Chapter 62: Misleading Them Directly Where I Want Them
Rufus was not known for his cunning, wit, intelligence or functioning prefrontal cortex.
He was a simple man, perhaps the epitome of the layman.
This was more than evident to anyone who spoke to him.
Considering the regal dress he was in, he could easily pass as a nobleman's son sent on minor errand, fetching a letter.
Unfortunately, Rufus also had a bumpkin accent and was carrying an extremely dangerous letter.
“Now, son, tell me again, what exactly did you think was in this letter?” The captain of the guard, an older gentleman named Joel, asked seriously from across the table of the anxious Rufus inside the guard tower near the rough border Burtcons had established.
“Uh, I didn’t think it had anything.” Rufus blinked, unsure what even he thought was in the letter.
“To the Duke of Rolfcons, we are interested in your offer to join together against the Oldsman family so long as you can guarantee me and my family's safety. I will be arriving at the lake just south of the river which makes up yours and Burtcons border the night after the new moon with my full military force, we may march the following morning.
Henrek Porak, provisional governor of Dracons.”
Joel read the letter out loud, the dozen guards staring intently at Rufus, who looked blankly at all of them.
“I never knew what it said.” Rufus shrugged, it was somewhat truthful, he’d just completely forgotten on the ride over what was in the letter, focused on remembering the plan to get captured.
Luckily despite forgetting half the plan, playing dumb came naturally to him.
Joel let out a sigh, he could tell that whatever this bumpkin was doing, he was too much of a simpleton to be in on anything.
The nature of the letter was suspect still however, it’d have to be escalated to the Duke of Burtcons, Archos Oldsman.
Ever since his kin in Rolfcons had been killed by Henrek, the provisional governor was a disreputable man from the distrusted Bolger family.
This kind of scheming was expected from them unfortunately, and if this was true they only had a few days to muster the army to launch a counter attack.
…
“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!” Penelope squealed as she saw the mountain cascade
“THAT WAS YOUR SPELL!? YOU KILLED THEM OH MY GOD!” Pinklia screamed as Emily began to point at something.
“I SWEAR IT WAS A DUD! I DIDN’T EVEN INVOKE ANY INFERNUS INCANTATIONS OR DERIVATIVES! PURE SPECTACLE I SWEAR!” Penelope shouted back defensively as Emily’s pointing arm began to slowly move in an arch above them from the mountain, to a clearing just in front of them.
“Oh my god we have to go and help them before-” Pinklia began, suddenly stopping as she felt a presence.
It was like the sound of water began to deafen her, the blur of waking up began to blind her.
Emily was pointing directly behind both Penelope and Pinklia, turning they saw nothing.
But they felt its presence.
had arrived.
“Hail, thou art highly favoured,” announced, its voice piercing past the wind and the rolling boulders collapsed from the mountain.
Penelope was terrified, entirely unable to understand what was happening, backing away from the subtle distortion the entity caused, her eyes watered just trying to look at it.
“Fear not Penelope, for thou hast found favour with me,” explained, closing the distance between it and her in a second.
“W-what?” Penelope stammered, tears welling up in her eyes as Pinklia struggled to maintain her form, desperately trying to run away and grab Penelope on the way away from this thing.
“You are a great woman Miss Penelope. You shall conceive of me in thy womb and bring forth a son that shall create a kingdom with no end.”
Emily could only watch, with her ability to hear having been removed it simply stared at the entity with her mechanical eyes.
“W-who are you?” Penelope stammered, shielding her eyes from the entity.
“Who I am matters not, merely know you stand in the presence of the Saviour's Father, with your role divinely ordained more than a millenia ago,”
“G-go away!” Pinklia screamed, finally managed to use her will to grab Penelope and drag her away from the entity and back into the forest.
But the entity was there as well.
“Julia Porak, you were not meant to live this far. I see that the pieces have been scattered much further than expected,”
“M-my name.. How?” Pinklia hissed, every part of her body felt like a migraine as she slowly dissolved into a puddle.
“Penelope, you were meant to be in Aviotica,” lamented, glancing at Emily who was still staring and pointing directly at it.
“This machine at your side is also an interesting turn, tell me Penelope, has this venture given you the knowledge you truly sought? The power you desire? The magic to do what you want?” asked sincerely.
Penelope felt a tinge in her heart.
“N-no.” Penelope admitted, unsure why she was being so honest right now.
Pinklia tried to speak but was only able to gurgle her mass.
Emily cocked her head as she saw walk towards Penelope and grabbed her hand.
“I know the time is not quite right, but would you accept my patronage?”
“W-why?” Penelope stammered, feeling the coldly hot hands clasp hers.
Suddenly, a vision from another life flashed in her mind.
One where Utarou hadn’t consolidated Dracons into one village.
One where she lived in Kolon her entire life.
One where she took the road to Aviotica herself.
One where unspeakable things were done to her on that road.
“You have been more fortunate than expected, but I fear that luck may not last,” explained sorrowfully.
Penelope didn’t remember screaming, but she felt the tightness in her throat once she realized she’d fallen to the ground.
“Now tell me, may I come upon thee, letting the power of the highest overshadow thee?”
Penelope looked up, unable to see, but felt herself about to accept.
Until Emily appeared to push the invisible entity aside, kneeling down to her master and panickedly writing a note.
“Master, is everything okay?” Emily wrote.
“N-NO! NO GO AWAY!” Penelope screamed, snapping back to her senses as she looked around, the sound returning to her ears and sight slowly being restored.
“A shame, but I shan’t despair, you shall depart from me,”
Without so much as a second being allowed to process it, Penelope, Pinklia and Emily were suddenly standing on the outer border of Oldser, near the province of Rolfcons.
Penelope collapsed as Pinklia reconstituted herself, then collapsed as well.
Emily panicked and wrote several more notes trying to confirm that her masters hadn’t been mindbroken by whatever that encounter was.
…
Hans sat awkwardly surrounded by a small force of border guards in a watch tower, trying to keep any lecherous knights from catching a glimpse of what was below the skirt.
“Heh, pretty young thing doing spy work? I’m not surprised, not a lotta work for young girls with short hair.” The Rolfcons guard schmoozed as his superior read the letter once again.
“To the Duke of Burtcons, we are interested in your offer to join together against the Bolger family so long as you can guarantee me and my family's safety. I will be arriving at the lake just south of the river which makes up yours and Rolfcons’ border the night after the new moon with my full military force, we may march the following morning.
Henrek Porak, provisional governor of Dracons.”
“So where did you get this letter then?” The captain asked seriously.
“I-I told you! I got it from Henrek and then he gave me some gold, then I got told not to ask any questions!” Hans lied, it was effortlessly simple to capture the tone of a distressed woman when dressed and looking how Hans looked.
Which was, looking and sounding a lot like a distressed woman.
The captain sighed.
“Alright, we’ll have to elevate this to the top brass, can’t trust those damn Oldsman as far as you can throw em.” The captain grumbled, being a member of the Bolger family he has quite invested in this conflict.
Ever since the provisional Bolger governor had acquired power in Rolfcons, the power hungry Oldsman family had been using every dirty trick to try and get another one of their wretched kin in charge of the province.
This kind of scheming was expected from them unfortunately, and if this was true they only had a few days to muster the army to launch a counter attack.
