As I promised Anna, I stayed in bed for the next three days. Not that I had much choice in the matter. My companions refused to remove the manacles, though they loosened them so I could move about a bit. Still, even without the manacles, I would've kept my promise.
Almost dying to poison had given a wake up call. After reaching Second Star, Third Ranked Awakened beca less of a threat to . Sure, they were still dangerous, so I never underestimated them too much. However, I never considered them a true threat. That was a mistake, an almost fatal one. My arrogance had almost gotten killed. I intended to rectify that mistake. No more playing around.
When Cally realized that I had awakened, she barged into the room and proceeded to lecture for a while. That in itself wasn't too bad. However, the pained look in her eyes filled with guilt.
As a healer, Cally knew how close I had co to dying. It was closer than I cared to admit.
I felt even guiltier towards Leroy. He didn't say anything. Instead, he sat by my side with a sorrowful expression on his face. I knew he did this to guilt trip , he admitted as such, but that didn't make it any less effective.
My companions continued investigating the disappearances during those three days. Well, Anna and Cally investigated the disappearances. Leroy refused to leave my side. As my bodyguard, my near-death experience was a point of sha for him. His words, not mine. He intended to stick by , no matter what I said or did, at least for the foreseeable future.
However, my companions refused to tell about the ongoing investigation. No amount of pleading or cajoling on my part changed their minds. They feared that if they told , I'd get out of bed and involve myself again. So, for my sake, they kept quiet. Again, not my words.
So, I stayed in bed with little to do. It was maddening. Boring didn't even begin to describe how I felt. Reading didn't help at all. My thoughts kept turning back towards the investigation, which distracted . After a while, I gave up.
At least Anna kept company at night. However, since I was still recovering from my poisoning, we kept our activities light. Cuddling, nothing more.
And so, that was how I spent my ti until the three days were up. By that point, I was desperate to get out and do sothing, anything, to relieve my boredom.
Of course, before they removed the manacles, my companions made promise not to act like a reckless idiot for the rest of our stay in Eastwatch. I gave in right away. That's how desperate I was.
Afterwards, the four of us held a eting in the room I shared with Anna to discuss our progress thus far.
It was around mid-morning. Sunlight stread in through the bedroom's windows. Cally sat on a chair that she had pulled in from her own room, while Leroy remained standing by the door. Anna and I sat on the bed.
Anna wore an outfit in the local style, showing off a fair amount of skin. On the one hand, I appreciated the view since Anna was fit and beautiful. On the other hand, the thought of other n seeing my fiancée like this drove up the wall with jealousy.
anwhile, Leroy and Cally wore more traditional Solarian clothing. Unlike Anna, they hadn't adopted the locals' more liberal attire. I wore a more casual outfit, since it was just the four of us here.
We waited for Cally to cast so privacy spells before we began speaking.
"What have you found out over the past three days?" I asked as soon as Cally finished.
My companions shared a look.
"I don't know," Anna said with an expression of faux-concern on her face. "Perhaps we shouldn't tell you. You're still recovering, after all. We wouldn't want to put undue stress on you."
"You're right, Annabelle," Cally said, wearing a similar expression on her face. "Maybe we should wait until Gabriel is better."
Leroy nodded in agreent. I rolled my eyes.
I made a full recovery a while ago, thanks to Cally's magic. My companions were just saying all this to ss with .
"Stop playing around," I said, resisting the urge to shake them all. "Rember, peoples' lives are at stake."
Anna sighed.
"Fine," she said. "As entertaining as it is, we'll stop teasing you." She gestured to Cally. "You start."
Cally nodded, before looking in my direction.
"First of all," she said. "Thank you for telling how to see through the succubus's concealnt spell. This allowed to create a counterspell, one that doesn't alert them."
I nodded. After that first conversation with Anna, I told my companions about what happened after I left Mireya's clothing shop. They already heard about it from Teacher, but I wanted to tell them about it from my perspective.
"Second," Cally continued. "We discovered that there are five succubi selling skewers in Eastwatch. They're spread out, so they don't attract too much attention."
I nodded again. That made sense. The Church of the Sun was always on the lookout for demons and demon summoners. Succubi were considered a serious threat, even though they were relatively weak, because of their ability to infiltrate communities and influence them from the inside.
