Soul Art Online: Chapter 27: A Narrow Escape

Soul Art Online

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 27: A Narrow Escape

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- Arthas -

I looked at Veena, who crept in between my legs slowly, taking her time, running her hand on my thigh, reaching to my crotch.

But unlike what I had expected, she didn't touch it and instead got on top of me, straddling me in such a way that her crotch landed directly on top of my length, pressing it between her slit directly.

She was wet, probably from watching Rose and me earlier.

I, however, didn't get to see it much as she leant in and captured my lips, kissing me fiercely.

While she did this, her waist moved, sliding her slit on top of my length, slowly making it wet and making the movement easier.

My hands slid behind her, grabbing her ass and pushing her to slide over it.

She pulled away after… I don't know how much time had passed, but it didn't stop the movements of her hips as she looked at Rose. “Oh my, it looks like you enjoyed the show.” Veena giggled.

This made me look at the girl too.

Rose was flushed red, breathing heavily as she looked at us with a hand between her legs. She took a moment to realise we were looking at her and quickly removed her hand from between her legs, looking flustered.

“No need to be embarrassed. It is natural to feel what you are feeling. If anything, I’m flattered that watching us could make you feel that. Why don't you come closer and take a better look? Come here and join us.” Veena smiled at her.

She was hesitating, so I took her hand and tugged her towards me. This was enough to make her relent as she came and lay besides me. My hands snaked around her waist, pulling her into a tighter hug so that her breasts were pressed into my side, then my hands slid on to her ass, massaging it lightly.

Rose moaned into my ears.

“When kissing, use not just your lips but your whole body. Obviously, what you two were doing just now was giving into your lust. It has its own charm in a way. Losing yourself in your partner.” Veena said, looking at Rose, who suddenly looked as if she was taking notes.

…

Really.

Has this turned into a sex ed class?

Not that I said anything.

Sex ed or not, her hips hadn't stopped moving, and from the wetness I was feeling on my length, I knew she was excited too.

On any other day, she would be riding me like a cowgirl from my simulation, but today she was holding back, actually including Rose in the whole thing to not make her feel left out.

I could see her point.

Being left out while laying next to the guy, your first date, who was lost in banging another drop-dead gorgeous woman… yeah, that wouldn’t do any good to Rose’s already fragile confidence.

This way, however, while she hadn’t even realised it, she was getting comfortable with the whole situation now.

Veena increased her movements, and a few minutes later, I felt myself reaching the edge too.

I grabbed her hips to help her movements as I was reaching the climax, but she had something else in mind as she suddenly got down and kneeled between my legs again. Then she looked at Rose and spoke. “Look carefully; this is how you please a man with your mouth.” Then finally she looked at me. “You can stop holding back now and let it out.”

With that said, she took me in her mouth and started working her tongue over me.

I leant back and groaned in pleasure while Rose watched in interest, not even minding the hand gripping and massaging her ass.

A few minutes later, I reached the limit and grabbed Veena’s head and pushed her on my length, finally shooting ropes after ropes of my semen directly into her gullet.

Choking?

That was for amateurs.

Her words, not mine.

She sucked everything and pulled back, matching her eyes with Rose and then closing her eyes as she gulped everything down.

I’ll be honest… just that sight was enough to get me hard once more.

She quickly used the Clean spell and gave me a kiss before lying down beside me, leaving Rose in a daze.

We didn’t continue any further for Rose’s sake. It seems that Veena was quite serious when she said that we should experience normal dating first.

I too agreed with that.

That night, I slept with a naked lady in each of my arms.

Was this how those anime harem protagonists feel?

…it was amazing.

________________________________x__________________________________

I woke up the next day, feeling softness on both my sides. I take back what I had said first. While waking up on Veena’s breasts had been good. This… was better.

In fact, it was so good that I almost wanted to close my eyes and take a longer nap just to enjoy the feeling.

I, however, didn’t have that privilege as the grind was waiting for me.

Slowly pulling myself out of their embrace, I got out of bed and got dressed before slowly leaving the room for the early morning runs. After leaving a note in the room for both the girls.

This Saitama workout must work.

Don’t let me down, Gamemaster.

________________________________x__________________________________

“Battle Aura, in essence, is a form of mana manipulation, but different from the flashy effects of magic invocation as it is invisible to the naked eye. It is specifically used as a technique to explosively boost physical power and defence. It involves coating the whole body or a specific body part in mana and forming a mantle of dense energy. However, as the mastery increases, at higher stages, when the concentration of mana surpasses a certain level, it becomes visible. Currently, the only person I know to have reached that level is his Majesty.” Sir Ralph said, his eyes gaining a distant look as if he were remembering them.

