Chapter 25: A different misunderstanding

"Sorry! Sorry! I didn't mean to hit you!"

I'm not some crazy person who hits people for no reason! I just panicked because of what he was saying so I hit... I'm not crazy!

And that girl, I believe her name was Nera, is hiding behind a wall, it seems like she got scared, just when it seemed like she was getting used to me.

"Are you alright?"

"Of course, I deserved that punishment for forgetting my place"

"Uh, no, that was not supposed to be a punishment..."

"Please mistress, if I upset you again in the future do not hesitate to punish me in whatever way you like!"

Maybe it's just me, but he sounds like he's actually excited about being punished again, I don't really understand what this is about but for some reason, it feels really disturbing...

"My name is not 'mistress', I'm Luna"

"But I cannot simply call you by your name, can I call you mistress?"

"No"

"Thank you, mistress!"

He's not even listening to what I'm saying, it seems like I found another troublesome guy.

I put my mask on before entering town again, Nera is following behind me and the dragon is coming as well for some reason, at least he stayed in human form.

"Eh, mister dragon, you don't need to come with me as well"

"If the horn of the earth is not in those ruins I have no reason to stay there, and I have to follow my mistress, also, my name is Irvan"

"I already told you I'm not your mistress mister dragon"

If he's not going to call me by my name, I'm not going to use his name either.

"I don't see Arana anywhere..."

Arana knows that I have trouble staying angry for a long period of time so she's trying to wait it out, but that's not going to work this time! Not only did she get me into a pointless fight, but she also put Nera in danger. She deserves at least to have a curse placed on her for a while.

"Mistress, I was thinking about what you said before, thinking back on it, I think that the town lord lied to me when he said that he didn't know anything about the horn... it felt like he was trying to get rid of me when I was asking around"

"So you want to have another talk with him?"

"Yes, I believe they called him 'baron something'... if you come as well I'm sure that he will talk"

"Uh? What would change if I go?"

"Nobody would dare to lie when faced with that intimidation skill of yours, if you go, he'll talk for sure!"

No, in the first place I still cannot use that whenever I want, and even if I could most people seem to just fall unconscious whenever I use it.

"Don't drag me into your problems... I don't want to get into trouble with the authorities"

"Stop right there!"

Before I can understand what's going on we get surrounded by guards.

"You! The masked woman! You are under arrest for multiple accounts of assault!"

Assault? I have not assaulted anyone in this town so why... oh wait, leaving a bunch of people unconscious in the church probably looked like I had attacked them, didn't it.

"Eh!? How were they able to recognize you when your face is completely covered by a mask?"

Nera looks troubled by the situation, I guess a princess is not used to get threatened by guards. I, on the other hand, have plenty of experience in the field.

"There was a small misunderstanding earlier and I got into some trouble, that's probably what this is about since I was wearing this same mask it must have been easy to recognize me"

"You were wearing this same mask when you ran into trouble? Then why did you put it on again when you came back?"

"..."

I cannot think of a good answer to that.

"Surrender yourself and come with us, the baron wants to interrogate you in person"

"Haha, you fool! A bunch of pathetic weaklings like you thinks that you can challenge the power of my mistress?"

"Please mister dragon, stop talking, don't make this situation any worse than it already is"

"Now you will learn what true fear is! She will slaughter all of... ouch!"

I manage to make him shut up by lightly hitting his torso with my elbow, but why do I get the feeling that this is just going to encourage him to keep doing this stuff?

"Very well, I will go with you"

But then Nera whispers into my ear.

"Are you sure about that? From what I've seen so far I think you would end up creating less trouble if you just put these guards to sleep and escape"

"I already tried that before, I just want to try to explain myself this time, if that doesn't work I can just escape later"

"Well, if you say so..."

She does not seem convinced, but well, I'm the only one getting arrested anyway.

The guards put my hands in shackles, these even come with a magic seal, it seems like they know that I'm a mage? But these seals can only reduce someone's magic stat by 600, that's enough to leave most mages at zero, preventing them from using any magic at all, even the few with more than 600 magic will be weakened enough to prevent them from escaping. But for me, that's not even one-fourth of my magic, so I can probably take them off whenever I want.

