After Elias sealed Barry into the shadow vault. He began to look eyes on one of my remaining guildmembers, Natalie Haro.
"Natalie, care to join in?"
Natalie shrugs off easily and denies off quickly about Elias's request. She didn't have any reason to annoy Elias since she is scared about my brother's immense strength. Now she went face-to-face at my brother's eyes.
Utmost to my brother's response. Natalie replied quickly without hesitation. She'd even knelt to the ground to prove she's legitimately telling the truth.
"Oh, I'm sorry Master Elias, I promise my guild will not do this again. Please spare my life, don't seal me in your domain. I'm begging of you." Natalie knelt
Upon hearing Natalie's response, he showed a glimpse of satisfaction from his deeds, out of all the guildmembers that was toying Elias. Natalie respects my brother's attitude despite being an aloof and pragmatic sibling.
"Natalie, your one of the members who deserve utmost respect. You see my sister as a friend. Which she don't have while growing up since childhood. Out of all the guild that I sealed in my domain, you, my friend will help you guide the dangers my sister's about to face."
After setting my brother's anti-heroic speech, which is both bland and tasteless all of a sudden. Natalie breath an sigh of relief, knowing that she is the few members to see not a single annoyance at Elias's personality.
While Elias and Natalie locked eyes at each other, Alta arrives in an instant, wearing that appears to be an simple commoner dress. It appears to be mine and I was shocked because Alta fits perfectly around my dress.
"Perfect timing, Alta!" I said
"Oh, Thanks. This dress of yours are cuter than I expected."
"Alta, I have a few questions to ask? Mind sitting this chair?"
"Sure."
Alta sat at the chair besides Cassius, Cassius heart struck when he was sat beside a beautiful woman with two genitals. He blushed indefinitely as they locked both eyes. Unable to take it anymore, Cassius spoke
"Lady Alta, will you please marry me?" Cassius knelt on the ground and proposed a ring that he stored one of his pockets.
Everyone including me was shocked about this. He proposed, it front of everyone? Wait, doesn't he supposed to go on a date?, as a fueling question seeping through my mind. Alta lend out a confusing face.
"What are you talking about? What's a marry? Is this some kind of ritual or a greeting?"
Cassius face went pale, as he was rejected by a thousand year beastfolk with an appearance of a young woman, its feminine and sexy body were a backlash from Cassius desires as he wanted to be free rather becoming a nobleman.
Little did Cassius know that Alta was a beastfolk, of course he didn't knew about human traditions, nor he didn't knew the marriage proposal. He was dumbfounded about Cassius sudden proposal as hinted without meaning of it. Cassius decided to be smart.
"Lady Alta, marry means good friend in our language, it's part of our accent that accepts of becoming a friend. Tell me, will you marry me?"
Cassius holds it's ring high in the air, waiting for Cassius response. After a minute of a look of a confusing face, he accepted.
"Okay Cassius, I will take your marry thing? Is this alright then?"
"Yes, definitely yes, Lady Alta."
Cassius calling Alta with a delightful manner, he sneaks the word "Lady" In front of his name, not knowing Alta is an intersex beast. Meaning that he had two genders instead of a ordinary one.
As Cassius hurriedly hugs Alta in excitement. Elias interrupted from nowhere, a delightful conversation between beast and a human suddenly became a marriage proposal. Elias slammed the wooden table in order to create attention.
"Hey lovebirds, are we in a conversation or in a flirting session. We having a talk around here!"
Elias fury silences the duo, knowing that they will put into Elias's shadow vault if they misbehaves, much like my guild members were apart of this. Barry, Ned and Carin were sealed up by Elias's demise due to them threatening from his misbehavior.
After all things are settled, Elias raised his hands and points out three identical fingers. Each meaning the corresponding questions to Elias,
"Alta, I have three questions to ask. Who are you? Who is the robed man? What are his plans?"
As Elias gave three questions to Alta, he answered it quickly.
"I'm Alta Granite, the last remaining survivor of the Granite Clan. To all of you wondering, yes, my kind had been extinct in centuries. My life is just collecting bounties and other contracts from adventuring quests. Like all of you, I'm a adventurer, a gold-ranked adventurer."
