Note: This is the second part of a three-part story. Other Suikoden III characters are introduced in this chapter. Please watch out for characters being out of character (especially Percival), a not so interesting plot, and some shonen-ai references. Please also remember that I do not own Suikoden III or the characters, or else there would be accurate depictions of them in this story.
Part 2: Caleria and Rumors
I have traveled all the way through the Grasslands in a few weeks, traveling through plains and forests. I detoured all the way to Chisa Village, where I felt almost at home with the fields and animals. It was almost like Iksay, but greener. After a week there I left and found myself wandering towards Harmonia. I guess some part of me wanted to be even farther from him then I was now. Plus I was also finding the lifestyle in this other place a bit interesting. I was heading up the mountain pass towards Caleria when I suddenly encountered one of those treasure rich monsters.
"Damn it! Just what I needed now," I shouted as it took notice of me, hurling a stream of wind towards me. I ducked as the gust passed over my head. I figured running was my best option, since I was a one-person party. Just when I almost escaped through the middle, the other head spouted a stream of fire in front of me. It was three against one, well counting the heads as separate persons. I figured I would use my rune later to heal me as I rushed towards the eastern edge. Suddenly I heard noises and saw a bunch of people coming towards me. It was Geddoe and his Southern Frontier Defense Force. I was saved. With weapons in hand, they passed me and took on the treasure monster. I decided to watch them fight, since I hadn't had much time to watch them before.
They were really impressive, living up to their mercenary status. One in particular, a blonde haired, blue-eyed bowman, caught my eye. He had the gentlest features ever on a man. He was quiet but handled the bow gun with expert hands. I watch as his arrow sailed smoothly into its target. Another Karayan girl was also shooting arrows. Ace, Joker, Queen, and Geddoe attacked the shell with clean-cut moves. After the monster was defeated, the group collected the treasure and distributed rare armor items to different members of the party. One of them noticed and recognized me despite not wearing my armor, and soon I was approached by Ace.
"Hey there. You're Percival, right? What are you doing in the mountain pass all by yourself? You don't have some kind of job?" asked Ace.
I just smiled. "Thanks for killing that monster," I said first. "I'm not on duty right now so I'm traveling and was headed to Caleria," I said to answer his questions.
"To Caleria? I guess we can accompany you back there. Business is kind of slow right now for mercenary work. We were just heading out to train right now, since we haven't moved around like this in a while," said Ace.
"How much?" I asked. They were mercenaries, so I expected to pay them some money.
"Don't worry about it. Just buy us a round of drinks at the inn and we'll be find with that," Ace replied. He deliberately turned his head to look at Joker, who glared back.
I guess everyone agreed because we started heading east towards Caleria. I kept glancing over at the blonde-haired man who was walking next to the Karayan girl. Ace and Joker were arguing in front as Queen shook her head and Geddoe walked silently by her. I kept to the back, thinking about how I was missing the company of Leo, who was always there to keep moral high. He was my best friend. Actually I missed the company of our six-man knight party, with Louis as support. I wonder how they're faring without me?
We eventually walk out from the mountain pass and tumble into the entrance of Caleria. The first thing that reminds me that I was in a foreign land was the architecture. It was much more colorful here then in Brass Castle or Iksay. Then there were the brown-skinned merchants selling the strangest things, their children running around in their white clothes. As the sun's rays shone upon us once again, I realized just how uncomfortable it was to wear so many layers of clothing. Luckily I don't have those Zexen metal armor plates on. To think a summer in Zexen was hot…this place was like being placed in a fire. My clothes are probably the only reason why I haven't burned like pork skin in the oven.
"Hey you! Traveler from far lands," a man shouts. I realize that the man is referring to me. I forgot for a second that the people here know Geddoe's company so they wouldn't be "strangers". I decide to go over there even though he was probably trying to sell me some useless items. Though first I dropped some coins into Ace's hand so he could at least buy drinks for the company until I joined them.
"You looked lonely out there. Having love troubles?" he asked me as I walked right up to his stand.
"How did you guess?" I wondered, mumbling it out loud. It wasn't that obvious, was it? I didn't want everyone to know about my troubles.
"My good eye sees that yours are wandering," he replied, pointing to his right eye. "You're thinking of some other place, some dream." He gave me a huge grin, which scared me. It looked as if he won the lottery and I just bet all my money and lost. I had no smart reply for him, and I didn't want to look like a blubbering fool, telling him how smart he was. He probably just guessed right. I figure, perhaps the presence of a lone Zexen in a place like Caleria could somehow signal this depression of mine.
