Chapter 212: Moving Dynamics
———Wiina———
<3: 12 pm>
“...Phew.” She let out a sigh of relief after making it clear that she finished him off.
“Good to know that I don’t need to personally step in.” I remarked as I walked towards her, only to be greeted with two katanas closing in on my neck. “Well sorry for being supportive.”
“...Apologies.” She said before lowering her two katanas and looking at the corpse to the side. “This guy was such a pain in the ass. What is his obsession with me anyway?”
“Can’t say I know for certain, but considering his affiliation, it seems like they want to recruit or kidnap anyone who could be going rogue, so to say.” I said before crouching down and grabbing the item associated with Mage Remnants. “A loosely connected organization of mages from around the world before the Eclipse. It seems like they are getting tired of being in the shadows and waiting for things to play out.”
“A secret organization. Just lovely.” She said with no pretense of hiding her frustration towards that important info. “Are there that many powerhouses in that society or whatever?”
“There shouldn’t be that many, if you’re just talking about people around your power level or higher.” I said while inspecting the emblem in my hand. Just right in the middle, it seems.
“Just my luck to get targeted by one of the big dogs then.” She said while unsheathing her two katanas.
“No. According to this, he was a middle-class member. And even if we ignore that, his power in total was only about two-third of yours.” I clarified the situation, and her expression shifted in shock at the information being given, and her tail stood up for a moment before resuming its normal movement.
“Hey. Don’t screw with me. I know what I just went through.” She said, trying to keep her composure. It would be quite humiliating to admit that someone weaker than you caused you such trouble even if you did win in the end.
“I’m only speaking facts here. This man probably has been practicing magic for most of his life. You have only seven months in comparison.” I explained in further detail. “He is probably very experienced in fighting and has a vast pool of spells and other knowledge to draw from in comparison. Of course, you still won out in the end, so I wouldn’t be too worried. Just keep improving.”
“...What are you even doing here, by the way?” She said with quite a worried look, as if just now realizing who I am.
“I’m patrolling and observing. I got intel that these folks are starting to show themselves after Sunday’s incident. More specifically, a faction within the secretive society. It’s something that’s spread around the world, and some are more proactive and malicious than others.” The emblem does match the group everyone was talking about. “They’re not that important in the grand scheme of things outside of a few top members, and those people probably aren’t too pressed by the current advancement.”
“Hmm… So do I need to be on a lookout?” She asked while putting her hand on her chin.
“Perhaps. I’d imagine they’d at least try to take you in one more time before calling it quit. Each faction of the Mage Remnants don’t have a lot of members in total, so they’re quick to cut their losses if the casualty count keeps rising.” While this statement might give her some stress, I would rather her be careful than not when dealing with these people. “Obviously if they are causing a lot of trouble to the whole country or more, then someone would step in and stop the operation from the top, but right now we’re letting off easy. No need for conflict right now where things barely escalate.”
“This always feels like too much.” She said while scratching her head and ears. “Whatever. I should go home. Why are you even here to see me?”
“It’d be a shame if our previous guest were to be in trouble, so I made sure to check up on you and the others. They are all fine as of this point, in case you are wondering.” Lerim got hit pretty hard with three assailants, not that she struggled too much despite that and having a deadweight. “I should get going as well. I don't have any other business here besides checking up on you. I shall take my leave.”
———Karra———
<3: 37 pm>
“Mage Remnants… You believe those people will get involved soon?” Orrel asked.
“Seems likely. If the existence of magic and demi-humans hadn’t done it, then this is when the reality of the situation really sets in for everyone.” I explained, trying to not think about what Wiina said to me prior. “I mean. You would think they’d come crawling out of the woodworks by now. I thought someone like you would’ve been following it more closely.”
“I can’t say I did, unfortunately.” He replied. Not really a problem, all I really wanted to do was imply that they are around. If they are planning on roaming around in other states again then they should be on the lookout for those suspicious guys at least.
“She is right that those kinds of people should be moving around a lot more, just like the governments of different nations and other big players. No way they aren’t worried about people being able to just wreck stuff up on that scale.” Gregori chimed in. “...Really wish Kenni didn’t go there. Can’t believe things have gone to shit just because of one person.”
“That’s just the state the world is in, unfortunately. It could’ve been worse, as far as I know a few people on the planet could glass the entire surface of Earth in a flash.” I said semi-jokingly. No one is gonna do that even if they can do it.
“Please don’t say anything like that.” Orrel said with a tired voice. I mean at that point you can’t even really do anything about it, so there’s no reason to care.
I mean, Wiina most likely could, but that’s besides the point.
“Anyway, just be on the lookout for those. Feels like things are gonna go crazy in the upcoming weeks.” I’m pretty sure we all already thought that, but I wanna make sure they know what they could end up facing, though from what Wiina said they shouldn’t really touch this area, they already don’t even before the Eclipse. “...If you go out of the town there is a chance you’ll find one of them. This place is very secure when it comes to making sure no troublemakers are around.”
