Chapitre 19: Antics...
"Why do I have to carry YOUR shopping?" I asked holding Syr's (Freya's) shopping basked with my clothes bag in the other hand.
Syr was skipping ahead in front of me with her hands behind her back. She turned around and leaned to the side in a cute way, smiling at me sweetly. But I could see the mischief behind it.
"Because that's what the man does, right?"
I tossed my clothes bag at her and she stumbled backwards balancing while trying to hold it at the same time.
"I would have kept holding it..." I said to her. "But I am an advocate of gender equality. Therefore, if I must carry your stuff, then you carry mine in return."
Syr gawped at me.
"That's not how things work in the world." She said to me as I walked by her.
I turned and stared her dead in the eye.
"Who decided that?"
She looked like she had a retort ready but the way I said it stopped her in place. I smirked at her and began walking away.
"It doesn't matter how powerful you are, arrogance will always be one's downfall sooner or later." She said as she rushed to catch up with me.
"I wouldn't call it arrogance per say."
"What would you call it then?"
"Pride maybe."
She deadpanned.
"What's the difference?"
"One is weakness, the other is power."
She looked at me confused.
"I still don't see a difference."
"I pity you then."
"Hey!"
I kept smiling as we walked on. She raved beside me about hubris and disrespect and being a bad husband. I just let her carry on though. Every man knows when his wife is mad, it passes over soon enough if you just let them talk.
She finally stopped ranting and huffed in indignation. She then pouted and looked away from me while still walking at my side. My bag was clutched in both hands in front of her.
"You really are a great actress you know?" I commented.
"What makes you say that?"
"As Freya, you're calm, cold, composed and regal. Everything a dignified lady should be. But as what you are right now, you just seem like an ordinary bubbly waitress."
"Are you impressed by it?" She said while smiling hopefully.
I shrugged.
"Have to admit, I am amazed that you can pull off such contradicting personalities off so flawlessly."
She clutched her cheeks with her hands an cooed at the praise while shaking her body from side to side. I frowned at her.
"Doesn't mean you have to keep pulling it off around me. I know who you really are, and what you are."
"I'm just happy you love both sides of me. Is it so wrong that a wife finds that her husband loves everything about her, and it gives her a great boost in confidence?"
"Never did I say I loved it Freya. It still really surprizes how you can go about this whole marriage thing so casually."
"When you live as long as I have, you find that taking time to adapt to new things is boring and painful. You might as well just accept things as they are."
"Then you'll have no problem when I get around to building my harem then." I said pointedly.
She stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes empty.
"What did you say darling?" She said sweetly. "I'm afraid I heard wrong. Did you just say that you wanted more women than me?"
"Yep." I said popping the 'p' at the send, unfazed by her tropey behaviour.
"Philanderer!" She banged by chest with her hands dropping my bag on the floor. "You cheater! Pervert! Am I not enough for you? How many more does it take for you to be satisfied?"
"As many as it takes until I'm satisfied. And I told you that you can drop the act didn't I?"
"Fine then." She stepped back and pointed at me. Although she still had Syr's face, I saw Freya's usual cold faced expression appear on her face.
"As your goddess, I command you to stop pursuing other women!" she said pointing at me.
"Denied." I said simply and walked off leaving her finger to fall limp.
"I'm the one in authority here!"
"Who decided that?"
She pulled her hair and grit her teeth, squealing in anger.
Ignoring her tantrum I walked up further before I heard sounds of a scuffle happening nearby. It appeared to be coming from an alleyway on my right. I looked round the corner to see an unexpected sight.
In the alleyway were three men I recognised instantly. But I paid most attention to the one in the middle. He was fat, medium height raccoon beastman. If one could symbolise the words 'greed' and 'cowardly' in a face, then it would be his.
Canoe Belway, a member of the Soma Familia that sold that revolting alcohol. he was holding a small bag of Valis in his hand and was stamping on somebody small, leering in cruelty.
The victim was small, about the size of a child. They were dressed in a ragged piece of cloth which I supposed counted as a cloak. Due to this and the fact they had their arms over the head to prevent their face getting caved in, I couldn't make out their features.
But I didn't need any to know who this was. Canoe only had time and the guts to do something like this to only one child sized person.
Liliruca Arde. I'd completely forgotten about Lili being here. Heck, I hadn't even been thinking of Bell at all. I was so caught up getting used to this quirky place and familiarizing myself with my powers, I hadn't even given any thought to the plot.
I was currently watching one of the main characters getting used like a doormat. I didn't exactly approve of Lili's way of living. But I could understand where she was coming from.
She did what she had to do in order to survive because lowlifes like that brute constantly took advantage of her, same as every adventurer she contracted with. If I were in the same position, I'd do the same.
"An unpleasant sight." Syr muttered next to me. "Makes you wonder what she could've done or what she has that makes them do things like this."
