Year 2: The Gathering Fires - Chapter 11

Hi guys, TheGrompFather here - to make up for the lack of a new chapter on Sunday, please enjoy this nearly 5000 word chapter. Enjoy!



The preparations for the Great Invasion of the Demon Empire had few setbacks, but those few were far too concerning to ignore. 

Sporadically, supply caravans and troop convoys were hit as they proceeded to Leomare’s camp in the south.

Tonight, looked to be no different, at first.

The ambushers, armed with sharp swords and black-tinted plate and leather armour, gathered among the bushes by the woodland road, eagerly awaiting their next victims. Their spy, the agent among the summoned heroes, had told them of a slow, heavy supply train moving through their location that very evening.

The ambushers, eighty traitors who swore allegiance to the Satyr’s Skull, waited patiently for their next victims to arrive.

When they finally did, they struck hard and fast. Arrows flew, magical balls of energy burst out of the trees and smashed into the horses and wooden caravans alike, as swords were drawn by the defenders.

And then.

“Huh, King Alexander was telling the truth.”

A muscular woman with a gigantic battle axe emerged from the centre caravan.

Atalanta, a legendary S-rank adventurer and countless other C and B-ranked adventurers, emerged from the wooden crates and barrels inside the carriages, armed and ready for a fight.

With an eager grin, Atalanta swung her mighty weapon and cut ten people, and the trees around them, in half. “Don’t worry; I won’t kill all of you!”

***

Assassins had infiltrated the King’s Palace.

Worse, they had successfully made their way into Bernaught the Boulder’s bedroom.

The Dwarven State Chancellor, however, was not fast asleep inside; instead, when they stabbed at the lump beneath his covers, they discovered nothing but pillows and clothing.

With a click of his tongue, the dwarf emerged, war hammer in hand, from the bathroom in his chainmail, ill fitting as it was on his retired body. “I hate it when Hiiragi’s right.”

“You could be more grateful for the warning, Bernaught.” The princess in question emerged from the corner of the room, dispelling the concealment charm around her and her lord husband. “Akechi, take a few of them alive.”

“At once.”

***

The last assailant fell dead outside Dorothy’s bedroom.

Dante swung his scythe onto his back and sighed a little, surveying the thirty corpses before him. “To think this many would betray us to the Demon Emperor.”

“I take it they were not Awoken?” The elf queen asked.

Dante shook his head. “Nothing more than traitors, sadly. Quite well organised and armed, but they weren’t that skilled. I imagine Atalanta will be unhappy with how weak they are.”

***

The commotion had awoken the entire King’s Palace, including all of the summoned heroes. However, much to their surprise, royal knights blocked their exit.

“What is the meaning of this?” Akane demanded.

“Forgive me, my lords and ladies, but we have specific instructions not to let any of the summoned heroes leave this mansion until the battle outside is resolved.”

“If it’s a battle, then we can help!”

“No, Lord Duncan, that won’t be necessary.”

“What?”

“…It’s escalated,” Kayleigh muttered in the corner.

“Yeah,” Elysa, beside her, said. “Hopefully, we’ll have a tail to grab onto this time.”

“Hopefully.”

***

Dawn came to the city of Rhodes, yet few outside of the King’s Palace knew of the events that transpired last night.

The invaders, totaling fifty-two, had all been captured or killed, though it was unlikely that any of them would talk easily. The eighty assailants to the south had all died; those Atalanta and the others tried to capture killed themselves without so much as a peep.

“This was reckless, even for you two,” Bernaught grunted.

He, as well as the other three monarchs of the Free People’s Alliance, were gathered inside King Alexander’s private office. There were guards all over the place and the court mages had used powerful enchantments to keep the entire room totally soundproofed while they held their meeting.

“It was necessary,” Alexander said.

“Not only that, but I don’t think either of you would have believed us without firmer proof,” Hiiragi added.

“But to think one of the thirty is a traitor.” Dorothy shook her head in disbelief. “It breaks my heart just considering it.”

“…Don’t think it doesn’t hurt us too,” Alexander whispered. “We’ve looked after them and trained them for months, provided them everything and anything they could need, and someone repaid us by selling their soul to the Demon Emperor. This is beyond a disgrace.”

