Chapter 70: Once Again, Here
Three days passed us by in a glance, and soon it was time.
"I’ll take just one more book, wait."
"Miss Witch, we gotta come back as well!" I said, dragging the large bags of books and things she had carried along for herself. "Alright, are we all ready then?"
"Oh, you still have that device. Don’t we need it?" Adam asked.
"Pfft. Shut up, brother."
Over the last three days since Adam Desmond il Reinvelt entered the Grim Palace, we had been living quite the simple days even with our guests.
That was a strange thing about our house, I guess. Even guests didn’t really mean much. Weiss had kept herself busy studying more magic. She hadn’t made much progress, and I didn’t think she would either for a while.
It would have been much easier if there was a corrupt to sample things from. But even the demon that was corrupting people had gone ahead and died.
She really asked me to kidnap it and bring it a couple of times.
There was a change for the others, too. Adam’s swordsmanship, while amazing, was unable to penetrate through the blades of Jake and John. At the same time, though Jake and John were perfect counters, they couldn’t slice through Adam.
So they spent all that time learning. Same for Delka and Treska, who mostly observed the fighters.
It was good that Delka was learning to battle, but I would still sit him down and make him study down the line.
I, too, spent my time studying. Arlene would hang out with me in the library. The wealth of knowledge in the Grim Palace was unlike anywhere else.
We would frequently mess around with each other here and there, and the rest of the time read. If we wanted to take a break from that, it would begin again.
There was no expectation from her. This was just two adults having fun. Was what I thought until she told me...
"It was my first time doing all of this."
"Oh... makes sense..."
It didn’t. I talked with her a little bit, and she didn’t say she expected me to do anything, but she also said that she quite liked me and gave me a smile. I couldn’t do anything about that smile.
In this period, I was also constantly upping my magic manipulation skills, what with getting a constant source of mana. My butterflies were much bigger and stronger now.
With all of that done, it was time to go back.
The forest opened up once more. Adam looked around like a lost child as we crossed the purple mists and the giggles of the fairies.
We reached the city of Serenia.
Only to see it flipped on its feet.
***
The guards allowed us inside once they saw it was I and Weiss. They didn’t recognize the hooded Adam and Arlene, and weren’t suspicious either.
Doors were closed. No merchant or trader or adventurers were going in and out like they always did. It was the most silent I had ever seen Serenia in these last two years.
People were whispering on the streets. Crowds were dim.
"What happened in here?" Adam muttered. If a dark cloud fell on the city, the mood would be exactly as it was right now.
"Oh! Hey, it’s Miss Weiss and Axel!"
"Hillary?" I waved at her. She rushed over, glanced at the two hooded ones, and looked at us again.
"It’s really bad. Let’s go to the City Square. The lord is making an announcement today."
"Lord?" Adam spoke up.
"Yeah, let’s just head there quickly."
"Hillary, we were out of the city for a few days. Can you just give me a rundown?"
Hillary sighed and held her forehead.
"I can’t believe you’re asking that." She grabbed a newspaper, just a single page, actually, from her pocket and handed it to me.
[Arlene il Desmond Reinvelt is Corrupted]
"It started with this."
I froze.
Without saying another word, I passed the paper behind. The two kids, the siblings, and the witch all looked at the paper and held their breath, too.
"It started... with this?"
I asked.
"It went terribly. Just come."
***
We reached the city center. Things were in a large mess. Everyone around was in a panic. The Knights of Reinvelt and the guards were at the forefront, near a makeshift stage where the Lord was about to come.
It was only now, after walking with Hillary, that we all noticed. All the houses in the city had mostly been emptied. The walls were sealed, not for stopping any movement in and out, but for arrangements.
"I-is it true!?"
"Are we going to be attacked?"
"Fucking hell! I heard the entire Sharley family is sick. Could it be that?"
"Don’t say random bullshit, bastard!"
Some people recognized us and talked to us as well. It would have made sense for Arlene and Adam to run to the Lord’s Castle, but if he was already here, there was little point in doing that.
When we reached the venue, Adam leaned in.
"I’ll go ahead and talk to Soren," he said to me. But it was late. The Lord of the city had already climbed up on the stage.
Along with him...
was a small gnome-like creature.
"Hah!" I gasped. "Gardener Golem!?"
Hillary turned to me. "Gardener Golem? Who are you calling that?"
"That little gnome right there."
"Mr. Gnome *was* with you guys! At this point, he’s as good as the mayor of this city."
Huh!?
The gnome raised his hand, and everyone quietened down.
"...."
"Oh... Lord Soren is going to speak."
"What a wise old man, our mayor-to-be."
What was going on, seriously? They all shut up just because the golem asked them to?! It couldn’t even speak!
Lord Soren of Serenia cleared his throat and looked around.
"Today, we have received word from the CEF and the capital." He started with those words. "Serenia will have to go to war."
Seriously.
What the fuck happened?
