Finding my Parents in Another World-Chapter 40: (Raorka) Plan of Action

"What are you going to do about it though?" Rowena asked, crossing her legs.

Raorka turned towards her.

"Did you hide because of this truth? Because you knew we couldn’t beat the Mayor?"

"Of course. The only safe space is here, the hut of the Witch. Nowhere else in town is safe for a girl." She said casually.

"If a Demon is involved, we must act fast." Artemis was saying, still deep in thought.

"Didn’t you hear me Witch?" Lumina asked tiredly. "The Demon with the Mayor is a named Demon. The Demon of Lust. We can’t beat her, she is immortal. She can’t be killed."

Artemis bit her lip, but she didn’t argue back.

"What is the difference between a named Demon and a normal one?" Raorka asked, feeling increasingly out of his depth here.

"Most demons are unnamed. They are little more than monsters that you deal with, not much different from imps. Named Demons on the other hand are different. They are intelligent, sometimes more than humans. They have a human shape, and they possess orders of magnitude more power." Artemis explained.

Raorka nodded. This was a problematic situation. Rowena and Maris were thinking of giving up even before they knew a named Demon was involved. And Raorka felt a part of him agree with them. After all, the Mayor was hugely popular. It would be impossible to change the public perception of him. And even if they somehow managed to defeat the Demon and then kill the Mayor, they would be labelled as assassins, enemies of the Crown. For Mayor Rokar was also officially recognized by the King himself.

Raorka groaned and sat back. Rowena looked at him in amusement.

"Finally realizing it?" She asked sarcastically.

"What if we distract the Demon away?" Raorka said, still on his back.

"That’s not required. The Demon is not always with him. She comes about once a month to give him power equivalent to all the girls he has raped that month." Lumina said, her eyes still downcast.

"That is their contract?"

Lumina nodded. "Rokar gets an increase in his powers from the Demon on the basis of the number of girls he has raped that month. In exchange the Demon takes the bodies of the dead girls and does God knows what with them."

"So we have a chance right? The Demon must come at the end of the month." Drisnen spoke up excitedly. He had been uncharacteristically subdued during the whole conversation.

"Not necessarily." Lumina said. She was visibly growing more tired by the second.

"The Demon comes once a month. When that is is anyone’s guess. Sometimes early in the month, sometimes in the middle and sometimes on the last day."

"The Demon was there when...you were there with Rokar?" Raorka asked, wincing.

Lumina nodded. "At that time their contract was probably different. Rokar raped only me for an entire year, yet he got tremendous strength in exchange. I saw the Demon several times, but she didn’t ask anything of me. Even when I left. I don’t know what the Demon got out of that deal."

Raorka sat down, his head swirling with thought. One thing was clear, they could not beat both Rokar and the Demon at the same time. Even Artemis looked apprehensive about facing the Demon, and this was an elf that had gone to fight a dragon single-handedly.

"What are our options then?" He muttered softly.

"Options?" Rowena said in a mocking tone, then burst out laughing.

"You have no options, boy. Leave Temuril. That is the only option left to us now."

"And let all other girls in the city die?" Jareth asked angrily.

Rowena shrugged. "You can’t beat the Mayor. Even if you could, the town would probably hang you for murder."

"Even so you haven’t run away." Maris said quietly, and Rowena looked angrily at her.

"I am about to." She said, even though there was little conviction in her voice.

"I agree with Maris. You didn’t need to hide in Artemis’ hut, you could just have gone to any number of cities or towns. But you stayed behind. You haven’t given up hope all together, have you Rowena?" Raorka said with a slight smile.

Rowena looked around at everyone and then sighed.

"I have been trying to find a way to get rid of the Mayor silently, without letting the townspeople know exactly what happened." She said finally.

"And?"

"It’s very difficult. My magik is not suited for combat, and I doubt the people we have here will be able to accomplish that either."

"Now wait a moment." Raorka tilted his head, thinking.

