Chapter 15
The hero spends more time with Clarissa
Having broken out of jail the group wasted no time in finding the real king, who it seemed was down in the dungeons with them. He explained about the impostor king who it seemed was another monster that could freely travel in towns!
"I guess the other one wasn't that special," Clarissa remarked.
"Maybe people bathed more often in those days?" I suggested.
"I don't know about you but I wash regularly," she sniffed.
"Maybe my source was having a bit of a laugh at my expense and it's actually something else?"
"Who is this 'source' of yours anyway? You never did say."
"If you will brave the outside of town with me I'll show you. You would never believe me otherwise."
"I'll think about it."
The impostor could be revealed with a special magical mirror so they headed to retrieve it. With the mirror in hand they demanded another audience with the king, and made him look into it revealing he was some kind of troll, whatever that was. Then then did what they did best, and beat up the-
"Let me get this straight," Clarissa stopped me, holding up a hand. "These guys have a key that can open cell doors, right?"
"That's how they escaped, right."
"And they found the real king minutes after getting out?"
"Yes..."
"And instead of just letting him out and confronting the fake, they found this mirror (and where is it now I would love to know) and marched back into the castle. So here's this group of people that the guards had just finished throwing into the dungeon back again, and none of the guards said to themselves 'hey wait a second I should be guarding my king. Maybe attack these fellows, keep them from getting any further into the castle?' Really? They just marched these guys back into the throne room as if nothing had happened the first time? If they knew the king was fake and that's why Loto and his friends didn't have their stuff taken why didn't they attack him the moment they knew he wasn't the real king? Isn't their job to safeguard the king, not a fake? If they did know, how did they know about the final key? Did they just assume that Loto would escape 'somehow' and leave it at that? If they were afraid of getting hurt why not just escort them out of the room as if going to throw them in the dungeon, explain the situation, and let the heroes take care of it right then? None of that part of the story makes any sense at all!"
"I have to admit, they took the long way around."
"The long way around?" she echoed. "It's like they were trying to move a bucket of water, but instead of just lifting the bucket they got a sieve and tried to use that! That's not the long away around it's sheer foolishness!"
"Finding out that Loto wasn't the brightest guy, huh? Not like the stories?" Maybe that's why he wanted me to read this. Maybe he thought the same later, and regretted running all over instead of just confronting the problem directly.
"I should say not! No wonder he locked this up in his grave, he didn't want anyone knowing the truth!"
"Huh. Hadn't considered that. Maybe he only wanted me to know, so I didn't make the same mistakes he did. Well, people are going to start learning the truth as the tool shop owner in town is going to make more copies of this to sell."
She covered her eyes with her hands. "Our great hero was a moron!"
"Maybe the cell was magically sealed?" I suggested, a stretch for sure.
"So use the magical key!"
"Yeah, yeah that's a thing. I don't know." There must have been a door, the king got in there somehow. And why not have the real king killed immediately? Why keep him around to cause trouble later? Did the guards think this guy, who just happened to look like the king, was crazy and didn't listen to him? They must have suspected something was going on, right?
"Go on, get the rest of it over with. What other stupid things did he do? I'm too invested now to walk away."
With the troll dispatched they found the magical staff that allowed you to change your appearance and they had some fun with that, then traded it immediately afterword for a bone that a man assured them would help them track down a ghost ship the pirates had mentioned. Loto handed the thing over with hardly a thought, it seemed he was quite excited to track down this ghost ship, though taking the word of a pirate seemed an odd thing to do in the best of times. I would have thought the staff more useful, but he clearly didn't think so. Luckily the bone worked (I could tell Clarissa was holding herself back from asking how by the tremor in her upper lip) and they sailed straight for it. Turned out it was real, and they helped the restless spirits find peace at last.
"So they can do some good in the world when they put their minds to it," Clarissa grumbled.
"Kind of odd they took the time though," I mused. "I mean they were trying to find these orbs, and they didn't even suspect one was on the ghost ship, so why not leave that until the land was safe? Why take the risk?"
"He wasn't that bright, remember?" she replied with a grin.
"Ah, there is it."
The group then left the sea for a time, heading to a "Gondo Cave" that held a lot of challenging monsters and at the end, another orb. Someone at the newly founded town they had helped had dug up the yellow orb which was a stroke of luck, so they got that when they headed back to check on the place. This completed the set of six, and they used the orbs to…
"To what?" Clarissa asked, as I had paused in my reading.
