Inquisitor's Promise (Act Two, Chapter Twenty-Five)

Aeneas has to keep his promises. His father's mission will be completed. And while he's at it, he will become Galatea's lord and Inquisitor. But love and politics are an explosive combination.

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Chapter Twenty-Five: In Search of Lady Galatea

San Felipe was a very hilly country, and the roads were rough. Traveling on land was out of the question. Because of this, Aeneas took the Lepanto with him as he followed Galatea’s trails. The shuttles and aircrafts became useful in navigating the rough terrain. Aeneas remembered the smiles on the faces of the Lepanto’s pilots as they were finally given an important task. The Inquisitor had to be reminded that the last time that he truly made use of these shuttles and aircrafts was in Texarkana as they were used to transport troops from one part of the city to another.

With the clues that Sir Juan Carlos had given to him before they went their separate ways, Aeneas was able to question the people of San Felipe on the whereabouts of his beloved.

Aeneas couldn’t help but perk up when he heard of one of the citizens of La Manila talk of a ‘lady knight’ that they had met. Unfortunately, what he heard wasn’t particularly flattering:

“I think she’s delusional,” one villager told Aeneas.

“How so?” Aeneas asked, trying his best not to sound defensive.

“For one thing, her dress. Wyvern knights are heavily armored from top to bottom. But her armor only covers her shoulders, breasts, knees, and places like that. The rest was only covered by her shirt, not even a chainmail,” the villager explained.

Aeneas considered the man’s words carefully. His criticism was certainly reasonable. However, he had not accounted for one fact: Galatea was a petite woman, shorter than even Giulia. Furthermore, she had spent most of her life indoors and as a paraplegic. A full-set armor that the average wyvern knight wear would be too heavy for her. Her armor was custom set, most likely made by either Juan Carlos or Antonio.

“Anything else you notice about her?” Aeneas asked.

The villager was in thought, trying to remember any tidbits. “She has something on her wrist, a bracelet. Red and yellow with an interesting emblem…”

“Where did she go!?” Aeneas interrupted.

The task would have been so much easier if Galatea would just answer her brick. But apparently, she had left it behind in Castle La Mancha. San Felipe also had very little in the way of surveillance cameras, so checking them would not be an option either.

But in time, Aeneas and his party were able to discover the routes that Galatea had taken. One thing that really helped Aeneas in his search was the network of monasteries that dotted San Felipe’s landscape. As it turned out, some of what Aeneas had mistaken for castles when the Lepanto first flew over San Felipe were actually monasteries.

 The people of San Felipe had always been known for their hospitality. The monasteries served as an extension of that. Within half-a-day of a wyvern flight time, there was always a monastery full of monks and nuns, willing to take in strangers for the night free of charge.

They also serve delicious food and drinks, as Aeneas’ party soon discovered. It was within one of these monasteries that Aeneas learned of the Tsar’s love of beer. He also learned of the felinids’ resistance to alcohol when Kunoichi was able to keep up with Nikolai without getting the least bit tipsy.

Meanwhile, Lavinia was having a hard time handling her drink. Something in deep one DNA just didn’t go well with alcohol.

It was from these monks and nuns that Aeneas learned of what Galatea had been up to while Aeneas was around the world uniting the Holy League. Some of the stories they told were good:

“And when our cat was stuck on a tree, she helped us bring her down with the help of her wyvern,” a monk told Kunoichi and Shaka.

“That’s amazing,” the felinid girl said in amazement.

“I could’ve done that,” the pathfinder grumbled.

Other stories were even more flattering:

“She managed to save our convent,” a nun told Aeneas and Lavinia.

“Really? How?” Aeneas asked out of curiosity.

“Some bandits had threatened to loot our place and take us captive. But then we took Lady Galatea in. The mere presence of her wyvern was enough to scare away the bandits,” the nun explained.

“That’s clever!” Aeneas said in admiration. “She saved them without even having to fight.”

“Y-yeah,” Lavinia added halfheartedly.

But many of the stories did not put her in a good light at all:

“I definitely remember her,” an old monk said to the whole group. “A wyvern came here bringing an injured girl. We had to nurse her back to health.”