“Yeah. It’s a bit boring, but it’s better than having people die.” Kenni said after appearing out of nowhere. “What? Why are you all looking at me like that?”
“You know why.” Gregori said with a scorn. “Shouldn’t you be hiding somewhere to avoid the flames coming your way?”
“Why would I do that? That’s not very fun.” She said with a straight face. “Besides, how can anyone seriously say that I was the one doing it? I’m just here chilling as a student. When will I have time to do all that?”
With how callous she already is, maybe it’s not that jarring that she’ll end up like that.
“Whatever. Just what are you even doing here? I thought you were gonna go do some crazy shit on your own.” Gregori asked, clearly already tired of her antics.
“Oh. Just wanna know what got you guys talking and looking all stressed. Something about nothing fun happening around here.” She said with a smirk. If we actually told her about the Mage Remnants she’s definitely gonna try baiting them out. I’m not even sure if… Uhh… Then again, she’ll make it out alive no matter what.
“That’s true ain’t it? Of course it’d be crazy to invite trouble. Why do you think we all go out to other cities nowadays?” Jeyst said, clearly trying to steer the conversation in that direction instead of talking about those mysterious people. “...There are a few people around. Are you sure about staying in public?”
“You guys are no fun.” She said while crossing her arms. “Whatever. Looks like you guys are talking about boring stuff anyway. Fine, I’ll leave.” She said before walking away, sulking like a child. Well at least we dodge around that problem.
“...Crisis averted!” Jeyst celebrated after we watched her walk out of the dining area. That was definitely more tense than it needed to be, I feel like. “...Remember when she was the comic relief? The class clown and all that.”
“Hard to remember when she’s acting like a crazy bitch all the time now.” Gregori said, clearly less than pleased at the current dynamic. “She was always a bit unhinged, but now it’s hard to play it off as her being quirky.”
“At least she hasn’t done anything… Well, not terrible, but something that’s completely inexcusable. You can least say that city-bombing was just her going overboard during a fight, taken in by the moment.” I said just to play a bit of devil’s advocate. I don’t think it’s wrong to say that things can get a lot worse. “We’re kinda spoiled rotten compared to the rest of the world, having a slightly murderous friend isn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.”
“Easy for you to say. If Mom thinks I encouraged her in any way to cause that scene she’s gonna kill me.” Useph said while holding his head. Considering what she did during that incident, yeah, I can see that. Obviously I wasn’t there for it, but it sounds intense with how everyone was recounting it.
“Tough luck on your end, nepo baby boy.” Qyunda said, not giving him any sympathy.
“Come on now, cut him some slack.” Orrel quickly comes to his defense.
Well now at least it looks like the tone of the chat has returned to something less stressful.
“...Hey, Gregori. Whatever happened to that weapons project?” Jeyst asked out of nowhere.
“Huh? What are you talking about?” He asked, as if having no idea what they could mean. “...You mean crafting weapons out of junks and stuff? I kinda stopped caring about it after a while. Those weapons just kinda broke down after a while, not really worth the energy put into doing it.”
…Yeah. He has talked about doing that. I find that kinda silly since surely everyone got weapons from the dungeon already, and those are serviceable enough at the moment. There was never a need for anyone, especially me, to start researching weapon crafting using magic, there seems to be quite the restrictions there.
———Lynda———
<3: 50 pm>
“I guess I could go for a quick dungeon run with you lot. It’s been a while since I did it in a group larger than two.” I answered.
“Nice. I’ve been raring to go deep into the dungeon. I only went to like… not even twenty floors in.” Trener said. I have gone past that point, but it’s quite exhausting, and that was with Glery helping out. She’s not here right now but at least I have one extra party member.
“You gotta be crazy to do that solo. Or a Perfect Class member, but that’s not mutually exclusive.” Histon remarked. “Anyway, you need to go home to get that fancy axe of yours?”
“...No. I don’t even have it anymore.” I said that and he looked quite confused.
“What? How?” He said, probably thinking I lost it or something.
“It’s an experimental weapon someone gave me. I thought I said that already. It’s always gonna break down at some point.” It was made from nothing but snow and a dream. It's a miracle it lasted even more than a week. “It has already melted into a puddle. There’s no fixing it.”
“...Okay then?” He replied. He probably doesn’t expect such a frank and absurd retelling. It’s not everyday that someone told you that a tool they had just melted away. “Whatever. You still have other axes, right?”
“Yeah, though I don’t really feel like going back to my house and to the dungeon just for that. We can go in right now if you want.” Let’s just quickly get in and out.
“Being a bit daring today I see. Fine with me, it’s more exciting that way.” Histon said, clearly a bit fired up. “Trener, what about you?”
“I always just use my fist, so no prep from me.” He said while pointing at himself confidently. I might need to play as a backrow support, doing suppressive fire and such, now that I think about it. Usually I got Glery to do that for me.