"Well I have the right thing for you," he said, pulling out a vial. "This is a love potion. Give it to someone and they will surely fall for you in seconds."
I look at him, wanting to laugh. How stupid could this guy be? A stupid vial could never take care of my problems. Why would I want someone to fall for me so quickly? A relationship based on a liquid could never work out. It was probably a fake; besides, a liquid like that was sure to be disposed of someday through the waste system.
"Don't you want to try it? This is the only place where you can get it," he urged, annoyed that I wasn't reaching into my pocket and spilling coins into his hands.
"No thanks," I replied politely. "I believe you," I said, trying to appease him, "but I think I'll work on refining my own charms." I smiled at him, the grin so wide I could barely control it.
"Please take it anyway. I'll give it to you for free," he begged. "A vial, worth a thousand potch or more, given to you for free."
I politely shake my head. "I don't want to take any charity," I replied. I begin to turn away in the direction of the inn when he put his hand on my arm, slipping the vial into my hand before scampering away so I could not return it to him. I sighed. Well I guess he wanted me to keep the vial or something. I walked toward the inn without noticing anything around me. Maybe it's poison. He might want me to take it so he can find me unconscious and rob me.
I entered the inn after somehow placing the vial into my pocket. I smiled as I saw the rowdy bunch in the far corner of the inn. It looked like both Ace and Joker were drunk, Queen shaking her head at them and Geddoe as silent as usual. At another table sat the two non-drinkers, the Karayan girl and the blonde-haired man. By the looks of it, the girl had more than one glass of "soda" while the other man was still on his first.
I decided to sit next to Queen. It was no point sitting between two drunk men who were yelling at each other, and Geddoe wasn't a person you said much to. I didn't want to be sitting next to a teenager, or at least she looked only about 15, and the man seemed silent like Geddoe too.
"So how was the visit with the Calerian merchant?" she asked as I ordered a glass of beer.
"Pointless," I laughed. "What should I have expected?" I asked.
"Did he convince you to buy any exotic items?" she said, emphasizing the word "exotic".
"Well I managed to 'earn' a free 'love potion'," I said, laughing.
"They don't work. Trust me," she replied. "Not to say that I have tried it…" She probably was lying about that, seeing how downcast she looked. I wasn't the best at reading other people's minds, so I didn't pursue the subject further. Instead I decided to cheer her up.
I patted her back. "You're still as attractive as a flowering youth but you're much more beautiful," I said genuinely with a smile.
"You're not flirting with me, are you?" she asked with a glint in her eye, definitely using an excuse to change the mood.
I winked playfully. "Am I?" I responded. Then I said seriously, "You wouldn't be someone I'd go for, but there should be plenty of others out there."
"Well I haven't found one yet," she replied, sighing. Then she smirked, "He'd probably be afraid that I'd beat him up if he did anything bad."
"I guess so," I mused. With that strength of hers she'd be one hell of an opponent. "Though I think I could take you on," I taunted, setting up a challenge.
"Do you want to duel?" she responds seriously. I nod my head.
"Later," I said. "It would be great since I haven't dueled someone in a while." I take a break from conversation to sip more of my beer. I look over to see that Geddoe has left his seat while we had talked. Ace and Joker seemed to still find something to argue about and the other two were still sitting at the other table. The Karayan girl seemed to have a one-sided conversation with the taciturn blonde companion. I just seemed to stare at his slim figure, his soft-looking blonde locks. He seemed adorable, for lack of a better word. Something made me want to just keep watching him. I had the sudden urge to put my hands in his hair, on his skin, just to touch it and feel its smoothness. Borus wasn't even in my thoughts at the time.
"So what are the names of those two?" I asked so I could cover up the fact that I had been staring at the attractive blonde man.
"The girl is Aila and the guy is Jacques," Queen said. "Jacques was hired by request of Geddoe and Aila just joined, though she was with us most of the time after the Karayan Village was burned. Anything else?"
I thought for a moment. "Is Jacques always this quiet?" I asked her. She nodded.
"I haven't been able to open him up at all. Aila broke through a bit, though she still does most of the talking," Queen replied. "Are you interested in him or something?"
"Yeah," I said. The previous statement could be taken in two different ways, and I was interested in him in both relationship and person-wise.
"Well you should try talking to him," she suggested. "Later tonight he'll probably be free." She stood up. "Well I think I need to leave. I can't stand hearing them shout at each other for too long."
