Chapter 35

Crimson stared at his Status screen in shock, he hadn’t expected to get that skill. From what Cherish had told him about it, it was very strong. He glanced at his skills to see his current list, before pulling up his new skill:

[Lena V]

[Balance V]

[Running VIII]

[Fall Damage Reduction II]

[Runic Language I]

[Flexibility V]

[Focused Mind IV]

[Sword Mastery XII]

{Style Creator}

[Stamina Meditation IV]

[Evasion II]

[Inevitable End I]

[Inevitable End]: A skill for bringing down the mightiest of foes.

Lore: One of the greatest fears for anyone is running into a foe they can’t hurt…with this skill you have no right to complain if you get your butt kicked.

Bonus: Always deal at least one point of damage regardless of the difference between the CON and STR.

It was…a good skill, but the scariest thing about it was the potential for growth. It would be interesting to see what it could accomplish when he leveled it, but…there was one thing he’d begun to notice about some of his skills, something that confused him: the information on all the skill screens was incomplete.

Cherish had told him that [Inevitable End] would also stop natural regeneration, but it wasn’t listed in the [Bonus] for the skill. What is going on? Why didn’t Lena mention this when she told me about Skills?

- - - - -

Princess Rhinese sat at the desk in her room, pouring over paperwork. Her hair hung loose around her shoulders in place of its usual bun or braid. She wore a pair of glasses, enchanted to reduce eye strain, and was tapping her foot on the ground.

The paperwork was supposed to distract her from her impatience, but it wasn’t working in the slightest: she’d only gotten through 6 sheets of the stuff, instead of the usual 30 or so she’d have done in the same amount of time if she weren’t distracted.

There was a knock at the door and she had to keep herself from bursting out of her chair to go open it.

“Enter.”

Her maid, Sammy, entered the room and bowed. “I have looked into the matter that your highness requested.”

“Well? What have you found out.” Rhinese found it hard to contain herself - her emotions were leaking through.

“There is nothing connecting Kaine to the library incident your highness, but we have confirmed that the perpetrator didn’t use any form of teleportation.”

Teleportation was impossible in the castle, but Princess Rhinese couldn’t rule out the possibility of someone creating a way to get around the barrier - magic is very adaptable after all. Because of its changing nature there was no such thing as a perfect defense or offense, just an optimal one.

Something that may be regarded as a perfect defense may be regarded as trash if someone thinks of a way to neutralize or negate it. Though - admittedly - the creation and use of new magic had slowed centuries ago. Focus had shifted towards perfecting what had been created. That didn’t mean that new magic wasn’t being created, just that it was less common.

When she was a little girl she’d had a dream of creating ‘the best healing spell ever! One that will make everyone feel better,’ just thinking about it made her want to cover her face in embarrassment. While it was an admirable dream it was fueled by a child’s naivety instead of any form of logic, but that dream had propelled her to become a healer instead of taking any other Class.

It had also led to many nights researching magic creation, something that gave her - and most others - a headache to think about. Her older brother, Kaine, had encouraged her dream; he’d told her that when he was king he’d get her all the funding she’d need to make it and she, looking up to her older brother, had happily accepted his promise.

“Your Highness, I know you’ve told me a few times, but could you tell me again why you suspect your brother?”

Princess Rhinese looked at her personal maid and took a deep breath; she’d explained her logic no less than 6 times to Sammy. Her maid kept pushing her to explain herself so she could double check, make sure that she actually believed that her brother was guilty. The recent incidents in the castle hadn’t been the first ones to happen.

“Very well Sammy. I’ll explain one more time: it all goes back one year - Kaine was just two months away from completing his term as Regent Prince…”

Kaine had been a kind prince, known for his kindness for others and his pure desire to be good he’d been the hope of the kingdom, but two months before his term ended he started to act erratically. He was sleep deprived all the time and he spent an increasing amount of time with his friends.

He had started to develop quite the temper and had started to lose weight. It had gotten so bad that his personal maid had approached her with concerns about Kaine, but he continued to worsen. He’d started training even more than usual which was the cause of his sleep deprivation.

Behind closed doors he’d started expressing to Princess Rhinese that he couldn’t mess up his term - that he had to become the Crown Prince and gain power, actual power, in the kingdom as soon as possible. In her eyes he’d started to become greedy.

