I can attest that waking up early without having slept much does not put me in a good mood. Ronan and I have a quick breakfast, say goodbye to the goblins, and leave.
"My lady," he says to me at some point on our journey through the forest, "does the divine beast not eat enough?"
"What?" I ask, completely caught off guard.
Because first, we weren't talking. Second, I'm still sleepy. Third, where did that come from?
The pup, who has decided to grow a bit and now reaches my knees, is scampering alongside us. When Ronan mentions him, it's as if he understands and hurries to give a bark.
"He eats a ton," I clarify somewhat dryly, remembering a few minutes ago when he ate twice as much as me for breakfast.
"Forgive me if my question has in any way caused you offense. It is simply that I had heard of the divine beast of darkness, but it was not until I beheld it in all its splendor that I truly comprehended its immense size. He had told me about it, but hearing of such a creature and having the honor of witnessing it are two entirely different matters."
I look at the pup. He's scampering normally. Not strutting. Well, that's good, because if he understands us, the last thing we need is for his ego to swell with the veneration Ronan is imbuing his words with.
I sigh and try not to sound so abrupt, as the poor guy is not to blame for me still being sleepy.
"Sorry, Ronan, you misunderstood me. I'm not offended. And, looking at it that way, you're right. He eats a lot but not as much as a wolf of that size would eat. But come on, don't encourage him, he's already quite a glutton. Tell me... who is this 'he' you sometimes talk about?"
But what am I doing? Am I stupid or what? I wasn't supposed to ask him about that, I really don't want to know.
"There is only one 'he', our dark lord."
"A demon king?"
He looks at me as if I were pulling his leg.
"I am referring to our god."
Oh! But that's forbidden... I look up, to see if a lightning bolt or something strikes us.
"Don't mention him again. You know it's not allowed."
I find it quite shocking that it has to be a woman from another world reminding him.
"Certainly, I beg your forgiveness."
We fall silent. I should clarify that I don't serve any god, much less the dark one, but considering my contract with the seed, I'll pass on telling him. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he replied with something implying that's what I think or that's what we want others to believe. And I don't want to ask more either. The gods are supposed to be gone, you can be punished if you name them. And here's Ronan, calmly saying he talks to one of them, the one who lost the war to boot. If he didn't have high affinity, I'd think he's making it up or is crazy and thinks he hears voices.
No...
I better drop the subject and park it in some forgotten corner of my head too. I don't serve any god and I don't plan on becoming the next dark queen. That stuff about the future dark lord... I'm not going to fulfill it.
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When we arrive at the village, I’ve already forgotten about it and am mostly focused on whether I can shower quickly, or the prince and his friends will have to wait for me. We greet the guards at the gate, stop by the furrier's cabin for a moment to sell the pelts, and then head to the teleporter.
When we enter my room, Judith is awake.
"Hello," I greet her.
She's making her bed, already dressed in her academy uniform.
She turns around. Ronan appears beside me. She screams.
Damn.
"Don't scream, it's okay," I tell her as I approach her, hoping she'll stop shrieking like I would if a bunch of spiders suddenly fell on me.
I really didn't think to mention that Ronan would be accompanying me on some days. I didn't think she'd take it like this. It's a good thing we didn't find her coming out of the shower wrapped in a towel...
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"I'm sorry, everything is fine. Forgive me, I should have warned you."
"Bianca, he's a boy!"
"Yes," I nod.
Ronan is super embarrassed, not seeming to know where to look, so he's turned his back and hasn't taken his eyes off the floor. He hasn't even dared to step out of the stone circle.
"And this is my room. You can't bring anyone to my room without warning, much less a boy and much less a violent one like him," she ends up raising her voice hysterically.
"What? Ronan is not violent."
"Well, that's not what they say."
"Okay, I'm going to talk to the professor, to see if I can make the portal somewhere else. This won't happen again. Since you're always studying and doing your own thing, I didn't think you'd mind."
Judith leans on the bed and calms down a bit from the scare I gave her. Ronan doesn't say anything, so as not to make it worse.
"Yes, please do," my roommate asks me.
"I'm sorry," I mutter again and take Ronan out into the hallway.
" My lady, I beg your pardon for placing you in such a difficult situation," he begins to say to me.
"It's not your fault," I cut him off. "It's mine for not thinking better about what would happen if Judith found out. I'm going to have to talk to Catrina. At first, I didn't want to ask for permission in case she didn't let us go together and then, when I got scolded, I didn't think to ask her for a safe place to put the stones. Besides, we're late. Go get ready. Oh, and that about them saying you're violent... tell me about it later."
