Chapter 150
Old Friends with Old Wounds
It had been a couple of days since Erin and her friends had managed to rescue Stacey from the clutches of Golorath’s guard. This had obviously not gone over well with the authorities, who had done everything they could in order to find the missing woman and her “kidnappers.” Numerous soldiers and police officers had gone through the slums in a desperate attempt to find the place Erin’s group was hiding in, but it was useless. The slums were a confusing maze even to those who lived there, let alone those who rarely even set foot in the area. There was no way for them to find the people they were looking for on their own.
This obviously didn’t mean that they didn’t try out others methods. They had set up bounties and promised rewards even for the tiniest bits of information, yet nothing came of it. Not only were there plenty of people giving out false info, but a lot of the residents in the slums had been bribed by Ao and other agents of Rayleen to stay silent about them. Add the fact that the people of the lower parts generally hated anybody from the upper parts and you could easily see why all investigations had come up with nothing.
During the time Erin and the others had been hiding in Ao’s secret hideout, some of the dark-haired man’s agents had managed to get their hands on their equipment and had brought them over. Now that they were all dressed up and armed properly, they were ready for any battle that might come their way. Of course, they weren’t going to go and look for a fight, as staying hidden was now more important and useful.
However, being forced to stay cooped up inside a small space was starting to wear on their nerves, as they weren’t even able to go outside for some fresh air. Not that the air in the slums was all that fresh, but it would still be better than the stagnation within the hideout.
“My God, I’m so freaking BORED!” Ryle whined as she laid on the floor. “Seriously, is it absolutely necessary for us to stay inside all the time like this!? I’m going to lose my mind at this rate!”
“Like there was any mind for you to lose in the first place!” Lexton shouted. “Also, what is the need for you to get out anyways!? It’s not like you do anything useful, until you get to use your fists like the simpleminded brute that you are!”
“Hey! I do plenty of useful stuff other than beat people up!” the blonde shouted back. “And you’re in no position to talk! You want out of here just as much as I do, except you just want to run away from Zeldana!”
“Well, can you blame me for that!? You know how terrifying she is!” the kobold argued. “Besides, she has given me plenty of reason to not stay near her! Or have you forgotten about how she locked me in the bathroom in order to out me through her torture session!? Thanks to that, I’m sure we almost got caught by the soldiers that are currently patrolling these slums!”
“It’s not my fault you scream like a little bitch!” Zeldana shouted at Lexton. “And that “torture session” you like to complain about healed all of your injuries, so you’re welcome!”
“You don’t heal people! You play with their goddamn bodies like a psychopath!” the kobold shouted at the elf.
“For the love of everything that’s holy, can you all SHUT THE HELL UP!?” Durge suddenly yelled at the people that were arguing. “I swear I’m getting a headache from having to listen to you all go at it all the damn time!”
“Just take some medicine and plug your ears, if it’s that bad!” Ryle shouted at the orc. “You have nothing to do with this, so stay out of it!”
As the four kept arguing among themselves, Erin and Arkay were left to watch from the side. While the cat boy was scared and worried over his friends, the redhead was simply exhausted. Having to deal with the constant arguments had been a drain on her as well.
“O-Oh dear… There they go again,” Arkay said as his ears drooped. “Isn’t there anything we can do to stop this?”
“Honestly, as much as I wish there was a method to put an end to this, I have no clue what that might be,” Erin said with a heavy sigh. “Things were already bad enough with how badly Ryle and Lexton deal with each other, along with Zeldana’s antics, but now they’ve managed to involve Durge, too! At the rate we’re going, we’ll all be fighting each other! And not just with words, but with our fists!”
“I-I don’t like that at all!” the cat boy said as he stood up suddenly. “I-I need to do something to put a stop to this!”
Before the redhead could stop her young friend, he had already rushed over to the others and placed himself between all of them. Four pairs of eyes were now set on Arkay, who was trembling from both the attention and the tense atmosphere.
