Chapter 289: A Pure Warmth

Chapter 289: A Pure Warmth

Early Evening - Mid Winter : Atlas, Bahamut

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"~Gather the rats, you say?~" I felt as if I could hear the goddess grinning as she spoke.

"Yeah, if I kill them one at a time, the rest will eventually scatter, so I may as well lay a trap with some poison." I glanced down at the deputy with a look of disgust.

"~Hoho, how ruthless of you.~" She paused before moving to the other side of me. "~You know, I can't say I ever expected you to initiate a genocide like this... But I can't deny that I like it.~"

I had a chill pass down my spine instantly. "Yeah, never say that again, please..." Feeling like I saw a playful expression on her face, I let out a sigh. "Haah... In any case, I'm sure you didn't just come here to say that, right?"

Hearing my tone, she sounded like she wanted to laugh. "~This time, it isn't anything special, I promise! I just wanted to tell you about a few of the Aesir's recent movements.~"

-Hoh?- She instantly caught my attention. "Do continue."

"~Well, for starters, the Aesir is in a frenzy. With you recently killing Magni, Tyr, and Hel, a string of distrust has started being woven into-~"

"Hel?" After a moment of thought, I cut her off. "Who.. is that?"

The goddess froze instantly. "~Hel was the goddess of death and decay... She went to Bahamut not long after you killed Tyr and died within a few minutes... Do you mean that wasn't you?~" She sounded quite concerned.

But I could only shake my head. "It wasn't me." But it did ring a bell. -Is Hel the one that did a number on Myles? If that's the case...- "I think it's more likely that Amphitrite was the one that killed her, especially if Myles and Amphitrite were the ones she ran into."

But surprisingly, the goddess disagreed. "~No... Hel would be out of their league unless Myles brought 'that'... But I could have sworn... nevermind...~" There was a short pause before she continued in a troubled tone. "~In any case, before I go investigate that, the Aesir is a total wreck right now, and with you exposing Odr's presence like you just did, the turmoil will only compound on itself. However, at best, that turmoil can only buy you a year or two.~"

I quickly caught her trail. "So you want me to land a blow while they're down..."

She immediately nodded. "~But I don't think attempting to gather everyone in one spot is the right way to take things.~"Fôllôw new stories at novelhall.com

"Who said I was gathering everyone?" Seeing her look up at me, I smiled. "All I have to do is cut their connection to the top. After all, what will a bunch of cockroaches do once there aren't any more rats to leave them crumbs?"

"~T..they will flock to the next sweetest smell...~"

Before I knew it, my smile had started to turn crazed. -All I will have to do is blow it in their direction...-

Continuing our talk, we discussed several other matters regarding the Holy Kingdom and its movements before splitting up again. However, essentially all of it could be summed up to, 'now is the time to hit them'.

In short, recent events had sewn discord into the Aesir and caused many gods to grow suspicious about each other, with some going as far as giving their apostles orders to be wary of the other churches.

But now, with the sudden appearance of Odr's presence, a god pronounced dead by Odin at the beginning of the Great War, the discord would only grow. -But I only have a year or so even with that, so I need to get moving...-

But thankfully, to me, a year was plenty. *Vwooom-crackle* -Now.. I just need to find this bastard's switch...- Scanning through the deputy's brain while in my humanoid form, I tried to find a neural path to wake him up with, but among those I was aware of, there were very few chains that I could correlate to any sort of major biological response. -But I guess it doesn't really matter whether its stress, anxiety, fear, or despair...-

Eventually narrowing it down to three separate chains I had observed leading to an increased heart rate during our talks earlier in the day, I gave up attempting to figure out which to do and simply hit them all at once. *vwoom*

*GASP* "ACK!" He instantly jolted awake and gripped his chest with heavy breaths.

"You're finally awake, huh." He froze the moment I spoke before looking at me with wide eyes. "Took you long enough." *WHAAM* Driving my fist into his stomach, he disappeared from where he was sitting and slammed into the wall. *CRAACK*

I could only sigh at her obliviousness. "Haah..." -I guess I still have a lot I need to teach her...-

Quickly making our way to the store, I let Krystallo off my head and changed to my humanoid form in order to walk inside.

The inside of the store was beautiful, with a mostly wood plank floor, but utilizing entire tree trunks as the supports in the walls with all sorts of exquisite carvings and hanging outfits filling the empty wall space. -A lot of them actually look really good, too...- There was even one that closely resembled a suit from Earth.

"Hello, Sir, Madam! Welcome to our humble outfitter." A beautiful young draconic woman quickly greeted us with a shallow bow.

I honestly wanted to laugh hearing her say humble, but compared to the rest of the stores in Atlas, it was a more than apt descriptor.

"What is it that brings you two here today? This Sir seems to have incredible skill and wonderful taste, so I can't imagine how we could help."

I quickly waved her off with my hand. "I didn't design this myself, I simply chose the fabrics. In any case, we are going to attend the Chalastís Auction tomorrow, so I'd like to get her something more appropriate than an academy uniform to wear."

"Hoho~" She chuckled as she looked Krystallo up and down. "It would be our pleasure to create something befitting this young missus beauty. Are there any specific details you would like added, such as an insignia?"

"We can discuss the details when we get there; however, I hope you can create about five outfits for her, one for the auction and the rest for casual or other formal occasions. Could you do that?"

She gave me a surprised look but seemed more excited than anything. "Why, of course, but it will be quite expensive."

"Of course. The prices do not matter, so please spare no expense in the designs."

"Y-yes, sir!" She immediately threw herself into a deep bow with a look of joy before straightening up and motioning us along. "Please come this way!" As we began walking, though, she came to my side. "If I may be so rude to ask, were you referred to us by someone?"

I quickly nodded. "It was Sfyrío Atsáli. He had quite the high praises of this place."

She quickly tensed up with excitement. "I-I see! I promise we shall work to meet your expectations, Sir-" She hesitated as she went to say my name.

"You can just call me Vasilias; however, this young girl is Krystallo Whyte."

Krystallo instantly shot me a glare, but she was promptly interrupted by the young woman. "Krystallo Whyte?! As in the next generation genius of the Academy?!"

As if my statement of her being a young girl had never happened, Krystallo puffed up her chest with pride. "Haha, yes." Before I knew it, I was gently rubbing her head, but while she was much older and I was unsure how she'd react to it, she still wore a look of satisfaction. "Haah..." -It's good to see I didn't miss as much as I thought...-

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