"Third, we believe that there are two factions of demons in Eastwatch," Cally continued. "And they're working against each other."
I blinked at her in surprise.
"Why do you say that?" I asked.
Cally gestured to .
"The attack against you was the biggest clue," she said. "You bought a bag full of skewers from one of the food stall succubi. Not only that, but you said you would et with them the next day. And yet, soone attacked you despite this."
Huh. Now that she brought it up, I found it odd as well. At the ti, I was too distracted fighting for my life to think about it too much.
"Anna and I decided to look deeper into this," Cally continued. "With help from Marcio and the families, as well as Mireya and her people."
"Yes," Anna said, taking over the explanation. "At first we thought the disappearances were related to cursed skewers. So of them are, but not all of them."
I frowned.
"What do you an?" I asked.
"The disappearances started several months ago," Anna said. "The five food stall succubi didn't show up until later. We don't know the exact date, thanks to their concealnt magic, but it was definitely after the disappearances first started. The food stall succubi made things worse, but they weren't the initial cause."
I mulled it over for a bit.
"So what was the initial cause?" I muttered, almost to myself.
"We suspect House Sandstrike," Anna said. "Mireya's husband managed to find out that the forr head of House Sandstrike, Lady Isabella, has her own retainers."
I raised an eyebrow.
"That's not unusual," I said. "She may no longer be the head of House Sandstrike, but she should still hold so influence. That's why her son locked her away in the first place."
Which made it all the more suspicious that he let her co back at all. Even if the two had made up, Lady Isabel would always remain a threat to Lord Sandstrike's position. If she had stepped down willingly, that would be a different matter. However, he forced her to step down.
"Yes, but according to Mireya's husband these retainers aren't a part of House Sandstrike," Anna said. "They serve Lady Isabel and Lady Isabel alone."
That surprised . It wasn't unusual for a House scion to have personal retainers. However, these retainers were still a part of the House overall. The Clans worked the sa way, from what I gathered. For example, I had Leroy and the twins, who were a part of Clan Sturm.
For a House scion to have personal retainers with no ties to their House… This wasn't just unusual, it was outright suspicious.
"In that case, Lady Isabel must've taken great pains to hide their existence from the rest of House Sandstrike," I said. "How did Mireya's husband find out about them?"
Anna gestured to .
"Again, this was thanks to you," she said. "The city guard found the woman who attacked you. They reported the matter to House Sandstrike, who sent a group of retainers to collect the woman's corpse. Mireya's husband was a part of this group. However, just before the retainers could return to Castle Sandstrike, another group of retainers intercepted them.
"This second group said that Lady Isabel commanded them to take custody of the body. The problem was, no one from the first group knew who these people were. They thought the second group were impostors. The two groups got into a heated argunt, and almost ca to blows. Things only ended when Lady Isabel herself arrived and confird that the second group worked for her. The first group had no choice but to surrender the body to them.
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"Afterwards, the leader of the first group made a complaint to the current head of House Sandstrike, Lord Sandstrike. However, he dismissed the complaint and nothing ca of it."
I blinked in surprise.
"So," I said. "Not only does Lady Isabel have her own personal retainers outside of House Sandstrike, but she also overstepped her bounds and Lord Sandstrike just ignored it?" I asked.
Anna nodded.
"Please tell I'm not the only one who thinks that's suspicious," I said.
Anna grinned.
"You're not the only one," she said. "The rest of House Sandstrike's retainers feel the sa way. However, there's nothing they can do since Lord Sandstrike hasn't said or done anything about the matter."
I frowned.
"The question is, why would Lady Isabel reveal the existence of her retainers like this?" I asked. "I searched my attacker's body and I didn't find anything suspicious."
"I doubt you had enough ti to give it a thorough examination," Cally said. "What if there was sothing about the body that tied it to Lady Isabel?"
"You think the people who attacked were her retainers," I said.
My companions nodded.
"That's what we suspect," Leroy said, speaking up for the first ti since this eting began. "We also believe that there's sothing about their bodies that reveals Lady Isabel's involvent with the group of demon worshipers."
I frowned.
"We need to co up with a na for those people," I said. "Calling them a group of demon worshipers all the ti is so cumberso."
