Welcome to Ikrel (Revised) – Rising up Arc (1)

The road to Ikrel is closing in. Me, Hana, and Fumiko got out of the carriage and looked around at the entrance to the city of Ikrel.

"Halt, state your reason for entering."- The guards have their spears drawn at us. We have our disguise on and most people won't be able to tell that we are monsters.

"We are here on a decree from the local from Welcia. We are here to discuss something with Lord Ikrel"- Hana showed them the paper that Fumiko gave us.

"Are you sure this is original?"- One of the guards scuffed and looked at our group again, focusing on Fumiko.

"And who is she?"- One of the guards pointed toward Fumiko

"I am Fumiko Welcia, I am here on my father's orders! Here"- Fumiko gave them something that is like a medallion along with her guild ID. We have our own guild ID but we can't give them out like that.

"Well, we can't argue with that"- One of the guards stepped out of the way

"Ok, you may pass"- They lowered their spears and we passed

Passing through the gates we can see a bustling city, the sound of people walking is everywhere, their chatter filling the atmosphere, the sun is blazing and a sweet scent fills the entire street, like freshly baked pies.

Everyone passed us unaware of our presence, at least this is the feeling you get when you first arrive in Ikrel, it's like the stone wall is muting the whole city buzz.

"So this is Ikrel"- Fumiko looked around in awe. She moved her head back and forth taking in the view of the city, I have to admit, for the time we are in this medieval city looks good.

The city is big, bigger than Welcia at least, this city has more shops, more houses and far more people than Welcia, now, we only need to find the house of Lord Ikrel, it's not a tall order but you can never know what sort of person he is, but minding King Wiekas words, he isn't a good guy, heck, I don't know if I am a good either for what I am about to do, but it's not the time for that now, we have to find a way to become demon lords and defeat goddess Ifrit.

"Sia, how greedy is Lord Welcia? And what is he willing to sacrifice for his selfish goals?"

!He wants to own Ikrel as well as Welcia, it will give him more power the more territory he has. I also deduced that there is a high chance of both Lords betraying you. I suggest you kill both of them. I need to appraise the local lord of Ikrel as well before we make any rash decisions. As for how far is Lord Welcia willing to go for power, he will do almost anything that doesn't harm Fumiko, after analyzing him at his house he has a weak spot for his daughter and has a strange sense of caring for her.!

"I think Sia is right, maybe the Lord of Ikrel might be more friendly to us than the Lord of Welcia, but that's just hopeful thinking."- Hana spoke via the telepathic link.

"I doubt that, but we will see it when we are there"- We moved rapidly from the streets until we reached a heavily guarded and decorated house, a big mansion with marble pillars.

The walls of the mansion are painted in an unnatural shade of black and white, just like a spotted animal. There were a few windows, but those were heavily armored but still allowing visibility. There aren't many people near the house or passing by it, this must be the house of a wealthy person, maybe even Lord Ikrel's

!This is indeed his house, I will deal with the traps that they have for detecting monsters!

We can see guards in front of his house.

"Halt there, monsters!"- We had turned off our disguises since Fumiko advised us to go there without any disguise since there is a magical device that can detect disguises.

! Negative, that device can't detect a disguise formed by a Primordial Skill such as Lucifer!

"So you say, that it can only detect up to Legendary skills?"

!Correct!

"Why did we even bother to turn it off" – The few people that were near the house turned to look at us and started to run, this has to be expected.

"We are here by the decree of the lord of Welcia. We want to talk to the Lord Ikrel"- Lord Ikrel, don't these people have names? I didn't get the name of the lord of Welcia either.

!The name of the lord is Welcia, they call him Lord Welcia. Lords get a new name after they become lords they are named after their region!

Fumiko raised one hand and presented a pile of papers she had with her, all of them official documents from Welcia to prove our identity.

"You must be Fumiko, the daughter of the other lord, what would he want with lord Ikrel? And why bring monsters with you? I don't have leashes for them"- One of the guards looked at the documents.

"Especially with a demon and an Orc at their side, this can't be a good sign"- The 2 guards still won't let us pass. Their weapons are drawn at us.

"You mean these things on our head, we are merely using a disguise spell so that we can scare low-level monsters away, we are humans"- In a split second Hana spoke to them

*Use Primordial Skill: Lord of Deceit and Lies Lucifer*- With Hana's words distracting them I could use Lucifer to change back to a more human form, we then smiled at the guard

"The hell did I just see?"- One of them looked at us now, and he seemed confused.

