+++ Alfon’s Perspective +++

It took about a month for us to hit the border. A string of mountains stood in our path out of the Theocracy.

During our trip here we’ve encountered a few setbacks outside of a couple monster attacks here and there.

Since the party didn’t want to risk being detained at the larger cities along the path we had to resupply and lodge at the local towns, of which few actually accepted the currency we had on hand because it appears we brought Avenstron coins.

Poor Swift got an earful for that. His excuse was that he assumed the Dale family would be paying for us so we could skip exchanging until Darinford.

So we had to assist in some minor tasks the townsfolk laid out for us in order to pay for our stays. This included plowing the fields, hunting game, and fetching water among other things.

I say we, but it was mostly Donovan, Swift, Prisilla and mother doing the manual labor. Rafine was delegated to look after Nina and I due to her small stature and her... arm.

I still felt guilty about it but whenever she caught me staring for too long she would clonk me on the head and say: “If you’ve got time to worry about me you’ve got time to memorize these spell formulas. Again.”

We’re still laying off the practical practice but she has increased the knowledge homework a lot. To the point where even I am struggling to keep up even with the bits and pieces of experience from my prior life.

In fact, Nina couldn’t keep up any longer so she is held to separate standards now, though you’d never be able to tell by looking at her. She has this weird habit of having a permanent smile on her face so she has exactly the same reaction whether she gets 90% or 0%.

Sometimes I think she just doesn’t care but I saw the smile fall off once when she was being scolded harshly by Master Rafine, so maybe not?

Anyway, regarding the separate standards: if she can answer 20% of the questions on Master Rafine’s tests she passes whereas I had to answer 85%.

A rather discriminatory grading system, but I understand. Moreover the extra work certainly helped me keep my mind off things while we were traveling.

There was this one funny episode at a riverside village where they had a monster problem near the northern fields. Donovan was dispatched to solve the issue and ended up saving two young women of the farming family nearby.

He was hailed as a hero and invited to stay with the family as a guest for the night, so Prisilla and Swift gave him a pat on the back and told him to go ahead.

That night I was awoken by a heavy knock from the room beside us. It woke up mother as well and she told me to sit still while she went to check what was going on.

Turns out that one of the girls Donovan had saved intended on making him her husband by forcing herself on him. Her advances had gotten direct enough that Donovan had to leave the house.

I overheard Prisilla having a good old holler about the whole story before she let him bunk with her and Swift.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. The next morning we had an angry mob in front of our inn demanding Donovan to be punished.

From the uproarious shouting of the mob it seemed like that girl who tried to make things happen with Donovan accused him of violating her that night before running off.

The nerve of some people I swear.

Fortunately our supplies had been restocked yesterday and we sneakily departed from the would-be captors of Donovan with little issue.

Though he was forced to buy meals for us at the next convenience and Prisilla wouldn’t stop bringing it up at the bars.

“..fy.”

There was also another time where mother had a run in wit-

“Alfon!” The elevated tone was accompanied by a familiar bonk on my head. “You seem to have trouble paying attention nowadays. Do not be conceited by your initial success; I’ve seen many a mage being led astray by their own prowess.” Rafine lectured.

“I’m sorry master Rafine.” I replied. I glanced up nervously, but master Rafine didn’t seem mad, she simply resumed her lesson on mana flow and the purpose of staves and wands.

She was wearing a large hood that looked very strange on her, along with a new staff made of refined stone. The staff was of decent quality I think, but we never did find a tailor who had a hat of her specifications.

Rafine’s horns were very long so with the hood it seemed like she was a head and a half taller from her silhouette. Though from the front it looked extremely strange so she avoided going to places where she might catch attention.

Though that generally meant more lessons for me and Nina. Oh! Was that the reason the lessons increased?

“Alfy, would you like to answer the question?” She asked.

“Oh, yes.” I reply, “the main purpose of a medium of transfer such as a staff or a wand is to conduct the mana outwards from the caster. The effect of which is threefold: firstly is to offset the strain of the spell and impart it upon the medium; secondly is to mitigate the backlash of a failed spell; and lastly is to extend and enhance the spell through linked resonance.”

“Excellent.” She turned to Nina, “And Nina, what would be the consequences of casting without a medium?”

There was an awkward pause, with Nina continuing to smile but failing to utter a single word.

I felt Nina’s tail wrap slowly around my ankles; it tickled a little bit. She’s adopted this habit of wrapping her tail around me when she wants me to help her out.

“Casting without a medium would result i-” I began, but was swiftly cut off.

“Not you Alfy. I asked Ninamoritis.” Rafine stopped me, seeing through our ploy.

I’m sorry Nina. I tried.

There was another period of awkward silence before Nina replied.

