Ruu-Ruu (1)

Fort Geofu was occupied majorly by the Pallum, with the human was the second, once you arrived at the fort, it felt like entering a kindergarten.

The Pallum was a halfling race, meaning the height of their body was much shorter than the rest of people, they might not be as strong as a dwarf but still stronger than human, and they had ears similar to Elves but didn't possess a talent in magic nor a resistant toward magic.

The occupation of the pallum was smiting, tailoring, and other types of job that mostly involved services, naturally no lewd business.

Ruu-Ruu's bar was the largest in the fort, after discovering a pallum as one of the traitors, I and Celestine went to the fort, Celestine insisted to come with me despite she would be much comfortable staying at the palace or the forest.

"Welcome!"

I entered the bar, a little thing approached me with a wide smile, her red hair reminded me of a tomato.

When she saw Celestine entered the tavern with a curious aspect, her expression changed drastically.

"G-Goddess!!! Goddess is here, people!!!"

"..."

Not long, I had people, whether pallum, human, or other race, lined up in front of me with their forehead on the ground, not worshipping me, but Celestine.

"Ah?! Don't... don't be like this..." the High Elf Queen tried to stop them with desperation, I could only sweatdrop at the situation.

However, knowing the truth, I could feel the irony, after all, they were worshipping Larentia, not Celestine; if they were given a choice between them, Larentia was no doubt the sole winner, there wouldn't even be a contest.

"Bahaha! Celestine, ops, Goddess, you made a spectacular entrance!" Ruu-Ruu went out of a room at the back, her halbert rested on her shoulder, did she carry it everywhere?

"Ruu-Ruu, help me..."

"Eh... what can I do? You're their Goddess," Ruu-Ruu shrugged, like yeah, Celestine, what do you expect her to do? Tell people to not worship you? But Ruu-Ruu could behave leisurely in front of Celestine probably because she had been familiar with her, she knew what a klutzy she was!

Finally, Ruu-Ruu rescued Celestine by bringing us into her room, after she disappeared from the view, the people outside behaved normally again, but I could hear their discussion about celestine.

What a Goddess doing outside Ken?

Who's the man with the Goddess?

Wow, Ruu-Ruu doesn't bow to a Goddess, what a badass!

Or something else like that; if I said I was the Goddess' man, whether they would believe me or not?

"So, what can I do to help?" Ruu-Ruu took us to a red couch, we were served herbal tea since neither I nor Celestine drank.

"What is the progress on the traitors?"

"Nope, all clean!"

I paused from sipping the tea, said, "That's quick, what method do you use?"

"Well, I asked them, 'Who among you is betraying me, step forward so I can crush you!' and no one confessed, that means they are clean, right?"

"..." of course, no one would confess! What a terrible way to root out a traitor!

"Did you ask the Pallum too?"

"Yes!"

"What did you ask?" I squinted my eyes.

"I asked 'Did you betray me?', they said, 'No...', I said, 'Okay~'!"

"..." I sighed, a fanatism toward race was indeed hilarious, it's like saying a cow wouldn't eat other people's grass.

I exchanged glances with Celestine, she had informed me the status of the pallum who was one of the traitors, so with a knowing look, I asked Ruu-Ruu, "Ruu-Ruu, what do you think of Master Lee-Lee?"

"My master?" Ruu-Ruu startled, she lifted her eyes and said, "he's old, discipline, and strong."

"What if I told you... that he's the traitor?"

"Well, okay~"

Nani the fuck? Didn't she feel like denying it? Nor did she feel emotional about it? This was not someone else we talked about!

Sensing my confusion, Ruu-Ruu chortled, she said, "If my master wants to be a traitor, then who's going to stop him anyway!"

Ah, I thought I understood her line of thought; my master was an expert, he could do whatever he wants!

It also expressed her confidence in her master's strength.

"Ruu-Ruu, you still remember the church's plan, right? That is for Volt to establish a nation, and then he with the addition of Olga's army will assault your fort and the others, meaning the church is willing to sacrifice anyone but Kaguya and Celestine."

"Yes..." Ruu-Ruu frowned.

"Your master is one of the traitors, that means he also agrees to sacrifice you with the other Pallums, and believe me, Volt didn't promise your life toward mercenary, he promised your womanhood, meaning; if Volt succeeded, you are going to suffer sexual humiliation," I brought sorrow in my tone, a deep sympathy, "and that's what your master had agreed on."

