Rupegia

Chapter 43: Missing Piece – Part 1

Today is the 9th.

We wake up early and I use Alissa for a quick morning routine. Even though I'm still feeling a little drained, Alissa is so good at it that she makes me cum after only a minute.

Well, yesterday was satisfying, though I do feel a little silly. Responding to assault with a demolition doesn't feel like it's on the same level, it makes me feel like I threw a tantrum. But if they escalate this further, then innocent people, or almost-innocent people, will get involved. I'm almost certain that blood is going to be spilled, and I see no easy way of ending this that doesn't involve us exposing ourselves and bending over to the nobles that are after us.

Then we calmly eat our breakfast. Everyone seems energetic and content, Hana hums happily, Alissa is brimming with happiness and Ciel seems absent-minded with a faint smile on her face.

"I'm starting to think you are more depraved than me," Roxanne comments casually.

"What…?" Ciel comes out of her stupor.

"You enjoyed playing with Klein almost as much as Hana did."

In just a few seconds, Ciel flashes through several emotions: anger, realization, shame, acceptance, finishing with laughter.

"So, did she finally accept it?" Alissa asks.

"Seems so…" Hana says with a shrug.

"What about Osaria?" Ciel shoots back with a sharp gaze.

Roxanne breathes in deeply and keeps her eyes on her food. "I don't trust her. I trust Klein, at least I trust Hana, who trusts Klein, but I don't trust Osaria. She reminds me too much of my instructor: aggressive and a little manipulative."

"Your call, Roxanne. If you don't want it, we won't bring her in, there's no problem with that," I say.

"Want to bet that you're going to buckle?" Ciel teases.

Roxanne scoffs and adjusts her glasses, "I'm perfectly capable of being faithful."

"If you don't reject her outright, she's going to keep seducing you and eventually you will fall to her."

"Don't say 'fall', I'm not going to fall in love with her," Roxanne frowns.

"But you will want her body."

"Do you want her now, too? Is that why you're pushing me towards her?" Roxanne raises her eyebrows questioningly.

"No… you can have your fun with her, I don't mind," she lifts her chin and looks away.

"I saw your lip tremble," Roxanne says with a cheeky smile.

Ciel puckers her lips and her face distorts as she tries to contain a smile.

"A-HA! Got you!" Roxanne points to Ciel with her index.

"Don't abuse it, my heart is still too tired for another round," Ciel says lowly to us and resumes eating.

It's best that we don't push this much further or else things will get dangerous.

Roxanne leveled up to 34 and increased her [Fire Magic] by 2 (now 24). She has 8 SP left.

With breakfast done, we return the keys to our room and end our stay.

The imperial soldiers move around nervously while the elven ones remain stoic. The town quickly starts to bustle with conversation as the early workers notice the tenseness and start asking questions.

We reach the north gate by dinghy and see Rande's caravan getting ready.

"Morning, Rande," I approach casually.

"Morning, Ryder," he merely glances back and nods.

"What's going on? The town is too loud for this hour."

"Oh, right," he stops reading the documents and gives us his full attention, "Someone demolished the offices of an imperial mercenary company. I think it's one of those companies bought by the nobles. Nothing special, just some small petty fighting."

"Wow, did anybody get hurt?" Hana opens her eyes wide and asks.

Rande glances at her and looks a little uncomfortable but responds, "Well, no. A little odd though, these fights can easily get bloody."

"Isn't it good that lives aren't being wasted?" Ciel questions with a frown.

"Well, yes," he awkwardly scratches one of his long ears, "But there's little reason to spare them. When you want to send a message, you need to be brutal. Otherwise, people think you are just bluffing."

I look at the girls and they seem to have mixed feelings.

"Anyway, no point in speculating about these things. Gossip spreads fast and the important details are lost along the way," he shrugs and goes back to reading the documents.

We continue towards the front of the caravan and the caravan guards nod to us in recognition. Then we see the commoners in front, most of the previous commoners left and now we only recognize a few. There's a few humans we don't recognize, a considerable number of golden elves, and a few silver ones. The numbers are less than when we left Rabanara, though, so at least Rande is not being as reckless.

Anton, his family, and Rande's are talking with the elven commoners. Anton notices our approach and waves for us to come over.

"There they are, Helios, the main escort. They will deal with the monsters before they even reach us," I hear Anton say as we approach.

The elves turn and their eyes analyze us. I don't see many relieved or confident expressions forming after they make their opinions about us.

"And you are the leader…?" An elder golden elf man questions me as I approach.

I give him my best smile and bow lightly, "Wolf 'Good Luck' Ryder, Scholar, Golemancer, and Summoner."

This gives him pause and he looks at me questioningly.

