novelraw Chapter 177: There’s Always Another Secret
Chapter 177: There’s Always Another Secret
Alba sat in front of him with a dramatic sulk only a tiny wolf-dog could manage.
Eris, a tiny black cat with red eyes glowing, sat beside him, Her tail flicking.
Both looked down at the floor like two children caught stealing sweets.
Ignotus crossed his arms.
"This is a medic hub, you know?"
The dog whined, while Eris, after a guilty pause, managed the one word She could say aloud:
"...calamity."
In his mind, though, Her actual words rang out, embarrassed:
’My apologies, Ignotus... my cat form influences my thinking.’
Ignotus snorted.
’Do you think I actually care? I’m only doing this to have fun.’
Eris meowed, walked forward, and lightly scratched at his shin in protest.
Ignotus glared at Her and She immediately pretended She meant nothing by it.
Alba saw the touch; he couldn’t have that, and so he launched.
He body-checked the cat with the force of a pillow fired out of a weak slingshot.
Both tumbled, rolling across the white tile in a mess of fur, claws, paws, and offended hisses.
Ignotus looked down at them with a calm expression, as if this was the most normal thing in the world, while they continued a very intense animal war beneath his feet.
’...was Alba attracted by the Demons?’
His thoughts drifted.
’Maybe he thought I was dead and ran over to save me. Hm, I really lucked out with meeting him again in this life... Even if I almost wish I didn’t.’
His face softened.
’He’s so precious.’
The sudden softness made both creatures freeze mid-grapple.
Eris’s paw hung in the air. Alba’s teeth paused an inch from Her tail.
Both stared at Ignotus like they’d never seen him before.
And they weren’t alone.
Next to him—sitting up groggily, blankets half falling off their beds—his group watched him with wide eyes and open mouths. They seemed more surprised by this ’softness’ than by the spade-eyed Demon’s might.
Gaia was the first to recover.
"Y-You have pets?"
Ignotus blinked, then laughed.
"Hahahah! No, no..."
He bent his knees a bit, lowering his arms so both animals could scramble up onto his shoulders—Alba on the right like a fluffy horned parrot, Eris perched primly on the left like an ominous shoulder demon.
He turned fully to face his now-awake team.
"These are my companions. Little Seth—"
WOOF!
Ignotus coughed.
"Little Alba is new. But this cat—"
He tilted his head toward Eris.
"—is someone you know very well, Gaia."
Eris unblinkingly stared straight into Gaia’s eyes.
An overwhelming red devouring her green, until eventually...
"Oh—!"
Gaia’s breath hitched, and she covered her mouth.
"It’s you..."
She didn’t finish; she didn’t have to.
None of the others understood yet, but they knew better than to interrupt.
"Can you..."
Gaia whispered a question, too shy to finish it.
Eris hopped down, padded forward, and leapt gracefully onto Gaia’s lap.
She sat upright, fluffed her tail, and spoke:
"Calamity."
The entire room froze for one heartbeat—
"Ahahahahhahahahaha!"
—then erupted in laughter.
Gaia laughed until she bent forward. Mer slapped her bed. Lykos wheezed; Ulv actually snorted, Nora alongside him. Even Aur, ever so stoic, hid a small giggle behind her hand.
Eris flicked Her tail smugly, enjoying how they fawned over Her.
Woof!
Alba barked in jealousy while snuggling up to a smiling Ignotus.
’This is nice.’
...
...
...
It was easy to fight when you had never lost before.
Until the inevitable happened, you felt invincible...
But then, you were sidelined by a trick of Fate.
The world demanded rest, and the road to recovery proved to be long.
Thankfully, Ignotus wasn’t one who needed ’rest,’ having learned deeply of defeat many a time in his past life.
He was already moving again.
Once he was certain his people were stable, caught up on what was happening, and surrounded by healers. Once he saw a very smug cat that could echo a single word, he finally left the medic hub alone.
He walked through many long marble hallways, climbed a set of spiraling stairs, and stood before the polished doors of the headmaster’s office.
They opened before he could even knock, as if expecting him.
Just as Ignotus entered, Dante’s presence came through, revealing a High Elder’s might.
