The Saintess and the Villainess

Chapter 89

The Unseen Rain had a lot to think about.

After that annoying cleric randomly disappeared (probably some sort of teleportation spell using true magic, with zero care for how much damage that would do to her soul, the idiot), that ridiculous elven prince had walked them all the way back to the edge of the forest, just... talking with them.

Zaos, that was his name apparently, had spent some time explaining about the history of the forest. He described the trees there as Awakened. Apparently most trees around the world were asleep and unaware of their surroundings except for in the most basic possible ways. But the trees of the forest were Awake, and they had complex thoughts and feelings, and they were always paying close attention to the world around them.

That did somewhat explain why the trees in the forest had soul auras when they shouldn't. Well, it didn't really explain it, because Zaos never said why the trees were Awake that way, but it was better than nothing.

And he had explained what a curse-breaker was.

"The curse-breakers were an ancient and powerful order of elves," he had said. "From back in the days when magic was more wild and abundant than it is today. Back then, everyone was being given curses or prophecies and the like, but these types of spells usually had highly specific gendered language. The curse-breakers were elves who dedicated themselves to fluidity, shifting identities as necessary in order to thwart these curses and prophecies. They performed a great service for society and were highly respected."

Zaos had shrugged, then. "I just thought, perhaps your elven ancestors were once curse-breakers. You certainly seem to be carrying on their legacy. I find that admirable."

While thinking deeply about this, Rain stared blankly at the rebel soldiers nervously running drills with their wooden training dummies.

"What are you still doing here!?"

Rain rolled their eyes. It was the other obnoxious elf prince, Agis.

"I don't have anything better to do," said Rain, with a bored tone.

"Okay, but we don't want you here," said Agis, folding his arms. "The only reason you're not dead right now is because when you got here Zaos said you were a 'good chap' and that I shouldn't kill you because he wanted to be able to kill you later in a 'fair duel to the death between honorable warriors.'"

Rain yawned. They were vaguely aware that Agis was in his 30s or something, but he looked like a teenager. That made it hard to take him seriously when he was trying to act intimidating.

"Hey! Listen to me!" shouted Agis. He was like a toddler throwing a tantrum. "You can't just hang around here. You're our enemy! You've tried to kill Anne, like, a bunch of times!"

"No, I haven't," snapped Rain. "If I was seriously trying to kill her any of those times, she'd be dead already. And besides, she's not actually my target anyway. My target is the Saintess."

"What? What are you talking about? She—"

"Agis!" a thundering of hoofbeats followed this shout as that Lady Corvina woman galloped up at full speed. She reigned her horse in at the last second, causing it to rear up before halting.

For some reason, her long, pretty hair had been tied up in a loose ponytail, she was wearing a loose blouse with tight trousers, and she had glasses on. A very different look for her.

Corvina jumped off the horse.

"Have your two strongest horses brought out here immediately," said Corvina. "We can't afford to lose another minute."