23: Eliza?
Eliza’s peaceful life had mostly returned.
Her 26th birthday had just passed, with Lily being the most excited for it. Not much had actually happened, compared to the telescope gift from last year, but she still enjoyed it.
Lily, who had gotten over her argument with Mary rather quickly, spent the day celebrating that she had learned her mother’s date of birth.
Eliza was surprised to learn that her date of birth was November 11th, or 11/11. She knew it was a holiday where she used to live… Not that she was ever given that day off of work.
Today was simple. Class was off, she had nothing to do, and the new years coming soon, she was thinking of what color dress to wear. Lily had already grown to the point where her previous dress no longer fit her, so she was planning on using this chance to buy a whole lot more than just a petalfold dress. She intended to completely buy a new wardrobe for Lily, let alone a dress.
But then, while shopping, Leora, the guild receptionist found her.
“Oh, Eliza… It’s good that I found you.”
Eliza was surprised at seeing Leora out of the guild. Almost every receptionist in the adventurer’s guild basically stayed there all the time, especially with the influx of adventurers into The Shelf recently.
“What’s wrong?” Eliza asked, interested.
“Grant… and Rin. They both said that you might be interested in something they needed to tell you. They said it’s not urgent, but you should probably hurry.”
Eliza, sensing something was weird about the situation, nodded.
She made her way to the guild, which was oddly as cheery as always. She thought back for a moment about how that bottle of wine she spent 15 silver flints on was empty by the time she got back to the guild, then realized she was distracted and ignored those thoughts.
When she made her way to Grant’s office, he seemed relieved to see her, as if a weight was lifted off of his chest.
“Good… It’s you… You’re still here.” Grant said, almost with a sigh of relief.
Eliza was confused at his words.
“What do you mean…?” She asked.
Grant sighed.
“Demons have apparently kidnapped a woman. Rin says that she looks exactly like you. Nearly identical face structure, same hair color, and golden eyes. We thought it was you, since Rin reported to me that your eyes tend to change color a lot.”
Grant waved away the supernatural element, but… Eliza felt like she couldn’t.
She felt chills.
A woman who looked exactly like her? That’s…
“That can’t be possible… The only other people besides me and my daughter that I’ve ever seen with my hair color are the elderly. And even then… most of them have grey hair, not pure white.”
Then, she paused.
Golden eyes?
“Is she…”
Eliza wondered for a moment if her original self may have had a sister? Her original self was supposed to have golden eyes after all.
‘How have I never heard of her…?’ she thought to herself.
“But… Demons? Kidnapping someone who looks like me?” she asked Grant.
Grant nodded.
“We’re… thinking this was a planned case of revenge for the drake incident.” he said calmly.
Eliza paused.
“That… doesn’t feel accurate. If they were wanting revenge, wouldn’t they have just struck me right when I had led the drake their way? They had the time… And with how they can teleport, it would have been easy. They could bring their weapons with them whenever they teleported… They could have just simply teleported to me and kidnapped me then, right?”
Grant looked at Eliza, a confused expression on his face.
“Unless they have an incredibly rigid social structure, where each interaction with other species would need to be approved beforehand… But if they were to have that, it’s unlikely that they would have attempted a kidnapping in the first place. Some sort of ruling body like that would have ruled out a kidnapping attempt right away, after all such an attempt would incite anger from another living species… No government would allow that.”
Eliza shook her head.
“Either way, it doesn’t matter. We need to rescue her. How did the information come out?”
Grant shook his head.
“They were parading her around, tied up. Eliza, this entire thing feels strange. It’s suspicious. You’re not going to be sent out there.”
“What?” Eliza asked. “Then who will?”
Grant sighed.
“No one. No one at all. If the demons are going to stop just with this one woman, then that’s fine. We save you in exchange for someone else.”
“But what if it doesn’t stop? What if there’s another? Then another after that?”
“Then we take action. We fight.”
“Really? So you let this one woman be sacrificed and only take action if more than one are in danger? Each citizen of the union is equal, Grant!”
