63. Unromantic vs. necromantic

My life-lust’s levels had dropped dramatically. Even though a part of me stimulated by my undead instinct felt very disappointed, it was unquestionably a good thing that I could stay by Linah’s side without worries. I still wondered why her lifeforce had such an awful taste. Maybe it was related to her character?

I snorted with laughter at that thought.

“…?” Linah opened one eye and sat up on the gelatinous ground, quizzical. “Straw Head? What are you laughing for?”

“Ah, no… Don’t mind me… I was just thinking in my head.”

“… That’s what people usually do. Congrats.”

“Haha, you’re congratulating me a lot, Lil Witch.”

I patted her head. Discovering that I could touch her without a risk had made my heart lighter. But was her wasted lifeforce this bad when I had eaten it at the Christmas party? I didn’t think so. Maybe a Fury’s sense of taste was different?

“I should congratulate you too for protecting Ray in my absence,” I added.

Linah raised an eyebrow.

“No need. You promised me a reward, after all, remember? ‘Anything you want’ was what you said.”

“Ah… haha, yes, I guess I did say th—”

“Then do not forget about it. I’m still trying to decide what I want.”

“Fine. Don’t be too long or I’ll forget.”

“I said you’re not allowed to forget! You know,” she continued proudly, “I protected Ray like a professional bodyguard. I drove away some Starlanders who wanted to assess our powers. Ray didn’t even notice. As for my brothers, Axel wasn’t giving him much attention, but Lei kept pestering him. I put that fool in check. Oh right, I’m even staying at your friend’s house.”

“Eeeh? You’re staying at Ray’s house?! … He let you in?”

“Hah? I let him in, of course!”

“Then whose house is it? Anyway, does that mean we’re going to live under the same roof, you and I?”

She gave me a funny look.

“Got a problem with that?”

“No problem at all.” Like, not at all, I thought.

“By the way, why are you wearing a mask?”

“Allergic to cactuses.”

“For real?”

“For real. That’s why I passed out on the beach this morning and… Yeah, I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

For lying to you… was what I wanted to say. But I just shrugged. Linah scanned our surroundings, the white, twinkling gelatinous ground, the branches far above, then sighed.

“We should try to get out of here.”

“Yeah. It’s a beautiful place, though.”

“A trap, you mean. Did you realize this ground is incredibly slippy? There’s no way we can climb our way up. Guess we were supposed to get through the woods without breaking the branches. But there should be a way out for those of us who fell, right?” she added under her breath.

I looked up to the sunrays that barely brushed past the branches. Was she worried that we could stay trapped down here until the instructors came to save us? I tilted my head.

“Well, we won’t know until we scout the area. This way may be easier… or not,” I corrected, thoughtful. “If that was the case, then Nina Clover would have come down too, since she’s a lucky girl.”

Linah frowned.

“Then…”

“Her power seems to prioritize her safety, which means this place is not safe.”

“Then…”

“Then,” I echoed. Then what? I didn’t exactly know, but it looked bad.

For an instant, we looked at each other with worried expressions. Then Linah burst out laughing.

“Hwara-hwara, come on, don’t be a scaredycat, Straw H—YIIIH!”

A sudden “crack!” made her turn and trip on the slimy ground with a scream of surprise. I helped her up, and after a tense scanning of our surroundings, said:

“Probably a branch that fell under a trainee.”

“Ah, yeah, probably…” Linah took a deep breath, then her brow furrowed. “If branches fall that easily… how come there are none on the ground?”

Her question aroused my fear again. Damn, she was right. The ground was squeaky clean. Staring at it intently as if she was trying to see through the gelatine, Linah added:

“Did you know? There is a dungeon down there.”

“… Dungeon?”

“Yeah, inside the head of the Phoenix Turtle.”

“Wait, what?!” I exclaimed suddenly. “There’s a dungeon under our feet? In Yuutow Island?! A real dungeon?!”

She grinned.