Cally raised an eyebrow at .
"While I agree with you," she said. "This isn't the right ti for it. We can think of a na for them later."
I shrugged. Fair enough.
"Let see if I can summarize the situation," I said. "Lady Isabel is working with demon worshipers and kidnapping people for so reason. anwhile, a group of succubi have infiltrated the city and are also kidnapping people. Not only that, but these succubi are working against Lady Isabel."
My companions glanced at each other.
"That about sums it up, yes," Anna said.
I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples.
"This is annoying," I said. "Why is Lady Isabel kidnapping people? Young and attractive people at that. It makes sense for the succubi, since they feast on peoples' life force and young adults tend to have more life force than others. However, what is Lady Isabel's motivation?"
"To summon demons?" Leroy offered.
I opened my eyes and looked at him.
"That's not a bad suggestion," I said.
There were a number of ways to summon demons. However, they all involved sacrificing sothing. Mana, objects, animals, people, etc. The more powerful the demon, the greater the sacrifice necessary to summon them.
Quantity and quality mattered. It was possible to summon a powerful demon by giving up a lot of low quality sacrifices, or a single high quality one. Was that Lady Isabel's goal? Is that why she kidnapped so many people? To summon a powerful demon?
It made sense, but I didn't think so. If Lady Isabel's goal was to summon a powerful demon, she wouldn't need to kidnap young and attractive people in particular. When it ca to demon summoning, a person's life force mattered less than their overall power. Sacrificing a single First Ranked Awakened was more effective than sacrificing dozens of regular people.
Then again, Lady Isabel kidnapped a number of minor nobles, who would all be Awakened. Perhaps she wanted to summon a powerful demon after all. However, why focus on young and attractive people?
Anna reached over and flicked my forehead.
"What was that for?" I asked, rubbing the spot she flicked.
"You were lost in your own thoughts and ignoring the rest of us," Anna said.
I gave her a sheepish smile.
"Sorry," I said. "I was just trying to figure out Lady Isabel's motives. Summoning a powerful demon, or several lesser ones, fits. However, I don't think it's the right answer."
"Keep in mind that Lady Isabel isn't a demon worshiper herself, as far as we know," Cally pointed out. "She's only working with them."
"That ans she's even less likely to summon a powerful demon," I said.
My companions and I fell silent as we considered Lady Isabel's potential motives.
"I have an idea," Leroy said, breaking the silence. "When I was a child, my mother often read bedti stories. In one of those stories, there was a witch who kidnapped young won and bathed in their blood in order to keep from aging."
I nodded.
"I rember that story," I said. "My mother read it to as well, when I was a child." I chuckled. "However, that can't be it. It's just a bedti story."
That said, the idea wasn't completely far-fetched. While cultivation was the most common way to live longer, it wasn't the only one. Back on Earth, I had heard tales about miraculous elixirs or divine fruits that granted immortality when consud.
"Huh," Anna said with a thoughtful expression. "That might be it."
I stared at her.
"What?" I asked. "You can't be serious. Bathing in the blood of young won? Really?"
Cally shook her head.
"No, that part is hogwash," she said. "However, in the First Tiline, I learned of a thod that allows one to steal life force from others in order to keep from aging. Not only that, but it's possible to use this sa thod to beco beautiful."
I stared at her and resisted the urge to facepalm.
"If you knew of such a thod, why didn't you ntion it before now?!" I asked.
Cally snorted.
"I had forgotten about it until now, since I never gave it much credibility," she said. "I read about it in an obscure to that I discovered in the First Tiline. Also, the thod has several strict requirents. In order to use it, you must sacrifice several people to a demon and let it consu them. Afterwards, you must let the demon consu you. Once you're inside, you must consu the demon from within using a special spell."
Leroy and I stared at Cally, horrified.
"That's…" I started to say, then stopped. Words were not enough to express my shock and disgust.
"Now you see why I didn't give it much credence," Cally said. "Even now I'm still skeptical. Only a lunatic would consider it. The chance of failure is high. Not only that, but even if you succeed, there are bound to be severe side effects." She shrugged. "I don't know for sure, since the to I read was damaged and incomplete, but it would make sense."
I found the idea of a person eating a demon funny, in a morbid sort of way. Most of the ti, they were the ones preying on other beings.
