D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2100 Settling Back Down

Chapter 2100: Chapter 2100 Settling Back Down

— Lily —

The cleanup wasn’t too bad. The market square was somewhat trashed, with a lot of fresh produce on the floor and even more angry civilians. The guard showed up quickly to calm things down but it was clear that people weren’t happy. Even if this wasn’t really Lily or Hedera’s fault the crowd didn’t seem to agree. Technically, they threw the first shot. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t true nor that the people they managed to catch were assassins…

All the crowd saw was two people, or rather, one person and a cat they didn’t recognise set off a riot. The guards did ensure that nothing escalated to violence but the heavy glares levelled at Hedera weren’t fun. Lily would know, she was back to resting on the elf’s shoulder once the suspects were bound. Lily tried her best to glare back, but her small size and lack of intimidation ability meant that nobody took her glares seriously. It didn’t seem to mater that she’d been a big part of the fight. She was tiny and cute, and that made it hard to be scared of her.

Hedera weathered the glares well, Lily couldn’t tell if they were bothering her at all but she still felt bad that whatever percentage of the blame she deserved, nobody was actually giving it to her. Kat mentally rolled her eyes over the link to show what she thought of that, and nearly left her spot guarding the alchemists to come and speak her mind… but in the end Lily convinced her it was best to stay defending.

Steel swung by when the assassins were carted away, and assured that he’d have some info for them later. With everything settled, Hedera and Lily wandered back to the alchemists to see how things had been going with them. “Ah, welcome back. Did you catch the one responsible for shooting at us?” asked Fred.

“We did,” assured Hedera. “The guards took them away and Steel gave a guarantee that he’d have information for us soon.” Kat walked over as Hedera was saying this to pick Lily up off her shoulder and hug. Lily rolled her eyes at Kat’s actions but didn’t deny her, enjoying the extra affection.

*If this is the sort of treatment I get after a fight I should probably get into more of them.*

[Don’t be silly Lily. I’m worried about you because we have no idea how permanent those light bombs are and that was the first time you really got hurt. Even if it wasn’t physically. Or does it count as physically in this case? The point is that it was the first real encounter you’ve had with pain in that new body and normally you’d be freaking out a lot more so I’m worried about that part a bit as well.]

*Huh… that… is a bit odd. Perhaps because I was leaning on my instincts and it’s acceptable to get hurt during a hunt? I mean… it WAS painful at the time and I don’t like the idea of doing it again. I’m not about to go fighting light magic with shadow magic any time soon if I can help it… but well…

Honestly after everything that fight didn’t feel like much of a problem. Nobody was close to dying, or at least it didn’t seem that way. I guess there’s the frostbite to worry about but that wasn’t MY attack and even if it was… magical ice just FEELS different you know?

I’m not sure if frostbite is less of a concern, if it’s something more easily healed by magic, or if the fact that everyone has a bit of magic in them means that frostbite isn’t as much of a concern but it just doesn’t feel like a crippling attack. There really wasn’t much blood either. I wonder if it’s because I’ve read too many books? Like, ice is rarely a deadly element unless you’re stabbing someone with it and plenty of comic books with ice powers encase people all the time without them dying.*

[That’s an interesting point… but are you sure you’re fine? Hedera seems fairly quiet as well. Not rambling like normal.]

*I guess she’s used to these battles? Nothing to worry about on her end? And yeah… I think I’m also fine? I was more annoyed then anything when all the people from the crowd came back and started complaining. I made sure no attacks went towards them and we didn’t really have a choice if we wanted to catch the assassins… but I’ll admit the market is a mess now…

And I guess if you were relying on it for food it’s a major issue. Hmmm… I don’t know how bad to feel. They weren’t paying for the food, but this was for relief effort stuff, but food is mostly free in the city so it was more that they were moving the food here… but they just lost a bunch of farmland so maybe the fact the food was destroyed is a big deal? I’m very confused.*

[Yeah I’m not sure if it’s a big deal or not either…]

Once the pair got lost pondering about how worried they should be for food, Appoline noticed and decided to intervene. She clicked her fingers a few time to bring them back to the present. “Hey, you two, I’d like my helper back. Not having to move everything personally is quite nice and Kat, you might want to work on cleaning things up sooner rather than later. The table is nearly full on potions and I know your storage is already fairly full as well,”

Kat glanced at the table in question and winced. “Right I should get on that… though not sure how helpful Lily will be as an assistant. A light magic grenade damage her shadow magic and we’ve not really encountered that sort of thing before, so no idea how long it will take to recover.”

“Should be fine,” said Appoline with a dismissive wave. “I don’t know the specifics but I’ve had it explained to me before. What’s happened, is that essentially, light magic has infected Lily’s shadows. It means the big store of mana she had merged with her shadow isn’t all shadow magic attuned anymore.

“From my understanding, over the course of time it’ll start to slowly convert back to shadow magic because, well, it’s part of her shadow still. Even if the light magic is strong it can’t suddenly make a shadow not a shadow. Just weaken it for a while. I’m not sure if using it will help, but I know it won’t hurt and the real issue is that the shadows aren’t as strong.

“Handling ingredients should be no trouble, they aren’t that heavy… but if another attack comes for us a shield of shadows would likely shatter under the simplest attacks from even a weak individual. Like, a kid could throw a rock and break it. Luckily, Lily has paper as well for that sort of thing. As long as she remembers that we’ll be fine,”

“Huh, I’m surprised you know something like that about shadow magic,” Kat commented.

Appoline shrugged, “Working with thieves lets you meet shadow mages. They aren’t super common but they do tend towards the less legal work simply because there are a lot of good ways to use their magic for those sorts of jobs. In this case, I know something about the issue because a shadow mage came to me for help fixing their shadow after a light mage attacked them.

“They were a family member, so I said ’sure’ even if I had know idea what I was doing. Took a lot of studying on my part… and then the week it took me to learn what might help, I went to see them with my notes and they’d already recovered. I wasn’t exactly pleased they failed to mention their recover and stormed out, so I don’t know if they’d only just recovered on that seventh day, or if they’d been better for most of the week,”

“Oh… that’s nice to know… but would you know a potion that can help?” asked Kat.

Appoline made a ’so-so’ gesture while giving the cauldron a big stir. “Yes but also no. The ingredients weren’t cheap. Remember this guy was family so I was going to tap into the reserves. We get good deals on rarer plants, especially for things like personal injuries. I never needed to make a cheap version, and even then I didn’t get to test it because they recovered.

“I don’t have time to experiment, don’t have the money to pay for it, and honestly Lily is quite strong compared to that cousin. I’d guess that even if I dropped what I’m doing, and I doubt Steel would allow it, but if I did? Lily would be recovered before a proper potion could be made.”

“Ah,” sighed Kat. “Right, I suppose that’s fair enough.” Kat kissed the top of Lily’s head. “Well, she can help out if she wants. You’re right I should get back to the cleanup, I’ll head out. Lily stay safe, Hedera you too. Alchemists, don’t invite any more assassins,”