Chapter 24: Judieth 2

-- Judieth POV --

Judieth sat in her room with a Mana Crystal in hand. Currently, she was channeling Mana through the crystal, and as she did that distorted images and muffled sound came through. When Ruby left with Sara, Judieth quickly made an undead bird spy to follow her. The creation was hasty, so it still smelled rotten and looked like it should be dead. If anyone were to see it, it would be obvious at a glance that the bird was no longer alive.

Judieth still used the bird to watch Ruby meet with Drakove. Even though the image was unclear and slightly warped, and the sound sounded muffled and static-like, this was a feat of magic that many don't know how to do. Though to Judieth, it was still experimental and not worth getting exited over.

"Well, things seem to be progressing smoothly." Judieth commented as she saw Ruby blatantly ignore the Lord of the city's presence for most of the meeting. "I wish she would fix her attitude a bit more.... ah you could've asked for information about your village you know."

Judieth was a little amazed how little Ruby thought about getting a reward from the city's leader. She could've asked for anything, information, or riches, and she chose sweats. Sadly, Ruby's ignorance to the world made her unable to understand this. She just thought of Drakove as someone with more money and power than most. Her understanding of authority comes from the scientist in the lab she came from. So all she knew about Drakove position was that he gets to order people around, and that's it.

The thought of getting information about her village was never a possibility in her mind because why would someone know about something like that if it didn't concern them. Judieth understood some of this, but at the same time, she didn't, so she could only watch in frustration as Ruby used a very useful favor to get snacks.

"Oh, they're moving."

Watching the fight between Ruby and the soldier, Judieth figured that Ruby's opponent's strength was about 'Silver Rank Two' on the Hunter system. Most skilled fighters are within the silver tier between ranks one and three. That's the average strength of trained soldiers. Ruby's strength was around Silver Rank three or four thanks to her natural strength.

Ruby might be stronger than her opponent, but if she faced a small group of about three to five, she would be in danger of losing. One on one she was fine and would win without difficulty. Judieth watched as her prediction came true, and Ruby won the match without any trouble.

"Mmm, this should help build a connection with the Prosperty family. It's not necessary right now, but it doesn't hurt." Judith said as she watched Ruby talk with Drakove and Sara.

"Though Ruby doesn't seem to harbor any hate inside of her, which is a problem. She is more apathetic than hateful." Judieth said, sighing. "Yuki, on the other hand, seems to absolutely despise everyone and everything. If she could somehow convince Ruby to treat Man-kind, more specifically the church, as an enemy, that would be great."

Judieth didn't realize all the hate Ruby held was towards the scientist and everyone holding her against her will. The fury and contempt she held dissipated when she was free. So she's currently just enjoying life. This was a miscalculation on Judieth's part. But if Judieth can get Ruby to view the church as a major threat that can't be ignored or left alone, then she'll turn her attention to destroying it.

Sadly, Judieth didn't really know how to do that. The only other option was to have Yuki convince Ruby instead, but that could end badly really fast. Yuki didn't have a specific target she despised. She hated everyone, and Judieth didn't know how far Yuki would go if she decided to act on her more violent urges.

Another problem was having the church as an enemy meant having not only a whole country as an opponent but most of the Humans and following the teaching of the Church themselves. The occasional Elf and Dwarf could also be seen following the religion, but humans made up most of it. That didn't mean they wouldn't be involved though, since Humans, Elves and Dwarfs are allies, they tend to face threats together if it's big enough. Ruby was called the enemy to Man-kind, not just Human-kind.

Having some connections would help with that front. Whether or not the Prosperty family will continue to be allies is questionable, but it doesn't hurt to try. Judieth heard that they didn't really agree with the view of the Church either, so that was why she thought going to them wouldn't be such a bad idea.

"I also like the Hero because he doesn't seem like a follower either, but he still works for them anyway. I'm sure he has his reason. After all, the Church isn't inherently bad, but I would prefer it if it was gone." She said, "Which is why it's such a shame he needs to be removed."

___________________________

--Ruby POV--

"That was good. You're definitely skilled. Now, how about we talk about how you're going to teach my daughter?" Drakove said, happy he didn't need to take any of his skilled fighters away from their work.

Walking back inside to the meeting room from before Drakve and Ruby discuss when Ruby would teach His daughter and how much she would be paid to do so. She would teach Sara three times a week and be paid three small Silver coins each day. With that, Ruby and Drakove shook hands, and Ruby left to head back to her Inn.

On the way back, Maisy spoke up. "That was Sara's father, right?" she asked.

"... Yeah." Confirmed Ruby.

"Oh, then why wasn't he part-Monster like her?"

"...He didn't have monster blood in him?"

"No."

"Huh. Weird." Ruby said, wondering why that was.

It was interesting but it wasn't really important to know. 'I'll just ask Sara later.' She thought.

-- -- --

"... I'm finally back." Ruby said when she walked into her room. It was late, and the moon was already high in the sky. She forgot it took eight hours of running to get from the Inn to the inner wall. which meant just as much time was needed to get back.

"Welcome back~" Yuki called when Ruby walked in.

"Hello Ruby. I'm glad to see you're doing okay. you were gone all day after all." Morella said, greeting her.

"Good to see you."Judieth said also in the room for some reason.

"Hello, everyone." Ruby said. "You too, Judieth, but what are you doing here? You have your own room, right?"

"Well, when it got late, these two started to worry. I had a way to know your location so they had me stay so they could know how you were doing." Judieth answered, not hiding the fact she was spying on Ruby.

"I figured that was you. I smelled something rotten, but it also had your familiar scent mixed in, even if it was faint." Ruby said, not bothered. Her trust in Judieth has slowly grown stronger even if she hasn't realized it.

"Well, good night. I'm tired." Judieth said before leaving.

"I'm tired too. I think I'll also go to bed." Ruby said, climbing into her bed. "Night, guys."

"Night night~!" Yuki said.

"Good night." Morella responded

Late at night, the three of them went to bed, with hope of a peaceful future.