Odes To Manoria

II. Clues and Mysteries Galore


January 21, 1985.

The 21st day of January back in 1985. What on earth could've happened behind that date?

Now that is not something that would linger on Aditi's mind forever. She was a positive and cheerful girl and she didn't want these sinister questions to take over her mindset or else it would affect her game. She knew they narrowly won the challenge, but if it weren't for her, they would have been toast. But honestly, she didn't want to be the one who would find out about whatever Dimetrius' secret it.

Her eyes continued to look through the same article over and over again. Yet after every read, the more creepier it looked to her.

Knights, knights, knights. Why are they always being referred to as knights? Was Dimetrius some sort of knight? A disobedient knight?

No, that can't be.

The wanderer shook her head towards no one in particular.

"...You okay, Frienditi?"

Aditi looked behind her to see Fridge looking a bit worried. She only knew him for about a day now but seeing him worried did not set right with her.

"I'm perfectly fine, please don't worry about me!" Aditi forced a smile that didn't looked too forced in Fridge's eyes.

The buff guy sighed in relief. "So what's that you got there, Frienditi?"

No. He can't see this. He can't see the newspaper. He and the rest of the team felt uncomfortable with the article-

"It's nothing! Don't worry so much about it, Fridge!" Aditi had an even wider smile on her face, hoping that she would be successful in hiding such a crude thing from him.

"Ah, okay!" Fridge nodded.

Silence ensued among the two as they stared towards the window bathed in the bluish silver hue of the moonlight.

"We should probably be sleeping now." Aditi said.

"Yeah, sounds good!" Fridge grinned and went towards his bed. Good thing he didn't break it in the process. "Good night, Frienditi!"

"...Good night." The Turk gave a small smile before going on to her bed, sliding the newspaper under her pillow.

The night went by slowly. Some of the Ritter team managed to get some sleep while a few couldn't until dawn.

Jessica was seated on her bed rubbing her arm. That part of her arm that she was rubbing on had some sort of medical gauge to it. She winced in slight pain as her hand hovered over it but she thought it would pass anyway.

"You're injured." a voice spoke. The wrangler widened her eyes and looked up to whoever that voice belonged to. "You said you were fine yesterday after that fall."

It was Hector. He was already seated in his wheelchair and about to prepare himself for the day ahead of them. From what Jessica could tell thanks to the morning sunlight illuminating his face, he couldn't sleep as well judging the black circles on his eyes. Maybe she did lied to him about not being hurt from that crash just to not worry anyone and end the discussion, but it didn't work anyway.

"I'll be fine. That cut from that broken vase didn't cut too deep so it should heal after a few days." Jessica explained her side, a part of her hoping that Hector would understand instead of just worrying about her.

It took about almost an eternity for the engineer to understand her.

Then he finally nodded.

"Just don't move your arm too much. Especially later on in the next challenge." he told her.

"Yeah, I won't." Jessica quickly replied. "It's not like I'll get thrown into the medic if it gets worse you know."

Hector didn't move an inch before shrugging. "I see. Whatever you say, then. Just let me know if you need help, okay?" He dismissed, grabbing some clothes from his bag and leaving for the bathroom.

Jessica didn't move either, instead she just think. Being so nice in barely the second day in thw competition? Or maybe it's because he just wanted an ally? Should she keep an eye out for him? She doesn't know. But she accepted his gratitude anyway, since a small smile formed on her face.

Noon came by and everyone was given the whole day to do whatever they wanted. Was every other day a challenge day? More likely, yes.

Laverne and Laila were the only ones present in the room now as the rest went to go do some other activities.

"Laila?"

"Ugh, what? Can't you see Laverne, I am trying to get my beauty sleep." Laila whined as usual.

"But you've slept for like, eight hours or something! You're still not contented with that?" Laverne questioned her, but the model quickly shook her head.

"No, why would I?"

Laverne groaned. It's only been day two and she's already have enough of Laila's words. Maybe she needs to make a deal.

"Laila?"

"What again?"

"Let's make a deal." Laverne stared at the snob intently, yet this did not bother the snob either way. "If you fix your attitude, I will make sure to keep you safe until at least past merge."

"Or else what?"

"I'll convince everyone here to vote for you. I mean I'm pretty sure no one else here would be able to tolerate your personallity. Well, maybe except for Fridge and Aditi or maybe Eli too, but still." Laverne explained her side.

For the first time today, Laila didn't seem to counter what Laverne had said. Did she really want to play the game? Or did she just came here to be the snob she is and leave early?

"Fine. But make that final two."

"Final two?" Laverne groaned. "Fine. But we're gonna need some allies outside of our team besides some of our teammates."

"Some of our teammates, you say?" Laila smirked. "How about Fridge, Aditi, and Eli? Never liked Jessica's leadership or Hector's… disadvantage anyway."

Laverne rolled her eyes. While she does agree to allying with the three, her insults regarding the latter two were maybe a bit too much. "...Yeah, that would probably work. And outside of our team?"

"I don't know, the guy that untied us back in the storage room? Dory?"

"Rory."

"Rory. Whatever." Laila scoffed after her mistake. "He looks nice enough to not betray us later on."

"...Now I think that dragging him into our plan isn't a good idea…" the model whispered to herself.

"What?"

"Nothing. Whatever." It was Laverne's turn to say that word now.

"So we are finally done?" Laila asked. The model nodded in response. "Finally. Now leave me be so that I can go back to my much needed beauty sleep."

"Fine." Laverne shrugged before going to her own bed.

Outside the room, Eli manage to hear the whole thing after grabbing some lunch.

"Looks like this team isn't as nice as I thought." Eli said to himself, remembering how he mentioned in the previous night about everyone being all buddy-buddy. "Now I was hoping that I won't be wrong but oh well. Guess it's time to stop an alliance now." He said.

He took one last peek in the room to see if both Laila and Laverne were still talking but they weren't. He recoiled his head back out of the way before either of the two could see him.

Now he is going to figure out when and how will he expose them to the group.


Hi guys, Obsidian here with Ritter's team episode! Just realized this mini wasn't as long as I thought lol. But anyway, I've decided to call these series of mini chapters "Odes To Manoria" for… different reasons lol. These will play something in the future episodes, not only the mini chapters themselves, but also their titles (what is this Obsidian, another puzzle? lol maybe yes maybe no). XD

Last time we gave the Chevs the spotlight but for now I've decided to put Ritter for this mini since they have an exciting arc going on starting with the newspaper Aditi found lol then this and that happened. XD Honestly both them and Lytsari (and Chevs ofc) have interesting plots regarding Manoria but Ritter has this one since I think they were a bit underwhelming last episode despite the screentime they had.

We'll have episode 3 next followed by Lytsari's mini episode! I'll try to get episode 3 up by maybe mid-January. Thanks for reading!