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Chapter 49: Welcome to the Kingdom: Deception

The Imperial Castle was Enchanted against Divination magic and most other forms of surveillance, so Ripley wasn’t too afraid to be discussing the incredibly unlawful act they’d just committed, but it still made her nervous to do it in the same building as King Koinkar.

The Imperial Castle was one of many castles located throughout the Koinkar Kingdom. They were all linked through Teleportation Circles for quick movement, so once you were in one castle, you effectively had access to the rooms and resources of all of them, but these circles were costly to activate, so there were protocols in place to prevent overuse.

So, really, she would have preferred to be doing this in any of the other castles throughout the kingdom. At least then she wouldn’t be so physically close to the man that could order her death. Others may have had blind allegiance to the king, but Ripley knew better than to immortalize him. Well, he was near-immortal, but that didn’t mean he was infallible.

“We still know where the fugitive is,” one of the Magic-Types said to Camilla. She was a woman wearing Enchanted robes to help with her Mana regeneration. “We believe it would be wise for you to go back in and get this over with. Or at least tell King Koinkar to send someone else. There is no shame in not being able to–”

“It is not about shame,” Camilla interrupted her. “It’s about what’s right.”

Ripley cleared her throat. “It would be right to end this Demon invasion once and for all. More innocents die if we let the fugitive go.”

“Human life is not a numbers game,” Camilla scowled. “Murder is indefensible.”

“Doing nothing is effectively murder. We hold the key to stopping this violence, and all we have to do is turn it. To do nothing would be the same as killing those people ourselves.”

“No, it would not. Killing and letting die are different actions. Especially when there is another person choosing to kill the people that we are ‘letting die’. It is not the same as killing those people ourselves, it is the Demons killing them. And the Demons do not deserve to be rewarded for their murders. Nor am I interested in carrying out their dirty work for them. If I am to try and stop this senseless killing, it will be through justice, not through carrying out yet another senseless murder, myself.”

Ripley just looked at Camilla. If she wouldn’t take her advice, there was no helping it. Arguing would just increase tensions more than they were already at.

Asmo, the Archer, spoke up in her usual monotone voice. “Let it be known that I disagree with the direct disobedience of our king’s orders.”

Camilla glanced over. “Do you intend to inform King Koinkar of my disobedience?”

She paused, before saying, “No, captain. It would likely impact our team performance if you were executed.”

“Ragavan?” Camilla said to her Swordsman companion. “Are you going to tell anyone?”

He sighed, leaning up against a wall with his arms crossed. His armor clanked against the stone bricks behind him. “Whole thing’s bullshit, and I get where you’re coming from, but I still don’t think we should let him go.”

“Then–”

“But I don’t think you should be killed for doing what you think’s right. I won’t say anything. Some other squad can handle it. If you think it’s an immoral order, it’s not your job. Maybe the damn king’s gone senile after all the years, allying with the Demons after they–”

“Do not speak about King Koinkar that way,” Camilla scolded him. “Have respect.”

He frowned. “Didn’t you just directly go against his orders? Not sure you get to talk about respect after that.”

Camilla looked like she was about to retort, but then realized she didn’t have anything she could say to her squad-mate. She really couldn’t say anything about respect, after what she’d done. Camilla took off her helmet and placed it on the table, sweeping the long brunette hair from her face. Ripley wasn’t sure how she dealt with such long hair under the helmet – she kept her hair short so it wouldn’t get into her face mid-battle.

After a pause, Camilla eyed the three Divination users in the room and turned back to Ragavan, saying, “Make sure the magicians understand what’s going on. And what they’re not to say. I’m going to inform King Koinkar of our failure.”

Once Camilla was gone, Ripley and her two remaining squad-mates talked to the Magic-Types and made sure they wouldn’t snitch. It still made Ripley feel shitty to let the fugitive go, but at this point, self-preservation kicked in. Koinkar wasn’t known for being the kindest of rulers, and Ripley could be pretty certain he’d kill her even if she was the one to tell him what happened. Even if Camilla had ordered her to, by walking through that portal, she was technically disobeying a royal command. The damage was done. She was officially a criminal.

So there she stood with Asmo and Ragavan, her fellow squad-mates and, at that point, partners in crime. A few moments passed in silence.

“Welp,” Ragavan leaned forward and off the wall he had his back against. “I’m heading out. Gonna catch some z’s. See y’all.”

