indianbanksassociation #381 - Who said it doesn't work? It's really useful.
#381 - Who said it doesn't work? It's really useful.
In these situations, the side with reservations suffers the most. Therefore, Zun Zun unceremoniously lashed out at Reinhard, including Anastasia and her group.
Realizing that the Sword Saint isn't omnipotent—
"From now on, I'll be relying on you a lot, Reinhard."
"Ah, if Lord Zun Zun relies on me, if Lord Zun Zun expects that much, then I will respond to that expectation."
Everyone once again placed high hopes on him.
After the atmosphere eased, everyone restarted discussing how to retake the Water Gate City.
Otto and Reinhard will join forces—Although Otto's influence on the battle strength is practically nonexistent, the advantage brought by Reinhard's reinforcements is extremely significant. With this, there's a big change in the leeway for the operation.
Based on this, they began an active conversation.
"However, before that, there's a question." Natsuki Subaru looked at Reinhard, curiously asking: "Speaking of which, where's Felt? During the city's chaos, she should have been with you, right?"
Hearing this question, Reinhard's expression turned slightly gloomy. But he's been wearing that expression all day.
"Actually—"
Then, he slowly spoke about what happened today.
In short, it was that when the Witch Cult first started broadcasting, Reinhard and Felt went to find Heinkel to discuss things.
The content of the discussion was naturally whether or not to take action. After all, no matter what, Heinkel was still the Vice Commander of the Knights.
However—
"Vice Commander Heinkel, used Lady Felt as a hostage. This is an inexcusable disgrace. Lady Felt's personal safety was in his hands, and as a result, I couldn't seize the opportunity to counterattack, and could only stalemate with him on the spot."
"Eh? ? ?"
Everyone present was speechless at this situation.
The master he swore allegiance to was actually used as a hostage by his own father. Because of this kind of thing, he couldn't move, Reinhard's heart must be conflicted and in pain.
"He couldn't be a subordinate of the Witch Cult, could he…?"
"No. From what he said next, it's certain that Vice Commander Heinkel isn't a subordinate of the Witch Cult."
"How is that possible!? Then what's the meaning of him capturing Felt…?"
Suddenly, it seemed like they understood the reason.
From Reinhard's gloomy face and Otto's sullen face, they thought of a certain possibility, a certain hopeless and laughable conclusion.
"Could it be to keep you from going anywhere, so that you would protect him?"
"That's right."
Heinkel used 'Are you going to abandon your own master and father, and run off to save those strangers?' as blackmail, holding Reinhard back until now.
"Then how did you… Wait a minute, where's Felt, is she alright?"
"Well…"
Reinhard looked at Otto, "Thanks to Otto's assistance, we were able to tie up Vice Commander Heinkel's hands and feet, and also gagged his mouth, temporarily using this as punishment for him."
"Otto actually showed up at this time?"
"That's what happened."
Under Natsuki Subaru's shocked gaze, Otto straightened his hat. Unfortunately, he didn't beat Heinkel harshly and rescue Felt, as everyone imagined.
And he didn't have that strength either.
"I just used a simple magic to divert his attention, creating an opening, and Lady Felt escaped on her own."
"I see."
For Otto, who can talk to animals, creating an opening couldn't be easier. Even so, Felt being able to take the opportunity to escape control, one has to admire her big heart.
Zun Zun patted his shoulder.
"Who said Otto is useless, Otto is too useful!"
"Th-thank you… It's also fortunate for Lord Zun Zun's great speech, saving me the trouble of worrying about the rendezvous. It would have been good if we could have acted sooner, but I also had some situations on my side."
Getting a bit off topic, but Reinhard still nodded in agreement to Otto's contribution. Although he looks soft and weak, he still showed his skills in inconspicuous places, truly unfathomable.
"But what has Otto been doing until now? With your strength, wandering around the city, that's practically suicide."
"To be said that by Natsuki-san, my mood is really complicated…"
Otto glanced at Natsuki Subaru, who was concerned about him.
You know that the other party's strength is much weaker than his, unexpectedly he's being concerned about him instead.
"You showed so much concern for me when we reunited, I was really taken aback. But, I also had a winding path… Forget it, let's talk about it."
In short, Otto went to the Muse Company in the morning to negotiate and was on his way back, when he arrived at the Second Control Tower, he encountered the Witch Cult.
It wasn't a broadcast, but the Witch Cult itself, even the Gluttony of the Sin Archbishops.
"Because he looked like a child, I initially thought it was a prank, wanting to attract the attention of the Control Tower's guards… Then the guards were crushed. Literally, crushed into meat paste."
Otto's face was very pale, seemingly recalling the bloody scene at the time.
"Seeing people being crushed, no matter what, I could only believe it. Although the guards and the city's soldiers surrounded him, they were no match for him at all. As a result, the Control Tower was taken away, and I don't know if anyone besides me escaped."