I roll my eyes and quickly fake chant a light elemental. Ciel looks slightly uncomfortable as everyone stares at an almost naked form of her.

"I see… so Weepers won't be a problem…" The elder elf nods repeatedly, now convinced.

"Wolf Ryder?!" A flippant voice comes from behind us.

A mature Asian woman with fading red hair and a graying, spindly Asian man strut towards us. The woman's gestures are aggressive and she grits her teeth while her eyes try to pierce me. The man is completely stoic and barely seems to notice me as he follows the woman.

The woman's eyes turn to someone else near me, "What did you do to my Dietgard, you sad doll!" She spews.

I follow her eyes and see a pale Lina staring at her wide-eyed. Her whole body freezes into a statue and she even stops breathing.

The mature woman's risque black dress flutters wildly with her movements. Her shapely legs peek out with every loud step as her high heels clack on the bricks. The graying man seems almost like a ghost in contrast to her, with his completely silent steps.

"Madame Helganst…" Lina mumbles.

"What?! I saw your mouth moved but no sound came! How many times did we tell you not to mumble?!" The woman barks.

"M-madame Helganst!" Lina's posture straightens immediately.

"And stop stuttering, say it with confidence!"

Hana and Ciel immediately get in front of Lina, blocking her view of Madame Helganst, and from Hana's shoulder, Aoi bares her fangs. The woman stops very close to both of them and stares at Hana in the eye at the same height. She's tall and her high heels make her look even taller.

Helganst leans her head to the side and peeks on Lina, "Is that what Hilde taught you? To hide behind your bodyguards?"

"She owes you nothing," Hana growls at her.

Helganst rolls her eyes, "Of course, the dragonkin is the one who acts aggressively."

"You need to take a step back," Ciel says with a dangerous tone. She delicately touches the exposed sternum of Helganst with the tip of her hand and pushes her back slowly. Helganst glares at Ciel but takes a step back.

Time to be diplomatic.

"Wolf Ryder, leader of Helios," I introduce myself and bow lightly, I don't think she would accept a handshake. "And you are…?"

Her eyes finally deem me worthy of address. "Helganst Roth," she says curtly to me.

"Friedrich Roth," says the old man softly, making me suddenly remember he existed.

"Roth… Hildegard's Roth family?" I ask.

"Yes… and Dietgard's Roth family," she answers, fuming with anger. The small wrinkles on her face stretch as she scowls.

I force a smile, "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

She glares at me, "Do not play with me boy, I don't skirt around pleasantries. I merely came here to have a word with the slave who dared abandon us and reject Dietgard's offer."

"As her master, you have to go through me if you need to speak with her," I calmly state.

Lina turns to me and holds my hand. "It's fine," she says, lowly.

I see no anxiety in her eyes, only calm resolve. I nod to Hana and Ciel and they part slightly. I take a glance back and see that the elves are watching us intently with curiosity, but after my glance, they immediately turn around and go back to their business. Klein and Osaria are also watching intently and both nod in support.

"What do you want to say to me, Madame Helganst?" Lina asks softly.

Helganst's mouth twitches at Lina's meekness but doesn't chastise her, "Why did you reject Dietgard?"

"I don't love him."

"That's it? Dietgard disappeared from Goldcross due to heartbreak, do you realize how much you have hurt him? How are you going to take responsibility for this?!"

Lina's confidence falters for a moment but she manages to shoot back, "Becoming part of your family is also something I would never want. Besides, Dietgard's ego isn't my responsibility!"

Helganst snorts, "Is this how you repay us for saving you? By abandoning us and turning your back to his affection?"

Lina frowns and gains more confidence, "I owe Hilde a lot and I'm sorry for not paying her back, but I don't owe you anything."

"Insolent…" She snarls and forces herself not to scream, "Where do you think the money to buy you, clothe you, teach you, and feed you came from?!" She hisses, "You run away from us in our time of need and join a perverted boy and his harem! I didn't think we raised you to be like that."

"You didn't raise me, Hilde did. And if you are going to disrespect my… my fiance, then I will be leaving," she glares defiantly at the woman who towers heavily over her.

Helganst seems about to burst a vein, her face turns even redder than her hair, "Fiance?! You used your body to seduce the boy like a damn whor-…"

*Slap!* Helganst staggers back and is supported by her husband. Ciel's face is distorted in pure anger; one hand is on the sheath of her sword, ready to draw; the other is raised high, resting there after the slap.

Helganst immediately straightens up proudly, the only trace of the slap is the red mark on her cheek.

"You have found companions of your level, Lina: animals." She turns around in a huff and struts away.

"We are wolves who eat snakes like you!" Lina yells back.

We wait in silence until Helganst's red blur disappears completely.

"Gih."

"Yeah, but not literally," I say.

