Chapter 164 Part C

  After breakfast…

  I was going to find the restroom when it happened.

  There was a sharp pain filled sensation in my back. Turning quickly I find my magic runic shielding has completely colpsed. I dodged to the right, and then realize I’m bleeding by some kind of sneak attack with a dagger. I felt lightheaded but hurriedly got my runic shielding buff back up and then spammed heal and cure poison/disease like ten times each just to be safe because it scared the shit out of me.

  !!!

  That was an assassin sneak attack!

  WOW!

  The figure ran off in the dark some time ago, gone before I even knew what happened.

  I find myself on the floor sweating like crazy. I feel sort of weak, and the floor here seems to be trying to pull me down. Oh wait, that’s just feeling weak huh?

  I’m alive?!

  Yeah…I am.

  I risk a few more heal, regenerate, and other basic spells just to be safe. My physical stamina still seems not good right now. Actually I’m damn lucky to be alive. Whatever that was killed my runic shielding in one quick strike that was so well done I barely noticed after it was too te.

  But who was it?

  A dwarf? Or something else?

  Hmm as I think about it, I go over it in my mind. I only felt this shadow moving behind me. It might not be a dwarf at all, and might be tall or short.

  But who?

  He probably thinks I’m dying.

  I’m almost afraid to check, but the cloaked and hooded figure is already gone. I have to heal myself again, since there’s some residual effect leftover, probably some poison that didn’t quite all clear yet even though I’d gone through all kinds of heal spell spam right after.

  Did someone just try to assassinate me?

  I think they did.

  Wait, I’m going through one of those mental moments like, ‘that couldn’t happen to me right?’ denial phases. Like when people think it can only happen to someone else.

  Whoever it was they sucked. And my money is still here because I keep almost everything in the magic inventory box that thieves can’t get into. I do think that person did try to pick pocket me though.

  As I think about it, they were very good. In fact this was top notch. They just didn’t expect me to always be wearing my runic shielding spell buff.

  Wait…are Sunghee and Rina OK? What if they are targeted too?!

  FUCK! I have to make sure they are safe too!

  I ran out back to where they were but they are fine. My heartbeat calmed down about three notches once I see they are safe.

  I tell Gyle and the girls.

  They help me track through what happened but there’s no sign of who it was. Only Sunghee and Rina are trying to stick to me like cement now to make sure I’m safe but Gyle wants to go home early.

  For now we’re going to find some money opportunities and visit some shops. But we’re more guarded than ever now. Rina and Sunghee are hanging onto me like I’m the st man on the pnet and very worried.

  The girls decide that miniskirts are impractical.

  I almost cried. I liked super short hot miniskirts but that darned assassin is making them think more practical now.

  I liked seeing them in short miniskirts but they suggested maybe pants might be better while in dungeons and around town. I think Gyle was saddened too. We both wanted to weep but they are right.

  New expense; trousers… 20 silver each, one for Sunghee and one for Rina because this is nicer stuff and quality clothing with something in it that makes it extremely durable special clothes. Otherwise it would have probably been in the 3 to 4 silver each range.

  I just lost 40 silver total…

  (-40 silver)

  But I will make a comeback in trying to create and think up excuses for them to wear the miniskirts or less as much as possible. I still have the summon equipment box spell ability too so there are a lot of fun options to try out. I can even py dress up with Sunghee and Rina if I want. Actually they do want that.

  Gyle is checking the job board while the girls are going through the street shops. Each area is pretty interesting as we look around. There are all kinds of different styles avaible.

  It gives me some ideas.

  Dwarven trousers aren’t bad though I had to admit. There are even some styles that look good. Rina and Sunghee both look great in just about anything really.

  What has us on edge though is what’s going on around us. The army hasn’t called in any adventurer’s for jobs. They still are putting people in the dungeon?

  What will happen there? What’s going on? We’re perplexed as we try to figure out a pattern to what’s going on with the adventurer’s guild job board. We ended up going over there to chat with them briefly.

