D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2090 Little Fan

Chapter 2090: Chapter 2090 Little Fan

— Kat —

Everyone was glaring at Appoline as they approached one of the guard camps. Apparently everyone knew what she looked like now and they weren’t happy with her. It didn’t seem to matter that it had already been essentially proved she had nothing to do with this outside of maybe making the poison, but certainly not for this purpose. At least, that was Kat’s story and she was sticking too it.

Honestly, it was a touch annoying for them to be glaring so hatefully at the person coming in to fix the problem. The guards weren’t any better, clearly annoyed with her even if Kat knew for sure that they’d been told she was innocent. Steel wouldn’t have done this any other way. At the same time… Kat could admit that she’d be a bit cranky if her home was destroyed or she had to guard a bunch of poison so idiots didn’t kill themselves with it.

When the fruit started flying through, Kat was about to step in. Someone had the bright idea to throw an overripe tomato looking thing. It was orange, but it splattered against the ground too easily for it to actually be a proper citrus. The smell was also more tomato like then anything else. While the first one missed by a long way, it was apparently a signal to everyone else that it was fine to throw things.

Kat moved to block a few that were actually going to hit Appoline with her wings, and Steel slammed his foot into the ground, cracking the stonework slightly. “Enough!” boomed Steel. It didn’t stop the first, or the second wave of food and Kat found her wings momentarily covered with various gunk.

Appoline looked grateful for the effort, but considering it was all going to slide off her in the next few moments Kat didn’t feel all that heroic for taking the attacks. It wasn’t like they did any damage to her or hurt. It didn’t even ruin her outfit. While Kat was shrugging at this, Steel had continued speaking. “I do not know WHY you were informed that Appoline would be here, but if you were told such, you should also know she is innocent of this crime. The destruction of part of the city had nothing to do with her. While we are still investigating the exact culprit, or culprits, she was sealed away. Any further attempts to harass her, which yes includes throwing things, will be punished to the full extent of the law,”

The crowd quieted down at that declaration, clearly recognising Steel and how serious he was. For a few moments nobody seemed willing to push things… then a rock came flying in. Everyone stopped to watch it… except for Steel who jumped up to catch the attack and hurl it back towards the person who threw it. The rock slammed into the ground just beside the person in question, shattering on contact and sending chips everywhere. “Remember, I can ’return fire’ at people attacking me or the people I’m defending. Guards, get that idiots name. We can follow up later,”

With that said, they kept walking and nobody seemed game enough to try and throw something after that display. Kat carefully whispered to Steel. “Are you actually planning on following up with that guy?”

“If we can find the time. If someone tried throwing another bit of fruit I might’ve just hit them with it and moved on but that was a rock. Sure it wouldn’t have hurt Appoline, the guy who threw it was just a mortal without any extra power to them but if it had hit someone else? That could’ve been a real problem so I’ll be trying to make time. Though with everything else… well we’ve needed to prioritise a fair bit already,” explained Steel.

Any further questions Kat might have had got cut off as they entered the nearby tent. It was filled with now familiar alchemical equipment and a considerable amount of notes. Two people in lab coats were standing up looking at things while a third slept in a small cot in the corner. Of the two standing, one was a female dwarf and the other was a male human. Kat wasn’t sure what the person in the cot was. The blanket made it hard to tell and they’d used it to cover their whole body. Only the fact they also had a pillow pressed against the side of their head and it was regularly moving helped Kat realise they were alive.

The human was pretty generic looking. About average height, black hair, brown eyes and no remarkable features. No scarring or fancy jewellery. They looked like they’d got up, thrown on pants and a shirt, then the lab coat over the top and that was their entire morning routine. The coat itself was white but it seemed to be made from some kind of leather instead of cloth. Same with the dwarves.

She had a few more notable features. Even for a dwarf she was tiny, looking almost childlike if it wasn’t her mature looking face and notably sized assets for her stature. Additionally, she had a thick necklace chain that drew the eyes to those same assets to ensure you knew where to look. Her thick glasses complimented the look, but her small nose made it seem like they were always just one twitch away from falling off her face. Honestly, she looked more like a fantasy gnome then a dwarf but from Kat’s understanding they didn’t exist in this world. At least, not as their own race of people.

The dwarf bounded over upon seeing Appoline with a big smile on her face. “Ah! Welcome ma’am, my name is Tweedle and I’m one of the alchemists working on the poison here. We’ve collected quite a lot of data and tried synthesising some counters but nothing has been entirely acceptable. We’ve made notes on them all though, and you’re free to read whatever you like. It’s so great to meet you!”

“Bah,” grumbled the man in the back. “Enough fangirling over the person who got us into this mess,”

“Hey!” hissed Tweedle. “We were told quite clearly she was innocent! Just as I kept saying she’d be. Appoline wouldn’t do anything like this Fred!”

The now named Fred just rolled his eyes at the comment before saying, “Yeah I’m not getting into this with you again…”

“Of course you aren’t. You know you’d lose, especially with Appoline actually hear,” sneered Tweedle as Fred just shook his head at her. Tweedle turned back to Appoline, and smiled, “So any insight you can provide would be awesome. Oh, and the person sleeping in the corner or Dormhall, they were up watching things over night so don’t wake them. Oh, not that it will be easy. They’re mostly deaf so noise won’t be an issue.”

Appoline nodded and walked over to the closest set of papers and started to read them. While she was doing this she asked, “Since you seem like such a big fan… is there a reason I haven’t seen you at any of my potion classes? Not even the more advanced ones, as you’re clearly capable of at least passing the beginning ones.”

“Oh, um, well,” mumbled Tweedle. “You don’t exactly hold those in the most easily accessible places and my family have never had a connection to… the shady side of the city. I would’ve loved to but I’m not even sure if I know someone who knows someone that could get me into a class like that…”

Appoline didn’t turn from the papers when she replied with, “While most of my lectures are, or perhaps were, in an inconvenient spot for the more law abiding they aren’t always…”

“Oh, well there are a few reasons. The few that I know about? Because they aren’t exactly advertised you know? Anyway, the first time I missed the class because I only found out about it the day of and I already had work. The next time I tried to go I was sick. I still tried to go but my roommate ended up wrapping me in a blanket and dumping me back in bed.

“The third time I almost managed to make it there but I got hit by a cart full of food because I wasn’t paying attention to the road properly. Totally my fault but I was in the hospital for a few days afterwards healing. The fourth time I was tasked with watching a group of nieces and nephews… AFTER I’d already told them I was busy for the day but they just sort of dropped them on me… and I’d rather not talk about the fifth attempt…” Tweedle let out a long sigh.

“After all of that I sort of decided that the world didn’t want me to ever attend them. That or someone was trying to stop us meeting for some reason but I couldn’t really think of one. I think I’ve missed… two or three lectures since then? Once again, those I know about. I’m sure there are more I might have missed even hearing about,” explained Tweedle.

“Hmm… depending on how this goes here I might be interested in working with you. The notes I’m seeing here are quite well done,” mumbled Appoline as she flicked over a page.