Subjugating her might be difficult, but it would be oh-so-fun too.
“In that case, why not allow me to go and acquire the Dark Lady for us?” Lust offered.
Pride looked ready to shout her down, but Wrath beat him to it. “How do you plan to reclaim the Dark Lady?”
“It’s simple. I’ll infiltrate Alyssium and lie in wait. When the Dark Lady finally arrives, I will capture her before anyone can realize that she is there.”
The council conferred, which basically meant they shouted to be heard over everyone else, who were also shouting. Lust didn’t partake in their idiotic form of debate. She never did. Instead, she listened as they argued over her plan, combed through it as if they could somehow discover a flaw within it—or, in the case of Pride, tried to deny her this mission because it would hurt his—well, his pride. She took it all in, hiding her smile behind a haughty veneer.
In the end, they could not justify a reason to not let her go.
“We believe this is the best choice to reclaim the Dark Lady,” Wrath said. “Therefore, we shall let you travel to Alyssium. However, because you fought the hero and nearly blew our cover, you will not be going alone. Pride will go along with you.”
So, the oldest fart of them all is coming with me? That’s fine. This will give me the perfect chance to exterminate him.
“If that is this esteemed council’s wish, then it shall be so.” Lust smiled at Pride. “I look forward to working with you.”
“And I’ll be keeping my eye on you to make sure you don’t screw up again.”
“Of course.”
The black figures, thought-transmitted images, vanished one by one until only Lust was left. She gazed around the council room, envisioning how magnificent this place would be if it became her private throne room. Given time, she was sure she could make that vision a reality. Everything was going according to her design.
She was leading the council around by the nose, and they didn’t even know it.
***
Lust met up with Pride a day after the council decision, and the two of them soon set off on their journey together.
It was rather uneventful.
“Oh, my! Look at how beautiful this necklace is! Do you think it would look good on me?”
“Why the hell are you asking me?! Can’t you just shut up?! And stop attracting so much attention to yourself! What are you?! A whore?!”
“Well, someone is in a grumpy mood.”
They were wandering through a small town, which Lust did not know the name of. It was located in Terrasole and was about 10 days travel from the darklands.
As Lust placed the necklace she had been admiring down, Pride scowled at her. His aged face made her think of dried parchment. Meanwhile, his rail-thin body, which appeared to have been made of twigs, was clad in a dark cloak. Bright silver hair jutted from his head at odd angles. His pink eyes created an odd contrast to the rest of his face. Like all dark clansmen, he had pointy ears, but they were currently hidden beneath his hair.
“Every town we visit, you always go off and begin shopping. What is wrong with you? Can you not show at least a modicum of refinement? You act like a barbarian.”
“Better to act like a barbarian and have fun than a stuffy old man whose claws have been clipped,” Lust replied with a shrug.
Pride’s scowl became even more fierce.
They eventually found an inn at which to spend the night. Attached to the inn was a simple pub that only served a few items, like flaked meat pies and beef stew with curds and whey.
Lust spent most of her time flirting with the young waitress who, despite telling Lust that she was not into women, still ended up falling prey to her clutches. That was the thing about youngsters. It didn’t always matter if they were heterosexual or not. Beauty was beauty, and Lust was rather prideful of her looks. She was confident in her ability to seduce even straight women.
“You are disgusting.” Pride curled his upper lip as he sat in the stiff wooden chair.
“And you are a gross old man,” Lust shot back as she leaned in her chair like it was a throne, thrusting out her chest and grinning as several men from across the table eyed her.
Dinner wasn’t what Lust would call fantastic, but it wasn’t bad either. She ordered a stew with roasted pig belly. As she ate her food, she smiled at Pride as the man sniffed the food several times.
“Checking for poison?” she asked.
“I don’t know how humans can eat this garbage.” Pride’s scowl was something to behold as he ate placed the cut of beef in his mouth. “It isn’t even cooked right.”
Lust said nothing and simply enjoyed the meal, pretending to be heedless of Pride’s suspicious stare.
The next day, the two of them set off again. Pride had come into her bedroom and nearly choked to death when the man saw the young barmaid and several other men lying naked in her bed. He’d scolded her something fierce, but Lust only smiled, which seemed to infuriate the man further.
Two more days passed before Lust decided it was finally time to make her move. Pride had been keeping a suspicious eye on her for the longest time. However, even he could not be on guard constantly. That time came when they were traveling down a deserted highway that stretched out for several kilometers in either direction.
Pride was walking ahead of her, his eyes staring straight ahead as if he was trying to ignore her. She produced a dagger from her sleeve and wandered behind him. Before he knew what was happening, she thrust her dagger into his back.
Or that’s what should have happened.
Before Lust knew what was going on, her body slammed into the ground as something pressed down on her. It was as if the world had suddenly been dropped onto her shoulders. She gritted her teeth and struggled to look up.
Pride sneered at her. “Did you really think I did not know what you were up to? The others might have been fooled, but I’ve known all along that you’re nothing but a traitorous rank whore who does not care for the ideals of the Dark Council. It seems biding my time and waiting has finally paid off. Now I can kill you and the council will not be able to say a thing.”
