Rosie's Games

Chapter 221: A Mass of Darkness

A thick suffocating silence wrapped inside the pub. Then there was chaos.

"You—"

"Kill them!"

"Kill them all!"

Before Rosalind could even blink, a fight ensued right before her very eyes. She stilled, unable to react. She already lived another life but this was the first time that she encountered something like this!

"Ah!" she felt herself being lifted up and the next thing she knew she was already out of the pub. The moment she saw the outside of the pub, Rosalind immediately used her light Blessing to hide.

"What about them?" she asked.

"What about them?"

"Well—"

"They can handle a fight on their own. Or did you want to help them?"

Rosalind shook her head. The two then continued walking away from the area. Surprisingly, Lonyth just reminded her of the Aster Empire. Although it was a bit smaller and darker, they have the same cobbled streets, wooden houses, and lanterns that hung low around the streets. The only difference was the fact that this place was covered with snow.

The thought of snow made her shiver. She was tightly bundled yet, she could not deny the fact that her body was still not that used to snow all the time.

Almost immediately, she felt his arms around her shoulders— it was clearly an awkward gesture. She lifted her eyes and looked at him only to see him looking at the street ahead of them, avoiding her gaze.

'Fair enough,' she thought. It was only natural for a young man like him to feel awkward, right? This was because he was not used to it. Or was he?

She frowned as they continued walking in the snowy street. She listened to the sound of their footsteps around them. The streets were not really empty. This was because of the people from Cirid seeking refuge in this place.

"Huh?" Rosalind paused. She looked toward her right

"What is it?"

"Oh… no. It was probably nothing." For some reason, she thought she could feel a thick mass of darkness to her right.

"What is it?"

"I just thought I felt something…"

"Dark?"

"Ominous." This was the only term that she could come up with to describe that feeling.

He lifted an eyebrow.

"We should check it out," he said.

"No. I just… perhaps it was because I was tired."

"You felt darkness didn't you?"

"I—" How did he know that? Was she that easy to read? She nodded.

"Then we should check it."

This time, she nodded. She was a bit cold and tired but there was really no harm in checking it. Darkness had always been connected with bad things like curses and beasts and of course, the most famous, Dark Lord.

Lucas wrapped his arms around her and started jumping across the roofs of the buildings. For a few minutes, he jumped past countless roofs, but she had no energy to deal with this as she was too engrossed in that ominous feeling. It was getting thicker and thicker. It seemed so close, she could physically feel it around her.

She frowned.

What was going on here?

Not long after, they finally reached an old store next to a plaza.

"This is where the coronation will happen," Lucas looked at the large space with a huge fountain in the middle. Obviously, there was no running water in the fountain because of the snow.

"Oh?" Rosalind looked around. The space was not as large as the one in Aster but it looked clean. A few merchants were shouting nearby while kids were playing on the opposite side. Various aromas of food wafted toward her and she immediately looked at the food stands on the plaza.

She could not help but appreciate the lanterns around the area. As there was snow everywhere, the lanterns looked like beautiful stars as they illuminated the space around them.

Given that it was snowing and it was already in the middle of the night, this place was still crowded. She wondered if this was because of the refugees from Cirid.

"It's in that store…" she gestured at the store selling swords. "And that one…" she pointed at a fabric store. josei

Then her face turned ugly.

"What is it?" he asked.

"That— I can feel five of them. It's very… dark and…" Whatever it was, Rosalind knew it was something that could kill people— it was made to kill hundreds of people! She swallowed.

"I think we should check that one first." Rosalind pointed at the weapon store. In response, he nodded. They then found an isolated place to remove the illusion before they walked inside the weapons store.

*DING*

The moment they walked in, a sound interrupted the silence inside the store. Rosalind looked around and did not notice anything amiss inside the store. As a weapon store, there were various types of blades and weapons inside the store.

"Dearest customer! Welcome! Welcome! How may I help you today!?" a smiling, middle-aged man bowed at them. He then gestured to them to the space where the blade was located and started asking questions about the weapon that they were looking for. Luckily, Lucas seemed to be very knowledgeable about weapons and easily conversed with the storekeeper.

While Lucas was doing this, Rosalind looked around but was a little disappointed that she did not find what she was looking for. She knew it was here somewhere, but it was not in this room.

"We are uh looking for something unique." Rosalind looked into the man's eyes. "And sinister. Small, something that a woman like me could use and… I was hoping for something that could inflict as much pain on my enemies without killing them."

"Ah!" the man had a look of surprise on his face. However, this did not last long. The surprise was immediately replaced with a knowing smile.

"So, you are looking for something special," he said.

"Yes. Yes. Something special."

"Then you are in luck! We have some new supplies today. Shall I take the two of you to the basement?"