Chapter 146: Veronica
There"s only Veronica left behind in the alley and I"m watching her from behind the wall. Or in between two walls to be exact. Whatever she"s going to do or say, I won"t come out.
"No matter what she do, we should stay here until all is clear. She"s too strong to fight. And if you a.s.sa.s.sinated her right here, our plan will undoubtedly be ruined. They might cancel their plan to destroy this city." Victoria said to me.
It"s weird to have a wall talked to me. Just like the phrase, even walls have mouth. Wait, it was ears?
"I still think it"s better for the plan to be cancelled though." I replied to her.
"That is good in the short-term. But for the long-term, we need to stick to the plan. The cult"s existence and how dangerous they are must be known to everyone."
We need more people. What we lack the most is allies. Albert must have thought that if the attack happen, more people will join our cause to destroy the cult. Especially those who lose their beloved during the stampede prepared by the cult. But if by any chance they found out that we let their plan to come through, we might gain more enemies instead.
But Albert should have taken care of that. He might have plan in case the citizens realized that we let the cult attacked the city by using monsters stampede.
I"ll just leave the complicated things to Albert. I just hope everything will be alright.
Then we saw that Veronica is sitting on the ground while hugging her knees.
"Why is she hugging her knees?" Victoria said.
"Wait, you can see her from here?"
Don"t tell me that Victoria also can use see-through vision like me?
"There"s a hole in the wall and I stretch out my body in there to peek." Victoria replied.
"d.a.m.n! You are an amazing summon, but why did in the past you are so useless?"
"You said you don"t know me back then, right? I don"t know how, but I wasn"t there in your previous life. Your summon is just a Black Slime without another being inside it or that somehow I can"t come out. The Black Slime is a mindless monster so they can"t think on their own. And since Black Slime can"t be killed, the monster doesn"t have any sense of danger. So they don"t have any defensive maneuver to protect themselves. That"s just my guess though."
Victoria told me her guess which is similar to mine. Yeah, if I"m unkillable, I would also choose to not do anything and probably sleep all day.
"Hmm? That woman is crying? Is this another one of her strategy to lure me out?"
In the empty alley, Veronica is hugging her knees and crying. This woman is surely using any means necessary to pull me out of hiding. She"s even using her tears as weapon.
"No. She"s crying for real this time."
"Why are you the one being seduced this time?!"
Can"t she just be a wall and be quiet? What does she mean crying for real anyway? How did she knows? She might just be acting, you idiot!
"Mommy… how did everything go wrong?" Veronica said in her tears.
Wrong? What makes things wrong? Isn"t it your cult who made things wrong?
"I don"t want this at all… being used like this..." Veronica continued.
Alright, there. You want me to sympathize with you? I don"t think so. You"re just acting. I"m not pitying you at all.
"Roy, I think she"s too pitiful." Suddenly Victoria spoke again.
"I said to not get seduced, you idiot slime!"
"But she"s too pitiful. What if she"s not acting? What if she doesn"t want things to be this way?"
"Like what? She doesn"t want to join the cult? But she did! She doesn"t want to kill people? The cult she belongs to kill people! She doesn"t want to destroy this city? It"s too late for that! What is it that she doesn"t want? We"ll ignore whatever comes out of her mouth and just wait here until she left."
And just like that woman, I also don"t want things to go wrong. Although the things we"re talking about should be different.
"Hic… Mommy… Why did you left me?" Veronica is crying and asking for her mommy.
"Alright, that"s it! There"s no bad person would cry for her mommy! Let"s go have a chat with her!"
"No, idiot Victoria! There"s no rule saying bad guy should never cry for their mommy! She"s still evil no matter what, okay?!" I tried to stop Victoria who already stopped being a wall and turned into her human form.
"But this is common in story, right? A member of evil organization actually doesn"t want to be involved with them but fate told her otherwise. Then the protagonist will come and they will be friend. The member if evil organization will leak important information to protagonist while staying in the organization." Victoria insisted to come out.
"But there"s one thing that doesn"t match with that story of yours. I"m not a protagonist! And there"s no way something cliché will happen in real world!" I tried to stop her again.
"Don"t worry. Everyone is their own protagonists in their story. And I"ll make myself the protagonist who will approach her. It"s fine since I can"t be killed, right?"
"Well, whatever. You will keep insisting to go anyway. Just make your form is different than your human form so she won"t notice you. I"ll stay here and listen to your conversation. By the way, in my story, the protagonist is a cat-rabbit hybrid called Marcus Chiwawa the 4th whose paw is so warm they melt the snow and make the world flooded."
"What"s with that? I want to read that story. Well then, I"m going."
