As Jessa sat in her room, going over the reports of the day, an uncharacteristically blurry shadow appeared, materialising into the form of Martis who had undertaken a special mission earlier. Jessa lifted her head, but slightly frowned upon seeing the haggard expression of her lieutenant in front of her. Wondering what could have made the normally unflappable and eminently capable Martis look that way, she asked, "Martis, what happened?"
"Ah, Jessa-sama...that girl is too terrifying, too terrifying!"
"Eh...? You mean the new adventurer girl whom you went to recruit? Isn't she the same A-rank as you?"
"Ah, A ranks are A ranks, but sometimes there might be a need for a special A rank, you know?" Martis blabbered nonsense as his eyes clouded over, looking as though his soul might attain eternal peace at any moment.
"Calm down and explain everything to me properly."
"Well, the short story is I succeeded in recruiting her."
"And so? Why do you look so haggard then? Isn't it a mission success?"
"Well, I suppose you could count it as such. But the whole time I was talking to her, I didn't feel like I was treated as a 'threat'. I felt like a 'prey that could fight back'."
Jessa's eyebrows arched at Martis' words. She implicitly trusted his judgement. If that's how he felt like, there was no doubt that that was exactly how he was being treated. She then asked, "even though she's the same A-rank as us? You felt that level of condescension?"
"Ah, no, Jessa-sama. It wasn't condescension. It was hunger. She almost wanted me to try attacking them so that she'd have an excuse to swallow me whole. That was the feeling I got. Neither of the two are normal. Her attendant is B-ranked, but I felt that I could only win against her if I went all out and fought with my full strength."
"And Ava herself?"
"Ah, if I didn't immediately run away after entering battle with her, I'd be dead in an instant for sure."
"...isn't that more like an S-ranker?"
"That's what I'm saying! I have no idea how her battle strength and instincts have been honed to this extent that the pressure I experienced from looking into her eyes feels like I'm staring down an S-ranker!"
By this point, Martis was on the verge of yelling his confusion. The poor man had been scared so badly that his composure was all sorts of broken. Jessa sighed, wondering just how her reliable lieutenant had been reduced to a gibbering mess. She asked, "so she'll be an excellent war potential then, if what you're saying is accurate?"
"She will. In fact, I think she'll volunteer to go head to head against the S-rank squad. Ah, one more thing..."
Saying this, Martis' blanched and his face went white at the reminder.
"...that girl, her [Killing Intent] is unnaturally heavy."
"Oh?"
"She released it for a moment when I said something flippant to her. It's the kind of [Killing Intent] whose weight goes beyond just being a
"Was it worse than that S-ranker a few years back?"
"Well, I was only B-rank then, and he only did it as a demonstration, but...it was much worse."
"Sss," Jessa sharply inhaled, wondering just what kind of circumstances could make an A-ranker's [Killing Intent] heavy to such a point.
"Well then, thank you for your hard work and your report. Please go rest. It seems like you need it. Oh, and, what's the plan concerning her from here?"
Martis shrugged helplessly, saying, "she told me to meet her at the Oris Inn two days from now. I also have to bring a map showing her a designated meeting place and an image crystal with records of the exterior and interior of the house. I think she's planning to use her [Spatial Magic] to teleport there."
Jessa raised an eyebrow, almost shocked that Martis was planning to just follow Ava's orders, but she understood that Ava and her attendant were existences that they simply didn't have the authority or power to order around. She put her hands together, thinking for a moment, then said, "alright then, go retrieve them and meet her. Let's put together a meeting with some of our top people as a show of good faith. I don't think we can afford to lose their cooperation."
"Certainly, Jessa-sama. I feel the same way."
"Of course, I will be there too."
"J-Jessa-sama??"
"How can Her Majesty's closest aide not be there if it is to be a show of good faith? Of course, the Empress herself cannot move easily, but if it is me it should not be a problem."
"A-alright then. I'll make the arrangements."
"Thank you, Martis. And hey...go back to your normal self soon, okay? It's not like you to be so shaken."
"You're right. I shall endeavour to regain my composure."
Saying that, Martis melted back into the wall. Jessa sighed and decided that it was time to make some arrangements regarding Ava and Rea. It wouldn't do if everyone at the meeting was briefed beforehand on them, and she needed some of them to be sacrificial lambs to probe and test the two newcomers to at least demonstrate some backbone.
"We won't be spineless. Otherwise, how could we even hope to go up against the Empire?"