“G-Guys? C-Can’t we all just stop this already?” Arkay pleaded in a scared tone. He even had a couple of tears in his eyes. “I-I get that things are kind of tough, b-but I don’t want to see you all so angry with each other. That’s not how we’re supposed to be…”
Erin watched while holding her breath as what would happen. She was worried that the wrath of all four arguing sides would now get directed towards the cat boy. They would soon yell at him and tell him to keep his nose out of their business, which would in turn only hurt him more.
However, much to the redhead’s surprise, nothing seemed to happen. Instead, it seemed like everyone had calmed down all of a sudden and were losing their angry expressions.
“I guess we… got a bit carried away this time,” Durge said as he rubbed the back of his head and looked down at the floor in shame. “We should be better than this, especially since we aren’t the only ones living here right now.”
“Yeah, especially when we’ve got people looking for us right now. It’s not exactly the best time to get loud over stupid crap,” Zeldana said. “Sorry for giving you a headache earlier.”
“Those come and go. It wasn’t going to last anyways,” the orc replied with a small smile. “I’m sorry for yelling at you guys, too.”
“I’d like to apologize, too,” Ryle said. “I shouldn’t let my boredom get the better of me to the point, where I start throwing childish tantrums and screams. We’re all in the same mess and I doubt any of you are having a better time than I am either.”
“It’s understandable. Being stuck like this is bound to drive anyone crazy. I feel the same way, as well,” Lexton said. “And I suppose I should… somewhat apologize to you, Zeldana. I might not like it, but your treatment is very effective and fixed me up right away. I just wish that it wasn’t so painful…”
“Hey, pain is an important part of our existence. Life would suck without it!” the elf said somewhat defensively. “But I guess I’ve gone a bit too far with some of my treatments. There is a reason as to why I do what I do, but I do understand why you all have been avoiding it as much as possible.”
Erin stared at the others in absolute shock over the fact that they were solving their differences peacefully, instead of continuing their fighting. The redhead had been certain that their conflict wasn’t going to die down anytime soon, yet here it was happening right before her. And the fact that their most nervous and shyest member had been the one to bring peace over them was the icing on the top. Perhaps Arkay had other important parts to play in their team besides tasks involving magic?
“...G-Good to see you guys dropping this fight at last,” Arkay said with a smile. “I really hate it when you guys get like that.”
“Well, it’s not like we enjoy doing stuff like this either,” Durge said with a shrug. “It’s just that hard times can bring the worst out of people and cause conflict. Even the best of friends can end up as bitter enemies, if it gets hard enough.”
“But now that we’re over it, we might as well try to figure out ways to pass the time,” Lexton said with a smile as he walked up to Arkay. “I actually found some stuff here that I could use for potions and other things that we could use in the future. I could use some help with that. Wanna help out with that?”
“Nah, what we should do is play some games that help us take our minds off being stuck here!” Ryle said with a big grin as she went to grab the cat boy’s arm. “I just remembered a bunch of fun games I used to play with my brother when we were little that don’t require any stuff! Just two players that are looking to have fun!”
“I could use a partner to pass the time, too!” Zeldana said, as she went to grab the cat boy’s other arm. “I need to do some maintenance on my medical tools and could use some help with that. Care to join me, Arnie?”
“Hey, I was the one who asked first!”
“Yeah, but I’m the one with the most fun idea over here!”
“First or fun, mine is the most important! Or do you want to be taken care of with bad tools!?”
Erin let out a deep sigh, as the arguing started over again. She couldn’t help but get upset at herself for getting her hopes up. She should have known not to expect her friends to act like mature adults after spending so much time with them.
image [https://i.ibb.co/G508dmQ/Ch-150-Pic-1.jpg]
Suddenly, Durge walked up to her and sat down on the floor next to her. The redhead turned her attention to the orc, wondering if there was something he wanted to say to her.