He was sitting behind a luxurious desk with Arcane glowing faintly along its edges.
Golden curtains framed the night sky behind him.
"Ignotus, boy?"
Dante smiled coolly.
"Come close."
Ignotus stepped in and bowed a little, just enough to mimic basic respect.
"Headmaster."
Yet Dante saw no need for that, waving his hand to a nearby chair.
"Stop, and call me Dante. We both don’t like formalities."
Ignotus straightened.
"Alright. The healers told me you wanted to talk, so what is it?"
Dante wasted no time.
"I won’t ask how you knew about the Demons, nor how you reached them before the guards. I know better than to bother with that sort of question."
He folded his hands.
"But I will thank you for attempting to avoid this war. That was your intention, I assume—not the saving of lives but the avoidance of... disruptions. They’re ’bad for business,’ after all."
Ignotus tilted his head.
"So you really were eavesdropping on my meeting?"
"Of course."
Dante chuckled.
"A slow shake in Hell has grown into surface-level tremors. Villages suffered small raids. And now, our two rival Great Houses, House Time and House Light, pushed for territorial control of Hell’s borderlands."
He sighed.
"Our Great House blocked them, of course, and what you had hoped would pass quietly has escalated into a Great House war."
Ignotus exhaled slowly.
"It’ll be a proxy war, though, no? I’m sure the Great Houses won’t act themselves, at least not in a public capacity. The consequences would be too catastrophic otherwise."
Dante nodded and went on:
"Yes... funny isn’t it? We strive to save ourselves, only to better destroy ourselves."
He stood up and slowly walked to the window.
"You and I might call this war cold, but on the ground, that’s far from the truth. Many will still suffer, compromise or not."
"Compromise?"
"Hm. While there might be... skirmishes between Houses. The Great Houses know better than to directly throw things at each other, even in secret. So they reached a single compromise: sanctioned reclamation Dives."
Ignotus frowned.
"Reclamation what?"
"Dives. Public ones. The Academy will accelerate recruitment, and those participating in a Dive will no longer need to be Inquisitors. Rather, they’d be treated better than them... at least to the public."
Ignotus shook his head with a chuckle.
"So they’ll be pushed into celebrity status while also being used as cannon fodder? It’d be dumb of them to accept."
Dante nodded.
"Yes, it would, but we both know many would anyway."
Ignotus hummed in agreement.
"Fortunately for us, greed blinds the mind."
Their talk instantly turned heavy after that:
"As suffering accumulates, Demons grow in strength. Higher strength, higher intellect; in other words, their coordination increases. Greater Demons may begin arriving in droves. Not long after, I don’t doubt that there’ll be a full invasion of the Third Stratum. We may forever lose it."
Ignotus raised a brow.
’The bastard got it exactly right... I’m sure he and his kin did in my past life as well. Nothing I did would’ve really changed their minds. So why were the forces they sent so weak? How did they fail to save the Third? Did they let it fall? Had they given up on saving it?’
He couldn’t ask that, of course, so he simply left it as a wondering thought and quipped:
"So... extremely dumb."
"Precisely."
Dante looked tired.
"If the mortal populace loses hope in our authority, the world-state meter against those Demons will tilt. Hell’s hunger will continue to rise with every massacre and unaddressed tragedy. We cannot afford that."
Ignotus almost sat up and cursed at him.
’That’s exactly right! So why the Hell did your lot fail so badly in my past life? What made you so weak?’
Unaware of Ignotus’s conundrum, Dante turned towards him fully.
"Priest Ignotus. House Lord of Calamity. Strong-sounding Titles, yes? Well, I say not."
His smile lost its curl.
"They call us Runebearers, defenders of the realm, those who will stand against Hell in the Final Hour. But we are merely tools that come and go as They like, barely able to fight back Corruption and our own damned madness."
Ignotus’s small smile faded as well.
"Hm..."
He looked down.
"That we are."
Dante straightened his robes.
"Until further notice, you are to remain in the Academy. Do not leave the grounds, do you understand?"
Ignotus nodded without argument.
"I understand."
He had expected that order, and so, he just up and left without ceremony.
"This boy..."
Dante watched him go with knowing eyes.
"There’s always another secret."