Chapter 41 - "It's Better to be Feared Rather than Loved, Right?" (5)

We'd been walking in the underground tunnels for about 30 minutes, the scenery of the tunnels hadn't changed at all since we'd gotten down here, and we hadn't hit any of the traps yet. It was as if we were taking a stroll through hallways belonging to some old castle with brick hallways.

The tunnels wind their way around the city, each direction we took had its own twists and turns. They were all mostly lit up, however the path that we were currently treading down was very dimly lit, having lights around 20 feet apart.

"Careful where you step, from now on there will be traps laid around who-knows-where. And a few feet from here will be a split path, so make sure to stay close." Vendetta commented, lifting up the lantern she was holding.

"Alright, will do. The map you gave us also shows where the known traps are and in what directions, is that correct?" I asked, wanting reassurance in case we did get separated.

"Yes, no need to worry," She smiled back, then continued on, "We had the mages enchant them so that wherever you traverse, the know traps will immediately show up, however on the paths we didn't go we still don't know where they are."

"Well that's helpful," Victor muttered sarcastically, but then thought to himself, 'I'll have to do my best to protect Lev then, i made a promise after all.'

I looked over at Victor, who had a bit of a troubled expression on his face, but when we looked eyes and I tilted my head at him he just gave me a gentle smile. It made me puzzled and got my thoughts racing. Ever since I came into this world he hadn't once smiled at me like that, at least not until the night when the demons attacked Acheron City. [1]

Since then he's been oddly overprotective of me, which I've noticed since I took Arwan in. Especially with all of the fighting the both of them have been doing, which I only figured out after the little stunt the two of them pulled into the guest quarters I was staying in.

I decided to continue to brush it off since I've grown accustomed to his sudden gentleness, considering I haven't really known any other side of his. Instead, I continued to follow Vendetta with Victor and Vetle close behind.

'Wait…they all have names that start with V…You find this very funny don't you Hunapo?'

"Haaa," I sighed with contempt at the sudden thought, my shoulders hunching over a bit, before fixing them due to not wanting to get a bad posture.

"Um, is everything alright M'Lord? You seem to be a bit troubled," Victor asked, putting his hand on my shoulder for a brief moment before taking it away and flashing a worried look before putting on his usual indifferent expression.

"Heh, no need to worry," I said with a sigh, "Just a few troubling thoughts, that's all…How much farther until the next section of entrances?" I asked Vendetta, who was currently checking the map.

"Only a few feet, oh, and be careful here, there's an arrow trap up ahead. You'll wanna stick to the walls as close as possible, all of the activation buttons are in the center of the tunnel," She commented, putting the map back into her pouch on the opposite side of her sword.

***

Sometime after Arwan had received the messages from Victor that contained the orders from His Liege, he was standing on the battlefield in his human form, his sword bathed in blood from the soldiers that flung themselves at him.

They were all Dragonborn, who tried to attack him in order to protect their commander, Yerez, who was trying to team up with his sister and Vice Commander Tzara to take out Frederick. Luckily he was still up and running around due to Arwans support magic, but Arwan couldn't do anything more because of the unwavering loyalty of the Dragonborn soldiers.

They all surrounded him, while their commanders were busy with the Vice Commander of the Revolutionary army. Trying to stop the vicious dragon, Arwan, from getting near the two and eliminating them. However, their efforts were soon going to prove to be useless and killed ruthlessly by the dragon they deemed evil, Arwan.

'Annoying rodents, can't they all just drop dead already?! The more they stay alive, the more time that blood-sucking bat has alone with His Lordship!' Arwans angry thoughts were fuelling him with strength due to his stacking annoyance at his current situation.

"ARGHHH!" Three Dragonborn shouted at Arwan, then one of them blurted, "DIEEE ALREADY!" as his war cry.

Though Arwan just clicked his tongue and swung his sword at the three of them, which made a huge gash in the chest before he used energy from his sword aura to light the trio on fire.

Then there were 10 left, which made Arwan smile knowing that he was then closer to returning to his Liege and interrupting his senior's time with him. He quickly unleashed a large-scale magic circle that contained the spell for fire pillars, which would reduce all of the ten soldiers around him to a pile of ash to be scattered in the wind.

***

"UGHHH, general, how much farther? My feet are killing meeeee!" Vetle complained, not being used to walking as much as we had been, considering she was a mage and all.

"Vetle, you are a soldier, so stop complaining and deal with it, weren't you mages trained to deal with things like this?" Vendetta lectured, getting annoyed by all of Vetles complaining.

"I'm not a battle mage! So, no! I wasn't trained for things like this, I was trained to stand and deliver spells, not to walk or run and do it!" She lectured back, pouting and starting to tear up.

"Haaaaa," Vendetta sighed.

"If you'd like, I can cast a stamina spell on you to relieve your tiredness, but I can't guarantee it'll get rid of the pain your feet are feeling," Victor offered her, holding out his hand with a magic circle above it.

"R-really!?" Vetle sniffled and Victor nodded, then She took them and cried out, "Thank you! And I'm sorry for complaining so much General!"

"It's alright, just ask if one of us is capable of doing something like this the next time…I'm really sorry about this Sir. Gwyneira," Vendetta apologized for the hassle her subordinate caused.

"It's alright, if anything I'd be apologizing to his grace, ever since Vetle started complaining he hasn't said anything since," Victor paused then tapped me on the shoulder, "My Lord, is everything okay?"

