Flip….

The sound of the cave map that I ordered to be ‘borrowed’ from mayor Pierre’s office was laid out by one of Chloé’s subordinate. I said thank you of course and dismissed him to do his previous daily task given by Chloé, It’s probably maintaining eyes and ears on some noble in this realm, he then bowed respectfully at me, Arthur, and Kristof before vanishing in our eyes in a matter of seconds.

“Alright! Didn’t really expected him to have this, but… well, it might be a maze down there for all we know!” I said in an enthusiastic tone.

“Lord Protector…” Kristof said my title in a deeply concern tone. “This is… a somewhat bizarre view, last time this happen… you were in the verge of insanity…” He stated his thought.

“It’s alright your highness, though it’s still of course a pressing concern that Lady Eleanna is not within our protection, her somewhat shadowy behaviour would keep her safe, I hope…” Arthur said, though was a bit hesitant on what he said.

“Besides, she has experiences on plunging herself to these kinds of troubles, it bothers me of course! but she’ll managed for now, so… let’s hurry up before she do get in real trouble!” I said to them both and they nodded in agreement with me.

As we dive deep in the cave’s map, we plan on how to bring at least a ten knights in there, our first act was to survey the cave which wasn’t that narrow and cramped when one of the knights Kristof ordered scouted ahead, it’s actually quite big, 25 knights including the monk knights from Henri could fit in there with Kristof’s knights, but of course that was just the somewhat tip of the cave, so… we sent Sapphire back in there to scout ahead if it was still wide and big enough for 25 knights at least.

Remembering back again on these knights, particularly the church’s monk knights and Kristof’s knights, is that from every accounts that said about them, even from Kristof’s and Sir Fionn’s mouth is that they are equal to 100 men.

Though last time in the lobo’s forest they didn’t do much on the fighting side, I mean yeah the Lobos got surrendered quite quickly, I would like to see them in action with my own eyes, maybe this could be a chance to see their fighting prowess, though fighting in a cave probably… no, they’re definitely going to be handicapped in that environment, but 50 men is still a no joke on terms of strength against… what? Crooks? Bandits? Farmers?

After Henri’s monk knights came, our preparation was completed with the newly added information that the cave’s wideness and height is still relatively the same, but the further we’re in there, the more rough and rockier the terrain is going to be, said Sapphire.

With that me, Kristof, Arthur, and Henri march with 12 of Kristof’s knights and 13 of Henri’s monk knights, the rest of the retinue and the monk knights stayed behind and made sure there’ll be no one to surprise us from behind, Amadela and Sapphire on the other hand teleported ahead and acted as our scouts.

As it became more darker the further we went it, we lit up the torches in our hands and shine it to light our way, with about 29 men here who is lighting their own torches, the room was as bright as any other well lighted room, we could even see moss and water dripping from above and joining a tiny water stream between the rocks that we are stepping on.

About half an hour has passed and we were nowhere in sight of the room shown in the map, I don’t know if Arthur was bored, but he suddenly asked me about my conversation with Eleanna on the rooftop about 3 years ago, it was after the Talent Festival and we were chilling at the school’s rooftop where one talk led to another and it somehow ended with us talking about how we feel towards each other.

“Wait… wait… wait, wait, wait, so… I was right!!!” He said in a surprised tone topped with an ecstatic face. “You two have already been dating since… the second semester of our first year!”

“Sort of….” I said in an embarrassed manner.

“Sort of?! If I wasn’t around the Lab a year ago, you two would have definitely kissed in there, and who do ya think made the class’ environment much more friendlier and non-teasing when you two acted like the old married couple of the class?! God… especially when it comes Jake! He was a goddamn reck after El rejected him and when he heard of you two, he was a full-on psycho!! Who do you think kept him from ruining your perfect environment that I made!?!” He furiously rant at me.

“You…” I said.

“Yeah!” He said with a prideful tone.

“Haha… well, thanks for being there bud!” I gratefully thanked him for all the ropes he jumped for me and Eleanna.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, at least you guys have said the L word right?” He asked.

“Y…es!” I don’t how, but I subconsciously paused at the y and continued the rest.

“Why did pause?” He looked at me with the stare of a man who was about to burst his veins. “Please tell me that you didn’t play chicken while I was being used as BL material for Jill….”

