The next day, I awoke feeling refreshed. I didn't feel tired at all, which was rather strange, considering the fact that I got probably less than five hours of sleep. I wasn't sure how that worked, and quite frankly, I didn't give a shit. There were more important things to focus on in the day, after all!
As I slipped my shoes on, I was overtaken by an unusually jovial mood. The day just felt good, for some reason. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and I felt strangely content. All seemed right with the world, even though there was so much despicable shit out there.
After making myself presentable, I opened the door with a happy sigh, stepping out into the kitchen. Yuri was sat on the ground, sharpening her sword. Once she laid her eyes on me, they narrowed into slits.
"Alex..." She said suddenly, her tone wary. "Does anything feel... different, to you?"
I tilted my head, feeling a small bit of worry dig into my heart. Why would she ask that question? I mean, everything was normal, as far as I could tell. Sure, I felt a bit more energetic than usual, but that probably wasn't anything to worry about.
"...No, I don't believe so." I answered, scratching the back of my head. "Why? Is there something on my face?"
Yuri paused, a somewhat confused expression on her face. Quickly, she stood up, stepping closer to me with an indecipherable look in her eyes. She inspected me for a moment, her gaze roaming over me in the search for... something. Eventually, she shrugged, and stepped away.
"Whatever." She said, shaking her head. "it's not important. We need to talk about what happened last night."
She seemed oddly serious, which made me feel a little bit concerned. I couldn't recall anything significant happening the night before. I mean, sure, I got chased around for a while, but Yuri and I took care of the elves eventually. It all turned out fine in the end, so I wasn't quite sure what she was talking about.
"Sure?" I said/asked, shrugging my shoulders as I sat down on the floor. "What's the problem? You look worried."
Yuri sighed, giving me a strange look that I didn't quite care for. There was some kind of emotion in her eyes, and for the life of me, I just couldn't tell what it was. I had no idea what she was thinking, which was kind of normal, to be honest. I'd known Yuri for years at this point, and yet she was still impossible to read.
"Why were they chasing you last night?" she asked, giving me a rather firm stare. "Elves aren't normally all that hostile, so what happened?"
Her tone was decidedly accusatory, and I didn't like that shit at all. She was suspicious of me, for whatever reason. Personally, that made me feel a little hurt. We'd lived together for nearly a decade at this point, and yet she still didn't trust me.
"...Are you accusing me of something, Yuri?" I asked, giving her a slight glare. "Because I didn't do shit to those elves. They ambushed me."
She frowned, and shook her head. Still, there was a certain... tenseness in her body. I could see that she was stressed out about something, but I couldn't begin to imagine what it was.
"Is everything okay?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "You seem a little jumpy today."
She let out another sigh, idly running a hand through her hair. An exasperated expression flickered briefly on her face, before being replaced by her normal stoicism.
"Everything's fine, Alex." She stated, her words tinged with slight heat. "I'm just still a little unsettled from watching you eat a fucking corpse, okay. I know you have your needs, but that doesn't make it any less disgusting."
I sensed some hostility there, which struck me as odd. Yuri, for whatever reason, was upset. I didn't really understand why, to be honest. I mean, she used to be fuckin' serial killer. She never talked much about her past, but she had admitted to that, at least.
So why was she suddenly squeamish about me eating a couple of corpses? They were already dead, so it wasn't like I was torturing them. I always waited a moment, because it just seemed kind of cruel to start immediately, you know? I did drink their blood while they were alive sometimes, but that probably wasn't as painful as being fucking consumed.
Whatever, we're getting off-topic. The point is, Yuri was weird. She was fine with chopping people to bits, but once someone started eating a body, that was too far? I didn't get it.
"Don't give me that shit." I said, trying desperately to keep my voice even. "Yuri, you're one of the most infamous serial killers of the era. Why is this where you draw the line?"
She sighed yet again, and gave me a shrug. I could tell that she was a little annoyed, but I didn't care. I was also pissed off, but I wasn't gonna just drop the conversation because I didn't like it. I needed to figure out why she had such an issue with my dietary habits.
"I don't know." She eventually muttered. "When you were eating those elves, you just had this strange... aura, around you. It was as if you were some kind of... creature. You looked feral, and I guess that made me feel a bit uncomfortable."