“How strong is that?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Strong enough to stand at the top of this kingdom." He replied seriously. “Strong enough to battle that monstrous king of Baweth on an equal footing. You shouldn’t dream about that right now and try to start with getting the basics first.” He rolled his eyes and continued his instructions on Battle Aura.

I had directly come to the Knight’s Academy for my early morning training after my Saitama workout.

Sir Ralph was a man of serious discipline, watching over the drills of the students of the Knight’s Academy from five in the morning every day.

He asked me to come to an empty training ground and started the training.

Learning skills from NPCs was different from learning skills from a Skill Book.

This one actually needed me to understand how the Skill worked, kinda like how I was working on mastering my other Skills to use them without System assistance.

It was a time-consuming process, and since there was no help from the Game, it meant that people who didn’t have any affinity for it couldn’t learn it either. Just like in real life.

Seriously, this mechanism was so lifelike that it was scary sometimes. Just what the fuck was the Gamemaster thinking?

The Battle Aura technique, however, was worth it. It was just like Armament Haki and Touki.

Getting three Skills of the same type, yeah. The more I thought about that, the better the idea seemed to me.

Just the raw stat bonus would help me strike at a level far surpassing my own, perhaps even fight at a level of the higher tier.

It’s just that… all these skills, they levelled up too slowly. Even Armament Haki was the same. That said, it was only expected.

Right now, even Active Skills only gave around 500% damage on average, while full-level Armament would give 550% continuous damage as long as it was active.

It was a game changer kind of skill, so it was only fair that it would be harder to level up as it went further.

We trained for the next two hours, after which Sir Ralph had to leave for other work. He was a busy man and had plenty of work to do. He couldn’t just stay with me and train me.

I too had an appointment with Kurumi regarding today’s hunt, so I cleaned up and left the Knight’s Academy and went directly to the inn.

Veena and Rose were already ready by the time I got there.

“How was your training?” Veena asked as we sat down in the dining area, eating together.

“It was good… just not what I was expecting.” I explained the process to them. “I couldn’t do anything today. I guess it will take time. Mana Manipulation… it’s not that easy for someone like me who hasn’t had any training with magic.”

“Obviously dear. Even prodigies have to start somewhere. I believe you will get the skill soon enough. You have a talent for magic.” Veena said, reassuring me.

“Yes. I think you did very well during our lessons together. I haven’t seen many people who understand magic that easily, even in Asgard.” Rose added, blushing slightly when I looked towards her.

She has been doing that every time our eyes meet.

It was adorable.

“True. I knew it wouldn’t be easy to learn skills that easily. I guess I will just have to keep on working.”

Since my Shingen-ryū Skill was maxed already, I had some time open up in my schedule. I will assign that time to the Battle Aura training.

“By the way, have you decided where we are going to go for training today?” Rose asked.

“Hmm. During training, I had asked Sir Ralph about where we could hunt safely. He suggested an area. It’s a bit away from Greenfrost, and we will have to hire a carriage to go there, but apparently we can find decent monsters there. I even took some missions from the Knight’s Academy to complete side by side while we were out there.” I said, bringing out the mission slips and showing them.

“These look good.” Rose said, taking a look at the posters. “The mission reward is greater than similar missions in Llyne. I wonder how many days it will take to finish.”

“One or two days at best. We can always return back at night to rest in Greenfrost.” Twenty-five kilometres was nothing for T4, even if they walked and we had a carriage.

“We need to go and meet Kurumi first.”

“Hmm, how is she like? And how is this brother of hers?” Veena asked.

I realised that we hadn’t told her much about her or her brother apart from the fact that her brother was a Blacksmith with maxed-out skills, since we got caught up in the stories of our date.

Rose went ahead and told her about the meeting, and by the end of it all, there was a surprised expression on Veena’s face.

“Did you see her brother?” Veena asked me.

“I… no. He was hiding inside a box.”

“How did he sound?” She asked more.

I felt odd at her question but answered nonetheless.

“Girlish. He sounded… quite girlish.”

Her eyes widened slightly at this, and I felt that I was missing something. I had felt like this when I was meeting that guy too… as if there was something, just at the back of my head, which I couldn’t point a finger at.

Veena looked a bit in thought, and I couldn’t help but ask. “Is there something wrong?”

“Hmm… nothing. I might just be overthinking things. The one I am thinking about didn’t have any sisters, nor is he someone that would easily trust others, so I guess we will know when we meet this... Kurumi person.”

I nodded.

We finished our meal and walked out. Before leaving there, I asked the attendant at the inn to get a carriage ready for us by the gates of the outer city, paying for it.

The attendants of the inn as well as most of the shopkeepers in the inner city knew me by now due to the tournament. It was not everyday that someone got rewarded by the Prince of the Country themselves, not to mention become a City Lord directly.

