Chapter 34

Jerry stood at the corner of the party, keeping an eye out for any white masked butlers doing anything suspicious with their drinks. Normally, Jerry would look for the butler that dropped the note. Problem was, all the damn butlers looked the same with the white masks. Jerry then noticed Janice standing next to Jerry, a bit shyly.

“Did you find any information about the thing?” Janice asked somewhat quietly. She also wore a mask to conceal her identity as a precaution and so that she would not draw attention from other guests. It was designed with small jewelries and red paint on it.

“White masked butlers are bad. Anyone slip a powder into a drink, it’s them” Jerry responded.

They both looked around the room, spotting white masked butlers around Larmen for any signs of suspicion. While searching, Jerry spotted Kopes who was talking with another group. Kopes also spotted Jerry and before quickly faced back to his group and ended it before started moving to Jerry.

‘Oh fuck’

“Larry, is that you?” Kopes asked as he came to Jerry.

“Who else would it be, Kopes?” Jerry responded.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to attend! Glad to know that you changed your mind, Larry!” Kopes exclaimed.

“Well, I had nothing else to do. Might as well check this place with a friend” Jerry said as he gestured to Janice.

“Ah, may I ask to know your name, milady?”Kopes said with a bow

“Uhh” Janice looked at Jerry with a bit of panic on her face which caused Jerry to let out a small laugh.

“Her name is Juliet. A friend of mine from the countryside” Jerry said. He made the lie up on the spot, but could easily cover for it as he could make it up as he goes.

Jerry tried to look around Kopes, looking for suspicious butlers but couldn’t see much with Kope’s large figure blocking him.

“I guess so. Should I introduce you to some ladies to get you some more entertainment?”

“Ah, I must decline. I just wanted to just enjoy it here with my friend here”

“You will most certainly enjoy it more with more of the ladies here” Kopes said as he stepped aside to reveal a trio of ladies laughing and giggling while looking at Jerry’s way. However, Jerry didn’t pay any attention to them but instead saw a white masked butler standing still while hovering his hands over a drink with a crumpled fist. Jerry started to walk towards him with his right hand placed on his pistol on his waist.

“W-Wait, where are you going?” Janice said as Jerry moved towards the butler.

“Juliet, please entertain Kopes here for a bit. I need to do some things” Jerry said as he gave a nod to Janice.

Janice stayed silent before she faced back to Kopes. She looked at him, still bowing before deciding that she cannot do it, and raise her head back to Jerry to find that he was gone. The ladies that were waiting for Jerry were seen staring into the crowd with a disgusted face. Jerry had pushed passed them and entered the crowd to get his way to intercept the butler to prevent Larmen from drinking it.

Larmen sat at an elevated position and there was a line of females, some with the father to chat with Larmen who was surrounded by his party with the exception of Kasune and Alice who he sadly had to abandon and while Janice distracted Kopes. Jerry soon realized that he wasn’t going to make it in time and the drink was going to get to Larmen first before he could if he kept hiding in the crowd.

Jerry was right and the drinks made it there faster than Jerry could. He clicked his tongue and decided to stop hiding in the crowd. He placed his hands on his mask and tossed it aside before breaking from the crowd with a sarcastic tone.

“Larmen! So good to see ya, man” Jerry said with a sly smile.

Jerry caught the butler handing the drink to Larmen which was an excellent position to be in.

“You! How dare you show your face here after you ran from the world!” Elizabeth said as she drew her sword.

Jerry smiled while looking at Elizabeth.

“You’re here to guard Larmen?” Jerry asked

“Of course! What else would I do?”

“Well, you’re doing a really bad job of protecting. But, you do have a second motive after all”

“W-What are you talking about, Bastard!”

“Enough, Elizabeth. Jerry, what are you talking about?” Larmen calmly asked.

Jerry then picked the cup from the butler’s hand and held it in front of him.

“Larmen, you were just about to drink this were you not?” Jerry asked as he fiddled around with the cup.

“Yes? Is there something wrong with it?”

