Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 899: A Clash Of Minds - Part 2

The cups were empty, and Grace poured the group another fill. Their conversation, as Mono had expected, had gone on for quite a while, and in that time she’d learned about Moeria and Helga’s involvement with each other. But exactly why were they visiting her? That offer hadn’t yet been made. And before they could even reveal that, the queen lifted her right hand and gave Moeria some pause.

"Before you ask me for whatever it is that you’ve come for, I need some answers beyond who you are." Neither waiting for their agreement nor wasting time with silence, Mono moved her cup to the side while looking right into the hologram’s eyes. "First, tell me, what exactly was the reason that my parents abandoned me. Second, how do you know them and what was the extent of your relationship with them, and last, what did they do and how did they die?"

Despite not possessing any lungs, Moeria took a deep breath out of habit. Leaning forward with a sigh, she looked deep into Mono’s eyes and began answering her questions.

"Their reasons to abandon you, I do not know. But what I do know is that the two lived their natural lives for as long as I was conscious and had a body of my own." Waving a hand at Mono’s current appearance, she brought attention to her metallic shell. "Perhaps they found some way to extend their lives if they managed to have a kid after so long since the holy war. Otherwise, they would’ve been dead nearly a thousand years ago."

Pursing her lips, Moeria studied the tension in Mono’s eyes. The queen hadn’t moved an inch since she started talking, and even now, she simply awaited Moeria’s next word in silence.

"As for what they did. They were professional in their craft. I can’t reveal what exactly they did, but if it came down to it, the two were working on a weapon from our home world that would’ve killed anything–be they god, colonies, or continents of followers."

Slapping Moeria’s hologram from the side, Helga sneered at her advisor.

"You never told me about this. What the hell was this weapon?" Visibly upset about the ordeal, Helga crossed her arms and demanded an answer.

As reluctant as she was, with the gods who had told her to keep her lips sealed gone, Moeria had little reason to keep the full details of such a destructive plan a secret.

"Aphrodite kept it a secret from everyone–including Murdok. Although I have a feeling that the dread lord knew what was going on," dropping her shoulders, Moeria leaned back in her chair. "Not to mention, I wasn’t authorized to talk about any otherworlders. Goddess Aphrodite preferred to keep their true identity a secret to make it seem, amongst her Atlarian followers, that with enough faith, they too could gain immense power as demonstrated by their otherworlder companions in war."

"That fucking bitch!" The valkyrie cursed, her fist crashing onto the table.

"Who’s surprised, really?" Waving his hand at the news, Raven tried to brush things off so that they could continue moving forward and not dwell on the details for too long.

Taking the hint, Moeria was the first to talk. Continuing on with her explanation about Mono’s parents, and something more.

"I only knew them in passing. Whenever I connected my mind with the goddess to use fast future foresight, I would also have to relay to her the details of their experiments and how far they had gotten. Unfortunately, from what I know, Bellona got wind of the experiment somehow. Aphrodite was going to use the weapons your parents were creating to stab her in the back. Of course, the burning mistress didn’t take it lightly and well..."

Turning to look at Helga, Moeria forced a weak smile on her face.

"General Valkaria was the first to incur the flames of her wrath. Their fight went on for a while, but obviously, we were no match for a goddess, even with my foresight predicting a few seconds into the future and feeding it right into the general’s mind."

Shaking her head, Helga looked away from the crowd and set her gaze on a distant shrub in the garden. Her hands neatly folded, she decided to add a few words of her own.

"She killed nearly everyone I used to lead. Moeria lost her body too, and I was left with my body burned to ash–fucking bitch only left my head intact, knowing that I was cursed with immortality." Closing her eyes for a moment, her breath grew heavy as she looked back into the past to that horrid moment. "I should’ve died then and there, but my anger as a barbarian healed me–stupid fucking thing wasn’t enough to get me back into the fight though."

Silence lingered in the air, and only the sound of Grace moving coasters and cups could be heard for a while. The maid removed the plates with uneaten cake and other pleasantries, but as she was taking her leave, Mono spoke up, making her hand holding a coaster a little. However, as Grace looked at her, she saw not her master but someone who was denied answers for the last time.

"So you don’t know anything about my parents that would be useful to me?" She asked, her stern gaze nailing Moeria in place.

"That...is subjective, but I do know a few things." For once, the advisor felt intimidated by the younger girl. "For starters, I used to be called Yumi, but here I decided to change my name to something more appropriate for this world to avoid drawing suspicion. Your parents did not follow the same example; they kept their real names. Clementine and Luis."

"And?" Mono’s expression grew ever more sour with every wasted second.

Swallowing the non-existent spit, Moeria shook her head and added further.

"I am Japanese, your parents were French. We both spoke lesser arcane or archaic, as they sometimes call it here, but in our world that would be English." Ears perked up to the strange connection between the two worlds, and how a language had travelled between the two. "It is a more modern form of True arcane or simply Arcane in this world, which, in turn, for our world was Latin. The common tongue of Atlaris has no official name, but it is derived from one of the languages of Gaia, and I personally believe that it’s no mere coincidence and neither the work of the elder gods, but something more ancient."

"The fucking creator..." Helga huffed in complaint, and the others wondered the same.

Nobody knew who he, she, or it was, but every time the group had tried to dig up the past, that name had reared itself without fail.

"One last thing," cutting through the silent contemplation, Moeria leaned forward in her chair again and reached for Mono’s hand. "My personal feelings or words probably won’t hold much weight for you. So I speak simply in statistics. And according to my assessment of both your parents and you."

An ever-so-faint smile flashed across Moeria’s face.

"I believe that they would’ve been proud of who you’ve become."

Touching the moment felt in the silence, but slapping the hand away, Mono twisted her lips in disgust.

"Whatever, just tell me what you want." Not satisfied with the answers, the iron queen remained as cold as steel–another sign to Moeria that she was not unlike her parents and most like her mother.

"Alright then, let’s begin negotiating." Leaning back in her chair, Moeria began with yet another explanation of how and why she needed a human body.