Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 796: The Tower Of The Elected

Emptiness flooded Garcia’s mind as she lay on her bed and slowly began drifting. Her muscles eased up little by little, and her eyes finally could rest. The loss of vision, the loss of perception itself, had a more calming effect on her than on most people, as she often dealt with death and was far too comfortable with it. Betting her very life for luck so good it could foil the ploys of gods, she was amongst the very few whose blessing was quite absurd with little to no blowback–of course, unless the coin landed on the skull.

Even so, as she left, an assassin decided to visit her place. Standing above her body, it raised its dagger, but the moment he tried to stab her, a sudden knock on the door forced him to hide under her bed. A few knocks later, Garcia finally woke up and laid her feet down on the floor. Checking her chainmail under her nightclothes, she walked over to the entrance and opened the door.

"What?" She muttered, and then she realized that it was Ironheart standing in front of her.

"You little..." Raising his hammer, the massive man gave the woman no explanation. "YOU MURDERER!!"

"WHAT?!" As the hammer came down on her, however, her magical chains slipped out of her sleeves and pulled her small blades off the counter. Coming right under the hammer’s trajectory, the blades deflected the strike, but the sound of laughter from the hammer overwhelmed Garcia’s senses. "AGHH! WHAT THE–HALT! YOU BIG BRUTE!!"

She tried to stop him once more, but this time, using his fist to attack her body and also distract the blades, Ironheart swung his hammer with one hand like a bat and clubbed the elf’s body across the room. Unfortunately for him, however, the sheer wind caused by his strike lifted Garcia’s mattress, and so instead of hitting the wall, her body crashed against her soft bedding.

"Who the hell?" While the woman recovered from the blow, Ironheart noticed the assassin under her bed. Without waiting for any response, he clenched his hammer once more and threw it at the man. "YOU’RE DYING TOO, YOU SCOUNDREL!"

"F-fuck..." And that’s all the man could breathe before the hammer crushed his skull. Laughter and the voice of a crowd erupted from the strike once again, but this time Garcia was no longer there to listen to it at all.

"Where the fuck did she go?!" Screeched the big brute, not realizing that the elf had used a potion of invisibility that she kept wrapped around her neck as a locket to slip out from between his legs.

Slowly walking away from the man, Garcia had her mouth covered to keep herself from breathing too loudly. Her heart was pounding loud enough already, and her mind was racing with thoughts, as she had no clue why the big brute was trying to kill her out of nowhere.

’Has he lost his mind?! And what murder is he talking about?!’ As she continued to walk, many soldiers rushed past her. They didn’t notice her presence, but the effect of the potion wouldn’t last forever. ’I need to talk to Justice Host; he’s the only one this monster will listen to.’

As much as she hated that idea, only Justice Host could talk some sense into the brute. Mostly because they served the same goddess, but also due to the fact that there was nothing the other judge or Fortuna’s faithful could say to convince him not to kill her.

Making her way past the unusual surge of soldiers armed to the teeth with Mesmerazia’s crests, armors and insignia, she made her way further down the tower of elects until eventually the effect of the potion finally ran out. Slipping into a dark corner by a staircase, she watched and watched as soldiers breezed past her. They could’ve seen her if they looked closely, but every one of them was in too much of a rush to get to her floor and perhaps further up.

’What the hell is going on?’ Finally, after no more soldiers could be seen, she kept to the shadows and made her way to the Justice’s office. He mostly spent his night there, so it was a better bet than looking for him in his room.

"Host? I need to talk to you–" The moment she opened the door, her body froze at the sight. Slumped on his desk with a dagger sticking through his back, Justice Host was dead and the weapon...it was eerily similar to her own daggers. "No, no way. What..."

Panting through gritted teeth, she rushed to the desk to get a closer look at the body and the murder weapon. First, she reached for the dagger, and sure enough, it had a cloverleaf imprinted on its handles, as did her very own weapons. Hesitantly, she lifted the man’s face next. Getting a better look at his face, she confirmed that it was truly the judge and not some imposter’s ploy to frame her as the culprit.

"Fortuna preserve me..." Jerking away from the body, she reached for her heart. It was beating so loud she could hear it like a war drum. "Who did this? Oh no...Oh my god. NOOO!!"

As her scream echoed down the halls, Garcia quickly reached for her coin and gave it a quick toss. Covering it in her hand, she braced her heart and hoped for the best. However, the moment she moved her hand away, she found death staring back at her.

"I-I need to get out of here..." As those words left her mouth, the rushing footsteps of soldiers coming her way echoed all around. For a moment, she froze, but a slap to her own face and her body sprang back into action.

Running out of her room, she looked both ways and to her horror, the footsteps were coming from both sides. As for the front, the only thing there was the stained glass windows and beyond it lay certain death. Even so, looking down at her right hand, she tossed her coin. This time, unlike the last, however, the coin landed on tails.

"I’ll surrender my life in your hands, Fortuna!" With one last glance towards heaven, Garcia ran towards the glass and jumped through it with her hands covering her face.

Descending through the air, Garcia could feel the pressure squeezing in around her. Her heart was pounding faster than her body was descending, and her consciousness almost felt as though it was lagging behind, so much so that she could see her body falling towards certain death. Until a wagon carrying grain and pigeon feathers to make quills, as well as bedding for the servants, came out of the tower’s inspection door.

A rejected cargo, sent away just in time to catch her fall. Even the elf who’d been through worse could not believe her luck that night.