Apophria Vi Nuam walked down the long, and blue carpet that led to Sidonia’s small and out of place tea table. Sidonia was not however, sipping tea and smiling smugly at approaching Nekomata like she usually did. Apophria continued her carefree and side to side stride past the white tea table. There was a large and also out of place, white bed far behind the table and hugging the back wall of the Rolaighn.
Apophria walked to the edge of the bed and theatrically turned on her heel, leaning over the bed with a smug expression and her hands on her hips.
“Sleeping on the job Sidonia?”
Atop the bed and out of the sheets, wrapped around a pillow, stirred Sidonia. Her long white hair was scattered across the entirety of the bed, and the white drees she wore was slipping off her shoulders.
“What’s this? Am I not allowed to lay down once every few years? Or are you just hoping for more erogenous activities?”
Sidonia asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Apophria looked away with a frown and a red face.
“When you’re dead you can. Come on, I’ve found something important.”
Sidonia smiled melancholically.
“That’s cruel…that’s really cruel…”
Apophria shuffled around a pack on the back of her hip, and dropped a pile of small papers, paperclipped together, on Sidonia’s bed.
“I’ve found the location of the H.O System’s control center.”
Like a knife, Apophria’s words cut through the air like butter. Sidonia’s face instantly straightened, and her shoulders were no longer slumped. Even the background hum of the Capital, faintly audible, faded instantly.
“Oh please, is it really so important to warrant soundproofing?”
“It is.”
Sidonia replied curtly and seriously. Sidonia grabbed the stack of papers, and flipped through them, spending a millisecond looking at each, as if she were absorbing the contents rather than reading them.
“Where.”
Sidonia asked, not taking her eyes off the papers.
“The Jungle. You know which one I’m talking about. It’s somewhere there.” Apophria said, more seriously, still smiling despite the change in atmosphere.
Sidonia put her hand to her chin, her eyes narrowing in thought.
“Do you think it’s above ground? Or underground in the tunnels?”
“Hell if I know. But if it was above ground, don’t you think the local adventurers would’ve found it?”
“Good point…but maybe they have found it, and the Andestinians are just covering it up…”
“You’re such a pessimist, you really give the poor kids under you a bad habit ya know? I don’t think they’d be able to hide something that important and large, not to mention that’s it’s also far north. But anyway, I’m assuming you’re going to be sending me up there, and I’d like to request Enhérejär, just to be safe.”
Sidonia raised a finger with her eyes closed.
“No, and no.”
Apophria almost burst out laughing, but replied, chuckling,
“W-what? You think any other Nekomata could handle traveling the whole continent and going through-“
“I do.”
“Oh please, you’d better not say ‘Lackadaisical’ or I’m gonna have a heart attack!”
Apophria said, now fully laughing.
“I already know who can do this. You, Serendipity, are needed elsewhere.”
“Oh come on~! The one time there’s a job that seems fun, you’re going to leave it up to some rando? Uhg!”
Apophria said childishly and with a moan of annoyance.
“ I still need you to do the dirty work, even more so now that you’ve found the control center.”
“Ugh...Fine…but who the hell do you think can survive even a day in that jungle? Huh?”
Sidonia paperclipped the papers back together, and serenely replied to Apophria's growling,
“Your brother can.”
Apophria’s face twisted up in a crazed grin. Sidonia simply lifted her finger, and laid it softly on Apophria lips.
“Yes, I know what you’re thinking. But don’t worry, he’ll be fine.”
Apophria, her mouth no longer blocked, simply stared at Sidonia.
“Ok whatever, you’re going to send my little brother on a suicide mission. But there’s still that issue about what Andestine is doing up in the northern part of their land, ya know, the IC-“
“Yes, we need to do something about that, so I’ve been thinking to send the 56th over there to deal with it.”
Apophria’s shoulders slacked, apparently relieved.
“Ah, good, that’s definitely a ‘Lackadaisical’ grade issue.”
Sidonia’s eyes perked.
“Feeling competitive? And here I thought you didn’t feel such emotions…”
“Er, well…whatever!”
Sidonia smugly stared in victory.
“Anyways, apart from the 51st, and soon the 56th, all of our forces are still close at hand, so we’re ready at anytime to start pushing into the Caliphate. They tried striking first, but thanks to your brother and the 6th, they failed miserably, compared to the one division of 10,000 men we lost, they lost a minimum of 50,000 men from what my Infiltrators report. They also tried sprinkling some of their own harassing, pseudo-ranger corps around our border, but thanks again to your brother’s brigade, they were pinged and taken out before they could do anything.”