I'm taken to a small office located next to the prison, a middle-aged man is sitting on a chair behind a desk. He's slightly overweight and is balding a little, he also has a mustache to complete the look of a stereotypical baron, but if that's who he is, I don't think that this office is his.

"Sir, here she is"

"Ah, good, you can leave us now"

"Are you sure sir? This woman seems to be dangerous"

"Didn't you restrain her properly? Then there's nothing to worry about, I want to talk to her alone"

"As you wish"

And so they leave the two of us alone.

"Sir, there's been a misunderstanding, I didn't go to that church to assault anyone"

"Of course, then perhaps you were there to look for something?"

Look for something? What is he talking about? But this reminds me, that dragon said that this guy might have lied about not knowing what happened to that relic he was looking for, maybe I should ask him now that I have the chance.

"The truth is, a... friend of mine believes that you may have been hiding something"

"Oh, so you already knew"

The baron stands up from his chair and his body starts to contort grotesquely, he then transforms into a tall and lanky creature with blue skin, his body is completely devoid of any features except for his eyes and mouth.

That's clearly a shapeshifter, so the baron was actually a demon? I really was not expecting that.

"You must have been the one who saved princess Nera from her execution, we were not expecting her to recruit such a competent bodyguard"

Well, me saving her was just a coincidence... but at least this seems different from the usual misunderstanding, so I won't complain.

"And somehow you even learned about our plans, I don't know how you knew that we had hidden the horn of the earth inside that church, but you must have been certain if you went as far as to search every single person there"

No, I wasn't searching them, that's not even close to what I was doing.

"However, you were too late, my companion already took the horn away, she's about to complete the creation of an unstoppable monster that will crush this town soon"

Crush this town? That sounds really bad, someone needs to stop these guys!

"But what does any of that have to do with killing Nera?"

"We were supposed to be receiving the body of a member of the royal family of the Agua kingdom, that was part of the agreement between the queen and my master"

"Your master?"

"Yes, demon lord Kalroth the infernal"

"Kalroth the infernal!? Why would the Queen of the Agua kingdom make a deal with someone like that?"

"Anyone would be tempted by his incredible power, there's nothing someone like you could do against him"

"I won't let you all do as you please, Kalroth will pay for all the evil he's done!"

"Oh, is there something my master has done to upset you?"

"Yes, all of his evildoings"

"I meant something specific"

"Well, you know, that one evil thing..."

"You... have no idea who Kalroth the infernal is, do you..."

"No, I don't"

He caught me, that's embarrassing... but this is the first time someone has mistaken me for one of the good guys, you cannot blame me for wanting to play along.

"I can't believe you managed to make me tell you so much, you really are a shrewd one"

No, he is the one who kept telling me all his plans for no reason, but being praised feels nice so I'll let him think whatever he wants.

"Not that it matters, now that you have been restrained it should be a simple matter to dispose of you"

"Um, about that..."

I easily break my shackles and let them drop on the ground, I didn't even need to use any magic, my strength was more than enough.

"What!? You even got the guards, to put some fake restraints on you!? You were a lot better prepared than I was expecting..."

No, I didn't prepare anything, that was just brute strength.

"But it's too late now, my companion already went to the ruins to create the monster, and she will use it to kill the dragon there, then she will use her power to reanimate its corpse and she will send both of them to destroy this town!"

Is that companion of his a necromancer? And if she can reanimate a dragon she must be quite good, now I'm curious.

"Actually, I brought the dragon here with me, he's not in the ruins anymore"

"You went as far as to prevent us from killing him!? I was not expecting such a master schemer to get in our way..."

He really seems to have gotten the wrong idea about me, but I understand, all this stuff seems too much to be all a coincidence... could it be that I was actually a master schemer all along and even I didn't know?

forli

I wonder if Luna will be able to clear her name by stopping their evil plans.