This new skill is quite mana-hungry," I say.

"I'm sorry, Hana, but Aoi gets priority this time," Ciel says and squeezes her shoulder.

"Fine…" Hana accepts and pouts.

The reason why it was easier to cast [Bind] on Roxanne yesterday was because my "Sanity" had increased by 1 (now 12+4). I'm improving, though it seems like it's because the world is forcing me to adapt or die, but at least it's progress.

Our breakfast is toast with a selection of pates and not-earl-grey tea. The chilly morning air starts to seep into our tent, so I shut the entrance, and the tea soon starts to heat up our naked bodies.

"This place is so comfortable. I really like it," Lina says, a little wistfully.

"We could easily live in the wild like this. There are plenty of trees that could make for great hidden bases," Alissa says.

"We could just use [Gate] to enter or leave town," Roxanne says.

"Until we are all linked with [Bind], I'd prefer that we didn't split up like that," I say.

"Hm… yeah, we'd be just one 'scrubber' away from being stranded apart," Ciel says with a slight frown.

I nod. "That sort of thing is one of my worst nightmares."

I've read too many novels where portals go wrong.

Alissa pouts, but nods in understanding.

Now that breakfast is done, it's time for us to teleport to Goloria.

With 91 points put into [Mana Efficiency] (the rest being in [Summoning Magic] and [Space Magic] because I can't remove any from them), it costs about 240 MP for about a day's worth of travel for each person, 1680 in total. My MP has increased to 1670, but I still need to keep some summons out, so it's reduced by 1/10th. We decided to divide the teleportation into two groups with a small break between them so that I can recharge some of my mana with [Redirect Mana].

Now that we are so close to Goloria, the area is much safer, so I just pull out the dinghy and, under some light rain, we reach the beautiful white town after half an hour.

The surface of the huge lake below the town is distorted by countless small waves caused by the rain; the cloudy sky nearly blocks out all of the few rays of sunlight that would normally manage to pass through the huge tree crowns; the view through the crystal clear water is now poor enough that we can barely see the outlines of the many pretty fish that we know are swimming just below the surface.

We enter the area of the lake currently cloaked in shadow by the town above, and the sound of the rain is muffled while the surface of the lake becomes calm. The crystals light the way and reflect off of the dark waters, giving us the illusion of being up in space among the stars.

The memories of my boat ride with Ciel brings a smile to my lips.

Then we finally reach the Pillar and fly upwards, which attracts some attention since there are only a few others who are flying like us. The crowds are all either on foot or riding an animal as they climb up or down the spiral.

We skip customs and easily enter the town, then we find cover under a balcony to talk.

"I'd like to know what the people have heard about the attack," I say.

"Right, rumors. I can get on that. The taverns are normally full of gossipers," Hana says with a confident nod.

"Even this early in the morning?" Alissa asks with a raised eyebrow.

"The night shift guards should be getting wasted right now."

"Oh…"

"So, meanwhile, we search for Bastico at the Knight Academy and arrange a meeting with Confiel," I say.

"Who's coming with me?" Hana asks and looks around while smirking.

"Alissa and Roxanne. I can summon both of you with [Bind] if I have to," I say before anyone can answer.

"Ah, Wolfy…" Alissa complains and her tail drops.

I pat her head and give her fox ears a few loving strokes. "You know it's the best choice."

She pouts cutely for a moment, then nods.

With Lina and Ciel on each of my arms, and Aoi on my shoulder, we make our way to the Academy. But before we reach the gate, we change into some more formal clothing and put on our rain cloaks.

Aoi snuggles around my neck and gives me loving licks every once in a while. Gify goes with Ciel since there's no room for her inside my cloak, and she makes my chocolate goddess a little elated at being chosen.

The girls only have open high heels, so to avoid getting their cute and delicious little feet wet in the rain, we use our less fashionable boots. Not that anyone would really mind our fashion faux pas.

One of the immediate changes I noticed is how the elves are not spying on us anymore. Quite the stark difference in the number of stares that we get.

When we reach the Academy, a familiar dark bark wall decorated with golden inlays blocks our way.

We go to the guardhouse and repeat the process of getting my scholar Title verified through an Inspection Crystal.

I flaunt a little and hold Ciel's waist by the ass while I keep Lina very close to me. The guard becomes a little stiff and lets us through with less wasted time than last time.

Being an "arrogant master" stereotype does have it's advantages. Mostly it's about preventing the common people from getting in your way or bothering you with stupid bullshit.

We enter the academy and the feeling of having my [Gate] blocked causes a small amount of fear to take hold of my heart.