“So, how did you two know that they’d send such a force after us last night?” Bernaught asked.

“To answer that, we have to go back a little bit in time first, if you don’t mind. Princess Hiiragi, if you would.”

With a small nod, the princess stepped forward and began to explain.

“Ever since the convoys being sent to Leomare’s camp started to be intercepted, we quickly deduced that the traitor had to be someone within the King’s Palace and, not only that, but they had to be quite high ranking too. However, our conjecture was slightly off - they were not a high ranking official, but rather someone who could sneak in and easily obtain classified documents to then leak to someone outside these walls.

“Dante and Kella warned us that the Demon Emperor might have near-impossible to detect spies within these walls, and these series of events all but confirm it. Yet, they were not responsible for lifting the orders out of our desks and providing them to the enemy; the traitor handed them to the Demon Emperor’s spies. Interestingly, they only ever seemed to be able to obtain information on the supplies and soldiers heading to the southern camp and not anywhere else, which quickly narrowed down our list of suspects.”

“How?”

“Princess Hiiragi and I keep copies of all the orders we dispatch in this palace, but we hide them in different locations depending on whom they’re for,” Alexander said. “We didn’t know which of our caches were being raided, and so we needed to determine that. First, we tried leaving tracker and tracer spells on the documents, desks and objects in our studies, but they would always be dispelled by some form of magic.”

“But mine never were,” Hiiragi quickly added. “King Alexander’s seals were always gone in the morning, but mine were left intact. This didn’t confirm our theory straight away, and so we decided to test it two more times.”

“Wait, why didn’t it?” Dorothy asked. “Surely, the obvious answer would be that King Alexander’s cache was vulnerable?”

“It implies it, quite strongly, but it doesn’t prove it. So, for the next test, we left conflicting orders in our drawers, with mine being the real ones and King Alexander’s being the fake ones. Given how the troop convoy wasn’t attacked that time, we determined that the traitor definitely had been searching through King Alexander’s drawers for information. So, we laid another trap, one that only the keenest of eyes would have been able to notice.”

“I left everything inside my desk draw here.” The king tapped on the inbuilt cabinet in his desk. “In a very strange order, one that made it look like I’d thrown everything in carelessly. Of course, I’d done the opposite and placed each document in an order and pattern I’d remember; the traitor, of course, wouldn’t know that and even if they did try to replicate it, I’d be able to see through it if it wasn’t perfect.

“And, sure enough, when I looked two days ago, the papers were slightly off. Thus, I told Princess Hiiragi who then informed Dante, Atalante and Lord Akechi, who then informed the right people of the coming attacks, and then we informed you too.”

“Which brings us nicely to where we are now,” Hiiragi continued. “Two days ago, we set our trap and the traitor walked right into it. Now, we have the very rare chance to find and catch them for good.”

“But that doesn’t explain how you know that only a summoned hero could do this,” Bernaught said.

“True, if you’re only looking at the surface of the issue. The runes and seals we had inscribed to protect this confidential information were so powerful that there were only two ways for them to ever be dispelled. The first would be for the mage who drew them to undo them, or someone of a greater power; the second would be to use a weapon that could only be classed as ‘Divine’ class.”

“The Divine Artifacts.”

“Exactly.” Hiiragi smiled a little. “With even just one of those artifacts, any and all defensive runes we could employ would be made redundant with just a gentle touch; they wouldn’t even have to brute force it. Of course, that only applies for these defensive type runes and seals, not defensive forms of magic or barriers. As far as I’m aware, we have no mages of greater strength than our court mages and adventurers here, meaning that the traitor has to be a summoned hero.”

“Or one of those powerful people you just mentioned that’s joined the Demon Empire.”

“That is possible, but highly unlikely.” The princess’s arrogant, self-assured tone upset Bernaught. “It’s one thing to sneak into a highly secure office in the middle of the night; it’s another to break into the King’s Palace, through all of our security and remain undetected as you reach this office and escape into the night, especially without a Divine-class weapon or piece of equipment.”

“…Then, it’s irrefutable, isn’t it?” Dorothy whispered.