"Are you sure you want to know?" I asked, looking at her over the pages of the book. I wasn't holding it like a shield in case she decided to smack me or anything.
She sighed. "Just tell me. It's something bizarre, isn't it?"
"You might say that. They used them... to hatch an egg."
"An egg."
"It had a large bird inside, apparently named Lamia. Or Ramia, the ink is a little smudged here I'll have to go ask the tool shop owner which it is."
"Did they?"
"According to this, yes."
"A bird. They traveled possibly for months across the whole of the land finding these 'special orbs' and the 'magical' thing they did, in the end, was help hatch an egg."
"Yes. On the bright side they now had a bird that could fly them anywhere in the world. No more sailing. I suppose that's where his questions about why we can't build a machine to help us fly came from?"
"I suppose that could be useful. But wouldn't it have taken years for the bird to grow up enough?"
"According to this they just took off with it. If there was time in between they don't mention it."
"And where did they make this poor baby bird fly? Knowing Loto probably someplace bizarre, like a far away farm he heard had a new kind of apple he wanted to taste."
I shook my head. "Not according to this. They toured the world one last time, stocking up on healing herbs and the like, making sure they had the best equipment they could find and that it was in good repair, then headed to the castle of Baramos." Which I guess could float, which is why they needed the bird? Has it crashed in the meantime? I haven't seen many flying castles in my time, what kind of magic can float around a huge chunk of earth with a castle on top of it for months or years at a time?
She seemed surprised. "Something sensible at last!"
"I agree. Few details are given of the battle here but they won, obviously, and headed back to Aliahan to give the king the good news. Unfortunately, the news didn't stay good for long."
"What do you mean?"
"Says here as they were talking to him a figure stepped out of nowhere and told them he was the one behind it all, with Baramos just being a mouthpiece. His name was Zoma."
"Zoma? There are no stories about him! I thought Baramos was the end. Wait, you don't think someone is behind the Dragonlord, do you?"
"I hope not. Says here they went into Alfregard, deep inside the earth. Loto bought a dragon sword, which reportedly cost 15,000 gold and had the power to greatly harm dragons."
"You don't think that's the legendary sword, do you?"
"Maybe. But at that point he wouldn't have known we would have to deal with a Dragonlord. So I don't see how it could be." Would be nice if I could track one down though. Even a 'better' sword might not compare to one specifically made to wound dragons.
"Did they find those tinymedal things down there?"
"You bet they did! That really drove him bonkers."
"I can bet."
"So to defeat this new threat they needed some different magical treasures, the first being the Hero Shield. Ah, maybe we'll get an answer to your question."
"Shield? There's no shield in the legend. Just the sword and the armor!"
"Maybe the shield was lost, or destroyed in the battle?"
"I guess we'll find out."
"They went into the Nail Mark, don't ask me what that is, exactly, and there was really no one guardian just the usual monsters roaming around. Odd. They found another town, there was an even more powerful sword for sale there, 23,000 gold which was called the Snow Sword. Good thing he had spent all that money on the dragon sword which was now useless! There are some notes here from the tool shop owner about a ruined page, something about Daisy and a Bikini? He can only speculate what that means."
"I can guess," Clarissa said coldly.
"Anyway, moving on they headed back out of there, found another entrance to the underground world and, ah, found the town of Kol where they bought the King's Sword for 35,000 gold!" Good thing they just bought the snow sword that was now useless.
"King's ransom sword you mean. That's crazy! No sword, no matter how magical, could be worth that much!"
"Yeah. I mean maybe gold was more plentiful in those days but come on! They also got the blade armor for 6,500 gold which seemingly reflects half the attack back at the attacker. Now there's an armor I wouldn't mind getting a hold of."
"It does seem like there are many more magical things in Loto's world than in ours," Clarissa mused. "Wands and robes and books and seeds."
"Yeah." Is magical knowledge being lost? Suppressed? If I had half the magical items he talks about I would be in fantastic shape against the Dragonlord. If I could afford them.
"You found the book in the grave, right?"
"That's right."
"But nothing else?"
"Just the chest the book came in, why?"
"He bought all this stuff, why didn't he leave it for the next hero, i.e. you, in the same place? A book survived, armor and swords would have."
