CHAPTER 110.

“Miss Frei, are you truly sure, you don’t want long term employment as the guardian of Vaurel?” the lord asked, his expression troubled.

Frei in response smiled. “I’m good, thanks.”

“Are you truly sure? I’m sure King Octavius III would spare no effort to hire you around the entirety of Cytel given your incredible strength,” he said, pleadingly.

“Yep.” Frei nodded. “I’m going on a trip with my master after all.”

With those words, the elf grinned. Right now they were standing inside the lord’s manor, getting ready to depart to the Sacred Forest. Their departure was mostly meant to be kept secret; if information got around that she was traveling with an Arcane Council member, it could potentially have quite bad consequences. And yet, Frei had just basically announced it.

The lord blinked, befuddled. “What could the Duchess have possibly given you that the whole kingdom can’t supply?”

Frei paused. “I wasn’t talking about the Duchess.”

“Then who is your master?” the lord was further confused.

“Well, she’s a handsome woman, someone who could do me no wrong, and someone who I’ve chosen to devote my life to,” Frei said carefully.

“Right…”

Amber glared at Frei. What the fuck are you doing? Asil and Cecile also looked a bit mortified at the entire interaction, and for good reason. Frei was spouting a bunch of random nonsense, and gaslighting the lord for no particular reason other than ‘why the fuck not’.

“Do you think I could meet this… person? I’m sure the kingdom can match whatever it is they’re giving you.”

“Ahaha, you’re silly.” She laughed. “A maiden’s heart has only space for one.”

The lord was flabbergasted, his face just went completely blank hearing that, and that’s when Amber finally decided to speak.

“Well, I’m sure you have a few things to discuss with Frei, she is indeed an incredible warrior. So letting her go would be quite the loss,” she said simply. “That said, we cannot wait around any longer, so we will be taking our departure.”

“R-Right, of course.” The lord nodded.

Frei blinked and Amber amiably smiled at her.

“It was nice meeting you Frei, may we meet each other on our travels.”

“Yea…”

With that, they shook hands and her companions also bid their farewell before they walked out, leaving Frei stranded because she decided to be dumb. And wasting no time, they teleported out of town with Asil’s help. The original plan was to disappear along with Frei, and have her wear a disguise, but for some reason she had insisted on saying goodbye to the lord first. And that had been the result.

Alas, high leveled people and their hubris.

The wind rustled their hair, and Cecile, the purple haired merchant actually looked concerned.

“Will she be able to find us?”

“Probably.” Amber shrugged. “Otherwise she can meet us in the forest.”

Asil nodded in agreement, which also gave Cecile pause. In the past week, Frei had gotten along with everyone, except her idea of getting along with Asil was to be annoying, so it only made sense that he agreed with Amber’s assessment. She was quite sure that Frei just enjoyed speaking like that to get reactions out of people, but Amber didn’t want that at all.

“Well, let’s just go get the horses,” Amber said simply. “We shouldn’t be too far now.”

“There is only one more city before reaching the border,” Cecile said. “So, hopefully it won’t be long.”

Asil nodded, “Hopefully.”

* * *

Hours passed as they traveled, by this point Amber had learned how to ride a horse which was useful. Sure, she could go on foot thirty times faster, but she wasn’t in a rush. Before, she enjoyed the idea of trying to see how fast she could travel, and the idea was still appealing, just not now. Maybe if she was traveling alone it would be a different story. Though, this time, she wasn’t on horse, she was just on Cecile’s cart.

They had prepared two horses to pull Frei’s carriage a day before departing, but now they were just being used to pull a merchant’s cart instead. Which Amber didn’t mind one bit.

“Say, Amber,” Cecile called.

“Yeah?”

“Did you ever find out why you got the information so late from the assassin?” she asked casually.

Amber blinked. “I didn’t; I forgot to ask them.”

It was the truth, but she felt kind of dumb. Then again, she had been so busy since she got the news that she didn’t think too much about it. Though, now it was a good time to question Remmel.

