Chapter 46
Zeth awoke around noon—not that he had any proof of that, considering the fact that he was sleeping underground, but he could still tell. He’d found during recent nights that he had a sort of subconscious understanding of time as it passed; he couldn’t tell exactly what time it was, but he normally had a general idea. Whether it was from the few points of Awareness he’d gotten from Leveling up, or from his practice working with exact times from all the ritual circles he’d drawn, there was no denying he had a slowly strengthening sixth sense for it.
And, on top of that, perhaps because of the self-control granted by Poise, he’d slowly realized that he had far more ability to determine when he fell asleep than he used to. Even if he was tired, he could keep himself up for later, and even if he was coursing with energy, he could still force himself into unconsciousness. And similarly, he could also determine when he woke up, to an extent. He supposed these small quality of life shifts were just what a person naturally received from growing stronger in their Class and pushing various Stats upward.
So, since the announcement in town was meant to be a few hours after noon, that was when he decided he should probably be up.
A part of him was tempted to skip the meeting and simply hole up down in his base, continuing to draw Empowerment Rituals until he used up the entirety of his blood supply, but there was a high probability that at least a portion of the announcement would be dedicated to his own actions, so he figured he’d better not miss it. So, after spending some time doing daily maintenance for his base—primarily redrawing the lost upkeep times on his circles—he headed into town, carrying a couple Hellfire Rituals in his pockets for safety.
After using one of his typical routes to slip into town unseen from the outskirts of the forest, he walked through the streets over to the town hall, which was housed on the other side from the attacked area. The announcement hadn’t begun yet, but already a sizable crowd had formed—larger than Zeth had ever seen from any other announcement that’d been held. Even the times that a new mayor had been chosen by the leadership council hadn’t drawn as many people. But mayors swapped out at a fixed interval, so they wouldn’t be seeing a new one for a while. He supposed everyone just wanted to know what was next, after the several disasters that had occurred in so little time.
As he joined up with the crowd, he spotted the familiar sheen of silver armor. It was Rosalie, and next to her was Erza. She glanced over and spotted him, lifting up a hand to wave him over.
“Zeth,” she said, nodding as he walked up to them, “it’s good to see you here. Protecting the people while they’re grouped up here, vulnerable to attack, is an important duty.”
“Hey,” he said. “Where’s Alfon?”
“He’s checking the perimeter. There’s a Skill he has which makes detecting nearby people easy, even through stealth.”