Sidonia raised her hands in a shrug.
“Your brother is not as useless as you think he is, his success speaks for itself. Cut him some slack, would you? You’ve even got him believing that he’s worthless, and I don’t want an asset committing suicide on me, now do I?”
She stared at Apophria. Apophria looked away guiltily.
“Other than that oddly veteran and well commanded army the 6th fought, the Caliphate doesn’t seem to have any other forces to speak of, they seem completely unprepared to fight us. But sadly we, don’t have the manpower to invade and keep a large enough supply line up for a battle of attrition with the Caliphate; So as much as I’d like to start attacking while they’re vulnerable, I don’t wanna get bogged down when their reinforcements from the north do show up.”
“So you’ll be trying to focus on beefing up our logistics?”
Apophria piped up, her arms crossed.
“Yes, better logistics by means of faster ways of deploying the new mage-rails, and by gaining naval supremacy…”
Apophria’s brows piqued.
“How are you gonna do that against Andestine?”
“Easy. I’m starting production on a new generation of ships; they have gunpowder you see…”
“W-what!? You’re finally going to start mass production with that stuff?...Are we really that close?”
Apophria recoiled, shock seeping through her façade.
“Yes, Serendipity, we’re in the final leg, it’ll be a long race, but I think we can win.”
…
Dense and white fog surrounded us on this humid morning. Beside me, stood Alisson. Behind us, was the last Sidonian Carriage out of the city. We were outside the walls of Foksly, close to the stables. Last night hadn’t been pleasant, for me and Alisson, and for the other Sidonians in the city. A large Inquisitor raid occurred, and multiple Infiltrators were attacked. Thankfully, everybody managed to slip away in some form or another and fled to the inn. Really pays off to be on your toes. So, when me and Alisson came back to the inn, mentally and physically exhausted, we saw the entire Sidonian presence in the city, huddled up and hiding from the inquisitors. So, we’ve had to run errands and small retrieval tasks all throughout the night to get everything ready for our withdrawal. The 75th had arrived with a few carriages incognito and had posed as early morning merchants.
“Alright. We’re all set up here, greenlight to withdraw.”
The new Infiltrator Director of Foksly, Ivid, said from within the carriage, evidently done packing away the rest of the confidential crates and supplies. We’ve really taken everything with us, even the horses that we rode in on have been added to the wagon’s complement.
“…aye…”
Alisson said, still scanning the walls of Foksly, as if Inquisitors would jump over it any moment. He’s been really paranoid recently, and it’s easy to know why. But so have I, I’ve been shaking non-stop for the past twelve hours, it also doesn’t help that we’ve gotten no sleep.
I turn and mount up into the back of the covered wagon.
“Alisson.”
Alisson jumped from my words, and reluctantly, peeled his gaze off of Foksly. As soon as he climbed in however, his eyes set squarely on Foksly again. Jeez, is he gonna have his head poking out the back the whole ride? I don’t know where the 75th has made camp but, it’s probably pretty far from human settlements.
The wagon started to rumble away, and soon, the trees went by us, surprisingly quick. Though it’s definitely not as fast as the Sidonian mage-rail me and Alisson have ridden before. Well, I slump back against the side of the wagon, and close my eyes. I’m definitely not going to be able to sleep when it’s this bumpy but, resting my eyes and body feels really nice after moving for so long.
…
The wagon slowed, and I emerged into the 75th’s base camp. Numerous tents and Sidonian’s milled about, grindstones creaked, and fires crackled. The noise from the camp was actually pretty quiet compared to the forest, now in the prime of the day with a bright blue and clear sky; the air filled with the chirping of birds.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Heeeeeeeeey Alis~!”
Alisson, having just climbed out of the wagon, heard a distant call of his name. When he saw who it was, his face darkened. What came barreling toward us in a massive set of steel plate, came a Nekomata, taller than Alisson, but surprisingly only a little bigger than me in the breast depart-!?
Wait!? Why is that the first thing I pay attention to when I see a girl!?
The girl tackled Alisson, her medium length blonde hair falling over his face. She pinned his shoulders down and leaned in.
“Alis-son! You cheat death again! How’s your ear? Huh?! Huh!? I heard it got - Ripped off!”
She basically screamed into his face, I guess I’m not the only one with volume issues; poor Alisson. Him and I, nice and quiet, compared to whoever in the hell this is. My hands twitched for my stilettos.
