We stepped inside Lord Kara's mansion; it's pretty standard looking, a long table with food, a few chandeliers above for light, and a blue carpet that gives a bright color to the room. In the corners of the room sat a tall log that was used like an end table; on each sat a small piece of paper with a quill for writing; in total, four big windows give you a glimpse of the forest surrounding the mansion. Lord Kara's domain is more forested than I first thought, her mansion far from her village. Why did she choose such a seclusion for her mansion?
Something else caught my eye: behind her throne is an enormous statue of Goddess Ifrit. I don't feel good about this; if she is an Ifrit worshiper and saw through our disguise, then it would not be safe to tell her that much.
"Fumiko, you see what I see around the room? Better not tell her too much."
"I won't, don't worry," – Fumiko replied to me over the telepathic network
We waited around the main chambers, and Lord Kara fixed her gaze upon Hana and me. Kara raised her left hand and pointed it toward us, and with her right hand, knocked against the wood throne she was sitting on; the guards turned their attention toward us.
"This will be an exercise, watch and learn from these guards. Once I say go, you will have a little sparing match with them, give it your best shot."
"3,2,1, go!"- Lord Kara shouted, and the guards rushed at us; their movements were sloppy and could be dodged with ease; one punch was all it took to immobilize each guard; they were weak for sure. I can get through them quickly and then deliver a finishing blow, but only if this is a fight to the death and not a mock battle.
Lord Kara's gaze drifted from us to the guards, her expression is pretty telling, all of the guards disapointed her, having a frown on her face.
"That's enough; you have to reach their level of combat skill. I want good guards; most thieves can kill me with ease and take everything that I have on me with them, and it will be all your fault,"- Kara barked at her guards and then turned her back on them, rising from her chair and moving to another room in her mansion.
"Understood, please, train us at once!"- The guards kneeled to us; the expression on their faces was sincere enough to make us believe that they wanted to be trained and gain combat skills with us. One thing that is off about the guards is their voice; it's weak, and they look malnourished.
"Sia?"
!My scan of the guards show no signs of malnourishment, but they are sick, the medicine is easy enough for me to produce. First, make the medicine and give it to the guards!
"Well, we will train in the forest by killing monsters. You will need to know how to defend against that before you will ever need to defend against a human, although that is also important. Also, Kara, how strong are the monsters here?" I keep looking at the guards, and they seem excited about the training.
"Yes, they are pretty strong, around level 15. I say that we should be careful".- We headed to the door to train in the forest
In the forest:
First, before killing monsters with the ingredients I had on me, with Sia's help, I mixed medicine for them. The guards took the medicine, and then we started to
Train them to fight monsters that were easier to kill, such as horned rabbits and other slow-moving monsters; some goblins were also thrown into the mix. The guards were very responsive to what we taught them, in a short amount of time they learned a few new techniques, but they still have to master them to be of any use. I need to continue this training with them to keep their condition up.
We took breaks in between the training, the guards seem to level up faster than it's usual for humans. I will skip over what we did the rest of that day and jump directly to the next training day.
The next day:
After talking with Lord Kar, she promised that she would follow my advice when it comes to her guards and how to train them; she seems a lot more receptive to me even though she is an Ifrit worshiper; people of this kingdom seem to have gotten under Ifrit's control a lot more than at the start, but as it looks now, they are stuck in a state of semi-lucidity where they have limited free will and anything that the goddess doesn't like will activate the brainwashing. I wonder if there are any countries that Goddess Ifrit didn't touch?
!There is a small country on the other side of the globe; if you go south, you will reach that location in almost 5 months. Currently, it is being occupied by one of the towers of the old gods!
"Tower of the old gods?"
!Those towers are made from the power of old gods to resurrect themselves when needed; you need to destroy the tower to prevent them from reviving. That region is currently being defended by its people!
"Ok, now I understand."
After this, we continued to train the guards more and more for about 1 month. Both Hana and I raised our levels during this time by killing monsters. I went from level 27 to level 35, and Hana went from level 20 to level 25. It was worthwhile for all of us to go there.
We are back in the throne room with Lady Kara, well, I noticed that she can forsake her moral and her Ifrit worhsiping when she wants or is needed to. But why wouldn't Ifrit brainwash her like the rest? She must know her character by now. This must be a trap of some sort, but something is still off, even for a trap.
