The Eighth Sin Of Chaos and Mystery

Chapter 2: Vanya Ale in Bernia Village!

Tsubaki's pov

Meliodas made Elizabeth and I waitress at the boar hat, although I already worked as a waitress since I've been here. "Sir Meliodas.. I've been meaning to ask. What sort of crime did the Eight Deadly Sins commit to be hated by the public?" I lowered my eyes to the floor as I shifted uncomfortably, which didn't go unnoticed by Meliodas. At the time of the crime, I actually wasn't around in the capital. I had been sent elsewhere on a mission by Merlin and when I finished, Meliodas picked me up. When I asked him what was going on, he didn't give a straight answer so I had to push him for it. When I heard what had happened, I cried for several hours, hurt and saddened by Zaratras's death. I was also scared for the rest of the sins, who had split up. So instead of giving her a straight answer, he said something completely different.

"I traveled all through Britinia and stole every pair of women's underwear I could find." He stated and I slapped my forehead, shaking my head at his stupid lie. This man really is something else, I can't lie. "Really?" Elizabeth seemed a little uncomfortable, "I'm joking." Meliodas made a face, while Elizabeth nearly fell over. "Nah, I stalked all the pretty girls with great boobs and groped them." I stared at Meliodas like he was crazy, but then shook my head knowing he was really just joking.

"Did you really grope all those women?" Elizabeth asked, "Nah, I'm joking." Elizabeth nearly fell over again, as I just shook my head for the third time and chuckled. "And he wonders why I always smack him." I muttered under my breath.

We set up the tavern just outside of a small place called Bernia Village, I was a bit out of sorts seeing as how the village was it reminded me a lot of the small town I moved to when I was younger. "Come on," I wanted to see how the village was so Meliodas, Elizabeth, Hawk, and I headed down to see the village and let them know to come by. When we did get into the village all of the houses seemed empty, which was weird considering it seemed that people currently lived here. "Where are all of the people?" Elizabeth turned to Meliodas and I, which made me look around. That's when I spotted a large crowd of people, they were gathered around something and I could hear shouts coming from the men.

"What's going on here?" I asked one of the people standing further back. We explained that we had just gotten here and set up shop outside of their village.

"We have some of the finest Vanya Ale at the tavern," Captain mentioned, as the older guy turned back towards the scene. There were dozens of men trying to pull a sword out of the ground, which wasn't budging at all. "We are actually the ones who make the Vanya ale. But recently we had a Holy Knight come to our village, he wanted to try some of our ale but then he got angry and stuck his sword in the ground which stopped our water supply. The sword can only be removed by another Holy Knight." He explained, as the men fell backward onto the ground.

"My friends, the Eight Deadly Sins could easily fix that." I raised an eyebrow, as a young boy came out in the middle of the crowd and boasted.

"What are you talking about, Mead?!" A man yelled in the crowd.

"You're the reason why this happened in the first place!" The crowd started to rally and then chucked rocks at the poor kid. I grew angry just seeing this happen, it reminded me of home. The day that I caused a big accident, the entire village tried to hurt me but my father stopped it. When he showed up, they stopped yelling realizing that I was his child. On impulse I rushed out into the middle, skidding in front of the small child named Mead despite the protests I heard coming from Elizabeth. "Stop it! He's a part of your village. I don't care if he caused this mess in the first place! You shouldn't be chucking rocks at a child like that! Are you all that evil?" They didn't seem to care and continued chucking rocks, which hit Meliodas in the face.

Since there was no getting through to them Meliodas took us back to the tavern, I hung back behind Elizabeth and Meliodas. I was curious as to how Mead caused a Holy Knight to curse his village, I remembered Elizabeth saying something about how much the Holy Knights changed. I sat down at the table just beside where Meliodas was standing, he grabbed some ale and tried to serve it to Mead, which made me scold him for it. Mead didn't think much of Meliodas giving him ale, while I sighed.