Another thing that I rely on too much. One "scrubber" and we are fucked…

Once we are clear of the guardhouse, Ciel grabs my hand and pulls it up. "What are you getting handsy for?" Ciel asks me with a dangerous gaze.

This pulls me out of my fearful musings and I ask with a grin, "Can't I enjoy you in public?"

"Is there nothing that's too far for you?"

"Isn't a public display of love a great way to show how strong my love for you is?"

She scoffs. "You're making lewd actions into 'displays of love'?"

"Why not? I love both your body and your soul, but it's only easy to show how much I love your body," I say and shrug.

She narrows her eyes in confusion. "It's still depraved…" She says, not very sure of herself.

"So what? With the way things are going, soon the whole realm will know of our depravity."

She pouts. "Your argument is logical but I still have some principles."

"Well, sooner or later we are going to corrupt those principles, anyway," Lina says with a shrug.

"Exactly. It'd be better if you started getting used to it now," I say with a nod and we smirk at each other like villains.

"Sometimes I think that I was so naive when I fell in love with you…" Ciel says and sighs wistfully.

"Remember who made me like this," I say.

"Alissa did."

I smirk and glance at Lina, who's also smirking. "And you allowed it."

I lower my hand back to her juicy ass and give it a squeeze. This time she doesn't move my hand.

Walking aimlessly through this stupidly huge academy is not the best idea, so we enter the reception and I talk to the female attendant.

"I'd like to find a specific student of this academy, is there any way you can help me with this?"

"Do you know his year or which classes he might be taking?" The pretty elven woman asks.

"He said he was a spell warrior from the fifth year, but that was before the Turn, so I don't know where he might be now," I reply.

"I see… It's likely that he's on vacation right now, so all I can do for you is send a message to him. What's the name of the student in question?"

"Bastico Rincipio."

The attendant winces for half a second, then she regains control over her face. "Are you aware that he's the son of the Crown Lord of Goloria?" She asks, slowly.

"Yes." I give her a smile.

Her face gets increasingly stiff. "Are you acquainted with him already?"

"I dueled him a little more than a day-cycle ago, then I attended a small gathering with him on that very same day."

The attendant seems to realize something and looks at Lina and Gify, then her eyes stop on Ciel for a moment longer. "S-so you're the one who won a duel against him? Didn't you have a werefox woman with you, too?"

I nod and smirk. "Yes. That was my fiancee and this is my other fiancee." I tap Ciel's ass and she rolls her eyes.

The attendant looks at me and swallows heavily, then she blushes and looks down. "Sir Rincipio is known to roam the dueling pits, even during vacation time, so perhaps you could find him there," she says as her face slowly returns to its natural color and she regains the composure to look me in the eye.

"Thank you for the information. If we don't find him, can we send him a message instead?"

"Yes." She nods and her long ears twitch.

I give her another smile and we depart.

The dueling pits are located near the outer edge of the academy so that the library in the middle is safe from all the noise.

We walk clockwise around the pits. Ciel admires the grandiose architecture while Lina recites some of the knowledge she knows about the "swole" statues like a guide. I take this time to focus on what the other girls are doing.

Hana is drinking with some guards. Like a social butterfly, she seems to always find it easy to start a conversation with strangers. Alissa is unhappily listening to a drunk's sad drivel. He's not being very informative, but the bartender is taking some pity on her and helping her out, so maybe he has more information than the sad drunk. Roxanne is being flirted with by some elven woman. She's not responding to the flirting, but she is letting the woman freely talk about the High Forest as if Roxanne wants to come live here.

Do these women have a gaydar or something or is it just because she's a succubus that they flirt with her?

Well… why not both?

What I'm gathering from Hana's gossiping with the guards is that Goldport is in a complete lockdown while the Templars sweep through the city in search of Wicked or heretics. Quite a few executions of Wicked have already been carried out and the dead bodies are on display at specific places.

This isn't official news, but it's coming from the guards who have a close relationship with the temple, plus, nothing is being suppressed, so there's quite a lot to talk about. Since we know what actually happened, it's easier to filter out the wild rumors and focus on the ones that logically fit with what we already know.

The population is obviously going to get angry that heretics were allowed to cause so much destruction, and there's a lot of difficulty in denying that they used [Meteor], so the Lord is saying that a small army cast the spell to make himself look better. We know the exact number of heretics that participated, but it seems that this info is well buried among all the rumors and no consensus will be reached among the population.

There's quite a lot of Templars in Maoka, so they're going to flood into Goldport in the following days. For probably around a month, the Lord of Goldport will be compelled to stand aside while the Punishers rule over the town.

