A few more slimes appeared, but we washed them away like suds down the drain. Nothing was going to stop us from catching up to the girl we were chasing after. And according to my map, we weren’t far from her now.

  “Just around this corner!” I pointed.

  My map was telling me that she was stopped in front of a wall, cornered by action-star-like icons, meaning she was surrounded by a group of monsters.

  Indena and I hustled to reach her, finding a few lizzarats snarling her way.

  She held a pistol out in defense, pulling the trigger, but getting no explosive response from the gun.

  “Blast it!” she cursed her luck. “Out of ammo!”

  One of the lizzarats jumped at her to bite!

  *PING!*

  But she smacked it away with an ornate scepter instead, denying it's opportune attack.

  The lizzarat bounced backwards to its allies, but wasn’t out of the fight yet. Anger spilled over it's pack as they rolled on in for more action.

  Indena and I jumped in and intercepted the monsters, giving this Elma girl some much needed backup.

  I skewered the monsters with my spear, Indena knocked them out with heavy punches. Each one dead faded away into a haze of mana. Before we knew it, the whole area was clear of the admittedly weak threat, saving Elma from the clutches of these little guys.

  “That’s the last of 'em,” I said.

  “Always fun beating up monsters.”

  Indena and I high-fived.

  Elma had her back against the wall, holding her scepter closely, untrusting of our sudden rescue.

  Wait a minute… Her virtual name tag didn’t say Elma. It said “Amanda.” There was only one person I’d met recently with that name.

  She held the scepter even closer in a defensive position, ready to swing at one of us if she needed to.

  Both Indena and I stopped moving toward her to show we held no ill will. But to be honest, she had to have recognized who we were.

  “Why are you following me? Answer now!” she ordered us.

  We didn’t answer right away. Instead, Indena leaned in to whisper something to me.

  “How should we handle this?”

  “Do you recognize her? We talked to her the other day,” I asked Indena.

  “Yeah, I picked up on the face and staff thingy with the crystal heart,” she pointed to the scepter.

  Now that she mentioned it, that gem looked suspiciously like a crystal heart…

  Amanda stomped her foot in a fit of agitation. Clearly our secret conversation, that wasn’t actually supposed to be very secret, frustrated her.

  “What are you two talking about? Tell me at once!”

  “Easy there…” Indena replied, suppressing a laugh.

  There’s no way the queen didn’t recognize me. Nothing about me was disguised, and I knew for a fact she was a very intelligent person. I had to somehow convince her that I wasn’t the threat her anxiety was warning her of.

  “You’re majesty, it's me, Yalda. You know… The Eighth Star.”

  “Guh!” The queen gasped. A red face followed, showing her embarrassment.

  It wasn’t just her virtual nametag that gave her identity away. Her facial structure matched, and I’m sure if my ears hadn’t been blown out, I’d be able to pick up on her voice too. I had to admit, she was pretty good at disguising herself, but that wouldn’t fool someone with bio scanners.

  Queen Amanda was stunned for a few moments. Her weapon lowered and she started sobbing.

  “Blast it…” she uttered quietly. “How could I hope to challenge an angel’s eyesight?”

  The queen took a look around to make sure there weren’t any other eyes peeled on us. To help ease her tension, I did a full scan of the area, confirming that we were a trio of lonely souls.

  “I suppose there’s no fooling you now.” Amanda walked up to us, removing her glasses. “Yes. You’ve revealed my identity. Commiserations… You’re now part of my ploy.”

  Naturally, we had to ask why she was down here and why she followed that guy before. Someone as important as her shouldn’t be in such a dank and rowdy place.

  “Believe me when I say, ‘I hate doing this…’” she sighed, “but I have reason to believe that a threat to our country exists down here and there are few I can trust. That man was my only way into this part of the sewers.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “What kind of threat?” I asked.

  “One that could potentially spark war,” she held up a little device. A projection appeared out of a holographic emitter and displayed what looked like armour. Oddly, I recognized this armour. The hologram cycled through other items like weapons too.

  “What you’re looking at are schematics for equipment crafted out of holy steel. An incredibly strong form of iron that would give anyone the edge over a battlefield.”

  She certainly didn’t need to explain to me why that was important.

  “Yeah, the Shrimp’s made out of that stuff,” Indena gestured to me with her thumb.

  The queen’s eye twitched as she looked quizzically disgusted at Indena. “Did you just refer to the most hallowed angel of all as a shrimp?”

  For a sudden moment, I saw Indena’s face pop with shock, but quickly return back to its usual aggressive resting face.

  “Uh… yeah…?” she said, clearly realizing the offence, but not backing down.

  Indena and I were very close, and I’d hardly say either one of us were particularly formal enough not to use nicknames while out and about.

  The queen clearly got the right impression as she shook her head. “I’d heard that the two of you were rambunctious, but please keep this sort of tomfoolery out of any respectable environments. Otherwise, things will get complicated.”

  “I do what I want,” Indena folded her arms in protest. “I don’t have to listen to a queen if I don’t want to.”

