After ten minutes had passed, I poked my head around the corner of the building, but thankfully didn’t spot anyone who seemed to be looking for me. The sun was now completely hidden behind the buildings and the sky lit up in a dark-blue light, with a few strands of amber sunlight streaked across it. I tried my best to casually walk down the street as I looked for some place to settle for the night, though it was hard not to constantly look over my shoulder, paranoid that someone was still following me.
The winds had become brisk and chilly, when I chanced upon a small, nondescript tavern with a brown wood and dark-grey stone front. The building only had two stories and lay on the fringes of the town, but looked pleasant and warm. The single window in the façade cast an orange glow onto the dark street in front of it, and I could hear the sound of laughter from within. Right then I decided that I’d risk getting mobbed if it meant I could enjoy some of that warmth and maybe a nice meal to appease my growling stomach.
As I pulled open the door, a bell chimed, announcing my arrival, and the twenty-or-so patrons inside all turned to look at me. I spotted one young man in the back whose eyes immediately glowed with recognition.
Goddamnit…
Thankfully, a serving girl, wearing a thick reddish-brown dress and a short white apron tied around her waist, approached me before he had the chance to get up. She had a shapely body, ginger hair, and an apple-cheeked face with charming freckles. She practically radiated happiness, and I couldn’t help but smile as she took me by the hand and led me to a table in the corner of the tiny tavern. “Would ye like summat to eat or drink?”
“I’m absolutely starving,” I explained, “so I’ll take whatever you’d recommend.”
“Got it! Be reyt back!” she said cheerfully in some kind of strange dialect and returned to the kitchen with bouncing steps.
I could tell the man in the back of the tavern, who’d recognised me, was trying to make up his mind on whether or not he should approach. Before I could see what he decided, the girl returned with a tray, blocking him from my view. She set it down before me with a clunk of wood-on-wood, then put a frothing jug of beer and a wooden bowl in front of me. The bowl was filled to the brim with a steaming stew that made my mouth water. From a pocket in her apron, she pulled out a spoon, rubbed it on the corner of her dress to remove some tenacious stain that’d survived the washing after the previous meal, and handed it to me.
Then she asked, “Would ye like to pay now or after?”
Shit…
Unless money had magically appeared in my inventory, I was fairly sure I had no way of paying for any of this. I realised I should’ve gotten some from Kerebor, since he was sure to be loaded, what with his silver armour and whatnot. But you know what they say about hindsight…
I have to admit his timing was pretty spot on, as the young man appeared from behind the serving girl and put down a few coins in front of me.
“I’ll pay for it,” he said nonchalantly.
He was skinny and looked no more than maybe eighteen. His voice was pretty high-pitched for a man’s, but I already knew that appearances were nothing to go by in this realm, as I had yet to see a single ugly person in the entire village, aside from the Alchemist and the few vendors I’d spotted before being mobbed.
It seemed the denizens of this realm mirrored reality, but the people brought here, the so-called ‘Players’, idolised flawless beauty and were shaped accordingly. There were a lot of people with intense eye-colours, insanely-dyed hair like chromatic or turquoise, hourglass bodies, bulging veiny muscles, above average height, and so forth. To me, so many of them embodied the beauty seen in fiction and over-edited adverts, lacking the flaws and symmetrical imbalances that create natural beauty.[1]
The young man had a gaunt face, but a strong jawline, curly brown hair, and greenish-blue eyes. Though for all I knew, his true appearance could be a forty-eight-year-old balding man, whose go-to outfit, prior to being spirited away to this realm, was nothing but stained underwear and a wife-beater tank-top. Or he could even be a girl, disguised as an effeminate man to avoid the harassment of horny men, who’d hit on any woman they came across. The possibilities were endless. At least the ones I could imagine in my head…
“Thank you, but—”
“I knew it was you,” he whispered, as the serving girl left the table.
“Sorry, I don’t know you,” I said, trying to look apologetic. Hopefully I didn’t owe him something…
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
He looked me up and down, noticing my shabby clothes beneath the black cloak. “So, the rumours were true… I had hoped they weren’t.”
It took me a second, but then I caught on to what he meant. “Yeah, it seems like I died.”
“I want you to know we were all rooting for you. We still are.” The amount of conviction in his voice was surprising. Now I was really curious as to why all these people knew me as Raven-Black.
“We?” I asked.
“You probably don’t know this yet, but most of the players at the Frontier are well-known by those of us who’ve stopped trying to progress. You were one of the favourites, alongside Nova and Winged Heiress. Some people like King Smash and Black Aeran as well, even though they’re both notorious Player-Killers.”
