Chương 36: Unholy War - Part 1 - A New Friend
It had been two months since the beginning of the war and the kingdom was bathed in blood and thrown into chaos.
The king ordered to hunt and kill everyone directly related to the tenplo and destroy everything that belonged to them while on the battlefields soldiers and more soldiers died.
While all of this was going on, Serien was still locked in her old room, now willingly, ignoring her father's requests, the king, to go to the battlefields.
"Are you really not going to help your people?"
Serien's gaze was that of someone who had lost everything.
She knew that people were dying every second on the battlefields and she also knew that the kingdom was falling into the hands of the temple of light, but she had no desire to help.
"..."
"You are the princess of this kingdom. You are my daughter, you have a duty to help them!" The king shouted.
"Kuh.."
"What's the fun?"
"Now I'm your daughter..." Serien looked at the father she now resented more than she loved. "When I was being wrongly accused of treason, I was just the high priestess."
The king shifted his gaze to the hallway.
"Just as Hure was just a prince when you branded him a traitor."
"I didn't branded him as a traitor. You were there, you know."
"..."
"Now you shut up. It was always like that when you were supposed to be by my side. That's when the queen decided to hand me over to the temple and..." Serien felt her hurt slipping away and fell silent in a sigh. "If you just came to ask me to go to the battlefields, leave."
***
Meanwhile, away from there, Athena arrived at the immense gates of Tarna, capital of Elsna.
The city was surrounded by walls that were absurdly high and long as far as the eye could see. Furthermore, the city was located in a fertile and verdant land with dense forests and wide plains.
Athena had spent half the day in line to enter the city and was now facing two giants guarding the gates.
"Giants working for humans?"
"It's your first time in Tarna? They're not giants, they're troll hybrids. See the long furry ears?" Said the person behind Athena.
When she turned to face the person, the person was a small creature, no more than the height of Athena's breasts.
The boy with hair the color of fire and tousled alike, had pink cheeks painted with freckles and big blue eyes and a big smile.
However, what was most striking about the boy was his immense baggage on his back and his fuzzy, flapping tail like a fox tail.
"You're...?" Athena had a confused look on her face.
That was another race that didn't exist in the game and despite his tail, he wasn't a beastman, he didn't have animal ears, claws or fangs.
"I'm Samy, I'm a kindred." Samy smiled widely as he introduced himself.
Athena looked at the boy with great curiosity.
"Ah! I'm Athena... (I think...) and I'm... I'm human." Athena smiled awkwardly. "I've never heard of kindred people. What are the characteristics? You know? So I don't be rude to meet more of your people."
"We are naturally very strong, we stop aging at a certain point and we have some animal part in our body." Samy explained thoughtfully while counting on his fingers. "Ah! We can be either a girl or a boy, depending on the mood."
"How interesting. Where do you live? Now I want to see what your culture is like."
"We usually live in villages. For example, my village is four days' walk west from here."
"Did you walk here for four days?"
Athena and Samy followed the line talking and entered the city that way. It was as if the two were old friends who met by chance.
Tarna was how Athena remembered from the game.
A great city with architecture resembling ancient Rome in its splendour, but for Athena, a great stone labyrinth.
"Athena, what are you doing in Tarna?" Samy asked as he chewed a piece of meat from some roasted bird.
"I don't know yet..."
"How is?" Samy looked at Athena's outfit. "Perhaps..."
"What?"
Samy stood up in his chair and bent over the table until his face was close to Athena's.
The boy looked from side to side suspiciously and asked.
"Are you one of those women?"
"What women?" Athena smirked.
"You know! Those women who follow men to wars..."
Athena tilted her head to the side with a wry expression of confusion, making Samy sigh in resignation.
"Whores." The boy said hiding his mouth with his hands in a cone shape.
"What? Of course not!" Athena denied with an outraged expression.
"No, well... Sorry, it's just that you're not carrying a backpack, so you can't be a merchant and you don't have armor or sword, so you can't be a warrior." Samy took a sip of his drink that looked like grape wine. "It's the way you are dressed..."
Athena looked down at her garments. It were with a long, black dress with a subtle cleavage at the bust and black leather boots with metal toe and heel.