“What’s up?” Erin called out. “You’re not going to join the fight over who gets to hang out with Arnie?”
“No, all I want is to get some peace and quiet, which is proving way more difficult to than it should be,” Durge said with a frustrated sigh. “With the way this is going, I’m going to have to either put something in my ears to block out the noise or shove my head somewhere.”
“Whatever you choose to do, I hope it won’t be too painful,” the redhead said. “Even if the things you’re suggesting do sound more pleasant to listening to those guys…”
“They sure do… Anyways, how is our new friend doing?” the orc asked, glancing over to Stacey. “She’s been rather quiet ever since we got here. Or… ever since we met her, but I think you get what I mean.”
Erin looked over to where her old friend was sitting in a corner. If she was being completely honest, Stacey was most likely not doing all that well overall. Not only had she been a mental wreck before they got her away from Golorath’s people, but being stuck indoors like this was certainly not doing her already bad condition any favors.
For the last couple of days, Stacey had done everything she could to distance herself from everybody. This was done by her basically rooting herself to a corner that she would only leave to go to the bathroom. Even during meals she would say in her corner, forcing Erin to bring her food and take back the dirty dishes. Some of the others had tried to call out to her in order to get some sort of a conversation going, but Stacey simply stayed silent. The others had quickly decided to give up on socializing with their extra member, as they could tell it wasn’t welcome.
Erin was obviously worried over her old friend, as she had no idea what was going through her head. The redhead did understand that she had gone through some very painful things while being held captive, but she had no idea what to do. What made it even worse was that Stacey seemingly become either fearful or even hostile towards everybody else around her, except for Erin herself. This was something that the redhead wished that she could fix before it caused bigger issues than it already had.
“...She’s kind of dealing with a lot right now,” Erin said somewhat awkwardly, finding it hard to explain Stacey’s situation. “You have to understand that she wasn’t being treated nicely while under captivity, which has left a lot of scars on her both physically and mentally. I’m trying my best to get her to open up more, but it’s a very hard battle.”
“I get that, but I’ve seen people that have gone through similar things and she seems… different,” Durge said. “I’m not sure how to explain it, but the way she’s scared of everything around her is almost like she’s seeing it all for the very first time or something. Even the food she has gotten seems to scare her, as she takes a while to look at it before even the first bite. The only thing that doesn’t scare her seems to be you and it’s the only reason she has been able to calm down at all. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that she came from a completely different world or something.”
“You have no idea how close you are,” the redhead whispered low enough that the orc didn’t hear. She then said. “I’ll try to talk to her and get her to open up a bit more. I know dealing with her isn’t pleasant for any of you, but I hope you understand that I’m doing all I can.”
“Nobody’s questioning that. She’s just a very strange and troublesome case,” Durge said with a shrug. “Hope you’ll have more luck in the future, though.”
Erin thanked the orc for his support, before getting up and walking over to Stacey. Since the subject of her old friend had come up, she figured that she might as well try to make some progress with her.
“Hey, Stacey,” the redhead greeted her old friend in a soft voice as she sat next to her. “How are you holding up?”
“Fine!” Stacey replied quickly. “Considering how I’m stuck in what I can only think of as pure hell, I’d say I’m doing just fine.”
“Stace, I get that this a whole lot to take in. Believe me, it was the same for me, too!” Erin said with a sigh. “But we have to face the facts. We’re in a new world now and we don’t know if we can ever get back. All we can do is make the best of it.”
“Make the best of THIS?” Stacey said in a bitter tone. “That’s easy for you to say. You haven’t gone through all the hellish torture that I have! You’ve just been having fun with your new buddies and-”
Stacey’s rant was cut short as she saw Erin give her the angriest glare ever. The sheer fury behind the redhead’s eye was enough to terrify Stacey to no end.
“Do you think I’ve had it easy!? EASY!?” Erin said while gritting her teeth from anger. “Let me show you just how easy I’ve had it!”
