Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 732: No More Waiting

By the time the owl-girl was brought to the city of Eclanor, her body was barely holding on. After being struck by the bullet, her right wing was chipped right off, and the wound was cauterised by the heat, making it impossible for her to reattach it even if a priest had gotten to her quickly. A socceress or a witch could’ve, in theory, reattached the wings, but with the nerves having died in the fallen wing at this point, there was nothing that could be done to give the owl-girl her flight back.

Holding her dead wing in her hand with her shoulder now patched in bandages, the girl stared at the soft white feathers that used to belong to her right side. Caressing the surface, she held a bittersweet smile. Lost in her mourning, she reminisced over her past as a child. Learning to fly, finding joy in her aerial mischief, not to mention the sheer convenience of not having to walk through a crowded street.

"I won’t ever fly, will I?" Finally glancing upwards, she matched Raven’s gaze.

Tears flowed down her freckled cheeks as she hoped to be denied.

"We’ll find a way," placing a hand on his false eye, Raven brought it out temporarily. Holding it in his hand, he revealed an empty eye socket to the girl to show her that she wasn’t alone in such suffering. "You will fly, but you need to keep fighting."

Having had no idea that Raven had lost an eye, the girl gasped with surprise and just stared at him for a moment. Even as the general placed the eye back in its socket, the girl simply stared, baffled that he could still keep going despite losing a part of him.

"I’m sure Mono wouldn’t mind making a new equally capable wing," glancing over to Amedith, Raven gave him a nod. Nodding right back, Amedith used a dimensional pocket to take out one of the many keeper cores that the army had collected throughout the last war.

Taking it from Amedith, Raven knelt before the girl and placed it in her hand. Closing her fist, he lifted her chin and made her look right into his eyes.

"Hold onto that, you’re gonna need it. But for now, I wanna know everything that you saw, everything that happened in that forest." Still a bit shaken, the girl’s lips quivered to speak, but no words came out of them.

The thought of the brambles alone was making her nervous, with a wave of anxiety washing over her entire self. However, forcing herself to swallow the horror, she closed her mouth and took a deep breath. Once her heart began to settle a little, she opened her eyes and looked at Raven again.

"I...I saw it all happen," and so she began with the retelling.

Throughout her story, her body stammered, her voice froze ever so often, but with the core in her hand and a way out of her misery, she kept going forward and forward until there was nothing left for her to tell.

"I got it while escaping, that’s the last thing I remember," she sighed, her shoulders finally dropping from having spoken about the matter.

Patting her shoulder, Raven lightly nodded at the girl and got back on his feet. Looking down at her, he extended a hand, and she quickly took it. Helping her get up, Raven turned towards Linkle.𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Send her–" Taking a brief pause, Raven looked at the girl again. "Your name?"

"My name? I-It’s Lumine Moon," she replied, clenching her fist by her chest.

"Alright, you’re gonna accompany Linkle for a bit. She’s going to take you to the queen of Elenaris, where you’ll stay a few days under her." Even though the very mention of the mad queen wrecked her nerves, Lumine remained quiet, for in her head, there was no way the general would do anything to put her in the way of unnecessary harm.

Turning her attention to the old witch, Lumine walked closer to her and was forced by Linkle to grab her by the head. With her hand on top of the witch’s disguise, she saw a bright beam of light and was swiftly teleported with both the keeper’s core and her torn wing clenched in her hand.

Past her leave, the tent had gone quiet. Raven and the others were quietly replaying the scenario that they’d heard from the owl-girl. A projectile was shot at her, and it destroyed everything in its path.

"Another rifle?" Raven whispered and looked up at the others.

"Sounds like it, but in the demon general’s hands?" Amedith questioned further.

"No way it’s the original from the last war, right?" Mel added, her eyes judging everyone’s expression as her question rang in their ears.

"Could be, but we can’t know for sure," Erika chimed in as well.

Taking a step in the middle of the tent, Regalia decided to break from the matter.

"Let’s forget about the rifle for a moment and let’s try to figure out what we’re gonna do now that we can’t possibly send any more spies inside those brambles."

"Yeah, if I’m not wrong, those spies from the map maker lost two of their folks as well, didn’t they?" Looking at Raven for confirmation, Aria leaned back against the tent’s wall. "I doubt they’re gonna work with us anymore."

"I haven’t heard a word from them ever since they brought Lumine here, so I would assume that assessment is right," confirming all doubts, Raven turned towards the tent’s entrance. "It seems like the longer we wait, the weaker we’re getting in terms of manpower. Maybe it’s time we head out and clear the rot."

"We would still need a day or two to prepare for the departure," Regalia reminded.

Bobbing his head, Raven took a deep breath and sighed.

"Then we do it the old-fashioned way," glancing back at his party, Raven stared at each and every one of them. "Just us clearing the way until the army arrives, what do you think?"

As risky as the prospect of going by themselves was, if there was anyone who could gather information on the terrain after their best scouts had died in that place, it was them and them alone and nobody else.

"Ugh...fine, but I’m not eating monster meat again, and let’s take that Flitza girl with us, we never got to talk to her because of this mess!" Amedith complained, but within that complaint was a taste of the past–a nostalgia that brought a smile to everyone’s faces.

"Fuck it, let’s go then," Aria stepped up next, and with her came Mel.

Eyes turned to Erika, and although she had a holy order to maintain, passing that responsibility to Regalia, she too stepped forward with determination.

"Been a while since I fought off some horrors myself, so I guess I can use some practice before the demon general."

With everyone in agreement, the army camp was left in the care of Regalia and a handful of others, most trusted by the hero and his companions. Even Liliyana was left behind, for the army couldn’t spare any healers. Before heading out, however, the monster girls had brought someone with them, someone who just so happened to be heading into the same place.