59 Hin

Much like the Dark King of the Elves—the one who is attributed to the fall of the Great Monolithic Elvish Empire—the Holy Empire of Men's demise is ascribed to the Mad King. And while his devilish portrayal and the blame he received at the time were unfair, he was still at least partially responsible for the fall of the empire. This is especially true when you look at his egalitarian philosophies that cast the metaphorical fireball that burned the thousand-year-old dynasty to ashes. It's from within the ember of that fire that the many human nations that we see today arose—all of which had blatantly opposite philosophies to that of the Mad King. And this knee-jerk reaction has never been realized in a more extreme fashion than that of the Stals—more precisely, the Pliyx Stal. Their philosophy of might is right and the strong eat everything comes in complete opposite to that of the Holy Empire which—at least in its final years—guaranteed equality of outcome. — The Fall of The Holy Empire, by the historians of the council of Men.

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"This is Robin, Maeveric, Mars, and Ghostmoon." Hector pointed at a mage, priest, swordsman, and an assassin in order of the name. All of his party nodded in greeting to Shesmu's.

"Nice! This is the party that took all the spotlight on the first floor?" Robin exclaimed. Her dark purple hair and flamboyant personality reminded Shesmu of his friend Fate.

"Nice to meet you all," Maeveric greeted. His white robe matched his everlasting smile. Somehow, Shesmu felt the same aura emanating from him as that of Shin—one that showcased the calm before the storm. "Hector told us that we're doing some kind of little alliance to corner the hidden monster."

"Well, it's not really an alliance." Hector scratched his head. "We're just trying to brainstorm."

"That's fine and all, but won't having this little group of ours make the other parties suspicious?" Mars cut in just as Hector finished. "It's clear that whoever makes the first move in this situation will be the one to be the most suspicious."

"That…" Hector scratched his head. "Yeah, you're right."

"Completely agree with you Mars," Maeveric added. He then looked at Shesmu with a smile. "Plus, doesn't it stand to reason that the actual hidden monster will want to make the first move. That way he gets to control the flow of the conversation."

Maeveric's eyes lingered on Shesmu's. The latter understood exactly what was going through Maeveric's mind, but he didn't let it bother him. Shesmu knew that this kind of confrontation was inevitable.

"Hey, are you all a bunch of pussies?!" Sakura interjected. "If we all just stay passive and not do any proactive move, the monster will just stay hidden until the fights start and then use its chaos to make his moves. What do you think is easier? Thinking of countermeasures to the monster here while we're drinking whiskey and splurging on cake, or when we have twenty thousand skeletons coming from all directions all dying to take a bite of our asses?"

Shesmu chuckled at Sakura's imagery. Hector followed after with hearty laughter, and soon everyone was laughing at the same time.

"Gotta say, this little girl really has a sharp tongue, I like it."

After the laughter settled down, Shesmu continued from where Sakura left off. "Like Sakura said, we can't be just passive. I know that some of you don't trust me, and that's good—I don't trust you either." Shesmu's face cracked into a smile. His eyes looked at Maeveric who laughed in response. Robin and the rest of the party also followed suit.

"It's not that we don't trust you," She said. "It's just that it's good to keep caution up."

"Yeah, I totally agree with that," Shesmu reassured. "It's important to keep a certain level of caution up at all times. But enough of that, let's actually talk about what you guys would do if you were the monster. Let's try to get into its boot and see what we can come up with."

Hector scratched his chin for a second before he said, "Well if it was me, I would probably want to be the center of attention—the middle of the group. That way, I build up trust with everyone, and then I can lead them to whatever trap I have stored."

"I wouldn't be so sure, Hec," Maeveric retorted. "With everyone's caution and suspicion sky high, it would make more sense to lay low and let other people try to take the lead and fail, before finally making its move. It's much easier to attack someone with suspicions than defending them after all."

"Both arguments are fair," Shesmu responded. He then looked at Sakura on his left. "What do you think?"

"Well, it's kinda hard to know what it would do, because we have no idea what it could do. Like, I don't know whether it could shapeshift or fly or create illusions. We have no idea about any of that."

Good observation. Shesmu looked around at Hector's party. They were all staring down, deep in thought.

"If it could create illusions, we're basically doomed," Maeveric stated. "I don't see any way out of that situation."

"Well, we don't know for sure that it can do that," Robin said. "It's just a hypothesis."

Hector heard both of his teammates' opinions before stating his. "Either way, it's a good idea to keep in mind what kinds of abilities the monster has access to. That way we're not caught by surprise later."

Everyone nodded at Hector. There was a moment of awkward silence where no one knew what to say before Shesmu broke it.

"Well, that's only one way to look at it. There is another one." Shesmu's words brought the whole party's attention on him.

"Oh, and what's that?" Maeveric asked.

"What motivates its actions? What does it want to do?"

"Well, obviously it wants to kill us all," Hector responded. "I think that goes without saying, no?"

"I think I understand what Shesmu is hinting at." Maeveric's voice was solemn. He no longer had a smile as he looked down at the floor, hand on his chin. "Let's assume for a second that you were not the monster, then what it would want to do is to definitely kill you first."

Shesmu smiled at Maeveric's conclusion while Sakura looked at him in worry. She pulled at Shesmu's sleeve before whispering, "Is it fine to talk about this kind of thing? We're not even sure if they don't have the monster within them."

Shesmu didn't respond right away. In fact, his eyes never broke contact with Maeveric.

"Yes, right now, I'm undoubtedly the monster's number one target. Of course, that's if I'm not the monster that is," Shesmu chuckled at his own joke before continuing, "I'm not sure if it would want to kill me first, but it definitely wouldn't want to miss an opportunity where it can."

"Can't we use that to our advantage?" Robin asked. "If we use you as bait for the monster, even if we do not catch it, we will at least know what kind of abilities it has."

"Ehh, aren't you asking a little bit too much, Robin?" Hector intervened. He then looked at Shesmu before giving a small bow. "I'm sorry for my teammate's loose tongue. Hope you took no offense to that."

"No, it's all good." Shesmu shrugged with a smile. "In fact, that's the idea I was going to propose, so don't feel sorry about it."

After Shesmu responded to Hector's party, he whispered at Sakura without looking at her, "When I go out later, follow me. And don't make it obvious."