Margret walked and took a seat opposite Joset "I knew I was coming to see the rookie, but I didn't expect to find you here, Eli"
"Don't call me that", Elizabeth spoke with a threatening tone, only for Margret to laugh at her old friend's futile attempts.
"Still haven't changed after all these years, have you, Eli, still trying to scare fear?"
And as soon as those words left her lips, Hal felt a new emotion take root in his soul; it was a great feeling of fear.
It gripped his mind and started to push it to the brink of a mental breakdown. He felt like the entire room was some sort of black, cloudy entity with a myriad of eyes that stared down at him, wishing to take his soul.
And to make it worse, he was alone, he pushed back into his chair, but there was nowhere to run, he closed his eyes and wished it away over and over.
"Go away, go away…go away… please go away" Suddenly, it did. Hal turned to Tai, who was on the floor, his eyes wide with fear and his body wet with sweat.
Margret offered her hand to Tai and helped him back up
"Sorry for exposing you to my gift like that, that is not befitting of your superior, is it?"
'A gift', Hal's eyes moved from Margret to Joset and then to Elizabeth, Joset simply sipped her tea while Elizabeth bore a face of indignation.
"Get your hands off my students, Margaret. Now, I wouldn't want them to go mad in your hands"
Margret smiled, though her smile was a sinister one
"Oh dear Eli, you really don't change, so you still hold a grudge about us breaking up the goddesses of the silver sword, huh?"
Elizabeth looked away from Margret, her face turning red with rage
"Of course I am, we were like sisters until you all decided we should go our separate ways, we might have still been members of the silver sword, but we were not sisters any longer"
Her words carried with them a feeling of deep longing, a feeling Hal didn't expect a person like her to have
"We are still sisters, it's just you who decided to walk away from it all, you let a group define our sisterhood, not us"
Joset's words were as harsh as always and struck Elizabeth deep as she summoned her spear and pointed it directly at Joset, just an inch away from her face
Joset's eyes were calm but intimidating, while Elizabeth's were furious and teeming with bloodlust
"Come on, you two, let's not fight, we do not want to destroy the noble's mansion, do we?"
Margret moved between the two and moved Elizabeth's spear away from Joset, who returned her attention to her cup of tea.
"So are we done here?" Joset's voice sounded irritated as she finally placed her cup down
"Um, can someone explain to us what the hell the Goddesses of the Silver Sword are?"
Hal finally let curiosity win as he prepared for one of them to retort
"Oh, it has been long since we ever told that story, but I will be glad to tell you all about our prime"
Margret stepped away from Elizabeth and came back to sit in front of Hal as a calm smile lining her face
"Back before you or Tai joined the Silver Sword, we were in a team known as the Goddesses of the Silver Sword. We were the most powerful and feared team in all of Ortario, and wherever we went, Glory followed. We even had cool names back then"
"And what cool names were those?" Tai asked eagerly as he found himself a seat next to Hal
"We were called Goddess. I was the looming terror, the Goddess of Fear. Joset over there was the silencing string, the puppet master and Goddess of control, and Eli was the Queen of the battlefield and taker of crowns, the one and only Goddess of war"
Hal did not know if those names were supposed to be intimidating, but one thing did ring out to him: this world was not governed by gods but by concepts, so where did such a word come from
'What are gods in this world anyway?'
The thought lingered in his mind as he was suddenly dragged out of his focused thought by a hit from a surprisingly fluffy hand.
"What are you thinking about, you idiot?"
He held his forehead as he opened his eyes to see the white teddy bear Hally standing in front of him with a smile on its face.
"Oh, it's you, Hally. Why in the hell did you do that?"
Hal chuckled mischievously as it stroked back the hair it didn't even have
"Because I felt like it", Hal let out a sigh. He wondered how this ever came from a person as cold as Joset, but it also reminded him of her condition
'Her mind will continue to shatter until there is nothing left'
By the time Hal finally brought his attention back to Margret's story, she was talking about their many achievements, such as slaying a greater beast
Tai, on the other hand, listened attentively as if entranced by the story and at this point, Hal heard Joset's voice call out to him
It was whisper-filled with a calm, soothing cold, a trait he had only seen in Joset so far
"So Hal, how has life here been for you guys, and how is Lyrrah?"
