Paladin 4: Chapter 2 (Patreon)

The last time Darren and Asuriel raced, Darren had been the faster of the two. Asuriel pulled out a win by hanging on to Darren’s leg the entire time and pulling ahead at the last moment.

Now, the tables had turned, and Darren struggled to keep up with her despite his incredible speed. Darren was tempted to drop to the sea surface and use his movement skill to catch up to her, but he wasn’t falling too far behind. This was a good opportunity to push himself.

So Darren focused on his back, pushing for a second set of wings. He’d felt them there before and even let them emerge, but he hadn’t truly used them until now.

A second set of silver wings appeared on his back, but the moment they did so, he started losing ground. He didn’t know how to use the second set of wings. As Sasha and Morgana could attest to, having an extra set of limbs was disconcerting and difficult.

Asuriel spotted his troubles and turned. She slowed down, now flying backward with her hands behind her head as she feigned relaxation.

“Having a little trouble with your second set of wings?” Asuriel asked. “Maybe if you ask me nicely, I’ll give you some tips!”

Darren concentrated on his second set of wings, trying to figure out how Asuriel was using her second set of wings. She’d had hers’ for even less time than he’d had access to his. Still, she had the experience of having seen fifth-order seraph with a second set of wings flapping around and had a decent idea of how to fly with them properly.

And fly with them, she did. Darren couldn’t argue that she was far more nimble in the air than before. She could twist and turn while flying as easily as she could on the ground. She could control her orientation speed to such a degree that she was even flying backward.

Darren spotted the combat potential of such abilities, for he knew that while sticking to the ground was fine for killing mostly flightless demons, battling in the heavens involved a lot of flight.

Bit by bit, Darren focused until he found the right pattern. Beating both sets of wings at once was easiest, but it wasn’t entirely efficient. What he needed was more of a ripple running through them.

But at the same time, he had to remember that he wasn’t a bird. He was a being of magic and power. He flew on currents of Divine Aura, not air. The wings were the tool he used to push against it. He could fly without flapping his wings at all, though moving them certainly helped circulate power in the right direction.

Once he mastered the motions, his speed doubled. Asuriel had to stop taunting him and start flying seriously again. They soared over the city of Salsroth again, and Darren spotted one of his third-order bodies waving to them on the beach. They circled the city and touched down on a mountain peak to the north.

“I made it here first! I win! What’s my prize?” Asuriel asked.

“Yes, congratulations. As for a prize...” Darren stroked his chin.

“I know!” Asuriel grinned lewdly. “You can carry me back!”

“Carry you?” Darren frowned.

“Remember that harness I made to heal you?” Asuriel poked Darren’s stomach.

“Ah. I see.”

Darren flew the rest of the way back with a puffy cloak around him, covering both him and Asuriel, wriggling beneath his clothes. She’d tied herself to his chest, bouncing along on his shaft with every flap of his wings. From the sounds she made, it was a very entertaining flight for Asuriel.

Darren was having a lot more trouble staying in the air. He was distracted with the feeling of her wriggling against him, but he considered this combat training. If he couldn’t fly with this kind of distraction, there was no way he could fly during battle.

Asuriel was a drooling, quivering mess by the time they finally touched down in the Blackwind Empire’s capital again. Sasha was showing Morgana a few of the tips she’d picked up, and Morgana was noticeably better than she had been earlier.

“Ha! I can’t wait until Cassandra comes out here!” Morgana cackled. “I’m going to pay her back for making me be her private maid!”

They took a trip to the garden the palace servants had given to Darren for his private use. The structure seemed small at first, but it turned out to be built on top of a natural hot sprint, which was part of the reason it had been placed in the middle of the garden. The palace used this to grow tropical fruits.

But right now, the fruits were still growing, so it would be a long time before anyone came through here to disturb this isolated garden. This meant that Darren and his companions had run of the entire place.

“Ooh, the water is nice and warm,” Morgana said. “I think that spot over there is the coldest. You should toss Asuriel in there. I think a good cold bath will wake her up.”

Darren did as Morgana suggested, and soon Asuriel was coughing and spluttering as she swam over to her companions. Morgana and Sasha undressed and joined her, and Darren soon followed them.

The bath that followed took a great deal longer than it should have. Much like with Cassandra, they needed to bathe several times because they kept getting dirty the entire time. In the end, Darren realized they’d never finish washing up so long as he was there too, so he got up and retired to the upper floor of the garden cabin.

The entire upper floor of the cabin was one big bedroom. The bed looked like it had been built very recently, and each post and beam had been reinforced with steel bars. The same went for the pillars holding up the second floor. Someone had gone through a great deal of effort to make sure this bedroom was as close to unbreakable as it could get.

Darren sat down on the bed and opened his Inventory. There was one last companion he wanted to speak with.

“Ashe, come on out,” Darren said as he withdrew Melancholy.

