"Machine, Obey My Command!" V2 Chapter 4 - Basilicok
"Basilicok?"
Stephanie's head shot up the moment she heard the word.
"You should listen first."
Orphen continued with a discouraged look on his face while he wrapped a bandage around his badly scratched up right arm.
"... Why did that — that Killing Doll, decide to wipe out the Damsel's Orisons? Who the hell is he in the first place? And what's this Basilicok?"
In Stephanie's cramped apartment, the four of them — Orphen, Stephanie, Majic,a nd Cleao — were all sitting face to face in the narrow space. Orphen was wearing his bandages with frustration. Not only on his right arm, but his face, and everything else for that matter. Majic was behind him, helping to bandage his Master's head. Cleao was sitting alone on the sofa just a short distance from him, as if she wasn't sure which side to take, Orphen's or Stephanie's.
Stephanie brushed her flowing black hair over her shoulders as she raised her eyebrows, seemingly troubled.
"Why do you think I would know?"
"Because you're not panicking about this."
Orphen wasn't wrong. He tapped his bandaged arm.
"The Damsel's Orisons was suddenly destroyed — And even though you were severely injured during that incident, the next morning you weren't even hysterical. Why? What happened? — You didn't even ask. The only reason for that is: You already knew."
"... Maybe it was ... a gas explosion?"
Stephanie said, raising her hands up with a wicked smile.
"Well, if that's the case ... I must've been hallucinating — The slide out on the playground was all twisted up and bars were ripped out of the ground. A sign board was even ripped off and smashed into my head."
"... I think I was hit by a piece of wood."
Majic muttered from the back, but Orphen ignored him and pressed Stephanie.
"Don't play dump, Steph — That was sorcery, and not human sorcery. You can't fool me anymore."
Stephanie looked up, startled.
"I never — I never tried to lie to you."
"Oh?"
Orphen said sarcastically.
At the tip of his accusatory finger, Stephanie slumped down, hiding her face with her bangs — while Cleao scooted closer and squeezed Stephanie's hand, which was hanging limply at her side. She glanced back at the girl's forlorn expression, and mumbled slowly and hollowly as she remembered.
"... I wanted to go to the kingdom."
"Hmm?"
He didn't understand what she was trying to say, so Stephanie looked up and repeated herself.
"I wanted to go to the kingdom. We all — we were sick and tired of this city."
".........."
Orphen looked back at Stephanie in silence, deciding that rather than to ask further questions it seemed better to just let her talk. She grabbed Cleao's hand and continued.
"What choice did we have, Orphen? An elite like you who just up and left the Tower of Fang wouldn't understand, but do you remember the first time you met me?"
"I do."
Orphen nodded.
"Twenty-four broken bones, numerous bruises and contusions. Nearly half of the skin on your bldy had been lacerated beyond the point of repair. You had facial injuries — a caved in skull. The only thing that saved you was that your internal organs weren't too badly damaged, but everyone thought you were doomed when I brought you into the clinic I was working at."
"I was lynched by the people of this city."
Stephanie said in a faint voice, whispering to Majic, who was the only one in the room who needed it explained to him. Stephanie then nodded at Cleao, as she asked if she was ok while putting her hand on her shoulder.
Majic shot up,
"Lynching? — But, Master — You said nothing too crazy happened in this city nowadays—"
"On the surface, yes, but this is a tourist city, so things like that rarely happen in places where people from outside the city would witness it. However ... once you get into the back streets, you never know what might happen at the slightest opportunity."
"But this?"
Majic ducked around and stepped in front of Orphen.
"Why do something like that? Sure the Nornir used to live in this city, and they hated human sorcerers, but now that they're gone? Why would humans, hundreds of years later, have any reason to persecute sorcerers—"
"It may not be a reason, but it is a motive. Didn't I mention that in the past, most of the victims from the sorcerer hunts were the ordinary people who tried to hunt them rather than the sorcerers themselves?"
