The Goddess' Champion

Zamira thought for a minute what kind of explanation she'd give him to make it rational, unaware that the conqueror was way deeper in the matters of the underworld than she could imagine.

"Yes, it is a place where illegal activities are conducted, the organisation is called 'Guild' and is maintained by the main cults, one of them is the scarred cult which I previously mentioned to you, but there are a lot more. Most of the time influential people are the ones involved, but we mercenaries are also allowed to access it to purchase exclusive goods, sadly, most mercenaries don't have the funds to purchase those goods and hence, branches of the guilds like the one in the town of loup don't have that much exclusive gear, it is mostly used for mercenaries to sell the goods they find."

"Why would they have a branch in such a remote place?"

"Because treasures can still be found even this remotely away from the capital, and those bastards are more than a little interested in purchasing them, aren't we one of those cases?" She whispered by his ear, not desiring to make a lot of noise as all the walls have ears.

"Indeed... economy needs demands and offer, they offer and you mercenaries demand."

"Correct." She said, slanting an interesting eyebrow in his eyes, not expecting her to be this clever.

"Is there a rule?"

"The only rule is that you need a badge to enter and violence is strictly prohibited inside, other than that, you can do whatever you want so long as you're allowed entry... I have come several times to acquire minor goods like healing potions and such."

"That means we can still be ambushed outside of the shop..." He concluded.

'He's quite shrewd and unconfident in others.' The beauty analysed.

"Yes, that's why I say it is dangerous what we're about to do."

"You're unexpectedly smart, Zamira." He praised her openly.

"What do you mean unexpectedly!?"

"I apologise, perhaps I worded it improperly." He coughed but that didn't make her feel better.

'Women with big breasts like you tend to not be quite smart... but I'd be insulting my wives if I said that-'

[I will save this for later...] Zebellia's voice contained poison, it seems she felt offended too by that comment.

...

While they walked in silence, the lady noticed he was once again deep in thoughts, in truth, Constantine was just bickering with Zebellia.

"You think a lot, don't you?" Zamira took him out of his thoughts as they kept walking across the dark corners, where the sun no longer shone amidst the buildings, instead, he could see people watching through the windows.

"What do you mean?"

"You're almost always deep in your thoughts, I just noticed"

"So you're paying attention to everything I do, huh? Cute~"

!!!

She blushed but didn't deny it.

"You're so odd, h-how can you call an ugly woman like me… cute." Her words made him yet again sigh, she was more confident in her fighting skills than her beauty.

'This world is truly messed up, how can a bombshell like her consider herself ugly, while this haughty ugly horse inside me thinks herself to be some big shot.'

[…]

'You're already sleeping?!'

"You don't need to pay attention to what others say, Zamira. To me, you're beautiful and cute... don't ever try to ruin your own face."

"Hmn..." She simply nodded with a sigh, holding her chest and thinking about the earlier scene with Amelia.

**

**

The path taken to go to this exchange place was so intricate and shallow that Constantine yet again found himself doubting Zamira's intentions much to her dejection.

"Sorry, we're about to reach there, you can trust me a little more!"

"… what with these architects and these tight corners."

He felt like at any moment a bandit would come out to draw a knife across his neck, thankfully it didn't happen.

But he saw through the building windows, the families… there were so many of them, laying on bed, feeling fever.

Some were worse, they had red spots all over their skin.

"It's Rotborn… this damned curse." Zamira growled in a whisper, clenching her hands.

For thousands of years, humanity still hadn't gotten used to the Curse of Rotborn.

No one would ever get used to seeing their loved ones die so early.

Children without parents, surviving on their own… parents dying and leaving their vulnerable children behind, unwilling.

'Such a disastrous curse, who in their deranged mind… could do something so sinister.'

Even he, a person that would do anything for the sake of defeating his enemy, hadn't performed anything so disruptive.

At least he never burned an inhabited forest, it was merely to destroy his enemy's resources.

"We're here."

They reached something resembling the entrance to a building, but this one was pitch black.

There was a guard in front wearing black armour and his aura was so dark that it was as if he was merging with the corners bereft of light.

"Your badge…" He spoke solemnly.

"He's coming with me, he's a magus." Zamira showed her badge and the man nodded moving his gaze towards the young man afterwards.

Constantine showed his magic and the man lifted his eyebrows in slight surprise.

"A magus in this town?" He frowned inside his helmet.

"I'm a mercenary from the city of Mailegars who lost his badge I just came to see what this branch has to offer." Constantine spoke confidently.

"I see, you can enter, don't make trouble boy, I will be watching you..."

**

**

What awaited the duo on the other side of the door was a different world.

Literally.

It was like stepping out of a jungle to enter a city, if before he thought the scenery was 'futuristic' much more so now.

Weapons, armours, clothes… all of them apparently expensive, a gloomy atmosphere with scarce customers and the noise of a violin out of tune.

There was a shirt that cost three golden coins, according to Zamira, a hundred copper is one silver and a hundred silver is one gold.

'And a single gold coin is enough to rent a house for a year or more, yet these bastards are taking three for a mere shirt!' He thought with utter outrage.

"Welcome, what can I do for you?" A beautiful receptionist asked, and Constantine noticed her blonde hair and pointy ears!

'An elf!'

Those were the primary targets he desired to stay away from the most, how unlucky to find one of them here.

Her gaze rested on Constantine for a moment before becoming sharp, he felt foreign energy.

[She's scanning you with her magic, no worries, she won't get anything important…] Zebellia said all of the sudden.

The conqueror sighed in relief and they approached the counter.

"I'd like to get access to the deepest floor to sell some goods," Zamira said straightforwardly as they had nothing to do in this section of the guild.

Constantine moved the stone from his back, it had been strapped to his body with roots.

"…" The lady didn't answer, instead, her gaze was plastered on Constantine's face.

"Is there anything in my face?" He asked when he noticed that her gaze was turning a little too intense.

"Aside from those beautiful blue eyes?~ I wonder what else can I see."

!!!

"Uh!?" Both Zamira and Constantine gasped at her words.

'This woman… is she… flirting with me?' He didn't understand.

"What clan are you from, little hybrid?~" Her words turned both Constantine and Zamira pale.

'You said she wouldn't know anything!!!' He immediately reproached that useless galactic horse.

[Anything important… I even had to cast an illusion to change the colour of your hair, there are things I can conceal but, do you think elves won't be able to recognise their own with a single gaze? I'm a Time Valkyrie not an illusionist, don't expect me to save your ass all the time, instead, you should be lucky that the trial is not messing around with you now.]

'...' The worst part was that he couldn't berate her words.

"My partner has the right to reserve his answers, that is the guild's policy." The purple-haired beauty clenched her hands in rage, she didn't want Constantine to be exposed here, it would be her failure as she's the one that brought him here.

"Hoho~ a weakling human actually dares to speak to me like this? you don't want to live anymore..."

She lifted her hand a produced sparkles of light that were actually hot, but Constantine raised his own to produce fire, blazing flames.

"You insist on protecting that human? if that's the case~ let's go outside and sort this out." When she saw Constantine trying to protect the human instead of siding up with her, an elf, she went even madder.

"I won't allow you to speak to my partner like that, elf or not." He wouldn't back down from a fight, but he also wasn't stupid enough to place himself in the line of fire when he held the advantage here, clearly, this woman won't make a move right here.

[Fool, this woman is not an opponent you can face! She's stronger than the Nascent Magus Stage!]

'Why do I have such a powerful time-controlling secretary then?'

[Shameless! Don't you dare count on me! I'll let you die in a ditch somewhere!]

'Tch, so unreliable...'