Mon'Ter

Chapter 10: Interrogating the Perpetrator.

Trembling all over his body in terror, the man with bloodshot emerald eyes was thrown to the front of Elyenora, quivering at her feet.  

Smiling slightly, Mon'Ter stared at her with his one right eye lightening up a bit as he spoke to her, "Ely… Me caught the man… He controlled the things." 

“Good job!” Elyenora beamed with a smile as she kneeled down to look the man over, “Now then, mind telling us what that was all about?” She asked cheerily. 

Still shivering, as if in a trance, the man muttered “... Dark shadows… Red eye… Help... Me...”  

Looking at the man's incomprehensible answer, Elyenora turned her gaze back towards Mon'Ter and asked, "Mon'Ter, did you just bring me a disabled person or what?" 

Shaking his head, Mon'Ter denied the accusation as he pouted a little, "No... The man is... Okay... Try... Wake him up…"  

Sighing, Elyenora then raised her hand and slapped the man's cheek repeatedly while she spoke, "Hello, princess, wakey wakey." 

“W-What? Where am I? Who are you people?” The man awoke from his stupor, looking over at his surroundings. 

There were a multitude of monster corpses laying all about, with two carriages standing in the distance, a little over half a dozen people wandering around them. 

Elyenora then looked back to Mon’Ter, a bit annoyed. “Well now he has amnesia!” 

“Hmm…” Mon’Ter pondered, “Smack him… Again…” 

“Oh, with pleasure!” Elyenora replied and raised her hand once more. 

“Wait, wait, wait! I’m actually a passerby! I don’t even know my own nam-” Before he could finish his ‘clever’ ruse to pretend he had forgotten his own identity, Elyenora threw another row of smacks towards his face. 

“Do you remember now, dear?” She smiled kindly, having broken a few of the man’s teeth. 

With a bleeding mouth, the man spoke up again. “N-No wai-” Only to be cut off. 

“Oh, he needs more smacks.” Elyenora said, once more raising her hand. 

“Okay! I’m talking! I’m talking! You damn savages!” He bellowed in an attempt to save himself from the incoming misery. 

Despite that, he got one extra smack that broke his front tooth, “Hey now, don’t go calling us names.” Elyenora spoke kindly, not befitting of her actions in the slightest.  

“Ouch! I said I was talking damn it!” The man bellowed, feeling as if he were done an injustice. 

“Anyway, who are you?” Elyenora asked, ignoring his earlier comment. 

“Why you…” He murmured under his breath in irritation, but still answered. “Almer, my name is Almer Talherd.” He replied begrudgingly. 

‘Jalid Talherd’s son, huh? What’s he doing all the way out here in the middle of nowhere…? And gosh if he doesn’t have a rotten soul...' Elyenora thought, looking him over with her magic eyes’ soul vision with a rather disgusted expression on her face before continuing her talk with the man. 

“Almer, huh? Okay, so Almer…” Elyenora paused, looking at him closely. “What the hell is wrong with you?” She said as she glared at him. 

“Huh?!” Almer gave a surprised expression. 

“Don’t give me that! What were all those creatures from earlier? What did you do with them?” She asked in a stern voice. 

“What do you mean? Why are you associating me with this pile of corpses?” Almer once more denied the accusations. 

Mon’Ter on the side looked down on him and thought, ‘You… Stupid…’ 

“How long are you going to keep that act up mister green magic eyes!” Elyenora yelled and slapped him once more, breaking another of his front teeth. 

“Stop breaking my teeth! My precious face! Stop!” He begged with his hands covering his head as he quivered on the ground again. 

“Then stop lying and spill the beans already, else your face will be the least of your worries!” Elyenora said whilst grabbing him by the clothes. 

Raising him up, she started shaking him around left, right, forth and back. “Speak already!” 

“Fine! Fine! Put me down already! Fine!” Almer said as he continued, “I’m here for a damn experiment!” 

Upon his words sounding, Elyenora simply released her grip on his clothes and allowed his body to fall back down on the ground. 

“Go on then.” Elyenora spoke while crossing her arms. 

Having fallen down on his arse, Almer looked up at Elyenora and continued his answer, “My father sent me out of the city to test a new invention of his, something to do with strengthening a pair of Magic Eyes’ capabilities.” 

“What type of invention?” Elyenora asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. 

‘Something that strengthens magical eyes? That doesn’t sound like a good thing.’ She thought to herself as she waited for the man’s reply. 

“An… Elixir…” Answered the man with hesitation in his voice, “It’s red in color, similar to a healing potion… Once you drink it, your blood gets empowered and starts rushing towards your eyes, empowering their abilities significantly. In my case I was able to control a far greater number of beasts than usual.” 

“That sounds nasty…” Elyenora cringed a little, “Is that why you look like you’ve been crying?”  

