Chapter 49: 49: A Short Speech Before… Food!

With the castle’s gates closed behind them, Chelsea and the others guided the adventurers through the well-decorated, yet not overly lavish, castle. Everyone was silent as they made their way through the castle, a left turn, a right turn, a long hallway. Walking up to the end of a hallway, one with large windows on one side to provide a view to an expansive training area, the group was greeted by the sight of a large pair of double doors. 

Chelsea herself pushed open the doors before walking in, everyone was amazed by the sight of a large expansive hall stretching out before them. The hall, with soaring ceilings and large windows, was now filled with smaller tables along with a stage and podium at one end. 

With a wave, Chelsea exclaimed, “Come in, everyone! Take a seat, we’ll be doing an info session about the situation at hand, with some scheduling and monster types among other things. Afterward... It's feast time! You know the tradition if you’ve been here.” 

Small murmurs breaking out between adventurers, the first-time attendees were the most excited as they all filed into the hall, sitting as they pleased. 

Striding her way to the podium, Chelsea took off her cape and revealed her moderately muscled figure much to the pleasant surprise of not only those who knew her, because she loved her cape, but also those who didn’t... because she was attractive.

As the hall quieted down, with everyone settled in their seats, Chelsea cleared her throat, her voice loud and clear throughout the hall, “Welcome everyone! We’re here to stop a monster wave as you all know, so I’ll keep the formalities and greetings to a minimum, we’re a group of adventurers after all, not a group of snotty nobles.” 

Her small joke drawing a few laughs from the audience, Dexter in particular doubling over from his laughter while pointing at Jayce and Sasha, Chelsea continued, “So as you all know, the monster wave happens every year, with the cycles of nature birthing a large nature elemental. The excess and huge concentration of nature energy from this birth also causes the formation of several smaller nature elementals along with the luring of a number of normal monsters.” 

“However,” Chelsea’s tone grew solemn, drawing everyone below the platform into her speech, “This year we all know Nero is going to be in the monster wave, likely trying to corrupt the Nature elemental to do his own bidding. With that he could also poison the ambient nature energy in the vicinity causing some other longer-term consequences.”

Drumming her fingers against the podium, Chelsea elaborated, “The organization that follows Nero, a half-fanatical cult, half-hidden agency, the Black Wing has also been sighted, likely doing Nero’s bidding to help him achieve his goal.” 

“Now you might be wondering,” asked Chelsea, posing the rhetorical question out loud, “Why do we care about Nero and whatever bullshit he’s up to?” 

Pausing for a second to let the murmurs die down, Chelsea answered, “Well, first of all, he’s a total asshole who needs to die.” 

Laughs breaking out among the people gathered listening, Chelsea paused again, “And secondly, the ramifications of his actions would be great if he succeeded.”

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“For one, he’d be able to take the nature elemental, the main one, under his control. Thing’s hugeeeee, we do NOT want that happening let me tell you,' Chelsea began, counting on her fingers, “For another... actually, there are many anothers, but one would be that he could contaminate the surrounding areas as mentioned previously. With that the area would not just be disrupted, everyone would die and then it’d be a barren wasteland. Not exactly what we’re looking for, you know?” 

Hearing murmurs of agreement and enlightenment, Chelsea continued, her fingers still counting, “So... the next thing. You all know why the organization that follows Nero is called the Black Wing, right?” 

Her eyes scanning the crowd and finding a fair number who had confusion radiating off of them, Chelsea explained, “Well, as he was the right-hand-man of the Demon King, the party I was previously a part of fought him. Obviously we won... wouldn’t be here otherwise, but we didn’t manage to kill him, we managed to slice off a wing before he escaped by taking a long plunge into a ravine that then got buried by a rockslide.” 

Several people letting out sounds of disbelief hearing how Nero was still alive, Chelsea chuckled, “We were just as surprised as you were... Anyhow, that’s why the organization is called the Black Wing, they are his missing wing, there to serve him and allow him mobility, influence, and power.” 

“Anyhow, I’ve digressed a little,” Chelsea confessed, pushing her hair back out of her face, “The problem with this is that if he takes over the elemental, he could also absorb it completely, regrowing his wing along with experiencing a surge in power. It wouldn’t be like a new Demon King, but it’d still be a huge problem... more than huge I’d say.”

A heavy silence descending on the group, Fergus who had had a shaken look since his beating asked with a light of determination and change shining in his eye, “So we need to solve this while also beating and protecting the city and country from the monster wave?”  

“Yep.” Chelsea’s voice rang out, hitting the hearts of each adventurer like a hammer to a bell, “We’re in for a real shit-show friends!” 

Sighing while feeling the emptiness of fighting for a larger intangible goal once more, Kaitlyn psyched herself up, pushing herself to maintain focus during these upcoming fights, ‘You’re the strongest here unless Chelsea has improved, but because Jayce is obviously not in the shape he used to be in, you gotta be focused, Kaitlyn...’

Getting nudged out of her thoughts by a worried Rachel, Kaitlyn gave her a light nod to reassure her before looking back towards Chelsea who was finishing up her speech. 

A smile blossoming on Chelsea’s face as she finished up the last parts of her speech, Chelsea clapped exclaiming, “And now! The FEAST!”