LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 89 — In which they meet (3)
Chapter 89 — In which they meet (3)
“Priest Phlox, the gifts have been placed down according to your instructions.”
“Yes.”
Phlox nodded, and then glanced at Geod, who just reported.
The young man’s eyes betrayed no nervousness or anticipation.
Rather they seemed so tranquil as if they were dead, not even looking directly at her.
Her gaze moved from Geod to Alexandrit and a person, who stood beside him.
Alexandrit also maintained a perfect mask.
The problem was the person beside him.
Seven disguised as one of the attendants seemed to have some troubles adjusting to his role.
He kept glancing at the red-haired man that led them inside.
‘According to the intel, it should be the heir of Black Lake’s clan and the close confidant of the Archamage… Do you know each other?’
Phlox quickly considered it, but it seemed unlikely.
The man, who introduced himself as ‘Scarlen’, closely examined everyone, even going as far as looking at them with a spiritual vision, which Phlox decided to kindly point out would be considered rude in Purplus.
But even when he gazed on Seven’s spirit, he didn’t show any reaction.
He could be an amazing actor, but Phlox trusted her instincts.
‘Or maybe the disguise is just that good?’
She glanced at Seven’s face and marveled again.
There was no trace of that corrupt blasphemer left.
Before her stood the attendant from the Universe Temple, who he sometimes met in the corridors.
It wasn’t even magic or spiritual art, but a pure wonder of a good make-up.
As they were heading to the mage’s nest, they couldn’t risk using magic, which would be immediately detected and bring some reasonable, but very uncomfortable questions.
Spiritual arts, if discovered, could also become a reason for a war, so they were naturally abandoned.
What Saint in his infinite wisdom suggested instead was to take an attendant of similar height and face shape, knock them out and make Seven, wearing an appropriate make-up, replace them.
It took several hours of Alexandrit and Geod’s hard work and Perlliar and Cotteo fussing that:
— Our son’s pretty face is being hidden. Next time we’ll make sure to show his prettiest side to the world.
… Which Phlox was still a bit confused about, because she didn’t know Perllair and Cotteo had a son with a pretty face.
The only son they supposedly had was Seven, who didn’t have a pretty face.
Well, putting that problem aside.
She quickly surveyed the envoy under her command and then sent Alexandrit a gaze saying ‘Do something about him’, while she addressed Geod and gathered the attention of everyone else.
“You, stay here and watch over the ‘gifts’.”
She put a special emphasis on this command, as it was something that Amara told her to watch out for.
— Rasin seems eager to cause a civil war. We must watch out what gifts he… or those with similar ideas to his might want to bring to Archmage’s family…
Therefore, Geod was instructed to watch out for people who might want to try something funny.
Geod bowed indicating he would carry out the command.
Then she addressed the priests, who came as other representatives.
“I’ll ask my siblings in divine to follow me to the main hall. Considering we’re in the land where voices of gods are faint, it would be best if we stick together. His Excellency expressed his worry before our departure and wished that we would always move in the group of three. I hope we’ll be able to honor this wish.”
Hearing the word ‘His Excellency’, the faces of priests’ brightened, and when they heard he was worried, they looked very touched.
“His Excellency’s kindness knows no bounds.”
“Haa, His Excellency works so hard recently, yet he still sacrifices his time to worry about us.”
“Yes, yes, doesn’t he seem to work twice, no, thrice as much as before?”
“Let’s make sure there is nothing to weigh on his mind and follow his advice.”
Somehow it quickly turned into a praising of Amara session.
In fact, Amara said that because he wanted to create a situation where it would be hard for priests to move, but no one realized it.
Phlox was momentarily concerned if it wasn’t rude to boast about their Saint when the main character of this event was supposed to be the Archmage’s younger brother, but as everything they said was a fact, she decided to just let them continue.
She turned to the pair, who was now hiding their presence very well.
She had no idea what Alexandrit did in that short moment she was giving out orders, but now he was standing between Scarlen and Seven, effectively preventing Seven from looking at the Archmage’s confidant.
Seven also didn’t seem to want to look around anymore. He was just staring at the ground with shaking eyes.
‘… What on the gods of hell did you do?’
Phlox once again noted down for herself that Alexandrit was a very scary man when he got serious about something.
“You two, stay beside me and assist.”
Alexandrit bowed and Seven followed suit with a split-second delay.
