Unruly Summon Chapter 45: Interception (Patreon)

We continued walking in silence for a minute. I spent it carefully watching Stephanie for any flicker of emotion, but even the long line of questioning had failed to elicit any human reaction.

"So..." I started, remembering Wendy's comment about how demons claimed their birthrate couldn't be controlled. "Should I be worried?"

Minoru sighed. "I was hoping I could hold on until we reached the Ti'zharr Empire, but apparently not. For your own safety, you'll need to restrain me tonight."

"Uh... By restrain... you mean...?"

"I mean take the rope out of your pack and use it. Then use your earth magic to build a prison as backup. If I get loose, I will do something that I suspect will spoil our friendship."

"Wow. That's... uh..."

"Horrible? Twisted? Only from a human perspective. To me, it's perfectly natural."

I considered that, and had to hand it to her. She was a different species, after all. "What did I accidentally heal?" I asked instead. I'd used Maius Omnia Visus around her and hadn't spotted anything like Toby's soul ears.

"Demons operating long term in foreign kingdoms, in situations where they'll not be near other demons, are spayed or castrated," sighed Minoru. "Toby's ears and tail weren't the only bits of him you restored."

Oh... So that was why she kept feeling at her tummy.

"That's horrible!" exclaimed Mary.

"And you deliberately curse the wounds to prevent them being healed..." added Wendy.

"Uh... Not normally, no. Only in cases where the target may be accidentally exposed to healing magic, like Toby, or for particularly important operatives, like me."

"Makes sense," nodded Wendy. "Well, it would be a funny old world if we were all alike. Not to mention a boring one. And on a related note, which way do you swing? If you got out, would Thomas be the only one in danger?"

Minoru peered at Wendy appraisingly. "... Give me a few more hours for the heat to really kick in, and I'd quite happily hump a tree. Why?"

"I was just thinking that if Thomas could build a prison big enough for two, you could get away without the rope. Or maybe you'd like a bit of rope regardless?"

Minoru grinned. "Sounds like we have a date."

"Uh... Did you two just... hook up?" I asked, slightly unsure how things had escalated that quickly.

"Only for one night," replied Wendy, shrugging. "It'll be interesting. But I think we can get a couple of hours more walking in first. The sooner we're out of Ricousian, the better."

"You really should have better reasons for doing things than 'it'll be interesting'," I said, remembering that she'd commented she wouldn't mind trying a slave collar for the same reason.

"Why? I mean, I usually do. At least for the serious stuff. Following you out of the kingdom? Yes, you're interesting, but that's not why I'm following you. It's because I'll do whatever it takes to solve our miasma problem. But partnering with a demon for one night? Nothing important is at stake. I save Minoru from a deeply unpleasant and uncomfortable night tied up alone, and I have a heck of a lot of fun doing so. Why does there need to be any sort of deeper reason?"

"Fair en..." I started, but the end of my acquiescence turned into more of a gurgle on account of the arrow sticking through my lung.

Mary screamed, an arrow piercing through her leg. Another punched through Stephanie's shoulder, but she didn't react, only stopping her march because the rest of us did. A third stabbed through Minoru's stomach.

"Maius Scutum!" shouted Wendy, conjuring up a barrier behind us. A few more arrows pinged off it. "Thomas, healing!"

"Dammit. Because of course the only one we missed would turn out to be a mage," came a complaint from behind us as a dozen assailants leapt out from where they were hidden amongst the crops on both sides of the road.

I hesitated. For the first time ever, in either world, I was under attack by people who seriously wanted to hurt me. I'd commented on the day of my summoning that I had no idea how I would react, and now I had my answer. Alas, that answer turned out to be 'badly'.

Our attackers were scrawny and poorly equipped. There wasn't a single scrap of armour between them. Their 'weapons' were pitchforks, clubs and hunting bows. Their clothing was the same sort of rough hemp that the castle had given me while faking destitution. Probably poor farmers. The crops in this area looked particularly sickly, and their gaunt skin pulled tight over visible bones made it obvious they hadn't been eating anywhere near enough. They were almost certainly acting out of desperation rather than malice.

"Ventus Ferrum!" shouted Wendy, and three of them died, neatly decapitated by her blade of wind.

"Noooooo! Dad!" screamed one of the younger farmers, stopping and staring in horror as the lifeless and headless corpses fell to the ground, claimed by gravity. I couldn't help but notice that one of the flying heads bore him a striking resemblance.

Another of our attackers threw up.

"Ventus Ferrum!" repeated Wendy, and another two died.

Someone screamed, "Run!" and the survivors turned and fled.

"Procella," chanted Wendy, and the 'survivors' stopped fleeing, on account of not being survivors anymore. "Seriously, Thomas, heal everyone! Now!"

I blinked, trying to shake myself out of my stupor. Mary was on the floor, crying in pain. Minoru was doing better, having ripped the arrow out of herself and sealed the wound, and had already turned her attention to Mary.

The sensation of blood running down my leg reminded me that I wasn't in great condition myself. I tore out my own arrow. "...!" I said as 'Maius Sanatio' attempted to vocalise itself but was prevented by the hole in my lung.

The pain as my nerves reknit themselves was excruciating, but thankfully it was over in seconds, leaving me free to run to Stephanie, who was still simply standing there, unresponsive. "Maius Sanatio," I chanted, this time out loud, after pulling the arrow from her shoulder.