"What's the quickest way to put it, Majic? Sorcerers are more than just humans. No matter how many ordinary people you gather, and no matter how many weapons you prepare, you can't defeat an average human sorcerer. It's not only the royal family that fears the rise of such sorcerers in society. More than anything it's... the fear that the once-persecuted sorcerers will grow stronger. The residents of this city have a history of persecuting sorcerers, after all."
"But, that's not—"
"That's enough. Shut up."
Orphen pushed Majic aside.
"Steph. You said you wanted to leave the city, yet you stayed here for all this time? I'm more surprised that you've stayed. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you at the Damsel's Orisons. I saw how you were brought in, and I wondered why you didn't just leave the town after all the trouble you've been through."
"... I had to pay off the cost of my surgery from back then, and—"
She seemed unsettled all of the sudden.
"And?"
When Orphen asked, Stephanie looked up at him, sighed, and continued.
"Maybe I wish I had followed you out of the city — but you disappeared right before I left the hospital..."
"I had my own reasons for not being able to wait. I couldn't live in this city forever. To tell you the truth, it was quite a concession for me to stay with you at the hospital for six months."
Orphen spoke in a tone that felt quite cold to Stephanie, and she dropped her gaze and sighed.
"Yeah — You're right..."
"Orphen, how could you say something like that?"
Cleao, who seemed to have moved to her side, turned a sharp accusatory look towards Orphen. He only ignored it and asked Stephanie.
"Steph, I didn't mean to hurt you — Anyway, I'd like you to tell me what you know. That Killing Doll is going to kill every single sorcerer in this city — and you and I are the only ones left. If we don't work together, we won't stand a chance against him."
"I can't help you. I'm not trained for combat like you, and I'm not that powerful—"
"But, you have knowledge."
Orphen said, closing his eyes and scratching his head in frustration.
"Don't you? If you know anything about him, please tell me. I don't understand anything about this thing."
".........."
Stephanie didn't answer, but gently let go of Cleao's hand — and then, with a slow, almost sleepwalking gate, she walked one or two steps to the window. She ran her hand over the rickety old frame, covering her fingertips in dust. As she stared at the dirt on them, she mumbled to herself.
"Ah ... The window's busted and won't open, so I can't properly clean it."
Orphen didn't reply, but folded his arms and stared at her.
Stephanie hadn't noticed.
"I always wanted to leave this place. I hate this city... There's nowhere for me to belong—"
"Steph!"
When Orphen called out to her, she turned around. She looked at him as if she had made up her mind.
"I'll tell you, so please ... promise me."
"What?"
She answered Orphen's question with a serious look.
"This time ... Please don't abandon me."
Dortin sighed while running his short finger along a rectangular shape in the wall. His nose was stuffy from the damp air and his throat was sore. He thought he might have a cold, and pressed his forehead against the wall.
His glasses got displaced by the stone, but Dortin didn't seem to notice.
"Something is wrong ... something."
"Wahahahaha!"
In the back, Vulcan was laughing maniacally. He stared up at giant stone Golems, all lined up against the wall of the hall-like room, which had an altar at the end.
"Magnificent! Absolutely magnificent! Fantastic! I was taken unawares by that sneaky surprise attack earlier, but that loan shark will be no match for stone dolls like this! If I can get rid of that malicious loan shark, the whole world will be mine! All those who stand in my way I'll whispered to death at their bedside!"
Dortin wasn't being pulled into the rant, and glimpsed back at his brother. Vulcan was still soaked, but boastfully laughing with his hands on his hips in the presence of a dozen or so golems.
Dortin remembered the sharp pain in his stomach and coughed.
He must've heard it. Hmm? Vulcan groaned and turned around. He spoke over his shoulder at his brother.
"What's with you? Dortin, if you catch a cold, you'll die because there's no medicine."
".........."
Dortin didn't answer, and instead sat on the floor. The cold stone floor sent shivers up his fine.
Vulcan just laughed and flailed his arms towards the large golems.
