Chapter 196 – What a Fun Day
Chapter 196 – What a Fun Day
[And you were saying?] (Luna)
[The day isn’t over.] (Syrus)
[Yet. But I wonder how it will be for that statement to no longer be true?] (Luna)
As these things tend to go, after Syrus’s declaration of finding an artificer in the city to make them a weapon, she proceeded to spend most of their remaining day looking and not finding a single place that met their specification. They did find artificers, but none that specialised in weapon enchantments. There were a few willing to try, if a suitable sword for engraving was provided to them, but Syrus wasn’t going to take that financial risk.
[...We really don’t have that much time…] Eva mumbled, worried, mostly just scared about the possibility of Syrus’s determination leading them into the night. They had already dealt with a few problems; she didn’t want to enhance their risk by operating at night.
[It will be finnnne. Worst case, I will return home before nightfall.] (Syrus)
[You better, otherwise I will be taking control and forcing us back anyway.] (Luna)
[Got it, boss.] (Syrus)
[Please never call me that.] (Luna)
[Understood, Boss Lady.] (Syrus)
[...] Luna knew Syrus was messing with her. Her penchant for doing so had increased since arriving in the city. Luna wondered if perhaps city life was bad for Syrus’s mental state. Maybe too wild to be in such a civilised location.
Luna’s rude comments were kept to herself as she used them as a base for some revenge pokes against Syrus later.
Syrus, on the other hand, was proud that Luna was stabbing her back. Verbal play and annoying friends worked best when it was two-way, otherwise it was just bullying. Luna had a tendency to be a little stuck up, among other things, so Syrus was trying to loosen those joints in her own way. It helped that messing with Luna was, first and foremost, really fun for her.
Though the main reason was that Syrus had felt Luna was more stuck-up than usual. Perhaps the day at the church brought back too many old memories.
Despite Syrus’s confidence in finding a place that worked. She came up very short. Eletscoep was advanced in many weapons, but weapon crafting was not one it specialised in. It had developed weapons, but most of the development was cannons and other structures for defence. Swords and other melee weapons were about the same as in every other country. They had more artificers, which meant the possibility of enchanted weapons, but that was going to require a pretty penny and had the risk of a few rounds of failure due to these people not having much experience in that area.
Syrus was thinking that perhaps convincing Eva to learn artefact crafting would be the better solution.
[Hey Eva–] (Syrus)
[Just be quiet…] Eva used every ounce of will to completely shut Syrus down. As she said before, it was not a skill she was in any state to learn now.
[I got it. I got it.] (Syrus)
Syrus was still curious about getting an enchanted weapon, but it might have to be a delayed experience. She only used them a couple of times in her past life, always as loaners, so the opportunity to explore what she could manifest with a stronger weapon was a deep desire.
After a day of failure, they decided to go home.
“Come on, girly, where do you think you are going?” Another group of thugs walked up from behind them, and another smaller group appeared on the other side of the alley they happened to be walking down. Another route they usually took on the way home.
[Seriously?] (Syrus)
[No warning this time?] (Luna)
[I honestly didn’t expect them to do this.] This was clearly a different group of thugs, but the rumour had to have spread. Don’t mess with the red bitch. That was what usually happened, and not to mention, this alley was even closer to normal than their house then last time, but very much still in the same area.
“Didn’t you get the memo?”
“Huh—Ooo!” Syrus interrupted his confusion by leaping over to them and punching him straight in the gut.
“Don’t mess with me.”
Coming in for the rescue, the rest of the group rushed in.
[Sigh…] Luna felt sorry for the poor lads.
Three, two, one, and the entire group of thugs were defeated.
“Why are you here?” Syrus asked. Her red eyes stared into the last conscious man’s soul.
“W-we are just be pratrolling for targets! We got a tip that some high rollers would be here soon!” He spilled everything he knew immediately, but it wasn’t enough.
A second attack by thugs? That was suspicious, and from their asking for Havier, gang violence, while it did happen, was incredibly infrequent and mostly happened in the early morning when fewer guards were active, not during the time when Syrus was first attacked.
Now they were attacked a second time, and while their luck was awful, Syrus would never inherently believe that to be the cause of any problem of hers. With the thug spill, they knew there was someone coming; it was clear this was a setup, but what was it exactly for? If it were by the same people who did the first one, they should know the minimum capabilities of Syrus already. It made less sense if it was from the group with the assassins, as those people were far stronger than the civilians with crap self-made weapons.
