Chapter 7: 7 - Scouting

Vivi flew across the city, marveling at the wonder of the experience. Beneath her, Prismarche sprawled out. The city had grown, but compared to modern cities as she knew them, it was tiny. It had to be, when the entire city was enclosed in a wall. Cities in safer territories could get away without defensive barriers, but not this far north.

Lailah had worked her way into the wilderness. As Vivi caught up, she saw that the woman’s party consisted of four people. Lailah, her teammate ‘Dom’, a young man in white robes, and the surprise addition: Saffra. The red-haired catgirl seemed to be a mage, based on the slim length of white wood she was carrying—a wand.

After the warnings Saffra had given, Vivi was baffled as to why she would accept a party invitation from Lailah. Briefly, she wondered whether she had warned her away as some sort of ploy to ensure her own spot on the team.

But that didn’t make sense. Saffra was glaring daggers at the two older adventurers, only wiping the expression away when they looked her way.

The party of four was trekking through the pine forest that started immediately outside Prismarche’s walls. If logic between game and reality held, Prismarche was in the far north of the human continent, in a dangerous area even by the standards of this monster-infested world.

Vivi hadn’t needed to travel far to reach orichalcum-rank monsters—which seemed to be shorthand for levels 800 to 1000—and such beasts could rampage through the vast majority of adventurers. She didn’t think any amount of gold-ranks could kill one, and gold ranks were already uncommon from what she’d seen at the Adventurer’s Guild. Most were bronze and silver.

Exiting the safety of Prismarche immediately brought people into level 200 plus territory. Meaning silver-rank threats. It wouldn't take long for this party of four to find monsters worth their time, seeing how all of them were wearing silver badges themselves.

Vivi was almost certain she had let unfounded paranoia guide her decisions, but Saffra’s worry had been so genuine, and remained so palpable even now, that Vivi persisted, hovering above the group with [Invisibility] active.

Better safe than sorry.

***

These creeps weren’t fooling anyone.

Trekking behind Lailah and Dominic, Saffra glared at their backs as Allen went on and on about some healing spell he’d recently mastered. This boy had to be several years older than her, but it sure didn’t feel like it. Did he not realize the situation he was in? The danger these two represented?

Not that she could be certain of anything. Lailah and Dominic’s reasons for arriving in town were perfectly natural. Prismarche, being the nearest border city to the seventh Cataclysm Monarch’s domain and thus the Party of Heroes’ final destination, had always thrown extravagant festivals on Peace Day. On the centennial celebration, travelers had come from all across the continent.

Prismarche already fielded more adventurers than average, but with the festival, there were three times the normal amount in the city. Maybe even extra orichalcums, possibly a Titled. An influx of new faces wasn’t odd. Not in the slightest.

Lailah and Dominic’s stories checked out in all aspects.

She didn’t care. Something was off about them. Saffra trusted her gut. After what had happened the last time she hadn’t, she wouldn’t ignore her instincts again.

She clutched the silver necklace hanging around her neck to calm her nerves.

The question was, why was she out here with them?

She should be looking out for herself. Who cared if this blond-haired clueless idiot had blindly accepted their party invitation without a worry in the world?

She didn’t even know Allen. Apparently he was a local, an acolyte at the temple, and often visited the Guild. So maybe she should. She’d been in Prismarche for four months and had made the Guild her home; she slept there every night. She guessed his face was vaguely familiar.

But no, she hadn’t accepted Lailah’s invitation because she knew Allen. She just…couldn’t let this cheerful idiot face this alone.

And even she knew she was probably being paranoid. Something about Lailah and Dominic made her skin itch, but what was she expecting? That they would murder them to harvest their belongings without fear of retribution from the city guard? Adventurers did tend to carry around most of their net worth on their person, so it wasn’t implausible. Murdering adventurers was a great method for making money, if one didn’t have morals.

Or worse, capture and sell them alive?

In either case, that was where Saffra’s mind had gone, generally speaking. It wasn’t all that rare. Not common, but there was a dark underbelly of crime throughout the human kingdoms—any civilization really—that even the most naive of citizens were wary of.

And adventurers were some of the easiest people to make disappear without suspicion. What would most people think, even Guild staff, if an adventuring mission ‘went awry’ and a team came back minus a person or two? They might make token efforts toward an investigation, but even with divination magic—should they find justification for employing someone who could cast it—they wouldn’t find anything. Not with so little to go on.

Logically speaking, ninety-nine out of a hundred times two older adventurers offering a quick team-up would be friendly camaraderie. Something to do before celebrations began in earnest that night. In fact, that the invitation had been framed as an easy mission further suggested nothing strange was going on. It would be more suspicious, now, if something went wrong.

Yet Saffra had such rotten luck that ninety-nine in a hundred odds didn’t comfort her in the slightest.

In any case, she should be looking out for herself. But she hadn’t been able to convince this tall blond boy to decline the invitation, so Saffra had walked up and offered to join too, and after a moment’s consideration, Lailah had smiled and accepted.