“I’ll ask now.”

With that, she took out the initial letter she had received, and then took out the Cursewelder to use as a writing surface. It wasn’t the best ⁠— given the numerous engravings across its blade ⁠— but it was good enough. And she quickly began to pen a rather succinct message to her boss.

Why the fuck did you take so long to tell me? What’s going on in the republic of mercenaries? Surely you know something???

⁠— Amber

She hadn’t placed all that much effort in the handwriting but it was good enough. Then, she activated the Ring of the Obsidian Rose and instantly, the letter consumed into black flames, disappearing instantly. It was quite the interesting item.

Could you send pictures with it as well? Amber wondered.

“Let’s see what he says,” she shrugged. “Asked him about the republic of mercenaries too.”

“Yeah, the lord of Vaurel also had no idea about it either,” Cecile agreed.

And with that, they descended into silence, riding along the wind. Time continued to tick by until Amber sensed something. Asil too paused and a moment later⁠— a person teleported on top of the cart, startling Cecile.

Their white cloak fluttered to the wind, their elongated and large wizard hat shadowed over them, and her orange looks of hair were barely visible. Her ears were short and unassuming, and her eyes were silver like the moon⁠— it was Frei, the disguised Frei. She also held a long white staff that resembled a tree branch.

“Oh,” she gasped looking at Asil and Amber. “By the stars, my teleportation spell failed and sent me here⁠. Could this be what people call fate—”

“Stop before I kick you,” Amber sighed.

She clicked her tongue. “You really are stuck up.”

“Frei?” Cecile paused. “How did your ears⁠—”

“Secret,” she said, taking a seat. “Catching up to y’all took me a bit, especially given I had to cover my tracks, couldn’t y’all wait?”

Amber met the elf’s gaze.

“No.”

“You are one cruel master,” she pointed with her finger accusingly. “But whatever, I’m sure it’s just your time of the month.”

She almost facepalmed at that, but didn’t say anything. Instead, she decided to just interact with her, given she was actually a treasure trove of knowledge. When she wasn’t being annoying anyway.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

* * *

And so, she decided to ask the elf about the current state of the Sacred Forest, given Asil said his information was probably outdated. And she didn’t learn all that many new things. Mainly that elves really liked smithing and magic; the idea of creation appealed to them. Though she was fairly certain she had heard something similar before.

She also learned that the Sacred Forest was reclusive in nature due to some slavery thing that was happening a few decades ago, something that neither Asil or Cecile knew about. Aside from that, she didn’t learn all that much. Though, after she switched to topic of the world, that changed.

The first thing she learned was that the Great Desert was in a bit of a stalemate. Ofril had taken over the Grand City of Torl and… that was about it, apparently the Grand Dungeon had become so dangerous that no one dared venture into it for leveling anymore. Due to a grand abundance of Abyssal monsters. Which in all honesty, was a bit of a shame since she could've leveled there.

Amber sighed, before deciding to ask something that had been in her mind for sometime.

“Frei, do you know what’s happening in the republic of mercenaries?”

At her question everyone paid attention, and the elf blinked. “You don’t know?”

In response, Amber shook her head and the elf digested for a moment before tilting her head. Yet, the casual gesture couldn’t have prepared her for what she was about to hear.

“A guy by the name of Mr. Oracle summoned a super strong demon over there, a Demon of Genesis or something, and there are about…” She pondered for a moment. “Two and a half million casualties or so at the moment.”

Amber eyes’ widened, Asil blinked and Cecile gasped in disbelief.

“What…” It almost felt like a gut punch to her. She had failed to kill Oracle and this was the outcome? “How…?”

“Well he just got sacrifices and summoned the demon?” Frei shrugged.

“Right…”

Amber just sat there in shock, digesting the words and the weight of them. Because I failed to kill him so many people died… It was hard for her to take.

