Sitting before Roland’s desk while drinking the water he had, I sighed as I looked at Roland who wore a face of resignation.
“So basically in public you have to denounce me but officially I’ve done nothing wrong?”
“Yes, in a way. We’re not idiots, you were surrounded by all of them and knowing you, you wouldn’t just go on a rampage randomly. We also had a guard that witnessed the entire thing from the start, after all hundreds being ejected from the Tomb of Lilith is surprising but seeing them turn their blame towards you had been very easy to see.”
“Can’t you just tell em all to fuck off and let me go get some rest?”
“Technically, Alisha, you did commit murder within Vale which is usually a very crime that needs to be investigated heavily. The Royal Guard knows the truth, we have hundreds of witnesses to say so but we still need to appease the Royal Family and ‘investigate’ since they monitor our activities. If we simply toss you out and say you’re free it’ll raise some eyebrows. It’s not you, it’s just our due diligence. It helps those that don’t level feel secure to know everything is investigated thoroughly.”
Sighing, I understood what he said, that by putting on a show he’d show that he’s doing his job. He had led us here earlier and unbound us before explaining everything. Alice currently sat next to the window, eating the remaining ration squares, seemingly hungry. I felt the same, but I didn’t have Alice’s childish demeanour and didn’t want to just stuff my face in front of Roland, not when we just came out of the Tomb.
“I think that’s a load of shit, Roland. You’re telling me I have to be ‘under arrest’ for a few months even though you can prove my innocence now?”
“In name only. You need to go to Mt Lunaria, correct? Look, I’ll make arrangements to have you under house arrest, meaning you can be at home and I’ll organise Rod to come and regrow your arm and leg. I must warn you, this will be the last time he can use Regrowth on you, this is the third time after all. The guards I’ll assign to watch over your house arrest won’t complain if you want to go for a ‘walk’, even if it’s a ‘very long walk’ and will just report you as within your house.”
Sighing in frustration, I leaned back and shook my head. I knew what he implied, that I’d be ‘officially’ under arrest for some time but would be allowed freedom, as long as I wasn’t publicly seen.
“Don’t worry, those fools who baited you into that situation will be heavily punished. You only acted in self defence to an idiot who thought they would catch you off guard. Now, Alexander left instructions in the case you came back injured, so you don’t need to worry about the cost of hiring Rod, though he’s going to gouge the ever living fuck out of the Guild for your injuries.”
“Master isn’t here? He’s covering the cost of Regrowth?” Looking at Roland with some suspicion, he simply nodded before sitting.
“He’s making preparations for when you step onto your Path. You’re also an essential asset in the coming war, so of course any injuries sustained will be covered.”
“After all of this bullshit I don’t exactly want to participate in this war.” I knew those words that left my mouth were a lie. Of course I would fight in the war, albeit it won’t be for Vale but rather for my friends. If they chose not to fight then I’d have no reason to stay, but I knew Elise wouldn’t leave, nor would Summer or Xeno.
“If it comes down to you wanting to avoid participating in the war, you’d likely be given the option of receiving a large payment by the Royal Family in addition to a sworn oath that you will not switch to Harrington’s side.”
“The Royal Family?”
“They’re well aware of your exploits, and with yourself and young Alice here conquering the Tomb of Lilith they will hold a very high value on you. You, in addition to dozens of other high-value members of the Guild, will be seen as a potential force when it comes to the war. Whether or not you participate is completely up to you, they won’t force you. Now, I need to attend this investigation and arrange your house arrest. In the meantime, I’ll have you stay in a VIP room until the house arrest is approved. Do you wish for me to send anyone to see you?”
“Elise or Tails please. Oh, and Aubrey if she’s available.” Thinking it a bit more, I said “Olivia as well. In that order, not at once. I’m a bit too exhausted to deal with too many people at once.”
“Got it. I’ll arrange clothing and food for you, unless you want to cook for yourself?”
“Roland, do you think I can cook in my current state?” Raising an eyebrow at him, Roland merely shrugged.
“You have a point. I’ll arrange for food to be delivered, for the time being just relax. Don’t worry, if for whatever reason the house arrest is denied, I’ll make arrangements for you to be able to go for a long walk.” Roland leads me out of his office and after walking through the building stops at a door and hands me two keys. “There is a bath in there, get yourself washed up, I’ll get a message to Elise or Tails within the hour.”
Roland pats me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, your innocence is easily proven. As I said, we need to do this to make sure the general public feels at ease that we take everything seriously. I’ll try and ensure that the investigation ends within the month.”