“Clearly, the traitor hasn’t been acting alone, but we don’t know how deeply this conspiracy runs within Rhodes and the palace,” Alexander said. “We’ll launch a full investigation, but it’s difficult to imagine a single traitorous hero managed to let all of those intruders inside and without anyone noticing them doing it.”

“Well, all shall be revealed soon enough,” Hiiragi confidently said. “Once we identified the bodies, we’ll have a long trail to follow. Then, it’ll only be a matter of time.”

What will happen first - the Great Invasion or the discovery of the traitor’s identity?

***

The general facts the heroes were told by the Free People’s Alliance were quite sparse in detail.

First, there was an attempt on the lives of Chancellor Bernaught and Queen Dorothy, though neither of them was harmed and the assailants were successfully dealt with. Second, someone inside the King’s Palace had stolen classified documents and orders from King Alexander’s study and had been selling them to the enemy, and had also presumably aided them in sneaking soldiers inside the palace.

Finally, the Free People’s Alliance would be conducting a full, thorough investigation of the incident and everyone, from the kitchen staff to the heroes, would be questioned for their whereabouts on the day the documents were stolen.

That day was two days ago and, based on the initial estimates, the documents were stolen at some point late at night after King Alexander had left the room at ten in the evening. After that, he’d locked his study with a key that he kept on him at all times and that there were no copies off.

There were no signs of a forced entry, but all of the magical protections placed on and inside the room had been destroyed without much effort by the thief.

While no one verbally said who had done it, the summoned heroes grew anxious as fears that someone among them was a traitor began to take root. Sensing the developing issue, Kayleigh quickly called an emergency meeting of the team leaders and invited Akane to join them. Elysa had expressed an interest in taking part too, but Kayleigh told her to stay with the others and keep an eye on them.

“See if any of them are acting strangely,” Kayleigh whispered. “Whoever the traitor is, they must be panicking a little bit now that they know we’re much closer to finding them.”

Elysa readily accepted her new assignment, though both she and Kayleigh knew it’d be tough to keep a close eye on all the other heroes at once.

Gathered inside Kayleigh’s bedroom was: Yve, Kayleigh herself, Akane, Hajime, Guy and Duncan, who was sitting on her bed as silent as the grave, staring blankly at the floor.

“…So, we basically need to figure out who the traitor is based on what happened that day?” Hajime asked.

Kayleigh nodded. “In theory, it should be possible to narrow down our suspect list quite a fair bit just by comparing notes like this, although it’s also possible that we’ll find next to nothing. So, who wants to go first?”

“I will,” Guy said without hesitation.

“You’re rather eager,” Yve mused.

“Well, because I don’t think anyone on my team would betray us. Eerika, Tomar, Reis, Delwyn and I always eat out a few times a week, and that’s exactly what we were doing two days ago. We were together right until we got home and went to bed about eleven at night, so I don’t think any of them could’ve done it.”

“When did you all split up?” Kayleigh asked.

“Their rooms were all before mine, so we stayed together and said goodnight at each bedroom. I don’t know about Talon, but…” Guy looked a little sadly at the ground. “She’s not capable of such things.”

“I agree with you on that. Still, it doesn’t rule her out completely; if anything, her Divine Artifact, Carnwennan, would normally make her the prime suspect given its stealth capabilities.”

“A dedicated actress would never let her façade drop,” Akane said coldly. “Everyone is suspect, including those of us here. Guy.”

“W-what?”

“What did you do once you were back in your bedroom?”

Confused, he scratched his head and said, “I think I just went straight to bed.”

“You think?” Akane’s gaze pierced through him. “Shouldn’t you know what you’ve done?”

“H-h-hey, I’ve always been bad at remembering things, a-and I don’t think Harmonia told the truth when she said she fixed it. I still don’t remember everything I’ve done in a day.”

“That’s called being human, Guy,” Yve joked. “I believe him. Guy’s never been good at lying, even back when we were on Earth.”

“Then, Yve, perhaps you would enlighten us to what you and your team were doing on the night in question,” Kayleigh said.

