“Pass your meat. Please!”
Marcus loudly pleaded with Celica. She did so quietly and kept playing about with her food. Marcus noticed Daryl doing the exact same thing.
They had decided to go out into town to get some fresh air from all the tension in the palace, but the duo wasn’t enjoying the trip. The blonde could see it on their faces and he couldn’t help but feel like they were being melodramatic.
They came out into town to gather some supplies for their trip to Larm, but from the looks of things, they had other plans from Marcus’. The twins, Mika and Nika were unable to join them since Nika had to take care of Mika who was unable to walk.
They’d spent a good majority of the day searching after the resources. Earlier in the morning, there had been a display of intense power. Although the world didn’t speak to them, they all knew who was the cause of that.
The hero they had been following had defeated the demon lord without needing their help. In a way, it made all of them feel completely and utterly useless for being insignificant in the final battle. The were so weak the hero didn’t even call them out for help.
Well, that’s what you get when you aren’t simply loved by the world. None of them had even a single blessing from any gods. Only going by the word of a crazy person that kept popping up out of nowhere. In the end, the biggest mistake they made was believing they were more special than the average adventurer.
Something like that was probably the thought process of both Daryl and Celica now. Marcus could only feel disappointment that the hero didn’t call them for “this” big bad. He had an instinct that told him that he’d be needed for the next one. If he said something like that out loud, someone would definitely knock him on the head for being insane.
They’d assume he was talking about a new demon lord being born. Even they could not refute the fact that a new one would definitely be born, but their excuse would probably be along the lines that this was a different scenario. Even then, he still wouldn’t be thinking about that since he assumed there was a bigger threat than the demon lord out there.
“Hey, Marcus. Can you hear us?”
Daryl snapped his fingers in front of Marcus. It was only now that he heard them talking. Sometimes his thoughts were simply too loud for him to hear or see anything. His vision and hearing returned to him.
“What’s up?”
Celica clicked her tongue distastefully, confusing Marcus.
“We’ve been talking quite a bit over the past few days.”
“Mhm?”
When they started talking, Marcus’ vision went past Daryl, behind him and onto the streets of the market. He saw several people passing by, drawing carts or going around looking for buyers of their goods. What caught his eye was a red cape.
“With your broken arm and Mimi’s… incapability to walk. We think it might be best if we don’t go on this particular adventure.”
“Mhm?”
A cart passed in front of the person, obstructing Marcus’ vision. He tried to look past it, but was left with having to wait for it to pass.
“Why don’t we take a month or two, to heal up mentally. The twins might need it.”
The cart passed and Marcus was met with the sight of a person, about his height. Red cape and hood which covered most of their features and a mask on their face. All he could see about them was their silver hair. She had appeared.
“Marcus. Are you listening to us?”
“Yeah, yeah. A month of rest to recover.”
He got up from his seat and walked toward the streets, but the figure was already gone.
“Where are you going?”
“Can you guys buy more resources? I’ll come back to the castle later.”
He waved them off and tried to find the person.
“Didn’t you hear us? We’re not going on an adventure.”
“Ok, then just go back to the castle.”
He angrily responded and ran off in search of the figure. On the streets he looked all around, but he didn’t find a anything. It was getting rather hard to find her.
Just then, a little child came to tap him on the side. The boy looked quite young and dirty, which was an unusual sight for this particular kingdom, given the circumstances. He pointed towards a cart that was moving and there, he saw the figure in red sitting down while the cartman moved with all his might.
“Talk about heartless.”
He run after the cart, but once he got there, she was no longer around. There were only bags of flour at the back and Marcus picked them up to see if she was hiding underneath the bags.
“Oi! What are you doing!?”
The cartman noticed, so Marcus dropped the bags and run off quickly. He looked up and saw a red cape diving into one of the corners of the city. He grinned and went into the alleyway. There, the person was standing, waiting for him.
“Why were you running about so much? You usually just come up to me and the guys.”
Marcus asked as he approached the person.
“The circumstances this time are a bit… tedious. We have to meet in secret this time.”
“Cause of the guards in the city?”
Dhijan had lots of guards, it being a military nation so most men go into some form of military service once they are of age. As such, it was crawling with lots of guards, making it a city with the second lowest crime rate in the world.
“I’ll let you believe that for now. I have an important mission for you.”
“Seriously? What’s more important than beating the demon lord?”
“You have no idea what kind of fates await this world. Defeating mere demon lord isn’t something you should be celebrating.”
Most would be terrified after hearing such a thing. Not Marcus though. He was excited. His instincts were right on the money. He wanted to jump in joy and celebrate the fact that he was right, but that’d probably make him look weird in front her.
“So, what’s the mission?”
“Fixing your arm and Mika’s legs.”
“How’d you know about that?”
“I’m always watching. Listening. Feeling. There is nothing in this world hidden from me.”
‘Awesome! That’s way too strong.’
“Remember a child you met about a month ago in Keimen?”
“Tori?”
“Yes. She is the key to getting yourself healed. Go to her and tell her I sent you.”
“Eh? But it seemed like she didn’t know who you were. You said you’re her relative, right? Are you like a cousin or older sister or something?”
The masked figure looked at him for a while, before shrugging.
“You can go with any relation you like. Now, this is what you need to do specifically…”
________________________________
“That brat! Can’t he just accept his reality as it is? Humans are so fragile, yet the most bullish race out there.”
The elf raged so much she was scaring the passers-by.
“Come on, Celica. He’s still going through denial, so its not fair to attack him like that.”
Daryl was trying to calm down Celica as they walked back towards the castle.
“If only he could survive a shot to the head. I’d have done it several times to rewire his brain.”
“You really think shooting someone in the head helps change the way they work?”
“Yep. Our great king is a genius when it comes to tinkering with heads with sticks.”
“Huuh… Let’s put that topic elsewhere for now.”
“Eh? Why? I thought you liked it when I start talking about my kingdom.”
The confused Celica asked, but was only met with a frown on Daryl’s face.
“I like it when you start talking about yourself. Helps me to know more about you.”
She blushed and looked away from his face.
“Shut up.”
“That’s not the reason I told you to keep quiet. Look.”
He pointed in an alleyway, there both of them saw “her”, leaning against the wall, holding her abdomen as if in pain.
“Guess the castle will have to wait.”
They both walked towards the figure. They got there in no time, just to see her slump down onto the floor. Her mask was bloodied and there were tears in her outfit.
Immediately, Daryl rushed to scan further for anymore injuries and apply first aid to her.
“Leave me be.”
She, with her titanic strength, pushed him aside and coughed out more blood from her broken mask.
“I’ll be… fine.”
“What happened to you?”
Celica, who never once imagined seeing her in such a situation asked.
“N-New Kyoto Empire… the clan heads. They’re dead.”
“What?”
“There’s not much time. You need to go to the West. Take Shiro Tatsumaki with you. Find Hinotori. Tell her *cough*… tell her, she needs to act before Verm- Vermillion is resurrected.”
<A/N: No chapters next week. Exams are back already. Feels like just yesterday I finished first semester exams... welp, also you can check the comment section for a look at the illustration for Hinotori! Took forever, but we finally got her illustration. And if you like it, I'll commission more characters from this particular artist.>
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter