~ Chapter 133: A moment of hesitation ~

[Ayuseya’s point of view]

In the end, we rushed to Entalon Town in the hope of avoiding a bad weather that never came in the hope of resting in a good inn, but we were forced by these unforeseen circumstances to camp outside with the refugees instead.

At the crack of dawn, we gathered camp and prepared to leave. As the carriage was set in motion, I looked out the window at the spot by the road where the family of three used to sit. In their place a new group was in the middle of installing themselves there. This time it was a family of four.

If I want to help them all, I must solve the problem at its roots... I thought and then leaned back in my seat.

I found myself to be neither indebted nor troubled by this decision of mine. Although I wasn’t a Pleyades anymore, as a Deus, there were many things I could do, but offering asylum to each and every poor beggar out there would have led Illsyorea to a complete ruin. Introducing our values and principles, our way of life, had to be done carefully over the course of a long period of time. Only fools rushed ahead.

“We’ll go around Entalon since there’s no other way. After that we’ll go to Rank Village. Princess, I do hope you won’t try to play the hero again.” Green announced our path, but the last line was told in a whisper so that it wouldn’t reach the others.

“Just drive, Mister Green. Just drive.” I replied in a calm tone of voice as I took out one of my books and began to read.

The title was ‘Trials in the Aura Capital’. It was what Illsy referred to as a soppy detective romance story, but I liked it. The conflicts portrayed by the characters, while exaggerated, they were funny to imagine.

The book kept me company for a couple of hours until I got bored, then I switched to the work I had to complete for the next year on Illsyorea. There was a tone of paperwork to be done, and we had yet to receive the approval of several of the most notable teaching institutions out there. Getting their recognition was probably next to impossible at this stage, but just because we were trying every year was enough to pump up their egos to unprecedented levels and keep us in their minds.

Nanya once told me that the former Headmaster of the Fellyore Magic Academy had encountered similar problems. That was probably one of the reasons why I was also advised of going to another institution rather than there.

Even now I still ponder about why I chose Fellyore exactly and not some other unknown Magic Academy. What exactly had drawn me to Illsy in such a fashion that from certain points of view, I would even consider it ridiculous?

While the previously unstable border relationships between the Sorone Continent and Thorya Continent could have been seen as proof, right now, I did not feel the same way. No, there was something about Fellyore that drew me there, but as of yet, I had no idea what. It was... mysterious in a matter of speaking.

Tamara once joked about the fact that maybe a god was interested in our fates and chose to influence our paths, but while her words made me think of it as a possibility, the fact that at that time she was stuffing her face with fish made me reconsider.

“We can’t go any farther. We’ll camp out here for the night.” announced Red.

“Good. Then I’m going to go out for a walk.” I said as I got out of the carriage.

“A walk? At this late hour?” Red tried to stop me by stepping me in front of me and looking at me with a questionable look in his eyes.

“Yes, a walk. Do you really think there’s anyone out here who can be a threat to me? Or rather, let me put it in another way. IF there is something out here that’s a threat to me, all of you are as good as dead.” I replied with a smile.

He looked into my eyes for a long moment, but ultimately, he gave up without a fight.

“Just... don’t get lost.” he said as he stepped aside.

“I won’t, don’t worry.” I replied and then jumped into the air.

Just as I did back when I had a race with Illsy on the other side of the Guardian Crest Mountain in the Paramanium Empire, this time too I ran across the tips of the tall trees. Aided by wind magic, I pushed myself forward while making sure I did not destroy the trees. Each step was as light as a feather, but I was traveling at a speed no carriage could achieve. In but a few moments, I was running at over 200 km/h, then, when I increased my stride, I surpassed 300 km/h and instead of using the treetops, I used air platforms I created with my magic. Each step pushed me farther and farther from the carriage until I was running at subsonic speed. At supersonic speeds, the chances of me destroying the trees around me was higher, and I was also a lot noisier with each of my steps.

My current speed, by my estimates, was at around 1015 km/h, just 220 km/h under the speed of sound.

If not for my magic and Illsy enchanting my clothes, I would have been running naked at this speed while causing craters everywhere and destroying everything I stepped on. A single turn of my head would have also been enough to cause me to crash.

