"A duel?" A puzzled Stella asks
"Yeah, a duel, a classic 3 versus 3, winner's conditions will be met..." Sora said aloud infront of Stella and the Princess, the black haired woman paused in place. He then activated some sort of circle and pulled out Cynthia's sheathed sword. Cynthia then observed to see that it was locked in the sheath with some sort of magical constraint, she did a little bit of analysis and poured a bit of mana into the lock, and then flick it open and closed it afterwards.
I pulled my bag out of the circle as well, a few illegal things in there such as some stolen magic rings and daggers were missing, but everything I owned was still there, including the jacket and phone.
"...And why must we abide by the rules of a man who has slain our people right before our very eyes? why must we listen to people who are willing to use power to silence those who are right?" The princess said something unpleasant, in which I respond.
"Right? you think you are right?" I retorted. If there was one thing I hated more than Yuuki's self-absorbed, heroic personality, was other people following his example. "You are making us obey you because you defeated us?" I stared at the black-haired woman and then said "No, you didn't defeat us..." I pointed towards the lady in black and said: "She! defeated us, and therefore, it is proven that only she is capable of defeating Me, Cynthia, and Feru..." The princess raged at my answer, and said: "That's absurd! Lady Luna is capable of disarming anyone, but she isn't strong!" I laughed at that pathetic attempt to save her skin.
"What defines a victory from strength is entirely different, princess..." I made a wry smile as I calmly approached her, the guards and Yuuki's team couldn't move an inch to stop me. Completely paralyzed by the fact of what would happen if I were ever to die. "Sure you are strong, but have you actually won a battle between life and death, a battle not for one's victory, but a battle in order to live another day? Have you ever lived a life like that princess? Cutting down the lives of others just to keep your own?" She didn't back down.
"Scared princess? Scared to show your citizens and the heroes that you aren't exactly your position of power?" She made a disdainful look, but deep down I could still see her true feelings, and what I said wasn't a lie to her very conciousness...
"You are an arrogant hero..." she said as she pushed me away, I steered back a little bit.
"I was never given the choice to decline, wasn't I?"
...
We were given exactly 3 hours to prepare for the eventual battle. Me and Cynthia were given the free will to walk around town, but not unobserved. They planted Lady Luna to watch over us, and let me tell you she isn't exactly a talker. She had been following us for the past 30 minutes silently observing us from behind her jet black glasses. 'We should try and lose her...' I thought, trying to see if the mind link between me and Cynthia were still working in proper order.
'Master Sora, I think you should refrain from thinking such provoking thoughts, especially against her...'
'What? why?'
And immediately I found out why, as I turned around to look at her, she was furiously tapping a holographic screen that was momentarily on her wristband, disappearing like a misty cloud into the wristband.
'Shit, never considered she could have [Detect thoughts]...' I was nervous over the fact that she could be observing not only our physical capabilities as a team of 2, but also our cooperative abilities with magic. Before that flash of anxiety could appear before my face, I heard something uncomforting.
"Hey you!" 2 city guards approached me, and ho boy, they weren't happy. They began cornering Cynthia and then said stuff like: "Are you this beast's owner?" that degrading statement almost made me wanna launch at the guy, but Cynthia seemed unfazed. As if she had already gotten used to said words, which I'm pretty sure she must've already. Before the situation got complicated, I pulled out my guild card and lied about some stuff about how she was purchased.
"Hmph, to think a lousy kid like you got a woman like this..." The guards were scowling at me, because this whole time both of them had their eyes on Cynthia, and it was offensive to me because I'm the only one who's got any right to stare. I then pushed them aside and said: "While you must excuse me, me and my slave here are getting late for our employer's appointment..." The guards just shrugged off and continued their patrol, god I'm grateful that went well, otherwise we would've been in serious trouble if we hadn't.
Lady Luna however, came closer to us, and I was beginning to sweat gallons. She took off her shades, and revealed her eyes. They were black, but not the normal black, her pupils were entirely black. She then dragged us into a corner and began speaking to us in a rather familiar tone...