  “Then you’ll face the consequences of your actions, potentially hurting her reputation as well… And many others by extension. You may even be executed for heresy…”

  Indena’s face turned worried as she looked at me. The queen was making a good point here, saying that Indena and I were connected enough that she could hurt my reputation.

  “Whatever,” Indena sighed, looking to the ground in defeat, then back at the queen. “But right now, I don’t see either of you as an angel and queen. Your both allies. That good?”

  “Call me Elma Lockheart here,” Amanda said. “It’s my adventuring name. I’m ordering you to keep that a secret.”

  “Whatever,” Indena nodded “Elma, where’d you get that info about the holy steel stuff?”

  She claimed to have found it while snooping in places she shouldn’t have been, particularly one of the locker rooms in the council chambers where uniforms and other items were stashed.

  “This thing was hidden away in the bag of an MP that just won his election in his constituency. His opposition mysteriously disappeared just before the end of the race, leaving him the de facto winner. And wouldn't you know it? He was part of the Poles Party.”

  That was super suspicious, and not exactly unexpected for evil politicians to probably arrange.

  “Actually, there’s been several political allies of mine that have disappeared over the last few years. Because of the nature of the tabloids, the information doesn’t go very far to the people.”

  “Why are the tabloids sucking up to the Poles?” Indena asked.

  “They say it’s because the Poles party represents the supposed strong will of the people,” Amanda said, “but the tabloids are run by aristocrats who are outspoken supporters of the Poles.”

  That was bad news. If the press was really covering up all the strange disappearances, then there was a serious scandal waiting to be unveiled.

  Seeing as she was hunting some sort of holy steel production plant, it obviously had to connect with the mafia. And if I were a betting girl, and daddy says I shouldn’t be, I’d say that there’s a demon lord pulling the strings here.

  “You’re searching for the mafia?” Amanda looked perplexed, folding her arms and pounding her head lightly with a fist. “No… Why would they be working with the Poles?”

  “Why wouldn’t they?” Indena said, matter-of-factly. “Seemed like they were pretty interested in making money.”

  I could only imagine that there was a lot of money to be made selling holy steel weapons and armour. If they were even shipping it off to enemy countries, Marek’s war theory definitely began sounding more plausible.

  Plus, adding a little more investment of my own, holy steel stuff could hurt me. I didn’t want my enemies using weapons like that. Those were a good enough reason to find where it was being produced and put a stop to it.

  So it seemed like the Poles party, the mafia and a demon lord were all connected to some shady business going on under the city. It made me wonder how Yamin’s book fit into all this. I knew demons would be coming after her, but why take the book and not Yamin?

  “Hold on…” Amanda gave me a very unpleasant frown, “her book was stolen? What a foolish plan it was to leave it at the Wellington estate and not the church…”

  “You’re dumbass signed off on it, so quit throwing a tantrum,” Indena said.

  She did have a point…

  “Uh…” Amanda shook her head. “Yes… I did say that, didn’t I? But why did I agree with it? That was a horrible plan.”

  Now I was more suspicious than ever. Even she didn’t like the plan, yet she was the most enthusiastic about leaving the book at the mansion with Yamin.

  “I certainly wouldn’t have been in favour of such an idea if asked in my right mind. And refer to me as a ‘dumbass’ again and you’ll be beheaded. Remember, I pardoned you before, and I have all the power to reverse that if need be.”

  Indena needed to learn to keep her vulgar mouth shut, but an execution order would only work if I didn’t protest it. I had a feeling my say was more final than the queen’s. If I'd thought about that before, I probably could have kept us from dealing with losing the book.

  Darn it… I really have to remember how important my word is here on the surface.

  “Guys, we need to focus on the mission,” I said, rallying us back on track. “If we want to find the book and the place making the holy steel, we need to get going now.”

  The longer we waited, the more chances our enemies had to figure out we were here. We had some element of surprise, so I preferred to use it.

  “Hey, why are you alone here?” I asked Amanda, unable to ignore the sudden question on my mind as we got moving.

  “I wasn’t alone. I was separated from my escort, and took an opportunity to get past the door on my own.”

  “Okay... But why are you here? A queen…in the sewers,” Indena backed up my question.

  “Would you like to be stuffed inside a palace all day expecting everyone to do everything for you? It get’s so tiresome. This is the most excitement I’ve had in years since my… Well, since my parents passed away.”

  We tried to ask her to go into that a bit more, but she didn’t seem too happy to talk about her past right now.

  “One more question…” Indena spoke up. “What was that guy you knocked out after?”

  “That masher? He wanted me to join some silly pop idol group,” Amanda said. “It seemed like a front for shady activity, so I forcefully declined. He was so uncouth anyway. I had to oft remind myself not to slap him for speaking so deplorably in my presence.”

  That was what the guy wanted? What a strange thing to try and recruit for, but I guess a party like this might be good for that…

  Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, please support me, Taylor The Writer, here on Royal Road! :)