“Norboi,” Keith breathed out. Oryath’s memory guiding him. “The symptoms, Silon, what exactly are they?”
“The symptoms…” She hummed, “At first a stomach ache, then they begin to throw up their food, then it becomes blood once they run out of food, followed by organs. If this is caused by demons it would make sense why Aimesis disease doesn’t show other symptoms beyond that.”
The king paled. “That means that… Oh by the Twelve Olympians above, we don’t know how many of the Norboi are there. You-” He gestured to the servant who led them there. “- send word to the Twelve Temples, alert them that we are being plagued by Norboi.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The servant bowed, running off as quickly as possible.
“As for you four, thank you for figuring it out. Please, help as best as you can. Fairy Healer, find a way to cure this.”
This king is quite decisive, how nice! No need to do some convincing and no need to think so much about what to do. Keith nodded as his tail flicked back and forth. Still, he’s basically giving us free reign to do as we see fit so long as it helps Seipodon.
“Understood, Your Majesty.” Hyacinth bowed, the three of them following his lead.
Together, the four of them left to discuss how to best deal with this, having been led to room by a servant. Keith, now focused on dealing with the Norboi, promised himself to look around later. After all, this was like living in a complete reconstruction of an Ancient Athenian Palace! He never even got to see Athens, let alone the ruins of such a place, yet now he’s in this world’s version of a complete reconstruction. No, better yet the original!
Keith’s tail swished back and forth, reflecting his excitement. “So now that we know it’s a curse, we need to figure out both treatment and how to find them.”
“The Twelve Temples are competent, now that we’re aware that this is caused by Norboi, we can figure it out. How did you deduce it was them, Leonith?” Hyacinth turned to the man.
“I could see Corruption in the air, like smoke in a breeze. Actually, I didn’t expect it to be so thick, which set off my suspicions. I can also sense demons but only if they’re not hiding in changed forms, so it’s not reliable, however my Corruption sight is.”
It made sense but only served to raise more questions on what exactly Leonith’s gift is. As for Leonith’s Patron, well he has a cross around his neck. So, it makes sense that his Patron would probably be the Catholic God, even if he’s hiding his sword as the cross.
Come to think of it, Keith glanced at Hyacinth. Where did his spear go?
Sharp eyes searched Hyacinth, from that classical beautiful face to the long hair. His eyes traced down the strong neck, the urge to bite it rising up. As he continued his search, he found himself admiring the biceps and Hyacinth’s frame. Unlike Keith’s thin and slender frame, Hyacinth had a much stronger frame to him, built like an olympic swimmer.
He glanced at the face once more, his eye catching the glint of a dark object hanging from Hyacinth’s ear.
Clever, Keith mused, hiding it as an earring.
It also only further enhanced the other’s beauty, reminding him of some of the boy bands he remembers from the modern world. How does he know this? Well, he was fond of listening to k-pop and other boybands. A sharp pang stabbed at his heart, he won’t even have something to remember him by besides memories.
“Are you even listening, mutt?” Hyacinth turned to look at him.
A spike of irritation made him grit his teeth, his glance turning into a glare. What’s wrong with him?! What’s he thinking, comparing this irksome sushi to idols from a boy band?
“Yes I was!” Keith lied.
The other scowled, shooting back: “Then repeat what I just said.”
“…”
Hyacinth’s scowl turned into a smug look as he crossed his arms. “That’s what I thought.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Silon cleared her throat. “Ahem, we were talking about how I’m going to be in medicine and how Hyacinth wants to track down the Norboi.”
“Ccv atlr lcnbinfr atf akb bo er, tbk, fzjmais?”
She rolled her eyes at him. A murmured phrase of ‘still a snarky little-’ split from her mouth as she shook her head. “Look, this involves you because we’re deciding where to put you and Leonith. We figured it would be best to do it in pairs.”
Keith nodded. That makes sense, Leonith could be useful in tracking but they’re not sure where his strengths lie. He’s clearly not a healer but a hunter yet if they put him with Hyacinth they might end up killing- fighting each other, he corrected. He’d rather not cause another flashback, thank you very much.
“Lww, P wluta cba yf erfoei ys sbeg rlvf, Vlibc. P’w cba wemt bo j tfjifg.” Lf qblcafv bea.
Ktfs aegcfv ab Ofbclat fzqfmafvis.