“Amber, it’s not your fault. If you hadn’t been there Cytel would’ve had that outcome instead, besides, you weren’t the only party trying to kill Oracle at the time,” Cecile said reassuringly.

“Right…”

Frei pursed her lips. “It seems that I should’ve been more tactful.”

For a moment, Amber felt kind of lost, just simply lost. Everyone was talking with each other, mainly filling Frei on what had happened, but Amber didn’t really care. It was just… she didn’t think her lack of strength would have such a consequence? Sure, it was something spouted and said casually, but if what Frei said was true then…

Had she killed those people indirectly? Logically speaking she hadn’t, emotionally speaking on the other hand⁠—

“Hey.” Frei shook her.

Amber blinked. “What?”

“I heard ya failed to kill the Oracle guy,” she said, taking a moment to let those words simmer in the air. “And it kind of doesn’t matter.”

She listened and then was confused. “What do you mean?”

“‘Cause, the Saints of Truth hunted the guy down too after his escape from Cytel, and he still got away,” she said simply. “So, if ya wanna blame anyone for the deaths, blame ‘em. Afterwards they just kinda sat there and let the demon be summoned, deciding it was better to get to the root of things. In fact, more demons keep on being summoned and they haven’t done anything.”

Asil raised his eyebrow. “So you’re saying they’re aggravating the situation on purpose?”

“Dunno, I just know they could’ve easily put a stop to the Demon of Genesis and they didn’t. Make that as you will.” She shrugged.

Amber slowly nodded, digesting the extra information. And the guilt she was feeling, greatly lessened.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Ye, cheer up.” Frei grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her. “If ya grow stronger it won’t ever happen again; use it as resolve.”

Amber nodded. “That’s true.”

And I thought I had completely gotten used to living in Vir… A sigh left her. My heart actually dropped. She took a long calming breath and stared at the sky.

“I don’t see ya resolved,” Frei said, annoyed.

Amber frowned. “You can’t just expect me to be motivated after that.”

“Why not? Didn’t ya like pushing your limits⁠— push your emotional limits now,” she goaded. “C’mon now, don’t falter.”

“Frei, just stop⁠—”

And Amber got pulled by the elf and was made to meet her gaze.

“Listen, it’s not your fault, ‘kay? This world is kinda shit, just ‘cause you failed to kill a monster that went on to destroy a city ten years later doesn’t make ya a monster. So, seriously, stop moping.”

“It’s easier said than done,” Amber argued.

“Maybe, but ya should still get angry at me instead or some shit⁠— rather than be sad about it. Ya wanna kick Oracle’s ass? Then get stronger and do it. The Demon Genesis fucker is level 300, and I ain’t gonna kick its ass for ya.”

Amber felt more annoyed than ever, and yet⁠— Frei kind of had a point. She glared at the elf who had a resolute gaze, and finally; Amber sighed.

“Fine, I’ll kick Oracle’s ass.”

“Nah, ya don’t mean it,” Frei admonished. “Try harder.”

“Frei, stop—”

“Try harder, at least dislike him for fuck’s sake.”

Eventually, Frei’s tactic to be obnoxious for getting her over the whole disaster had mostly worked, there were times where Amber did feel somewhat sad. But overall, she had resolved herself more than anything.

She was going to kick Oracle’s ass.

Or rather, kill him…

It felt weird to declare something like that in her mind, but at this point Amber saw it as vindication for her failure, and also as vengeance and retribution for those that had died at his hands. It was the least she could do. She had crushed his plans once; she could do it again.

* * *

The days passed. And Amber eventually let Frei do the “vampire” thing, but it felt so goddamn awful that she didn’t allow it again. It also took her multiple hours to recover from what she had drained, so all in all; it was not a good deal at all. Though it was good to know that technically Frei could use her to recover in case of an emergency, if it came to worst.

In the end, they had continued to travel on Cecile’s cart, mainly because it wasn’t particularly conspicuous. The travels were mostly uneventful, Frei had also mellowed out somewhat; having probably settled into a way of socializing that made her comfortable.