Grant seemed to get angry at her words.
“Each citizen is equal! That’s why I can’t risk the lives of the citizens just to rescue one woman! If we go and attack them to rescue her, it’s putting the lives of the citizens in danger! If you want to do something, fine, I won’t stop you, but I’m not sending people out a mission that could put the lives of the people I’m meant to protect in danger!”
Eliza’s eyes flared red, her temper nearing its peak.
For whatever reason… whether it be that this woman was family, or perhaps she felt like she related to her helpless situation of being in the control of a force beyond yourself… Eliza felt like she should go do something.
But to hear Grant dismiss her out of hand, not even approaching the idea of rescuing her…
It pissed her off.
Sorin saved her once when she was in a shitty situation. If she didn’t return the favor for someone else who was in exactly the same situation as she once was…
What kind of person would she be?
Eliza left the room in a huff, only to find Rin waiting outside the room.
“I see it went poorly.” Rin said calmly.
Eliza nodded, and she slowly left the guild with Rin in tow. The two walked silently for some time, Eliza feeling like she needed to come up with some kind of solution to this problem.
After a few minutes, Eliza began speaking up, as if she wasn’t actually dissuaded at all.
“Alright, Rin. We need some way for you to get there, in front of the demons who can teleport straight to you if they see you, sneak in to find the woman in the encampment, sneak her out, and we get out of range from the demons.”
Rin was stunned.
“... This is a suicide mission.”
Eliza… nodded.
“I… know. It needs to be done anyways.”
Rin sighed. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to do it… Especially after realizing the demons can hide from her perception.
“Eliza, I… Look, El, I care for you and all, but… I’m not going to do this. I know you think she might be your sister, or something, but… I’m certain. If I tried this… I’d die. The demons… I didn’t tell you this, but…”
Rin sighed. She felt like she didn’t want to explain her encounter on their date, so she simplified things.
“If they wanted me dead, I’d be dead before I got a chance to react. They’re capable of moving stealthily enough to evade my senses… I can’t do it. It would be no different than sending myself out to die.”
Eliza thought about it for a moment.
“If you won’t… I will.” she said calmly.
Rin was stunned.
“You will? You’d go out there to find someone random that probably isn’t related to you at all... even though it might leave Lily without a mother?”
Eliza flinched at her words, but she didn’t back down.
“I need to do this, Rin. I don’t… I don’t want to leave someone else in the type of situation that Sorin rescued me from. What kind of person would I be if I neglected other people now that I was in a comfortable situation?”
“There’s a hell of a difference there, Eliza!” Rin shouted. “A fat greasy noble with barely any trained soldiers is nothing compared to an army of demons that can teleport on sight!”
Eliza still looked determined, as if this was something she needed to do.
Rin sighed again.
“Alright, fine. If you’re determined, even if you might die-”
“I won’t die.” Eliza responded, a flicker of a sharp purple color shining in her eyes. “No matter what.”
Rin, despite knowing that she shouldn’t… Somehow felt relief in Eliza’s words.
She looked at Eliza’s face, seeing how determined she was.
“Fine. I do have a bit of a plan… First, you’ll need some way to hide your scent, the sound you make when moving, and your appearance. I know techniques to mask your scent quite well. Even a wolf can’t track you down if I help you with that.”
The two quickly came up with a plan.
Eliza would be put through a quick lesson on moving silently by Rin, and would be using her own magic skills to hide her sound even more. Beyond that, she would be hiding her scent with a chemical they ‘requested’ from the poor alchemist, and would use a cloak to remain unseen.
Later that night, the day before the plan, Eliza was looking down at Lily.
She felt like she couldn’t succeed. But she also felt like she had to do it.
She truthfully didn’t know why she was acting so headstrong.
But to know more about her and Lily’s past…
It felt like there was some driving force demanding that she does this.
And moreover…
Somehow she was certain.
The demons would never hurt her.
Or rather…
The demons are unable to hurt her.
