Dawn to Dusk, Part 2: Demonology

Chapter 1

Eventful Morning

Fourteenth of Stormhunt, year 1702 PS. Early Morning of Soc Meltis.

It was a beautiful morning in the town of Mistwich. Its usual fog was unexpectedly absent, and instead of being shrouded by a clouded sky, Mistwich was warmly greeted by the sun, which came out to greet the town’s residents as they were getting ready to start their day.

Enix woke up in his room at the local tavern, feeling refreshed and ready to go from as early as six in the morning. What helped him get some good night’s sleep was the fact that he didn’t party too hard—for a boy scout the likes of Enix, being responsible comes rather easily. The same cannot be said for Cedric or Elynere, who haven’t woken up yet by that point.

Unwilling to disturb his hungover friends’ blissful sleep, Enix quietly left the tavern after getting dressed to get some fresh air. Outside, he paced around the street in front of the establishment, wondering how to spend this beautiful morning. It was then when he realised:

“Is… Is Lady Sienna home yet?”

His pointy ears drooped down at the thought of something dangerous happening to the elven hero.

“No, I’m… I’m sure she’s fine!” Enix tried to reassure himself, practicing his signature smile.

“Yes, that’s right—Lady Sienna is always prepared.” he continued. “She wouldn’t let something bad happen to her… out in the woods, for no reason. Haha.”

The more the fiendfolk thought about it, the harder he tried to convince himself everything was going to be alright. It wasn’t the first time Sienna had to sneak out in the middle of the night to “satiate her hunger”, but each and every time she did so, Enix always worried it could be her last.

“Maybe… Maybe I should go look for her?” he thought.

“…”

“No, that’s stupid. She’ll scold me for following her, surely…”

“…”

“But how can I be sure? What if… What if it’s going to be like…”

“…”

“Master Andreus…”

“…”

“No, no, no—focus, Enix! You’ve got this!”

“You’re a good, loyal squire; faithful, brave, helpful… yes…”

“…”

“You’ll… You’ll get ready, a-and… Go out there.”

“…”

“Yes, you will—no, I mean… I will…”

“I will look for her, and…”

“…”

“Gosh, why am I sweating so much right now?!”

“A-And my heart is racing…”

“…”

“Fudge…”

“…”

“Keep it together, Enix.”

“I’m sure everything is—”

Suddenly, the boy felt someone grabbing his tail out of nowhere.

“Eek!” he squeaked, instinctively jumping away.

“Hey, chill out—it’s just me!” someone giggled.

“Emilia?” Enix inquired.

“Hii!” the wood elf greeted him. “You’re up early, aintcha?”

“I saw you pacing around the street, all shaky and twitching.” she added. “Are you okay?”

“I, uhh, y-yes! Haha!” Enix stammered. “I’m perfectly fine, thank you for asking!”

“…” Enix stared at the wood elf nervously, complete with twitching eyelids and sweat running down his face.

“…” Emilia stared back at the fiendfolk with a goofy expression. Nothing more, nothing less.

“…”

“…”

“Great.” Emilia smiled, breaking the awkward silence. “You had me worried there for a sec.”

“Anyway, have you seen Sienna?” she asked innocently.

The fiendfolk’s ears drooped down once more. Enix lowered his head, almost as if in shame.

“No…” he murmured.

“Weird.” Emilia replied. “I like going on little adventures too, but—sheesh!”

“She’s been out there in the woods the whole night!” the wood elf exclaimed.

“I never took her for a nature lover.” she added. “Maybe we have something in common after all—”

“Please, don’t…” Enix whimpered, clutching his head and trembling.

“Eh?” Emilia stared at him dumbfounded. She could swear the fiendfolk was fine just a moment ago, but now, he was starting to act weird.

“Don’t remind me…” he muttered. “I’m worried SICK.”

“A-At this rate, I don’t think I can take this anymore.” he said, equipping his shield and battleaxe.

“Woah there, buddy—whatcha need all that for?!” Emilia inquired, surprised.

“I can’t fail Lady Sienna…” Enix said nervously. “I-I’m going to come find her!”

“In the woods? Alone?” Emilia asked, perplexed. “Are you crazy?”

“You don’t understand.” the squire sighed. “I can’t stay idle. I HAVE to go look for Miss Picarello.”

“She s-should’ve returned by now… I should’ve been watching her… I… I—” he said, hyperventilating.

Emilia walked up to the exasperated fiendfolk and gently grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Settle down, kiddo.” she said in a stern tone. “You won’t get anything done by freakin’ out like that.”

“W-Wha—” Enix tried to say.

“Trust me, I should know—me and Elly have had our fair share of meltdowns, breakdowns, and all other kinds of downs.” Emilia interjected. “But do you know what always helps us get back on our feet?”

“Eh?” Enix said, confused.

“Taking your mind off things.” the wood elf explained.

“And what better way to do that than by beating each other up!” she exclaimed enthusiastically.

“What…” Enix blurted out.

“Yeah!” Emilia added. “Let’s have a sparring match, right here and right now!”

“N-No, but… But Lady Sienna—” Enix said.

“Yeah, yeah, big deal—she’ll be FINE!” Emilia interrupted the fiendfolk. “You gotta learn how to deal with your stress—and a few combat lessons from yours truly wouldn’t hurt, now, would they?!”

“I don’t know…” Enix whimpered. “I need to make sure Lady Sienna is okay.”

Emilia sighed. “Okay, how about this…” she started.

“First, we’ll try to get you back in fighting shape by having a little sparring.” the druid said.

“Then—once we’re done—we’ll wake up the others and go look for Miss Picarello together. As a team!” she added.

“Now, how’s that sound?” Emilia smiled.

“…” Enix raised his head from the ground, staring intently at the wood elf’s green eyes that seemed to gleam with optimism.

“Okay…” Enix sighed. “If it means I’ll be able to better protect Lady Sienna, t-then, I guess we can try to spar.”

“Yeah, that’s the spirit!” Emilia exclaimed. “Follow me, I know a great place to fight!”

Emilia didn’t really give the boy much of a choice in the whole following matter, as she grabbed him by the hand and led him directly into the forest. Inside—using her druidic powers—she parted a bunch of trees and bushes in order to hollow out a portion of the forest, creating a perfectly flat, rectangular battleground for the two to spar in.

“Ta-da!” the wood elf exclaimed. “This’ll be our arena for today—how do you like it? Isn’t it just awesome?!”

“It’s… It’s nice, I suppose.” Enix smiled weakly.

“CATCH!” Emilia exclaimed, taking the fiendfolk by surprise. Enix was then promptly hit in the head by some kind of flying wooden object.

“Ow…” he said on the ground, rubbing his bruised forehead. “What is—”

“It’s a battleaxe!” Emilia explained. “But without all the metal bits!”

“You wouldn’t want to hurt good ole me, would ya?” she added.

“You just… hit me in the head.” Enix murmured.

“Aw c’mon, you know it wasn’t lethal or anything of the sort.” the druid groaned. “Anyway…”

“You pick up that axe, and I’ll take out my staff.” she ordered.

“Cause if we’re going to spar, it has to be with something blunt—like sticks, for instance!”

“But we’re too cool for sticks, aren’t we, kiddo?” Emilia inquired with a smug expression.

“Yeah, no—we’ll fight with blunt weapons, as nature intended!”

“Intended? How?” Enix inquired.

“Don’t think about it too hard, it’s just a saying!” Emilia smiled. “Probably not even true, anyway!”

“Now, hurry up and stand on the other side of our glorious arena.” she added.

Enix lazily made his way to the other end of Emilia’s homemade forest clearing. When he was sufficiently far away, he asked.

“Now what?”

“Now…” Emilia shouted from a distance. “You have one job!”

“Your job… is to HIT ME!”

“…” Enix thought.

“Just ONCE.” the druid added.

“…” Enix thought, again.

“That’s it?” he inquired.

“YES!” Emilia exclaimed. “But lemme tell you something beforehand: IT WON’T BE EASY!”

“Hup!” she said, jumping high into the air and landing right before Enix.

“I’ll give you a headstart by coming a little bit closer.” Emilia explained.

“Ready…”

“Set…”

“GO!”

Enix immediately tried to take a swing at the druid, but his attack barely grazed her nose.

“Missed me!” she said, shuffling her feet from left to right and making the squire dizzy.

“Hey now, we’re only getting started, haha!” she laughed, before gently poking Enix in the face with her quarterstaff.

“Keep up—next time you let me get a hit on ya, it’ll HURT!” she chuckled. “Alrighty then, try again! Come on!”

Enix took a deep breath.

“You got this… You’re doing this for Lady Sienna…” Enix thought.

“…”

“You’re training to be stronger… More useful. More dependable.” he thought.

“…”

With a newfound goal to get stronger for the sake of his mistress, Enix’s eyes crackled yellow with determination. His wooden battleaxe began emitting a celestial glow—its blunt blade leaving a trail of light as Enix was running after the slippery druid, who seemed to avoid each of his blows by dancing more so than dodging.

“Atta boy, hahaha!” Emilia laughed hysterically, dodging the squire’s attacks to the rhythm of his swooshing weapon. “You’re getting the hang of it, I see! Hoho!”

“But you ain’t seen…” she said, avoiding another swing.

“Nothing…” she added, dodging yet another blow.

“Yet!” the wood elf exclaimed, jumping over Enix and gently bonking him on the head with her quarterstaff. Suddenly, he couldn’t find her, only hearing her giggles echo around him.

Enix started spinning in place to try and find Emilia, but she was constantly tiptoeing out of his sight with ease. Finally, when the fiendfolk’s tail brushed up against the druid’s leg, he turned around to unleash a flurry of axe blows at her. Emilia evaded the first one by striking a dramatic pose, the second one by jumping very high upwards, and the third one by doing a split as she was landing on the ground.

Just then, she approached the fiendfolk in the blink of an eye, her sandals crackling with jolts of lightning. Suddenly appearing before him, Emilia surprised the boy with a warm hug, only to shock him with a friendly dose of electroshocks.

“Keep up!” she said, jolting away and out of the squire’s reach.

“Hey, no fair!” the squire pouted. “I don’t know magic!”

“Oh but our foes will!” Emilia said with a smug expression. “And you need to be ready for that, kid!”

“Speaking of…”

“Here’s some terramancy practice for ya:”

As she said that, Emilia stomped loudly and repeatedly, with one foot at a time. The ground began to shake, and suddenly, several boulders rose from the ground, spinning in the air and gaining momentum.

“Hey, hey—let’s go bowling! Ahahaha~!” she cackled, running from boulder to boulder and launching each one at Enix.

While trying to avoid the boulders that Emilia was hurling at him, Enix found himself getting more agile with his dodges. Within the span of a good few minutes of dodging boulders, the squire went from narrowly missing them by mere inches to bouncing from one rock to another as if he was doing elite parkour. Feeling like an accomplished acrobat by now, Enix went for a flashy maneuver: he launched himself from one of the boulders by striking it as hard as he could with his weapon—then, in mid-air, he curled into a ball and began spinning with his axe in hand, holding it over his head.

Emilia was awestruck at the sight of the fiendfolk barrelling towards her from high in the sky, spinning like a circular saw about to cut her into pieces. Fortunately, she managed to dodge just in time, and she did it by taking off her cape and using it to perform a matador feint.

“COOL!” she encouraged Enix. “Hey, try that spinning thing again! That looked fun!”

After face planting into the ground following his unsuccessful spin attack, Enix took a few deep breaths, then replied:

“I… I’m not sure if… I have enough stamina for that.”

“Come on, panting already?!” Emilia groaned. “Fine, let’s chill out a bit…”

Instead of halting the sparring, however, Emilia inhaled a lot of cold air, then exhaled it all over her makeshift arena, turning the forest clearing into an ice rink.

Enix found himself slipping on the ice, unable to stand back up no matter how hard he tried.

“That’s not what chilling means!” he pouted.

“It does for me!” Emilia snickered, before using her cryomancy skills to attach icy blades to both her and the squire’s shoes.

“Bowling was fun, but have you tried ice skating?” she inquired.

“N-No…” Enix muttered, still struggling to maintain his footing.

“Don’t worry, I’ll teach ya!” she said, skating at incredible speeds towards the fiendfolk, who covered his face in a defensive manner.

As she passed him, Enix breathed a sigh of relief. His relief, however, was short lived, since Emilia quickly skated right past him again—this time, grabbing both of the squire’s hands and forcing him to follow her.

“Woah!” Enix exclaimed, taken by surprise as he suddenly found himself being dragged through the ice.

“It’s easier together, isn’t it?” she said, pacing across the ice rink in slow, elegant circles, trying to teach the fiendfolk how to find his own footing.