"Ah! Yes, apologies, I got lost in my thoughts, that's all…Was there something wrong?" I asked genuinely curious, I had gotten so absorbed in my thoughts that I zoned out.

"Nothing to worry about, it's all been taken care of, but are you alright? You've been quiet for a while now, are you sure that there isn't something troubling you?" Victor was asking for reassurance but wasn't sure if there really was something going on with me.

"Heh," I smiled at him, grateful for his worrying, "It's as I stated, everything is okay. Let's just focus on the task at hand, don't let something as minor as this interrupt us," I patted Victor's shoulder then continued walking and the rest followed suit.

'Mmmm, except something has been bothering me.'

All this time that we've been walking in the tunnels, not once have we actually triggered any traps, even in the unknown areas. Perhaps it was Hunapo pulling a few of his little strings, or something else, but it made me quite uneasy.

I just ignored it for now and followed Vendetta like a duckling following his mother to their new nest. A while later there was a sign of light in the area ahead of our current tunnel, Vendetta stopped us for a minute and put her finger to her mouth before walking towards it with light steps, trying to not make any noise.

Quietly walking over there, before we turned the corner we could hear voices coming from the lit room. The voices were quite hushed, but due to the echo in the tunnels, I at the very least could still make out what they were saying.

'I both hate and love the elves' acute hearing,' I thought, being grateful to hear the conversation I was eavesdropping on, but also not being thankful to hear the business of my neighbors while I was staying at the inn over in Acheron City. (iykyk)

"Ugh, I don't get why the boss sent us down here, couldn't they have sent one of those human soldiers?" One of the people in the lit area complained, he had a deeper voice so it was easy to tell it was a man.

"Haa, I doubt it matters whether it was one of us or one of the kingdom's soldiers, we would've been doing the same thing up on the surface, plus since we're the only ones down here we can just slack off without anyone knowing. It's better than walking around these damned tunnels and risking running into a trap," The other reasoned, he was also a man, but alongside his deep voice he was carrying an Italian sort of accent.

I could tell that the second voice wasn't from Peril but had been stationed here for a while. From what I could tell he had an Italian accent but it was very shallow and more of a mix of American and Italian. Either that or he was half Perilan and half something else and lived in a kingdom farther from here before his kingdom stationed him here as a sort of ally-ship.

"True that, and I've heard that we'll get an extra pay after this, as long as we do our jobs well of course!...but was his Majesty thinking when he decided to ally himself with these humans of all creatures, if it were me I would've helped those Nymph's and Spirits as well, or maybe even some of those Dragonborns," The former said, continuing to complain even with the latter's reasoning.

"Pfft, can't argue with you there!" The Italian-sounding guy laughed, before continuing his response, he replied in a hushed tone, "Don't tell anyone else this, but apparently, that foolish tyrant promised his majesty some land over near the border between Peril and the Tris Empire."

"HAH! Seriously?! That dumb King, does he even know how beneficial that would be for us demons? Those Dumb Vampires are so stuck up, think that they're all high and mighty just because they were the first non-human ruled kingdom to become an Empire!"

"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to call them dumb, they are descendants of demon blood after all. But yes, quite a foolish move on King Oliver's behalf. Just enough power and influence and we could have them on our side, helping us prepare for war against the Calder Dynasty!"

'...So they're demons huh, oh do I have a bone to pick with them…not to be speciesist of course…is that even a thing?!'

***

"My King, we've detected some movement in the underground tunnels, should we send out anyone to go check?" Kyros Greer, the King's closest advisor, reported after hearing from the monitors of the tunnels leading to the palace had told him in worry.

"Mmmm, probably just some rats, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, now get back to work! We have a kingdom to run and a war to win!" The king lectured his advisor, annoyed by the sudden interruption.

Meanwhile, on the actual war side, Arwan was swinging his sword toward the Dragonborn siblings in a fit of rage. A little while earlier, Arwan had finally managed to get rid of all of the small fries. However, while he was busy taking care of them, the Dragonborn duo decided to actually pay him attention. 

The duo panicked for a second before realizing what the soldiers were doing, "Huh, I thought it was oddly quiet around us, turns out it's because the soldiers are throwing themselves at the dragon," Tzara commented, taking note of the surroundings.

"Heh, I must say, the soldiers on your side are complete dumbasses, they don't even realize that they'll die even if they somehow manage to take that monster out," Frederick cut in, complementing Arwan on his tremendous strength but also insulting his fighting style.

The trio that was previously fighting was just standing there for a while, dumbfounded by the massacre that was currently being carried out by the furious dragon. 

"Pfft, and you call us lunatics," Yerez jested, trying to aggravate Frederick into fighting again.

"We may be lunatics, but at least we won't lose!" Frederick then lunged at Yerez, reloading his pistols as he did so, a minute before Arwan had given him an extra support spell.

Frederick, using his wind magic in addition to the support spell from Arwan, appeared in front of the enemy's captain instantly. Both the Dragonborn siblings were shocked. Tzara started to run towards her brother, as Frederick pointed the pistol in his right hand to Yerez's gut and the one in his left to his head. 

"BANG!"

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[1]: So i'mma be real here, i completely forgot which city i originally made it and i couldn't remember/find it in my notes so i just renamed/made up a new one. A reminder that it was territory shared by the Casilda dukedom and The Griffins county. Zyon City was also originally a "free city" that technically belonged to the Quare kingdom but was under a joint government ruling of both The dukedom and the county until Lev took charge and it became a Viscounty. Also, no, it's not named after the Honkai Star Rail character -_-