"I'm baaaaack~"
Hearing Lupusregina announce her return, Vahn rose from where he had been lying atop their shared inn-room bed and asked, "Any luck...?" before sniffing at the air. Even without augmenting his senses, he could make out a fading aroma of blood and death, causing a slight, disapproving frown to mar his face.
Exhaling from her nose, Lupusregina returned her axe-like scepter to the black void of her Item Box while explaining, "I was able to track down the person responsible for writing the letter, but they were one of many dead bodies kept in cold storage by the local Temple of Earth. I'm guessing this C person forced them to write it before murdering them to protect against tracking and surveillance magic."
"I suppose that's to be expected by an organization that operates in the shadows..." Vahn muttered, exhaling a sigh of his own. He had assumed that Lupusregina had allowed her Lycanthropic nature to get the better of her. But walking through a cemetery or visiting a morgue could also leave her smelling of death.
"If you're worried, why not ask Lord Ainz for help...?" Lupusregina asked, sliding aside the fabric covering her breasts and grinning lasciviously as she asserted, "With his superior magic and intellect, I'm certain he could locate the culprit and track them down in a heartbeat..."
Removing her habit to reveal fluffy, red-furred ears, Lupusregina began a slow, sultry walk toward Vahn as she sensually appended, "Though, if we consider how weak that old fool and his disciples were, I can't imagine his fellow executives are much of a threat. Not to us, at least..."
"You're not wrong..." Vahn conceded, a faintly smoldering look adorning his face as he allowed Lupusregina to approach, push him onto his back, and straddle him. He wasn't fond of the stench of death, but he had more than a few ways to remedy it—his palms emitting fragrant, body-warming oil as he slid them along Lupusregina's toned, tantalizingly brown thighs and cupped her ass...
...
..
.
After bidding farewell to the members of Royal Purple, with whom Vahn had tentatively remained in contact, he and Lupusregina departed from E-Rantel on foot, their destination the Royal Capital, located some 200km to the north-west. When he informed Pluton that they were leaving, the man encouraged them to visit the Merchant's Quarter to attach themselves to a convoy, but Vahn refused, using the excuse that he was on a pilgrimage and only traveled by wagon or coach when required.
Though the main reason he had given the excuse was that he didn't feel like helping opportunistic merchants escape E-Rantel before Re-Estize's annual war with the Baharuth Empire, Vahn had two other reasons for his refusal. Thanks to his Pilgrim Class, which Ainz recommended to him, he had boosted his movement speed on roads and gained experience when surveying terrain and treading new ground. It was the perfect Class for an itinerant God trying to reconnect with mortals and organically accumulate experiences. And when someone with a faith-based Class, like Chaplain, reached its maximum level, it purportedly opened up hidden Classes such as Planar Walker and Roaming Saint...
...
..
.
[October 24th DxD/June 17th DBT]
As they made way for one of the many convoys that passed them during their three-day journey, each ferrying conscripts and supplies southward, Vahn was unsurprised when one of the escorting Knights approached him and Lupusregina on horseback. The middle-aged man's face was initially set in a look of scorn and suspicion, but, like many who had come before him, his demeanor changed instantaneously when he saw the Orichalcum plates adorning Vahn's and Lupusregina's cloaks.
"Those plates..." muttered the Knight, taking a moment to courteously dismount his horse before asking, "Would the two of you happen to be Great Healer Vahn Mason and his escort, the Red-haired War Priestess, Lupusregina?"
"We would..." Vahn confirmed, offering a slight nod before noting, "And, based on your coat of arms, you and your men must be Knights from the domain of Marquis Pespea."
"Indeed, we are," confirmed the man, touching his gauntleted right hand to his chest as he introduced, "My name is Jerrick Oleandr Brendt. I am a Baronet in the service of House Pespea. It is a great pleasure to make the acquaintance of the man said to have single-handedly saved more than a thousand villagers in the frontier."
"I'm pretty sure I was only paid for 682 treatments, but numbers do tend to grow as they circulate..." Vahn droned, shifting his gaze from Jerrick to the hundreds of depressed-looking people his men were escorting. Each year, the Kingdom conscripted upwards of 200,000 farmers and peasants to send to the Katze Plains, reinforcing approximately 50,000 soldiers and Knights. Those who survived were rewarded for their achievements and granted tax-exempt status for the subsequent year. But with their odds of survival below 50%, the only thing stopping the mostly middle-aged men from defecting was the knowledge that their wives and children would be held to account if they did.
"Regretably, I do not have the funds on hand to purchase your services. But if you could find it within yourself to bless these men as they prepare for battle, I will be sure to send a suitable offering to your representative temple once this year's war has concluded," Jerrick expressed, closing his eyes and bowing his head.
"Fate has brought you and your men before me. As such, you shall take my blessing with you as we part..." Vahn affirmed with a slow nod, earning himself a look of genuine gratitude from Jerrick. The Baronet and his men were the fourth group to make the same request of him, but since healing took very little effort on his part, Vahn felt it was the least he could do for the conscriptees before they were forced to risk their lives for a Kingdom that appeared to regard them as fodder...
...
..
.
"You're such a softie..." Lupusregina purred, wrapping her arms around Vahn's shoulders from behind and speaking into his ear as they watched Jerrick and his contingent of freshly blessed conscriptees retreating in the direction they had come from.
