Chapter 29.

Andrea

Andrea ran her hand through her damp hair and tried to calm her mind. She was feeling quite frustrated with her gains today. Despite training for the whole day in the mountains, she had barely managed to gain enough exp to get to a tenth of the amount she needed to level up. She almost wanted to laugh at herself it had only taken her four days to grow attached to Adrian's absurd growth boost.

The thought soured her mood further. Almost anything that reminded her about the Sword Hero caused both fury and frustration to rise up in her mind. Fury at Adrian, Bellamy and Malty with most of it going towards the fanatic and the princess and frustration at not recognizing just how badly Adrian was degenerating.

He had run away without warning. Even worse he had run away and gotten a lead of nearly two whole days before anyone had even thought it odd. Andrea herself was quite guilty of this, after returning from the forest she had returned home, taken a bath, given a verbal report to father and then slept for hours only waking up at noon. It had been amazing.

After that, she had practised her swordplay for a bit to get used to her new stats and then had eaten lunch before heading for her meeting with Adrian at six. A meeting which he didn't show for even after she waited for an hour. At the time she had just been irritated, when she asked her father to check on his location and he told her that none of his sources knew anything about where he had gone her irritation had morphed into horror. The final confirmation had come soon after that when he had not shown up in front of the inn where they had been supposed to meet.

Malty had cursed him and blamed him, Bellamy had accused both her and Malty of doing something to the Hero and had promised to make them face justice if they had harmed the Hero and she had simply left once she had realized exactly what Adrian had done.

Of course, then Malty had proven all of Adrian's fears justified. The bitch had accused him of rape and used the sob story to join the Spear Hero. It really infuriated her, for all that she was angry at him for leaving it seemed to be the right move but there was no way to know if the princess would have done that without him leaving.

He had been furious/frustrated/scared and he had taken the simplest route to avoid those emotions. Adrian had left them behind. It grated on her that she hadn't predicted what he had done. Had it been anyone else feeling such potent volatile emotions she would have assumed that they were going to instinctively react with either violence or, as Adrian had done, they would flee from the sources of their fear. The only reason she had not realized what he had planned to do was because she had assumed that someone as powerful as a Hero would not run. She had spoken to him assuming that he would have lashed out badly at Bellamy, Malty or herself if his frustration built up. Running was not something she had assumed he would do when she had sensed his distaste for retreating.

He had completely ruined her plans to fight the waves. Even worse he had totally ruined her father's plans to keep the other nations at bay after the King and the Pope had summoned all four heroes.

Andrea shook off her thoughts as she stood in front of the door to her father's study. It was a fairly simple door with a carving of a dragon on it, but she ignored the familiar image and focused her senses on the pair behind the door and winced. Both Agatha and her father were drowned in a potent combination of fear/frustration. That would not be good.

She knocked on the door nonetheless, waited for an instant for her father to disable the magical security, and then entered.

"Agatha, father," she greeted, bowing.

"Andrea," said the witch tiredly before taking a puff from her pipe. She said nothing more.

Her father didn't speak at all just nodding before waving his hand at a seat opposite his desk. Andrea sat down and then he slid a paper across the desk. It had two paragraphs of information inked on it in neat handwriting. Andrea picked it up and then met her father's eyes. He just indicated the document and so she started reading.

Once she was done she read it again just to be sure. Then she carefully put it down, the edges of the paper were crumbled.

" Damn," she said, her voice was quiet but it echoed in the silence of the room. The only sound being the powder in Agatha's pipe crackling slightly.

Andrea tried to think of the consequence of Melromarc losing two heroes after summoning all four and felt her mind go numb. This was really, really bad. The world declaring war on Melromarc bad.

" Is this confirmed?" she asked, it was a needless question her father would not have shown it to her unless it was but she had to try.

He nodded and said in his gravelly voice, " As real as can be kid."

Andrea closed her eyes and just shut her senses for a moment. The Bow Hero's entire party had been found dead and the shadows sent to monitor him had been killed as well. No one knew if it was the Bow Hero who had done it or if someone else had killed the others and kidnapped the Bow Hero.

Adrian had vanished without warning. The Bow Hero was gone one way or the other. Andrea sighed and opened her eyes and her empathic sense.