...
"Greetings, Sir Sora..." She bowed politely as a greeting, and of course I nervously bowed back. Cynthia just stood there as we bowed, and then said: "Who are you?" abruptly.
She calmly smiled as she held up my wrist and poked it slightly, as she held her finger point momentarily on my wrist, I felt a sharp pain surge through it. And Cynthia must've detected it too, before she lifted her hand up. I then checked to see if my hand was in any sort of damage, but surprisingly it wasn't too damaged. She then proceeds to "taste" her finger covered in my blood. God, I swear almost every woman in this world isn't as cheery, sweet, or even loving as the women in my old world, but then again there was Rebecca...
We waited for a response, she opened up her holographic screen on her wristband, and began doing a quick filter, for what reason she did so I did not know. However, interestingly enough there was a weird ding sound when it stopped filtering, momentarily I saw the photo of a small child where the filtering stopped. Lady Luna placed her hand above her mouth, right before closing the image. She coughed in front of us, and then said: "All units, please report back to Pavillion Selune for breaking news..." Her eyes glew a strange bluish color and then suddenly dissipating into a dark black, She then said: "Excuse me for my sudden leave, but I request that you must attend the duel without trying to escape. The queen may not like murderers, but she does like some of them who hold honor above all else..."
She made a small smile right before taking off in lightning speed. Me and Cynthia were confused, but we certainly hadn't changed our objective.
"We are still gonna go and duel Yuuki and the others..." Cynthia suddenly stops me, and says that "Sora, remember what the queen said?"
'Absolutely not! As the royalty of these lands, only I can make the rules! and my rules are-' I groaned louder than a toad, "Me against Yuuki, The Princess, and Stella..." I completely forgot about those rules, not to mention they said I couldn't have my stuff back even when I-
"Wait!" I immediately recalled the memory with prestine clarity. I remembered Micah giving me mercy by saying, "It's not fair your highness! If we are truly going to become heroes for all! shouldn't that also apply to some that can redeem themselves!" Everyone in the room groaned at the time, but the queen suddenly began thinking silently, and then declared one final time...
'Very well. As an act of mercy from the heroes, you can and only will, proceed with your 3 on 3 duel, If you can find another willing participant...' I thought it was gonna be easy, but for some reason Angela and Maxwell were suddenly being fluent in conversing with guards, I dunno what their topic was, but I was sure it was about me. Because I find extreme difficulty in trying to find an adventurer willing enough to go with me after hearing several "rumors" surrounding me.
There were only 2 hours remaining until the fight, so I needed a member, and quick...
And like the universe heard my call for help, suddenly out of nowhere, Cynthia grabs my hand, "Master!"
"Well, we meet again in such an untimely hour..." A smooth voice echoed throughout the alley way. And I knew that voice, because I heard it before, back when I first recieved one of my greatest allies...
"Magnus"
...
"Come in! Come in! It's so wonderful to meet you both again, and my dare I say, has my little gift for you grown!" He smiled at Cynthia, she smiled back. Had I ever taught her how to show courtesy? Never the less, I knew what I was willing to pay for a request I was going to ask. While he was happily chatting away with some of his goons on the other side of the tent, I coughed politely to catch the trader's attention, and he instinctively turned around to face me. "So, I caught rumor that you were going to face the heroes in a 3 on 3 duel?" He smiled devilishly, as if he already knew what I was about to ask of him. I sighed in defeat and began dragging out my coin, and plopped it on his table. "What's the best you can offer me for this?" He then poured the sad scraps of copper and silver I had been saving up, he couldn't help but shake his head in disappointment.
"Look, Sora, you can't expect me to give you something of similar value to Ms. Cynthia just by showing her in great condition..." I grabbed my coin purse and the began slowly sliding the coins back into the purse. His eyes twitched for a moment and then said, "All right! all right! I'll give you something, just wait a moment..." He walked through a tent flap and then silence ensued as we waited at the front of his desk for more than 5 minutes.
