Micchi Versus the New World - chapter 103

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Chapter 103

After getting back home with the weird crystal, I went to the only person who might have any clue what this thing was.

"There's no mistaking it," Mildred began, gazing hard at it with a specialized eyeglass on. "I had my suspicions when it emerged from your club, but now I'm sure of it. This is a primordial lifecrystal.

"You telling me this rock is something special?" I snatched up the crystal to my eye to try and see what it was she saw in it.

Mildred levitated a book from across the room, and with a flick of her wrist, flipped the many pages until it stopped on one where it depicted a similarly-shaped. She plucked the crystal from my hand and placed it down next to the book.

"A primordial lifecrystal is not some stone off the side of the road. They are ancient and powerful magic crystals, said to contain traces of the beginning of time, creation, and essences of gods. Scholars, alchemists, and enchanters such as myself have long sought these out for many different applications," she explained.

"Next you're gonna tell me there's six of them out there, and someone can wipe out half the world after collecting them all," I grumbled.

"They can do no such thing. Their powers have waned significantly over the millenia with every use. The best we can make of it are elixirs of life, philosopher's stones, unfathomable enchantments, and so on and so forth."

Nothing about this looked special. You could have put it inside a jewelry store alongside other crystals and gemstones, and I'd think they were all the same shit. What I did know, however, was that Chika was after this. At least bad enough that she finally showed up to snatch it from me while we were in Kazaar.

"Lady Micchi… where did you say you uncovered this again?" Kain asked, inspecting the rapier we had also brought back with growing recognition.

"Some dead guy in your family," I began, "but there wasn't a body in the coffin, so it's chill."

"There's nothing chill about graverobbing!" he retorted.

Mildred brought the lifecrystal to her bronze, planetary apparatus in the center of the workshop, then placed it inside a receptacle that clamped onto it like a pair of tongs. The central sphere lit up like the sun and blinded the three of us. Others around it began to rotate slowly, realigning itself in different positions until the gears grinded to a halt, and the three planetary bodies came to a perfect straight line.

The master enchanter's eyes widened with joy.

"What did it just do?" I asked.

"I call this magnificent invention the Surveyor. It recalibrates itself depending on the strength of an item. For it to realign perfectly means that it is beyond the scope of determinable power," Mildred said.

"My brain ain't keeping up anymore. All I wanna know is if this can remake Sacchan."

"I believe it is possible." She pulled the crystal out of the contraption and rolled it around between her two fingers. "But who is to say the demoness wouldn't just destroy it again and take it from you. We know clearly that she is after these primordial lifecrystals, so would it not be prudent to have it closely guarded?"

"We should be glad the demons didn't get to the necromancers first. Perhaps my ancestors built the coffin with anti-magic enchantments to hide it from them?" Kain wondered aloud.

The three of us ultimately agreed that putting it away was the best move. There was no telling what the hell Chika wanted to do with them, but keeping it out of her hands was the only plan we got, so Mildred sealed it away in another anti-magic container and gave it to me to have it protected at the guild hall.

Now, onto the next problem to deal with.

We exited Mildred's workshop to the cult of necromancers, waiting for us outside in chains and held prisoner by a company of guards. All of them looked just as disheveled and messed up as the next.

"What's up, corpsefuckers?" I sneered, causing them all to shudder and look away from me.

"We can't let them go, necromancy is outlawed under the UKD treaty. When I tried to speak with them to gain any information at all, they refused to answer my questions. They appear almost too… humiliated to." Kain folded his arms across his chest, sighing at me like it was my fault they wouldn't talk.

There were twelve of them in total. Their leader, an older man with a scar over his left eye named Hansel, was the one who orchestrated the plan to attack Cynderace with an army of undead.

"You want them to talk? I got just the thing." I whistled for Kawa, and she came barreling through the neighborhood with a bag in her jaws to drop at my feet. The necromancers weren't the only ones who recoiled when I pulled out a bone. Kain and Mildred grimaced. Brandishing it like a weapon, I walked over to Hansel. "Wanna start talking, or are we trying to set a new record for how far your new boyfriend is going up your ass?"

"I hope to the gods that isn't my ancestor's bone you're desecrating…" Kain groaned, putting a hand to his face.

Hansel startled the guards when he prostrated himself in front of Kain and Mildred, pressing his forehead into the pavement.