" Are they still alive?" she asked, Andrea knew that her father had contacts with the Four Heroes Church back in Faubrey. Those people could tell if the Heroes were alive or dead.

"Checked in with them today morning. All four heroes are alive," he said, but his emotions and tone gave away the fact that he was hardly comforted by this.

Andrea wasn't surprised, she wasn't either, it was better than the worst-case but there was a long line between alive and okay. And no one knew where the Bow Hero fell on that line. The most optimistic interpretation was that the Bow Hero had killed the shadows and his party but given that he had only been at level 19 last she had heard she doubted that he could take down shadows.

Andrea felt a small amount of worry for Adrian. Until now she had assumed that he had left of his own volition but there was a chance that he might have been kidnapped. Then again it was pretty unlikely, she had seen how ridiculous the Sword Hero was.

Still, it didn't hurt to ask, " Any update on the Sword Hero? "

He just shook his head, " Nothing. I've worked with Mirellia's spies to coordinate our search and get some information from the Church. No one knows where he is or even when he left the city."

Andrea winced at her father's frustration/rage. But realized just how bad the situation was if he worked with that woman. War must have been even closer than she had assumed, she couldn't imagine any other situation where Mirellia and her father would work together.

Agatha cackled here, her emotions shifting to Amusement/approval, "You won't find that boy unless he wants to be found. He hated this city and was smart enough to leave it as soon as possible."

Her father narrowed his eyes here and said, " Explain Agatha."

The old witch raised her eyebrows and casually took another puff of her pipe, " Hasn't Andrea told you about my meeting with the boy?"

"She has," he said, his impatience rising.

" Then you know that the boy was unhappy here." she said, leaning back into the sofa she was sitting on, " why in hell would the boy waste his time in this country? That boy was a conscript who saw a way out and took it."

For a moment Andrea felt almost nothing from her father then a combination of frustration/irritation/fear manifested. The intensity was startling.

" I hadn't realized that it was this bad, " he said and turned to her, " Is this true?"

Andrea frowned, she had told her father about this before, " Yes, Father. Like I'd said he was very frustrated, scared and quite furious. Bellamy and Malty just kept on making it worse and pretty much everything he encountered in the city was making it worse." she said, then paused, " well except for meeting Agatha, he enjoyed that."

Edgar gripped the edge of the table, the fragile wood gave away in the face of a level 90 fighter and crumbled, he dusted his hands and got up. He walked the length of the room and Andrea winced at both his emotions and actions. Father was really frustrated if he had started to pace.

Agatha took another puff before father calmed down and sat again, his emotions still simmering below the surface.

He spoke with a tone that showed his frustration, " Mirellia managed to get the vultures to back off by threatening them with the Heroes and promised that envoys would be permitted to meet them."

He didn't expand further but Andrea felt Agatha's emotions shifting to horror/fear which mirrored her own.

No Sword Hero, no Bow Hero and a hidden Shield Hero. If they let this play out like this Melromarc would be gone by the end of the month if they were lucky.

" Can't you get Ethan to bring the Shield Hero back to the capital for a bit? Meet the envoys from Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden at least," she asked.

Her father considered the idea before shaking his head, " No kiddo. Biscas has too much power here. If that man decides to cut his losses he might decide to kill Naofumi and use that to inflame his supporters. Best let Ethan take care of the lad."

Andrea winced at the image that the words provoked. A dead Shield Hero on Melromarc's soil would basically be begging for Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden to invade. A dead Shield Hero after they had summoned all four heroes was asking the whole world to invade.

" Then let them meet him at Lord Reinchott's domain," she suggested.

Both her father and Agatha considered that neither of them liked the idea of potentially losing three of the heroes but in the end, her father nodded, " I'll speak to Mirellia and get her watchers on the boy to direct some of Siltvelt's agents to him."

Andrea could tell that it was grudging. Both because it had to depend on the Queen and because they were being forced to give up on a hero but truthfully she didn't see what other option they had. Even if the only other hero was in the hands of the Royal Family. Andrea had to wonder just how much of this was within Queen Mirellia's plan.

This whole situation was a disaster and it was only going to get worse. Especially after the Church and Adrian heard about Malty's accusation against the Sword Hero. That woman had basically guaranteed that he would be Melromarc enemy.