9 Chapter 9: Otherworldly

The Republic of New Venetia was a prosperous country. It never had the strongest military nor the fanciest history but the amount of merchants and goods dwarfs that of any nation in Eddan.

And lately it has been declining in a considerable rate. Merchants have been refusing to trade their goods and even travel because of 'dangerous beasts' roaming around. Personally, Roy didn't believe such stories at the beginning, but with merchants complaining of vivid descriptions of 'dark armored men with blue skin', sufficed to say that got his curious mind itching.

Roy von Othello loved many things. A good feast, beautiful women and mysteries waiting to be solved. So investigating the trade routes were an obvious decision for him.

"Argh! Roy! Remind me again why I'm her with you?" The beautiful heir to house Macbeth complained to the young lord.

"Because my gramps asked you to?" Roy remarked. "Look, don't you find this scenario romantic? Underneath a moonlit night with a gorgeous man—"

"In the middle of a creepy forest that smells like your feet. No, I don't find our situation romantic at all." Bianca said dryly. She rubbed her arms together despite wearing an expensive thick cloak and armour.

"Yeah you're probably right, the cold probably killed the atmosphere." Roy jested. "And my feet doesn't smell like rotten soil."

"Could've fooled me..."

Roy ignored his companion and continued to follow the trail of grotesque footprints. It was shaped like a human but it only had two fingers at the front and one on the back.

"Have you found anything on the trail?" Bianca asked. "Because I wanna go home, I'm supposed to have dinner with Emilia tonight."

Roy was silent, his mind deep in thought. Bianca noticed his silence and went near him.

"Hello? Am I talking to myself now?"

"Where do you think this will lead to?" Roy asked.

"How the hell should I know, do I look like the Goddess?"

"Your face is close enough," Roy rolled his eyes. "Just take a look at the prints."

Bianca sighed, despite the looming darkness that surrounded them, she could tell what the footprints looked like.

"So it looked creepy, so what? It's not like this is related to the problem."

"I'd agree with you if it weren't for the merchants' description. 'Dark armored men with blue skin', don't you think we should check this out?"

Bianca stiffened at his words, "No. No. Just no. Please don't drag me into one of your adventures. You said to your grandfather that this was a simple investigation, I don't want a repeat performance of the time you made us do an imitation of Malcom and Cynthia."

Roy laughed at her, "Cynthia's outfit got torn to shreds because of your huge rack and Malcolm wouldn't stop yapping about how 'we desecrated his noble status' but it's all water under the bridge, right now we just have to focus on helping the poor saps." Roy ran deeper into the dark forest with a sword on his hip and a bow and arrow on his back.

"Argh! Roy! Wait up!" Bianca ran after him only to find him standing in front of a huge wall of weird text similar to a tombstone.

"What is this?" Roy reached out and traced the text with his fingers. His mind was racing through different answers, non of them concrete.

"Okay now this looks even creepier than the forest." Bianca went to the other side only to find the exact same thing.

"Whatever this is, it's definitely something interesting." Roy let out a huge smirk.

Bianca began looking around to find something that could help them in this mystery. The forest was dark with only the moon and her torch lighting the cold air, she heard a ringing sound from behind them.

"Uhh, Roy?" Bianca asked. "Was that you by any chance?"

She saw Roy standing still but she could make out under his cloak that he was already nocking an arrow. The ringing sound kept getting louder and louder.

They slowly turned around with their weapons in hand only to find a dark dead tree. The ringing didn't stop and was now right behind them once again.

Roy swiftly buckled his hips towards the sound and he managed to caught a glimpse of a figure standing beside the tree, black like the sky. They could hear its breathing and felt the air becoming colder than before. Bianca raised her torch to check its face and briefly saw a pale skin that would be mistaken for snow underneath a dark helmet before the cold air blew the light away.

With the torch out of her hand, Bianca prepared her sword and a magic scroll.

The ringing became louder but instead of a continuous one, it instead paused every now and again.

"How long until that scroll charges?" Roy asked quietly, his eyes never leaving the dark figure.

"A couple more minutes."

As soon as Bianca said that Roy dashed forward the figure, he ignored the loud ringing that was distracting him every time it got parried by the figure's sword. The more he continued, the more in pain he was due to the sound.

Bianca tried to cover her ears but was caught off guard when she felt her cloak became colder from behind. She saw another figure identical to the other one before she swung her sword, hitting nothing.

Roy's sword was beginning to break due to the cold that the figure's sword eminated. It wasn't like normal ice that froze his sword, it was colder, if that was even possible. The unknown frost not only rang loudly every contact but it made him freeze up.

"Bianca!" Roy called out "We could really use that scroll now!"

"Just a bit more!" Bianca blocked a swing from the other figure before she was pressed onto the stone carvings.

She felt a heat eminating from the scroll and quickly unfurled it. "Roy! It's ready!"

Roy quickly kicked the figure away and ran towards her and block the other figure's sword.

Giving a swift kick, Roy grabbed her hand tightly, "Let's go, now!"

"Activate! Teleportation Seal!"

