As soon as Toma had relayed its plans to Zephyr and Aura, their group disbanded. Zephyr was headed for the royal castle to handle the lone problems in the sage's plan while Aura kept an eye on it to ensure that it wouldn't try anything else. The stage was set for someone to take hold of the kingdom of Lakrus. Why let that chance go to waste? The plan may have belonged to the marionette, but being the ones to puppet it until Cill takes over and then controlling her through some deception as well, was just too perfect, given the stage that's already been set.

As long as Cill took over its legacy and ruled above the humans of Lakrus, Toma, and the sage Majora couldn't have cared less about who controlled her. After all, it was never about the control for Gureia but rather to crush the very humans who'd once tried to kill her under the heels of her children, without those killers realizing who their new masters were.

Walking up to the hero's group while an invisible clone of hers kept Toma company as it walked inside the assembly room, Aura took a seat in the waiting room with all eyes turned to her. Valentine and Okio would join them soon once the rest of the sages were convinced by their leader, but in the meantime, the only one left to answer the questions the hero's party had in their mind was Aura, and so they asked.

"Why were you with that person, and who is that exactly?" Asked Rudy, his voice trembling from the tension that had been building since this morning.

"Where's Custer?" Elicia enquired as her eyes had been following the two ever since they walked down the step with no signs of Custer being around. "Is he upstairs somewhere?"

Shooting a glance across her group, Aura leaned back into her chair and yawned. She was tired of holding herself back, and now she was assigned the worst kind of work–waiting for further development before she could get some action herself.

"That was the saint leader. We went upstairs to meet their leader, and now I'm here, and Custer has some stuff that he needs to take care of, so he's going to be a while. Does that answer your questions?" Crossing her legs, she covered her mouth and yawned once again. "Oh, and… Uhm, your meeting has been canceled, we're free to stay in this place for a week or so, and then, we can go back to the village."

"What?" Narrowing her eyes, Audrey stepped closer. "They're just sending us off? After that long ass journey, we're being sent home? What the fuck was the point of coming here?!"

"Language, lady!" Striking Audrey on the back of her head, Freya glared at her from behind. "Just because you think you're an adult now doesn't mean you can mouth off like that."

Growling through her teeth, Audrey looked up at her stepmother but before anything explosive could happen, Charlotte stepped between them–both to disarm the situation and ask her own question.

"So that's it? What did you guys even talk about that cut us loose so easily? Must've been important for the leader of the saints to take you to their leader, right?" Suspicious about the whole encounter, Charlotte stood before Aura and crossed her arms. Staring at the girl with great scrutiny, she demanded further. "Something feels off about the whole thing. Did you guys make some kind of deal?"

"Of course, we told them about the weapons we provided during the war. They figured that's how we won. They do not need to interview you now. We already explained what happened, and now they want us to ship them the same type of equipment and potions, that's it." Already having seen these questions coming, Zephyr had fed Aura some convenient lies. Her job now was simply to recite it. "Every month, someone will come to collect the toll; we won't have to pay any tax, but the equipment will go. The good thing is, we can ask for things in return, so maybe if you guys want to keep exploring the dungeon, we can figure out a way to benefit from this deal."

With everything explained, there wasn't much left for the hero's group to say. Although a feeling of disappointment was washing over them. After traveling so far just to be turned away was needless to say, quite anticlimactic.

"Anything else?" Aura asked, her tired look boring in on them.

"I guess not…" Roxanne muttered, though now that they were free for a week, there were some things that she wanted to try.

The house from which she was discarded, a look won't hurt now, would it? Since the group was already there in the guise of a tour of the capital, she could travel by her family's estate on a wagon and see if anything had changed.

'What's the point in doing that?' She wondered, not sure whether it would change anything. But deep down in some corner, she was hoping for change, not in the estate itself but in the hearts of the family who had kicked her out at a young age.

Before she could voice her opinion on such a trip, however, Freya decided to guide the group instead.

"Let's get back to our room and settle down first. My back still hurts from all that traveling, and if we're not getting a meeting, then there's no point in staying around these people. Their egos are as fragile as spiderwebs and just as easy to get trapped in." Despite the dissent against her every move as of late, everyone agreed that it was best to leave the hall before the sages changed their minds about the meeting.

Following them, Elicia and Aura both decided to join them until Zephyr was back from the important task that needed doing.

"Where is he?" Walking beside Aura, Elicia wanted to know more.

Without looking at her, however, Aura closed her eyes and replied in a whisper.

"Doing some diplomacy with the royals. He will be back soon…" As her eyes opened again, a creepy smile had taken over. Relaying to Elicia that whatever this task was, it was no mere act of diplomacy.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.