"That's a good question. Maybe he felt if he left me a bunch of magical items I might rush off to battle the Dragonlord thinking they made me invincible, but in reality got me killed. He did ask his friend to look into the future with magic."
"Now there's a magic we could track down. See how you defeat the Dragonlord, then do that! Or if you didn't, see how you died, and then not do that."
"Would be nice, I admit. Let's see, more accounts of traveling and searching for better gear, wow they were really worried about this Zoma character. Must have made an impression on them, they went out of their way to search out the best items they could find. That done they retrieved the second item they needed to defeat Zoma, the crest. Whatever that is. They then went to… Wait a minute, I thought he wrote three before." I flipped a few pages back. "Zoma stole three treasures. The shield… Oh wait, sorry, the pages were stuck together. Here we go. Let's see, they were now able to enter some kind of tower using the bird and found the light armor. That's three, the shield, the light armor, and the crest. I guess the light armor is the one from the legend."
"But wouldn't heavy armor be better against someone as scary as Zoma? I mean if he passed up armor that magically transferred damage back to the attacker, it must be something special but it doesn't sound it."
"I don't think it means heavy vs light. I think it's just 'the light armor.' That's the name of it."
"AH!" she got a look of recognition. "Got it."
"They made the rainbow drop, using the Sunstone and Rain Staff-" I held up a hand. "Don't ask, it's not mentioned before this. I have no idea where these items came from."
"Wow, you already know me so well."
I grinned and went on. "They used it to make a bridge," Oh, that's where that passphrase came from when I talked to the tool shop owner. One of the legends must speak of this but this Zoma isn't known… Never mind. "Then they faced Zoma. You've got to be kidding me!"
"What?"
"They found those tinymedal things inside Zoma's castle."
"Did he make them?"
"I don't think I want to know at this point."But how would they have gotten there otherwise? Just what were those things?"He had to fight a few of Zoma's underlings, and the Light Orb makes an appearance here. Again, no idea where it came from this is the first time it's mentioned. He uses it to take down a barrier of darkness around Zoma, and they bash him until he dies. The tunnel between the surface and underground worlds collapses, leaving them apart forever, and Loto returns the hero we know him as, Erdrick, the savior of the world!"
There was silence in the room for a moment.
"Well," Clarissa finally said, "not exactly like the legends is he?"
"It's been a long time, naturally anyone telling the stories about him would, in the first place, not want to make the man who saved the world look bad, and two may have changed some details to make a better story."
"I guess it has been a couple of generations. Long enough for the world to completely change, the way he tells it. Even minor changes to the story, over time, would add up. But the names of the items they wouldn't change, would they? Why would someone invent a seed that give you greater strength, for example? No, those must have existed at one time. What happened to our world?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "The equipment they were able to buy, the magical items they used, just don't seem to exist anymore. I find it hard to believe even the Dragonlord could suppress knowledge to that extent." He hasn't been around that long, after all.
"Doesn't seem the type, just wants people to be afraid of him."
"What is his goal anyway?"
"You'll have to ask him when you see him!"
"I will. I'll do that." I changed my voice a bit. "Excuse me Mr. Lord of all Dragons, wondering if before we try to tear each other to pieces you might be good enough to tell me exactly why you're doing all this terrorizing the country and whatnot? There's a good chap."
She laughed. "That will work for sure!"
I laughed along with her. "He couldn't resist my refined culture and wit."
"He would tell you anything you wanted to know."
"No doubt."
After a moment she quieted again. "So what now?" she asked.
"There's a lot to think about relating to what he said, but we have more pressing concerns. I figured I would get some training in today, so I'll again extend an invitation to you. If you want to come meet the other person," I hesitated to say person but they were, in a loose sense, so it was probably fine, "that helped rescue the princess they're waiting for me out in the forest to the north."
"Guess I have no choice," she told me, swinging her legs over and bouncing off the bed. "Let me go get changed and I'll accompany you."
"I'll go down and you can meet me at the castle entrance."
"Sounds good. See you in a bit." She left so I made my way down there to wait. I didn't have to wait too long when a person tapped me on the shoulder. "Okay, I'm ready to go."