The redhead lifted the hair that was covering her missing right eye, causing Stacey to let out a shocked gasp. To further prove her point, Erin even took off the glove on her right hand, showing the artificial hand she now had.
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“If you really think you’re the only one that has a tough time in this world, think again,” the redhead said as she put her glove back on. “I’ve had to endure a lot of painful things and do many terrible things that I would have never wanted to do, all in order to simply survive in this world. So I never want to hear you ever say anything about me having it easy!”
“...I-I’m sorry, Erin. I shouldn’t have assumed that about you,” Stacey apologized. “But I still don’t get how I’m supposed to live my life here! I had things back home. Family and friends, plans for the future, and now they’re all gone! What am I supposed to do now!?”
“Yeah, so did I. Or at least I tried to find such things back home,” Erin said as she took a deep breath to calm herself. “But those things are now lost, possibly for good. We should also know that they had those things taken from them, too.”
“They?” Stacey asked. “Are you referring to your new friends or something?”
“Somewhat. Thanks to what Gabe and the others have done in this world, those guys and many others have lost many irreplaceable things. Families, friends, homes, all of them have been lost from all this insanity,” the redhead explained. “However, they aren’t the only ones who lost something important. Gabe and his friends also lost everything they had back in our world.”
“...What? You actually feel sympathy to those… those… CREEPS!?” Stacey asked angrily. “You mean to tell me that after everything they’ve done to me, I should be feeling sorry for them!?”
“I don’t mean that you should feel sorry for them after what they did to you. What you should feel is regret over what YOU did to them. What we all did,” Erin explained. “Don’t you remember? That whole “prank” that you and our other friends had me be a part of? How we didn’t just stop at humiliating them and simply pushed it further and further? Don’t you feel bad about it at all?”
“Why should I!? It’s not like we did anything that wrong!” Stacey said as she shook her head. “Besides, it was a harmless prank. Something they should have been used to by then! What made it so special anyways!?”
“A harmless prank? Are you kidding me?” the redhead asked as she glared at her old friend. “Stacey, we humiliated them in front of the whole school! And when that wasn’t enough, we decided to add the accusations on top of everything! Don’t you remember how they were kicked out of our school and became outcasts!? I can’t even imagine what happened with their families…”
“So? Not our problem!” Stacey said. “They should have known better than to try dragging us down! They tried to pin the blame on us, so of course we had to put them in their place! Last I remember, you went along with it, didn’t you!? Are you saying that you regret all of it now!?”
“...I do. I have regretted it for every single day since then,” Erin replied as a sad look came to her eyes. “For all these years, I’ve been wondering how I could ever make up for what I did back then. For not making things right no matter how many opportunities I had. Yet I’ve always known that it was impossible. There is no way to make amends for the things we did.”
“What are you going to do now then? Are you going to try and make up with them, telling them how much you regret the things you did?” Stacey asked in a bitter tone. “Like that would somehow magically fix everything they’ve done.”
“No. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to stop them,” the redhead said, now with a gaze of resolve in her eye that took her old friend by surprise. “As much as I hate to admit it, those friends that I knew back then are gone. They’ve been replaced by the monsters who have turned this world into hell itself and it’s my fault it happened. I am going to make things right as much as possible, even if it means killing them.”
“Y-You can’t be serious… Can you?” Stacey asked in disbelief. “They have armies of monsters obeying their every command! You can’t possibly take them on!”
“Well, I’ve managed so far,” Erin said with a shrug as she stood up. “Might as well see this through to the end.”
“You’re crazy,” Stacey said, before she realized something. “Hang on! Did you just call them your friends!?”
“...That’s what they were back then for me. I was just too cowardly to admit it,” the redhead said as she began to walk away. “And they sure were better ones than the ones I actually stuck with.”