“Larmen, I don’t know what world you come from, but never trust anything entirely unless you can tell for certain of it’s outcome”

“What do you mean, Jerry? You’re not making sense”

Jerry sighed and let his shoulders down.

“What I’m saying Larmen, is to never trust anyone. Not even yourself” Jerry said as he drank the entire cup in one go.

“I’m taking this one for you. Don’t expect it to happen again” Jerry said as he extended his hands to the side, waiting for something to happen.

Minutes passed while the entire room started at Jerry.

“Is something supposed to happen?” Larmen asked.

“Huh, guess I’m wro-” Jerry then felt a wave of dizziness hit him accompanied by fatigue.

“Never mind!” Jerry shouted with his remaining strength before his head smashed against the floor.

Larmen’s eyes then widen in surprise as Jerry hit the ground. He stared at Jerry for a few seconds in shock before coming to his senses.

“Someone get him to a doctor!” Larmen shouted.

Quickly, the guests started to whisper amongst themselves while Larmen shook Jerry’s body in an attempt to wake him up.

____________________________________________________________________________

Jerry’s vision was blurred as he awoke to an unfamiliar roof that seemed more lavish than he was used to. Then again, he mostly slept outside most of the time and only slept in a building a couple of times. Jerry blinked a couple more times and gathered himself before looking around the room. The bed that Jerry laid on was surrounded by Larmen and a few others that he didn’t recognize but seemed to be attendants as they wore matching uniforms.

Although Jerry was awake, his body felt fatigued, tired, and very lazy.

“Jerry! You’re awake!” Larmen said with a sigh a relief.

Jerry yawned and blinked a few more times before staring at Larmen.

“Yep” Jerry simply said before he closed his eyes again. The bed was nice and warm which made him want to fall asleep even more.

“Hey! You okay?”

“Mhmm. Gimme an hour to sleep”

“You’ve been sleeping for two days you know?”

“Make it three”

“I’d like to offer my thanks”

“Do it tomorrow”

“But”

“Shhhhh. Just let me sleep”

Larmen felt awkward after the conversation with Jerry and decided to leave the room to let Jerry rest.

“We’ll watch over him” One of the medics said. Larmen nodded at them before he left the room.

Larmen shut the door behind him and was greeted by Alice and Kasune.

“Is he awake?” Alice asked.

“Thankfully” Larmen responded.

“I’d like to see him” Kasune said.

“Jerry said he’d like to sleep for the rest of the day”

“I see” Kasune said. She seemed a bit sad but quickly cheered up.

“Well, thank you for watching over him. I have to go check on some things” Janice said as she walked off with Alice soon following suit.

Larmen sighed before he decided to go to the garden to clear his mind.

It was a bit chilly this time of night. The stars were out at this time of day

Larmen thought about all that had been happening recently. He felt bad for Jerry as he was likely the one to slay the Demon Lord. However, the Empire told Larmen that Jerry was a traitor and led the army to their deaths. Larmen sighed as he sat forward on a wooden bench pondering what to do.

Then, Jepal emerged from the background with her short stature with a stoic face.

“Hey” Jepal said with a wave and a smile.

“Hello” Larmen said with a confident smile with a wave back.

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine like I said before”

Jepal sighed before staring off into the stars with Larmen.

“I feel like that’s a lie. You really look bad since Jerry collapsed” Jepal responded.

Larmen was silent and Jepal took notice. She needed to know what Larmen was feeling so she can get closer with him so she could make him hers and so she can plan her next move.

“Look, we’re comrades. Comrades need to rely on each other so we can do our best, right?” Jepal said as she placed her hand on Larmen’s back.

Larmen let out a breath of air through his nose and turned to face Jepal. He stared at her amber eyes before cracking.

“I feel like crap, Jepal. Everytime I go to these parties and claim false glory, I tell another lie. Eventually, those lies are gonna catch up through God’s Divine Power and Jerry will likely be hurt by the Empire and can never get what he deserves. I might just confess my sins to the public now and avert this whole ordeal” Larmen quickly said.

Larmen was nervous about the lies he was telling catching up to him. However, Larmen’s morales were also being violated since Jerry was doing more work than he was but he was getting all the credit.

