“What do you mean ‘last week’?” Stephanie asked, confusion written across her features. “This all happened yesterday.”

“This is very weird,” James said. “No drug I’ve ever heard of can take away a week’s worth of memories like that.”

“I’m sorry, Stephanie,” Logan said. “I made out that you were lying when there’s obviously something else going on. I’m also sorry about your memories. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, I promise nothing happened last night that was against your will.”

A range of emotions flickered across her face. Stephanie looked like she was gathering the courage to respond, but not before Tom interrupted her.

“Bullshit! Steph would never sleep with a guy like you! And how do we know that there isn’t a magical drug in your Shop that lets you wipe out a week’s worth of memories, huh?”

Logan tried to come up with a few different responses, but he eventually closed his mouth and said nothing.

“See! Even he knows he’s guilty.”

Tom puffed his chest up and looked around for support. “I think we should band together and show this scumbag that there’ll be no tolerance for-”

“The ghost,” Amelia said, looking at Logan for the first time today. “Did you take the circlet off last night?”

“It’s right here,” Logan said, pulling his collar down to expose the chain. “I took it off to use the medicinal bath but put it back on when I went to sleep. Just to be safe, you know?”

Amelia sighed in relief, but not many people were following her line of thought.

“The ghost?” Ron asked.

“The Skeleton Lord. The one we stole the circlet from after it failed to sacrifice us, remember? Logan said that its spirit detached from the skeleton and flew away. We suspected it might’ve taken over the leader of those Armoured Savages, but maybe it didn’t.”

“Are you implying that it’s with us right now?”

Tom scoffed at them both. “That’s absurd. Why the hell would a ghost be lingering around us?”

“It won’t leave without the circlet,” James said. “That item is ridiculously useful. We can’t even buy something like that from the Shop. Without it, the Skeleton Lord may as well commit suicide here in the wilderness.”

“What are you implying?” Tom shouted. “That Stephanie’s body was possessed and whored out by a ghost? Do you have any idea how cruel that is to say in front of her?”

Logan glanced at Stephanie, her face pale at the thought of being pimped out. He also shuddered, wondering if he really had slept with a ghost. That was a terrifying prospect, but he simply couldn’t believe she had been possessed. The acting was simply too good for no one to notice anything strange.

“I’m just stating the facts,” James said. “Stephanie can’t remember anything from last week, and this happens the morning after she seduces Logan? The guy who has the circlet on his body at all times? That’s too much of a coincidence to make sense of.”

“Why does that matter? If the ghost really wanted to, couldn’t it just steal the circlet while Logan was asleep?”

“No,” Logan said, his mind whirring with possibilities. “Without a physical body, it might not be able to interact with it at all.”

“This is insane,” Tom shouted, throwing his arms in the air. “It’s a freaking ghost. Why can’t it fly up through the floor and steal the circlet while you’re asleep?”

“Now that I think about it, the ghost flew down the stairs after I burned it. If you lost both of your arms and got horrifically burned, wouldn’t you try to get away as quickly as possible by flying through the floor?”

“Interesting,” Amelia said. “Perhaps it can’t interact with physical matter, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still limited by it. Kind of like a regular person trying to push a brick wall over. Without a physical body, the ghost can’t move the circlet no matter how hard it tries. Or anything at all, for that matter.”

“But that still doesn’t explain why it hasn’t tried to steal the circlet itself. Logan sleeps for hours every day. That’s more than enough time to do all sorts of things, like use Stephanie to take it herself.”

“I would’ve noticed or woken up,” Logan said, deep in thought. “Maybe it isn’t that it can’t steal the circlet, but that it’s afraid of me?”

“Oh, mister tough guy,” Tom mocked, flipping him off. “So scary that even ghosts tremble in his presence.”

Logan sighed. “No, I’m being serious. It could be afraid of me. After all, I almost wiped it out with a single touch. If it tried to approach me again and take a piece of jewellery off my body, there’s a good chance it would immediately die.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” James said. “The Skeleton Lord did have followers to do all its dirty work for him. It might’ve done the same to Steph, controlling her mind and manipulating her from a distance to try and pull off its plan.”

