Arielle always considered herself to be a good judge of character. She wouldn’t be in her current position if she wasn’t. With her mouth curled slightly into a faint smile, she spoke up.
“I can offer you a chance to join my retinue.”
“Wait what?!”
Thyvin was visibly shocked by her proposal, probably unable to believe her words. Yet this was not the first time that Arielle had encountered such a scenario so she had no problem with responding. With a chuckle, she maintained her relaxed demeanour and took another sip of her tea before she explained herself.
“You must think us Vyatches to be like your family. I would appreciate it if you rid your mind of such misconceptions. We appreciate the value of talent and we won’t condemn said talent just because the Church deems it ‘heretical.’ Loyalty to the Kingdom is more important than faith in religion.”
In stark contrast to the rest of her words, she actually let genuine contempt leak into her final sentence. It was no secret that necromancers and the Church mutually despised each other. All she did was appeal to that hatred by revealing that her opinions on the Church were not high either.
One glance at Thyvin’s expression was enough to tell her that he was at least fascinated by her offer now. Nonetheless, she resumed speaking.
“Once this entire ordeal in Valha is over, you can accompany me on the return to my territories as one of my vassals. I doubt that your family would oppose such an arrangement. In fact, I’d imagine that they’d be ecstatic about it.”
Thyvin was left speechless by her offer. Even though his face wore no expression, the look in his eyes conveyed messages of indecision. Regardless, the necromancer spoke up after a few short moments of silence passed.
“And what makes you think that I won’t oppose it?”
“I would say intuition but then I’d be lying.”
She sipped more of her tea before she explained.
“I for one believe that you would be much better suited to continuing your ‘research’ in Frankonian lands rather than wasting away in your ‘home.’ Doesn’t that prospect sound interesting? Call it a fresh start if you will, starting anew in a faraway land without the metaphorical chains of your own family holding you down.”
She then chuckled lightly and made a joking remark.
“I’ll even let you marry one of my nieces if you ever take a liking to one.”
Thyvin would once again remain quiet when he heard her proposal, breaking the silence half a minute later with a single sentence.
“I’ll consider it.”
Then he stood up from the couch and announced his leave.
“Please give me some time to think this over, I promise that I’ll return with a response come tomorrow morning.”
Arielle felt her mouth involuntarily twitch. Although she internally scolded herself for failing to keep her emotions in check, she still kept a calm and friendly demeanour when she replied.
“I see, take as long as you need.”
She interrupted herself with a light chuckle before she continued.
“Just not too long.”
Thyvin responded with a chuckle of his own.
“I’ll try to.”
He turned his back towards her after he said that before he proceeded to leave the parlour, waving his hand and saying his goodbyes while he did so.
“Well I shall retire for now, my lady. Farewell. I shall return as promised tomorrow.”
Even with his eyes gazing away from her, she still retained her friendly smile and even waved her hand when she responded.
“And I hope that you make good on your promise, my lord. Farewell.”
It was only when he left did she allow her smile to fade away. With a sigh, she pressed her fingers onto her temples and massaged her head. Now that she was at last alone, she could finally release all of her pent-up stress which she was previously repressing. She closed her eyes as she relived the two conversations which she just held with two very different groups of people.
One of them was Thyvin, of whom only slightly irritated her with his claims that he will need ‘time to think’ before he accepted her offer. Yet that was negligible since wasting time pondering about why he made his decisions would be exactly that, wasting time. He’ll come around eventually, she just hoped that it wouldn’t be when it was too late.
The other group however, she found to be completely insufferable. Especially since these inquisitors were all ethnically Valhans. Unlike Frankonian inquisitors who were only tolerable at worst, Arielle struggled to stomach the conceited mannerisms of the Valhan inquisitors.
The former at the very least acknowledged her value as a stateswoman and general as well as sharing similar values of loyalty towards the Frankonian king. The one thing driving a wedge between her and Frankonian inquisitors was the fact that they placed their oh so precious ‘Pantheon’ above the King.
Nevertheless, that was enough to make her actively avoid the Frankonian inquisition. But somehow, to her dismay, she discovered that the Valhan inquisitors were many times worse.
“Grrrrrmmm.”
She made a sound which was more akin to that of a growling dog, the more she thought about the Valhan inquisitors.
Although she had already anticipated that they would treat her differently since she was a foreigner, she did not expect them to be so unapologetically aggravating. If she didn’t have to worry about her reputation and honour, then she would have put them all on trial, maybe even having them executed if possible.
After internally venting her anger, she noticed that something was ‘off’ with her hair. In particular, how it felt it ‘lighter’ than usual.
Damn not again.
She instantly knew what had happened, causing her to sigh as she opened her eyes. She then glanced towards the nearest mirror, only to find that her suspicions were correct. The Arielle that stared back at her was one with bright blaring orange eyes with her hair also glowing an orange colour which flared and flowed outwards.
She was instinctively using her magic again.
When her gaze turned to her immediate surroundings, she saw that both her dress and the coach were slightly singed. It looked as if somebody held a match over the dress and coach, then let it slowly but surely burn the fabrics. Fortunately for her, the burns were only visible under close inspection.