We reached the place we had decided for the meeting, reached there five minutes early, and waited. A few minutes later, we heard a voice.

“Oh, right on time. I thought I would get late after standing in line to buy breakfast hahahaha.” Kurumi laughed but her laugh suddenly stopped as she looked at us… no, I realised that she was looking at Veena with wide eyes.

I took a look at Veena and saw a slight surprise in her eyes too.

Just this was enough to tell me that Kurumi was obviously not someone simple. She was definitely from the supernatural side of things.

What I wasn’t expecting were the words that came out of Veena’s mouth next.

“I wasn’t expecting you to be here too... Stray Devil, Kuroka.”

…

…

…

…

Son of a bit…

Rose was surprised and looked at Kuroka with shock, but Veena herself wasn’t phased in the least.

Kuroka, while surprised, regained her calm immediately and replied in a calm tone.

“You will have to thank your son for that. The reward he put for people to come in here and save you and your daughter was just too good to give up. I just wasn’t expecting to be the first one to find you, is all.”

While they were discussing this, my mind was reeling with the fact that I had encountered another character from novels.

They, however, continued, unbothered by my thoughts.

“I don’t recall you having a younger brother. Your sister, however..." Veena spoke, and my mind quickly recalled the history of this girl, and I winced. That was personal…

As expected, I noticed the slight narrowing of Kuroka’s eyes at the words.

“I think you might know him. After all, he is also a peerage member of your daughter, a friend of my cute little sister.” She replied with a sly smile.

Was she putting up an act even now…

Sigh.

Her words, however, cleared the fog over my mind.

Peerage member of her daughter.

Girlish voice.

Shut in.

It was that discount Dio Brando of Rias’ peerage, Gasper Vladi.

No wonder I felt I was missing something. It also explained the reaction from Veena earlier in the inn.

As expected, even Veena was surprised but immediately gained her calm afterwards. “Then what do you intend to do now?” She asked Kuroka.

“Since I have taken on the job, I will complete it.” She shrugged. “After all, I did take a very big risk coming into this... world. I won’t let it be for nothing.”

“I see. Saving Gasper is enough to show your sincerity. No… entering this world alone is enough to show your sincerity since you were free, unlike most of the other people sent inside. Tell me, did you save Rose because you knew she was with us too?” Veena asked.

“Well obviously… why else would I go out of my way to help someone I didn’t even know? Risking myself against T5s at my level is suicidal, you know. Not something I would do.” She answered with a laugh.

…this girl… just what was she trying to do?

I knew for sure that she was lying.

Why was she putting up that act of hers?

Or was she just doing it to show a strong front?

That was completely unnecessary. But then again, in her situation, I doubt she could survive long if she didn’t show such a front. Especially when being a part of an organisation like Khaos Brigade. It’s just that her words were unnecessary.

I looked at Rose, and as expected, she was looking hurt at the revelation.

Sigh…

Veena turned towards me. “It looks like we will have to postpone our hunt.”

I nodded as we headed to the Blacksmith’s shop to meet the trap vampire, Gasper.

________________________________x__________________________________

I sat in the corner of the room watching a boy… who would easily be mistaken for a girl, sit in Veena’s lap, crying his eyes out while she calmed him down.

Kuroka was standing in the other corner of the room, watching them with bored eyes, but in between, it was easy to catch the hints of worry in her eyes as she looked at the boy.

Rose stood behind me, looking at everyone.

We went to the Blacksmith’s shop directly after discovering everything, and what resulted was the scene in front of us.

The boy told us the story of how he had lived after he was caught up in this world.

By some stroke of luck, he had been picked up by a blacksmith in the starting village, where he did chores for the man at night when everyone went to sleep. The Blacksmith was impressed by his work and took him as an apprentice, teaching him basic tinkering.

It turns out that just like a Forager Class, the one picked up by Veena, Gasper had gained a Choreboy Class at the start. This class later opened up the Tinker Class, then the Apprentice Blacksmith Class, and finally the Blacksmith Class.

From the start till finish, he hadn’t stepped out of the home until he met Kuroka, who identified him and then basically dragged him along with her.

She did, however, treat him well, as was evident from the way he talked about her.

I think they seemed quite close too; from the looks of worry, she sometimes sneaked in his direction.

Feeling awkward in the room with all the crying and tension, I got up. “I will go and cancel the carriage we hired. I almost forgot about it. The guy must be waiting for us.” I said, suddenly recalling an excuse.

“That… won’t be needed. You three can go on the hunt. I will remain with Gasper for now.” Veena interrupted.

“Are you sure?” I asked, surprised at her words.

