Chapter 21: In the Nick of Time
Ruri was frantic as the weighted bag dragged her into the depths of the sea.
(Oh God, this is terrible, horrible, extraordinarily awful!!) “Mm mm, nghh~”
As she steadily sank deeper into the water, she tried to pour every ounce of her strength into undoing her chain bindings, but they were wrapped around her tight and showed no signs of coming undone. She wasn’t going to be able to hold her breath forever, however, and her panic grew stronger with each second her lungs went without fresh air.
As feverishly as she moved her arms, wriggled her body, and kicked her legs, the chains wouldn’t budge. She couldn’t breathe... Would she go on to die here? This easily? Unbeknownst to anyone? Nothing but terrible thoughts ran through her head, causing her terror to swell.
(I don’t want to die! Kotaro! Rin!) Ruri screamed inside her mind, the image of the two guardian beasts who were always by her side flashing before her eyes. However, wrapped up in chains enchanted with Spirit Slayer magic, her words couldn’t possibly reach them.
(Jade... -sama...)
She couldn’t hold on anymore... She couldn’t breathe—asphyxiating.
Just when she had given up hope, the force dragging her to the bottom suddenly stopped and her bindings slipped from her body. Before she had a chance to see the chains fully sink into the sea, something yanked at her collar. The pressure on her neck caused her to unceremoniously blurt out the scant amount of air left in her mouth as something pulled her further and further topside. She eventually emerged from the water, choking on the fresh air of the surface.
“Urgh! Koff, koff! Haah, haah...” Ruri coughed as she wearily regained her breath. “Haah, haah... I’m alive... That was absolutely bonkers, but I’m alive...” She wasn’t sure if it was from the seawater stinging her eyes or from sheer relief, but tears rolled down her face. Then, almost as if waiting for her to fully regain her breath, someone called out to her.
“Hey, yo. You alright?” said a rather happy-go-lucky voice.
Ruri turned back to see a familiar pair of deep-set eyes attached to a swimming body, a body that was holding her by the collar with its mouth. “C-Chi!” Ruri exclaimed, emotionally hugging Chi in what was either relief at seeing a familiar face or joy from being saved.
“Woah there. Hold your horses. Those guys might still be around, so keep it down, will ya?”
Ruri gasped and quickly shut her mouth. Fortunately, the sea was under the dark shroud of night, meaning their heads poking out from the water were unlikely to be detected by the naked eye. And as long as they didn’t shout, their voices would be drowned out by the sound of the waves.
“Anyway, let’s swim to shore.”
Swimming in the opposite direction of the Reapers’ escape route was probably the best idea, but due to Ruri’s desperate underwater struggle against the chains, she was absolutely spent. She sincerely doubted she could make the swim to dry land.
“Chi, I don’t think I can swim...”
“In that case, face up and float on your back. I told Wind and Water, so they’ll be here soon.”
Ruri did as she was told, holding her head up, relaxing her body, and floating atop the water. It was a good thing the waves were calm tonight.
“How are you here, Chi? I was wrapped up in Spirit Slayer chains, so I was sure no one would come to save me. Did you see me getting abducted?”
“I was taking a little stroll around the castle town to check out the ruckus. When I did, I found some strange rats that piqued my interest, so I chased them down, but I ended up losing sight of them. Since I lost sight in the direction of the port, I decided to give the port a search. That’s when I saw some guy manhandling you. And once I noticed he was wrapping you up in chains, I was like, ‘Yikes, bad news.’”
“Then, you should’ve come to save me right then.” The fact that Chi found her because he was chasing down rats was a stroke of dumb luck at its finest. Ruri had the utmost gratitude to those rats.
“I didn’t ’cos, it looked interesting,” Chi replied frankly.
“Oh, you don’t say...” Ruri sputtered, bemused that he let her sink in the ocean because he thought it was “interesting.” She added, “What if they had killed me before dumping me in the sea?”
“Don’t worry, I was swimming behind the boat, avoiding detection, the whole time. I planned on coming to help you if something happened.”
Since he actually did come to help her, Ruri couldn’t really complain—yet part of her still wished he had rescued her just a bit sooner.
“Did you unravel the chains wrapped around me, too, Chi?”
“Sure did. Not only does Spirit Slayer not work on me, those chains were made out of iron. And since I’m the Spirit of Earth, any mineral mined from the earth falls under my jurisdiction. Make ’em, break ’em—it’s a piece of cake. Good thing they were iron, eh?”
“Yeah, good thing. But, really, thank you... Say, can you answer me this? Kotaro and the others didn’t realize I was kidnapped, right? I assume that if they had, they would’ve come to the rescue ages ago.”
“Apparently, they tried searching for ya.”