Alisson, under a dark and extremely uncomfortable expression, tried to reply as confidently as he could.
“I’ll, I’ll be fine…Opensen ears regenerate on their own if I don’t call on them…”
This mystery character leaned in closer, her nose almost touching Alisson’s.
“Well, I wouldn’t know about that, I’m not such a weakling to have to call on my cutsie tootsie ears and tail all the time; not like a certain little girl I know!”
She, just...called him…a little girl.
Even I think he looks effeminate, but I think that’s a bit of a stretch…Is this Nekomata alright in the head? Well, whoever she is, she can apparently use her Opensen, something only like, the top tenish percent of Nekomata can do, so this isn’t some random fangirling soldier. Though, if she was, she was being pretty rude to him, and oddly familiar too…my hands twitched for my stilettos again.
“Er…very funny.”
It looks like Alisson just took a hit to his pride, well, he is a guy that just got called a little girl.
The girl soundlessly stood, lifting Alisson by the shoulders with her, and then, she hugged him, really hard.
“Mmm…I’m glad you’re okay, Alis.”
She’s really hugging him tightly; I think Alisson might pass out.
Ok buddy, foot down time; you’ve crossed a line that even an introvert like me has. I place my hands on my stilettos and was just about to stride over to her when-
“Annnnd who’re are you?”
She say’s dropping the half-dead Alisson to the ground. She turns and sets a death glare on me with her blue eyes. I physically recoil, scared for my life. But before I’m able to get any distance…
“Guah!”
The wind is blown out of me as this girl, clad fully in steel plate, embraces me. W-what’s up with chicks twice my height doing this to me!? The girl even lifts me off my feet; Helplessly, my feet dangle by her legs.
I can see now why Alisson had such a dark expression; I can’t even budge, like, at all. Whoever she is, she can overpower Alisson, and make it look like a joke, who the hell is this!?
“Please Lady Salchyon, refrain from harassing the Nuam elites or we’ll have a political intrigue.”
L-lady…Salchyon…
A woman, with refined and long black hair said whilst adjusting a pair of black rimmed glasses she was wearing.
“Ah! I guess you’re right Miss Elmere!” The girl said, after taking a moment to think it over.
And like that, she dropped me like Alisson, and I fell beside him, both of us dizzy and thoroughly humiliated.
“I apologize for the Heiress’s behavior, I am Dreya Elmere, her advisor.”
The lady said, bowing to me like a maid.
Ok, what the hell. This chick is the Salchyon heiress, so that means she’s Louise Alderan Salchyon, the fourth best fighter in Sidonia. The fact that I didn’t even guess that from her appearance alone is a testament to how bewildering her attitude is.
“Ah, well that’s just how she is…”
Alisson says, rubbing the back of his head with an indirect smile. Why is he acting so familiar with her too? I’m really getting confused here.
“Well, anyway, welcome to the 75th's base camp, as you can see, Lady Salchyon’s 57th Halberdiers have been attached to the 75th for the time being.”
Miss Elmere said while Louise bobbed and bounced back and forth, apparently not able to control herself like a small child.
In front of me, the three of them conversed as close friends would; I didn’t say a word, so it was pretty awkward for me.
…though, Alisson seemed a lot more comfortable talking and joking with Lady Salchyon then he does with me…
Er! W-whatever! Why should I, an apprentice, care?
Well, according to Miss Elmere and Lady Salchyon, the rest of the 51st is still out at their assigned points, protecting our intelligence network. As for the rest of Sidonia, no unit other than the 5th army is in active combat, all the ranger corps are supposedly about to start their operations now that they’ve settled in, deep behind enemy lines. The Irine Principality and the Jedathari Caliphate have really shot themselves in the foot, huh? They’ve got such a large territory, that we’re able to reliably hide entire strike groups without them knowing in their land. Granted of course, the ranger groups like the 75th are only composed of like, a thousand men each; Compared to the 3rd and 4th armies, which, combined, are roughly 150,000 men.
Of course, that’s nothing compared to the human armies they can sometimes number in the millions, and they have a hell of lot more armies than just six like Sidonia does…scary.
“Oh, before we leave you alone, a package from Sidonia containing your redeployment orders has arrived yesterday from Sidonia herself. Well, it’s been a pleasure, I hope you enjoy your stay.”
Miss Elmere says, bowing once more, quickly followed up by Lady Salchyon, as if she were mimicking Miss Elmere’s actions.
“See you around Alis~! And uh, Celistine!”
They take their leave.