“Yes. Levelling is important right now. Especially for Rose. We don’t know when the next World Quest might come in, and we will be in trouble if we are underleveled.”

“I… alright. Take care then.”

Rose also nodded while Kuroka looked at us hesitantly.

“You should join them too, Kuroka. With your current strength, let alone rescuing us from this world, you might find it harder to save your own life. Get levelled up.” Veena added calmly.

The girl, however, just rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry. I know how to take care of myself. I won’t drag anyone down.”

I took one last look at Veena and the kid in her lap and left the room.

________________________________x__________________________________

We walked through the forest, following the tracks described in the mission details. The enemy seemed to be some kind of mutated Black Fang Wolf, which had recently evolved and was causing trouble in the area.

It had injured several teams of adventurers, and the commission was finally given to the Knight’s Academy.

The journey took us two hours by the carriage we had hired. If I was being honest, it was the longest two hours in my life. The sheer tension in the carriage was not something I was used to.

Kurumi had been silent the entire time, completely different from her usual behaviour. Rose was still a bit awkward to say anything. So I did the only thing I could do… close my eyes and ignore everything.

I didn’t know Kurumi that well to say anything in this situation. I could maybe talk to her after we got to know each other a bit better. But damn if breaking the ice wasn’t hard.

Thankfully, both the girls were quite professional when it came to work.

As soon as we got down from the carriage, they were completely in work mode.

Kuroka was the one with the lowest level in the group, but she was skilled. It was easy to see in her movements.

The past few months of training, especially in Shingen-ryū and Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū, had given me a decent idea about what the difference between a trained and an untrained person was. Just like Veena had been able to identify Elaine as a part of the Supernatural world from her movements alone, it was possible to see how trained someone was from their movements.

On the other hand, wasn’t Kuroka and Elaine working together with Arthur Pendragon? That meant she would know her and possibly about her past too.

I will have to take her to Llyne or bring Elaine into the conversation to see if she opens up.

Still, the fact that she had reached T4 in such a short time alone was a testament to her skill. Her speed was actually better than mine.

As I was thinking of these things, I sensed something in the distance.

“Enemies, prepare.” I instructed, and both of them got in action.

Just an instant later, several black-coloured wolves stepped out from the bushes in front of us.

T5 Black Fang Wolf Alpha and four T4 Black Fang Wolves.

A quick look told me that there were around five of them.

One in the lead was Level 31, while the rest were in their twenties.

Rose and I took the lead, while Kurumi took cover behind us, looking for an opportunity to attack.

I didn’t hold back and directly used Chidori, Armament Haki, and Touki to rush in and slash it down, trying my new Skill Divine Sword Escanor.

The wolves were fast and quite flexible, but endurance was not their strong suit, as the leader wolf was thrown back from a single slash from me, losing a large part of its health. One more hit could probably end it.

But Holy Crap... this Skill was absurd. Sure, it was almost midday, but still, this was a Mini Boss of sorts, and it was thrown into the red zone with just one attack.

Even Rose and Kurumi paused at the scene, but their experience showed as they quickly reacted.

Rose used one of her Skills, stunning the remaining four for three seconds.

I took this opportunity to launch an attack on another one of them; the second wolf buckled under my attack, its legs giving away under the force of my blow as it lost most of its HP. I kicked it into another wolf, finished it, and sent the other wolf tumbling away.

Kurumi wasn’t resting either, as she jumped and stabbed another wolf directly into its eyes and then its neck before jumping back. It was finished by Rose, who directly stabbed it through its head.

Just like that, three wolves were seriously hurt or out of commission.

I went after another one while Rose and Kurumi teamed up to finish up the last wolf, leaving only the half-dead Black Fang Wolf Alpha alive. I was about to go and finish it up too when it howled loudly.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, four more wolves came out of the bushes.

…

I didn’t sense them at all.

Was it some kind of skill?

Still, four more normal Black Fang Wolves were no big deal.

We finished them off quickly; however, this time instead of finishing off the Black Fang Wolf Alpha, I waited.

“Umm… Arthas?” Rose called out my name, but I just raised my hand, asking her to wait. I wanted to check something, and sure enough, after waiting four minutes or so, the Black Fang Wolf Alpha howled again.

Four more wolves came out of the bushes.

A wide smile lit my lips.

_________________________________x_________________________________

We fought for three hours without rest before Rose and Kurumi were tired and wanted rest… so I fought alone.

I even used this chance to let my HP fall in the red zone to test out the effect of my new Incomplete Hogyoku Skill, and sure enough, my Spirit Stat increased by 1 as soon as my HP went into the red zone. I obviously didn't let it remain there for long, healing it as soon as possible.

We had noticed the pattern. The more damage the wolves caused to us, the more the Alpha healed.

