Rose felt like her world shattered further apart as the unexpected monster returned to the scene of the crime, almost as if she never left. But why? Wanda’s ass, how did they end up with this level of misfortune?
She felt frozen as Hector bled out, his lifeforce fading.
“The first thing I see when I get back is prisoners escaping,” the girl said, shaking her head. “And with someone in cuffs. Well, whatever you did to get yourselves locked up is none of my concern.”
She pointed her black wooden wand at Rose and the others, dissipating the magic they gathered. The girl had knocked Gwendolyn unconscious with a single spell, then destroyed the lightning horse and carriage afterward. “Now it’s back to the jail you go, detained.” She kicked Gwendolyn into the cell. “I’m sure Father will probably execute you for breaking out.”
The aura of the girl didn’t show, but Rose felt terror nonetheless. Her muscles froze only for an instant as her mind snapped, reminding the woman that her brother bled out.
The girl looked down at him. “Too bad, he’s dead. For attempting to help a detainee escape, you’ll be joining her in that cell and executed. Unless…”
The fear numbed as Rose simultaneously summoned her spell book and called upon the fires of condemnation. Or so she tried to, but nothing happened. It was as if she tried to squeeze a giant ball through a small tube.
“You tell me where the hero is,” the girl said. “And this Raider. I’ll heal this man with this.”
She pulled out a white and blue decorative bottle. Rose sensed its mana, eyes widening. A royal grade revival potion. If she made this offer, then her brother wasn’t dead as she expected. She dug deep into her mana until she was barely able to sense a flicker of lifeforce.
She didn’t give a damn about the hero, he could die in a hole for all she cared, but Raider. She really didn’t want to betray him.
That was when Rose realized this question was a trap. If word got out that she knew of the whereabouts of these people, perhaps the entire time, she and the entirety of her family… well, they’d still be in the same situation, only known to the world as traitors to the kingdom.
Boiling hot rage filled the woman’s veins as she desperately forced her magic through the murkiness of the girl’s… Princess Ling’s non-aura. Her sheer presence. But no matter how much she tried, nothing happened.
“Ah, are you still petrified by the sight of my pet?” Ling asked. With a handwave, the tiger vanished. She misunderstood the strain and confliction on Rose’s face. “Now, do you know or not? I surely hope I didn’t waste my time returnin—”
Ling found herself jumping out of the path of a massive beam of purple magic. Anzu knelt down at Hector’s side, feeding him a healing pill. A very expensive one.
Ling placed her bait potion presumably back into her storage ring, but she made no move to interfere with Hector’s healing.
“It looks like we’re out of time. I can hear the executioners approach,” Ling said cheerfully. “So, maid, how about it? Do you know where I can find the hero or this Raider? I really don’t want to stay in this boring excuse for a city.”
“I do not,” Anzu replied. “No one does. What’s the point of a secret identity if it could be deduced so easily?”
Princess Ling tilted her head for a bit and sighed. “I was hoping someone here either knew the person or had the capacity to figure it out.” She hung her head in defeat. “Guess I was wrong. I used your brother’s injuries as bait to bring the truth out of you. Either you truly don’t know or there’s something else holding you back. Luckily for you, I’m not in a torturing mood. I wasted many days searching like a fool to further my grand ambitions. Ugh!”
“Your royal highness, your father ordered you to meet him,” Anzu said, her voice without emotion. “Your actions with killing the Gaston has ca—”
“Accusations without proof is punishable by death,” Princess Ling said, her voice tinged with a cheerful warning.
“You were sloppy,” Anzu continued without missing a beat. “You left traces of your aura behind. Perhaps leave the assassination jobs to real assassins. Now, go meet your father or I will make you. Last warning.”
“Fine, fine, you don’t have to be so pushy,” Ling said, pouting. “I’m sure eliminating an obvious security threat is bringing no tears to anyone.” She looked at Hector and winced. “Except that guy.”
She walked over and poured the royal grade potion on his arm. Before their eyes, it grew back.
Rose was about to sigh in relief when Ling did the unthinkable. She pulled the arm off his body, the snapping and ripping loud in Rose’s ears, and tossed it into the air.
That distraction only registered as Rose took her last breath, gaping hole in her chest. She stared at the sky, eyes wide.
“That’s for lying,” Ling said. “You do not lie to your future Lord Ruler.” She spat on Rose’s corpse and walked away, ignoring Anzu’s magic as if it didn’t exist. Her Dao radiated pure terror now and not even the S-ranked adventurer could stand it. “Be grateful I’m letting the rest of you live. Now back to your jailcell.”
An unknown force pulled the Wingston family into the building as Anzu forced one of her most precious healing pills down Rose’s throat.
“You’ll live,” she said softly as Rose was sucked into the building. “Crippled, but alive. For a magician, it may be a fate worse than death. At least at first.”
Hector, unfortunately, was also crippled, a state in which magicians lost access to magic, sometimes painful due to injury or just a dull version of being mortal. That crazy bitch had no intention of outright killing them. Rather the opposite. She wanted to make their lives a living hell, and whenever she felt like being in a torturing mood, the lunatic would surely come for them.
Anzu stood, dusting herself off. The S-ranked adventurer had very few of those healing pills remaining. A-ranked dungeon prizes that cost the lives of some of her former party members, but while some may feel they were wasted, the business owner simply wanted to reduce death in the area as much as possible. She had no real way to stand up to Ling or the Lord Ruler, but there was still time to get the Wingstons out of here. The Lord Ruler was still eating at the restaurant, lost in thought, and even instructed his executioners to take their time building the platform. Some of them were even allowed to eat with him.
“I should find some help.”