“How did they take me out of the room in the first place?” Ruri questioned, her composure coming back to her. Even if those two snuck into the castle, it was a mystery how they managed to steal her away from Jade’s room. Kotaro was manning the door and had a barrier posted up around the room at all times. If someone were to touch the periphery of that barrier, not only would it automatically tip off Kotaro, it would reject them from entering. Even if they made it inside on a one-in-a-million chance, throwing Ruri over their shoulder and carrying her out the castle under everyone’s nose didn’t seem possible. The tons of soldiers keeping guard inside the castle and the spirits posted outside made sure of that. Spirit Slayer did keep spirits away, but if it was used in the castle, wouldn’t Kotaro have noticed anyway?
“Hmm...” Ruri hummed, racking her brain.
“Oh, here they are,” Chi cried.
Once Ruri switched her position so that she could tread water, Kotaro flew in with Rin atop his head.
“Ruri!!” cried Rin as she flapped her tiny wings and crashed into Ruri—a crash with little impact considering her small body, but a crash nonetheless. Ruri caught her and rubbed cheeks with her. “I swear! I was so worried. I couldn’t believe you just up and disappeared.”
“Are you all right, Ruri?” asked Kotaro.
“Yeah, Chi helped rescue me.”
Kotaro lifted Ruri up out of the water with his wind powers, and Rin flicked all of the moisture off of Ruri’s body with hers, instantly drying her. Ruri then proceeded to take a seat on Kotaro’s back. Kotaro placed Chi on his back as well.
As they made their way toward shore, Ruri explained what had happened. This led both Kotaro and Rin to the same question: how did these people abduct Ruri from that room?
“I’m certain that my barrier was in place. Yet your presence disappeared regardless. I entered the room immediately, but you were gone without a trace,” said Kotaro.
“You’re saying you didn’t feel anyone else’s presence in there except mine?”
“I would’ve known if anyone with mana like yours was around,” said Kotaro, “but for those with weak mana or no mana at all, I sometimes have problems detecting them. Given that, I suspect these Reapers, as you call them, are one of the two. Be that as it may, that only applies to when they’re in the barrier. I should have caught wind of them, though, if they touched it before they entered.”
No matter how hard Ruri tried to wrap her head around it, she couldn’t figure out how those two stole her away.
“Well, if we can’t figure it out, all we have to do is nab these ‘Reapers’ and make them spill it,” Rin said, giving a rather succinct answer.
“Now, that’s a good idea. Let’s go looking for them!” Kotaro urged, riled up.
Ruri quickly interjected to stop him. “No, it’s too dangerous. We can’t!”
“But, Ruri, how can you stand just taking all of this abuse lying down? Don’t you want to get back at them?” Rin asked.
“Well...” Ruri trailed off. Now that she thought about whether or not she wanted payback, Ruri’s honest answer would have been a resounding “yes”—she wanted payback with interest, in fact. Still, she had almost died a few moments ago, so part of her was still afraid. “Hmm. Yeah, but...”
“You’re just going to take this and go home to cry in your pillow?! This isn’t like you!” Rin asserted.
“Fine, I get it already. We’ll do it,” Ruri said, realizing that neither would be satisfied until she agreed.
“Well said! That’s the Ruri I know,” Kotaro said.
“Looks like fun. I’ll tag along!” Chi added.
With that, Kotaro changed his course and followed after the Reapers via Chi’s directions.
“You can find them, Chi?”
“I got a look at their faces back there. So long as they’ve landed on ground, any earth spirit can search for where they are.”
According to Chi, they were already on shore and heading straight for town. Ruri and the others finally made it to the port as well, but they quickly flew past it as they proceeded to scour the city while on Kotaro’s back. As they did, other spirits started to gather around little by little, all of them relieved to see Ruri safe.
As Ruri looked down at the town below, she noticed an abnormal amount of soldiers running about. “Don’t tell me they’re all looking for me?”
“Oh, why, I do believe that’s exactly what they’re doing. We haven’t informed the dragonkin that you’re safe yet, so they still think you’re missing.” Rin replied.
“In that case, maybe we should tell them that I’m safe before searching for the Reapers?”
“That can wait until later,” Rin suggested. “If everyone thinks you’re still missing, it will catch these people more off guard.”
“Hmm, but I at least want to let Jade-sama know. He’s probably worried sick,” Ruri said. She then asked a nearby spirit to go and inform Jade that she was safe and sound. The spirit cheerfully accepted the task and set off.
After seeing the spirit off, Ruri turned her attention back to the dark town, staring with intent. She soon spotted figures. “There they are,” she said.
The four of them landed in a spot a small distance away. They stifled their breathing and watched in secret, out of plain sight. The figures didn’t seem to notice any of them. The man and woman were heading toward somewhere with great haste through the darkness.
“Aren’t they heading toward the castle?” Ruri asked.
“They are. Are they still up to something?” pondered Rin aloud.
Ruri and the others had initially intended on catching the man and the woman right away, but they decided to observe them for a little while to see what they were planning. They followed them while riding on Kotaro, who was being careful not to make any loud footsteps and to keep his distance from them.