"Alright," I said. "Even if you're right and Lady Isabel sohow got her hands on this thod-"
"The Demon Devouring Art," Cally interjected. "And there's no guarantee that she knows about it. Perhaps she found a different thod. Or maybe she's not kidnapping people to steal their youth and beauty. We don't know for sure."
I rolled my eyes at her.
"Even if Lady Isabel sohow got her hands on the Demon Devouring Art," I said. "That still doesn't explain the succubi. What are they doing here?"
Anna shrugged.
"Opportunists?" she suggested. "Perhaps they found out about the kidnappings and decided to take advantage of the situation."
"That's a possibility," I said.
I sighed. We found so answers to our questions, but they ended up leading to even more questions. If anything, what we learned just highlighted how little we actually knew.
"Instead of sitting here and speculating, why don't we capture one of the succubi and interrogate them?" Leroy asked. "We have little information and a lot of conjecture."
I nodded.
"Leroy's right," I said. "Cally ca up with a counterspell to deal with the succubi's concealnt, which ans we'll have an easier ti finding them."
I doubted the food stall succubi were the only ones around. They were likely others in Eastwatch. Given their nature, I assud they were hiding out in brothels and other similar establishnts. That would make the most sense.
Succubi fed on humans by seducing them and then stealing their life force. A brothel was the perfect environnt for them. It allowed them to hunt without attracting too much attention. As long as they were careful, they could remain hidden for years.
"Let's capture and interrogate one of them," Cally said. "That seems like the simplest solution to ."
Anna nodded in agreent. I gave them both a skeptical look.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked. "While succubi aren't the best warriors, they're still Tier Four demons. They aren't easy to deal with."
Cally snorted.
"Who do you think you're talking to?" she asked. "In the First Tiline, our side developed a number of ways to capture and interrogate demons. We just didn't use them all that often since it was easier to just kill the infernal bastards. If we work together, I'm confident we can capture one of the succubi."
I glanced at Anna.
"Trust us," she said. "We've done it before."
I looked at Leroy. He gave a shrug.
"It's worth a try," he said, though he still looked skeptical.
"Very well," I said, turning back towards Anna and Cally. "What did you have in mind?"
Cally opened her mouth to say sothing, but Anna spoke up first.
"I have an idea," Anna said with a sly grin on her face. For so reason, I felt a bad premonition. "Why don't we lure one of the succubi into a trap?"
I raised an eyebrow.
"How?" I asked. "By using one of us as bait? I thought you were against that idea."
"That was before, when we didn't know the full scope of the situation," Anna said. "Now that we do, I'm more confident in keeping you safe."
Wait, when did I beco the bait in this scenario?
"What are you up to?" Cally asked, narrowing her eyes at Anna.
Anna ignored her.
"What do you say?" she asked instead, looking right in the eyes.
The bad premonition I felt grew stronger.
"We still don't know the full scope of the situation," I said. "While we know about the food stall succubi, we don't know about the others. Plus, there's Lady Isabel and her people to worry about."
Anna gave a sorrowful look, though her expressions still contained hints of that sly smile of hers.
"Don't you trust ?" she asked.
Not when you're like this, though I didn't say that out loud.
"Of course I do," I said, lying through my teeth.
Anna brightened up.
"Perfect," she said. "Then you won't keep objecting to my plan, right?"
"I suppose not," I said, sounding unsure.
"Henpecked fool," Cally muttered under her breath.
I didn't have a rebuttal to that.
"Lady Annabelle," Leroy said. "Your plan won't endanger Lord Gabriel, will it?"
Anna took a mont before answering.
"To a limited degree, yes," she said. "However, we'll be watching over him. It's less dangerous than letting him go off on his own."
Leroy's expression faltered for a mont.
"That doesn't fill with confidence," he said.
I resented that remark.
"Well, do you have any better ideas?" Anna shot back.
I sighed.
"Fine," I said. "We'll go with your plan. Otherwise, we'll be arguing for the rest of the morning."
Anna bead at .
"Excellent," she said.
The gleam in her eyes worried . However, I had already agreed to go along with Anna's plan. I doubted she would let back out. Besides, Anna loved . She wouldn't endanger too much.
What was the worst that could happen?
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