...How did I even respond to that? I had no idea what she was talking about, first of all. I didn't really notice anything weird, but then again, my mind had been rather preoccupied at the time.
Her explanation brought on all sorts of questions. Most importantly, what on earth did she mean by "aura"? Like, was I giving off bad vibes, or something? How do you even quantify something like that? Is it like a gut feeling, or something else?
Bah, this was all too confusing for me. Surely, there were more important things to focus on. Don't get me wrong, this was worrying, but there wasn't much I could do about it. Really, it would be better to focus my attention elsewhere. There was so much I needed to do, after all.
"...Oh well." I grunted, nonchalantly shrugging my shoulders. "Not sure what I can do about that."
She slapped a hand to her face, groaning as she did so. She was beginning to shake slightly, and I wasn't quite sure what that meant. She was getting much angrier than I thought she would, and I really didn't know how to deal with angry Yuri. I'm not sure anyone did, honestly. The best advice I could give would just be: "Run like hell.", and that didn't really apply in this situation.
"You could just, oh, I don't know, not eat people!" She yelled, giving me a rage-filled glare. "For fuck's sake, Alex! I shouldn't have even let you eat those corpses last night. It's disgusting and wrong!"
"Oh, but you don't have a problem with drinking blood?" I queried, raising an eyebrow. "You seem perfectly content to look the other way on that. Why is this any different?"
"I allow that because it's necessary." She hissed. "If you didn't have to drink blood, I wouldn't let you."
"What if this is necessary?" I asked, feeling my eye begin to twitch. "I didn't crave the red at first. It just kind of came about. Maybe this is the same scenario."
Yuri paused, giving me a strange look. A conflicted expression flashed across her face for about a second or two, before being replaced by her usual stoic mask. Still, there was a noticeable hint of concern in her eyes.
"I... I really hope that isn't the case." She sighed, her tone suddenly void of any anger. "Alex, you have to understand. What you do is... well, completely fucking insane."
I felt a strange sense of indignation rise within me. How dare she call what I do insane? She killed shit too! I mean, for fuck's sake, we were practically in the same metaphorical boat! She was being hypocritical, and it was pissing me off!
"You don't have much ground to stand on either, Yuri." I growled, giving her an irritated look. "You don't get to call me crazy, when you were just as nuts up until a decade ago."
Yuri winced, but remained quiet. I raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to say something. As one second turned into thirty, I realized that she didn't have anything to say.
"Nobody likes a hypocrite, Yuri." I deadpanned. "Besides, I'm a perfectly sane man. If people think I'm nuts simply because I enjoy the sheer beauty of the red... well, they're the crazy ones, not me."
I still didn't understand why so many people were disgusted by the red. I mean, just go look at it! It has the richest of colors, and the most delightful of smells. Even a single drop is more delicious than a glass of the finest wines. The fact that so many people condemned it was just downright baffling to me.
There was also something equally appealing about flesh. I'll admit, this was a somewhat new development, so I still wasn't sure how it ranked when compared to the red. Both were wonderful, but trying to choose between the two was... more than a little challenging. Really, you couldn't have one without the other, so why should I try to separate them? This whole train of thought was pointless.
"...You may have a point." Yuri eventually conceded, crossing her arms. "But that doesn't change the fact that others will perceive it as evil. It doesn't matter if you're eating a child, or a violent criminal. People will condemn you for it nonetheless."
...This didn't seem like a difficult issue to solve. I'd just drag my meal away from the road. You'd have to be pretty stupid to stray from the path, so anyone who found me was probably already looking for trouble.
When I pointed this out to her, she slapped a hand to her face, mumbling angrily to herself.
"You could just try not eating people." She groaned. "Maybe you should stay away from it for a couple of weeks. If you really can't survive without it, then fine, but I don't want you doing this unless you have to."
I'll be honest... I really couldn't understand Yuri's logic here. There was nothing wrong with what I did, and she couldn't convince me otherwise. Still, I kept quiet, not wanting to make this into an even bigger issue.
"...Anyways," I said, trying to divert this conversation from going any further. "I'm going into town again today. I'm helping this guy train himself a little bit."
Yuri paused, looking over at me with a slightly confused expression.