I was surprised that the beastfolk was actually a adventurer at least. Knowing his destructive nature of the chimera, his life revolves around killing monsters and collecting bounties. Like a normal adventurer would do.
"Gold-ranked adventurer! Wait I heard that identity before. Tell me Alta, have you ever been to Caria before?" Elias asks calmly
"Indeed, I've been to Caria City numerous times. In fact, there's a bronze-plated statue of me at the training grounds of Caria. I was quite popular at that city."
Elias is seemed interested about Alta's identity more than anything, as the questions grew tense. He asks another question.
"Wait, since your a gold-ranked adventurer plus a bronze statue waiting at Caria. You must be the Blessed Blade, the adventurer who exist centuries ago. I didn't knew the legend is alive and well."
"Indeed, I'm the Blessed Blade. Our species never ages nor signs of getting older. I lived up a thousand years ago. And miraculously, I was the last of my kind. Feel free to sign any autographs."
"I done care about your autographs or fame. I just wanted answers. Even your immortal or not. I can still kill you on the spot."
Then, Elias slips on another question, the question we've been waiting about.
"Alta, who is the robed man?"
Alta stood there at a moment, thinking about the answers inside of his head. After a minute of silence, he spoke up.
"Oh, the robed remained a anonymous identity to this day. I saw him wore a skull mask and a dark robe"
"Huh? A skull mask, it seems that the robed man wore an artifact that conceals his identity. What a smart move that guy has."
"Also, that man uses hypnotic magic. He brainwashed me and began losing control. That's all that I remember."
Elias seems to know the robed man's identity but it wasn't sure about his answer. I approached my brother asks a few questions
"Brother, does hypnotic magic ring any bells?"
"I only knew one friend in Caria who knew hypnotic magic. But he is long dead. I wasn't sure if he's or not."
Elias didn't remember any people on his life who uses hypnotic magic. Only his deceased friend had that. He confirmed that he went into his funeral to grieve and mourn.
"Well, that the only information i knew. You can kick me in the balls as hard as you can. And that's the only known identity from him."
Then, Elias slipped another question at one of his three questions.
"What plans does the robed man have?"
"Well, the robed man uses his hypnotic magic to control the high orcs himself. He'd sent weeks or even months gathering those high orcs with pure hypnotic magic. Past those months of work. He gathered a thousand high orcs to destroy Rebelbub Village."
Alta then went on to explain how the robed figure who was gathering an monster army was planning on attacking the nearby villages. And that he had already gathered a mob of three to four thousand monsters. Most of the monsters that inhabited the second mountain range lived in packs, so all he'd needed to do was to subjugate their respective leaders, and their packs had followed.
The whole reason Elias and the other luminous knights exist to this world was because the people had feared the humans had somehow discovered a way to control monsters, to assert dominance. So because of that, I surmised that the robed man must have been a member of the monster race.
However, when they said as much Alta shook his head.
"Huh? That masked man wasn't a monster, but a human!"
Alta nodded. He explained that the black-robed man had been a red-haired, black-eyed human, and that while he'd called him a man, he was young enough to be considered a kid. He was also distinctively remembered what he had said after taking control of his mind.
Elated by the robed man success, he had yelled "This proves I'm better than him. I'm the real hero here!" He had seemingly harbored a massive grudge against that hero.
And that hero was Elias.
A semi-blonde haired boy with dark circlea in his eyes, who knew the hero well and was a genius at using hypnotic magic. There was one person who perfectly fit all of these conditions. Elias muttered.
"But that can't be… he's dead, he's long dead. I attended his funeral years ago. There's no way you're lying."
As were worrying what to do, Elias, who deployed his shadow crows earlier, suddenly realized something.
When he'd heard Alta's story, he'd sent his crows out of the search for the monster army and the black-robed man. One of them had spotted a large gathering of monsters, but… the numbers were off.
"Alta, you said a thousand right? Are you sure you weren't a digit short?" Elias said calmly
Upon Elias's observation, the high orcs grew exponentially. The last time he saw yesterday was about five hundred, and suddenly it rose to around two to three thousand high orcs. Upon Elias said the numbers, our jaws dropped. A huge amount of high orcs will arrive at Rebelbub Village.
After that, Elias dismissed the previous question and created a new one.