"You were able to escape, the opponent was a Sin Archbishop."
"Should I say I was lucky… In short, I fled in a panic, escaping through the waterways. Afterwards, I heard the Witch Cult's broadcast, knowing that I couldn't be careless, so I acted cautiously. At this time, I happened to run into Reinhard and them."
"You finally joined up with them."
Then Otto resolved the stalemate and rushed here again.
With this, things have been straightened out.
Everyone felt sorry for him overcoming the dangerous crisis, after all, the other party really walked through a difficult path comparable to Zun Zun and them. It's more like, being by Zun Zun's side actually has a higher survival rate.
"I'm already used to it."
Otto said bitterly.
Not to mention his past business experience, repeatedly encountering the White Whale, the Witch Cult, etc., although he had a year of peaceful days, his past encounters didn't let Otto relax his vigilance about his misfortune.
"Alright."
Anastasia clapped her hands.
"The rendezvous group's matters have been clarified, there are still things that need to be discussed…"
"Regarding the 3 requests made by the Witch Cult, we need to continue discussing them."
The person who quickly raised his hand to propose was Julius, he narrowed his yellow eyes, raised his hand with four fingers extended, and looked around at everyone.
"Although we don't need to negotiate with the Witch Cult, what's important is to figure out what they want. We already know about the Witch's remains from Quilla Taker, but…"
"Artificial Spirits and the Crimson Demons, right?"
Following closely was Reinhard, he said with a troubled expression: "Putting aside what the Crimson Demons are, the former, Artificial Spirits, there's some question about that, do they actually exist?"
The question he held was also the question of most people present.
Artificial Spirit.
Aside from the Emilia camp, probably no one has heard of it.
Natsuki Subaru looked at Zun Zun and Anastasia, not knowing if it was his imagination, the latter's gaze was a little hesitant.
"Then please listen to me, sorry for making everyone feel confused, I have something to report regarding Artificial Spirits." He paused for a moment, then said: "I won't hide it anymore, the Artificial Spirit they want is my partner, Beatrice… Right now, she's lying down resting with the injured."
"Lady Beatrice? No wonder…"
Julius had a suddenly enlightened expression.
Natsuki Subaru felt curious.
"No wonder? No wonder what?"
"I know that Lady Beatrice is a High-Ranking Spirit, but I always felt an incredible wavelength, since it's not a natural product, then that makes sense."
This isn't information that all Spirit Arts Users can perceive, Julius also has the blessing of being deeply loved by Spirits, having more opportunities to contact Spirits than ordinary people, so he noticed the sense of disharmony. Generally speaking, there's no way to distinguish it.
"Zun Zun also knew from the beginning?"
"…Sort of."
A clear misunderstanding, Zun Zun didn't plan to specifically explain, because it would involve even more troublesome matters.
"Then there's only the Crimson Demons…"
"That's me."
"Oh, it's you… Wait a minute!?"
Seeing Zun Zun casually admit it, except for Anastasia and Natsuki Subaru, everyone else looked at him in surprise, even Otto was no exception.
"Even Otto didn't know?"
"…I didn't know! Lord Zun Zun never said anything about this!"
Not even telling his own camp, his own knight, for some reason, others felt that this secret was kept too tightly.
"It's more like I've never heard of it."
"Crimson Demons or something…"
Among the people present, besides Natsuki Subaru, regardless of Reinhard who was knowledgeable and experienced, or Otto who traveled around, even the great merchant Anastasia who had terrifying intelligence gathering abilities, before this, they didn't know any information about the Crimson Demons at all.
"Actually, I'm also very surprised, after all, before the Witch Cult broadcast, I never told any outsiders about this."
"That's true…"
"But they clearly knew of my existence, what's the reason they want to get me?"
Zun Zun originally wanted to ask the Lust Archbishop, but that guy was full of vulgar jokes, so he was instantly killed by him.
"Could it be Lord Zun Zun's ability to save Crusch-sama?"
"Hmm?"
"Look, didn't you treat Crusch-sama in the room? And it was by kissing."
"Hmm???"
Looking at Anastasia's smiling but oppressive face, Zun Zun only felt that the girl in front of him was terrifying, knowing that there were only four people in the room at the time.
Him, the unconscious Crusch, Ferris who didn't come out of the room, and—
"It wasn't me! I didn't tell anyone!"
Natsuki Subaru, who was loudly denying it now.
Fortunately, Zun Zun quickly told them the reason why Crusch fell into a coma and had to do that, so it didn't cause a bigger commotion.
Looking complicatedly at the girl who always said shocking things, Zun Zun couldn't help but sigh.
"Anastasia-san is really amazing, she can even know this kind of thing. But unfortunately, that's not the Crimson Demon's talent, but the Divine Body's… Ah, so that's how it is!"
He understood why the Witch Cult was targeting him.