The two were vital to dealing with the second thing Amara was concerned about.
As Phlox headed towards the main hall where the ceremony would take place, while surveying her surroundings, she thought:
‘Now I need to locate the Archmage’s family members and ensure nothing happens to them.’
Behind the backs of Purplus’ envoy, the teleportation circle started to light up again.
*-*-*
The light that dyed her vision faded and Saffra blinked as unfamiliar environment entered her eyes.
She also instinctively checked her body status and was pleasantly surprised.
‘Usually, when teleporting the disruption of blood and mana flow can cause momentary side effects, especially when the body isn’t used to it, but I don’t even feel dizzy.’
That meant that the Archmage provided them with highly skilled teleportation masters.
‘Sadly, I cannot praise you.’
Saffra was thankful for Crimo’s consideration and hospitality, but in fact it would be much better if he didn’t provide them with such skilled professionals.
That would make Saffra’s subsequent acting much less dramatic.
She staggered as she raised her hand to her lips and let out a quiet:
“...Ah!”
Sound, gathering the attention of the people around.
She clenched her jaw and neck muscles for the veins to pop out and her eyes to sink a bit, as if she was in pain.
“Saffra?!”
Mimosa, even though they talked about it beforehand, jumped to her side with a frightened face.
Well, Saffra had no complaints, because it was exactly what Mimosa was supposed to be doing.
“Are you okay? Do you need to sit down?”
Mimosa slightly supported the staggering Saffra and reached her hand out to check her pulse.
Someone clicked his tongue at the side.
“What now? Don’t tell me she is dying because of one teleportation.”
“It was her first teleportation, Orche.”
Mimosa looked like she wanted to scoff more, but she prioritized her little sister and paid no attention to her half-brother.
“Some people have much stronger teleportation sickness than others… Still we apologize for causing such inconvenience.”
Someone else approached the group.
Saffra glanced at him from the corner of her eye, quickly matching the face with the report on the important figures of Rubrun, which Mimosa prepared for her.
‘’Scarlen’, the current Archmage’s most loyal confidant… and a demon.’
While Saffra was quickly organizing all the information she knew about the man in her head.
Scarlen glanced at her, and then looked at Mimosa.
His eyes held a strange mix of emotions.
What was it? A grudge? For some reason Scarlen seemed to have some harsh words to say to Mimosa, but when observing the scene of her taking care of Saffra, his eyes warmed up a bit.
He spoke with a tinge softer voice:
“We prepared a parlour to rest for such occasions. There are also medics on standby. If Young Lady Saffra agrees we will bring her there immediately.”
Though it was supposed to be Saffra’s decision, Scarlen looked at Mimosa.
Mimosa pressed her lips as if struggling with a decision what should she do.
At that moment, Saffra weakly stood up on her own, instead leaning against her older sister’s shoulder and said quietly:
“I’m starting to feel better. I think it will be enough if I just rest for a moment. Please do not let me hold you back. I’ll go to the parlour to calm down as Grandmaster Scarlen suggested.”
“But… Haa, okay, as you wish. You three… and you and you. Go with Saffra.”
Mimosa hesitated for a second, but agreed and pointed out Saffra’s three ladies in waiting and two of her subordinates to go with Saffra.
In the instant, Mimosa’s force decreased by half, but Mimosa still eyed some of her subordinates, as if she was thinking of dividing them even more.
Before she could do that, Saffra lightly held her hand and said:
“Thank you. See you soon.”
And then turned around to follow a guide called by Scarlen to the parlour.
With that little scene the Flavun’s envoys were divided in half.
One with Saffra, Craya, Tangeri, Apric and Mimosa’s subordinates.
And the other with Mimosa, her remaining subordinates and Citrie.
“Lady Mimosa, Lord Orche. If you don’t mind, please follow me.”
Scarlen spoke with a business-like smile.
His dark eyes flickered as if he noticed something, but he didn’t say anything.
*~*~*
Author's note: I'm very slowly realizing that a lot of characters to keep track of during this event is much more characters to keep track of than I thought.
But here is Phlox's drawing I mentioned before:
[ID: A drawing of a woman with light-brown skin, gray hair, very pale pink-gray eyes,and gray and purple robe with big sleeves, holding a stack of paper. Her hair isn’t all short like the writer mentioned before, but let's ignore it.]