<~> Chapter 193The walk through the capital was eerie, to say the least. I had just been through this part of town earlier but now it was deserted. It wasn't even su yet but most of the people that had been out oreets were fio their homes and only guards were patrolling the streets. There were some clues as to how the riot had gone based oches of blood oone walkways that hadn't been ed up yet.

  I turo the guard who was esc the three of us to the guard captain's office. "Were there a lot of people killed in the riot?"

  He g me and shrugged. "I'm not sure, I know that a few citizens and rioters were killed but no one from the guard has died as far as I'm aware. I'm not sure about the padins or priests from the Tamin church though, some of them were targeted in the chaos."

  I nodded auro silehe situation didn't really call for levity or more questions. The town had been pletely shut down and the quiet was iious. Eveher guards and soldiers we passed by didn't speak much as they patrolled the streets. Some of them were leading people back to their homes or ing up some of the damage from the riot.

  Looking over at Talis, I was a little fused as to why he was joining us. I was aware that he had been the oo inform the guard captain that we were in the Great Library but I had assumed he would return there once we met up with the guard that was esc us. I wondered if there was more to him joining us than that.

  I assumed that Sir h wanted me to help with the demon problem sidering they had discovered it was the cult of Amphores behind the colr suppression iy, though I'm irely sure about that. I was still a little unsure what they needed from me in particur, the Tamin church probably knows signifitly more about them than I do. All I knew about them was what Nathaniel in Goldeh had told me in his letter and the things I discovered from the ledgers, all things I'm sure were already shared with him.

  he eastern gates of the city, we were beioward a rge unmarked building made of the same utilitarian shaped stone most of the walls were built from. The building was notable for its size and nothing else, it didn't even have any markings, fgs, ns. Something about the building gave me the creeps but I didn't really know why.

  "Are you alright, Lilith?" Silva whispered to me. I looked over at her, she looked calm and collected. She stood tall and her rge rabbit ears flicked and turo nearby sounds but her eyes were focused entirely on me.

  "Nervous," I replied.

  "It will be alright. I'll protect you if anything happens." She turned back ahead toward the building as we got closer. The fidend reliability with which she spoke those words made my gut twist in guilt. I was flicted with her, I had only brought her with me because I didn't trust her, but here she was fidently saying that she would protect me without aation.

  The guard opehe door ahe three of us through before following us in after. The building looked empty right now, the only signs that anyone was here at all were the quiet voices I could hear through the door to the left of the empty reception desk.

  "Do not speak until you're addressed. Sir h is an impatient man and uest is... well... you'll see. Leave your ons here oable." I nodded and undid my belt before pg my sword oable o Silva's spear and Talis's pair of thin sabers.

  After he did a quispe of our armor and gear he opehe door and we walked into what looked like a long dining room without the table. The room was dark, only lit by a handful of dles sihe building had no windows. There were five men, all human, three were normal looking human guards, a tall man wearing full pte mail stood he end of the room and a young man with blond hair and fine looking clothes was seated on a chair o him. The guard that escorted us closed the door behind us and stood to the side of it.

  The man in pte mail, presumably the guard captain, stepped forward. "Kneel before the King of Torlimal."

  My eyebrows rose and I followed the other two after a moment of hesitation, kneeling on one knee fag the end of the room.

  The young king scoffed and waved at us. "Rise. We don't have time for this. Just get on with it h."

  Sir h frowned slightly but nodded deferentially. "Yes, Yhness." The guard captain waited for us to get back to our feet before starting. "We were informed not long ago that you were involved in unc informatioed to the cult of Amphores. We have reason to believe they are attempting to rally a rebelliht here in the Capital. You are ordered to tell us anything you know about them so that we may better hunt them down."

  The King interrupted right before I was about to speak, "h, you didn't tell me the specialists that came to our city yesterday were animals. Why do you think these beastkin are any more likely to track them down thahe Tamin church is? Why waste the effort of asking them to use their heads when all animals are good for is beating people up with their fists?" He scoffed. "Women too, what a waste of time."

  Sir urned his back to us and faced the King. "Yhness, with all due respect. Women as or not, they are specialists, reized by the gods as demon hunters. Please allow me to—"

  "Hey, Animal! What are you doing?" One of the guards suddenly yelled.

  I turo Silva just in time to see her steel colr turning to sg. Electricity poured from her hand where it met the melting colr, her teeth were ched and molteal dripped down her neck. The light of the magic suddenly fshed bright enough to blind me and seumbling back as a loud crack of electricity deafened me.

