CH969

Ben hadn’t looked too deeply in anyone’s head other than the ones with murder on their mind, meaning that he hadn’t learned much of what a dark elf wedding entailed but it seemed that one of Greed’s exes had at least done a bit of her own research, enough that she’d discovered the wedding involved a special meal between bride and groom that would go unshared by the rest of the guests, with her finding out both where it had been made and had used that knowledge to poison it before it had arrived.

Which is a step too far. Anyone else could at least tell themselves they wouldn’t go through with it, but she already has. Which also means she’s trying to poison the very innocent of wronging her, Gennet. Whatever feeling she has about Greed, pulling others into it is too much. And worst of all, I can’t fix the dish. She doesn’t even know what stupid fucking poison she used, so I can’t extract it or break it down, ugh. Okay, one thing at a time. It doesn’t seem like it needs to be eaten until the end of everything, so technically, I have a bit to figure something else out, leaving only the attempted murderer to deal with, hmm.

Technically, he could trap her in a spatial item if he really wanted to in order to get her out of his hair and not have to worry about her causing any other harm but there was a hitch in that, she’d come with her son who, while having no good feelings towards his father, hadn’t arrived with any murderous intent and was enjoying the chance to try and mingle with the various siblings he knew had to have existed but had never met. If his mom went missing in the middle of his disappointing father’s wedding though, there was a good chance he’d raise some sort of fuss, meaning Ben’s best option was to leave her be, right until it was a convenient enough time to trap them both and hand the woman over to the proper authorities.

And considering the fact that I’m about to do so many things that are going to raise so many issues, Myriad, Myriad, Myriad! I need you!

<What could you possibly need at a wedding?>

Long story short, I’m trying to deal with the many, many people aiming to kill Greed during his marriage. To avoid any, you know, murders, I’m probably going to be committing some smaller crimes throughout the ceremony so I don’t give it away. Through some small, implied threats I’ve already dealt with a bunch but I’ve just seen that anyone who’s already put their plan into motion is going to have to be dealt with a different way so at some point I’m also going to start kidnapping people and shoving them into my rings. The time effect on it is so great I doubt any of them will even notice by the point I take them out again, but anyway, I just wanted to let you know so you could help however you can. Explain what I’m doing to any gods who are going to want to see my actions in the worst light, explain to the local authorities in the nearest city on my behalf that they’re about to get at least a couple people coming in on my word alone, et cetera, et cetera. Feel free to do whatever other bits you think might help too because, from the look of things, I’m going to have my hands full down here.

<Empty skies, having you and him in the same space for too long really does create some sort of chaos vortex. If we ever find a third as unlucky as the two of you, I don’t think the universe would survive your meeting.>

Har har, very funny. Just give me a hand while I do my best to sort this out because as we’ve been speaking, I’ve already found another person whose plans I’m apparently on a tight time limit to stop because it looks like one of Gennet’s stupid uncles managed to hire a fucking assassin.

One which Ben currently didn’t have the power to find. The holder of a space magic, apparently there was an opportune moment he was waiting for to show up and make Greed disappear, coming all too close as Ben rushed to where the crab should be, hidden behind one of the many walls, away from anyone’s view and finding him there alone with Jeeves.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Huh?” Greed said when he showed up. “Legs, what’s going on? You’re not supposed to be back here.”

“Yeah? Well, consider this to be a minor and ignorable disturbance while I count down because we’re looking at five, four, three, two, one.”

As soon as he hit one he materialized a bat in his hand and swung, aiming where he felt just enough from his mana sense to guess that was where the teleporter was going to arrive and caught the man in the stomach and completely off guard, having him hunched over and too shocked and in pain to react to put a new spell together to escape, letting Ben reach out and force him into his ring while the other two watched on.