  “Is that weird?” I asked the adventurers’ guild receptionist as we expined our concerns.

  She shrugged, “right now the orc and goblin armies have no way of getting in the stronghold yet and the walls are high and strong, being over ten feet thick on the more critical points. So don’t worry but be prepared. Most likely the military has something pnned but doesn’t want to reveal their cards yet till they are ready.” She said it like it’s an everyday thing. I guess dwarves see this their whole lives.

  “So it’s a waiting game? What will happen?” I asked.

  Gyle is listening to. Doesn’t he already have an idea how this is supposed to work?

  We keep worrying about it.

  “Don’t look at me. Not even the locals know the military strategy. The whole point is to make it so its unpredictable or else the enemy will figure it out,” he said.

  “For once I agree with Gyle on this,” Sunghee said to confirm.

  “Hmm…but we still don’t know,” Rina said.

  The receptionist was more helpful. “It’s best to just stay ready for anything. The orcs seem to have camped outside and they could try to siege the wall but they likely can’t do much yet. The military still wants adventurer’s going into the dungeon for food runs. Whenever there’s a siege, food storage and food preservation are as important as the fight between the soldiers.”

  “I guess that’s right,” Sunghee admitted.

  “I’m not sure what kind of job to pick yet,” Sunghee said looking at me.

  “I’ll pick it,” Gyle offered.

  “No way!” Rina and Sunghee said too quickly wrecking his self esteem.

  Actually it was right that they blocked him. He’d probably pick something suicidal, blinded by the gold rewards. That guy still thinks I’m some kind of money tree.

  “No, let me think about it. I need to do the choosing based on what we can do, not what we want,” I said.

  He frowned.

  “Shun?” a male voice called out to me.

  I ignore it. I don’t know them. Probably some sales person.

  We keep looking at the jobs.

  Then I feel spears poking at my runic shielding. Not like a bad amount of stabbing but of like poking someone aggressively and being a jerk to get their attention.

  Probing magic...of some kind.

  I turned around, not liking this immediately. “Huh?”

  As we turned I see a whole squad of clergyman with shields and spears facing us as if to make an attack.

  “What the hell is this?” Sunghee said fiercely.

  “That’s no way to greet someone,” I said pushing away the spear points.

  “Is this a robbery?” Gyle asked holding his hands up.

  “Help we’re being robbed!” Rina cried out.

  Instantly everyone in the pza is looking at them. Gyle keeps acting like it’s a robbery, and it’s giving them negative attention and annoying these guys. But they aren’t robbers I think…

  Clergyman too? In robes?

  Wait, these might not be robbers? But they look pretty shady still.

  What the fuck is going on?

  “Hold still, no sudden moves,” one of the soldiers commands. The others with him echo something simir.

  “Shun, the mage, hold still and stop!” a suspicious looking guy is staring at us while he commands the twenty or so guys that have surrounded us and are threatening to kill us. He also has like four city guard people with him that are also armed and ready to stab us.

  Weird there are dwarven city guardsmen with him too. They even have Sunghee and Rina at spear point which makes me mad. And they look extremely well armed. There’s no mistaking they have armor which marks them as some kind of government or state faction of one kind or another but I don’t know which. But most of this guys group are actually humans, so it’s a mix of two different government factions I think.

  I almost tripped as I slid against the wall trying to not be stabbed.

  What do I do? Am I being arrested?!

  There’s too many people here to fight them. And it’s in the city where we were supposed to be safe.

  “Don’t say anything,” Sunghee said to Rina and Gyle.

  “What? What’s going on here?” I asked.

  It would complicate our stay in this city if we kill them. But what’s going on?

  “Shun, you are to hold your position and be ready for testing,” one of the city guard members said.

  ?

  Testing? What the hell kind of testing?!

  …

  “Testing?” I asked.

  All of us are totally nervous and while trying to keep a straight face Sunghee and Rina do look armed still.

  “Um…this isn’t…” Rina started to try to make an excuse but was cut off.