“I-I think… I’m getting the hang of it!” Enix smiled, before letting go of Emilia and attempting tricks of his own.

“Heads up, I’m comin’ for ya!” Emilia exclaimed, hurling herself at the squire with her quarterstaff. Having somewhat learned how to skate by now, Enix dodged the druid’s attack by pirouetting out of her way.

“Atta boy!’ the wood elf said enthusiastically. “You’re a natural!”

“Now, since you like pirouettes so much…” she said, skating faster and faster straight towards Enix with a focused expression.

“Let’s go for a spin!” she exclaimed.

Before he could react, the fiendfolk had already collided with Emilia, who grabbed his hands once more and started spinning in a whimsical manner. Each spin was faster than the last, and before long, Enix found himself trapped in an icy carousel of the druid’s design.

Rapidly advancing her pace, Emilia made sure neither she nor Enix knew what was going on anymore, letting the both of them get caught up in a whirl. Literally.

“WAAAAAH!” Enix yelled, desperately clutching Emilia’s hands as she kept spinning faster and faster.

“HAHAHA!” Emilia exclaimed. “KEEP IT TOGETHER, KIDDO—IF YOU LET GO, WE’LL BOTH CRASH INTO THE TREES AND PROBABLY DIE!”

“WHAT?!” Enix blurted out.

“WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—” Emilia said, spinning in circles around the ice rink while still holding tight onto Enix.

“UP… UP… AND…” she started saying, slowly loosening her grip over the young fiendfolk.

“AWAY YOU GO! AHAHAHA~!” she exclaimed, tossing Enix high into the air.

“Fudge, fudge, FUDGE.” Enix thought to himself as he was falling from the sky. “How is this even supposed to be a sparring match anymore?!”

Luckily, the squire’s fall was met with a smooth landing on some kind of wet, slippery surface. The squire found himself carried by a water current through some sort of icy structure. Shortly thereafter, the structure turned out to be a water slide made out of ice, hastily put together by Emilia while the fiendfolk was still falling.

“Enjoying the ride so far?” she chuckled, skating on the railing of her water slide and extending it further and further with her magic as she went along, trying to make sure neither of them would fall off if the slide abruptly ended.

“Look out! TREE!” Enix exclaimed, bracing for impact. Emilia had other plans, however.

The druid made her water slide take a sharp curve to the right, successfully avoiding the tree, but heading towards a bunch of prickly rose bushes in the process. “Uh oh…” she thought.

Emilia stopped concentrating on her magic, and as a result, the icy slide melted away in an instant, sending the two adventurers flying right into the roses.

“YEOWCH!” both Enix and Emilia exclaimed as the water slide flushed them straight into the thorny bushes.

“Ow, ow, OW.” Emilia yelped, trying to pluck out rose thorns from her face.

“…”

“Whew!” she said, wiping the sweat from her brow and standing proudly. “That was fun!”

“But, unfortunately, you haven’t hit me yet!” she added.

Enix sluggishly carried himself out of the prickly rose bushes, muttering something under his nose before taking a moment to stretch and get ready for round two.

“Oh, so we’re still doin’ this?” Emilia inquired.

“Like hells I would give up now.” the squire smiled.

“Atta boy…” Emilia replied. “Okay, no more magic this time around.”

“No more magic, no more games—try to hit me with your weapon.” she added.

“Have at it, kiddo!” the druid smiled, before launching herself backwards with fire magic and propelling herself in circles around the forest clearing, thawing all the ice from their earlier “skating lesson.”

“Okay—NOW you can have at it.” she added awkwardly. “Sorry, I forgot to defrost our little clearing. Haha!”

Enix breathed a deep sigh, readying his wooden battleaxe in one hand, and a pointy stick he had just found in his other hand.

“Cool stick dude!” Emilia exclaimed from afar. “Now get over here and put it to use!”

“…”

“Here goes nothing…” Enix thought.

The fiendfolk sprinted towards the druid, attempting to land a hit against her through the use of lunging strikes, but to no avail. No matter how fast he ran and how far he lunged, Emilia would always jump away, twirl out of the way, or dodge using an acrobatic stunt.

Their sparring had turned into a dance where Emilia was leading Enix on, trying to get him to finally land a blow on her, but not giving him an easy victory. A strike, and a miss. A blow, and a dodge. This carried on for at least another thirty minutes, until both sides were out of breath.

“Haah…” Emilia murmured, panting. “Getting tired yet, kid?”

“Heh… As if…” Enix said, wiping the sweat from his brow.

“Let’s do this then—c’mon, kiddo…” Emilia said. “GIVE IT ALL YOU’VE GOT!”

Enix took a few steps back, then gathered momentum by running the boulders still stuck in the ground from their earlier fight. Using the boulders as stairs, Enix got as high as he could, then propelled himself from them high into the air, beginning to curl up in a ball with nothing but his battleaxe sticking out. In this ball shape, he started rapidly spinning as he was falling down in Emilia’s general direction.

“Piece of cake.” the druid thought, attempting to dodge the squire’s attack by merely moving away this time around.

Seeing as Emilia wasn’t attempting anything flashy this time around, Enix used this opportunity to curve the trajectory of his fall by spinning his tail like a rotor blade, suddenly swerving to the left.

“Uh oh…” Emilia thought.

With a loud bonk followed by an even louder thud, Enix found himself bruised and on the ground, laying directly on top of Emilia.

“Owie…” she muttered. “You sure got me good, I’ll tell you what…”

“Does… Does that count?” Enix inquired. “Did I hit you?”

Emilia stood up, shaking the dirt and dust off her dress then extending her hand towards the fiendfolk, helping him stand up.

“Yeah, pretty much. Hahaha!” she laughed, grabbing Enix by the horns and tousling his white hair. Enix chuckled.

In a much better mood than before, Enix bowed before the druid as thanks for training him in dealing with magic and unconventional combat.

“Whatever, man—I’m just glad we got to have some fun!” is what Emilia replied.

“And it seems like it did wonders for you too, eh?” she egged the fiendfolk on.

“Haha, what… What do you mean?” he inquired.

“You were all gloomy and nervous earlier, remember?” the wood elf explained. “But now, look at you—good as new, haha!”

Enix suddenly remembered about his duties to Lady Sienna, feeling immense guilt over not departing to look out for her sooner. His pointy ears drooped down, however, Emilia noticed it this time around.

“Hey now, listen—” she tried to say.

“I had fun, yes, but…” Enix interjected. “I… I gotta go. I’m sorry.”

As he said that, the fiendfolk ran deeper into the woods, completely disregarding the fact Cedric and Elynere weren’t woken up yet.

“Enix, wait!” Emilia said, rushing after him. “Don’t go alone in those woods—you’re not ready!”

“…”

“…”

“Crap…” Emilia thought to herself, stopping to take a break. “I lost him…”

“…”

“Okay, think: how am I going to tell Elly and Cedric we just lost two people to the local forest…”

“…”

“Yeah, no—I am NOT having that conversation!” she said out loud. “Hang in there, Enix! I’m coming!”

“You too, Miss Picarello!” the druid yelled as she ran even deeper into the forest. “If you can hear me, that is!”

Emilia followed the footprints left by Enix’s boots in the dirt, taking the correct turns each time up until she found herself at a crossroads with no trail to follow anymore.

“I don’t get it…” she thought. “Why does it end here?!”

The wood elf looked around for clues, or any signs of what might’ve happened. Just then, something splashed on her head—a single droplet of blood. Emilia slowly looked up, only to see Enix unconscious and hanging upside down in some kind of snare trap. His forehead must’ve been scraped by a rock or a tree branch on his way upwards, and that’s where the blood was coming from.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.” Emilia thought to herself. “Okay, time to get you out of this mess.”

The druid got to work on lowering the snare trap and cutting Enix out of it with her scimitar. Having released the fiendfolk from the clutches of some random trapper’s abandoned tool of trade, Emilia rubbed a healing salve into Enix’s forehead, cradling his unconscious body patiently until it woke up.

“Umm… Uhh…” the squire murmured. “Where am I…?”

“Newsflash, kiddo: you didn’t make it very far on your own.” she chuckled. “But don’t worry—I’ve found you fast enough!”

“Ugh…” Enix stood up, clutching his head. “Did… Did we find Lady Sienna yet?”

“Relax, kid.” Emilia said. “We didn’t, but I feel like we need a little rest right about now—don’t you think?”

“…” Enix remained silent for a bit, scanning his surroundings. Finding no reasonable way to go forward, he decided to trust the druid’s intuition.

“Yeah…” he admitted.

“Cool.” Emilia replied. “I’ll set up a campfire, and you go look for something to eat in your backpack.”

“Okay—wait, where is it?” the fiendfolk inquired.

“It’s right there.” Emilia pointed to a dirty, tattered bag. “Careful though—the snare trap really did a number on it.”

“Aww, man.” Enix whimpered. “It was a gift from an old friend…”

“That’ll teach ya not to try and be a hero on your own.” Emilia scoffed. “Like, seriously, kid—you could’ve gotten much more hurt, especially if I wasn’t there to save your ass!”

“…” Enix thought, digging for food in the remains of his backpack.

“I’m sorry…” he said, dejected, then came back with some food in silence.

Emilia and Enix sat by the campfire in the middle of the forest crossroads, roasting sausages so they could finally have their breakfast for the day. When the druid looked at her friend, however, she noticed his usual cheery demeanor had been replaced by somber melancholy.

“Why the, uhh…” she blurted out awkwardly, and Enix raised his eyes from the ground for a brief moment.

“Why the long face, kid?” Emilia finished, and Enix gave her a miserable glare.

“…” the squire remained silent, turning his eyes away from the wood elf.

“I…” he tried to say, but purposefully bit his tongue.

“…”

“Forget about it…” he murmured.

“I’m just a burden anyway…” he added.

“…”

Emilia sighed. Her mood for eating was ruined, so she put away her would-be breakfast and turned to face Enix directly, inching closer towards him as they were sitting on a makeshift log bench.

“Hey… kiddo.” she said. “There’s something I haven’t told you, Sienna, Cedric, or anyone else for that matter.”

“Well, maybe Elly—but she knows just about everything about me already, so, y’know…” she added.

Enix raised his eyes from the ground again, but didn’t look at the druid just yet. Instead, his gaze remained transfixed on the flickering flames of the campfire in front of him.

“Ahem.” Emilia cleared her throat. “I, uhh…”

“…”

“I know how it feels…” she said in an unusually somber tone of voice.

The fiendfolk’s eyes widened, and his ears perked up. He turned his head towards the druid, who began her monologue:

“I know how it feels to be the odd one out.”

“I could tell just from looking at you that… you’ve been there too, haven’t you?”

Enix nodded.

“Yeah. I thought so.”

“…”

Emilia gazed longingly into the campfire. The thought of talking about her life in the Duchy of Sen’Caill made her feel like her heart was in her throat, but—if it meant opening up to a friend—she would do whatever it takes.

“…”

“For me, it was my village.” Emilia continued.

“My neighbors, my family, my so-called friends…”

“They… counted me out of everything.”

“I was always… the weird kid.”

“See, back in Sen’Caill, we had many rules you outsiders wouldn’t comprehend.”

“Like, for example…”

“We went through mandatory druidic training. Every kid, no matter the race.”

“We were taught how to tune out emotions. How to be calm, quiet, serious… That sort of thing.”

“And anyone who didn’t fit the mold was… a troublemaker.”

“A rebel to be punished.”

“…”

“I didn’t do anything too egregious, y’know?”

“…”

“I was just…”

“…”

“I couldn’t control my emotions like others could.”

“When I was happy, I felt overjoyed.”

“When I was sad, I felt miserable.”

“I never experienced what it was like to feel… indifferent.”

“There was always something extreme tugging at my heartstrings.”

“…”

“And the village elders didn’t like that.”

“Not one bit, they didn’t.”

“…”

“They…”

“…”

“Look, in Sen’Caill, people aren’t very open, y’know?”

“…”
“They just judge… exclude… point fingers…”

“…”

“As a kid, I… didn’t know what was wrong with me.”

“Nobody told me.”

“In fact, I don’t think the elders knew either…”

“I was just… weird.”

“A little too eccentric, if… if I’m using this word correctly.”

“I’m not Elly—she’s the one who’s good with big words, haha. Ha…”

“…”

“Anyway…”

“I had strange needs.”

“I still do.”

“For instance…”

“I couldn’t go on with my day when it was completely quiet… I needed noise, always, at all times—even if it meant talking to myself.”

“I also couldn’t sit still…”

“I tapped my feet, twirled my hair, cracked my knuckles…”

“…”

“People said it was annoying. Distracting. Improper…”

“…”

“But I couldn’t help it… y’know?”

