Chapter 178: Death From Above
When Bee reached the castle, she was greeted by an odd sight. Thankfully it was one that Susan had prepared her for, if only slightly. On top of the wall, a pair of guards stood watch. The one to the right was one of the men that had come as a refugee, one of Susan's personal trainees. To the left, top of his head barely visible above the crenellations, was one of the children.
This wasn't a child she had particularly interacted with before, but if she remembered correctly, he was 4 or 5. Much, much too young to be standing guard. Even if something did happen, she couldn't imagine what he would do. But when she scanned him, she saw that he was, in fact, level two. This meant that he had not only gotten one kill to get that first level, he had managed to accumulate more since then. What had these kids been up to?
As she approached, the guards noticed her. They both came to attention with a salute before relaxing to a more informal wave. Without hesitation, the adult guard disappeared from the wall and began opening the gate from below. When she reached the entrance, she just simply ducked under the still-opening gate and turned to thank him. To her surprise, she saw the little boy walking down to meet her. But he didn't use the stairs leading to the top of the wall. He was simply walking on air.
"Hello! High Priestess Bee!" the boy said. "Welcome back! Everyone's missed you a bun- uh, greatly!" Bee just stared at him, slightly dumbstruck. Was that the air step skill she had read about? That was a really rare one, not to mention powerful. To get it as his first skill… This kid was insanely lucky. Or was it luck?
She'd have to talk to the rest of the kids. But if they were all getting powerful skills like this, it could be that the system was rewarding them for earning their first levels so young. It would explain why she managed to get Scan, one of the rarest skills in the kingdom, as her own first skill. Hm. An interesting theory.
"Yeah. It's good to be back. I'm sorry, I can't remember your name. Could you remind me?"
"Of course, Miss Beatrice! I'm Jason."
"Well, Jason, that's quite an impressive skill you have there."
"I know! It's the cool- erm, I mean, it's quite impressive!" He jumped a few times in place, each taking him higher than the last. "I can't fly yet, but I can already get really high up!"
"How high, exactly?"
"Ummmmm, 12 steps! It used to be 2 or 3, but I've been practicing a lot. I can go higher than the wall now!"
The man stepped over from the gate winch, leaving the gate fully open. "He's right. He literally hasn't stopped the entire time. He paces back and forth. He's been hovering a foot off the wall for as long as he can. I've had to catch him from falling over three times just this morning."
Jason looked slightly abashed. Bee laughed and looked over at the slightly annoyed guard, who seemed to be putting on a little bit of an act and wasn't actually annoyed as he was pretending to be. "Well, I'm glad someone was here to catch him, at least. Does anyone know where Mary would be?"
Jason piped up. "She's probably in her office. Oh, she has an office now! It's fancy. It's uuuh…."
"Right, you were gone by the time she set that up. It's on the second floor in the East wing. You should be able to find it pretty easily."
"Thanks, you two. Keep up the good work, Jason." Bea smiled as she started walking towards the entryway. It sounded like she had a lot to catch up on.
Bee made her way into the castle. For a moment, she stood and drank in the familiar sight. She was finally home. The pristine white stone walls and grand entry were just as she had left them.
She had hoped to go right to Mary and let her know what was going on, but every single person she passed from the entry hall up to the stairs stopped her to chat, even if it was just to say hello. Most people were just welcoming her home and expressing their hopes that Void, too, would return soon. Even still, the numerous brief interactions added up.
It seemed that the news that Void was not with her had spread. She didn't mind it or anything, but it was good to know. So far, it seemed that everyone was in high spirits, looked well-fed, and rather busy. That was to be expected as the whole palace was buzzing with preparations for the arrival of new guests.
Bee eventually made it upstairs to talk to Mary, but she did notice a lot of children along the way. Some of them were standing at conspicuous points at the ends of hallways, and she made a mental note
to figure out what they were up to. Perhaps they were also guards. Still, the idea of child soldiers didn't quite sit very well with her. Even if they might be disproportionately useful and excited about it themselves.
Soon after Bee knocked on the door, Mary's voice called from inside. "Come in."
Bee let herself in. Before she knew it, Mary had dashed over and wrapped her up in a warm embrace. Bee stood stunned for a second before returning it. "Oh, it's so good you're back. When you left, I had no idea you'd be gone for so long. But I hear you're bringing us new friends."
