Chapter 452 147 - Perserios territory - part 2 - Dark clouds on the horizon (part 3)
Miriette wrapped her arms around Zoemi's arm and leaned her helmet against his shoulder while staring at the blond-haired heroine.
"...Buru, you look like a slob..."
"Eh...?"
The helmet-wearing girl mumbled sleepily causing the other one to gasp as her eyes widened with realization.
"..."
Zoemi's expression was also telling her everything she needed to know about what was actually going on.
"Burushi, you are a very pretty girl, but need I remind you that I had her in the most vulnerable state right next to me, and I never betrayed her trust?"
The black-haired boy added, motioning at Miriette, and went ahead with his original intention and began fixing the blond heroine's disheveled clothes.
He also made sure that he is properly blocking the view for anyone not paying enough attention to the briefing that the young heir of the Perserios family was in the middle of giving.
"Not really - I was trying to seduce you since you woke up after saving me from those two scum. You are just really good at ignoring things."
"Ah, right. Just like I'm going to ignore this comment of yours? I see. Good."
Miriette was slowly waking up and functioning like normal, but she still said something that she would normally save for a different occasion - and made Zoemi send her a grumpy look before shaking his head and continuing to help out his attendant.
"...finally, Zoemi and miss Etwistrall will join the sixth squad that will provide support to the third outpost in case of..."
The blue-haired boy looked over at the black-haired boy and his entourage right in time to see Zoemi stepping back and revealing the perfectly dressed - and shockingly enough, combed - Burushi.
"Commander, do you want us to just retake the first outpost?"
He surely was going to add something more, but Miriette stretched before entertaining her fingers with Zoemi's and asked in an indifferent voice.
"...!"
...which ended up making the atmosphere in the briefing room go from tense to straight-up chilly...
Except for the surprised Devios, literally, every person in the room glared at her as if she had lost her mind.
"That's a simple question, commander. Do you want lord Zoemi and me to retake the first outpost? We sure can wait for the soldiers there to die and all to make it more of a dramatic revenge mission, but I was under the impression that you want to prevent as many casualties on our side as possible~"
Miriette did not pay any attention to the attention she received and repeated herself, accidentally slipping into her normal, slightly seductive way of speaking.
"Both sides, preferably. I would like to learn about barbarians' reasoning and whether there is a way to make lasting peace with them. But that's for the future. For now..."
The younger boy responded calmly and furrowed his brows, intrigued.
"My lord - you can't be seriously considering allowing them to try something like that!"
The same person who was guiding the black-haired boy, the helmet-wearing girl, and the blond-haired girl spoke up in exasperation and his fully visible face twisted in disbelief.
"..."
Devios closed his mouth and looked at him without the slightest change in his expression.
Both Miriette and Zoemi could tell that the younger boy was holding himself back from rolling his eyes and groaning.
In the first place, Devios wasn't going to allow such recklessness even knowing Zoemi's power, and hearing about Miriette's capabilities.
But for whatever reason, his older cousin tried to make it seem like the blue-haired boy was all for it.
|Little ones outside, does any of you is near the first outpost?|
Zoemi sent out his thoughts to his sentinels roaming the world.
"(AH! Master is cheating on us!)"
"(Master! We can teleport you there right now!)"
Interestingly enough, his resident sentinels didn't particularly like the notion of their creator asking anyone else for help, and fired out in disbelief.
|Shush, your task is to keep me safe and help me out. I will not send you away when I'm in a state that can get me incapacitated after casting a spell or two.|
The black-haired boy scolded them for cluttering his mind with unnecessary banter, but to the two sentinels, it sounded a bit different.
"(Eheheh~ yes, yes. Master trusts us the most~!)"
"(Master, we love you too!)"
They responded all happily and when Zoemi glanced down, he could see two dark dots dancing around in joy within the boundaries of his shadow.
"(...I am sorry to intrude, but I am in the first outpost in the room with the barricaded Perserios troops...)"
|!!!|
Just as Zoemi was looking up, one of his free roaming sentinels contacted him back, sounding quite apologetic.
|That's perfect! First of all, connect a shadow gate to my current location and send them all back here and... umm...|
The boy perked up and instructed the timid sentinel before realizing something.
|While you are doing that, could you tell me how did you get there?|
He asked, slightly confused about the circumstances that lead his summon spell to that situation.
"(I'm sorry...! I was flying around but then the brainwashed people attacked the fort and killed some of the soldiers. The brainwashed people have a weird magician that melts everything and she is strong. Really strong. She can melt other spells, and I got scared, so when she trapped and finished off all the earth magicians, the other soldiers shouted to group up and hide, so I did...)"
"Brainwashed people...?! No, first of all, the Perserios's troops BARRICADED themselves inside an enclosed space WITHOUT any earth magicians to get them out of there when their opponent can melt things!? Sent them in right now, little one!"
"Umm... Zoemi...?"
"See? He's crazy!"
The black-haired boy got something surprised that he switched from thinking, straight to speaking out loud which surprised Devios while making the blue-haired boy's older cousin scoff with a half triumphant, half-annoyed expression.
"(...you aren't angry at me, master...? O-okay, I'm sending them...!)"
The apologetic sentinel became slightly less timid and cheered.
*WHOOM*
*thump* x8
"AAAHHH...! Huh...?"
The next moment, Zoemi's shadow expanded and became murky-black - then it bulged upwards like an abscess and burst open spewing six men and two women in the soldier uniforms and various pieces of armor hurriedly affixed on top of them for protection - all of which shouted or cited in shock until they realized where they were.
"Wha... what...?"
Devios's cousin gasped and his jaw dropped at the sight.
"Squad three and part of squad five from the first outpost... report what is going on there. Immediately."
Even despite the shock, the young heir of the Perserios family proved why he was bestowed with the future of their family and called at the survivors that Zoemi's sentinel brought in.
"Alright. Burushi, go and check up on them. Zoemi and I will go see what the big fuss is about. Zoemi, this gate can go both ways right?"
Using the confusion, Miriette leaned back and said to Burushi - who had already begun walking towards the rescued soldiers - before tugging on Zoemi's hand and trying to take a step forward into the murky-black shadow in front of them.
"...there is a magician there that can melt spells, objects, and people..."
Zoemi pointed out, already strongly suggesting that the dark-haired girl should stay behind, out of the habit of protecting her at all cost.
"Psh...! I want to see him try."
Miriette scoffed proudly and her body began shining with the vibrant green light of wind enchantments Zoemi felt the gust of the wind shields grinding against each other in a protective layer around the two of them.
"Apparently is a woman too."
"Oh, then I am definitely going, I don't need another rival."
The black-haired boy added, to which the helmet-wearing girl scoffed angrily and clenched clung to his arm a lot tighter.
"Hey! What are you two trying to do?!"
Surprisingly enough - or not - Devios's cousin switched his attention from the survivors that were being inspected by the blond-haired heroine to the pair about to disappear.
"With a mage that can melt everything let loose in the outpost, the chances of decreasing casualties on our side are disappearing with each second. Someone has to go there and at least chase the barbarians away unless the thing you all want to retrieve is a bloody goop residue."
Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and explained calmly, with a mocking smirk that made him look like a villain.
That was actually just so no one would try to approach to stop them since Miriette's wind shields didn't differentiate friend from foe and would kill anyone unaware or stupid enough to try to detain them.
And then...
"We will get the outpost back, and you all will be able to return to peacefully gossiping about how we make love~"
Miriette snickered in amusement and mocked the troops in the room before pulling Zoemi straight into his own shadow.
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