They began glowing with blue light before morphing into a tiny ball and went inside the magical circle of the scroll, as they disappeared the scroll was left behind to burn into ashes.

A ball of light appeared at the castle entrance of House Cassio. The ball morphed into the shapes of humans as the light disappeared showing Roy von Othello and Bianca Freud Macbeth in frozen cloaks.

"How did it go?" They heard the voice of the short brunette. "What happened to you two?"

"Something interesting, my dear Cynthia Ridell Cassio. And it's something that requires that genius brain of yours."

Cynthia's neutral gaze turned into a scowl, "Shut you mouth, mister von Othello."

Roy raised his hands and backed off, "Alright alright, sorry about that."

"Come you two," Cynthia's glare soften. "let's discuss this inside."

Bianca nudged Roy on the side and whispered, "Why do keep doing that to her?"

The young lord whistled, "It's more interesting that way." As they made their way to the castle.

_________________________________________

"No."

"Oh please Cynthia? Pretty please? I'll give you chocolate if you comply..."

Cynthia put down her glasses and turned to him.

"Roy, I've complied with every single one of your requests, respect my decision when I say no. I've got some research to attend do."

"And that's exactly why I need you to look into it, it's related to some kind of magic and since you're a geniu—" Cynthia glared at him making Roy backpedal. "An expert. Since you're an expert with magic I'd figured that you'd be the best one to look into it."

Cynthia pinched the bridge of her nose, "And why do you even think that this is related to my research for Akasha?"

"Isn't that the magic used in the Age of Gods?" He goaded. "If so then this magic isn't ordinary, it's a mystery."

"I'm surprised you even remembered that." Cynthia grabbed a book from one of the shelves that surrounded her study room. "And magic itself is a mystery, stupid."

"Give me some credit here, I don't do pranks all the time. I'm trying."

"Could've fooled me..."

"So will you help me? I don't remember much of the writings aside from being ancient but if it is, then it might benefit your research." Roy grinned at her and put out his hand for a handshake. "So? What do you say?"

Cynthia gave him a blank look, "Fine, but if this thing is a waste of my time I will be telling your grandfather about how you used the republic's funds to throw a party."

"It wasn't that expensive," Roy pouted. "Besides, I didn't hear you complaining when the cake arrived."

Cynthia lit up a small ball of flame in her hand, "Do you wanna say that to my face again?"

"Whoa there prissy pants, it was just a joke!"

The young mage diffused her spell and sat at her desk. "So what did you do about the information I gave you at Lombard?"

Roy leaned back on his chair, his long brown locks were flowing behind his back as eyes turned dead serious. "What Charlemagne did definitely left a bad taste to the mouths of Valencian nobles but more so on the people. Think about it, the royal family died the moment Lombard invaded Valencia. And now, a young and inexperienced king is now taking charge of the kingdom. No matter how well-loved Cidel is, he wouldn't be able to convince his nobles the truth. To them, it was a sting to their pride. He would be busy calming down the nobles than address it's current affairs."

"Right politics, but that's not what I'm asking you."

"I know, giving context into this, I'm gonna use this opportunity to negotiate with both of their kingdom's noble of our wares, I'm sure they're gonna need it." Roy smiled at the young mage. A smile that didn't reached to his eyes.

"So you're just gonna make more money in their conflict?" Cynthia crossed her arms together. "That seems to be a bit callous even for you."

Roy gave her a dangerous glint, "There won't be any war. You do know I hate that, but with both countries dealing with their own civil problems, I'd suspect they would require our help for supplies like smithing material or even weapons."

"I see, since the new king of Valencia will be busy dealing with the nobility, the common folk would be left unchecked, forcing their military to deal with them. Just like the land of knights." Cynthia gave him an unimpressed look, "As long as their problem doesn't involve me, then let them do what they want."

"And you call me callous..." His words earned a glare from the young mage.

"On an even darker note, half of Valhalla is now under control of Bolsung and the entire empire doesn't even know it. If only Adelaide got there sooner, their whole mess migh've been prevented." Roy's eyes became serious at the info he just got. To think that the mighty empire would be on the receiving end of an invasion.

Cynthia was now busy writing something on her desk but she still gave half of her attention to Roy. "I heard she was killed."

Roy laughed wholeheartedly, "Adelaide? Killed? You couldn't break that girl even if she was split in half or flatten to a paste. She'll be fine, I just know it."

"If you say so. Now if I'm about to do this favor of yours, can you give me more information about those 'men in black'? I hate doing things blindly, especially with you involved." She glared at the heir.

Roy sighed and shook his head, it wouldn't kill someone if they gave him more respect. Kids these days, he thought.

"All I can say is that their frost is something else," He gestured at his boot that was instantly frozen when he kick the strange man.

Cynthia raised her eyebrow, "That's it?"

Roy had a mischievous smile on his face, "I'm no expert so the best way for you to know more is to go to that altar."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Nope!" He grinned at her angry look. "But, I'll come with you, that's the least I could do for a friend."

"Sometimes I wonder whether you truly care about your friends or just using them." Cynthia was now completely engrossed on her work.

Roy noticed her attention slipped from him, "That in itself is a mystery..."