Chapter 4: Interlude 1 - The Third Kidnapping Comes Free
A few years earlier.
"You must be Claire Kagenou."
I look up at the man that just entered the room I'm in. If an onlooker saw this room they would refer to it as a cell and describe me as restrained. But I refuse to call it that for several reasons. Primarily, a cell is a room that someone is imprisoned in. However, I cannot see myself as being imprisoned, confined, or captive in any way. And a cell incapable of holding someone is just a normal room.
Similarly, I cannot see myself as being restrained, despite the many chains around my arms which are tied to the wall. Indeed someone else placed in my exact position truly would be restrained. But again, I am not.
There are several reasons for my certainty in this.
I am not claiming to be different because I'm physically stronger, nor am I able to access my magic right now due to the magic sealing properties of these shackles which should relegate me back to being a fifteen year-old girl. No, what's different about me is something neither physical nor spiritual.
I just simply refuse to be held captive ever again.
I let myself be brought here in the first place and pretended to be unconscious in order to learn some much needed information. I wouldn't have done so if I wasn't confident in my ability to escape once I had what was needed.
So I don't think of myself as being this man's captive. The only reason I'm still here is because I needed information from him. Yes, this man is in this room because I want information from him. And should I choose it he wouldn't be able to leave. I guess that makes him my prisoner and this room his cell. In every conceivable way he is the prisoner and I am the free woman, despite what the chains imply.
I study his face briefly to confirm. Middle aged, approximately late 30s. Expensive clothing over a muscled body, grey hair slicked back into a ponytail. Familiar facial features.
"Viscount Grease," I grin. He was high in the list of suspected Cult members. That confirms that this little show wasn't a waste.
"Oh, you recognise me?" He chuckles, but it sounds forced as if he's put off by my reaction. "But I suppose I did serve as a royal guard… Or perhaps you recognise me from the Bushin Festival."
"Ha. Yes, let's pretend you did well enough in the Festival to be remembered from that, you first round flunker," I bark out a mocking laugh. "I heard Princess Iris tore you a new one."
He scowls. "I would have destroyed her had we not been bound by tournament rules."
"Sure. Keep telling yourself that."
At that he goes to punch me. Even without my magic it's still laughably slow. Most people neglect training their body when magic is just so much better. But I made sure to train without it. After all, it's not how much you have but how well you use what little there is. My head snaps to the side and his fist sails past into empty air before colliding with the stone wall.
"Impressive, to be able to dodge my strike without magic." He pulls out a white handkerchief and wipes the back of his hand. "As entertaining as this is, enough chit-chat. Claire Kagnou, has your magic felt… off lately or been behaving oddly? Strange pains? Discolorations on your body?"
I chuckle. "Oh Grease, we aren't here to talk about me. We're here to talk about you. How's Milia by the way?"
His face goes blank with shock.
"She went missing a few months ago, didn't she? And now you're working for the cult." I carefully watch his reaction. I'm only 95% certain he's a member, but this should confirm it.
If I thought he looked shocked before, this is on another level. "How do you know about the cult!?" He shouts. "What do you know about them!?"
"Tell me, are they holding Milia hostage to force your cooperation?"
He grits his teeth.
"Refusing to answer? This won't be a good use of either of our time if you keep silent."
"Shut it… Just shut it you bitch! This is supposed to be your interrogation!"
I let out a sigh. "Well now you've done it. I was prepared to offer our help rescuing her if you told us everything you know. But now I'm reconsidering."
"... Help? Hahahaha… Poor, naive girl… You have no idea how dangerous these people are. Your 'help' would only get Milia killed."
Then, the moment I've been waiting for happens. The door opens.
"Viscount Grease, intrud-"
He stops his report and screams in horror as I seize my chance. Lunging forward I tear free from the chains. My hands and wrist are in agony. The thumbs dislocated and the skin on each torn off. Blood drips to the ground and I can barely bear to move them. But my goal is achieved, I'm out of the chains.
Like I said: I refuse to be someone else's captive ever again. And I'll do whatever it takes to secure my freedom.
I punch Grease. More to distract him than to cause any actual damage. Though I have to admit it feels good even despite the sharp stab of pain it sends through my wrists.
While he grabs his nose I sidestep him and kick the guard's leg out from under him. With my magic back the enhanced kick sends him tumbling. I hop over his body out the door of the cell just as Grease is starting to turn, still too slow to process what's happening.
"Bye now!" I say cheerfully as I shut the door and quickly lock them both inside. I turn to the rest of the guards in the room with a cheerful smile.
They stare at me, mouths open in confusion. Their swords are drawn but pointed towards the door where they expected an attack to come from. They weren't expecting their captive to burst from the cell with blood dripping from her hands.
"Right, you're surrounded and outnumbered. Throw down your weapons and surrender," I command them.
After the shock wears off a few of them chuckle. One turns and points his sword at me. "I don't know how you slipped out of there girlie, but I do know that your maths is wrong. You're the one surrounded, and there's four of us to only one of you."
I tilt my head to the side. "No, there's eight on my side."