“Yeah. It’s not the most famous one in the world nor the largest at all, but it’s kind of exciting, don’t you think? There could be incredible treasures down there, and crystals of high quality. And rooms with high qi levels that can change your body, your mind, your life…” She looked me sideways completing: “And even kill you.”

“Creepy.”

“Hwara-hwara… Seriously, I’m sure this is one of the reasons the Nyomin chose this island for the training. If we got allowed to enter a dungeon, that would be pretty cool, right?”

Her eyes shone with anticipation. My gamer spirit woke up like a sudden flame.

“Holy Crystals, yes! Allowed or not, I’m not going back to Farskyer without entering that dungeon, dead or alive or whatever!”

“Hwara-hwara! You sure got fired up, Straw Head! I still think that, before getting into a dungeon, you should really learn how to avoid falling into a trap like this weird pit we’re in.”

Geez, she got a point, there. Wait, but that goes for her, too… I cleared my throat.

“Let’s search for an exit, okay?”

“Which direction?”

“Well… I’d say, this way?”

Linah pointed toward another direction.

“My witch blood tells me it’s this way, though. Let’s go.”

“Yes, captain.”

Barely had we advanced two meters that Linah slipped and fell again. Grumbling, she punched the ground, which swayed like a flan. As I helped her to her feet again and held her hand, a thin streak of her lifeforce made its way into my core. Ah… Its taste was so unique and… so awful. It was a bit depressing to think that the only person I knew with such a distasteful lifeforce was the girl I had fallen in love with. It felt as if the Holy Gods themselves wanted to punish me for avoiding my death. Not that it was going to change my feelings of course, but still, it was unfair… Wait, why was I so affected by something so meaningless like a taste? Were my undead instincts making me feel that way? So foolish…

I snapped out of it when a sudden tremor brutally shook the slimy ground and forced us to kneel down for a good solid minute. What was going on now?! I caught a fleeting glimpse of a branch falling straight on us, which Linah deflected by throwing one of her merciless punches.

“Holy Witches,” she groaned. “All we need now is an earthquake.”

“That was an earthquake?!”

“Oh, don’t you know it? Phoenix Island is actually a walking island. It has four legs, and with every step it takes, the island shakes. I’ve been told that, around this time of the year, it comes every six hours or so.”

I did know that the island had four long legs, but I hadn’t expected the earthquakes to be that strong. Linah added:

“Anyway, those earthquakes are quite troublesome. We’re lucky to be down here. The thing is, the cactuses regularly release blobs of smoke, but they do it even more when there’s an earthquake. Black and orange cactuses are unoffensive, but cyan ones are illusion-inducing, and some yellow ones have very nasty effects. I bet quite a number of trainees are struggling with those right now.”

“So that’s why you said you were surprised Nina and I got to the cliff so fast?” I asked, finally understanding.

Linah nodded.

“That’s right.”

“I see. So if Nina and I hadn’t run into you and we had continued our race, we would have been one of the fastest teams and we could have got super good quality pills—”

“Oi, are you telling me I dragged you down? You pushed us down into this place, birdbrain-dummy-fool.”

I laughed at her sullen expression.

“I’m sorry. I take it back. One smile of my muse is worth a bag of extra quality pills.”

Linah’s eyes widened then rolled upwards.

“Don’t ever become a businessman. You’d go bankrupt in a week.”

“Eeeh?!”

We fell silent as a sucking sound made us turn and witness with our own eyes how all the leaves and branches that had fallen after the earthquake were being grabbed by the ground and eaten up. Creepy. So that wobbly ground was clean because… it ate things. The main question was: did that giant slime-like monster consider humans edible? Tiny gelatinous waves were licking our shoes… As soon as Linah punched the ground, they backed away. For some reason, though, I grew more nervous and gently patted the slippy surface as if to prevent any possible retaliation. I scanned my surroundings. Wasn’t the place becoming darker? Where did we come from, anyway? I couldn’t tell…

“Oh, right,” Linah said, suddenly thoughtful. “I wanted to ask you something important.”

