“So what do you pray for? Can you use miracles too?”
She timidly looked down, not saying a word.
‘I’m really not getting anywhere with this kid am I…’ “I’m not going to hit you you know…”
She slowly looked back up, staring past me at the giant gate leading to the outside. “Everyone says heaven is in the sky… So before I go there… I want to see what it’s like from down here…”
‘She’s never been outside…’ “I see…”
“Sometimes I get selfish and add things too, like that an angel would come and take me outside… Just for a little while I mean. I-I’m not saying I want to run away or anything.”
I raised my arms just to stretch them, but she flinched back in fear, closing her eyes. ‘This kid is breaking my heart…’ letting out a soft groan I lowered a hand onto her head. “What if I’m that angel? What will you pray for when I take you outside?”
She timidly opened her eyes, staring at me with just a faint glimmer of hope before her face sank again. “Angles don’t take other people's biscuits…”
‘I guess she still knows how to talk back…’ I sighed pulling a bowl from that soup Lola made me out of storage and handing it to her. “Here… Does this make us even?” I saw chills run down her arms. She had already finished everything they had given her and made quick work of my food as well. When she was done I took the bowl back. “Even?” I asked again
“Even…” She grumbled, glancing to the side, slightly embarrassed.
“Where do you pray? I didn’t see a shrine around here anywhere, do you just go back to your room?”
She slowly shook her head. “I don’t have a room. I usually go sit in one of the empty cells downstairs… People bother me less when they can’t see me doing it…”
‘And I thought my life was tough…’ “Well, come find me when you’re about to go and pray, I’ll pray with you… I haven’t been doing it as much as I should anyway…”
“Hm…” She slowly stood up and returned her bowl to the kitchen before coming back and staring at me again. “Who is your patron saint?”
“Plutia.”
Her eyes widened as her whole body froze stiff.
‘Sparks… I’m pretending to be a rogue… Saying I pray to the saint of healing and kindness isn’t exactly fitting…’ I nervously scratched my head. “Who… is yours?”
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Her eyes stayed wide for a long time until someone walked past and snapped her out of her thoughts. “Same…” She said calmly before heading off.
‘No way…’
With everyone on lockdown, there wasn’t much for me to do… With that in mind, I got to work asking around about the three bosses.
First was Nix, a goblin thief. Apparently known for his cold and calculating personality, ruthless, but not one to act without purpose. People generally thought he was around C rank… Which wasn’t great news for me.
Next was the Ogre mage, given the same rank, but not because of his magic, more so because he was an ogre… So aside from his magic, he was crazy strong. It seemed likely I could deal with him though, because he only knew up to tier 5 magic and specialized in earth. Furthermore, if I managed to get the chains on him he couldn’t cast at all.
Finally, there was Magnus, who I wasn’t worried about at all. Despite being the leader he was apparently only D rank when he founded the group. He was a brawler and a human, one that didn’t use magic, it seemed unlikely he had gone up to C rank or higher, even if he did I could destroy him with a few spells if he wasn’t wearing enchanted gear.
‘If I can get either the mage or the thief without the other noticing I’m in good shape… But every time I see the rogue he has two others with him, and the mage is constantly followed around by his many tier one pupils…’
Magnus spent quite a bit of time alone… But I wasn’t worried about him, to begin with… ‘This is a real headache… Of course, I could always just wait around until we were allowed outside again, and then walk right out… Come back with the red mantles or mabe some guards.’
“Hey…”
I turned slightly to see Mochi standing in front of me, her left arm swollen up like it was about to pop, and with a large lump above her left eye and on her cheek.
“Are you ok?”
Seeing her try to smile only made me worry more. “I’m going to pray now.” Just like that she turned and started walking away.
‘I guess I’ll follow her… I should be able to use disinfect, and maybe even a healing miracle if I have to…’
As she walked to the staircase down to the third floor one of the men stuck his foot out to trip her… But because she was always watching her step she avoided it, so then he tried to shove her down the stairs with a smack on the back, but thankfully I caught her in time, grabbing the back of her shirt. With an annoyed growl, we both went on our way like nothing happened.
‘Falling down a staircase this long could break several bones… But with her arm that swollen she might have even lost a limb… Are they trying to kill her?’
Once we reached the bottom of the stairs I made sure to stay a little closer to her as we continued down the next flight and eventually found an empty cell. When we arrived she just walked in and knelt down on the stone floor, staring at the wall with blank eyes, as if she were dead. Folding her hands and letting her mind drift away, hopefully to a better place.
I knelt down beside her taking a moment before my mind could focus and at the end of that moment, I closed my eyes and folded my hands. ‘Plutia… I’m not asking for a miracle this time… I guess I’m just saying hello. Honestly, this feels really awkward… I met Mochi… Honestly, I’m a little disappointed you haven’t helped her more since she prays so much… But then again I ended up here somehow… And knowing you I’m sure you somehow knew things would turn out this way… Please pass a message on to the creator for me… Ask him to give me strength enough to save her… If I can do that much then I’ll know at least I did one truly good thing in this life…’
I opened my eyes, unsure what else to say, while I was thinking about it Mochi started to shift around, after a while she started to groan, and not long after that, she was pulling on my sleeve. “Hey miss? Are you really an angel? I’m really sorry if you are… I didn’t mean to be disrespectful or anything…”
Her words were slightly slurred together. But I couldn’t really tell if it was because she was young, or her swollen face. ‘Somehow I imagined this being reversed… I thought for sure I would be the one interrupting her.’ I sighed, smiling softly as I patted her head again. “It’s alright. I’m not really an angel… But that doesn’t mean I can’t save you. Do you want to get away from here?”
“I-I could never wish for that, it’s too much. I just want to see the sky.”
I sighed again, my chest tightening slightly. “Do you want to get away or not? I’ll take you with me if you want. You have 10 seconds to decide. 10… 9–”
“YES!” She suddenly opened her eyes wide and covered her mouth, embarrassed, if not afraid by the fact that she had raised her voice.
‘A quick response… That’s good, I can work with that. If she was hesitant it would have been a lot harder.’ “Ok. Then here is what I need.” I placed my hand on the ground and carved out a map with earth magic. “Nix and Boulder, the goblin thief and the ogre mage, I need to take one of them out without the other knowing. Are they ever alone? Or… Maybe there is a time when only you are with them?”
‘I just need to be able to take out one… Then I can probably take down this whole place.’