Chapter 476 156 - Perserios territory - part 4 - Countering the plan that was thirty years in the making (part 8)
"If they want to frame me, they need to have someone survive the turmoil here so it could mark the starting point of launching the investigation or whatever. I mean, they can fabricate everything, but considering the actions of the acid magician within the first outpost, they are prepared to make their stunt as believable as possible."
The black-haired boy smirked at the corpse puppet and pointed out, before staring at the ceiling.
"Although, while we are talking about their plan... isn't it.. .excessive...? I know people are weird and all, but I can't help being suspicious about the things Miriette and Roiso have told us."
He asked, furrowing his brow and making Xeonith blink a few times, taken aback.
"What do you mean by excessive? From what the two sentinels have told me, the acid magician was quite unhinged. Is it really that surprising that she said something that she wasn't supposed to?"
The brown-haired corpse puppet asked, leaning against the window sill and crossing his arms while making a troubled expression.
"Maybe? I don't know. To me, it feels like when she was talking about the curse encompassing the entire Perserios territory and a fragment of the mountains where their forces were stationed, she put far too much attention to the latter part. I mean. Why do that?"
Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and complained grumpily.
"Maybe she intended for you to start looking for them immediately, and fell into a trap?"
"I don't... huh...? You know what? That's a good point."
Xeonith wondered while stroking his chin, and although Zoemi began shaking his head, the time the brown-haired corpse puppet said his thing, he ended up opening his eyes wide in realization and nodding vigorously.
"Then. What could be their plan in the long run – let's say that they achieve whatever they want in the Perserios territory. What would they gain pushing the blame for murdering most of the Perserios family members?"
Xeonith nodded back and continued asking, trying to piece together every part of the puzzle they encountered.
"I guess they could paint a splendid mark on my back and attempt to drive me off. That would both anger the first prince Horeo enough for him to do something rash, and maybe even – with a healthy dose of rumors, gossip, and intrigue sprinkled in – elevate Arisu's status to that much more of a hero, and a viable candidate for the throne replacing the two inept princes."
The black-haired boy pushed out his lower jaw and hummed with an indifferent expression.
"..."
Introduced to that option, the brown-haired corpse puppet frowned and tilted his head in concern.
'Hmm? What is the matter, Xeonii?"
Zoemi glanced over at Xeonith and raised his brow, calling out to him with a nickname that the corpse puppet sentinels picked and called the brown-haired young man before.
"Probably nothing. But this whole thing starts looking like a certain death kind of mission for the Barbariacca nation troops. I wonder if they are actually hexed too or something because it really doesn't sound plausible that they are all okay with being killed off."
Xeonith explained his concern, fidgetting awkwardly under Zoemi's attentive gaze.
"...true... that does sound like..."
*BOOOOOOOOOM*
"!!!!"
"What happened?!"
The black-haired boy nodded, about to add something on his own, but then a tremor of an explosion shook the entire castle, causing him to flinch and call out, while Xeonith turned right back to the window to check whether he could see anything.
"Are we under attack?! Little ones! What is going on?!"
Not waiting for an update from the brown-haired corpse puppet, Zoemi jumped out of the bed and called out loud towards his two sentinels.
"(Master! We are coming for you right now!)"
"(Don't move anywhere!)"
"...?!"
But the answer that he received was definitely not what he expected – not at all.
*WHOOM*
"WHAT THE...?!"
A moment later, the entire floor of the room got flooded by a murky-black shadow and swallowed the black-haired boy and the brown-haired young man – with the latter calling out in panic as no one warned him what was going on.
--------
*WHOOM*
*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*
"!!!!"
Zoemi and Xeonith were spat out of the darkness at the back of a vibrant green snake soaring high into the sky and were immediately assaulted by the violent winds.
"(I got you, master~! Xeonii, you too!)"
The second sentinel immediately grabbed both of them and pushed them down towards the body of the enormous snake where the wind pressure was the lightest.
"(And I connected all of us with the message spell so we can hear each other normally.)"
The first sentinel joined in, sounding proud of themselves.
"Alright – so, what the hell is going on?!"
Zoemi nodded at them and gasped in disbelief, leaning over the green summon creature's body and looking down onto the tiny buildings in the distance below.
"Well... apparently the young heir of the Perserios family and those who actually survived getting hexed did not believe us when we said that the rest of their family lives only temporarily."
Burushi breathed out and said, trembling in fear because of the height and the speed they were traveling at, but still managed to turn around and look at the black-haired boy.
"I even come up with a very simple to understand name for the spell you ended up using. Borrowed time sentinels. Unfortunately, after hearing the explanation going like that, Devios and the other living freaked out and called us traitors, accusing us of working for the Barbariacca nation."
Miriette added, nodding in confirmation to Burushi's earlier words while making Zoemi frown bitterly.
"That is certainly not a reaction I expected of them... well... as for Devios, in the end, he is just a kid who saw his father's dead body, just to get him back sort of alive soon after. Despite being smart and trying to act mature all the time, it seems that the fear of losing him again had thoroughly fogged his mind. As for the others... it might be that for them, refusing to believe the truth is the easiest way out of the guilt they are feeling after being unable to oppose the hexes. Either way – things just got more complicated for us."
Zoemi exchanged worried looks with the dark-haired girl who has lost her helmet somewhere along the way and spoke up about his idea of the explanation of the reason behind the actions of the Perserios family.
"Of course, there is a chance, quite big too, that besides Devios, who is protected by my sentinels, the other living did get hexed again, and this whole situation is the Barbariacca nation trying to salvage everything they can..."
Zoemi continued, biting his lips in concern.
"...he can really figure all of that out, but he can't see when someone is in love with him..."
Burushi spoke, but judging by how it was said, it was more of the message spell picking up on her thoughts rather than the blond girl genuinely trying to share her words with others.
"...tell me about it – did you know I tried to seduce him most of my life and he didn't think any of it because he thought that there was no way that I was in love with him?"
".I...! I didn't..!"
Still – it was shared and the dark-haired girl responded to it with a whole lot of annoyance in her voice, causing Burushi to flinch in shock and murmur in worry, glancing over at the black-haired boy.
"I understand my mistakes now, but this isn't the best moment to discuss it, okay?"
Zoemi blushed just a little bit, as he was reminded of all the situations where Miriette must have been genuinely trying to use her feminine charms against him just to be misunderstood for trusting him completely.
The more he recalled, the more embarrassed he got – but their current predicament certainly wasn't the right time for taking apart everything that happened between the two of them in the past.
"Hmph. Yes, it is not. Any ideas on what should our next move here be? A head-on attack on the Barbariacca troops in order to wipe them all out sounds like a plan."
"Fair point – with no one in the area being able to use hex, things might get easier to deal with."
Miriette scoffed, slightly angry at getting shrugged off like that, and Burushi agreed with her rather a sinister idea.
Considering her past experiences, that wasn't even surprising.
"About the Barbariacca troops within the Perserios territory..."
"..."
Xeonith finally took the courage to speak up, which caused Burushi to immediately tense up and turn her back on him.
"What about them?"
It was Miriette who looked over and asked the brown-haired corpse puppet.
"They very well might be under the hex themselves – this whole plan sounds like a no-return mission, and there might be a chance that the ones smart enough to realize that could be under the hex."
Zoemi spoke up for Xeonith who lost all of his courage under the glare of the extremely dark green eyes.
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