36 Chapter 7 (4): Crossing the border

Chapter 7 (4): Crossing the border

We went back to our room, packed up everything, cleaned the room, and left before sunset to find Tuare waiting for us outside the gates. We were wearing our own clothing of choice, namely, I was in a thin and loose silvery tunic and form-fitting pants, Char wearing a strapless light blue dress that came down to mid-thigh, Mae in a tight brown tunic and pants, Elise in a short and thin green robe over a shorter and thinner backless dress of the same color. Tuare was in a coppery shirt and skirt that exposed a large portion of her massive mammaries as well as all of her shoulders and back, her skirt extending to her knees. We filled Tuare in on what happened, and then we set off towards the demon lands once more. After all, I wanted to give Elise's father a beating, and to talk to Lars about my marrying Tuare. Therefore, after about a week of traveling, we made it to the border, where we talked with a fox-eared male guard.

"Mind if I ask what your reason for crossing the border is?" (Guard)

"Three of us are from the demon lands, and we decided to visit said families, since we didn't have anything else to do and were nearby. Don't worry, we'll be back" (Ryuu)

"I doubt it. You girls aren't strong enough to survive out there, there are plenty of C and B ranked magical beasts who would love to-" (Guard)

"Love to become our dinner? Like horned bears? Those are so tasty, and they are so easy to kill" (Char)

"You girls are making jokes, but this is-" (Guard)

"Perhaps I should have mentioned this first. We are all B rank adventurers, save for me. I'm an A rank. I also have a greater wyvern as a tamed beast, and Char and Tuare have wyverns of their own as their tamed beasts. I have killed greater wyverns as easily as you might kill an ant on your chair, and I have killed C ranked magical beasts in my sleep. Literally. We can handle some simple C and B ranked beasts" (Ryuu)

We handed him our cards, which confirmed much of what we'd told him, but...

"I've never heard of any of you, and I know all of the promising B ranks, as well as every A rank. I'm going to have to confiscate your cards on suspicion of them being forgeries, and request that you stay here until someone can verify your identities. It should only take a week or two, don't worry" (Guard)

"Perhaps... this might serve as proof?" (Mae)

She pulled out her sword, with the insignia of her father's household on it, as well as her own badge, given to her by the king as proof of her being the guard of a foreign dignitary. Char did the same, pulling out the badges of her house and of the king, the same as Mae's, and her signet ring. When the guard looked at those, he confiscated them as well as he threw us into a holding cell. We didn't resist, but we weren't defeated by any stretch of the word.

"Hmm... so, you are suspecting a duke's daughter and the daughter of the captain of the royal guard of forging their own identities, as well as an A ranked adventurer who has met with the king three times? You do realize what the consequences of your actions would be, should you prove to be wrong, do you not?" (Mae)

"I do, however, I'm not wrong. You made a basic mistake when you prepared. Those two badges, the ones given by the king to those guarding foreign dignitaries, are taken back once that guard duty is over. As you have them, but are not with any foreign dignitaries, you are either holding onto that illegally, or you forged them. In either case, you broke the law" (Guard)

"Hmm... One slight problem with that statement... I am Tuareninya Lars, heir to the first seat of the demon generals. In other words, a foreign dignitary. Furthermore, if you doubt that so much, you could check if that name matches with names known by your counterpart on the other side of the border, and if so, I'd be more than happy to prove myself. Should that fail..." (Tuare)

"Should that fail, we could ask a demon general to come here in person. After all, detaining a foreign dignitary for no legitimate cause could be treated as an act of aggression, and as such, the demon lands would be perfectly within their rights to send someone over peacefully to sort out the situation, and it wouldn't be unheard of for there to be a small fight over the matter. Now, the latter won't happen, but the former... I dare say that there are... at least two, probably three or more demon generals that would come if we asked, and there's a reason for that that beyond just Tuareninya's identity, a reason which hasn't been stated and that we are perfectly within our rights to not state if we so choose" (Ryuu)

"Spill it. Now!" (Guard)

He pushed his sword into the cell, aimed at Ver, or rather, pressed against her neck, a slight bit of blood surfacing at the point of contact.

"Let me ask you something... what do you think of divine beasts? Do you worship them, like most beastkin? Do you wish for their power?" (Ryuu)

"I worship them, like any sane person would. Why do you ask?" (Guard)

[Because you have made one of them very mad] (Ver)

"Who said that?!" (Guard)

"The divine beast whose blood is on your blade" (Mae)

Ver shifted into her wyvern form, barely managing to fit in the cell with us, and glared at the guard.

