Chapter 119

“Before the tower.” Part 3

 

[...What did you say?]

A bead of sweat trickled down Kalysto’s forehead as soon as she felt her boss’s indignation and the trace of anger beginning to bubble underneath the apparent friendliness.

“I said that the humans in the kingdom of Bhallys and Balsahty performed a hero summoning ritual and brought people from my world to force them to eliminate the demon king," she repeated slowly.

[Are you telling me that those stupid humans instead of preparing for the upcoming war against the priestess of Seth-Mainyu who is already in Elinor, they prefer to waste their time and fight against the 3 demon kings?... Are they crazy? .... What kind of stupidity is that?]

“I don’t think they know that there is more than one demon king," Kalysto clarified, “and about their level of stupidity...well, if we are talking about King Medhas, who rules the kingdom of Balsahty, the answer is yes. I wouldn’t even be surprised if his own people, tired of his stupidity, decided to rebel, kill him and put someone else in power,” she added with total honesty. “And I have not met the other king, so it is difficult for me to give you exact information about him.”

Again, silence reigned for a long time and Kalysto began to feel uncomfortable about being out in the open and away from the camp for so long.

What if I am discovered? she worried. But before she could think of a way to tell her sometimes temperamental boss, a new screen popped up.

[Which one of them do they plan to kill this time?]

“Huh?...Like I told you before, I don’t know...maybe the one who lives closest to them?” She replied with a frown, but then a new idea came to her. “But I’m sure that woman must know something about it!”

[Hand her over to me!]

“Of course, but what will I get in return for doing so?”

[What do you want?]

“An extension of time on the mission to level up my profession. I’ve been working on it, but I’m still far from the finish line. Could you give me another month?”

[I’ll give you two weeks and take away your prize!]

What? No! I already have plans for that vacation!

“I’d rather than lose one of the two weeks of vacation I have as a prize from the elves’ mission that I haven’t claimed yet,” she argued immediately. Remembering that the queen had given her a few days off after she discovered that she had been kidnapped. “But let the week’s vacation in my world be kept.”

[...]

[Your terms are accepted.]

“Great!... Oh! And one question before you go, does holy water cure poisoning?”

[Of course it does! Why do you ask?]

“I just wanted to be sure,” she tried to evade.

[Did that human poison you too?]

“Yes... do you want me to give you the dagger she did it with, too?”

[Hand it to Galatea... And Kalysto?]

“Yes?”

[Be thankful I didn’t take away your use of inventory like Mhiralla did with the humans who serve her. But the next time a human enters your inventory, I want you to make sure that he enters there of his own free will. Understood?]

“Yes, ma’am," she answered immediately. Noting how the training her former boss put all the waitresses and the rest of his staff through before they went to work in the restaurant had been burned into her. Polite and respectful treatment was a necessary requirement to keep her job, but now that she was no longer working there, it was hard to shake the habit. “And thank you for allowing me to continue using the inventory.”

As soon as she finished speaking, her boss’s summoning circle was drawn under her feet.

“Could you please bring me to this same place again as soon as we are done?”

The violet light of the summoning enveloped her before she could get an answer and Kalysto appeared inside her room in the fairy kingdom, right in front of her comfortable bed.

Tsuki immediately jumped towards her, excited by the reunion.

“Arff!”

“Yes, yes, I know! I took so long to come back this time!” She answered him warmly as she hugged him and approached the door of her room. “No, Tsuki! Don’t lick my face!” But it was too late and the little fenrir licked several times while wagging his tail from side to side, happy to see her again.

A couple of knocks sounded against the door and Kalysto hurried to open it after putting Tsuki on the floor.

In front of her, Galatea and Hanna were waiting for her.

“Champion, we are sorry to bother you so late at night but we have something to pick up for the queen” Galatea greeted, as Hanna gave her a kind smile and bowed her head towards her.

“Good night, champion.”

“Good evening to both of you," Kalysto replied and pulled out the dagger from Ans. “this is the dagger of the female knight the queen mentioned to you. Be careful with her. Not only is she an assassin, but she can also wield shadow magic.”

“You don’t have to worry about it. We have come prepared to restrain her,” she said, showing him a dark blue crystal sphere.

Kalysto looked at the sphere with curiosity, but she had to return to the camp soon, so she refrained from asking too many questions.

