YM778.TV Chapter 171: Twilight
Well, what does she know… Twilight had been in this world for only a year and a half. Perhaps they really want to take care of the rift, but are unable to.
Twilight had only spent four days in the Third Fold of the rift, and it had challenged her. Considering there were six more folds, her worry wasn\'t unfounded.
Stifling a soundless sigh, she turned to her temporary companions. There were six of them, all silver rankers. Other than her and the young Elven Woman, the other four seemed to have worked together before. The captain was a dependable man, who looked to be in his early thirties, but perhaps older. He was at the peak of Silver rank, his class [Surge Knight] seemed to be famous among the soldiers.
Thankfully, he was a stoic and pragmatic man and didn\'t ask anything more from her other than doing her job, which was mostly scouting ahead and helping during battles with demonic beasts.
Now, Twilight wasn\'t at the peak of her power, as she had to leave an avatar of her to protect Ai in the royal place of Iman without her notice. Even still, there were no better individuals for the job of scouting. Her battle prowess might have hampered missing a part of herself, but it didn\'t have any effect on her skills.
Through her scouting skill alone, she had helped him avoid most of the horde of demonic beasts.
Twilight could venture most of the place unnoticed. Perhaps only a keen Gold ranker and some weird fellows like Ai and Gale would be able to sense her. Thankfully, she didn\'t have the fortune or misfortune of meeting another one like them.
On some nights when she was alone with herself with no task in hand, Twilight wondered how far she had come… From the unremarkable small town to the Sect, she was banished from… and now in a completely different world… Very few could compare to such experiences.
"We have to move through another Warped Waygate again," the captain said, referring to the map he held.
Warped Waygate was another unique thing of this world, perhaps. She hadn\'t experienced anything like that before coming to this world, nor know the science behind it. But if she had to term it, she\'d say it was a weird blob of spatial magic.
"Are we transferring to the fourth fold?" the Elven woman said with a glint in her eyes. Her name was Auriella, just stunning to look at, but her skills at archery and spell casting were undeniable.
Like Twilight, she kept to herself throughout the journey, although unlike her, it was probably the Elven arrogance to mix up with common humans. Auriella was too prideful to show it blatantly, but even someone like her could pick up on that arrogance. It wasn\'t completely bad per se, merely a product of her Elven upbringing.
"The second, actually," the captain said with a smile. "Well, we have to move through three in total to get to our destination, but yeah…" he turned to her.
Twilight knew her job. She nodded and was ready to do the necessary scouting, considering demonic beasts tend to lurk around those spatial waves.
"Miss Twilight…" the captain called as she halted in her place. Looking up at her obnoxious mask, he added awkwardly, "Be careful out there… Your reports have been through so far… but there\'s no need to put yourself in too much danger. Just a speculative number of opponents and danger will be enough."
The purple light in her mask\'s eye sockets flickered. So far on her report, she had counted the exact numbers of fiends or what kind of danger may lurk in the dark… It wasn\'t challenging for her, just boring scouting work where she just needed it. Years of honed skills made her completely invisible to other\'s senses. She could literally move two paces away from a fiend and it wouldn\'t notice her.
The issue was that why was the captain being… kind? Is that it? Twilight was unsure.
"You\'re worried for no reason, Captain," said the buxom woman with a crackle of laughter. "She can disappear from our sight and senses without any problem. The lass knows what she\'s doing…"
A silence dawned among them, as every one of them looked at her, not directly, but covertly.
Twilight hadn\'t noticed this problem in the beginning, but on the third day she noticed the others weren\'t simply wary of their mission, but a part of them was wary of her. The thing was that they didn\'t understand her… or her power. She had been remarkably useful to them, but instead of putting them at ease, it made them wary of her.
Even the Elven woman, Auriella, who was prideful with remarkable capabilities, had a look in her eyes whenever she turned to her.
Inept in communicating with people, Twilight did not know how to ease their worry. Hell, she merely noticed on the third day after accidentally eavesdropping on their talk about her. Her almost blank background and history only added to their worries. Not to mention her assassin costume—which many had commented on being incongruously eerie.
Honestly, Twilight couldn\'t wait to finish this mission and ditch them for her original task. She worked best alone, and that\'s why she chose this job after all.
Leaving them to their unwarranted worries, Twilight rounded a ridge to use her stealth skill, lest she spook them too much. Silver rankers or not, nobody likes when someone just appears and disappears close distance from them. Previously, she used this way to her benefit, but the people of this world were a little too rash and had attacked her.
Not that it ever went easy for them. Still, Twilight learned things...
Stealth, showing, assassination--all this was as easy as breathing to her… like a second nature… but not communicating with others.
***
They partied all night until the drinks were wasted, and foods were consumed. Well, the captain left after a couple of hours, and so did the incestuous siblings, although unlike Agnes who could take a few drinks without any problem, the two of them were wasted only after a few glasses.
They began touching one another in front of them, showing too much of their incestuous intimacy. Ultimately, Agnes helped them to their rest, but even she was unable to separate them from being glued to one another. Warden was pretty sure they continued with their passion after leaving…
Weirdly, Warden could honestly not judge them after hearing the gist of their backstory from the others. The siblings were connected to one another… they share one heart and one life… Even their emotions were a reflection of one another. Warden didn\'t know how that worked out, but he got that it was impossible to separate them.
While their birth had been auspicious; they weren\'t this way in the beginning. Someone high up experimented on their bond and twisted them in the false claim of taking them under their wings. Thankfully, their bond comes with a perk as well.
Since they share one life, their growth speed was twice as fast as anyone else… somehow they managed to hide the fact and killed the experimenter to save themselves.
Unfortunately, in the eyes of the law and the Arcane Society, they had committed capital by killing their master. Offences such as this only end with the death penalty. But the judge wasn\'t completely blind to see the torment they were through and sent them off to the 16th infantry.
Caleb\'s story was also sorrowful. He actually comes from a good standing… He wasn\'t a noble, but his family used to run a silver-grade Guild. Life had been good, Caleb had been newly named the guild master, but within a few months of his lead, the disaster struck.
It wasn\'t his fault, nor his guild\'s.
"My son, Aemon was a good lad, far more talented than me," Caleb expressed, letting out a tired hiccup. "He wasn\'t a monster like you or the captain, but he can easily compare to the firstborn son of many noble houses. He\'s only sixteen, merely a year, and a few months into his power when they come to strike him. His fault: he fell in love with someone he shouldn\'t have."
Caleb continued, wiping his snot. "The girl was at fault, too. She had a fiance, yet she gave my fool boy hope that he could win him over. Heh, maybe Aemon could have if they had played fair... The girl\'s finance comes from a high-ranking family. It was no problem for him to make Aemon\'s life hell in the academy.
"Ultimately, all it came down to a life and death duel. I cannot, in good faith, let my son fight, knowing full well they were bent on killing him or crippling him. I fought in his stead, and I lost."