The thing that leaves a bitter taste in mine and Hana's mouth is that there's no known survivor from the inn. If there is, then they're one of the few in the temple's version of an ICU, or they just ran away in fear.

Roxanne hears about how people are saying that the western Crown Lord stopped obeying the Elder Council, which made the Buscuadores, an army under the control of the Elders that clears the High Forest of monsters, slowly abandon the Western High Forest, leaving the Crown Lord with an increasingly strained personal army who can't deal with all the monsters by themselves. The High Forest has a higher concentration of monsters than many other places, which would explain why they relied so much on the Buscuadores for safety.

This information is then complemented by Alissa's, who hears how the eastern and western Crown Lords are both spending long periods of time inside the Legado dungeon in search of riches and weapons. If Crown Lord Este finds something powerful enough, he could finally solve the situation that the Western High Forest is in. But if the Elders want to retain their hold on power, they won't allow that.

Now that we have a better picture of the situation, we know that this means only one thing: civil war. If Crown Lord Este doesn't bow to the Elders soon, then he'll be forcefully removed, either by the empire or by the Elders.

Some people think that the other lords of the High Forest are the ones plotting against him, while others think that it's the Elders, but why can't it be both?

Alissa frowns and asks, "Why didn't the Elders remove Este the moment he refused to obey them?"

The elven bartender smiles softly and says in a gentle tone, "A Lord deserves more respect than that. He may be beholden to the Elder Council, but he still has a certain amount of independence."

Alissa frowns and looks at her own cup of light alcohol. "While the Elders take their time deposing Crown Lord Este, the population suffers from the lack of Peacekeepers to purge the monsters from the forest."

The bartender's smile becomes a little pained as he looks down at the ceramic mug he's cleaning. "We've all accepted that for order to remain, sometimes people have to die. Even the Tribunal accepts this as they haven't deemed it time to intervene yet."

Alissa grits her teeth. "We've seen villagers who turned to banditry and attacked our caravan because their village was overrun by monsters. What would they say if they heard what you said?"

The bartender frowns, giving wrinkles to his delicate face, making it finally match with the graying hairs on his head. "They would be mad, obviously, and I wouldn't blame them, but at least I'd ask that they take their grievances to the Tribunal and ask for compensation."

Alissa's ears flop in distaste. "Kill Crown Lord Este now and save others from all of these problems."

The bartender's tone turns a little tired. "Kill Crown Lord Este now and create vengeful enemies for later."

"Then you kill them and the ones after them, too. The killing never ends, anyway." Alissa grunts and finishes her drink. "Wolfy, tell the others that I want to leave," she says through [Bind], feeling very bitter.

Roxanne immediately jumps at the chance to leave the flirty elven woman behind while Hana takes a few minutes to say goodbye to her new friends.

They quit going to taverns and hit a tea shop where they can wait for us and eavesdrop on conversations.

It takes us nearly an hour, but we do eventually find Bastico. The pretty and youthful elven boy is having quite an exciting duel with another elven boy nearly twice his size.

Bastico's opponent uses a shield, so his [Fireball]s are getting blocked, but Bastico still manages to slip in a few burns, slowing down his opponent's attacks.

Then Bastico activates his enchantments: [Double Strike], [Double Image], and [Extend]. He lays down attack after attack, landing small cut after cut, and overwhelming his enemy from far enough away that no counter-attack will reach him.

His opponent slips and kneels, then Bastico buries his sword in the taller boy's right shoulder.

"STOP!" The priest refereeing the fight yells and rushes over to Bastico's opponent.

He quickly heals the boy and yells, "I DECLARE BASTICO RINCIPIO THE VICTOR!"

"I ACCEPT… THIS VICTORY!" The taller boy yells, still suffering from pain.

That one will leave a scar.

The crowd cheers and claps.

Bastico [Clean]s his sword, then removes the small protective pieces of armor and returns to the changing room to put his uniform back on.

He comes out looking impeccable and casually makes his way out of the pit while the audience whispers and some of them drool over him.

We wait a little while for the crowd to disperse before we follow him.

"Bastico," I call and he stops.

He turns around with a curious look on his face and then leans back, surprised at seeing us. His surprise quickly disappears and a sly smile appears on his lips.

"Wolf!" He exclaims and struts forward for a handshake.

"We came back, as we said we would," I say.

His eyes dart between the girls and he looks beyond me as he shakes our hands. "You're not with… your other wives?" He asks.

"They are in town, just tending to other business."

"Ah, I see…" He nods in understanding. "Well, I said father would love to meet with you, but he doesn't seem to want to leave that Legado dungeon any time soon."

