Chapter 178 – It is a Mess Alright

[Royalty..?] The words lingered in Eva’s mind.

[That… could be possible…] Luna pondered the possibility. It was something she had thought of, but it wasn’t a possibility she had placed her bets on. Not for any particular reason, the outcome didn’t seem the most relevant compared to everything else they were dealing with.

Maca didn’t immediately answer.

[For what reason…?] (Eva)

[Eh, timeline matches up based on what Luna has told us, so figured it could be possible.] (Syrus)

[What if she is not?] (Eva)

[The answer doesn’t need to be yes; either way, I am happy with the result.] (Syrus)

The reason for Syrus’s questions was just to scope out the potential risk of this operation. Mary had already mentioned she was from a noble background, which could be room for some trouble, so Syrus needed to know if she was just a noble or something stationed a little higher. As Syrus said, she didn’t actually care about the result of the question. While that might sound strange since she was the one most aware of the difference in the risk, that difference wasn’t big enough for Syrus to actually worry, but it was enough that a difference in approach was required.

There were reasons why Syrus suspected the possibility of royalty, though she figured Luna would have already come to the same conclusions.

After a moment, “I don’t know.” Maca answered.

[...I stand corrected; there was an answer I didn’t like.] (Syrus)

“...Actually?” Syrus questioned.

“Yes, I really don’t know,” Maca repeated.

[Is he…?] (Eva)

[Fuckingly annoying, he doesn’t appear to be lying.] Syrus groaned. [I figured the level of trust between them was higher.]

[It still may well be at the max, well, the max Mary is willing to, considering what Maca seems to know. He wasn’t surprised about the Noble part of her announcement.] (Luna) Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by novel※fire.net

[Then why?] (Eva)

[It is just the kind of person he is…] Syrus sighed. [He doesn’t question when he doesn’t feel the need to do it. He let us off very lightly when we dumped the book onto him before. Of course, he did ask a few things back then, but there were many more damning questions he could’ve asked, but chose not to.]

Syrus let out an audible sigh. “Well, I was hoping to get a heads-up before talking to Mary, but it looks like that is not happening.”

“Disappointed?”

“Eh, I don’t know. Maybe? I made one miscalculation, but it doesn’t change much.” Syrus answered, “As said, it just means I am asking Mary directly anyway.”

There was a huge advantage to knowing information beforehand. Anlesa experienced the effects of lacking information repeatedly in the past year, and this was just a chance to get the upper hand in a conversation that completely fell apart.

“I see.” Maca muttered, and he looked back towards Syrus. “Do you know if the city is still in danger?” He had heard details from everyone after he was saved, but regarding knowing if the city was safe from future threats, only one person had possibly answered that.

“It shouldn’t be,” Syrus explained the reasoning. The Church’s assault had cost them, as the party that was sent to orchestrate the attack was wiped out. There was also an attack on their main church in the Nervald Kingdom, which cost the lives of multiple important members of staff. Finally, the biggest reason why they wouldn’t attack was due to an ongoing demon invasion.

“Thank you.” Maca nodded.

“Not much to thank me for; thank the demons if you ever see them, though be careful, if you seem strong, they may want to fight with you for fun.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

Then Syrus asked, “Can I hear about your history with Mary? Your side of it.” They had already made a mess earlier, so they decided it was best they get at least a better idea of the picture.

“I am fine with that.”

Maca explained his history with Mary from his side.

They met many years ago, before Mary even had Max. She didn’t live in Arisea Station at the time, and this was in the period of Maca’s life when he was moving around a lot. He had always found it difficult to settle down due to his appearance; however, the stares never really mattered to him, but it did hurt when he saw others like him affected.

This was how he met Mary; she was in her mid-to-late twenties, and he had just turned twenty himself. Maca had a strange life; as he explained, by the age of ten, he already appeared to be an adult appearance-wise, despite the fact he still grew over the next twenty years, but this forced him to grow and be an adult at a much younger age and by the time he had met Mary, he already had a few years of travelling under his belt.

It wasn’t anything special; he had just seen her with her horns already having been cut. It was something small, but it made him feel hurt. He spoke to her, like he had done with Luna when she was walking in the city, to say if she ever had a problem, feel free to contact him.

The conversation wasn’t as awkward as many of his previous or future attempts, as she accepted it, and they had a small chat before going on their way again.

However, eventually, one day, he followed Mary out of the city they were currently staying in. She appeared restless, and it wouldn’t be the first time he had heard about someone getting blackmailed or threatened to leave the city, only to be kidnapped or murdered.

In the end, his fears were misplaced; she had left the city to visit Beara, who was living in the forest nearby.

This led to a similar series of events as Mary explained. She explained that Beara was a long-time friend of her family and had been following her for a long time, but she couldn’t bring Beara into any city for various reasons.

It took a few more meetings and a few close encounters for Mary to give her origin as being from Eletscoep and that her family was a noble family from there. Eventually, they split ways for a short while, but Maca took care of Beara at that time. Then they re-met, and at this point, Maca had made his permanent base of operations, Arisea Station, and recommended that if Mary needed a place to settle down, it was a good spot.

[...That was a lot…] (Eva)

Anlesa absorbed the facts and judged the information. It was a good look into the personality of Maca and Mary, though obviously more the former, since it was from his perspective.

[There were a few key standout facts within that.] (Luna)

[Hmm… Yeah, though, there wasn’t too much we couldn’t figure out with some good guessing.] (Syrus)

[Be happy it didn’t require good guessing.] (Luna)

[I will, but am currently trying to figure out if there are people within Eletscoep who think Mary is alive or not.] (Syrus)

After Anlesa had a quick internal debate, Syrus asked, “Okay, did the people who captured you ask about any people, or only about Beara?”

“No, only about Beara.”

Luna said, “That is curious.”

“Is it?” Maca wondered.

Anlesa had quickly debated the possibilities of why someone could be after Beara. The reasoning had a few possible reasons, but they narrowed it down to three that seemed the most reasonable. However, despite the many reasons, there was only one truly important question. Were they after Beara, or what could be connected to Beara?

“Yes, did they want to find Beara because of what it represents, or did they want to use Beara to potentially track down the last remnants of a noble family?”

Anlesa’s words stirred in Maca’s mind. Their conversation didn’t continue on such topics, and to rebuild the camaraderie, they engaged in quiet talk through the rest of their watch.

The next day came as quickly as it needed to.

[Do we ask right away?] (Eva)

[Yes, it is required for us to judge our approach.] (Syrus)

Once everyone was awake and ready, Syrus walked towards Mary for answers.