It’s hard to explain what it feels like to lose something—or, at the very least, to think you’ve lost it.

I walk through the bustling streets of Amorium on the morning of the seventh day since I began speedrunning the Cantrips. I’m not sure what happened because, well, I don’t remember anything past the moment my nose started to bleed. The Omnium Compendium was sitting unresponsive on my kitchen table, and Magister Mulligan was nowhere to be seen.

I really want to know what the hell happened, I think to myself.

And that’s not all.

The worst possible things have apparently transpired in the period covered by darkness by my, hopefully temporary, amnesia.

…

“Joey!” Clodia shouts in my direction, running toward me with a big smile as I enter the kitchen labs of Aurora’s Bakery.

“Yo,” I say, squinting my eyes as the muscled woman walks forward, and I start making out the new… tattoos on her face? “Wow, that looks cool.”

Clodia gives me a quick hug, still with a smile.

What the hell happened?

“I thought face tats were reserved for [Bards] without father figures,” I say, trying to glean something from whatever is going on here.

“Oh, this?!” She suddenly slaps her forehead with a blow that would have probably given the old me a concussion. “This is…”

“Joey!” I hear another shout, a shriller voice this time. As I turn around, I can see a pixie-cut blonde barrel her way toward me.

“Camilla,” I say, nodding at her and noticing she’s holding a massive staff in her hands.

Oh, shit, right.

“You two have accepted the class!” This time, it’s me shouting as Camilla comes to give me a hug.

“Yes, Joey. We must thank you so much for—” Clodia starts but soon gets interrupted by the much shorter Elf.

“Where have you been?! We’ve figured it out!”

“Figured out what?” I frown, holding my head as I feel the headache slowly resurfacing.

“Figured out the Magical Wheat!” She says. “It’s growing! And it grows at an incredible speed! We’ve already harvested some! We were waiting for you to do something with it!”

“Oh, wow,” I say, impressed. “I’m glad you two are liking your [Druid] Classes.”

“It’s a lot, Joey. Stan is extremely powerful and kind. He’s shown us so many tricks. We’ve both already reached level 10. And… well, why don’t we show you?”

I nod and smile, trying to ward off the persistently incoming migraine with a few silent prayers. Meanwhile, Clodia points at people who have tattoos on their arms, faces, and necks. At the center of the bakery, I can see my favorite worker with long blue tendrils of ink on her arms as she works on a batch of what looks like meat-filled pies.

“I took inspiration from you,” Clodia suddenly coughs out, almost embarrassed. “Flaminia explained how you actually put Runes all over yourself, and I asked Stan if there was a way to do something similar. Most of my tattoos are very weak, but they can help with so many things. Look at those two girls.”

Clodia points at two indistinct women.

“They were so agitated all the time. I told them I could help them calm down. The tattoos I gave them instill confidence and calmness.”

“Damn, that’s great,” I say with genuine amazement. “Are they permanent?”

Clodia shakes her head, “I can’t give permanent tattoos, yet. They fade away with usage. They last about three days before I have to draw from my Mana again to repaint them.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“I think you found a great specialty for yourself,” I smile at the big woman. “I also bet there’s some naughty ones you can use with Amelia for fun.”

Clodia scoffs, but she’s still smiling. Interestingly enough, she’s not kicking me, taking a ladle to the back of my head, or worse.

“Are you done showing your little finger-painting creations?” Camilla says, starting to drag my shirt toward the stairs.

“Huh, can I say hi to—”

“No, come,” Camilla snaps.

…

We’re in the conference room, where there’s at least two hundred pounds worth of magical flour.

“How did you do it?”

“Clodia’s a support-oriented [Druid],” Camilla explains with a sneaky smile. “I’m a control-oriented one.”

“I’m not sure what it means,” I say. “I don’t really know [Druids] like that.”

“Controlling energy,” Camilla explains as Clodia stands in the background. “I’ve been working out patterns of where, how, and when to arrange the wheat.”

She looks at me as if she had just figured out how to make rockets land upright and waiting to be praised for being a genius. In fact, the muscled-[Baker]-[Druid] behind me chimes in to clarify just how hard this appears to be.

“It’s really hard, Joey. Much harder than she just made it sound.”

