Ren paced back and forth in the ashes of the village. The last of the survivors have left for Seipodon and it was only the two of them. Well, the two of them and Shiki’s creepy clan of undead cats standing on their hind legs. In front of him, watching him pace back and forth is a cold faced Shiki.
Because clearly the guy has facial paralysis, Ren mocked him in his head.
“Calm down. We did our objective. The area is secure.” Shiki said.
Ren stopped pacing and crossed his arms, looking away. “You’re not going to do your thing?”
“Do you want me to?” He asked, tilting his head.
“No. I mean, you’re not mad then?”
He tilted his head, his tails swaying. “The objective is complete, how you interpret it is up to you.”
Hiding his frown beneath his fan, he sighed. “Fine. I’ll keep that in mind then. We did as we’re told. Are your cats dones with the summoning circle?”
Shiki turned to the lead cat, a black cat with shiny green eyes. The cat bowed. And in a yowling, high pitched voice, it said, “Yes, Master. The summoning circle is complete and ready.”
“Well done, Ume.” He patted it on the head. Taking out a storage pouch, he dropped it into Ume’s paws. “Here’s your rewards, Grecic Sea bream and bonito for you and the rest of the clan.”
“We thank you very kindly, meow-ster!” Ume cried out, hastily going back to the group of cats and distributing it evenly among them.
Ren took out his own storage pouch. “Catch.”
With one hand, he grabbed it from the air and opened it. “And what is this?”
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.
“Supposedly, it would have been my bribe so you wouldn’t activate the circlet. I figured it would be a waste if I didn’t give it anyway.” He shrugged. “It’s just a few snacks I got here, surprisingly they have fish balls..”
Vtlxl yilcxfv, xffqlcu atf qbemt lc tlr riffnf. “… P’nf cfnfg ajrafv la, rb sbe kbeivc’a tjnf yffc regf lo atf yglyf kbeiv kbgx.”
“Ct.”
“Jbwf, ws rfgnjcar jgf vbcf. Qf rtbeiv rewwbc atfw ktlif atf jrtfr jgf tba.” Dgertlcu qjra tlw, Vtlxl yfujc kjixlcu abkjgvr atf abkc’r mfcafg. Lf qjerfv ab uijcmf ja tlw, yief jcv sfiibk fsfr ujhfv ja tlw, rtlclcu ilxf qbilrtfv ufwr. “Rfza alwf, lo sbe kjca ab yglyf wf, ufa wf glmf mgjmxfgr.”
Ren followed after him, glancing at the happy clan of cats who were cheerfully munching on their reward. Once one cat was done, it would turn into ghost fire and disappear into the demon realm until they’d be called on once more. In his heart, he wondered if he was making the right decision. Was it right to be friendly with him? After all, he remembers how accepting Shiki was of his job. The other demon generals were calling for his execution but Shiki…
“Enough. This is disgraceful. Look at you all, hooting and hollering like you’re nothing more than mere apes.” Shiki called out, his face portraying a rare instance of emotion, though this time it was contempt.
Ren was sitting on the floor, shackled, his wings cut, bound, and caged as it struggled to attach itself back to him. His back is bleeding, from the cut wings or from the scars, he doesn’t know. Stripped of title, stripped of wings, and soon he shall be stripped of life.
Or so he thought.
“Oh?” Lady Tiamat hummed, red eyes shining with interest. “Speak, General Shiki.”
Shiki bowed to Tiamat, before straightening up and sneering at the other generals. “Ren may have betrayed her previously but he still has plenty of skill and use. In fact, I can say he probably has more skill in his little finger than the combined strength of all of you.”
“Fat lot of good that did him,” General Morgan laughed. Long pretty blue hair standing out against hardened scales of diamond. Mermen have always been vain, Ren glanced at the pearls strung in the other’s hair. “Look at him now, a wingless tengu!”
“Whose strategy made Atlantis ours?” Shiki snarled dangerously. “It certainly wasn’t yours, General of Water.”
“You take that back!” Morgan growled, revealing sharpened teeth.
“Calm your temper,” Wesley said, “He is right, you know. Ren’s a cunning strategist, having him dead would hinder us.”
Ren raised an eyebrow at Wesley. The two of them rarely spoke, Wesley was a Homunculus after all. Wind and Earth do not mix well, which is why Wesley rarely spoke to him. Shiki nodded at Wesley, settling down and turning his sneer into an expression that’s as frozen as an ice cube.
“So what? We let him live, keep him on our leash, in order to be betrayed again?” The General of Fire, Khez, questioned.
And thus the solution was born.
