The Red Hand

Chapter 324.5 –  A Gloomy Day in the Holy City.

"Another day, another boring set of meetings..." Hitomi sighed as she sat in a bumpy carriage. She'd just gotten out of a series of meetings with various Nobles, Clergy members, and other important Aristocrats, and was happy to put all those things in the proverbial rear view mirror. Though it wouldn't be long until she was forced to attend more such meetings, and part of her wished those people would all disappear.

{Maybe I'd hate it a bit less if the pandering, infantilizing, and general assholishness were less prevalent. Those people don't see me as anything more than a useful tool, as a symbol that they can parade around to build legitimacy for their faction and gain power. I suppose that's not too different than before. My parents saw me as no different.} (Hitomi)

"I'm supposed to be a Hero, and yet my power extends little further than the battlefield..." Hitomi said as she looked out the window. The sky above the Holy City was growing darker as storm clouds moved in, and there were already drops of rain buffeting off the roof of the carriage as she rode down the street. "I suppose this is my fate. No matter what world I end up in, I've still got to deal with the expectations of others..." She said as stretched her arms to loosen up a bit. "Though at least in this one, I've got someone to fall back on..."

{I wonder what Mom and Dad would think of all this? They'd hate Rafferty for sure... And I wonder what they ended up doing after I disappeared? There would be nobody left to succeed the company, at least not someone who could actually do the job. Maybe they'd get one of my Cousins to do it? Maybe, but that's doubtful. Dad would never want to give the company over to anyone other than his own blood, so he may have pushed Nao into doing it, despite her poor health. Oh well, not my problem...} (Hitomi)

"Though I'd be willing to bet all the gold in my vault that he made her get married and have a kid ASAP, just so that someone would take over." Hitomi said with an eye roll and mocking laugh as she imagined the fate of her sister. "I wonder if she was happy that I was gone? Or maybe she was angry since I basically dumped everything back onto her when she physically couldn't do it?" She shrugged. "Oh well, it's not my problem anymore, none of it is..."

"Lady Hitomi." Her driver's voice sounded through a small window at the front of the carriage, snapping the Hero out of her thoughts. "We have a bit of time until your next engagement. Would you like to head back to the Cathedral?" He asked, figuring that she may want to rest for a bit and get something to eat.

Thinking for a moment about what to do next, Hitomi declined. "No. Instead of heading back, I'd rather you take me to the orphanage, please. I'd like to check on the kids while I have this chance and I don't get enough time to show up in person as much as I'd like." She replied. Hitomi ran a large orphanage in the Holy City, one that was entirely funded by her illicit activities, and that was home to over two hundred kids and teens. It was her pride and joy and one of may similar institutions across Enoris that she'd funded, largely out of a sense of familial shame and regret.

"Of course." The driver said as he powered the carriage through the coming rain, arriving in front of a large stone building around ten minutes later. The downpour continued, but Hitomi wasn't one to simply wait it out, getting out of the carriage not long after they stopped.

"Please watch your step, My Lady." The driver, an old man wearing grey and white priest robes said as he opened the door and handed her an umbrella. “Its a bit slippery.”

"Thank you, Carlos. Feel free to rest inside for a while. I'll try not to take very long, but you may be able to get dry and put your feet up a bit." Hitomi said as she took the umbrella from his hands.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer, and feel free to take as much time as you need, My Lady." Carlos said with a smile as he opened his own umbrella. "The kids here owe a great deal to you, and it always warms my heart to see the smile on their faces." He continued. "To think that this place was on the verge of closing down not that long again! Looking at it now, you'd never imagine these children were days from being out on the streets. Its truly a miracle."

"I only wish I'd started things sooner." Hitomi said as the two walked up the stone walkway. "Too many children were lost... And I could've done more to help."

"You can't save everyone, and I know you know that." Carlos said. "We lost a lot of good people during the Spirit War and because of the Disasters, but your hard work has made it so that we have a future to look forward to. Getting hung up on those you couldn't save means you ignore the lives you did save, and I'd say that in that category you've outdone yourself."