Anzu tried to open the door, only to be rebounded so fast, she slammed into a building, the darkness of unconscious coating her vision.
Ramon opened his eyes from meditation, shuddering as he felt Ling’s aura all the way from Wingston. Normally, his first instinct would’ve been to gather all of his party members and get as far away from the madwoman as possible, leaving everything behind. That was the old Ramon, somewhat of a coward. However, he was no longer that same idiot. Or at least, he tried his best.
Living within the vicinity of Master Nate, observing his actions and lifestyle, and choosing to take responsibility for his indirect mess-ups like Drew had taught him a lot. But the true eye-opener emerged when he interacted with the master magician. It felt like speaking to someone from another world and really, he doubted he was worthy enough to be within eyeshot of him after all of his screwups. Being given the undeserved honor of receiving his training almost opened Ramon up to fanaticism, but he remembered all of the vocal lessons from the man. All of it could be summed up in multiple ways, but the biggest was perhaps respecting one’s self and those around.
He hurried out of his room, opened the door, only to find his entire party waiting for him outside of his house, lightning horses ready. They… were dressed as the Cheat Force. Ramon had no choice but to oblige.
Nate had only left a few minutes ago. They should be able to catch up and assist.
“We owe that man many debts,” Ronica said, her voice full of determination like the powerful magician she was.
“Let’s go, hurry up and put on your gear,” Iris said.
Kelvin nodded.
“Alright,” Ramon replied. “Let us go.”
Upon approaching Wingston, the feeling of dread increased, as just a hint of two massive auras slammed into me, before vanishing. Whoever they were, I did not want to fuck around with them. Shit, I thought the Black Knight and the fallen angel were strong, but these two stood on a different level.
The troll undead was likely close to or as strong as the fallen angel, but not as smart or skilled. I bring up the fallen angel as a baseline of strength, since she took on all of us as a group, forcing everyone to push beyond their limits.
I checked my potion inventory, nodded in satisfaction, and looked at Milia.
“We aren’t here to fight,” I said, caressing her face. I pulled Raider’s cloak and mask from my storage ring and put it on. Milia did the same. “Hopefully just a rescue. But you know how things are.”
“You really… are soft,” Milia said. “Which is why you’d better not get yourself killed. I will not marry another.”
I looked at her but couldn’t see an expression behind the mask. She had a grip on my hand, almost if afraid I’d jump down and never return. I pulled up my mask, giving her a reassuring smile.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t as soft as she gave me credit for. I’d do what needed to be done, even if I didn’t enjoy getting sucked into other people’s shit. That was one of my minor reasons to why I stood against the system. It wanted me to do its goddamn dirty work like a good little boy. Yeah, fuck that. The dark lord or whatever they called him, could shop at my shop and I wouldn’t blink an eye, as long as he didn’t attack, threaten, or really, interfered with me, my friends, or the town.
“I’ve got your back and you’ve got mine,” I said.
“Like always,” Milia said.
“Beakwing, land in that forest, there,” I ordered. “Standby, we may need you to take us away, buddy.”
Beakwing grunted his response.
I considered swooping down, grabbing, and leaving, but without knowing Gwendolyn’s location, risking everyone as an airborne target felt pointless. Instead, we entered through the surprisingly empty main gate, after taking a potion of masking. People seemed to be heading somewhere, my guess being the public execution area. The mood felt grayer than Florida’s fucking hurricanes, goddamn.
“Do you have any idea where they’d hold her?” I quietly asked Milia. We took a left path and moved on an empty street.
“We’re moving toward a jail, I believe—is that… a body?” Milia said, changing the subject so fast I almost had whiplash. I soon noticed it and we rushed ahead. Anzu.
As if things couldn’t get more interesting, I suddenly felt familiar presences outside of the city.
“What’s this world’s cursing again?” I said. “Wanda’s ass. Eh, it doesn’t roll off the tongue as well as fuck.”
Milia stared blankly at me.
“Anyway,” I said in a low voice. “The hero’s party followed us, so there’s that.”
Milia sighed. “Well, it can’t be helped. Extra hands will be needed if things don’t go smoothly. Which they probably won’t.”
We gave Anzu a healing potion.
I made the mistake of leaning back on the door. It exploded with power, and I almost expected to get the same treatment as Anzu, but nothing happened.
“I think either Anzu absorbed most of the trap magic or you’ve outgrown her in power,” Milia said as she shook the restaurant owner. She was wearing a maid outfit, by the way. I didn’t understand why, but judging people’s… interests wasn’t my forte.
The door suddenly burst open.
“They took Mother away!” a girl I recognized as one of Gwendolyn’s children cried. One of Mandi’s middle sisters.
I didn’t move, eyes wide, but also not surprised the entire family got arrested. But unguarded? What the fuck?
Well, the door was spelled…
Anzu finally woke up, groaning as she rose to a sitting position. She looked like she was about to cry when she saw us. “Y… you’re here. Oh, thank Wanda, we need you.”
“Take a deep breath,” I said. “I’ve got a plan, one that doesn’t involve fighting. There are two freakish masses of power we can’t fight and prefer to avoid. Talk, maybe, but not fight.”
“The Lord Ruler and his daughter, Ling,” Anzu said.
“She actually came back?” I asked, nearly stupefied. “Why would she come back? Just what is she trying to accomplish, other than increasing her body count? Never mind, let’s get the fuck moving. Gwendolyn’s running out of time. Oh, and just a reminder. I’m not doing this out of charity.”
“We’re well-aware that you’re not some hero,” the snaky girl said. “We will pay, of course.”
“Good,” I said.
What? Are you really surprised I actually want to get paid for getting involved with people’s shenanigans? Perhaps they had a treasure that could help me with the shop.
