Chapter 146: Journey To The Mountain

When we finally awoke, Cassandra immediately began having separation issues...

She didn't want to go back and didn't want me to get up.

"It's not fair! Why do you get him all to yourself!?" Cassandra said.

"Because I saw him first! And I married him!" Isabella said.

"Not fair!!! You were the firstborn...the person who would be Queen! I had nothing! Why can't you just share him...?" Cassandra asked.

"Because I want him to myself! I refuse to share because I don't want Mizik to divide his love for me! Besides...I have more self-respect than that."

"Why can't you just be happy with some of his love!? It's more precious than all the gold in the world! You're so greedy!" Cassandra said angrily.

"Please stop fighting so early in the morning, you two... I would like to get moving soon..." I said.

"Of course, darling!" Cassandra said as she lovingly held onto my arm.

Ugh...I feel like I've made some mistakes... I hope Isabella will forgive me for being so nice to her...

I tried my best to remember the reasons I had for treating her this way and sighed.

Cassandra deserves happiness too. She's had a difficult life. But I can only offer her so much... At the same time, she's my slave.

"Mizik! Tell her to stop!" Isabella protested.

"Cassandra, I'm still Isabella's husband. You need to stop," I said.

"That's like telling me to stop breathing! How can I do that!?" She said.

I just shook my head helplessly.

And you wonder why I don't even bother anymore...

After a few more minutes of arguing, Akari came over with an annoyed look on her face.

"Shut up! All you two do is argue about Mizik! It's so annoying! Seriously, is he even worth that much to you? This guy is a jerk who's done nothing but threaten me since we started this trip!" Akari said.

Cassandra glared at Akari.

"How dare you! Mizik is worth more than anything to me! And he keeps threatening you because you're useless baggage that can't be trusted. Why are you here, anyway? Just to annoy my darling Mizik!?" Cassandra said.

"Ugh...look, okay, I'm important to this group!" Akari said.

"How? You haven't done anything to contribute," Isabella said.

"I helped Mizik fight a massive army of undead! He caught me as I was doing battle with some of Aldaril's illusions!"

"You and I remember that very differently. I found you running away from another version of me. Also, you only helped me kill undead up until I started making my own," I said.

"I helped dismantle the barrier over Isabella during the fight with Aldaril!" Akari protested.

"That was my barrier, actually. I took it down myself after I realized that Mizik was about to kill Aldaril," Isabella said.

"See? Useless. And she keeps saying mean things about Mizik..." Cassandra said.

"Why...you!!" Akari said as she stepped towards Cassandra.

"Go ahead and try it, deceiver. I'll be glad to rid Mizik of your presence, lying fox," Cassandra said calmly as Deception appeared in her hand.

Akari paused and glared at the dagger.

I'm not going to stop her. I don't care if Akari dies or not.

At that point, I finished making preparations and left the camp while they continued arguing.

I wanted to make breakfast before we headed out.

* * *

"I'll never get over how good of a cook he is! Mizik, if you keep this up, I might not be able to stop myself from falling for you!" Akari said happily as she gulped down the soup I made.

"Will you just give it a rest already? You're not fooling anyone, Akari. I'm not in love with you."

"Mizik prefers women of class. Women who are modest and proper ladies. Like me and Isabella!" Cassandra said.

Like I said...give it a rest...

"Why did you put yourself first!? You're not his wife, I am! Besides, I'm more modest than you!" Isabella said.

"That's how I used to be, sister! If I had the choice, I would dress like a modest and proper lady for my darling Mizik! I am a changed woman! Mizik deserves only the best from both of us!" Cassandra said proudly.

"It's weird, you know? Cassandra seems so much more devoted to him... Doesn't that frustrate you, Isabella? And Cassandra, doesn't it make you angry that Isabella gets to be with him and not you? Even if you love him more?" Akari said.

THAT'S IT!!!

Before either of them could respond, I stood up and took out Vengeance.

Akari jumped in fright as I changed it to a shotgun and pointed it at her head.