Now that her talk with her old friend was done, Erin decided to take a look at what the others were doing. Judging from the lack of yelling and other loud noises, she assumed that the arguing had finally come to an end. Taking a closer look at what the others were up to, she noticed that Ryle had seemingly won their latest argument, as she seemed to be playing some sort of a game with Arkay. Meanwhile, Zeldana and Lexton had secluded themselves in their own work in order to pass the time.
“Well, at least there’s silence and peace again,” Erin mumbled to herself.
Just as she said that, the front door to the hideout opened and Ao walked in. The dark-haired man hadn’t been seen there since Erin had met up with him and told him about Stacey’s situation. He had told her that he was going to get into contact with Rayleen and ask her on further instructions and whether she was alright with Erin’s proposal of taking part in the interrogation.
“Glad to see this place is still standing. I was afraid you guys would throw some sort of a crazy party in order to celebrate a job well done or something,” Ao said with a smile. “How have you guys been holding up so far?”
“Not good. We’re bored out of our minds!” Ryle complained. “Seriously, would it kill you to have some form of entertainment around here!? Being stuck inside like a bunch of rats will drive anyone crazy!”
“Why didn’t you guys just play some of the many board games I’ve got stashed in here?” the dark-haired man asked, shocking everyone. “How do you think I pass the time? When there’s really nothing to do, I’d just contact some of the other agents and we’d have ourselves a game night. It’s a really fun way to get through the more boring days.”
“...Where the hell are these games of yours?” Erin asked before looking over to Lexton. “And I thought you checked every place here! You said that the only things you found were canned food, bottled water and medical supplies!”
“That’s all I did find!” the kobold said defensively. “Or at least that was all the actually useful stuff I could find!”
“I don’t know just what you’ve been looking at, but they’re in the cupboards over there,” Ao said, pointing at the place the games were supposedly hidden. “You’re free to play them, as long as you remember to put all the pieces back in their places.”
Ryle immediately rushed over to the cupboards and opened them, revealing a stack of different board games within. Had they known about these, their days spent in hiding would have been passed with ease.
“What the hell, Lex!?” Ryle asked angrily, holding up the stack of games in her hands. “How the hell couldn’t you find these!? They were right here!”
“I would also like to know the answer to that!” Erin said. “How could you miss something so obvious!?”
“Those are board games?” Lexton asked, looking at the stack of games. “I just thought they were some sort of practice tools meant for kids that want to learn alchemy or something.”
“...Okay, how do you know what video games are, but not what board games are?” the redhead asked. “This doesn’t make any sense!”
“I know about video games, because I work with machines often. When times got tough, I had to offer my services as a repairman and I worked on all sorts of game machines,” the kobold explained. “And judging by how those things look, I doubt they have all that much machinery in them, so I’ve never come across them.”
“Wow. For the first time in my life, I actually feel sorry for you,” Ryle said bluntly. “Didn’t you have a childhood or something?”
“Of course I had a childhood! And a very happy one at that!” Lexton shouted angrily, before a look of nostalgia came over his face as he thought back to his days as a carefree kid. “I still remember how my father taught me the basics of being a merchant, how I carved my first rune, made my first potion and-”
“Okay, I think we get the idea, Lex,” Erin said stopping the kobold’s reminiscing. She then turned to look at Ao. “Anyways, I doubt you came all the way here just to tell us about board games, right? I’m guessing your boss has reached a conclusion on the matter regarding Stacey.”
“That would be correct!” the dark-haired man said with a bright smile. “She recently decided upon the place the interrogation would take place at and whether you would be allowed to take part in it or not!”
“...And?” the redhead prodded. “What was the decision?”
“Seriously, you’re no fun at all,” Ao said with a frown. “I was doing a dramatic pause over here! Can’t you at least try to play along?”
“Now you see what I have to deal with!” Zeldana called out.
“Shut up, Zel!” Erin shouted at the elf. “Back to the topic at hand, would you mind and just tell me the result, please!?”