“What is going on here!?” And with perfect timing, a guard had shown up. Syrus had heard them this time and notified everyone. They chose to stick around to see what happened, but before she did, she knocked out the last thug who was answering the questions.
“A bunch of bad men wanting to hurt a little lady, and nothing else really?” Syrus shrugged, and the guard stared at her.
“If that was the case, then what happened here?” His eyes pointed to the piles of knocked-out individuals. Seemingly not completely buying Syrus’s very valid story.
“Self defense?" Syrus shrugged. “Now I've got places to be.”
[...] While Syrus was chatting, Eva looked on with an awkward feeling.
[Someone you know?] (Syrus)
[Yes, an acquaintance.] (Eva)
[Not a friend?] Syrus asked after feeling Eva’s mixed feelings; she could tell there was a part of her that wanted to say hi.
[You know, I didn’t really have those.] (Eva)
[Then what was he?] (Syrus)
[Just a classmate, Geoffrey, and, yeah… Those years were the ones I actually spoke with people outside of work.] (Eva)
[Congrats on having acquaintances during your school years?] (Syrus)
[Thanks?] (Eva)
Syrus checked, and there was no one around. She figured if this was set up, someone doing the behind-the-scenes work would be nearby to see the results, but no, nothing. She even worried if her senses were getting worse or if they had a stealth ability. However, since there was no one around, she figured she might do some other probing.
“Actually, how old are you?” Syrus asked.
[What are you–] (Eva)
“...Twenty-eight, why?”
Syrus could tell he was almost ready to scoff.
“Do you know anyone by the name of Lilly? I was letter pals for a little while. Letters got mixed up once, but we had a small exchange that stopped years back. Though that could mostly be blamed on me, I never stayed in one location for long.”
There was a hesitation in his voice. “...Would she be around my age?”
“I know she is dead,” Syrus said blankly.
“Then what do you want to know?”
“Not sure, really. I was going to visit her grave but couldn’t find it. Not really interested in that anymore, so a different question.” Syrus watched his expression. “When you knew her, was she happy?”
“I think so?” He paused, feeling this conversation was going a bit off track, and he was also suspecting she was trying to use this opportunity to manipulate him. It wouldn’t be that hard to work out that someone he went to school with died later in life, and it wasn’t even the first time someone used a dead person to try to guilt him. “If you want to know more, she has a family."
“I’m not interested in them. She never mentioned them in her letters, so I figure they aren’t worth visiting, but for a while in life, she was happy?” Syrus nodded to herself as if she had come to some sort of conclusion. “That’s good enough.”
Her purposeful words were just confusing Geoffrey more, which was also kind of the point, so his suspicions were valid.
Syrus began to walk away.
“Wait!”
“What?”
“You are under arrest.”
“No, I am not.”
“Yes, you are!”
Luna took over, and her eyes were cold. “Sorry, but I have guard duty to do, and my client is currently hiding to be safe, so I would rather move.”
“Then take me with you.”
“Why? You came within seconds after the conflict started. How do I know you aren’t working with them?” Luna pointed to the bodies on the floor.
“Of course, I will come when I hear of a conflict."
“But it was over in less than a minute, and it wasn’t that loud, so were you standing next door not doing anything as someone was attacked? I get it. I am capable, but what if it were someone who wasn’t? God, it is impressive. The number of attacks made by thugs has increased, and you want to harass the one who defended themselves. What if I were someone who couldn’t defend themselves? What then?”
Luna’s continued assault stunned Geoffrey.
[Luna…] Eva was beginning to worry about her old classmate.
“I am leaving, so if you want to leave a bunch of people on the ground while you chase me, sure. However, I will send a letter to your office from my employer later explaining the situation. I would recommend that for your safety and so the people here can get proper medical attention.”
Luna walked around the corner, which caused Geoffrey to run after her, but the moment he turned the corner, Anlesa was gone. Syrus had booked it the moment the line of sight was broken.
[That was bloody brilliant.] (Syrus)
[I was merely replicating you.] (Luna)
[Maybe in the language, but I would’ve just told him to screw off.] (Syrus)
[...ha…] Eva sure felt this had been an interesting day.