Chương 98: Chapter 97 - Report

The next morning, Atzi headed downstairs and found Hemm smiling as Mala happily ate a bowl of fly soup. Atzi yawned.

"She likes the food, huh?" Hemm look at Atzi, her smile growing wider, and said, "She asked what you liked." Mala's spoon clacked against the table.

"You promised you wouldn't tell!"

"Eh? What I liked?" Hemm laughed.

"Food. She wanted to try what you liked."

"Oh. Well, yeah, the soup's great." I guess she wanted to know what the best stuff on the menu was." Anyway, gotta go!" - When she arrived back at V's, they had three cases, each carried by a guard.

"Hard to smuggle out the furniture, huh? Who you leaving the mansion to?" V waved their hand.

"It doesn't matter. I won't be returning here and there would be no way for the money to reach me if I were to sell it."

"Where's the innkeeper, he got his stuff ready too?" The middle-aged man she was referring to exited from the bathroom. He merely said, "I am ready." Atzi looked between them.

"I never figured you'd go out of your way to help someone else like this. You friends?"

"Associates," V stated.

"Sure, sure." Atzi wasn't going to dig deeper if V didn't want to say. They definitely wouldn't explain if she asked.

"Anyway, come on, I'll make sure you get through the gate. Got a fancy badge from the Serpent and all, now." She showed off her badge, the words 'Head of Guard' gleaming. V did not react to her badge. Clearly jealous of it. V's guards and associate followed Atzi from the mansion. They traveled through the empty streets towards the southern gate. The journey was entirely silent. When they arrived, V finally said, "With luck to the both of us, we shall never meet again."

"Uh, yeah, see you too, V." And then they walked away. V never likes me, huh. Atzi felt like she wanted to mess with them in a future loop, just for the fun of it. I'll show you what happens when you underestimate me. Now entirely free of obligations, but the loop still ongoing, Atzi considered what to do next. Maybe I could talk to Regent again? He might tell me more about gems now that it's basically public I'm the Saintess's new prophet.

- Regent sat across from Atzi, one of his eyes was covered with a cloth, and his other staring at Atzi, his piercing blue gaze unblinking. His small, modest office intensified the effect of his gaze.

"Prophet of the Saintess. What brings you here?" Atzi tried to see if she could impress him by telling him things.

"You know we're actually related?"

"Yes," he said plainly. Atzi tapped her clawed foot awkwardly.

"Oh. Uh, anyway, I'm here on official business for her." He motioned for her to continue.

"Sorry about the civil war. Probably a lot of extra work, huh?"

"I am not a general. I deal only in spy work. Thusly, the amount of work is mostly the same, just of greater importance." Atzi nodded along. She didn't really 'get' spy stuff, but at least he wasn't mad at her.

"So, the Saintess wants to know about one thing in particular. Gems. Any stockpiles, no matter who owns them, that CI knows about." Regent withdrew a piece of paper from his desk and read off it dryly.

"Multiple gem stockpiles in the arcane university vaults. A suspicion of gems with the Branek Bank, unconfirmed as to truth or amount. Some minor amount of gems with private citizens. Two nature gems hung as part of trophy in a old adventurer's house. Three pearls used as a stabilizing force for an ongoing ritual inside a blacksmith's workshop. Various others of similarly marginal amounts." Huh, that was easy. No questions? Well, must be because I'm so trustworthy.

"Yeah, the university vault's the big one. Branek Bank has a ton of fire gems in it, I heard."

"Who did you hear this from?" Regent withdrew a quill and fresh paper, prepared to write. Atzi coughed.

"So, as the prophet of the Saintess, I'm basically off the hook for, uh, crimes I thought about doing, right?"

"Yes." She sighed in relief.

"Okay, I was gonna break into the bank again, except it fell apart since I had to sabotage it to try and do other stuff for the Saintess, which resulted in this. But the reliable source we had was a hundred fire gems in the bank." Regent wrote this down.

"Who is the source?"

"V. Valentine. They're already out of the city, though, so don't worry about 'em."

"I see." He scribbled more down on the page.

"Haven't checked myself, but that's the info I got, anyway." She took a look at the paper again.

"So what else is there?"

"There are additional stockpiles in other nations of the empire. The reports I receive are most accurate within Sostra, however." Atzi nodded.

"Any big ones?"

"A recent large amount of gems were taken out from the vaults. A portion - nature and water gems - were sent to the Pomarian council. Another amount of death gems are currently unaccounted for in location, though based on recent events I believe they may have been used as part Malus's attempt to resurrect the Saintess, or the gems sent to Pomaria as a payment for the council's assistance."

