At the crack of dawn the six saints left the inn to meet Blakeley.
They left their bags implying that they would come back later.
Claudina and the others met with Blakeley in the jungle's edge. He fidgeted under her stare. She stepped forward while gesturing her had towards him. "This is our dear summoner who almost opened the gateway to void; Blakeley Anderson. He has decided to surrender himself in exchange of our help."
She placed her hand on his shoulder. "We'll be arresting you soon enough." He shrugged of her hand. "Understood."
'Informal swine. What did I expected from a bastard child?'
"Let's go." Anatole led the way inside.
When they entered the hellish darkness Sullivan muttered a spell and blew on his hand causing luminescent moths made of mana to fly out of his open palm. The moths drifted about brighter than Oriane's light orb.
They silently walked with Blakeley between them
"Aww~ I wanted to make butterflies~ But I guess this works too~" He turned to Claudina. "Miss Fairy, do you like butterflies? I'm sure you do since you are named after one." Sullivan slowed down his stride to walk alongside with her.
She had her gaze on the moths as she replied, "I don't like insects. As for my name I try to tolerate it."
"Then do you resent your parents for giving you such a name?"
"I don't. And my grandfather named me after my late aunt who died at one."
"Do you hate him then?" He tilted his head. He seems to be truly curious about her. 'I guess it won't hurt to talk a bit. Besides he reminds me of her.'
She relaxed her expression. She always felt good when thinking about her. "I wonder if he really meant to name me after someone like that…"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You see at the time of when my late grandmother was pregnant with my aunt, my grandfather was seeing his mistress who was also named Claudina. When my grandmother learned of grandfather's infidelity it was after aunt was already born and named. In a fit of rage she not only killed my infant aunt but also herself. Her bloodied hanged body was discovered by my six year old father and his four year old younger brother. After the mourning period ended grandfather bought in the mistress."
She signed. "Apart from a hussy that woman was actually a mentally deranged person. She abused my father and his brother my uncle with a riding crop every time she saw them. The half siblings they had were sold by her to her former clients. And grandfather was in a constant state of lucidity due to her administrating drugs to him."
"Finally after my father came to age was he able to rid of that woman. He sent her away to a remote manor in the countryside while he and uncle nursed grandfather back to health but his mind was never the same. He was delirious most of the time and thinks I am his dead daughter."
She cast her eyes down to Sullivan. "I was named after a woman who caused tragedy to the Crowley dukedom. Out of respect I tolerate the name."
Sullivan blinked before he said in glee filled voice, "You don't look it but you also have your own worries huh?"
She smiled. "Yes. We all have our troubles but we still make do what with what we have. With all we have."
"You're right~" They both giggled with their eyes closed.
"Hey."
They stopped and looked ahead. Shulia and Sylvester were looking back at them their expression incredulous. Blakeley looked of in the distance with a disturbed look as quite unintelligent word spilled out his mouth.
"What?" they both asked.
They looked ahead again with Sylvester mumbling "Nothing."
Shulia asked him in an undertone. "How in the Holy Heavens did you survive with that ghoul?"
"After you have one older and six younger sisters you just get used to it."
"I will pray to Lord Gaia that you live to see thirty then."
After a while they reached the void gate. Shulia whistled at the sight.
"Sullivan you said you saw a void gate once. Do they look the same?" Claudina asked. She has never seen a void gate before and she wondered if in the future she will have to deal with one. Since the saints never meet anyone after they go to retirement she wanted to get as much information as possible. From all the saints Sullivan was the strongest, smartest and the most experienced one.
"Nope~ Void gates vary. The stronger they are, the weirder they look~ and this one is…" He leaned forward to look closely. "And this one is void that will open to a myth grade demon. This is dangerous! We need to seal it up."
The order of demon ranking was the following; Legend, Myth, Fable, Tale, Champion, King, Older, Child, New Born, Imps. And a myth grade was the second strongest. 'I recall fighting with Fable grade demons in the frontlines. A Myth grade…no I shouldn't be too cocky. A Myth and a Fable may be worlds apart.'