Watching him go, I kept leaning on the wall and shook my head. I felt frustrated that I had to play along with what he wanted, but right now I’m not exactly in a position to say no.
“Mum, Alice feels angry.” Looking at her, I smiled as she had a frown on her face.
“So am I, Alice.” I could feel her anger through our link. “Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon. For now, lets go have a bath.”
Alice’s face visibly paled.
***
Sitting on a chair with my forehead resting on the wooden table, I sighed as I prevented myself from passing out. After our bath, I realised just how exhausted the two of us were. Alice is currently asleep in the bed while I stayed up to greet Elise or Tails, whichever one came along. Regretting asking Roland to send a message already, I heard a knock at the door after an hour.
Getting up and hobbling over, I opened the door to see a concerned Elise, which suddenly became a panicked Elise.
“A-Alisha, what in the wor-”
“Shh, Alice is sleeping. Come in, I’ll explain everything. Please tell me you bought coffee.”
Elise helps me by putting an arm around my waist as I direct her to the dining room. Sitting down with Elise next to me, she pulls out coffee and snacks and after brewing a pot, I inform her of what happened in the Tomb while she listens. As I told her of the events in the lobby, Elise sighed.
“So that’s why. There is a rumour going around that you massacred hundreds of Bronze and Silver Grades, acting all evil and out of control. No idea how it started considering everyone had been detained.”
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“Roland didn’t parade us through the streets chained up like Hillock did. Before we left the lobby he undid his spell on myself and Alice. Alice then carried me while following Roland and…” Telling her about my discussion with Roland, Elise sighed in annoyance.
“I mean, it’s the best move to make for the Royal Guard. Once the investigation has ended they can then issue a decree that you’re innocent and those other idiots initiated the fight. Don’t worry, none of those present can bullshit their way out of it, not with the techniques higher levels can use to figure if a lower level is lying or not.”
“Ah, how do you do that exactly?”
“I’ll bring the skill book to your house once you’ve left this place. It’s rather simple, it’s about their eye movement, heart rate and so on. Those sorts of movements can’t escape the eyes of a higher level, but there is a deep skill to it that lets one sense when one is lying, that’ll be what I’ll give you.”
Elise and I then start chatting and giving her the bag of everything we had collected from Lilith’s treasury, minus the armour that I moved to a separate bag, Elise assured me she’d get it all appraised, saying that items like these may have high value or would be dead on arrival, giving next to nothing.
“Want me to get Aubrey here now?”
“Mm, no. I’m absolutely exhausted, Elise. I need to rest, get her to come around to my place once I’ve been moved to ‘house arrest’.”
“Consider it done. Don’t worry, Tails plans to swoop in and take you away from this place if they try and hold you for more than a few days. I’ll see you soon, Alisha.”
Watching Elise leave, I hobbled towards the bed and laying down next to Alice, I fell into a deep slumber, like I hadn’t slept for years.
***
“-um. Mum!” Feeling myself being shaken, I slowly woke up and looked at Alice as she looked down at me with her head tilted. “Mum, that person is here.”
Sitting up and rubbing my eyes, I yawn and slowly sit up. With Alice’s help, we walked into the dining room to see Roland sitting there with two Royal Guards, who I recognised from when Xeno and I went training, waiting for me.
“Ah good, sorry it’s taken me two days but the house arrest is approved. The rules for the house arrest are fairly simple, you’re not allowed to be seen in public until the verdict has been announced. Rod has agreed, for a high price, to Regrow your limbs and will be at your place in three days. He said that this is the final time you can have this done, if he Regrows your limbs before you pass the Crossroads you may lose your life, so be careful.”
“I understand. How long will this facade be for?”
Roland looks at me with a raised brow before shaking his head. “A month, two? We’re still questioning the witnesses, gathering evidence and finding out what exactly caused those idiots to turn on you so quickly. I have reason to suspect a third party slightly influenced that scene to redirect the anger at you. There is also the fact that you have made a lot of enemies, and it’s not just adventurers. The Tomb of Lilith had been precious to a lot of families and now with it being conquered and destroyed, a large amount of resources have vanished from Vale.
“Don’t concern yourself with that though. In truth, the Tomb had simply been the easiest and safest place to gain those resources. Perhaps now the nobles will get off their arses and look towards the vast amount of areas in which they can get the same materials and even some they deem as uncommon cause they don’t want to travel too far. The same goes for adventurers who just wanted a simple life, losing sight of what it means to be an adventurer.”
Hearing Roland rant as we left the room and started walking, I understood what he meant about the anger of the general public, but I didn’t care. As long as they didn’t try and harm Alice I’d let them be.