Seizing the moment, a black blur zips from the doorway towards the guard that turned around. There's a flash of red and a scream of pain as the man crumbles to the ground. Standing over the body is a girl around my age, with black hair, canine ears, and a fluffy tail. She is drenched in blood and her face has a feral grin on it that causes the other guards to take several steps back.
A burst of magic from afar sends a second guard slamming into the cave wall as a blue haired elf steps through, flashing her satisfied grin. Following her five more girls dart through and make quick work of the survivors.
As one they kneel before me, their left fists on the ground and their right fists over the chests.
The one in the middle, a blond-haired elf, begins to speak, "Apologies for our lateness My Lady. Several of the hideouts we suspected turned out to have been fakes. It wasn't until Beta cross-referenced the reports that we realised this hideout was in a hidden location."
I have to continue to act imperious, they expect me to be someone that's in control and reliable. A woman they can comfortably put their faith in. It's what they seemed to need after being rescued and finding out about the impossible enemy they would need to fight.
Thankfully my years of acting lessons gave me plenty of experience in playing out a certain role.
"Be at ease Alpha. You arrived exactly when I needed you to. I had just confirmed that Viscound Grease was indeed a member of the Cult and that his daughter was held hostage by them when you arrived."
"Still Lady Solaris, something could have gone wrong..."
"Nothing could have happened, I was in complete control of the situation!"
They all let out a sigh of relief and the tension drains out of them. "I'm glad-" Alpha looks up for the first time and her face goes pale as she notices my bleeding wrists. "You're injured!" Her voice is filled with horror.
I glance at the wounds and silently curse letting the girls see them. They've already started healing. My healing is better than most so I expect in a minute or two the blood will be the only evidence I had even been injured. In fact, my thumbs have already popped themselves back into place.
"This is nothing," I inform them. "The skin just tore off when I slipped out of the anti-magic bracelets. Nothing that won't be healing completely soon."
"To think your willpower was strong enough that you would tear your own skin off just to aid us in the fight…" Gamma says, her voice filled with awe.
Beta has a notebook out and is furiously taking notes. Hopefully it's good inspiration for her next book.
A loud thud rumbling from the cell door breaks me out of my thoughts. I turn to see the steel door has been dented. Another thud breaks the door off its hinges and it falls to the ground. Stepping through the hole is Grease - whose muscles have expanded and his shirt ripped and torn. Dark veins also cover his face and one of his eyes has turned red as well.
… What?
Past him I can see the bloody corpse of his comrade.
He looks around, spotting the bodies of his fallen soldiers. Then his eyes lock onto me.
"Yew!" He screams, his voice garbled by whatever caused this second stage transformation making the word hard to make out.
Don't show fear , I tell myself. "This is your last chance Viscount. Tell us everything you know about the Cult, in exchange we promise to rescue Milia."
"E can' be rescued. Her onl' hope is te kill yew!" His words are twisted as he struggles to make his newly shaped mouth form the correct sounds. It's a little hard to understand what he's saying now, but I think I get the gist. Especially as he charges towards me.
I hold out my left hand gesturing to the others to hold, and with my right I gesture that I want a weapon. Before that can happen however, I'm forced to side step his charge like a bullfighter. He might be strong now but it seems he only has force.
Alpha throws me my sword which she thankfully brought along. It's been sharpened to perfection and made from the bones and sinew of a dragon, giving it an impressive 90% magic efficiency. Higher than even mithril.
I catch it and swing around to cut through Grease's calf.
He screams in pain but somehow remains standing.
"Yew thing tha' ill stop me?!" Screaming, he pulls out a vial filled with red pills and shoves them all in his mouth. The moment he swallows them his transformation grows more drastic. The muscles start expanding, the other eye turning red to match its twin, more veins appearing as they go from a dark red to a thick black.
I guess that explains what caused his sudden transformation. Some sort of forced magic overdrive, similar to the Possession. Too bad I couldn't save one of them for Eta to study. Hopefully he'll have a few uneaten ones around here.
Vaguely I'm aware of my own transformation occurring as it always does when I stop holding back. My hair turns a shining golden blond. Thankfully it's been years since I lost control of myself as a result. Unlike him I'm still in total control of my emotions.
He turns around and slams his mana-infused sword down, though I have already leapt out of the way. The blade continues past me and strikes the stone ground, cracking the floor and sending up a cloud of dust as well as chunks of rock that bounce harmlessly off me.
Sloppy. Even Cid has better technique and more efficient control of his magic. Putting himself into an overdrive might have given himself a massive boost but it's more than he's used to. Just shoving more power into your muscles and weapon won't make a difference if you have no idea what to do with all that power, after all.
I dodge his next attack. He's become faster than me now and one hit will be enough to seriously threaten my safety. But he's telegraphing his attacks. No subtlety, no art to his swordplay... This feels worse than Delta, she at least uses a small amount of technique.
His body won't be able to keep this up for long either. There's a reason magic overload turns young girls into Possessed.
I'm confident I can win. He's stronger but I just have to wait for my opening. The first time I saw a real no-holds-barred fight, a smaller combatant managed to take out his much stronger opponent with evasion and precision.
