CH970

Working his way through the crowd, he managed to find eight more he’d missed before, who thankfully were simple to deal with. Without bringing their plans into motion, they were all easy to talk out of trying anything the second he was in their head, letting him focus on the last few groups filtering in and let him watch as others around did the last bit of setup, placing a few seats for those who would need them, even if it looked like most of the crowd would be standing, as well as placing prepared plates of food all along one of the tables behind where the ceremony was to take place, letting Ben see the poisoned meal at the heart of it.

Okay, and I really do need to figure out how I’m dealing with that. If I get into another dark elf’s head and see how it should taste then I could go sneak a bite of the current one and compare flavours to see if I can tell the poison from the taste difference alone and if not, well, fuck me cause then it looks like I’m just trying to remake the stupid thing with the ingredients I have on hand.

Which was thankfully plenty. Twenty spatial rings on his finger, each of them holding a volume of a good-sized house, meant that he had plenty to keep within. Not one was close to full, and he always made sure he had something for any given occasion, be it raw ingredients or finished meals kept hot under the effect of the time enchantment on them, he would just have to rearrange them in a way that would match both the look and flavour profile.

Which also means cooking a whole goddamn meal without being noticed, so we’re going to save that for the backup plan. It’s fine, I can still make this work.

With the beginning of the ceremony coming closer, new arrivals dropping to a trickle, it gave Ben just a moment to relax until he spotted someone he hadn’t thought for a second he’d encounter. Greed’s son Cheele, a convert to Myriad and the very crab who’d once kidnapped him and tried to eat Greed.

That was in the past though. As surprising as it was, Ben had no intention of holding a grudge. It was the woman beside him who was a far bigger concern.

While Cheele himself seemed large to him, being nearly up to Ben’s knees when standing, with a body half a meter wide, the woman was a giant in comparison, reaching Ben’s shoulders in height with claws big enough to clip him in half. Cheele’s mother, not sharing her son’s ruby shell but then, she never would have. Despite holding the same crab body plan as Greed, the two were different species evolved on different worlds, with her own shell a brilliant bioluminescent blue, even if none of that was nearly as important as the dangers in her mind.

While some had come with weapons and plans to see Greed die, she came with determination, with collateral damage not a thought in her head. Similar to another, she’d seen fit to poison his wedding meal, but unlike that other, she hadn’t known which one it was. It seemed she hadn’t been aware that there was a separate, special meal for the bride and groom at all, meaning that instead she’d poisoned every other one, using a chemical cocktail of toxins acquired by a subordinate, once more not knowing exactly what had gone in it.

Which means that, even if I can neutralize or extract whatever’s poisoned Greed’s dish, I’m not getting out of having to remake the rest. Just fucking great.

When he was done there, he was going to have to go to where the dark elves were gathered to see if the food for the guests held any special significance that he’d either need to do his best to replicate or if he could afford to be a bit more flexible with it but unfortunately, he couldn’t end things so easily with her there. The poison was her backup plan, with enough others in her head to leave her a clear threat.

Either crushing Greed in her claws or else under her weight, she intended to see him die, and those weren’t even the main choices she held. Just looking in her head, he could see that her kind produced a natural, powerful acid they could spit. A biological tool for hunting and digestion that he couldn’t preemptively neutralize when it was a part of her biology and left Ben hanging his head.

Honestly, how dare anyone compare my luck with Greed’s. He’s gone around, spending years developing bad relationships with the scariest women on the planet, yet he’s still alive. The guy’s a walking miracle for not having been taken out sooner.

Although that one in particular took the cake, activating Ben’s authorities just by being near her in the same way the puzzle had, something he’d only felt in significantly smaller extents when it came to many of the others there, practically ignorable in comparison. Still, he had to try and talk her out of those other bits at least, so he did the same he’d done to the rest, connected to her and ramped up her thought speed, giving his warning in her head.

I see what you’re planning on doing and I’m telling you to stop, Ben thought in her mind. On my authority as the apostle of Myriad, listen to what I have to say. Forget about Greed and leave. This doesn’t have to be a bigger issue.

Oh my, he heard her think back. How exciting. I’ve never gotten the chance to murder an apostle before.

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He could tell she knew him to be the one who’d helped her son grow a proper shell, just as much as he could tell she didn’t care. Not one thought of hers was a lie and all of it was violent, she would murder him in a heartbeat if he got in her way and seeing the depths of her evil and that there was no changing her mind, he rapidly switched gears, erasing her memory of the brief exchange as he walked up to the two with a smile on his face, greeting them like old friends.

“Cheele, it’s been a while, welcome!” he called out. “And you must be his lovely mother! It’s a pleasure. I’m your son’s apostle.”

“Oh, hello there,” she greeted back, just as friendly in tone now that the prior exchange was erased from her mind, even if it didn’t strip her of the darkness within. “Thank you so much for what you’ve done for my boy. He always had such a complex because of that awful bastard not filling his fatherly role. It’s only a shame that Greed didn’t have to die to solve it.”

“… Right. Well, I know he’s a controversial figure, so I won’t hold that against you, but would you mind if I borrowed your boy for a bit? There’s not many of my faith here, I’d love the chance to catch up and exchange a few words.”

“Oh, be my guest. I’ll just be off admiring the main course, so find me when you’re done.”

Ben waved her off, a picture of a friendly apostle that Cheele politely bowed to.