14xx/07/07 Johannes Calendar
67 days since arrival…
We lost a lot of supplies from the fight in Pornof. The artefacts we got from the rifts are unharmed though, thanks to the jar. So, after we reached the Rift, the captain said that we will simply teleport back to the port. He did stash some Harpy Feather in case this happens.
We left the ruin in the morning after a short reconnaissance. There's not much to be found in this poisonous land, so we decided to make haste. Thankfully, the forest is lush with life, and we feasted upon its bounties on our journey. Good food, good people, tiring journey, a wonderful day, almost makes you forget what happened yesterday.
So, between the mouthful of deer for lunch, it was Kael's turn to spill his gut.
Pornof has always been a town of perverted craftsmen; their handiwork is as famous as their infamous lust, which they often fail to conceal to the outsiders. Recent generations do away with the secrecy and embraced the perversion, realising that pleasure will be a far greater merchandise to trade. In time, pleasure and business became one and the same.
However, a certain sect has risen from the ground, spearheaded by the Cultured Gents Club. They rejected traditional puritanism and embraced pleasurable freedom, compounded with artistic vision and unity with Monster Girls. The movement becomes popular, and dissident voices like Kael fades away into obscurity, left to lament the loss of their identity in the darkness while the hedonist indulges in deeper excess.
Kael has always disliked the new direction the town has made; so much talent wasted, only to fulfil their darkest instinct. So many would-be scholars and wizard ended up in the pillory, their hopes and aspiration dashed into the streets and drowned in the waves of lust. He knew of his own vices, but he also has his own ambition beyond the mud. He wished for something more substantial, more valuable than the public indecency commonly available to him. He will make a name for himself.
And then they threw him into the dungeon.
His voice shook with absolute terror and pain as he recalls his nightmare. We tried to stop him, but the words kept spilling out. Days after days being rode like a horse, used as a dummy for both Monster Girls and human alike, forced to even satisfy his own family. The last gift his mother gave him is his freedom, gifting him a key to escape from the dungeon. His father left a map and a bag of gold for his freedom. He left the town, and fought tooth and nail to become a sorcerer he is now.
He has no idea what happened to his family, but he prefers not to know. Too painful to remember, he said, as he collapsed into more incoherent sobbing.
The Captain decided to add more gold into Kael's pocket and apologized profusely for not heeding his advice. Oskar blessed Kael with the strongest blessing he knows, saying that he will try and protect him as long as he's in the party. Natsuki hugged him tearfully. It was she who goaded him into revealing his secrets, and has assumed erroneously of his experience.
I have nothing to offer but kind words. What am I supposed to do? There's a new line that appeared in my book. Whatever cosmic shit going up there, they really want Pornof to live. Wholesale extermination is out of the question. I did pop some of them though, if that's any consolation.
Guess I have to scratch one town off the list.
Oh well, its just one city, and I have a bag full of feathers.