[You have made the mistakes of calling my master a liar, my friends forgers, and of causing harm to myself, under the name of justice and law. For those crimes, as well as gross disrespect towards nobility, both domestic and foreign, you are hereby stripped of your post. Thus has it been decreed by the eleventh divine beast, the Wyvern Lord Verene] (Ver)

"You have no authority to do so, you overgrown lizard!" (Guard)

She shifted back, and spoke normally, as the guard noticed that his sword had broken.

"As a divine beast, I actually hold as much power as a royal magistrate, under the third article of the joint-races alliance that was later turned into the base constitution for these lands. By the way... you may wish to look behind you. A certain someone has been listening since about the time you pointed out the supposed flaws in Mae and Charlotte's badges" (Ver)

"She is correct, in that she holds as much power as a royal magistrate, and also correct in that you are stripped of your post. It would even be true if she wasn't a divine beast, as I would strip you in any case. Those badges are real, as are all of the claims I heard. As for why I'm here, it's because I heard that Ryuu was trying to leave this country, so I decided to chase after her, as she never did meet my daughter, and we did have plans for that for yesterday, unless she forgot?" (Man)

"I did, actually... I - hold on, there are two problems here, first is that I'm behind bars, and second is that we have an eavesdropper" (Ryuu)

"Ah, yes, that's right... Gazef, I hate to make you do this, but... this guy seems not to deserve his uniform, could you deal with that problem somewhere out of earshot? In the meantime... Ryuu, you can stay there. I'm actually somewhat mad at you right now. We'd made plans for you to meet Haru, but then you up and disappear like this. I would like to know why" (King)

"Well, to put it simply, I forgot about those plans due to an unfortunate, unplanned event known as 'getting kidnapped in the middle of graduation so that I would attend my public coronation that I didn't know was going to happen this decade, let alone that day' so... that kinda startled me, to say the least. It's only natural that I would forget something due to that... I'm sorry that it was the plan for me to meet Haru. Still, my being in this cell is a bit of a bother, so..." (Ryuu)

I used wind magic to probe the shape of the lock's mechanisms, used barrier magic to create a key that would fit, unlocked it that way, and then I stepped outside the cell.

"I could have done that at any time. Yes, there is a mana-absorption barrier around the cell, but... it only increases the mana needed for a given spell to about ten thousand times what it would normally be. No normal mage would be able to create so much as a spark, but... there's me. I could still have fired off a spell like the one that killed two greater wyverns, but this was a non-destructive way to free myself. It's not the most decent thing to do, but... that barrier really itches. It's like being covered in bug bites and then standing in acid rain, but worse. Actually, I'll give you a bit of information. The simplest way to disable me would be to lock me in three of these barriers that were designed to not interfere with one another. With that level of discomfort, I would barely be able to walk or talk. However, don't try to use that as a way to kill me, as my survival instincts would kick in and I'd just obliterate the barriers, even at the cost of my ability to think for a few hours, and if that happened... almost anyone near me would be in danger... and by 'near me' I mean 'within a radius similar to the length from the north gate to the south gate of the capital' because I would be really... not myself. It's basically the Demon Lord equivalent of the rhinokin's battle mania. We get stronger, faster, tougher, but we lose our sense of reasoning for a while, sometimes unable to tell friend from foe. Do you remember Anargleheim? The fortress city that fell in a single night?" (Ryuu)

"17000 years ago... it was said that it was done by one monster" (King)

"It was done by my grandmother, when she was almost killed by an assassin. She tore the city apart as she looked for the one who ordered her death, despite that person being one of the first to die by her hands that night. Now, consider that, and remember that she was about... a tenth of a percent as strong as I am?" (Ryuu)

"That's a subtle threat..." (King)

"No, that's a warning. I really, really, really don't want to have that happen. I would probably wind up killing a few of my friends in the process, and I would never be able to get over that fact... Honestly, that state, my berserk mode, is one of the few things in this world that scares me. At all. The others are basically the thoughts that my lovers might die, or... that's about it, actually" (Ryuu)

"So, from what I'm hearing, you care about others more than yourself? At least, you worry about them more, which I can understand from your strength. It's much harder for you to be in danger than it is for anyone you care about. That's a sad way to live, but it's better than being weak and unable to protect what matters to you most, right? I can understand that..." (Girl)