"What you speak of is an assassination yes? Then don’t we have the perfect magik for that purpose?" Raorka said, looking at Artemis.

The elf realized immediately what he was suggesting so she shook her head. "It won’t work. My invisibility magik doesn’t work on moving targets, only stationary ones. If you remain in the same position I’ll be able to hide you, but if you move even a bit then the invisibility won’t hold."

Again everyone fell silent, thinking. Rowena looked around outrageously.

"Come on here. It’s obvious you can’t beat him. Don’t take my remaining here as proof that he can be beaten please!" She pleaded.

"I won’t abandon the town." Raorka said, looking straight at Rowena, who pursed her lips in frustration.

"Do what you want then." She said and then said down with a grunt.

"There are ways to carry out an assassination." Maris said quietly. She had also been deep in thought.

"Like?"

"Like suppose we send two of us as scouts first. Ostensibly to share some bogus information we have found about the kidnapper. We get into the Mayor’s mansion, we look for weaknesses, guards, and most importantly where the Mayor will sleep. And then we repeat this process with all of us at night." She completed.

"Won’t taking all six of us be too much of a risk? Like surely it’s better to send one person to assassinate?" Lucerne asked.

Maris considered it but then shook her head. "It’s better to have all of us there. In the worst case scenario if we have to fight through the guards, then having just one person will soon them to death."

"Make that seven people then." Lumina said quietly. When she looked up, Raorka saw that the resignation, the trauma in her eyes was gone. In its place was a fiery rage.

"Mom are you sure about that?" Lucerne asked concerned.

Lumina nodded resolutely. "For too long have I let that monster torment others. For too long I thought that doing nothing was the best way to protect you. For too long have I stood idly by while I knew the girls he was choosing were walking to their deaths. No more. No longer. It’s time to reclaim my town. And since I was the one who handed it to him in the first place, it should be me who takes it away from him."

Lucerne didn’t look convinced, her eyes showed clearly that she was still extremely worried about her mother. But she bit her lip and nodded, putting a reassuring hand on her mother’s shoulder.

"We’ll kill him." She said quietly, and the same fire burned in her eyes.

"Well then the first part of the plan should be simple enough right? We need two people to go and tell the Mayor that they have found some information about the kidnapper. The Mayor will of course want to hear it. After all he has to make sure that the information found is not actually about the kidnapper."

"I’ll go." Raorka said instantly, and Maris nodded.

"Then I’ll go too." Lucerne’s response was almost as fast.

"Fine then. Raorka and Lucerne, you will go as our scouting party. You need to find three things:

Where the Mayor sleeps at night

Where the guards are posted

Weaknesses of entry points in the mansion.

Once we have these three, we can infiltrate easily at night."

"Leave me out of the infiltration. I doubt I can help much either." Rowena said, her voice hinting at a tinge of tiredness.

Maris looked at her and for a moment both women just looked at each other without saying a word. Neither showed any particularly specific expression, and eventually Maris just nodded and looked away.

"The six of us then. I assume you will accompany us Artemis? Your magik will be invaluable to us."

Artemis nodded and then added, "But as I said before my invisibility won’t work on moving objects."

"That’s fine. We need to sneak through the mansion anyway. If all of us become stationary when a guard patrol passes us for example, you can cover us with your invisibility right?"

"Yes that’s right." The expression on Artemis’ face suggested she was quite impressed with Maris for thinking of this.

"Very well. Then our plan of action is in place. Raorka and Lucerne will go in and find out the information about the mansion. Then once they have done so, all of us except Rowena will sneak into the mansion, assasinate the Mayor and then get out. Remember no skirmishes with the guards unless absolutely required. After all they must be normal citizens who don’t know the depravity of the Mayor."

Everyone nodded. Raorka could see that there was a feeling of hope among all of them, even Rowena who had so adamantly claimed that the Mayor couldn’t be beaten. He looked at Maris, impressed as well. She had the makings of a true leader, one who could inspire hope amidst despair.

There was just one small problem.

Their plan didn’t account for the Demon of Lust.