Amelia stood up, leaving Stephanie alone on the grass. “What do you think it intended to do? Get us to gang up on Logan and maybe even imprison him?”

“If that happened, we would’ve also taken his spear and the circlet since he no longer needed it. That would’ve been the perfect opportunity to steal whatever it wanted. No flames, no danger. The only problem is that its plan failed in the end.”

“Well, isn’t this nice? Everyone flocks to defend the rapist while conveniently forgetting that even if he didn’t do it, he still traumatised Stephanie!”

“What do you want, man?” Logan sighed, feeling weak. “I never intended to hurt her. I can apologise again, but I doubt she wants to talk or see me ever again.”

“I don’t know, maybe some kind of punishment?”

“I can have James and Ron follow me around. That’s really the best we can do. Unless, of course, everyone is happy to part ways here?”

No one seemed too enthusiastic about that idea. Even Tom realised the implications, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. No one wanted to leave their immortal lifeline, even if he was a disgusting pervert.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

In that morbid silence, Stephanie made a noise that drew their attention. Everyone turned to her, but she wasn’t crying any more. She was now staring into space while thinking deeply about something.

“Steph,” Amelia said, crouching down in front of her. “How are you feeling?”

“Embarrassed and stupid.”

“Embarrassed? There’s nothing to feel bad about. From your perspective, you really were in danger.”

“No, I feel embarrassed because I’m sitting here naked with a blanket wrapped around me when I got myself into this situation in the first place.”

“Wait, do you remember something?”

“I’m starting to remember some bits and pieces and, yeah. Logan didn’t coerce me or anything like that. It’s all super vague. I don’t remember much, but I can recall one important part.”

“Which was?” Amelia asked, staring.

“That I pressured him into it.”

Amelia froze.

Stephanie quickly jumped up and entered Logan’s tent before coming out with her clothes. She disappeared into her tent with no lack of discomfort in her posture. Everyone stood around, not knowing how to react when Stephanie poked her head back out.

“I’m sorry for accusing you like that, Logan. I hope you can forget about last night. I also hope that no one blames you.”

Logan didn’t say anything, his head bobbing up and down once to acknowledge that he heard her. After she closed the flap, Logan sighed and walked back into his tent.

He needed a nap.

***

For the next few days, the atmosphere was odd to say the least. There was a certain kind of tension in the air that didn’t fade away. No one really considered Logan to be a rapist anymore. Most everyone spoke to him about it and smoothed things over, all of them apologising for not believing him innocent. As for the others, there would be no reconciling.

Tom hated his guts. That much was obvious. In the last few days, he had almost attacked Logan a few times over the tiniest of arguments. If their strengths were reversed, the man probably would’ve killed him already.

Stephanie was much better. She looked embarrassed and didn’t talk much when he was around, their friendship ruined beyond repair. Luckily for Tom, she had forgotten everything that happened on the bridge. With that black mark in their history scrubbed clean, they were suddenly closer than ever.

The worst, however, was Amelia. Nothing had been said between them, but it was obvious that their relationship had changed in some imperceptible way. Logan honestly didn’t believe that he had a chance of being with her in the first place. That was part of the reason he had slept with Stephanie. They had less chemistry to begin with, but she was infinitely more interested in him than Amelia.

Or maybe he was just an idiot.

Three days after his lover’s tryst, Logan mustered up the courage to approach Amelia. It was still early in the morning. Their routine was to train their techniques at dawn, eat a small breakfast together, and spend the rest of the morning in simulated battles.

No one could really keep up with Logan. He trained with his life force manual up to three times a day, albeit with exponentially decreasing gains, and was a stage higher than everyone else. His self-created technique also made his blows a notch more powerful than what the others could pull off. Everyone had learned an intermediate technique now, but Logan could end almost any fight in a few exchanges.

Without a shield, his strength was too much to handle.

That was why Amelia was the perfect partner for him. Sparring partner, that was. Logan shook his head and walked over to where she was training. She repeatedly rammed her shield into a tree, each blow a little more controlled than the last.

“Hey,” Logan said, greeting her with a smile. “How are you feeling today?”

“Fine. I’m just trying to improve my concepts.”

“How’s that going so far?”

Amelia wiped her brow. “It’s certainly going. Just a little slow, is all.”