Well, that’s usually how I’m treated, forgotten, or remembered at the last minute…
Alisson’s expression is pretty serious, but it’s no wonder, because he just got personal orders from Sidonia again; who wouldn’t be anxious? When it comes to orders from the Lady, you either succeed in all means of the word, or die trying; there are no alternatives.
…
Alisson, had read his orders. The colossal task bared down upon him and a cloak of dread was placed over him, weighing Alisson down.
It’s no time to fret or dread, it’s Sidonia’s orders, it’s already set in stone and I’m am expected to have already completed it for her future plans. Besides, a top fighter like me can’t be glum just because of a difficult order. If I can’t follow orders, who’d follow mine?
It was purple, and most of the camp was getting ready for bed, the rangers of the 75th and the few 100 accompanying 57th Halberdiers huddled around fires with their comrades. They chatted eagerly, Alisson didn’t need to be told that’d there’d be a battle soon for this strike group; the nervous soldiers talked and laughed quickly whilst the veterans were excited, and tame. Alisson walked down the large camp, two mugs in his hands. Him and Celis would be staying the night for some much needed rest, and leaving at daybreak to start their journey north.
Alisson approached the tent that’d been delegated to him and Celis for the night. Outside of it, Celis sat, her arms wrapped around her legs watching a fire in front.
“Here,” He extended one of the mugs to Celis, who looked up, surprised. “It’s probably the last sweet tea we’ll be having in a while…”
Alisson said, feigning lightheartedness. He hadn’t told Celis about what lay before him, and by extension, what lay before her. He sat down next to her, beside the fire. After taking a sip of tea for himself, he breathed in, and exhaled heavily.
“So…what was the package from Sidonia?”
Celis said meekly, surprising Alisson that’d she’d beaten him to the punch.
“Well. We are to head north, far north. Above Lake Aleeze, there’s a jungle called Freigat, perhaps you’ve heard of it?”
Celis nodded her head, still only staring into her mug.
“Well, that’s our objective; We go to the Freigat Jungle and look for some kind of ruined structure, whether it be above or below ground. It’ll have a special marker to identify it. Our only task is to identify it’s position.”
Celis continued staring into her mug, as if Alisson’s words had gone through her.
“-! A-are you serious!?”
Celis suddenly blurted out, looking up at Alisson. Her face quickly reddened, and she looked away, apparently ashamed of her outburst.
“Hmph. This is a black operation from Sidonia; of course I’m serious. We are to tell no one, we’re to get in and get out without bringing any other Sidonians into the picture. We’ll have little to no support for the duration of our task, which could be a months long affair.”
Alisson was staring at his apprentice, hoping to gage her reaction; would she be discouraged and scared, and thus a liability? Or would she be eager to beat this impossible task and thus get cocky? From Celis’s expression, it seemed she was at the very least bothered, but not eager to prove her worth like Alisson had guessed.
This is a pretty good reaction, she’s not so scared that she’ll be a hinderance, but not getting all worked up that’d she’d charge headlong into danger without realizing it; she seems to know what danger lays ahead...
Of course, after her performance at Foksly, Alisson had quite the mixed opinion of her. On one hand, she’d saved his life -Something he’d forgotten to thank her for, Alisson realized - But she’d also displayed little to no fear; yes, she’d been disturbed by the dead Nekomata but, that was it, she didn’t seem the least bit scared of Davy or of being swarmed by Goblins. She was either hiding her emotions very well, or she had none to begin with. Alisson doubted the ladder however, for she’d just burst out with either confusion or concern for her own life when he’ d told her of their mission.
Alisson shook his head lightly, as if to whisk away the knot of thoughts in his mind.
“Well that’s it. Send any letters now while you can to your friends because we’ll be far from our fratello.” Celis’s face didn’t change like Alisson thought it would of by mentioning the isolation they’d be facing heading forward.
“Well, I guess I should stop hiding my arsenal from you, we’ll be having to work together from this point onward….”
Celis face lit up, but she still didn’t look at Alisson. He wondered why she didn’t look at him directly, she only did so when she didn’t mean it. Was it shyness? Was she scared of something? Was she trying to hide something from him?
But, Alisson dismissed his doubts, and rattled off the spells he could use, how many and of what quality of Andestinian knight tier he could reliably win against, what kind of magic imbued knives he carried with him…
…
“I know you’re quite lacking in the number of spells that you can use, but if you ever do get it, I have access to the Telepathy spell, it’s pretty useful when working together, all of the 51st can use it, in fact. I specialize mainly in neutral magic spells with some wind ones, but I can only use the first tier of those, like Fult.”