"Well… that was interesting," Roxanne says.

"How did she finds us?" Alissa asks.

"I think it was our fault," Osaria says softly with a slight cringe. "Rande used your exploits to convince the other elves they would be safe with us."

I glance at the elder elf man nearby and he shrugs.

"So you announced to the entire town that we were escorting you?" I ask.

"Yes…" Osaria frowns apologetically.

"Not your fault. We never even imagined that Helganst would be so angry at us," I shrug.

I guess this is also how Katasko found where we were sleeping so easily.

Lina hugs Ciel, who calms down rapidly and even looks a little ashamed.

"Oh, yes, that slap was beautiful. I don't think I could have slapped her any better myself," Roxanne praises Ciel.

"That was certainly one of the most painful slaps I have ever seen. The sound was so crystalline and perfect that I must say it was almost musical," Hana adds.

Ciel sighs deeply and looks to the sky, "You're not helping."

"But… thank you, Ciel, for protecting me," Lina says.

Klein loudly gasps at Lina and uses her tail to hug herself, then she gets a little tense once our gazes cross. Anton and Krista seem sympathetic to us and give an encouraging nod.

Rande appears with Nito, who's bringing our horses, and the caravan starts to move past us.

"Here are your horses, Mr. Ryder," Nito says and hands me the reins of the monstrosity.

With a sigh, I mount my horse the same way as before.

Hana mounts hers and slaps the side, "Come on, Klein, get up," she says.

"She should ride in the carriage. Your horses aren't to be used by just anyone," Anton interrupts with a wide, phony smile.

Klein's tail tickles Anton's nose and he nearly sneezes, then a flash of light comes out of her and she dashes towards Hana, now as a monkey. She quickly climbs up Hana's leg and returns to human form, sitting perfectly in her spot.

I help Alissa up onto my horse and hug her tight, "There's plenty of room on these horses, they are far too big for just one person," I say and give my own phony smile.

Anton sends a sharp gaze to Nito who immediately turns away and stiffly walks to the back of the caravan.

With a short grunt, he enters the carriage where Oura, Krista, and a very tired looking Laertes are waiting.

"Maybe you could give me a ride too, later. Sitting in the carriage all day is a little tiring," Osaria comments with a smile, her sultry voice worms into my ear.

I smile at her suggestively, "Maybe…" I answer and guide the horse forward.

The imperial guard who checks our IDs takes a moment longer than normal. His eyes scan through the skill list on all of our tablets. All of them are blocked from sight as any other adventurer would, yet he still wastes time checking them.

Another name for the list.

We exit Goldcross through the north gate. Around us are a few farms with high walls to protect them from the usual monsters since the patrols are scarcer on this side. There's a river that flows from Fort Katakti, far to the west, and then empties into the Loyalist Lake below Ultirei's Tomb.

I slow down my horse towards the commoners and start chanting an area [Swift Foot].

"Oh… much appreciated, young man," says a mature human woman.

I spend a few minutes gathering my mana and finally release the spell on all of the commoners. Nearly all my mana was used, but I have some time to practice my [Redirect Mana].

"Impressive," the elder elven man says with a respectful nod.

The other elves talk among themselves in their native tongue in an excited tone. It does sound like Portuguese to my ears but what they are actually saying sounds like gibberish, so I can barely understand it.

I send a wave to the pleased commoners and head back to the front of the caravan.

As we pass through the farms, the Ultirei's Tomb mountain range becomes more visible. The closer we get the more we see the details: grey jagged rock sprinkled with red from the deeper sedimentary layers, and at the bottom, there's molten rock that had quickly solidified into crude obsidian. The mountain is protected by both the temple and the elves, so it still has all of the small, shining mana crystals that formed due to the high amount of mana everywhere.

To the left and behind the mountain, we see the first trees of the High Forest: gigantic towering trees that make the ones in the Sea of Trees look small. Bundles of thin trees twist around each other, interweaving with each other in a spiral, creating patterns as they reach upwards. Some of them look like springs; others make square, circular, or complex patterns, similar to Celtic knots; some look like greek columns; and a few appear to be abstract art. The elves use the trees as yarn to practice their "tree-knitting."

In front of us, small hills dot the landscape. Between them, small puddles of water hide beneath the tall grass. To our left is the last stretch of the Rakontagne mountain range, the earth quickly growing rocky as the plants die out. To our right is Antano, small dark green oaks start to appear and increase in size, and more to the front and to the right there's the Loyalist Lake where the river we crossed ends. The Lake has some nasty monsters and plants so the road we are taking avoids getting close to it.

The wide road is raised because the soil here is loose and muddy. Even so, the road has to snake a little and rise and fall along with the hills, so it's much harder to walk along it in comparison to the Shore of Leaves' straight path.