With one month until his term ended he’d started acting even worse, in public he was as perfectly ‘him’ as possible, but she’d started to notice something wrong, something worse than a little greed or being short tempered. He seemed…dark, desperate. It was like something had possessed him, but that was impossible. She’d used holy magic on him several times under the guise of healing a simple bruise or the like. That allowed her to confirm that he wasn’t possessed, but it didn’t explain his abrupt change in behavior.

It terrified her, seeing her elder brother - someone she used as a role model her entire life - becoming someone else. He’d spent increasing amounts of time with his friends during the whole period. She’d begun to suspect that they were the ones ruining him, but she couldn’t stop him from spending time with them, and her investigations turned up nothing suspicious about them.

He’d been able to hide most of it from their parents, they’d been kept completely in the dark. They’d been able to see the physical changes, but they thought it was because of stress and overworking; in the end they hadn’t said anything. When Princess Rhinese had approached them about what was happening to Kaine they told her that it was just stress.

On the night that his term ended he’d left the banquet early - surrounded by his friends. It was a moment she looked back on with regret: knowing that if she’d said something that things could have been different, but the next she’d heard of him he was in jail for arson.

He had betrayed her. He had allowed his desire for power overwhelm himself and he’d broken the law. She suspected that he’d allowed his ‘friends’ to corrupt him, to change him, and to destroy him. When he’d been given his lashings after his jail time she’d watched the process with out flinching, as far as anyone could see.

Internally she’d wanted to cry, she’d wanted to run up to her brother and ask why he’d done it, why he’d betrayed her, their parents, and the people of the kingdom who’d loved and respected him. She wanted dearly to heal the bleeding lacerations on his back. She wanted her brother back.

After that day she’d had to steel herself, see reality. Her brother, the one filled with innocence and kindness was gone. Every interaction with him thereafter caused her pain that she’d learned to ignore. Those interactions became even harder after she was named the Regent Princess and started her term, to the point that she went out of her way to avoid him when possible, and keep the unavoidable interactions as short and professional as possible.

Not long after she’d been named Regent Princess things had started to go wrong: paintings and objects were damaged or disappeared, sensitive documents disappeared from scribe’s desks, she’d been ambushed during one of her dungeon runs and had nearly died. During it all, Kaine had always been ‘perfect’ he’d expressed concern and made a show of being kind, but she could see that his eyes were dead and uncaring.

She’d only started to suspect him after the ambush. He’d known details about the incident that he should have had no way of knowing: he no longer had access to privileged information. She couldn’t say for certain that he was behind it - she didn’t have any solid evidence - but she certainly believed he was. After that day, anytime one of the incidents happened she would immediately look into Kaine’s actions and try and get some evidence that he was behind it.

She’d gotten a witness for one of the incidents, but he’d disappeared within a few hours. His body had turned up in the slums. She’d had to be a lot more subtle about her investigations after that out of concern for her network of informants: she didn’t want to lose anyone close to her.

Because of her caution Sammy’s investigation had taken several days, instead of a few hours. She’d even had Crimson monitored to make sure that he wouldn’t disappear like the other witness. Fortunately for him, he didn’t know anything concrete and had been left alone.

“…and might I remind you what happened to our witness? I can’t believe you’re even questioning his guilt Sammy.”

“I’m questioning your resolve your highness. You can’t have your emotions interfere.”

Princess Rhinese sighed, “I am acting completely logically Sammy, you’re here to ensure that Ms. [Shadow-Walker].”

- - - - - -

Verity walked into town with her temporary party. They were a bunch of fools that couldn’t swallow their pride long enough to work together properly, and it disgusted her to no end that she’d joined them - even for a day!

She’d kept all the emotions she felt off her face. It wouldn’t do to insult them and make enemies when she didn’t need to: she’d just never work with them again.

That offer that she had received earlier from that guy with quicksilver eyes, Crimson, was very tempting. She may have to take him up on it. The fact that he reminded her of someone important to her had no bearing what-so-ever on her decision making process. It was the fact that equipment was super expensive and that it all would be provided if she joined the DGs. Yes, that was her reason. Her ONLY reason.

She bid the incompetent foo- her party members farewell and told them that she was leaving the party. They accepted her resignation with sheepish expressions and didn’t argue.

It was a bit of a walk, but she made it to the castle and bowed to one of the guards at the front gate.

“I would like to apply to be a Delving Guard.”