“Oh, we’re getting into a real murder-mystery-esque vibe here?” Yve giggled. “I’d be excited if I wasn’t scared.” She closed her eyes briefly, then reopened them when she started to speak. “I was with Hailey most of the day and we had a little sleepover in my room that night.”

“Sleepover?”

“Well, more accurately, I dragged her into my bedroom and decided that we’d have a sleepover.” Yve playfully stuck her tongue out. “We’d spent the day shopping for new clothes and makeup, and I really wanted to doll her up right there and then. Hailey was, shall we say, reluctant.”

“English only.”

“Says the German.” Yve coughed awkwardly at Kayleigh’s icy stare. “Anyway, we took turns doing one another’s makeup, wearing outfits the other one told us to and then Hailey made me wear nothing but my undies for making her wear this rather revealing cute maid outfit, but that’s besides the point!”

“No, no, by all means, elaborate,” Hajime insisted.

“…Hajime.”

“…Sorry.”

Akane sighed and lightly hit her leader on the head. “Continue, Yve.”

“Oh, okay. W-well, it was a black and white one with-”

“Yve.”

“Sorry, sorry! Well, Hailey got really sleepy so I suggested she slept with me in my room, and she did. I gave her a spare set of pyjamas and I might have tried cuddling with her repeatedly, which resulted in me sleeping on the floor.”

“So, you never split up?” Kayleigh asked.

“Only whenever we went into the ensuite to change. I mean, there’s windows in there, but I would’ve heard her open them.”

“Why?”

“Mine’s really rusty and makes a horrific sound whenever it’s opened or closed,” Yve said. “It’s really loud and I’m scared it might break, so I always keep it locked.”

“…I see. What about the four guys?”

“Oh, Liam and his pervs?” Yve pondered for a few moments before shrugging. “I honestly don’t know. I did ask them what they did, but they didn’t really say much other than ‘We just hung out’.”

“What, all four of them?”

“Yep.”

“Did you try speaking to them individually about it?” Akane asked.

“I did, but they all stuck to their story, though Adrien looked quite embarrassed when I got a bit close to him.”

“…I think I can imagine what they were doing,” Kayleigh sighed. “We’ll just need to send some guards to investigate those establishments for confirmation. Hajime.”

“Yeah?”

“Could you and Akane tell us what your team were up to that day?”

“I was with Amen all day and he stayed in my room until about eleven, so I don’t know about the other three. Akane?”

The Japanese woman shook her head. “When I tried to ask Ari, Sayeh suddenly put a knife to my throat and said he didn’t do it. There was quite the fire in her eyes, so I backed off. Zuzu apologised to me and said those two spent the day together in Ari’s bedroom relaxing. Zuzu herself said she went out for a walk in the city, got lost and only made it back by nightfall. Then, she had a meal with me and went to bed.”

“So, that much is true?” Yve asked.

“It is,” Akane said. “As for me, I spent the day doing what Kayleigh and I had been doing for the past few weeks now, trying to find and catch any trail of the traitor, or traitors, to no avail. I did stop by Hajime’s room and saw Amen by the open window.”

“I don’t understand how he can bare to have his own one open at night,” Hajime mumbled, shivering a little. “‘The cold air is most refreshing this time of day’ he says, but all I could think of was how much wood I’d need on the fire to reheat my bedroom!”

“Wasn’t it super chilly that evening?” Guy asked.

“It was, but he says he’s always had the window open - it helps him relax a little, he says.”

“…Is it possible he was communicating with someone-?”

“I doubt it,” Hajime interrupted Kayleigh’s question. “Even back when we were on our first assignments, he’d always try to force the window open at night, but Ari and I would always make him close it…then we felt bad the next morning because he clearly hadn’t had a good night’s sleep.”

“It’s really that bad?”

Hajime and Akane nodded. “If you want a comparison, he says very little and looks as angry as Dao Chen does in the morning. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him yell outside of that morning,” Hajime mumbled. “He was so scary.”

“…Moving on then.” Kayleigh coughed. “I guess I should explain my team and their actions that day. I was with Elysa and we too were hunting for leads on the traitor, but we found nothing. We did consider splitting up, but ultimately ruled that out as an option for fear of one of us being attacked by the traitor should they know we were following them.”