There are three informal "lanes" on the road: we walk on the right, the others come from the left, and the middle is left for faster caravans "overtaking" slower ones. With my [Swift Foot], our caravan becomes part of that faster category.

I let Alissa handle the reins while I calmly seek the ambient mana and pull it towards me with [Redirect Mana]. On our left are the mountains, so the mana coming from that direction is very "earthy" with a few hints of "Aoi," which should be coming from the dragons that live there. On the right, we're passing the corner of the wetlands of Antano, so I feel a lot of "plant," "death" and "toxicity." Not the most pleasant mana to receive.

Klein is now wearing padded leather armor, so she isn't as accessible as before, but that doesn't mean she doesn't enjoy being hugged by Hana. She lays her body against Hana's as she watches me with her dreamy eyes, then she turns a little awkward when I look at her.

"What are you doing?" She asks me.

"Refilling my mana with [Redirect Mana]," I say.

"Oooh, what's that?" She leans closer and opens her eyes wide in curiosity.

Alissa maneuvers our horses closer together.

"A skill I created, it allows me to take in the ambient mana to refill my MP."

"Isn't that a huge boon for mages like you?"

"Indeed, it is. We can fight much longer than the average mage because of it."

"So you taught Roxanne that, too?"

"They all know it."

She lifts her eyebrows and twists her neck to look at Hana, who hunches over and makes their faces get dangerously close.

"Yes, we all know it," Hana says softly, her warm breath is felt on Klein's face.

"Feeling a little lonely here," Roxanne comments. Aoi jumps up from Lina's lap and glides over towards Roxanne. "Awn… thank you," she says as she pats Aoi's little belly.

Klein turns to face the front and swallows her saliva.

I brush Alissa's hair while we make our way forward. The road is rather busy, so most monsters get killed before they can reach us. When it's nearly midday, Holly finally detects two Kappatti far away from any caravan or hunter. I decide to use them as test subjects.

Kappattos are small turtle/man hybrids that reach a maximum height of 1.50 meters. They have thick, slimy, green skin; turtle shell covering their front and back, which thankfully also covers their genitals; raised green hair that resembles grass; a beak-like face that is similar to a turtle's; long, frog-like legs that give it impressive speed; and long claws made for shredding and prying open oyster-like animals.

"Roxanne, my summons found two Kappatti, let's go kill them."

She nods to me and slowly wakes up the sprawled little Aoi. I relay my intention to the others and we gallop towards our targets. The monsters are a good distance into the wetland and close to the river, so we try to take a safe path through the drier parts of the hills.

A good 200 meters away from the road, Alissa stops us. A few of the dark green oaks block us from being seen by anyone on the road.

"They are over there and coming this way, slowly," she points to a spot in the distance. My human eyes can't see anything different over there.

"Roxanne, will your sleeping potions work on them?" I ask.

Her glasses shine when she realizes what I want to do, "Ohohoh, yes! The poison will spread quite quickly if we manage to make them absorb it through their gills."

"They are amphibious, so we will need to force them," Alissa says.

"I'll just knock them out with [Lightning Bolt] and splash the poison on their gills," I say.

Alissa doesn't seem too pleased but still accepts my plan. She hugs me from behind and gives me kisses on my neck while aiming my arm towards the Kappatti.

I see the puddle ripple and I cast the spell. Two green monsters appear, one jumps out of the water, while the other just floats in it.

I fire a second [Lightning Bolt], it hits the dashing Kappatto and the monster faceplants on the ground. Roxanne hands me a flask and I cautiously approach it with my shield raised high. With my feet, I expose the neck of the first Kappatto and dribble some of the liquid poison on its gills.

Both Kappattos stir and turn their heads towards us, their eyes brimming with anger. I cast another [Lightning Bolt] at the Kappatto at my feet, then I wait for the second monster to get close enough and cast it again. Now, with both monsters disabled, I pour all the poison onto their gills and wait for it to take effect.

It takes a few minutes and a few more [Lightning Bolts] before they finally succumb to the poison and fall asleep. I grab some rope and Alissa and I tie them up. Their skin is slippery, so it doesn't work that well. I conjure a nature elemental and make her vines become sticky, allowing her to get a stronger grip on the monsters.

I summon an earth elemental to keep watch and approach one of the monsters.

"Right…" I start and breathe in, "I will test [Bind] on this one. If something happens, kill it."

Alissa nods and draws her sword. She holds the sword close to the monster's neck and waits for me anxiously. Roxanne and Aoi stare intently at me, Aoi seems to be very excited.

I do it the same way as before: I cast the spell, grab the monster's soul, and release it inside mine. But this time, I'm prepared for what's to come.

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