"When you say weird what exactly do you mean?" She asked squinting her eyes.
Sullivan stopped. He blinked and tilted his head before facing her. "Heeey~ did you tell me about yourself so you could learn demon exterminating secrets? Tell me the truth Miss fairy," his eyes glinted dangerously "else I will have to pluck of your wings."
'So this is why he was called the 'Silent Death.' Lord Nyx has a two faced saint.' "Yes. Although I was hoping you would not realize it." She smiled.
"Geez~ I have had it with you Miss Fairy~" he whined while pouting. 'Two faced rat. I insulted her in comparing him to her.' "If you want to you should have asked! But now is no place to talk about saint secrets! We need to seal that first!" he exclaimed, pointing to the tree.
She walked past him. "Then promise me to tell everything. Come to find me after we are done."
"Fine~" He clapped his hand for the others' attention. "Everyone we need to destroy the gate~ The first thing we need to do is plug our ears since the first thing the gate would do against attackers is to burst open their eardrums."
Claudina followed the others' example on plugging her ears. Blakeley was asked to take cover before he was handed a pair of corks to plug his ears with.
"Let's draw our Holy swords for maximum damage. The tree will attack us if we attack so look out for its roots and branches~ I am pretty sure they be filled with demon eggs. If that hits you, you would officially become not only another void gate but also a vessel for carrying demon eggs in the future."
"Also note the fruits; those are demon eggs. Be careful the tree will do anything to protect the eggs. So don't careless attack. If they hatch while in the middle of fighting, the next attack priority will be the demon that is hatched. It will do anything to make sure the gate is opened so it will ignore your attacks against it but not the tree or eggs. Got it everyone~ You can use Holy magic or any other spells~"
"Ready everyone~ GO~"
All six of them surrounding the tree leapt up to attack it.
Claudina reinforced her body with Holy magic like armor. She slashed at the roots. Instantly the root rose up, purple wriggling beads swarming at the end. It grazed her armor as she dodged it just in time. Immediately the egg beads sizzled up in smoke.
She smirked. 'Always works.'
She continued with her attacks. The armor provided her ample protection as the roots and branches were mercilessly slain. She was too busy in warding off attacks and dishing out her own attacks to pay any attention to the other saints. And the attacks from the tree came constantly that even if she wanted to she could not help them.
Thankfully none of the eggs hatched and they were able destroy the gate.
After burning the gate and platform, Anatole took out shackles out of his cloak. Blakeley stiffened as he raised the shackles. The shackles glowed with a foggy light. "Apologies but you need to wear this."
He bowed his head. "I know." He stretched his hands and Anatole put them on. "The envoy from Gaiarit will take you with him. Comply with what he says. Your trail will take place in Gaiarit."
'I will send the appeal for some of his sins to be pardoned. I like people like him. He might even be useful in the future.' Claudina had excused herself from the remaining formalities. With a nod to Sullivan she disappeared in the wooded foliage.
After rushing out of the jungle she walked straight to the inn the envoy was staying. Taking out a parcel and a letter she handed them to the inn owner along with a coin. She informed her to give both letter and parcel to the visitor form Gaiarit. Afterwards she came back to her own inn.
She lazed around in her room after taking a hot shower. She no longer went outside unless necessary after that night. She found it bothersome when people started to apologize to her when she's on the streets. Usually she found the sight of someone groveling at her feet to be amusing now she found it sickening. "Those saints are rubbing off on me. I need to get back as soon as possible. I have become soft," she muttered as she absently doodled on a piece of paper.
She heard noises coming from outside so she peeked out the window. The others had returned. Sylvester and the others had dirt all over their fronts. She glanced at the grandfather clock. It was half past nine. They had been sparing all this time!
She huffed back on her chair. She puffed at her bangs. A paper being crushed reached her ears. She looked down at her drawing. In the crinkled paper was a drawing of a spray of forget-me-nots.
A genuine smile tugs her lips. "No. I think you rubbed off some of your goodness on me."