I go back into the room and close the door behind me before he heads off to his own dorm to get ready. I'm in a hurry, I have to shower because I'm sure I smell terrible, as well as change clothes.
"Who says Ronan is violent?" I can't help but ask Judith as I look for my towel.
The girl adjusts her glasses and answers me.
"Everyone. Apparently, he threatened his roommate with a knife to the neck."
Oh, damn. Yes, I do have to talk to Ronan.
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No matter how much I hurry, I'm the last to arrive.
I had to quickly stop by the kitchen to pick up today's food to go. I'm carrying it in my backpack. The pup too, in the usual side pocket. There's leather and cloth between him and the sandwiches, so I hope he doesn't try to eat them. I'm rushing to the agreed meeting spot, the entrance of the academy. When I arrive, they're all already there: Vincent, Alistair, Theodore, Darius, Mary, Ronan, and three hooded guys. Unless Lily changed physique, she's not any of them.
"Good morning, sorry," I greet them.
"Don't worry, you're just in time," Mary smiles at me.
She's very close to Theodore and the prince. Right on the opposite side of Ronan and those three strangers.
"Ready to kill a few giant scorpions?" Darius provokes me.
"Sure, especially if it's more than you kill," I tease him.
I can't help it. First, it's easy, and second, I have a competitive streak in my blood, which is why I played LOL.
"I accept the challenge," he replies very seriously.
"Me too," joins the other redhead.
Theodore looks at us with resignation. Vincent smiles and Mary still seems uncomfortable.
"Are you okay, Mary?" I ask her.
"Of course, I can't discriminate against Ronan's friends because they're dead."
What?
"They're Joe, Tom and Bob," Ronan intervenes, very seriously. "Guys, say hello."
The three hooded figures raise their gloved hand as a greeting, not emitting any sound or word.
I approach one and pull back his hood. Underneath there is a leather helmet and a skull with black flames glowing in the empty sockets of its eyes. I quickly pull the hood back up to leave his face in the shadows.
"What's this?" I turn and ask Ronan.
"They want to come; they were tired of being in the closet. Besides, this way I go to the dungeon with all my mana."
This is surreal. I understand going with mana recovered after a night of restful sleep (lucky him who slept like a log). I understand that if they are raised undead and necromancy is so broken in this world that they don't decay, he had them raised from before. I could even understand him hiding them in the closet. But naming them? Does he not know how macabre that is?
I open my mouth to say something, annoyed, and close it again.
Bianca, this boy has been alone and locked up all his life, he must have even named the skeleton rats he played with so as not to go crazy, I think.
"Please don't talk as if they were people."
"But they were."
He tells me that so calmly, gazing at me with those huge, round eyes of his.
"Do they talk to you? Do they still have consciousness or a soul?"
"Well, no, but I'm convinced they understand me and have feelings."
"Let it go, Bianca," Mary intervenes. "It's okay, they'll be useful in the dungeon."
This girl is a sweetheart. Despite how much it shows that it's hard for her to be close to the undead, she supports Ronan. A real gem. No doubt high affinity for light.
"Thank you, Mary. But Ronan," I look at him, "has to learn not to talk to the dead when people are around. Not everyone is as kind as you and at this rate he's going to get a bad reputation."
Mary seems to hesitate about whether to say something, but Vincent holds her by the arm and pulls her.
"Let's go," he tells us as he starts moving. "We have to get going, I'd like to be back in time for dinner today."
"Of course," Darius agrees.
We follow him. He leads us to the wing of the academy building where the teachers reside, study and research. Specifically, to a room where I have never been and which contains a portal. It is similar to the one in the village, in that it is a circular platform of white marble, only more spacious. Furthermore, the geometric figure on whose vertices the stones are placed is not a heptagon but a regular enneagon.
"It takes us to the capital, to the travel station. There we will take the portal to the desert," Vincent informs those of us who don't know, which is everyone except his two childhood friends.
The guardian in this room greets the prince and grants us free passage.
Perfect. Since the interior space of the enneagon is substantial, we all fit together. We stand inside and the guardian activates the teleportation by saying the corresponding words. We appear in a similar room, only much larger and full of more circular white marble platforms with different geometric figures, some regular and some irregular. Several royal guards and employees are stationed at the portals, keeping watch and activating them as needed. The prince identifies himself and states our destination. The fortress of Krab. The advanced outpost in the Krab desert that guards and periodically clears the intermediate level dungeon we're heading to.
Here we go!