"A future..." Hitomi was hit with a momentary headache as visions of death, destruction, and doom filled her mind. She was still unable to recall Akagi, but the vague understanding that something was coming for her and this world haunted her.

{Do we even have one? We failed in our mission and were sent back here... So doesn't that mean, we failed? Doesn't that mean...} (Hitomi)

"Lady Hitomi!" Before the Heroine could finish her thoughts a group of young children burst out the front door of the orphanage, tackling her to the ground with hugs.

"Ahh! What have I told you about showing respect?!?" An older woman said with an exasperated sigh as she followed the children. "And you've made Lady Hitomi fall into the water! Her dress is going to get filthy!"

"It's fine, Mable." Hitomi laughed as the kids cheered and hugged her. "I'll just use magic to clean up, so don't worry about it." She giggled alongside the children.

"I worry about it because if you keep letting them off like this, they'll eventually do it to someone who's a lot less forgiving than you are, My Lady." Mable sighed. She'd been afraid that the children would treat other Nobles or Clergy like this, and feared that one day they'd end up killed for their actions. "Come on, let Lady Hitomi get up. You can play with her inside." She said in a stern voice that caused the children to tense and snap to attention.

"YES!" The children squeaked as they ran let Hitomi get up and ran inside.

"It's good to see that they have all that energy." Carlos laughed as the three of them went inside. "Kids should be laughing and having fun. Maybe you need to let up a bit with the discipline, Mable. It can't do to be so strict with them all the time!"

"You say that but if I don't keep them on a short leash then they'll end up as troublemakers." Mable said as she took their umbrellas and hung them on a rack. "My mother always told me that children should be seen and not heard, and I'm inclined to agree with her."

{My parents would agree.} (Hitomi)

"Oh don't be so harsh. You were just as bad as they were back in the day." Carlos said with a chuckle.

"I don't know what you're talking about. You must've gone senile if you think I was ever some rambunctious prankster like you." Mable said as she rolled her eyes. The two had known each other for nearly fifty years and were good friends. Carlos had once been the Church's liaison to the orphanage and he was forced to watch in despair as it crumbled due to lack of funds. It was only after Hitomi was summoned to the Holy City eleven years prior that things started getting better. However, despite his joy at seeing the children safe, he was not exactly thrilled with the methods that Hitomi used to gather funding but accepted it as the lesser of two evils.

"I'm surprised that the kids were at the door waiting for me. They usually don't do that." Hitomi commented as she dried herself off with magic. “And its not like they knew I'd be coming in advance. I only decided to come here last minute.”

"Hm? Ah, Lord Hilare informed us of your arrival." Mable's mention of the God of Crafting and Money caught Hitomi off guard, something that the old woman noticed. "I was under the impression that the reason you came here was to speak with him. He said something about expecting you so I figured you knew."

"I..." Hitomi paused for a moment, not knowing what to say. "I was not actually not aware that he'd come to the City, and him being here is unexpected." Having a God actually come down to the Holy City was a rarity and generally not a good sign. Though Hilare was one of the nicer Gods and did tend to interact with mortals a bit more than most.

"I see. Well, he's waiting for you in the drawing room. I've already set out tea. Please, follow me." Mable said as she started down the hallway.

{Why would he of all the Gods be here? It's not like Lord Hilare to leave the Heavens for no reason. Does it have something to do with that rumor that Lady Tahena has died?} (Hitomi)

"I suppose it was good that we came." Carlos said to her in a whisper.

"He would've found me no matter what." Hitomi replied, noting that Gods rarely did anything without planning it well in advance. "I'll speak to him alone, so go and spend a bit of time with Mable and the kids. I figure that you don't want to meet with a God anyway."

"As blasphemous as it may sound, I'd rather not. Though I shall pray that all goes well." Carlos said with a polite bow as Hitomi caught up to Mable. She was quickly directed to a small room that was usually used to welcome guests, and within was a tall, buff, and rugged-looking man who stood at least ten feet tall.

