Reiru, Sacred and Ragnis arrived together back at the mansion with the groceries they bought from the Prontera market.
“Whoa…! So that is where you live, Lady Sacred?” Ragnis stood with open-mouth in front the building being amazed. He heard before she was wealthy, but he didn’t expect her to own such a giant mansion.
At the entrance Sohee Riza and Miyabi Ningyo Reirei were greeting the group. “Welcome back, Master and friends!” They both said at same time.
“Ohh! Which gems my eyes see there-- These two beautiful ladies are your servants, Lady Sacred? Feels like I arrived in heaven with all these pretty ladies gathered here!”
“Tsk! You better shut up with these comments or they gonna show you hell!” Reiru stepped on his boot feeling a little bit annoyed by him.
The group went up the stairs of the mansion to get inside through the entrance gate.
Riza tilted her head, looking at the Whitesmith surprised. She noticed it was a person, she has not seen before. “Another friend of yours, Master?”
“Hihi, yes! I invited another guest to our dinner. His name is Sir Ragnis. He helped my friend Reiru, so I wanted to show him my gratitude by inviting him to our feast.” Sacred made a hand gesture to the two long dark-haired woman wearing maid dresses. ”These two here are Riza and Reirei, they both serve as my maids. Please make yourself feel at like home, Sir Ragnis. You may way in the living room, while we prepare the dinner.” After Sacred introduced them to each other, she brought the groceries to the kitchen.
“M-master…? “We”...? Please leave the preparation to us, Master!” Sohee Riza followed after Sacred, while the new maid Reirei followed.
“Can she even cook? Now that I think about it, I never saw her cooking before...” Reiru commented while watching them three disappearing to another room that was leading to the kitchen. She turned her head to Ragnis, who was looking around the mansion.
“This is amazing… Look at all these weapons! These are quite treasures, I’ve never seen such kind of swords before.” Ragnis was staring at some two-handed swords, that served as wall decoration in the entrance hall.
“Oh… think those belonged to her father. He was a Rune Knight. My friend Sor-- err Sacred also loves collecting weapons, so you may find a lot of those here at her home.”
“Ahh, her father, huh…? Wait, but isn’t that...” Ragnis looked quite surprised, when he saw a certain sword. “This one… was crafted by my old man! I remember seeing him work on it.” Ragnis took a step closer to examine the blade’s scabbard. “It has his signature. Guess her father was also a customer of my old man.” The Whitesmith examined the fine details on the two-handed sword. “I might consider myself the best Smith in town, but... such a detailed work on the hilt and the blade is still something only my old man could do.”
“Best, huh…? Well I have to admit the blade you crafted for us serves its purpose very good, but calling yourself the best is a bit over the top. I surely wouldn’t believe there is no one else than you, who crafts useful weapons in Prontera… would be ridiculous! Maybe you are the best in… Niflheim!”
“Haaa--?! You will see, when everyone will praise my crafts and everyone wants to get their weapons commissioned by me!”
“Seeing as this didn’t happen yet--” Reiru stopped her sentence as she heard someone approaching them.
“Excuse me, would you like to drink coffee or tea, while waiting?” Miyabi Ningyo Reirei surprised them two, who were still standing in the entrance hall.
“Ohh... I take some tea.”
“Coffee for me, pretty lady~!”
“Hm, Sacred isn’t coming back, eh? What a rude host, just leaving their guests standing around here! So she is really staying in the kitchen with you guys? Well... let’s go and sit down in the living room and wait. My legs need a rest.”
“Master insists in helping with the preparations. She has told us she learned how to make a dish called “Curry” and wants to cook it for you.”
“Curry… hm? Haven’t eaten that for ages. It definitely doesn’t sound bad, but I never saw her cooking before-- Guess we will let us be surprised, ahaha. No one can cook worse than me anyway.” Reiru scratched her cheek, feeling a bit embarrassed about that fact.
Reirei returned to the kitchen, while Reiru and Ragnis went to the living room together and sat down on the couch, waiting for the drinks and dinner.
~~~
Meanwhile in the kitchen, Sacred and Riza were preparing the dinner together. Riza was making a dessert, while the Royal Guard was working on the main dish.
“So… I think that’s all! Now to cut the ingredients.” Sacred drew her Excalibur out of her scabbard, the sound drawing the attention of the maid to her master.
“M-master, what are you doing- you should not use your sword to cut the meat!” Riza was panicking a little bit, seeing how her master seriously wanted to cut the chicken meat with her sword and took a kitchen knife out of the cupboards. “There are special kitchen knife here--! Here, please use this!”
The maid handed her a kitchen knife, which Sacred accepted and stared at it a little bit confused.
“Huh-? Thank you very much, but these seem pretty small compared to my sword… and are they even sharp enough? Can they even cut through the meat?”
