Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 746: A Curious Coincident

As the army readied itself to march out the gates Dandy, Frazer, Flitza and all, gathered around the main party. Each had their own reasons to be there, and seeing each other so close again, both the dark elf and the hero grimaced and looked away. Surprisingly enough, accompanying the dark elf were Holly and Jess. They wanted to have one last talk with their family before he ventured out into the desert again, but before they could talk, a handful of others also decided to present themselves.

The first were Linkle and Darius, each had big dark circles under their eyes. Affected by the poison and although recovering, the two had been amongst the most hardworking of the bunch in recent days. Standing in front of Raven, they discussed their next move in great detail. Overhearing them easily everyone wanted to know what they had in mind, so much so that their own reasons for coming here had to wait.

"We should have enough medicine for a week, but since we’re going in there anyways, let’s make a commitment to pick any herbs that we might run along the way."

"As for the scrolls. As long as nobody gets to the worker’s carriage I’ll keep everyone working, but even one casualty will discourage everyone quite a bit." First Linkle and then Darius, both spoke their piece. They wanted Raven to relay the necessary information to the rest of the troops. Their main objective was to keep moving through the forest while also protecting those who were working on repairs, potions, and scrolls.

To add to their responsibility, they would now need to keep an eye out for the herbs or allow the workers to get out of their moving shelter and pick the ingredients by themselves.

"Erika and I are gonna be up front, Amedith and the rest will be right behind us," glancing between the two, Raven placed a hand on both of their shoulders. "Don’t worry, you and your workers will be fine. Just try to keep up with the demand, we’re already weakened as is."

And so, with that conversation done, Holly and Jess tried to approach Frazer. Their steps were punctuated with doubts, but even so, they tried to get closer to the only man in their family. However, right as they were about to reach out to him, Muena the dryad blocked them with her body. Glancing down at their much smaller frame, she flashed them a deceptive smile.

"Stay away, he doesn’t wanna talk to you."

"I wanna hear him say it then!" Holly retorted, almost lunging at the dryad before her daughter pulled her back.

"M-Mom...stop," squeezing Holly’s shoulders, Jess lifted her gaze and looked right into the dryad’s eyes. "What kind of poison have you been spewing in his head? I know you’ve done something to him!"

"SHUT UP AND LEAVE!" Frazer yelled from a distance, not even bothering to look at his family.

Watching that young man surrounded by monsters as he casually began talking to them about something else entirely, the women felt defeated, and yet with Maine’s words ringing back into their ears, they didn’t wanna give up on him, not yet.

"You can come back to me, no matter what happens..." Whispered his mother, her lips quivering with emotions.

"These people aren’t your family, Frazer! We are!" The sister added, but the hero refused to turn around and so, with hope still clenched in their hearts, the girls took a step away from the dryad and stood beside the dark elf once more.

"I hope he comes around," Dandy said right as the girls came back.

Nodding in response, the two prayed for the same, but whether he would come back or not only time could tell. In the meantime, many others that gathered around the general managed to catch the girls’ attention. From Mercedes to Maria and her group, as well as Mono’s Twin along with the sick trio of Hilma, Felix and Astra; everyone had their own reports to file, however, even after they were done, someone else decided to come up.

A flash of blue light beamed beside the general and as it settled, a whole new group of people emerged from the light. Helga, Mono, Shamisha and Aradin’s group, everyone was there even though they weren’t supposed to leave Elenaris. With furrowed brows, Raven turned to the party. His hands folded on their own with a stern look on his face.

"I thought I made it clear for Shamisha and June to stay in Elenaris, why are they here?" Everyone unfamiliar with the party simply watched the general unfolding on the group. It was obvious that he wasn’t happy by their appearance, but why was that exactly? None of them could tell. "And where’s Lumine? She’s probably the only one who should be here and she’s not. What the hell is going on?"

"Oh come on," in her radiant US form, Mono appeared as a general herself yet her demeanor was quite different. Rolling her eyes, she smiled and slowly approached Raven. "I wanted something to do, sitting on my ass has a tendency to make me insane. You of all people should know that."

"I thought keeping that beast boy around was helping you with that." Raven shot right back, just as stern as a breath before.

Batting her golden eyelashes, Mono looked confused at Raven for a bit before realizing what he was talking about.

"Oh, yeah. But he’s looking after the girl you sent and the boy’s too young to be in a place like this."

Fanning his hand with annoyance, Raven turned his attention to Helga instead.

"And what about you? Why did you bring them here?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Helga directed Raven towards the group behind her with her hand.

"More stubborn than my kids, these morons, they wanted to join the war effort and I obviously couldn’t leave Shamisha behind." Face palming himself, Raven felt a headache slowly creeping up on him.

’As if I didn’t have enough people to manage already.’ With the addition of the two Socceress’ as well as Aradin’s battalion, Shamisha as well as Helga, either this war was going to be a breeze or one long headache that wouldn’t leave Raven until the whole thing was done.

"Fuck it," lifting his head, Raven raised his arm to show it to the army. "WE’RE LEAVING! BEGIN MARCH!"

And so, it finally began, the toughest war since the end of the holy war.