I agreed with her, finishing my glass and exiting along with her. "I'm just going to walk around the town. You should probably go around and explore," Queen said when we were outside. She gave me a slight wave before heading north. I followed her for a while before diverting towards some of the stands. It was quite interesting the items they were selling, but more interesting were the rumors that were spreading.
"I heard that the Zexen Knights are looking for one of their main knights. Supposedly he's the dark-haired knight, the knight of gale or something," one stand owner told me.
"Really?" I said, surprised. Not at the fact that I was missing, but the fact that they were looking for me. Didn't I tell them that I had a family emergency? Well I never visited home, so if they talked to my family, they would have known… "Do you know anything else?" I asked him.
He blabbered on about some other pointless gossip until he surprised with some more news. "Supposedly the Silver Maiden is getting married. No one really knows, but it's supposed to be some blond-haired man," he said. He started to talk some more, and even began repeating himself.
"Thank you for the information," I said politely, interrupting his story. "It really helped." Now I know why they would look for me. They probably wanted me to show up for the wedding. I hope they haven't held the ceremony yet, because I want to attend it. Though another piece of information left me puzzled. A blond-haired man she was marrying? It couldn't be Borus, could it? I was almost certain that she was not interested him in any romantic sense.
I decided to wander around some more before retiring at the inn for the night. I was looking around for Queen when I bumped into Jacques. For once he was alone, and I seized the opportunity to talk to him privately.
"Hello, my name is Percival," I greeted with a smile.
"Jacques," he mumbled in reply.
"Well I don't know you so well so maybe we could sit down and talk?" I suggested, looking at his blue eyes. They seemed to match his innocent features quite well, and only made him better in my mind.
I ordered for him a soda but nothing for myself. I somehow started talking to him about my companions in Zexen. He seemed expressionless as I told him about our weird quirks, our daily life, and our jokes.
I stopped talking, waiting for him to say anything. With his soft voice he asked, "Why aren't you with them now?"
"Oh, just some awkward things occurred," I said, obviously trying not to tell him what happened that one night. Though I couldn't avoid how his eyes just stared at me and I began to tell him, in little pieces, what happened that night. As I told him, I thought to myself, I really did need someone to just listen to me. After I finished inundating him with useless information, he neither condemned my love for another man nor comforted me in my misfortune.
It was pretty late outside, and he suddenly yawned. I decided that instead of allowing an attraction to manifest into more like I had with Borus, I would just ask him right now what he thought of me. I began slowly.
"I know I just met you and I'll be leaving tomorrow, but I think I like you a great deal. I think I may be attracted to you in that way, like I was to Borus. Please tell me if you'd be open to a relationship of that sense," I said in earnest.
He stared at me before answering in his soft voice. "I'm sorry," he replied. My face immediately fell. "I don't think I like men that way."
After I left him there at the table, I trudged up the stairs in a bit of a depression. I had just been rejected again. Though I felt better in a way. It wasn't anything like the hateful words that Borus aimed at me after I had kissed him. Suddenly I had doubted any attraction to Jacques at all.
That night I went to sleep and had a dream. It was more of a nightmare. I saw Borus and Chris being married at Brass Castle. I saw him lean down and gently kiss her as the crowd cheered. I could also see myself running away, outside of the castle and off into the woods with tears threatening to fall. I woke up in the middle of the night and found my pillow wet. I guess even after a month or so away from him, I still can't forget my love for him. I just have to hope that he can change his mind, that I can convince him not to marry Chris.
Of course that's the person she is marrying. Who else would be the blonde-haired man that is to marry her?
*****
"Sorry for the one-day stay, but I need you to escort me across the mountain pass today," I said to the Southern Defense Force. Geddoe seemed to be the only one truly awake as the others yawned or looked dazed. "And sorry Queen about the duel. Maybe someday we can actually have one," I added.
I insisted on paying them this time for the trip to the other side of the pass this time. As we neared the end, I waved good-bye and they waved as well. Now I was to quickly rush back to Brass Castle, hopefully catch the joining of Chris and Borus, and figure out a way to move on to someone else.
I put my hands in my pocket and find to my surprise that something is in it. I remember that I had left that love potion in my pocket. I found that I couldn't seem to throw it away.
Maybe I'm holding onto some false hope of a romantic love, of a happy ending for me. It's not like I expected to be a prince from a fairy tale, but maybe I still think I could pull off being a fairy tale knight.
Maybe I should just give up trying to figure out everything and go with whatever happens.