“Her name is Ans," she added as she took her out of her inventory.

The disfigured face of the female knight caught the attention of the two fairies, and Ans’s one eye that still served opened in surprise to see that their surroundings had not only changed, but that they were no longer alone.

But long before the woman even thought of escaping, Galatea activated the crystal in her hands and a magical seal was drawn on the ground beneath Ans. From it several magical chains sprouted, physically and magically restraining her.

“Fairies? You were working with the fairies? You traitorous bitch! How dare you betray your own kind?” She screamed as Kalysto approached her to heal her, making sure no fairy would catch the plague because of her.

“Jhil Ezhil! Ezhil Purification! Jhil Ezhil!” she murmured, approaching the woman and allowing her to see the golden light of her power to its fullest extent. A light that extended far beyond where the two fairies stood.

Far farther than either of the two saintess in the temple of light could have done.

“I think you are quite confused. Even though I am human, we do not belong to the same world so it is not correct to say that we are of the same species," Kalysto commented, pointing to the magenta hue of the warrior’s blood that had flowed from her wrist when Kalysto had stabbed her. “In my world, humans bleed red, not magenta," she replied and then gave her a smile full of false kindness before forcibly putting her to sleep and watching as the two fairies took her to the queen.

Her boss’s summoning circle reappeared beneath her feet, taking her back to the exact same spot where she was taken.

But before she could sigh in relief for having returned in time, in the distance she could see Milo’s silhouette, his back to her as a ball of fire was held by the mage’s hand as he surveyed the surroundings.

Shit, can’t they even give me a minute’s rest? She thought with annoyance. Stealth! And with all the agility that characterized her she ran towards the lights that illuminated the camp, jumped over a thick tree, took impulse and jumped again, taking advantage of the small space between several trees.

“Who’s there?” She managed to hear Milo’s voice in the distance, but she was already halfway to the camp. As soon as she arrived, she passed by several Balsahty kingdom guards, whose levels hovered between 17 and 20, knowing that outwitting them would be a piece of cake.

After going around them and making sure she was not being followed, she went back into her tent. Only to find Sandra’s body lying on the floor.

Shit, I’d forgotten about her!

Picking her back up off the ground, she put her arm around her neck and walked out of the tent towards the infirmary.

Halfway there, she met Milo.

“What’s going on here?” He questioned her and she repeated the same excuse she had given Ans, but trying to sound more convincing and tired. “I’ll escort you to the saintess’s tent. This way.”

It was no surprise to Kalysto that as soon as they reached their destination, the saintess refused to treat Sandra.

“This is no time to come and bother me! The marquis could have gone straight to the infirmary! Why should I be bothered and waste my time touching that dirty little girl?”

Milo instead arched an eyebrow, as if he were witnessing the tantrum of a neighbor’s little brat and not the most important saintess in his kingdom.

“Dirty, you say? How curious, because as I remember before you belonged to the temple you were nothing more than a simple orphan peasant girl living in the street,” at the wizard’s words Darla’s face contorts in rage.

“You! How dare you say such a thing, don’t you know who I am?” she growled, but contrary to what she thought, the mocking sneer did not disappear from the wizard’s face.

“Dare?” he sneered. “Even with the little education the temple must have given the saintess, I’m sure you should know the difference between someone who belongs to the nobility and someone who doesn’t by now.”

“Hadn’t we better go to the infirmary?” Kalysto interrupted them, seeing that they were both much more interested in rubbing each other’s noses in their authority than in helping them. As she began to worry about Sandra’s health. “I’m sure some water mage will be willing to cure her. We shouldn’t keep wasting our time here.”

“Insolent!” Darla growled and before either of the two mages could do anything, a resounding slap echoed through the room. Taking out her anger on the weakest link and the easiest nearby target. “From the uncivilized world you come from, don’t they teach you to respect your superiors?”

Kalysto blinked in surprise, but not at the disrespectful slap she had just received, although it annoyed her deeply.

But by the violet notification window that disappeared as quickly as it appeared in front of her eyes.

[Does the user wish to absorb ????????]

But before she could say or do anything, one of the knights rushed in and announced:

“Sir, the kingdom of Bhallys is under attack, the demon king and his army are destroying the capital! And a whole horde of monsters commanded by an orc are heading towards the tower!”

 

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