The Unwilling Protagonist

Chapter 35: Mother of All; The Empress

"Reighland, you know someone, don't you?" Y/N asked.

Reighland sighed in annoyance, "Yes...but you're not going to like the answer..."

***

That's when Y/N, Reighland, Miriam, Charlotte, and Kara found themselves staring at Magician's tower and the kingdom surrounding it.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Y/N shouted in disbelief.

Opening Theme:

"This is suicide!" Y/N continued his angry rant, "No, scratch that, this is murder-suicide; you know why? Because you're killing us along with yourself just bringing us here!"

"Y/N..." Reighland said.

"Couldn't we have tried to appeal to Rathe or any of the other generals? 'Hey, sorry for the fact that I'm an Arcana member, could you please forgive me? I promise I won't shank you in your sleep or anything'."

"Y/N, don't slander the Mistress!" Miriam stepped in, but Reighland raised a deterring hand to her.

Y/N started yelling at his arm, "And Geralt! Maybe if you tried to kill Justice, you could at least help out the other soldiers trying to kill her. Yes, it would be painful, but it might've ended better with me still being a Hero, rather than a goddamn fugitive!"

Without warning, Reighland whacked the top of Y/N's head with her staff, making him fall to the ground as he rubbed it.

"Y/N! Shut the hell up!" Reighland yelled loudly. Miriam and Charlotte were taken aback by her sudden change in behavior. Their usually calm Mistress was yelling like a brute.

Reighland lifted Y/N by his collar, "Just let me do the talking, and we should be fine, you got that?" She didn't even wait for his response, she just let him fall back on the ground before sighing loudly, "I'm not happy about this either, you know..."

As the quintet went under the gray sky, they immediately felt a sense of dread, like they were being watched by something in the distance. Y/N held Charlotte close as she clung to his side. Kara grabbed Y/N's other arm because she was Kara. Miriam had to settle with holding his free hand. As they approached the gate, Reighland raised her hand to cease movement. The sentry at the gate stared down at them all with red eyes.

"State your name and business!" He shouted.

"I wish to see the Empress." Reighland replied.

"The Empress does not want any business with you, traitor." The sentry replied. Another wall guard raised their arm and waved behind them. Reighland jumped back as a large spike the size of a ballista bolt landed right in front of her. Y/N and the girls all jumped back in surprise as they fell on the ground.

"Leave now!" The sentry shouted.

"I am not leaving until I speak with the Empress!"

The sentry said nothing as he nodded to his allied sentry. Another wave, another ballista bolt hit right where Reighland was standing as she jumped out of the way again.

"This isn't working..." Geralt said, "Let me try..."

Y/N went up to Reighland and whispered in her ear about Geralt's request. She was incredulous at first, but she didn't have any better options at the moment. Y/N stepped forward and let Geralt possess him.

As Geralt opened his eyes, he started conversing with the sentry.

"Merodon, old friend! How have you been?" Geralt said boisterously.