"Yeah, she definitely used them there, I bet."

"Pomaria also had their own stock of gems already with the council, though of far lesser number." How would I ever get the Pomarian council to hand me a bunch of gems though. I'll need better tricks to steal this stuff in the future. Atzi cursed the security arrangements.

Regent continued on, "The ruling families of Artaxta each have a small stock of gems for use by the family in question, mostly obtained by purchasing off adventurers passing through rather than following normal procedure and allowing the university right of first purchase. However, our official stance is to turn a blind eye to this behavior due to the instability of the Serpent as a god, even prior to the current situation." This story originates from a different website.

Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Atzi laughed awkwardly.

"Yeah, she is kinda intense."

"Mediolanum keeps a stock of earth gems - the largest in the nation - for defensive purposes in case of attack."

"That's not happened, right? Oh, and what about Vinovia? Do you know if they got attacked?"

"Mediolanum has not been attacked, no." Regent looked at her.

"As already reported to the Serpent, Vinovia was attacked by frost giants."

"Right. Wonder why that happens?"

"I do not know, possibly coordination with another one of the empire's many enemies?"

"Well, Hasen attacking wouldn't even be because of that, that's only 'cause of Hasen's enemies, but I think I prevented it this time," Atzi rambled.

"This time?" Atzi immediately realized her mis-phrasing and winced.

"Fuck."

"Explain."

"Okay, but you won't like it." She took a deep breath.

"The exact moment I became the prophet of the Saintess, she did something to me. And now every time I die, I wake up in the streets on the tenth, everything back to how it was. This is the, I don't even know many times, fifteenth? Terra called it a time loop. I just lie and tell people the Saintess is showing me visions." Regent nodded.

"So this is why you wished to know about our gem stocks."

"Oh, yeah." He accepts this kind of stuff real easy. That's nice.

"I'm gonna steal them next time. I need to eat them if I wanna be a mage. Then I can maybe affect stuff I couldn't before."

"I do not recommend stealing from the empire, even as the prophet of the Saintess with good intentions." Regent said dryly.

"Well the university vault is impossible, I already tried. Branek isn't the empire, anyway." He stared her in the eye.

"It would be much easier to prove your claim and then use your new official status to request necessary gem support." Atzi raised a claw.

"One big problem - Malus murders me the second she finds out. And you, by the way. I told you about this stuff before and she had you executed publicly for treason." Regent wrote this down.

"This time I got lucky and the Serpent did all of this. I told her about the underworld gate and Malus' screwed up ritual because she's the easiest god to reach. If I wink at her at the parade, she likes the look of me and takes me to the temple. She's sly enough not to get fooled by Malus' tricks, and bored enough to listen."

"Have you considered informing me that Malus is a rogue agent who would kill me?" Atzi drooped, and she wrapped her tail around a chair leg in shame.

"No. I was actually kinda pissed off when you got killed because I thought you'd messed up somewhere, and I had to flee for my life. Then I didn't try it again. Okay, I'll try that."

"Excellent. I can assure you, that while I often must operate off incomplete information, within the information I do have, I do not make mistakes." He sounded unshakably confident.

"I didn't know she was the source of the necromancers at the time, yeah. So I just told you about the suspicious necromancers in the city and how the city gets destroyed by the undead. Which we apparently stopped this time, at least. For now anyway. Hopefully."

"You are referring to the gate of the dead beneath the city?"

"Yeah. If I hadn't told anyone about it, we'd already all be dead. The whole empire, even. Guess the gods who took care of it were enough."

"Thank you for your service." Regent's voice was still his usual monotone. Atzi scratched her scales.

"Thanks, but I started a civil war this time, so it doesn't feel as much of a success." Wait, if the gate is actually taken care of, then how long is it going to take before the war reaches here?

"I didn't know she'd do that if I wasn't there! The first time- okay, the first time she just took me to the godscouncil and I exposed everything. This time I wanted to do other stuff so I asked her to tell everyone, and then she did this. Why? She didn't seem that interested in politics stuff!"

"She is not. However, she will happily grab power when it is nearly effortless for her to do so. The Serpent's behavior is self-serving at the best of times."

"Yeah, I know." Atzi crossed her arms.

"She ate me once!"

"I do not recommend sleeping with divinities."

"How did you- nevermind. Look, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway, next time around, I know how to get your attention, so I'll just explain things and let you know that Malus will kill you if you're not careful. I can talk to the Star, I think I know a way to get their prophet's attention. As for this time, if you find out why Vinovia got attacked, can you let me know?" Regent nodded.