“Quite a small chance of that happening,” Akane said.

“Even then, it was a possibility, and I didn’t want that to happen. I heard Gabriel was out drinking that night, no doubt looking for someone to hook up with, though Trevor says that wasn’t the case. Instead, he claims Gabriel was volunteering at an orphanage in Rhodes and bought some toys for the kids with his pocket money.”

“Why does Trevor know that?”

“Because he followed Gabriel a few times to make sure he was okay, or so Trevor says. Fala was playing with her cats in her bedroom-”

“Yeah, I’d have done the same,” Yve interjected.

“And Ewan was with Dante, training in the yard until sunset. After that, he went to freshen up and no one saw him again that night.”

“So, it could’ve been him?”

“It could have, Guy, but nothing’s certain.”

“What did you and Elysa do that evening?” Hajime asked.

“We talked about what we found, or didn’t find, and what to do the next day. Then, we went our separate ways after dinner. I don’t know what she did after that.”

“So, both of you two would also technically be suspect too?”

“Everyone is, arguably.”

“Not me!” Yve loudly declared. “I am innocent.”

“…Guy, did she just say she was guilty?”

“N-no, she said innocent.”

“How horrible! You trust me so little, Kayleigh!”

Kayleigh grumbled a little before leaning back against the wall.

“Regardless of trust and our own personal biases, there is very clearly someone among the thirty heroes that has betrayed us, if not more than one,” Akane said.

“We still don’t have evidence for more than one traitor,” Kayleigh reminded her. “That part is largely conjecture.”

“Conjecture or not, if multiple people are collaborating together, then it’s easier for them to produce an alibi. Take Hailey and Yve for example.”

“Why us?!”

“You two will no doubt support one another’s stories, but that doesn’t mean anything if you’re both in on it.”

“If! If!”

“The same applies for Hajime and Amen. There might have been someone else in that room besides you two, or someone crouched behind the window just out of my line of sight.”

“I’d have heard Amen talk to someone else,” Hajime said.

“Yes, but that does not mean there aren’t ways of talking to someone without vocalising words.”

“…True.”

“If we’re looking at all of the evidence at hand, then Talon would naturally be the most likely suspect because there were no footprints and no one saw anyone approach the office. The guards on patrol would’ve noticed someone heading for King Alexander’s study, unless they came in from the window or another entrance.”

“The windows are high above the gardens and difficult to access,” Kayleigh said. “It’s not impossible to reach them, but it’d be tough to do so without leaving a trace, and the traitor’s Divine Artifact erased the spells that would’ve let us find them. And there were no footprints or traces of mud or grass inside the study, so getting in and out through the window would be virtually impossible unless the traitor was extremely, meticulously thorough in covering their tracks.

“Hang on, before we go much further, there’s one leader here who hasn’t told us what they and their team were up to on the night of the incident,” Yve said, gesturing towards Duncan. “My friend, if you’d be so kind as to join in the conversation.”

Kayleigh opened her mouth to say something, but quickly shut it.

Duncan was one of the few people she could call a friend, even though they hadn’t hung out much outside of these meetings. She knew he wasn’t the sort of person that wanted to doubt those around him and he’d always be the first to rally them all together whenever they were scared or nervous. In many ways, Duncan was something like the unelected leader of the summoned heroes.

Seeing him so dejected, so silent, and with such vacant eyes hurt Kayleigh, but she didn’t say anything.

It’s important for him to grow and evolve as a leader, to get stronger, she told herself. It’s irrefutable that there’s a traitor among us and there could be more. I’m sorry, Duncan, but you have to do this.

“Duncan.” Kayleigh’s voice was colder than she’d intended it to be, so she smiled slightly. “Please.”

“I…don’t know.”

“Duncan?”

“I…I.” He stood up and didn’t lift his gaze from the floor. “I can’t…I have-have to go. Goodnight.”

“Duncan? Duncan!”

Her cries landed on deaf ears as Duncan practically ran from her bedroom.

“…Well, that’s helpful.”

“Yve,” Hajime said.

“…Sorry.”