Being led into another room, we saw a young female waiting for us who looked at Alice and I before nodding. “You’re here, good. Do you two have a human form?”
I shake my head with some confusion as Alice transforms to her human form as the young girl smiles. “Very good. Roland, have you explained anything to them?”
“Ah, I had intended to let you handle that.”
“Okay. We’ll be dying your hair and providing you two with contacts to change your appearances. It’ll last about four months, as long as you two don’t make it obvious people won’t recognise you. We’ll also take your adventurers plates for the time being and give you a new set of necklaces with new names and ages.
“You’re Alisha, right? Okay, blonde hair and green eyes for you, your new name will be ‘Roxy’. For young Alice, a blonde-green mix with amber eyes and her name will be ‘Tali’. Uncommon names should be better, you’ll both also be provided a spell to learn that hides your System from prying eyes, though it won’t work on those above the Crossroads. Now, let’s get started.”
A bit surprised at everything she said, the young girl shooed Roland and the guards away and dragged Alice and I into the room and got started. Using a strong smelling liquid, she covered my hair and tail in this liquid while doing the same with Alice. She takes our necklaces and gives us new ones, putting them on with a satisfied nod.
“It’ll take some time for the hair dye to dry, so we’ll sort out your clothing now. We’ll go with clothing that is unusual for you to wear and matches your hair. For you, Alisha, we’ll go with a lovely dress and long gloves. As for your missing limbs, we’ll give you a wooden leg to use so you can walk. A lot of people don’t have arms, and you can always use the Disguise spell to make yourself seem like a low level who got injured in some fight, a fairly common excuse.
“For young Alice, since she looks like a young teen, let's go with a long skirt and long sleeve shirt. Perhaps a wealthy look will suit you both, so a pair of matching sun hats will help. Alisha, we’ll have you use a cane to make it seem like you’re injured still.”
Hearing her ramble on made me feel a bit confused, but I understood that all of this is to help us go out in public. After some time, the dye had finished and washed our hair. The young girl then moved to give us new clothing and helped me with the wooden leg. It felt weird, there would be no way for me to fight with this and after about an hour I got used to being able to walk steadily, though the cane that she gave me helped significantly.
“Amazing, you two don’t look like yourselves anymore, completely different.” As we finished putting the contacts in and learned the spell called ‘Information Disguise’ I had to admit I didn’t expect myself to look so different. According to the System, I’m a level 13 Dawnlight Fox named Roxy. I got the name for ‘Dawnlight’ from Olivia’s Class as my hair nearly matched her golden hair.
Alice too looked completely different, one would need to look closely to see her facial features remained the same. Alice just stared at her reflection, seemingly displeased at it as she kept touching her hair before turning to me.
“Alice hates it, Mum.”
“It’s alright, only for a while, Alice.” Smiling, I ruffle her head and thank the young girl. Walking out of the room with the help of the wooden leg and cane, Roland looked at us and nodded.
“Good. Unless one is to pry, they won’t know who you two are. Don’t worry, we’ll avoid the public eye and get you home. I apologise for all of this, usually a statement would be enough from the Guild but since this occurred on such a large scale in public, we have to handle it like we would with everything else.”
Following the guards, we left the building without Roland as we made our way back to our house. The Royal Guards did indeed lead us through alleyways out of the public eye and we arrived back at our house fairly quickly. Roland had told me the two guards would need to stay outside of the house and rotate with others but they won’t follow me if I leave. Sighing, I felt a bit annoyed but entering my house, I felt more at peace.
Sitting down in the lounge room, I removed the wooden leg and lay down as Alice laid next to me. We didn’t speak, just laid there for the time being, wondering what to do next. I couldn’t do much right now, and with our disguise while we could go into the city I couldn’t exactly do any requests. Elise had been tending to my garden so I couldn’t do much there and I wasn’t really in the mood to do anything.
Sighing, I sat up after a few hours of laying down and brought up the quest, intending to claim the rewards. Alice sat next to me leaning her head on my shoulder, seemingly bored herself.
Tomb of Lilith Cleared.
Rewards:
1x Blank Dimensional Dungeon Core
Looking at the singular orb that had appeared, I raised an eyebrow and what the System informed me of next made me literally fall off the couch.
Blank Dimensional Dungeon Core.
Allows you to place a Dimension Dungeon in a specific area. Dungeon level is dependent on your current level and can be adjusted. You will passively receive materials of any monsters killed within.
Dungeon type, the monsters within and the Guardian are all decided by you. You must design the dungeon yourself.