“Mhmm,” I mumbled, mouth full of stew.[2]
“Do you have enough coins to stay the night here? I’m guessing you are probably still suffering from the Resurrection Sickness. It’s best to get some rest before you go to the first Stage.”
I washed down the stew with a gulp of the frothy beer, and wiped my mouth with the backside of my hand. “I have nothing besides my cloak and sword,” I then said. He didn’t need to know about the Heart. I also wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by ‘Resurrection Sickness’, but I guessed that it might have been the reason why I felt so weak the first hour after waking up, though it was mostly gone by now, perhaps owing to the brisk jog away from the hounding mob…
The young man pulled out his menu and in a quick flurry of motions produced a bag that chinked with coins as he set it down in front of me. “Take this, it should keep you covered for a while.”
I carefully palmed the heavy bag and stashed it away in my inventory. It felt kind of dirty taking someone else’s money like that, but I’d more than likely need it, not only to stay the night at the tavern, but also if I wanted to buy myself some better armour later.
“I’ll pay you back when I have the money,” I promised, hoping that would avoid me somehow ending up owing the guy a favour. I mean, who knew what he would ask for in return?
“You don’t have to,” he said. “Just promise me you’ll conquer the Trials and set us free.” That was quite a promise he was asking for there. I also wasn’t sure how he knew everyone would be set free if all the Trials of the Watcher were completed, but hopefully I’d find out soon.
“Erhm… I’ll do my best.”
“That’s all we’re asking for,” he said. Apparently, my words had convinced him, as he was suddenly smiling.
“How’d you get this kind of money anyway?” Hopefully I could pick up some tricks from him. If he had this kind of disposable income, he must’ve been doing something right.
“Most of it is from the repeatable Errands in town, but I’ve also been lucky enough to get a few rare items to sell from Side-Quests.”
“I see.” That was something to keep in mind at least, if I ever needed coins to buy something.
“Anyway, I won’t take up more of your time. It was a pleasure finally meeting you.” He even knew how to excuse himself like a normal person would. It somehow alleviated some of the stress of nearly being trampled by people earlier.
“The pleasure was all mine,” I said politely in response.
I got up from the table a few minutes later and the serving girl immediately popped up from behind the counter. “How was the food?” she asked cheerfully.
“It was good,” I responded. “I was hoping I could also rent a room for the night.”
“Certainly. That’ll be five silvers.”
I fiddled with my inventory for a minute until I found the money in the bottom of the window and was able to withdraw the correct amount. The silvery coins chinked as they appear out of the air and plopped into my open palm. After putting the coins on the counter, the charming girl led the way up a narrow staircase to the second floor, which was slightly cooler than below, thanks to a window that had been left ajar to freshen the air up. She stopped in front of a door and left again as soon as I opened it.
Inside the modest room was a large mirror, a bed, and a small, square window in the middle of the wall, giving a somewhat impressive view of the rooftops across the village. A cast-iron bathtub sat in the corner of the room and was somehow already filled to the brim with steaming-hot water. It was like they’d read my mind.
As I lay in the bath, a few minutes later, I pondered over the young man’s words.
People are rooting for me, huh?
I didn’t particularly feel like shouldering the burden of other people’s expectations, but if beating these ‘Trials’ would set everyone free, then that seemed like a pretty good thing, right? Whether or not it was actually possible to escape seemed to be a disputed subject, as Kerebor had been sceptical, while the young man had sounded certain. But if it was possible, I was certainly gonna give it a try.
The lure of having my lost memories returned to me was definitely the driving factor. The longer I stayed in this place, the worse my memory loss would get, and, before long, I would become indistinguishable from the Forsaken. I didn’t wanna end up like those people I had seen. Just an empty doll, a husk, void of memory and personality. I had to escape this realm. My entire being was literally at stake.
From the sounds of it, it seemed like this Mad God’s machinations were no joke, and if a lot of people had given up trying to beat his Trials that probably meant the challenge before me was an astronomical one. Although I assumed that if people had once rooted for me, and placed their hopes in me, I probably had quite the talent for this kind of thing. But that was something I’d figure out pretty quickly, I was sure.
I splashed the water absentmindedly with my feet, creating tiny rippling waves. This was all a lot to take in.
After I’d scrubbed myself clean, I laid down exhaustedly on the bed and as soon as I’d wrapped myself in the soft blanket, I promptly fell asleep.
----------------------------------------
[1] Like freckles, which are essentially skin discolouration, but yet incredibly charming.
[2] What? I was hungry, and this guy was doing all the talking anyway.