"These 2 aren't monsters but highly skilled magic users. They have the same or more mana than I do and can resist large quantities of it. They used the monster disguise to scare off other monsters while we were traveling. These 2 are the best guards I had in a while"- Wait, did Fumiko catch on to this? Why is she acting like an adult all of a sudden?

!I managed to find a way to draw and suppress her mana remotely, it's not as effective as consuming it herself but it will have to do for now!

"We are very sorry for the cold reception, you can never be too careful nowadays"

The guards let us pass onto the mansion of Lord Ikrel.

!That's a smart move, Hikaru, you aren't that stupid anymore I assume. Humans can have 1 moment of brilliance and then be stupid for the rest of their lives, I hope you aren't the same Hikaru!- Sia began giggling.

"Did you think lying was a good idea? I did that as a spur-of-the-moment thing, and I am glad Fumiko caught on to this. I swear, we would have been dead without you Sia"- Hana interrupted Sia.

"Yes, it was the only way we could get into his house Hana"

We reached the door of the house, a wooden door painted green, we knocked on it and a maid greeted us. A peculiar thing about the maid, she is a demi-human, an Orc just like Hana to be exact, she looks at us with a smile.

"How did you get in here?"- She whispered to us.

"Through the front door, the guards let us pass. I am here on official decree from my dad, these 2 are my advisors and guards"- Fumiko spoke before us, and then she pointed towards the 2 of us.

"Oh, you are here. Well, I hope you enjoy yourself here. Mind if I talk to the 2 of them in private?"- Fumiko nodded, and the maid dragged us into a small chamber.

"What did you want to talk to us about?"- She sat on a chair, we did the same and looked her straight in the eyes.

"I am wondering, how did 2 monsters manage to get in here, you are using a disguise skill aren't you?"- How did she figure it out? But the best course of action will be to lie again

!The answer lies in her Legendary skill, Mystic Eye, which allows you to see the surrounding mana that comes out of a person, normally no one can see mana that comes out of a person, and you will need a device or skill. She figured it out because humans don't have much mana to begin with, your mana levels are through the roof since you are monsters. The guards ate up the explanation, but monster mana differs on a fundamental level from human mana!

"So, you have the Mystic Eye skill. Well, we are here with an official decree from Lord Welcia. We don't mean any harm, we want to get this job done with"

"Please, try to be as neutral as possible toward Lord Ikrel, I don't want any trouble for myself"- She looked down and then began to slowly walk to the exit of the room.

"We will. One thing, are you a willing servant of Lord Ikrel or are you a slave. Your answer won't change the way I treat him, at least for now"

"I am a slave"- She muttered under her breath, audible enough for us to hear and then she exited the room we were in

Hana and I got up from the chair and left the room.

We wandered around until another demi-human maid showed us where Fumiko and Lord Ikrel and discussing something, we shortly joined in

"So, your dad wants to have good relations with me again? It's nice to hear that, but I will need to have a long chat with him about this."- Lord Ikrel leaned down to Fumiko and patted her head.

"Sorry for the long wait. We are Fumiko's advisors on this journey"- We bowed and presented ourselves.

"You 2 must be the people who were disguised as monsters, smart trick. I almost got a heart attack thinking that there might be monsters in my house"- Lord Ikrel started to laugh along with Fumiko.

Fumiko looked at us confused.

"Yes, that is right, we disguise ourselves as monsters. We can even fake the mana that is in the air to make it look like we are monsters"- I continued to stroke the lord's ego.

"That sure is interesting. How do you do that?"- He stopped and looked at us

"Well, we use the mana around us, gather it for some time, and make it look like I am emanating it"

"Sia helped me with this bit"

!Sure!

With the help of Sia, I managed to keep it true to what I said. The lord used a device to see the mana around us, Sia suppressed the mana we had and then we gathered the mana around us and made it look like it was emanating from us.

"That sure is a fantastic power to have, it sure took you a few years to master it, didn't it?"- We followed the lord 1 floor up.

"Ok, now we need to discuss the serious matter, ok?"- We sat down in a room, where we could talk in private.

"Well, yes, what is the matter that you want to talk about?"- Lord Ikrel sat down sipping on a cup of tea.

"Well, Lord Welcia wants to patch things up with you, are you willing to come with us and solve all of your problems?"- I reached out my hands towards him.

"Sia, your analysis?"

!Complete, this individual can't be trusted, he plans to kill Lord Welcia!

"Well, why not. We go tomorrow at dawn, in the meantime, you 2 can go around the city, take this. It's a pass from me, you will be allowed anywhere you go"- Lord Ikrel handed us a pass with his name on it.

"Thank you I am sure you 2 will start to get along again."- We shook hands with Ikrel and then we went outside in the city of Ikrel...