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Two days later, Jessa and the other main faces of the rebellion waited in silence at the designated meeting place. However, while Jessa herself was relatively composed, not everyone was so patient. Arlo, a burly-looking [Goa] seemed to be irritated by the wait. [Goa] were a race of muscle-bound, sexless people who focused on physical-type skills. They could not learn magic-type skills. Thus, they had extremely high [HP], [PWR], and [DEF] stats, and the stronger they got, the more small horns they grew on their forehead. As for how to refer to them...they didn't seem to care if people used gendered or non-gendered pronouns, but between [Goa], the pronoun used was "fer". Although, it wasn't allowed for non-Goa to use, as it was a term of respect within the race. In wider society, [Goa] simply accepted whatever pronouns were used by the populace, which, due to gender norms, was typically "he/him".
Arlo growled, "so, what kind of big shot are we here waiting for? That we need all of us and even Jessa-sama herself to meet them?"
"Patience, Arlo-dono. We're meeting a potential newcomer who has strength equal to us here. I've gathered us as a show of good faith, since they're not from the Empire and have no real reason to help us," Jessa responded calmly.
"Fah! We'll see just how strong they are when they get here then," the hot-blooded Arlo retorted.
Jessa simply smiled wryly. Things were going according to plan. She had indeed hoped that the hot-blooded Arlo would create a bit of a commotion, prompting the observation or participation of some other members here. She wanted to show the newcomers that they wouldn't simply fold to intimidation, and that they had the backbone to support their ambitions.
A moment later, an oval portal opened close to the door of the room. Three shadowy figures emerged, revealing themselves to be two [Vallen] and a hapless [Nocturne]. Of course, this was Ava, holding Rea's hand and clutching the unsteady Martis by his arm as they stepped into the room.
"Ara, what a gathering," Ava said flatly, looking around the room at the gathered members.
Martis disentangled himself from Ava, then said formally, "everyone, this is Ava-sama and Rea-sama, our newcomers. Ava-sama, Rea-sama, from the left, it's Arlo-dono, Catel-dono, Mishky-dono, Remil-dono, and Hura-dono. Seated at the very end there is Jessa-sama, aide to Her Majesty Freya dis Rodania. Besides Rea-sama, everyone else is A-rank."
As Jessa watched, Ava's eyes swept across the room, her piercing gold irises never waning in their strength. As her eyes landed on Remil, they widened for a split second before she opened her mouth, saying, "Remil-dono, son of Remi-san, the owner of Oris Inn? Your mother has taken good care of us. I extend my thanks."
Remil looked a little shell-shocked, before responding, "ah, you praise us too much, too much. It was my mother's dream to run an inn for herself. It's such a small world, huh? I'm glad you found it to your liking."
A growl came from the Arlo who could no longer stand it.
"And who the hell do you think you are? Aa? Show some damn respect, all of us here are the leaders of the rebellion, got it?"
"Shut up, trash," with barely a moment passing after Arlo starting flapping his mouth, Ava had already shot back derisively. It seemed that she hated people who threw their weight around pointlessly. In truth, Arlo was a meticulous person. However, his hot-headedness ended up working against a lot of the time as he could never subtly test people - it always came out in this way.
"What the hell did you just say to me, you little shit?"
"I said, shut up, trash."
The faces of some of the other leaders ended up looking ugly as well. Arlo, while known to cause trouble often, was a respected member who always obtained excellent results in his work. They couldn't stand for a newcomer to badmouth him that way. In a flash, though, Jessa understood, seeing the slight smirk that made its way onto Ava's lips. She too, was testing them.
"Really, what a scary girl..." Jessa said in her heart.
Arlo had had enough. He instantly dashed forward and wound up a punch. Before the punch connected, though, Rea had already stepped up to intercept. Two black whips shot out from the sleeves of her dress, and wound themselves around Arlo, their sharp tips pointed at his skull. A sharp intake of breath could be heard. Everyone had heard that Rea was the only below-A rank in the room, yet she had efficiently restricted Arlo's movements, seemingly with leeway to spare. Of course, it was also due to Arlo not seriously trying to kill the two, only using a normal punch without releasing his
However, Ava's eyes instantly went cold, and everyone in the room suddenly had the mistaken feeling of being stared at by a hungry predator. Despite that, Catel and Mishky stepped up. Catel was a [Rochur] like Freya, but he was a forsythkin. Forsyth were six-legged mammoth like animals that lived in the colder regions of [Illrya], and Catel had the remnant tusk on his chin. On the other hand, Mishky was a [Slira], and he had a more fantasy-classic magic sword and shield. The two of them rushed towards Ava, who smirked at them.
In the next moment, that unbelievably thick and heavy [Killing Intent] covered the whole room, arresting everyone's movements. A moving voice then rang out, "everyone, please select your enemy carefully. Or you'll die."