5:00 p.m.
Espoir sighed as he hopped off the ferry. "I never want to ride that again." Aria glanced at him tiredly. He had spent the entire trip complaining about the water. "The big, scary Silver Grimoire is afraid of a little water?" she teased, stepping off the boat. For her, boat rides were second nature, having grown up around them in her homeland.
"I'm not afraid of water." Espoir punctuated the word 'afraid' with finger quotes before casting a dark look at the edge of the pier. "It’s what lives in the water that bothers me…" he mumbled, clearly wanting to end the conversation. Focusing on anything but his rationale fear, Espoir’s attention shifted to a sign announcing their destination: Shale Cove.
"Do you truly think the rumors of a monster living in the forest are true?" Aria asked, unconvinced that this was worth traveling for. "People go missing all the time. I doubt a monster, or an Eldritch would stay in one place, let alone a single forest."
Espoir pulled out a crumpled newspaper, the title catching Aria’s eye: Monster plagues Shale Cove. Espoir scanned over it for a second before crumpling it further and tossed it into a nearby bin, scanning the quaint seaside town with a frown. "It’s not that I believe the rumors… it’s that they don’t make any sense." Aria looked at him, not following. "What do you mean?"
"If people were simply going missing or dying, they could blame it on a bear, a wolf, or anything else. But everyone calls it a monster," Espoir said, his eyes scanning the quiet sea side town. "While an Eldritch or an entity fits that description, something about this feels… off. They say it resides in the forest outside of the town and the rumors have existed for months..."
She was starting to see his point. "An Eldritch has no reason to stay hidden in a forest. So why is it secluded here?"
"Exactly!" Espoir said, snapping his fingers. “I suppose we should see why the town calls it a monster.” They decided to split up, gathering information from locals.
Later, the two regrouped at a park bench, reviewing their findings. Despite their efforts, no one had seen the monster firsthand; it was always a story about someone who knew someone else. However, Aria found one interesting lead. "The head of the orphanage claims to have seen the monster today," she said, relaying what a guard had told her. "A girl named Sophie has been sneaking out to the forest for a while now. She’s been acting strangely according to what he heard."
Espoir stood up, stretching his arms up. “Hmm. That is interesting. Good work, I hope she’ll talk to us."
----------------------------------------
As sunset came, the duo found the mother at the orphanage reading a book in a rocking. “Mother Lynda, you have visitors,” one of the other caretakers said, guiding Espoir and Aria into the room. An armed town guard stood at the doorway holding a large halberd.
“Welcome. I apologize for the state I’m in… To what do I owe the visit?” she said politely. She looked pale, and her hands were shaking slightly as she set her book down. Whatever she saw must’ve really spooked her… Espoir thought sadly.
“Sister Lynda, I apologize for bringing up such… unpleasant memories, but I understand you went into the forest today?” Espoir crouched down to talk to the shaken woman.
“Oh…” she said quietly. “Indeed. I was looking for one of the children we take care of. She had been acting strange for a few weeks, and I wanted to see what was wrong. She’s a good girl and hadn’t had a track record. But lately, she had been stealing extra food, sneaking out, and coming back late. The other day, one of the other girls said she saw her stealing a pillow and blanket.”
Espoir and Aria listened attentively as the mother continued. “Anyway, I decided to ask her, and she denied all of this… So I followed her and that’s when I saw it.” Lynda's features paled as the memory resurfaced. She began to shake. “It looked and dressed like a girl, yet when I found Sophie… that thing had its arms around her! I tried to get Sophie, but the beast took her! Took her deep into the forest!”
Lynda cried into her arms, still reeling from her inability to save the girl. “I alerted the guards, and they requested the military to come… Hopefully, they can save her too.” Lynda looked at Espoir and Aria. “Why would such young people want to know about this?”
Espoir shrugged. “I’m… sort of like a detective. I heard about the monster in Shale Cove. After hearing your story, I understand a bit better.”
“A detective? You look barely older than some of the teens I raise here...” Espoir glared at the woman, only to be shin-kicked by Aria.
“You said you found Sophie with the monster, right? Where was that?” Aria asked. Lynda’s eyes narrowed as she mentally retraced her steps. “About fifteen minutes east of the gate. It’s a bit off the normal road. I wish I could give you more information, but I was following Sophie… The beast was inside a cave.”
“Cave, fifteen minutes east. I got it,” Espoir said, committing the directions to memory.