I looked up at the Lil Witch, quizzical. As her expression became more hesitant, a raft of possible questions passed through my mind. “Do you think we can convince Cesarine to let Zeeta come live with us?” “Do you think we can revive the Cheetahs here, in Phoenix Island?” “Do you think I shouldn’t have cut my pigtails?” “Why am I so happy to be with you~?” … I punched the poor ground to come back to reality.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“It’s about the bearded old hag you talked about on the beach.” Her words hit me like a hammer. The old hag? I breathed out as she continued: “You said she was a fakir-witch. Did you really meet someone like that?”

“Well, I did meet a strange old woman with a beard in Phoenix City—”

“Tell me more!”

I jerked up.

“O-Okay.” Why was she so worked up? “Let’s see… We had some trouble understanding each other at first, I was really troubled, but then she talked in Yanganese, very normally, and told me she was a fakir-witch, and asked me if I wanted to change my future… Oh, yeah: she was sitting on a bed of nails, so at first, I thought she was in danger, and I lifted her on my arms, but then, she sat back on her bed. Guess she was so light she didn’t feel pain.”

Or was she an undead? The thought crossed my mind while Linah’s expression was growing more astounded by the second. I added:

“Oh, she wore a black mark on her forehead, a lot of necklaces too, and looked very, very old.”

“It’s her!” she cried out.

“… Who?”

“The legendary fakir-witch! Anastasia! I can’t believe you met her for real!”

“Legendary? She was old but—”

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Linah’s weird laughter cut me off.

“The witch Anastasia is old indeed! It’s said she’s immortal and was born before the Big Blend!”

“… Linah… That would mean she’s at least two-thousand-twenty-two years old. Are you kidding me?”

“I’m not! Anastasia is well known among the communities of witches. She’s nicknamed ‘The Wandering Immortal Witch’. She’s a witch and a Wanderer. That means, her body teleports regardless of her will. And she is an Immortal. Or so it’s said.”

I was amazed. Did I meet someone that incredible?

Linah’s cheeks had turned pink.

“It’s my… It’s my grandma’s dearest dream to meet Anastasia one day.”

Clearly, it was Linah’s as well. She grabbed my arm with a firm grip, her blue eyes sinking into mines.

“Tonight!”

My heart beat once.

“T-Tonight?”

“Tonight,” she repeated. “You’re going to lead me to her tonight.”

“Is that your reward for protecting Ray?”

“Hah? N-No. Yes?”

She was confused, weighing up the pros and cons… Heh.

“Forget that. I’ll show you where I met her. But… not tonight. Can you wait for three days?”

“No! What if she teleports away?!”

She shook me by the shoulders. Damn, she was so persistent…

“Okay then.”

“Yay!”

Linah was grinning from ear to ear. She must be really looking forward to meeting that legendary Anastasia. I muttered:

“Sorry, Ray—”

“Now let’s get out of here!” Linah grinned at me. “I just came up with a plan, and a good one! We came from there, right? Then, we’ll go straight to the opposite direction as fast as possible, to the edge of the wood, and the impulse will make us go up! Hopefully. Let’s do it!”

Let’s do what? She crawled behind me, and to my amazement, crossed her legs around my torso. Wait, what? Wringing my neck toward her to require further explanation, I saw her send her two hands flying backwards at full speed then returning, palm open, toward her back.

Huh?

Linah’s hands pushed us brutally forward. We set off sliding through the ground so fast that the twinkling lights around us looked like shooting stars.

“Hwara-hwara-hwara! Here we go!”

Regardless of Linah’s crazy plan, I had to admit that slipping through that slimy mass of gelatine was sort of exhilarating. I laughed. As expected from the Lil Witch.

Every time it looked like we were slowing down, Linah launched her hands to give us impulse. The only issue was, the more we advanced, the darker the place got. I kept scanning the darkness intently until I shouted:

“A wall! Erma, stop!”

“Isn’t it a slope?! Can’t we go up?”