“Wha…” I was surprised at his last remark.

“You heard what I said…” He said with the most deepest and scariest voice I’ve ever heard coming from his mouth. “So… did you say the L word?”

“You… know L word can mean a lot of thing right? Haha…” knowing the consequences of the answer, I tried to divert his attention while chuckled in a terrified and awkward tone.

“Okay… did you, sometime and somewhere in the past 3 years where you ‘dated’ Eleanna, said ‘I love you!’ to Eleanna?!” He said as his teeth was sharpening itself.

“I…………… didn’t, had the chance to say it to her….” As he heard my answer, Arthur was dead on the spot where his soul could be seen leaving his mouth.

After a brief minute of Arthur’s clinical death, he regained back his consciousness where he berated me endlessly on how his ‘assets’ is still being misappropriated for the sake of, again, mine and Eleanna’s perfect class environment.

Henri and Kristof looked at us or more specifically at me with a slight smirk of joy in their face because of the free entertainment right beside them, Arthur in the end calmed down, but he pressured me to say that word to Eleanna.

“I mean what’s holding you guys? You care for each other, you trust each other, hell between Annie and Jane, she trusted you the most rather than the two people she shared a gender with!” Arthur Stated.

“Don’t forget time! You did say you two were childhood friends, right?” Kristof chimed in.

“Yeah! You- or actually the three of us have known each other for at least 10 years!” he took a breather and continued. “Ugh… just remember dude, we aren’t in class anymore, suitors from every edge of this world aren’t going to know of your special relationship! And I am definitely not going to help you on this one! but here’s some advice If you don’t want to see men and boys courting her, define the relationship!” Arthur said in with a threatening tone.

I already knew from the very start that I need to define this relationship I had with Eleanna, but… deep down I just can’t do it and if I am being honest here… I don’t deserve her total trust in me, it’s just that… if I define this relationship, I know that it’s not going to be a sincere one.

After that bid Arthur gave to me, Sapphire suddenly appeared before us where she has some bad news, the rider cultist came earlier than expected and that they’re about to caught Eleanna.

Hearing of that report we rushed all of Kristof’s knights and Henri’s monk knights, time was really of the essence now.

As we were traversing the much more harsher terrain of the cave we saw a light in the distances, Kristof pulled out his horn and blow it to the air, signifying our attack, but when we got there, what we saw was quite surprising, all of the mayor’s men back in the church, as well as his son, was wet in the ground and was trying really hard standing up because of the slippery frozen floor, not only that the impact that they received from hitting the floor, feels like that they’ve been thrown away by some kind of high speed water cannon.

The ice then suddenly melt where I spotted, a man in noble clothing who got up and teleported towards none-other than Eleanna, it was fast but that noble was about to swing his sword at Eleanna where in the nick of time, Sapphire grabbed the noble’s sword and threw it away, Amadela then showed up as well, pointing the tip of a spear? staff? she has in her hand towards that noble’s neck.

With that somewhat quick surrender from the cultist, as they probably already know that they don’t really have a fighting chance against us, Arthur and Kristof as well as the other rounded them up and was interrogating them with Henri, Amadela and Sapphire were questioning the nobleman that almost killed Eleanna, and Eleanna…

She was talking to a goddamn half man snake, I was in awed of how surreal it was seeing this medusa like creature, but when I heard that they were having a pleasant conversation, a very intimate one at that, I couldn’t help but being remembered of what Arthur said.

I had a bad feeling about that conversation, so… I just winged it, borrowed Eleanna from him, found a more private place for us, and.... I define the relationship.

She… was shocked of course, but after that shock, she… said it back too to me, I felt… fulfilled, felt like everything was fine, felt like something was achieved, but it was only momentary where I knew deep down, this isn’t right, but the bridge has already burned and there is no way I am going back, the only thing I could do now, to make this relationship sincere, is… to tell Eleanna about… Annie.

But I didn’t had the guts to tell her right way, because my fear of its consequences was still lingering in my head, but definitely somewhere in the close future I will come clean to her, for now... I’ll enjoy every blissful moments I could make with her, before that inevitable future come.

After that long awaited words Eleanna probably wanted to hear for a long time, she introduced me to Jumque, he is a red scaled Naga with a unique twin tail, he was naked of course from the top up considering he was the cultist’s prisoner for more than a decade, his body was quite ordinary in physical terms, his hair was dark brown colored but what’s really noticeable is the length of his hair, it’s longer than Miss Marie’s, because it reaches towards the floor.

