- Akeno Himejima -
"Everyone has packed everything?" Mari asked, even as she checked the preparations herself.
"Yes. It's the third time we have checked everything. We are ready."
"Have all the kids eaten? Does anyone need to go to the toilet?" She asked, looking at the kids.
Some of them, while embarrassed, still nodded. Akeno smiled as she looked at her going over each kid as if a motherhen.
Leaving them alone, she walked to Arthur.
"Any movements from their side?" She asked.
"None. Their main team left the city two days ago for some kind of hunting trip. This is the best opportunity for us to leave without any drama."
"Hmm." She nodded too.
They had been on edge since knowing of the plans of their opponents, not so much about themselves but rather for the safety and the lives of the kids.
If they had to leave, they could have easily slipped out during some night without being detected. But that would mean that the Black Fiends would become the group in control of the town, and every kid they were supporting would fall under their rule, and that… was a disturbing thought to say the least.
"Alright everyone! We are ready. Everyone, get into the carriages." Mari shouted and clapped her hands, getting their attention. She looked around and saw that the escorts of the Knight's Academy had arrived there.
The kids gathered and were guided by other members of the team into carriages one by one, and each of their team members got into one of the carriages, with the Knights being the ones driving.
With one last look towards the town, their group left the town, which had been their home for the last few months. She would be lying if she said that she didn't feel a twinge of sadness however minute when leaving the town. After all, this was the town where she had met all her new friends.
Mari, Naotsugu, Akatsuki, and even Arthur and all the kids they were supporting here.
Hopefully, Stratholme would be a better place for them.
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They travelled for a day from their town. Having left the place at dawn, they had only stopped twice in between to feed the kids and then finally at night to camp.
Once the camp was ready, their team got to prepare food for the group.
The Knights had brought their own rations, but no one rejected good food.
Everyone sat eating and had a great time, singing and dancing around the campfire.
The kids looked happy. They had been under too much stress due to their circumstances. Looking at their scared looks and tensed demeanours reminded Akeno of her own past when she was on the run from the Himejima Clan members.
Looking at everyone with an eye of doubt, not knowing when someone would turn around and hurt you, when a hand that was helping you would suddenly become a hand strangling you instead.
The worst part was that she didn't have any power to retaliate either.
It wasn't until she had met Rias, who had saved her from the relentless mad pursuit of the Himejima Clan and given her a safe place to live, that she had finally started to relax. Even then, it had taken her a considerable time to open up to them, what with them being Devils and her carrying the blood of that man… one of the biggest enemies of the devil race.
When she had gotten trapped in the game, she had almost relapsed into the same thoughts and had almost closed herself off again after she realised that there was no help coming.
But this time, unlike before, she had people waiting for her.
Rias, Koneko, and Gasper were also in the same situation as her.
She desperately hoped that Kiba didn't enter the game, as he wasn't there when they were going in, having gone out to do a contract of his.
The time she spent in this game... it had forced her to confront the issues she had been rejecting to face all these years since it reminded her of things she didn't want to remember.
And when she did that, she realised that she still hated her father… but not for the reason she had thought of before. She wasn't angry and hated him for not saving her mother or blamed him that much for it.
When thinking carefully, it wasn't really his fault that he wasn't at home. He wasn't omnipotent or omniscient. There was no way he could have known that there was an attack going to happen at their home and that her mother would die in that. It just wasn't in their control. She hated the ones who had killed her mother for that.
No… what she hated was the fact that he had let her wander around for months, running from Himejima, not once trying to find her.
As for him not being able to do so... that was unthinkable. After all, even the Himejima were able to track her so easily, so the strongest cadre of the Grigori not being able to do so was just utterly dumb.
The thing about hating her fallen angel blood was something said by the people who had killed her mother and initially she had rejected all those thoughts… but the months spent on the run with no help had caused her helplessness and anger to be diverted towards her father and her fallen angel bloodline instead.
It didn't help when she later found out that the Fallen Angels were working together with the Five Principal Clans to stop their chased-out members from taking their revenge.
Why?
Why were they helping the people who had killed her mother while hunting the people who were probably in a situation similar to her mother?