"Why are you looking so glum! Look at our great fortune! From the right—"
Aside from the Wyrd Graphs stuck on their faces, the shapes of the megaliths were all roughly the same, but Vulcan had apparently given them all names. He called them out one by one.
"The one in the far right corner is D-fly, the next is Tsukatik! Tyler! Mike Stack! Kevin Pepperer! Shipure Katsohoff!"
The stone giants raised one hand in the order that they were called.
"Hey, big brother..."
Dortin mumbled in a crying tone, but Vulcan didn't seem to hear him.
"And this is Dakada! I like this one! Because he broke Hader's arm! And the best part is this Monkey 1000—"
"Brother!"
Dortin shouted and stood up — but felt stunned from the sheer momentum. Vulcan stopped shouting and looked between Dortin and the Golems with a troubled expression.
Dortin moaned with his hand on his head.
"I'm sorry, but shut up — I really think I have a cold. I have a headache."
"Why? It's not even the season."
"It may not be summer yet, but you're making me crawl through the water all the time! And there's not even a fireplace or a towel to dry yourself off with! How could I not catch a cold!"
But Vulcan only nodded his head in wonder.
"... There's nothing wrong with me."
"What kind of pathogen would be so peculiar as to infect you, brother?"
Dortin answered almost hatefully, but Vulcan took it as a compliment and laughed.
"Well! The Fighting Dog of Mazmaturia, Volcano Vulcan doesn't fall apart so easily!"
"... The last time you ate a strange bug that you caught on the riverbank, you slept for half a day with a stomachache."
"I have no recollection of that!"
Vulcan folded his arms and yelled, with a creepy smile on his face. Dortin just sighed, holding his aching head and looking around...
They were in a room that was about 100 square meters, surrounded by inorganic white walls, but it had a very self-aware old-fashioned air about it. The light was an unidentifiable pure white ball that was shining somewhere up by the ceiling — but clearly wasn't the light of a gas lamp, nor was it sunlight coming in through a window. If he had to guess, he'd say it was similar to the photothermal waves that the loan shark sorcerer fired with his sorcery, and if he looked closely, he could make out some sort of symbol flickering in the center of the light. The altar was about the size of the stages used to hold plays, and there were six statues of strange and unusual beasts standing around it. There was a lion with an extremely long mane, a rhinoceros with what looked like a weird bathtub on its back, and in the center stood a statue of what looked like a human — a beautiful woman. On the wall beyond the statues hung a huge portrait, five times taller than Dortin. A beautiful woman with green hair and green robes. She had a thin, slightly gaunt silhouette, but she didn't look particularly unhealthy. Underneath the portrait was a name, which was inscribed in an old-fashion script: Sister Istershiva. Perhaps that was the name of the woman.
(It says Sister, maybe she was a priestess or something.)
Dortin thought, but at the same time, it didn't matter — the fact that the portrait was displayed on the altar meant that she was no longer in this world. There were more important matters than that.
The 'ruins' — or so the Guardian of the Treasure called it — must've been there for hundreds of years, but there wasn't a speck of dust. No, rather, it wasn't that there was no dust, but there were traces here and there that looked like the place had been roughly cleaned up. It was as if—
(It seems like someone must've surveyed these ruins.)
If so, all the things his brother was being told by the Guardian of the Treasure could be called into question, and he was getting a little carried away—
(If someone already surveyed the site, they might try to claim ownership of the remnants. If that's the case, then we're trespassing, stealing, and if the survey was carried out by a government agency, we're also damaging public property, even if we follow the doll's lead and say that we thought the site was ours.)
Dortin listed the possible charges, counting them as he went. When he ran out of fingers on both hands, Vulcan suddenly asked him a question.
"... Where did that guard dude go? I need him to teach me how to get all of these guys going at once."
The canal was flat during the night, like blackened silk.