As he pulled back the flap, he then exclaimed: "Well, here's a combatant that'll suit your quick fighting needs..." He ushered in a hulking brute that pushed in a small child, and I began to observe the product.
The slave was a boy, which made me comfortable to know I won't end up like those harem protagonists I've commonly seen in these stories, although despite that the reason it was hard to distinguish his gender was because of the lite amount of black feathers growing from a lot of disturbing spaces. A large black beak occupied the space where the mouth should've been, and his oddly humanoid eyes had yellowish pupils. His arms weren't the normal human arms either, rather they were bird like wings with little nubs at the tip of each joint. As you might've guess as well, his feet were instead black talons.
"This was one ravenous black harpy we caught on our return trip to Delacour, out of all the survivors from that nest, he's the only one who could put up quite the fight against skilled swordsmen, and an Adventurer Magician." The bird child tried to peck me but I looked at it with serious curiosity, like, how was it possible for this bird child to evenly fight against armed men and a skilled magician.
"How much for the bird?" I asked as I pulled out my coin purse from the my belt, the bird child began growling at me, Cynthia began growling back and the bird silently crouched lower, I never thought Cynthia could do that. In fact, there's a lot I don't know about Cynthia even after the time we spent together as master and servant...
Magnus then pulled out a quill from underneath his desk and began writing down on a sheet of paper, "It's settled then!" He stamped the paper, and then motioned the man holding the bird down to put a collar on his neck. Cynthia remorsefully watched as the bird struggled in absolute pain as we began the infusion process, a process that only works on very stubborn products. And one I have to acquaint myself with in the future
"Alright Sora, do you know how to flow mana out of your body?" Magnus asked "Yes, I do..." He clasped his hands together "Wonderful, now, all you have to do is simply pour it out towards the product, and the collar will administer you as the product's new master..." I held my hand up towards the bird child, I concentrated hard on the process, suddenly Cynthia pushed me out of the way without warning!
The bird child pounced on her right as I was pushed aside. She began to hold the bird down by it's wings the child angrily tried to peck at her, but to no avail, she was significantly taller, and had more strength from dealing with more than birds.
Magnus tried to help in taking care of the bird, but after 10 seconds of constant wing flapping and talon kicking, the turbulence of it all died down. Me and Magnus began to wonder why, and to my surprise the bird seemingly calmed down in silence. Cynthia stood up carrying the bird child in her arms. I began sensing the bird's emotions, and there were several colors that showed in his body. In the upper half, there was a peaceful, calming sky blue, which I'm sure meant he's in a state of calm-minded, flight. And in the lower half there's a pinkish coloration, and only after that one trip from bringing Arthur back from a brothel did I know what the emotion "pink" meant.
Cynthia had a calm scowl spread across her face, because If I could see the colors of emotions, that also meant she could as well. What worsened it was the fact she also knew what each color signified.
Before things got any more awkward, I began pouring a little bit of my mana into the collar. Afterwards, I silently paid Magnus 30 silvers and coppers for the bird and we left without saying a word.
...
There was only an hour left before the fight, and this bird already got the idea of what his purpose of purchase was for. During the afternoon, we tried a little bit of team coordination exercises by defeating several goblins in a nearby forest, the bird easily caused the goblin groups to disperse and spread out, with his terrifying talons he managed to take down a majority of the goblins living within that area.
While he was doing that Me and Cynthia were preparing a light, yet energizing meal. Cynthia wanted to assist me in this because she wanted to learn how to cook and prepare meals by herself, because the strain of making a meal in this world was quite different from making one with gas stoves and readily available metal pans. However, I came prepared by using a perfectly clean slate of stone that I found earlier through procastination! Cynthia didn't take my definition too kindly though.
And after letting our bird clean up the massacre of goblin bodies, we began eating up the meal, Cynthia resorted to teaching the bird some manners as he was very sloppy when pecking out the leaves of the meal. Of course, it politely followed the instructions Cynthia taught it and happily gulped it all in a quick second. We began packing up our stuff as the 30 minutes nearing the match was almost beginning, on our way back we found something quite peculiar.