“Well, damn, congrats Camilla. You just gave us a massive boost in what we’ll be able to do with our arsenal.”

We keep discussing this for a few minutes before I feel the need to look for someone I can talk to about my problems.

“Where’s the [Princess]?” I ask.

“Oh,” Camilla swallows.

“What? Something happened?”

“No. She’s already on the grounds of the Valerii’s castle,” Clodia explains.

“What?”

“She’s accepted the offer to cater the party organized by Cornelia Novafamilia,” she replies.

“Huh,” I chew on those words before nodding. “I needed to talk to her. Will she be back?”

“No,” Camilla says. “She’s going to be there all day. We’re shipping the last refreshments for the party and they’ll keep it on preservation runes there. She’s overseeing the hired [Waiters] and general staff manning the party.”

“Is she doing a good job?”

Camilla and Clodia look at each other, hesitating for a second.

“No?” I offer.

“She’s doing an amazing job,” Clodia sighs. “She’s very good at this. You were right to put her in charge.”

“Oh, then why the long faces?”

“Joey,” Clodia says, clearing her throat. “You look pale. You went away to do something dangerous, didn’t you? Your Mana is very… confusing.”

She can see my Mana?

“I think I might have finished what I set out to do,” I say cryptically. “However, a few things might have gone wrong. I wanted to discuss those things with the [Princess]. But if she’s not here, I might just need to get myself… oh, wait.”

A lightbulb goes off in my head.

“You’re worried that I’d be jealous about the [Princess]?”

The two women stare guiltily at me.

“What? My goodness, no. Absolutely not. I gave a task to the [Princess], and she apparently took care of everything. I come back to a better-managed bakery, with the first two [Druids] to appear in probably a few centuries and a huge contract that I assume the [Princess] is using to bleed the local nobles. I’m happy.”

They seem relieved at my words, but not enough to make me think they’re still not worried about me.

“I’ll take care of my remaining problems, don’t worry. I’ll see you guys at the party then.”

“You don’t want to… do something?” Clodia asks.

“Do what?”

“We left a spot open in the courses in case you came back in time and wanted to add something to yours.”

I look at them with my heart feeling squeezed by so much care.

“I love you both for the thought, but it’s ok. This is the [Princess]'s doing. I don’t want to be in the middle of it. If you need help, I’ll be glad to provide as much. But with all the gears already moving, I don’t want to be a bother. You all did an amazing job, and you can keep all the credit for it. Now, if there’s nothing else, I think I need to visit someone. Wait…”

I’m about to go out when I remember something.

“Camilla, is your sister going to the party?”

“Amelia? She’s going with me,” Clodia replies.

But Camilla has an eyebrow raised already.

“Flavia did receive an invitation this morning.”

“Alright, good. Less work for me to do then.”

“What?” Clodia looks confused as Camilla and I exchange a knowing smile.

…

I knock on the door of Lucinda’s house, feeling my heart pick up a bit.

“Hello?” I raise my voice, but I hear no sounds coming from the inside.

Damn, I didn’t even ask Fulvia if she can fix up my black suit. I hope Lucinda didn’t forget about me in the meantime.

“Hellooo?” I say again, this time, gently pushing on the door and finding it open.

Huh?

I take a peek inside before looking around in the empty street beside me and taking a deep breath.

Breaking and entering? Well, if it’s for love, people usually look the other way… or still go to jail. Heh, it doesn’t matter.

I take a step in and look around.

“Lucinda?” I call out. “Sorry, I found the door—”

But as I make my way closer to the backyard of her house, I find Lucinda standing in front of two men, one who looks very old and one who looks right about my age.

“Joey?” She freezes as all three turn toward me when I step into the backyard.

“Hello, gentlemen,” I say, casually walking closer to Lucinda as I observe a slightly disgusted expression on both of the idiots’ faces.

“[Archmage] Titus,” the younger person says, “this is the Human.”

“You must be the prodigy who cleared the Dungeon alone, allegedly,” the old man says. “I would love to exchange pointers with you, young Human.”

Oh, I’d love to, Mr. [Archmage], I think to myself. If only my goddamn magic hadn’t taken away both my class and skills and had fully disappeared.