"Hm. We thought about paying a visit to that dungeon. It sounds quite interesting."

His striking green eyes become serious and sober up any frivolity I had in mind. "Well, then just remember to stay away from Crown Lord Este's men, they are trying to coerce adventurers to leave. I don't know how far they will go."

"Thanks for the warning, but do you really think that we can meet with your father inside the dungeon?"

"It's quite likely because he's also keeping an eye out for other adventurers. Though I'm not sure where he is exactly, if you search for a while you might find some of his men. I'll send word to him so that they'll be expecting you. Also, if you want to meet with me, you can just come by the castle and ask."

"Thank you for your help." I bow slightly.

He smiles and shakes his head gently. "No need for bowing. I'm sure my father and you can work together to great benefit."

He's not saying that I'll work for Lord Confiel, but that we will do it together. A bit more reassuring, but also curious.

"If you'll excuse me. We still have other business to attend to," I say.

"I understand. I'm sure we'll meet again soon." His sly smile returns.

"It was a pleasure meeting with you again, until later."

"Likewise, and until then."

The girls nod respectfully and we depart.

Ciel sighs and groans. "Wow… I think I need Alissa to coach me with talking to nobility. It's just not the same thing as being a helpful shoulder for the commoners."

"I think that I'd rather just surrender control of myself through [Bind]. I'll never get used to all this formality," I say.

Lina puckers her lips in thought. "Well, it's easier to talk with nobles when they are formal because the rules are all known," she says.

"Eh, but it takes a lot of effort in remembering them all," I say.

"For me it's because it all feels so 'unnatural.' It's like wearing a mask and I hate everything about that," Ciel says.

"That's because your heart is pure," Lina says and smiles adorably at her.

"Awn…" Ciel reaches over to pat Lina's head.

"Uh-huh…" I say and give them a wry smile.

Lina's smile becomes impish. "Her heart is pure, but not her mind nor her body," she says.

Ciel rolls her eyes and continues patting Lina.

We meet up with the other girls at the tea shop. They got us a table on the second floor, so we have a nice view down the street of the white town. Even in the rain, this town is quite charming.

"So, I think we'd better go to the dungeon now instead of waiting," I say.

"Nice, we're bound to get into some fighting. It's been a while," Hana says.

"Well, not that long. Barely a vacation, really," Ciel says and smiles wryly.

"It's a lost tomb, so it might be very interesting," Lina says.

Ciel becomes more alert and interested. "What would it look like?"

Lina shrugs. "As far as your imagination can take you. With a mana storm as fuel for the construction, some tombs can get quite… gaudy."

"We have to go to the dungeoneering guild and check where it is. There might also be some information about it over there," I say.

"We'll do it after lunch," Alissa says, excitedly. Her tail wags as she thinks about studying new pictures of monsters.

"So, what are we going to negotiate with 'him'?" Roxanne asks.

I lower my voice so that only Ciel and Lina can hear me while I use [Bind] to tell the others. "I thought about requesting a small favor with the trial; access to their spy network, or whatever they call it; and a promise to help keep us safe from heretics, probably through an oath to the Gods,"

"That's quite a lot. We'll have to work a lot for that last one," Ciel says.

Alissa leans closer and speaks in the same way that I did. "We are a hero's party. The help of someone with a Gift would never be cheap."

"Ah. We should ask for a commendation letter from 'him.' That would easily get the Tribunal to rule in our favor in case things go really bad," Lina suggests.

"With everything we have stacked in our favor, it feels like Katasko is just being desperate with this sham of a trial," Alissa says.

"With how easily Taavi agreed to let us go, I think that their plan has already started to fall apart on its own," I say.

"It was crazy, to begin with," Ciel says and shakes her head.

"Which is why I think it's not the trial that would be a problem."

"Wouldn't the worst that could happen be that we just have to pay a fine?" Roxanne asks.

We all look at Lina and she shakes her head. "I know a lot about history, but not enough about the laws to be certain. So I'd say that it's likely because of the philosophy of the God of Law, but I'm not sure about it."

"And there's always the option of asking for a Seeker of Truth to participate," Roxanne adds.

"We're repeating ourselves; I just can't focus on the trial if I don't get any new information," I say and wave my hand dismissively.

Ciel's expression hardens and her cold stare pierces through me. "So… do you know what 'he' is likely going to ask for in exchange for those favors?"

"Yes."

I use [Bind] again so that I don't have to say it out loud.

"Does everyone agree with this plan?"

They all nod.

We are going to kill Crown Lord Este.