"You froze up," stated Wendy, not unkindly.

"You killed them," I countered. "They were desperate... They were running..."

"They tried to kill us," snapped back Wendy. "They were running only because they realised they were outmatched. If they'd got away, they would simply have attacked the next defenceless-looking travellers they came across. Even if we'd captured them and turned them over to the guard, the penalty for banditry is death, either by execution or by being turned into slave labour for our miasma-tainted mines."

"You're right... I know that, logically... It's just..."

"Master is too kind," said Mary, trying to pull herself up from the ground but stumbling as she put weight on her freshly healed leg.

"Indeed," sighed Wendy. "I can forgive freezing up on your first time. More importantly, we need to deal with the fact that we just blindly walked into such an amateur ambush. This wouldn't have happened if Christine was with us."

I looked away awkwardly, still feeling some responsibility, if not for Christine's death, at least for the fact that she wasn't alive.

... Wait. Given how swiftly and decisively Wendy acted, was she implying that this wasn't her first time? Given that she hadn't been involved in the war, when had that happened?

"Sorry. I should be more than capable of noticing and dealing with banditry on that level," said Minoru. "Heck, on my way to Odimere, I did. I know it's early, but we should stop for the night. I'm too distracted right now to travel safely."

"No, stopping right at the scene of an attack would be dangerous," said Wendy. "They could have friends nearby, who will come looking for them. They could have already heard the battle, or seen my Procella."

"Urk... Yes, obviously," agreed Minoru. "Like I said, distracted..."

The poor cat-girl was still flushed, despite the battle and her serious—albeit short lived—injury. From the way her gaze kept drifting back to Wendy, it was no secret what she was distracted by.

"I can keep Maius Omnia Visus active," I offered. "That would have let me see them in hiding."

I shouldn't need to rely on others to spot a few hiding bandits. Rather, given that we knew the roads weren't safe, keeping scouting spells running was common sense. The only reason I didn't have it active was to avoid seeing Stephanie's collar, and what was the point in avoiding that sight if I got us all killed in exchange? Perhaps Anima Visus would suffice, but Maius Omnia Visus had greater range.

I performed a quick subvocal cast, confirming that there were no other bandits within range.

And it helped to carefully think 'bandit' each time instead of 'desperate farmer' or even 'people'.

"Yes, you probably should have been doing that anyway," agreed Wendy. "Not to mention that you should be wearing your armour, but there's no time to change now. Let's get moving."

We resumed our walk, this time somewhat more quickly. I split my attention between keeping my magical eyes on our surroundings and trying to come up with something to say to Stephanie, based on what I knew of the collar's function and my own set of morals. Claiming it was immoral to order her around was foolish when, without being ordered, she wouldn't even eat.

"Stephanie, your well-being is important to me," I said. "You must think about your own condition and alert me if there are problems I haven't noticed."

She didn't respond, and only time would tell if it was sufficient to get her to alert us when she was tired or thirsty.

"I suspect this will be an unpopular opinion," started Wendy, which didn't bode well. "You should consider Stephanie to be dead, and this is just a flesh golem that has inherited her memory. You should treat her as such, rather than keeping her out of a sense of responsibility. If you don't want such a servant, you should..."

Her opinion was interrupted by a loud crack as Mary slapped her across the cheek.

"Don't you dare!" she shouted.

"... Sheesh," replied Wendy, rubbing her face, where a glowing red handprint was quickly becoming visible. "I knew it would be unpopular, but I don't think that was warranted."

"You were going to tell him to kill her!"

"No I wasn't! I was going to tell him to give her to someone who would use her in a way that would give her more fulfilment!"

"Oh..." said Mary, sheepishly. "I thought... Uh... Sorry."

Give her to someone who didn't have my mental blocks to treating her like the tool she'd been turned into? Given the way Wendy had described the collars as working, it was quite possible that someone ordering her around would make her feel better, despite it not showing on her face. But it would also be giving up. It would be admitting that I was responsible for Stephanie's permanent personality death. Was there any small part of the original Stephanie locked away in there, trapped inside her own mind, watching her behaviour in horror? Did she dream of being free? Was she staring out at me through this golem's eyes even now, praying that I would save her? Or more likely, wishing that the bandits had killed me.

There was also the far more practical issue that she was a former member of human royalty and knew things that were certainly classified as state secrets. It was surprising enough that King George had turned her over to me, but if she was in anyone else's hands? I imagine it wouldn't take long for the assassins to arrive.

"Okay, I need to stop..." said Minoru, whose breathing had grown extremely rugged after watching Mary's slap. "I can't put this off any longer... Wendy... Last chance to back out... But please don't..."

The conflict between rationality and instinct was obvious.

"I'd rather be locked in with you than Mary," giggled Wendy. "Not really much room here for camping, but I doubt anyone else will be using the road tonight. I'm sure it won't matter if we block half of it. Maius Terra."

Of course, the genius mage didn't need my help to raise an earthen structure around herself, trapping herself in with Minoru. The last sight I had of the pair of them before the rising earth blocked my view was the flushed cat-girl desperately tearing her clothing off, not even waiting for Wendy to finish her construction.

"Guess I have first watch, then," I muttered as Wendy's roof finished forming. "Hope those walls are soundproof..."