"You're training someone?" She asked, a hint of skepticism in her voice. "Are they trying to become a hero, or something?"
I nodded, raising an eyebrow as she slapped a hand to her face. Yuri let out an exasperated groan, muttering to herself under her breath.
"Why are you training a hero?" She asked. "Their job is literally to kill monsters!"
I felt like that wasn't entirely true, but pointing that out would basically just be nitpicking. Even if they did a lot of other stuff, extermination was technically their main purpose. Still, none of that applied here, because Luka was too much of a pussy to kill... anyone, really.
"Yeah, but this kid's a good lad." I shrugged, waving away her concerns. "I don't think he's even capable of killing anyone, so it's not like I'm training a madman. Really, for a kid raised in that cesspit of a village, he's actually a level-headed guy."
She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it, sagging as she grumbled angrily to herself.
"Fine." She muttered, rolling her eyes. "But if he starts killing people, it's your responsibility to end him."
That was... a fair enough thing to say, I supposed. She didn't know Luka like I did, so she was probably right to be suspicious. Hell, the only reason I trust the kid is because of my game knowledge.
"That's a given." I shrugged, giving her a flat stare. "If he makes himself a nuisance, I'll deal with it. He's not that kind of guy though, so I wouldn't worry about that."
She glanced at me with an expression I couldn't quite read, before shaking her head.
"Whatever." She said. "Get your sword. It's time to spar."
*LINEBREAK*
As Yuri watched Alex limp off into the woods, she frowned, and sat against the side of the house. After the past couple of days, she needed a moment or two to rest. There was a lot to think about, and almost all of it involved Alex.
For almost a decade, she had watched him grow. In that time, she had come to accept the fact that Alex wasn't quite right in the head. His fixation with blood had abruptly appeared one day, back when they were just getting to know each other. Initially, she'd been worried that his mind would grow to be even more fucked up, but as the years passed, that fear seemed more and more unfounded.
Then he started eating corpses.
There was no escalation to this phenomenon. One day, he just sort of... walked up, munching on a bag of roper meat. He couldn't offer any explanation, other than the fact that he was hungry. When she questioned him on it, he became quite defensive, as if she insulted something he really liked. Much like his fixation with blood, he didn't seem to understand that it was an issue. He saw it as perfectly natural, and that was... disconcerting.
She wanted to figure out why this was happening. Alex was becoming more and more depraved, and it could become a serious problem if it wasn't dealt with correctly. Part of her wondered if his past was somehow involved in this conundrum. She knew basically nothing about his backstory, and Alex didn't seem too knowledgeable on it either. That story he kept telling her was starting to get on her nerves, to be honest. The only reason she hadn't snapped at him yet was because he truly believed it.
Perhaps his monster blood was to blame? Micaela had mentioned that he was probably related to a vampire, which would explain the immunity to blood diseases. However, monster blood didn't really affect men psychologically, so he shouldn't have a thirst for blood in the first place. The sudden urge for flesh made even less sense, because vampires didn't eat corpses. No, something else was at play here...
Alex just didn't make sense. The only person who had even a vague idea of what could be wrong was Micaela, and talking to her wasn't really an option. Yuri was fairly sure most of the villagers in Enrika would attack her on sight if she stepped into town. They would die, of course, but it would still be annoying to deal with.
Of course, this was only the first issue. The second problem was one she had only noticed when Alex stepped out of his room earlier that morning. For whatever reason, Alex seemed stronger than he was the night before. It wasn't a huge increase in power, but it was still enough to be noticeable. It made their daily spar a bit more difficult, but she still won rather easily.
For a while, she wondered about where this excess power had come from. Eventually, she came to a disturbing conclusion, one that made a slight shiver go down her spine.
Had Alex gained strength from the people he'd consumed? Did he somehow manage to absorb the power of his victims by eating their bodies?
It seemed preposterous, but the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. There were plenty of monsters that could absorb power from others, and there were also many that liked to eat people. Maybe Alex was just doing those things in a much, much more fucked up way.
Yuri's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps. With an annoyed growl, she stood up, turning towards the source of the noise with an icy glare.
A familiar head of blue hair poked out from behind a tree. It was that guard again. Micaela had used her as a messenger before, so she was likely carrying a letter, or some kind of message.
