Arc 6. A seemingly endless loss
Road to a Hero:
Three Chances in Another World
Chapter 40. Aggravated informants
After Gray had called Jong, he also informed everyone else he had done so, which surprised Rosemary and the others, other than the already informed Soku. Gray had explained that, due to their meeting with the Revolutionaries as well as the dealings with Rupert, excluding his assassination, Constal is in danger. So they travel all the way to the mayor’s office to inform Greta, the mayor. On the ride over there, Gray contemplates telling everyone about the assassination, but he’s obviously reluctant. He’s done stupid things before and they’ve welcomed him, but this was villainous. It isn’t like the time he left them and then returned, this is dark, but he did it for a good reason. It’s a looming stress that, like all his others, he suppresses and tries his hardest not to think about. They make it past the main gate and enter the grounds of the office, making it up to the guarded main gate.
Guard: “Business?”
Edward: “We need to inform the Mayor of a possible attack and how we’ve already prepared for it.”
The Guards all look at each other, then back at the group, nodding their heads. They open the dark wooden doors and let them enter, guarding them to the Mayor’s assistant's office. She looks up, with a grim look in her eye, as if she’s angry with them. But she still acts as respectfully as she did before. They get a good look at her office, not finding anything that represents her as a person, other than her nameplate, Ganga Iragay.
Ganga: “Sorry, Mrs. Greta’s currently in a meeting with Julius Cromwell, would you please sit outside in the waiting area until she’s done?”
Rosemary: “Julius’ is here?”
Gray: “Guess so. We can see him when he’s finished, let’s just go out and sit I guess.”
And that they do, having to sit in the cold waiting room for almost two hours, doing nothing. Soku takes a nap, Gray lays his head on Rosemary’s shoulder daydreaming about being able to watch TV, Edward stares out of the window, and Peter doodles in a sketchbook with various designs of a Wrist Talon mark 5 with various attachments on it. Once Julius exits, they’re given their opportunity to talk with her, but she seems pretty annoyed. Accompanying Julius is Lance, who seems extremely annoyed to see Peter.
Lance: “Seems the little rabbit here can’t get away from his doodles.”
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Peter stands up, pushing Lance’s shoulder, making Lance angry. Lance turns around and begins walking towards Julius, and suddenly sucker punches him in the stomach. Everyone quickly stands up, trying to break them apart, but they won’t stop. Punch after punch lands, mostly on Peter’s face, and Edward is forced to step in and push them apart. The guards then step in and kick everyone out of the office, making their trip to the mayor’s office useless.
Once they’re kicked outside, Peter and Lance begin fighting again, causing Gray, who’s still wearing the cursed charm, to be extremely angry after wasting all that time.
Gray: “OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH BOTH! WE HAVE WASTED ALMOST FOUR HOURS OF OUR DAY FOR YOU TWO IDIOTS TO MESS IT UP! DAMMIT, ALL!”
Gray gets to the point that Rosemary’s afraid he’ll hit them, so she tries to step in and pull Gray back. Gray unconsciously activates the cloak of darkness, which pushes her back and causes her to fall to the ground. He then begins seeping mana out of his body, about to strike at both Peter and Lance, but Edward steps in once more. He goes to rip the necklace off of Gray’s neck, but Gray gets defensive and pushes Edward, but Edward catches his hands. Gray attempts to use the tendrils to push Edward's back, but Soku easily swipes the necklace from Gray, knocking him out of this unbridled rage. He quickly tries to get it back, but once he sees the scared look on Rosemary’s face, he backs down.
Gray: “I’m…I’m sorry…I can’t…I’ll go.”
Rosemary grabs his hand and pulls him in tightly, giving him a love-filled hug. They stand there awkwardly for a moment, but Gray’s head begins acing and his OD begins burning. Filled with fear, sweat, pain, and embarrassment, he begins to walk away, but he’s distracted by both the absence of Peter and Lance. Once everyone realizes they disappeared, they see Julius behind them.
Edward: “Julius! Where did they go!?”
Julius: “While you were all distracted, Peter challenged Lance to a duel in twenty-four hours, in the park. They both swiftly got in their respective carriages and left.”
Soku: “Dammit…how are we gonna get home now?”
Rosemary: “Yeah! We gotta go stop them! Peter might get hurt.”
Edward: “Peter? He’s got an entire arsenal. Give him a day-long period and he’ll have who knows how many traps set up.”
Julius: “In my opinion, I suggest you let them do this. Whoever wins doesn't matter, but they both will get experience and end this conflict. They will need to learn that petty squanders like this should be left out of the field and that it hurts when they do.”
Everyone begins to panic, but Soku and Edward begin to calm down as they begin to side with Julius. Rosemary is obviously against the idea, and Gray feels he’s in no place to say anything. Still, they wait for Julius to fetch a carriage for them while they wait silently. Gray sits away from everyone, still reeling in pain from his massive headache, and due to how irritable he feels, he doesn't want to start anything worse than what he did before. To them all, the entire day feels not only wasted but they’re put in a worse position than before. They’ll have to wait a bit before they can inform the mayor, and they’ll either have to stop Peter and Lance or deal with the fallout of the loser of such a battle.
After a bit of waiting, they finally get a carriage to ride home, and once they make it there, they find nothing. All of Peter’s things have vanished other than the Silver Chariot, it seems like he had set this up a while ago. All of his things were packed, he had money set aside, and he’d been the one to push the idea of a fight. With this knowledge, they think about going to the forest to stop this, but for Peter, it’s a long time coming, so they wait. This is something that they all feel Peter needs, he still acts like a child, even though he is one, but he’s acting like this in a much more mature way of life. It’s unfair to him, but life itself isn’t fair, and even though he’s had time to catch up to this life, he’s resisted from the time he was ten to now. And at least by this world’s standards, as a fifteen-year-old, he should be ready to be an adult, which he obviously isn’t.
This battle will either make things worse, progress Peter, and mature him, or he’ll quit this life entirely.
End of Chapter Forty