For this reason, I had to keep interfering once in a while to put it back in the red zone.

Apart from this, there was another reason.

It summoned a different number of reinforcements at different levels of HP bars.

For example, when its health was in the green zone, it summoned only one Black Fang Wolf; in the yellow zone, it summoned two; and when in the red zone, it summoned reinforcements consisting of four T4 Black Fang Wolves between levels 20 and 30 every five minutes.

We kept its HP in the red zone mostly. That meant 48 T4 wolves every hour... not really that big of a deal, especially since we had consumables to restore mana too.

For the next hour, I fought the wolves alone before Rose and Kurumi took over, and we alternated like this till it was almost evening and we had to leave, and I finished off the Black Fang Wolf Alpha with another attack.

Overall, we fought the same wolves for seven hours, hunting over three hundred wolves. While T4 enemies gave me slightly lower experience gains due to my current level, the sheer numbers were still enough to push me through the next level and enough to fill the experience bar for the next level by fifty percent.

Kurumi being the lowest level among us and a T4, even lower than the wolves, gained the most out of the whole thing, a total of five levels, while Rose gained five levels, although she was already close to levelling once.

"Twenty-eight thousand gold coins, wolf pelts, fangs, and claws. No Skill Books though. I guess we took a lot of time to fight this one, so there was no skill book drop despite the first kill bonus.” Rose said as she picked up the drops.

“It was worth it though.” At least I totally considered it a well-worth boss.

“I wonder when the boss will respawn. We could totally use this place as a farming point.” Rose added.

“Possibly. It’s just that the number of drops was not good so I guess the summoned wolves had a lower drop rate…” I took a quick look over the drops. “Around five times less. Not to mention the experience gains from them after the first four Black Fang Wolf was only around eighty percent of the original. It was just the numbers and the levels of you two that helped us gain so many levels.”

"So we levelled up so much because we were weak?” Kurumi asked, and I noticed her eyes twitching.

“Hmm. That… is not incorrect. First, once you consider the fact that Greenfrost is an area where the average enemy is a T5, this boss was actually one of the weaker ones. Second, T5 people will get lower experience gains when killing T4 enemies, as in my case, I only got one level in the whole thing instead of multiple levels like you all, despite me being the one who did the most damage and having several bonuses to my experience gains. A normal T5 player would have barely levelled up once, probably not even that. Lastly, the drops were far… far lower than normal hunts. It’s just not profitable for a team of T5. In fact, it would be a loss if there were more than one or two T5 players too. The only reason two T5 would be sustainable is due to the reduced amount of consumables used in the hunt.”

By the time I finished, Kurumi was gawking at me.

“The only reason we could even consider hunting this boss is that we don’t have to roam around the forest to find enemies, as they will easily be summoned in front of us. Oh, and maybe because no matter how many summoned Black Fang Wolves we killed, no field boss was summoned. Those things would have appeared at the end of the first hour itself, so I guess that was good. There might be more disadvantages but I am not as good at analysing things as Shiroe so who knows?…” I shrugged at the end.

It wasn’t a lie either.

Shiroe could have pulled out a dozen more reasons why not to waste our time to hunt this boss.

That guy’s brain just works at a different level. It was not something I could hope to replicate, even with my advantages.

“Never underestimate the Gamemaster. That guy... he won’t make such elementary mistakes.” In fact, I hadn’t seen any bugs in the game yet… except for the unknown bug I had helped fix during the first World Quest.

Fuck, even I didn’t know what bug that was.

We collected the drops and headed out to find a place to camp for the night. It seems that despite the reasons I had given, we had spent a bit too much time hunting that wolf, and it was already dark.

Fortunately, there was a decent place nearby, and we set up camp quickly and started a fire to heat the food.

As we sat eating around the fire, Kurumi and Rose were doing small talk.

They had fought together during the hunt most of the time and had decent teamwork overall.

I guess that eased the initial hesitation from both sides. Rose did have a good impression of her to begin with, and it would have stayed that way had she not pulled up that cliche villain drama.

“Still, I have never seen anyone level up like this. I can see why you all were called the best players in the game.” Kurumi said as she took a bite of her food.

Rose just gave her a small smile at the comment, so she turned towards me.

“By the way, who was that Shiroe you mentioned?”

“Shiroe is one of the founders of the Guild and our strategist. Veena, Shiroe, and I were the ones who established the Fairy Tail Guild.” I replied.

“Oh. Is it this guy on the Guild Member list, Shiroe? Is he a Japanese guy?”

“Hmm.”

“By the way, you were pretty good too. Your swordsmanship, while not the best I have seen, is still better than many others.” She complimented. “What faction are you a part of? I don’t remember a devil like you anywhere.”