"Let me be clear on this: if you try to start a fight one more time, I'm going to just shoot you. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING, YOU DAMN FOX!!!" I said angrily.

"E-EH!? W-WHAT!?" Akari stammered as she shook in fear.

"Do you understand? Stop trying to create problems!" I said.

Akari slowly nodded fearfully and I put my weapon away.

I turned and walked back to the place I had been sitting and saw Cassandra quickly pull out Deception.

I glanced back at Akari and she was sitting with a sweet smile on her face.

Perhaps...Aldaril was right...

I didn't want to just kill Akari because I knew that I might still need her help fighting the dragon... At the same time, it felt wrong to kill someone simply because I didn't like them...

It wasn't like Akari had directly tried to harm us, after all...

"Mizik... She glared at you... The kind that people do when they're about to attack. I think she wants to try something. Can I kill her?" Cassandra said.

Don't forget that The Warlord would let me dodge it. I'm not concerned.

"No. We need her help to deal with the dragon. As far as I know, wild ones are extremely dangerous. I don't want a repeat of what happened with the shadow dragon. Okay?" I said.

"Yes, darling. But if she attacks you..."

"You have permission. That is...if you can kill her before I do," I said as I glanced back at Akari.

She simply sat there with a smile on her face...trying to look as cute as possible.

She even tried to snuggle one of her tails to appear innocent.

You're not fooling anyone.

I quickly contacted Isabella and Cassandra with telepathy.

"You two. As soon as we figure out how strong the dragon is, and if we can take it down by ourselves, kill Akari with extreme prejudice. She's too dangerous to be kept alive. I mean it. I want her dead."

"Understood. I'll probably leave that to Cassandra since she's better at attacking than I am. Is that okay, Cassandra?"

"I will kill her for Mizik! Then Mizik will be happy with me and give me lots of love!"

"You're...getting ahead of yourself... Regardless, I want you two to just tolerate her. But if she does anything bad, don't risk it. Kill her and be done with it. We'll figure out how to deal with the dragon, ourselves."

"Understood."

"Yes, darling!"

After that, I terminated the communication.

We had all finished eating by now, so Isabella and I cleaned up.

Akari didn't do anything as usual, but that was okay.

Soon, Akari would be out of our hair forever.

* * *

Several days passed on our way to the mountain with the frost dragon.

Luckily, we had heavy winter coats packed in our inventories.

I also made sure to enchant them with high levels of frost resistance while we were camped out.

Akari wasn't bothered by the cold, so we didn't worry about it.

Honestly, she could freeze to death and I wouldn't bat an eye.

We had several run-ins with bandits as we made our way north within the less populated territories.

"They must be attracted to my irresistible good looks... Ah...the difficulties of being beautiful..." Akari said.

"Maybe we should drop you off of a cliff, then? I would rather that bandits didn't try to constantly attack us because your vanity keeps you from turning off the charm magic," I said.

Akari just glared at me for a moment before smiling again.

"I'm so sorry that you're jealous and upset about having married such an ugly girl instead of a beauty like me~!" Akari said.

I simply nodded and changed Vengeance into a shotgun. Then I quickly began approaching Akari with a completely neutral look on my face.

At once she dropped to her knees and placed her hands together.

"I'M SO SORRY! IT WAS JUST A JOKE! I SWEAR!!! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!!!" She begged.

"NO MORE JOKES, DAMMIT! ONE MORE TIME AND YOU'LL BE IN A DITCH WITH A HOLE IN YOUR HEAD!!!" I shouted angrily.

Akari quickly nodded and stood up.

After I turned around again...

And I did this on purpose because I wanted to see Isabella or Cassandra's reaction.

I could have sworn that I felt something dark envelop my body.

"Akari...did you just place a curse on Mizik?" Isabella asked curiously.

I turned to look at Akari and immediately felt the dark sensation disperse.

"What? Why would you think that?" She asked.

"Just forget it. I doubt she'll last much longer anyway. She's really trying my patience enough as is..." I said.

"It was a curse! Isabella saw it! Akari tried to curse Mizik! HOW DARE SHE!!!" Cassandra said angrily.