Saffra had to do this. She wasn’t going to let something horrible happen if she could help it. Even if Allen was a stranger.

I can only blame myself, she thought sourly. I deserve what’s coming.

“Remember what we talked about,” Lailah said, smiling over her shoulder. Saffra remembered to wipe her dour expression clean and nod earnestly. “You two are silver ranks, same as me, so I don’t need to harp on you. But you never know when things’ll go wrong, and someone getting hurt is more likely in an unfamiliar group. Keep sharp.”

Allen turned a look toward Saffra as if to say ‘See? They’re good people, they’re looking out for us.’ Saffra seethed in silence, her face not betraying her emotions. Her time at the Institute had made her good at that. Though, in her annoyance, she wasn’t able to put up the usual mask, so she settled for an aggressively blank face. Allen faltered, cleared his throat, and kept walking.

This time of year, the Frostfern Glade was more green than white, and the worst monsters were in hibernation. But it was still more dangerous than almost anything found in southern, safer lands. One of the reasons she’d come here—it made great training grounds. The other, bigger reason was that she’d needed to get as far from Meridian, and thus the Institute, as possible.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

She kept her attention sharp. It would be awfully awkward if she misguidedly came on a hunting expedition she didn’t want to be on, only to die to actual monsters instead of the metaphorical ones in front of her.

Even if, again, she had zero evidence these two couldn’t be trusted.

The first few fights went without a problem. Saffra reluctantly admitted Lailah and Dominic knew what they were doing. Almost too much so. They seemed better than silver-rankers ought to be.

Was it another level of paranoid, to add that to her tiny stack of ‘evidence’? That they might be faking rank to more easily lure in prey? If they were killers or similar, they wouldn’t want to fight on equal footing. They would be solidly gold rank at least.

Saffra started to doubt herself as the hunting trip continued. An hour passed, and a second, and it had only intended to be a casual expedition anyway. Peace Day celebrations would begin in the evening. It was already diligent to be making a short trip into the Glade on an impending holiday.

Sure enough, one fight later, Lailah announced, “That ought to do it. We should head back now. Wouldn’t want to miss any of the fun. Any objections?” She looked around, but received none. “You two did great, by the way,” she added, smiling at Allen and Saffra. “You especially, brat,” she teased Saffra. “I’d swear you’re Institute trained, if not for how the semester ought to still be in session.”

Saffra hadn’t expected the Institute to be brought up. She stiffened slightly, her mask faltering before she smoothed out her expression again. “I’m glad you think I did okay,” she said, somewhat tensely.

“More than ‘okay’,” Lailah laughed. “Watching you makes me feel like I didn’t take my career seriously enough when I was young. I’m twice your age, yet we’re wearing the same badge.”

“Not all paths start and end the same,” Allen said with that sort of faux-wise tone that so many temple acolytes used.

Maybe she was being uncharitable. She didn’t dislike Allen, he was just a huge idiot who didn’t know what was good for him.

…Though she was starting to think he’d been right. If something strange was going to happen, it would have by now.

By all accounts, Lailah seemed to be the friendly older adventurer she was pretending to be. Her bulkier partner was both less suspicious and more—because he’d stayed close to silent the whole time, only making call-outs during combat. His broad-shouldered, scarred appearance was suspect…but not really. Scars and a serious demeanor weren’t anything to make someone blink twice in an adventuring career. She was grasping at straws.

She really had gotten this one wrong. While listening to gut instincts was important, that didn’t mean every impression would be correct.

That feeling solidified as they headed back to the city. If something nefarious was going on, it would have happened in the deepest part of the Glade, where a chance-based intervention was least likely. They were already getting close to the city walls, where another adventuring group might be nearby.

Saffra felt silly about the whole event. At least she’d made some coin and gained experience working on a team. The day hadn’t been a waste, even if she’d had other things she had wanted to pay more attention to.

A folded-up missing pet paper in her left pocket burned in reminder. She’d promised Daisy; she needed to get back to handing out posters.

In retrospect, it had been planned. These two were professionals. They had waited until her guard was most likely to be down.

Dominic came to an abrupt stop, holding up a fist in the universal sign of danger. Saffra was instantly alert, wand raised and a [Flame Bolt] design sketching in her head.

But it didn’t seem to be an immediate threat. He dropped the gesture and pointed. Lailah stepped up alongside him, peering at what he was pointing at.

“Constrictor Creeper,” she announced. “Shit, good eye, Dom.”

Saffra and Allen edged up to put eyes on the green vine lying in wait. Fauna infused with stray magic was the most common threat while out hunting, but flora was dangerous too. Plant-type monsters, while less common, were equally as deadly.

Dominic had once again proved himself the quiet but competent sort. Constrictor Creepers were hard to spot. Saffra didn’t know if she herself would have noticed it. And while a group of silver rankers probably wouldn’t have been taken out by one, it could have done damage—maybe killed one of them in the worst case.

“Where there’s one, there’s usually others,” Lailah said. “I’ll take a look around. Take care of that one.”