"I'm hard where it counts," Vahn retorted smoothly, causing Lupusregina to exhale a husky, ear-warming chuckle.
Releasing her dangling hold on Vahn's broad, well-defined shoulders, Lupusregina waited for him to turn around before asking, "Don't you get tired of being used? In just these three days, you've healed and blessed nearly two thousand people. And each time we stop, we end up delaying ourselves by multiple hours. I mean, I'm not in a hurry or anything, but it feels like you're doing a lot of free work for a Kingdom I'm pretty sure you despise..."
"I don't despise anything so broadly," Vahn responded, shaking his head and exhaling faintly from his nose before glancing in the direction of the departing contingent and flatly remarking, "More to the point, I have long surpassed the point of requiring more than connection from other people. I have the means to travel between countless worlds and create virtually anything that can be conceived, and I occupy a position of unfathomable privilege to the average person. Healing those men cost me nothing more than time. And while time is the most valuable resource of all, its value is greatest when spent bettering the lives of others—particularly those you care for..."
"I would much prefer if you invested your free time in bettering my life..." Lupusregina countered, snaking her arms around Vahn's body to caress his abs.
"That's certainly tempting..." Vahn hummed in a deep, velvety tone that sent chills through Lupusregina's body. In actuality, he had spent nearly a third of his time in the setting of OL-2138 attending to the lupine beauty's ravenous libido, but that was because he was still deciding on the path he should walk. Interacting with individuals like Tristain and Jerrick gave him a growing desire to fix things in the Kingdom of Re-Estize, but that would effectively bind him to them. And if he wanted to bring about the greatest amount of change, he would need to take action on a much larger stage...
With such thoughts in mind, Vahn allowed himself to be coaxed, or, more accurately, dragged away from the road by Lupusregina. She was feeling justifiably frustrated after the near six-hour delay, so as the principal cause of that frustration, it naturally fell to him to remedy it...
...
..
.
[October 25th DxD/June 18th DBT]
ba-da-taba-da-taba-da-ta
Following another day of travel, Vahn and Lupusregina were camping near the edge of the main highway when the distant sound of horses galloping reached their respective ears at practically the same time. Riding at night was treacherous, especially on a road worn by overburdened wagons and heavy horse traffic, so the two of them readied their weapons and moved away from their fire to blend into the shadows and to better see who was approaching.
Spotting a group of hooded horsemen in non-reflecting clothing, Vahn's brows perked. The men didn't appear to be Knights at a glance, but with how expensive horses were to keep and maintain, he didn't discredit the possibility—even when the leader of the seventeen-man group gave the order to stop and ready large, armor-piercing crossbows.
fshwshuwhistle
While descending upon Vahn's and Lupusregina's encampment on foot, the hooded man unloaded a flurry of silvery bolts that tore through the animal hide tent they had set up. Upon reaching it, the men then tore at the tattered fabric with their swords before one exclaimed in a distorted, almost watery-sounding voice, "They're not here...!"
"Just grab what you can and retreat...!" shouted a second man, his voice similarly distorted.
"Shall I capture them...?" Lupusregina questioned, raising her right hand and morphing it and her forearm into a muscular, fur-covered appendage with hooked, dagger-like claws. The men looting their encampment were mere meters away, but thanks to her Complete Invisibility and Vahn's Veil of the Traveler, they went completely unnoticed.
Though he could have easily captured the men using his Domain, Vahn didn't hesitate for too long before responding, "You may. But take care not to kill them," in a calm tone.
"Death is a mercy that must be earned~" Lupusregina hummed, her figure briefly elongating as she fleetingly surpassed the speed of sound without the accompaniment of a sonic boom. Half a blink later, the camp became a swirling tempest of blood, gore, and flying limbs as she darted between the hooded figures like a phantom, effortlessly divesting them of the arms they used to hold their weapons before closing their wounds and ensuring their survival with hastily-applied healing magic...
...
..
.
While Lupusregina dealt with those ransacking their camp, Vahn revealed himself before those who had remained behind with the horses, including the group's presumed leader.
"Did you and your men have some business with me...?" Vahn asked, the casualness of his query, combined with his overall unguarded demeanor, causing the already panicking men to feel a wave of immense dread wash over them. Despite this, the group's leader produced a spherical glass jar of green liquid, shouting, "Stay away from the Capital...!" before flinging it at Vahn's face.
Leaving the hooded figure and his men feeling even greater fear, Vahn slowed the glass container with his Domain, causing it to appear as if it were moving in increasingly slow motion. Then, grabbing it with his right hand, he inspected it curiously and remarked, "Flinging acid at someone you just met isn't very courteous..."
"Fuck! Just trample him...!" exclaimed one of the hooded figure's goons, simultaneously spurring his horse to charge forward. The fact that they hadn't given up left Vahn at a complete and utter loss for words, but his body moved regardless. More accurately, he pushed out his left hand to knock the men from their horses, suspending them in mid air as the horse that had been forced to charge at him came to a stop at his side, bent its head, and bumped its neck against him as if to apologize...
'I see that my affinity with horses remains, even with my Titles sealed...' Vahn noted, storing away the thought for later consideration. Before that, he required answers. And though he didn't possess a disconcerting spell like Charm Person or Mind Domination, he had his ways of getting people to disclose what he wished to know...
...
..
.