“I am not a part of any Supernatural Factions. I was a normal student before I entered this game.”

“Bullshit!”

I merely gave her a deadpan look.

…

…

…

…

“Umm, Arthas isn’t lying. He is really not with any Supernatural faction and was just a normal guy before entering the game.” Rose spoke with some hesitation.

“Get out... seriously? And your swordsmanship? Did you have any prior training?”

“Picked up a few months ago, probably after becoming a Squire. I used to use a bow and arrows before that, mostly.”

“That’s… amazing.” Then she turned back towards Rose. “And you? Are you also a normal human?”

“I am a Valkyrie from Norse.”

“A valkyrie, the demigods of Asgard. Hmm, I haven’t had a chance to fight against them before. That old man Odin runs a very tight routine around there.”

“I… I was the bodyguard of Odin.” Rose replied.

“The God-King of the Norse?”

“Hmm.”

An astonished look came over her face as she looked closer at Rose.

“That’s amazing. You must have been pretty strong to get such a position.”

And just like that, they talked, with me adding bits and pieces in between sometimes. At least they were getting along better. I will have a talk with Kurumi when I get a chance later.

When it was time to rest, we had to divide the watch time.

Kurumi offered to be the first to keep watch. Neither of us had any problems with that. Next would be me and finally Rose.

With that, I and Rose entered the tent to rest for the night.

I did message Veena that we would be staying out tonight to not make her worry. Who knows what thoughts she would have about Kurumi?

- Akeno Himejima -

“Everyone has packed everything?” Mari asked, even as she checked the preparations herself.

“Yes. It’s the third time we have checked everything. We are ready.”

“Have all the kids eaten? Does anyone need to go to the toilet?” She asked, looking at the kids.

Some of them, while embarrassed, still nodded. Akeno smiled as she looked at her going over each kid as if a motherhen.

Leaving them alone, she walked to Arthur.

“Any movements from their side?” She asked.

“None. Their main team left the city two days ago for some kind of hunting trip. This is the best opportunity for us to leave without any drama.”

“Hmm.” She nodded too.

They had been on edge since knowing of the plans of their opponents, not so much about themselves but rather for the safety and the lives of the kids.

If they had to leave, they could have easily slipped out during some night without being detected. But that would mean that the Black Fiends would become the group in control of the town, and every kid they were supporting would fall under their rule, and that… was a disturbing thought to say the least.

“Alright everyone! We are ready. Everyone, get into the carriages.” Mari shouted and clapped her hands, getting their attention. She looked around and saw that the escorts of the Knight’s Academy had arrived there.

The kids gathered and were guided by other members of the team into carriages one by one, and each of their team members got into one of the carriages, with the Knights being the ones driving.

With one last look towards the town, their group left the town, which had been their home for the last few months. She would be lying if she said that she didn’t feel a twinge of sadness however minute when leaving the town. After all, this was the town where she had met all her new friends.

Mari, Naotsugu, Akatsuki, and even Arthur and all the kids they were supporting here.

Hopefully, Stratholme would be a better place for them.

_________________________________x_________________________________

They travelled for a day from their town. Having left the place at dawn, they had only stopped twice in between to feed the kids and then finally at night to camp.

Once the camp was ready, their team got to prepare food for the group.

The Knights had brought their own rations, but no one rejected good food.

Everyone sat eating and had a great time, singing and dancing around the campfire.

The kids looked happy. They had been under too much stress due to their circumstances. Looking at their scared looks and tensed demeanours reminded Akeno of her own past when she was on the run from the Himejima Clan members.

Looking at everyone with an eye of doubt, not knowing when someone would turn around and hurt you, when a hand that was helping you would suddenly become a hand strangling you instead.

The worst part was that she didn’t have any power to retaliate either.

It wasn’t until she had met Rias, who had saved her from the relentless mad pursuit of the Himejima Clan and given her a safe place to live, that she had finally started to relax. Even then, it had taken her a considerable time to open up to them, what with them being Devils and her carrying the blood of that man… one of the biggest enemies of the devil race.

When she had gotten trapped in the game, she had almost relapsed into the same thoughts and had almost closed herself off again after she realised that there was no help coming.

But this time, unlike before, she had people waiting for her.

Rias, Koneko, and Gasper were also in the same situation as her.

She desperately hoped that Kiba didn’t enter the game, as he wasn’t there when they were going in, having gone out to do a contract of his.

The time she spent in this game... it had forced her to confront the issues she had been rejecting to face all these years since it reminded her of things she didn’t want to remember.

And when she did that, she realised that she still hated her father… but not for the reason she had thought of before. She wasn’t angry and hated him for not saving her mother or blamed him that much for it.