They were heading toward the barren back corner of the castle. As the group silently observed, wondering what they could be doing in a nowhere location like that, the duo pulled out what appeared to be bracelets and placed them on their arms. In the next instant, the pair of humans turned into a pair of small rats.
“Hngh!!” Ruri almost screamed involuntarily, but she managed to keep it in. Then the rats disappeared into a gutter that no human could possibly enter.
Once she saw the Reapers-turned-rats scurry off, Ruri finally spoke up. “Aren’t those bracelets the same as mine—the one that turns me into a cat?!”
“Hmm, so, if I’m to understand, the Reapers infiltrated the room via the gutters and abducted you that way. Even with my barrier set in place, it wouldn’t have extended to the gutters. Grr, it was a blindspot,” Kotaro explained, giving a calm analysis.
“By the way, Chi. You said you were chasing after some strange rats, right? Strange how, exactly?”
“Two of the rats were carrying another rat on their backs. Come to think of it, I think that’s around when I found you.”
“That means the one they were carrying was me, wasn’t it?! I became a rat?! Oh, God. Gross!” Ruri was not a fan of rodents, and knowing there was a chance she had become a rodent herself sent cold shivers down her spine.
“In other words, they turned Ruri into a rat as well and took her away? Then, that also means they have at least three bracelets capable of turning people into rats,” Kotaro surmised.
“I always thought my bracelet was rare, but is there actually that many floating around?”
Racking their brains over that wasn’t going to do them any good, however. Those two had infiltrated the castle and were on their way to do something. They had to let Jade know immediately.
Just as that thought ran through Ruri’s head, a voice echoed from behind her, calling her name.
“Ruri!!”
She turned around to find Jade dashing at her. Jade ran straight at Ruri and took her into his arms. His embrace was so tight that she was having trouble breathing, and she ended up squirming in his arms.
“Jade-sama, you’re kind of... choking me...”
Jade loosened up his grip, but he didn’t release her. Ruri didn’t try to force her way out of his grasp either. His warmth comforted her, and she breathed a sigh of relief, happy to be safe.
“Ruri, thank goodness... I heard you had died and my heart almost stopped beating. When I went into town to look for you, a spirit came and told me that you were safe.”
“I was in super big trouble, but Chi came and rescued me.”
“I see. Really, thank the lucky stars.”
Ruri stroked Jade’s back, hoping to instill some comfort. Seeing as how Jade was out of breath, he must have been running around the capital in search of her. With him leaning in so close, she could hear the intense beating of his heart as well. It seemed she had unintentionally caused him to worry a considerable amount.
Jade let go of Ruri and gave her a scan from head to toe to inspect if she was hurt. Then he quickly took her into his embrace again, breathing a heavy sigh of relief.
Seeing Jade’s behavior once again reassured her that she was indeed in safe hands, but she remembered that now wasn’t the time to be at ease.
“Oh, right. Jade-sama! The Reapers. The Reapers! The Reapers are rats. The rats are Reapers!”
“Calm down. What are you talking about?”
After taking a deep breath, Ruri explained what had happened after she was abducted and what she’d seen just moments ago.
“I see. I was almost certain that the Church of God’s Light had accosted you, but it was the Reapers, was it? No, they might be in league with one another since they knew what happened to you. And after the Reapers threw you into the sea, they proceeded to infiltrate the castle in rat form?”
“Yes.”
“Then their next target must be either Azelda or Celestine...” Jade assumed.
“Why is that?” Ruri asked, perplexed by Jade’s confident statement.
“Their moves have been garnering too much attention. They set off an explosion and attacked Azelda in front of everyone. Also, for someone daring to assault a Beloved, they weren’t an experienced fighter. Normally, you’d pick someone experienced, right? Since they didn’t, it leads me to believe that the assailant was a decoy. As of late, I’ve been constantly adding more people to prevent a situation given Azelda’s extreme selfishness in addition to the news about the Reapers. Azelda was afraid of a potential raider and she wouldn’t let her followers part from her side even when she slept at night. Our assailant purposely drew attention and got caught in an attempt to lull everyone into thinking that the culprit had been apprehended. Then, the Reapers would strike while everyone had their guards down—I can’t deny that all seems very likely now.”
“But, if they can sneak into the castle, they could just poison their food instead of flat-out attacking them.”
“Both Azelda and Celestine have food tasters.”
“Well, talk about capable crisis management...”
“I’ll have you know that you have food tasters assigned to your meals as well.”
“I what?!” Ruri exclaimed. This was definitely news to her.
“Of course you would. Humans die easier than dragonkin. Countermeasures must be put in place.”
“Well, compared to dragonkin, almost all races die easier.”
“That aside, if we know how they’re infiltrating the castle, we can take measures against them. They’ve been getting the upper hand on us up until now, but this time we can set a trap for them,” Jade said as he looked up at the castle with a devious smirk.
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