"Why are you here?" Yuri asked calmly, her voice as neutral as she could possibly make it.
The woman gulped, but slowly walked forwards. As expected, she was carrying a small piece of paper in her hand. Once she was within arms' reach, Yuri ripped it from the elf's hands, and took a moment to read the words scrawled on the paper. The handwriting was somewhat messy, which made it seem as if it was written in a hurry. The message was so short, as well. Clearly, something bad had happened.
Yuri,
Several villagers disappeared last night. Please, keep an eye out for them.
-Micaela
...
...
...
Yuri let out a sigh, slapping a hand to her face as she realized what was going on. Those missing villagers were more than likely the elves that she and Alex had killed the night before. That was... awkward. Oh well, Micaela would probably understand.
"Do you have anything I can write with?" Yuri asked the elf, watching as she dug through a bag that was strapped to her side. After a moment of searching, the woman pulled out a piece of charcoal, and handed it to her. Yuri looked at the glorified rock with disdain, but shrugged, and used it to write a message on the back of the paper.
Micaela,
I killed several elves last night. They tried to attack my son.
-Yuri
After scrawling that on the back of the paper, Yuri handed it back, as well as the piece of charcoal. The blue-haired elf quickly departed after that, no doubt seeing the contents of Yuri's response.
Once the woman was out of sight, Yuri turned, and walked back into the house. People wouldn't disturb her in there.
*LINEBREAK*
I watched Luka collapse like a sack of bricks, panting heavily as he hit the ground. He was sweaty, and stank to high hell. I probably did too, but that wasn't really relevant here. I'd been helping him train for the past several hours, but maybe I pushed him a little too hard...
"You okay buddy?" I asked, watching as he struggled to get back up. "We've been doing this for a few hours now. There's no shame in asking for a break."
Luka nodded shakily, groaning as he sat up. With a sigh, I grabbed him by the shoulders, and pulled him to his feet. He thanked me quietly, taking a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow.
I sighed as I felt my stomach rumble, demanding sustenance. My throat ached, a tell-tale sign that my body was craving the red. Quickly, I grabbed my flask, and took a long swig. The burning in my throat subsided almost immediately, and my gut stopped its complaining. Everything was right with the world. With a contented chuckle, I screwed the cap back on, and placed it back on my belt.
Man, that flask was one of the best ideas I'd ever had. It definitely made going about my day a lot easier. No longer did I feel the urge to attack everything I came across! As long as my flask wasn't empty, I could act (somewhat) normal.
"...I didn't know that you drank, Alex." Luka muttered, an unreadable expression plastered on his face. "Alcohol is really bad for you, you know."
I froze, giving him a bewildered look. What the hell was he talking about? I was about to question him, before I realized that he was staring at my flask. Ah, that made sense. I guess those are usually used for that kind of thing.
Though, what should I tell him? I can't just be like "Oh, I'm just drinking some red", because he wouldn't understand. Since I couldn't take a moment to think up an excuse that wasn't utter dogshit, I went with the first thing that popped into my head.
"This ain't booze." I grumbled, lightly tapping the flask. "It's just a bit of... medicine, is all."
It wasn't the best lie, to be honest. If I'd had a bit of time, I probably could've come up with something better. Eh, Luka was gullible at the best of times, so it was likely that he'd just believe me.
"Medicine?" He asked. "You don't look all that sick..."
...Shit. I didn't expect him to actually question me.
Okay, you know what, this is fine. It's not like I can't bullshit my way out of this. He didn't seem suspicious of me, so his question was probably rooted in simple curiosity. Still, what would I tell him now? I couldn't possibly tell him the whole truth, but maybe I could use part of it...
"It's for my mind." I shrugged, watching his expression for any sign of doubt. "I can't really explain how it works, but it keeps me from going psychotic."
Luka blinked, his expression blank. After a moment, he gave me a confused stare.
"...I've never heard of any medicine like that." He muttered eventually. "How did you come across such a wonderful thing?"
... Me and my big mouth.
New plan! Instead of making shit up, I was going to blame Ilias. People always used her as an excuse when they didn't understand things. Hell, it wasn't even a full lie, because she didn't want me to talk about my... habits, shall we say.