Hal opened his lips and closed them again before finally calming his guilt
"Elizabeth told us Lyrrah will be fine, and as for life here, it's nice actually, I get to be in the capital, eat good food, and I even managed to get a card that lets me into the congregation of knowledge"
Margret went silent as every person in the room suddenly turned to him, stunned
"How did you get something that expensive? That card is supposed to cost about two hundred fifty blue jade"
Joset's cold eyes were now filled with curiosity as she waited for the answer to her question
Hal paled. How the hell did he let that slip, and now they want to know how he got his hands on it, yet he doesn't have their answer
"Umm, well, a noble gave it to me after I helped them out"
Hal tried giggling a little to help his situation, but it seemed to make it worse as Elizabeth now stepped forward, her spear resting on her shoulder
"They must have been some pretty influential nobles to give you something that expensive, so who were they?"
"I... don't know"
Hal almost had a heart attack as he saw Elizabeth tighten the grip on her spear, only to make it vanish with one flick of her hand.
"Was it from the Aquilia family? They were the ones that sent you that letter, weren't they?"
Hal felt like there was no choice but to push the blame onto the nobles, and besides, it's not like Elizabeth could do anything against a noble family.
"If that's the case, then maybe I'll pay the Aquilia house a visit"
There was a dark glint in her eyes as if the visit excited her in one way or another, but there was no better chance to ask than this
"So, can I go?" Elizabeth's eyes fell upon him like a predator eyeing its prey before she finally said
"I have no problem with it, plus don't people like you require feeding on knowledge or run the risk of running mad?"
Hal knew this quite well; in fact, he had been battling his hunger quite frequently these past few days with especially after meeting that mad woman and his talk with the detective.
"Yes, we do, Lady Elizabeth and I would like to thank you for letting me go"
Hal's smile widened as he suddenly stood up to prepare before he heard
"But on one condition"
Hal felt his body shiver as he asked
"And what would that be?"
Elizabeth smiled at him with that sinister smile of hers, making Hal shiver slightly.
"You will only be going there this weekend, and until then, you will be practising twice a day with me in the aspect of wielding multiple weapons"
"What?!" The boys both shouted in shock as Tai even stood up to face Elizabeth
She kept her voice calm as she quickly gave a reason for her answer
"The reason I'm doing this is because Tai has been improving at a rapid rate, while your rate of improvement has slowed significantly; that's why I'm doing this"
"Then, how about the second thing of wielding multiple weapons?"
Tai sounded extremely irritated by the prospect of Hal having extra training, especially in an aspect he was not part of, and to tell the truth, Hal felt his pain.
"Because you are already tuned to your sword, teaching you how to you another weapon from scratch will take a lot, but for a fletcher like him, it won't be so difficult to teach him how to wield another weapon or more"
Tai wanted to speak again, but something held him back as before. He even tried again, but Elizabeth interrupted
"And as for you, I'm increasing the intensity of your training. I will drill every aspect of sword play into your head until you can defeat me with that sword and no other weapon"
Those words seemed to put Tai at ease as the sound of hand claps resounded from behind them.
"What a good teacher you are, Elizabeth? I wish Velto turned out as good as these two will"
Margret giggled at Elizabeth, who gritted her teeth and turned away from her old friend.
"Huh, I wish to leave now, Margret. I only came here to check on these three, not to rekindle old friendships, so are we going?"
Margret turned around with disappointment on her face, but Joset's eyes stayed as cold as ever as she got up and began to walk away from the living room.
Margret sighed and turned back to Elizabeth
"See you soon, then Eli"
Elizabeth's face twisted with disgust as she turned away and left the room. There was something weird about their interaction that Hal didn't quite get.
There was something off with the three no there was only one person who had something off with them.
"Hey Hal, good luck with your mission. I hope you get your identity back"
Hal's eyes widened as he stared at Margret, who had turned back to him with a smile. He quickly stepped back and bumped into Tai, who was behind him
"Hey, are you okay, Hal?"
He wished he were, but as he stood there staring blankly at her, only one thought flew into his head.
'Not human…Definitely not human.