Today’s a Real Bloody Day Alright

The crowd of madmen brandished all sorts of artifacts and weapons, all emitting divine light. They also started spouting a whole bunch of their usual “We’re the spring goddess’s followers, and we shall exorcise you!” generic speeches, but most of what they said fell on deaf ears, including mine.

Dahlian, Wymond, and I silently turned to Entrophys, who stared back at us with a shrug. “What? I told you.”

Wymond transformed back into his demon form and brandished his axe. “Enough folly. We’ll continue our discussions after cleaning up this mess.”

Entrophys laughed and stood up. He cracked his neck and pulled out a deck of cards. “Let’s make this at least entertaining, shall we, Wymie?”

“As long as you stay out of my way and don’t kill anyone, it’s none of my concern.”

The ambassadors charged at the horde at once. Wymond slashed through the crowd with a far heavier and powerful force than the ones he’d swung at me. Even swinging through the air delivered a strong wind and blew a few off their feet.

On the other side, Entrophys tossed his cards so fast they vanished into thin air before appearing again, lodged against the lunatics’ limbs and slicing them up. He snapped his fingers, and his cards all exploded into colorful confetti and fireworks. The confetti even caught fire from so many sparks and eventually burned the lunatics alive in seconds.

Meanwhile, Dahlian and I traded astonished glances.

“Maybe I should apologize to that clown guy later,” he mumbled, shuddering.

“You definitely should!” I hissed back.

We both watched in astonishment as the ambassadors all sliced and diced the lunatics with so much ease it didn’t even look like a fight at all. If anything, it was a full-on massacre without the killing.

Despite Wymond brutally cutting up the lunatics, none of them died thanks to Entrophys stitching them back up so crudely or trapping them right inside his cards. Neither of them flinched even after getting struck by divine light, as though such powers were so humiliatingly weak they couldn't feel them at all.

“Uh, I know those demon generals are supposed to be our enemies and all, but Florathea’s cultists are probably ten times worse,” I whispered. “Sooo, should we help them out?”

“I dunno either, man. I was about to ask the same thing,” Dahlian whispered back.

He and I continued to observe the two with our jaws dropped to the floor, but that lasted until a straggling few started charging after us.

“Watch out!” I called out, sliding behind Dahlian and raising my shield. I blocked the strike right on time and sent the lunatic flying away.

“Whoa! Thanks, man,” said Dahlian, charging up electricity through his arms. “Looks like these crazy bastards aren’t ignoring us after all.”

We pressed our backs against each other and raised our defenses, countering every blow at us.

“I really don’t know what’s going on anymore, but these guys are making me sick with their fever beams,” said Dahlian. “I’ll take ‘em all on!”

Fever beams? That’s one way to call them… “I guess we’re helping them, like it or not,” I murmured. “Let’s go!”

We charged in different directions. I managed to corner a few lunatics against the wall with my shield while Dahlian discharged rods of lightning with his punches. At one point, he left his back fully exposed to a sneaking lunatic, but I dived in with my blade.

Of course, that summoned my fountain of blades, all emerging from the floor and glitching up through the ceiling, slashing and cutting the madmen in its way. I couldn’t control how many there were or where to target, but Dahlian and the other demons did just fine blocking or countering them. Hell, Entrophys even absorbed my blades into his cards and shot them out to another horde of lunatics.

In no time, we rounded up the remaining lunatics and left them in the hands of the ambassadors before us.

“Ohohoho! Not bad, not bad!” said Entrophys, applauding. “I knew you’d be flashy too, Harvie!”

“Uh, th-thanks,” I said.

Dahlian massaged his shoulders and looked around. “Is that all of ‘em?”

Wymond closed his eyes and fell silent, deeply listening to our surroundings before lowering his axe. “I don’t sense any more intruders in these halls,” he confirmed. “That’s everyone.”

