Villainess and Grimoire - Chapter 93 – General Aurora Arc

Year 5009 after the system day 3 of the sun season in the southern outpost.

“How long do you intend to keep staring at me lady Alicia?”

“I don’t know, lady Aurora, but you’re the closest person I have of my age around here, plus you’re the sister of my best friend, it is my mission to get to know you better.”

“Seems like Aurora finally made a friend close to her age,” Romeo commented at Sophie in a cute teasing way.

“To think we’d live to see our daughter get this far in life,” Sophie fakes some tears joining in making Alicia laugh and Aurora frown.

“How is it that I have to permanently be working and you three get to be so carefree!?” Aurora shouted angrily at them.

“Oh noes the general is mad we must run!” Romeo laughed as he said that running away along with Sophie.

“You fools just wait till I catch the two of you!” The soldiers around who glanced at this scenario as they were in the middle of the outpost where there’s always a lot of them walking around, laughed inwardly to not be beaten by the little blondie.

“And… you’re still here staring at me…”

“Yes, that’s right my mission isn’t over yet,” Alicia said with a convicted expression.

Aurora sighs,” so what is it that you want to know?”

She smiles innocently and then asks, “how did iris know about writing my name in mana in the sword would allow me to become a hero?”

“I don’t know the how myself, but I suppose it was a certain skill that she has, that allows her to get information of things in exchange for big quantities of mana.”

“Interesting, that man from earlier has one of these weapons, but his looks less stylish than mine, the loud Harmin person who was here before, he calls himself a hero, however, I didn’t feel such an aura, the one that I feel from Sophie for example, in other words, he’s very strong while using a dormant weapon.”

“So you came for advice either to tell him or not I guess? Even though the weapon could’ve been produced by the goddess Aria, but it doesn’t mean that he’d also become a hero, if anything it would make more sense if different weapons would grant different powers or classes.”

“Actually you’re right… I guess contracting with such weapons would give the user some sort of special power, perhaps we could steal it and give the hammer to Iris.”

“As a repay for awakening you into a hero?” Aurora questions while staring at her for the first time since they started talking.

“Well that’s extra, it’s just I don’t want her to stay behind when I become so powerful as a sword hero, you know?”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, after all, she’s already contracted with the strongest weapon this world has to offer,” Aurora grins looking eerie giving the shivers to Alicia who pulls her cheeks to the sides forcing her to smile,” Don’t make my beloved Iris face look like that!”

Upon hearing those words Aurora starts genuinely laughing bringing confusion to Alicia who has never seen her like this.

“Ah, man you sure do resemble Iris sometimes, imagine if the two of you spent more time together, you’d even become twins!”

“We’d become a trio!” Alicia smiles kindly at the idea.

“I don’t see why not.”

“Now I just need to dye my hair blonde,” Alicia starts laughing, as if she did her parents would likely murder her.

“As for Harmin if you feel like telling him to do it, if not I suppose that’s how it is, I’ll leave that fate in your hands as I already have 700 thousand heads to take care of.”

“Alright, by the way, Aurora you said Iris possessed the strongest weapon is it one made by the goddess Aria as well? I know some from the hero memories, but even her doesn’t know all of them.”

“Well let’s just say that it’s a cursed weapon that doesn’t belong to any god, nor was it created by any of them.”

“If that’s true then it’s impossible it would be as strong as my sword, after all, it is unique graded, I’ve never seen a greater sword!”

“I suppose you’re right, in what comes to swords your weapon is without a doubt the best, but good weapons without good masters are useless, and you’re still quite weak to be using something like that, however, Iris is different, she deserves the one she received, it is part of her and despite being cursed it lives solely to bring her what she desires, how could a weapon like that not be the best?”

“That sounds like a very confusing and complex weapon, my father says they are tools that must be used properly, but you’re making it sound like it’s alive.”

“Exactly, in this world, chaos is the thing that brings the most confusion and complexity, a matter that no one has been able to solve so far.”

“In that regard, not even the hero, she tried really hard to carry the kingdom and its people on her shoulders, but sadly she was limited by her human race life span…”

“Yes… humans are truly fragile, they break and die so easily.”

“I’m surprised on how someone like you exists, so young and with wisdom that even I have difficulties to follow having the hero memories, Iris I can tell she’s still childish like I am to some extent, a bit less nowadays since the power I was given is slowly taking shape, but you’re totally different and yet you’re the same age as her.”

To that, Aurora smiles silently focusing once again on the papers in front of her, while Alicia places both arms on the table resting on them as she stares at the mysterious girl in front of her.

“You have too many secrets lady Aurora.”