“Thank you for your time.” Aria said courteously. Lynda smiled, nodding at the two. “No, thank you. I do urge you two to be careful… I don’t think you’ll have much to worry about if you do go looking for Sophie." Lynda smiled. "The military will be arriving soon, so everything will work out.”
Aria stiffened at the mention of the military coming to the town. As they left, Espoir mused over their findings. “Is it possible that it’s a sentient Eldritch?” Espoir thought out loud. He couldn’t understand why an Eldritch would take a child with it.
----------------------------------------
9:00 P.M
“I hate this…” Espoir grumbled. Both he and Aria were walking through the forest in the dark. In his palm was a ball of white fire, lighting the surrounding area as they searched for the supposed lair of the monster. Pulling out a shabby-looking map from his breast pocket, Espoir used it and a compass to verify they were heading in the right direction.
“I'd have expected the Silver Grimoire to know how to use a map,” Aria said bluntly. Dodging a tree branch, Espoir couldn't tell if she was making fun of him or not.
“It would help if that sister gave good directions,” He replied, before getting hit in the face by some head-level leaves. “I take it your home has haunted places or stories similar to this?” Espoir asked, ducking under a spiderweb. Since they were literally wandering in the dark, he decided to make small talk.
Aria thought about his question for moment. “I mean, there’s places like a lake near my hometown that, if you go near it at night, they say monsters will drag you under the water if you visit at one in the morning… Never to be seen again.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Have you ever gone to see if that was true?” Espoir asked.
“I wanted to, but Mary was too scared,” Aria answered, a soft smile forming on her face as she recalled the simple memory. Aria had planned it out and everything, but Mary told her parents. She ended up grounded for trying to sneak out. “Who knows, maybe my parents were protecting me from whatever was there.” Aria always figured there might be some truth to those stories after all.
“We were also told cultural tales as kids. Besides stuff like the sword saint and, well, you… There’s the tale of the girl and the bell.” Aria’s eyes lit up slightly, not hiding her interest in this conversation. That particular story had been one of her favorites as a child.
Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a noble prince who rejected his family's recommended choices for brides, opting to believe in true love. At the request of a mage for something to find his beloved, the mage granted him a magical bell. This enchanted bell could only be heard by his true love, for its chime was a sound of pure beauty. It was said that if anyone else listened to its sound, they would be struck deaf, forever cut off from the world around them.
One day, the prince set forth on a grand journey to discover his destined bride. His travels took him to a land that would one day be known as Easenna. As fate would have it, during his visit, he encountered a humble servant girl who had been sold into servitude by a cruel nobleman. This girl, kind-hearted and gentle, had endured much suffering under her master’s harsh rule.
As the prince wandered through the nobleman's estate, he accidentally bumped into the servant girl, who mistook him for an intruder. In her fright, she knocked the prince to the ground. As he fell, the soft chime of the bell rang out, echoing through the air. To the prince’s astonishment, the girl heard the bell's magical sound, a melody sweeter than any song.
In that moment, the prince realized that she was the one the bell had foretold, his true love. With a heart full of hope, he whisked her away from her life of misery, vowing to protect her from all harm. Overcome with joy, he asked for her hand in marriage, and she gladly accepted, her heart beating in harmony with his.
However, when the prince presented his proposal to the girl’s cruel master, the nobleman was filled with disbelief and rage. He demanded to hear the bell for himself, believing that one of his daughters must be the true love destined for the prince. With arrogance, he rang the bell, expecting it to sing sweetly for his daughters. But alas! The sound only brought forth a deafening silence, leaving both the nobleman and his daughters completely deaf, unable to hear the world around them ever again.
And so, the prince and his beloved servant girl were free to marry and live happily ever after. Together, they ruled the princes homeland with kindness and compassion, ensuring that no one would ever suffer as she had. And every night, the prince would ring the magical bell, a sound only they could hear, a reminder of their love and the promise of a brighter future.
Espoir looked over and noticed that Aria seemed deep in thought about the tale. Didn’t expect that. He was surprised that Aria’s favorite story was a classic tale of love. For someone so cold and reserved, she could be a normal girl at times. Espoir thought to himself. As they walked silently, a thick fog began to fill the forest, shrouding their search for the cave.
Eventually, Espoir stopped in his tracks. “I think we’re close.” The pathway ahead appeared recently disturbed, as if someone had rushed through. It veered off the dirt road and into a thicket of bushes and trees. Espoir pressed on, eventually coming across a stream with a small cave nearby. The strangest sight was the trees lying on their sides, as if something had uprooted them.