"Whoa, what's this?" I exclaimed as I tripped on a strangely oval rock, that seemed to had a strange coloration of blue, and red polka dots covering the lower base of it. Cynthia and the bird both backed away as soon as I held it up in curiosity.
"Master! put that down!" Cynthia exclaimed while the bird tried using it's nubby wings to cover it's tiny beak. I began shivering in both excitement and fear and asked: "What is it, Cynthia? Do you kno-"
"It's a dragon's egg..." She silently spook. It took me a while to understand what she said, but my mind was panicking when I did.
"A dragon's egg?" I asked, both of them nodded their head's in unison. Ho boy, this was bad, even if I know how cool being a dragon trainer is being like from video games of same logic, I can't earn daily the unfathomable amount of money I would have to spend just to keep it well maintained, not to mention only pure dragons, according to Feru, are the only ones capable of laying eggs. Therefore, this was a pure dragon's egg, which meant it's pure dragon father and mother couldn't be far behind. However, a horrid stench overcame us as we came across same egg, so I sent the bird to search for the source and just as I had theorized...
There was a body of black lizard, with wings. Laying coldly on the ground as certain birds of all shades of black try to consume and peck through the hard scales and it's leathery wings.We began moving closer towards it, just a little form of investigation. Me and Cynthia managed to deduce that it must've recently died, maybe about an entire week or so. The bird became suddenly interested in pecking out it's eyes, while me and Cynthia began wondering if we could use it's dead body to craft materials for ourselves, however, we discovered that a majority of it's scales have been peeled off.
We all looked in horror as the dragon suddenly began rising, the stench of it's sudden ascent caused us all to back away silently, but quickly, however it began making a strange noise...
"My..." it mumbled as it tried standing on it's now decayed front legs, right before it fell back into the ground. It's deep green eyes stared directly at me, and with it's own right as I am holding it's egg "...you..."
"You reek of that... Murderer..." It spoke clearly as it continued to stare down at me. I held up to it it's egg and said: "Here, do you want to have you egg back?" I gently placed it down in front of it, it sniffed the egg using it's extremely drilled out nostrils. I closed it's eye lids slowly before letting out another sound...
"...take it with thee, demon. As I, cannot..."
It silently laid there as we all saw it's silent descent. Because of that last statement, I was confused. Because one, Cynthia and I were sniffed out by Feru to not have any demonic essence, so therefore, we aren't demons. Yet, the possibility of our new member being a demon, is there. Another theory is that perhaps the fact that I might be considered the demon-like out of all of us because of the powers of Greed within me, which somehow couldn't be picked up by Feru. Either way, there is evidence that one of us is a confirmed demonic force. And this came from a pure dragon, so we are screwed if an some sort of church agent finds out about this.
Cynthia mentioned that there was a form of burial that dragons usually perform for one another upon one's untimely demise. Running out of time, we began hunting a few spare logs and piling them around quickly around the dead body, then began carving a small runic sentence at one log. She then told me to discharge a bit of my mana into the log with the runes, after a solid minute the body disappeared into a strange bluish light.
She and the bird made some weird bow, which strangely looked familiar to the japanese greeting bow, and got up. I looked at the sun in the sky and saw that we were already running late for the match. We began booking it towards the kingdom stadium, however, half-way towards the pathway we slowly began lighting up, like not in a good way.
Cynthia, Me and our bird slowly began panicking, because we didn't know what was going on, until the light of mana appeared in front of me, which gave me the idea that this was a spell, a timer spell.
Moments afterwards, we all reappeared on a sandy ground, surrounding us were an audience of probably thousands. On the opposite end, there standing was the inevitable trio that was meant to be our opponents. Yuuki, Stella and Leon? Oddly enough the princess wasn't a part of their group, in fact, I saw a silhoutte of same said character sitting far away from right behind the trio. Picture this scenario:
A depressed idiot in a jacket, a wolf-girl with a sword and a un-groomed bird against the very forces that'll destroy the demon lord.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'll be your announcer for today, because today we've got one spectacular event being held right before you!"