RE:WRITE

22.0 Candela_Chapter 5: Sicilian

Should I do it? It would add a few options and, quite frankly, I could use some options right now.

Lily is far smarter than I'd initially assumed and incredibly wary too. Amy guards her like a mother hen, I don't think I could get through to her in time.

Should I postpone the first phase? Delaying the first phase till after we receive the Fire Goddess' blessing shouldn't be a problem, but what if the status quot doesn't change? What if I can't get closer to Lily in time? It would throw my entire strategy out the window.

I have no choice. I need options. I need more variables to play with, to manipulate things in my favor. And the biggest variable is...

I climbed up yet another mountain, ignoring the grunts and heavy breathing coming from behind me. I also ignored the accusatory gaze boring into the back of my head.

But what I couldn't ignore was the bemused smile I saw in the corner of my eye.

I took a deep breath.

Time to take the plunge.

I turned around as soon as I reached the top of the mountain and cast my gaze down to the people below. But I was only really looking at one person.

"Strange isn't it, how we haven't been attacked by monsters on our entire journey? In fact, other than the time Lily ran off on her own, we haven't faced any significant difficulties." I said, as if I was only thinking out loud.

"Yep, quite strange indeed." replied Kai, with a smile on his face.

"It's weird sure, but I sure as hell ain't complaining. The only things I am complaining about are your weird, unannounced detours and the fact that you still haven't told us about that thing you dug up." Lily replied, panting for breath while managing to chastise me at the same time.

My face twitched. Lily was as annoying as ever.

"Ah yes, the Lava Sphere." I said, taking a pale red orb out of my Inventory. "It isn't all that amazing though. You see, the Fire Goddess' shrine is built on a pool of lava that's hot enough to fry dragons. But as long as we have this, we should be able to walk right through it."

Lily's eyes widened and Amy furrowed her brows. Kai didn't react at all.

I frowned inwardly at Kai's lack of surprise. Did he already know? Had he Appraised the sphere back when he fixed up that hole without anyone noticing? I still couldn't see through him and the thought made me uneasy but at the same time, it made me feel a little elated.

"As I was saying. It's strange that we haven't been attacked at all, even though we've been merrily skipping around one of the most dangerous places on Erath." I continued, taking a deep breath once again.

"In fact, even though we've passed through the confirmed territories of thirty Maglons, ten Fire Drakes and three Flame Wyverns, as well as the well documented breeding grounds of the Orange-eyed Toads and the Forclaws, we still haven't seen a single monster, let alone gotten attacked by one."

"W-wait! You've been leading us around all day so we could walk into monster dens?" Lily said, incredulously.

I smiled.

"I apologize for the deceit but it was necessary to isolate the cause of this strange situation. After all, I didn't know who or what was causing this."

"You did not know. Are you implying that you do know now?" Amy said.

"Of course! Although I'm sure you've guessed it already, since it was awfully obvious. Lily was attacked by a Light Ogre and I've fought several monsters too, thus removing us from the list of suspects. As such, I could only hypothesize that this situation or lack of situations arose due to either Amy or Kai or from something that one of you possessed. It may also have been caused by both of you or by a combination of all of our abilities or something of that sort. However, after what happened in that disgusting old elf's shack, I found it safe to assume that Kai was the one responsible for keeping the monsters off our back."