Triiffic-Soul: Can I Be In Control?-Chapter 135 – To The Nevald Kingdom

Chapter 135 – To The Nevald Kingdom

Anlesa had to break the horrible news to Elly, which they knew wasn’t going to be a pleasant experience.

The priest was fully unconscious by the time Anlesa left the building, allowing her the opportunity to swap back to her regular appearance unnoticed. Sure, there was the chance people saw her enter the church, but from the victim's own accounts, it would be a different person.

That wasn’t the reason why she chose not to kill the priest. The reason for that was far simpler: he wasn’t an enemy to kill.

Syrus fought in wars, but she never killed civilians or even soldiers off duty who weren’t trying to fight her. She had her morals that were able to be flexed due to her rage.

Eva didn’t even like or want to kill, but she willingly made concessions to those who wanted to kill them or hurt other people.

There was some truth to the arguments between each other and the talks they had with other people. They couldn’t blame everyone and couldn’t kill everyone simply because they were labelled to be part of the church. That didn’t mean that some of those people had to be forgiven without a price.

The man who was an accomplice in the crime of kidnapping their friends from childhood was lying on the ground unconscious and in pain.

Extracted from him was the information on when they went and where they were going.

Syrus knew torture rarely worked as a method of information extraction, so she made sure she was only after the basics, with Luna there to confirm, fact-check, and ask deeper questions if he tried to mislead them.

Due to the event happening so recently, and all parties involved knowing it to be true, lying became harder. They knew the children were kidnapped; that was a fact, not a guess. So, they had to learn when the other priest left and where they were headed. That was the potential point where things could go awry. They had no method to truly confirm the information. If he lied and managed to not fess up or truly didn't know and just got an answer to make them happy, there was nothing they could do.

[Is there anything we need to grab?] (Eva)

[Our bag and weapon from the inn—that’s it.] (Syrus)

Before they could begin the hunt, they had to inform the affected parties.

Anlesa returned to the house to the exhausted Elly, surrounded by children. The dread and concern were thick in the air. Then Syrus' arrival only made the pain worse, as the missing kids weren’t with her.

“Elly. This is going to be a lot to take in.” Syrus didn’t even try to move the children out of the room. No matter how cruel or unkind it was, Anlesa needed Elly to be ready and standing as quickly as possible. “The children have been taken away, out of the city already.”

“This is my fault...” Elly did not take the news well.

It was bad enough for her heart when the trio of children were captured, but hearing they were taken far from the city in a matter of hours from the last time she saw them was soul-crushing.

Anlesa crouched down and hugged Elly. “It’s going to be okay.” She then whispered into her ear. “You need to be strong for everyone else.”

Those words caused a shock to her system, which caused Elly to freeze. She paused for a moment before swallowing the pain and standing up.

Elly knew Anlesa was right; she had to, she needed to be strong to continue to be a pillar for the children. It hurt in many ways. Pain due to another loss, pain due to knowing the children would be in pain, pain knowing that Anna was going to be further burdened, and she even had to help her stand back on her feet.

What happened next happened fast.

Anlesa was planning on not wasting any time.

Once the talk was over and the facts sorted, she left the building looking for the first carriage towards the Nevald Kingdom.

Some children tried to stop her to ask questions, but she quickly shut them up by saying the situation was time sensitive and she needed to move.

Of course, they weren’t happy with that answer, but their own fear stopped them from continuing. They didn’t want a repeat of what had happened before, not again.

From what they extracted from the priest, it seemed that they were headed to the facility in the Nevald Kingdom’s main church. That made sense; it was a large sectioned-off area with basically a small town in the city of Kelopan in the Nevald Kingdom. It was where Luna had spent a large amount of time during her previous life. The other public places Luna knew about weren’t really the best if you wanted to keep kids there for extended periods of time, especially if you wanted to indoctrinate them.

Kelopan wasn’t the capital of the Nevald Kingdom; the capital was referred to as the Nevald Capital. It was stuck between large mountains, so it was quite small, and the other cities around the capital ended up growing bigger to compensate. Kelopan was close to the capital, less than a day's trip if a person went through the mountain tunnels, but it increased to a four-day journey if they were closed.

However, before Anlesa got the chance to leave the city.

“I’m coming with you,” Leah announced as she walked behind Syrus.

“No, you are not.” Syrus didn’t even turn around and kept on walking.

“Correct, I am.” Ella ran up towards them, wearing bags of small sacks and a dagger on her side.

“No, you are not,” Syrus repeated.