"And I"m staying."
Victoria come out of hiding and approach Veronica. I"ll be listening to their conversation while in hiding.
When Veronica noticed that someone is approaching her, she instantly prepared a magic to attack.
"Wait! I"m here to talk! I"m sorry that I eavesdropped you when you"re crying. But I want to listen to your story."
"Who are you?" Veronica is still wary to Victoria who appeared out of nowhere.
"I"m just a summoned monster with intellect whose master is someone you people should be looking for." And Victoria stupidly pointed at where I"m hiding.
"Oy, you idiot! Why are you telling her your ident.i.ty and where I"m hiding?" I shouted from my hiding spot. I still don"t want to show my face to Veronica.
"You… what do you want?" Veronica asked while her eyes is staring at my hiding spot.
"Well, our goal is to destroy that cult you belong to. And since it looks like you don"t want to be a part of them, I thought it might be a good idea if we cooperate. But before that I want to listen to your story first. Seems like you had a difficult past and ended up being a member of the cult. And probably one of the higher ups, right?" Victoria answered.
Victoria! Why are you so direct?! Won"t she be suspicious then?
"Alright. Seems like you are a good person. But can your master be trusted?" Veronica asked.
"He can. In fact it was because of him that the king himself made an action for your plan to destroy cities using monster stampede. With your help, we might be able to save more people." Victoria replied.
What if she"s just putting up an act? Why did you have to tell her about the king"s involvement?
"I heard the king is wise. I hope your goal to destroy this stupid cult will come true. Will you listen to my story?"
What?! What"s happening? Is there some sort of secret conversation between them that only women understand? If so, please teach me!
Veronica then tells her past about the reason why she"s in the cult.
Veronica lives with both of her parents. Then one day, her father tells his family that he joined a cult so his family can leave poverty. Veronica was still a kid who haven"t manifested her magic at that time.
At first, the cult wasn"t so bad. They gave Veronica"s father a job so her family can earn enough money to live.
One day, Veronica"s father died for some unknown reason. And after that, her mother disappear. Then Veronica was raised by the cult to be one of the higher ups of the cult. And she indeed become one.
But she didn"t became one because she wanted to. It was just because of her appearance. Her looks makes more worshippers join the cult. Although what they worship is Veronica herself.
Seeing how easily Veronica raised the numbers of worshippers, the higher ups decided to have her involved deeper in the cult. And that"s when she fell into despair to see that the goal of the cult is to destroy the world. She was told at first that the cult is worshipping an unknown G.o.d who will be their savior, but she never thought that it was an evil one.
Then she realize many more despairing things. Like how those who joined the cult will have HGB in their mouth to kill themselves. She doesn"t need one because she has a much higher position than those low level members.
She also realized that her parents are actually killed by one of the member as well. It was to brainwash Veronica to be their p.a.w.n.
Veronica can"t do anything but to endure it as much as possible and pretend that she"s loyal. If not, she would be killed.
Thanks to her loyalty, she was given chance to improve her magic. Which makes her an expert level mage. But no matter how strong she became, she could never escape from the cult. She hates to kill people, but she has no choice if she wants to live. That"s why when no one is around, she cries.
"I see… you"ve done well to tell us about yourself." Victoria said after hearing Veronica"s past.
What is it? It became a counseling session? Should I cry? I still can"t trust her though.
"See, Master? I think we can trust her." Victoria said we can trust Veronica. But I don"t think so.
"Then you can have a chat with her as much as you want. Her people is returning so I"ll escape first. I"ll summon you tomorrow after lunch, then you can tell me all information that you got. And you, the crybaby, close your eyes until I"m gone. I don"t want to be seen."
Seeing Veronica closed her eyes as I told her to, I left that spot right away. I guess this is the end of me playing hero.
...….
After Roy left, the Victoria turned into an earring on Veronica"s ear.
"This way we can talk whenever we want." Victoria said right to Veronica"s ear.
"Will it be alright? Your master doesn"t seem to trust me. I"m just a crybaby for him."
"Don"t worry. He"s also a crybaby himself. And he just want to protect his friends. That"s why he said he doesn"t trust you. But for me, it"s fine since I can"t be killed. But I guess he"s angry because I told you about the king. They are good friend after all." Victoria replied.
"I think it will be difficult. The power of one country won"t be enough to destroy the cult."
"That"s why we"re gathering allies and information. And I believe my master is strong enough to handle any problems that will come. He just need something to motivate himself. Maybe this stampede will do some good for him as well."
Victoria know that if Roy has the right motivation, he can be stronger than anyone. But he won"t say it to the person himself.