The surface of the water was so flat that it made one wonder if, were they to jump in, would they bounce right back off. It reflected the night sky and all of its shining stars, glittering here and there. Along the silent canal barges were at a stand still, their sails folded and their anchors dropped — though some still had lights on with the crew working throughout the night. However, since it was customary not to unload cargo at night, there was hardly a soul to be seen.
A bell was ringing from a tower in the south of the city — informing everyone of the time. It rang out once then disappeared into the night.
"Midnight?"
Orphen stuck his hands in his pockets and muttered, looking down the canal. The night wind was blowing across the water, caressing his hair.
The same night breeze was swaying Cleao's long blonde hair as she looked around anxiously. The girl stroked her new shirt, as if trying to smooth it to her body. She had borrowed money from Orphen to buy it since she had lost her previous clothes. After a moment she spoke up.
"I feel kind of sorry ... for you-know-who."
"And who would that be?"
"Stephanie, obviously!"
Cleao said, turning a stern gaze towards him.
However, Orphen paid it no mind and let out a small sigh.
"Even I've stepped foot into places where sorcerers aren't exactly welcome — and of course I've been chased around by people carrying lumber or whatever else they could find."
"But you're strong."
"If you're hit with a piece of lumber, it doesn't matter how strong or weak someone is."
"That's not what I meant — I mean a strong person like you, Orphen, can't understand what it's like for someone with no power to live every day... They live in constant fear of making a fatal mistake, and constantly worry about the prying eyes of the people around them. You can't treat them the same way you'd treat yourself — they don't have the same confidence that you do."
"Steph isn't that thin skinned, and besides — Powerless? Steph is a sorcerer."
"You don't understand."
Cleao gave an irritated sigh and continued to scold him.
"Just because someone's strong doesn't mean they can be a wrestler. Power is only useful if you know how to use it ... And on top of that, she told me — after her surgery, her magical power was severely weakened."
"Yeah, I guess so."
"... You knew!"
He heard Cleao shout but Orphen didn't dare to answer. Instead, he changed the subject.
"Even so, Cleao, it's unusual for you to talk about the feelings of weak people."
"... I was very sickly as a child, but the doctor — they said there was nothing wrong with me anymore, and that I should be completely cured. Rest depends on a person's state of mind, though. I still couldn't get up from my bed, and my sister said that there was no need to be in such a hurry, and that I should rest until I felt better. Only, I felt like I was doing something wrong by just laying there, and it was really, really hard."
"But in the end, you got up?"
"... Yeah."
With her weak reply, Cleao turned away from him and looked towards the city — then muttered.
"I think he's here."
Orphen looked over and also spotted Majic, who was walking out from the city, carrying some kind of luggage on his back — even in the darkness of the night, he could see that he was frowning. Eventually he made his way over to Orphen and the others with the luggage, cursing under his breath.
"I feel like all I do is carry stuff around."
He looked unhappy, and Orphen looked at the luggage thrown down by his feet. He had been sent by Orphen to pick up some weapons and assorted supplies from their carriage outside the city.
Orphen grinned.
"Come on, man. Weak people are to be exploited."
"... What a nasty thing to say..."
Ignoring Majic's muttering, Orphen rummaged through his pack — gathering a portable gas lamp, a thin but sturdy woven rope, and emergency rations, as well a few other things. Then—
Orphen stopped his hand and pulled a long, thin object out of his pack.
"... Who asked you to bring Cleao's sword?"
"I did."
Cleao stated, then snatched the sword from Orphen's hand.
"You were going to leave me behind again, weren't you? But I'm the only one in this group that can actually support you, Orphen—"
"Yeah, yeah."
Orphen dismissed Cleao with a rude hand wave then began to search through the luggage again.
While watching him, Majic muttered in a lecturing tone.
"You brought a weapon for me, right?"
"No."
Orphen answered curtly, then stuffed the food and other things into the leather pack where they had been before — closed it firmly then fastened a clasp around the top. He then picked up the bag and shoved it at Majic.
"I'm counting on you."
"... I figured it'd be something like that."
"Oh, and this."
