The Adventures of Rose Hood

‘Fwahhh that is so warm.’

I couldn’t help but purr at the warm water. Sloth also seemed to be enjoying herself.

I stretched before considering everything that had happened.

‘Would it be possible for me to call a meeting?’

‘No, Wrath was the previous core, that’s why she can.’

‘I see, was that how everyone actually looked?’

‘That’s how the souls look at least. You’ve seen my past body, and you’ve seen my soul body.’

‘I guess, but maybe we were only summoned that way since we were in merger.’

‘That makes sense, but why would you think that?’

‘Because Benevolence was still holding money.’

‘I guess.’

‘Hmm, I wish I could share this bath.’

‘Thalia would probably like it.’

‘Royce too.’

Royce would definitely enjoy it, he could-

‘WOAH INNOCENCE, WHAT THE HECK!’

‘What?’

‘Chill out with the thoughts, that’s Lust’s job.’

‘???’

‘How are you so innocent, even to your own thoughts.’

‘What do you mean?’

I heard Sloth sigh,

‘Nevermind. Anyways, what should we do about Wrath.’

‘Wait for her to make her move and fight back.’

‘... Nice.’

I snickered. She was a funny person.

_

I returned to the guild and sat down. I first apologized to the people I ignored. Then I sat next to Zath and cast silence.

“What do you know about Wrath?”

“Charming lady, I would prefer her to be the core, but you will also work.”

“So, are you on my side?”

“As I told you last time, I am on the side that Mammon is.”

“And if he dies?”

“Whichever one will get revenge on those heavenly *******.”

“At this point, I don’t know why I would, but it manages to make even Sloth want to work, so I’ll assume it was bad and needs to be fixed.”

“Yes, it is, I would tell you, but Sloth would likely kill me. She seems to want to defend you. Something quite odd.”

“Interesting.”

“So, what’s your move?”

“Wait for Wrath and then strike back.”

“How slothful.”

“Quite the opposite.”

The two showed confusion.

“I have no clue where Wrath is, so why push it before I can locate her? She pushes, I push back to her lair and defeat her.”

“That’s brilliant actually.”

‘Perhaps having a lie as core isn’t such a bad idea.’

“Thanks.”

I blushed at the complements before picking up my drink and handing Zath the money.

I ended the silence and turned to Zath.

“Good chat.”

“Good chat, Mrs, Rose.”

I sat down and sipped my drink.

I thought about potential counters. Valkyries are military commanders, meaning she had an army. If I could find out the content of it, I could stop it.

‘Too much thinking, just drink.’

_

“Hello, how are you two?”

Thalias and Gallson looked at me.

“We are working on an enhancement to magic, we need high profile mats... Say, Rose...”

“You need a scale?”

“Yes please.”

I partially shifted my arm and removed a scale. Handing it to Thalias, I began examining the armor.

There were quite a few high-profile armors, some of it was S grade.

Then I saw something that caught my attention.

“Ah, I see you found our masterpiece.”

“What does it do?”

“It absorbs any evil entities in its vicinity.”

“Any?”

“Should.”

“How much?”

“Oh, you wanna buy it? Let’s say... 100k gold.”

“Sold.”

“Wow, I thought that you’d try to haggle.”

“For this? No 100k gold is rather low in my opinion.”

“Really?”

“Yes, if you ever make another one, 1 million gold would work.”

“REALLY?!”

“Yes, can you not tell how useful this would be?”

“Well, there is a problem where smarter evils can still escape.”

“Of course, but it would still slow them down a lot.”

“I guess.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

I left with this amazing find.

_

‘So, what’s your plan with that thing?’

‘First, test it.’

‘You mean...’

‘Yep, I may as well check if it actually works.’

‘Fair.’

I locked my door and reinforced the lock with a spell and examined the device. I felt absolute fear when looking at it, it was legit.

I tapped it and it activated. Light beams wrapped around me and caused me to grit my teeth in pain. I was pulled into the device.

“Wow, Innocence. It split us.”

I looked and saw Sloth.

“Okay, so, how do we leave?”

“I dunno, there seems to be a lock on that door.”

I grabbed the lock and tried to break it.

“It isn’t breaking.”

“Hmm... let me try.”

Sloth tried all sorts of things, eventually she fell asleep on the lock. I waited for her to wake up.

“Hm, what’s around us?”

“I don’t know actually. It seems quite abstract.”

“Let me try something.”

I reached deep into myself and pulled out the evil, I noticed the lock got stronger, then weakened when I hid the evil.

“I know how to get out.”

“You do?”

“Completely isolate your evil.”

Sloth looked at me like I was speaking tongues.

“Trust me, just look at your presence and hide it.”

“Okay...”

She did, and then the lock unlocked.

“Huh, would you look at that.”

“Wrath will never figure that out, will she.”

“Probably not, unlike most of us, she makes no effort to hide her nature.”

“Well, let’s get out of here.”

“Agreed.”

We left and I noticed Sloth was still in her own body.

“Do you wanna stay like that?”

“No, lot easier to take nap inside you.”

Sloth remerged of her own will, causing her body to crumble to dust.

“Alright, but that device will definitely be good to use.”

‘Only problem is that if you get consumed by it too, you will need to fight Wrath, and I hate to tell you, but she’s way stronger than you.’

“I know, but at least in this we can’t merge.”

‘Yeah, and I could help you in that fight.”

“Thanks.”

‘No problem.’

We examined the device and tried to see how to improve it. After pulling an all-nighter, we determined that it was at max potential.