"How was the fight?" Shin asked as Arachne threw the prisoner woman inside the tent, "Not bad, two of them were quite powerful."
"I did feel that the last two lasted a bit longer than usual." He then looked at the prisoner woman, "You can sleep at the side."
She might be a former soldier but living through Arachne massacring all the bandits, especially after being threatened that Arachne is her torturer, the poor woman must be terrified to the bones.
Shin removed the gag from the woman's mouth, "Say, did you get injured?"
"Who is she? I never seen a monster fight like that, and she speaks." The woman growled and Arachne smacked her on the head, "He's the one asking questions."
"I didn't get injured. They wanted to take me unharmed." The woman replied and Shin nodded, "As expected. Arachne here is my tamed beast. I'm sure you've heard of beast people like Ase here, she's a spider type."
"A beast woman?" The woman looked at Arachne for a second, "She's going to eat them…no she already ate one of the bandits."
"I do eat humans, yes." Arachne nodded with a nonchalant face.
"Beasts aren't humans." Shin had to explain the difference between beasts and humans. The woman seemed to already know most of what he said, but in this world, all intelligent beings are counted equal, beasts do bite humans or other beasts in battles but it's considered four to eat, cannibalism isn't accepted no matter what.
"I don't care." Arachne wasn't even a beast, she's a demon. They are just saying she's a beast to not complicate things, but she didn't like being lumped in the same pot with beasts.
Shin rolled curled back beneath his blanket and yawned, "Let's go back to sleep. It's still the middle of the night and we must move dawn."
"That's right." Ase crawled on him and started purring, she yawned as well, the sight of her massive maw sent terror through the prisoner's spine.
"You'll stay here for safety, if you try anything funny Arachne will entertain you for the rest of the night." Mary crawled beside Shin to sleep.
"Leave some space for me as well." Arachne took all of her clothes off and pushed her way into Shin's other side.
"Put your clothes back on." He didn't seem to be that pleased but she shook her head, "I like to sleep like this. I'm a spider and clothes don't really feel normal to me."
Shin felt extremely tired and sleepy, he had been riding a horse for a whole day and would rather get a full night's sleep if he could afford it. Arachne had already dealt with the bandits, he can at least let her rest as she pleases.
"Fine." Sighed.
"You'll let her?" The prisoner gave him a side eye, a bit worried.
"And who asked you?" He looked at her, "Want to join her as well?"
"Would you let me go if I said yes?" She looked at him with a smile.
"No, you aren't going anywhere until we reach your camp and burn it to the ground." He closed his eyes and clicked her tongue, annoyed.
Mary opened one eye, "I might have news for you tonight or tomorrow. Those news might change your mind so wait a bit."
"What are you talking about?" She growled.
"You'll know later."
The moment Mary was about to try and sleep a foot came into the tent and kicked the prisoner woman, dropping her over them. "Oh my, Shin." Asrin peeked her head into the tent, "Stacking four women like this…aren't you a lustful one?"
"Asrin!" Mary smiled and Shin sighed, "Asrin? What are you doing here?"
Arachne yawned and looked at her, "She's here to die." The moment she said that Asrin's eyes went blind and she felt her insides twist and contort. She immediately jumped outside and coughed a mouthful of blood. "What…did you do?"
Arachne walked out of the ten and stepped over Asrin's head, "Did you really think you could sneak up on us?"
"This is poison…how did you do it?" Asrin looked at her with a pained smile.
"Fuck you, that's how." She kicked her in the face and sent her rolling.
"Arachne, leave her alone." Shin looked out of the tent and Arachne sighed, returning to his side. While she thin threads spread all around the camp to notify her of any intruders she had another trick up her sleeves. By using really thin and fragile thread weaved by Char's small body she could then lace them with her venom and have anyone who brushed against them get poisoned to death.
The effect is slow to set but extremely effective.
Asrin soon stood up like nothing happened, "Well, that was painful, but I'll take it as a warning."
"So what did you want, vampire." Arachne growled at her but Mary walked out of the tent, "Are you okay Asrin?"
"I'm fine, this alone won't kill me." She approached Mary and gave her a full stack of papers, "The woman's history and family lineage, she's the same as that man."
Mary looked a bit troubled, she had guessed as much. "What do you say we do?"
"It's up to you, not me." Asrin disappeared into the shadows and the group walked back into the tent.
Mary threw the papers to the prisoner woman, "You can read those and think whatever you want. I won't even explain it, as I doubt you'll believe any word coming from my mouth."
Shin released the woman's hands so she could go through the papers on her own, but he left her legs tied up.
"You sure she won't run away?" Ase was worried, watching the woman closely ready to leap at any second.
"Not with her legs still tied up, and not with Arachne ready to give her a death kiss." All that Shin cared about now was getting enough rest that he could focus clearly through tomorrow.
The woman's eyes opened wide as she went through all the ancient documents. Those papers were old, far too old and she could tell they were genuine. They detailed her mother's history, where was she born, how she lived, and how she ended up kidnapped by the empire just like they did to the women in that village.
"You there! Are those real?!" The woman cried and Mary opened one eye. "What do you think? This just complicates things, both you and that man we had earlier are the same."
"Everyone in the camp must be the same…" As everyone went to sleep, the woman sat alone thinking about everything, curled in the corner of the tent, her eyes staring forward and not budging. Under her breath, she cursed Flion over and over, that man was the one behind this hell.
"It's because of that bastard…he did all of this…what should we do now, what should I do now?!" Knowing what she knows now, she didn't want to repeat what happened to her mother, but she also knew her comrades at the camps were clueless about the noble's manipulation. "We can't just raid the camp…we can't just kill them…"
Conflicted about what to do, she kept mumbling about it for hours, sinking closer and closer to madness with each passing second. "I swear…you bastard…I cleave your head off even if it's the last thing I'll do in my life…"
CLAP! A lightning bolt fell from the clear sky, striking the tent at full force. Everyone jolted awake, staring everywhere with terrified faces. Shin's eyes laid on a ragged bastard sword jammed into the ground, red hot and smoking with crackling lightning and divine magic.
The woman reached forward, grabbing the sword's handle. The heat burned her palm, cooling the blade with her blood. "By Serin's name, all evil, wicked, and foul shall burn to ash. An Oath to life, the good shall return…with VENGEANCE!"
The ropes tying the woman's body all burned away as her eyes flashed golden. Arachne growled, thinking if she should attack or not, something about that sword smelled like death.
"Was that a paladin's oath?!" Mary gasped and the woman slowly turned around, putting the sword down. "Where would I find this Flion rat bastard?"
"Mary! You said this was a paladin's oath?" Shin had never seen such a thing before in his life.
"A paladin is a warrior that swore an oath to the gods to achieve a goal, and they got sponsored with power from them to achieve that goal. Serin isn't a goddess, she's an archangel known as the scales of justice. She's the woman depicted holding the scales of justice." Mary's eyes fixated on the sword, "Most of the gods' doctrines rely on her as a symbol of law. This means…"
"My name is Sacha, and Her divinity Serin seems to have sent me on a divine manhunt. I won't run away or get in your way, all I want to do now is find that noble Flion and cut him in half."
At that moment, Asrin and the knight's general both rushed into the camp, "Mary! What was that?!" They weren't that far away and they had seen the lightning strike down. None of them had expected their prisoner to have turned into a paladin upon learning the truth.