Cleao handed him the sword. Majic had no energy left to protest, so he sighed and took the weapon.
"You're late, though."
Orphen pressed his hands against his knees to get up and looked at the path Majic had taken. The road was uninhabited, and the street lamps cast a dim light.
"Maybe I got angry and left because my Master kept bullying me."
Orphen listened to Majic's words as he picked up the bags, and thought maybe he was right.
However...
"Oh, here she comes."
Cleao raised her voice.
She stepped into a circle of light cast by the streetlamp, but only the top half of her body was visible — It was Stephanie. Both of her hands were hanging slack at her side, and the eyes behind her glasses were dark and gloomy, almost as if she were ill...
"... I don't want to go back, if I could help it... It's all my fault — Because of me, everyone in the Damsel's Orisons of this city was killed..."
"It's not your fault, you're just the one that survived."
"It's the same thing."
When Stephanie let out a tired exhale, she flipped her hair back and looked down at the canal — Orphen followed suit, leaning forward to peer into the water.
Stephanie spoke slowly.
"Alenhatam ... A city built by the Nornir, but if you look at ancient maps, you'll see that where this city used to be, there's nothing — Alenhatem, it didn't exist. It was a fragment of what it is today. All that used to be here was a small fort called Basilicok."
"Basilicok — The legendary monster? The Beast King of the Sands, or something like that..."
When Orphen asked, Stephanie lightly shrugged her shoulders,
"Perhaps. It was one of the most powerful magical beasts that the Nornir feared. It's said that the gods, angered by the theft of their magical secrets, sent it to destroy the dragon race. According to the literature, the celestials built their fortress to defeat the Basilicok. Then... during the battle, the fort was destroyed and the whole area was reduced to a desert. However, a thousand years ago, the Nornir finally succeeded in killing the Basilicok."
"A desert, huh..."
Orphen mumbled and looked around from one side of the canal to the other — the surface of the water swayed softly, making a gentle sound.
Stephanie laughed.
"In the battle against the Basilicok, the fortress was lost and the land was no longer inhabitable. However, the Nornir thought it would be best to simply rebuild the region into a habitable environment. They used their sorcery to heal the land that had been turned into a desert, and constructed the canals. Eventually, a city was built here... and it became known as Alenhatam. That was the beginning of this city. Eventually, our human ancestors moved to this continent, and, well—"
"Hundreds of years later, the celestials disappeared."
Orphen took over. He looked down at Stephanie's back, as she was still bent over, and continued.
"Is the fortress still around somewhere? That Killing Doll said he'd be waiting at Basilicok."
Stephanie shook her head as she gazed at the canal.
"No, Fort Basilicok was destroyed a thousand years ago and there's no trace of it left in this world."
"Then, why did you summon us here?"
".........."
Stephanie kept silent and turned to face them. She glanced at Cleao and Majic who were standing a short distance away.
"Are you going to bring those children? To ... to the Killing Doll."
"They'll follow me even if I don't. Especially Cleao."
"They have a lot of courage ... Even though they're so powerless. I hesitated about whether I should come here myself—"
"There's nothing to think about, especially with her."
Orphen said, looking back at Cleao's sour face.
"Is that right?"
Stephanie said. She put her hand on her stomach as if she were bowing, but remained silent for a while—
"Let me get back to the point, Orphen. There was a subterranean level of Fort Basilicok. It seems that even the beast king of the sands couldn't destroy the underground fortress, so after the battle, only the subterranian layer survived. Above that underground layer is... this city."
"Then..."
"That's right, Basilicok is under this city... Here ... At the bottom of the canal."
As she told him, Orphen bent over to look into the canal again, but he couldn't see anything at the bottom of the water, which was cloaked in the darkness of the night.
"So you've been there ... once before?"
"It wasn't just once ... I organized a survey team and we went there a number of times, discovering countless weapons and other items stored in the fort, all of which could be used as a form of documentation of that time period. We thought that if we could get our research approved, we'd all be able to leave the city. Perhaps we were too impatient, and we..."