I squinted my eyes for a second then widened them as I grew completely convinced that what awaited us ahead was indeed a wall made of rock. I yelled:

“We can’t!! It’s a wall! STOP!”

“O-Okay, but I’ve just thrown my hands! They’re coming back!”

That would only increase our speed and make us crash into the rocks even harder. I would probably not die from it, but what about Linah? Scratching, kicking, stamping… All my efforts to stop were useless. It was like trying to stop a fall in the air. My core beat frantically as it filled with panic and fear. From how Linah was trying to take a specific position, I understood she was planning on throwing her feet forward… But something told me that she wouldn’t make it in time.

Then I saw it. A ray of hope. I pointed at it as fast as I could.

“A tunnel!”

She reacted quickly, and we both managed to veer toward the entrance of the tunnel. It ascended. We lost speed, and Linah had to propel us upward before we flew off the slimy ground, got out of the tunnel, and landed at last on normal soil, several meters below. I breathed out.

“Erma… Are you still alive?”

I heard her grumble.

“Yeah… I hardened my skin with qi. And you?”

“As dead as always.”

“The Dead don’t talk. Look, everything went according to my plan: we’re almost there.”

According to her plan, my foot. I sat up, raising my eyes to see where we had landed. We had passed the tunnel and fallen outside at the bottom of a long ascending bare slope covered with dry grass. On the top of the hill, I recognized the pole I had seen from the Academy. So that was the goal. I stood up, staring at it.

“Sure it’s high.”

“Mm. I can see a few trainees up there,” Linah looked intently at the hill then smirked. “I thought we would have fallen behind, but we’re pretty much among the first ones to arrive. All we’ve got to do now is choose which group we want to be in for the training. I’ve chosen the Peacemaker group. What about you?”

I glanced at her, confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Huh? I mean, what are you going to choose?” she asked. “Explorer, Rescuer, Peacemaker, Keeper… You do know those are the four general paths a Hero can take…” While speaking, she indicated four white flags at the bottom of the hill, each with different red symbols: a “Z”, a sun symbol, five curved lines widening like sound waves, then a flag divided into a red triangle and a white one. There was an instructor standing next to each flag. Linah cast me a funny glance. “You do know that, right?”

“Er… Those symbols ring a bell, I think.” I had the vague impression I had seen those more than once in my life. Maybe on the Heroes’ uniforms? Maybe on textbooks? Anyway, if I had known once what they meant, I had forgotten them after reviving. Each path marked by a flag looked different. “So these four flags indicate Hero departments?”

“That’s right. You really didn’t listen to Addison’s explanation, did you?”

“Oh, I did, I did, I… did not,” I confessed under her incredulous eyes. “More like, I tried, but it turned out that Sarwish is harder to understand than I expected.”

“Mm… Well, that makes sense. Some instructors do have a weird accent. They’re from all over the world, after all. I heard that Addison is from Belo Horizonte and that people from there overarticulate words, but Addison speaks pretty quickly.”

“Oh, he does, he does!” I exclaimed, relieved that I wasn’t the only one thinking that. “He looked so calm and composed, and yet…”

“Hwara-hwara, I know what you mean! His looks kind of remind me of those legendary warriors that spend their entire life meditating. He wears such a long ponytail and all. It’s kind of hypnotizing to look at it when he walks, isn’t it? Like it’s swinging in the wind, and you want to catch it with your paw—”

“Are you a cat?” I snorted. “Well, I could understand if he had pigtails,” I pondered out loud.

We looked at each other, and forming an image in our mind that completely destroyed the serene and serious instructor’s complexion, we burst out laughing. Calming down, Linah turned to the wood of branches that we had avoided and said:

“I wonder how Arkifa and Nina are doing. It will probably take them some time to go through all those tangled woods. Anyway, since from now onwards this is a path we have to take alone, I guess there’s no use waiting for them.”

She had a point but…

“If our teammate can’t make it, there will be no pill for us either.”

