Chapter 16: Chapter 15 – Hidden menace

After dinner Noah left the inn and went in the common bathhouse direction. Getting through the last few intense days and all the stress it brought him, both his body and mind demanded a nice long soak in the hot bath. 

He came to the bathhouse and mentioned the inn's name to get his promised discount. Money was quite an issue right now. After exchanging hunted trophies and adding all the money he had on him left after the assassination attempt on him he barely had money to by a bag a few items and clothes and rent a room in the cheap inn. 

Saving up wasn't a novel thing to him. His late father loved him dearly and never spared anything for him, his step-mother on the other hand, although never showing any displeasure toward him, was always stoic and strict. So on many occasions his fathers attempts to spoil him were stopped by her. Which made him learn to be thrifty if he wanted to buy something costly.

/Strict?/ Thought Noah while slumping wearily in the tub of hot water that stood in the separate room he rented. Money was an issue but relaxation was worth the additional cost of privacy. He'll go hunting tomorrow anyway.

/Maybe she just hated me all this time from the get go. Was I the only fool thinking of us as a family?/ Thought Noah sinking in the water.

 /Why did you do it? Mother, Sisters?/ Came his thoughts full of sadness.

*****

Golden sun was declining towards the horizon, painting the sky and clouds in the most vivid colors of pink and orange.

Holy lady, in the long white and tightly hugging her godly figure dress adorned with golden patterns and tracery, stood at the edge of a pond holding fish feed in her left palm, and basked in the brilliance of the sun's afterglow. Small fish of different colors danced at her feet in the pure crystal clear water, waiting for the delicacy she was pouring at them in small pinches.

"Speak." She said throwing the word into what seemed like an empty space, as there were no people around.

"My lady, " came out the voice from the direction of the building's shadow covering over half of the garden with a pond. "the report from the Moonstar Kingdom has arrived."

"Let's hear it." Said the Holy Lady without even turning the head to the person who spoke from within the shadows.

"The miasm pollution was very severe, yet polluted zone was only a small piece of land in the form of a perfect circle. No other traces of pollution or leftover malign energy has been detected by the investigation squad."

"At the time of their arrival the demons had already fled and an investigation squad followed it through the traces left on the ground. They did not travel for long until they caught on to the recent footprint of no more than two hour old." Reported the voice from the shadow, while the woman in white took a small pinch of fish feed from her left palm and slowly rubbing her delicate fingers poured the feed into the pond.

"However after following the trail for an hour they were met by a High Dryad. Dryad had reported that the responsible for the forest pollution had been dealt with by the Queen of the Dryad herself, saying there was no further need for investigation. She spoke from the Queen's name so investigation squad has returned after that to not provoke conflict with dryads."

"That's it? Have they asked what type of demon it was?"

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"They did, however dryad was quite dry in the reply and left almost immediately after imploring them to turn back."

"And the pollution zone?"

"Dryads took it upon themselves to cleanse it."

The Holy Lady stopped feeding fishes, first time showing any signs that she was listening to the report seriously. She threw all leftover feed in her left hand into the water in one go and rubbed her hands to clean them.

"Give me the report." she said, stretching her hand in the shadows direction.

Suddenly shadow shuddered and wiggled and out of what seemed like void space within the shadow came out a person fully clad in black clothes. The only part that was not covered on this person is her feminine almond and mesmerizing upturned eyes. Their deep black color and a slightly darker color of skin that was seen around them gave a note of exotics and mystery that provoked inner desires to unravel her hidden underneath these tight clothes beauty at all cost.

The Shadow took out the paper from her dimensional pocket and carefully placed it in the outstretched hand of Holy Lady.

The Holy Lady took the paper and started to read while slowly walking away from the pond and in the direction of the setting sun. She reached what looked like the balustrade of the balcony and stood there slightly leaning on the marble top rail with her back to the sun, making the texts better seen in the lights of afterglow. Her red fiery hair danced in the wind over a chasm behind her. 

She stood there reading the report without paying attention to the most beautiful city underneath the mountain at which this magnificent mansion stood together with it's gardens, lush tree forest and ponds.

"There were footprints of a human?" 

"Ah..y..yes..S...something very similar. Yes." Answered shadow person awkwardly after being suddenly awakened from the dream picture of a Holy Lady standing in the setting sun and realizing she lost concentration from marveling at this beautiful scene.

The Holy lady turned her eyes up for a moment watching the fidgeting shadow person for a moment, but only smiled and did not say anything. Then she continued to read the report.

"Wolf and a human. High Dryad stopping investigation team. Queen taking actions herself. Cleansing the pollution. No other signs of pollution. Ideal circle zone of corruption…" mumbled Holy Lady while reading papers.

"Something doesn't feel right." She spoke, turning her head up and watching at the last speck of the almost set sun and shining roofs of the city below her. "They are hiding something or someone." Added she with an emotionless face but a hidden menace in her eyes.

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