She stopped speaking.
"A week ago, when we last ventured into these ruins... We found it."
"Found what?"
"... At the time I thought it was a doll, but when I brought it back to the lab with some other materials and examined it a few days later, I realized that it wasn't a doll at all."
"What was it?"
"A person. A weapon. A soldier designed to hunt and kill us all. And, ultimately — a doll. A monster that was a combination of all of those things. Then he introduced himself. I think was as a Killing Doll?"
"Then ... That's what caused the Sorcerer Alliance to disappear..."
Orphen asked, and Stephanie's mouth twisted.
"Yes, because we woke him up... That doll... its been waiting for 200 years, ever since the celestials disappeared from this world... Waiting for us. Waiting for a time when we would forget all about the celestials and become defenseless, careless even."
"But ... If that's the case, why does that Killing Doll insist on eliminating sorcerers only in this city?"
"I don't know. Anyway, all that I remember is that the killing doll drew letters on itself with its fingers... and they would glow — and then I couldn't think anymore, I couldn't do anything, and then there was an explosion!"
"It was Wyrd Graphs."
"... Yes, but if so, then that doll can use the ancient sorcery of the celestials. You can't win, Orphen."
"I know that..."
He muttered under his breath, and waved his hand towards Cleao and Majic.
"Hey, it's alright, come over here!"
Like a small animal that had just heard a thunder strike, Cleao reacted with a jolt then came over. Soon after, Majic slowly came trudging along with the heavy luggage loaded up on his back.
As soon as she came running up to him, Cleao puffed up her cheeks and started talking.
"Are you done with your shady chat?"
"That's not very polite. At least call it secret."
"... That's even worse. Oh well, I'm just glad you didn't try to run away the second you saw an opportunity."
As she looked up at him, as if testing him — Orphen hugged her tightly. He could feel her soft hair teasing through his fingers.
"U—Uhh, wait what? Orphen?"
Cleao's voice was shaking. But Orphen didn't care, and whispered quietly into her air.
"Cleao. There's something I have to tell you."
"... What is it?"
"It's—"
Orphen looked over at Majic — He secretly sighed and took the braided rope out of his luggage.
Orphen took it from him, from a position that Cleao couldn't see it, and took advantage of the situation quickly.
He tied it around Cleao's body. She didn't understand what was happening, but for the time being — Cleao's voice was a mixture of screams and curses.
"Orphen, what are you doing!?"
But instead of answering, he wound the rope around her body all the way down to her ankles and kicked her down on the street. Orphen nodded in satisfaction, then turned to Majic and said.
"Yeah, that's good. You did pretty well, apprentice."
"It's just what you wrote on the "list of things to retrieve from the carriage" you gave me a while ago..."
Majic answered in a whisper.
Cleao couldn't stand up because both of her arms were tied down, so all she could do was wiggle, and glance up from the toes of his boots with a burning gaze as she screamed.
"You tricked me!"
"I told you I'd take you to the rendezvou point at the canal, but I didn't say I'd take you to Basilicok."
"Liars! Cheaters! Cretins!"
"Oh, shut up... Majic, I think you have a hand towel in your luggage somewere. Give it here."
When he gagged her with the towel from the luggage, Cleao wasn't able to talk anymore, and could only groan. Orphen clapped his hands together, and in better spirits, he spoke up.
"Huh. You look cute, Cleao."
"Pervert..."
Majic groaned behind him. Orphen punched him and shouted.
"Watch what you say!"
"Ow, that hurt... But what are we going to do, Master? Are we just going to leave Cleao to roll around here?"
"... You're right. So why don't you stay here and keep an eye on her?"
As Orphen said it, Majic responded with a clearly disapproving look on his face.
"No! If I stay with Cleao when she's like this, all of her anger will be inflicted on me!"
"Well... Right now she can't exactly move, so..."