"Unfortunately, I cannot tell you much of anything." I sighed, trying my hardest to sound disappointed. "Ilias forbade me from revealing such secrets."
I was expecting at least some skepticism. If I were in his shoes, I would've called bullshit already. However, it was obvious that his faith in Ilias had been deeply ingrained, because he believed me without question.
"I see." He said. "That is a shame, but if it is Ilias' will..."
I gave him a shrug, as if to say "What can you do?"
For a while, we just made small talk. I wasn't particularly fond of such meaningless conversations, but it was a good way to build trust. I was going to be stuck on a journey with him for quite a while, so I wanted our relationship to at least be friendly. It would be troublesome if we were at each other's throats the entire time, so that's why I was playing nice.
"Hey Alex..." He eventually said, his voice tinged with a sudden nervousness. "How do you feel about monsters?"
I raised an eyebrow, surprised at the question. I didn't have a problem with answering it, but I felt like it was an odd thing to suddenly ask. We were in the middle of town, and while I didn't think there was anyone listening to us, it still seemed like a dumb thing to talk about. Ah whatever, since when do I give a shit about what others think?
"I don't have a problem with them." I answered in a neutral tone. "As long as they don't mess with me, I won't mess with them."
He gave me a thoughtful look, before muttering something that I couldn't quite catch.
"...Could you follow me for a moment?" He asked suddenly.
I raised an eyebrow. That was... rather out of the blue. Normally, I wouldn't trust somebody who asked me that, but I knew Luka was a good lad. He wouldn't hurt a fly. Besides, even if he did want to attack me, I was confident that I could knock him flat out.
"Sure." I grunted, trailing behind him as he walked. "You sound shady as hell, but whatever."
From the field where we had been training, we turned back onto the road, and walked down it for a couple hundred feet or so. Then, we took a left, traversing one of the few branching paths that lined the main street. Near the end of the path, he stopped suddenly, before walking over to one of the houses on the side of the trail. Quickly, he produced a key from his pocket, and unlocked the door.
Quietly, I followed him inside, shutting the door behind me as I entered. It was surprisingly cool inside, a harsh contrast to the blistering heat of the outdoors. The room we were in was obviously a kitchen, as pots and pans hung from the wall. There was also a decently-sized woodburning stove against the wall, connected to a rather modern-looking counter. It looked kind of nice, to be honest.
"Nice place you got here." I grunted, watching as he pulled a chair out from under a nearby table. "It's way better than my house."
He smiled at the compliment, looking remarkably child-like for a split-second. Then again, he always looked kind of like a kid, so maybe that wasn't so weird.
"Thanks." He said. "I try my best to keep it nice and clean."
That certainly looked the case. I was hard-pressed to find even a speck of dirt in sight. I was actually pretty impressed. I was always a real slob, so keeping stuff clean was a bit challenging for me. Hell, the only reason my room wasn't filthy was because it was basically empty. I had a bedroll, and a small table. That was it.
"You do a great job of that, it seems." I nodded. "But let's get back to business. Why did you want me to follow you?"
I walked over to the table, and pulled out a chair across from him. Then, I sat down, letting out a sigh as I did so. The chair was strangely comfortable, despite being made of solid wood. It was definitely better than standing up, let me tell you.
"I..." He began, a serious expression coming across his face. "I wanted to talk to you about something important."
I nodded, and waited for him to speak. Whatever he was going to say, it was probably important to him. It would be rude to not listen.
"Lots of people in this village see monsters as nothing more than abominations." He continued. "Creatures to be feared and avoided."
Well, after all, it was devoted to a genocidal goddess who wanted nothing more than to kill every monster on the planet. It would be strange if they didn't hate monsters.
"People often fear what they don't understand." I shrugged. "Occasionally, they're right to be afraid."
There were plenty of evil, dangerous monsters out there. They enjoyed feeding on people, often while they were still alive. That felt... somewhat sickening to me. Don't get me wrong, I fully understood why they might want to consume somebody. Hell, flesh just tasted good. I just didn't like how they felt the need to torture their prey. Technically, being devoured in this world was an incredibly pleasurable experience, but that didn't really make it any better in my eyes. I didn't eat people while they were still alive. It just seemed... wrong. Also, carnivorous monsters usually attacked whatever they could, often snatching up innocent people. That was completely unacceptable. If they really needed to eat somebody, why couldn't they just go for the lowlifes that seem to plague this world? Evil was never in short supply...
