The Sword Saint’s Second Life As a Fox Girl

5-47 Drivel

Erin forewent any thoughts of exploring and headed straight back to the guild to turn in the quest. After her encounter with the supposed Apostle of Chronos, Erin had become high-strung, wary of anyone. She had become infamous, she realised. News and information travelled far too quickly in this world. If Amelia’s words held any truth, the whole continent most probably knew of her by now.

Erin’s mood soured at that notion. Fame was often seen as a boon but only to people of a green mind. Fame only made one a target to those who sought to reave others of their wealth, and those people were just the least dangerous of the ones who gathered around fame-ridden individuals. The most dangerous ones were those who hid their intentions under the guise of amity or a guise that invokes one’s sympathy.

As Erin paid more attention to her surroundings than before, the nuance and subtleties she picked on were concerning and disturbing. Though she had long since accustomed herself to the gazes of lechers, their desires and pheromones were a different experience. It made her stomach churn when she took notice of the small tents pitched under them. Even some women and girls were no different. Fluids trickle down their legs in streams as thin as the finest reeds.

The cloud moved. The shadows shifted. A drunken man passed out in an alley, stirred from the small change of illumination. That faint movement alone pricked at Erin’s senses like a needle stuck into one’s buttocks. She flinched but only a slight twitch in the eyes of the untrained.

“What is it?” Lyra asked.

“Kyu?” Ruri tilted, seeming to be asking the same question given the eyes wrought with worry.

“Nothing,” Erin said. “A mistake on my end. Just the day moving closer to night but I took it for a heralding of an ambush.”

“That’s not nothing, Erin.” Nivia, who had been walking behind the two, strode up beside Erin. “Wary of shadows during the day is not a sign of a sound mind. You need to temper your vigilance.”

“My vigilance is tempered enough. We do not know who or where the enemies are but they do. We are at a huge disadvantage.”

Lyra glanced around. Her eyes could see further and clearer than everyone else in her party. However, she was unable to see past the surface. When she looked at the half-naked brawny man with scars all over his body, she saw only his lustful gaze but whatever was hidden beneath that simple desire, she couldn’t say. “We can just treat anyone as enemies until they prove otherwise.”

Ruri nodded at Lyra’s words.

“That’s a foolish idea,” Nivia rebuked. “We will make ourselves utterly mad with that kind of extreme prudence on anyone that we come across.”

“The divines were merciful with our encounter with that apostle. If she meant us harm, we would have and Erin would have been sickened with grief.”

“Be that as it may, casting suspicions on everyone is not the way. The Spirits will guide us.”

Lyra snorted and rolled her eyes. “They sure are helpful with the Apostle.”

“That’s different. They were in the presence of divinity. They are unable to judge presence tinged with divinity unless the individual is absolutely hostile with every intention in their bones to harm you.”

“I’m sure the Spirits will be very helpful in sensing out enemies in the days to come.”

“You need not be sardonic with me, Lyra. The Spirits are not perfect but they are better than casting suspicions on anyone we cross paths with.”

Erin ignored the bickering between the two that had become all too common and continued in casting her vigilance all over her surroundings. She didn’t notice it before but there were people stalking her. It wasn’t new to her, to be stalked. However, these stalkers were unlike any other. They blended well with the other onlookers. Their gazes appeared to be offhanded but upon scrutiny, a few of these gazes had a rhythm to them. No passing gazes would ever have a rhythm unless they were to look unpremeditated.

There were lots of drunkards in the streets. Some stumbled their way around and some collapsed in places that were most ill-suited to be sleeping in. The former were the ones Erin was most wary of, or so she thought. There was a drunkard on the ground, leaning against a lamp pole. He was in rags. His face flushed with the alcohol he drowned himself in. His gaze was wandering but every once in a while, his gaze would, without fail, glide past Erin.

Along a certain part of the stretched-out street, there was a small gathering. Gamblers, making do with their games on overturned boxes or barrels. A young man was amongst them. He was dressed in garbs that weren’t too fancy but certainly fancier than the company he surrounded himself with. Just across from him, a middle-aged man was playing against him. The old man would cast cursory glances around him as if to stave off his frustration of the losing game but Erin knew better.

“Say, Erin, where are we going anyways?” Lyra asked. The bickering seemed to have stopped and Nivia trailed behind her with a scowl. The winner of the pitiful quarrel was apparent.

“We need to find Aedan and regroup with the rest.”

“How are we going to find him? Do we even know where he went with Lilian?”

“I do.”

“He told you?”

“No.”

“Scent?”

“Spirits.” Like her, Aedan was a beacon for Spirits. And in such a crowded place, where many people incompatible with Spirits gathered, the Spirits would naturally flock over to the closest haven. A single glance told her all she needed of Aedan’s whereabouts. A tower of light could be seen a few buildings down the street.

“That tall beam of Spirit light, that must be Aedan,” said Nivia.

“What about Amyra and Siv? How would they find us or Aedan?”

“Amyra is an Apostle of Aeryon. I’m sure if she prays hard enough, she can know Aedan’s whereabouts easily.”

“Really?”

“No. Just some foolish drivel.”

