Victoria and I walked across the forest, following the guidance of some map we had bought at a shop.

"Damnit… I can't even figure out where we are right now." I let the map float away into the air.

Victoria snatched the map before it floated to the ground. She stared at it for a while before saying: "Look, the map says that the Chasm is right near an opening here…"

"It's no use," I told her, "I say we go back to that merchant and demand our money back."

Victoria sighed. "Well, I would if I knew were Verse was."

Great…now not even Victoria knew where we were.

"We're not going to accomplish anything by standing around here. Let's look for a clearing."

The two of us walked for at least another half hour before we finally found a path leading out of the forest and into the mountains. "Finally!" I laughed and took a swig of water from my canteen. "I thought we'd never"-

"Ahhh!"

I stopped and turned abruptly to see Victoria with her mouth agape and her arms held up.

There was some guy with his hands over her breasts, grinning like a lunatic.

"V-Victoria!" I reached for my sword.

"Y-you bastard!"

She kicked back, and from the way the guy staggered backwards and let go of her, I could tell that he had been kicked in a very sensitive spot…

"Damn…"

The guy stood up. He had long dark brown hair, which he had tied back into a ponytail. He wore a red headband across his forehead. His skin was pale and his eyes were slightly narrow and dark. On him he wore a red cloth vest, with it slightly unbuttoned, exposing some of his chest. His pants were green, and around his waist he wore a brown leather belt.

"Just who the hell are you?" I asked, readying my sword.

"Now hey, slow down."

He pulled out a very thin sword made of silver. "I'm taking all of your stuff right here, right now!" He ran towards me, and I reached back and struck him on his arm with my sword, creating a tiny gash. "Ugh!" That slowed him down. I brought my foot up and slammed it down on his head.

He fell flat on his stomach.

"Humph, serves you right. Let's go, Vincent."

I followed her to the clearing.

"H-hey! I'm not finished with you yet!"

"Shut up!" Victoria yelled back.

We stepped out of the forest and into the sunlight. The mountains were just up ahead.

"Who was that guy?" I asked Victoria.

She frowned. "Probably just some thief. There have been a lot of those bastards lately. The war's ended and they think that they can just attack unsuspecting travelers now."

I sheathed my sword.

Well, we showed him, I guess…

"Let's look for the chasm. It should be somewhere in these mountains."

It took us at least another hour just to find it.

"It's got to be up here…"

"No, I say we look down here…"

When we finally did find the chasm, it was in a clearing surrounded by trees. There was a lake near it, and lo and behold-

"The hell?"

There was that guy again, standing at the lake, staring into it.

"H-huh? You guys?"

He turned and walked towards us, a look of surprise on his face. "H-hey, I left you alone, didn't I?"

"Hah hah, he's afraid of us" Victoria commented.

The man grimaced. "I am not! I'm just surprised to see you here, is all!"

I frowned. "We're looking for a chasm. Just stay out of our way, and we'll"-

"A chasm?" he asked. "Wow, that's weird," he said, laughing. "I'm looking for a rare note stone in this chasm here."

A rare note stone…?

"That's supposed to only be a myth" Victoria told him.

The man frowned. "Oh yeah? Well what does Miss tiny melons know about it?"

Victoria blushed. "T-tiny! Fu"-

"Okay, we'll help you look for them."

"Vincent! You can't be serious!"

I leaned towards her ear to whisper. "No, but the Score said to come here to seek knowledge, right? We'll search for something that looks like it might be it, and use his help. Besides, the monsters in there must be pretty rough."

Victoria sighed. "Oh well, I guess it can't be helped. We'll look for your stupid note stones."

The man slammed his fist against his hand. "Awesome! All right, let's go!"

"Oh yeah, by the way, my name's Travis. Great working with you guys."

Stalagmites were every in the chasm. It was incredibly hot, so much that I had to take my shirt off. I saw Victoria throw me a couple of curious glances; I had no idea why though. We made our way through many different pathways. "What do you think that knowledge the Scorer was taking about is?" I asked Victoria.

