“How’s your uncle Niviel san?” I asked Niviel san, hiding my suspicions for now. I shouldn’t ignore them, but I should put them on hold for now. Especially since the others haven’t felt that anything is wrong, it just might be me being paranoid.

“Hm? Ah yes, he’s fine! As fit as a cow!”

“I see”

Hou~ I thought it was an emergency and that was why Niviel san rushed here? Even Maria frowns at this. Perhaps she noticed something too? Nope, I shouldn’t get my hopes up. The others start chatting about the best places to visit in Ugras, and even Saki is paying intense attention to it. Meanwhile, I direct my attention towards the white robed people.

There was a huge crowd of them, almost 50 people. They stood around the central fountain, in a strange orderly formation. The formation was well organized, but that didn’t stop them from gossiping about us. Suddenly, my eyes met with one of the white robed people, and his face turns hostile, and his lips curl upwards, into an unmistakable smirk of superiority. What is up with this dude? He averts his gaze, and I keep surveying them.

“Ara Yuu kun! Are you perhaps interested in my family?”

Niviel san suddenly pops the question, and I nod, surprised at the sudden diversion of the conversation towards me..

“Of course, as you can guess from my last name, this is the Margistra family. It’s sort of like a religious cult, with us worshipping the great snake god Kuniyaltre. See? That’s the snake on our emblem!”

She points towards the golden emblem embroidered on her robe. That snake just creeps me out, for some reason. A bad feeling.

“But, why are they gathering here, Niviel san?”

Maria quips in, seemingly curious. GJ Maria! You saved me the trouble!

“Eh... Ah um… It’s a ritual… Well, we’re doing a sort of yearly ritual… Well, not really yearly, but it’s done once in a while…. Eh… Um…”

She trails off, her face troubled. My suspicion spikes at a rapid rate at her oh-so suspicious reaction. A yearly ritual? But she quickly denies it again… Just what is going on?

“Ehe… Um… Like I said, my uncle is the family leader… And he sort of named his successor… and it’s me…”

Huh. Huh. Huh?

“N-Niviel san… You’re the family head? “

Mili seems flabbergasted at this, her mouth agape. Is it that unbelievable? Niviel san seems like she’d make quite a fine leader, if you ask me. That said, maybe they know something I don’t. I shrug it off, disinterested.

“Ehehe… Well, I feel the same way too… And I’ve been begging uncle to reconsider…”

At this point, the crowd suddenly reacts. A person walks out of the crowd, heading towards us. I could recognize him as the same man who smirked at me, since it was obvious from his haughty attitude.

His robe swishes around him as he steps in front of Niviel san. He spreads his arm, raising it to bar Niviel san from us. As if we were…

“You bugs… How dare you talk to our future leader so lightly? Have you no manners, plebeians?”

There it is. The haughty attitude. Sort of reminds me of another oh so annoying personality. My hand twitches in anticipation. In a desire to just deck him.

His eyes immediately travel to my arm, as if judging danger. Oh~ He’s sharp, I’ll give him that. I relax my hand and his eyes travel back to my face, his expression changing back to one of disgust.

“Niviel sama, let us be off. We do not need to waste our time with such plebeians. After all, we are of the great Margistra family!”

He haughtily declares it and walks off, completely disregarding us. Niviel san looks at us with a sorry expression and follows off after the annoying guy. Maria and Mili were silent through the proceedings, their faces wary of the intruder. But Saki’s face was strangely calm. A dangerous sort of calm.

I shrug it off and walk towards our inn, already forgetting about the annoyance.

“Let’s go guys… I need to head off in a few hours too you know?”

“Hoi~!”

Maria replies cheerfully and walks behind me, putting the matter to the back of her head. She’s sort of like a musclehead. Or in this case, an arrowhead.

The rest of the journey passed uneventfully. But we did try out some of the delicacies, since it seemed too good to pass it up. Maria was squealing in delight from the new tastes, declaring her undying love for Ugras’s sweets. I wonder how long this love will hold after she gets some newer delicacies. The matter from earlier still kept coming across my thoughts, like an irremovable pest. Something felt off.

We walked up the stairs, tired from the long day. I still had to leave to the outside in order to explore the caves and find even more suitable places to train. Staying in the same place for a long time would attract monsters, and that wouldn’t be too helpful for me. The floorboards creak under our weight as we walk towards our room. The sun had turned into a bright orange, signifying the approaching end of the day.

“Will you be going now, Yuuya?”

Maria asks me as soon as we relax in our room. I lightly nod, distracted by thoughts about Niviel san and the Margistra family. Now that she asked me, I remembered that I had to leave. I immediately stand up, and prepare myself. I check my equipment; wear a newer black cloak, replacing the old worn out red one.

“You need newer clothes…”

Mili quietly noted as she looked at me stowing the red cloak away. I lightly smile at her as I bring out the same old iron sword. The Dortoh Tusk sword was worth a fortune, and I definitely didn’t want it to get chipped from any careless mistakes.

“Well then, I’ll be off”

“Nn. Be safe”

Maria and Saki nod at me. Now that I think about it, perhaps I should warn them about Niviel san. Just in case. Better safe than sorry.

“Maria… Um… “

I’m sort of unsure on how to say it, since Niviel san is our friend and all. Maria looks at me quizzically and this attracts even Mili’s attention. Oh whatever.

“Well, I just wanted to say that perhaps you should be careful with the Margistra family. I’m not saying that we should suspect them, but something about them feels off to me…”

Maria’s confusion deepens at my words and I inwardly sigh to myself. What was I thinking?

“Umu, that’s right. Even I felt it. There was… something wrong about them. But I just can’t put my finger on it.”