"I…I beg you… save us from that monster! Lock us up in the deepest dungeon and throw away the key! Just keep her away from us!" he sniveled, quickly being joined by his other cult members.

"I dread to think what the brute did to them." Mildred rolled her eyes.

"Hahh? You guys got nerve begging someone else for help!" I grinded a foot into the back of Hansel's head.

"Lady Micchi, please!" Kain eventually pulled me away with the help of several guards. "Their threat to my kingdom certainly demands a fitting punishment. For now, due to the nature of what they know, we should keep them locked in isolation until they are willing to speak. We wouldn't want it getting out that they were in possession of a primordial lifecrystal."

"Fine, but if you need them to start talking, you know where to find me."

We went our separate ways with Kain and his guards escorting the necromancers to the dungeons, Mildred returning to her workshop, and me riding back to the guild with Kawa. When we got back, however, Loraine looked to have been eagerly waiting for my return.

"You're back!" Loraine exclaimed, tugging on my arm. "Let's go. We don't have time to waste!"

"Go where? What for?" I asked.

"I've set up an appointment with a tailor in the artisan's district. If we are attending the  summit, then you will need to be fitted with the proper dress for the event!" Her eyes were glistening like jewels, and I knew there was no escaping this.

Loraine had to drag me there, since I wasn't looking forward to wearing a dress at all. The idea of putting on those stupid things made me gag. There was just nothing good about wearing them.

The place we ended up going to was Jennick's place, the tailor who I commissioned to make the flag and my new jacket. I stood by the doorway and him at the counter, staring at each other.

"So now you're looking for a dress, is it?" Jennick chuckled.

"Do you two know each other?" Loraine asked.

"I had him make a few things… and yeah." I sighed. "Now I'm here for a fucking dress."

We spent the entire afternoon getting my exact measurements down, and Loraine explaining to Jennick everything that she wanted to see me in. People said mental torture was the worst. I agreed. I had to sit there and listen to what I'd have to eventually wear.

Two of Jennick's apprentices who were helping him take my measurements were shaking the entire time.

"Uhm… Miss, c-can you please… raise your arms?" a beastling girl asked.

I grinded my teeth together and did as asked while she apologized profusely.

"Very good." Jennick nodded to himself after Loraine provided as much details about the desired dress as possible, then he recounted it in short as if to fuck with me. "A long, ivory halter dress with pink accents toward the bottom. Sleeveless. Splits at the right thigh. Jewelry along the bust and neck. Accompanying lace shawl."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Loraine clapped excitedly to each and rubbed my shoulders from behind. "You're going to look so beautiful! I can't wait to attend the summit with you."

"Kill me… Kill me now…" I shut my eyes, hoping for it to be over soon.

As we were leaving Jennick's place, Loraine clutched onto my arm, humming happily to herself. It was rare to see her so excited, especially with what laid ahead and who was coming.

"You don't appear as happy. Should I not have?" Loraine asked.

"If you mean the dress, don't worry. I'm gonna hate it, but I'll wear it for you and you only," I assured her.

She squeezed my hand tighter and smiled. "When my father died and I was captured by orcs, I thought I would never find happiness again. Seeing your carefree attitude when we first met was so refreshing. It taught me to move forward, to face the things I once didn't have the courage to."

"Well… I ain't the best role model. My road's got mistakes graffitied all over it. A lot of things just slip through my fingers, and recently, I learned just how weak I really was. Even with the new power from a second subclass, my fingers still shake when I think about fighting Chika."

We stopped walking when she stepped in front of me.

"You came to this world alone, but you are alone no longer. I believe… a gang fights together, yes?" Loraine grinned.

A weight lifted off my shoulders.

"Yeah, you got that right."

By the time we got back to the guild, a bellowing horn sounded in the distance from the direction of Cynderace's front gates. People poured out of their homes to investigate the commotion. Riding on horseback down the thoroughfare from within the city was Kain and Rugal, their expressions showing of surprise.

"What's going on?" I asked as they rode up to the guild hall.

"We've only just received word now— one of the members of the UKD alliance has arrived. They are here much sooner than I expected," Kain said.

The horn bellowed again, much louder and closer.

"I recognize that racket back in Ash'tar." Anya was coming down the steps from the guild hall, gazing down the wide road where a large group of dark elves dressed in Amarinthian attire were approaching to fanfare. "Sultan Yusef Arselios is finally here."