“Y-yes, they can do that job better, than your sword does. That’s their purpose after all. You might hurt yourself or damage the kitchen instead using that sword of yours.” Riza didn’t really know what to say, seeing how her master was acting quite crude.
“Okay, thank you very much, Riza!” Sacred began to cut the meat and the vegetables, while Riza was watching her for a moment. Seeing how her master was at least doing the cutting correctly, she went back to preparing the dessert.
~~~
An hour later the dinner was ready. Sacred, Reiru and Ragnis were gathered at the dining table and eating together. The two maids were standing nearby waiting for any orders of their Master and her guests.
“Lady Sacred, you cooked this for us? It tastes so delicious!” Ragnis gave Sacred a compliment after finishing half of his plate.
“Hihi, thank you, Sir Ragnis!”
“Yeah, tastes good. This is new, that you are the one cooking! We are friends for so long and never tasted anything made by you.”
The Royal Guard giggled. “Trust me, I do not cook often hence I do not have much experience in cooking, but I also do not want to let Riza do all the work by herself. I was away for so long too and left her alone. I want to help where I can, so why should I not try helping out in the kitchen especially for this occasion.”
“But Master, do not worry, this is the job of us servants. Please leave the work to us!”
“You should take a rest from all your travels, Master.”
“Hihi, I am so happy you two are getting along, Reirei and Riza! I hope you will enjoy your new home, Reirei.” Sacred didn’t seem to listen to their maids about needing a rest and leaving the work to them at all. “Truth to be told, there is a reason for me why I have chosen this certain dish. I have eaten this dish at Rachel and was very amazed by the taste. Surprisingly it was served in one of the food stalls in town not in a restaurant. I did not think the food could taste so good while it being rather very cheap. I wanted to learn how to make it myself especially after I found out it is the favorite dish of my traveling partner, who accompanied back to Prontera. He showed me how to cook curry. So I wanted to try to make it myself. You are actually the first people to try my very own curry.”
“But Master, did he also show you to cut the meat with a sword though…?” Sohee Riza asked with lowered voice.
“So Lady Sacred wanted to learn how to cook for her crush, huh~?” Reiru asked in teasing tone.
“H-huh!! N-no, it is not like that!”
“It is such an honor to me, Lady Sacred to be the chosen one to try your very first curry!”
“This almost sounds like we are serving as her guinea pigs trying out her experiments… so if everything goes well she will cook for her partner, huh~?”
“Makes me envious~ I wish I had such a pretty Lady like Lady Sacred cooking for me too! But instead I get Rei Sis, who is a pro in burning everything!”
“Are you trying to mock me, Ragface?! Hmpf, I know I cannot cook at all!” Reiru, who was living under Ragnis protection for a while, was feeling a little bit hurt. Even though she was doing her best, she already burnt so many meals; trying to cook something for them. It usually ended up with the result of having to eat burnt food, because they couldn’t afford anything else to eat on those days and were starving.
“Hah? That wasn’t my intention, Rei Sis! But you surely should learn a bit from Lady Sacred! Her dish is edible and not so black like yours!”
“Hmpf! Then you should cook yourself and do it better, Ragface!”
“Hihi, I am happy you two are getting well along together too.” Sacred giggled watching their little arguing.
“As if, Miss Giggles-A-Lot! You better tell me more of that mysterious partner of yours, who made you want to learn cooking so suddenly and put that blush on your face!” Reiru pointed at Sacred demanding an answer. Her best friend was very curious since Sacred didn’t really give that much details. “For someone who claims a love relationship is forbidden, you surely are acting suspicious and strange!”
“Uh, no! It’s really not like that.” Sacred felt a little bit embarrassed of Reiru insisting in thinking in such a way of her companion. “Since Sir Ragnis is here, we should rather discuss about your current situation. Do you not think so? I want you to fill me into all the details, so I can do what I can to help.” The Royal Guard abruptly turned very serious, directing the topic away from herself.
“You surely like to dodge my question!” Reiru sighed. “But of course. What should we do…?” The Guillotine Cross went silent as her face expression changed. Her heart suddenly ached, as if she was stabbed by a dagger, just by being confronted with the topic. The grinning Reiru, who was just now teasing her best friend disappeared completely. She stared at the emptied plate in front of her.
As much as Reiru wanted to enjoy the celebration, she was worried and also scared of her enemy: the Archbishop Alexius Soleil. Remembering their last meeting was still making her shiver. It was a traumatic experience. With Ragnis and Sacred being on her side, she found great allies, but however she also felt terrible of dragging them both into it. What if Alexius would target Sacred now too, if he found out? Her friend is strong, but fighting an Archbishop was never easy. Especially when they mastered the holy magic spell 'Adoramus'.