Unexpectedly, Mili comes to my support. GJ, Mili! I knew you were a good girl.

Maria nods since Mili adds her opinion too.

“Well, just stay careful. I’ll try to return as quickly as possible.”

With that, I leave the room, the mountains being my objective.

The guard captain eyes me as I walk past the gate, his eyes filled with suspicion. Perchance, did he figure out that it was me? Well, he’s not taking direct action against me, so I think I can rest easy.

I leave the city walls behind as I walk along the crude path on the plains. The sun had almost set now, dyeing the sky in flame like colors. In about half an hour, I was back at the mountains, walking through the dense vegetation, killing occasional monsters that happened upon my path. Detect was up, and I was skipping caves that seemed to me uninteresting, or the ones that I had already gone to. Until I detected something a lot more interesting.

“Hou~ This cave seems interesting”

My Detect was hindered by this one cave. It looked normal enough, with sharp rocks jutting out of the walls, just like the others around here. But it was interesting that Detect couldn’t find this cave. An illusion, or some sort of jammer was here. I walk closer to the cave, unsure about whether to enter it. For all I know, this might be some great magician’s lair, or a legendary beast’s resting spot.

Curiosity gets the better of me, and I sneak into the cave. My steps were light, since I didn’t want to alert anything or anyone that may or may not be here. A few steps in, a turn comes up. And beyond the bend, it was pitch black darkness. I place my hand on the wall and slowly step into the overbearing darkness. Detect was useless here, so I could only use one eye. Man, it’s been a long time since I felt this lack of vision.

I take care not to make any sounds as I head deeper and deeper into the cave. It went even lower into the earth, the temperature slowly rising. Occasionally, there were weird stones embedded in the walls. They radiated light, calming me down to an extent. I must admit that this sense of caution and wariness was making it sort of hard for me to breathe. But this experience in itself was exhilarating.

Then, I reach a fork. Urgh, sometimes, I hate making choices. They always leave me unsure whether my choice was correct. These devilish forks!

I figured it was time to man up for once, so I headed into the left fork without hesitation. I will conveniently forget that I doubled back from the right one and headed into the left since I was unsure.

The cave brightened as soon after a while, revealing a message on the wall. As I read it, I couldn’t help but feel shocked. Huh. To think this was that.

“Uooo! It’s so tasty!”

I couldn’t help but exclaim that. The Yilka was a spicy specialty in Ugras according to the shopkeeper. And oh so tasty it was. A salty yet hot taste spreads upon my tongue. Uwaaah.. This is really good.

Once again I check up on the fountain, and the Margistra family members were still there, standing around the fountain. I checked the fountain once, although I had to pay a fee for some reason. Niviel san wasn’t here, so it was a perfect time for me to check it out.

The fountain was about 5 meters in diameter, with a marble white sculpture spouting water in the middle. The bottom of the fountain was a beautiful deep violet, spreading across the entire fountain floor. Since I only had to check on them, I decided to taste some more dishes from here. Yuuya did tell me to just be careful with them, but curiosity got the better of me.

Mili tugs on my sleeve, her eyes directed elsewhere. I look towards where she was looking.

A group of knights walked in, about 20 of them. They wore bright silver armor, which shone in the evening sun. Heavily armored, their hands were on their swords, as if they were expecting an attack. Well, at least the first few knights. The others were like complete newbies, tripping and stumbling like little children. They stood around at the opposite side of the fountain, keeping an eye on it just like us.

“Hm? What’s up with this timing?”

I couldn’t help but feel suspicious at this. The knights looked prepared, as if they were expecting a fight. Is something going to happen here? The Margistra family’s ritual, the appearance of these knights. It all seems too suspicious.

“Ars continent’s knights?”

“Mili? Ars continent? How do you know that?”

“That emblem on their chests. I remember seeing it in a book about the Ars continent. I don’t remember the country, but it’s without a doubt the same one.”

Mili explained, pointing at the emblem of a dragon’s head that was inscribed on their armor. A few of them turned to look at us, their helmets hiding their expressions. The Ars continent? Why did they travel up till here?

“Oh~to!”

I stumbled, being bumped into by someone. Mili, who was on my shoulder, tumbled down, but I caught her in the nick of time. I turned to look at the person who had bumped into us and suddenly, I felt fear.

The man was taller than me, with straight dark blue hair. His eyes were a dark red, like burning coals. An earring hung onhis ears, with a long paper dangling from the golden stud. On it, some foreign words were written. He wore an open shirt decorated with red stripes, its color the same as that of his hair. It revealed his finely sculpted body, trained by years of training, without doubt.

But that was not what scared me. A mischievous smile played on his lips. Something about him told me not to mess with him.

“Are you alright? I’m sorry, I was not paying attention.”

He extends his hand towards me, the smile still on his face as if he were joking. I ignored it and stepped away from him, wary.

“Haha~ That hurt!”

His playful attitude doesn’t change, but I could see that his smile didn’t completely reach his eyes. Something felt off about him.

“Well then, let me introduce myself. I’m Tallios, the sin of Wrath. Nice to meet you~!”

Important news, folks. My hiatus has evolved into a quasi hiatus since my schedule is screwed up. I have no idea when i can update. But i'll try my best to update as soon as possible. Hope you enjoy this series!!! *gets to work on the next chap* *munches on some cookies* Want some? *offers cookies*

UPDATE: Btw, i forgot to mention in the earlier chapters (at least i think i did) But Niviel wanted to travel to Ugras because her uncle was sick. I'll check if i have added it, if not, I'll do it now! :D :D :D

UPDATE 2: I reckon i haven't, so I put it in Chapter 33. It's not like reaaaallly important, but check it out if you'd like to ! :D :D