Chapter 55

Alastair glared at the paper work at his desk, he diligently worked through it, stamping here and there or just plain burning the sheets. His mind kept creeping back to the girl he left in the dungeon.

'Was she okay? Was it too cold? Would she be fine?' The questions seemed to make him second guess his judgment and he had walked to the door a dozen or so times with intention of freeing her and then returning with a reluctant face.

'No I should discipline her. She should know that it's best to listen to me' he nodded and then groaned when he would imagine her small body, curled up and shivering, crying silently to herself.

He clutched his head turning back to the paper work. He was well aware that the goblin infestation wasn't normal, nor where the ones that seemed to occur all throughout the country. In the history of any spoken country something like what was currently happening in the Kaedmen Empire was completely unheard of.

Goblin infestations at this scale were downright impossible. Which was why he wouldn't be sending Alexis there. She wouldn't understand even if he explained it to her. She was much too stubborn.

At the thought of her, he felt an even stronger desire to see her. He craved for that warmth.

His door opened, snapping him out of his desperate thoughts. Emilia stood before him with a strange off-putting smile.

"Emilia".

He glanced up at her in interest, she rarely visited his office, saying it reminded her too much of the previous emperor, who she despised.

"Hello Tairy, would you like to go for a walk?" She asked.

"I'm busy", he gave an exhausted smile which she returned with a worried face.

"Come. It might be better for you to get some air" she somehow managed to convince him and soon they walked through the public gardens.

Alastair came hoping he could get his mind off the small mage, but now his mind was full of memories of her admiring the flowers and lazing about the place. He wanted to see her even more.

"I miss her" the words left his mouth before he realised and he gasped a bit when he met Emilia's surprised face and realised what he said.

He felt a light blush on his face when her surprised expression turned into a knowing look.

"Thinking about a special somebody are you?" She teased.

He turned away, his ears flushed.

"I- I don't know what you're talking about" his denial was useless because his red ears gave him away.

"Aw my Tairy's gotten so much cuter after all that time I've been gone", she laughed pinching his cheek and he gave an embarrassed exclamation at her actions.

"Emilia, I'm a grown man!"

"Not to me. To me you'll always be little Tairy" she smiled in a fond way, her eyes wandered those old memories.

Alastair also mused over those memories, back then, Emilia was the only reason he could smile and now, he had so many reason to.

"That dream was right. She really has changed a lot of things", he stated as he stared absentmindedly at the hydrangeas, "Roger said the army doesn't complain as much after our visit. They don't bad-mouth me anymore".

He gave a soft smile, something Emilia had rarely seen him wear, 'She was truly a fairy'.

"I knew she was the one, but to think you fell for her", she replied.

Alastair's head snapped towards her, face burning ever so more.

"F-Fell for her?! That monkey?!" He stuttered.

"What? too embarrassed to admit it?"

Alastair cleared his throat and attempted to change the subject to a more important subject.

"Emilia, something has been happening in the mines around the Empire. There's been a strange sequence of goblin infestations that don't seem to be a coincidence", he looked to his best confidant, his mother.

"You mean the one that Alexis w-wanted to attend doesn't seem like a normal infestation?" Emilia did her best to stay calm, but fear seemed to make her a bit stiffer. She frowned slightly at the idea that she may have sent Alexis to something bigger than she thought.

"Right. Which is why I rejected the idea".

'Oh lord…' Emilia held her temples, but what does she do now? Tell him? Or await potentially bad news?

"What does it seem like to you?" She asked, concealing her thoughts.

"A rebel group. Though I'm not sure what type, all I know is that they want to cause some trouble", he frowned, he had been stressed over this for a while.

He already figured whose doing this was.

'So it's begun'.

—————————

The cave was steep, and crouching down in agonising pain was a must. It reminded Alexis a bit of her own basement in her house. The one room she did everything to avoid, but here she was, walking into something steeper and more creepier than her basement could ever wish to be.

Her sight was still as good as it was in the dungeons. And with such perfect sight all she could see was that the walls were arching upwards and giving her back some relief.

As much as she wanted to cry of pain she couldn't. The moment those creepers realised someone was here they'd come surging.

They were planning a sneak attack. With Adam immobilising them with electricity, Hector going for immediate attack and Alexis on support since between the two she was a bit useless.

They walked forward, deeper and deeper into the dark fortress. Nothing was in their sight it was clear.

Clean.

Nada.

Nothing.

Alexis was beginning to think it was a horrible lie and she just strained her back for nothing until she saw it. She held her mouth to contain the shriek that threatened to escape at the sight of it.

A hand. A green hand with disgustingly long nails that had a brown hue. And it was just a hand.

No body was connected to it.

Hector realised Alexis was in shock and attempting to calm her with a pat. It woke her up a bit, but the vision of that arm seemed painted in her mind.

She suddenly wasn't sure if she could continue.

'God, now I feel like an idiot… I can understand why Alastair didn't want me to come here' that revolting smell that came from the corpse-less-limb surrounded them, becoming stronger as they walked further. She realised then that the sight they would meet would be gruesome. Very gruesome.

When they came across the place the smell came from, Alexis almost fainted at the gruesome sight before her. The goblins, small and green, with cystic acne like texture marring their faces and sharp teeth which they sunk into other goblins, ripping apart their meat.