“Even if they… b-beat me for it, I…”

“It wasn’t something I could HELP.”

“I just HAD to do it, or… or I would’ve gone crazy, y’know?”

“…”

“Though maybe…”

“Maybe I am… a little bit crazy… Haa…”

“…”

“Maybe I DO have a few screws loose, if you know what I mean.”

“…”

“Ahem.” Emilia cleared her throat.

“So, anyway…”

“When it was time to choose my druidic circle, I decided to become a dragonspeaker.”

“Hehe.”

“Dragons always fascinated me, y’see…”

“…”

“Did you know some wyrmlings can speak multiple languages the moment they hatch…?”

“They, like… absorb them from their surroundings.”

“You could drop a dragon egg underwater and—if it hatches—it’s going to speak the merfolk tongue, o-or, or…”

Enix stared at Emilia blankly.

“Right, sorry.”

“Ahem.”

“Point is…”

“When I was done with my dragonspeaker rites—y’know, rites of passage, and all that…”

“The villagers didn’t really want me staying home. At the village, I mean.”

“They made up excuses as to why I should leave.”

“Explore the world, learn practical things about dragons, so on…”

“…”

“I knew what they were whispering about me, when they thought I couldn’t hear them…”

“…”

“So…”

“I obliged them.”

“I left, of my own free will… Haah…”

“…”

“To think I did everyone a favor… by disappearing.”

“…”

“…”

“Funny how that works, doesn’t it?”

“…”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me…” Emilia teared up.

“If there was any way to fix me, BELIEVE ME, I would have tried it by now.”

“…”

“But…” she sighed. “I haven’t found one, so…”

“For now… I just smile through it—or, I try my darndest to do so, at least…!”

Emilia gave Enix a weak smile.

“And I’m sure you have your own doubts about yourself…”

“But don’t let them win—alright, kiddo?”

“…”

“If I surrendered to my doubts…”

“I wouldn’t be sitting here, talking to you right now.”

“…”

“You get what I’m saying?”

Enix nodded affirmatively.

“Good… Good.” the druid replied, smiling through teary eyes.

“Ahem.”

“Sorry, I don’t usually—”

Enix decided to grab the wood elf’s hand out of the blue, holding it with both of his own.

“It’s okay…” he murmured.

“We can’t always pretend like… something doesn’t bother us.” he added.

“…”

“You can’t always be so lively, and… I can’t always play my part… of the cheerful, helpful squire.”

“I don’t always believe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel…”

“I…”

“…”

“I merely try to convince myself that one exists.”

“…”

“That’s what helps me pull through.”

“But, sometimes, it’s too much…”

“Even for me.”

“…”

“I’ve lost two masters thus far…”

“Master Andreus, who noticed the scrawny little boy that I was, and adopted me from my orphanage…”

“And… Mr Gufrisson…”

“Who taught me how to persevere…”

“…”

“I really don’t want to lose … another person like that, you know…”

“…”

“Lady Sienna is my new mentor.”

“If something were to happen to her…”

“…”

“…”

“I don’t even want to know how I’d react.”

“…”
“I don’t know… if I could go on any further.”

“…”

Enix let go of Emilia’s hands, turning around to face the campfire again.

“…”

“Y’know, you have a way with words, for your age. Haha.” the druid said.

“…”

“T-Thanks, I suppose.” Enix smiled weakly. “I picked up some words from Sienna.”

“…”

“She’s awesome, you know…”

“…”

“…”

“But… you’re pretty cool, too.” Enix chuckled, and the druid smiled in return.

“…”

Emilia joined the fiendfolk in somberly staring at the campfire. Not in the mood for breakfast anymore, both of them decided to relax for a bit before attempting to find their way out of the forest.

“Hey…” Emilia said, addressing Enix.

“Thanks for being straight with me, kid.” she added with a weak smile. “I know it must be hard for you to, y’know.. bring this stuff up.”

“Likewise.” Enix smiled. “But, I must say…”

“I’m very glad you opened up first.” he explained. “If it wasn’t for your courage, I… wouldn’t have the guts to talk about all this… to anyone.”

“I think what I’m trying to say is…” he continued. “Thank you, for giving me that courage.”

“No problem, kiddo.” Emilia chuckled. “I may have a few screws loose, but…”

“If you’re ever feeling like you stick out like the sore thumb of the world…”

“You know who you can count on!” Emilia said, grabbing the fiendfolk by the horns and gently tousling his messy hair.

“Haha, yeah.” Enix smiled. “Thanks.”

“But…” he added. “Now what?”

Emilia stood up, stretching her arms and legs after sitting on her rather uncomfortable log-bench for a prolonged period of time. Once she put out the campfire, she said:

“Now, we’re coming home.”

“I think I know the way outta these woods—if you trust me, that is.” she added.

“Lead the way!” Enix smiled enthusiastically, his tail wagging behind him.

Chapter 2

Beyond the Border

In a tavern in the town of Mistwich, two adventurers were trying to fight their hangovers with coffee and medicinal herbs respectively.

“Urgh…” Cedric groaned. “My limbs are all sore.”

“What in the bloody hells was I doing last night?!” he muttered, angry with himself.

“It’s best we don’t know…” Elynere murmured. “I feel sick to my stomach, for instance.”

“Not willing to get into why that is.” she added.

“Though I do have… a theory.” she said, looking at all the empty bottles of beer dumped in the corner of the tavern.

“Where’s the barkeep, anyway?” she inquired. “The trash from last night is, like… still here!”

“I dunno, beats me.” Cedric said.

“…”

“Hey…”

“Did you hear that?” the wizard asked.

“Hear what…?” the dark elf replied, perplexed.

Suddenly, loud, armored footsteps could be heard approaching the tavern. The door swung open, and through it, a shadowy figure tossed a tied-up bandit inside the establishment. The figure walked closer towards the two adventurers, revealing herself to be none other than…

“Sienna?!” Cedric and Elynere exclaimed in unison.

“W-What… Where have you BEEN?!” Elynere stammered. “Girl, you’ve been gone ALL NIGHT.”

“Ahem.” the elven hero coughed.

“Right, I meant… Ma’am, lady, uhh—” Elynere said, flustered.

“No, not what I meant…” Sienna sighed.

“Look at THIS…” she said, pointing towards the restrained bandit.

“Mmph!” he said, but his mouth was full of rags and bound with rope.

“Quiet, or you will lose your tongue…” Sienna snapped.

“Now, as I was trying to say…” she continued. “This mercenary is a trained assassin; he was hired to kill me while I was… Out.”

“Out…?” Cedric inquired. “Gods, can you be any less specific?”

“That is none of your concern, wizard…” Sienna scoffed. “What matters is the fact I have returned, but… Almost did not.”

“All because of this petty bandit.” she said, nudging her captive with her boot.

“A-Are you okay though, Miss Picarello…?” Elynere muttered. “Your armor, it’s—”

“It’s stained red—redder than my hair, even. Red like… blood, and a lot of it, come to think of it…” Cedric interjected.

“Just what in the hells happened to you last night?!” he exclaimed.

Suddenly, the tavern door swung open once more—this time, revealing two different figures. An elf, and a devilspawn.

“MY LADY!” the devilspawn exclaimed.

Enix ran up to the elven hero, greeting his mistress with a big hug.

“Woah there…” Sienna said, taken by surprise.

“See? Told ya she’d be fine!” Emilia smiled.

“Emi?!” Elynere gasped. “Where were you this morning?!”

“Don’t tell me—” she started.

“No, I didn’t go with Miss Picarello—if that’s what you’re asking, haha!” Emilia interjected

“I woke up kinda early, and so did Enix, sooo….” she shrugged.

“I kind of, like… Took him for training, to blow off some steam.”

“Then we got LOST in the forest, looking for Miss Sienna, and umm…”

“We had a good talk! I’ll just leave it at that.”

“????????” Elynere stared at her partner dumbfounded.

“But, uhh, yeah!” Emilia exclaimed. “We’re all back together, and better than ever!”

“…”

“And who’s this guy on the ground?” she said, pointing towards the tied-up assassin.

Cedric approached Sienna.

“Looks like this time I won’t be the one with some explaining to do.” he said with a smug expression.

“Do not think I forgot, wizard…” Sienna scoffed. “You still owe me explanations from yesterday…”

“Right, right—but first, we should probably interrogate the guy who just tried to kill you.” Cedric suggested.

“I have a feeling he might know something important about the whole underground gang thing.” he added.

“Oh, really…?” Sienna replied sarcastically.

“Mhm.” Cedric nodded, equally as sarcastically. “Just a hunch though, so don’t sweat it, darling.”

“…” Sienna gave the wizard a judging glare.

“Let us move on with our mission…” she added, kneeling before the bound assassin and undoing his restraints. The man knew better than to try anything funny, so he shakily laid on the ground, covering the back of his head with his hands in a clear gesture of surrender.

“It seems you already know what to do.” Sienna said. “Very good…”

“Now, tell me everything you know about the local gang in the area.” the knight said. “Quickly.”

“R-Right away, ma’am!” the assassin stammered. “Just don’t hurt me, ma’am.”

“I will if you do not plan on hastening.” the knight murmured. “Go on.”

“ALRIGHT, alright—look…” the man exclaimed. “I’m not one of ‘em hardcore loyalists, okay?!”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about whatever the gang believes in, I just… Do the things I do to support my family at home.” he explained.

“And what DOES your gang believe in, hmm?” Cedric interjected.

“W-Well, the boss, he’s… He’s always on the lithogram with someone.” the assassin added. “A short but swole man, full brown beard, glasses with different colored panes—”

“That doesn’t sound like anyone we’ve seen yet.” Elynere remarked.

“Hold on, let him finish.” Sienna interjected.

“We don’t even know his name!” the assassin added. “Everybody calls him ‘Chief Leader’, or something similar.”

“It’s, like, one title above b-big boss.” he explained.

“Big Boss?” Sienna inquired. “As in, Big Boss Ricky?”
“W-Wait, you know Ricky?!” the assassin exclaimed. “What’s with him?!”

“First, elaborate… Just how much do you know?” Sienna inquired.

“Ricky was… taken out, recently.” the assassin explained. “A group of adventurers just like you w-waltzed into his club—a branch of our organisation, y’see.”

“I was tasked with…”

“…”

“Wait a minute…”

“Oooooh.”

“So THAT’S why they paid me to hunt YOU down!”

“You’re the guys that put down Ricky!”

The adventurers stared the assassin down with confused eyes.

“Were you… not aware of this?” Sienna asked.

“Hells no!” the man scoffed.  “I wasn’t listening to the briefing, I just glanced over at your portraits, marked you on my map, and went on my merry way trying to… y’know.”

“Gotta feed my family somehow, right?” he chuckled. “No, but… now it kind of makes sense.”

“…Why you were my target, and all.” he added.

“Some higher-up told me something about Ricky, but I didn’t really listen—I didn’t worry about the why.” the assassin explained. “Just who and where.”

“And does this realisation not frighten you…?” Sienna inquired. “That your targets are now your executioners?”

“W-Well, I mean, yeah—totally, but,” the assassin stammered. “I’m just glad things are making sense now.”

Sienna inched closer, practically whispering in her former assailant’s ear.

“What good will that do after I bury you six feet deep in the mud…?” she murmured in a husky voice.

“Because,” the assassin started. “If I bothered to listen, and actually knew WHY I had to go after you… I wouldn’t have taken this gig.”

“See, I never liked Ricky—the bastard was creepy as all hells, and not to mention, terribly devoted.” he added.

“Devoted to what exactly?” Elynere asked.

“The weird v-voices he claims he’s been hearing.” the assassin replied. “Or rather, claimed, now that he’s—”

“Yeah, yeah—that’s all nice and dandy, but,” Cedric interjected. “Before we snap your neck, we ought to know a little more about the nature of your little organisation—wouldn’t you agree?”

“M-My neck..?” the man stammered. “But, h-hold on! I’ve been cooperative so far, right?!”

“That… That has to amount to something!”
“Come on, people—I’ve got a pair of daughters to feed!” the man pleaded.

“…” Sienna looked at the assassin coldly, almost considering Cedric’s suggestion, but hesitating at the last second.

“No…” she said.

“We will not be ending your life.” she declared. “Not this day, or the next—if you never trouble us again, that is.”

“Y-Yes! Thank you, ma’am! I won’t!” the assassin cried out. “Promise!”

“Just one more thing.” Elynere butted in.

“You gotta tell us about your Chief, man.” she added. “Where can we find him?”

“Hmm…” the assassin thought, wiping tears of joy off his face. “H-He’s spending most of his time with that… strange cabal that Ricky’s been trying to get in touch with.”