“Po kf’gf vfjilcu klat vfwbclm mbggeqalbc, P mjc tfiq Vlibc klat atf megf. Bflat, sbe’gf j tecafg yjmx lc Blbi, sfr?” Lf tewwfv, atbrf yief fsfr rffwlcuis qlfgmlcu tlw.
Understanding where he’s going, Keith continued, “I am, or was.”
“Good, it’s settled then,” Leonith nodded. “I’ll be with Silon, and you’ll be with Hyacinth.”
He glanced at Hyacinth, making eye contact with those oceanic green eyes, like looking at the ocean from so far away. He set away the spike of irritation. Now’s not the time. He can growl and snap and snarl all he wants later, but this isn’t about Oryath’s leftover feelings. This is about dealing with demons.
“Sure,” he agreed, giving a wide grin and revealing his fangs. “It’s been a while since I got to offer a hunt to Fenrir.”
While Silon glanced between the two in worry, Hyacinth merely glanced at him and nodded. His face resting into one of calm and quiet confidence. For once, they weren’t on the cusp of arguing.
“Let’s make this quick.”
Keith wrinkled his nose as blood and seaweed overpowered the senses. However, if he focused, he found the faint scent of sulfur. He turned through the trail, finding it leading to the street next over. From that street, the scent of sulfur mixed with spices, olives, and figs.
“The trail leads from here to the market.” He grimaced. His ears pressed flat against his head in anticipation of the noise.
“Can you continue?” Is all Hyacinth asked.
That’s a good question. He thought dryly. With a frown, he tilted his head and his eyes took to the roofs of the buildings near the stalls. An idea popped into his head. No doubt the problem with the market was that he was in the thick of it, like if someone blasted earphones to the max volume. But if he was away and above it, the sound wouldn’t be as overbearing.
“Are we allowed to roof hop?” He asked.
“Yes.” Hyacinth smirked, as he proceeded to make water steps for himself as he hopped onto the nearest roof.
With a scoff, Keith teleported beside Hyacinth, breathing in to see if he could still follow the trail. Actually, it was a bit easier for him to smell everything up there but it took a lot longer to discern the scent from the rest due to it mingling together. As he sorted through the scent of figs, olives, and is that nutmeg? He furrowed his brows.
Then it hit. Faint and sharp, like biting on a fish bone. A little sliver of sulfur.
“Found it.”
Silently, they followed, the sound of the crowd bustling being less of a pain and more like a background noise as he hopped from roof to roof. He followed the trail with confidence. It led through the market and into a plaza. Keith continued only to wrinkle his nose.
“There’s too many conflicting scents.” He frowned. “The sun is setting soon, so the demons will be more active then.”
Hyacinth looked at the people scattered around. “Don’t worry, it seems the priests are already making quick work. Look, they’re already clearing out the people.”
He furrowed his brows as he examined the crowd. His eyes flitting from person to person and realizing, “Hey why are they separating some people?”
“Guess.”
He took a sniff, with less people it was easier to differentiate the scents. To his shock, the scent of sulfur was much stronger than before. Wow, it must be handy having this many people. Keith mused, after all Kiol was a tiny island with a small village and a small population. Compared to this bustling large city-state, it’s positively tiny!
“So those are Norboi,” He hummed. “Still, we should find the ringleader.”
Hyacinth placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t get up, listen.”
He turned his face to Hyacinth. Seeing his face so close, he was tempted to bite off his nose. … At that thought, he snapped his head away from Hyacinth.
“Got it.”
His ear flicked as focused his hearing down below. Knowing demons, they might sell out their leader in hopes of dragging them down too. Beside him, Hyacinth kept his eyes on the evacuating people.
“This should be the last of it.”
“Doubt it, demons always like to crawl around at night. Come on, place the sealing array and start a fire, may Hestia’s fire cleanse our home.”
“Understood.”
“Wait! Wait!”
Keith made a face as the demons began to squeal out, begging and pleading. He shuddered at a particularly loud one. No wonder Tiamat let these ones wreck havoc freely, they’re low level cannon fodder.
“You still have yet to find our leaders!”
“Yes, yes, yes! If you let us go, we can lead you to Nosoi and Morbi!”
Thump! He startled at this, sitting up straighter in shock. Sure enough, it was as he heard, a priest kicked one of the demon’s in the face. That priest must be for Ares, because that sounds like a solid kick.
“Iee! Don’t hurt me please!”
“Shut up!”