****

It was no drivel, Erin was surprised to learn. After they turned in their quest, they headed towards the direction where Aedan was. As Erin closed in on Aedan’s whereabouts, her paths crossed with Amyra and Siv. As it turned out, Amyra learned of Aedan’s whereabouts by simply praying. Together, they entered an inn and shared their experiences for the day while climbing the stairs leading them to the rooms.

The innkeeper, who was an elderly woman, tried to stop them at first but a smile from Erin was all it took to placate the innkeeper’s advance. She was not intimidated by the smile. Rather, she looked infatuated. Her face was flushed deep red as her gaze trailed after Erin up the stairs.

Neither of the two parties was surprised by the others’ encounters. They were much too infamous in the midst of their opposing peers. Their deeds in Sephrodia Valley had surely caused a huge stir in the world’s power balance. They had forced the Covenant into a retreat and out of the Yorun Kingdom.

“If we are to have an extended moment of respite to ourselves, we would need to disguise ourselves,” Amyra suggested.

“It would need to be a disguise that even gods couldn’t see through,” Siv said. “Our composition is much too notorious to be disguised without extreme prudence.”

“If that’s so, maybe it would be best for us to take different paths in our journey. We can converge at certain milestones.”

“I’m not splitting from Erin,” Lyra immediately gave a firm answer.

“I don’t wish to be apart from Erin either.”

Amyra shrugged. “It’s just a suggestion. Not necessarily a good one.”

Suddenly, as they were walking through the corridor of the second floor, Siv and Erin shook and flinched. Ruri also made a face of discomfort and buried herself in Erin’s breast pocket. In an instant, Amyra, Lyra, and Nivia had their weapons ready.

“Enemies?” Nivia asked.

Siv immediately shook her head. Her face grew redder and redder by the second.

“Ah.” Amyra withdrew her sword. Siv’s face told Amyra all she needed to know. “So that’s what it was.”

Lyra and Nivia were baffled at first but when Siv covered her nose with an abashed expression, they could roughly guess what the two might have sensed or smelled.

Instead of abashed or even allowing some hesitation, Erin strode right to the end of the corridor. Before she could knock on it, the door creaked open and Aedan’s head peaked out from between the gap. To say the least, Aedan was a mess. His hair was in disarray as if a strong gust had blown past him. Not to mention, his face was glistening with fluids that gave off a tantalising stench.

Erin grimaced. “At least you had fun,” she said and pushed past Aedan, inviting herself into the room. It was the biggest room the inn had, taking up a quarter of the whole floor. There were two large beds on one side of the room and on one of the two beds, Lilian was lying unconscious.

The Dryad was completely in the nude with only a thin sheet of blanket covering half of her body. She looked utterly exhausted but content was all too apparent on her face. That wasn’t all there was on her face, or on her body. Nearly all manners of bodily fluids covered her body and all of these fluids served to incite Erin’s lust.

Erin sighed and sat down beside Lilian. She pulled the sheets up until it covered the Dryad’s shoulder.

Meanwhile, the rest of the girls shuffled into the room awkwardly.

“Ugh, by the Spirits!” Nivia uttered upon entering the room, pinching her nose. “Can’t you at least open the windows?”

Aedan titered and took a seat by the window that he promptly opened to let the fresh air in. “Then the spell would break and the whole town would hear Lilian’s cries.”

“Great. Now I’m aroused,” said Lyra, eyeing Erin lustfully.

“Where’s Aera?” Erin asked when she finally took her mind off of the utterly satisfied Lilian.

“She went out to fetch us some water,” Aedan answered.

Erin raised an eyebrow. “You did nothing to Aera?”

“I gave her as much love as I gave Lilian.”

“Lilian’s sleeping like a log and Aera is still fine to be walking around?”

“She’s a surprise for sure. She’s got quite the stamina. If she wasn’t so mortified by her own lust, I say we would still be going at it now.”

Erin rolled her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Aedan tilted his head. “I took you for the envious type but not the jealous type.”

Amyra sat down beside Aedan, on the floor. “We are famous, that’s what’s wrong.”

“Ah, I see.” That was all Aedan needed to hear. “Who are the annoying shits this time?”

“I bumped into the Rust faith,” answered Amyra.

“That can’t be good,” Aedan muttered.

“And also Chronos,” said Erin. “An Apostle of Chronos is who we met, or so she claimed.”

“Chronos? That’s unexpected.” The name seemed to prick at Aedan’s mind.

“I’m sensing a history there.”

“The Divine of Aeon, or in simpler terms, the god of time.”

“We figured,” Lyra grumbled.

“Aeryo and Chronos were— are siblings, in a sense.”

“In a sense?”

“Their concept of family is different from us mortals. They don’t exactly fuck and then birth out their legacy. It’s something different but that’s beside the point.” 

“Does this mean Aeryo has the power to control time too?” Nivia inquired.

“No. Neither Aeryo nor Chronos were born with the powers they have now. It is something they acquired or inherited. Aeryo and Chronos were once a single faith under the guidance of two Divines.”

“What happened? Sibling quarrels?”

Aedan nodded. “To put it lightly, yes. And that quarrel led to a fight between two Divines. No one won or lost. It was a draw. However, Aeryo suffered the most wounds and those wounds are the reason that the throne of the Dragon God is now vacant.”