Linah grimaced.

“Are you suggesting that we should go get them? Gosh. Lei is gonna make fun of me if I’m not among the first ones to arrive… Not that I care but—”

Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of branches rustling behind us. A giant appeared tumbling down the ravine with his partner, both with torn clothes and leaves stuck in their hair. The former was Charles-Ping, the latter was Aishah Suzuki, the blond Sleeping Beauty I had met in the Nyomin reserve. The four-armed North-Winger was holding the girl with his two lower arms while she was saying:

“I said you can put me down now!”

“Charles-Ping thinks politely that you’re too weak and too slow.”

“What polite, you’re being just plain rude! Put me down, you annoying octopus! People are watching. It’s embarrassing!”

“It’s okay. Charles-Ping is not embarrassed.”

Aishah roared insults, which faded away as they kept advancing towards the hill and the four flags.

“Some trainees sure are lively,” a lazy voice suddenly said.

Startled, I turned to see a guy with long, black hair and a pallid face pass by us with a calm gait. The tunic he wore—a gray one spotted with white triangles—was intact and tidy. A fuzzy aura floated around him. For a second, I met his gaze. His slit, dark eyes sent a shiver down my core.

“Dragan,” he added, some meters farther. He had a strange accent speaking Yanganese. Surely he wasn’t from Farskyer. So, that meant, he was probably a Nyomin trainee. “You did well making it to this point. Make sure you don’t let me down.”

His teammate, an Indie trainee, swallowed hard and nodded.

“I won’t, young master!”

The aura around the creepy guy became heavier, and Dragan winced. After a silence, the elite trainee echoed, annoyed:

“Young master? Am I your master? Did I recognize you as my subordinate?”

“…! N-No, th-that—”

“You gave your badge to Sean, not to me. You’re a hundred years too early to become my subordinate. You said you want to become a Rescuer, right? Then go and try not to disgrace yourself.”

“I… I’ll do my best!”

Dragan bowed deeply as if he had been given the most important task of his life. Well, it most certainly was a vital step for him. After all, most of the people there had come to work hard in order to be acknowledged by the Nyomin Hero community. They were supposed to become the next generation of the best Nyomin Heroes, and all… Somehow, the Heavenly Storm stuff along with my unexpected transformation into a Fury had made me forget about it.

As Dragan went to the path for those who wanted to become Rescuers, the elite trainee chose the flag with the ‘Z’ representing the Explorers. After the instructor said some words to him, he began walking up the hill, his hands behind his back, calmly looking around. What was exactly that Explorer race about? And why was that guy acting like nothing in the world could shake him? Linah grumbled.

“Gorka Soulberg. For some reason, that Starlander gives me the creeps.”

“Just what I was thinking,” I agreed.

“Not that I’m afraid of him,” Linah added. “I met him when he was twelve years old or so. Back then, he already acted all grown-up. His clan is a powerful supporter of the Nyomin, but they’re super cryptic and conservative. I remember I kind of felt sad for Gorka back then. As a son of the family head, he had no time to play and was always training and being supervised by adults from his clan.”

Linah’s words gave me a new perspective of that pallid-looking guy.

“So?” Linah said. “Have you chosen what path you’re gonna take?”

“Ah…” Which one should I choose? There was probably no use thinking about it too seriously.

“It’s not like we’re choosing the category for real,” Linah pointed out. “We are not even Heroes yet. Addison said some lessons would be a bit different depending on the groups. It’s just so we can have a taste. You can also change groups in the first two weeks of the training. That’s what he said.”

“Then…”

“WATCH OUT!”

The sudden scream made us spin around. Appearing from the same slippy tunnel we had come from, Arkifa and Nina fell upon us. Linah was fast enough to avoid them, but I reacted differently, trying to catch them, then remembered at the last second I shouldn’t touch them by any means or else I would start eating their lifeforce and lose my mind. I turned around and tried to escape. They hit my back, my terrified core stopped beating for an instant. The three of us ended up on the ground.

