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The turbulent ponta patrol finally made it to the capital! We walked through the Streets full of bustling market stands and people trying to get to work in the early hours of the evening.
As we shuffled into an alley in order to look for any suspicous activities when ponta seemed to grow tense and a hesitant "kyiii" "kyiii" could be heard.
This alerts Chiyome who spies a shadow on a nearby rooftop and the group of 4 freeze in place when they spot a humanoid shadow staring right back at Chiyome.
I spot Ariane start to ready her blade when the shadow jumps down from the roof to the empty space right in front of us.
"Woah! Lady Ariane what is tha-" i began to vocalise when the shadow abruptly started speaking "Hmm, you guys look strong, think you could help me out here?"
I looked over to Ariane whos golden eyes were tracing a silhouette around the shadows digure and she slowly slided her sword back into place when she saw an object of interest.
It was, seemingly, an elven woman.
"You'see i got this ring round my neck and its making me leak mana all over the place, think ya' could help a dame out?"
Ponta relaxed upon seeing that the stranger didnt seem to mean much harm.
I blinked and stared at Chiyome who seemed just as clueless as to what to do in this situation and as I reached forward Ariane seemed concerned but she was curious to see what would happen, so she didnt intervene.
My armored glove took hold of the ring meant to tame beasts used by Fumba to control the basilisk, and snapped it in half.
It took a solid second, but the mess of an elf soon regained composure, she stood at an impressive 185cm tall with her green hair covering the left side of their face.
Ariane seemed to take a step back at the elf noticable relief before making a careful remark "thats not... spirit magic"
"Hmm?" What do you mean Ariane?
"It's too raw to be spirit magic but that cant be unless..."
"Yeah yeah i use soul magic whatevs, now what ya want help with?"
Ariane blinked as if not being quite sure what to answer so the elf reasonably decided to take the lead "how about we discuss payment in a more secure location?" It took me a moment to understand what she meant "wait" i said, "you want to repay us for helping you?"
Chiyome, Ponta and Ariane all looked through my helmet and i could feel cold sweat down my spine (can skeletons sweat?)
"Actually thats not a bad idea, what do you think Chiyome?"
"Sounds good to me"
"Would you... like to borrow my cloak? I do not think humans would react well to an elf in their settlement"
The elven woman blinked before replying "oh, no need i can just do this" before seemingly transforming into a human woman.
"GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY AAAAHH" could be heard from the mountain girl, Chiyome behind me which showed that shapeshifting is indeed not a normal ability in this world, and in fact an ability i do not possess despite many believing that im horribly overpowered.
And so with Ariane staring daggers at me we started wandrring around the town aking locals for directions until we found an inn to stay at for a little while until the situation got sorted.
We scurry into the small room and the strange woman now drops her human disguise, however, instead of turning into an elf like before, she becomes a rather tall beastperson, with goat horns to match.
Spirits, I wish I was back ar lahkis merchant store.
Chiyomes ears twitch, still not used to the abnormal ally next to us.
"Can you atleast like warn us before you do that?!?!?" Ariane proclaimed and the now beast person apologized and we sat down for a long conversation about how they, Charlie it seemed, would help us to liberate the Elves and Beast people enslaved by the locals.
Now, we came to the more personal part of the conversation, the limits of such an ability. Ever since i came to this world ive been able to teleport, however only to previously visited locations, a similiar flaw might be shared with shapeshifting after all.
It seemed like Chiyome had spotted a flaw as it was abundantly clear that she was staring straight at Charlie.
"I cant help but notice Charlie, your left eye seems to remain purple besides everything else shifting, is there a reason?"
"Oh, well, long story short i dont hath a left eye which means that i use a large amount of magic to make it look like i have one!"
I must admit, her accent seemed to have mostly slipped away with the collar we removed that looked suspicously similar to the hydra and wolves from way back.
They kept talking for a while and i zoned out and soon it was time for us to leave to free the enslaved!
"Now lets see... how do we get in there?" I grumbled for a bit before being interrupted by Chiyome standing in the shadows
"I see an opening" she stated while point towards a small window near the roof of the building, this would be an issue if i couldnt easily teleport us in there.
"Okay hold on!" I carry Lady Ariane brudar style whilst Charlie and Chiyome hold onto my armours shoulder pads.
Through my helmet i can see a large dusty room with broken floor boards and scratch marks on the walls as i feel a shiver of wind traverse up my spinal cord.
Unlike the Salma kingdom, kidnapping and enslavement of elves and beastmen is not illegal in the western empire which means that our actions tonight, releasing the prisoners can get us in trouble. Not like it matters when we can all mess stuff up! "Isnt that right Ponta!"
A small exasperated "kyii kyii" can be heard while Ariane sighs wondering what thought just lingered over my mind.
Chiyomes ears perked up and we scrambled to get into a defensive position. A small frail 30- something year old man with a matted beard entered the storage room carrying a dusty wooden chest.
Before the man could even utter a word Ariane had already incapacitated him.
"Hey Charlie?" Uttered Ariane quietly to avoid anyone from the floors down below suspecting anything being wrong.
"Ja what is it?" The now human Lady looked at Ariane knowingly as if she already knew what she was gonna ask of her.
"Would it be possible for you to turn into this guard?" She responded. "I think it would be best for you and Chiyome to go ahead and for me and Arc to deal with any issues."
The seemingly human woman took a second to herself before agreeing. She swiftly looked over the collapsed man before standing up and soon she looked nearly identical to the man.
I kneeled down and peeked inside the box and what I found horrified me. A box filled to the brim with Mana-eating collars.
Ariane gave Charlie and Chiyome the signal to go ahead alongside a piece of paper and a pen she found in the room, why this storage room had a paper in it only the spirits knew.
"Uh... Ariane?"
"What is it Arc?"
Ariane noticing the chest had her face turn a whole different shade of pale lilac.
"Mana-eating collars?, but-, what are they doing in storage?" We looked at eachother in realization that this people selling building was much more populated than expected.
I made a mental note to revisit this room later when we had freed the captives.
We walked through the small doorway before we started descending a narrow pair of stairs. I teleported across the incoming hallway with Ariane next to me until we spot another staircase. This place really seems understaffed for a building in such a marge settlement.
a large mass could be heard rushing nearby, but the guards did not seem to be running to the captives where Chiyome and Charlie should be. Just what did they tell the guards?
When the 30 or so guards clad in full, equisite, plate armour had passed we descended the staircase leading to the location where Charlie and Chiyome should be.
Charlie was propped up on a guards chair with Chiyome quietly by her side.
"You made it! I was really worried when i saw all those guards!" Ariane stated. "How did you guys trick them?"
The mountain girl looked over to Charlie as if she had all the answers in the world. "Well, the man was meant to be keeping watch for escapees. So, they heeded my call for help at the western side of the city."
Chiyome nodded before stepping into the conversation. "We have until noon before the guards suspect anything"
"They should be gone now" Chiyome stated, pulling out a pair of keys they had seemingly gotten from a real guard.
"So, what do you say we open these cages, Arc?"