Honestly, Ren doesn’t understand why Shiki even did that. He shrugged to himself. It’s Shiki, the guy’s a bit weird for a demon. What matters most is that Shiki is more technical on orders than previously anticipated. Ideally, this means he can use this to his advantage and help out Keith and the other former Heroes of Yore.
If there’s one thing Keith dislikes about the whole ‘gather all the reincarnations’ plan, its that they kind of don’t know where everyone was even reborn. So far, their reunions were all by coincidence, Hyacinth and Silon for instance were both in Seipodon by coincidence. Silon due to wanting to see seaweed of all things, no matter how magical it is, and Hyacinth due to rebirth circumstances. Don’t get him started on how Leonith only met him due to following demons. Really, none of their meetings were pinpointed and planned out.
Which takes them to now, at a crossroads that diverts to Khemetic, Grecic, or to Mainland Nornic Territory.
Scratching his head, Keith listened as they all argued for one of the territories.
“I say we go deeper into Grecic lands, we’re close to the kingdom of Ithracia, we can stock items there even if we don’t find the reincarnations of Aina and Yugiri.” Hyacinth spoke up.
Leonith shook his head. “Khemetic Territory is the way to go. Aina was once from Ebsun so we might find her there.”
Meanwhile, Silon was vehemently arguing, strangely enough, for Mainland Nornic Territory.
“No way, I say we go to the Mainland of Nornic Territory, the supplies there would be good and we can get more of a handle on dealing with the demons that way.” Silon explained, smiling and wait, has she always had sharpened teeth?
Fae-Chosen, Keith reminded himself. Beautiful but scary.
In their squabbling, he was munching on a piece of dried meat. Out of the four of them, he would be the one with the most outdated knowledge of the current world so he felt that there was no point arguing for any of the territories. Either way, they’re stuck trying to figure out where to go in order to find supplies, a solution to demon problems, or Aina and Yugiri’s reincarnations. Mostly the last two but the first point is important too.
Personally, he wants to find the missing two in their party. They’d need all the reincarnations if he wants to at least check on the seal because he used each of them to represent the four elemental pillars with Orionith as the unifier. As his thoughts drifted further down the lane of seal work, drawing on his memories of the illustrations in the book and of Oryath’s memories, he felt something warm on his chest.
Taking out his necklace, he realized that when his mother said, ‘to guide and protect’, she meant it literally.
“Uh guys?” He said watching as the necklace glowed a faint gold with a compass forming above it, the arrow of the compass was pointing not to north but to somewhere else. “I think I have a solution to our problem.”
Leonith was the first to notice.
“A compass seal, how interesting. Are you sure it will lead us to one of the reincarnations though?” He mumbled.
Keith shrugged. “Well, it’ll lead us to somewhere which is a lot better than nowhere.”
With a heavy sigh, Hyacinth approached him and looked at the compass. “Take us to where we need to go.”
The compass complied, glowing and pointing at where the Khemetic Territory is.
Silon let out a groan while Leonith cheered with a wide grin. Hyacinth, to his credit, merely looked to the skies and murmured a prayer to Zeus.
“Looks like we’re going to the desert.”
Fenrir, Keith prayed, Give me strength and perhaps don’t laugh too much at me. A pause. He edited his prayer. Actually, laugh all you want, just make sure we’re safe.
The desert weeeeee!~ Honestly, the only one excited for it is Leonith and I. *pats Leonith’s head* Don’t worry dear, I’m sure the others will come around! *hides Silon whose paler than paper, Hyacinth whose Gift is centered around water, and Keith whose never stepped foot in anything remotely hot in this life* We also got a look into Ren’s thoughts and Shiki being shockingly okay of a person, whaaaaat? Shocking but not to me lol Anyway as of typing, I’m dealing with a major headache but luckily I’ll get a new pair of glasses soon so my eyes won’t be straining, and hopefully I’ll get a blue light filter for said glasses! Thank you so much for reading!
Edit: A word.
Shiki somehow sounds like a cat that wants to get pampered by someone but doesn’t dear to ask the other demons for it so he choose Ren. 🤭 Poor guys, now they go of into the desert and only Leonith likes it. Who doesn’t like hot, dry places with a strong sun which burns you to a crisp. 😵💫 I’m totally on your side Leonith. 🥵 Where ever he likes to go, I would definitely go with him…. maybe if I was heat resistant, even into the desert. 😅
Shiki really is like a hot and cold cat, who knows what’s going on behind that cold face of his? Well, maybe me but I only go with maybe, he is his own cat! Ahaha, at least Leonith has you on his side! And me, because they really do need to go to the desert for, reasons. Now if only everyone else was at least somewhat desert resistant >,<