Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 208: An Unsettling Meeting

Diane and Zoey were both back inside the Inn as only hallway through her search for a priest, Lana had run into Erika and Aria making their way back from purchasing essential potions. With a flicker of mana and a bit of help from the grumpy Asmodia, Erika managed to get the duo back to health, although the stress from the incident was still keeping them from waking up.

"This is gonna be a mess," Amedith whispered, his hand laying on Daine's stomach as he checked for himself if there were any traces of a curse. But since his holy magic returned nothing, he pulled his hand away and turned to Zoey instead. "Another automaton, huh?"

Shifting his eyes to Lana who'd been sitting in a dark corner of her room, just rocking her body front to back with anxiety, he wondered why they hid the truth for so long, especially since Raven had been intimate with her already.

"And this bitch…" Leaning against the door, Aria kept staring at Lilith who was standing on the opposite side of the room. "Try stealing from me next time and I'll beat your face into the ground."

Meaning every word of it with her silver eyes quite literally flaring up with blood. A bit timid about facing her if it came to it, Lilith kept her head dejected to the ground.

'Ughhh, I shouldn't have told her that I used her potion.' She thought to herself, regretting ever telling the dark elf about using the stolen potion.

"Well at least, the two are breathing. Hopefully, they wake up soon and wash any doubts we have about their well-being," Erika added, looking sideways at the duo lying on the bed.

"Is there anything I can do?" Lana asked the priestess out of pure desperation, but instead of her, the answer came from Mel.

"Take this and make some tea," growing a sapling out of her palm, Mel plucked the herb out and handed it to the anxious elf. "It should help you calm down for when the two wake up."

Although reluctant, Lana took a deep breath and tried to gulp down her anxiety. Getting to her feet right after, she walked over to the door to the kitchen and gave one last glance across the room before making her way out.

"I…I'll make something for you people to eat too," grateful beyond words for their help, she finally took off, ready to prepare a hearty yet healthy meal.

In the meantime, silence loomed inside the couple's bedroom, and only the sound of Diane and Zoey's breaths could be heard whistling through the air. But then, Liliyana who'd been quiet throughout the whole thing decided to speak.

"What are we gonna do about the guy who stabbed them?" Her eyes staring at Zoey's innocent face, she was reminded of the numerous times throughout the week that she and Zoey had been playing together in either the backyard or the stables where the guest's horses had to be taken care of. "He's not getting off light if Raven finds out, but what do you guys wanna do? Speak your mind if you would."

For a moment silence took over once again, but then Aria propped herself straight off the wall and responded.

"No mercy, right?" She said, her eyes scanning through everyone's expression.

"I agree," replied Erika, a faint smirk plastered across her face.

Mel and Amedith, however, were both unsure. After all, they were inside a city not their own, and instead of a monster, their target would be a conscious human. In that case, should he be tried in front of a judge, or should his fate be sealed by their merciless blades?

"We can't kill him," Mel protested.

Getting back on his feet from kneeling all this while, Amedith turned around–humming in agreement.

"We're no judge, nor a jury, and we most definitely can't be the executioners," he added further.

But to everyone's surprise, the two-to-two vote was broken by Liliyana and not in a way that they could've expected.

"No mercy it is then," despite her cheery nature, being a devil and a dark fae, she saw murder for murder as an appropriate punishment. If anything her fae nature made her want to torture the guy until he begged for death, and only then she would let him die–slowly and with his last moment filled with agonizing pain.

"He could've killed them both had Lilith not used that potion, but that doesn't change that he had every intention to murder them."

"She's right," Aria backed Liliyana as soon as she was finished speaking.

Erika seemed just as pleased with the suggestion and while Mel seemed conflicted she was slowly gravitating towards agreeing with the devil-fae. Only Amedith, who'd been blessed or perhaps cursed with a sense of righteousness ingrained in his magus soul, didn't agree with the decision at all.

"We're not killing him, but…" Reminded of his own agony from a while back, the ex-hero had a plan that could help them exact revenge without resorting to murder. "Fuck me, I'll talk to Raven about it. He's gonna have the last say in this anyways I'm sure."

Looking around everyone's faces, it seemed like they all agreed to wait for their leader to make a final decision about the matter. And with the decision coming to a conclusion for now, Amedith who'd just come back from a smithy not long ago today, reached into his pocket and took out a handful of paper-wrapped earrings from inside.

"Until he comes here, here each one of you wear one," handing out the earring to everyone, he began to explain exactly what he'd made from the orb of darkness made from Maine's scales. "Encompass the dark pearl in your mana so that it doesn't consume light until you let the mana film down."

Unwrapping his own earrings, he hooked it into his left earlobe–which he'd only just recently pierced for jewelry. Letting down the wrap, he made sure to cover the dark jewel in his holy magic, which in turn made it burn like a white lamp.

"Now if I let down my mana from it," demonstrating it by letting down his mana from the earning, he had the entire room consumed by darkness. However, quickly putting the mana film back on, he returned the light as if he was flicking an on-and-off switch.

"I can't see properly in the dark, I think Aria you can, but since you can't use mana, stay close to me so I can help you keep that earring covered with my own mana."

Turning his attention to Mel next, Amedith noticed that she'd wrapped the earring in a film of moss and minute branches. Making the jewelry look much better than its base dark look. As for Erika, who'd enveloped her own with her now crimson aura, her earring was glowing a deep red with a slight flicker of blues, that almost made it appear like a sea of red and blue glitter revolving like a planet.

"I like this," being the last to put the earrings on, Liliyana had a similar effect on the earrings as Amedith although hers was slightly gray while his was a golden white color.

"Nothing to do than wait now, I guess?" He heaved, taking a seat on a nearby chair.

While the group awaited the return of their leader, Raven was having a mini-adventure of his own with Amelia walking by his side. The people looked on to them, knowing who the centaurian was. They wanted to lash out, to burn her alive for killing their king, but with Raven on her side–someone who'd become quite the legend for allegedly defeating Avarice, none of them even dared lift a finger.

'We shouldn't stay in the city much longer,' realizing that leaving Amelia alone for even a second could end in tragedy, Raven decided to speed up his plans without knowing that they would be squashed by the hitch at the Bricks And Cobbles Inn.