Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 742: No Proof All Speculations

Another meeting, one of many. Raven was once again surrounded by speculations. This time, however, even Dandy, who had just helped Linkle with the poison issue, had something to say to him.

"The poison, no, it’s from a dryad. Don’t expect it to be gone so soon, their kind are masters of hiding their toxins in their victims’ bodies in a dormant state before crippling them whenever needed." Glancing over at Rose, Brenna and Aerin, the last of whom were still struggling with the sickness, Raven pondered for a while over what to do next.

Before he could come to a conclusion, however, Liliyana walked into the tent–all alone with sight of Amedith behind her. Taking a step forward, she made her way through the rest of the crowd and stood in front of Raven directly.

"That dryad knows that we’re keeping an eye on her."

"How can you be so sure?" Raven questioned, eyes furrowing.

Titling her head ever so slightly, Liliyana lifted her right hand and created an illusion formed by dark mist.

"Amedith is with her and her group, but she’s been acting weird. Almost too straight an arrow for someone like her." Creating the illusion of what Amedith was seeing currently, Liliyana showed the group how constant Muena’s gaze was on their party members. "I do suspect one thing though..."

Brushing the illusion off, Liliyana folded her hands and squinted.

"That Frazer guy, he’s being stalked by Seraphim and Riyanzah–I don’t think he knows that I know, and the sisters don’t know that they know that I do either. Besides that, he’s just an arrogant but powerful idiot, and the true brains of their group seems to be that dryad, after all."

"Fuck me, these stupid djinn girls..." Grimacing and complaining, Regalia cast her gaze at Raven. "I told them not to chase that guy, but they’ve been after his blood ever since their fight with him."

"I thought I told them not to do anything stupid–"

"I mean, what do you expect from those simpletons?" chiming into the matter, Linkle stepped forward. "The prince and Elana are always too busy conversing with each other to look after those idiots; of course, they’re gonna do something stupid."

"I’ll go get them!" Growling to herself, Regalia wasted no time in rushing out of the tent to get those girls.

A moment of silence followed her departure, only to be broken by another problem presented by Liliyana.

"What about the food? Aren’t we still running low?"

"It’s a desert out there, Liliyana. We’ve hunted nearly everything that we could eat," Raven replied, a bit defeated on that front.

Shaking her head, Aria chimed in.

"Our rations would’ve lasted us for a few months, but we can’t trust that pile either if there’s a traitor in the army that can and has poisoned us before."

"That reminds me," placing a hand on Liliyana’s shoulder, Mel turned the devil giant to look at her. "Any clue about who that dryad might have passed the poison to? Obviously, she couldn’t have dropped the poison in the cauldrons herself, right?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Liliyana hopelessly shook her head. She had no idea with whom that dryad had struck a deal, all that she knew now, was the fact that the woman was onto the fact that they knew it was her who provided the poison.

"A lot of speculation and not enough proof," Erica finally spoke up, yet her hands remained on the three who were still feeling a bit ill.

Everyone’s heads turned in her direction. One hand on Rose’s back and the other over the dragon tattoo on Brenna’s chest. Once and for all, she was trying to heal them to get rid of the nuisance of constant healing and over-reliance on the rings. Her effects seemed to be working, but the time it took for their bodies to adjust to every little change was making things a tad bit difficult.

"Waiting to find out the truth is only making our army weaker, and the longer we wait, the worse the morale will be." Turning her head slightly in Raven’s direction, Erika looked in the eye and whispered. "I think it’s time we stopped waiting and took the fight to the demon general, after all. Waiting here, we’re doomed to lose more to the sickness or the poison. I doubt the dryad will stop now, even though we know everything. But in the theatre of war, we can most definitely keep her busy on the frontlines and those traitors, well, they’re probably waiting to sabotage us on the battlefield, and that’s the only time they’re gonna come out now that they know that we’re looking for them."

As risky as Erika’s plan sounded, there was little else the party could come up with. They’ve been waiting for more than half a week at this point, and with doubts about the dryad stopping with the sabotage, it was clear what needed to be done to handle the whole thing.

’Either kill the dryad and risk losing a safe haven in this city due to the backlash for killing a hero’s party member, or take their party to battle and just hope that they’ll either die to the enemy or be caught in the act with definitive proof.’ Retreating into his mind, Raven sifted through the possibilities.

The people of Eclanor were innocent, and in their heads, their hero was Frazer. And if his party member was killed, there was no doubt that Frazer would attack their group–leading to another casualty, perhaps even the death of everyone from his group. Not to mention the deal with the giants. They still held something important that belonged to Athenia but was left in their care for some odd reason.

Ideally, Raven would’ve preferred to kill the false hero after all, but with so many things at play and the antagonization of their goddess, even if they saved the city, there was no way in hell the people would accept them. Thus, in the end, if Athenia was not accepted as the goddess of this land by its people, then her presence here would be dim, and she couldn’t watch over the party as they moved forward.

"So?" Calling out to him as the healing was finally done, Erika rose to her feet and looked straight at him. "What would it be?"

Looking back at her, Raven contemplated the thought for just a while longer before responding.

"Alright then, we’re moving tomorrow. Get the soldiers back on their feet." And so began the last of the preparations. Too much uncertainty was carried within that decision, but wait any longer and who knows what could’ve happened.

"I do have one proposal," before the news made it out of the tent, however, the massive fingers of Arche lifted the tent’s curtain. Peering in through her giant eye, the Arachne queen added. "How about you leave the food situation to me? I have plenty of children to fill our soldiers’ bellies."

Crawling out from under her eyelids were hundreds of small spiders with hairy bodies and long dark legs. Dandy, the only outsider–at least from the ones still awake–hadn’t seen Arche’s true abilities recoiled in horror as a wave of disgust rippled through her skin.

"Roast the poison out of their bodies, and I can feed our people for a decade," said the Arachne queen, a smile plastered on her face.

And while eating spiders wouldn’t have been the ideal choice of a meal, given the current situation, she was made in charge of the colossal mess.