Doug had overheard the words that were spoken between Margeret and the two Earthmates completely, overhearing from the library next-door in private. And when he heard the part about the Sechs Empire's symbol, a ton of repressed memories suddenly appeared in his head out of nowhere... he recalled the sight of his village being burned... and that there were different helmets on the ground that had that exact symbol. A gun surrounded by flames.
"Could it really be true?... Was I... Was I lied to?!" Doug asked with his breath but a whisper in the wind. But he was repressing tons of anger right now. That exact symbol was also on the gauntlets of the two soldiers who had told him that Ventuswill was the one responsible for his town to be burned to ashes. And it was then that Doug's unwilling haunt emerged from his mind and spoke to him.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I know you have a communicator to the Sechs and that, according to your memories, they expect an update to what happened within the week," Sally said to him, Doug frowning at her.
"I know that, already!... Dammit, what do I do?" he asked in annoyance as he exited the library and ran to his house.
"I have an idea, but it'll only work if you do it perfectly," Sally said, Doug being all ears to what she had to say. "You need to make up a good lie and excuse as to what happened to the Rune Stones and the ones that were attacking the Earthmate halfling. Tell them that the Rune Stones were sent hurdling across the world because the Earthmate set it up as a failsafe in case of an incident as that occurring. And that, shortly after, the Earthmate then erased their own memories of their heritage so that no one would know where the Rune Stones are at. And as for the mercenaries, they were attacked by a rogue monster that attacked them and made the airship explode while the Earthmate fell into Selphia," she said, Doug gawking at that.
"Huh... that should buy us some time, sending them on a wild goose chase... but how would they believe me when I say that?" Doug asked.
"Tell them that the ghost of an Earthmate tied themselves to the halfling Earthmate and only they know of the locations of the Rune Stones. But, because of them being a spirit, she's unable to be captured because of her being, y'know, a spirit."
"Okay, but they might come here regardless, if I told them that... so what do I do, then?"
"If they ask where the Earthmate is, tell them that the halfling Earthmate is on her way towards Norad to search for the Rune Stones, as she has a friend that lives there that could restore her memories completely, as the Earthmate spirit is incapable of speaking to the Earthmate halfling."
"Okay, all bases covered, let's hope it goes well," Doug frowned as he then proceeded to call the people on the other side of the war. The bad guys needed to stay away, and he now had a plan to keep it that way, at least for a while.
After a good night's rest, I then woke up to the sound of Ventuswill snoring, but Fresca was still sound asleep. After hearing the dragon snore again, I then went over to her and saw she looked half asleep, which I then poked her in her face, which she yawned loudly at, which made me realize just how huge she was! She then looked at me and then woke up a bit.
"Is there something wrong, Lenette?" Venti asked me, which I smiled at.
"Just wondering why you were asleep," I smiled.
"I needed to get my beauty rest, as everyone does. But for dragons, we usually sleep for up to six hours every 7 days... but as for now, I felt a little more tired than I usually do... and we both know the reason should be stayed secret, correct?" she said, me nodding at her.
"Yeah, I do... it's because of the guardian being untied from Yokmir Forest," I said.
"Indeed... and with every guardian that will be rescued, my power will wane further and further... so please, get stronger so you can help me," she said, me nodding as Fresca finally woke up on her own.
"Hi, what's on the list today?" she asked while stretching.
"We've gotta check on our crops and see how they're doing," I smirked, her nodding as we then went to the fields and proceeded to water our toyherbs and turnips, them now having grown to be half the size they were prior, having grown super fast in only a day.
"Wow, the crops here grow faster than my world," I said, me gawking at how another memory was restored!
"How long did it usually take in your world?" Fresca asked.
"Um... trying to think... um... some took... almost a week... others, like crops... nearly half a year..." I groaned.
"That's a long time... what about trees?"
"I think... for some trees... it took years, possibly a decade or more to reach the max size," I said. "For fruit trees, like an apple, it depended on the version, but an apple tree's maximum growth would be 10 years and the minimum was 2," I said.
"Wow... that's a long time!" Fresca gawked. And then Vishnal arrived from the north with a group of traders.
"And not at all the time it takes for this world," he said, me blushing at that. "In this world, apple trees usually take up to 30 to 50 days to grow to maturity, about a month and a half at the most," he said, which I smiled at.
"So she comes from another world? Is it the afterlife? Because she's floating and see-through," said one of the traders.
"It's uh... complicated... I come from another universe as my spirit, but I was connected to Fresca when I arrived, which is good, but my limitations are that I can't grab anything made of stone or metal," I admitted.
"I do have to wonder if there's any magic out there that can revive the dead?" Vishnal asked.
"I do believe there is an ancient art to do so, but it would require a fresh body that had died within the span of 2 hours to do so. Otherwise, it won't work," the trader said, me seeing it was Barrett.