His sword fell into his lap, a length of steel as large as he was. Its evolution to the legendary rank had made it into one of the most powerful magical artifacts in the Sacred Seas. Patterns ran down the steel, and the metal was grained like the finest wood.

It stood two yards long and more, and it weighed more than a horse. Its handle was wrapped in the skin of a heavenly water dragon, and the gem in the pommel shone with light that ran up and down the patterns in the blade. The energy they emitted would slay minor demons by its mere presence.

It was like no other blade, and it had been with Darren ever since the days of his youth trapped down in Hell, though then it had been nothing more than a knife.

Darren waved the blade through the air, and the air was filled with a single bright note as the steel rang. It was as light as a feather to his hands, but no mortal could wield this blade.

However, he wasn’t interested in the sword at the moment. He wanted to talk to the being within the blade.

“Come on out, Ashe. Nobody else is here, so you don’t need to be shy,” Darren said.

The light running up and down the length of the blade shone brighter, and soon a figure took shape in the room. She formed seated on the floor before Darren, and he knelt to meet her at eye level.

“Hi, Darren.” Ashe wrang her hands together. “I... I see you are much more intimate with your companions than I expected.”

“Yes. Is that a problem for you?” Darren asked. He knew Ashe had been the Prime Saint of Purity before becoming the Prime Sin of Corruption. Now that she was back to her old self, she might dislike the idea of maidens throwing away their purity. Which was something all of Darren’s women had done many times, often while Ashe could hear.

“No... it’s... fine...” Ashe squirmed where she sat.

“I just wanted to check on you,” Darren replied. “I wanted to make sure you are alright.”

“T-thank you. I’m fine. You can leave Melancholy out of your Inventory.”

“Will you introduce yourself?” Darren tilted Ashe’s chin up, so her eyes met his.

“I will! Eventually...” She promised.

And then, before Darren could ask her any more questions, she vanished in a puff of light and returned to Melancholy. Until Darren retrieved her heart from Kalaziel and built a new body for her, his sword was the only thing he had that could house her soul.

Darren left Melancholy propped up against the wall. He stood with plans to return downstairs and check on Sasha, Morgana, and Asuriel, but he nearly slipped on the floorboards. How peculiar. They were incredibly wet and slippery. Perhaps steam rose from the hot springs below and soaked into the wood on the upper floor.

Fortunately, the wetness was confined to a small patch at the foot of his bed, so Darren stepped around it and headed downstairs. Asuriel, Morgana, and Sasha beckoned him to return. After a brief splash and a little fun, he got out again to check in with Cassandra and Thalia. He’d seen his airship return when he looked out the window after speaking with Ashe, so Cassandra must have returned from her round trip to Limedeep.

***

Sure enough, the palace was in chaos when Darren returned, and Cassandra was at the heart of all of it.

“Alright, incoming transactions department, you guys get this office! And human resources, over here. I want accounting here and sales right next door over here!” Cassandra said, with a small army following behind her. They were rearranging half the palace as Cassandra and Thalia walked through its halls.

“You could use the old offices for this sort of thing, you know,” Thalia said. “They’re already set up.”

“I appreciate it, Princess Thalia. And maybe we’ll move into those rooms in a bit. But for now, I want everyone working in the groups they’re used to. The imperial bureaucracy is broken up differently from the Silver Sword Merchant Company,” Cassandra replied.

Darren joined the two of them just as they were finishing. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could contribute other than lifting heavy furniture out of the way, but Cassandra and Thalia both appreciated his presence, as did all her workers.

“Heavens above, we finally get to meet the boss!” One worker said. “You know, I signed up for this job because of you, your majesty!”

“Aye! I doubt you remember me, but you saved me in Salsroth,” another worker replied.

There were a few echoes of agreement from the crowd, and even more when Darren revealed, he remembered the man and a few of his comrades. Darren didn’t think it was impressive a trick as it seemed. Reaching the fifth order improved most aspects of the human body, including memory.

Eventually, Cassandra and Thalia finished up, and Thalia smiled in his direction. “Thank you for your help, Darren! You know, you have perfect timing. We have the last wave of wedding guests to greet before the actual ceremony later this week.”

Darren regretted not staying in the hot spring longer with Sasha, Morgana, and Asuriel.

***

Most of the guests Darren and Thalia greeted were minor political figures. Mostly, that meant the wealthy and influential in cities around the Empire. Most of them weren’t even the heads of their family, but some lesser members they’d sent to brave the dangerous roads and represent their interests before the princess and this foreign king who had claimed the throne in the capital.

Many were skeptical of Darren and his intentions, since most of the wealthy and powerful people of the Blackwind Empire had known one another since the days of their youth. He was an outsider, though not quite as much of one as he would have been had he been entirely unknown. Tales of Darren’s deeds had spread quickly, and few had the firsthand experience to separate truth from rumor.

“Is it true you fought in Salsroth?” An imperial nobleman asked Darren.

“He did more than fight! I heard he overthrew the old king and claimed the place for himself!” Another replied.

