Cassandra

Year 820 | Month 5 | Day 2

The first thing I find after stepping above deck is the sight of Rodrick playing cards with the men again. Something that has me sending him a slightly exasperated look before I ignore the idiots who still haven’t noticed my arrival and walk to the railing where I look out over the ocean. And to my surprise, I actually find the continent of Liathtria barely visible in the distance.

Which means I was either unconscious for longer than I had thought, or we had really good wind on the way here.

I smile as I see the familiar sight of the capital of Liathtria very far in the distance, only visible to me thanks to my enhanced senses from my level.

My smile turns into a frown though when I sense something… odd… coming from the capital. A strange familiarity. Almost like a kinship but different. And one filled with a vague sense of pride.

The… heck?

“Is something wrong?” I hear Charles ask, my brother having approached me while I’ve been frowning at the capital city.

I continue looking out over the water without answering him for several seconds before I eventually mutter, “Something feels… off. But I don’t think… I don’t think this feeling is bad either.”

Charles frowns while tensing up a little as he asks, “Do you know what it is?”

I don’t say anything for several seconds again, trying to see if I can spread my Wrathful Aura all the way across the remaining expanse of ocean towards the capital only to not reach far enough. Then I try once more with just as little success as the first try before turning back to Charles and shaking my head.

“You should tell Father about it,” Charles suggests, and I quickly nod in agreement before turning around and heading towards the front of the ship where I sense Dad waiting.

Once Charles and I reach him, he immediately nods his head at me, breaking off from the discussion he was just having with the captain of his guard about the invader problem back home. Then he asks, “Are you feeling alright, Cass? You were out for an entire day.”

Oh, so it was a day. Guess the trip just went really smoothly after I killed the shark.

Speaking of the shark, I noticed that they’re dragging its corpse along behind them with chains. Probably because it makes for exceptional materials, both for food and crafting.

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It is a Tier 4 monster’s corpse after all, even if it’s been fried by lightning.

Anyways, I tell Dad about what I sensed and he immediately frowns at it.

He doesn’t say anything for several seconds, making me glance between him and the captain of the guard. Then he eventually says rather slowly, “We have heard… rumors, of a nonhuman humanoid roaming around the continent.”

I frown at that.

What does some random nonhuman humanoid have to do with me?

“They, or rather, he has the Organ of Pride from what we’ve been able to determine from the reports and what the invaders have described of it,” Dad continues, making my eyes widen in shock.

Pride? Is that who I’m sensing?

Another one of the Seven Sins.

“Can you describe their appearance to me?” I ask, a frown forming on my face.

Dad looks to the captain of the guard, making the guy step forward with a salute as he says, “Your Highness, reports said that the man had a pair of blackish-purple horns on his head and two glowing purple eyes, one of which has a ring of gold in it. But other than that he appeared completely human with no other inhuman aspects.”

Purple eyes, with one ringed in gold?

I frown at that description.

While I was at the World Tree, Nidhogg went ahead and filled me in on the Organs of Sin.

It’s the Heart of Wrath, Eye of Pride, Stomach of Gluttony, Lungs of Greed, Brain of Sloth, and Kidneys of Envy, with Lust’s organ varying depending on the user. And of the seven, Gluttony, Sloth, and Greed all have nonhuman forms.

But of the seven organs, the only one that is on the outside of the Sin’s body is Pride’s Eye of Pride. And Nidhogg described it just like that.

A purple eye ringed with glowing gold around the pupil.

“The ancestor also described Pride’s eye like that, so he’s most likely what I’m sensing,” I answer while turning my attention back towards the capital again.

But why would Pride be in the capital? I would expect someone who had just gotten an incredibly nonhuman appearance to hide their change in appearance like I did. And I wasn’t even incredibly inhuman in appearance. Just my eyes, and if someone saw them while they were extended, my claws. And fangs.

Horns on the other hand are very inhuman.

And there aren’t any Sacred Beasts with eyes like that. There may be some with eyes similar to mine, Nidhogg for example, but there aren’t any with eyes similar to his. Especially his Eye of Pride.

So why on Midgard is he in the capital?

I frown as I try to think of a possible reason, but I don’t come up with any plausible ones. Aside from possibly wanting to meet me, but how would he know…

Oh. Right.

We sent word ahead about me coming before even leaving Aulta.

Meaning there’s a good chance they already know about my impending arrival.

I turn to look up at the captain of the guard as I ask, “Do you have any intel on their personality? What they’ve been doing? If they’ve been attacking people?”

The guard shakes his head and answers, “We don’t have much, Your Highness. We do know that they appear to be on the run from something, even if we haven’t been able to determine what. They also haven’t killed any of our citizens from what we’ve seen.”

On the run?

That doesn’t sound good. But at least they don’t appear hostile.

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to meet another Sin.