“I look like that because you slapped me silly, you wench!” The man bellowed with indignation, “but yes, that is also why.” He stated, having calmed himself again in fear of her retaliation. 

“And how much of an increase was it then?” Elyenora asked, ignoring his comment as she was a bit worried at the prospect of this elixir. 

“I don’t know about others, but for me it was an increase of around five times…” Almer replied, fidgeting back in worry of being struck again due to his earlier insult. 

“Five times?!” Elyenora exclaimed, “That’s…” worry oozed from her expression. 

‘If Aydian gets his hands on such an item, and mass produces it… There’s no telling what he might be capable of!’ She thought to herself and looked back to the man called Almer. 

“Do you have any samples of this elixir? What are the ingredients?" Elyenora asked, as she grabbed his clothing once more with one hand and pushed him around a bit before stopping and waiting for a reply. 

Shaking his head, Almer spoke in a monotone voice, "I drank the only one I had. And there’s no need to bother yourself with the recipe, father is rather secretive of this stuff. Even to me."  

"Tsk." clicking her tongue, Elyenora was disappointed. She had just lost a perfect chance to observe this invention. She knew it must have something to do with the disappearance of the children from Cloran.  

"Now I have answered all your questions. Would you be so kind as to let me go?" Almer asked in a hopeful tone.  

"Sure mister, of course you can go." Smiled Elyenora as she leaned down to look over him, an evil intention flashing within her eyes, "But it won't be fair for you to just go ahead and leave after giving us so much trouble, right? If it wasn’t us whom you had encountered, then people could have died, you know?" She spoke with a cheery voice as she pointed out.  

The man couldn’t help but think, 'Fair? You still want to do more cruelties to me after almost making me toothless?! Now how could I possibly eat my favorite steak or even smile confidently when I'm trying to flirt with a girl?! You damn bit*h!' Cursed Almer on the inside of his mind as he tried to suppress the heavy breathing that he was having due to being so upset at his treatment. "Sure? What can I do for you?" He asked solemnly, resigning himself without struggle to try and keep it simple. 

Still smiling like a goddess that had come from the heavens, Elyenora pointed towards Almer's body and spoke, "Your clothes, take it all off."  

"What? Yo, lady. Even if you have been charmed by me and want to have it with me that badly. We should still do it privately instead of here in public." Replied Almer while he gave quite the toothless grin, thinking that maybe his luck had finally turned around. 

‘What a sweet compensation for the troubles I’ve cause she’s asking for.~’ Almer thought to himself. 

"......" Elyenora’s face on the other hand changed into an emotionless one, with a gaze that was looking towards a soon to be dead man.  

The angered princess silently pulled out her rapier as her eyes moved towards Almer's eyes, heart, forehead, and the thing right between both of his legs, thinking that maybe she should just stab all of them and call it a day. 

Luckily or unluckily for the man named Almer, Elyenora decided to proceed with her original idea. 

“You know what? I’m through with being kind to you…” She muttered under her breath. “I’ll just do it myself!”  

“What? What do you mean?” He asked in confusion. 

Elyenora then proceeded to kick him right in the chin without any warning, raising his body up in the air to the point he had straightened up, the strike had ended up breaking a few more of his remaining teeth in the process as well. 

She then brandished her sword a few times and cut his clothing to pieces, after that right before he had even landed on the ground, she grabbed him by his hair and dragged him towards a tree where she quickly used the rope which she kept in her bag to tie him upside down on one of the tree’s branches. 

Dusting her hands off while walking away, Elyenora gave one final side glance to the man who was spiraling in and out of consciousness as he bled from his mouth down to the ground. “Serves you right for that filthy assumption! Pervert! Hmpf.” She turned her head back and pouted while she walked. 

Mon’Ter, still standing at the exact same place while watching over all the events unfold couldn’t help but think, ‘Ely can be scary… Sometimes...’ 

… 

Having dealt with the sudden ambush attack on the road, Elyenora and Mon’Ter walked back to the carriages where everyone was standing dumbfounded at the recent scenes they had witnessed. 

“Now then,” Elyenora spoke, sitting back down on the carriage bench along with Mon’Ter, “may we proceed towards Breles once more?”  

"Sure thing, m’lady! Anywhere you’d like! Hahaha!" Answered the owner of the carriages as he laughed out loud.  

Although two of his guards had ran away right as the worst had transpired, even after he had paid them for the protection which they had utterly failed at, he couldn’t be more grateful and glad at this moment.   

Turning his head at Elyenora, the owner spoke with praise, "Thank you for saving us. With this, I would exempt both of your guys' fees from this trip."  

"Oh my, thank you as well for the kindness." Giggled Elyenora as she thought of having saved more money.  

"Yes! You are awesome, girl!" 

"You are so strong and dependable!" 

“Those movements you made were so quick and astounding!”  