“What happened to her?” Aeneas asked in alarm.

“Apparently, she had wandered into a feral wyvern’s nest. They got into a fight and her wyvern was able to bring her out to safety,” the monk answered.

“Your girl was lucky there, Aeneas,” Pep pointed out.

“That was no luck, that was the wyvern’s remarkable loyalty!” the monk responded. “Any other wyvern would have abandoned her, given her condition.”

“It was that bad?!” Aeneas cried.

The monk nodded. “The girl told us that she would have given us money as thanks, but she didn’t have any. Because she was mugged at a nearby town.”

“Unbelievable!” Aeneas exclaimed in rage.

“In San Felipe, no less,” Nikolai added.

Eventually, Aeneas and his group made their way to the village of Pahlawan. The village was located to the southwest of La Manila. Far southwest as they had gone close to the fiefdoms’ border with the archipelagic Federal Republic of Nusantara. Below the cliffs of Pahlawan was the Nusantara Sea, a large sea upon which was a series of islands that formed the Federal Republic.

Princess Omaha saw the Nusantara Sea and an island at far horizon, the Borneyo Island. As she looked at the island, she thought of San Felipe and the unfortunate fate that had befallen the beautiful country. She couldn’t help but feel angry.

“Something wrong, Princess?”

Omaha turned around and saw that it was Nikolai. “I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to the news, but surely you know the reason for the banditry going about.”

The Tsar nodded. “Indeed. The bandits aren’t native to San Felipe, not most of them anyways. They were people from the south escaping the famine. I would pity them if they hadn’t been harassing the locals.”

“Which is why we must drive them out,” Omaha said resolutely. “The people of San Felipe deserve better!”

Nikolai chuckled at the princess’ declaration. “I can see Sir Aeneas had rubbed off on you.”

“Perhaps,” Omaha said nonchalantly. “What about you, Lord Nikolai?”

“I must admit that seeing Sir Aeneas pining over his Galatea is having an effect on me,” Nikolai said.

“Oh? In what way?”

Nikolai then took the princess’ hand and knelt before her. “Princess Omaha, I love you. Will you marry me?”

Meanwhile, Aeneas was at the village itself. He knew that he must be close. Based on his investigations, he knew that Galatea must be heading towards the western end of Pahlawan Hill. Based on what he had gathered, a group of bandits had made their encampment there; this encampment was both large and highly fortified. These bandits had troubled the nearby villages by taking all of the rice for themselves. Galatea was surely aiming to take out the bandits of this encampment.

Aeneas knew that Galatea would not prevail given the size of the bandits. Not by herself, at any rate. All the more reason for Aeneas to hurry up.

Aeneas knew that he must prepare for the fight ahead. He was well aware that his mission was to find Galatea, not take out bandits. But he could not simply ignore the plight of the people who had their food stolen by these ruffians. And besides, he knew that he would run into Galatea at some point given that this was her ultimate target too.

But first, Aeneas had to investigate a nearby windmill.

Or what’s left of it. It was in ashes.

“Crazy girl,” a villager with him said. “She thought that it was a giant because some crazy weirdo told her that it was. So she had that wyvern of hers burn it down!”

Aeneas couldn’t help but be disappointed at Galatea, but he put that aside. The Inquisitor knelt down and sifted through the rubble. He saw what looked to be some insect legs. Many of them, in fact. And they’re big, bigger than any bug he was familiar with.

“What’s this?” Aeneas asked.

“Those? Must be spider’s legs,” the villager answered.

As Aeneas inspected the giant spider legs, he knew that the villager must have been referring to the undercity spiders that Juan Carlos and Antonio had told him about. But Aeneas wouldn’t have time to think about it when he heard Pep and Giulia calling his name.

The Inquisitor turned and saw the two rushing towards him. “Pep? Giulia? What is it?”

“We saw her,” Giulia cried. “The pilots saw her flying from afar.”

Aeneas gasped. “You mean…”

“Yes,” Pep answered. “We saw your girl heading to the bandit encampment.”

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