Unruly Summon Chapter 54: Chatting (Patreon)

We marched towards the next town on our itinerary, with Eve in a rather foul mood.

"Did something happen while I was napping?" asked Mary.

Eve looked at her appraisingly. In turn, I gave Eve a glare.

"... No," she admitted reluctantly.

Wendy sighed.

"Something definitely happened," pointed out Mary. "You're all being weird."

"It's not important," said Eve.

The problem was that Eve's situation wasn't clear cut. She obviously had a blessing of some sort, even if she didn't have my full abilities. Before Mary had woken up, Eve had tried convincing me to wait a few days, to get a good read on her growth rate. I wasn't completely against it—it wasn't as if I was rushing around casting Miraculum on my very first day, either—but we still didn't know exactly how travel between worlds worked, or when the dream-dragon would make its next move. I'd put my foot down, and we'd agreed on Wendy giving her a retest before bed. If she showed a significant further improvement on top of her morning's results, she could stay a few more days. If not, she was going back.

Just because she'd realised she wasn't going to win an argument didn't mean she was happy about it, though. I could hear her chanting 'lux' repeatedly under her breath as we walked, but my mana sight showed no disturbances from her whatsoever. Perhaps the others had picked up some stray bits of blessing, or perhaps it was all the gods had left over after blessing me. Perhaps they simply weren't compatible, and the reason I was chosen was less personality and more how strongly the hero's blessing would hook into me. I didn't know, and short of a god or goddess popping up and telling me, I doubted I ever would.

"Ginnk, at last," said Minoru, practically sighing with relief as the walls of a town came into view. They were low, compared to Vence, and while it was hard to tell from the distance, they appeared to enclose a much smaller area. That meshed with Minoru calling it a town rather than a city, and the fact it was further from the human border and not near any corrupted lands. Significant defences would simply be a pointless maintenance burden without anything to defend against.

"Anything special we should know?" I asked.

"Not really. They'll be less used to humans wandering around, but conversely, they'll have been less impacted by the war and so there'll be less racial discrimination."

"There wasn't much discrimination in Vence," I pointed out.

"Because I was with you whenever you were in public."

"Not inside the arena. The other participants were downright nice."

"Slayers are slayers," shrugged Minoru. "They don't give a toss about race. All that matters is defending from the corruption."

"Or when you went to buy food," pointed out Wendy.

"That was only a couple of minutes. You still stank of me."

Wendy blinked. "I'm honestly not sure how to respond to that," she admitted.

Mary giggled, happy that we seemed to be interacting normally again.

"Maybe we should disguise him as a demon," suggested Eve, grinning evilly as she spotted an avenue for revenge.

"No," I responded. "It wouldn't work, anyway; I'd still smell human."

"There are enchantments that could solve that, but there are counter-spells and enchantments, too. You wouldn't fool an alert guard," said Wendy. "I'm frankly amazed that demon spies infiltrated Odimere, but I can tell you with certainty that they wouldn't have made it into the castle."

"Probably not something I should admit, however much I'm supposed to be endearing myself to Thomas with my honesty, but as far as I know, since the war started we didn't manage to get a single spy into Odimere," said Minoru. "Your security was too damn good. Didn't even leave any sewers open for us."

"Huh? Then how did... ah... I see."

"As do I," I added. James and David had given the biggest clue, even though I hadn't spotted it at the time. They'd talked about knowing each other for many seasons, but the war had started only one season earlier. Toby hadn't infiltrated during the war, but years previously. He was a well-known, established slayer, with all the proper IDs. The guards wouldn't subject him to the same scrutiny as a newcomer or visiting stranger.

... Which meant that the demons were implanting operatives into the human kingdom long before the outbreak of war. Spies who'd been deliberately maimed—to the point of being castrated—to better pose as human. The thought reminded me of Stephanie's claims about the efficiency with which the demons had waged their war, and how they seemed to have been preparing long beforehand. That the theft of food was an excuse rather than a trigger.

Blind trust was dangerous. As helpful as Minoru was being, I needed to remember that the demon leadership was likely no less cold and calculating than the humans. There was no guarantee I had the full story yet. I didn't even have any direct evidence that the humans had used taboo magic.

"I don't," said Eve. "What are you talking about?"

"That they did have spies in Odimere, but they entered before the war."

"Sheesh..." sighed Eve. "This world is messed up."

"It's not like ours is much better. We may not have miasma, but we do have plenty of humans, and they can be just as bad. Our countries sure as hell spy on each other. Heck, China openly makes a business of it."

"True."

"Anyway, if you'll excuse me changing the subject," said Minoru, grinning mischievously. "Eve, Thomas is obviously madly in love with you ..."

"Hey!" I objected.

"... to the extent that he ignored a princess trying to get into his pants, didn't take advantage of Mary when he had the opportunity, and didn't respond at all to me doing my best cute cat-girl impression, even when I hit him with all the nyas. Is there some sort of story behind that? What would you have done if he had cheated on you?"

