Chapter 18: The Reapers
Jade’s room was dead silent as Ruri slumbered soundly in his bed. The silence was broken by a faint click followed by the slow creak of the door. From the entranceway, a man and a woman, both dressed in black, entered the room with soundless steps. Ruri remained dead to the world.
“She asleep?” asked the man.
The woman checked and answered, “Yeah, out like a light.”
“Hit her with the drug so she doesn’t wake up in the middle,” instructed the man. The woman then pulled out a finger-sized spray bottle, pointed it at Ruri, and spritzed her face with a mysterious liquid.
After waiting for the drug to take effect, the man looked into Ruri’s face to confirm she was still sleeping—she was dead asleep and completely unaware that anyone had entered the room.
“It’d be easier to just kill her here,” he commented.
“We can’t. The client wants us to kill her so they don’t find the body. Besides, we won’t be able to use you-know-what if we kill her now.”
“Tch. Well, when you’re right, you’re right.”
The man reached for Ruri and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of rice. “Heh, these ‘spirits’ ain’t such a big deal. Their precious Beloved is about to get kidnapped and they haven’t even noticed.”
“Neither have the dragonkin. It’s unreal that our plan managed to run this smoothly and that they’re all this incompetent,” added the woman.
“That’s a society that elects their rulers based on strength for you. All brawn, no brains.”
“Let’s hurry out. They should be making their move soon.”
“Right.”
The man and the woman carried Ruri out, absconding into the darkness.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
The ground was quaking.
Instead of sleeping in the soft and cozy bed she was used to, Ruri lay atop a hard floor, sending pain shooting through her body. She also couldn’t move. Perhaps it was Chi lying on top of her again. Enough was enough; she was going to let him have it this time.
With the vague thought of scolding Chi in her mind, she opened her eyes. However, the darkness all around her signified that it was still nighttime. Ruri tried to get up, but something was constricting the upper half of her body, rendering her unable to move.
“Huh? What...?” She tried to move her arms next, but all she heard was the sound of something clanging.
The strangeness didn’t stop there, however. The smell of brine tickled her nose, the splish-splash of water around her filled her ears, and the stars in the sky caught her eye.
Ruri quickly came to her senses. “W-What? Where am I?!”
“Looks like you’re awake,” said the voice of an unfamiliar man.
Ruri jumped in surprise. “Who are you?!” she asked. She raised her groggy head toward the direction of the voice, but it was so pitch-black it was hard to distinguish if anyone was even there. She could sense someone was there, however.
Before long, Ruri heard the sound of fire igniting, and a single lamp floated in the void of darkness before her. The dim light revealed not just the man who had addressed her but a woman as well. Then, looking down at her immobilized body, Ruri realized that her arms and upper body were wrapped in chains.
“What is all this...?”
Why was she here instead of Jade’s room? Who were these people in front of her? Ruri’s mind ran rampant with things she didn’t understand.
“What am I doing here? Did you two bring me here? First off, who are you two?!” Ruri asked in a forceful tone to hide her fear, clueless to the situation she found herself roped into.
“You familiar with ‘Reapers’?”
“‘Reapers’...?” Ruri repeated, feeling herself go pale. The Reapers were the guild of assassins that Joshua spoke of.
“Why are the Reapers after me...?”
“Obvious, isn’t it? We got hired for a job—one to kill you.”
“A job...?” Ruri knew someone was gunning for the lives of the Beloveds of both Cerulanda and the Nation of the Beast King, but she’d assumed they were affiliated with the Church of God’s Light. Ruri couldn’t discern whether the client was said church or someone altogether different.
The man slowly stood up and extended his hand over to Ruri.
“Wait, don’t touch me!!” Ruri exclaimed, flailing her unbound legs in an attempt at resistance. That was when the silver glint of a dagger gleamed in front of Ruri’s face. “Ulp!”
“Now, shut up and be still. Otherwise, you might make my hand slip.”
Ruri’s face grew stiff in terror as she nodded in reply.
As soon as Ruri stopped trying to resist, the man lifted her and sat her straight up. Now that she knew he wasn’t going to do anything to her, Ruri breathed a sigh of relief. Sitting upright, she had a better view of her surroundings too. She could see the lamplight reflecting off of something and she froze. After a scan of the area, she could also see the lighthouse of the Nation of the Dragon King’s port far off in the distance.
It seemed she was on a small boat out to sea with no escape. However, Ruri could swim, and the port looked to be a swimmable distance away, albeit a tad far by normal standards. She also had the spirits to help.