“Feel free to take more, if you are still hungry, Reiru!” Sacred thought her friend wanted to refill her plate seeing as she was looking down to her plate.
“...I’m actually not hungry anymore.”
“Huh? You only took one plate, that’s new! Are you on diet?” Ragnis asked teasing her.
“Was my cooking not to your liking, Reiru? Riza prepared some dessert too. You should eat some of your dessert at least.” Sacred tilted her head worried, being also used to her friend eating couples of plates filled with food.
“No, it was very delicious, but…. Well... you see the whole situation we are in-- is making me quite restless. We are sitting here happily together celebrating that you have returned Sacred. Yet I feel like we are being watched.”
“Ahh, you gotta relax, Rei Sis! You have Lady Sacred and me, who will protect you! You can count on us!” The smith gave her a thumbs up and smirked being confident.
“Relax, huh? Well I’m trying to… thank you both for being there for me.” Ragnis confidence was rather foolish to her, but however she tried to smile at him, wanting to believe in his words.
~~~
The maids had cleaned up the table after the three of them finished eating. Ragnis, Reiru and Sacred remained sitting at the table and working on a strategy, how they could defeat the enemy once and for all time, so Reiru wouldn’t have to live in fear anymore and he wouldn’t be able to harm anyone else.
“So... do I understand it right? At the moment you are mainly worried, he will find you, while you want to gather more information, hm…?” Sacred pondered and took a sip from her cup filled with hot chocolate.
“OHH!! That’s it!” Ragnis suddenly slammed on the table, almost making Sacred spill her hot chocolate in surprise. “If you are worried about that… how ‘bout we create a new identity for you?!”
“Huh…? What do you mean?”
“Do you know the mighty PORINGMAN? He fights against evil guys, who are using dead branches in south of Prontera wearing a Poring costume covering his whole body! No one ever saw his true face! No one even knows what job he is!!”
“The hell...are you trying to tell me?!” Reiru stared at Ragnis confused.
“Should disguise yourself and give yourself an alias too is what I'm sayin'! Just like PORINGMAN! If you change your looks then this Archbishop won’t find out that it is you!”
“Ohhh? This sounds like a great idea, Sir Ragnis!” Sacred clapped with her hands and smiled.
“Meh… I doubt this guy can easily be deceived by such a silly thing… And I am not going to wear some stupid Poring costume either.”
“Not like you have much other choices, hah? I mean if it helps ya, then why not?!”
“Hm… maybe not a poring costume, but maybe something more cute like... a lunatic? Those adorable fluffy rabbits fit more to you than a jelly. Also we do not want to straight out copy someone else.” Sacred suggested to Reiru being very excited about this idea.
“T-THIS IS AS DUMB AS A PORING! Also how can this even be a disguise for me to hide, it will only draw more attention to me!”
“Guess it doesn’t have to be such a costume. Maybe somethin’ like just changing your armor works, too!”
“‘Changing your armor’ is something I approve greatly! Now that we bring this up: Reiru, you should really put on some more armor, you are almost naked!”
“Armors are quite expensive and I can’t even buy food so how--? Also this is the standard Guillotine Cross armor...”
“Do not worry, I will help you!” Sacred clasped her hands together. “Tomorrow we will pay a visit and complain to the person, who designed this armor you are wearing and demand a proper armor that covers more of your body! A bit of talk always solves a problem, I did the same with my armor. The standard Royal Guard armor is terrible and only suited for the beach! I can no longer tolerate you running around in this indecent piece of armor, Reiru. You are a magnet for perverts in an armor like this!”
“Hmm… The armor looks quite sexy, but in the same time it’s too much! It's like Reiru is trying hard to be sexy.” Ragnis commenting, while gazing at her armor intensively.
“PFFT! WHAT?! Hmph... yeah, guess you are right Sacred, since I already attracted the biggest pervert that is sitting over there!” Reiru stared back at Ragnis angrily annoyed, since she didn’t like having his eyes on her.
“Okay, so if we get the new armor then we need also an alias for you! No one should know that you are Reiru! Like no one knows PORING MAN’s real name either!”
“...I’m still not sure if this is going to work at all.”
“Ohh… so like me, hm? No one knows I’m Soreillia von Creutz. I am using the alias “Sacred Blood” since years, but common folk is not supposed to know my real name.”
“...Soreillia von Creutz?” Ragnis tilted her head after the name dropped. “VON CREUTZ?!”
“Oh… you were not supposed to know this, Sir Ragnis--!” Sacred panicked a little bit.
“Master’s… real name?” Even Riza was surprised, since she also did not know.
Reiru had to facepalm. The Guillotine Cross usually called her best friend by her real name 'Soreillia', but she paid attention to keeping her surname a secret to others, knowing that Sacred did not want people to know it and respecting it. However with Ragnis being their guest, she also wanted to avoid addressing her friend with her real name and call her by her alias “Sacred”.
