novelraw Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Chapter 12: The Sense of Justice with a Clearly Marked Price
“Achoo!”
Lina, who had been following behind Fennis, suddenly sneezed.
“W-what’s wrong? Big Sister Lina? Are you feeling unwell?”
Annie stepped forward and asked with concern.
“It’s nothing… I just had a strange feeling, like someone was talking about me.” Lina shook her head and tried hard to calm herself down.
This was bad! She somehow felt like she had carelessly triggered some kind of super dangerous side quest!
Come on, you’ve got to be kidding, she was only a level-fifteen apprentice witch!
These cultists clearly weren’t small-time either. Not to mention the several Norsens that had popped out this time… judging from the way Fennis had appeared just now… she seemed to have been fighting something extremely bad a moment ago.
How had a problem that was difficult even for an S-rank witch to handle ended up in her lap!
Lina felt a headache coming on. She absolutely had to think of a way to get herself out of this next. Whether that meant playing dumb or acting pitiful did not matter… in any case, she had to hurry and run!
Hehe, she absolutely had to survive!
“Little girl, what is your name?”
Fennis suddenly stopped walking, and Lina nearly crashed into her back.
“My name is Lina, and she’s Annie.” Lina pulled over the little blue-haired witch beside and behind her in one motion. The latter stammered softly, “H-hello, Lady Witch of the Moon…”
“Lina, when you ran into these cultists, what were they doing?” Fennis waved her hand lightly, and the gate to the secret realm instantly lit up. A faint pale-blue curtain of light dimly revealed the cave scene on the other side.
“They were attacking four other apprentices.” Lina answered honestly, “They had controlled two Cave Lurkers to launch a sneak attack on them. The battle situation was very unfavorable for those four apprentices, so we found a chance to step in and help.”
“Were any of the attacked apprentices injured?” Fennis asked.
“Two of them were poisoned, but they took antidotes in time, so they’re already fine now. The rest only had light injuries. They’re all still in the plaza. Lady Witch of the Moon, they might understand the situation better than I do, so perhaps…”
“If you provide other high-value intelligence during the investigation or make contributions, the Association also has generous gold dragon rewards…”
“Striking at cultists and safeguarding public order is a witch’s bounden duty, so please, let us do our part!” The moment Lina heard “gold dragon,” her sense of social responsibility surged up with a whoosh!
Wealth was found amid danger. Besides, with Fennis covering for them, how dangerous could it really be?
Only someone who had truly gone through hard times could understand the importance of money!
One of Fennis’s eyelids twitched involuntarily.
From what she had heard from the others, it was this girl who had led the apprentices and examiners in the plaza and bought precious time against two powerful cultists.
It was just that, for some reason, she had faintly been able to sense since earlier that this little girl was resisting the idea of investigating this cultist incident together with her.
Fortunately, though, she seemed to have an almost obsessive desire for money. As long as extra rewards were mentioned, she no longer seemed resistant to assisting with the follow-up investigation.
Fennis glanced at Lina again out of the corner of her eye.
Worn-out clothes, an overstuffed cloth bag, a delicate and pretty face, and those big golden eyes that kept blinking.
She always felt there was a special air about her… one that gave her an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Not long after entering the secret realm, they found that cultist lying on the ground, enjoying a high-quality sleep.
“Here, it’s him.” Lina kicked the cultist’s body with disdain. “His companion’s corpse is nearby.”
Fennis walked forward and condensed a strand of silver light in her palm. With a “swoosh!” it drilled into the cultist’s body.
“Cough cough cough!”
The cultist, who had been completely motionless just a moment ago, suddenly sat bolt upright and coughed violently.
Using such a powerful awakening spell... wasn’t she afraid he wouldn’t be able to endure it and would just drop dead on the spot? Lina muttered inwardly.
Fennis, however, did not care. She clenched her right hand in the air and directly seized the not-yet-fully-responsive cultist by the throat, lifting him up from a distance.
“L-let... let me go... you...” The cultist’s legs kicked back and forth in the air, his face flushing red from suffocation.
“Smack!”
To his surprise, Fennis really did let go of him. The cultist instantly collapsed limply onto the ground, gulping down great breaths of air.
“Y-you bunch of... stupid... urgh!”
Before he could finish speaking, Fennis lifted him up again, and with her movement, clear red marks began to appear on the cultist’s neck. One could even faintly hear the sound of bones being compressed.
“You won’t get anything out of him even if you crush his neck, so don’t always think about using brute force...” Lina blurted out the complaint without thinking, then immediately realized that the current Fennis was no longer the little disciple she once had, so she hurriedly changed her words:
“Ah... haha, Lady Witch of the Moon, I was just...”
“Yes, what you said makes sense.” Fennis nodded and released the cultist. Expressionless, she said, “My teacher once said the same thing... I’m not good at this sort of thing. Miss Lina, do you have a method?”