“Well, at least you asked nicely,” Ao mumbled as he rolled his eyes. “Anyways, the boss agree to your request. You’ll be allowed to take part in the whole thing.”
A relieved smile came over the redhead’s face. It seemed like she could be able to help Stacey get through the whole thing. She had been worried what might happen to her old friend, if she wasn’t allowed to be there.
“BUT! I must emphasize that you are not to get in the way of our work, okay?” the dark-haired man stated. “Remember what we agreed on. Any sign of you trying to get in the way of what we want to know and it will be the end of you. Understood?”
“I will hold my end of the deal,” Erin replied. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Excellent!” Ao said happily. “Now, where might our mutual friend be? Could you get her?”
The redhead nodded and went on to fetch Stacey, who was still sitting in her corner. Upon noticing the redhead approach her, she looked up at her, wondering what she wanted.
“Hey, it’s time for that interrogation that we’ve talked about,” Erin said in a soft tone. “Are you ready to go?”
“I doubt that my opinion really matters, does it?” Stacey said with a sigh as she stood up. “Just… don’t let them do too much to me, okay? I’ve already had to deal with more than enough.”
“Don’t worry. As long as you answer their questions as honestly as you can, I’m sure you’ll be fine,” the redhead said with a small smile. “Besides, I’ll be there with you and I won’t let anything bad happen to you. Let’s go.”
The two ladies walked up to where Ao was waiting. Before leaving, Erin turned to look over her friends to speak to them one more time.
“Guys, I’ll be away for a bit. You guys wait here,” the redhead said. “Try not to get into trouble. Or fights.”
“What do you think we are? Children?” Lexton asked. “We’re more than capable of handling ourselves!”
“Yeah! Besides, with all these games, I’m sure we’ll be able to pass the time with ease!” Ryle said with a grin as she held up one of the board games. “Who wants to play Monopoly!?”
“...Okay, now I’m really worried,” Erin muttered before walking outside, thinking back on what it was like to play that particular board game. “How the hell is that even a thing here?”
Ignoring the question she had on her mind for now, the redhead joined up with Ao and Stacey, and began to walk towards the place the interrogation would take place at. By disguising themselves in ragged cloaks, the three of them were able to move around without catching the attention of the thugs living in the slums or the occasional soldiers that were patrolling the area. By this point, most of the searched for Erin and her group were focused in places outside of Graven Hills, as it had been so long since the whole “kidnapping incident” that the authorities were certain they had already gotten much further away.
As they were walking, Erin couldn’t help but think that the place for the interrogation was strangely far from the hideout they had been using. However, when she thought about the way Ao was moving around as he led them, she came to the realization that he was intentionally going a much longer path. This was most likely done in order to make it harder for her and Stacey to run away, as they would get lost right away.
Eventually, they came to what looked like a very small shack that was built against a mountain of waste and trash. There appeared to be a small man dressed in rags sleeping next to the front door.
“Yo! Colbor!” Ao called out to the sleeping man. “How’s it been?”
“Oh, you know... The usual,” the small man replied in a weak and raspy voice. “Nothing much really happens around here, outside of the rare treat one gets from the garbage dumped here.”
“Yeah, that’s your typical day here,” the dark-haired man said. “Listen, I managed to get my hands on some quality booze and I wondered if you and your brothers would be interested in having a little drinking party? I figured you’d want to try and get back at me for beating you last time!”
“Hey, that was just luck on your side! I wasn’t feeling well!” Colbor said back. “But that sounds just fun. I could use some drink to help my aching bones. Are those two joining us?”
“They sure are!” Ao said. “These here are my little sister and her friend! I’ll properly introduce them inside.”
“Alright. Let me just open the door, so we can get in,” the small man said, as he slid the door to the side, allowing people to enter his home. “Come on in.”
As Ao thanked the man and moved towards the entrance, Erin couldn’t help but think about something strange she had noticed. For some reason, the door seemed to have a lot of weight, despite being built of simple trash and being easily moved to the side by Colbor. Despite all of that, it seemed to weigh a ton and had sunk deeper into the soft ground than it should.
