-Charm's POV-
"Good thing I don't have any goods with me now, so you can all fit into my wagon."
Jade was the first one to break the silence after several minutes of our silent trip.
At this point, we are all seated on Jade's wagon and already heading towards the city of Belmont.
According to Baal earlier, this is where we can locate the third spring of Deity Ishmael- the worshipped God of Time in the past.
Without Deity Ishmael's presence in this mortal world, time itself was not in its normal state anymore. Day time soon became longer than night time.
"How are you Jade? It's been long since the last time I saw you. Were you attacked again by those goons?"
By the time that I mentioned again those goons that attacked her on our first encounter, I heard her chuckle so loud that I can still hear it here at the back.
"Nah. You nearly scared them to death, that maybe was the reason why I haven't seen them for several days now." she answered in between her laughs.
Aurora, who is seated in front of me, suddenly squinted her eyes in my direction, as if to convey a message 'I thought I'm the only one taunting mortals here?"
"I only did it for them to leave Jade alone." I almost rolled my eyes at her while she still narrowed her eyes at me. "What?"
According to our merchant friend here, it will take us a little bit longer to reach our destination. While we are still seated on the wagon, Baal and Aurora chose to take a nap on the wagon's floor made of planks, while me chose to stay awake and have a casual talk with Jade over here.
Her stories about deities during our first encounter somehow flashed back again in my memory and so I decided to ask about it again.
"You said before that you were going to tell me about the root cause of Witch Hunt. Can you perhaps... tell me now?" I said in a curious tone.
Speaking of which, I forgot to ask Baal about this.
"Oh right!" Jade's tone suddenly brightened up, as if remembering something. "Okay then, I will tell you right now. Just sit back there and relax, because this will be a long story to be told."
I shifted position so I won't have muscle cramps for sitting so long in the same position I had. Then afterwards, I prepared myself to listen to whatever Jade is about to say.
***
"Several decades passed, when deities and mortals are still living together harmoniously in this world, the empire was ruled over by the first known king of Gilead, King Nicholas II, together with his closest friend and the supreme leader among deities- Deity Apollo."
"They were known to be the best of friends ever since childhood. And when they both grew up, they simultaneously accepted their fate to be the leader among their kind. Because of this strong bond that they had, soon enough, they both agreed to rule over Gilead Empire together."
"At first, Gilead was known before to be a country of peace and harmony under their leadership. However, there came a point in their lives that they both fell in love with the same woman who is a mortal. When this woman chose Apollo to be her husband, envy and hatred slowly blossomed in King Nicholas II's heart."
"It got worse when he realized that the people under their empire are relying more on Deity Apollo than him because of the magic that he possessed. King Nicholas felt that his subordinates are acknowledging his friend to be a greater leader than he is."
"When envy and hatred totally consumed the king, he was able to betray his closest friend. He started his plan on destroying Deity Apollo by killing the woman they both fell in love with, and afterwards framed up his friend to gain his subordinates' favor of fighting against the deity for killing one of their kind. Since then, anger flickered like a flame on a candle on mortals' hearts that encouraged them to pick up their weapons against other deities."
"After King Nicholas gained his people's trust and started a war against deities, he was able to kill Deity Apollo with his own sword... thus ending their years of friendship in that instance."
"Upon knowing that their leader was slayed by a mortal, hatred also began to blossom on all deities' hearts that caused them to finally fight back against mortals. And from that, war soon emerged between these two races, and from that war... Witch Hunt was formed."
***
When Jade was able to finish her narration, I became frozen for a second, not sure what to say or react, as I tried to absorb all the information that she provided me that day.
"Wow, it seems that you've summarized a hundred page history book for me! It's as if you've been there to witness the start of war between mortals and deities." I said, totally amazed by my friend over here.
"I like to read about history... a lot. Plus I made a thorough research about the truth that was kept hidden from us by the government." she replied, heaving out a sigh. "I know that deities won't harm mortals without a reason, and that fact caused me to seek for the hidden truth."
I was then startled when the talking tiger, who's lying down right next to me, suddenly got up from his position and decided to chime in.
"Because of what happened in the past, it was then that Deity Apollo strictly forbids any relationships between mortals and deities." said by this feisty creature.
I paused for a second by what I heard just now. How come he didn't tell me about this kind of rule set by Deity Apollo himself? I was close to breaking the said rule upon meeting Lance on Misty Cave, for goodness' sake!
"Anyway, we're here!"
I came back to my senses the moment I heard Jade spoke again in her enthusiastic tone and decided to look up. At this point, Aurora was already awake upon hearing the news that we've already reached our destination.
The very first thing that greeted us is the enormous gate of the city which was made of pure steel. Unlike Citadel, Belmont City's security system here is not so tight that the guards immediately allowed us to pass by their gates in no time. I also noticed that they don't have their magic detectors with them.
This is kinda strange to me. Are they perhaps not interested with the on-going Witch Hunt all throughout the country?
"Welcome to Belmont City, which is known as the second largest city next to Citadel, and the most productive city in terms of trading in the world market." Jade said as we slowly entered inside the mentioned city.
Upon entering the city's premises, we then have a short discussion about Baal's form once again. If we don't want to attract much attention, we really need to change him again into a more harmless-looking animal.
Again, there's no normal mortal who is walking along with a talking, grumpy tiger... right?
We looked for a blind spot where mortals will not be able to see us performing a shape shifting ritual.
"Do I really need to do this?" Baal complained as he stared at us one by one.
"Of course! So stop whining and behave like a good tiger, will 'ya?" I can definitely sense that Aurora is somehow enjoying making fun of the guardian animal here.
"Alright! Just don't turn me into a monkey!" In the end, Baal couldn't do anything but to agree to our request.
"So you want me to turn you into a fish?" Baal swiftly shoots her his sharpest look that he can give to a person. "Kidding!"
With a swing of her wand, we all saw Baal turned into a puppy in a blink of an eye. Even if Baal is visibly annoyed by the outcome of his transformation, he chose not to speak about it. After that, we then decided to climb down on Jade's wagon.
"Again, thank you so much for helping us for the second time around. We couldn't have made it here without your help." I sincerely thanked our merchant friend here which earned us a smile from her.
"No big deal. I'm glad I could be a help for y'all... However, even though their security here is not so tight, I wanted you to take care of yourselves and be aware of your surroundings."
My forehead instantly creased as my brows were knitted together upon hearing her last few statements that somehow gave us a warning.
"Why's that?" asked by Aurora who's currently standing right next to me.
"I heard there's a rumor spreading all over the city right now about this so-called puppet master, who's attacking residents every midnight." the merchant explained.
Wait, what? Puppet master?
As we were about to ask her for more information about this so-called 'Puppet Master', Jade suddenly excused herself and said that she has an appointment with her boss to whom she picks up her goods to be delivered in a nearby city here in Belmont.
So with that, she all bid us farewell before she slowly faded in front of us along with her wagon, leaving us hanging about this puppet master that she mentioned.
Anyway, we chose to ignore her last statements and decided to focus more on our main agenda as to why we are here in the first place.
And that is to revive Deity Ishmael's spring...