Did they even care about her mother's death?
Did they even care about her suffering during that time?
All that resentment became more solidified. The words of her mother's killers seemed true now.
Fallen Angels were traitors.
They had betrayed their creator.
They had betrayed her mother, and… they had betrayed her.
These thoughts gathered together to form her hatred and disgust towards her Fallen Angel heritage.
It was only through the support of the Gremorys and her friends that she had been able to push those thoughts to the back of her head.
But then Arthur comes in and tells her that he... wanted to enter the game to protect her?
She had obviously scoffed at the words. Why would he do something like that? Why would he do something like that now when he didn't do anything all those years ago when she truly needed him?
Her thoughts were broken by a hand on her shoulder. "Akeno-san, are you alright?" Akatsuki-chan asked.
"Yes?"
"Are you alright? We have been calling you several times, but you didn't respond."
"Oh yes. I was just thinking about something. What is it?"
"Nothing, just asking if you wanted more servings." She asked, showing her the pot of food in her hands.
"Oh no. I am full already. Thank you."
"Alright."
They completed their meal, and it was finally time to rest for the day.
The children were assigned the tents in the middle of the camp while their own group and the knights took the tents around them so that the kids were all safe in the middle. Finally, the carriages were arranged in such a way that it formed a makeshift boundary around their tent area.
It was understandable, as she had found out while researching that the area they were passing through was a bit dangerous with several bandit sightings. Keeping their guard up was necessary.
For this, they decided on the division of the night watch.
The Knights had decided to keep the first watch while their group could keep watch later on in the next round.
With everything decided, she entered the tent with Mari and Akatsuki-chan while Arthur and Naotsugu took the other tent for the guys.
The entire day of preparation and travel and her recent thoughts about the past had left her mentally exhausted, so it didn't take long for her to fall asleep.
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She was jolted awake by a loud shout from outside the tent.
"Enemy attack! Take positions. There is an enemy attack!" Came a loud shout, jolting all of them awake.
Her experience and training worked as she quickly equipped all her equipment and shot up to her feet.
"Akatsuki-chan, awaken Mari and prepare to fight." She commanded as she left the tent to check.
Outside, Arthur had already come out with Naotsugu still rubbing his eyes but already equipped in his armour.
"What's happening?" He asked, still looking a bit confused.
"There is an enemy attack. Prepare for defence. We need to keep the kids safe." She quickly ordered as they headed to the defence line behind the carriages, where the Knights were holding their positions, and looked towards the attackers.
In the distance, on several horsebacks were people. A quick count told her that they were around thrice their number. This alone gave Akeno a headache. But apparently that was not enough. It took her a second before she recognised the faces of some of the attackers, and her eyes widened in shock. "Black Fiends! They are the members of the Black Fiends group." She shouted quickly.
Wasn't their main team out when they left the town?
How did they find them?
Did those bastards really follow them all this way here?
"Not all members are from the Black Fiends." Akatsuki-chan, who had come to her side by then, said. Among the group, she was the only person with a scan-type skill. "Half of them are NPCs. Brawlers, Rogues, and Stalkers, and even some Knights."
"Knights?!" One of the Knights they had hired exclaimed. "That's impossible. Knights will never take part in something like this. Are you sure you checked them properly?"
Akatsuki-cha pointed directly towards the few Knights in the group. "Those people. Do you know them?"
The Knight in question looked closer, and suddenly one of their members had his eyes widen in surprise. "That's… I recognise that man. He is a Sword Knight under Viscount Falkner from the neighbouring town. What is he doing here?"
"Viscount Falkner?" Akeno asked, her mind quickly piecing things together.
She had heard that name when interrogating the people of Black Fiends they had captured before.
Viscount Falkner was the City Lord of the neighbouring town. He didn't have a very good reputation among the people. Rumours said that he was quite amorous, having over a dozen wives and frequenting the brothels of his town.
Now just this wouldn't have been enough for his bad reputation.
There were even some rumours about him actually being behind some shady businesses in the Black Market, but nothing was ever found. The man himself was well connected, being the son of a T7 guy, thus holding a considerable hold over the politics of the province. After all, there were only a very small number of T7 in the kingdom, and each one was a Trump Card of the Kingdom.