"That doesn't matter! It's Cleao we're talking about! It doesn't matter if she's tied up or thrown in a cage, she'll still find some way to hit me. Master, the last time you decided to punish her by hanging her upside down from a tree on the playground, she spit in my face and threw her shoes at me. Nevermind that it was a chestnut tree, so she kept shaking it to get acorns to throw at me..."
He looked away from the flushed and rather insistent Majic, to Cleao, who was still grumbling something or another.
"... You really think I'm doing a terrible job, don't you..."
"Mmph!"
Cleao groaned loudly.
"Oh well, let's just leave her here, there's not a lot of traffic so I think it'll be okay."
"... What do we do if some kidnappers happen to pass by?"
"Okay, we'll hide her in the alley over there."
"She could get eaten by stray dogs."
"Mmm! Mmph!"
"What about stringing her up on a rope and dropping her in the canal?"
"It's not like we're trying to chill watermelon..."
"Mmm!"
"Umm..."
Then Stephanie, who had been silent and maybe a little overwhelmed until now, moved closer.
"Do you want me to keep an eye on her?"
"No, I need you to lead me to Basilicok. If we throw her in one of the barges around here, she'll be fine until morning."
"I don't think that'd be a good idea... There's wharf roaches in a lot of the holds."
"Mmmph!"
"... Then should we just roll her over there?"
"Sure."
"Mmmm!"
"Also, Steph... how are we going to get to Basilicok? We can't just dive down through the canals like Vulcan, especially not with all this luggage."
"Mmph!"
"This way... It's like a sewer, but there's an entrance. It looks like there was a crack in the ground that accidentally connected to the entrance of the ruins..."
"I don't care where we're going, but Master, can you please carry your luggage?"
"Mmm! MMmm!"
Orphen ignored both of them and followed Stephanie's lead. He heard the groaning voice of Cleao chasing after them for what seemed like forever — but eventually he was out of range, and couldn't hear it anymore.
Orphen gave a sigh of relief and followed Stephanie.
Cleao continued to groan even after Orphen and the others were out of sight, but the gag wasn't particularly secure, so eventually the hand towel dropped down to her throat. She spit the spit-stained cloth out, then knocked it away with her chin. Afterwards, she turned her head towards where Orphen and the others had disappeared to, and shouted with all of her might.
"I won't forget this!"
Bam! She hit the ground with a thud — her shoulder landing on the concrete.
"Tying me up with rope, threatening to drop me in the canals? Talking about feeding me to stray dogs? If you think you're going to get away with this, you're wrong! I'll have you dragged around this city by a rampaging bull! If not that, I'll rip off your fingernails with a pair of pliers!"
She shouted, then stopped to think for a moment.
"Man — I know I'm no match for that karate nerd, but there are so many other options, like putting thumbtacks in his bed, or pouring boiling water over his window."
She continued to mumble.
"I could put pig's blood in his shoes, or scribble on his face while he's sleeping — or I could soak Orphen's morning towel in lemon juice. Breaking some glass while he's walking down the stairs would work well, too. Or even simpler, I could just push him down the stairs the second I see an opening."
She nodded to herself, her eyes filled with life, and snapped her fingers behind her back.
"Maybe I should try them out on Majic, like I always do, to see which option works best."
Cleao nodded with a strangely satisfied look in her eyes, but then she frowned.
"But where can I get pig's blood?"
Then...
She heard the sound of bubbling water.
Cleao raised an eyebrow and turned towards the canal — struggling with her lack of free movement, but managing to roll over.
Then, the water in the canal suddenly shot up, and a column of water erupted skyward like an explosion.
"Haaaaahahahahaha—"
A loud laugh echoed in the stillness of the night. In the middle of the column of water was a familiar, stocky figure of a boy, being carried on the shoulder of a huge stone doll that looked to be about ten meters tall.
She'd never seen anything like it.
"I've got a really bad feeling about this..."
Table of Contents
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Guardian of the Treasure The Beautiful Allenhatem! A Challenge From Volcan Basilicok Then - He Accepted His Master's Orders |