“Y’know how it is in Goldwall… People believe in all sorts of freaky things.” he said. “Voodoo, curses, hexes… Demons.”

Sienna’s ears perked up. “Jackpot”, she thought.

“The last one…” she murmured in a serious tone. “Tell me more about demons.”

“W-Wha—” the assassin said. “Who, me?!”

“Oh, no ma’am, I’m… I’m not into that stuff.” he explained. “Ricky tried to get into it, and you probably saw how that went.”

“That I did…” Sienna replied somberly.

“That we did!” Enix said suddenly, approaching the assassin out of nowhere. “Now, Mr Bad Guy, if Lady Sienna wasn’t clear enough, then allow me to explain your situation to you~!”

“So, you’ve got two choices:” he explained.

“You can either tell us about your gang’s plans,” the fiendfolk said. “Or, you will have to deal with my… less-friendly friends!”

“Like Mr Cedric, who—if you haven’t noticed—doesn’t care as much about your wellbeing as me and Lady Sienna do!” he explained.

“Damn straight.” Cedric chuckled with a smug expression. “Don’t test us, pal.”

“So what will it be, Mr Bad Guy?” Enix smiled, extending his hand to the kneeling assassin.

“…”

Just like that, after a thorough interrogation, the unusually-cooperative gangster was handed over to local authorities, who gave him a sentence for assault instead of for an assassination attempt; something the adventurers made a crucial part of their deal with him. In exchange for a lighter sentence, the assassin had to explain everything he knew to the heroes. And so he did.

From the man’s ramblings, Sienna and friends deduced that Mistwich’s underground crime gang was just one of many scattered throughout the Duchy of Goldwall. Every one of those gangs has a cryptic, mysterious leader who’s “in cahoots” with a dark cabal of sorts, as the assassin put it. These leaders all collectively answer to a single individual, who they contact privately via lithograms.

A lithogram is a communication device resembling a pair of magical stones that automatically inscribe themselves with the speaker’s words upon activation, then transmit the messages to the other side, emulating long-distance, letter-based correspondence, albeit with instant-speed delivery. Exceedingly rare and very fragile, they cost a fortune and fall apart after around a month of extensive usage—as such, only the wealthy can afford to switch from letters to lithograms, which is quite important, because it means the collective overseer of all the underground crime gangs of the Duchy of Goldwall must be disgustingly wealthy to be able to afford so many.

This, of course, narrows the list of potential candidates to just one city, where the wealthiest of the wealthy reside: the capital city of Gildengar, colloquially known as the City of Gold—home to the Golden Bastion and other monuments to aristocratic decadence.

After witnessing the assassin be sentenced to jail for assault, the adventurers decided to visit Mistwich’s famous coffeehouse—“The Longing Hag”—for a quick break from exploring the area, as the nice, sunny weather from earlier in the morning had come to pass, and Mistwich’s classic combination of fog and rain swooped in to ruin the day.

At the comfy albeit a little gloomy establishment, the adventurers sat together around a circular table, discussing the information given to them by the captured gang member. During these discussions, one question stood out in particular:

What of the gangs’ unified plan?

What is their ultimate end goal?

“We cannot be certain.” Sienna explained, addressing her allies’ concerns. “The assassin told us Ricky’s dark cabal is cavorting with demons, and that the mastermind behind everything is even more secretive than the local gang’s so-called Chief.”

“In Hessandrelian, please…” Emilia rolled her eyes, drawing circles with a spoon in Elly’s coffee while the dark elf wasn’t looking.

“What I am trying to say is…” Sienna said, irritated. “We have no concrete evidence, nor any good leads…”

“Only guesses…”

“…”

“I… I’ve an idea.” Elynere chimed in.

“Go on…” Sienna inquired.

“Didn’t Cedric mention he had a friend who’s… knowledgeable about demons, or something like that?” the dark elf asked.

“Yes, I did say that.” Cedric replied. “Your point?”

“Maybe they could… shed some light on the topic?” Elly suggested. “They should know a thing or two about demonic c-cabals, right?”

“…” Cedric remained silent for a moment, as if overtaken by intense, deep thinking.

“They live in Falkenfield though,” he said, dejected.

“O-Oh…” Elynere pouted.

Enix looked at his allies’ faces with a confused stare.

“Umm…” he started. “And, what does that mean, exactly?”

“Is that bad?” the squire asked innocently.

“Yeah? Obviously?” Cedric scoffed. “I mean, just LOOK at us—we’re all elves of different kinds here, save for you.”

“I… I still don’t know what you mean, Mr Cedric.” Enix stammered.

“Did you sleep through your history classes or what?!” Cedric asked angrily.

“I…” Enix murmured, lowering his head.

Sienna nudged the wizard, whispering something into his ear.

“Do not be too harsh on Enix—he never went through proper education…” she whispered.

“The orphanage he grew up in had… selective teaching programmes, from what he had told me.” the knight explained in a hushed voice. “Only a few of the smartest children around got enrolled in schools…”

“Wow…” Cedric replied, feeling bad for the orange-skinned fiendfolk sulking in front of him. “Ahem.”

“…”

The sounds of rain hitting the coffeehouse’s large windows made the atmosphere feel bleak and hopeless. In order to lighten up the mood, Cedric decided he would offer his uneducated ally a private lesson.

“Well then, Enix… Allow me to jog your memory a little bit, alright?” the wizard said in an encouraging tone.

“See, the Duchy of Falkenfield has had a turbulent history of elves warring with humans.” he started. “During the Great Coalition Wars—”

“During what now?” Enix interjected. “S-Sorry, it’s… a little too fast for me—your explanation, I mean.”

Cedric gritted his teeth. “That’s okay.” he said, holding in his impatience.

“You know Randwynn, correct?” Cedric asked. “The kingdom, I mean.”

“Of course! Lady Sienna hails from there!” Enix smiled. “It’s an elven country run by mages, right?”

“Precisely. Back in the day—before you or me were even born—it used to be known as the Mentaventian Empire.” the wizard explained.

“An empire in name only, it was a nation ruled by the military. High-ranking generals ordered everybody else around, enforcing strict rules. Got that?” he said.

“Uh huh, yeah.” Enix said, enthralled with the wizard’s tales. “I’m getting it so far!”

“Great.” Cedric smiled. “Now, at one point, the high elves of Mentaventia intended to cross the Oresend Mountains—they looked at the disjointed dwarven nations, fresh after a civil war, and thought:”

“Why don’t we trample over them and finally get to subjugate the pesky humans of the West Coast?”

“And that’s what they tried to do.” Cedric finished.

“They… failed, right?” Enix asked worriedly.

Cedric frowned. “What do you think, idiot?!” he thought, but before the words came out of his mouth, he bit himself in the tongue in a show of restraint.

“Yes…” Cedric replied.

“That’s why we’re speaking Hessandrelian right now, and not Mentaventian.” Cedric explained.

“Okay, but… what about Falkenfield?” Enix inquired. “We were talking about it just now, but—”

“Fret not, I’m getting there.” the wizard interjected. “So, Mentaventia lost against a coalition of nations who opposed their rule.”

“That alliance—the Hessandrelian Coalition—reconquered the olden human lands of Falkenfeld from elvish hands.” he continued. “Once freed, the lands were reorganized as the Duchy of Falkenfield, where an armored madman known as John Paul Argentus rules the place to this day.”

Emilia recognized the name being mentioned. She heard it from the folks of her village back in the day, but only now realised the man they spoke about was too old for a human. Too old to be still kicking, that is.

“Wait, isn’t he a human though?” Emilia chimed in. “How is this guy still around?!”

“Good question.” Cedric replied. “Nobody knows. Nobody ever saw him without his armor off.”

“My theory goes that he’s either a lich or a vampire.” he laughed.

Upon the mention of the word “vampire”, Sienna almost choked on her coffee.

“Are you alright, my lady?” Enix tilted his head worriedly.

Cold sweat ran across Sienna’s face. She felt as if she was being interrogated, all of a sudden.

“Y-Yes…” the knight replied. “Now, continue your history lesson, you two…”

“Ah, yes—as I was saying…” Cedric continued.

“According to an urban legend, Argentus and his private army—the Holy Order of the Falcon—had personally felled at least…” he said.

“What was it again?” the wizard inquired. “A million? Maybe two?”

Elynere turned pale, and her eyes widened.

“Let’s say a million and a half.” Cedric said. “They felled a million and a half of high-elven soldiers.”

“Wait, no—scratch that.” he added. “I think they slaughtered civilians, too—would nicely explain why the number is so high.”

“O-Okay, that’s enough!” Elynere interjected with nervous laughter. “We get it by now—Falkenfield is NOT a place to be.”

“Not for our adventuring party it isn’t, but for my friend?” Cedric said. “A Ransenian human?”

Elynere flinched instinctively at the mention of the Shogunate.

“Who the what now…?” she asked.

“Masaru. My Friend.” Cedric explained. “While they may hail from Ransen, they speak Hessandrelian very well.”

Emilia gave her partner a concerned look, and Elynere reciprocated it.

“Are they, umm…” Elynere tried to ask.

“No, they’re not native—if that’s what you’re asking.” Cedric scoffed. “They’re from a family of runaway slaves, and left the country very quickly.”

Elynere breathed a sigh of relief, and Emilia smiled.

“Good!” the wood elf exclaimed. “See, Elly hates the scalies from there—you know, the guys who run the place!”

“SHH!” the dark elf shushed her friend. “Not so loud! T-That’s… inappropriate to say in public.”

“But it’s true, isn’t it?” Emilia asked curiously. “You know how they are. Bunch of pricks…”

“I like dragons as much as the next guy—hells, I like dragons MORE than the next guy!” she added. “But…”

“It’s the DRACONS from Ransen that I can’t stand, y’know?” Emilia explained, but Elynere was too shocked to stop her.

“WHY IS SHE SAYING THIS RIGHT NOW?!” Elynere thought. “WE’RE AT A COFFEHOUSE, GODS DAMN IT!”

“You’d THINK that humanoid dragon people would be awesome, right?” she said. “Wrong!”

Emilia sipped on her tea. Her cup was filled with more sugar than water by this point.

“Maybe it’s a cultural thing, I dunno—I don’t even know much about my own folks’ traditions, let alone someone else’s.”

“BUT!” she exclaimed. “I know the Shogunate’s dracons do some terrible stuff—Elly’s even seen some, first hand!”

“They drive away outsiders, make everyone follow strict codes, trade freaky drugs, live in all kinds of weird hierarchies, and… worse of all—I think—is that they kidnap and sell—”

“OKAY, THAT’S—that’s enough sugar for you, Emi. F-Fahaha!” Elynere interjected, grabbing Emilia’s teacup and sweating profusely. “Sheesh, you… you really gotta learn to drink your tea with less of that stuff.”

“I-It’s bad for you, y’know… Gets you riled up too much. Fahaha… Ha.”

After a brief minute of awkward silence, Sienna coughed:

“Ahem.”

“Prejudice aside…” she said, glaring at the wood elf. “How would your Ransenian friend be of use to us right now, Cedric?”

“Well…” the wizard murmured. “They are a demonologist, so… go figure.”

Sienna thought for a moment.

“…”

“…”

“We should go visit. All five of us, together.” she declared.

“W-What, us? In FALKENFIELD?” Elynere stammered.

“Together, we have—” the knight tried to say.

“No? Are you c-crazy…?” the dark elf interjected. “We are NOT going to a place where most elves are thrown to live in dingy slums!”

“Most does not mean all…” Sienna retorted. “This means we have a chance…”

“???????” Elynere could not believe what the knight was saying.

“Okay, okay—this COULD work, just… hear me out!” Emilia exclaimed.

“Cedric: you’re a half-elf, arentcha?” she asked.

“Oui.” the wizard nodded affirmatively. “The Monteroquian variety.”

“Ok, whatever—the point is: your ears are tiny, compared to the rest of us.” Emilia explained

“T-They’re perfectly normal-sized, I don’t know what you are insinuating.” Cedric scoffed.

“If we dress you up in a tight leather cap…” Emilia continued, ignoring the wizard’s complaints. “Like, a horse jockey hat, or something.”

“THEN…”

“We could cover your ears up.” she finished. “And nobody would bat an eye!”

“…” Elynere thought. “You know what…”

“This could indeed work.” she admitted.

“Miss Picarello would wear her helmet, and so would Enix.” the dark elf continued. “As for me, I-I think I’d rather just… chug a potion I made from mimicberry extract.”

“Oh, and what does that do?” Enix asked excitedly.

“I-It’s a disguise potion. When I drink it, I gain temporary shapeshifting powers.” Elynere explained. “Of a limited variety, but… It’s better than nothing.”