"Certainly."

"Finding out why stuff happened helps a lot. It's really hard to learn this stuff on your own." He motioned to the page in front of Atzi.

"Would you like to hear the remaining gem reports?"

"Sure. I know you don't approve, but the more tools I have, the better chance of making sure things go right."

"There are also air and astral gems in Mediolanum. Vinovia usually keeps a stock of both water and fire gems on hand, but currently has only water gems as the empire completely lacks any spare fire gems. There were only the twenty Malus kept on her person, and no others."

"Yeah, we lost them all when the Saintess died." Regent wrote this down.

"Oh. Shit, did I not mention that part? Uh. That's what happened in Novae."

"I see."

"The Saintess was there, someone or something set off all the fire gems she had on her and, well-""You do not know the agent?" Atzi shook her head.

"No clue. Cthargictha is just an excuse though, for the fire gems they have. But Malus had no idea who it was, when I asked her. Her being there was a secret, too."

"That is concerning." Regent put his quill down, steepling his claws.

"That would mean there is some agent within or without the empire who wanted to see the Saintess dead, and had the capability to do so. Why was the Saintess transporting hundreds of fire gems?"

"She doesn't know. Malus said that the Saintess saw some kind of doom in the future and was trying to stop it, that's all I know. The Saintess doesn't remember a thing. I didn't even know she was the Saintess until Malus told me. Not like anyone else knew what she looks like."

"Regarding your 'time loop', I would recommend figuring out the 'why' on the transport of the gems, or the 'who' of the attack, as a priority."

"The only clue is Malus. She's gonna be hard to question about this, you know?"

"I am aware." Regent regarded Atzi for a moment.

"The city of Novae is a crater, and all gems that could be extracted from the rubble, were. It's not impossible that some were missed, however."

"Novae's really cold." Atzi shivered.

"Eastern Novae is much smaller and does not, to my knowledge, have any stores of gems. Tarsus has a modest amount of water, astral, and nature gems, found mostly from the seas. They keep these on hand for defense in the same way Mediolanum does." Atzi made mental notes of all everything she was being told, as best she could. She planned to devour a lot of gems if she could pull it off in the future.

"Novasium has mostly fire, earth, and nature gems, though currently no fire, on hand for defense in case of attack by Branek. Finally, Nicomedia does not share gem reports as part of the unique treaty made for their entry into the empire." Atzi took it all in. There were a lot of places she could go for gems, eventually, though she figured that Pomaria would be a good first bet. It was closest.

"Gotcha."

"Other than that, there are any you might find in the wild. Do you have any further questions?" Atzi shook her head.

"Nah, I'm good." Regent stood up and held out his claw. Atzi was a little surprised, but she gripped his claw, and shook. Regent withdrew his claw.

"Thank you for your information, It will be useful. Return if you learn any more."

"Sure. Thanks for the help. Lemme know if anything big happens!"

"I will." That went well. Maybe I should try working with him, next time. - When Atzi returned to the inn, she didn't see Hemm or Mala. That's weird.

"Hello?" she called out. Hemm came out from the back, wearing a sleeping gown, and shushed her.

"What's wrong?" Atzi asked back, quietly"Mala is sleeping. She had a nightmare, so I let her sleep with me."

"Sorry," Atzi said. Internally, her mind whirled as she imagined claiming she had a nightmare in a future loop.

"Do you need something?"

"So if I had a nightmare- uh, no, I just usually see you when I get in so I was- I dunno. I guess the stuff in the city has me paranoid." Atzi laughed awkwardly.

"I'm just going to sleep, it's fine." Suddenly, Atzi's stomach growled. Loudly. Hemm said, "I'll warm some leftover soup." Atzi tried not to skip meals - she liked to eat - but it was all too easy for her. Not only was she busy with the loops, but even before, when she'd been poor, there were plenty of nights she slept instead of ate. So she didn't realize when she hadn't eaten, sometimes.

"Thanks Hemm." As she ate, she thought about her next move. With the loop messed up anyway, she figured she might as well go see about getting gems from the university vaults anyway. She'd talk to the 'vault master' to see for sure what kind of permission she needed first, and then if she absolutely had to, talk to the Serpent. Then once she got the gems, she might be able to beg Terra for lessons. Atzi glanced at Hemm, and remembered how poorly the 'date' had gone. It was awful, and she had to keep living with it.

And everything else that was going on. But she didn't want to just suddenly die out of the blue, either. She had no idea what was going to happen, and that was the worst. All she could do was enjoy herself as best she could as things happened. She'd take care of what she could tomorrow.