Lust struggled to stand up, but it was nearly impossible with so much weight pressing against her.
“So… this is… Suppression Magic? H-how frightening.”
Suppression was the name of Pride’s magic. It was simple in concept but complex in how it worked. His magic basically allowed him to suppress all living things. She’d never seen his magic at work before, so she hadn’t known what to expect, but it definitely lived up to its reputation.
“I wonder what I should do with you?” Pride said with a grin as he walked around her, secure in the fact that she was unable to fight back. “Given how you murdered my father, I definitely need to take some form of revenge before killing you. I even thought of raping you, but then I realized you would probably enjoy it. So then… what shall I do?”
“How about you… let me go?” asked Lust. “Haven’t you ever heard the saying ‘forgive and forget’?”
Lust tried to push herself to her feet, but the moment she made the attempt, the ground beneath her cracked as the weight on her shoulders increased even more. Her face slammed into the ground. She released a pained groan as blood welled up inside of her mouth.
“Ha ha. You are a funny one.” Pride’s laugh was dry. “However, there is no forgiveness with me. Hmph. I suppose I should just kill you. Then I can string your naked corpse to a horse and have it run across the kingdom. That will be a fitting punishment for someone like—hurk!”
Pride’s words were abruptly cut off when he stumbled. He placed a hand against his mouth and coughed several times, falling to a knee. When he removed his hand, it came away stained with blood.
“What…?”
“There are quite a few poisons in this world, and not all of them need to be consumed,” Lust said as the man started coughing again. More blood spilled from his mouth, splattering against the ground as she stood up
and grinned at him. “There are poisons that can infect people through skin contact, airborne poisons, and of course poisons you can put in food. I like the airborne poisons myself. Quite a few of them are odorless, tasteless, and you don’t have to apply it manually. Just let someone breathe it in. The only problem is, they take a few days to work their way through a person’s bloodstream.”
“So you… you poisoned me…? How? I didn’t see you… release—hack!—release any poison into the air!”
“You do know what my magic is, right? Oh. I suppose you don’t. You never did learn how my magic works even after I killed your old man.” Lust giggled as she mocked the man. “A pity.”
“Bitch…”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
Pride tried to speak, but he was no longer able to. Blood spewed from his mouth the more time passed. Lust watched with a grin as his legs and arms weakened, as he fell onto his face, and as his body began twitching. After he stopped, she tapped his forehead with her toes.
“Are you finally dead?” she asked. She received no response. “Good riddance.”
With a tap of her foot, Lust created a large hole beneath Pride’s corpse, and then closed the hole back up after he fell in. With a soft hum, she continued on her way. It was unlikely that anyone would find out about what happened here.
CHAPTER 2
ALYSSIUM
It took a month and a half to reach Alyssium. They probably could have gotten there sooner if they’d gone straight from the village to there, but Enyo had wanted to help several people along the way. Fellis might have been upset, but Enyo thought it was obvious. Heroes helped people. What’s more, if Jacob had been with them, he would have helped these people. Since he wasn’t there to do it, she’d do it in his stead.
Getting into Alyssium was surprisingly easy; all they had to do was dye Enyo’s hair again. She also changed her eye color using light magic to bend the light around her eyes. It took effort to maintain, but she was pleased to say that no one recognized her.
They had also changed their outfits.
Fellis was now wearing black pants that hugged her frame, a long-sleeved white shirt with a tan vest and a black trench coat thrown over it. She had complained about not being sexy enough, but Enyo thought her sexiness was the problem. The woman invited too much attention.
Alyssium was not quite what she had pictured it to be. Walking along the paved roads, turning her head left and right, Enyo took in the sights and wondered where all those rumors of golden buildings and jewel paved roads had come from. Certainly, Alyssium was beautiful, with its well-maintained roads, aesthetically appealing houses made of brick and tiles, and the many smiling faces of its citizens. However, it wasn’t anything special.
As they walked through the street, stall vendors called out to potential customers, saying, “Buy our amazing products for a limited time bargain.” Stores showcased their latest wares in windows. The scintillating scent of delicious food wafted from food stalls. On any other occasion, Enyo would have loved to explore the place.
But this wasn’t just any occasion.
“Here we are,” Fellis said. “Alyssium. It’s a lot smaller than I expected the capital of Terrasole to be.”
Indeed, while it was a truly massive city, it wasn’t gargantuan like Tallus Caelum had been. Surrounded by a large wall, built into what seemed like several tiers with Avant Heim in the center of it all, Alyssium appeared no larger than Altus or Albany.
“Let’s find a place to gather information,” Enyo suggested. “I want to find out if there’s been any sightings of Jacob.”
“Do you really think Jacob will be here?” Fellis asked. “I don’t mean to be rude, but he was fighting against Lust. She’s a member of the Dark Council, one of the people who control the Dark Lords from the shadows, and is not to be underestimated.”
“Jacob is fine,” Enyo said. “I don’t care who that lady is. There’s no way he would lose to anyone—and you can laugh and tease me about having confidence in my future husband all you want. Go ahead. I dare you.”
