Hey hey people! Quick announcement regarding my next work and quite likely the one after that. On discord we'll be holding a vote to see what I'll work on next, I got three ideas for a story but I want to know what you guys would like to see first. So if you could spare ten seconds please join the discord to have a voice in this vote~!
Anyways, enjoy the chapter!
Discord: https://discord.gg/tQ5TWbYd9t
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[If you're reading this I'm likely already dead]
"Ehhh?!" Felis screamed aloud as Ivan read out those words. She disregarded his seating and directly lunged over his head to get a better look at the letter. Ivan in the meanwhile carried a mischievous smile on his face while staring at her expression. After several minutes the curiosity that once permeated her being completely receded and instead appeared as boredom.
She shot Ivan a glare before sighing disinterested, still, she returned the letter to him and hung her body on his shoulders. If it wasn't obvious already Ivan made up that line to deceive her, smiling mischievously when it worked perfectly.
And unfortunately for her, the letter wasn't as nearly as interesting as she thought it was going to be. Sure, it was a bit uninteresting but there were aspects of it that caught her attention. Her tail tapped Ivan's cheek as she urged him to read. And who was he to not oblige? He allowed the others to gather around before clearing his throat to read the letter.
[Hello, Ivan. I am writing this letter in hopes of it reaching you ASAP. To keep it brief, things have gotten weird since you and your group last appeared here at the kingdom. As you instructed, I've given the information regarding the liberators to Aiko-sensei. She seems to have taken the info well. When she asked me where I got it from, I told her from Paracelsus. She had planned on gathering the class and warning them of the possible machinations of the holy church, except— the same day she asked everyone to meet for lunch, she vanished.]
The note extended to another page from there. But Ivan allowed the others a brief amount of time to gather their thoughts or discuss with each other. As for Ivan himself, he thought about that last part quite a bit before halting. He assumed there would likely be more information regarding her disappearance on the next page.
'But disappeared huh…' It was too much of a coincidence if it was truly on the same day of the meeting. Someone did not want Aiko to divulge the information to the students. The question was who? It had to have been someone who knew the truth, that crossed out all the students. Leaving the holy church or perhaps even the kingdom.
How did they know Aiko planned on divulging the information? Why didn't they stop Hajime from telling her in the first place? Whoever this mystery force was, they had gathered enough info in that short span of time to conclude.
It was likely a large organization with numerous informants. They targeted Aiko but not Hajime who was the first to pass down the information. With that, he assumed that whatever this force's plan was it was dependent on the students as they were now.
'What were they afraid of…?' Ivan wondered.
[That wasn't the only odd thing either. For the past few days, eighty percent of the knights have been acting weirdly. They are either despondent, unresponsive, or former shells of who they had been. So much so that it even garnered the concern of Captain Meld. But something more suspicious was that even when he brought up that concern to the King, the King just brushed it off. That's when something even weirder happened, the princess disappeared!]
"Aiya, it's one thing after another over there huh… And here I thought they'd be living peacefully after we took care of Freid." The force that had possibly brainwashed the knights and likely even the king went completely unnoticed. Only now did Hajime take notes of the oddities surrounding the kingdom.
To Ivan, the chance this was an act by the demons was very low. Freid was the only demon with ancient magic, according to both him and Cattleya. Before meeting at Gruen he only had one ancient magic. That being the monster creating magic. While he could have made a beast capable of manipulating minds, it would be nearly impossible for it to go around the kingdom entirely unnoticed.
Not to mention its mind manipulation powers would have to be very strong to manipulate the minds of knights who exceeded the average human's power. The kingdom had an always active barrier that made it impossible for either monsters or demons to enter. Three layers that got stronger the closer to the kingdom they were.
It couldn't be deactivated even if the king wished for it. It had to be broken for any monsters or demons to enter. Repairing it would take days, not to mention its destruction would be marked by the sky shattering. All of the students would have noticed it.
"The force responsible for this is deeply rooted within the Kingdom, so much so that they couldn't even be noticed by the King."
[Ishtar has been by the king's side the whole time, whispering instructions and telling him what he must do to defeat the demons. Call it an assumption but I think he's connected to this somehow. He even told the King not to worry about the disappearance of the princess. Ishtar told me and the rest of the students that Aiko had left on a mission to save the farm fields of another city. I don't buy it, Aiko-sensei wouldn't just leave us without saying a word.]
"All right, I might've just narrowed it down as to who the culprits might be…" From day one Ivan couldn't trust the Holy Church. From day one he noticed the power the Pope held over the King.