  Before I could recover I was shoved to the ground and could only raise my arms in front of me as I tried to blink the spots out of my eyes. My sight came back before my hearing did. I was still disoriented but I could tell Silva was oher side of the room with the King of Torlimal pio the wall with a spear made out of crag electricity. The side of Sir h's skull was caved in and he was slumped against the wall, dead.

  o me, Talis was defending me from one of the guards. The inal guard that had called out to Silva had already been killed and the remaining guards were running at her. Talis was unarmed but he was skillfully defleg the guard's sword strikes with the metal parts of his gaus, he wasn't able to strike back effectively but he defended himself with surprising ease. Silva spuing the crag lightning spear disappear and drop the King's limp body to the ground as she turo face the approag guards. With an insanely quient, she dodged the first guard's ssh, ducked into his guard, and punched him so hard his body fell to the groue his armor.

  After Talis blocked atack I activated [ Flip] which thankfully went off and khe guard he was fighting on his ass, the spell owerful at cle. Talis jumped on the man, took his fallen sword, and immediately sshed the guard's throat with it. The sudden brutality Talis showed was surprising. I mao scrabble to my feet just as Silva finished off the st guard and turo face us. She was also holding a sword now, having just killed the guard holding it. The only ones left in the room were the three of us.

  Silva's neck had painful looking burns and marks on her chest where the metal from her colr had dripped onto her, the knuckles of her right fist were bloody and she was staring at the two of us with a cold and fident gre. The king was dead, his body was slumped over on the ground, his lifeless eyes stared into the void. He had a burn mark pierced through his heart the size of a half dolr. There was no blood, the electricity of her spear had cauterized the wound and killed him near instantly.

  Talis was the first to speak. "I received a quest from my Goddess to protect Lilith just now. Now that all of the guards are dead I'm curious whether or not I'm meant to protect her from you as well."

  Her eyes left Tails and looked at me. "I would never hurt Lilith. Whether she is my mistress or not. I told her before we ehis room that I would protect her and I still will as long as she wishes me to." Her eyes flicked back to Talis. "We were told that no one else knew of this meeting. How much time do you think we have before others e looking for the King or for Sir h?"

  Talis's grip tightened on his sword. "How am I supposed to trust you at your word? I just watched you rip your sve colr off and kill a king! Even if this meeting were secret you just put all of us at tremendous risk!"

  Silva's eyes met mine again. "That's a risk that I believe Lilith and I are willing to take to free our lovers from svery. I wouldn't do it if I thought we couldn't get away with it though. This isn't the first noble I've killed and I suspect it won't be my st."

  I gulped. The young king of Torlimal is dead and he had no heirs. That means his bloodline has eoo. Does that mean Man and Torien's colrs are already gone?

  "You ot trust this woman. She left you to die whetack blinded you. Her ust have been suppressed, she must be in league with Amphores," Talis said.

  Silva's eyes looked back at Talis. "I told you before this, I serve Lilith of my own will. I've been able to remove my colr this eime but I chose to apany her and watch over her." She looked back at me and smiled. "Who else was going to keep this fledgling demon hunter from getting herself killed?"

  The man's grip tightened on his swain. He looked like he could attack her at any moment. "Swear it," he spat out. "Sorsette is watg us right now, I know it. Swear on her hat you wish Lilith Baphomet no harm."

  Silva rexed her posture a little, letting her sword down. "I swear on Sorsette's hat I have no iion to harm Lilith Baphomet, now or ever."

  In the ter of the room a pulse of magic identical to the [Zone of Truth] passed through the three of us. Truth. As if a switch had been flipped Talis pletely turned around. "We o hurry. I'm not sure how long it will take to escape here without aig." He began to pull off his purple robes indig his retionship with Sorsette and stole one of the guard's surcoats to disguise himself with.

  Silva rexed and tossed the sword to the ground in front of her, leaving her unarmed. Well, as unarmed as she could be. It seems the fighter has had hiddericity magic up her sleeve this eime. She kept her trump card secret, wearing her sve colr as some kind of disguise. I k was real, I remember how it looked the first time I had given her an order and when she had been transferred to me. But it felt fake after finding out she could have removed it all of this time. I didn't know whether to be happy my friend was free from svery or scared of her now.

  "Before we go," I rasped. "How much of what you've told me is a lie? Was the story about your parents a lie? Something to tug at my heartstrings and manipute me?"

  Silva frowned. "I don't think I've told you many lies, I mostly just withheld some details." She shifted her weight. "All of the stuff that happened with my parents was real. It was why I started training in the first pce. It just wasn't the old you it was."

  I shook my head. "Who are you? I heard you talking with Lorriehis m, I didn't catch all of it but I know you've been keeping things from me. I'm missing something, how do you two know each other?"

  She sighed. "You heard some of that huh? Probably not the most important bits then, otherwise we probably would have had this versation sooner." Silva crossed her arms and took a breath. "I'm an assassin, Lilith. I've trained since I left my dead family's farm to infiltrate and kill targets for The Order of Lilith."

  Saine

  Hello! Silva's true identity has been revealed! This has been a long time ing, if you go all the way back to chapter 86, when Silva was first introduced, she reacts with shock to Lilith's name when she gives it! And boy, what a time to reveal herself, right after she itted regicide! These have been a crazy feters, I hope you've enjoyed reading!

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