“Tch!”
For the past month and a half, Enyo had been subjected to Fellis’s teasing. Whenever Jacob was brought up, Fellis would say something to try and invoke a reaction from her—and it worked more often than not, but Enyo was catching on. She wasn’t going to let Fellis’s teasing affect her anymore.
Their first step for gathering information was to find a good bar. However, bars didn’t have a lot of patrons until later at night, and it was midday right now. That meant they had time to get a feel for the city.
Enyo spent that time well, wandering the city with Fellis, pretending to be a tourist who was visiting from a small village several days away. Just like she’d expected, Alyssium was built into three tiers. The bottom tier was the market and lower-class district, the middle was the residential district where the wealthy lived, and the upper tier was the location of Avant Heim, which was surrounded by another gate.
Walking into what appeared to be a village square, Enyo was drawn to a large crowd of individuals who stood around a man standing on a platform—a teller. It looked like he was going to announce something important.
“I wonder what they’re going to talk about,” Fellis said.
“Let’s find out,” Enyo decided.
Walking into the crowd, she and Fellis listened to the teller as he read from a sheet of parchment. “Hear ye! Hear ye! The one known as Jacob Stone, the Hero of Terrasole and Slayer of the Dark Lord Alucard, has been arrested for treason.”
A shockwave rippled through the crowd. Whispers broke out. People began talking in hushed voices that grew louder over time, until a threnody of loud shouting echoed across the plaza. Enyo barely heard any of it.
Jacob was arrested? What?
“He was traveling alongside the thief who stole an important treasure from the royal family, and he has fought against our paladins many times since joining up with this thief. Jacob Stone has become a traitor to the crown and the people of Terrasole. Thus, he has been sentenced to life imprisonment.”
Enyo felt like someone had just clenched her heart in an ironclad grip. Meanwhile, the many conversations around her gained coherency.
“Jacob is a traitor? Impossible!”
“How could our hero be a traitor?”
“What do you mean? Don’t you remember how he abandoned us?”
“That’s right! He disappeared when we needed him the most!”
“I bet you he was conspiring with the thief to steal from the royal family all along!”
“There’s no way that can be true! Jacob saved my parents and I during the invasion!”
“He’s a traitor!”
“He’s innocent!”
A line soon formed, a division between the people. One side remained steadfastly on Jacob’s side, but the other side, which slowly grew as it gained more fervor, believed what the teller was saying. That side, fueled by anger, began to shout down the other side. As the people, clouded by an unusual rage that felt unnatural, became angrier by the second, Enyo felt more and more like she was drowning in a sea of negativity.
“Come on,” Fellis said, and the sound of her former servant’s voice and the feeling of a hand grabbing her own snapped Enyo out of her fugue. Fellis pulled her along. They left the plaza, journeying further away until the voices vanished.
Enyo was still in shock. She couldn’t get those enraged voices out of her mind. Were humans really like this? That anger, that rage, that vitriol—it had almost felt like they were members of the Dark Clan suffering from bloodlust. Beyond that, however, there was…
“I can’t believe Jacob was arrested,” she mumbled. “How did this happen? When did this happen?”
“We’re not going to find that out by idling around,” Fellis said. “Let’s find a place to stay, and then we can work on gathering information about what happened.”
Enyo nodded. “You’re right. Of course you’re right. Let’s do tha
t.”
Going off in search of an inn, Enyo’s thoughts went out to Jacob. She hoped he was okay.
INTERLUDE II
A QUEEN’S ANGER
Alice stormed down the hall of a largely unused section of the castle. This area, which consisted of giant arched hallways and living spaces reserved for guests of the crown, only had a few people present—seven, to be exact. This place, Avant Heim’s west wing, was where the White Council resided.
Behind Alice, Listy walked on silent feet.
The White Council was the advisory council of the royal family; it was their job to disseminate information gathered from across Terrasole, report it to the king or queen, and advise them on the best actions to take.
For many centuries, this method had worked fine. However, ever since Alice had taken up the crown, a division had appeared between her and the White Council.
When the White Council gathered, it was always within the private meeting room located in the west wing. Alice reached the doors, behind which the White Council sat right this instant. Two guards noticed her approach and saluted.
“Your Majesty!” they announced.
“Open the doors,” Alice said without pause.
Upon hearing the order spoken with such an authoritative voice, the guards could do nothing but obey. They pulled on the handles and opened the double doors. Alice stormed in.
She glanced around the room. White walls with golden murals depicted Terrasole’s glorious history. A domed ceiling was painted to look like a clear blue sky. There was a round table in the center of this room, and sitting around it were the seven members of the White Council.
Alice did not know their names. The White Council, upon accepting the position, took up one of seven names based on their virtue. Most of them were old men with wrinkled skin and wizened appearances, but one of them was a young man with black hair, and the other, a young woman whose bronzed skin gave her an exotic look.
“Your Majesty,” one of the older men said as he stood up. “We were not expecting you. Is something the matter?”
Journey of a Betrayed Hero- Volume 2 Page 6
