Chapter 734: Special Guests (Part Two)
"Virve," Ollie called as he opened the door of the carriage. His voice was tinged with relief and the tension between his shoulders lessened by half when he saw her waiting for them at the gate.
While it was clear from the set of her ears and her lowered brows that she wasn’t entirely happy to receive their guests, there was nothing about her bearing that suggested danger or disaster. Whatever had happened to Ashlynn that Ollie could feel it from leagues away, it wasn’t serious enough to distress Virve.
"Welcome home Ollie," Virve said, making her way to the carriage and climbing inside. For a moment, the entire carriage tipped on its springs and both Sir Rain and Sir Hugo gripped at the sides of the carriage, fighting every instinct in their bodies that screamed at them to open the opposite door and flee before it was too late.
"So these are Owain’s knights," Virve said, taking a seat next to Ollie and filling the carriage with her sizable figure. Unlike Ashlynn’s carriage which had been designed with the Eldritch in mind, Ollie was using the same carriage that Marcel had used to bring Isabell and everyone else to the meeting. Virve had to hunch her shoulders and lean forward to avoid crushing the tip of her hat against the roof of the carriage and there was barely room for Ollie to sit next to her on the same bench seat. "They aren’t very impressive, are they?"
"I wouldn’t say that," Ollie offered politely. "This is Sir Hugo Hanrahan, and next to him, Sir Rain Aleese," he said, gesturing at the knights opposite them who still clung to the sides of the carriage, looking like they would rush for the doors if they were given the slightest opportunity.
"P-pl-pleased t-to meet you, Lady Virve," Hugo said in a voice that trembled in fear. His complexion had gone ghostly pale and his heart thundered in his chest like the hooves of a racehorse but he did his best to make a polite greeting. Was it correct to address a witch as ’lady?’ Had he just insulted her? He didn’t know, but years of experience had taught him that it was better to over praise and flatter a stranger than to underestimate their status.
"It speaks," Rain said, staring wide eyed at the demon witch who had just climbed into their carriage as if it was the most normal thing in the world. And then, as if joining them in a carriage wasn’t enough of a shock, it spoke in the king’s common tongue! Like it was normal.
"Is that, is that witchcraft?" Rain asked, turning his wide eyed gaze to Ollie. "Is it reading my mind in order to speak properly with us?"
"Careful, little man," Virve said sharply, raising a clawed hand while her lips pulled back enough to bare her sharp teeth. "Even if you were wearing your armor, I could still peel you like a boiled egg."
"Virve!" Ollie said, frowning in disapproval. "They agreed to be our guests. Even if they’ve lost their manners, we shouldn’t lose ours," he said before rounding on the portly knight. "And Sir Rain, you can think of Virve as my sister. Insulting her is little different from insulting me, and Lady Ashlynn won’t look favorably on either."
"I don’t need Mother Ashlynn to help me deal with trash," Virve snapped, frowning at her coven-sibling. "She has enough to deal with right now. It may be a few days before Mother Ashlynn can spare any time for these two or the other captives. So you two," she said, making a grabbing gesture at the two knights, as though she was sinking her claws into something to tear it open. "You two better not make any trouble for Ollie, or I’ll be the one who comes to settle you."
Faced with the ferocity of the claw demon witch, Rain froze, too terrified to even breathe. He’d faced demons in the Southern Steppe at the border of Aleese barony, and he’d fought demons at Owain’s side when they burned the flat tail demon village to the ground. He thought that he was a brave man who would never back down in fear before a demon threat.