Chapter 232 - 232 Don’t waste time, please! part 6

232 Don’t waste time, please! part After receiving Ryu’s message Helena darted towards the chapel, leaving Mochi sleeping in her bed.

Ryu’s letter was short because he had but a single piece of paper on him, but it was enough to warn her of the danger ahead.

‘The beasts aren’t being aggressive, they’re running away. Look up for the lights in the sky.”

Those words brought her one step closer towards despair. She knew people in Bet-el held no love for her and her credibility was low, she also couldn’t explain how did she know about what was going on without mentioning Ryu, but she had to try anyway.

“Father Stefan!”

She yelled as soon as she entered without caring for who might be in there. Her words resonated across the huge hall, causing many of the wooden benches to creak as the people gathered for the mass turned to see her.

Helena had completely forgotten the decorum her position as an arch priestess apprentice demanded and a glimpse of her past self erupted in her beet red face.

“This better be important, child.”

Stefan said in a stern voice. He was already sick and tired of Helena’s disregard for tradition and religious studies, but part of his new mission was to keep Helena under the control of the sacred empire.

.....

“We are in big trouble, the mana season is coming early this year!”

Several gasps could be heard and everyone around her started muttering in low voices, yet she was able to catch some of what they were saying. The least offensive sayings were on the lines of “It happened, it finally happened, the new arch priestess finally snapped!”, “She’s deranged, she needs a big scolding.”, some even went as far as calling her a lunatic bitch.

Yet Helena wouldn’t let any of that impede her from saving these people. She knew Ryu, it was impossible for someone like him to play around with something like that. Besides, it made sense, back on her world it was common for animals to run away before natural disasters.

“Don’t be foolish child, it’s completely impossible. It’s not the time yet, the gods in their infinite wisdom only allow the mana season to happen once a year.”

Despite father Stephan reassuring words, people still got worried. While Bet-el was considered a paradise to restock supplies for travelers and adventurers alike, it was also victim of one of the worst mana season effects in the whole sacred empire.

Once every year, people from Bet-el had to go underground to seek cover from heavy lightning storms that lasted for two weeks straight. Anything and everything above ground would be struck by lightning, but at least it wasn’t immediate.

The first signs of the mana season had always been heavy rain followed by a couple days of thunderstorms without any lightning.

They had no reason to believe anything she had to say, but if it was true, they weren’t prepared in the slightest. Before seeking shelter underground, they had to make preparations on their homes and shops, they also needed to gather enough supplies to last them the whole lockdown.

“Please, Stefan, listen to me, I’m an arch priestess and...”

Stefan, the paladin who was still more worried about the donations he would get after the mass rather than people’s safety, was outraged by Helena’s behavior.

“By the time being you’re still an apprentice, you’re not even a full fledged third class yet and you defy me in front of my congregation. If you want to lock yourself up underground be my guest, but the faithful people of Bet-el will pay no mind to your delusions.”

Helena was in utter despair as not even her rank was enough to convince people to evacuate, she felt completely helpless, but she wasn’t the only one suffering.

After securing the message on Mochi’s tail and asking him to go find Helena, Ryu found himself in a troublesome situation. They needed to evacuate and go as far south as possible before the weather became unbearable, but they also needed to wait for Helena’s response.

Ryu hoped that if the situation became dangerous, Helena would go back and join them, but he had new responsibilities to uphold and couldn’t afford to wait for her idly.

He had to help Bardun return to the goblin village safely, take the beastkin girl back to her home wherever that might be and help Risa get her hands back. If what Helena said was true, it’s possible for them to find a second or third class priest that would be able to regrow her hands provided they had enough money to pay for it.

But what worried him the most was that both Sera and Anne were in the goblin village and didn’t know anything about the current situation.

After much deliberation, Ryu came to the conclusion that just as he asked Mochi to seek for Helena and stay with her until he makes sure she’s safe, he would do the same for Bob and Luke.

Much to Mia’s dismay, Ryu asked her to stay by Luke’s side and he asked Bob to take care of the wurm for him. There wasn’t much that the wurm could do yet, but for whatever reason he seemed to feel comfortable rolling up on Bob’s arms so he figured it could be a smart move to get them together. Besides, even though Heimar told him it would become a dragon, the only one who actually believed that was Bob, especially after he saw the wurm eat a mithril coin.

Luke couldn’t believe his Luck when Ryu told him that he entrusted Mia to him, more than once he had ogled her with lecherous eyes and everyone knew his defiled character, so he didn’t understand the reasoning behind this.

“This is like letting Mochi taking watch of the food supply!”

Bob joked making everyone but Luke burst in laughter.

“Don’t let them get killed Mia, if they’re in danger you know what to do.”

Ryu said after composing himself. Mia, who had been mostly useless in battle for a long time and only recently had started practicing her skills, was eager to prove her worth to her master and nodded with a determined look on her face.

Meanwhile, in the inhospitable region in the far south, in a town called ironwoods for their proximity to both the mines and the forest, a petite woman gazed up on the sky through the glass on her window, stopping her hand abruptly just when she was about to pour a cyan liquid into a vial with an orange liquid.

A curious smile on her face quickly shifted into one of horror, as the lights in the sky rushed violently through the sky so suddenly she lost the grip on both vials which shattered loudly after falling to the floor.