“Pain.” She spoke confidently.

“And?” Rafine pressed on.

“Pain.” She repeated.

“Do you not remember, child?” Rafine questioned. But Nina’s only reply was her smile, which prompted a sigh from Rafine.

“It is fine to not know, but it is a problem if you don’t admit it. I worry for you Nina.” Rafine pointed at me, “Alfy, do you know?”

“Casting without a medium would result in a range of magical feedback depending on the rank of the spell. It can range from no side effects to death, with consequences increasing with the rank of the spell. Should the spell fail within the body, the backlash would be even more severe, averaging to about... about...” Oh I forgot the last part.

“About thirty and a half times worse, which can be accompanied by long lasting internal damage to a body’s mana flow depending on the spell.” Rafine finished. “Spell casting is a natural phenomenon that we, who reside upon this earth, are privileged to be able to experience, but do not take this privilege lightly. Just because anyone is able to do it, doesn’t make it any less dangerous.”

I give a quick nod and Nina copies me.

“Oi, stop lecturing the kids. We gotta head off for inspection.” Swift opens the door and beckons for us to step out. “I could hear you from all the way in front.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Master Rafine turned a little red from the realization. She looked like she wanted to say something but closed her mouth and stepped out.

We follow suit as two armored men and a middle aged woman with a quill and parchment steps into our carriage.

I hadn’t realized it, but we had been in line outside the inspection gate through the mountain pass. It consisted of a large white marble gate like the ones I saw in the capital city, not to mention heavily guarded with nasty looking ballistas and loads of guardsmen.

Mother came and picked me up as we watched the folks document our traveling vehicles, the other merchants behind us seemed to grumble at how slow the line was going. This was apparently a surprise inspection, though judging from the hostile glances of the guards at Prisilla, I think they just didn’t like demi-humans.

“Sorry nya.” I heard her whisper to us.

Just as the guardsman cleared us to leave the woman with the quill stopped us.

“You, with the strange hood. Take that off.” She ordered.

Oh dear. Was there any chance that the news of master Rafine’s wanted status hadn’t traveled as fast as we did?

Not a chance, or we wouldn’t have avoided the cities on the route here.

None of us moved as I heard master Rafine mutter something under her breath.

The eyes of the old lady narrowed as she noticed our uncooperativeness. She raised her hands and the guards beside her pointed their spears at us.

“That was a direct order. Remove your hood.” She said sternly.

I hold my breath.

With no other choice, master Rafine removed her hood to reveal, not horns, but rather two long rabbit ears.

Huh.

Mother and the other party members didn’t seem surprised at all.

“Is there anything else?” Master Rafine asked.

“Another demi-human huh?” She turned, disgusted, and walked away without a word. Looked like that was our cue to leave.

Master Rafine quickly put her hood back on and we got back onto the cart.

As soon as the door closed I wanted to ask about what had happened, but it seemed like Nina beat me to the punch.

“Rafine Rafine! What was that?” She said, uncharacteristically enthusiastic.

“Enchantment spell. I’ll teach it to you later.” She replied matter of factly. “Be quiet for now, the tunnel is likely monitored.”

Following her instructions Nina and I were silent through our passage through the mountain.

++

It took the rest of the day but we were finally out by sundown.

As the tunnel opened up the first thing I noticed was the temperature.

“Woaahh, I forgot how warm this place was.” I heard a muffled yelp from the carriage in front of us. That sounded like Prisilla.

As I began taking off my outer layers to avoid sweating, I noticed master Rafine and Nina seemed completely fine.

“Here,” master Rafine noticed me struggling with my toddler hands, “let me help you out.”

As she took off my jacket she enlightened me of the climate: “I heard from your mother that the territory of duke Elemore is temperate year round. For us outlanders, the heat reminds us of home.”

Oh.

That makes sense.

Since, according to some maps I’ve read about, the holdings of the Elemore family are coastal and surrounded by mountains, which would create a mild climate year round.

“That’ll do for our lesson today.” Rafine announced. “There is going to be a test tomorrow so I expect both of you to study.”

For an adventurer her teaching methods sure were draconic.

++

I was awoken by soft whispering in the middle of the night.

The party had lodged in a nearby inn to rest, though Swift did complain about its exorbitant prices, and mother, master Rafine, Nina, and I shared a room as per usual.

As I gently opened my eyes I could see mother sleeping next to me so it must be...

“-he spell of enchantment. You may need it to hide your identity when you’re older.” I heard master Rafine whisper.

What. No fair, I wanted to learn the spell as well. I was about to speak up until I heard her next words.

“Also, you’ve certainly set up quite the shop next to young Alfon haven’t you? I will warn you now that being next to him as you are will likely be painful, and only more so as you grow older. If you ever wish to leave, come to the university at Felinon. I have som-”

She was cut off by Nina.