I ran like this until I reached the Black Tooth Ridge Mountains and climbed all the way to its highest peak. The whole journey was fairly quick for me, just a little under an hour. It took me longer to climb the mountain than to reach the base of it.

I stopped on the very edge of a cliff and looked towards the other side, on the land protected by this natural barrier.

It was a sight that brought a great deal of emotion to my heart, and as I placed my hand over my chest, I could feel my tears rolling down my cheeks. This kingdom was not one I was too fond of, but at one time, I believed it was one of the greatest. I loved the people of this kingdom, my mother, who raised me the best she could, my siblings whom I had always treated so dear to me, and the servants who did their best to make sure there was nothing missing from my life.

Yet, right now, when I looked down upon this land, there was no spec of joy in my heart, only pain and sadness. All that I had loved and thought as precious to me, except for the few servants who remained loyal to me, all of it was a lie made so that I would not garner any suspicion towards what they had really planned for me and my future child.

I saw the reality of things for the first time back when the Elders explained the perverted nature of the Ball and then forced me to choose either between it or Dankyun. Then, little by little, the illusion that I had been surrounded with ever since I was born began to shatter like a dome of glass. Mother’s letter which begged me to offer my firstborn as a sacrifice was the final drop.

Yet, thanks to my friends and lover, I had grown and become someone far more powerful than either the Council of Elders or my very own mother could have ever imagined. Neither spell nor brute force was going to force me to submit to their will, but if they chose to cast either at me to make me stay in this rotten land, then by all means I was prepared to return the favor in the same manner.

“It won’t be long now before I will return to the Pleyades Palace. How will they treat me then, I wonder?” I thought and then shook my head.

The answer was obvious.

They were going to act as fools, but even though I knew this, I could not afford to let the other kingdoms across the world know that the Deus family was intent on talking with their fists first rather than adopt a diplomatic solution.

When they will bare their fangs and claws at me, I will be ready, but I won’t be the one to strike first. No, that shame shall be theirs. Illsyorea will never be known as a country that adopts violence instead of peace as long as the Deus family has something to say about it! I thought and then clenched my fist.

Standing here, whipped by the cold winds of the Black Tooth Ridge Mountains, I once more tested my resolve of acting upon diplomacy and not violence.

After I had enough of this sight, I returned to the camp. My journey this time took a bit longer because I traveled at half the speed as before. When I reached the site, I landed in the middle of the road at a decent distance away, then I made my approach on foot.

Above me, rumbling thunders announced the approach of a storm.

That night, it rained for several hours and stopped sometime close to the break of dawn. I woke at the same time as I did yesterday and had a quick breakfast from the stock I had received from Tamara. We packed camp in a hurry and then left for Rank Village.

The terrain was a bit muddy and difficult to traverse, but with these three Supremes, there was no need to worry about having our carriage get stuck somewhere on the road. We arrived at the small settlement sometime around noon, but we stopped at the entrance, which I found to be rather odd.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“There’s something happening up ahead. I think a peasant got in trouble with the nobles again.” replied Green.

“Why do you think so?” I questioned him as I got out.

My Magic Barrier prevented the mud from clinging to my shoes. A fine control was needed in order to achieve something like this, but I was certain these Supremes could do it as well. None of them appeared to have suffered because of the mud.

“It’s tax season, and a lot of them pay with whatever means necessary when they can’t cough up the coin.” Green replied and then shrugged.

“What means are you talking about?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

“In this case, it might be a woman.” he replied.

When he said this, I looked at the commotion that was blocking the road. There, at the entrance to the village were a lot of draconians gathered near a beautiful carriage decorated with silver and guarded by some tough-looking individuals.

The noble was most likely the well-dressed individual in front of a begging old draconian, who was on his knees and had a stream of tears running down his cheeks.

“I beg of you, your lordship, don’t take away my daughter!” he pleaded.

“Then do you have enough coins to pay the taxes?” he asked in a strict tone of voice.

“No, Milord, but... this year, the harvest...” he tried to reason.