  “Shut up! Don’t move! If you even breathe wrong we’ll skewer you!” one of the fancy guards said. They look like some kind of clergy royal guards or something. And they are highly trained. I didn’t want to be stabbed so I pyed dumb while counting only three directions to run to if it goes south. These guys look totally unhinged actually.

  We are all standing around wondering what’s going on.

  “Are we under arrest?” Gyle asked.

  “Yes, under suspicion of being demons,” The clergyman said calmly.

  “The fuck?! We aren’t demons,” Rina shouted at him. Gyle also shouted too until they were both punched hard.

  I sort of want to kill them for punching Rina. She’s quiet and sort of hunched over.

  We’re also attracting tons of attention. Everyone around us like pointing and staring and a lot of people are mad and starting to talk and murmur. I didn’t know I’d gotten a bit popur. Now people are shouting stuff and telling the clergy to fuck off. But the near riot conditions are making everyone more nervous. The guys holding spears on us are getting edgy. I’m worried if they get scared that they’ll just stab us.

  In seconds the situation escated enormously. The crowd is getting mad but there are more guards showing up. But the other city guards showing up start to back the clergy guys, which aren’t even dwarves anyway so I don’t get this at all.

  And the spears they are carrying smell of magic. Some kind of probably an anti demon enchant and weapon damage increase I suspect. Will they also have something that hurts mages, I wonder.

  “I’m innocent,” I said.

  “We’re innocent,” Sunghee said while holding her hands up.

  The clergyman keeps leering at Sunghee and Rina up and down staring at their curves. “Yeah we’ll see about that.”

  Uh oh, that’s not good. I’m more worried now that he’s ogling the women. I try to remain calm and not do anything suspicious.

  His leer alone told me all I needed to know.

  “What’s going on here?” A couple more dwarven city guard members come by. Now there are like twenty of the human clergy faction spearman guys and six dwarven city guards. But the city gaurds people aren’t stopping the clergyman. Instead they are helping them, but the people around us are still pissed.

  I guess demon testing is an accepted practice? Or is it?

  Many of them recognize Sunghee and I as having saved the city a few days ago. They are a bit surprised that we’re being held up.

  “These guys are the ‘Church of Gaia’,” Sunghee whispered to me.

  Shit. Oh fuck. I’d been hearing about these guys ever since I came to this world. When she said it my blood ran cold.

  How did they find us? How did they know? Did they have a way to track people?

  “So you intend to do the standard test?” the head city guard guy asked the clergyman.

  “Yeah pretty much. This shouldn’t take long. We can do it right here. If they are demons then we gut them and run them through with an instant execution,” he said.

  I hope this isn’t like the witch tests in Europe in the 1700s…that would be awful.

  He’s still leering at Sunghee and Rina though, mostly Sunghee. It’s obvious he’s a pervert and will do something with them if given a chance.

  My mind is numb as I’m trying to think about what to do. But we’re totally surrounded by guards.

  “Just stay chill. They can’t do anything to us if we’re not demons,” Gyle said.

  That’s easy for him to say. He doesn’t have that worry. I’m not even sure what I am but I’m more worried about Sunghee now.

  The clergyman approached us. “Which one of you is the leader?” he said as he put his spectacles over his nose. He’s also pulled out something that looks like scriptures. But It’s probably actually a spell book because I can smell magic coming from it.

  “That would be me,” Sunghee said.

  …

  He frowned. “Not the young man here?” he asked me.

  Suddenly I realize I have a huge advantage. It was right to mask my party under Sunghee as a false leader. And because of Rina having done the gene changer with Asakura, she looks like she’s about 22 years old now. And Sunghee was older already but still like looking low twenties something, while Gyle looks almost old enough to be my dad.

  In short, I look like the small fry here, even though they may have information that I’m some kind of mage.

  Especially as a ‘support mage’ I would be seen as a small fry kind of person here!

  “What do you want us to do boss?” the grunts confirm with their leader.

  Sure enough they lined us up. “OK, test the leader first,” The city guards decided after working it out with the clergyman.