"Huh? That's a bit of a heavy question to spring on someone... I suppose it depends on the circumstances. If he was under the impression he'd never be able to return home, and we'd never see each other again, I could forgive him. The same if he thought he'd been away for years without being able to send a message, because he'd know he'd be assumed dead and I'd have moved on. If it was only a short-term thing, and he did it expecting to see me again shortly after, I'd definitely be angry. But in reality, it wasn't any of those options; he thought he'd be here a significant amount of time, but it would be no time at all for me. That makes it complicated. Hmm... I suppose I'll just consider myself lucky I don't need to decide on an answer."

"That's rather pragmatic."

"Not really. Anyone can be pragmatic in an emotionless thought experiment. If it actually happened, who knows how I'd react?"

"You'd slap me, then cry, I'd try to explain, and then you'd do what you just said," I commented half-heartedly. Thanks to my earlier thoughts, I couldn't help thinking that the abrupt subject change was because Minoru was regretting mentioning spies.

"Probably."

"I guess you're glad you don't need to worry about it now, then?" continued Minoru.

"I didn't have to worry about it from the beginning," shrugged Eve. "I know how Thomas behaves. It's why I like him."

"That's not what I meant. The princess that was trying to bed him has been reduced to that, and certainly won't be trying again. The slave is a slave no longer, and has no sexual interest in him despite how often they end up in bed together, so she's not a threat either. I now know I have a far better chance of getting what I want without seducing him. Any new girls that happen to join the party will have done enough research beforehand to know that seduction isn't the best way to get what they want. So it doesn't really matter how he behaves; he's missed his opportunity already. Unless someone legitimately falls in love with him, I guess."

"I'd bet Wendy would still be up for it," I pointed out. "And I'd bet every town we've been to has a brothel."

"A brothel?" laughed Wendy. "I know a single street in Odimere that has six."

"My point still stands," I replied, having no intention whatsoever of asking Wendy how she knew that.

"Hmm... Perhaps I do have jealousy issues to work out..." muttered Eve.

"Hmm?"

"When Minoru mentioned new girls joining the party, I felt the urge to punch them."

Wendy giggled, but at that point we reached the town gates, finally putting an end to the embarrassing subject.

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"You'll be relieved to know that while this town does have an arena, there were no matches planned for tonight, and they couldn't arrange anything at such short notice," said Minoru, later in the evening once we'd located an inn. "I should have called ahead, really, but without being certain that you'd be in a condition to take part, I didn't want to risk it."

"No, that's very sensible," I agreed. "But does that mean you've called ahead now?"

"Yes, and tomorrow night you're out of luck too; our next stop doesn't have an arena at all. The day after, we'll be stopping in Vaynx, and they do happen to have something on that day. It's a fair distance from Vaynx to our next stop in Tyl, so we won't arrive early enough to take part there. The day after, we'll be in Bonehill, and they have matches on an almost daily basis."

"I'm not sure if having a couple of days to worry about it is better or worse," I admitted.

"Me neither, but I do note you're a lot calmer about the idea now than you were yesterday."

"... True. But, changing the subject completely, I can't help but notice that this room only has four beds, despite there being six of us."

"Didn't seem any point in having more if you're just going to sleep sandwiched between Mary and Eve," grinned Minoru.

I glared silently.

"... I booked the room next door, too," she admitted. "I figured you and Eve haven't seen each other in a while, and likely won't see each other again for a longer while, so would like a little privacy together while you have the chance."

"Thank you, but as thoughtful as that is, it's still not decided I'm going back tonight," said Eve, who had been repeating 'lux' under her breath once every few seconds for most of our journey. "I've been walking for hours and I'm not even worn out! I must be getting stronger."

"We did promise to retest her physical abilities," pointed out Wendy.

"But not yet! Right before bed," added Eve, trying to eke out the maximum time possible.

"I did agree to that," I admitted.

"So while Thomas and Eve head next door for some... uh... private physical training, what are the rest of us supposed to do?" asked Wendy. "We'd have been better off if we just kept walking, and made it to the next town. It would have cut a day off the journey."

"I want to take long enough to reach the capital that they have time to prepare a decent reception," replied Minoru ominously. "Also, don't forget that we're travelling with people who can't walk all day, including one who is far from reliable at informing us when she has reached her limits."

"True, but that doesn't answer the question of what we're going to do with the rest of the day."

"You could always try one of those brothels you know so much about," shrugged Minoru.

"No thanks. If this was a human city, I'd consider it, but I know how demon brothels work. I'm really not into that sort of thing."

"Hah. I'm surprised, but fair enough. I'm out of ideas, then. It's not like this place has any great tourist spots."

"You could teach me more magic?" suggested Mary.

"I'm afraid I don't know much about white magic. I can cast Parvus Sanatio at a push, but the efficiency is so bad that it wears me out as badly as casting Procella."

"I wasn't talking about white magic. You don't struggle with Lux, so I bet that with my increased mana capacity I can learn little spells of other colours, even if I lack the affinities."

"Maybe? But what for?"

Mary glanced at Eve, and it was clear in her expression what she was thinking. She may not have been conscious when I'd discussed sheltering her on Earth, but she knew I wanted to send Eve back, and she wasn't stupid. She was prepared to do whatever she could to make herself just a little more useful, to fractionally reduce the chances of me pushing her away.

... Why did these people have to resist every effort I made to protect them?