"That's quite interesting... so if I find a person who died within 2 hours, I can actually get revived... I wonder if they teach the spell anywhere?"
"I'd ask Lady Ventuswill before anyone else, as she's been around for a long time," Vishnal smiled.
"I'll keep that in mind, thanks Vishnal," I smiled at him as we then proceeded to go out to Eliza and we spoke to her, getting some more requests in the form of catching a fish and, after we did so, show it to her. If we did so, we'd get more Princess Points. And there were two other requests, with one being to get a license to cook food and the other a license to make medicine! And both would require Princess Points, which Eliza was happy to provide.
"All you have to do is answer the questions on the survey correctly and you'll get your licenses. Once you get them, come back to me so I can give you clearance as well as some beginner recipes," she said, me then going to take the survey alongside Fresca, both of us getting a pass on both and getting our licenses easily! We then went back to Eliza and she gave us the beginner recipes of Pickled Turnips and Onigiri for the basic kitchen table and Recovery Potion and Mixed Herbs with the medicine table!
"Sweet! Now where to get the chemistry set and the kitchen table?" Fresca asked.
"I think Doctor Jones has the chemistry set and you can get the cooking table and other utensils from Porco's. And remember, if you get recipe bread, you can increase your recipe repertoire easily and you can even experiment with other items, just be careful not to make the wrong thing, or you'll regret it," Eliza said happily.
"Just a quick question before we leave, Eliza. Is anyone else able to hear you?" I asked. And after a bit of silence, she spoke again.
"No, no one at all," she said with an audible sigh.
"That's sad to hear..." said the voice of someone behind us, which I gasped at as I looked behind me and gawked at how the sight was of Amber, her actually looking to have been fully recovered and her being alongside Doctor Jones and Nancy.
"Are you talking to the mailbox? That's strange," Doctor Jones said.
"I don't expect them to understand, since only you two can hear me. Just play dumb," Eliza said, which I was about to say before Amber spoke.
"Ooh, is dumb a game? How do you play it?" she asked in a ditzy manner, which made me gawk.
"W-What?!"
"Did she... understand me?" Eliza asked.
"Now Amber is speaking to the mailbox... I think you may need some more rest," Doctor Jones smiled.
"I don't need rest anymore! Anymore and I might cocoon," Amber said with a pout.
"Um... cocoon?" Nancy asked in concern.
"It's odd to explain, so I think I'll just burst the bubble now, since I have a theory," I said with a bit of courage. "Yes, the mailbox is sentient and she's named Eliza... and it appears that Amber can hear her too, just like me and Fresca... thus, my theory is that Eliza can only be heard by Earthmates," I said, which Jones gawked at.
"Earthmates? So that's why Amber has those wings and antenna... she's an Earthmate," Jones gawked.
"Yeah, I remember that now!" Amber smiled happily. And then Lily came around with a smile.
"Ah, I see she's finally woken up," Illuminata smiled widely.
"Yeah, and I made some new friends! YAY!" Amber smiled as her wings appeared in less than a second, just popping out of a duo of holes from her dress on her backside!
"WINGS?! She has WINGS?!" Fresca gawked.
"Of course! All Earthmates are one with the earth and have a thing about them that makes them unique! As for Amber, she seems to be imbued with Earth magic, and mixed with the genes of a butterfly," Illuminata smiled.
"Well deduced, detective," Fresca said, fueling her ego.
"Please don't encourage her," Nancy giggled.
"I'll gladly accept you into my flower shop as my apprentice in both mystery solving and as a florist! Do you agree?" Lily smiled.
"Yay! Sounds amazing! I'd love that!" Amber smiled widely.
"But first, introductions. I'm Lenette, and this is Fresca," I smirked.
"And I'm Amber! I seem to have forgotten a lot of who I used to be, but I do know my name, that I'm an Earthmate, and that I LOVE honey!" she smirked.
"Well, what a coincidence! I have some honey back in my store that I was planning on putting into a smoothie," Lily smiled.
"HOORAY!" Amber smiled as she flew over to Illuminata and they then went down to her place happily.
"Well, looks like she's happy... as for me, I need to get back to work... and do some research about Earthmates and their many, MANY unique abilities... we need to protect them," Jones smiled.
"Bye," I smiled at him and Nancy as that left myself, Fresca, and Eliza alone to each other.
"So... Earthmates can understand me, but nobody else, huh?" she asked.
"It appears so," I smiled.
"That would explain why your sister was able to do so. The dwarf himself isn't an Earthmate, but your siblings are, which she told me last night it also included your brother, trapped in Forte, and your eldest sister, locked within Ventuswill," she spoke. "It feels nice to have people to talk to after so many years... I'm grateful!"
"Well, we're grateful to you as well, for teaching us how to do this stuff," I smiled at her.