As he noticed before, the force that is manipulating the kingdom went under the radar. Ivan assumed in the case of the Holy Church it was a matter of trust. Slowly they brainwashed the forces of the kingdom and now their power had grown so much it became noticed by the students.
To keep the students under control they refused to allow their secrets to be spread, they took Aiko as a warning to Hajime to not expose the truth or else someone close to him may be taken next.
The matter of how they were brainwashed could be alleged to the long-standing history of the Holy Church. Who knew how many relics and artifacts they kept within their vaults from the centuries of reign they had over humanity. The only thing that didn't make sense to Ivan was the disappearance of the princess.
If Hajime was correct in his letter the King was under control before the princess' disappearance. The princess vanished only a few hours after Aiko. Could she have seen Aiko getting abducted and chose to step in, getting caught and captured as a witness to their crimes?
[Please Ivan, I know you said we were even now but at this rate our class is going to die in some war as pawns of bastards! I send this message in hopes that you'd help us out one more time. If you get the chance, I ask that you come over and aid us. Please save Aiko-sensei.
—-Sincerely, Hajime Nagumo]
"The bastard added on that last part knowing it'd get to me huh…" Ivan sighed as he finished reading the letter. In his mind, he berated Hajime for sending such indiscreet messages to his home. There was a chance whoever was monitoring the actions of the students observed the letter during transmission.
Going as far as to name drop and throw-around accusations made him a clear target. Ivan wasn't sure if that was a part of Hajime's plan but in the end, he already made the decision to go. If the Holy Church did kidnap Aiko then stopping by and raiding their Divine Mountain was a good excuse to take their ancient magic as well. Seeing as how it was the home of the Holy Church odds were that's where they were holding her captive.
"So… we're moving on to the next dungeon…?" Yue caught on to Ivan's thinking, voicing his plans aloud to the rest of the group.
"I guess, though, we'll also be making a stop down at the kingdom to check up on a friend of mine. He's been pretty paranoid lately so I'd like to see if it was deserved." Ivan sighed again. This duration he spent home training with the others may as well have been considered a vacation.
Sure, he wanted to clear all the dungeons as soon as possible but after taking a moment to sit down and relax the motivation to get started again always needs some help getting revved up again.
He got up from his seat, neglecting the hanging Felis who had remained attached to his shoulders throughout the whole duration. It wasn't for any particular reason, even if Hajime had made his note with urgency Ivan intended to go at his own pace.
"In two days we're going to the Kingdom. Odds are we're going to be in some kind of conflict with the Holy Church. But I wanna save that conflict up until we conduct our attack on the Divine Mountain. With that we'll enter the city in disguises, I'll land the airship close by and teleport us inside for the rest of the way."
The rest of the group nodded. If it was scheduled for later that day then they might've had some complaints. But in two days they could deal with it. It's like the weekend before a workday. They were over halfway done with their journey anyways, three dungeons remained and they knew the definite locations of two of them.
One being the Divine Mountain and the other being the Haltina Labyrinth. Schnee Caverns was the only one they haven't been anywhere near, nor have they seen. Odds were there was some sort of trick like the Melusine Labyrinth. They'd save it for last because of all that.
It seemed more interesting that way.
'Conflict with the holy church…' If Ivan could help it he wanted his affiliation with the Holy Church to end once the Divine Mountain was cleared. After that, he would have no reason to ever interact with them again.
How that affiliation would come to an end depends on what happens that day. Would he have to wipe them all out just to keep his peace? Or could they come to an amicable end?... The latter was likely never going to happen but it was good to hope.
I mean, who wouldn't want peace?
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Happy 100 Chapters! Anyone wanna gimme a dollar on my ko-fi...? Jokes aside here's my thanks message. I wanna thank everyone who made it this far. When I started writing this over a hundred days ago there was a doubt within me whether anything I put on the internet would even be worth looking at. Would people hate what I create? Would people hate me? These were just doubts. But hey, I'm glad we could make it this far without giving up. And I'm also glad that this series has had relatively positive feedback throughout its duration.
Of course I wanna also thank my patr.eons for keeping me afloat. If if weren't for you guys I'd probably be unable to afford decent food that isn't takeout. So hey, thanks very much guys~! Though of course my thanks extends to you all.
As a send off, thank you all for reading. I lov-- Bleh, my toes curled typing that! I appreciate you guys... that sounds much better. Take care of yourselves, love someone who'll love you back, and have a great evening. May we continue to enjoy weeb shit together for the foreseeable future.
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