"..." Ruu-Ruu went silent, on her casual expression there was a doubt.

"If your master is strong, why bother with treachery? Can't he sweep off enemies left and right to get what he wanted? Isn't it weird?"

Ruu-Ruu's forehead crumpled like a crinkle towel, there were two things she held in belief; her master was strong, and the Pallum race was a straight people, they didn't bother with complex things such as treachery or politic. None of her race was even a merchant.

"So many questions, but so little courage to ask, right?" I smirked, idealism was sometimes worth more than a single gold in the entire world, people rather became poor than having their idealism erased, or in this case, proved their idealism wasn't as right as they thought.

Ruu-Ruu clenched her hand, and then she hopped down from the red couch and dashed outside, I didn't ask but quickly pulled Celestine to follow her, I knew where she wanted to go.

...

It's already night when we arrived at our destination, a temple behind a mountain that wasn't notably distant from Geofu but its path was downright disastrous.

The temple's houses were mainly themed in green and supported by pillars with yellow dragons spiraling them down.

"Who's there?!"

Two guards in front of the tall red gate spotted us from the distance, they were also Pallum.

"Heiyo! It's me!!!" Ruu-Ruu shouted, her cheerful tone was in stark contrast with her silence during the trip.

"Ooh, Ruu-Ruu, what's the matter?" one of the guards said, he's wary at me and Celestine.

"Nothing, nothing, I want to pay respect to my masta, is he here?" Ruu-Ruu laughed, showing her tiny fang.

"He's present..." the guard said, "but strangers aren't allowed to enter the temple."

"Okay~" Ruu-Ruu turned to us, said, "go away."

Most people would have mad, I meant, dafuq girl, we followed you this far only to be chased out, you didn't even try to defend us... Also, these people didn't seem to recognize Celestine.

However, I noticed the strangeness of her visage, she's being playful when in the face of these guards, but she's dead cold when facing us.

I nodded and took Celestine away, we didn't go very far but enough to be out of the guard's sight.

"What now, Husband?" she said, despite someone who appeared weak, the horrible tour of the mountain didn't tire her.

"We wait." I thought what Ruu-Ruu wanted to do? Opening a backdoor for us? Or she wanted to take down all the guards first to open the front door? I remembered Celestina said Ruu-Ruu became a representative for the Pallum race because she's the strongest, so I hoped she wouldn't have trouble.

30 minutes passed, and Ruu-Ruu hadn't appeared from the temple again, did she encounter trouble? Whether I should infiltrate the building or not? But as I pondered the next course of action, the little woman in subject finally went out.

"Alright, come back!" she shouted, naturally, she was calling us.

I and Celestine approached the temple again, albeit the guards were looking at us with a sharp glare, but they did nothing to prevent our entrance.

I couldn't help but feel curious toward this master of Ruu-Ruu, Master Lee-Lee, what part did he have in the treachery? What was his reason to betray his own race? Why bother scheming with Volt?

...

Where Ruu-Ruu taking us was a hall, there were only the three of us, and another person at the end of the hall.

Wearing a white robe, his black hair extended toward his waist while in braid style. He appeared slightly hunched with one of his hands behind his back while the other was grasping a stick.

"Master, I bring Abe and Celestine," Ruu-Ruu said.

"..." Lee-Lee didn't speak, however, I saw his yellow finger tapping on the stick.

Ruu-Ruu didn't urge him to talk, meanwhile, I tried to measure the strength of this so-called master. Silently summoned a sword Qi and aimed it toward his stick.

I wondered if he could feel my Qi, and how he would react with it; if he a proper master, then he should have been able to give a response.

Wuz! I launched the sword Qi, and it struck Lee-Lee's stick!

"..." It didn't budge... the stick didn't budge a single spot, albeit Lee-Lee seemed to hold it lightly.

"A Qi user... are we?" Lee-Lee finally opened his mouth, the voice of an old person reverberated in the empty hall.

He turned to look at us, his eyes were hidden underneath his bob hair, the mustache was overgrown.

"Larentia and Pangu... with you are similar."

"... You have seen them?" I asked.

"No, not really... we have a historical record, after all."

"Why betray Celestine?"

"Betray?" Lee-Lee hummed, "what betray when I remain loyal?"

"And where is your loyalty?"

"Larentia."

I squinted my eyes, whether Master Lee-Lee or the Elf's Chief, they both worshipped Larentia, which means as long as the church's goal to revive Larentia could be succeeded, they wouldn't care about the cost.