“Hey, is something the matter, sis?” Ao suddenly called out to the redhead, who had been lost in thought. “The house is gonna get cold! We can’t leave the door open all day!”
“...It’s nothing,” Erin replied, slightly irked by being referred to as the dark-haired man’s sister. “Just lost in thought a bit.”
Following after Ao, Erin and Stacey entered the shack. Soon after that, Colbor followed behind them, closing the door in the process.
“Let’s get some lighting in here, so we don’t end up bumping into each other,” Ao said as he used his fire magic to light up a candle. “There we go. That should make it better.”
Erin looked ahead and her eye went wide in surprise. Instead of a small room, there was a long tunnel that seemed to go deep underground. It looked like they were walking into the abyss itself.
“W-Why does this lead underground?” the redhead asked, feeling a bit nervous. “Is it to prevent us from running away?”
“There are many reasons as to why it’s built like this, one of them being that it will help in not letting any noises reach the outside,” a deep and booming voice said from behind, taking Erin and Stacey by complete surprise. They turned around saw only Colbor standing there, meaning the voice had to have come from him. “As for preventing people from escaping, that’s my job.”
“Really now?” Erin asked. “And just how would you prevent the two of us from doing anything?”
The reason the redhead was prodding these people was in order to learn more about them. Just in case things went bad, she wanted to know just what she would be up against.
“Well… That would be through the use of physical strength. Not that I like the idea of doing that, since I’m a peaceful guy at heart,” Colbor explained, as his body suddenly began to grow at a fast rate. “I hope you two will behave yourselves well enough, so that we don’t have to go there. Okay?”
Both Erin and Stacey stared at the giant before them in pure shock. Once Colbor had been done growing, he had to crouch down in order to fit inside the tunnel, as his back was against the ceiling. The ragged cloak he had been wearing was nothing more than a scarf by now. His body was also completely visible now, so Erin could tell that he was a lizardman.
The redhead was also able to get a look at the front door and saw a couple of runes scribbled on it. She assumed those were behind the strangeness she had noticed earlier.
“I see you noticed our little decorations,” Colbor said with a grin. “We’ve got a kobold in our ranks that knows how to make these things. Real useful in setting up defenses and other such things. These in particular have turned the door harder and heavier. We can’t let just anybody get in here, now can we?”
“...T-True,” Erin said awkwardly, still taken aback by the size of the lizardman before her. “I’ll make sure my friend and I behave nicely.”
“Good to know!” Colbor said with a smile. “I so hate to deal with unruly people.”
“Excuse me, bit would you guys mind wrapping up your little conversation?” Ao called out. “We’ve got interrogators waiting to see you two and I’d hate to make them wait.”
Erin simply nodded and grabbed hold of Stacey’s hand, pulling her along as they followed the dark-haired man deeper into the hideout. The tunnel went on for quite some time, which unnerved the two ladies. After walking for some time, they saw light ahead of them. The light came from a large room that had multiple tunnels leading to it. In the middle of it was a large wooden table with two chairs on opposite sides. There were also two people waiting for them there.
The first one seemed to be an elf, as Erin was able to see the pointy ears. Besides his ears and eyes, his face was completely covered up in bandages. The bandages seemed to be covering up most of his body, as they were also covering his arms. His clothing consisted of a sleeveless robe, loose pants, combat boots and gloves.
The other person was an insectoid, who were essentially bug people. This one in particular was a spider-based individual, commonly referred to as arachnoids. He was much larger than the elf and had six arms, making the full number of his limbs match that of a spider. His features resembled a spider as well, with multiple eyes on his face, large fangs and hairs covering his whole body. He was wearing clothing similar to the elf.
image [https://i.ibb.co/rwdxZdg/Ch-150-Pic-2.jpg]
“Gentlemen! Sorry to keep you waiting!” Ao greeted the two with a big smile on his face. “I had to take extra cautions in order to make sure that not only would we be followed, but also so that our guests wouldn’t run away. I hope that it wasn’t too much of a bother to the two of you.”