There were about a hundred, all huddled together, all feasting on their companions.

Alexis could only barely stop the gag in her throat, her breakfast threatened to come back out. Hector also looked displeased while Adam looked excited, pleased to get into action.

She assumed it was because of the lack of food around here and that made her even more uncomfortable, because in essence, they were food.

Thankfully, since the distracted goblins didn't noticed the new comers, Adam had plenty of time to launch a full range electricity attack, paralysing the goblins.

Hector then stood forward, stretching out his arm as fire blazed from underneath the goblins, burning them to a crisp as it engulfed them.

Alexis stood mesmerised, thinking that fire mana was an unexpected thing from Hector. She had thought it'd be water or wind coming from him, but thinking back he could be passionate and fiery. So in a way, it did suit him.

She couldn't muse on it for any longer as a loud rumble was heard from all around them. The floor and walls shook. Alexis' heart did alongside them.

"It's an avalanche!" She cried, her legs wobbled backwards, unlike her, Hector and Adam were unfazed and continue to stand there.

"Shit. There's a fuck load".

"Indeed. That means the ones we just killed were a mere farce. Left to die first so the others are notified that there are intruders", he grasped Alexis' arm to stop her from falling back and tried to calm her.

It didn't work too well, and when an ice shard came shooting towards them from a group of goblins who came from a steep entrance on the other side she jumped. The job she thought was easy was suddenly hard. And horrifying.

"T-That goblin is using magic!? Goblins can't do that!" She hid behind a boulder with the level-headed boys who contemplated throwing her out.

"Not unless they're taught" calmly replied Hector.

"But the textbooks"-

"The text books don't tell everything, especially text that can exploited".

She shut up after that, deciding to think up something before the batch of goblins come along.

"I'll create a hole, Hector can summon fire beneath it" she offered, staring wearily at the approaching goblins, their hands frozen as if they couldn't control the magic they had.

"Right. But make it deep", Hector replied before he positioned himself.

And she did, the goblins that once walked slowly with triumphed smiles now screeched loudly for about a minute before a loud thump sounded out.

"That's a bit too deep, isn't it?" Alexis sighed.

"No. It's perfect".

And like hell had unleashed fire burned the fallen goblins. And the few that linger above growled at them, realising their opponents weren't easy prey.

They lunged at the three, throwing sharp ice sharps at them, they were quickly melted with Hectors fire. Adam immobilised them with electricity and Hector burned them once again.

They breathed heavily, they could still go on, but if they didn't sit for a while they would go bust soon. Alexis noticed this and waited, wishing she could use some type of extra magic.

But the rumbling bought more goblins crawling out from places that didn't even look like holes. They all growled at them, baring sharp teeth and nails. Glowing hands that shot out more ice.

Alexis created a wall, trying to buy some time for the ones doing any real work. She released some strong wind magic hoping to push back the approaching goblins. It worked long enough for her to fire some electric currents, paralysing a few of them.

"Sometimes I forget she's a mana monster", Adam muttered and Hector chuckled in response.

"Yes, she is. But we might need a bit more training for her. In fact, let me do it right now", Hector proposed while Adam gave a baffled.-

"Eh?! Now?!"

And so he watched Hector tell Alexis how to use water magic and turn it to ice and the cheat of a human being mastered it as quickly as he spoke. Adam didn't know that was because of her basic high school knowledge. Something she took serious for the first six months. A common question was how exactly she got into university, even she was surprised.

But like always magic came naturally to her and soon she froze all the goblins.

She smiled in relief.

"Thank god I'm not completely useless".

"Are you sure you don't feel at least dizzy?" Asked Adam as he stared in amazement at the amount of goblins now frozen in ice. There were roughly a hundred of them.

"Nope. Why?" Alexis shook her head in innocent confusion and received a blank look from Adam.

"No reason"…

"I didn't realise this when I was fighting off those little guys but the rumbling has stopped",.

"Hmm, it seems the goblins are waiting for us. They must've realised that their prey is much stronger than they anticipated" Hector commented, venturing deeper through the crowd of frozen goblins. Alexis hesitated, glancing at the frozen things with fear.

She could've sworn one of them moved their eyes.

Adam also uncaringly started moving, noticing the frightened frozen girl who stared ahead with caution.

"Come on Alexis! These goblins need to be cleaned up and by your hands, Miss Angel", he chuckled at her state, angering her.

"I am! I'm just admiring them!" She called and ran to follow the two.

Adam marvelled at the girl who seemed capable of just about anything. All the while, he snickered at her red-faced state. He could begin to see why that infamous Emperor took a liking to her.

Together they ventured further, easily disarming any random attacks. A goblins advantage was usually a lack of light, but they could all see just fine in the darkness which left the goblins powerless.

Their path became smaller and smaller, until the walls above them just about scrapped Alexis' head. For once she thanked her short height.

Adam suddenly grasped her hand, signalling for her to stop and she did, whilst shooting him an inquisitive stare.

"Can you smell that?", he asked, sniffing the air.

She followed suit, "Is that vanilla?", she asked incredulously, "goblins can cook?"

"Don't be daft, Alexis" replied Adam, "you think those mindless things can cook. Someone's here. Someone who isn't a goblin".

"That's right". Hector nodded.

The exit that wasn't too far ahead would have answers.