Versatile: Alternate World

Because the plan that Renatta gave us is pretty vague and she only gave the name of the operation, it's hard to decide whether her plan is feasible or if we will not be able to rely on it. But since she kept on insisting that we would know later, we didn't bother to insist. If the plan really works, then it will work.

Until then, we will have to wait and see what it was.

For now, everyone is resting in their own rooms, as for me, I am wiping the blade of the Versatile Weapon. Despite not needing to be cleaned up, I tend to find myself tending to it like I usually do and inspecting its little changes. After leaving the weapon for quite some time, I noticed the difference has changed the sword a bit too much now.

It hasn't eaten any decent sword that it can use as a decent weapon skin for quite some time which is why it remained on its normal sword skin for quite some time even until now. But after its feast earlier, the changes appeared and I am not sure if this was due to the artifacts it has eaten. Does the shadow dragon devour something that would allow it to change its form this way? Perhaps, but since I didn't even check it, perhaps it did.

The changes have yet to be finished its change as it is still digesting stuff and I still get the error message every time I access its little UI but I will just wait for it for now. While I continued to maintain and wipe the Versatile Weapon for quite some time already, Renatta appeared while wearing a coat that covered the mouth and face with a hoodie to also cover the head.

"Manato, it's already nighttime. Here, wear this," Renatta then throws the same coat that she was wearing.

"Eh? Where are we going?" I frowned.

"Have you forgotten already? Guess the matter slipped on your mind completely. But you should remember that we are planning on helping the little kids alright?"

That's when I understood what Renatta said. It is about the kids that we saw earlier. I thought we wouldn't do anything about it so I just left it without even remembering what it was until Renatta decided to let me remember it. Seeing my reaction after hearing her words, she understood already that I remembered it and nodded.

"Good. Wear it, we will go and see if we can do things our way in the cover of the night. Since elves tend to sleep much earlier than humans, there will be fewer elves walking around the streets. Besides, the streets get cold at night, making it annoying to walk at night. Oh, and remove your mask for now. If you have other masks to wear, wear those instead. The masks you have worn earlier are already imprinted in the minds of the elves that saw us earlier. It's best that they don't see the association between yourself and ourselves tonight."

"Are we the only one to go tonight?" I asked.

"The fewer people we have, the better. Only three of us will go right now."

"Three?" I frowned.

Then Pixie pops out of her from inside the hoodie of Renatta. "Sup! That includes me!"

"Pixie?" I frowned.

"We needed Pixie's healing abilities to heal up the unfortunate ones. I saw earlier that they have big bruises on their bodies and their wounds are quite severe. There is a chance that we can't let them drink potion either since they might have raptured throats as well. Therefore, we will need Pixie to heal them up with her spell and the leftover wounds that cannot be healed with normal healing magic will be healed using the potions."

"I see. But wait, raptured throat? Isn't that pretty bad? It's fatal if we don't even do something!" I frowned.

"Yes, I know it was fatal but that is a common tactic on the elves. That kind of wound will be hard to heal properly and they do this to ensure that these kids will either lose their voice completely or they will be unable to say anything conclusive for quite a while. Now, come on. We don't have much time to waste idling around."

I remove my mask and wear the coat. It didn't feel bad to use but it wasn't that amazing to use either. It felt like it was used only for sneaking purposes but for clothing purposes, this drip is not even necessary.

"Alright. Let's get moving."

Renatta nodded and we left the mansion without informing everyone. The less who knows, the less commotion it brings in.

While walking into the cold streets, Renatta started speaking to me.

"Manato. I think we have some traitors at my mansion. I assumed spirits wouldn't be easily branded as one due to how their loyalty remains on their contractors. But I think I underestimated the craftiness of some elves."

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

"I suspect some of my spirits are no longer loyal to me and are already ready to switch sides or have already switched some sides but are just keeping their facades that they are still loyal to me."

"Wait, wait, really? That was possible? I thought the spirits would remain loyal to you?"

"I underestimated it since I realized it earlier. Some of the spirits working on the mansion have less connection to me for some unknown reason. They still have it but they are not that good compared to before allowing me to immediately know their connection to me is weakening. And yet, they don't even mind that their connection is weakening from me."

"Is there any significance in their connection with you?" I asked.

"Yes. The stronger their connections to you, the more loyal they are to you. As for those who have a weaker connection, they are already having a hard time materializing by themselves and they should be only holding tight on the anchor which is me and I will have to fix the connection so that they don't get terminated in contract."

Pixie chimed in as well. "During this time around, Master. If a spirit like me has lost some of the connection to the master, we will try to find a way to replenish that or we try to cling on the last rope that holds us in. In short, our connection is very weak, it is possible for an outsider to interfere on this matter, and save the spirit from connection lost."

That's when I understood what she meant by a traitor. But is it really that enough to call a spirit a traitor?

"I am still trying to see whether someone else tried to hijack the connection and fix them by allowing them to connect with them. Until then, I will assume the traitors are still there. So don't trust any of them just yet. Aside from the Blacksmith spirit and the butler who maintained their connection to me stable, the rest have some shady connections so until then, they will be traitors in my eyes until proven that they are not."

As we continued our little discussion, we didn't realize that we were already at the location where the elves who were huddled together were located. Just like what Renatta said before, they remained in place, hugging each other and shivering, only their ragged clothes as their way of mitigating the coldness. It would have been manageable for me to see them a little bit healthy and have no wounds in their bodies but these guys have the biggest wounds I have ever seen.

"This is pretty brutal. Staying here in the cold will be the death of them..." I frowned.

"Yes. Now, help me. I will cover them with a piece of cloth to cover them and carry them."

We cover the two of them with it. It seems one of them is awake but due to the injuries that she has suffered, even opening her eyes is close to impossible due to the big bumps on her face that stop her from keeping her eyes open, forcing them to remain close for a bit.

"These injuries are horrible. We should hurry them back to my place to help them get cured of their injuries...wait...someone is approaching..."

I looked around and spotted an elf that looked like a supermodel walking towards our location. We immediately hid as quickly as possible in the nearby area while our surveillance remained enhanced as we continued to look at the elves roaming.

"Huh? Those kids here are missing..." The supermodel-looking elf frowned after he realized that the kids were gone from their usual place.

Then, one female who looks like a beautiful actress suddenly arrives as well.

"Where are the kids? I thought they were here and are waiting for their deaths?"

"I am quite sure they were here before. There is no way they would be able to move after the injuries they hold. If they are here, then they should be here."

"Sh*t. We were already tasked to execute them as they might become a thorn later in the current regiment but we have to look around and find them. Even if they managed to escape, they shouldn't be too far just yet. I doubt anyone would help them so they must have not gone far."

"Then, let's split." the guy suggested.

"Guess we have no other choice."

After that, the two disappeared. However, Renatta is now frowning at the current situation. 

"It seems we have involved ourselves into something bigger than we expected."