"That's not... untrue." He agreed. "But there are plenty of monsters out there who aren't all bad."
I nodded, silently wondering where the fuck he was going with this.
"I... I want to ask you something." He continued, his voice lightly tinged with nervousness. "Do you think humans and monsters can peacefully coexist?"
That... wasn't what I was expecting. I mean, I should've, considering that this topic was something he was incredibly passionate about. This really shouldn't have caught me off-guard, and yet it did. To be fair, it wasn't that difficult a question to answer, so I didn't have to think very long on my response.
"They already do in plenty of different places." I shrugged. "Sure, living with monsters can bring about some... unexpected issues, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't think it's all that difficult to achieve, as long as people put a little effort in."
Really, I never was sure why coexistence was such a big thing in the game. Look at places like Grand Noah, or Yamatai Village. Neither were perfect, but they had monsters and humans living together as (sort-of) equals. Sure, there was the occasional rape, but those could be dealt with rather easily.
Anyways, none of that was relevant right now. Why the hell was he asking me about this? Did he think I hated monsters, or something? I don't think I ever did anything to make it seem like that was the case. Honestly, it would make more sense if people suspected me of being a monster sympathizer, just because I live out in the woods. (To be fair, I kind of was, since I lived with Yuri.)
He gave a sigh of relief at my response, before giving me a wide, beaming smile. Clearly, he was glad to have someone share his opinion for once. Hell, I might've been the first person he talked to about it. Suddenly, this situation felt a lot more serious. If I spread his opinions around, he could be branded a heretic. That would be... most unfortunate. I actually liked the kid, so seeing him punished for such a thing would just make me angry.
"By the look on your face, I guess you agree." I grunted, feeling a small smile creep onto my face. Damn, this kid's glee was infectious! "That's certainly an interesting opinion to have, considering where we are right now."
Honestly, I felt a little bad for the folk around here. They'd been duped into believing that some genocidal goddess actually cared about them. Don't get me wrong, I'd probably also believe, had I been raised there. Fortunately, I already knew Ilias' true colors when I first came here. She was pure bitch, through and through. I couldn't say that, though, lest I be smote on the spot.
"Achieving coexistence is my goal as a hero!" He exclaimed, before pausing. "Well, it's one of my goals, at least."
I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. I already knew this stuff, but I wanted to be polite and listen. Really, I was more confused about why he suddenly decided to talk to me about this.
"I can see that you're passionate about that, but why are we discussing this right now?" I asked. "Don't get me wrong, I'm just curious. This whole conversation feels a little sudden, so I was just wondering..."
He froze for a moment, before adopting a rather sheepish expression.
"...I wanted to make sure you weren't dead-set against monsters." He explained, letting out an embarrassed chuckle. "It would be really awkward if you hated them, considering what my goals are."
...Huh. That actually made sense.
After that whole conversation, we continued to chat for a while, talking about monsters and such. After about an hour or two, I noticed that it was starting to get dark out. Yuri would worry if I stayed too long, so I bid the purple-haired shota a farewell, before getting up, and walking out of the house.
Just as I stepped onto the main road, I began to hear the distinct sound of somebody sprinting. Looking towards the source of the noise, I sighed as I spotted the old priest running to catch up with me. I considered just ignoring him, but ultimately decided against it. That seemed like a good way to get on the town's shit list, so I waited for him to get closer.
"Do you need something, sir?" I asked, watching as he took a moment to catch his breath. Really, I had no idea how he could run so fast. He looked far too frail to do... anything, really. It was baffling, but I didn't question it. This world was magic, so logic could take a flying fuck into the abyss, for all I cared.
After a moment, he looked at me, a concerned, yet somewhat stern expression crossing his face.
"You're not thinking of leaving the town, are you?" He asked, a frown on his face. "It's not safe to travel at night."
I rolled my eyes, and nodded quietly. Really, why was everyone so worried about traveling at night? Most of the monsters on this continent are a fucking joke (Unless there were multiple. The previous night had been a... humbling experience, to say the least.).