"So what did you mean by you know the Eight Deadly Sins?" Mead didn't answer, but I had a feeling he said this because he wanted attention.

Elizabeth told us a story about how she gave King Bartra a great scare when she was young, "I was prankster when I was little. I only did it to get his attention. And even though he wasn't my real father, he risked himself to climb up that tree after me. He fell off and hurt himself and I felt so bad for causing him so much trouble but he said as long as I was safe that he would be fine." I smiled at Elizabeth, my father was just like that. Although he was always away on business when I was younger, whenever he came back he made sure to spend time with me.

"My parents died when I was younger. We were travelers and never stayed in one place for too long. But when we got here they got sick and died. The villagers were nice enough to take me in but I still feel out of place. They all have families but I don't. I put that bug in the Holy Knight's drink, not for attention but because he disrespected our village. He was so rude and I couldn't let him get away with it. I lied about being friends with the Sins, because I thought that they were the good guys since the Holy Knights were chasing after them." I couldn't believe he thought that, this must mean that Elizabeth was right about the Holy Knights being the bad guys. I never thought that it would be this bad.

Just as I was about to speak up, Mead ran out of the tavern towards the village square. "What was that about?" Elizabeth looked to Meliodas and I, "I don't like the feeling I'm getting. I'll be back." I took off out of the tavern after Mead, ignoring Elizabeth and Hawk calling me back. "Mead, wait!" I heard the villagers call out, making me push my through the crowd. What I saw made so upset, two guards were having the time of their lives while the villagers were shouting at Mead. My eyes trailed to what he was doing seeing that a sword had been stuck into the ground, which I could only guess was the holy Knight's sword. I scowled seeing them shout at him while he was giving it his all to pull the sword out, Meliodas came over not uttering a word and took the sword out of the hole letting the water flow. He turned around, taking the sword out of the ground and throwing it at the two guards. As a result, the two guards get scared and run off as I walked over to Captain with my arms folded behind my head.

The villagers group quiet and eventually start apologizing to Mead, who starts crying and gets a giant group hug. I smiled looking at them as they hugged Mead, he looked so happy and I was genuinely glad we resolved the problem. "Alright everybody! Why don't we all celebrate at the boar hat?!!" Captain shouted and I shake my head, as we made our way there.

"So Captain, where are we headed next?" I put my hand on my chin and looked at him, as he handed some men their orders. "The Forest of White dreams." I knew we must have been going there to find another one of the sins, I just wasn't sure who was staying there. As I was about to ask another question, I got this weird feeling and went outside. "What's wrong, sir Meliodas?" I heard Elizabeth ask from behind me and started to talk about her troubles, to which Captain tells her that it gives her people a chance. Suddenly a large spear came flying and with no effort Meliodas caught it, but was sent sliding down the side of the cliff.

"Sir Meliodas!!" Elizabeth rushed forward and I grabbed onto her arm, as I saw Meliodas get dragged off by the spear. "Liz, it's okay. He'll be fine." A few minutes later, Meliodas came back and told us he knew that we had a Holy Knight chasing us but he wouldn't tell the name.

"We have to leave Bernia soon."

"We should hide in the Forest of White Dreams." Elizabeth suggested. "I think that's a great idea. There must be another sin there." After going back to the tavern, we said our goodbyes to the villagers and cleaned up the place. Elizabeth had gone off to sleep and Meliodas was outside on the front porch so I went to talk to him, it seemed like he was hiding something from me about who was chasing after us.

"Captain, is there a reason you won't tell me who is chasing after us?" I leaned against the doorframe, while Meliodas looked out at the sky not bothering to look back at me. "I'm only protecting you." Was his response, making me furrow my eyebrows in confusion.

"What do you mean 'protect me' Captain? Who is chasing us? Which Holy Knight?" I asked, crossing my arms. He finally looked back at me, with a strange look on his face. "It's someone from your past. That's all I'll tell you. Now go get some sleep. I know you're tired, so go rest. We have a hard day ahead of us."