Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

"Wait…is that–" Looking out into the ocean's horizon with a plate of grilled fish in her hands. Liliyana noticed a man floating far away with a wooden bucket for his vessel. Even from afar, she instantly recognized those messy silver strands of hair, it was none other than the man who'd opened the gates to prison.

"That's Greg! No wait–" Taking a brief pause and shaking her head, she tried to remember his true name while the other drew closer to her from behind to figure out what she was yelling for. "That's Razor! Yeah, that's him!"

Pointing in his direction, she turned her head to beckoned everyone closer. Holding her finger in his direction, she guided their sights onto the man floating in the darkness of the ocean. Most of them saw nothing as their vision failed in the dark after all, but the monster girls present on deck as well as Aria, caught a glimpse of a man floating in the distance with a small hat covering his eyes.

"What is he doing here?" Aria muttered, moving closer to the ship's edge and holding firmly on the leaning wall.

"I don't know," staring at him still, Liliyana wondered the same as Aria, but when nothing came to her mind, she turned her head towards Reina, snacking away at the elevated helm. "Can you take us close to him please?"

Looking at Liliyana for a while with only half her eyes open, Reina popped another piece of grilled fish in her mouth before heaving a sigh and turning the ship's direction. Feeling the shift in their trajectory already, the fae devil smiled and turned to face the man in the bucket once again.

"Wait a second…" A bit slow at catching up on what was happening, Amedith rubbed the drowsiness out of his eyes and walked up beside the devil. Staring in the direction where the bucket should've been, he breathed a ball of light through his lips and chucked it where Liliyana had been pointing.

Like a spotlight in a dark theater, the ball landed close to Razor and illuminated his hand and the edges of the bucket. "Are we sure it's him and not an illusion?"

As soon as Amedith completed his thoughts, Reina stopped the steering and the others held their surprise. Unsure whether Amedith's caution was warranted, they no longer wished to rush in, yet still wished to figure out if it was truly Razer that they'd spotted.

And the only two who could easily see through the matter–Linkle, Kara as well as Regalia, showed no interest in the man and simply continued enjoying their meal. Continue your journey on empire

"Can anyone confirm it or should I steer clear of that man?" Reina asked, her voice carrying a hint of annoyance.

Caution was important, but the possibility of abandoning a friend in the middle of the ocean was far too great to take that risk. Thus, although reluctant everyone gave in and thus on Liliyana's request, Reina brought the ship as close to Razor as she could without running into him.

"HEYYY! RAZOR WAKE UPP!" Screaming from the edge of the ship, Liliyana called out to the man leisurely napping in a bucket in the middle of the ocean.

Yawning to himself, Razor subconsciously ignored the voices for a while, until finally he was forced to move the hat off of his face thanks to Liliyana never giving up.

"Ohh…it's you guys," he whispered, yawning yet again.

"What are you doing here?! Come up on the ship!" Liliyana suggested, half her body hanging off the ship from trying to be as close as possible to him while yelling.

"I'm fine here don't worry," to her surprise and surprise of everyone else, Razor wasn't interested in joining them on the ship. "Seeing you guys are doing okay, especially you are enough ahaha…Go on ahead, you don't have to worry about me!"

"What?! You're in a bucket for god sake! Come up here and where are you even going?! We saw you sleeping in that thing! What if you drown?" There was no end to Liliyana's worries, had she the chance she would've pulled Razor into the ship herself. "Just come up already, I'll throw down a rope!"

Casually fanning his hand, the mortal immortal chuckled at the devil's worries for him. Laughing his heart out for an entire minute, he had not just Liliyana but everyone else worried about him as well. At the end of it, however, he said a few words convinced the entire ship to move on for some reason.

"Go on ahead, I'm in no rush to get where I'm going. I have…" Smiling at the devil, he laced his words with what little mana he did have. "I have the whole time in the world to get there."

Stripped of their worries in an instant, the party didn't wait another moment for Razor and continued on their path to reach the island of light. Acting almost as if they never met Razor floating in the ocean, they returned to their meals. Being a devil, Liliyana could resist his charm somewhat, but even she couldn't help but slowly forget about what she was doing.

Left alone in that small bucket in the middle of the ocean, Razor watched the ship disappear into the horizon before finally addressing the cause for the party's concerns over illusions. Looking sideways and into the stars, he stared at the colossal woman hiding behind the visible dimensions.

"Leave them alone, Nun…" He told her, but the nun in white smiled and ignored him.

She's been following the party from the dark sand beach. With nobody who could see her being present, she'd safely escaped being detected, at least until the group ran into Razor, although even now, she refused to stop chasing after them.

"I'm warning you again," turning his gaze down from the giant, Razor took out a silver stopwatch from his pocket. Keeping a close watch on the second hand, he waited and waited until it was to warn her at the right second. "Three seconds and you'll receive a gift from Elenaria, you wouldn't wanna see pieces of your chest being ruptured through dimensions now, would you?"

Turning her head towards the man again, she stared into his eyes to call out his bluff, but with the sound of a distant star quivering along its axis, ready to shoot down fast enough to tear through dimensions, she was made to reconsider her options.

"So what would it be?Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Life-threatening injury or going on your way to spread that disease you carry along?" Leering at him from behind her white mask, she wanted to hiss or even curse at him, but with every word of hers holding power and a star hellbent on shooting through her chest, she decided to turn around and make her way through an invisible portal that led to her next destination for spreading corruption.

'That was a close one.' Thought Razor, thankful to Elenaria for not following the heavenly rules for once. Looking to the skies, he blew out a kiss to the goddess before laughing with a chuckle. 'Athenia's influence seemed to have rubbed off on you, to be honest, it's better this way anyways.'

The goddess much like the nun wished to curse at him, but knowing he would just laugh it off, Elenaria did no such thing. Athenia on the other hand…

'You're playing with fire you fucking idiot.' Didn't hold back.