612 Preparations
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As we enjoyed the meal and relaxed, everyone seemed to be praising each other for their efforts, but I had to sadly bring rather bad news. Well, bad for these lazy nobles, although they’re quite convenient for my party.
“Anyways, going back to the main topic. Although I am happy we’ve managed to clean this area of monsters and congratulate you as your performance has improved greatly, there are news I should tell you right away.” I said with a serious tone of voice.
Everyone’s cheerful chatting immediately went silent.
“W-What is it now?” Clarice sighed, looking at me as if knowing I’ll say something bad.
“My familiars recently scouted the Demon Tribes and found one of the farther Tribes completely empty. The reason? The demons of that tribe moved to the tribe closer to us, they’re being led by a group of mysterious black coated people. They’re probably demon cultists.” I said.
“E H?!”
Everyone quickly was so shocked they all screamed at the same time.
“D-Demon Cultists?! Shouldn’t we call the teachers then?! It’s not something we should deal with!” Said Clarice.
“Y-Yeah…” Alianna sighed. “Blake, do you think we should…?”
“Do you two truly believe the academy didn’t knew this would happen? This is a test, much like monsters, demon cultists are also an enemy, an enemy we’ll fight constantly through our lives if you truly want to protect your world from the dangers of the Demon Towers.” I said. “Of course, they may feign ignorance, but they might also lower our score if we don’t defeat them ourselves. Between teachers, there’s a lot of secrets, most of their scores are decided in privacy, and considering traits from students you guys would never guess.”
“T-This is…” Mimy felt afraid. “W-We’ve never fought demon cultists before…”
“Y-Yeah.” Aquarius sighed.
“Are they hard to… kill?” Aquaria wondered.
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“G-GAH! How can you say something like that so nonchalantly?!” Asked Clarice, hitting the table angrily. “I didn’t entered this academy to kill people, it was to kill demons and monsters so I can grow strong enough to protect my Kingdom and… my family.”
“Certainly, but the Demon Cultists are the primary reason why are there so many demons and monsters everywhere.” Erdrich said. “Also, if you plan to continue down this path, you’ve gotta learn how to kill people as well, there’s tons of bastards out there. As long as they’re not innocent people, you shouldn’t feel remorse.”
“E-Eric, have you also…?” Wondered Alberta.
“Yeah…” Eric sighed. “We’ve… killed demon cultists before, and bandits too. It was… rough at first, even knowing they weren’t good people that just wanted to hurt others, sometimes I couldn’t sleep at night. But over time you slowly grow and adapt to the situations. You have to prioritize your safety and that of those you love.”
Eric held Alberta’s hand gently, smiling back at her.
“E-Eric…” Alberta sighed, feeling slightly touched.
“So?” I asked everyone else. “Are you willing to come with me and kill cultists? We’ll probably also learn why they’re here, and what they’re planning. If any of you don’t know, some time ago cultists were found inside of Stronghold and also demon gates have appeared inside a dungeon in stronghold too.”
“W-What?!” Asked Clarice. “Stronghold is the safest place in the continent according to my father! How come there are cultists inside?!”
“Who knows, but it surely smells fishy, isn’t it?” I smiled faintly. “It makes you think that… The only way there could be Cultists and Demons appearing inside the safest city in the entire continent is…”
“If there are traitors amongst the higher ups?” Wondered Alianna.
“Hell, even amongst he students too.” I shrugged.
B A A M!
“What are you trying to say?!” Arthuria angrily hit the table, the blonde girl seemed furious at me. “Are you saying there might be a traitor amongst us?!”
“No, I am not saying anything of that. In fact, I trust all of you here. But what about the other team? Or perhaps the students in the other classes? Or maybe our teachers? Some of them, or maybe many of them could all be Demon Cultists.” I sighed. “One of the Secret Missions you guys have not figured out this test has, which will influence greatly in our score and the chance of staying at the academy is… finding clues about the Demon Cultist’s true whereabouts, and about the possible traitors.”
Everyone once more fell silent before my words. I wanted to say this as soon as possible so everyone can get a clue of what’s truly happening. Now that there’s no teachers to monitor our conversations and we are slowly bonding with one another, it was the perfect opportunity.
“I understand.” Alianna was the first to talk after what I said. “I’ll help you, let’s try to capture them first, if we could capture them, maybe we can interrogate them.”
“Yeah… I agree, as long as we can capture and interrogate them. We don’t necessarily have to kill them.” Arthuria crossed her arms, angrily glaring at me.
“You two are such softies.” Patricia sighed. “I guess those that grew up as nobles were taught a bunch of useless gibberish through their childhood. However, I was raised in poverty, since I was a kid that I learned how to take the life of bastards that tried to take advantage of me, even more of those that tried to kill us. You think those cultists are good people? If they’re praising the demons they’re fucking mad. Imagine how many innocents they have killed, do you believe those bastards deserve to be spared?”
“I simply believe that they should stay in jails! That’s why they were made.” Sighed Arthuria.
“Hmph, well… this is complicated.” Clarice sighed. “Its not like I have not taken the life of bandits before. Let’s do something then, let’s try to capture them, if everything fails…”
“We’ll kill them.” I said.
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