"I said forget it! Let's move on!" I said.

Just remember, Mizik... Frost dragon. Frost. Dragon. Be calm. Be cautious... By the gods this is hard...

After that, we kept moving.

We were getting into the northern areas now and it was getting colder.

To the east of the mountain was supposedly this country's capital... But I didn't really care anymore.

This particular country was the second most powerful nation on Delvandal. Right behind Elysium.

They had terrible relations and hated each other. But this country wouldn't attack Elysium at all. It would be their doom.

Elysium, however, didn't bother with any other countries unless they had something they wanted. Usually, some countries would willingly join the Empire for their own benefit.

It was much different from Kalsa back on Avernia. As even if it was technically an Empire, all of the provinces that made it up were very small. Some could even be considered states instead of countries.

And the Emperor of Elysium was apparently a somewhat young and naive child as well...

The Mad Admiral was only a researcher and military leader.

These are just a few things we learned from Akari in our travels... Before we decided that she was definitely going to die, that is.

Nevertheless, after a few more days, we saw a gigantic frozen mountain in the distance.

"Akari, from here on out, I'll be splitting the group up. The goal is to find a spot to enter the mountain. You'll be one team since you can search quickly on foot, while Isabella and I will be the other. If you can help us with this, and if we find a heart stone down there, I'll give you the one Aldaril gave me. Sound good?" I said.

Akari perked up and smiled.

"That's very generous of you, Mizik. Sure! I can work with that!" Akari said.

Moments later, she disappeared.

Isabella looked curiously at me and I contacted her with telepathy.

"Don't worry, I don't plan to actually give it to her. I wanted to motivate her and split up."

"Very well, then. I trust you, Mizik."

I terminated the contact and we approached the mountain.

Hours later when we finally reached it, we began searching for a way in.

To no avail.

Night fell upon us quickly and we still hadn't found anything.

While we were trying to figure out what to do, Isabella had an idea.

"Mizik, what if you used your Archmage Aspect to get a wide look at the area? Could you make a spell to do that?"

I thought about it for a moment...

I could make a spell that allowed me to view the surrounding area. Even the ground below and any caves within.

Or...

I could do both at the same time.

I quickly began trying to construct a spell to allow just those very things.

After about ten minutes, I had finished.

"Seismic Lookout," I said.

I closed my eyes and saw a birds-eye view of the mountain.

Everything was faded dark except the caves and caverns below.

I saw a small cave entrance hidden higher up on the other side of the mountain leading very deep down.

I could also see that the cave system was huge and complex... I saw an enormous cavern at the very bottom as well...

"Found it," I said.

I marked the location on the map and redirected the compass.

Then we made our camp and had some of the food saved in our inventories. After that, we curled up close together within a sleeping bag.

I used a low powered spell to keep us warm within it and Isabella placed several dense barriers around us as we slept.

* * *

Late into the night, I felt Isabella tap my chest.

I tapped her back once and she tapped my chest again. Twice.

We had made a secret code for dealing with Akari. This was it.

"Cassandra...can you see what's going on?"

"Currently, I can sense everything around us. But I cannot use my powers while Isabella is in control. Additionally, if I take control, the barriers blocking Akari will go down. Would you like me to kill her now?"

"Hold on... I want to see this. Switch over."

Cassandra switched over and remained still.

Akari hadn't noticed and smiled.

"Good... Switched over while sleeping, did we? Let's see if I can get into that inventory of yours... While I'm at it, I'll finally be rid of you, you pile of shit..." Akari whispered to herself.

I could almost feel Cassandra shaking with rage.

"Calm down. You'll have your chance, Cassandra."

"THAT BITCH!!! HOW DARE SHE!!!"

"Seriously, remain calm."

Akari knelt down next to me and touched my chest.

"What kind of magic is this...? Where is the inventory...?" She whispered.

I quickly pulled Vengeance out of my inventory and pointed it in shotgun form at her throat.

"RIGHT HERE, YOU DAMN FOX!!!" I shouted.

Right after I spoke, I pulled the trigger.