“Great, so the plan is settled then!” Cedric said, standing up from his seat. “Let’s not waste any time—a public transit carriage should be here in around fifteen minutes.”

“How can you be sure…?” Sienna inquired.

“I know the local carriage schedules like the back of my hand.” Cedric stated proudly. “See, I used to frequent Goldwall when I raised money for me and Masaru’s apartment.”

“Y-You live there too?! As a HALF-ELF?!” Elynere exclaimed, surprised. “Are you insane?!”

“Not really.” Cedric murmured in a somber tone. “I pay half of the rent, but… I let Masaru have the whole apartment to themselves.”

“They’re so busy with their studies, I…”

“…”

“I felt like helping financially, that’s all.”

“Oh, I see.” Elynere said.

“…”

“Ahem.” Sienna coughed. “About that carriage of yours…”

“Oh, yes. Let’s go.” Cedric commanded, leading his friends to the stop where public transit carriages usually stop by. Just like he said, a carriage arrived in front of the adventurers not too long after, offering a safe passage beyond the border for a generous sum of one gold coin per adventurer.

“Ah, t-this is… A week’s worth of labour, where I’m from…” Elynere stammered.

“No way, seriously?” Cedric chuckled. “This is chump change!”

“…” Elynere remained silent.

“Alright, alright—this ride is on the house.” the wizard smirked, handing five coins to the driver and helping his friends get inside the wagon.

Their ride was short to be sure, but rather pleasant once they had left the foggy reaches of Mistwich, and gotten closer to the border between Goldwall and Falkenfield.

According to Cedric, the public transit carriage system between the two duchies was established no earlier than a couple years ago. The idea came from disgruntled merchants and wandering traders who lost a good chunk of their profits by paying third parties for safe passage between the two regions. Duchess Lenoir of Goldwall made a deal with Duke Argentus’s advisors on matters of infrastructure, allowing for the construction of a new, safer trade route between the two regions, but only on the condition that it wouldn’t be privatized, and that the general public would also have access to it. As such, the trade route became less efficient for its desired demographic (the merchants), and more appealing to civilians seeking to travel between the duchies for personal reasons.

A few hours past noon, the adventurers have finally arrived at Fort Torrington: a smallish city in the Duchy of Falkenfield, known for being home to some of the oldest universities in the country. Fort Torrington, affectionately called “Slab City” by the locals, is famous for its minimalist, rectangular architecture, which Cedric was quick to point out.

“Did you know?” the wizard started. “This place was among the first cities in the region to develop communal housing.”

“Weird.” Emilia shrugged. “My folks lived like that for centuries, if not longer.”

“No, I don’t mean the dirt-poor tribal stuff.” the wizard scoffed. “I’m talking about CIVILIZED communal housing—professional work, and all that jazz.”

“Rude…” Emilia murmured, before returning to quiet fidgeting with another wooden stress toy.

“How many of these do you—okay, nevermind.” Cedric bit his tongue. “Anyway, as I was saying—”

“We have arrived…” Sienna interjected.

“Pardon?” Cedric inquired.

“The address you gave us…” the knight explained. “This is the place, no…?”

Cedric looked around.

“Oh my—yes, it most certainly is!” he exclaimed.

“See, I told you having a brief exposition about the city would kill a bunch of time!” he added proudly, but Emilia and Elynere each rolled their eyes.

“Alright, now—the moment of truth.” the wizard said, approaching one of the apartment buildings. “Is Masaru home right now, or will we have to wander aimlessly like bumbling idiots?”

“…”

The wizard entered the building.

“…”

He told his adventuring party to wait, then walked up the stairs by himself.

“…”

On the third floor, he knocked on the door to his friend’s apartment.

“…”

No response.

“Ah, right—I have the keys, don’t I?” the wizard chuckled. “How silly of me.”

“Alright, let me just…” he said.

As Cedric tried to slide his key into the keyhole, the door opened by itself. It wasn’t even locked to begin with.

“Oh! Thank you, Masaru.” he said happily. “I’ll be brief, so—”

“…”

“Masaru?” Cedric said.

“…”

No response.

It’s not Masaru who opened the door.

“…”

Cedric cautiously entered the room to investigate, finding everything jumbled up. In the living room, the bookshelves had their contents hastily flipped through and tossed on the floor, and the armchair was knocked over—so were the desks and the chairs in both bedrooms: the one Cedric once used, and the one Masaru typically stayed in. Ripped bedsheets and torn pillows were all that remained of the once neatly-made beds that always presented themselves nicely in the apartment’s bedrooms.

“…”

“What on Astoria happened here…?” the wizard thought to himself, investigating further.

“…”

“Huh.” he said, noticing a strange, spherical object sneakily wrapped inside an empty pillowcase. The object was some sort of brass device: a metal ball with a circular glass panel inside it and a panel of strange buttons next to it.

Upon examining the buttons more closely, Cedric accidentally activated the device, jumping backwards in surprise. Instead of exploding like he initially anticipated, Cedric was met with the face of his friend, albeit… Not quite the real deal.

“…”

“Masaru…?” Cedric asked coyly.

The image of his friend standing before him was faintly transparent. It also had a purple tint to it. Upon closer inspection, Cedric concluded that this Masaru was an illusion—or rather, a pre-recorded, illusionary message left by his friend. With the press of another button, Masaru’s illusion began to move and speak, making Cedric momentarily jolt.

“H-Hello? Is this working?” Masaru said.

“Yeah, hey—It’s me, Cedric!” the wizard exclaimed, but the illusion clearly wasn’t responding. It was a prerecorded message, after all…

“…”

“Okay, I think it’s working…” the illusion spoke. “My name is Masaru Ichiwara, but close acquaintances call me Heaven.”

Cedric felt a chill running down his spine. In this moment, he knew it was the real deal—he knew only Masaru, or rather, only “Heaven” would be able to leave this message behind, so it surely wasn’t a dupe. Initially relieved about the legitimacy of the recording, Cedric quickly realised this meant something awful must have prompted his friend to make it.

“…”

“If anyone is watching this, I… They’re…” Masaru said.

“They’re onto me.”

“…”

“One of my professors is conspiring with them.”

“…”

“The Nederul Church, I believe they’re called…”

“…”

“I don’t have much time. I saw them stalking me on my way home.”

“…”
“They’re waiting until nightfall, and… they know nobody else will be home.”

“…”

“I just hope… someone finds this message. Or that…”

“…”

“Maybe Cedric comes in, just in time…”

“…”
“Hah…”

“…”

“Quite foolish of me to suggest as such.”

“…”

“It’s all happening so fast, he… He wouldn’t be able to get here in time.”

“…”

“I truly screwed up this time, didn’t I? Haha…”

“…”

“I shouldn’t have pried into Professor Fitzgerald’s study, but… At least now, if… if I can get out of this alive, then…”

“…”

“Maybe I can warn others. A-According to my findings, I… I wouldn’t be the first person he’d make disappear.”

“…”

“The thought terrifies me, still.”

“…”

“I’m scared to go out…”

“…”

“I feel like I’m being watched, from everywhere all at once… Thousands of invisible eyes staring at me.”

“A-And…”

“…”

“Cloaked figures, in the corner of my eye whenever I look outside the window…”

“…”

“Whoever you are, listener… If you have somehow managed to find this message…”

“…”

“I’ve read Mr Fitzgerald’s journal. His notes, his to-do list…”

“…”

“He’ll take me to Mistwich, somewhere underground. M-Maybe a dungeon of sorts.”

“…”

“W-Well, regardless… The entrance is—according to Professor Fitzgerald’s notes—somewhere behind the town hall.”

“…”

“They will undoubtedly do something to me… because they want something from me…”

“…”

“I-I just hope it doesn’t go further than torture.”

“…”

“Whoever you are, listener…”

“…”

“Please, help me out—would you?”

…

“T-Thanks in advance… I’m counting on you, whoever you are.”

…

The illusionary recording stopped moving. It was over. Cedric was no longer moving either, just standing there in the middle of an empty apartment and clenching his fists in rage. The wizard decided to angrily stomp about, knocking furniture over in a fit of anger before collapsing on the floor out of shame. On the floor, he thought to himself:

“…”

“Fuck…”

“…”

“I had one job.”

“…”

“But.”

“There’s a chance Masaru is still…”

“…”

“Yeah, I gotta move. Quickly.”

“No time to waste pondering this shit.”

With haste, Cedric rushed out of the building, meeting with his friends yet again. They looked relieved to finally see him again, having waited for the wizard for quite some time.

“What took you so long, dude?” Elynere asked playfully, not yet realising the terror that has set in on Cedric’s face. Upon raising his head from the ground, the wizard’s terrified facial expression quickly changed the mood of the conversation.

“Hey now—what happened…?” Sienna inquired. “Are you quite alright?”

“M-Masaru…” Cedric said, out of breath.

“They… They’re in grave danger.” he muttered.

Sienna walked up closer to the wizard, grabbing him by the shoulders in an attempt to calm his shaking body.

“Deep breaths…” she said. “Slow down a little.”

“Where is your friend, Cedric?” the knight asked calmly.

Cedric teared up a little, but luckily for him, nobody could see that from behind his sunglasses. With newfound determination, Cedric—motivated by guilt and the feeling of responsibility—decided to take immediate action and command his teammates around.

“We HAVE to get back to Mistwich.” he declared. “IMMEDIATELY.”

“W-What? Why?” Enix inquired, a little shaken. “We just got here—”

“THERE IS NO TIME!” Cedric exclaimed. “MASARU IS IN DANGER.”

“And if we don’t do anything, then…” he added, a little quieter this time around. “Others might get hurt, too.”

“I’m talking about… all of Mistwich.” he murmured in a dry, raspy voice, exhausted from yelling and grunting. “All of it, the whole town…”

“These gangs, they’re… dealing with forces they don’t understand.” Cedric said, out of breath again.

“We. Have. To. Stop. Them.” he said through his teeth, seething with rage.

Sienna wasted no time in pressing the wizard for any further answers. Satisfied with his reasoning, she told the wizard to lead the adventuring party to the nearest carriage, regardless of how expensive it is. What they found was a luxurious chariot driven by a handsome young angelspawn (or more politely: a caelo). The sharp-dressed chauffeur welcomed the party as they hurriedly entered his vehicle, demanding an exorbitant price for his services. Not needing his luxuries, but not having any other options at the moment, the party elected to bite the bullet and pay the man’s absurd fee, as that meant they wouldn’t have to wait 30 minutes for the next carriage to come their way.

“F-Fifty gold coins…” Elynere said, audibly gulping. “How are you going to live this down, Miss Picarello?”

“I will not…” Sienna sighed while staring at her suddenly ever-so-skinnier sack of coins.

“But…” she added. “Lives are at stake, Elynere.”

“If we do not hurry, and what Cedric is saying is true, then…”

“Many people might lose their lives…”

“And fifty gold coins is nothing compared to a loss such as this…”

Chapter 3

Homecoming

On a cold, rainy evening in the town of Mistwich, five adventurers found themselves face to face with a gruesome sight. Buildings burning, citizens panicking, city guards being torn to shreds by an inexplicable, supernatural force…

“No…” Cedric thought. “Were… Were we too late?!”

The town square—burning intensely in spite of heavy rain—was being ravaged by a colossal monstrosity of unclear proportions, partially because it was obscured by smoke, and partially because it was inherently unrecognizable, since…

“It’s a demon!” Enix exclaimed. “R-Right?!”

Cedric nodded affirmatively, observing the beast lay ruin to Mistwich one building at a time. The wizard then rushed right into the flames—luckily, Sienna managed to grab him by his cape just in time to pull him back and give him a stern lecture.

“What is wrong with you all of a sudden…?!” she inquired. “Do you have a death wish, or the like?”

“I HAVE to find Masaru!” Cedric exclaimed. “The demon, it’s… It’s focused on its rampage. Entirely!”

“And?!” Sienna asked angrily. “Why does that compel you to kill yourself?!”

“I can handle myself just fine, thank you very much!” the half-elf retorted angrily before pushing the knight off of him. Still high on adrenaline, Cedric ran right past a crowd of screaming, panicking civilians, using a Leap spell to parkour from one falling building to another. Bouncing from the structures as they fell, the wizard gracefully made his way to the town hall, only to find it fortified with makeshift barricades.

“Hey, you—get in! They’re comin’!” someone shouted.

Cedric turned around, only to find wolf-like creatures sprinting towards him. The creatures were red and fleshy, wearing only small patches of thick, black fur on their otherwise skinless bodies. In place of their heads, these entities seemed to possess gaping, toothy maws with bright red lights deep inside their throats, almost beckoning anyone who saw them to come closer and willingly enter their gaping mouths, layered with rows upon rows of teeth. When Cedric snapped out of his initial confusion, he reached out to the people attempting to barricade themselves in the town hall.