[We need to stop them properly.] (Luna)

[I know.] (Syrus)

Anlesa stopped moving and turned around.

Behind them were multiple children: Leah, Ella, and Jack. Anlesa didn’t know Jack well; he was one of the quieter ones, but they knew he was close to Susan.

“Well, let me ask you this. What are you guys even going to accomplish? Do you even understand all the risks involved with trying to chase those bastards?”

Anlesa purposely didn’t specify about following her, as she knew there was the chance the children would attempt the trip on their own. Which was a possibility she very much wished wouldn’t happen. The trip would take over a week to reach the church facility in Kelopan, which she didn’t mention was the location, but there was always the chance they would guess the main church in the Nevald Kingdom as the spot they were taken to.

“Yes,” Ella answered.

Leah’s answer differed. “Doesn’t matter.”

“...” Jack stayed silent, waiting to let Syrus finish.

Syrus looked down at them, eyes complicated. When she was Ella’s age, she did a lot more deadly things, but comparison didn’t make what they wanted to do right. She told them. “You are children; let’s ignore the fact that you don’t even know where you have to go if you leave on your own. There are many dangers of travelling to a different country, even more so if it is a place you have never been to before.”

“Only one of you even seems prepared enough, but Ella, you are still missing a few important items.” Ella looked like she just ran out with supplies she had stored for an emergency, while Leah and Jack just had a small bag that Anlesa could only assume was basic day-to-day clothes.

Leah, eyes unflinching. “I’m not going to let them take away more of my family.”

For a brief moment, Anlesa froze.

It was clear what she meant.

And the reason for the children’s spying made sense.

[Fuck, it must’ve been when my ears weren’t working.] (Syrus)

[Susan’s Sound attribute could have also played a part.] (Eva)

[Maybe.] (Syrus)

Anlesa crouched to the ground to be at their height.

Syrus asked, “How many know?”

Leah didn’t reply.

“Half,” Ella answered.

Jack followed. “The others didn’t want to hear.”

Syrus's foot loudly tapped the ground. “You mean to say there are seven people who were still so afraid they didn’t want to hear the news of who could be reasonable, and you wanted to leave them behind?”

“If all three of you are gone, who does that leave? One person who knows the truth behind it all? And seven others whose hearts have to deal with a total of six of their family missing?” Syrus wanted to yell, but she didn’t want to create a scene. Instead, her voice deepened until it neared a growl.

The children trembled.

“At best, you three will make for okay distractions. You don’t have the survivability, knowledge, strength, or social skills needed. Having one of those would at least make your plea tempting.”

Syrus finished, “But you have none of them.”

Her eyes turned to Leah, whose blue eyes had darkened with emotion.

“Now, Leah, what did I tell you before?”

“...” She didn’t answer immediately, but after a moment. “It has begun.”

“Correct,” Syrus replied, her voice quieting down for only the three children to hear. “I’ve already killed everyone who attacked the village.”

The words of truth caused the children to shake. Leah expected something like that to have happened. She had heard from one of the children who briefly returned to the village that night, after they were in a state to talk about it, they mentioned seeing corpses littered around.

Leah didn’t know who did it, but when she first met Syrus, she thought, maybe.

The others didn’t know of Leah’s theory and expected the direct culprits to still be at large. So, hearing that they were gone was a shock, a relief, and other complicated emotions.

“They were the first, they weren’t the last, and they weren’t my last either,” Syrus said with cold, hardened determination. “The people who did this today won’t be coming back.”

The tension left Anlesa's body, and Eva spoke with a smile. “Now, do you know what you three need to do?”

The change in demeanour was a little shocking, but they didn’t verbally answer. Jack shook his head, while Leah finally broke eye contact and looked down.

“Simple, you have to protect your family.” Eva finished, and Syrus continued. “What did I teach you before? How to become stronger: train, keep your family spirits up–the rest of you kids and Elly–you all need to be each other's anchor in these times. Outside of that, learn whatever skills you want or need.”

She stood up. “The best thing to do is to keep everyone else safe. I’m here to deal with the messy parts; you deal with what you're supposed to deal with, and if you ever want to be in my position, then you have to be so much stronger.”

“Ella, you're the de facto leader. A leader doesn’t abandon their squad in times of need. Jack, the worst thing for a friend in danger is when they escape is to find out they lost someone who tried to save them. Leah… I understand…”

Anlesa pulled the three children close to her. They weren’t even able to resist her strength due to their emotional distress.

“It will be okay.”

The warmth felt alien but familiar.

“I won’t have you lose anyone else today.”