“Guess that’s the cave the orphanage head was talking about” Espoir said plainly as they approached. Inside the cave, various pieces of breakfast food were left discarded on the floor along with two notebooks. Going off the heads
“So, the girl swiped some breakfast before meeting the monster…” Aria remarked, noticing what looked like eggs and fruit. As Espoir ventured deeper into the cave, what he discovered next made his heart race. Meanwhile, Aria looked at the notebooks. One was impressive landscape drawings while the other was more childish with simple lines and crayon coloring. Aria’s mind began to wonder how they looked so different. “Did they belong to two people?”
“Aria…” Espoir called from inside the cave. As she approached him, her eyes widened at the sight on the cave wall. In front of them were drawings, all made with various crayons. In the corner of the cave lay a small blanket and pillow.
“They look like kids' drawings…” Aria said softly.
Espoir’s blood turned cold as he examined the drawings on the cave wall. Near the inside of the cave was a mural depicting a family. It had two taller figures. one with dark hair in a dress and the other with blonde hair wearing a suit and hat. Between them were smaller drawings two girls: one with long blonde hair and the other had reddish hair tied into pigtails. Behind the family was a small box-shaped house.
“Aria. I don’t think the monster is a monster,” Espoir said, his red eyes were wide with shock. “No, I know the ‘monster’ isn’t what they say. I don’t know how or why, but it’s too human to be an Eldritch.” Espoir's hands began to tremble as panic crept into his voice. He had never seen something like this.
Aria understood what he was suggesting. A dark realization settled in: maybe this child had been transformed into something resembling an Eldritch. “Is it possible?” she asked, her voice low. “I know entities are creatures corrupted by Eldritch, but a human who retained her sense of self..."
“I think Sophie came here and found a girl who either got a grimoire or was partially turned into an Eldritch,” Espoir said. Aria looked at him, concern etched on her face. The Silver Grimoire, typically composed, seemed shaken.
“If she befriended the other girl and was sneaking her food, that would explain her ‘strange’ behavior the head of the orphanage mentioned.” Espoir’s eyes darkened. “If the military finds either of them, they will kill them.”
Rushing to the sketchbooks, Espoir pulled out the map, desperate to find some clue about where they might have gone. He tossed one sketchbook to Aria, and they began flipping through the pages to locate a potential hiding place. “This book must’ve belonged to Sophie. It has more detail than the cave drawings and covers the forest overall,” he said, pulling the sketchbook closer to the map. They compared drawings of nearby landmarks, gradually piecing together Sophie’s movements. Eventually, they stumbled upon a drawing of a mineshaft entrance.
“Here,” Espoir said, placing his finger on the sketch and aligning it with the map.
“You think they went there?” Aria asked, her brow furrowing.
Espoir nodded. “She knows the forest well, and a mine would make a good hiding spot. Nobody would go there, and it’s secluded enough.” He felt certain this girl was clever enough to want to avoid people; the path to the cave had been obscured with carefully placed leaves and bushes.
“Using the main road, it’s about a thirty-minute walk from town, so about an hour from our current location. It’s an old chroma mine…” Aria began to rise. “We need to hurry.”
Espoir agreed, silently rising, his gaze lingering on the cave drawing of the two girls. A fierce determination ignited within him. “Let’s get moving.”
----------------------------------------
10:00 P.M
“The plan is simple. You two go into the mine and locate where the monster and the girl are. If you find the girl, extract her, and I’ll handle the rest,” James said to his group “Boss, shouldn’t you be the one leading?” Charles asked bluntly.
James Blackthorn grabbed Charles by the face, his fingers dangerously close to penetrating his eyes. “I’m guarding so it doesn’t escape.” He wasn’t about to mention that it was also hard for him to see in the dark with just one eye. “I’m still your commanding officer. Treat this as a test. You want to climb the ranks, right?” Charles didn’t bother hiding his ambition to climb the ranks from them. “Eliza, cover Charlie. I think you two can manage that much...”
The gun woman nodded, loading a bright red, chroma-enhanced bullet into her rifle. “On it.” As the two soldiers departed, James took a drag from his cigarette. “Naturally, if that girl resists, feel free to kill her. We don’t negotiate with monsters…”
Deep inside the Chroma mine, both Sophie and Rachel were exploring, searching for a suitable hiding spot. Unaware of the dangers lurking right outside their location.
----------------------------------------
Chapter Preview
In a race against time, Espoir and Aria confront the soldiers sent to dispose of the 'monster'. One of them being a Mage Corp member, the military branch responsible for the destruction of Easenna.
Next time:
Chapter 12: Shale Cove Part 2
----------------------------------------