It took about two weeks after leaving Vaurel before they reached the last city before the Great Forest, and it was quite small yet they also specialize in smithing and magecraft. They didn’t stick around for very long; given Frei’s level had startled the local lord. So, after staying there for a mere day, they departed once more. In the meantime, the asshole that was Remmel had yet to reply⁠— so much for joining the rose. She had basically gotten ghosted in another world.

Though, about two days later after leaving the city something unexpected happened.

Frei raised her head, her white hat fluttering in the wind. “Oh, huh.”

“Did something happen?” Asil asked, confused.

“Yeah, a buncha people are dying to some monster over there,” she pointed at the forest to the side.

Cecile immediately made the horses go faster, evidently wanting to leave the area as soon as possible.

“Oh, they have people above 150 too, interesting,” Frei tilted her head.

Amber paused. “How do you even know that⁠—”

And an explosion went off in the distance well into the forest. The billowing cloud easily reached over fifty meters into the air, brightly shining for everyone to see.

“Shit⁠—” Cecile cursed, pulling the reins of the horses.

The animals basically went crazy and immediately flipped the cart over, Amber landed rolling with a frown, Asil grabbed Cecile and teleported away, and Frei threw some darkness daggers at the horses, knocking them out as she unceremoniously flipped along with the cart and crawled out of it.

“Shadow magic is pretty cool,” Frei said regarding Amber before tilting her head. “Uh, I’m kinda confused though, why is there a level 180 monster in this place anyway? Shouldn’t the surrounding lands be peaceful?”

“They should…” Cecile agreed with a frown.

Meanwhile Amber was frowning. “Are they still struggling?”

“Yeah, oh⁠— someone died.”

And that was enough for her to act. Amber immediately rushed forward, leaving her companions behind. She didn’t want to let people die in front of her, not when she could do something about it. Using all of her enhancement skills in a single moment, she covered distance like never before, the trees blurred around her and the ones in her way⁠— were smashed right through.

Pieces of wood splattered as she rushed through the forest, and not even a few seconds later she saw the clearing in the forest, where a gigantic bear monster was surrounded by injured people in black robes. Multiple corpses surrounded the monster already, and Amber immediately acted⁠—

She jumped through the thickets and arrived in a single moment, all her attributes reaching a new peak as she forced them beyond their normal limits, her body being enhanced by Essence as she shone with a blue light. She flew through the air as the monster turned to regard her and she kicked⁠—

The bear’s maw snapped and she sent it flying into the forest with a loud bang. Trees exploded as she landed in the middle of the circle of people, then a moment later Frei appeared with her staff.

“Huh, getting a better look; this looks like a cult gathering.”

And a voice whispered. “Yep, and guests aren’t allowed.”

An assassin⁠— Amber turned, but it was too late. The person stabbed Frei, shedding blood, before turning towards Amber⁠— and being grabbed by Frei

“Yea, you’re gonna have to do better than that⁠.”

And the assassin got slammed into the ground with an explosion of dust, a loud gasp echoing as Frei stomped down, breaking multiple bones as the man let out a loud and pained gasp. Finally, she grabbed her staff and jabbed it into his chest, blood splattering in all directions as he screamed.

“I surrender! Stop holy shit!”

Amber blinked and a voice called her.

“Amber?”

She turned only to see…

“Aveline?” she paused.

What?

“That hurts, just stop!” The assassin cursed. “You're gonna need more than that to kill me so at least try something else!”

“Uhuh, the point is making you suffer,” Frei answered incredulously, driving the staff further as he screamed.

Amber turned, seeing the familiar face on the ground, struggling for his life. His face was contorted in pain as Frei’s staff stabbed him through the heart. It was that person from the Obsidian Rose, the leader of sorts, her boss kind of…

“Remmel?”

And Amber, now, felt more confused than ever.