Bee muttered something, but her voice was muffled from the way she was pressed against the older woman. Eventually, she managed to extract herself from the embrace, and they sat down around a small writing table Mary was using for a desk. "Yeah, a lot has happened. A lot. But we managed to accomplish everything we wanted to. We saved the city, fought some undead, and now we have a caravan of refugees looking for shelter."
"Oh, my. That sounds like quite a story."
"Yeah, it is. I want to take care of a couple more things before I tell it to everyone, though."
"Understandable. Of course. What do you want to take care of?"
Bee then updated Mary regarding the incoming refugees. She gave her head of food management all the numbers and details about who they'd be taking in and what supplies they came with, which Mary promised to pass along to Trent. After Bee finished her summary, she asked about the kids. "The other thing is, after we finish talking, I'd like to talk to all of the children who have been engaged in getting levels. I want to make sure that they're not hindering their future development. And maybe there's some things I can do to help."
Mary sighed. "Well, they might actually listen to you, seeing that you're the high priestess and all. But I'll let them know that you'll be waiting for them. They should gather to meet you after this. There's a lot going on. I really hope you can help them, dear."
—-
Tracking down the larger man was easier than I expected. Turns out he was the third largest man in the camp based on his weight. At least the footprints I had surveyed so far indicated that which I believed to represent about 72% of the group. So returning to the mess hall and following his footprints was as easy as whisking up dog fur.
His tracks also wound around the camp, though he spent a lot less time stopping to talk to people and instead went towards the outskirts where the more low-ranking troops stayed. I found him in a large tent crammed with 20 people. He was by far the largest person there and was already asleep, snoring quite loudly.
Now that I had located both of them, I needed to figure out what to do. I could consume both of them, which was what I had done in previous cases that warranted punishment. But seeing how that had worked out for the humans, I still had it in my dustbin... I didn't think that was a great option.
I set a reminder for myself to check on them again soon. It had been a while, and I really had been putting it off. Not because I was averse to the work, of course, but because the thought of what might have happened to them was quite unpleasant.
So if I didn't want to put them in my dustbin… well, really, perhaps they deserved that. They did kill a man. I considered talking to Arthur about it. He probably would know what to do. Well, actually, I could save time by just bringing them to Arthur. That would be way easier.
So not wanting to burst into the tent and cause a scene, I sent a gust of air inside the tent and lifted up a rock. With a brief flex of Air Manipulation, I sent it flying towards his stomach. It bounced off, but he just kind of brushed at it with his hand as he was sleeping and didn't wake up. That didn't work. I was hoping to get his attention, but clearly, that wasn't enough.
So instead, I simply grabbed the collar of the shirt he was sleeping in and yanked on it with Air Manipulation. The fabric wasn't quite strong enough to lift him without ripping, but it certainly got his attention. He jumped up suddenly and disturbed a few people around him, who crankily mumbled at him.
He rolled over a couple of times, then eventually got up, muttering about having to go to the bathroom. As he walked out of the tent, I pounced. Grabbing him by the back of his neck with my Grabby Arm, I lifted him into the air and flew away. Then I completely wrapped his mouth with my air manipulation so he wouldn't be able to disturb anyone with his screams. I then boosted over to where I had found the other, more average-sized man in the much larger tent to retrieve him too. It took a little bit of adjustment to hold on to them both, but after arranging the two men in a hug secured by cords of air, I grabbed the larger one's neck once more. Now I just needed to find Arthur.
I hovered over the mostly sleeping camp, looking for the commander. He wasn't in his tent, but he clearly hadn't gone far. I eventually spotted him standing over by the crime scene, looking at the dead body. Oh, good. He already knew what had happened. That meant I wouldn't have to explain so many things. I might just be able to help him find the culprit. With a quick thought, I adjusted my boosters and zipped over to him.
As I was approaching. I heard Arthur talking to someone. "Poor man. He was one of the few nobles I actually had hopes for. All the others seemed to be fairly useless, if not downright troublemaking. But maybe it was his attempts to actually learn how to behave properly that did him in. It wouldn't surprise me if he found out something he shouldn't have, and they didn't trust him to take the bribes like everyone else did."
Huh? I'd have to ask Arthur what he was talking about later. Descending from above, I set my two charges down and gave Arthur a cheery wave. Hopefully, this would help him clear up the matter quicker.
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