“Aaah… Sorry, Armen! Are you okay?” Arkifa asked.

I guess I was? Since I couldn’t feel pain. Then I remembered something Ginger, our religious Cheetah leader, had said once: “No one should ever set aside their feelings: ignore your pain, and you’ll end up ignoring your most fundamental values”. I couldn’t possibly ignore the mental pain I felt by having those two so close to me. I’m starving, you know! I ranted inwardly. And I told Ray I would control myself, so don’t tempt me, you damn humans! A Cheetah doesn’t go back on his word! I crawled away hastily and stood up.

“Hell, of course I’m not okay! You guys scared me to death!”

“But are you hurt?” she insisted, approaching.

I backed away and raised my hands forming a cross.

“Don’t get close to me! ”

Arkifa stopped dead, surprised; Nina looked at me, worried; Linah stared at me then chuckled.

“Hoho? Didn’t you enjoy rescuing two pretty girls? Why are you being so shy?” She bounced forward and nudged me in the ribs annoyingly. “You don’t run away from me, though.”

Because your lifeforce is awfully bad, Lil Witch.

My hand raised, about to pull one of her pigtails, then I remembered that they were sadly not there anymore, and I just said:

“You’re different, that’s all.”

Under Linah’s startled expression, I turned around and looked at the four paths. Gorka Soulberg was already almost at the top of the hill. On the Rescuer path, Dragan was climbing a wooden structure to retrieve something from the top, and he seemed to have a hard time despite his good agility. Aishah was struggling in the Peacemaker path. Charles-Ping was way ahead of her—surely the instructor had told him he couldn’t help his partner on the last leg. As for the Keeper path, there was a pavilion next to the flag, and I couldn’t see what was going on inside. At that instant, I saw a girl come out and sprint to the top. Considering all that… I took a step toward the hill and let out:

“Should I be an Explorer?”

“Don’t ask us,” Linah snorted.

“Don’t become an Explorer on a whim,” Arkifa said. “It’s insulting.”

Seeing her displeased gaze, it really seemed it was. Right, Arkifa’s dream was to become an Explorer. I glanced at the four flags, the Z, the sun, the sound waves, the two triangles, and I smiled under my mask.

“Okay, I’ve made up my mind, I’ll be a Rescuer.” I turned my head towards Linah, Arkifa, and Nina. “Rescuing people is kinda beautiful, isn’t it? Well, exploring things sounds fun too, and bringing peace is kinda amazing. As for the Keepers, well, I do like to keep things, like my red knit cap, my violin, and stuff, but if I had to keep something bigger like a vault full of treasures, I’d probably be in trouble—”

“Just admit you have no idea what a Keeper is,” Linah replied.

“Seriously, Armen, on what planet are you?” Arkifa intervened in disbelief.

Nina shamelessly raised her hand, saying:

“Sorry, I don’t know what a Keeper does either.”

“What? But Addison even explained it to us.”

“I’m not good at Sarwish. He talked too fast.”

Her words made my core beat with solidarity. I gave her a cheerful thumbs up.

“Welcome to the club, Nina.”

“Don’t brag about it,” Linah snorted. “You guys may be the only two trainees on this island who can’t speak the Common Language correctly.”

“So, what’s a Keeper?” I asked.

Arkifa grumbled.

“Geez, you do realize we’re in a race, right?”

“Yeah.”

“… Do you, really… Anyway, I guess I can tell you briefly,” she capitulated. “Keepers are recorders, regulators, diplomats, international lawyers, interrogators, and the like…”

“Definitely not for me,” I breathed out.

“Peacemakers are the guardian corps, Monster Hunters, criminal pursuers.”

Criminal? The image of my killer shot through my mind, and I winced.

“Amazing, but not for me either. What about Explorers?”

“Explorers are…” Arkifa paused, and her brow furrowed, “Nature explorers, crystal explorers, researchers of all kinds, Stabilizers.”

“Nature explorers,” Nina echoed, immediately hooked.