"I am just a simple talking mailbox, I don't really do much... well, I guess talking mailbox's aren't really that simple at all... anyways, there are a couple more requests, and they happen to be for cooking your first meal and for crafting your first potion. You'll need those tables to do so, however, so go speak with Doctor Jones and Porco to see about getting to practice."
"You're on Eliza," I smiled as we then proceeded to do just that. And while Porco gave us our starting kitchen table for free, Jones said that we needed 3 K gold as well as 30 each of lumber and material stone. So we decided to buy a single bit of rice from Blossom's store so that we could practice making Onigiri, which we succeeded at and, get this, our skills increased nearly by 30 for one freaking rice ball! ! !
"What the?! I suddenly feel super strong, yet super tired at the same time!" Fresca admitted.
"So do I! How is this possible?" I gawked.
"Maybe... because of your Earthmate strengths? Maybe our strengths combined made our rank go up so high?" Fresca asked.
"Maybe... we should try again after we share this rice ball together," I smiled, Fresca agreeing as we ate it together and we both got half the bonuses from it... And I gawked further at how our RP and our HP was up a lot after this!
"I think we need to talk to Venti about this... and regardless of answer, we go back out and get some more experience fighting the monsters," I smiled.
"Good plan," Fresca nodded in agreement as we then went to the left and witnessed Venti speaking with Forte and Doug.
"I see... thank you for telling me of this. We have little time," Venti said, me going to her and making the trio notice.
"What's going on? What little time are we speaking of?" I asked. The one who responded was Doug.
"It's the Sechs Empire," he said, making me and Fresca gawk. So soon?! What?!
"Doug has admitted to me that the empire in question hired him as a spy to prevent you from finding the Rune Stones and to deliver them to their accursed emperor, using lies to claim Lady Ventuswill was responsible for the death of his village, Elinia," Forte admitted, me gawking at that.
"See, I realized I was being fooled when I overheard you and Meg talking about it," Doug said, which made me blush. Note to self, be mindful when speaking out in the open. Then Sally spoke, conjuring herself from Doug to do so.
"The symbol of a gun surrounded by flames is the symbol of the empire, which were also on some helmets left at the burning village as well as on the gauntlets of the mercenaries that spoke to Doug to act as a spy, them claiming to be from a kingdom ruled by Aquaticus," Sally spoke.
"So I knew right away it was a hoax to trick Doug, as Aquaticus doesn't rule a kingdom... not anymore, at least..." Venti sighed. "The Aquaticus he mentioned perished by the hands of the very same empire, and the current Aquaticus resides in Sharance, the same land that Fresca resided in," Venti explained.
"Wow... so... what happens now?" Fresca asked.
"Doug has tricked the empire into believing you lost your memory and that, right before doing so, you used a spell to warp the Rune Stones to random locations across the world. And that, in order to restore your memory, you'd travel to Norad to meet someone who could restore it, and thus, find the Rune Stones," Jacob explained after, forming his essence from Forte for about five seconds before he had to say the rest in her head.
"Your brother's will is strong, but not strong enough, it seems," Forte sighed.
"So long as I can hear his voice, that's fine by me," I smiled kindly. "But other than that, we have to let you know something, Ventuswill," I said, using her full name in front of others.
"Yes, what is it?" she asked.
"See, when Fresca and I worked together to form an onigiri for lunch, we ended up raising our skills from level 1 to level 30. For an ONIGIRI," I said, which made her smile.
"Ah, that sounds incredible! And I can see you two have also been gaining strengths from chopping the wood, smashing rocks, and watering your crops," she said, me smiling at that. "If you keep it up, you should be able to reach the next point of interest: the Watery Ruins to the southeast. After you get some dinner, you can head over there in the morning," Venti smiled at us. And then my elder sister, Nelly, appeared from Ventuswill's head, which I could tell made Doug and Forte surprised.
"And... be careful, okay? If you get hurt, you may not make it back," Nelly warned, me nodding as I gave her a hug, and she did the same with me. "By the way, your favorite kind of food is cheesecake. I'll have Clorica make it for you before you go to bed," my mouth automatically salivating at the sound of that, which made the group surprised.
"You know stuff about her?" Forte asked.
"Yes, we do... it seems that everyone else other than her kept their memories of the world we used to reside in. Oh, the stories we could tell. Some good, some bad, even some fairy tales that could be used at nighttime campfires," Jacob chuckled.
"I wish I could join in on this, but I need to keep a vigilant eye on the town, especially if the empire catches wind of our plan," she said... and it was just then that we heard a toot...
"Okay, who did it?" I asked in annoyance. And the one that spoke up was...
"How undignified... of all the times for one to squeak out..." Ventuswill groaned, which everyone then laughed at, which she groaned after. "Okay, we all got our yucks, don't tell anyone, okay?"
"Sorry, sorry... the timing was just so perfect!" Doug laughed aloud, which I was relieved he was on the side of good so early... I guess my mistakes and Sally's assistance helped convince him that we were the heroes, and the Sechs Empire were the villains.