“I see,” Logan said, nodding. “Anyway, I’m trying to learn an intermediate technique, but I’m kind of struggling right now. Maybe we would both benefit from a little sparring?”

Amelia paused. “What did you have in mind?”

“Since you’re learning a shield skill and I’m trying to combine two movement techniques, I thought you could try hitting me and I would dodge? No spears. Just my feet and your shield.”

“It certainly doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Amelia said, not very enthusiastic. “We can spar for a few minutes, but I’m getting pretty hungry.”

“That’s fine,” Logan said, his voice a lot quieter than he meant it to be.

They separated and faced each other, one on each side of the field. Suddenly, Amelia charged straight for him. She used the intermediate version of Leap. It took less than a second for her to cross nearly twenty metres of distance. Her running speed was already at the level of an Olympic athlete. Combined with an intermediate technique, she could move at roughly twice the speed of the fastest human ever recorded.

While only temporary, that was incredible to say the least.

Logan was faster. He used the intermediate version of Flash Step to jump to the side, his legs blurring as Amelia’s shield brushed past him. It slammed into the rock wall behind him and cracked the surface. If it wasn’t for the fact that Logan had combined Flash Step and Rebound, he might’ve gone down in their first exchange.

Amelia came at him again. The shield was like a truck as it whooshed past him, the air rippling from its mere passage. This went on for minutes, but she wasn’t discouraged. Judging by the manic gleam in her eyes, she was actually enjoying this little game of cat and mouse. Her attitude had completely flipped. Despite almost being folded in half a few times, Logan was also having a lot of fun.

It felt like things had gone back to normal for a few minutes.

However, not all good things could last forever. Amelia’s life force manual, the Mountain Guardian, focused on boosting her strength to supernatural levels. That made her stronger than most for her stage, but it also had some drawbacks. Mainly, that was her stamina. After merely five minutes of fighting, they had to stop and take a break while she gasped for air.

Logan was also panting a bit, but he had advantages that she didn’t. Namely, the Nine-Step Spear. It was designed to get the most benefits from wielding a spear while her Mountain Guardian manual was for using the shield. The former required power, which was a combination of strength and speed. This would injure the body and drain its resources faster, so it also provided great stamina to address its major flaw.

It was inevitable that there would be differences between them. It also helped that Logan wasn’t attacking. Running away was hard on its own, but all he had to do was move his legs. On the other hand, Amelia was using her full strength to chase and attack, meaning that even if she did have greater stamina than him, she still would’ve been forced to give up.

“C-Can you help a sister out, please?” Amelia gasped, hinting that she wanted to be healed.

“Hmm, I don’t know. The egg’s power is limited. Do you really want to waste it on something like training?”

Amelia shot him a glare. “Isn’t that what you’ve been doing the last two and a half months?”

“That’s different.”

“How!?”

“It’s my egg.”

They stared at each other, the moment stretching on until Logan smirked.

Unable to hold it in, they both burst into laughter.

“I’d beat you if I had the energy.”

Logan shrugged. “From what I could see earlier, you couldn’t beat me up even if you tried.”

“Alright, that does it!”

Amelia leapt to her feet and tackled Logan at the waist. He braced himself and took the brunt of the impact, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her in place. He could’ve picked her up and thrown her, but because she was exhausted and the fight wasn’t serious, he kept her trapped until she would inevitably give up.

Amelia had no way out since he was stronger than her. But surprisingly, she was stronger than he expected. The next thing he knew, she picked him up off the ground and threw him over her shoulder. Logan slammed into the grass and groaned, his head throbbing when a shadow came over him.

Amelia stood above him and smirked. He thought about changing his mind and turning their play fight into a real one.

When she spoke, he actually did. “Is this really the strength of our glorious leader? Looks like all you can do is run, big man.”

“Is that how you think of me? I guess I’ll take the gentleman’s gloves off then.”

“Gentleman? That’s not what- Ah!”

Logan considered his options and couldn't decide on whether to win through skill or raw power. That was why he used both, his legs wrapping around her ankles. With a twist, she began to fall, reaching out with her hands to brace herself. The only thing Logan didn’t account for was the direction.

Instead of landing on her back, Amelia fell on top of him.