Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Raven had never been to Helga's house before, and so he was confused as to why she lived in such a modest-looking place. However, the moment she set a cup of tea in front of him and sat down across from him, his attention was once again back on the important matter.

"Have some…" She offered, sliding the cup forward on the coffee table alongside a dozen home-baked cookies. Their shapes closely resembled monsters like dragons, griffins, and a seven-headed dog.

Noticing the confusion on his face about the unique shapes of the cookies, Helga glanced over to her daughters peeking at the two from around a doorframe. Staring them down, she quickly sent them running with giggling and shouts.

"Tell me…" Reaching across the table, the barbarian grabbed Raven's hand and squeezed it tight. "And don't lie."

More than a bit surprised by the sudden change in her behavior, Raven's expression contorted further with confusion.

"About what?"

"That dark elf…" Squeezing his hand even harder, her teeth gritted shut for a moment. "She nicked a book from me, didn't she?"

A flash of doubt in Raven's eyes over whether he should reveal the truth or not; simply confirmed Helga's doubts.

"Ugh…fuck me, I knew I felt someone using his powers for a while," having fought for Murdock himself, she was sensitive to his powers and could feel it even if they were used on the other half of the world.

"Whose powers?" Having not read the tome himself, Raven didn't exactly know about its contents.

Staring at his face for a while Helga picked up her own cup of tea and leaned back into her seat.

"You don't need to know," taking a light sip, a bitter taste spread through her mouth. "Why don't you tell me how she's been making use of those powers and what you've generally been up to recently?"

Thinking it over in his head for just a few seconds Raven decided to make her an offer.

"I've left enough people to keep their obvious secrets for a day, so why don't you tell me who you were talking about and I'll tell you all about how Aria is using the tome's powers." The proposal was fair yet Helga shrugged it off.

"Some secrets should remain that, secrets…" Leaning forward she got up and motioned him to get up as well. "You can leave now, I don't want that scent of a keeper lingering in my house anyways."

'A keeper?' The source of all corruption that permeates into the surroundings, Raven had only ever faced one of them and that too with Helga on his side.

Getting up on his feet he inquired further.

"What the hell do you mean, the scent of a keeper? I haven't been close to one since we fought one together," Raven's words arched a look of concern over Helga's eyes.

Slowly reaching for Raven's arms she squeezed them tight while glaring into his eyes.

"So you've been close to a Keeper without even realizing it?" Her grip got tighter as frustration grew inside her heart. And as it all bubbled out, she shoved him back and growled at his face. "After everything I taught you, and you can't even tell if a horror has been around you?! GET OUT NOW!!"

Astounded by the sudden change in her behavior once more, Raven simply looked at her frowning before she grabbed him once more and dragged him to her house's entrance.

"Don't bring that filth here again!" She screamed, shoving him out of the house before slamming the door shut.

'What the fuck was that?' Still trying to understand what went wrong, Raven was interrupted by the growling of Helga's family dog.

Leering at him, the fluffy pup had its teeth laid bare as he continued to warn him with loud groaning.

"Okay okay, jeezzzz, what crawled up your asses today?" Saying that he left for Linkle's shop again.

However, only halfway through his way there, he noticed something odd that made him stop in his tracks. Hordes of citizens were headed for the upper city with cloth banners held high and horns blaring loudly.

As he approached the group, what he saw only further fuelled his confusion. The people in the crowd were smiling and in a celebratory mood, passing around food, ale, and even flowers to sprinkle through the streets as they moved forward.

"To the Tyrant King's death!" Pronounced a drunken man and everyone roared with joy.

'Shit…this isn't gonna end well.' While the news itself didn't surprise him, the fact that the king's subjects were celebrating his demise was bound to piss off the narcissistic queen–Maria. And from the looks of it, the royal guards rushing down to the lower city on horses were about to paint the streets bloodied.

Looking through the approaching guards, however, he noticed Markus the dark knight, someone he felt could be reasoned with.

'I don't have time to meet up with Maria or else I would've taken this to her directly. Still, I should pay her a visit as soon as possible.' Conjuring a dark wall before the drunken public, Raven flew over to it to talk to Markus.

To his surprise once more, the dark knight stopped before him and said the words.

"A keeper? Have you fought one recently hero?" His words only solidified what Helga had told him, which in turn only concerned Raven more. Getting off of his horse, his armor clanking with every move, the dark knight moved closer to Raven and even placed a hand on his shoulders. Then leaning closer to his ears, he whispered. "Helga told me you were leaving her house, we need to talk."

The mysteries were entangling the more time Raven spent in Athenia. First, it was the keeper's talk, and now another secret conversation that Markus wanted to have.

"What's going on?" He whispered back to the knight, not exactly expecting an answer.

But Markus did give him one.

"The nobles are banding together to overthrow the royal family," Markus pulled away from Raven's ears.

Turning around, he even shooed his own men back to the castle. Being as loyal as they were, they trusted his judgment even more than the current ruling queen.

"Now," shifting his attention back to Raven, Markus clasped his hands and smiled behind that dark helmet. "Where can we have this little chat of ours? The Lifeclover, just where Helga was expecting you to be headed?"

"Y…yeah," Raven responded, a bit bothered by how easily the older generation could see through his every plan.

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