Ep. 604 Intrigue in Illium Part 5 (Patreon)

Their level of care about their people is one of the things I like most about them. Pol would never put profits above his people and if he tried Annya would beat him. Their people are aware of this and in return are insanely loyal to them.

Annya's procedure goes even smoother than Pol's, but by the time both are done it is fairly late. Belliza has been watching the entire time with wide and excited eyes. It is obvious that she wants to know more about the procedure and how it works.

Luckily, she is able to control her curiosity, otherwise Roddick wouldn't have sent her. Before she returns to the guild I tell her to come back tomorrow, and to bring Rat if she wants. I also have Pol arrange for his top people to be available at about one per hour.

Then I head back to the inn and check to see if Lizzy is back, which she is. She reports that she found no more demons and then kicks me out so she can go to sleep. Laughing I leave her be and head into the inn to check in with Sarah, who looks mad.

"What's wrong Sarah?"

Sarah says "I thought I told you not to cause any trouble!"

"I didn't! It wasn't my fault!"

Sarah says "As if assassins weren't bad enough, now there are demons in the city?!"

"No, not anymore. They are all dead, Lizzy verified it."

Sarah says "Dead or not, they have to have been here because of you!"

"What makes you say that?"

Sarah says "Because, before you arrived this city was peaceful and had been for years!"

"If I hadn't arrived, you would be dying of boredom!"

Sarah says "Well, I guess that is true. But I can still blame you!"

"Women's logic! Fine, blame me all you want!"

Sarah says "Yay! I win! So, would you like some dinner?"

"I appreciate the offer, but I will be returning to the tower to have dinner with everyone. You are welcome to join us."

Sarah says "Thanks, but no thanks. I will stay here and keep busy, it helps a little."

"Alright, I will be back in the morning."

With that I head upstairs and use the teleporter to return to the tower. Heading to the dining room I find everyone is already there, but no one has touched the table full of food. Myria is there, awake and looking a lot better, which is quite the relief.

"Myria, good to see you awake! How do you feel?"

Myria says "I feel amazing!"

"That's good! I'm glad to see you awake."

Before sitting down I make sure to pet all four of the kids and give them some love. As soon as I take my seat everyone digs in, it is nice that they waited for me. While I am eating I notice that Myria is still eating a lot more than usual.

"Myria, have you tested your strength yet?"

Myria says "Yes, as soon as I woke up. I might be as strong as you now!"

"I doubt that, but we can test it later if you want."

Myria says "Absolutely!"

So after we finish eating and put the kids to bed Myria tries her strength against mine. We start off with arm wrestling, but Myria can't even move my arm. She gets pretty upset, but even using both arms she can't move mine.

"Not bad! You are about three to four times as strong as you used to be!"

Myria says "It's not enough! How can I be as strong as you?!"

"I don't know exactly, I am fairly unique. It depends on whether or not your core can be improved. If it can, you will become stronger, if it can't you have few options."

Myria says "How can I tell if my core can be upgraded?"

"Give it a couple more days to settle down and I will test it. For now you can still improve your strength through exercise. Not only that but you need to work on your control, especially around humans."

Myria says "What do you mean?"

"At your current strength if you shake hands with a human and squeeze too hard you could break their hand."

Myria says "Oh! I will be careful!"

"It should be safe for you to start training with Kitara tomorrow, but take it slowly. And if you have any problems, or any pain, come find me."

Myria says "Okay! Will using mana make me stronger?"

"Part of the knight mage training is how to use spells to strengthen and protect yourself. The rest is offensive magic and close combat training."

Myria says "Do you think this will enable me to defeat my mother?"

"Once you complete the training, you should be able to defeat her easily!"

Myria says "In that case, can you hold off on killing her? I would like to do it myself!"

"Are you sure? No matter how much you hate her, she is still your mother."

Myria says "I am absolutely sure! Don't worry, I have thought about this a lot. It isn't a rash decision."

"Alright, if you are sure then I will leave your mother to you."

Myria says "Thank you, Ash!"

Myria jumps up and hugs me, she even kisses me on the cheek, but I stop her from going further. When I put her back on her feet she just smiles at me, not sorry at all. It would seem that if she ever gets as strong as me I will need to be really careful.

In the morning, after breakfast, I head back to Illium and meet up with Belliza. She has Rat with her, who switches from her arms to mine, and we all go together to Pol's place. Once Belliza triggers the ritual she takes out a bunch of Rat's toys and gives them to her.

While I am working on the first beastman of the day I finally satisfy Belliza's curiosity. I explain to her the procedure I am doing and how it works in detail. This leads into a general discussion about magic, which lasts all the way until lunch.

Lunch is sent over by Sarah and by the time it arrives I've performed the procedure on seven beastmen. As I hoped with practice I am getting faster at the procedure, even being able to talk while performing it. After lunch I continue the procedures and the conversation with Belliza.

Belliza is engrossed in the conversation and doesn't notice that Rat is also paying attention. I notice but I don't mention it, if Rat is interested I have no problem with her learning from me. In fact I even dumb down some of the concepts to make sure she can understand it.

As far as I know she is still playing at being mute with Roddick and Belliza. While I am not sure why she is doing it, I am not planning to interfere. But I am starting to think that maybe I should find a way to have a private chat with her.

From the way she is ignoring her toys to follow our conversation she obviously has some interest in magic. Now the trick is to find out how much and what, if anything, I should do about it. Obviously, I am not going to force or pressure her into anything, but if she wants my help I will give it.