When thinking carefully, it wasn’t really his fault that he wasn’t at home. He wasn’t omnipotent or omniscient. There was no way he could have known that there was an attack going to happen at their home and that her mother would die in that. It just wasn’t in their control. She hated the ones who had killed her mother for that.

No… what she hated was the fact that he had let her wander around for months, running from Himejima, not once trying to find her.

As for him not being able to do so... that was unthinkable. After all, even the Himejima were able to track her so easily, so the strongest cadre of the Grigori not being able to do so was just utterly dumb.

The thing about hating her fallen angel blood was something said by the people who had killed her mother and initially she had rejected all those thoughts… but the months spent on the run with no help had caused her helplessness and anger to be diverted towards her father and her fallen angel bloodline instead.

It didn’t help when she later found out that the Fallen Angels were working together with the Five Principal Clans to stop their chased-out members from taking their revenge.

Why?

Why were they helping the people who had killed her mother while hunting the people who were probably in a situation similar to her mother?

Did they even care about her mother’s death?

Did they even care about her suffering during that time?

All that resentment became more solidified. The words of her mother’s killers seemed true now.

Fallen Angels were traitors.

They had betrayed their creator.

They had betrayed her mother, and… they had betrayed her.

These thoughts gathered together to form her hatred and disgust towards her Fallen Angel heritage.

It was only through the support of the Gremorys and her friends that she had been able to push those thoughts to the back of her head.

But then Arthur comes in and tells her that he... wanted to enter the game to protect her?

She had obviously scoffed at the words. Why would he do something like that? Why would he do something like that now when he didn’t do anything all those years ago when she truly needed him?

Her thoughts were broken by a hand on her shoulder. “Akeno-san, are you alright?” Akatsuki-chan asked.

“Yes?”

“Are you alright? We have been calling you several times, but you didn’t respond.”

“Oh yes. I was just thinking about something. What is it?”

“Nothing, just asking if you wanted more servings.” She asked, showing her the pot of food in her hands.

“Oh no. I am full already. Thank you.”

“Alright.”

They completed their meal, and it was finally time to rest for the day.

The children were assigned the tents in the middle of the camp while their own group and the knights took the tents around them so that the kids were all safe in the middle. Finally, the carriages were arranged in such a way that it formed a makeshift boundary around their tent area.

It was understandable, as she had found out while researching that the area they were passing through was a bit dangerous with several bandit sightings. Keeping their guard up was necessary.

For this, they decided on the division of the night watch.

The Knights had decided to keep the first watch while their group could keep watch later on in the next round.

With everything decided, she entered the tent with Mari and Akatsuki-chan while Arthur and Naotsugu took the other tent for the guys.

The entire day of preparation and travel and her recent thoughts about the past had left her mentally exhausted, so it didn’t take long for her to fall asleep.

________________________________x__________________________________

She was jolted awake by a loud shout from outside the tent.

“Enemy attack! Take positions. There is an enemy attack!” Came a loud shout, jolting all of them awake.

Her experience and training worked as she quickly equipped all her equipment and shot up to her feet.

“Akatsuki-chan, awaken Mari and prepare to fight.” She commanded as she left the tent to check.

Outside, Arthur had already come out with Naotsugu still rubbing his eyes but already equipped in his armour.

“What’s happening?” He asked, still looking a bit confused.

“There is an enemy attack. Prepare for defence. We need to keep the kids safe.” She quickly ordered as they headed to the defence line behind the carriages, where the Knights were holding their positions, and looked towards the attackers.

In the distance, on several horsebacks were people. A quick count told her that they were around thrice their number. This alone gave Akeno a headache. But apparently that was not enough. It took her a second before she recognised the faces of some of the attackers, and her eyes widened in shock. “Black Fiends! They are the members of the Black Fiends group.” She shouted quickly.

Wasn’t their main team out when they left the town?

How did they find them?

Did those bastards really follow them all this way here?

“Not all members are from the Black Fiends.” Akatsuki-chan, who had come to her side by then, said. Among the group, she was the only person with a scan-type skill. “Half of them are NPCs. Brawlers, Rogues, and Stalkers, and even some Knights.”

“Knights?!” One of the Knights they had hired exclaimed. “That’s impossible. Knights will never take part in something like this. Are you sure you checked them properly?”

Akatsuki-cha pointed directly towards the few Knights in the group. “Those people. Do you know them?”

The Knight in question looked closer, and suddenly one of their members had his eyes widen in surprise. “That’s… I recognise that man. He is a Sword Knight under Viscount Falkner from the neighbouring town. What is he doing here?”

“Viscount Falkner?” Akeno asked, her mind quickly piecing things together.

She had heard that name when interrogating the people of Black Fiends they had captured before.

