Chapter 86: Beware of pretty ladies, please! part
Left with no choice but to fight, I pulled my sword to defend myself. Since I coated the blade with the holy water Luke brought me, it’s as if the curse was completely lifted and I could finally use it properly.
“You! I knew there was something odd! You knew I was a succubus!”
“uh? me?”
I turned around to see if she was actually talking with someone else.
“Yes! you came to hunt me! how else can you explain that your sword is dripping holy water!”
Her face went pale and her legs started shaking in fear.
“Uh! that’s right! I knew it from before, so release my companions now or die!”
.....
I lied through my teeth trying to scare her even more than she already was, but it turned out to be even more effective than I thought and she fell on her knees and started crying and begging.
“Please spare my life, I’ll do anything, don’t kill me please”
Her attitude had changed so many times in just a few minutes that I didn’t know which one was her true self.
“And why would I do that? what do I have to gain? even more, why should I trust you?”
“Bwahh, please I swear”
“Yeah, that’s not enough for me. Don’t you have any money at least?”
“How can you be so cruel? Since I don’t feed on humans I’m forced to spend all my earnings in healing potions, and that’s merely enough to survive. I gave your companions all the money I had and I swear I would have paid the full price if I had it. I’d really do anything, I’ll be your slave, so please spare my life and you won’t regret it”
Her desperate cries softened my heart, but she hasn’t released the guys so I’m not yet safe.
“I don’t trust you or even like you, besides you’re not even a human so technically you can’t be a slave. If people found out you’re a succubus they’d simply kill you in the act. Why should I do something different when you offer me no compensation for stealing from us and trying to kill me? you’re even controlling my friends right now”
“Then I’ll be your pet!”
She got on all fours and looked at me in what intended to be a cute pose, but instead looked like something out of a pervert’s dream. If I had trouble having Rina to allow me to keep the dog, I can’t see a way of her accepting this one. But at least it’ll take me out of this situation.
“Fine, then be a good girl and release them”
She immediately clapped her hands making them go back to normal. I expected them to be, at least confused, but they looked completely normal.
“Are you alright guys?”
“Yeah, why do you ask?”
“You were just under the control of this succubus”
I lean closer to Luke and squint my eyes trying to notice any hint of the charm still active.
“Dude, why are you looking at me like that? you’re creeping me out”
Luke snarled.
“You really don’t feel anything different?”
“No, I mean, I know what happened... but it’s weird. It felt like being drunk and all the choices I made seemed completely natural, and the next second I’m sober again and a weird guy is right in front of my face”
“Yes, young Ryu. It’s strange but I can’t say anything we did was against our will really”
“So you’re telling me you intended to ambush me in the first place?”
“I’ll explain master. My charm works exactly like booze, once it’s over people may regret the consequences of their actions but not the action itself, since it makes them think it was all on them”
“That’s dangerous. How can I be sure you won’t try to pull another trick on us?”
“I wouldn’t dare do that master”
She was still kneeling and acted quite submissive, but I can’t let my guard down.
“Fine, I’ll believe you for now. So tell me, is this really your shop or did you steal it too?”
“I’m not a thief! I don’t steal... when I can avoid it. This is my shop, I bought it with my own money”
“Ok guys, seems like we won’t be staying at the inn anymore. This is going to be our new home by the time being”
“Are you sure young Ryu? I don’t think it’s a good idea to trust her. She tried to make us kill you”
“What should we do then? turn her in to the authorities? what then? I agree we can’t trust her, but we can’t kick her out either or neighbors will start asking questions”
“I didn’t try to kill you, If I did you would be dead already”
Mia scoffed.
“You better stay quiet or I’ll kick you out. Don’t think for a second I’m forgiving you. It’s just we don’t have a better alternative”
“Y-yes master”
“So, Hiraku, what do you think about this place?”
“I’d need to take a look first, but so far I can tell it needs a lot of work and it’s not going to be cheap. On the other hand, the location is good and it’s huge, I’d say its even bigger than our trading outpost back at Ironwoods”
“EHH!? You guys are southerners!? how can you have a class?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Southerners are well known around here, most of them are slaves because of their high strength status and low intelligence. The kingdom has been taking advantage of them because of that by leaving it in charge of a local baron”
“No, you must be mistaken. Mister Rudd told us that many barons had come before to Ironwoods claiming they own the land, but they don’t last much time over there because of its unforgiving weather”
Hiraku rebutted.
“No way, I’m not mistaken. I even considered escaping to Ironwoods in case I blew up my cover in here, so I investigated the town thoroughly. They have kept the people from acquiring a class by forbidding the church from entering”
I take a few seconds to ponder her words, but the more I think about it the more sense it makes. Dylan said getting a class is easy, all you have to do is meet the requirements and go to the oracle, but for some reason there wasn’t an oracle at Ironwoods. People in town didn’t even know about the existence of classes and it was considered a secret.
“Young Ryu, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Hiraku had a grim face.
“So... Ironwoods was a slave farm after all”
Luke sighed.
“Not just that Luke. Do you remember Dylan said his parents had classes?”
“Of course I remember, I’m not an idiot. Who is Dylan anyway? is it the guy who always follows Anne like a puppy?”
“I’d like to say he doesn’t but that’s pretty accurate. Anyway, if what Mia says is true and Ironwoods is indeed a slave farm, it would make sense why no one knows about the class system. How else can you explain that Dylan’s parents died if they were supposedly strong? they were murdered for knowing too much”
“So, this means, there’s a traitor back in Ironwoods”
“Hey Mia, can you tell us the name of the baron?”
“I’m sorry master, I don’t know the name. Nobody knows actually, they just say it must be a baron because there are many barons without a known fief. What I told you is considered a secret, I acquired the information via special means. If the royals knew about what’s going on over there they would punish anyone involved”
“Young Ryu! This means that my wife is in trouble! I need to go back now!”
“Hang on Hiraku, you can’t just leave yet. There’s something else bothering me. Back at mountainside we were attacked by dogs ‘by mistake’. Do you think that they would risk leaving people that may unwittingly reveal the secret without supervision? Mountainside is the only safe route to get here, so people over there must be acting as wardens. Maybe Bianca really wanted to destroy the town, erasing all the evidence in the process”
“But this would mean that all the trouble we went through to save Ironwoods was for nothing, and my wife is still in danger, I need to go back, we need to go back!”
“I’m worried about Rina and the others too, but we can’t rush into action without a plan. What they did to Ironwoods is evil, but well planned. They make people work willingly on the mines, raising their strength but keeping them from becoming warriors so they cant defend themselves, and they can create famine whenever they want forcing people into legal slavery just to survive. Now we broke the chains, but people are still weak and without the means to grow their own food, all it would take to destroy the town is to block the trade routes.”
“Young Ryu, you know I usually trust your decisions, but this time I... I can’t, It’s Ayumi! I can’t just leave her behind”
“I know how you feel but calm down. For all we know this people need to make everything look as clean as possible so they can’t attack the town openly. What we need to do is make a thriving business in Celarent and strengthen Ironwoods from here”
“Uh, maybe I’m stating the obvious but why don’t we just take our loved ones and move to another town?”
“Would you really forsake everyone at Ironwoods?”
Luke nods without even thinking.
“That would be a poor idea. If we move out, we would be easy targets for bandits, beasts and any sort of man made accident. Making a few people disappear is a lot easier than destroying a whole town”
“Then, lets build a thriving business!”
Mia stood up in a cheerful manner.
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