“Wait… so you are the daughter of 'Alexander von Creutz', aren’t ya?! So that is why there was this weapon my old man crafted…! Now everything makes sense! Fate must have brought us together, Lady Sacred!”
“Yes, it is true. I am his daughter. Please continue calling me “Sacred” instead, people should not know my family name to avoid any troubles coming with it. There is an important reason for me, which I am asking you to respect like my friend Reiru does. But I am afraid, I cannot follow, Sir Ragnis? What makes sense to you now? And which weapon are you talking about, Sir Ragnis? My father has so many weapons… he loved to collect them.”
“You also love collecting weapons I heard, Lady Sacred? It’s such a coincidence that like your father was a customer of my pops and you became one of my regular customers.”
“My father commissioned your father in the past? That is indeed a coincidence. I stumbled upon your forgery, because you seemed like you were in great need of customers. Sadly I do not know much about my father to discuss this with you… my memories about my parents are very blurry. They died many years ago.”
While Sacred and Ragnis were chatting, Reiru was lost in thoughts wondering what kind of alias she should use. ‘Poringman’ is such a lame name… I must come up with something better for this to work... A name that is intimidating and cool sounding… hm…
“Hey, guys, what about… ‘Deadly Imminence’! Or… ‘Shadow Menace’!” Reiru interrupted their chatter.
“Hm… these all sound quite scary, Reiru! It feels weird having to call you ‘Deadly’ or ‘Shadow’.”
“‘Clumsy Assassin’ fits better if ya ask me!”
“Shut up, Ragface!”
Reiru and the others pondered about more name ideas. But nothing really seemed to ring well to her.
“Maybe you should combine multiple words that fit to you. Like an animal and something that describes you well.”
“Well I’m always hungry… and my favorite animal are wolves. Not sure how this will help though.”
“The always hungry and food-stealing ‘WOLFMAN’! Or… ‘Wolfwoman’ in your case-! Hide your food, yo!”
“The hell, Ragnis! I’m not gonna use some furry name! This is as worse as stupid 'Poringman'!”
“How about ‘Hungry Wolf’ then?” Sacred made another suggestion for her best friend. “It sounds kind of cute and scary at the same time!”
“Hmm, well Sacred let’s be honest, but your naming sense is not the best.” Reiru sighed a little, since she wasn’t able to come up with a good name herself, but wanted to finally pick one to get this over with. “...I guess this kind of works. Sounds less lame than this other suggestion. I will pick this one.”
“Huuh?! ‘Hungry Wolf’? I mean… Lady Sacred picked a nice fitting name for ya, haha! That means we have to call you “Hungry” now!”
“Since she is always hungry, it surely does fit calling her “Hungry”!” Sacred giggled. “If that is decided, we now just need a different armor for you and… hm… wait a moment!” The Royal Guard raised herself off her chair and left the room.
“Hm…? Where is she going?” Reiru wondered watching her friend leaving them both.
~~~
After around ten minutes her friend came back, holding something in her hands. She walked towards Reiru and placed it on her head. “Hihi, since you are a ‘Hungry Wolf’ now, I believe wearing this would make it even more fitting!”
“Huh- what…?”
“Those are black cat ears! I figured you need something on your head too for your disguise. So I suppose these work well.”
“Wait, I thought I’m a wolf not a cat!”
“Hey, those fit perfectly to you, Hungry!”
“Hmph… really?” Reiru blushed a little bit. “Okay okay, I will use these then.”
“Hihi, now that this is done, just one more thing. Tomorrow we will get your new armor! Then you will have the perfect disguise, hihi!”
The Guillotine Cross still was not sure, if such kind of disguise would work. But since these two were believing in it, she wanted to give it a try and play along. It surely took a bit of her fear away being found and attacked by her enemy again.
Their next step was to find a way to counterattack. Using Sacred’s position and reputation inside Prontera Church, Reiru was positive that her friend could turn the tables and attack the Archbishop at his strongest spot and give him the punishment he deserved.
“I suppose that is all for today. I propose, we will all keep our eyes open and gather more information. I will try to ask priests in Prontera Church, if they noticed something suspicious about their fellow clergy member. Any information we can get will help us to enclose the enemy further. An enemy of my little brother and my best friend - even if this said enemy is a high ranked priest, bathing in well reputation of many - cannot be ignored.”
"Yeaaah! Gonna do my best too. Man, how I wish I could just beat the crap outta him!"
"Thank you... Sacred and well... Ragnis." Reiru said with a lowered voice smiling. She was feeling so very grateful to have a friend like Sacred and also Ragnis even if he was annoying most of the time.
