Chapter 4: Undercover Spy

"Why didn't you run away?"

Surprisingly, she didn't dodge. She didn't even unfold her wings. It was like she came to give herself up. But I didn't let my guard down. I took the sword from her waist too. She just watched coldly as I did this. After a while, she said something strange:

"Your moves seem sharper than before, huh?"

"Of course. After leaving Edenmere, I went through a lot. How could I not get stronger?"

I nodded, answering casually but staying alert. This girl suddenly showing up was fishy, especially right after Lantine Oasis sky city fell. Very suspicious.

"You new angels are too much. You improve so fast, how can we old ones keep up..."

She sighed, talking nonsense. I didn't want to hear more. Maybe she was stalling for time! I pushed my sword forward a bit and cut her off:

"Tell me! Why are you here? What do you want? Don't say you betrayed Edenmere and came to see me just to learn some magic trick?"

It was Aria! The angel who joined the second Edenmere tournament with me and got third place in magic. The same traitor who kept provoking Nicola during the monster attack, making her chase all the way from the holy city to the northern barrenlands!

She went quiet when she heard me. I don't know what she was thinking. Just when I was getting impatient, she spoke again, head down:

"Actually, I'm a good person!"

"Good person? Ha, you think I'm that stupid?"

This felt familiar somehow, but I didn't believe her excuse. She seemed sorry, but that doesn't mean I'd let her go easy. I wonder what Nicola is doing in the barrenlands. She said she'd catch Aria, but now Aria's right in front of me and Nicola's not back.

"It's true! I was secretly sent by Lady Elara to spy on the conservatives. But it was so hard..."

Seeing I wasn't convinced, Aria quickly spilled more details. It made me start to take her seriously. 

She said Elara had been wary of the conservatives for years. To get accurate info fast, she planted Aria, a new angel with a clean background, as a spy.

Later when Yvonne and others really did team up with monsters to rebel, Aria was ordered to infiltrate the monster side too. Other conservative angels defected with her, but Michelle didn't fully trust these traitors. So after a few days in the Dark Continent, they were sent as cannon fodder to the Barren Lands, the frontline.

Even as conservatives, these traitors didn't dare face the angel army head-on. With so few of them, they couldn't go back to Edenmere. On the way to the Barren Lands, most snuck away. Only Aria stayed, which got her some trust from the monster army.

Of course she didn't want to. She was following Elara's orders. But then Nicola suddenly came chasing her day and night. She almost died many times. She couldn't take the stress anymore. After hearing about Parristol, she finally ran away to Crescent City to ask me for help.

"Nonsense. Why come to me? Just go back to Edenmere. Elara would protect you if she knew."

I really didn't get it. She didn't seem to be lying, but there were still many doubts.

"I'm afraid she doesn't know! Lady Elara wanted me to keep spying, but Nicola was too strong. Even with intel on angel army movements, I couldn't hold on. This was my only choice. Now all angels hate us traitors. They move in groups when fighting outside. If I just show up, they might kill me."

Aria looked like she'd been bullied to tears. Quite pitiful. Sounds like she left the monsters secretly without orders. That's why she thought of me, the "popular guy", to help speak for her.

Funny thing is, she doesn't know Nicola is now the "Inheritor" publicly and the "Ancestor reborn" internally. With how much Nicola hates her, even Elara might not be able to protect her!

I also found a bigger problem in her story. I remember Elara herself told Nicola that Aria was in the Barren Lands. If Aria was really a spy, why would Elara do that? Isn't that exposing her own agent?

Unless Aria is lying, or there's something else going on... Thinking of how Nicola went to the north and crushed the enemy after she left, I had a guess. Did Elara use this to lure Nicola north on purpose?

"Feliciana, is that you? I sense other angels on the roof. Is Nicola back?" 

Cyra's voice suddenly came from below. I was about to say no, but Aria shook all over when she heard "Nicola". Like she had PTSD. She stepped back quickly.

"She just mentioned Nicola! Is she really back? No wonder I haven't heard any news about her for days..."

"No, no, she was just saying." 

I quickly calmed her. I didn't expect Aria to be so scared of Nicola now. She really brought this on herself!

"Whether you're good or not, save that for the Angel Council!"

Anyway, I didn't want to think more about if she was a spy or not. Since Aria came to me herself, I couldn't just ignore her. Might as well hand her to Edenmere to deal with. I was about to tie her up, but she didn't like seeing the rope.

"You don't believe me, do you? If I can't be taken straight to Lady Elara, I really can't feel safe..."

Nice dream, but where would I find the time? I didn't want to go back to Edenmere so soon. I was just planning to give her to other angels.

I was thinking how to convince her when suddenly people popped up from the roofs around us. Besides curious Cyra, the rest were adventurers staying at the inn. They all climbed up to see what was happening when they heard shouting.

"Oh, real angels! And quite a few too..."

"They say the Sage Council is friendly with angels. You can often see angels in Crescent City. It's true!"

"Six-winged angel, that's pretty high-ranking, right?"

"Is that other girl an angel too? But she has no wings?"

...

I didn't expect angels to be so rare in Crescent City. Soon curious people were popping up on roofs all around. More and more came.

"Let's talk next time!" 

Aria got more nervous seeing this, especially with Cyra here. Afraid I'd chase her, she didn't fly away. She flipped over the wall and ran into the inn below.

"Hey! Wait!"

I didn't know she was so agile without wings. I was stunned for a moment, then quickly chased after her.

Downstairs was my room. I could see through the window that the door was open. She'd already escaped to the hallway outside.

"Get out of the way!"

A shout came from outside. I chased out and saw Adrian standing in the hall looking confused. He must have just passed Aria.

"Are you okay?" 

I asked worriedly, stopping the chase. Did Aria hurt Adrian in her panic? But he didn't seem injured.

"I'm fine. I just heard people saw angels and wanted to ask you... So who was that?"

Seeing it was me, Adrian shook his head. He glanced in the direction the troublemaker ran.

"Huh? Where is she? Did she get away?"

Cyra rushed out of my room behind me. Reminded of the main issue, I quickly turned and ran to the stairs going down. But Aria was nowhere to be seen.

The lobby entrance was crowded, with many light element mages. It would be easy for an angel to hide there with wings hidden. Looks like we really lost her.

"It was Aria. She said she was a spy..."

I had no choice but to put away my wings and tell them what happened. Adrian had heard me gossip a lot about Edenmere drama, but Aria wasn't related to him, so he didn't comment. But Cyra snorted when she heard:

"Pfft, who'd believe that? She says she's a spy and that makes it true? Do they play undercover games in this world?"

Actually it's simple. We just need to ask Elara next time we contact her to clear things up.

But the very next day, someone really did come back...