Due to this, he remained unchallenged.
The leader of the Black Fiends had discovered by some sources that the Viscount was a lascivious person and liked to collect beautiful girls as slaves. They were actually planning to sell Mari, Akatsuki-chan, and her as slaves to the guy so that they could earn his favour to get control over their town and become the only group of players in the town. If they did this, they could then keep the kids trapped and work them to craft items for them for free.
It was the main reason for her group leaving the town…
She had thought that those guys hadn't been in contact with the Viscount yet, but… now it seems that it was just their wishful thinking.
"Maybe it is a misunderstanding. This area is after all a bandit-infested area. Maybe they are just here to clear the bandits in the area. Let's try to talk and clarify it." One of the Knights in her group said. She wanted to argue but didn't. After all, there was a chance… although negligible, that he might be right.
The other Knights nodded, and the man in question stepped out of their protective barricade slowly with a hand above his head, holding the badge of the Knight's academy. "We are not bandits. We are from the Cloverwind Knights Academ…"
The man dodged to the side as an arrow came straight towards him, barely dodging. Another arrow followed it, this time actually hitting the Knight in the shoulder while he hurriedly backed away towards the carriages, where Naotsugu jumped out and blocked coming arrows while Arthur dragged him back behind the barricades.
The Sword knight, who was beside the leader of the Black Fiends, spoke then. "Don't use arrows or long-distance magic randomly. It could harm the goods. As for the Knights and the men, kill them all. We don't need any survivors among the men."
"Could you please leave the kids to us? That was the deal, remember?" The Leader of the Black Fiends interrupted, earning a short nod from the man.
"You traitor!" One of the Knights from her side shouted but didn't have any time as several people rushed towards them.
She too didn't hold back and started firing her best spells. Mari fired her arrows, but the number of enemies was just too much.
"You all, go back to the second line of defence." The lead Knight on this side instructed. "Gather the kids and find an opportunity to run away. We might not survive this, but at least someone needs to send this news out, or they will keep doing this kind of thing. That bastard Falkner has just crossed all lines this time. Go on. We will create an opening for you to run." He said to Akastuki-chan, Mari, and her.
"But!" Mari tried to argue, but Arthur interrupted her.
"He is not wrong. It doesn't look like all of us will be able to get away from here alive. Think about the kids."
She looked at the guy in surprise as she knew the reason he had entered the game... to save his sister, and now... "Arthur?"
He looked at her and then back towards the incoming crowd as he drew his sword. "If I run away today, leaving you all, especially these kids, to die... I would never be able to face my sister again. If you want to do anything, then please promise me that if you survive today, you will find my sister and help her get out of this game."
Akeno's words got stuck in her mouth. "I… I promi..."
However, before she could finish her words or Arthur could go out, something unexpected happened.
"Frost Nova!" A loud voice was heard, and she sensed a large amount of magic being invoked and looked towards the sky. Huge pieces of ice fell down upon the incoming attackers, freezing them in place.
She quickly turned in the direction from where she had felt the disturbance in magic to see two people in the distance.
Through the dark of the night, she was not able to recognise them. This, however, changed when they came closer.
One of them was a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She looked around the same age as Mari.
The other was an old man with a long silvery beard.
Both of them were dressed as magicians and had what looked like magic staves in their hands.
It was the lead knight protecting them who had been injured who identified them as his eyes went wide.
"Archmage Antonidas!"
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Author's Note:
I am back with another chapter of 'Soul Art Online'.
Holy Crap, this one took a lot out of me.
Anyways, the story is taking unexpected turns as several things happen in this chapter together.
Veena teaches Rose.
Kuroka is identified.
Gasper finally meets Veena again.
Kuroka joins the team for the hunt and is bonding with Rose.
Finally, Akeno and Arthur actually escaped right from the face of death as another figure makes an entry.
Anyone wants to guess who the blonde haired and blue eyed girl was?
We will see the next part of their story in the next chapter.
Enjoy the new chapter.
Good Day, Peace Out.