Re:Monster - Re:Vival

Day Fifteen

A fair few hours had passed between the humans stupidly trying to take me out and now which seemed to have been enough time for Lia to at least start to calm down. Her legs were still shaking and she certainly didn't seem as calm around me or my subordinates as before, however it seemed that when she saw me re-equipping the gear I lent out to my decoy, she had questions she couldn't help but ask.

"Did you um... did you know they were going to do that?"

Her voice was timid and quiet but my skills let me hear her without issue. I took a moment to think about her question. Did I know they were going to betray me? I had very little doubt. Did I know they were going to do it at that moment? No. That's why I had the decoy. I decided to nod in affirmation to her question, prompting her expression to darken slightly.

"Then... why did you come with us?"

The plain answer to that question would be; I wanted to use them as bait against the final boss. Something I'm sure they were intending as well. Besides that, I was hoping to learn a little bit about the outside world while we walked. That turned out to be pointless though especially after the new guy joined. They never really spoke about the outside after he joined.

I struggled to come up with a way to respond to her since I couldn't talk and I didn't want to look like an idiot playing charades. I decided to take a chance and simply pointed to her instead and let her make her own assumptions which she did wonderfully.

"You kept them around... because of me?"

Her voice was full of shock and a little confusion, however I could also hear a little bit of hope in her words. She must have gotten so used to being 'The Useless Porter' that hearing such a thing, even from an undead like myself, managed to raise her spirits quite noticeably.

"Did you really want- need... me?"

At this point, tears were starting to form in her eyes, along with something else; something unnerving. A part of me wondered whether I'd stepped on something akin to a landmine in that moment, however, my need for a Porter and more importantly, a Guide, kept me from doing anything other than nodding.

What she did next was a little shocking. She hugged me. Her arms wrapped around me, gripping me much tighter than I could have expected, to the point I could swear I heard my bones creak. Before I could do anything, she'd started full-on bawling her eyes out. I could feel the hollow eyes of my subordinates watching in confusion at the scene.

This continued for around half an hour before she finally started to calm down. I was a little grossed out by the mucus and wet patches on my cloak but it wasn't like I could feel it. Regardless, I decided to swap out my cloak with the dark green one worn by the Ranger. Although this left me looking a little like a Christmas tree, it wasn't like fashion was the first or even last thing on my mind.

The rest of their gear was split between my forces but the Swordsman's blade went to my hip, leaving my old sword to go to one of the swordsman skeletons. I was struggling to decide who would receive the Crusader's armour when I remembered exactly what it was I was about to do. Fighting the final boss. What kind of fool would I have been if I hadn't prepared more thoroughly. 

I summoned another twenty skeletons, which naturally took a while, but you can't be too prepared. There were 6 Swordsmen, 3 Spearmen, 6 Archers, 2 Mages and 3 Shamans. I took apart one of the mages to create two staffs made with its bones. After that, I took the other mage's arms and attached them to one of the Swordsmen. After handing it the staffs, I was left with a swordsman wielding two swords in its main hands and two staffs in the rear hands. I called it a Magic Swordsman and began work on the next piece of art.