Chapter 555 - Rumours

Making their way to the teleport shrine, Shiro could see a crowd of Black Monarchy members that were blocking the entrance. Unless you had hired some high level adventurer to escort you out, there was no way for normal adventurers to leave this city.

Sighing softly, she looked around the area and saw quite a few anxious expressions on the faces of adventurers that wanted to leave but couldn't.

Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to help these people out a little so that she could leave without any problems.

"Are you thinking of helping them?" Nan Tian whispered over after seeing the concern in her eyes.

"Mn. We might as well since I'm here anyways." Shiro shrugged.

"What about the Queen? Wouldn't you be provoking her?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrows.

"Don't worry about it. We'll finish it quickly." Shiro chuckled and started to walk towards the entrance.

Releasing her killing intent, ice swords started to form in the air.

"Those that want to leave, you should do it now while you can. As for you lot who are blocking the way, either move or die." Shiro said with a smile.

"Who do you think you are? You're in the domain of her majesty, you better bow do-"

*PUCHI!

Before the man could even finish his sentence, tens of swords shredded into his body as nanobots erupted out of the ice swords and consumed his corpse.

"Anyone else who doesn't value their life?" Shiro narrowed her eyes at the other Black Monarchy members.

Sweeping her eyes through the crowd, she could already see a few of them preparing to call for reinforcements.

Shaking her head slowly, she raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

"Then die." She said coldly.

Suddenly, each of the swords broke apart into ice spears and pierced each of the Black Monarchy members. Those that wanted to raise a defence were stopped when a tiny needle enhanced with Celestial Path was stabbed into their throat. With their magic gone, the spears were able to make short work of them.

In an instant, she was able to kill the entire crowd of Black Monarchy members.

Sensing a few powerful signatures making their way to their location, Shiro didn't dally any long and walked into the teleport shrine.

Seeing this, the adventurers that were looking for a chance to leave this god forsaken city quickly scrambled behind her.

One by one, they disappeared in the structure.

Watching this happen, Thiria had a neutral expression on her face.

"Are you not going to deal with her now your highness?" A man asked while narrowing his eyes towards the teleport shrine.

"No, I need her to be alive for my plans. She originated from this world so naturally, there are a few benefits. I want to wait for those benefits to bloom before taking it for myself." Thiria replied nonchalantly.

"Though it is rather unfortunate that the fall condition of that man was actually the Queen of this world. If it wasn't for that fact, I would have wanted you to do everything in your power to make him fall. He would have been a great addition to my forces. However, a single man is nothing in front of the power I could gain from the young Queen." She narrowed her eyes at where Nan Tian had stood a moment ago.

Nodding his head, the man couldn't help but wonder to himself about the kind of benefits that Shiro could offer to Thiria as the Queen of this world. After all, Thiria had actually decided to give up on acquiring a Supreme Grade Fallen Entity just for those benefits.

"Do you want me to assign some of the members to assist her in cultivating her strength?"

"No need. She'll get stronger without our help." Thiria shook her head.

"Though… I do wonder if she could find out about anchors and Domains. She'll need to understand these points for me to obtain the most amount of benefits. However, we'll sit back and wait for now. Even if she doesn't learn about these now, she'll learn about them in the new age. I've been alive for thousands of years, a few more won't hurt me."

Watching Thiria flicker away from her spot, the man paused and looked towards the teleport shrine.

Thinking to himself for a moment, he shook his head and disappeared from his spot.

###

Stepping out of the teleport shrine, Shiro checked their location and was relieved to see that they had reached their destination safely. Even though she said not to worry, she had no idea what changes a teleport shrine could experience after a Queen takes over a domain.

"Fu… thankfully it worked out ok. Let's see… according to the map that Lucius gave up, the artefact should be to the north of our current location. Nan Tian, like before, you should take Yin to that place for her to get the artefact while I go around gathering some information." Shiro suggested with a smile.

"Sure. What are you even looking for this time? If you're wondering about the Queen's, shouldn't you look on the internet rather than around us?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.

"Half and half. I want to see if I can pick up on any rumours that I might have not found on the internet." Shiro replied with a smile.

"I see… fair enough." Nan Tian nodded his head and started to make his way to the Artefact site.

"Ah wait, before you go, take this. It should make it easier for the Shadow Temple members to let you through." Shiro called out and passed him the ornament that Lucius had gave her.

"Thanks."

Watching the duo disappear, Shiro looked around and figured that she should probably either go to a bar or the guild to hear some rumours.

'It's a shame that I can't get drunk since my tolerances are abnormal but I should be able to get some decent rumours from the bar.' She thought to herself.

{Why is that a shame? Shouldn't it be good?} Nimue asked.

'Well… I've had alcohol before but I've never been drunk. I'm just curious as to how it would feel.' Shiro shrugged.

{Don't go teaching Attie anything bad now. Alcohol is bad since your decision making is thrown out the window once you're drunk. I won't want to see a genocide happening after you get drunk because someone pissed you off. Though… I suppose you can't get drunk to begin with.} Nimue frowned.

'Don't worry about it.' Shiro chuckled and started to make her way out of the teleport shrine.

Walking for a little while, she spotted what seemed to be a bar of sorts.

Entering the bar, she went up to the counter and was about to order a drink when the bartender asked for her guild ID.

Remembering that her main one registered her as roughly 13 year old, she quickly made a fake one to show that she was older than 20.

Buying a pint of beer, Shiro drank a mouthful and couldn't help but furrow her brows.

'The fck is this? The drinks I had before were much better.' Shiro thought with a frown.

{If you wanted something that tasted nice you should have gotten a cider.} Nimue smiled while playing around with Attie.

'Mn… I'll keep that in mind.

Downing the drink in one go, Shiro asked for a cider instead and sat down around the edge of the bar.

Focusing her senses singling out a few voices around her, she started to eavesdrop on their conversations.

Those that were just about the daily goings of life were ignored since she had no interest in them.

However, from the myriad of voices she could pick out, she did hear something rather interesting.

"Did you hear about what happened with that blacksmith a few days ago? Apparently, he sneaked into the faction leader's personal vault and tried to steal something from there only to be caught red handed. Now they're saying that he's going to be killed by the faction leader himself."

"Eh? Didn't he have a high standing in the faction along with a good relationship with the faction leader? Why did he throw it all away?"

"They say that it's because he strayed from the proper path. He was researching swords to steal souls, something that the faction leader absolutely despises."

"Damn, you never know what might happen huh? Even someone the faction leader had trusted turned out to be this way, I pity him."

"Yeah. Apparently, they're going to execute him in two days and he's locked up in a cell right now. Do you want to find a good spot to watch everything?"

"Sure."

Glancing at the two that were talking about the blacksmith, Shiro couldn't help but furrow her brows.

'Talented blacksmith researching about soul stealing weapons? Why does it remind me of Helion? He did say that he was going to help me with Akram.' Shiro thought with a frown.

{Well the world fate is a strange thing. Maybe you should have a look and see if it is your dear friend. After all, we wouldn't want anything to happen to him.} Nimue suggested as Shiro nodded her head.

Drinking the cider quickly, she was surprised at its taste and made a mental note of it before leaving the bar.