"Ah, there you are!" Hilare said with a booming voice that shook the windows. "It's good to see you again, Hitomi." He came over and pulled her into a tight hug that threatened to do to her what Catkagi did on a semi-regular basis.

"Dying..." Hitomi said as she was squeezed.

{I forgot he does this...} (Hitomi)

"Oops, sorry." Hilare apologized as he set her down. "Gale will kill me if I kill you, so let's not do that." He laughed. “Though I guess we could always just bring you back!”

"It's fine." Hitomi said with a wry smile as she fixed her outfit. "I'm used to nearly dying by now. Though I'll ask again that you refrain from squeezing people like that. One of these days, you'll make someone burst like a balloon, and I'd rather not be killed and revived so easily."

"Oh don't be like that! It hasn't happened yet and your body is pretty strong!" Hilare laughed. "But all jokes aside, it's good to see you, My Dear." He pat her on the back forcefully. "Elariel told me all about your misadventure in that other world. I'm sorry that you had to go through something so harsh." He said with sadness in his voice. "And I'm... I'm also sorry about Shiroe. We'll do whatever we can to bring her home safe."

"I appreciate it, and I know that you'll figure out a way to bring her home." Hitomi replied with a wry smile. "But why are you here now?" She asked the all important question. "You're not the kind of God who just shows up unannounced and for no reason." She figured that he had something to either give or tell her, since that's exactly why he'd appeared in the past.

{Is it a new weapon? Maybe some Armor? Or perhaps its something relating to the Gods' secret plan? Rafferty won't tell me who is in on it for secrecy reasons, but I'd bet good money that Hilare is part of the team working on it.} (Hitomi)

"Can't I just come down to say hi?” Hilare asked, pretending to be hurt before laughing. “But in all seriousness I wanted to check on you. Elariel mentioned some kind of block that was keeping part of your memories suppressed and I was interested in giving a go at removing it." Hilare said as he summoned a magic hammer out of thin air.

"Please don't try to force it away..." Hitomi sighed as she pictured him trying to crack her head open like an egg. "My head isn't as tough as the metal you work on."

"Nonsense! In my time I've never known anything to work better at fixing an issue than percussive maintenance!" Hilare laughed. “Hitting things tends to make them better!”

{I think this is a bit harder to handle than an annoying printer that refuses to work even though it's got all the ink it requires.} (Hitomi)

"All jokes aside..." Hilare said as he lightly tapped her on the head with his hammer. "Hmm... Yeah, that's..." He could instantly tell that it was a Demon Lord's power that was sealing her memories, but chose to keep that to himself.

{Elariel was right, something fishy is going on here. Either we've got a real Demon Lord running around or my prediction came true. Neither of which is good, though I suppose if its scenario B it won't be as bad, though I'll owe Esquire a new set of armor.} (Hilare)

"Can you remove it?" Hitomi asked if getting rid of the block was possible. "I'd like to be able to give you all a better report of what happened, and this seal is blocking out key parts of my memory." She figured that whatever happened on Earth was related to the so-called Demon Lord that was allegedly running riot across Enoris.

{Why seal our memories anyway? Why not just kill us?} (Hitomi)

"Hmmm. Well, I think that if If I hit you really hard with this, it might work." Hilare shrugged.

"I'll take a rain check on that..." Hitomi groaned.

"To answer your question about removing it, the answer is sadly no." Hilare said as he made the hammer vanish. "Or at least, it will take a bit more work to do it without lobotomizing you. Your body is strong, but I doubt it would survive the amount of force I need to try and remove that seal." He wasn't even sure he could remove it and wasn't willing to take that gamble with Hitomi's life anyway. “We could still try though.” He winked.

"Let's not..." Hitomi sighed again. "Is that all you came for though?" She figured there was more to it than that.

"No. No, I actually came here to check on something else." Hilare said as he took a seat on the couch. "Hitomi, have you ever heard the name Enūma?"

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