Viscount Falkner was the City Lord of the neighbouring town. He didn’t have a very good reputation among the people. Rumours said that he was quite amorous, having over a dozen wives and frequenting the brothels of his town.

Now just this wouldn’t have been enough for his bad reputation.

There were even some rumours about him actually being behind some shady businesses in the Black Market, but nothing was ever found. The man himself was well connected, being the son of a T7 guy, thus holding a considerable hold over the politics of the province. After all, there were only a very small number of T7 in the kingdom, and each one was a Trump Card of the Kingdom.

Due to this, he remained unchallenged.

The leader of the Black Fiends had discovered by some sources that the Viscount was a lascivious person and liked to collect beautiful girls as slaves. They were actually planning to sell Mari, Akatsuki-chan, and her as slaves to the guy so that they could earn his favour to get control over their town and become the only group of players in the town. If they did this, they could then keep the kids trapped and work them to craft items for them for free.

It was the main reason for her group leaving the town…

She had thought that those guys hadn’t been in contact with the Viscount yet, but… now it seems that it was just their wishful thinking.

“Maybe it is a misunderstanding. This area is after all a bandit-infested area. Maybe they are just here to clear the bandits in the area. Let’s try to talk and clarify it.” One of the Knights in her group said. She wanted to argue but didn’t. After all, there was a chance… although negligible, that he might be right.

The other Knights nodded, and the man in question stepped out of their protective barricade slowly with a hand above his head, holding the badge of the Knight’s academy. “We are not bandits. We are from the Cloverwind Knights Academ…”

The man dodged to the side as an arrow came straight towards him, barely dodging. Another arrow followed it, this time actually hitting the Knight in the shoulder while he hurriedly backed away towards the carriages, where Naotsugu jumped out and blocked coming arrows while Arthur dragged him back behind the barricades.

The Sword knight, who was beside the leader of the Black Fiends, spoke then. “Don’t use arrows or long-distance magic randomly. It could harm the goods. As for the Knights and the men, kill them all. We don’t need any survivors among the men.”

“Could you please leave the kids to us? That was the deal, remember?” The Leader of the Black Fiends interrupted, earning a short nod from the man.

“You traitor!” One of the Knights from her side shouted but didn’t have any time as several people rushed towards them.

She too didn’t hold back and started firing her best spells. Mari fired her arrows, but the number of enemies was just too much.

“You all, go back to the second line of defence." The lead Knight on this side instructed. “Gather the kids and find an opportunity to run away. We might not survive this, but at least someone needs to send this news out, or they will keep doing this kind of thing. That bastard Falkner has just crossed all lines this time. Go on. We will create an opening for you to run.” He said to Akastuki-chan, Mari, and her.

“But!” Mari tried to argue, but Arthur interrupted her.

“He is not wrong. It doesn’t look like all of us will be able to get away from here alive. Think about the kids.”

She looked at the guy in surprise as she knew the reason he had entered the game... to save his sister, and now... “Arthur?”

He looked at her and then back towards the incoming crowd as he drew his sword. “If I run away today, leaving you all, especially these kids, to die... I would never be able to face my sister again. If you want to do anything, then please promise me that if you survive today, you will find my sister and help her get out of this game.”

Akeno’s words got stuck in her mouth. “I… I promi...”

However, before she could finish her words or Arthur could go out, something unexpected happened.

“Frost Nova!” A loud voice was heard, and she sensed a large amount of magic being invoked and looked towards the sky. Huge pieces of ice fell down upon the incoming attackers, freezing them in place.

She quickly turned in the direction from where she had felt the disturbance in magic to see two people in the distance.

Through the dark of the night, she was not able to recognise them. This, however, changed when they came closer.

One of them was a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She looked around the same age as Mari.

The other was an old man with a long silvery beard.

Both of them were dressed as magicians and had what looked like magic staves in their hands.

It was the lead knight protecting them who had been injured who identified them as his eyes went wide.

“Archmage Antonidas!”

_________________________________x__________________________________________________________________x_________________________________

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Beta Note: The advance chapters are in order of what is updated, a first Tier will not get 2 advanced chapters for every story, only the next two to be released.

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Author’s Note:

I am back with another chapter of ‘Soul Art Online’.

Holy Crap, this one took a lot out of me.

Anyways, the story is taking unexpected turns as several things happen in this chapter together.

Veena teaches Rose.

Kuroka is identified.

Gasper finally meets Veena again.

Kuroka joins the team for the hunt and is bonding with Rose.

Finally, Akeno and Arthur actually escaped right from the face of death as another figure makes an entry.

Anyone wants to guess who the blonde haired and blue eyed girl was?

We will see the next part of their story in the next chapter.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.