"I don't know…could it be those note stones…?"

I scratched my forehead. "What exactly are note stones?" I asked.

"Well, their essentially gatherings of notes. Notes are used as energy by everyone in the world."

Hm…notes…they sounded vaguely familiar…

"Uh oh…" Travis jumped back.

"W-what is it?"

"I think I may have found our treasure…but…"

A colossal figure appeared on the wall, crawling towards us. It had eight legs, and a stinger-like mouth.

"A giant spider?!" Victoria stepped backwards.

"Hey, come on you two!" Travis ran towards the spider, clutching his sword in both hands.

Right. I unsheathed my sword and struck. It sunk into the spider's spongy body, allowing thick, black blood to squirt out. "Hey, Victoria!" Travis shouted. "You can use note artes, right? Hurry up and cast one!" He was battling the spiders' stingers with all his might.

Note Artes? Skills that use notes? I didn't know why, but it seemed familiar…

"R-right." Victoria's face was flushed white. I could tell that she wasn't too big of a fan of spiders. Nonetheless, she managed to raise her hand, chanting something to herself.

"Aura Bolt!"

A beam of energy emitted from her hand, striking the spider straight in the eye. It let out a shriek, blinded by the attack.

"W-whoa! I had no idea you could do that, Victoria!" I said.

Travis quickly finished the beast off, slicing its legs and head off.

"These bastards can come back with just their legs intact" he said.

I walked over to Victoria, who was eating an orange gel. "That was amazing," I told her.

"Too bad it takes up so much mana," she said, "if it didn't I could use it all the time."

"Hey you guys, come look at what I found!" Travis was holding up a stone of some sort, it's color silver.

"Notestones?!" Victoria ran over to him. "Just where the hell did you find these?!"

Travis grinned. "The spider was guarding them. Just another day in the life of Travis the great, baby. I'm going to be rich!"

"Y-you can't sell these!" Victoria told him. "These things are supposed to be just a rumor! You have to show them to scientists or"-

"Yeah right!" Travis kissed the stone in his hand. "I'm selling these for some serious gald! Hey Vinny, come check these out!"

note stones…not supposed to exist?

I walked over. "Ok, sure." I grabbed the one from Travis' hand.

Almost immediately however, I felt a throbbing in my head. "Ahh!" I dropped to the floor, letting go of the stone in my hand.

"Vincent!"

Images…

A boy…me?

There was that other boy again, too. The one with the golden hair…

We were both younger; we were children…running around…around a castle?

Then there was a word…Baticul?

Baticul…

Come home…

When I awoke, I was laying down on the grass outside. Travis was squeezing the last of my water from my canteen onto my forehead.

"Vinny, you're up."

Victoria leaned down. "Vincent! Are you…okay?"

I stood up.

"Baticul…where's Baticul?"

"Huh?" Victoria looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Baticul! Where the hell is Baticul?!"

"W-what do you mean?" Victoria asked. "I've never heard of 'Baticul' before. What's that?" Travis asked.

"Baticul, damnit! Where the hell is Baticul?! Is that so hard to understand?!"

Victoria's eyes widened in surprise.

"Now Vincent, calm down," Travis told me, "tell us more about this 'Baticul.'"

I groaned. "Look, I just remembered it ok? It's near a…a castle…then there are…gardens…"

Travis frowned. "Well, there are plenty of castles on the planet, Vinny. Which one of those is this 'Baticul'?"

I closed my eyes.

I had seen it…me running around with that boy with the golden hair…me laughing…me full of joy…

"I…I guess I don't know. All I can remember is a castle…"

Travis sighed.

I looked up at Victoria who was staring at me sadly.

"Victoria…I'm sorry…I'm a jerk, I know it…it's just…I remembered something and…"

Victoria nodded, managing a slight smile. "it's okay."

"Let's head back to the capital. I'm sure there's bound to be someone there who'll know more about Baticul."

I nodded. "Thanks, Victoria."

Baticul…what was it?