Lustrous silver hair, with a pair of deep and sharp red eyes. His posture was proper and held bearing of that of nobility and a dashing warrior. As expected of the second male lead of this world.
"So, Milord. What did I do to be interrogate like some criminal?" Ether asked right away.
"Human Slavery."
"How many times do I need to tell you that it wasn't me."
"They told us that you will bring them to the ones who bought them. Is that not make you a slave trader?"
'This is not going any further.' Ether thought. "I want to play prisoner for some time, but as we speak right now, the real slave traders might have escape by now."
Clarence's thick brows narrowed. "What do you mean by that?"
To their surprise, both the handcuffs in her hands and the collar chains in her neck disappeared. The two guards, including Melchor, unsheathed their swords.
'The anti magic cuffs and chains! How in the world did she?!' Melchor eyes widened. While Clarence remained calm and seated in his chair. However, his right hand was already at the sheathe of his sword, ready to pull it out whenever Ether attacked.
"I just want to meet you and gauge who you are." Ether said with a huge grin on her face, "Don't worry, Milord. We will see each other again from time to time from now on." She said and disappeared in front of them.
***
'Hmm... Ruth, so that's the second male lead of this world,' Ether let out a yawn as she walked now casually with the crowd. Her attire started to change once again, to a brown commoner woman's dress. The knights around the area who were wearing the same uniform as the ones who captured her, seemed in a frenzy, however instead of capturing her, they simply walked passed her.
The bustling city town of Rhoda. With merchants selling every kind of their products.
{Ether!}
A woman's voice resounded in her head all of the sudden. It was no other than the goddess of misfortune that she thought she would only hear after she visited some church worshipping this goddess.
'Ruth?' Ether said telepathically.
{Why did you leave just like that? Did you forget that you need to save him?}
'Hmm.. he looks fine to me though. And why are you able to talk to me now? I thought I will only be able to talk to you once I go to a church?'
{You can say, I have some power increase right now.}
'Increase in power?'
{Never mind that. The good thing is that I will be able to talk to you directly now without going to church. But why did you leave like that right away?}
'Ruth, what exactly do I need to save him from? His heartbreak? From a sinister monster? He looks fine to me though and can even interrogate and do his usual duties.'
{...}
Ether was only met with growing silence. 'So you can't tell me exactly.'
{No, it's alright. Actually, he is someone who no longer has the will to live. He looks alright on the outside, but he is becoming more of an empty shell on the inside. He is a kind person and he doesn't deserve to have a life like this. If he continues to live a life like this, he will only harm himself and cause his own death. I can't be directly involved with him, no matter what I do.}
'Hmm… It's still vague to me. But I can see now what you are getting at. Don't worry, I'll look after him now that I have seen him.'
{Ether!} A cry resounded in her mind.
'Stop crying so easily and have some dignity, Ruth. You're still a goddess after all.'
{Sniffles.}
'If he puts himself in danger, I will know right away and will come to his rescue. For now, I will do some other things first.'
{Some other things?}
Ether stopped in an alleyway, and walked inside it. 'This land you gave me, has a lot of problems to fix. How can I focus on him, when my land is literally on the brink of bankruptcy? And there might even be a coup d'at next if things continue to become like this.'
{Hehehe. Sorry that's all the land I can get for you to live on. But don't worry once I got more power, I will be able to help you more!}
"Hah. Alright. alright. Since I'm quite bored, I decided to give a hand to make this land prosperous again.'
From left and right there were poor people in shabby clothes lying on the ground. A pungent smell lingered in the air, but Ether ignored all of this as she continued to walk ahead. She finally stopped when she reached the end of the alleyway.
There stood a worn-out building with signage of Cloud Bar. She climbed towards the flight of stairs, and her clothes once again changed to the first clothes she wore, when she arrived and fought that monster earlier.
***
Inside the bar, it looked completely torn. The walls had colored red liquids splattered on them, and it seemed it was already dried for a long time. The chairs and tables were a mess and broken. And on the counter were nothing but broken shards of bottles, and glasses. The only light in the place was a lamp that was flickering from time to time.
Twelve muscular men were gathered inside. And looking closely at their appearance, they were the supposed slave traders that were escorting those old people before they ran to save their lives from the stampede.
"Damn! I couldn't believe that we lost all our products like that!" The leader of the men said as he slammed both his fist on the table, breaking it into two.
"And that pesky lord, even got all of them! What is he even doing in this remote town! I thought he was in the city!" He roared in anger once again.
"What if you sneak them all out, Jabo?" One of his henchmen said.
"Sneak them out? Hah." Jabo, the leader of the slave traders, gnashed his teeth. "We don't stand a chance. We will ask the buyer, to give us more time to gather the slaves he wanted. And now that he was also in this town, we need to be more discreet with our actions."
*Boogsh!*
All of them held their weapons out when the door of the bar exploded.
"Interesting, it seems all of you are in a not so good predicament?" Ether entered the door. A huge grin formed on her lips as all the men inside glared with hostility at her. "I might be able to help you."