Kayleigh chased after Duncan, though she had given him quite the head start.

However, back in her bedroom, one person wasn’t staring at Kayleigh’s back anxiously.

“Kayleigh and I determined that Feng Li and Dao Chen were the most suspicious members of Duncan’s team, although as I understand it Elysa dismissed Feng as a candidate,” Akane continued, crossing her arms. “It’s not impossible for it to be someone else on that team, but Dao Chen is highly suspicious.”

“Just because she’s unsociable doesn’t mean she’s a traitor,” Hajime protested.

“No, but it does make it easier for her to betray people she isn’t close to. It is also preferable than pretending to be our friends and then getting too close, leaving herself torn between her two allegiances.”

“…You know something, Akane.”

“What, Yve?”

“You can be a real cold-hearted bitch some days.”

“…I know.”

***

A traitor.

One of us…a friend, is a traitor.

Duncan’s vision distorted again and his steps grew heavier as he drew closer to his room.

Who?

Why?

When did they betray us?

Why?

Why would anyone-?

Weren’t we-? He choked on a bitter laugh. Weren’t we all friends? Weren’t we at least working together to defeat the Demon Emperor? Save the world?

Why? Why would anyone side with that monster?

Why?

Duncan fumbled his lock behind him, but he couldn’t manage to shut his door properly. He stumbled, almost as if he was drunk, but caught himself on his bedframe.

Someone on my team? Could they…do that?

No, no, no! They’re…your friends.

You’ve fought beside them lots of times, they’ve saved your life and you theirs…they wouldn’t, would they?

Feng Li - he calls me Brother Duncan, he looks up to and respects me, right?

Brenda - she’s a good friend, a strong ally and someone I consider a rival.

Blake - we don’t speak much when we’re alone, but she always seems happy with our group.

Dao Chen - I know she’s distant and I don’t know why, but surely she’s like Talon and hates the tyrant of the east.

Stephanie - she can’t be, can she? That night, on our first assignment, surely that wasn’t an ac-

Duncan vomited into his toilet twice, and choked on the third, swallowing it back down his throat.

Gripped by despair, Duncan didn’t move.

He remained still as he sat there, too drained and stressed to move a muscle.

…It can’t be them. It can’t be.

I believe in my friends - they’d never do that, but someone…someone who I’ve sat with, talked to, eaten with has…Duncan hung his head and took a deep breath. Why?

***

Stephanie and Kayleigh had both made their way to Duncan’s bedroom, but neither could bring themselves to go inside.

“…Shouldn’t you go in?” Stephanie asked with a wry smile. “You’re…his best friend, right?”

“I don’t know about that, not anymore.” Kayleigh turned away with a shrug. “I don’t want to tell anyone what to do, but you should support him whenever you can. Not just because you like him, but because he needs someone like you, Steph.”

***

“Your majesty.”

“What is it, Mímir?”

“It pains me to say that the assassins the traitor let slip inside the King’s Palace have all failed and-”

“Good.”

“…Your majesty?”

The Demon Emperor let out a low chuckle as he gazed off into the distant west. “The deaths of disposable tools are not something you need to apologise for. Why else do you think I insisted that you use all of them in both attacks?”

“…I have a few theories, but I would not dare be as arrogant as to speak to your true intentions.”

“I give you permission to do so.”

“Then, with your majesty’s blessings, I believe that this was meant to be nothing more than a demonstration.”

“…Go on.”

“Rather than the assassins prevailing, the fear that assassins could sneak inside the King’s Palace, currently the most heavily guarded place in the Free People’s Alliance, is a greatly disturbing fact for them. If your agents are able to infiltrate a place like that, then no one and nowhere in the west is out of your reach. Likewise, even if they manage to uncover a link between the assailants and the traitor, it doesn’t matter for the traitor will soon reveal themselves anyway.”

“Exactly.” The Demon Emperor turned to face his kneeling general and gestured for him to stand. “The Ravens found those willing to turn their back on the west in exchange for money and grand gifts once my empire covers Aangapea, but they never understood their true purpose. They, like your traitor, Mímir, exist simply to redirect their attention away from my borders.

“That traitor’s life means little to me.”