Nyx Nova

Chapter Seventeen

'What are you guys doing?' I voiced as I saw these four people hunching over through town.

Fritz, Arno, Ritase, and Bacchus were following Hinata wherever she went. I just had to talk them out of this because what they were doing was so silly. They all jumped because of my surprise appearance.

'Shhhhh!!!' Fritz hushed.

'Shhh yourself! What are you doing spying on her? You guys better not be secretly following her to the Tempest Federation?' I said.

'Uhmm, we're worried, so, we have to be there as her support,' said Ritase.

'Such is expected when she is heading there alone,' said Arno.

'You know, the Demon Lord might be welcoming her with open arms for all I know,' I grumbled. 'Whatever, just don't let yourself get caught by her.'

'You're not coming, Newbie?' Bacchus asked me.

'Are you crazy? What if she slugged me like yesterday?' I retorted at the question before they laughed lightly at my joke.

'Understandable,' said Arno. 'Keep watch, eh, Newbie?'

'Arno-san, I just came here and I wasn't assigned to anything yet so I want to enjoy my time off,' I said as I pointed at the fact that Hinata was absent from the spot they last saw her. 'Oh, you're losing her, by the way.'

'Crap! Talk later!' said Fritz as they rushed towards where Hinata was heading.

The said woman had teleported over to Ingracia if I am not mistaken and that's where these four people were heading. If she was heading for Tempest on foot, that was the closest route.

'Rimuru, Hinata has four loyal companions who are tailing her because they were worried for her,' I revealed.

'Noted. We're having a meeting, do you have a chance to return?' Rimuru wondered.

'Can't risk it, I'm searching for Rayheim. He's currently missing, I'm trying to see if the Sages made a dirty move or not,' I reasoned.

'Somebody managed to hid Rayheim from you?' Rimuru snorted.

'I know, it's absurd,' I laughed. 'It's whether he had been teleported out of here or he had been murdered. Either way, this is not a good sign.'

I cut the connection with Rimuru when I had nothing more to report. After sightseeing around the castle for an hour, it was then that I concluded Rayheim's magicules were indeed nowhere to be found. I immediately leaped towards the conference room from before and saw Hinata's adjutant who was suspiciously observing an event unfolding inside.

'What did you see?' I asked the man who had startled for a bit before he pointed out inside the room.

'Archbishop Rayheim had been silenced. The culprit is making his next move,' the adjutant whispered to me.

'What?! When did the murderer get the time? How the heck did he got access to him?!' I inquired in surprise.

'When did you think?' the adjutant sarcastically retorted.

'Reynald, there is something that you must know,' said a Sage.

'The thing is, Hinata has been colluding with Demon Lord Valentine...'

'When we eliminated Valentine, he begged us for his life and revealed this information.'

The subjects of Ruen were led to believe that Hinata had subdued the threat of Demon Lord Valentine. This had gained them preferential treatment from the people, leading the Holy Knight Order and the Pope's name to become as important as the Celestial Sages themselves. The Saint that was summoned was wisely doubting the Sage words. After the events that had unfolded last night, he must have been suspicious of them.