Jepal knew that she had to make her move now before it gets worse. Rose was able to change memories, but they weren’t perfect. The longer an emotion is associated with something, the more chances of that something completely undoing Rose’s magic. It gets even worse since there is likely a rat among them and Janice the elven girl was likely the one to spill the plan to Jerry. If Larmen confesses, Jerry would likely follow suit and cause her and other commanders to be exiled and hunted down for as they live.

Jepal nodded to Rose who was preparing a concoction that should be able to temporarily stun Larmen for just enough to change his memories.

_________________________________________________________________

Falk sat behind a desk while surrounded by paper. By her side, was Commander Reeves who looked over her shoulder as she did paper work.

“Did he find out?” Reeves asked.

“Who’s he, and find out what?” Falk asked.

“Oh you know, Jerry and you being a girl and all that”

Falk looked at Reeves for a moment before resuming her work.

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

“No, just wondering” Reeves said with a smug face.

The door then came open with a messenger that was gasping for air at the door.

Falk jumped in her seat with fear as the door made a large bang as it hit the wall.

“Report!” The messenger said as he slowly recovered.

“Y-Yes!” Falk sheepishly said.

“Hero Larmen” The messenger stopped there as he took rapid breaths.

“Hero Larmen had been poisoned!” The Messenger said.

“What? Is he okay?” Reeves shouted.

“H-Hero Larmen is fine. The heretic Jerry for some reason saved him” the messenger said as he finally regained his composure.

“How long was this ago?”

“3 days, Sir”

“Falk, gather your things. We have to quickly visit Larmen!”

“He’s fine!” Falk complained.

“You don’t know that!” Reeves shot back

“Jerry took the fall, and Larmen is fine! Why do I have to go as well?”

“Because you know how you are when you’re alone without me! Now, pack your bags”

Falk looked at her papers before looking at Reeves with a face that asked“Really?”.

“Now, Falk! Not three years!”

Falk sighed as she got up and went to her room to pack up.

_

The King was in panic at the moment. Larmen was almost poisoned, Jerry came and saved him, and the Nobel Court is in a state of confusion as Jerry was painted to be an evil character that cared for no one. This act of saving caused many nobles who favored Larmen to be confused while those that were working with the King and wanted to strike Jerry down were trying to limit the flow of information about the incident and paint a false narrative causing the clash of information to throw the Nobel Court into a state of confusion.

If it ends badly, it could be the end of him and all of his contacts would either be executed or abandon him. He truly did a foolish move and was going to have to pay for it. He had to attempt to eliminate one of the Heroes since other nations would’ve seen the Empire as a threat to them and would’ve likely banded together to bring an end to the Empire. The Empire wouldn’t even hold out a week since the only mages and battle hardened soldiers had been obliterated because of Jerry. Funds were too low to just buy another army since they were being stretched thin getting political power by flaunting Larmen around the world.

The King cursed himself before venting his frustrations to the spymaster kneeling before the king in shame.

“I thought you said that he was dead!” The King yelled in frustration.

“W-We thought he was. The arrow hit true into his shoulder with the modified Horrigan Disease that plagued us 20 years ago” The Spymaster said.

“Then why is he alive?!”

“I-I don’t know, your Majesty”

“Do you know what will happen if he finds out?”

“He won’t, your Majesty. I can assure you that”

“Like you assured me that he was dead?”

The Spymaster stayed silent as he lowered his head further.

The King sighed before he calmed down and faced out the window.

“I apologize, Alex for my temper. It’s just been… stressful”

“Please, your Majesty. It is fine”

“Look, we need him exiled, or dead. We also can’t have anything be traced back to us, understand?”

“Yes, your Majesty”

“Good. You’re dismissed”

The Spymaster then raised his head and headed towards the door. As Alex’s hand touched the handle, the King stopped him.

“Alex” The King said.

“Yes, your Majesty”

There was a short pause between the two before The King spoke.

“Don’t fuck this up”

“Yes, your Majesty” Alex responded as he pulled the door and exited the room.