"Alta, what orders does the robed man give to you?"
"He gave me two orders. Eliminate nearby parties in the mountains and decimate the Rebelbub Village."
"Parties? Did you incinerate one of Cassius' parties."
"I frankly don't remember, I was hypnotized and controlled by the robed man. I couldn't recall how many lives I've lost."
Once Alta finished her explanation, a low trembling voice echoed through the silence. Everyone turned around in surprise. There was a murderous rage in Cassius's gaze as he glared at Alta, his hands balled up in fists.
"Are you fucking kidding me. Are you saying it's not your fault because you were controlled. That it's not your fault you killed my fellow comrades on that mountain?"
The anger he'd felt at the death of his companions had continually been building up underneath the mountain of panic that had occupied his thoughts until now. Finally, it boiled over in a violent outburst of shouting…
Alta didn't reply. He stared quietly into Cassius's eyes, absorbing his pain and anger. The calm attitude only served to enrage Cassius further.
"Besides, who's to say you're even telling the truth! For all we know this is all bullshit you made up so we spare your life!" Cassius was enraged
"Everything I told you just now is the truth! I swear it on my pride as a beastfolk."
Cassius opened his mouth to protest again. But he was cut off by me.
"Cassius, He's not lying." I said
"What proof do you have…"
One look from me silenced Cassius. After he trailed off, I returned my gaze to Alta and continued.
"Beastfolk are known for their integrity and loyalty. And when I was around, stories of beastfolk were far more common. He staked her pride as a beastfolk on his story. It's no lie, Besides, I know what a liar's eyes look like, and Alta's no liar."
I gazed off into the distance as I said that last part. There was no doubt my life before meeting Elias had been full of lies and deceit. Even the people I thought closest to me had turned out to be liars.
And it was because I'd averted my eyes from the truth that I'd been playing. My somewhat unique life experiences from Earth had made me very sensitive to lies and liars. And my conclusion was Alta before them was no liar.
Then Cassius slips up and continues arguing.
"Even so, it doesn't change the fact you killed them. Even if it was against your will… you still did it! My leader, said he was going to propose this mission is over! Just what they die for…" Cassius burst into anger
He understood logically that Alta wasn't to blame. But he couldn't help himself. Even if he understood it in his head, he couldn't accept it in his heart. He ground his teeth together as a dark fog of anger enveloped his thoughts.
While appreciating the cliched nature of Cassius' speech. I suddenly remembered the locket he picked up in the forest.
"Cassius, did this belong to that members of yours?"
I pulled the locket and threw it over at Cassius. Cassius caught it and opened it up. As he stared at the picture inside, his mouth turned up with a smile.
"This is my locket! I thought I'd lost it forever. I can't believe you found it Eirene. Thank you so much!"
"Oh that's yours?"
"Yes! There's no mistaking it, the portrait inside is my mother!"
"Your mother? Wait! Is your father Lord Phillip!"
I stuttered, surprised at how far off the mark my guess had been.
"No! Lord Phillip was my father figure and was not blood related. My biological mother was no other than Snow Flower!"
"Huh? Your mother was Snow Flower?"
Huh? It seems that Cassius' father remains a mystery at least, but knowing his biological mother was no other than Snow Flower itself. As I am about to ask further questions about his family tree. Alta proposed a solution
"Whether it was by my will or not, the truth is that I stole the love of many innocent people. If you say I must die for my crimes, then I shall accept that punishment. However, could you not give me some time? Before I die, I must at least destroy that dangerous man. That man is trying to create an army of monsters. The Beastfolk have always kept their distance for the affairs of the continent."
They all looked up to Elias. At some point, he had become the effective leader of their group. The one who fought the chimera off had been him, so it seemed natural to entrust the decision to him as well. Alta continued
"That robed man was far from normal. It is my responsibility to stop him, I couldn't allow him to run free… I understand what I am asking of you is selfish. But will you please grant me the opportunity to stop this tragedy before it gets any worse?" Alta said in a remorseful tone.
Elias' response was as casual and swift as always.
"Alta, we will kill the man who is behind all of this. In exchange, you will help me repel the waves of high orcs. Does that sound like a deal?"
"Elias, I accept!"