“You are the Village Chief of this village and yet you failed to provide me with the required taxes! Don’t you know that if your village cannot pay the taxes, I’m free to take whatever I think is of worth from you? With this virgin woman, your debt will be paid!” he declared.

“You can’t, Milord. She’s to be wed at the coming of the next harvest! She’s my only child, if you take her from me, then I...” the old man tried to reason.

“Foolishness! You dare defy my orders?! Should I make an example out of you?” the noble asked.

“Please, Milord. I beg you, don’t harm my father!” the woman who was being held by one of the noble’s bodyguards tried to fight back, but she was too weak when compared to him.

“N-No, Milord, I... I was just saying that... Please, I beg you! Do not take my daughter away! Anything but her, Milord!” he bowed his head until his forehead touched the mud.

His eyes and cheeks were wet with his tears that did not seem to stop. This old man knew quite well that if he allowed his daughter to be taken away, then there was a high chance he would never get to see her again.

At that moment, before the eyes of everyone there, the noble unsheathed his sword and aimed its blade at the begging old draconian.

If I wanted to act, I could only do so in that moment, but I didn’t. I kept my feet rooted to the ground even if I wanted to march towards him and rip his head off.

I was Deus, not a Pleyades. My authority in the Teslov Kingdom was limited at best and certainly not enough to save this village from the wrath of this noble. Paying the taxes instead would have only granted them a small pardon at best. This noble’s madness would not have ceased and judging by the expressions on the faces of some of the villagers, it looked as though such a sight had become somewhat common.

“FATHER!!!” the woman shouted as she saw the old man’s head rolling in the mud.

“Hmph! Such foolishness to think you can go against me!” he declared and then wiped the blood off his sword with a piece of cloth he had in his pocket.

The noble’s eyes met mine, and at that moment, I was trying very hard to show an emotionless expression, but maybe the hate and disgust towards him that emanated from my aura couldn’t be hidden that easily.

“Who might you be? Did you pay your taxes?” he demanded to know as he pointed his sword at me.

The draconian woman who was crying after her now deceased father was dragged to the carriage while she was still in a state of shock. Some of the villagers were looking away from the dead body and no one was looking at the poor woman.

As for me, I did not answer.

“I asked you a question! I demand you to answer!” he shouted.

I remained quiet and just looked into his eyes, taunting him.

While my authority in this kingdom was limited thanks to my allegiance with Illsyore, that only meant that my options of acting out against the authorities here were rather limited. If this bastard of a noble dared to so much as even lay a finger on me, I was going to kill him... slowly.

“I apologize for her, Milord, but she’s an important guest of the King.” said Red as he stepped between us.

This draconian must have sensed my bloodlust. I thought while regretting that he intervened.

“His Majesty? And whom she might be?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

“She is Princess Ayuseya Pleyades.” he replied, and as soon as I heard that family name, I glared daggers into his back.

“Pleyades? Ah! She must be the older sister of Vellezya!” he said with a big smile on his face.

He knows my younger sister? I thought as I furrowed my brow.

“Oh, yes! I met that lovely draconian woman last year! The Ball I attended with her was wonderful! She served all of us well until she fainted!” he laughed.

This man... he... I thought and unknowingly released some of my pressure.

The man’s laughter stopped, but I did not.

Uncontrollable release of Magic Energy from one’s Magic Armor could be quite intimidating, resulting in bolts of energy similar to lightnings flying around, the ground at my feet rising up, defying gravity itself, and there was also a physical pressure that those around me could feel.

“W-What’s happening?” the noble asked.

Red stepped aside, knowing full well that he couldn’t stop me even if he tried. All he and his friends could do was to watch and not intervene.

“I’m just going to tell you once. If I see you on Illsyorea, I will kill you by ripping your spine right out of your body and then feeding it to you one vertebra at a time. Right now, just consider yourself lucky that I’m here more on a diplomatic mission, otherwise, I would have done that to you right now. Oh, and my name isn’t Pleyades, it’s Deus.” I replied and then glared at him, releasing all of that bloodlust and pressure at him.

Technically speaking, I didn’t physically attack him nor verbally assaulted him, but he still felt this ‘attack’ like an anvil to the face. He dropped on his back, trembling from all of his joints and even soiled himself.