“Isn’t it normal for a lady to have many of them? Men do like mysterious women the most after all,” Alicia blushes as she remembers certain memories of the hero that she did her best to forget… in vain as they did not disappear.

“You’re a meanie… I miss Iris, I met her at the annual tournament, and then at the end of it, I even got to see what her master looked like, apparently, he also trained my mother, but she says they’re strong enough to train me therefore not introducing me to him before.”

“Well, Iris seemed pretty happy learning from Ray, despite being an old man he’s apparently pretty strong.”

“He did soul shaped his sword, I’ve seen something similar when the hero reached the pinnacle of her strength, but since humans have no way of earning soul other than titles she didn’t get to do much with it.”

Aurora once again stopped what she was doing, this time around due to curiosity and so to satisfy it she asked, “so you’re saying that depending on the soul size the soul coat can do more things?”

“I’ll reply when you tell me what the weapon Iris has is, a secret for a secret.”

An aura of darkness surrounded both of them and then Aurora whispered,” she uses a weapon called a grimoire, a magical book basically.”

Alicia smiled happily and then she said,” soul coat can cut the opponent soul, the hero tried it on a goblin, and it died without feeling damaged physically, if a soul is severed enough then that’s the end of it, and unlike mana coat, it can take shape, in other words, it can bend or stretch, but if it stretches and someone cuts it your soul will be damaged.”

“I’d assume so… but it’s not that bad, after all, that only applies if the enemies can also use it.”

“Yes, aside from the old hero and Ray, I’ve never seen anyone else using it, and seeing as monsters are less intelligent there’s a chance they don’t know about it either though I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew mana and elemental coat after all this time.”

“What was a war like back then? On that hero era.”

“There was no coordination, everyman for themselves and the side that would survive would win, but luckily there were a lot of different races back then who would fight among each other, though from what you’ve told me, it seems the goblins have the majority of the southern territory presently.”

“I’m estimating 4 out of 6 kingdoms belong to the goblin race, being the other two one of kobolds and the other made up with orcs.”

“I see so things did change with time, a lot of time passed truly.”

“What other creatures existed in the South before?”

“Supposedly it was a place with barely any monster only beasts, there used to be a tusk boar tribe, who would rush and stomp their enemies, but then the goblins met the humans and learned how to make weapons, so they must have perished then.”

“That’s interesting what other tribes were there as it sounds like kingdoms weren’t yet a thing.”

“In what comes to monsters they rank up so they become a certain type of monster being a Lord the strongest, and the king the one they follow, so even though kingdoms weren’t a thing, they still followed through those creatures who called themselves kings, but thanks to that, they would constantly fight the other ones to be the king of kings.”

“From all that races were slowly perishing or perhaps escaped leaving only the current six kings of the South… we need to destroy the one ahead of us before he decides to join with the rest, I’m sure we’d be incredibly outnumbered, even if the 10 million humans picked a weapon, I doubt we’d be more than four kingdoms of goblins, they seem to reproduce a lot faster than us, so we’re always at a disadvantage.”

“How would we even beat the goblin king if he can escape back to one of those three kingdoms?”

“I have some plans in mind while others are being produced, I’m just unsure either they’ll work, but if they do, we’ll be able to temporarily occupy the middle of the South that would directly connect to this outpost, so our supply chain would simply extend easily, but by doing so there’s a chance the orcs and the kobolds join forces with the 3 leftover goblin kingdoms to retake the territory for themselves, so once we annihilate the first kingdom we set traps and fall back which will cause the goblins to face the kobolds and the orcs who will do their best to expand to that section.”

“But if that works wouldn’t we lose what we fought so hard to get?”

“Yes, if that’s what we want, but in reality, the objective is to destroy the goblins, the other two races have a way slower reproduction rate, and we can manage them both with the army we have now, especially after making them exhaust their against each other’s.”

“That’s… insane.”

“Hum…? Would the past hero do it differently?”

“Ah no, she could only expand so much, but the way she did things was a lot safer than yours, that’s why I said it was insane, the plan I mean.”

“Well, this is just the beginning, after all, once we conquer the South which is composed of solely beast races, I doubt that one would stay quiet and watch.”

“That one? Who are you talking about?”

“The goddess.”

“Why would the goddess Aria do anything about it? Doesn’t she want us to win?”

“Yes, yes… I mean Luna, the goddess of order, the owner of the beast race.”

“What could she do? Summon goblin heroes?”

“Well… She is a goddess, I wouldn’t doubt if every god could do it, wouldn’t be weird at all,” upon hearing those words Alicia gulped as they were strong enough already if they had to face a hero classed goblin…