Chapter 216

216 Pick up the scent, please! part I didn’t know what Helena meant by saying they were on their way already, but she refused to explain any further making the wait a bit awkward.

I’m a bit worried because If Mia and Famine arrive before the others, they might be in trouble. From what Mia told me, the kingdom of Loudeac is not a safe place for races other than human, but at least it is possible for them to remain hidden in between the crowd, besides most cities allow other races to coexist with them.

Since the kingdom of Loudeac is so far spread and it takes a long while to move from town to town, the crown doesn’t really hold any actual power in cities far away from the capital. Most cities have their own set of rules that depend solely on the whims of the noblemen, which is why Celarent doesn’t allow other races.

But the sacred empire is entirely different. I’ve heard from Mia that they actively hunt for people from all races and enslave them, more like forcing them to become pets to be toyed with. I don’t know if what she says is the truth, because Anne refused to speak in depth about what she witnessed in the sacred empire. She did tell me it looked a lot more like the place she came from than the kingdom of Loudeac and that people there were a lot stronger, but she didn’t talk about much else.

There’s also another issue. Mia not only isn’t human, she’s a demon class race and people from the sacred empire are openly against demons and undead.

“What worries you Ryu?”

Helena tugged on my sleeve.

Should I really be worrying about this? I mean, this is Helena, I can think of few people more kind and good hearted than her. Perhaps if I speak alone with her I could find a solution to this.

“Hey, Helena, why don’t we catch up for a while until the others arrive?”

.....

“Uh? oh! that sounds great, let’s take a walk through the woods like we used to!”

We set off a random direction and walk slowly arm in arm. A soft sensation I didn’t know I missed so much ran across my arm. I could be wrong but it seems like they got bigger.

“They’re bigger aren’t they?”

Helena giggled.

“Wha-”

“Don’t play shy Ryu, we’re all adults, remember?”

Her words took me back to the time we slept together for the first time, It feels as if it was just yesterday that any physical contact with her made me blush brightly.

“You’re right. Hey, does this mean you’re doing this on purpose?”

“Of course I am! or did you really think a girl doesn’t notice whenever something brushes past her breasts? that’s a really sensitive spot!”

“But you used to do this all the time, why did you?”

“Because I liked you silly! I thought maybe you would notice and act on it, but you never did. By the time I mustered the courage to confess my feelings it was already too late.”

She held my arm a bit tighter in between her breasts, freezing me in the spot.

“Does this mean that you still do?”

“No, I’m an arch priestess now. I’m only doing this because I wanted to reminisce the good old times.”

She shook her head.

“There’s something I need to tell you, but first... I need to know you won’t do anything rush”

Before I even finish my sentence, sense presence alerts me of something coming towards us. Helena quickly draws a scepter from her side and pushes me away, making me fall on my butt.

“Take cover, something’s coming!”

Her scepter starts shinning in a bright yellow light, but before she manages to use her skill I stand in front of her.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about! They’re my friends!”

Famine stopped and, thanks to the soulbound card display I can even tell the distance at which they are, which is roughly about twenty meters, not that knowing this can do me any good. It seems the amarok felt something was off and kept his distance.

“But that’s a demon!”

“Her name is Mia and she’s not a bad person!”

“Not a bad person you say!? she’s not a person at all! how can you remain friends with someone like that? do you even know the damage they cause to the empire? the amount of people killed everyday by them!?”

Helena grips her scepter even tighter as she gets angrier by the second. I need to do something before she attacks, I fear that even if I try my best I wouldn’t be able to defeat her in hand to hand combat.

“Hold on please! She’s done nothing like that, she’s innocent!”

“Alright then, let’s go back and try to solve this. Ask that thing to follow us please”

“Hey! I’m not a thing, I’m master Ryu’s pet!”

Mia stated proudly as if being called a pet was better than being called a thing.

“You are? She is?”

Helena asked her and then me with a slack jaw.

“Well, I can explain...”

“No, there’s no need. If she’s your pet then I’m fine with it, I just thought she was a feral.”

Helena sighed in relief.

“Is it really ok?”

“Of course, keeping pets from other races isn’t a bad thing. Even if it’s a dirty demon, they all have their uses. I just didn’t expect you to be able to tame a succubus, it seems you did have a naughty side after all.”

Helena seems just as she was before in the outside, but on the inside it feels as if she was a completely different person. I instructed Mia to follow us from a distance just in case she tried something, and then we headed back to the clearing where a surprise awaited for me.

Bob, Luke and Risa were tied up and kneeling in front of Stefan, the priest and two people in armor I never seen before.

“Guys! are you ok? what happened?”

“Ryu!? is that you Ryu?”

Luke exclaimed with his face swollen beyond recognition, it seemed as if he wasn’t able to see anything because he didn’t even look at me.

“Don’t come! run away Ryu!”

Bob yelled with a spear still jabbed on his stomach, his wounds looked really awful, a regular person would have been dead already.

“Stefan! what did you do!? they’re my friends!”

“I didn’t do anything miss Helena, it was the enforcers.”

“Miss Helena, we deeply apologize for the state your friends are, but they didn’t believe us when we told them we were with you and they attacked us. They’re pretty strong and we couldn’t bring them in without seriously hurting them first, but their wounds have been taken care of”

“So it was true...”

Bob said as he looked at Helena with genuine sadness, no, more than that, it’s pity.

“Of course it is, that dumb bitch!”