"I only live a couple miles away, and most monsters won't come all that close to a village." I shrugged. "Besides, I can handle the occasional threat. There isn't anything all that scary around here.
The priest gave me an annoyed look, shaking his head as he muttered to himself. I couldn't tell exactly what he said, but I'm fairly certain it contained the words "Kids these days..."
"Arrogance is a good way to get yourself killed." He grunted, crossing his arms. "I've seen plenty of young men march into those woods, and most of them never come back."
...Oh, shit. People were... really pathetic around here, weren't they? Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be insulting. I know that monsters are supposed to be rather powerful, but if people were really so terrible at defending themselves, then how was humanity even still alive?
...That was a question for another time. There were more important things to worry about, like getting home. That priest was gonna try his best to keep me in town, I could already tell. I didn't really want to be mean to him, because he was just doing what he thought was right. Still, even if his intentions were pure, he was still pissing me off.
"I've been living out there for a long time." I grunted, the familiar feeling of anger rising up in my chest. "Really, I kind of prefer living in the woods. It's usually nice and quiet, other than the occasional scuffle with the local wildlife."
For a moment, the priest stood, silently giving me a hard stare. Eventually, he relented, sighing as his shoulders sagged. His annoyed expression morphed into one of resignation. He looked at me, and in that one moment, his eyes were remarkably cloudy. He had a noticeable thousand-yard stare, as if he was busy remembering something that happened long ago.
"...You know, you remind me of someone who passed through here several years ago." The priest commented, a rather sad tone in his voice. "He went out there to search for his missing son, but he never returned."
I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. I had better things to do than listen to an old man's rants. That probably sounded a bit harsh, but it was true. I needed to get back home, and the priest was actively blocking my path.
"That's sad to hear, but I don't have time for this right now." I said, walking around him as I did so. "Sorry to cut this short, but I gotta get going."
He called out after me, so I quickly picked up the pace, practically breaking out into a run as I tried my best to ignore him. Thankfully, after a couple of minutes, he seemed to get the message, leaving me alone as I speedwalked out into the forest.
*LINEBREAK*
Micaela sat at her desk, quietly reading through the mound of paperwork that had seemingly appeared overnight. It was mostly normal stuff, like building requests, or legal documents, etc. However, there were also over a dozen missing person reports, all of which had only come in that morning. There was no evidence as to where they'd gone, which frustrated Micaela to no end. She sent out multiple different scouts, hoping that some piece of evidence would be found. She'd even sent a letter to her old friend Yuri, asking her to keep an eye out. Honestly, Micaela wasn't sure if she'd even respond. They'd parted on bad terms, and it would be a while before either one felt comfortable enough to talk.
A quiet series of knocks began to emanate from the front door, signifying that she had a visitor. With a sigh, Micaela stood up from her chair, and opened the door. To Micaela's surprise, the messenger she sent to Yuri had returned with a response! That was... unexpected, but not entirely unwelcome. Once the messenger handed her the note, she began to quickly scan through what was written down. However, as Micaela read through the short message, a sense of horror slowly began to overwhelm her.
...Yuri had killed those elves. Granted, she had only been defending Alex, but still! Why were those elves even out there? Micaela had warned the villagers to stay away from those two!
"Damn it." Micaela swore, quickly ripping up the note. She had to bury this before the town figured out what happened. Quickly, she looked up at the messenger, who was still standing in front of her.
"...You wouldn't mind keeping quiet about this, would you?"
A/N: This chapter took a stupid amount of time to write. I would've had it done before the end of June, but I had to get surgery in my mouth (Don't ask. It was disgusting.), which basically had me laid out for about a week. Of course, there were some complications, which ended up being trivial, but were pretty fuckin' scary for a while.
Sorry if this chapter feels a bit janky. I had to rewrite it four or five times, because it just wouldn't come out right. Also, I'm editing it at like... midnight, so don't be surprised if there are a couple of small mistakes. I don't have time to do this later, so I'm doing it now. It there's any big issues, let me know. I might not be able to address them right away, but I'll probably get around to it eventually.
Hopefully, we'll be able to get to the main story soon. If everything goes well, the journey should begin around three chapters from now. Of course, that's just a rough estimate, so don't get your hopes up.