I watched him trembling like that for a good long moment before I decided to free him from my pressure.

Afterwards, I returned to the carriage while holding a calm expression on my face.

“Let us depart. I want to reach the capital as soon as possible.” I declared in a swift and sharp tone of voice.

As we traveled on the muddy road towards the Sharp Talon Gatetown, I began to think back at what happened in Rank Village. I could not help but wonder if my moment of hesitation in regard to maintaining the diplomatic appearance was really worth that draconian’s life.

For this matter was supposed to be one of simple logic. The one who killed the innocent was a noble and the one who died was his subject. I was not a part of this kingdom anymore, therefore, all abiding laws here didn’t necessarily apply to me, but I also didn’t have the right to intervene with their decisions here. They acted abiding by their own laws and no matter how cruel or inhuman they appeared to me, I could not allow myself to act based upon the laws and principles I had cultivated over the years together with Illsy.

I wonder what the others would have done in my stead? I asked myself this and then I closed my eyes and began to imagine this strange sequence of events.

Out of them all, Tamara would probably be the only one to stop that man’s blade just as it was about to chop off that man’s head. She would have saved him and then ask him if he had any fish. She would not have cared about the noble, but if he attempted to stand in her way or threaten her in any manner, she would show no mercy.

On a more serious matter, she would not have seen the use of me holding my disguise as a weak trembling little draconian princess who required the escort of three powerful Supremes to reach the capital safety. My charade at this point could still be considered to be ongoing since the noble would definitely not be able to raise suspicions about me at the capital. We would also reach it long before he could, and it was my word against his.

Shanteya, on the other hand, would have just appeared behind the noble’s back right before he lowered his sword. With a dagger against the man’s throat, the el’doraw would have offered him only two choices: to drop his weapon or learn to breathe through the new hole she was about to carve out for him.

Ruthless and elegant, cunning and loyal, a stealth expert who could kill you before you knew she was there. These were the ways to describe her best. My diplomatic tactic held little meaning to her unless it somehow helped with her end goal.

Nanya was someone who didn’t seem to mind the man killing the peasant. She probably wouldn’t have acted based on the same thoughts I did: the noble was the law, and I was on his territory.

However, if she really wanted to try and save him, she would have just stopped his sword with her bare hands and then bent his weapon into a boomerang. She would have ignored his whimsical complaints and then pretend to go and look somewhere else for something else. She would have played the fool until the noble assaulted her, then she would have killed him with her claws.

For Zoreya, this act of brutality also fell under the same diplomatic problem I was facing with, but instead of killing or taunting the noble to attack her, she would have calmly declared that what he just did was not seen with good eyes by the gods, especially Melkuth. While her position as his High Apostle kept her from acting rashly, she would not have hesitated to use it in her defense if he dared to act brashly against her. Although, the noble would have undoubtedly survived this encounter.

Lastly, Illsy, my husband whom I loved so very much. While he was the type to never ignore slavery, abuse, and acts of barbarism and brutality against the innocent in general, he was also the one whose wrath one wouldn’t wish to pull towards them.

If I were to guess what he would have done in that situation, then he would have saved the man, most likely with his [Telekinezy] spell. It was simple, undetectable, and he could have continued to play the fool while the nobleman struggled against an invisible force.

His way of solving this matter would have been to simply persuade the noble either through gold or force that there was no need to take either the woman or kill the old man. He would have paid for the missing gold if it was within reasonable amount, but he would not have tried to tend to the whole village afterwards. There was nothing here to persuade him to do such a thing.

As much as Illsy had the soul of a human inside him, his body was still that of a Dungeon, and as such, his way of viewing the world around us was far different from anyone else.

At time, I thought of Illsy more as something divine rather than a mere mortal. Sometimes a fool who forgot about the most obvious of things like using his own abilities in a moment of crisis, sometimes dancing to the rhythm and enjoying the moment with a smile on his face, other times ignoring all the rules and statements declared by all those around him and following only what he truly believed to be right.

After all these years, it was still impossible for me to think or believe that I knew my husband well enough for me to claim that he had nothing to hide. There were as many things unknown about him as there were stars on the midnight sky.