“As for Rescuers,” Arkifa continued, “they rescue people just as it says, in all possible ways. Well, not only people. They rescue items and animals too.”

“Animals,” Nina repeated.

“And that’s about it,” Arkifa concluded.

“Cool. Thanks, teacher.”

“You’re welcome, my pupil. Now I’ll be on my way.”

“Good luck! But my intuition was good, after all.” I grinned. “I’ll be a Rescuer.”

“At first, you wanted to be an Explorer, though,” Linah reminded me teasingly, then she raised a hand as she began to walk away. “Do your best, you guys! There must be quite a number of good pills left up there! Don’t slack off!”

“Slack off? You bet! I’ll beat you to the race!” I replied.

“Hwara-hwara-hwara! You wish, Straw Head! I bet one thousand Corns that Arkifa and I will be first.”

“Damn rich kid, what’s with those prohibitive bets?” I complained.

“Hwara-hwara, then if I win, you’ll tell me how you got first in the Indie quiz! And don’t tell me it was thanks to that encyclopedia you read.”

“Well, let’s do that. In exchange, you’ll owe me a favor if I get to the top before you.”

“A favor? Like what?”

“Are you scared to lose?”

Linah’s cheeks puffed out, and she replied “Deal!” before sprinting to the Peacemaker path. I grinned under my mask. Now, I couldn’t afford to lose. I glanced at my teammate. She was wavering, biting her lips.

“Nina? Are you hesitating between Explorers and Rescuers?”

“Mm,” she nodded. “But it’s okay.”

She took one of her hair tie, which—I realized just now—was a cube with digits chiselled on it, and she threw it on the ground. I was taken aback. Was she going to make such a decision based on a…?

“Explorer.”

“Seriously?” I snorted. “Is that okay? To let luck decide for you…”

“That’s what I want to know.”

She looked oddly determined. So she wasn’t done trying to understand her own power, huh?

As Nina raced to the Explorer path after Arkifa, I ran towards the sun flag, excited and determined to win. Despite all our talking, few trainees had arrived on the last leg. Were the others stuck crossing the woods, or did they even reach them? I hoped Zeeta and Ray were doing okay.

* * *

“Do you believe in destiny, Ray Styxer?”

The wind was strong on the Beak of the phoenix turtle. Two silhouettes were standing on the top of the barren, rocky cliff that was splitting the seas. They were talking in the Common Language.

“Did you make me go all the way here to ask me that, Natasha?”

The skinny girl in dark purple clothes showed her teeth.

“Just now, you thought I kept you away from your minion on purpose, didn’t you?”

Ray’s eyes glowered.

“Do you have something against me?”

“I don’t.”

“… Then do you have something against my dad?”

“I don’t. Actually, my master and your dad are good friends. Why don’t you trust me?”

“…”

Natasha turned to the sea that spread ahead.

“You are way too stressed out, Ray Styxer. Relax. Why do you worry about your minion?”

“Stop calling him my minion. He’s Armen. He has a name.”

Natasha paused.

“Huhu… So it’s true. You’re not like your dad at all. Nor like my master. So? Is something wrong with Armen?”

“… You don’t have to be concerned about that. Why did you come to this training?”

“Ah. I hate it when people change the subject like that. But, well…” She turned around. “Let’s say that some Dark Art Regulator wanted to make a deal with my master, and I came here to hear him out. Well, it’s a bit more complicated, but you don’t have to be concerned about that,” she echoed playfully.

“…!! A… Dark Art Regulator?!”

“You turned even paler, huhuhu. Yes.” Her dark eyes glowed. “There is a Regulator on this very island. If you want the name, then tell me more about your minion… I mean, Armen.”

“…”

“Ray Styxer. You seem at the end of your tether. I can lend you a hand. Actually, I already have an idea about the situation. If Armen were to go wild, I could be in trouble too, you know.”

There was a long silence only interrupted by the gusts of the wind and the waves crashing against the cliffs.

Then Ray spoke.