“Masaru!” he exclaimed. “Do you know Masaru?!”

“What?” one of the people replied. “Dude, you gotta get in here quick—they’re almost on your tail!”

Left with no other choice, Cedric joined the survivors in their vain attempt at saving what was left of their little town. Fearing the colossal demon would arrive there soon, the wizard wasted no time in trying to meet his newfound allies, instead darting straight inside the building to look for some kind of backdoor. Inside, however, he already seemed to find what he was looking for.

The town hall’s interior was converted into a temporary hospital, housing multiple wounded civilians on homemade stretchers. One of them—a blonde person of short stature—looked frighteningly familiar.

“MASARU!” Cedric exclaimed, sprinting towards his friend on the stretcher.

“Oi, easy now!” a muscular dwarf stopped the wizard in his tracks. “These people are in bad shape. Unless you know healing magic, it’s best to let them rest for a while.” 

“REST?!” the wizard scoffed. “If your people don’t evacuate the wounded out of this town, they’re all going to DIE.”

“Y-Yes, we’re aware… We’re working on it, y’see.” the dwarf said somberly. “But…”

“We don’t have nearly enough men for the job.” he added. “Our frontline, it’s… it’s falling apart!”

“This… THING. The giant.” the dwarf explained. “When it spawned its ugly little underlings—the creatures you just saw, we…”

“We were pushed back all the way from the guard post… to here.” he finished.

“…”

“Listen, we need any help we can get.” the dwarf pleaded.

“…”

“You cannot kill that thing.” Cedric murmured.

“We know.” the dwarf replied. “But we distract it until we get enough people here, then… we’ll meet up with the others.”

“Others?” Cedric inquired.

“Yes… There’s an uprising going on, y’see. Our local gang grew tired of their Chief.” the dwarf explained.

“This is all his fault. That colossal thing over there?” he said. “That’s him. That WAS their Chief.”

“Oh—” Cedric whimpered.

“But fret not, kid.” the dwarf smiled. “The gang’s rebels are helping us organize a grand rescue—there’s a goblin girl leading them, but…”

The dwarf’s smile quickly faded.

“We, uhh… we got separated, y’see.” he added. “The goblin girl—Amiyam, as they call her—she’s all the way out there in the town square, or at least should be by now.”

Cedric had an idea.

“Town square? That’s…” he said. “That’s where I entered from!”

The dwarf raised one of his eyebrows.

“Really now?” he said with a doubtful tone. “How are you still alive then?!”

“A little bit of magic and risky jumps.” the wizard explained with newfound motivation. “Now, follow me—I’ll lead you to that goblin of yours.”

“See, my friends are also in the town square.” he explained. “If we all met together, we’d… Ah, forget the explanations—let’s move already!”

“Roger that, boy!” the dwarf replied. “After you!”

The half-elf and the dwarf veered their heads out of the town hall’s doors, only to find the barricades in front of the building’s main gate being battered down by crashing waves of demonic, four-legged monstrosities. The entities began using their alluring throat-lights to incapacitate their enemies, only to then swallow the armed civilians whole.

“The Voidhounds! They’re already after our guardsmen!” the dwarf exclaimed. “No good—we gotta take another route.”

“The WHAT now?!” the wizard yelped.

“Argh, no time to explain—that’s just how our diviners call them…” the dwarf said.

“Now, over there—follow me!” he said, leading Cedric to the town hall’s backdoor. Outside of the building, Cedric spotted a giant sinkhole in the ground—a sinkhole revealing the ruins of an underground structure, or rather, a system of dungeons.

“That’s—” Cedric tried to say.

“Where the gang lived, yes—right under our noses.” the dwarf interjected. “We mustn’t think about it now, though.”

“We have to get moving, boy!” he exclaimed. “Over here, in this alley!”

The dwarf and the wizard made their way through a quiet, abandoned alley where all the buildings were already destroyed. Running past burning remains of both homes and their former residents, the duo suddenly found themselves face to face with one of the voidhounds.

“To hells with it!” the dwarf exclaimed, firing a crossbow bolt at the beast and hitting it in the throat. Instead of reacting to the damage in any way, the creature turned around, as if ignoring the two.

“Huh?” Cedric thought.

Standing on its two hind legs, the creature assumed a humanoid stance, rapidly mutating its body in such a way that its limbs were more spindly and human-like. Now a distinctly humanoid entity, the creature turned around to face the dwarf and the wizard. Its face was that of a wolf, and in general, the monster resembled a werewolf—albeit furless, skinless, and with empty eyesockets that dripped black liquid onto the wet cobblestones of the road it was blocking.

“Listen closely, boy…” the dwarf said, pulling Cedric closer to himself.

“Take this.” the dwarf said, handing the wizard some kind of badge. “Show this to the goblin girl when you see her. She’ll know to trust you.”

“W-Wait a minute, what are you—” Cedric muttered.

“Best of luck to ya—me, though?” the dwarf chuckled. “My time has come.”

When the werewolf mutant began charging at him, the dwarf merely beat his chest like a gorilla, yelling:

“COME AND GET IT, YOU FILTHY, SLOBBERING MOTHERF—”

Cedric didn’t bother to stay and listen to the dwarf’s final words. Instead, using another Leap spell, he made his way to the town square, only to find his team fending off a pack of voidhounds.

“Mr Cedric, you’re alive!” Enix exclaimed, parrying a claw attack.

“YOU IDIOT! WHERE… Hngh… DID YOU GO?!” Elynere reprimanded the wizard while firing off concentrated blasts of light at the demonic creatures. “WE WERE… Ugh… WORRIED SICK, Y’KNOW?!”

“I know I kind of went my own way, BUT—it was well worth it, let me tell you!” Cedric smiled confidently, blasting one of the voidhounds with a bolt made of scorching green fire.

“Masaru is okay, and so are many other people… Though we must act fast!” he added. “They’re in the town hall, but first, we need to meet up with someone else.”

“Who…?” Sienna asked, casually shield-bashing a voidhound that attempted to lunge at her. “Where…?!”

Suddenly, the smell of wet horses permeated the air, and an incoming stampede could clearly be heard coming not too far from the town square. No matter how hard it rained, the buildings all around continued burning, and time was quickly running out for the adventurers.

“No time to explain—follow me!” Cedric exclaimed, immediately making his way towards the source of the sound. His friends followed him while simultaneously avoiding the attacks of multiple voidhounds, which were still chasing them with murderous intent.

As the heroes continued evading their demonic assailants—taking multiple hits on their way towards wherever Cedric was leading them to—they eventually jumped in front of an incoming legion of carriages, wagons, and all sorts of horse-drawn vehicles. The one leading the charge was being driven by a ginger-haired goblin girl, who had to stand upright on the driver’s seat just to see through the smoke that permeated the air of the ruined streets of Mistwich.

“HALT!” she exclaimed, stopping the stampede in its tracks. “YOU THERE, THE FIVE OF YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING STANDING HERE?!”

Before Sienna could try to diffuse the situation, Cedric stepped forward, presenting the goblin rogue with a badge given to him by the dwarf from earlier. The rogue’s eyes widened, and—after a momentary shock—she instructed her band of fellow ex-gangsters to continue driving further.

“Everybody, get your horses moving—we’re going to the town hall! NOW!” she shouted. “And you five… WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, DUMMIES?! GET IN HERE!”

“Come on, guys—no time to waste, like Mr Cedric said!” Enix exclaimed, hopping on the goblin’s wagon and urging his friends to do the same.

Having joined the rebel convoy, the five adventurers decided to chat up the goblin girl while she was driving them to the town hall.

“So… you were once with the gang, yes?” Sienna inquired.

“I guess you could say that, yuh.” the goblin replied. “Not anymore tho—now I’m doing my own thing, y’see.”

“Name’s Amiyam.” she blurted out. “But if we make it out of here… alive, then… You can call me Ami.”

“Nice to meet you, Ami!” Enix smiled.

“Oi, I said ‘if we make it out of here’, now, didn’t I?!” Amiyam replied with a flustered expression.

Cedric felt compelled to ask the goblin something important:

“The wounded, in the town hall—what are we going to do with them?”

“Ah, so you’ve been there already, huh?” Amiyam said. “How are they farin’ so far? On the ropes already?”

“I guess you could say that…” Cedric said nervously.

“Hah. Had a feelin’ that would be the case.” the goblin chuckled. “For years they’ve been pesterin’ our gang—the guards, I mean. And the town hall fancypants, too.”

“Weird as it is, I…” she said, her smile fading. “It doesn’t feel too great to hear they’re strugglin’, y’know?”

“I liked things back in the day, before Chief got into that stupid cult…”

“We were just plain ole robbers, playin’ cat and mouse with the coppers.”

“Oh well…”

“…”

“Oop!” the goblin yelped. “Bump in the road?”

“Nah, just more corpses… Great.” she groaned. “Alright y’all, get out of my wagon.”

“My men will get this thing, uhh… unstuck.” Amiyam explained. “And you?”

“Y’all are goin’ to help me load the other wagons with the injured folk.” she added. “Come on, lads—lots of work to do!”

The adventurers all gave each other glances and nods of understanding, before following the goblin into the town hall. Miraculously, the remaining guards and armed civilians inside have managed to survive long enough that the voidhounds besieging their sanctuary have since turned their attention elsewhere.

“There you are!” one of the guards shouted. “Gods, finally—Halfdan told us to look for you, but… This guy, right here…” he pointed to Cedric.

“He sent HIM instead, so… we stayed here and tended to the—”

“Yes, yes I KNOW!” Amiyam interjected. “No time for chit-chat now, Humphrey. We got a caravan of wagons outside, waitin’ for people to load them with.”

“Alright, Amiyam… Let’s get to it then.” Humphrey replied. “Heh.”

“Heh heh.” he chuckled again. “I never thought we’d be working side by side.”

The goblin blushed.

“Save the flattery for later, you doofus!” she retorted angrily. “Come on, chop chop—tell your men to grab the stretchers.

The remaining few guards that survived the massacre helped Humphrey and the adventurers load the wounded on the carriages of Amiyam’s rebels. Cedric made sure to personally carry Masaru to the carriage with his other party members—the one driven by Amiyam, leading the convoy. 

In the distance, the colossal demon in possession of the underground gang’s “Chief” could be seen slowly lumbering towards the town hall, shaking the ground with each step.

“Everybody get moving!” the goblin exclaimed. “We’re getting out of here!”

Following Amiyam’s orders, her band of rebels joined the convoy with carriages full of wounded civilians and the remaining town guards. The caravans each did their best to swerve out of the way of the hulking monstrosity chasing after them. Though a few were crushed to bits after their horses started panicking, most vehicles escaped the monster with very few casualties.

Having left Mistwich by this point, the heroes—driven someplace else by Amiyam—decided to heal up Masaru and try to wake them up.

“Can you hear me?” Elynere asked, but to no reply.

“Hello…?” Sienna inquired, but to no reply.

“…”

“Come on, buddy—you got this…” Cedric thought, cradling his friend. It was then when he heard Masaru start coughing.

“Masaru!” the wizard exclaimed. “Wake up! Please!”

“…”

A couple coughs later…
“Ugh…” the blonde human murmured. “Am… Am I…”

“Alive…?” they stammered.

Cedric surprised his friend with a heartfelt hug, embracing him hard enough to tilt the caravan’s wagon a little.

“Oi—watch it, fancypants!” the goblin exclaimed.

“Haha, sorry…” Cedric chuckled, wiping a single tear off his cheek. “Oh, man—I can’t believe it.”

“I thought you were a goner.” he added.

Masaru frowned.

“A part of me wishes I was…” they said somberly. “Back in that dungeon, they—”

“No, no—don’t say that!” Cedric interjected. “Come on, Heaven—anything but that!”
“It’s, I mean… Fuck. Ha… Ha…” Cedric laughed hysterically. “HAHAHAHA. Shit, I…”

“…”

The wizard took a deep breath.

“I am, so, SO glad… that you’re here right now.” Cedric said. “Safe and sound, all that…”

“I’ve…”

“WE’VE gotten ourselves tangled up in some deep shit, y’know, haha.” he laughed awkwardly, pointing to his teammates. “But… With your help, we could.”

“We could…”

“…”

“…”

“Ah, sorry.” the wizard said, lowering his head in shame. “Just a moment ago, I was… I was glad you turned out to be alright, but now here I am… trying to get you to fix my shit for me again.”

“FUCK, am I stupid, or what… Haha.” Cedric said, gently slapping his face with increasing force.

“Hey—” Masaru tried to say.