"Hikaru, I don't like her. We should go; I think you 2 raised your levels enough. And, plus, those guards are stronger than they were. I suggest we get out as soon as possible." Fumiko spoke via telepathic. She sounds concerned, but Kara can benefit us a bit more; we need to get something in exchange from her, even if that is her silence to the other lords.
!I suggest we stay longer. She will keep her mouth here if we stay here for at least a week longer. And after I analyze her, she has a skill that circumvents the control of Goddess Ifrit over her, she is just pretending to be brainwashed, Lord Kara seldomly cares about things that don't affect her, as long as you don't cause troubles for her, you should be fine!
"Fine, if you say so, Sia."
As Sia suggested, we waited for one more week; it was a goldmine. We got money, and Lord Kara would keep her mouth shut to the other Lords, but we still had to be careful, I made Hana use her skills on her to edit her memory and make her unable to speak about us to anyone. We lucked out on that, because she was asleep when we did all of it, if even one guard caught us, well things wouldn't have been pretty for them.
"It seems like we got a lot of money out of that. I think she will want our help again, Hikaru; what you say about that?"- Hana got ahead of me and Fumiko and then turned to u, walking backward.
"Well, I think she will request more help from us. She was a good bounty on her head from bounty hunters, so that will come in handy. We can defend her from bounty hunters in exchange for money and for Kara to keep her mouth shut."- Fumiko looked around the forest as if someone was watching us.
"Sia, analysis!"
!Complete: Someone is stalking the 3 of us. I identified the person as Masam; he is no threat!
"It's nothing, let's move Fumiko."
!Warning, detected two more presences with Masamune, they were masking their aura and magic with a skill!
"I know you are stalking us; come out and fight!"- I shouted at them.
"Look, the demons found us. So, Masamune, why were you sheltering criminals? After all, you should have told us that we are 10 levels ahead of you. We were the first of the sages to reach level 20"- A voice echoed through the woods, I recgonized it as one of my classmates, well, I know how he looks now.
"Who are you guys again?" - I asked, disinterested in them while signaling Hana to prepare for a fight.
Forgot to mention, but with Ayame's help I also acquired a copy of her Plunderer skill, I can now steal skills in combination with my Predator skill, it will be a lot easier, I might have to try it on these fools.
"Your memory is as good as you are, it seems. No matter. I am Akihiro, and he is Hiashi." - The muscular guy, Akihiro, pointed to himself and then to Hiash; both were muscular, but one had more muscles than the other.
"And what brings you here? Ifrit is a pain in the ass and a shitty goddess; II can't understand how you can fall for that brainwashing of hers," – Hana spoke up from behind me.
"Don't insult Lady Ifrit like that. She will be the savior of this world." - Their eyes turned blood-shot, a slight foam can be seen at their mouth.
"Prepare to feel the wrath of HER Holy Judgment skill"- Akihiro prepared to use a skill, I tied the 2 of them with my shadow tendrils before they could notice.
"You will feel HER Angelic Wrath skill. You will be sorry you ever spoke ill of her." – Hiashi also prepared to launch a skill attack by imbuing his sword with it or maybe creating a sword out of thin air because I didn't see when he would have time to pull it out.
The 2 of them dashed at me faster than I could react, the shadow tendrils were still on them, I tightened them around and made them stumble.
I strangled them until they were left unconscious.
*Use skill: Plunderer*
#Skills Gained: Holy Judgement and Angelic Wrath#
"They almost had us; if I hadn't dodged, I would have been dead. Now, what do we do with these 2? Masamune, do you have a plan? I hope things like this won't happen." I looked toward Masamune, and he looked at me, terrified.
"It won't; they just followed me here. I didn't even know that they were following me. I am sorry, Hikaru." – He bowed his head. Masamune is gasping for air for some reason.
"Hana, do something about their memories."- I turned to look at Hana, but she was already at work editing and deleting them.
"And it's done," She said smugly, then picked Fumiko up. I didn't notice, but she fell on the ground, having a pretty bad panic attack.
The 3 of us went back home and settled in. Forgot to mention that we manage to set up a trade contract with Kara and her domain, it's a sweet deal if you ask me.
Tomorrow is a new day, and a new day means new trouble. This won't be the last time we hear of Lord Kara.