"I could be a magician..."
"Not without a tunic and an orb, scepter or staff." Samy denied it.
"Sorceress?"
"You could, but then you would have some draconic mark on your body as a way to demonstrate your contract with a dragon." Samy looked at Athena defiantly. "You do not have it."
"Are you a merchant or a scholar?" Athena complained as she crossed her arms.
"A merchant needs to know a little bit about everything." Samy said with eyes closed and a greasy finger raised.
"Hm... Then I'll help you with your knowledge." Athena smirked. "I'm a high-human, so I can use magic freely without a channeler even if I'm not a sorcerer."
After hearing this, Samy had his mouth and eyes open wide and then came an expression of fright, disbelief, pondering and then understanding.
Athena watched the boy enthusiastically as if he were a comedian as she finished her lunch or perhaps dinner.
"It's possible." Samy concluded with determination.
"Are you going to believe that?" Athena asked with an amused smile.
"I have no evidence to contradict you. For now I will accept that as the truth."
"Hm…" Athena looked at Samy, but not at him actually.
She wished Anemus had accepted everything she said the same way Samy had and felt lonely.
After finishing eating, Athena and Samy walked around the city so that Athena memorized the important points like the library, the mages' tower, the bank, the mercenary and merchant guild, the inn where they rented rooms and stores with interesting items.
"Thanks, Samy. You were a hand on the wheel today." Athena said excitedly.
"Hand on the wheel? What does that mean?"
"That you were a great help."
"Cool! Hands on the wheel... Is that an high human saying?"
"Can be." Athena laughed.
They walked calmly towards the inn they were staying. The avenue was still busy despite being late at night.
There were men and women of different races in armor and assorted attire drinking and celebrating in noisy taverns.
Typical food stalls from the region and also from other places, permeated the path with the smell of appetizing and doubtful food.
It also had the dark, troubled alleys that looked inviting to thieves, rapists, and murderers.
But none of that mattered.
All Athena thought about was taking a hot bath and sleeping, but...
As said before, the streets were lively and groups came and went all the time and when Athena and Samy passed in front of a tavern lazily as a group left the place.
"Hey! Get out of the way!" Said a man, no, a boy a little smaller than Athena.
Athena looked at the boy, smirked and ignored him as continued walking lazily with Samy.
"Hey! What was that smirk?" The boy closed Athena's path with an enraged look.
"Klad, what are you doing?"
A purple-haired girl grabbed the boy's arm, pulling him to the side, but the boy shook his arm, freeing himself from the girl's hands.
Athena looked at the boy and her group and remembered something she hated in the light novels she read.
The boy was the typical harem protagonist in 'isekai' stories. Black hair, sharp eyes, of medium height and accompanied by girls of different races as if they were collectible characters.
"Tsk!" Athena clicked her tongue and sidestepped the boy. "Samy, what kinds of spells are there in the tower?"
"There are all kinds." Samy said shyly as he looked at the boy named Klad.
"Even spells…" Suddenly Athena felt a rush of mana down her back. "Ah~... Don't do that boy."
As soon as Athena said this, Klad attacked with his sword gleaming with an anticipated skill.
Athena quickly took her unsheathed sword from the [Dimensional Bag] and blocked the sword after erasing Klad's skill and then hit the boy in the face with her knee.
The girls in Klad's group ran to help the boy who fell backwards to the ground with Athena looking down on him.
"Boy, you shouldn't sell fights with people you know nothing about just to impress your girls." Athena pointed her sword at Klad's neck. "What will you do if someone who is stronger than you, buy it?"
"Not!" The purple-haired girl said and stepped in front of Athena, almost cutting herself. "Klad just has a tough temper. He didn't mean to."
Athena looked at the girl's startled expression and then looked at the other four who had varied expressions and then backed away.
"Thank your girls, Klad." Athena said as she threw her sword back in the air. "Well I'm in a good mood today because I made an interesting friend." She smiled at Samy and started walking away with the kindred.
"So you're a warrior…" Samy commented.
"I am not."
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All_J
All_J Let the new arc begin!
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