“I shouldn’t have left you there… Alone. Longer than ever before….” Cedric interjected, continuing to literally beat himself up.

“And it’s all my fault—again, as always, as usual, it’s ALL ME!” he exclaimed maniacally, with Emilia and Enix staring at him in quiet concern. Meanwhile, Elynere was sleeping, and Sienna observed the dialogue cautiously, trying not to intervene when it wasn’t needed.

“Hey…” Masaru said.

“A-And, even if I told myself… I wouldn’t make the same mistake, not twice, but THRICE,” Cedric continued. “I STILL fucked up. Big time.”

“HEY!” the demonologist exclaimed, shutting his friend up for a brief moment.

“I’m okay, and… that’s the important part.” they said calmly. “It means you didn’t fail—you did great. As well as you could have done, Cedric, and for that I am grateful.”

“So please, stop being so harsh on yourself…”

“After all, it’s my fault for sticking my nose… where I shouldn’t have.”

“…”

“If I had known Professor Fitzgerald had such ‘connections’ I… would’ve thought twice about snooping on him. Haha.” Masaru laughed awkwardly.

“Ahh, anyway…” they said, changing the topic.

“You, uhh, needed me for something… right?” they asked, but Cedric remained silent.

Still disappointed with himself, Cedric sighed, then broke his silence:

“Oui…”

“See, me and my… new friends, we uhh—”

“We’re almost there!” Amiyam suddenly shouted.

“W-What?! Almost where?!” Elynere exclaimed, rudely awakened from her nap.

“Where do you think, sleeping beauty?!” the goblin asked tauntingly. “Gildengar, of course!”

Masaru widened their eyes in shock.

“W-Wait a minute… That’s the capital of Goldwall…” they said, looking around their surroundings, seeing no signs of the tall buildings of Falkenfield.

“Cedric…” they asked. “Why are we heading there…?”

The wizard refused to answer, at least initially. His friend’s concerned look eventually broke him down, and he complied.

“We’re not going back to Falkenfield.” he murmured. “Not until we… fix this whole demon thing.”

“What…?” Masaru inquired innocently.

“I’m… afraid you won’t be able to continue your studies anymore.” Cedric gritted through his teeth, even angrier with himself than before. “I’m so, so sorry, Heaven, I—”

“Oh… I see.” Masaru replied, dejected.

“…”

“Listen, I—” Cedric tried to say.

“No, no—I get it. It’s all on me, really.” Masaru interjected. “That’s what I get for… snooping in on Mr Fitzgerald’s stuff.”

“I can make it up to you. Promise!” Cedric said.

“It’s fine…” Masaru replied. “I’ll… figure something out, don’t worry.”

“…”

“Great.” Cedric thought to himself. “In just one day, I failed Heaven and ruined their future.”

“I’m the worst mentor to ever mentor… in the history of mentors, I guess…” he finished his train of thought by lowering his head in shame once more—no longer angry, but just… disappointed. Drained. Dejected.

“…” Sienna silently observed the conversation before deciding to butt in after a few minutes of silence.

“So… Masaru.” she said.

“Yes?” the blonde human replied.

“Staying in Falkenfield would likely earn you another close encounter with the grim reaper…” the knight explained. “But…”

“If you were to travel with us, we could offer you shelter and protection.” she added. “Unfortunately, I do not think there is anything we can do about your studies though…”

“And, with our frequent travels… I am not sure if we will ever settle down anywhere.” Sienna said.

“That’s okay.” Masaru smiled faintly. “I’ll… I’ll take anything, at this point.”

“I’m sure Cedric will take care of me, one way or another.” they smiled a little bit brighter. “I already owe him so much, I might as well make myself… low maintenance, shall I say.”

Cedric couldn’t help but cringe out of sheer embarrassment. The fact his friend STILL held him in high regard, after all of this… It made him feel dirty, like a fraud—bad enough to put his cloak’s hood up and turn around in shame, trying to catch a nap and just forget all of today.

But…

“Here we are!” Amiyam exclaimed. “I can already see the gates of Gildengar ‘fore us!”

“Oh, bother…” Cedric thought. It looked as if his uncomfortable evening wasn’t even remotely close to coming to an end.

Deep down, he thought:

“How can I make sure Heaven is safe on our travels if… I couldn’t even protect him in a quiet, third floor apartment?!”

“…”

“That’s right…” he continued his train of thought. “I gotta keep up the charade, even if just for a little bit.”

“…”

“If they all think I’ve got everything under control—Sienna, Enix, Elly, Emilia—then, surely…”

“…”

“Masaru will feel safer knowing that… I am at the top of my game.”

“…”

“I just have to be convincing enough for them to believe that.”

Chapter 4

City of Gold

At last, the caravans arrived at the capital. The adventurers—accompanied by what was left of Amiyam’s rebel gangsters—have finally made it to the gates of Gildengar: the City of Gold. From a distance, they could see the Golden Bastion atop the high street’s very own hill—the tallest one in the region, and the only proper hill within the otherwise flat city.

The bastion was a grand, luxurious castle, constructed almost two centuries ago following the Great Coalition Wars, around the time when the Duchy of Goldwall was freed from Mentaventian rule. The construction was paid for with decades worth of spoils of war and piracy, making the Golden Bastion not only a monument to Goldwall’s hard-fought independence, but also a glowing symbol of its society’s flaws, such as rampant opportunism, shallow materialism, and… “One could go on, really—but that would devolve into an entire tangent that’s not worth discussing.” is what Cedric would’ve said. What’s worth noting instead is that, in spite of its dark symbolism, the Golden Bastion is genuinely breathtaking to see for the first time, and such was the case for the adventurers who had arrived there just now. Enix, for one, was very impressed by the structure, and Cedric told him all about it, somewhat dampening his excitement upon mentioning the bastion is a “one-time thing”, and that nothing else in the Duchy of Goldwall ever comes close to matching it in terms of splendor.

“It’ll only get worse from here on out” is basically the message Cedric has conveyed to the squire, whether he realised it or not.

For as beautiful as it was, however, the castle—now inhabited by the Duchess and her royal court—seemed to tower over the city in an ominous manner; its clocktower resembling an oppressive, all-seeing eye that watched over the general populace at all times.

…Or at least that was Sienna’s interpretation, anyway. Elynere seemed to share her view, even if the two elves didn’t directly discuss it on their way there.

As for Emilia, Amiyam, and the ex-gangsters that chauffeured the whole convoy to Gildengar, they only gave the structure a brief glance.

“I dunno, I guess it’s okay—though definitely not a sight I’d lose myself in” is what Emilia thought.

“Maybe if it had some dragon statues…” she also thought.

Regardless of the adventurers’ personal opinions, being in the vicinity of the Golden Bastion made them feel like they had moved up in the world, somehow—even if their visit to the capital was supposed to be rather brief. 

Just then, suddenly: “HALT!” a voice rang. The voice belonged to a city guard captain, blocking off the adventurers and their convoy from entering the city.

“A huge convoy? This late into the evening?” the captain inquired. “Yeah, no—that’s not happening. Not on MY watch.”

“Come out of the vehicles with your hands behind your backs!” he shouted.

The goblin rogue jumped off the driver’s seat of her caravan, approaching the guard while angrily shaking her fist.

“Have some empathy, you doofus!” she exclaimed. “We’re carrying wounded civilians here!”

“Yeah, yeah—right.” the guard scoffed. “I’ve heard that story before.” 

“Now, I said hands behind your backs, damn it!” he added angrily. “What part of ‘behind your back’ did you not understand, goblin…?”

Amiyam gritted her teeth, trying her best not to lunge at the guard and clock him in the face. She was a changed woman after all: no longer a gangster, but a vigilante.

Meanwhile, having recognised the guard’s voice, Emilia reared her head out of the caravan to get a closer look.

“No way…” she thought, before promptly jumping out of the vehicle as well.

“Hiiiii!” she exclaimed, hurriedly running up to the guard and waving.

“B-Back off, both of you!” the captain shouted, sweating profusely. “I won’t let you ruin my night shift when it just began!”

“…” Emilia stared at him in utter confusion. “Hey, dude—dontcha remember?”

“It’s me!” she exclaimed. “Emilia, from that one adventuring party!”

“…” the guard thought long and hard, seemingly recognising the wood elf, but not saying anything yet.

“I remember your scarred face—I thought it looked cool.” the druid added. “We fought Xylopyrex together. Y’know, the BIG RED DRAGON.”

“…” the guard blushed for a moment—possibly from having his scar complimented—but ultimately managed to keep a straight face.

“Come on, dude!” Emilia pouted. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember Xylopyrex!”

“How could you forget a red dragon raiding your city?!” she added. “And taking over your Duchy, too?!”

“What Duchy…” the captain asked cautiously.

“Unsequera, duh!” the druid scoffed. “That was last year, remember?”

The guard captain breathed a sigh of relief.

“So it IS you!” he exclaimed, relaxed.

“DUH.” the druid replied, slightly annoyed.

“My apologies, It’s just… these days you never know if someone is actually a doppelganger, you know?” the captain explained. “Had to check if it’s really you.”

“Run into them frequently?” the goblin asked.

“Every other week.” the guard replied. “But… I haven’t seen this wood elf since exactly a year ago—her and her friends, I mean.”

The guard captain approached Emilia, shaking her hand to greet her properly this time around.

“You and your crew were amazing, standing up to that red-scaled tyrant—I still remember that. Fondly.” he said. “Are you still a thing?”

“Eh?” Emilia inquired.

“Your team, I mean.” the captain explained. “Haven’t heard from you all since.”

“…” Emilia hesitated.

“Well…” she started.

Suddenly—with a heavy thud—someone else jumped off the goblin rogue’s carriage. An elven knight clad in plate armor, angrily stomping her way towards the guard captain.

“Move…” the knight instructed. “We have an entire convoy of Mistwich refugees in dire need of medical attention.”

“Mistwich?!” the captain explained. “Gods, nothing happens there, most of the time…”

“What’s going on here, Emilia?!” he asked the druid.

“Move…” Sienna insisted, digging what seemed to be claws into the guard captain’s armored shoulder pad. “I will not ask thrice.”

“H-Hey, Miss Picarello, it’s okay—” Emilia said, trying to defuse the situation.

“Shut it…” Sienna replied. “We do not have the time for smalltalk right now.”

“Now, guard—do your job and let 

The captain shuddered. He was paralysed with fear, and couldn’t reach for his weapon. He pointed his gaze to Emilia, seeking some sort of guidance or explanation. The druid just sighed and silently lowered her head, suggesting the captain should stand back.

“A-Alright, miss.” the captain stammered. “I’ll open the gate for you, and the, uhh… refugees, or what have you.”

The guard captain signalled for his men to open the gate, forgetting he was the only one currently working the night shift.

“Oh, right—my men are not here yet.” he said nervously. “Forgive me, good lady. It’s my first night shift since I’ve moved to Goldwall.”

Emilia tilted her curiously. “Why did you move out, anyway?” she asked.

“What do you mean ‘why’?” the captain scoffed. “A dragon took over my home!”

“Yeah, but… it’s okay now, didntcha hear?” Emilia inquired. “He’s a legitimate Duke now—the dragon, I mean.”

“Yes, I am aware…” the captain murmured. “The Emperor himself sent legions to battle him, but the whole thing ended in a ceasefire and an armistice. I was THERE, you know.”

“So why did you leave?” Emilia asked. “Xylopyrex has to follow the rules now, so… how is he different from any other duke?”

“It’s not about who rules over me.” the captain replied. “It’s about the principle.”

“He’s an intruder. Invader. USURPER.” he continued. “And I failed to stop him.”

The captain proceeded to slowly open the gate for the adventurers and their convoy, still talking:

“If I stayed in Unsequera, my friends, my family, my coworkers… They’d surely judge me.”

“…For not slaying the dragon, I mean.”
“For failing my duties and letting my home fall in the hands of a TYRANT.”

“…”

“See, frankly, it makes no difference now that he has to follow the Hessandrelian law.”

“Xylopyrex can just… continue to be a tyrant, but less blatantly—now he has to jump through legal hoops to do his bidding, but that’s what almost all other Dukes do as well. He is no different.”

“…”

“Before Xylopyrex, we had a good system. A parliament and a constitutional monarch.”

“It’s not about being governed by a dragon.”

“…Let alone a power hungry one.”

“…”

“It’s about losing our democracy.”

“And the Emperor being okay with it.”

“…”

“Do you have the slightest idea of just how powerful a Hessandrelian Duke really is?”

“…”

Having said that, the captain heard someone clapping in the distance as he finished opening the gate to the city. Several royal guards—each outclassing the captain in rank—were marching in his general direction, slowly beginning to encircle the adventurers and their convoy. One by one, they inspected each vehicle, and sure enough: the wounded civilians from Mistwich were in fact real, and not a mere ploy.