"I love you, lady!"  

The passengers soon followed the owner’s lead and started to rain praises onto Elyenora, with the one little boy among them suddenly shouting, “You were so cool big sis! I hope I can fight like that too someday!” 

“Hehe!” Giggling as she scratched her cheek, Elyenora thanked again. “Thank you, thank you.” 

“But did you see that man over there?” One of the men commented, pointing to Mon’Ter who was next to Elyenora. 

“Yeah! He was simply incredible! Smashing that troll’s skull in with one blow!” The boy beamed another smile as he said. 

“Thank you so much too! Who knows if the girl’d be able to take all the monsters out with the Troll there too!” The married man from Elyenora and Mon’Ter’s carriage grinned in appreciation of his savior. 

“You’re such a strong man! Unlike someone over here.” The previous man's wife said as she bumped her husband with her elbow. 

“Hey! What was I supposed to do? I’d get smushed like a pancake out there!” The poor husband responded, feeling it was wrong for his wife to have such high expectations towards him. 

“You were supposed to man up of course. Come on darling, do I have to spell everything out for you?” The woman teased. 

The bickering couple ended up earning themselves a few laughs, the heavy atmosphere from earlier completely vanishing from sight. 

“Oooh...” Mon’Ter looked on, his mouth slightly agape, “Ely... Mon’Ter got praised...” He spoke, pointing towards the laughing people. 

“Hehe~!” She giggled with a grin towards him, “You sure did, because you helped save them after all! People from everywhere appreciate such acts.” 

“Mmm... Me thinks... Me likes getting praises...” He smiled softly, as the girl named Shana walked up to him and Elyenora. 

“Um...” She tried to speak up and gain their attention, “Excuse me... Mister and miss...” 

“Hm?” Elyenora turned, “Yes, what is it?” She gave her a warm smile along with Mon’Ter who too was still smiling and in a good mood overall. 

“I sincerely thank you both for the aid you’ve provided us... I really thought we might all be goners there for a second... Please, if there’s anything we can do to repay you, tell us.” She bowed deeply, giving her utmost gratitude. 

“Ely... More praise...” Mon’Ter pointed to Shana and turned to Elyenora, as happy as a child could get. 

“Hahaha!” Elyenora laughed at Mon’Ter’s comment, before replying. “Well if I may be blunt, we do require a guide for when we reach Breles, if you’d be as kind as to show us around town then I’d be most pleased.”  

Beaming a smile, Shana quickly replied. “Yes! It would be my pleasure to guide you two! Breles happens to be where I live you know? I know it like the back of my hand so don’t worry and entrust yourselves to my guidance!” She spoke proudly with a hand raised to her chest, tightly clenched in a fist as if to show her determination. 

“You’re just guiding them around town, Shana.” The owner spoke up, “Don’t go acting so proud of yourself again, kiddo. It’s a bad habit of yours and I feel embarrassed for you, hahaha!”   

“Wh-What do you mean boss?! I don’t have such habits!” Shana retorted, this time earning a few laughs to herself. 

“Come on...” She felt rather wronged at the laughs, however she couldn’t do much to stop them. 

Trying to bring the girl’s spirits back up, Elyenora spoke to her. “I’ll be counting on you then, my name is Ely, and this here is Mon’Ter.” she introduced herself and her companion, “Nice to meet you Shana!” 

Turning back to her saviors, Shana smiled and replied. “It’s nice to meet you too, Ely, Mon’Ter!” 

The two carriage groups continued on their chatter along the way, enjoying the daytime and scenery as they talked to Elyenora and Mon’Ter who ended up having quite a difficult time expressing himself to other people like this for the first time, it definitely served as good practice for speaking however! 

The general consensus was that Mon’Ter and Ely were two incredible warriors with kind hearts that had saved them from a gruesome fate, yet a couple of passengers on the back carriage, a man and a woman, looked at Elyenora and Mon'Ter with a wary gaze. The assumption they had gotten was of what would happen if this duo of incredible fighters decided to turn around and start robbing them? With that in their mind, the fear in their eyes deepened as they wanted to stay away from the two. 

Despite their worry, the trip had no further incidents even up until they reached the gates of Breles. The two people’s worry having been for naught. 

Everyone then quickly unpacked and entered the city by paying a small fee of two silver coins per each person at the gate to the guards, Elyenora not even batting an eye lid at the prospect. 

Her reason?  

A brand new bag of coins that she had received from the currently stranded, naked, son of Jalid Talherd who may or may not still be hanging down from a tree branch. 

“Don’t you just love it when justice is served, Mon’Ter?” Elyenora asked with a light smirk on her face as the carriage rolled into the city. 

“Hm?” Mon’Ter confusedly looked to her, unsure of what exactly she had meant. 

But justice had been served, most definitely. 

With an added bonus of coin to go along with it.