Constrictor Creepers could sprawl for hundreds of feet. Saffra glanced nervously around the forest floor, but saw no other discolored vines like what was curled in front of them.

Creepers did tend to clump together, spawned in batches from the same expulsions of natural magic, and clearing them out was common courtesy because finding them was the hardest part, not killing them.

Maybe the standard procedure was why Saffra dropped her guard. She’d been keeping an eye on Dominic and Lailah through the expedition, but she didn’t think twice as the rogue stalked away to find other Creepers, gaze locked to the ground like all of theirs were now. Especially because Dominic had grunted, “Weak to fire. Take it out?” And as the team’s mage, it was logical this task fell on her.

The Creeper clump was a few dozen feet away, pulsating against a withered-looking tree. Saffra raised her wand and started pulling together a spell.

Click.

She felt something cold and heavy clamp around her neck.

Her stomach dropped about a mile beneath the earth.

“I was starting to think we’d have to be brutes about it,” Lailah commented. “Took long enough for an opportunity to show up. Watching me like a hawk, weren’t you?”

“Miss Lailah?” Allen’s confused voice came somewhere to Saffra’s side, but she barely heard it. It felt like the moment that cold metal had wrapped around her neck, she’d stopped existing in her own body.

She reflexively drew on her mana even if she knew what would happen. The vibrating energy disappeared into the rune-engraved metal, drunk down greedily.

Saffra closed her eyes and tried to wake up. It had to be a nightmare. But Lailah continued speaking at her side.

“I’ll deal with him. Take care of the girl.”

And then Saffra was being manhandled, Dominic pulling her arms back and securing manacles around her wrists. That jolted her out of the brief disassociation—she began fighting. He held her easily, forcing her arms back and clicking the restraints into place.

“You’re only hurting yourself,” he said gruffly. “Stop that.”

How had she been so stupid? She’d known. She’d known.

In short order, she’d been forced to the ground, wrists bound behind her back, magic cut off by whatever suppression artifact Lailah had secured around her neck. Dominic was strangely gentle about the process, and that was almost more terrifying.

Allen was tossed to her side, likewise bound and gagged. He seemed to be in shock, looking around frantically. His eyes met hers. She looked away, squeezing her own shut.

This was her fault.

They were capturing them alive. That was the horrifying part. Death was just death. Having their throats slit and being robbed of their belongings wasn’t so bad—it was the preferable of the two outcomes.

She was hyperventilating. Something like this had happened once before. A miracle had saved her. Nobody was given two miracles.

Lailah crouched down to her side.

“Suspicious little bitch, aren’t you?” she mused with exactly the same cheerfulness as every interaction before. It sounded genuinely friendly. “You were glaring at me before we even met. Why?”

Saffra kept her eyes closed, and she found one of them pried open.

“It’s polite to look at someone when they’re talking to you.”

Saffra stared numbly at her in response. It wasn’t like she could talk. The rag stuffed in her mouth tasted disgusting.

“I’m positive nothing gave it away, I’ve been doing this a while. Kinda irks me that some brat saw through me so easily.” Her grip tightened on her chin, fingernails digging in, and she shook Saffra’s head back and forth, just because she could. She sighed and released her, sitting back on her heels. “You’re a bad actor, for the record. I might’ve convinced myself all that glaring back at the guild was for some other reason. But I felt your eyes on me through the entire mission too. You didn’t want to come out here, plain as day. If you’re putting up an act, you can never drop it.” She tapped Saffra on the nose. “Seems obvious, silly girl.”

She considered Saffra.

“But really, did something give it away? I want to know.” Her jaw shifted back and forth. “I’d take out the gag to get an answer, but I know your type. You’d spit in my face. And then I’d have to hurt you. I don’t like hurting children, it makes me feel bad.” She laughed. “Hypocritical, I know.”

She stood and dusted her hands.

“What are we doing with the boy?” she asked Dominic.

“It’d be easiest to kill him. Best price will be through the Cult.”

“An acolyte. Promising one too. He’ll fetch a good price.” She rubbed her chin. Allen had gone very still to Saffra’s side. She couldn’t look at him. “Can’t undo killing, though. Maybe best to hold off.”

“Opens us to divinations from the Temple. He’s one of theirs. Safer to kill.”

“True.” She thought it over, then sighed. “You’re right, like usual.” She flicked her wrist to the side. “Deal with him.”

Dominic started walking to Allen, and Saffra began struggling again. Not that she could do anything.

“What I don’t understand,” Lailah said, crouching back down near Saffra, “is why you came out here anyway. I really don’t get it. To investigate us?” She shook her head with amusement. “What you should have done was listen to your gut. Talk to the Guild, maybe. But you didn’t. I watched you from the start, since I knew you were onto something. You just skulked around.” She laughed. “When you’re in over your head, silly girl, ask for help. Warn someone.”

Saffra slumped into the ground, fighting the nausea in her stomach.

Lailah was right. Why had she been so stupid?

Then a voice that didn’t belong cut through the air, startling all four of them.

“For the record. She did warn someone.”