Chapter 17: Complications
Renfri could hear her heart racing when Amon stopped just in front of her and looked at her intently but this was no sign of love instead it was pure fear that she felt. This was even worse than yesterday when he 'played' with her, now he looked like he was considering straight up murder.
"What are you doing? Shouldn't we tell her what happened?"
The intense atmosphere was broken by Arthur who was confused as to what Amon was thinking. He himself made it clear that the situation was quite dire yet he just barged in and stood in silence in front of Renfri.
"You're right my bad"
Amon apologised and his serious expression melted away.
"I won't go into details though…"
***
"This…"
Renfri couldn't quite believe how out of hand everything has gotten. She knew well that destroying an entire cliff would cause an investigation but similarly to Amon she assumed it would not only take a while but also not involve them whatsoever. Why is that?
The most important reason is that when you blow something up on a scale of an entire cliff usually not much remains after that. Things such as clothes for example which could be used to identify Ouroboros would turn to simple ash and stuff that would survive it could not even pass as any form of evidence. In short they would need to be seriously unlucky for anyone to find out that they were a party involved in the explosion.
The second reason is correlated to the first one. If nothing incriminating is found but simple rubble then the people investigating it would be forced to rely only on whatever they knew for sure to make guesses. It was not hard to determine that a very powerful form of magic was used as Arthur in his attack used large amounts of spirituality which would definitely leave traces in the form of radiation. That would imply two things, something or someone powerful caused this and that it would be difficult to find out who did this. It's not like someone as strong as to be on a level of an archmage would stay in the city after causing all this, right? Not to mention catching someone like that would be a nightmare. The investigation that would occur should be very shallow in that case and the whole matter would go under a rug quite quickly.
Sadly, the reality was often disappointing and not only was it found that Ourobors was involved but the investigation also pointed to the city as the theory that they came up with was probably something like this:
"Ourobors is known for conducting dangerous experiments and most likely one of them was the cause for the explosion. Let's search the nearby city and the area to make sure no one survived it and contact the Church of Purity just in case…"
No one spoke a word for a long time after realising this.
Amon looked to be in deep thought as to how to salvage the situation while Renfri was still digesting what she learned and even Arthur had a troubled expression as he knew that if they made one wrong move their lives would end.
Renfri was a half demon not to mention Amon. Their end would not be pretty and while Arthur did not know what they would do to him exactly he was still sure that he did not want to find out.
He was a product of a blasphemous experiment and people took offending Gods quite seriously while his very existence was pretty much a spit in their face.
"What should we do?"
Feeling depressed he finally asked this very important question.
"I mean… our situation might not be as bad as we think"
Surprisingly the one to speak was Renfri not Amon.
"They have to search the whole city after all and even though they are likely to put a lot of focus on the Coln district, it's still the largest district in the city. So at the very least we have some time"
She explained her reason and that seemed to energise Arthur.
"You are right! Can't we just cover our traces and leave the city then?"
"I don't think that's a good idea… They would need to be really incompetent in order to not monitor the exits of the city and I don't think that's a good assumption to have considering their progress so far. Our only option is to stay in the city and wait it out somehow…"
Renfri quickly rebuked Arthur's idea and made him understand that simply leaving was not a feasible option.
"But… To be honest I have a weird feeling that the more we try to stay in the dark the more suspicion would land on us as well…"
She had a worrying premonition and she couldn't help but share it which for some reason made Amon chuckle. Both Arthur and Renfri turned to look at him and were confused as to what he found so funny.
"Your intuition might not be wrong. Just think about it for a second. You are looking for people you don't even know exist for sure and unless you want to cause a witch hunt what would you be on a lookout for?"
Amon's question enlightened Renfri.
"People that are nervous. People that are trying to hide all of a sudden or sneak out of the city…"
"Not bad… Then knowing this, what do you think should be our response?"
He genuinely complimented her and asked a follow up question.
"Get rid of all evidence for our involvement with Ouroboros and maybe pretend as if nothing has happened?"
"Also not bad but your idea has too many holes in it. You forgot that people from the Church of Purity are coming and they are different from the priests you know. They have a natural gift for identifying things that are 'impure' and as long as you are in the same room with them they will sense that something is wrong with you. Simply praying that you are not found is too risky not to mention that the investigation would last for some time unless they find something that would satisfy them…"
With a boastful smirk Amon explained why her idea was not optimal.
"Then you clearly have something on your mind already, right? What is it?"
Renfri was not disappointed but instead felt hopeful since she judged from Amon's expression that he already had a certain plan in his mind and sure enough Amon put on a playful smile that she recognised a bit too well when she asked this.
He was about to propose a plan that was either extremely genius or extremely stupid.