“Huh? Me?” Lina’s eyes widened.
She was such a harmless, innocent, adorable little weakling who did not even have the strength to truss up a chicken, and they wanted her to interrogate a cultist?
Wait... hadn’t she just said... there was a bonus for assisting the investigation?
Then again, everyone had a duty to uphold justice, and fighting cultists was an obligation every person ought to fulfill!
“Mm... let me think... yes, I can.” Lina nodded. “I need you to prepare a soundproof barrier for me, with only me and him inside... and if possible, I hope you’ll step aside as well.”
“I need to use a kind of mental interference magic. The more observers there are, the more likely it is to fail.” Lina spoke this nonsense with a perfectly serious face.
As for why she wanted Fennis to step aside... it was because she really did intend to use some special methods.
Fennis agreed to Lina’s request without hesitation.
She casually drew a line in the air, and a circle of pure white light enclosed Lina and the cultist together.
Ordinarily, she would not have agreed to such a request.
But this little girl named Lina always gave her a special sense of trust.
She could not describe what kind of feeling it was, but... it seemed that doing as she said was the right thing.
Fennis’s voice sounded in Lina’s mind: “This curtain of light can last for one hour. I hope you obtain intelligence of value.”
“Heh, stop dreaming. Use whatever torture methods you want,” the cultist, slumped on the ground, looked coldly at Lina. “You’re all pitiful, stupidly pitiful. You know nothing...”
“Mm, it was precisely because we didn’t know that we asked you,” Lina crouched down and blinked her big eyes innocently. “Tell us exactly how we’re stupid, and broaden my horizons a little?”
The cultist froze. He had not expected her to pull something like this.
Was it a trap? Was she trying to trick him into talking?
“Oh, so it seems you don’t know either. You’re just pretending to understand,” seeing that he gave no response, Lina shook her head regretfully. “I’m actually a little interested in your ‘Lord of Chaos,’ especially regarding... that dream from which his awakening was destined to come.”
The cultist’s pupils suddenly contracted!
She knew about the Lord of Chaos? She even knew about the Dream World?!
Of course Lina knew. Back when she had destroyed a Return Church stronghold, she had idly flipped through all of their doctrinal texts out of boredom. It could be said that some followers of the Return Church might not even have known this sect as well as she did.
“What else do you know?” The cultist’s voice was extremely wary. “Since you know the omniscient and omnipotent Lord, and know that all people came from his dream... why are you still our enemy?”
A trace of amusement curled at the corners of Lina’s mouth. “One answer for one answer. You ask first.”
“Where did you learn these things?” The cultist stared fixedly into Lina’s eyes, trying to find the answer within them.
“‘Book of Dreams · Original Canon’.” Lina put heavy emphasis on the words “Original Canon.”
“What?!” The cultist’s eyes widened. “The Original Canon... impossible! The Original Canon was long ago burned by that damned witch...”
“It records the Lord’s name.” Lina spoke in an utterly calm voice.
“He is called .....”
“Urghhhhhhh!!!”
Yet the cultist clapped his hands over his ears the instant he heard the first syllable of the name, then rolled madly on the ground and howled, cutting Lina off.
“Don’t say it... don’t say it! I know... I admit it... you... you!” The cultist clutched his head in extreme agony. The look he gave Lina was full of terror, and then that terror turned into reverence. “You spoke His holy name... how are you not... you... could it be that you are...”
“Alright, alright, enough nonsense.” Lina cut him off impatiently and asked, “Tell me, what was your purpose in coming to this test?”
“For Containment Item S-09 Door of Dreams,” the cultist said with his head lowered, speaking in a respectful and submissive manner. “Earlier, we did not recognize you... our deepest apologies... but the Door of Dreams is extremely important to our Lord’s return.”
Lina’s eyelid twitched. Just what had he mistaken her for?
That cultist seemed to have taken her for one of his own kind... perhaps even some sort of superior being?
She decided to go along with it and keep acting for a while longer.
S-09? Hiss... wasn’t that one of the containment items she had personally sealed in her previous life?
That had been three or four hundred years ago, perhaps. She could no longer remember the exact details clearly......
These people were after it?
“Mm, I did indeed have certain plans, but because of your reckless behavior, they’ve now been completely ruined.” Lina said coldly, “And besides... S-09 was personally sealed by the Star Witch. Even if you obtained it, you would be unable to activate it.”
“Y-you know of the Star Witch! You truly are... my apologies, I had no intention of speculating on your identity...” The cultist lowered his head even further, beads of sweat rolling down his cheeks. “We... we really have grasped a method to reactivate this containment item...”
“In this town... there is a special legacy left behind by the Star Witch, and within it lies the clue that can activate the Door of Dreams!”