That's the first lesson I learned on fighting.
He lunges forward and overextends himself. I barely have to step aside to dodge. When I make my next strike I'm channelling the lessons from two individuals that could not be more different.
The trick isn't to get as much power as possible and fling it around wildly. Sparring against Cid taught me that it's not about how much magic you use, but how you use it.
A sword might not have an L to hit with the heel of like the crowbars He preferred. But if I focus all of my power on the part of the blade striking Grease then I too can magnify the effectiveness of the force and achieve the same effect!
My magic empowered sword falls down and slices through his hardened skin. With a spray of blackened blood an arm falls to the ground. Followed by the thud of his sword.
Watch me now Stylish Ruffian Slayer, wherever you are. New life, new world, new face, new me. And no longer a damsel in need of rescue!
I level my sword at Grease. He may be critically wounded but it would be foolish to drop my guard.
"I'll give you a quick death, it's more than you deserve. Rest assured we will rescue Milia."
He makes a sound, which might have been laughter, even when his body shudders. My own body tenses in preparation for whatever he's about to try, yet instead he seems to collapse in on himself. His muscles start shrinking and his voice returns to normal as his temporary power leaves him. He then forces words out between laboured breaths.
"You truly believe… that you can win against them? Don't let… your defeat of me go to… your head. I'm not even… a speck of dust compared to the true monsters. You don't know the first thing of the darkness that's out there."
"Then we'll just shine brighter. Not even the blackest darkness can stand strong before the light of the sun. Burn this shining light into your memory during your final moments, Viscount Grease."
In the moments before my sword pierced his neck he muttered a single word.
"Mi… llia…"
Silence reigns for the first time since I pretended to be knocked unconscious. It lasts a few moments past the body hitting the floor, until the girls start applauding.
I let out a sigh. It's unnecessary, but telling the girls that doesn't seem to discourage them. It's a good thing I was already used to such attention from my first life or I don't know how I would have managed.
"Excellent takedown Lady Solaris!"
I switch my magic to empower my senses and spend a few moments listening for sounds of anyone else in this hideout. Footsteps, speaking, the shuffle of moving equipment, things like that. Fortunately I don't sense anything. Well, no people at least.
"Is the area secure?" I ask Alpha.
"Yes Lady Solaris. We moved through all the passages and killed all the cultists we encountered along the way. The hideout is filled with documents on what Grease was researching for the cult, we left it so we could rush to your aid. On your orders we'll sweep through and collect everything."
I nod, then turn to a section of the floor where there's a strange draft that's been bothering me. After a few seconds of searching with my fingers I find the indents and pull, revealing a false section of the floor. Beneath it is a dark pathway. Likely a secret passage for Grease if he had felt he needed it.
The girls gasp. "To think there was a secret passage, you found it so easily Lady Solaris!"
"I just thought there was a slight draft coming from this spot. We need to keep an eye out for these sorts of things. It's better to avoid our enemies escaping using such methods."
"Of course Lady Solaris, please accept our humble apologies."
I let out another sigh. I admit, sometimes it does get a bit awkward with the hero worship these girls seem to give me. But I long ago lost my chance to discourage it.
"It's fine, don't beat yourself up over it. Let's scout this passage and explore the rest of the hideout to search for more hidden secrets while you loot the place. Consider this training, so that in the future you have experience keeping an eye out for such passages."
The girls then get to work, and after a few minutes of healing I help them loot the place. There's plenty of valuable information on the cult's research. Along with a few of Grease's correspondences with other members of the Cult. Those proved illuminating.
First of all, Milia is being held by someone called 'Z'. He's a strong knight, stronger than Grease at least. And Grease seemed to absolutely despise the man, quite understandably of course. Unfortunately there's not much more information on Z. He's in the Midgar capital at least, Grease was theorising he might be linked to the academy - though he wasn't certain of this with the few clues he had to go on.
Also in the capital is a knight named Sir Gaunt, whom Grease had exactly one letter from. Gaunt was apparently a big shot in the Cult who lost his status. Also potentially linked to the academy as well. That's all I was able to gather.
The most worrying Cult member I learned about though, was the third. A man Grease seemed absolutely terrified of beyond measure. An inky black demon that emits a whirling cloud of darkness, straight out of the darkest nightmares into the blackest night.
Shadow.
The very name sounds downright villainous. Fitting for a member of the Cult. Worse though, according to Grease's notes his suspected operating area seemed to include Kagenou barony. It's possible he's based close by. A pity we haven't run into him yet so we can put a stop to his madness.
The thought of such a monster operating in the same area as Cid horrifies me. What if after Grease's failure he decides to come after my family next? Poor Cid is pure and defenceless, he doesn't stand a chance against such a creature! A boy as innocent as him would probably have nightmares just finding out that someone like Shadow exists! It's enough to tempt me to stay home and skip out on the academy so I can protect him, or at least train him a little more. He needs more training so that he can survive without me should I ever fall in battle.
No.
I look at the notes on Z and Gaunt again. They're both linked to the academy. I need to go so I can investigate them. Cid will be fine. The Cult was only after me, not my family.