Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

After Linkle was done talking, there were many questions floating in everyone's mind. From questioning Athenia's intentions behind giving the witch her nail to why they weren't informed about the matter in the least, very little about the fact made sense to them at first, but upon getting a quick reminder about the circumstances surrounding Linkle's proximity being a looming threat over Maine, they were able to take quite the accurate guess as to why Athenia did what she did.

'She wants us to keep our distance from her and the best way to do so is getting this mess about recovering her body out of the way as soon as possible.'

Coming out the other end with that conclusion, Raven took a moment to slip out of the room and let the others ask more questions to the witch. In the meantime, calling out to Maine inside the jewel he tried to get her out but the Lamia wouldn't listen.

'Still scared after what happened, huh?'

Terrified of going out in the real world and being possessed by her mother again, Maine stayed beside Arche and the slumbering fox girl as well as the drake. Watching over them sleeping like kids without a care, she couldn't help but be reminded of the time her mother would come to her room while she and Phos were kids.

Young Lamias under the rule of Libyan were often either slaves or soldiers, however, being a pure-blood child of the queen, Maine and Phos were both treated like royalty and fed unique animals and monster meat so that their bodies could absorb their powers and grow stronger as a result. But being kids who've been outside the colony neither of the sisters ever got to master those abilities.

"You've been staring at them for a while," moving her colossal head beside the lamia, Arche nudged Maine with her cheek with her eyes focused on the kids sleeping in front. "Do they owe you silver?"

Awkwardly grabbing her left arm, Maine turned her head away from Arche and the fox. Looking at nothing to her side, she couldn't help but wonder how her life would've turned out had her mother been more reasonable.

"I guess she would've been alive at the very least," she muttered, not realizing that she was speaking out loud.

"Who would be alive?" Asked Arche, her brows frowning with confusion.

Realizing her mistake, Maine's eyes widened and she turned her tail into feet before starting to walk away from the Arachne. Heading into the direction where most of the comfort furniture had been brought from the real world, she had decided to sleep again just as she'd been doing for days since the haunting incident.

'She's still thinking about her mother, huh?'

Although a mother of a thousand warriors herself, Arche couldn't understand exactly why Maine was so obsessed with Libyan. Had she herself died in that cave when Raven had approached her, she wouldn't have wished for her soldiers–for her children to obsess over her past her death.

"Some live some die, as a monster you should raise your head and hope for a better future with countless fierce children of yours spreading through this world," her encouraging words fell on deaf ears as Maine was still obsessing over her thoughts and fears and not a single thing registered in her head.

But Maine wasn't the one feeling overwhelmed by her mother's passing. Outside the jewel, Mino had handed the priest's plan book into Mel's hands. Having read through most of it, she stumbled into the pages that briefly mentioned Aria and her as well as Amedith's mother, and although no longer surprised by the dark elf and her being delivered to the church in the same basket, reading through the death of Amedith's mother, she could feel her reading finger quiver.

With an anxious gulp, she lifted her head and glanced at her ex sitting at the edge of the edge. His fingers intertwined while staring yet focused on nothing, Amedith felt a strange feeling creeping up into his heart. Angst, worry, and a tinge of betrayal, the cocktail of emotions had him as stunned as a slapped drunk.

Erika, who was watching the situation spiral with her fist clenched, knew things were about to turn on her for trying to hide the book's existence even if just for a few days. Glancing over at Mino's back with a squinted gaze, she wanted to reach forward and shake the monster girl's body out of frustration.

'Why did she have to do this?'

She wondered just before Amedith began to talk.

"When were you gonna tell us?" Lifting his head, Amedith looked at Erika's baffled state.

The priestess, still staring at Mino's back; took her a moment to register what he'd said before she finally turned her head toward him to answer.

"I wasn't sure if this was the right time," although she was being truthful, the increased intensity of everyone's brows told her just how well it was working out. "Look, I wasn't gonna keep it a secret forever but–"

Pausing for a moment, Erika took a deep breath and let her shoulder fall. Lowering her head for just a moment, she gathered the courage to face Amedith and the others.

"I knew you'd be upset, who wouldn't be?" Heaving a sigh of defeat, she looked into Amedith's eyes before continuing. "If I could only know one thing about my parents, I wouldn't want it to be the cause of their death. Anything other than that, just anything…"

As the priestess's gaze dejected to the ground, Raven decided to step in and stray the conversation away from the gloomy subject.

"What has happened happened, we need to focus on the now," taking centre stage inside that cramped room, Raven rolled up his sleeves and let the glimmer of the monster holding jewel glitter in everyone's eyes. "We still have one more person who needs to tell the truth, their secrets, and everything they know."

Explore more at empire

Even though he'd seen most of Choux's memories, everything beyond seeing her brother's grave was far too muffled inside his head for some obscure reason. He suspected it to be the woman lurking in purgatory playing mind games, but with no way of proving it, he decided to address the matter in the real world directly.

"We're moving the Djinns into the church until they wake up and we'll set up camp outside where we're gonna make that demi-human girl talk," glancing over to Linkle, Raven let his hands down and stared at her for a moment. "And then once we've dealt with the so-called king she's serving, we need to put an end to Tariyaan and get Libyan off our backs."

"Finally a fucking schedule," cursed Maria, tired of the rampant chaos on the islands.

The others felt the same and wanted this mess to finally come to an end.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om