Aside from that, manner and personality wise he is very respectful and a polite person, but what surprised me though was the fact that Eleanna and Jumque formed a familiar contract with each other.

They explained that they don’t really have a choice as they were about to get caught, but… in the end if I were one of them, I would probably do the same, so I didn’t really have anything to say against this.

So that means, that high speed water canon as well as those frozen slippery floors were her doing huh...

With that brief introduction and explanation on El’s and Jumque’s situation, we went back to the main show of this raid, Arthur, Kristof, as well as Henri already got everything from the old mayor Pierre and his son, where it all leads to this man, Count Raoul d’Tournus, the grandson of Count Andre d’Tournus, the previous count.

Amadela and Sapphire were still questioning him while we were watching the interrogation was going by, he didn’t budge and just sat their quietly, until he sees me, his eyes widened and face was delighted when seeing me, he called for me.

“You must be the Lord Protector! I would bow, but my legs are currently occupied with her holiness’ magic…” He said with a sarcastic tone.

“Raoul for the last time, who is the cultist Lord that oversee Albion?!” Amadela continued interrogating him.

“It’s futile asking me anything my holiness! I am already dead man walking!” He said.

“Grr…” Amadela growled in anger.

“But… why? One of the things that I’ve learned about your cult is that you guys are made up of ruffians and bandits! So why does a blue blood like you is here, are you just seeking the thrill of an action?” I asked.

“Ruffians? Bandits?! It seems her holiness hatred towards us has really blinded you towards what we really are!” he took a breather to then said. “Lord Protector we are the preacher of the end times, we are the distraught, the outcasts, the abandoned, the rejects, and the hateful ones, we are the product of this world’s corruption and it’s endless greed that preyed among us the weak ones, we loathe this world, and we seek its destruction!”

“Okay… that’s even more weird, you are a blue blood, if thrill is not what you seek… than what? Your dad punched you too hard?” I said sarcastically.

“NO!” I struck his nerve. “What he did! Was an endless torture of being the perfect noble, the perfect son, the perfect heir, I WANTED IT TO STOP! But he wouldn’t stop, he keeps gripping on to my life, he keeps controlling me, as if I was his personal puppet to play all the time and so… I killed him!”

“So, you threw a decade old tantrum by condemning millions and almost killing my girlfriend?!! Pathetic…” I said in a demeaning tone towards him.

“Pathetic? PATHETIC?!?!” Raoul in a fit of rage let burst of his emotions where we were all pushed away by some sort of wind magic he casted at us.

As we got back at our feet, Raoul was standing there with his sword pointing at us, but his anger soon subside as he already knew he can’t win against all of us, he then planted his sword with sheer force of strength, that is probably aided by his magic, to the rocky floors of the cave where he then said the same thing to us when he was interrogated by Amadela.

He then added something else to us, which was seeing us three in full view for him, him was of course Dubh who used the eyes of his followers to try to see what the second heroes would look like.

After that revelation, Amadela went near him to arrest him on the spot, which he then again replied the same that, he is a dead man, as well as those people, we didn’t get what he meant and Amadela continued her arresting by from the looks of it, using wind magic to squeeze him tight.

But then it all made sense when, one of Kristof’s knights came back to us and said with a distraught face like a soldier who had just seen a massacre in the field, those people, old mayor Pierre, his son, and his follower, were all gone the knight said…

“Hahahaha!!! I told you, we were all dead man from the start!” As he said with the most annoying tone and even topped the most generic evil laugh, I've ever heard, his body then suddenly blackened. “You know this world is filled with ugly truths and sweet lies... it’s just a shame, that I won’t be there to see its end!” He said his last words with a hint of a disappointed tone, as all of his body blackened, he turned to ash.

Before all of this I've always thought that Amadela and the others were exaggerating on what the rider cultist wants but... seeing them throwing their lives so easily, even if it wasn't physically, just made me more disturbed at the fact that we aren’t against an invader who wants to rule, exploit, and abuse the world!

We... are, from his words again, against a group of rejects, distressed, abandoned, hateful, and outcasts, whether highborn or lowborn, who wants to see this world turned to ash.