BXBX NOVEL Chapter 76: The Schemer.
"Absolutely, rest up for tonight." Ikaris smiled at her, and Lily spared one more glance to Han and then gave Ikaris a bow again.
"Then, I will take my leave, be vigilant milady, monsters lurk around every corner." She warned her, but Ikaris only smiled at her and nodded again, slightly pushing her back so she would leave comfortably.
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Han mumbled watching the veteran leave before looking at Ikaris. "Where have you been?"
"I just said I was clearing my head," Ikaris stood at attention with her gaze set on the dark horizon. "I did not stutter."
"You were out with Sol again, neglecting your duties as a hero-"
"Do not pester me little man, I am in an exceptionally good mood tonight, I do not wish to sully it with any pointless quarrelling-"
"You can't keep running off whenever you please, even if you don't take orders from the queen at least have some pride and act like a hero for once instead of playing hookie with that bastard!" Han snapped at Ikaris, and a moment later his voice was quieted when the air around him vibrated and an unseen force started squeezing his head.
"Han, you are only the leader of the heroes' party by title, nobody listens to, respects, or even likes you outside of battle, the only thing that merits your leadership is making good decisions in the moment," She slowly turned her head to him.
"You do not have any standing with me as a hero, nor as a man, you do not qualify to approach me for any reason whatsoever, remember that the next time you believe you have any right to speak to me as if we are equals, I might just accidentally break your neck."
Several minutes elapsed silently, with Ikaris as stoic as she could have ever been and Han fumbling through his mind.
"Ikaris," He broke the silence, and instead of answering, she only looked over at him.
"Those were some hurtful words," He admitted.
"They are the truth." Ikaris looked forward again, smiling while she thought of Sol holding and confessing to her.
"Can you help me?" He asked her, and her smile faltered after she raised a brow at him.
"I don't know how to be a better person, I fall back into old traits and bad habits all the time, I want to change, but I don't know how; I need guidance..."
"And you think I can guide you?" She stared at him as if he was an idiot.
"Everyone likes you, despite what are supposed to be flaws, you are still beloved, you even managed to turn Dina into a friend and nobody hated you like she did, what did I do different?" Han stared at her as she seemed to be showing interest to the question.
"I did noting but be myself, I do not care if the gods themselves hate me as long as Sol doesn't, it is not a matter of making people like you, it is knowing where your priorities are and leaving them to respect those priorities or hate them, it is their choice." Ikaris scoffed.
"On the matter of what I said earlier, it is not true that everyone hates and mocks you, you struck a nerve and I spoke out of spite, so sorry," She turned toward the dark again.
"Can we start over?"
"Eh?"
"As friends, I mean," Han slightly extended his hand to her, taking a step closer.
"Do not casually approach me, you and Sol are not on good grounds as either friends or allies, I do not want to associate with you either," She narrowed her eyes at him and he winced and clasped his outstretched hand.
"So you're saying if Vestic and I were friends we could also be friends?"
"Any friend of his is a friend of mine." Ikaris looked ahead again and summoned a staff made of mana and moulded it into a physical bow then took a deep breath and raised it, blocking an arrow that zoomed toward her face from the darkness.
"-An attack!?" Han spun and summoned his sword, staring into the dark of the night. "I don't sense them!"
[Mana manipulation]
[Tier 5 mana arrow]
[Tier six infernal magic: explosion]
Ikaris raised the bow and took aim as a crimson bolt appeared out of thin air in her grasp.
[Detection]
She activated one more technique and then released the arrow into the air, watching the light it emitted slowly brighten until it was as bright as a flare shooting toward the sky and then falling in a wide arc.
"There is no need to raise an alarm just yet, it is a small party of low level demonkin, but even then, I will alert the others of an approach." She turned and started walking toward the Obelisk while a crimson explosion erupted in the distance.
"What the fuck does she call low level?" Han saw a massive creature in the distance get roasted along with several smaller ones close to it. He closed his eyes and tried using [detection] but nothing came up for him.
"Compared to her and the others, my senses are more attuned to close-quarters combat or midranged fights, I didn't even sense that arrow approach." He looked at the rugged and saw-like end of the projectile that had been aimed at Ikaris.
"...Do I have to become friends with that prick?" He wondered. "Han don't lose faith, If that's what gets you to drop your guard then I definitely won't mind, I'll get you no matter the sacrifice I have to make, Ikaris."
"Han!" Eris came running over and stopping next to him. "What happened?"
"She said it was a negligible advance by the demons," he gestured to the flames in the distance. "Since I can not verify I am forced to believe her words." He gave a half smile sticking the tip of his sword I to the ground as more soldiers joined them.
"You should know that what Ikaris and Dina consider weak are far from it!" Eris shook her hands at him while the soldiers all raised longbows chanting and shooting a flaming arrow each into the direction Ikaris had been attacked from, within a few seconds the area was properly lit as the arrows hit the ground and created steady pillars of flames like massive torches.
"She killed them all...?" Eris stared after she had utilized her healer-unique detection magic and found nothing living in the field of fires.
"As I said," Ikaris walked through the guard unit and placed a chair at the front, sitting with her legs crossed in a lady-like manner and holding out her hand as Sara walked through the darkness and placed a cup of tea in her grasp. "They were low-level," She nodded thanks to Sara who gave her a small bow and then turned to the others.
"Tea anyone?" Sara asked, and the soldiers all stared at her estranged; did being around the fool of the army finally fry her brain, was this not the crusade to repair the barrier before the demons invaded and got to Argom?"
"May I?" Han raised his hand, and Sara quickly approached and held her empty hand before him, causing slight surprise when a small shadow appeared in her palm and a teacup emerged from it. "That's cool..." He took the cup from her palm and lowered it so she could pour for him.
"Sara," Han thought, staring at the battle maid, as that is what she truly was, had her role not been fixated to Sol she would have never been allowed to leave the castle grounds as battlemaids were a part of the Queen's personal detail. "I've had my way with every single maid in the castle except her, he stared at her smile as he thanked her and took the first sip.
"You're unreachable because you never leave Sol's side, and whenever he disappears, so do you." He smiled at her again, complementing the tea while his mind conjured up images of him defiling the maiden, it was a shock when he found out that they were all virgins, which meant of all the battlemaids, Sara was now his set goal.
"While I'm at it, that Renia woman... No, Arla first, I need to, with that body I absolutely need to fu-"
"Sir?" Sara leaned her head.
"Oi dork you're staring." Eris kicked his leg, and he snapped back to his senses and chuckled.
"Sorry, I got lost for a second thinking about how sweet you are," he smiled at her. "Even out here in the darkest hour, you continue to shine with a radiant smile." He praised her.
"Is that so?" Sara closed her eyes and smiled back at Han. "Well thank you, had my sisters not spoken of your... endeavours, I might have fallen for such flattering words coming from the handsome hero of the sword."
"Fuck..."