“I was there, yes,” Darren said.

“I don’t believe you fought a fifth-order demon lord. No mortal man could fight a demon like that!” the first imperial nobleman said. “All one can do when faced with a demon lord of that caliber is pray to the heavens to send a seraph to protect you!”

“I have fought demon lords. Killed them too,” Darren replied.

“Ha! And you expect us to just believe you?” The nobleman sneered.

Darren pulled the corpses of a dozen dead demon lords out of his Inventory. The nobleman, red-faced with embarrassment, excused himself shortly after that. Meanwhile, the questions the others had for Darren redoubled.

“I’m sure his family will send a replacement to attend the weddings,” Thalia said as the nobleman got in his carriage and rode away in a huff.

After revealing proof of his kills, Darren was swarmed by an even larger mob than before. They peppered him with questions asking how it felt to slay such mighty foes and why he risked his life to slay them.

Darren had a hard time answering those questions because he truthfully hadn’t thought the fights were all that remarkable. He probably would have forgotten them if his memory wasn’t superhumanly good. To him, he showed up, killed the demon lords, and then left as quickly as he’d come.

A few of them had been holding human sigil-wielders captive, which was the story Darren repeated for most of the gathered crowd. Tales of daring rescues in the face of overwhelming odds went over well.

“I see my husband-to-be has quite a few new fans.” Cassandra smiled at the crowd of men and women as she tugged Darren aside. “But if you don’t mind, I need to borrow him a bit.”

She pulled Darren out of the crowd and into the back corner before giving Darren a warm hug.

“Thank you,” Darren said.

“You looked like you needed a break from all that,” Cassandra replied. “I just need you to greet one more person, then we’ll make our escape.”

“Who?”

Cassandra grimaced. “My father.”

If Cassandra had gotten along well with her family, Darren wouldn’t have found her alone, making a trip to Limedeep with the last of her coin on the hopes that she could sell her goods and establish a small merchant company.

He’d spent a little time at Cassandra’s family estate, and that had ended with Darren getting imprisoned by Cassandra’s brother. Darren eventually killed him for that, likely putting a strain on Cassandra’s relationship with her family.

But it wasn’t like Cassandra was begging to get back in her family’s good graces. If anything, her father should be eager to make amends with his wayward daughter, considering how much power and influence she now wielded over the Empire he lived in.

Cassandra’s fingers wrapped tight around Darren’s fingers all the same as she led him to a far-off corner of the room where a dour-looking man awaited them.

He wore all black and had an expression that looked sharp enough to cut. He no doubt cut a striking figure. He also shared Cassandra’s pinkish-red hair, which should have been impossible to turn menacing. Yet, somehow, this man managed it.

“So...” Cassandra’s father began. “You’re the man who killed my son, Edmund...”

He held out his hand, and Darren shook it. Cassandra’s father was a paladin, much like Darren. The two were built to a similar scale, though Darren was a bit taller.

Darren felt Cassandra’s father’s grip around his hand. He must have had some strength skill because it felt like his fingers were caught in a vise.

But Darren could crumple a vise into scrap metal without breaking a sweat, so all of Cassandra’s father’s efforts amounted to nothing. He was only a third-order warrior, and despite Cassandra’s nervousness, she could probably take him in a straight fight considering she was an archpriestess. But somehow, Darren didn’t think that was why Cassandra was nervous.

“Yes, I killed him,” Darren replied.

Cassandra’s father winced as Darren returned his sturdy handshake. The two locked eyes, each staring into one another and taking each other’s measures.

Eventually, Cassandra’s father pulled his hand back. “Well, I am glad to hear that my daughter is proving satisfactory to you, if palace rumors are anything to go by. I do wish you’d married her first, but you’ll rectify that soon enough. I may have lost one mediocre son, but soon I will gain an exceptionally capable one.”

Cassandra looked confused, brows furrowed and heat in her cheeks. She looked ready for an argument, but was holding her tongue as long as she could.

“Well then, I’m sure you have many other guests to greet. I won’t hold you up any longer,” Cassandra’s father waved to the two of them. “Cass, dear, I hope you stop by the house sometime. Just because you’re a married woman doesn’t mean you’re not a Silvercross.”

And just like that, Cassandra’s father departed. Cassandra looked up at Darren with her face still full of confusion.

“You know, I thought that would go much worse. I was certain he was going to try to intimidate you,” Cassandra said.

“He did.”

“Huh?”

“When we were looking at each other,” Darren explained.

“When you were... looking at each other?” Cassandra frowned, then shrugged. “It must be a man thing. I’m just glad it worked out well. Now let’s head back to that private garden cabin to celebrate! Thalia told me it has its own hot spring!”

<Note>

Writing's going suspiciously smoothly right now, and as of writing this I'm starting chapter 7. If I get more than ten chapters ahead of you guys I'll start releasing a bit more frequently, as I've repeatedly promised (and sometimes failed to deliver).

Hopefully it keeps going smoothly!