“Hmph! Extra cautions… There would be no need for such things in the first place, if you had simply let us handle this whole case from the beginning!” the elf said in a displeased tone. “You even had to go through of negotiating special terms for our interrogation with Lady Rayleen herself, while most of us would just get the job done without such unnecessary bothers! I guess it helps to be a favorite of the boss herself. You just get to do whatever you want!”
Erin was taken by surprise by the open hostility the elf was showing towards Ao. She thought that since all of Rayleen’s people were so loyal to her that they would get along with one another. It seemed like that had been a misconception and that there were grudges and bad blood with the organization itself.
The redhead was expecting Ao to get angry and try to defend himself, yet he didn’t seem to be doing anything like that at all. The dark-haired man simply smiled, as he walked up to the elf.
“I suppose you do have a point. I do have a favorable position when it comes to the boss and I get to use that to my own advantage from time to time,” Ao said thoughtfully. “However, I think you are overlooking one very important detail.”
“Really?” the elf asked in a sarcastic tone. “And what might that be?”
Before the elf could do anything, Ao had grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall. It all happened so fast that even Erin couldn’t see it. The arachnoid tried to intervene by getting his venomous fangs ready, but was killed right away, as Ao shot a small fireball at his head that blew it up. The dark-haired man had done so without even looking away from the elf he was currently strangling.
“You forget that I didn’t simply get my position by some dumb luck. You see, I earned my position, which is why the boss trusts me more than a little shit like you,” the dark-haired man said as he glared at the elf, who was struggling to break free. “If you have a problem with it, I suggest you start working your ass off. Maybe at some point you’ll be able to reach a similar position. Until then, I want you to quit your whining and do your job. Got it?”
The elf managed to give a small nod, prompting Ao to drop him down on the ground and walk away.
“Goddammit… Now look at what you made me do!” the dark-haired man said in a slightly annoyed tone, devoid of the anger it had just held. “You made me kill your colleague! Don’t you know how hard it is to find people that are good at that sort of stuff!? They don’t grow on trees!”
Erin was staring at the whole scene before her in utter shock and horror. Ao had just killed someone that belonged to the same faction as him, a comrade, yet he was complaining about it like it was just a bother, like some food that had spilled on the floor. She had already known that Rayleen and her people were dangerous, but this truly showed her just how much danger she was in even when she was technically allied with them.
As she was thinking about this, the redhead felt a hand grasp the back of her cloak. She looked behind her and saw Stacey in such a terrible state of shock that it looked like she was having trouble breathing. The brutal act of violence that had just played out right before her eyes had obviously had a bad effect on her, as her face was pale, her eyes were wide and her breathing was minimal and shallow.
Hoping to help her old friend get out of her shock, Erin took hold of her shoulder and gently squeezed it. She also looked into her eyes with a strong yet comforting gaze, telling Stacey that she was there to keep her safe. This seemed to do the trick, as she began to calm down, but was still clearly scared over what was happening.
“Y-You don’t need to worry about his loss,” the elf suddenly said, having managed to catch his breath after being strangled just a moment ago. “I can do the job on my own. His assistance would have made it easier, but this can still be done just with me.”
“That’s great news! I was already getting worried over here!” Ao said with a bright smile. “Now, let’s clean this mess up, so we can get to work! I have better things to do than to sit in this damn hole in the ground!”
The elf simply nodded as he went to drag his colleague’s body into one of the tunnels, before returning. He took a seat at the table and looked at Stacey.
“Would you mind and come have a seat over here?” the interrogator asked.
Stacey looked at Erin, who gave her a nod. She then went to sit at the other side of the table, looking straight at the elf.
The interrogation was now starting.