  “Which one is the leader?” the soldiers asked while we’re quiet as mice.

  “Check their paperwork to see. Go by the paperwork,” the lead guy said.

  They are ruffling through our documents that the dwarves gave us for immigration now roughly. “The seals and stamps look legit sir,” one of them said. But he’s frowning when he says it. It looks like these guys really want to get us even if we were human?

  Wait, maybe I’m wrong…

  I can feel my pulse sky rocket.

  “I can do this in order of leadership, and then we’ll go with seniority,” the clergyman responded.

  “Good, I like that. Stick to procedures and no funny business,” the dwarven city guard said nervously.

  “Can we put our hands down? I’m tired,” Rina compined.

  “Fine but just you, not the mage!” the city guard said.

  “No, keep ‘em up,” the clergyman creepy old guy countered.

  The city guard guy shrugged. “Fine!”

  “So are you ready?” the clergyman asked.

  He pulled out a knife.

  Why’s he need a knife for this? His eyes look bck and evil full of hate while he’s smiling at us like he just won the lottery.

  “Whoah, wait a sec. The knife isn’t necessary, we’re doing standard government approved tests only. None of that shitty ritual garbage. We won’t tolerate any of that trashy ritual stabbing bullshit you do in human nds,” The dwarven city guards countered. They look at the clergyman nervously.

  The clergyman looks innocent. “Oh I’m not doing any stabbing; we just have to remove their clothes. It’s necessary for the spell to work. I need skin to skin contact.” He moves towards Sunghee’s shirt.

  “No way!” the dwarven guard said.

  “OH? You know this is part of the treaty you signed to avoid war with us. The treaty of Esparath, twelve years ago. Demon testing and inspections are part of the treaty,” the lead clergy guy said.

  “Yeah, we’re quite aware of that. But we won’t have any sexual sadist and molestation crap here. I don’t understand why your human poputions aren’t up in arms all the time if that’s how you govern them with ‘the w’. Hell if the test was like that I’d be testing all the hot females in this city!” the guard shoots back at him verbally.

  The other dwarves didn’t ugh though and are angry with him.

  Unexpectedly I’m gaining a lot of respect for these dwarves. They really don’t tolerate any bull shit.

  They are arguing for a few minutes, but it looks like the dwarven guards aren’t going to save us like we’d hoped. They won’t interfere with the test but just don’t want the test to have foul py. They just don’t want women being molested or raped, but killing them is just fine it seems.

  Go figure…

  We end up holding our breath.

  The city guard leader stepped in front of him. “Wait. I’m telling you that sort of test is not regution.”

  “You fucking pervert!” some of the crowd is getting mad.

  Others shout stuff right after. Then someone throws a rock. And just like that people are acting out. Other rocks follow, but not to the point of a full riot yet.

  The city guard is now scared of a riot. People are still getting riled up. They can smell the pervy clergyman’s true motive while he leers at Sunghee.

  “The w only allows you to conduct testing as approved by the dwarven nation standards. There will be no disrobing of clothing or torture. Torture is only allowed if and only if its already proven that a subject is already gulty and not before, though killing is approved if the person fails the test. And beheading is mandatory in the case of testing positive, as well as further death verification tests by drowning, acid, and more burning after that,” the city guard said.

  “Fine,” the clergyman looks disappointed.

  I can’t help but be stressed out though.

  How did these guys find us? What signaled them to us?

  Fuck…beheading? I can’t heal that either…nobody can heal that. Not even the famous but now extinct Dragon Saint Monk Society group could heal that.

  Actually I’d been wanting to ask more about those, but I’d been so distracted by just staying alive. This morning during rigorous sex with Sunghee she’d been telling me about them. They were a group that disappeared but that had healing abilities.

  It takes another fifteen minutes of arguing between angry town’s people, the city guard, and the Church of Gaia people before the clergyman gives up on the idea of needing the girls topless for a test.

  The crowd is getting riled up.

  While doing so the girls and I stay silent while we sweat.

  “Name please,” The clergyman asked again.