I turned, expecting to see the maid but someone else was standing there. She had her hair pulled back and made into a bun, and was wearing a set of leather armor that had been blackened to be as dark as possible. Under this she wore a black, one piece garment that hugged her skin, showing off her figure at least the parts of it not covered by leather. She wore high boots, and leather plates had been attached by cords where possible. She had several types of knives on her person from what looked like throwing knives to wicked looking daggers she could draw with each hand. I admit I was staring at her in shock for a little too long. I wasn't the only one, as the guards were looking her up and down in an appreciative way as well, I noticed.
"It's me, Clarissa, you dope," she teased me, smacking my arm. "I can't look that different."
Looking at her face I realized with a start it was her. This new look had completely taken me by surprise so much I hadn't even recognized her face. Somehow I had to recover from this, and suddenly it came to me. "Oh, sorry, I didn't recognize you without the cat ears."
"The cat ears?" Her eyes narrowed.
Abort, abort! You said the wrong thing! "I just mean, what are you wearing?"
"Well you hardly expected me to leave the castle wearing that maid outfit did you?"
"No, of course not, but I expected just, I don't know, normal clothes. You look ready to set off to fight the Dragonlord yourself!"
"Not here, come on," she said, pulling me through the castle gates.
Not here? What is she talking about?
We headed some distance from the castle, and of course a slime drew near, which Clarissa dispatched before I even got my sword out. "Er, what?" I asked, feeling my wits a bit slowed for some reason. Then it came to me. "You're not just a maid, are you?"
"What gave it away?" she asked slyly. She turned to face me. "No, the fact of the matter is none of us 'maids' are simply maids. The king tried one thing, a direct frontal assault on the Dragonlord's castle, which failed miserably. After his wife died in the Dragonlord's retaliation attack he just sort of gave up, and refused to try anything else. So we in the castle started making our own plans. One of those plans was to train us maids to be fighters."
"So you are a maid! Maids can't storm the Dragonlord's castle… Can they?" I suppose at this point I should believe anything is possible. Isn't a dragon waiting for me in the forest? I mean come on, a fighting maid should be low on the things that surprise me, especially after reading that journal.
She waved that off with a chuckle. "I started as one. I don't know what I am right now, I'm not one thing or the other. Obviously we haven't had long, my training is far from complete, but as you saw I'm ready to take care of myself. I suppose you would have preferred the 'helpless maid' at your side, holding onto you and saying how scared she was so you could 'protect' me?"
"I- I guess I would be lying if I said that wasn't the case. That is sort of what I expected. I'm sorry. It was stupid, I know. Daisy taught Loto about using his sword properly, this shouldn't have been such a shock to me. I just… Didn't think I would ever see you like this! I had one expectation of you, and you turned it on it's head. I apologize, but you have to admit the whole transformation is rather unexpected."
"At least you're honest about it, that's something," she mused. "To answer your earlier question, no, we wouldn't be storming the castle, not like the soldiers did. But it was the hope that the Dragonlord would demand maids for his castle by now, and once we gained his trust and he felt we were harmless we could strike. Even he has to sleep sometime."
"You… that's…"
"What?" She scowled.
"You're thinking of him as man."
"Of course he's a man," she scoffed. "We saw him when he was checking our kingdom out, under the guise of being a helpful old wizard. We learned he knew more destructive magics than we expected, and had an army of monsters at his command, but he's still just a person. We knife him in the back when he's asleep and that's it for him. Except," she sighed, "he never demanded us come serve him. I guess maybe he has monsters do it? But we still train, just in case. It's better than what the king does, which is nothing, and if the castle was attacked again we could help defend it. There are so few guards left after all."
"You would have gone to your deaths," I told her sadly. "You have no idea. Don't get me wrong," I went on quickly, "I think if things had been the way you thought that plan would have a high probability of working. You would be the last people he expected to be a threat, and so actually the biggest threat because it turned out you knew how to fight. It's a pretty great plan, and I highly respect you and the other maids who have gone out of your way to try and carry it out. But it wouldn't work, no, not in a million years."
"You know that for sure?" she asked, not buying it.
"I do. Come and meet Kethrinax, then you can make up your own mind. She's been telling me things, things about the Dragonlord, I think you need to hear them as well."
"Very well," she agreed, seemingly mollified by my words. They were true, it was going to take some adjustment seeing that cat eared maid transform into a competent warrior basically before my very eyes but-
"Wait a minute," I blurted, as she started to walk past me.
"What now?" she asked.
I smiled, she would love this. "There's enough monsters around here, the Dragonlord's not going to miss them believe me. Let's get you some levels."