It was around midnight when Heroth woke up from his deep sleep. "Enough." He thought, looking in the direction of the little girl he had taken in. "I am too old for this." He walked down the stairs and approached Arahi’s room, before knocking on it. "Girl, it’s ti for you to leave." The words he spoke were simple enough.
There was no anger or hate, just apathy at this point.
Enough gas, he had thought. This whole ti, this whole little ga he played was out of childish interest he had in what his stalkers had in mind for him. But now, with what just happened, all his interest was dead—replaced with nothing more than a desire for true peace.
"Why do you say so Boss? I, I didn’t cause any trouble to you did I?" Opening the door, Arahi put forward her case. Although unaware of the reason why she was being kicked out, she still didn’t think that she was caught by him all along. Still treating the old man like a fool. Which Heroth didn’t appreciate much?
But he was not a violent person by nature, so he repeated. "There had been so trouble recently, you have already seen it, staying with will only put you in trouble. Don’t you have a mother to look after too, so don’t overthink." Heroth used her own history against her. Generally, what Arahi had witnessed in the day was enough to scare a normal person.
So her staying here was already suspicious enough.
"I don’t mind... I just learned the trade, the money is good, and isn’t the boss still safe?"
"I won’t change my mind, I will pay you four months in advance, and you can leave and find a new place to work." with those words, he left Arahi no other choice but to leave.
Which she eventually did after packing her stuff. But before she could leave, Heroth stopped her and said. "I hope that you have a good life, little girl." His voice held a bit of emotion. Even if the girl was there to spy on him, it didn’t make her a bad girl.
If she was, he wouldn’t have let her go so easily.
"You, too, boss." Arahi smiled and left the scene, leaving Heroth alone in his shop. Before turning his head on the opposite side of the street, finding that Raja was waiting at a distance. "Co in." Welcod Heroth.
"You sent her away?" Looking into the distance, Raja spoke, holding so bits of curiosity over his eyes. "What happened today scared her, so I let her go." Heroth lied, he didn’t wish for Raja, or anyone else for that matter to hold any interest in her, not until she disappeared again. "I hope that you can protect her for a bit, I know there will be eyes on her after leaving my shop."
"There are eyes, a lot of eyes... even so on the Bartender’s guild. They think you ca here due to us." Raja complained for a bit.
The morning incident had put a lot of problems over his shoulders, many parties were asking for an explanation, and with the prior arrangent broken when he took part in the battle today, even if he was there to save the Priest of Truthful Deceit, the church as well as a certain subset of nobles were looking for a paynt.
"I Apologize, the others, are irritated due to not being on seas for a long ti," Heroth spoke, showing so remorse over the state of things.
"There is no need to apologize to your bartender, I am here to learn to shoulder so of your worries for a reason." Raja then took out a bottle of liquor, to a cheap one. "I wonder if Sir still likes to enjoy the cheap stuff from ti to ti."
"I want to, but most don’t work on with my current body, I don’t feel a thing."
"Then sir shouldn’t worry, this is specially crafted rum, specifically mimicking the flavor and experience of the cheap stuff, but it’s capable of causing a certain level of high... this was specifically made according to your taste, Sir."
"Ho, is it?" Heroth said with a smile, leading Raja to a table before taking out two glasses. "First let’s have a drink, I need to forget what happened today."
"Of course." Raja smiled as the two started to drink again.
*****
In the house of Vermillions, Lasi Asahi was back after the interrogation she went through due to the injuries that Priest Halbrand suffered during the one-sided battle. Many questions were asked of her, including who did this and how a powerful Grandmaster Knight like her was so helpless against her enemy, who didn’t even seem to reach the level of Grandmaster.
Or so it seed on the surface, which had caused even more chaos among the higher-ups of the church considering a big fish like Heroth can act as he pleases and none of their detection asures seem to sense anything.
Generally, the mages are the easiest to hide due to the innate radiation they exude from their body. Of course, there are exceptions, but they are among the most rare cases and can’t be treated as a general ability of mages.
While there were Knights, who might appear mortal on the surface even while doing simple things, the mont they inspired their blood, they would still light up like a bug on the sensor. So for Heroth to not be detected both tis can only an one thing.
Either, Heroth was so absurdly strong that he created a giant reptilian claw out of nothing, or he had a thod to subvert their asures, which if used by soone wrong can create loads of issues for the intelligence.
"What is your perspective on this thing, Elder Lasi? You felt it, that hand, didn’t you? What do you think it was? An illusion? A lie? Or sothing real? A spell is hidden using a powerful artifact?" This was the ergency family eting of the Vermilion family, as they were under the most pressure. Attended by around seven won in total, four of which belonged to the elders and the three who were currently leading the Clan Asahi Vermilion at this very mont.
As for the reason why this whole eting was conducted, it was pretty simple. The man they gave sanctuary to turned out to be a monster. A powerful one that even a Grandmaster Ranked Elder couldn’t do a thing against.
Not to ntion, that man had gone ahead and hurt the Priest Halbrand, creating an even bigger issue.
"It was real, that hand, this scaly texture, that whole arm felt real to , I could even feel the blood flow through the little contact I had with it... and the Sailor even partially transford as well, that requires one to inspire the blood. The machine is probably broken if it can’t detect sothing I saw with my own eyes."
"Or it’s just sothing in his hand, sothing that can hide his whereabouts... one must wonder why such a strong man would co here, for what reason if not for hiding." The oldest of the Elders, an Old woman spoke in a low voice, which was heard by everyone in this room, including the current patriarch, who only had the strength of Master Rank Knight.
"Elder Wahana, you think a man like this sailor needs to hide? He is strong enough."
"Then think, if he ca to hide here, what kind of enemy he might be facing." At those words, of the oldest Elder Wahana, the whole group turned silent for a while. "We will be in trouble on all sides." One of the elders spoke, showing so worry.
"I don’t think that is the case, the man from the Bartenders spoke of vacation."
"That man spoke of many things before... but can you really trust him? Don’t forget what he did with the Dragons before. They are not dependable."
The Azure Dragons suffered a lot after their matter was exposed to how they were inciting violence between the two families. And the one exacting the punishnt was none other than the Vermilion and the White tiger together. Which could only be done after the Bartender’s association broke their vow and exposed the truth.
"This reminded , of that issue, I always found it bizarre how the Bartender’s Guild ca with information suddenly, but I just recalled that there had been a complaint by the Sailor Heroth about soone breaking his shop’s glass pane before the Bartender’s exposed the matter.... They might have just done it for him."
One of the elders spoke, suddenly recalling a matter that she hadn’t completely ignored after the recent events that had transpired in the southern district.
"It makes sense, the bartenders can’t be trusted in this matter, they have been holding back on many things, which led to the current situation."
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