With that the priests stopped talking to their quarries. Instead they all took out bronze weapons and cut the necks. Unlike the other demons, these ones were Grecic in origin and thus didn’t have any blood. Instead they turned into golden dust, the priests collected this dust in small pouches.
“We’ll burn these at the temples.”
“Come on, let’s keep going.”
“To think that such a horrid disease was actually a curse…”
As the last of the priests moved on to the next area, the two went from their place on the roof into the still empty plaza. As he teleported down, he watched as Hyacinth glided down from the roof on a water platform. He scoffed at this, does Hyacinth use water for everything?
As Hyacinth walked over, Keith tossed him a cocky grin. “We now have their leader’s names.”
“Good. We can draw them out then.” Hyacinth nodded in satisfaction. “Are you planning on summoning them?”
Oryath, once he grew in Tiamat’s ranks, soon learned the ability to summon demons with a minor portal spell similar to that of Tiamat’s. Though Oryath had only summoned one demon throughout his entire career as a traitor. Ren, a tengu whose mountain was mined by humans, who followed Tiamat out of gratitude for saving him when he tried to stop them from mining only to get caught in a cave-in caused by mining blasts.
“Ren-!”
A flash of light as the seal took hold, and the flash of a bitter smile. “It needs a guardian, something to reinforce it, that’s the problem with the original design right?”
“Stupid bird brain, come back, I can’t undo the seal once its there!”
“Live well, Oryath. Live. Well.”
The memory hit him like a dizzy spell. Taking a steadying breath, he blinked away the tears. Later. He’ll dissect whatever that was later. Demons, first. Self, second.
“I remember the summon spell. I don’t know if I can do it without something to mark the plaza though,” He spoke softly as he recovered from the memory.
“Will water work?” Hyacinth asked, “Or does it have to be colored?”
He crouched down and brushed a finger over the stone ground. Seeing the dirt leave marks on his finger, he nodded. “It should, the ground is sufficiently dry. The water should leave marks. Here this is the sigil.”
Drawing a small version of the summoning circle into the first, he explained, “This circle isn’t large enough to summon anyone but a minor impling. It needs to be larger, say… the whole plaza so we have enough room to fight.”
“The plaza should be fine, the priests placed a temporary protection circle around the plaza to prevent the demons from leaving. Since it’s temporary it’ll fade away naturally.”
“In essence, we have a time limit. Make the circle as large as the plaza.”
With that, the plaza was now holding a large summoning circle, enough for two demons and a fight. Keith stretched as he warmed up. As he did so, he mentally went over Oryath’s memories. The demon summoning spell used something like Latin. Each high-class demon has a circle specifically to summon them, but there’s a general summon circle used to summon any other demon so long as you know their name.
“Ready?” He turned to Hyacinth.
The other reached up to his ear, unclipping the earring and allowing it to become a spear once more. From the plaza, Keith could see the flashes of the setting sky. Purple painting the vast canvas, leaving only a breath for a mixture of reds, oranges, and yellows, streaking through the sky on idle clouds. In that light, his eyes glanced at Hyacinth. His long hair fluttered in the ocean breeze while his black spear shined with promise of violence.
Beautiful…
“Ready.” Hyacinth replied, breaking him out of his thoughts.
Right. This isn’t a movie, he should focus. Taking a deep breath, he pulled on Oryath’s memories and began chanting.
Only one update this week! Mainly cause this chapter took a lot out of me and because I’m busy with school works picking up. *sighs* Ah, been feeling super tired recently but I am determined! To! Keep! Updating! Because comments fuel me and also because I want to show off Seipodon haha 😛 Thank you so much for reading and for your patience, don’t forget your three R’s and have a nice day!
Evil demons going around and cursing people in such a cruel way. Good that they can get ride of them rather quickly. 😤 What was that thought of boy bands? Don’t tell me his lover used to be in a band??? 🤩 Keith checking out Hyacinth and nearly drooling 🤤 over him because he is so beautiful is so lovely. 🥰 Aww, I hope for some closer interactions between them soon. ☺
Eheheh, closer interactions are a must have! As for the lover looks at my notes and cackles It’s a secret~ Thank you s much for your consistent comments, they give me life and I treasure each and everyone of them!
My…I’m a bit worried for him…also is this 2v1? 😮
Ehehehe, your worry only fuels me more! Also, it’s 1v1 ^^
Oohhh, it was not one-sided?