I let out a long sigh of relief and collapsed on my knees. “Finally,” I croaked. “I’m so damn tired I could pass out any moment…”

Entrophys turned to Wymond. “What happened to our little buddy Harvie? Did you bully him, Wymie? I thought you said we should be gentle to humans.”

Wymond awkwardly cleared his throat. “There was no other way. I had to push you to your limits to assess your true potential. My sincerest apologies, Haruma."

“It’s… It’s no problem,” I mumbled. “I just… need a little break…”

He rummaged through his pockets hidden under his robes and pulled out a small, red vial. “Here, drink this for now.”

“Oh, thanks,” I said, accepting his healing potion. I immediately chugged it and let it do its magic. Aside from its quick healing properties, it was pretty interesting that it tasted like cherry-flavored cough syrup.

I sighed in relief and stood back up. “Whew, I’m all better now.”

Wymond nodded and turned to the unconscious group of lunatics, all tied up in colorful ribbons by Entrophys. He scratched his chin and narrowed his eyes. “First the public disturbance, and now an assassination attempt on the queen… Their goddess must be behind this after all.”

“Their goddess?” asked Dahlian. “Didn’t she die during the war?”

“We also thought so too!” said Entrophys. “Apparently, she’s still somehow very much alive and is roaming around somewhere in this city. Source goes to these guys over here, hehe.”

“Florathea is… in Cindespoir City?” I scratched my head.

In the RPG storyline, the conspiracies revolving around Florathea weren’t brought up until the next region, but even then, her name was barely mentioned at all. I could vaguely remember hints from a few side quests that her followers were scheming behind the scenes in a few regions, but that was it.

Why was it that this time, they became more prominent? And again, why did I never hear about the actual goddess herself being present in the starter city?

“I… don’t understand,” I muttered. “How could she be here in this city?”

“She isn’t present in a physical sense,” a new voice spoke out. “Although we theorized she has a way to communicate with her followers spiritually.”

Everyone turned around and faced two individuals approaching us. One of them wore a red and gold silk gown and a shining crown. There was no mistaking this person.

I immediately kneeled before the queen, but for some reason, no one else did.

“At least one of you actually has proper etiquette,” said the other new individual, one who resembled a little girl in a dark purple dress and had long black hair with straight fringes. Her purple, glossy eyes wandered to the others still standing around before turning to me.

Morienelle didn’t say another word, but her scrunched-up expression definitely said, “You really do have questionable fashion taste.” I could practically hear those words.

Queen Verisette silently walked past me and stopped before the lunatics, all frothing at their mouths and eyes rolled up. She narrowed her eyes and said, “They truly do behave like propagating pests, these so-called loyal spring servants. As long as their goddess continues to take over their minds, they will never stop spreading their influence all over my kingdom.”

She turned around and faced Dahlian and me with a gaze more lifeless than Morienelle’s. “And it seems that in our pursuit of Florathea, we’ve been mistaken to be some sort of cold-hearted monsters. I don’t blame you two for thinking that way.”

I mustered up the courage and asked, “So it’s true then? You’re not planning to kill everyone?”

“Of course not. Despite everything, I am still the queen of Grovendale.”

“Th-then what about that ancient ritual you’re planning to perform on the full moon? Don’t you realize that it’ll kill everyone?”

“And that’s where you’re wrong, Harvie!” said Entrophys, giggling. “The ritual only steals magic from citizens, not lives!”

Dahlian widened his eyes and gawked at me. I, on the other hand, froze in place, trying to process this new truth. It was as if my whole worldview of the prologue was flipped upside down.

Why did I never know about this? Had the game writers been deliberately setting up some sort of massive plot twist since the very beginning? Why didn’t they mention anything about this?

“Th-then how… why…?” I sputtered, clutching my head. “Was I wrong then?”

Queen Verisette quietly observed my perplexed state before turning to her ambassadors. “Clean up this mess, and notify Silvestine to join us at the council chamber without delay. I hereby call for a clarification meeting.”