That peace of mind that Kotaro and the others would always come to her rescue was keeping her calm, but that was when she realized something was odd. Ruri was in an extremely dangerous situation, so why weren’t they coming to her aid? Why couldn’t she see a single spirit flying around? She scanned all around her. Seeing as how she was on the sea, there should have been a massive amount of water spirits gathering, but there were none to be seen.
“No use looking for the spirits,” said the Reaper lady, chuckling to herself in an immensely amused manner. “The chains binding you are infused with Spirit Slayer magic. With those on, no spirit would dare come near you.”
The color left Ruri’s face as soon as “Spirit Slayer” was mentioned. Spirit Slayer sucked up the energy of spirits in order to activate, so spirits steered clear of it. Also, it had prevented Kotaro from scouting out the Nadashian castle when he tried in the past. Essentially, even if Kotaro tried to search for Ruri, he wouldn’t be able to locate her.
Ruri attempted to use her magic, but the chains sucked up her mana and her magic wouldn’t activate. Not only that, but it felt as if the chains got heavier.
“Whoa there. You shouldn’t use magic. Well, use it all you want, but it’s just going to make those chains tighter.”
“Ugh...!” Ruri tried twisting her arm, but her bindings wouldn’t budge. “You plan on killing me?”
“Yep, sure do,” the man declared as casual as could be.
“In that case, why didn’t you just kill me right away? That’s far more efficient than taking the extra effort to kidnap me, isn’t it?”
“Client’s orders. We kidnap you and throw the castle into chaos. Then, well, whatever happens after that has nothin’ to do with us.”
“Even so, kidnapping me couldn’t have been an easy task... I was in the first sector of the castle, at the very tip of the mountain with security everywhere...”
The man chuckled, obviously finding something funny. “Getting past them was a cakewalk. Their security is riddled with holes. No one would have been able to catch us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Heh heh heh, good question,” said the man, dodging the point. “Spirits won’t come near us so long as we have the Spirit Killer chains. And those small fires during the day made them send a ton of their men down to the castle town, throwing the castle into disarray. They probably still haven’t noticed that you’re even gone yet.”
“Wait...! That was your handiwork, too?”
“No, our clients set those fires.”
“By clients, who do you mean?”
“Now, why should I tell you?”
Ruri never expected a straight answer out of them anyway, so she didn’t pursue it any further. Nevertheless, all this information swirled around in her head. Ruri pondered what their clients were trying to accomplish by ordering her assassination and throwing the castle into chaos. However, now wasn’t the time to let other questions distract her. She had to keep them talking for as long as possible so that someone would come out in search of her—at least, that was what she hoped.
However, the situation proceeded to get even worse.
“Alrighty, I think that’s enough chitchat.”
Ruri’s body jolted. “W-Wait. I still have some questions...”
“Keep ’em to yourself, then. You’re gonna be dying here anyway.”
“A few questions never hurt!”
The next moment, the man booted Ruri off of the side of the boat.
“Ngh, urk!” She hit the water with a loud splash. Seawater soaked her clothing and entered her mouth.
Although her chain bindings made her body heavy and unresponsive, she was still able to flutter her legs and come up to the surface. “Pwah!!” She then looked up to see the man, standing in the boat and staring her right in the eye.
“You know what this is?” the man asked, holding a giant cloth sack that was fastened to the end of the chain wrapped around Ruri. “This thing has a whooole bunch of sand. What’dya think is gonna happen once I drop this?”
If he were to toss that large sack filled to the brim with sand into the sea, it would naturally sink to the bottom—bringing Ruri along with it.
“D-Don’t do it...” Ruri pleaded, grimacing.
“Hahahaha. Boy, your face is twisted up in terror! Priceless!” the man said, letting out an insane laugh that sent discomfort down Ruri’s spine. Her body was unconsciously shivering and it definitely wasn’t because of how cold the water was.
“Hurry up already. We still have things to do,” the woman interjected.
“Yeah, I know. Well, see ya, little lady,” the man said, immediately dropping the sandbag into the water.
The heavy sandbag started to sink in the blink of an eye, dragging the end of Ruri’s chain along with it into the briny deep.
“Ngh, unghhh!” Ruri mumbled, holding her breath and struggling against her bindings. It was to no avail; they were wrapped too tight for her to unravel.
As such, Ruri was helpless as she steadily sank to the bottom of the sea.
(Help...)
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