Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 753: The Final Truth And The Way To Advancement

Ever since the army arrived at Eclanor, Felix and Astra were plotting to get their revenge. Thus, teaming up with Frazer came naturally, and so they helped each other for mutual benefit. However, since Amedith’s suspicion was still heavy on them, they decided to poison themselves as well with the food by bringing the same meal to their tent to share with Hilma.

However, to avoid the worst effects, they suffered through the initial effect of the antidote that only made things worse for them until Amedith was done checking up on them. Past that, their bodies healed swifter than anyone else; at the same time, the suspicion was laid off them. Their ultimate plan? To backstab Raven and his party members once the fight with the demon general was over. Weakened by the poison as well as tired from the fight, it would have given them just enough of a chance to drive a poisoned dagger through nearly everyone’s heart.

As for the army, they were about to poison them further to ensure that they would all die, but as fate would have it, they got caught at the very last moment by Regalia, Mercedes and Mono’s twin.

"How did Liliyana not catch them lying when you went to their tent?" Just finishing hearing everything from Mercedes, Raven turned to Amedith with his forehead wrinkled with an ache. "Did you even ask them anything?"

"They were sick and in pain, of course, that was the only thing I could see of their emotions, that they were hurting!" Liliyana defended herself with a quick explanation.

"And besides that, nothing stuck out?" Still keeping his eyes on Amedith, Raven wanted to hear it from him, and so the Magus answered.

"No, nothing. I guess I didn’t stop to consider the fact that they would poison themselves to make things more believable." The weight of his negligence felt a little crushing to the young magus. He knew he should’ve investigated some more, but his forgiving and just nature made him focus more on their injuries and on treating them himself, than question why their symptoms were much worse than the rest of the army. "I should’ve known something was off."

Staring at the ground, Amedith reflected on the memory. But not for long, as Erika came walking through the tent’s curtain with more information on hand.

"Our goddess wants to strike a deal with the man we captured." Hearing those words, the previous conversation was completely wiped from everyone’s head. Instead, focusing on the priestess, they allowed her to speak some more. "He’s an otherworlders and he’s going back home. That deal he was talking about back in the forest? It’s the exact same one, but this time he doesn’t have to do anything in return. Just getting out of our hair is enough."

"Thank god..." Raven heaved, somewhat delighted that at least one of their problems was going away.

"But we do have to keep him with us for a week or so. Athenia needs to make some preparations first. She didn’t tell me what they were, so it could be longer or shorter, I can’t say for sure." The priestess added, bringing down the delight from the good news.

"So we gotta drag him around all the time, huh?" Musing to himself, Raven pondered if they could even convince the killer that there would be a deal to be made soon enough. He’d already tried to peer into his mind and failed, so whatever needed to be done had to be done in a legitimate way.

’If he’s working for the demon general, then at least he can give us more information about him and his allies.’ As soon as that thought crossed his head, Raven rose from his seat and looked to the entrance of the tent.

"I’ll talk to him," he said, all eyes on him.

"Before you go," stepping forward, Amedith stood before Raven with folded hands, "What about the dryad? Now we know for sure that she’s the one who poisoned the army. What are we gonna do about her and her allies?"

"You know exactly what we’re gonna do with them," looking down at Amedith with a raging look, Raven moved him aside and began walking towards the entrance. "As far as everyone else is concerned, she and everyone who was with her died in that forest. We’ll keep their bodies intact if possible, bringing them back to the city should help show that we cared for them–at least for their burial."

As soon as he was done talking, and was pushing the tent’s curtain aside, another question came hurling at Raven.

"What about Regalia and Hilma? What are we doing about that situation?" Taking a pause at the exit, Raven didn’t know how to answer Amedith’s question. But it did remind him of something from long ago, or rather someone else from his party.

’Maine locked herself in her room when Libyan died fighting the primordial. Maybe this is one of those times when there’s nothing for us to do but allow one’s grief to slowly breeze by.’ That thought stuck with him. He knew that there was no better way nor anything he could do to make the impacted parties work with each other.

Neither Regalia nor Hilma was in the wrong, and taking sides or trying to forcefully make them overcome their differences was bound to end up with him being the antagonist in at least one of their eyes. And while Regalia may be more understanding depending on her state of mind, there was no way Hilma was anywhere near ready to reconcile with anyone at the moment.

"Leave them be for now," and thus, doing nothing at all and at the same time doing the best thing that he could do, Raven left the tent to join the elves in their watch over the killer of saints. The man hadn’t yet woken up, and with the dryad and her companions lying in wait inside the forest, the army march must be delayed, for there was no doubt in Raven’s mind that traps and ploys were waiting for them not too far ahead.