The clapping person from before, obscured by the shadow of the night, stepped into the light of the torches that lit the street. The person’s figure was that of a tall, blue-haired woman with an equally blue officer uniform. At the snap of her fingers, the captain bowed, and so did the two elite royal guards standing beside her.

“Very powerful!” the woman exclaimed, answering the guard captain’s prior question.

“Us Dukes are not to be messed with, you see.” she said. “But…”

“My men have already verified the validity of your claims, so you lot need not to fear.” she added. “You are indeed transporting the wounded, as you say you are. Bravo.”

“Very heroic—très apprécié.”

“I have also heard reports coming from my… ‘advisors’, back in Mistwich.”

“They say the town had fallen, but a group of adventurers rescued the surviving civilians.”

“Naturally, I assume this would be you, correct?”

The woman eyed Sienna intensely, squinting her eyes for a moment as if trying to spot something in the knight. Sienna remained vigilant, even though the convoy was ultimately allowed into the city and the party should be safe for the time being. Once all of Sienna’s friends hopped out of Amiyam’s carriage, the vehicle was moved out of the way so that the rest of the convoy could pass through, but not without each caravan being escorted by a pair of heavily-armored cavalrymen.

“Yes! That was all our work!” Cedric blurted out, striding forward. “Simply spectacular, wasn’t it?”

“And I’m sure that, in the future, we will—”

Annoyed, Amiyam kicked the wizard in the shin, and he fell over groaning in pain. The blue-haired woman chuckled.

“Oh wow, how vulgar—is this goblin a part of your team?” she inquired.

“No… she most CERTAINLY isnt’!” Cedric exclaimed with a certain tinge of disdain coming from his mouth. Amiyam’s ears drooped, and she took a few steps back, meekly hiding behind Sienna so as to not attract any further attention to herself.

“I thought so.” the blue-haired woman murmured.

“Now then… How shall I reward you, dear heroes?” she inquired, quickly changing her tone of voice back to a grandiose albeit upbeat one.

Cedric raised his head from the ground and his eyes lit up at the question. Sienna looked at him, brimming with excitement at the possibility of reward, then turned around to face the goblin rogue that drove them to Gildengar: The very same goblin that organised the entire gangster rebellion, the rescue mission, and the convoy to the capital… Amiyam—the goblin in question—acted coy in the presence of the duchess, avoiding looking at her or recognising she was there, almost as if intimidated by the presence of ultimate authority. Sienna felt as if the goblin deserved more credit than her adventuring party, who only really helped out because they were looking for their friend, Masaru.

Meanwhile, Elynere decided to join her friends in the conversation—though acting just as nervous as the goblin rogue, if not even more.

“So… y-you are the Duke—no, I mean… the Duchess, yes?” Elynere stammered.

“Yes, well met!” the woman replied. “I am Duchess Lenoir.”

“But my close associates call me Duchess Jeanette!” she added. “Hopefully, with time, you too will begin to refer to me as such.”

“Now, let us go over your accolades…” the Duchess continued. “Heroics of these proportions CANNOT go unrewarded, you see!”

“…” the goblin rogue gritted her teeth, still hiding behind Sienna, but clenching her fists out of envy.

“Excuse me for a moment, your highness,” Sienna interjected, surprising the monarch. ”But I feel the need to clarify something of great importance.”

Sienna moved to the side a little bit, revealing Amiyam, who was standing behind her.

“As much as some of my colleagues would adore the recognition…” Sienna muttered, looking over to Cedric who was still daydreaming on the ground, completely captivated by the idea of fame and fortune. “It is not our adventuring party that handled most of the work.”

“In fact, I believe our contribution to the rescue effort was… incidental at best.”

His dreams shattered, Cedric turned pale. The goblin, however, looked at Sienna with bewildered eyes.

“What are you insinuating, dear?” the Duchess inquired.

“I am merely suggesting that, if any one of us were to receive accolades, it should be her.” Sienna explained, pointing to the goblin whose eyes lit up upon being recognised.

“She rallied the citizens to her cause…” the knight continued.

“She gathered a fighting force against the demonic threat…”
“She organised the entire evacuation once Mistwich was beyond saving…”

“And as for us…”

“…” Sienna looked over to the goblin, smiling.

“We were just in the right place at the right time…” she finished. “Nothing more.”

Duchess Jeanette gave the goblin rogue a cold glare, unwilling to believe Sienna’s tales about the crook standing before her. Ultimately, she decided to play along—after all, the heroes would have no reason to lie to her about this, and the goblin girl didn’t seem important enough to come up later.

“Fine then.” the Duchess sighed, approaching the goblin. She crouched before her to be on an equal eye level, then asked:

“What is your name, hero?”

“A… Amiyam.” the goblin stammered. “My name’s Amiyam, your highness.”

“Amiyam…” the Duchess said. “Exotic name, is it not?”

“Very well then—well met, Amiyam.” she continued. “Now, darling, I would like to personally bestow you with…”

The Duchess pulled out some kind of jewelry case out of seemingly nowhere—possibly from a purse magically enhanced to be a Bottomless Bag variant. Regardless of where it came from, the jewelry case was promptly opened before the goblin’s eyes, almost blinding her with the radiance of the item inside.

“…This shiny, golden medal—a medal given only to those who deserve it most…” the Duchess continued.

“The highest grade Goldwallian Medal of Civilian Honour!” she exclaimed, handing the shiny object to the goblin. “With this, you will find yourself quite reputable here in Gildengar.”

Amiyam’s gaze was transfixed on the item in her hands—having never received recognition for her efforts before, let alone rewards, she felt as if her attempts at “doing the good thing” were finally validated.

“…And since your kind is less reputable on this continent,” the Duchess added. “A medal like this will go a long way in securing you a nice job, don’t you think?”

Amiyam nodded with tearful eyes.

“But don’t thank me—thank your friends who vouched for you!” the Duchess exclaimed.

The goblin rogue turned to face Sienna, bowing before her with utmost respect.

“T-Thank you.” she muttered. “You’re good people, you and your team.”

“You have no idea how much this means to me… Honestly.” she chuckled through her tears.

“You earned it!” Emilia suddenly butted in. “Knock yourself out, girl!”

Cedric finally got up from the ground, walking up to the goblin girl with his hand extended forward, expecting a handshake.

“Look, we may have got off on the wrong foot, but,” he said. “I must say… I think I owe you one.”

“How so…?” the goblin asked.

“Well… Masaru told me you were the one who rescued them from… you know where.” Cedric said, biting his tongue before he would accidentally reveal Amiyam to be a former gang member. Amiyam nodded, appreciating the wizard’s discretion and subtlety.

“Had it not been from you, this would be… A very different night.” he said somberly.

“Yes, yes—she did amazing.” the Duchess said in a hurried voice. “Now, Amiyam…”

“Be a dear and allow yourself to be escorted by my guards to your lodgings for the night… will you?” she added.

“Lodgings?!” the goblin exclaimed in surprise. “So you’re telling me… I get a free roof over my head too?!”

“Yes you are!” the Duchess replied with an unnerving smile. “Why don’t you get some rest?”

“We’ll handle your award ceremony tomorrow morning—how does that sound, dear?” she said.

“Y-Yeah, sure!” Amiyam replied, teary-eyed. “Thank you so much, your highness!”

“And… thanks to y’all too.” she told the adventurers. “For standing up for me, I mean.”

“Now I can finally get my life back on track. Heh.” she added. “No more dirty mercenary work!”

“But, If you ever need me for something, I’ll… I’ll do my best, anyway!” Amiyam said.

“It’s the least I can do!” she smiled, before following a pair of guards that would escort her to her hotel room for the night.

“…” the Duchess watched intently as the goblin and the guards disappeared behind a street corner.

“My, my—what a touching display of humilité on your part.” she said to break the awkward silence.

“Now that it’s just me and you, my dear heroes, may I suggest something?” she added.

“…” the adventuring party was baffled for a moment.

“What, are we getting some accolades as well?” Cedric asked, excited.

“No.” the Duchess chuckled. “But, though your… ‘leader’ may refuse my medals…”

“I doubt she would refuse a formal invitation…” she continued.

“To my Grand Masquerade Ball!” she exclaimed. “Hosted an astrer from now—in your name, and at my palace: the Golden Bastion!”

“You needn’t prepare any disguises though, for you will be my esteemed guests of honour!” she added. “Just pick your favourite outfits and dress to impress~!”

Cedric couldn’t contain his excitement—it was written all over his dumb, sparkling face. Sienna gave him a judging glare, only to find Elynere’s ears have perked up at the idea as well. “I never took her for the ceremonial type” Sienna thought. Meanwhile, Enix and Emilia gave each other a quick glance, then asked in unison:

“…”

“Will there be food?”

“…”

The Duchess laughed.

“Of course—only the best~!” she smiled. “Lots of it, too.”

“…” Sienna stared at her squire with a puzzled expression. “Not you, too…”

“WE’RE IN!” Emilia and Enix shouted in unison again.

Cedric seemed to be enjoying the idea as well.

“Finally… people shall know of my greatness!” he said, flipping his hair in a dramatic fashion and adjusting his shades.

“Yes, yes—it would be lovely, wouldn’t it?” the Duchess said with a smug expression.

Sienna felt conflicted. She thought as if things were moving a bit too fast for her liking—not to mention, the party was about to be deemed the guests of honour of a grand ball held in their name, in spite of the fact they haven’t really done that much as of yet… merely assisted Amiyam in her endeavor, is all—that, and breaking the underground trafficking ring. Still, for Sienna, that was nothing. The Duchess’s incessant flattery felt very forced to the elven knight, though her teammates weren’t overthinking it as much. Seeing her friends excited and clearly eager to attend the ball at the Golden Bastion, Sienna thus had no choice but to comply, but then again—

“Yes, we… we will go.” Elynere blurted out before Sienna could respond.

“Wonderful!” the Duchess exclaimed, clapping. “In that case, I shall see you next Soc Meltis at 5 PM—make sure to leave your adventuring gear at home and get dressed into something simply breathtaking!”

“Until then, please allow yourselves to be escorted to your lodgings for the night.” she added. “My royal guards will personally escort you there—”

“Sweet!” Enix exclaimed abruptly. “I mean—thank you sincerely, your highness!”

“You’re welcome~.” the Duchess smiled before fading back into the night. In her place, two royal guards propped up, each tall and physically imposing, as well as dressed in golden plate armor. The pair of guards escorted the adventurers to their hotel without much hassle, though after reaching the destination, Sienna felt compelled to ask:

“And where is Amiyam, exactly…?”

“…” the guards seemed to have ignored her question.

“Other hotel.” one of them suddenly spoke.

“What…?” Sienna asked.

“You have the pleasure of spending the night at a luxurious establishment at our majesty’s expense.” the other guard explained.

“The goblin was assigned lodgings in a different district altogether, but rest assured—yours is much more comfortable.” he added.

“Yes.” the first guard spoke again. “What he said.”

“…” Sienna blinked nervously.

“This does not comfort me at all…” she thought. “If anything, I am even more concerned now than I was before…”

“Oh well…” she continued her train of thought. “I suppose I will see Amiyam again tomorrow, during her ceremony.”

“For now though—”

“Ahem.” Sienna’s thoughts were interrupted by Elynere. “Miss Picarello… could…”

“Could I have a word with you about something?” she added, eyeing the two royal guards until they handed Sienna the keys to her party’s rooms and left the building.

“What is it…?” the knight asked.

“A-Actually, now that the guards are gone, I… I feel like the others should hear this too.” the dark elf explained.

“Your ramblings are starting to concern me, Elynere…” Sienna replied.

“You don’t know the half of it, Miss Picarello.” Elynere replied nervously. “Something is telling me the masquerade… won’t go as planned.”

“A hunch…?” the knight inquired.

“No.” Elynere whispered. “Divine augury.”

“…” Sienna felt a chill running down her spine. So far, the dark elf’s goddess only provided positive guidance, but now? The elven hero wasn’t looking forward to hearing about any horrible premonitions, especially right after entering a big city and being invited to a major event.

“Can this wait until tomorrow…?” Sienna asked. “I have a feeling your cryptic visions would not allow us to sleep at night, were you to share them with us right now…”

“Y-Yes, of course.” Elynere said. “No rush, Miss Picarello.”

“Good.” Sienna replied. “Let us head to our chambers then.”

“Just…”

“Remember to stay vigilant, Elly…”

“…”

“Should your visions come true—whatever they are—we better be prepared…”

“Believe me,” Elynere replied. “I really hope they don’t.”