Finally, I can actually know my master’s arsenal, it looks like he trusts me enough to expose himself. A top tier fighter’s combat ability is some pretty valuable information.
For instance, he told me the highest tiered spell he could use was Pictunee, so I can’t go and expect him to save me with a Pictuneetin spell, one that only a number of Sidonians in the double digits can use. Though, he’s more of a swordsman, so why in the hell would he have access to spells that require more mana than he has total?
What most surprised me was what he could confidently fight and win against: A dozen Gold Tiered Andestinian Knights, or a single Platinum ranked one. What. I guess the Andestinian Order’s ranks really increase by orders of magnitude like the rumors say; a single Silver rank can defeat a hundred Bronze ranked knights, so the rumor goes.
But wow. My master is on the level of a Platinum knight? Well, actually that’s a lie, he said who he can reliably defeat, so Alisson can 100% of the time win against a single Platinum…I wonder if he can stand toe to toe with the highest rank, a Diamond. But from this, I can already tell that he’s not been fighting even close to his peak power compared to a Platinum knight, all of the fights in Foksly are like child’s play. I guess Davy is an exception though, I mean, I stabbed that guy in both of his arteries and it still took a minute for him to die!
“Do you think you have a chance of beating a Diamond rank?”
“Mmm…maybe, fifty-fifty?”
Alisson said, guiltily smiling.
I flinch at his words. I wasn’t expecting that high of a chance…Alisson’s really not a pushover in the grand scale of things, huh? Well, I guess that’s why Nekomata like him, Lady Salchyon, or Serendipity and Lackadaisical, are classified as ‘strategic threats’ by the Andestinians; Sidonians that are under active threat of being assassinated.
“Well, that’s not considering that I have a very special weapon with me…”
He turned into the tent behind us, withdrawing a long, rectangular case, and laying it across his crossed legs.
“Sidonia didn’t only send us suicide orders, other than a refill on the magic knives I used in Foksly…”
He clicked the locks on the case, looked around to see if no one was watching, and then opened it. What lay inside, coddled in fancy red velvet, was a pure white sheath with an insanely intricate design. The sheath was thin and conical, pointing toward the weapon either being an estoc or a rapier, but knowing Alisson, it was probably a rapier.
“This, is Enhérejär. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?”
T-this? This is a…magic weapon? A legendary and ultra-powerful item? Wow. How underwhelming. I thought a Legendary weapon would give me chills or an aura of some kind, but nope, nothing. Despite reactions, I’m still shocked how nonchalantly Alisson just revealed it to me. I’ve heard of Enhérejär, it’s a rapier on par with Lady Salchyon’s fabled shield apparently. Yet, it seems to never see the light of day, it’s used by Serendipity but other than that, public knowledge of this thing is zero.
“Yes, I have, but I don’t know much about it.”
“Hmph. Sidonia is really good on keeping a lid on things. Enhérejär is used exclusively by me and my older sister, though, you might not believe me but, I’ve used it more than her. I’m the only one who can use it properly. My sister just brute forces it somehow, and anybody else just sees it as a normal rapier…”
R-really? Alisson, out of all people wields Enhérejär, the magic weapon with the least publicity? Well, to be honest, Alisson himself is really in the exact same spot, amazing power but little publicity. I thought nothing of him before I became his apprentice, just another name on a paper, it’s not like there’s any rumors or stories about him like Lady Salchyon or Lackadaisical.
Dang. Just taking into account that people like Alisson are strategic threats on their own, and then arming them with weapons that are strategic threats in themselves...that's scary.
“Surprised? Well I don’t really look like a legendary weapon's wielder now do I?”
Alisson smiled, closing the case. He patted his hip.
“Man, I was just about to name this rapier too, but now I’ll have to send it back to the Garalda Armory where it was made, it’s served me well for a decade or so…I’ll see about getting the 51st’s refurbishments done there…”
Alisson said, pondering and looking into the dark sky.
Alisson’s probably burned through tons of weapons in his life, either degrading or breaking them, I wonder what kind of relationship he has with Enhérejär?
We sat in silence for a while, just sipping on our tea and staring into the fire.
“Well, we should sleep, this’ll be the last day we can rest peacefully with our fratello watching our back.” Alisson stood, stretching his back.
He turned to our tent, and laid a hand on my shoulder.
“Thanks for…saving me in Foksly…”
He lifted his hand and quickly shuffled into the tent, leaving me, blushing.
***