She first took a deep breath while closing her eyes.
Then she exhaled slowly.
When she opened her eyes again and looked in the mirror, her reflection’s eyes and hair have returned to its original state. It was just that her hair was a complete mess. Although it was no longer glowing nor was it stretching outwards, her hair was also no longer in an elegant braid bun.
She sighed when she saw that all the effort put into braiding her hair had gone to waste. Yet she could not allow herself to waste time now, not when time was such a valuable resource. After she ensured that her appearance was passable on the mirror, she walked to the parlour’s exit and opened the doors.
“Yes, my liege-lady?”
The knights on duty quickly noticed her presence, with the left one questioning her. Within seconds, both knights seemed to have realised that another ‘incident’ had occurred, that same knight on the left again speaking up in a slightly more anxious tone.
“My liege-lady… Your hair… It’s–”
“Something that you will pretend that you haven’t seen recently.”
She interrupted him in a half-hearted manner because she solemnly gave the other knight his next order.
“Sir Bradfoth Selcouth, go and summon Sir Ian Magellan.”
“Yes, my-liege lady.”
That knight on the right, Bradfoth Selcouth complied with her orders without question and quickly left. On the other hand, the other knight remained at his post when she closed the doors and retreated back to the comfort of her couch.
After she waited for several minutes, a Vyatch family knight with three orange plume feathers attached to his armet entered the parlour. Talking the helmet off his head and tucking it under his armpit, he spoke.
“My liege-lady, do you really believe that he will help us?”
The first thing that Ian Magellan did was voice out his concerns. While he did so, he also made his way towards Arielle and stood before her. Since he was wearing plate armour, he was not able to sit on the couch, not without ruining the fabric anyway. He didn’t even point out the problem regarding her hair. Instead, he patiently waited for her reply.
“I believe that he will make the right choice when the time calls for it.”
Arielle responded to her lieutenant in a matter-of-fact-way.
“I don’t judge Thyvin to be one of those pompous nobles, he wouldn’t have pursued necromancy if he was. However… I don’t believe that the Crimson Cult will rear their ugly faces any time soon now that we’re here...”
“What makes you say that?”
She stood up from the couch and moved towards the windows to gaze onto the city’s outside before she answered his question.
“If they have yet to capture the transmigrator then the odds are in our favour. In all likelihood, they probably realised this too and are now relying on a different tactic. If they can’t catch the transmigrator themselves…”
“Then they will allow us to capture the transmigrator instead!”
While she couldn’t see his face, she could sense the shock and terror in his voice, seemingly having grasped Arielle’s suspicions. After he exclaimed once, he quickly regained his calm. The shock and terror within his voice was replaced by a contemptuous tone when he continued speaking in a much lower voice.
“And when we do catch him and attempt to bring him back to the Kingdom, the Crimson Cult will attack us mid-transit and secure the transmigrator for themselves. Even a hundred chivalric knights won’t deter the Crimson Cult if it meant that they are one step closer to summoning their dark gods.”
As beings who have crossed different realities, a transmigrator’s body could be exploited as a medium to open up dimensional portals. Typical summoning rituals used to summon heroes required the summoners to request the aid of the other world’s respective guardian angel and it was actually the angel who transmigrated the champion.
However, rituals which used a transmigrator’s body wasn’t limited by such restrictions. As long as sufficient magic was used, any being can perform a summoning ritual without the aid of an angel. Of course, that included bringing the Crimson Cult’s horrible gods into the plane of existence.
Both Arielle and Ian knew of the consequences that would be brought about by the Crimson Gods. A common man would have shuddered at the thought. Although, Ian understood all of this, he still had his doubts.
“I apologise but isn’t all of this assuming that they haven’t captured the transmigrator yet? What makes you feel confident that your assessment is correct?”
“If they already captured the transmigrator, then they would have left the Principality of Valha and retreated to their core domains eastwards where the concentration of daemonic corruption is higher. But according to the constant stream of letters I have received from home, the level of daemonic energy within Belmud has yet to diminish.”
Ian nodded his head once in acknowledgement of what she said. However, he still continued to question her, not that she minded.
“Once again, I must apologise but what if that is a deliberate hoax by the cult and they left behind a sizeable detachment in order to put up the facade of a strong presence within Valha?”
Ian’s questions indicated that he was not an idiot blindly following orders or a sycophant only seeking to raise his own position. It signified that he possessed the wisdom to question his leaders when necessary. That was a trait which Arielle commended, Like before, she answered in a matter-of-fact way.
“Not likely. Not after we crushed them during the Years of Insurrection and slaughtered thousands of their best warriors. With their forces undermanned and stretched thin, they wouldn’t send capable warriors to languish in a mere principality. Whatever their goal is, they’re dead set on attaining it.”
He replied with one more question, albeit in a more grim tone.
“So the fate of Kingdom rests on our shoulders again?”
She responded with a chuckle and two words.
“Pretty much.”