"You know what gender they are? How?"
"I can see souls remember?"
"Didn't know you could determine gender from a soul."
"You never asked."
"Fair enough."
Syr looked towards them again before gesturing forwards.
"Let's move along. We wouldn't want to get involved in this mess."
She began walking away. But when she heard I was not following her, she stopped and turned back around to see what I was doing. I shot here a questioning look while nodding towards the alley.
"Don't you think she needs help?"
"Things like this happen all the time Garth. No matter what you do, it's not going to stop. You save her now, she's only going to get into another mess."
"Feels wrong to leave her like this though."
"Are already trying to build your harem you so desperately want? Even though you have me?" She huffed puffing her cheeks out.
"Maybe. Time will tell."
"You're incorrigible. You get to marry a goddess but you still chase these mortals whose lifetime will end in the blink of an eye!"
"I have an extensive range of tastes." I shrugged.
She turned around sharply and began walking off.
"I'm going home! You can save her by yourself."
"Not like you'd be able to do anything anyway." I called after her. I saw her stick here nose up in the air and walk away with her head held high. I sighed at Freya's antics.
Who knew she could flip personalities like that and act with so much convincing authenticity? She'd be the most famous woman in the world if this was back home.
I walked into the alleyway, not before setting the basket down at the entrance. In her dramatics, she'd forgotten to take it. I approached the three bastards beating down on a little girl.
Canoe's two cronies were laughing their heads off before one of them saw me approaching.
"Hey boss, looks like we got some kind of hero type here." He said to Canoe.
Canoe looked at him before staring at me. He set his foot down on Lili's stomach, pressing her into the ground as his lips curled into a sneer.
"Whaddaya want kid? Looking to be a saviour or something heroic like that?"
"Nah" I replied. "I don't do these things with those kind of intentions. It's more self interest really."
He kissed his teeth and dangles the pouch in his hand.
"You looking for this?" He let out a laugh which his two yes-men echoed. "Well you try anything kid, and I'ma give you a harsh reality check whelp."
"You misunderstand. I'm not here for a bit of Valis I could pull out my back-pocket endlessly." I said calmly.
"Hnn? Then what the hell you doing here then?" Canoe frowned at me, his tone deepening dangerously.
"Don't try and threaten me asshole." I deadpanned. "If it takes three guys to beat up a little Pallum kid, then I'm seriously unimpressed, and I ain't got nothing to fear from you."
Him and his cronies started fuming. Their faces reddened in anger and the fatty lifted his boot off of Lili. She raised her head to look up at me. For the first time, I saw here face.
If I had to describe her with one word, I'd say adorable. That is if her face wasn't covered in scuff marks and dirt. Surprisingly no tears though, but that was to be expected since she was used to this already.
But she truly looked no different than an elementary schoolkid. I'd always been great with kids and all. For some reason, when I saw bigger kids picking on them like this, a blazing fury would grow inside me and those jocks would have a few less teeth and sometimes a missing eye by the end of the day.
What can I say? I don't like bullies.
Especially not ones like these scumbags.
"You watch that mouth of yours kid! Or you'll get a lot more than whatever else you seek here!" Canoe shouted.
"Yeah! What he said." One of his cronies echoed.
"Oh that's alright then. Cuz really, that's what I want."
Canoe scoffed.
"You think you can take us three? By yourself kid?"
"Oh yes sure. Although it's really you that's not going anywhere. You're the little chicken s*** beating on a kid, and you've got the goods in hand so you're not going to leave this alley alive. They can leave if they want to." I gestured over to the other two. "What do you say lads? You wanna get out of here and live to see another day?"
They bellowed in laughter at me.
"Is this kid for real?"
"Yeah, look at him. That's how you know he's scared inside. Trying to get us to leave with his laughable threats."
They mocked me and then flipped me off. I was caught off guard a bit as I didn't know that that was a thing in this world. But it only sealed their fates...well, they probably weren't going to leave alive anyway.
"No? You two can just die then." I said simply before turning my gaze back to Canoe. They looked as if they were going to leer again as they rolled their sleeves up.
'Kill the other two. But leave the pig to me.'
But before they could do anything, in a split second a mass of writhing darkness reached out of each of their shadows and before they knew it their heads rolled across the alley floor, their leers still frozen on their face.
Canoe stumbled back in panic, his mouth flapping open and shut like a fish.
"What the heck just happened?!" he screamed as he his face grew pale at the sight of the two severed heads of his. He looked like he was about to bolt in the other direction to leave through the other exit.
I was not having any of that. I blitzed in front of him, startling him out of his skin. Before he could say anything more, I gripped him by the face, clamping his jaw shut and hoisting him up in the air.
He dangled about kicking as he tried to pry my fingers off with his own. When realising it wasn't working, he tried to kick me to let him go. But I heard his carpals shatter through his boot as it connected with my shin.