“Arvash halfin-ia aschtvor Alfy.” Her tone sounded cheery like usual, but just the tiny bit desperate.

“Anvilor halfin-or shantailio-” The rest of the reply from master Rafine was indiscernible, but she did sound exasperated.

Drat, were they speaking outlander? I should’ve asked for lessons in languages.

The conversation in outlander lasted a good long while, with both of them sounding increasingly frustrated at each other as it continued.

As the discussion died down I heard the shuffling sound of blankets and figured they must have gone to bed.

The soft sounds of the night breeze eventually lulled me to sleep as well.

++

Our travels in the Elemore territory never led us to stay for more than a week at any given town. Owing to the extra funds from house Dale we no longer had to jump merchant convoy to merchant convoy to bring down costs. Despite our quick journey, however, I did get to try out their seafood on occasion: it tasted great, though it lacked the sauce or spices to truly capture the potential of the ingredient. Honestly, I expected more from Prisilla’s high praise of it.

As the months dragged on and the climate grew colder, we were nearing the seaside city of Darisport, the premiere city of the territory, when Swift and Donovan asked to talk to me. They had just finished talking with Nina and I saw her run away into our tent.

For some reason, her smile felt shaky. Should I be worried?

I was huddled with mother at the time and she beckoned for me to go forth.

They sat me down on the other end of the campfire.

Donovan sat upright in his usual perfect posture. Looking no less intimidating with his armor off. He still had a build like a bear and seemed to have put on a beard, giving him an aura of maturity.

Swift, on the other hand, stood to the side leaned against a tree, sporting an air of aloofness that was only enhanced by the bandage on his forehead from the monster attack the other day. He was looking up at the night sky with a sober look, which was rare since he’d usually be drinking at this time.

These were men that made the most steadfast of allies, and the most frightening of enemies.

There was much I still didn’t know about them, but in this world of uncertainty, in a life of constant travel, teeming with monsters and mayhem, these two have remained through thick and thin.

You could trust these two.

And I certainly did.

I trusted them with my life. I trusted all the members of the Dragon’s Teardrop with my life, more so than I trusted myself.

As an A ranked adventuring group there was little that could bring them distress.

Which was why it was so surprising when they both looked at me with a troubled expression.

And then.

Donovan said the words I never wanted to hear...

...

But always knew would come.

“Young Alfon. It has been an absolute pleasure to join you on your travels, but it seems our time together draws to a close.”

I really didn’t want him to continue, I wanted him to say it was a massive joke or something.

But Donovan doesn’t crack jokes like this.

“Swift and I will be departing by ship to Heartholm in the next city. Due to some unfortunate timing we’ll have to leave tonight, but worry not, I have extensively planned your travel home.” He continued, despite my silent plea. “The remaining road is touted to be safe, but should you feel vulnerable in the guard of Prisilla and Rafine alone, I have included extra funds to ask for a mercenary group. You need only ask your mother.”

Stop.

“Of course, I have ordered extra provisions on the last stretch of your journey, including three days of your favorite stew, so don’t hold back.”

Please, stop.

“The travel permits have also been arranged ahead of time, along with everything I could think of.”

Please, just... stop.

“Donovan, don’t bore the kid with the details, just bring it out already.” Swift looked away when he said the words.

“Right, apologies. Young Alfon.” He lifted my hands, “Due to the mishaps at the Theocracy we were not able to present you our gifts, so here they are now.”

He gave me a thick notebook. The cover seemed to be similar to one you’d buy at a shop.

“The two of us have noticed how much you like the stories of our travels. Given that we have not been able to share the rest of them with you, we have taken it upon ourselves to write our more memorable tales in that journal.” He looked a bit embarrassed, “I hope you’ll forgive its poor quality, the speed of our travels didn’t give much in the way of selection.”

“Donovan I’ve seen you struggle more with writing that thing than you do with a horde of monsters. I’m no scholar but even I know it's the content that matters.” Swift rolled his eyes and sat down in front of me, eyes just the tiniest red, “We’ll miss you kid.”

Ah

Ahhhhh.

Say something.

Anything.

Tell them you didn’t want them to go, or you’ll miss them, or that you want them to stay.

“T-Thank you very much for your gift. I-I’ll cherish it. I h-hope we’ll meet again.” The voice was shaky, polite, but cold. It felt like someone else was talking through me.

Was I truly this callous? Could I not even manage an emotional goodbye?

The two gave me a sad chuckle that seemed to say ‘as expected’ before patting me on the back.

++

The next morning I woke up, and their tents were gone.

The Dragon’s Teardrop was no more.