She bought the paper to her chest before dramatically signing, "Ah I want to be in the palace gardens eating your sweets! If I had to go back in time why couldn't it be when we first met?"
When they arrived they all went for a hot shower. Then they sat around in Claudina and Oriane's room discussing their plans on moving forward.
"I suggest we skip the Gull's Land island." Shulia crossed her legs. "There is a ship that directly goes to the northern kingdom from here."
"We could but we still need provisions," Sylvester said. The map was spread out on the floor where he was sitting with Anatole.
"We have wasted too much time here. In the first place we were supposed to finish this job the moment we arrived." Anatole coughed. "But due to certain distractions we weren't able to."
'Not my fault. You were a bastard Anatole and you still are.'
"Then we all agree on directly heading to the northern kingdom?" Oriane asked around.
"Yes but how is going to deal the finishing blow? If we gang up on that north king we can do it," Shulia said thoughtfully.
"I don't think we should take the fact the north king is the only one we need to assassinate." Everyone looked at Claudina. She was usually quite during briefings.
"What do you mean?"
"Remember what Blakeley Anderson said?" She stared at the blank faces before her before Anatole slowly spoke, "That all of his country expect for a few nobles are part of the cult?"
"Yes. What did our investigations of the south said?"
He gasped. "It can't be."
"What?" Shulia looked as Sylvester seem to have caught on. "Those brokers can never be trusted!" he spat out.
"Hey."
"That's no good~ Spreading false information like that," Sullivan cried out.
"Wait, even the oldie got it too?"
"We need to be extra cautions now." Oriane frowned looking down at her folded hands.
"CAN SOMEBOBY EXPLAIN WHAT"S GOING ON HERE?!!?" Shulia yelled. She huffed.
"Shulia calm down."
"You shut up and explain! Don't tell me to calm down when I am already calm!!"
'It's a human volcano.'
"Sit down and I will explain."
She finally sat down with a growl. Anatole signed. "Our investigations are lacking some crucial information. We only knew it was the nomadic tribes in the south that were part of the Arbitrary Abstractions. What we didn't know that it was nearly the entire country that is part of the cult."
"What? How did we not know this?" Shulia's eyes widened.
"That's the thing." Claudina joined. "Not only did we not heard a peep from that country they also spread false rumors so they are not tracked." She sneered. "We are dealing with a cult that worships Ri'sh. We should at least anticipate this from them."
Later on as they settled for dinner, Claudina announced she was paying for tonight's meal so they ordered the most expensive items on the menu.
They were doing everything to forget the upcoming battle. So they drank like never before and ate like kings. Claudina didn't mind. Her pockets were never empty expect for when Duke Crowley punishes her by deducting her allowance. But even then her pockets were full. She let them eat to their heart's content on her dime.
The patrons of the inn also joined in. As there were no more attacks they have also started to relax. Shulia kept on ordering more beer as she challenged everyone in the inn to a drinking competition. Sylvester joined Anatole on his bench with two drinks on his hands. Oriane dozed off on her arms after the first sip of alcohol hitting her tongue.
On a bench secluded away from the ongoing party, Claudina sat by herself champagne glass on her hand. She swirled the red liquid and drank form it now and then. 'You would have loved to join them now wouldn't you? You really saw everyone as your equal even those who abused you. To be honest I hate being compared to those scumbags as I would never treat you like that.'
She looked out the window. The sky was blanked by that stars winked down at her. Some grey clouds moving by the wind drifted across and hid the crescent moon. 'Though I can't remember you I miss you. I wonder if you are watching the same starry sky that I am looking at right now?'
"May I join the lovely Miss Fairy?" A voice broke her out of her thoughts.
Sullivan was standing beside her a mug of beer tightly clutched between his hands. She scooted a bit for him to sit on the bench.
True to his words Sullivan himself went to seek out Claudina.
He raised his pinky finger. Looking coquettish through his lashes he smiled slyly.
"I remember making a promise to Miss Fairy~"
Claudina grinned.
'A business worth my investing~'