Chapter 393: Sweet and Sour

Chapter 393: Sweet and Sour

“Oh, my heart, your face! Look what they did to you! Are you alright? Have you been healed yet?”

“A scratch, my love, nothing more. What about you? Your leg—”

“I’m fine,” Elodie assured Ludger as she placed a kiss on his lips to silence his concern. “Priestess Eir was able to set the bone and heal me some moments ago. But what about you? Are you sure you aren’t hurt?”

“I could be pierced by a thousand arrows and I would be well, now that I know you are safe,” Ludger said with utmost sincerity as he gazed lovingly into Elodie’s eyes. “There is no number of demons in the world that would stop me from coming to your side.”

“I knew you would come for me,” Elodie whispered as a deep blush colored her cheeks. “Even at my most frightened, I knew you would be my hero and rescue me...”

The display was almost sickeningly sweet. Jadis did her best not to intrude on the private moment, but there wasn’t a whole lot of space in the front display room of the dressmaker’s shop. Even averting her eyes, she could still hear the distinct sounds of the couple’s public display of affection. Their words and expressions were, in her opinion, overly melodramatic, but she did her best not to roll her eyes. Ludger just seemed to be that kind of expressive personality who spoke every sentence like it was a sonnet. Especially when it came to something he was passionate about. As for Elodie...

To Jadis’ surprise, the affection she was seeing on display from the bratty woman looked to be genuine. The way her eyes were locked onto Ludger, the blush in her cheeks, the little movements she made with her hands and how she angled her body; Jadis was convinced the love was real. Which was really quite the shock, since she was certain that Elodie was just marrying the big man because he was one of the Hero’s companions.

From what Vraekae had told her, Ludger had been pining after the young noblewoman since they were both youths, yet she had spurned his advances because he was a commoner and she was the granddaughter of the local duke. However, now that Jadis had met Ludger and seen just how astonishingly handsome he was, maybe that story had a different side to it. Elodie definitely came across as smitten with the man. Maybe that attraction had been there all along and she had pushed it away for purposes of duty to her family? It would make some sense, since Jadis doubted nobles often married purely for love, and more often for political gain. Ludger becoming the Bulwark would have solved that problem for Elodie nicely, though.

Whatever the situation was between the two, Elodie and Ludger’s love life really wasn’t Jadis’ business. The only reason why she was putting so much thought into it at all was because she was distracting herself while they all waited for one of Wilhelm’s other companions to arrive.

The pastry shop where Elodie and Alex had set up the injured from the demon attack to be taken was part of a five-story building that had a different shop on each level. The second floor was a high-class shoemaker’s shop, which was where the rest of the injured had been moved to in order to keep them separate from the initial bunch that had been led out of the restaurant. It was still possible that some in that number could be cultists, but the people in the pastry shop were Jadis’ prime suspects.

The third floor of the building was a dressmaker’s shop, which was where Jay, Syd, Alex, Wilhelm, Ludger, Amarantha, and Elodie were. There were also several soldiers stationed by the stairwell that led in and out of the shop, as well as one of the guard captains who had taken a position of command in the area during the crisis. The man’s name was Rolland, and he was still busily giving orders to military runners who were taking his messages out to the soldiers and guards in the area. Wilhelm had asked him to join them since they might need to send out some urgent messages, depending on what they learned from the Demon that they were going to interrogate.

“Do we have to wait for both the Oracle and the Paladin?” Syd asked Wilhelm as she tapped her bare foot on the plush carpet. “The longer we wait, the more time we give the cultists to do something.”

“No, we don’t have to wait for both,” Wilhelm shook his head. “Either Jocelyn or Lucia would be of help here.”

Jocelyn the Oracle and Lucia the Paladin. Jadis knew a little about both from Vraekae’s information, but she didn’t know too much, either. The Oracle was human and had already been known as a skilled healer even before becoming one of the Hero’s companions. Lucia was a therion, Jadis had been surprised to learn. Considering what she knew of therion’s from her lover Kerr and her mentor, Noll, she had trouble imagining one as a holy knight. Still, Lucia had evidently been a rising star among the ranks of Valtar’s holy order of paladins when she had heard the call and joined up with Wilhelm and become “The Paladin” instead of just “a paladin”. Not the most clearcut naming convention, in Jadis’ opinion.

“Then why are we here?” Halvor shrugged Wilhelm’s hand off of his shoulder but took a step back. “Something about cultists?”

“An interrogation, supposedly,” Lucia spoke. Her voice was calm and her accent tinged in that French way that Jadis was familiar with from others in the city. “Who are we questioning?”

Wilhelm looked towards Syd, which she took as a signal. Cracking open the sealed wooden box she held under one arm, she pulled the wriggling form of the possession Demon out of it and held it up for the room to see.

“This little shit,” Syd explained. “Alex is going to get whatever information she can out of it. This one was possessing the body of a scholar from the academy, so I assume it’s higher level than most and must have been around a while. It’s probably seen things that can help us root out any cultists or conspirators, if Alex can get it to talk.”

“That’s a big if, if you ask me,” Ludger said as he inserted himself into the conversation. He had left Elodie sitting on one of the plush benches by the wall and took up a position next to Wilhelm. “How would you convince the swine to say anything? Death is no threat to a Demon, and I cannot think of any bribe you could coerce one with.”

“I don’t know,” Syd shrugged. “But I’m going to try. If you all want to help, you’re welcome to. If not, then go do whatever it is you’re going to do elsewhere, because I’m too tired to dick around right now.”

“This is a Nephilim, hm?” Halvor said as he crossed his arms across his muscular chest. “Not as prissy as I had feared.”

“Go priss your face,” Syd flipped the barbarian the bird.

“Sallow hag.”

“Pig fucker.”

“You are... Both being... Rude...”

Alex’s interruption caused Syd to cut off her next words as she realized she’d gotten caught up in the moment. Halvor was also silenced as he stared at the frowning Demon woman with his jaw hanging open.

“Perhaps we should... proceed with the interrogation?” Wilhelm asked as he, too, stared at Alex with some measure of disbelief.

“Yes, we should,” Syd nodded. “Come on, Alex. Let’s see what this little shit has to say for itself.”