“Fucking idiot,” Ripley rolled her eyes as she spoke to Asmo. “It’s four p.m.”

Asmo just nodded. She wasn’t much for conversation.

Ripley took a breath and shook her head. “I need to get my mind off this shit. Wanna spar?”

Asmo nodded again.

Ripley stood against Asmo in the wide, open-aired sparring fields. They were absolutely massive – a couple hundred paces in diameter – especially considering they were supposed to only facilitate a single duel at a time. The reason, of course, was because these were high-Level duels. Those could get pretty big on the whole ‘collateral damage’ thing if people weren’t given their space. The hard dirt ground crunched under their plate-armor boots as they walked away from each other, getting into their starting positions.

They got in place, about fifty paces apart, and prepared for the fight.

“Three,” Asmo called in her robotic tone.

Ripley drew her battleaxe from her back and gripped it tightly. This would be a nice release of pressure.

“Two.”

Asmo drew her massive wooden bow from her back and swiped the shoulder-length hair out of her eyes.

“One.”

Each adopted a battle-ready stance, Ripley holding up her axe and Asmo nocking an arrow in her bow. Ripley did one more once-over of her Status, making sure everything was up and ready. Her Health was topped out, at a solid 2200/2200, her Berserk Talent and her Martial Arts were all off cooldown, her Stamina was looking good, it all seemed up to snuff. Considering the matchup, she was definitely the one with the favored class between them, plus she’d recently pulled a Level ahead of Asmo, so this fight was most likely hers to take.

“Zero.”

Ripley dashed at Asmo, getting ready to activate Berserk the moment she was in melee range. Meanwhile, Asmo pulled back the drawstring, activating her Spectral Arrow Martial Art, and–

“Soldiers! Stand down,” a voice called out, interrupting their fight.

Ripley stopped her charge and Asmo lowered her bow, each of them looking over at the source of the noise. Camilla stood at the sparring grounds entrance, watching them

“How’d it go?” Ripley asked as Camilla walked over.

“Fine enough. King Koinkar probably didn’t believe me, but he didn’t say anything, either. He informed me that he’d try to find a new way to catch the fugitive, though, so we shouldn’t need to worry about still being on this job.”

“You sure he isn’t going to secretly order our executions, or something?”

“No. I mean, I’m currently the only person in line for the throne, so I doubt he’d kill me off just from suspicion.”

“Fucking pampered princess,” Ripley rolled her eyes. “Koinkar’s probably not dying for another half a millenia anyway, why’s he need to name a successor that’s just gonna die before him?”

“In case he dies by means other than natural processes. There could be an assassination, or–”

“How in the thirteen hells could someone assassinate him? How many hundreds of points does he have in Endurance? He’s a Paladin, so that’s three per Level, and he’s been putting all of his Stat Points into Endurance since Level 0, so–”

Camilla hushed her. “You know it’s rude to speculate about someone’s Status like that. Especially when it’s King Koinkar.”

Ripley just rolled her eyes. “You royal types and your formalities. Anyway, what’s up? I was kinda in the middle of something, here.”

“Well, so, you know how King Koinkar said he’d find a new way to catch the fugitive? He’s planning on instating a bounty. So, whatever city kills him gets a monetary reward.”

“Okay?”

“And that reward is our annual salary.”

Ripley blinked. “We’re not getting paid?”

That seemed to get Asmo’s attention. She snapped her head over to Camilla. “I’m quitting if I don’t get my gold.”

“Yeah,” Ripley knitted her brows. “I get that you did what you had to do back there, but you can’t take my entire year’s pay and expect me to be fine with it.”

“King Koinkar made the decision,” Camilla said. “I had nothing to do with it. Listen, if that bounty does end up getting paid out, I’ll figure something out. I’ll talk to him when he’s not as upset, or try to make it up to you myself.”

“Yeah, you fucking better.”

“Please consider this my formal complaint,” Asmo said.

“Listen, it’ll only be a problem if the bounty actually gets paid out. If he dies from anything else, you’ll be fine. Or if he escapes.”

“Escapes? Where’s he going?”

“I don’t know. But you saw the Divinations. He was obviously headed in some specific direction. Listen, the point is, if he dies, or if these gods-forsaken Demons leave our lands, you’ll be okay.”

“Well, I’ll be rooting for either one. I just want this shit to be over. I don’t want to ever see that damned Demon that keeps coming to talk to us ever again.”

“Yes. Hopefully it won’t be an issue for much longer.”