A garbled noise sounded in his throat as his leg bent upwards in the air, as if to somehow relieve the pain. I shook my head and tutted before and started tightening my grip on his skull. He started screaming in his mouth and dropped the pouch.
It was then I realized he was still holding it even when trying to escape from me. Before it could hit the ground, I stuck my other palm out and caught it neatly.
"Even in your last moments, your greed clucks more than your need to survive." I chastised him as my grip tightened even further. His thrashing became more frantic as he stared at me with pleading eyes.
I began talking casually, as if I were talking about the weather.
"You know, murder really isn't my thing. Back where I come from, there's no way I could have gotten away with it. Mind you, it's not like I'm some serial killer type." I said as my hand began crushing his skull. I could hear the flat bones begin to creak.
"But it always bugged me how you just couldn't kill cowards like you in defence of the victim. I mean yes, it would be considered vigilantism and therefore illegal, but the world would just be a better place without people like you. Don't you agree?" I continued giving him a smile as his torture worsened.
"I don't like doing this at all. As a matter of fact, I'd be throwing up at this point if I were doing it to someone like her." I gestured over to Lili on the floor. She jumped a little at being mentioned as she looked at me with wide eyes, then back at the prat in my death grip.
I turned back to Canoe and gave him the best impression of a demented smile I could give. And it worked apparently as his eyes bulged with fear.
"But good for nothing weakling pissants like you who steal and brutalize mere supporters for a living? I have no regrets."
His screams intensified in their gargling before I gave a final squeeze and his head exploded like a melon, spraying brain matter, hair and skin as well as the two furry ears all over the walls and floor. The body slumped headless and gushing blood from the neck onto the floor.
I stared in distaste at the blood on my hands. Man, did it feel good! But goddamn it was messy! I muttered a simple [CLEAN] spell and the blood vanished.
I looked back at Lili who didn't seem all too unnerved. I guess this is something people see everyday in the labyrinth city. Death was all too common in the dungeon after all. I wouldn't be too surprised if she hadn't led some unsuspecting jackass clients of hers into a situation where their nuts got popped.
I dropped the pouch into her hands. She stared down at it before looking up at me.
"T-thanks." She said. I'd expected her to bolt for the exit, but I think the aura I was leaking out held her in place.
"No problem kid. Now get lost and keep out of trouble. Something tells me we'll be seeing each other again very soon, and I have stuff to do. Just make sure it's not a situation I have to bail you out of next time. Got that?" I said.
She hurriedly nodded, picked herself up and scampered away. I shrugged and walked back over to my basket. Picking it up, I started walking back in the direction of Folkvangr before I noticed a large crowd of people rush past me with scared looks on their faces.
It was like death was chasing them or something as I stared at them in confusion. I looked up the direction they were headed in before something caught my eye.
In the distance, although I could not see what it was protecting, there was large transparent dome made of magic. It rippled with colours and shine a little even in the daytime.
"What the..?" I muttered to myself.
"Garth!" I heard from above me as suddenly Ais jumped down in my path. I let out a smile upon seeing her.
"Oh hey Ais. What's up?" I gestured with my head over to the dome. "What's going on over there?"
"The people are evacuating to the coliseum."
I raised an eyebrow as I had not been hearing an calls for an evacuation.
"Why are they doing that?"
"Never mind. Follow me." Ais said as she jumped on the roof of a building next to us and began hopping away. I followed suit and we hopped a few blocks before coming to the edge of town where the coliseum was.
Inside the barrier which was covering the coliseum, I saw several different mages with staffs held up along the circumference of the barrier. They appeared to be chanting, supposedly keeping the barrier functioning. At their head in the distance, I could see Riveria also partaking in the task.
Behind them was the coliseum full to the brim with people form all over Orario. There were so many that they could not all fit inside and so were stood outside of it but still in the barrier.
"What's going on?" I asked her.
"We need your help in maintaining the barrier. Finn said you had a large Mind pool, so it would definitely help."
"You're still not answering me Ais. Help against what?"
She gave me a confused look. I this crucial moment, I found the time to realize she was putting more emotion into her expressions with me now.
"Don't you know what going on?"
"Wasn't it obvious?"
"We need your help against that!" She pointed upwards in the sky.
For the first time, I looked up there and saw what seemed like a second sun in the sky. Though still smaller and not as bright, I immediately recognized what it was from satellite images and videos.
"Is that...?"
"It's a meteor. We didn't have time to evacuate the city outside of Orario, so the best we can do is keep everyone inside the barrier and hope we can weather the devastation."
I narrowed my eyes. There was no freaking way this wasn't a setup!
'Nekros...?' I thought darkly. Wouldn't an omnipotent bastard like him be able to whip something like this out of the blue?
Muffled chortling echoing in my head was the answer I received.
Called it.
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