"Sigh...Alright, let's try this again," Glenn muttered through clenched teeth, his head clasped in both of his hands while a headache struck him hard. He was standing over a small table inside his tent, still trying to figure out what was going on.
"So," He carefully began, picking up his pen and writing on a blank sheet, "Gentle Knight's team left for its mission first. We were then warned that they left for Palancar, so we followed in their footsteps. But, somehow, while using the same path as us, they arrived later than my team, while we arrived before them. And somehow, we didn't even cross them," Glenn wrote on the paper, trying to put his thoughts into something tangible.
It was hard to think when your head felt like it was getting squeezed in a steel vice little by little. That difficulty was even multiplied when the snarky entity named Diamanes chose to pester him with the most useless advice:
"Hmm, did you try putting your head in rice? Maybe it'll help," Diamanes innocently asked, making Glenn sigh and roll his eyeballs. He knew the entity wasn't trying to help him at all, just to annoy him, and sadly, it worked way too well.
Glenn stared at the paper in front of him, seeing the logical explanations. There was nothing strange, besides that event with the mercenary leader disappearing previously and somehow "misremembering" where he lost the silver skull or whatever that thing was. But still, something was tugging at the young man's brain, as if saying "Yes, Glenn. Yes, there is something wrong. You must rack your brains out to understand what is not a problem!"
Someone patted him from behind, taking him out of his thoughts. He turned around, to see Monsieur Maron. The merchant was wearing a conflicted expression and seemed hesitant to talk to him.
"I...Are you alright, Sir Glenn? I couldn't help but overhear you talking about non-existing problems, so I just wanted to see if I could help...?" The merchant smiled awkwardly, rubbing his hands together slowly. Glenn shook his head and slipped the paper he had just written on under a pile of blank sheets.
"I'm fine, I just feel exhausted I suppose. I...Can you call Sahro for me? I'll only need an hour or two, and I should be fine again," Glenn asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly. It wasn't that long since he Meditated to rest his body and mind back to a pristine state, but somehow he already was feeling exhausted.
"I know I'm not practicing Meditation as much as I should, but I'm sure it should work better than that..." The young man muttered under his breath as he looked at Monsieur Maron hurrying back to fetch the Black Heir. He sat on his bunk bed with crossed legs, closing his eyes and trying to calm his mind so he could enter Meditation, but the headache drilling into his head made it impossible.
Glenn kept on trying for a few minutes, before swearing and giving up. Diamanes laughed mockingly in the back of his mind, his voice echoing loudly in Glenn's already ringing head.
'What, can't Meditate? Try our new formula: one knockdown for four hours of sleep! Available now, in Sahro's hands!' The young man shook the voice off, turning toward the Black Heir entering the tent. Sahro looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"I thought we all agreed on the patrolling schedules, Tarana is already sleeping. Don't tell me, you want to sleep on the job...?" The Black Heir asked, his arms crossed as he leaned in the doorway. Glenn simply pulled him inside, closing the flap behind him and flicking his fingers to summon a circle of Silence around them. There was no need for him to flick his fingers, but it just felt cool. Natural was the word, maybe.
Glenn sat up and rubbed his temples, scowling while he looked at his friend silently. The Black Heir gestured for him to talk, but Glenn only sighed and indicated a chair next to him. Sahro made himself comfortable, still waiting for Glenn to pronounce a word.
"...There's something wrong with this place, and I don't know what..." Glenn muttered, his fingers interlocked with each other. A mouth appeared in his left palm sneakily, using the second of inattention.
"Something wrong? What do you mean–"
"There is a dark aura roaming this place," Diamanes interrupted Sahro with a grave tone, almost cinematic. Glenn looked at his left palm with a dumbfounded expression, before becoming red with anger.
"So you knew but you didn't tell me? You fucking bastard–"
"No, I was just saying whatever. I didn't notice anything weird besides the strange times of departure and arrival," Diamanes then added while laughing, stopping Glenn dead in his tracks. Sahro shook his head slowly, hiding it in both his hands. Glenn silently cursed at the world and at the hand it gave him, before clapping his hands together, shutting the entity's mocking laughter.
"Sahro, I think that between the strange disappearance of Doran and the time of arrival of Gentle Knight's team, we need to keep an eye open," Sahro nodded hesitantly, before leaning forward with a questioning gaze.
"Sure, but what do you mean with the other guy's team arrival?" He asked, confusing Glenn even more.
"I...Well, I mean they arrived after us even though we initially picked this mission to find them, right?" He suddenly didn't feel so sure, and his confidence shook even harder when he saw the scowl on Sahro's face intensify.
"What are you talking about? We took this request because of the huge reward! We still need to get a hundred each to go find Chief–Giselle's son!" He exclaimed loudly, slamming his hand on the table. The sudden outburst startled Glenn, and he leaned back in his chair while looking at the Black Heir.
"No, I mean, yes, we still need to find Giselle's son, but the reason I took the request wasn't for the gold–well, half the reason wasn't–it was to find Gentle Knight's team to interrogate them about Prince!" Glenn desperately mumbled, his eyes trying to find some light of understanding in his friend's gaze but failing to do so. Was he going crazy? Sahro suddenly calmed himself and patted the young man's shoulder warmly.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"I think I know what's going on, Glenn. Maybe you should go get some rest. I didn't know you were dreaming about princes, I thought you were more interested in princesses, but my bad," He smiled nicely, before turning around and leaving the tent. Glenn sat there flabbergasted, at a complete loss of words.
"...What?"
"Uhh, I think he's pranking you? Maybe?" Diamanes mumbled hesitantly, seemingly as confused as his host. Glenn's face lit up and he opened his left hand, staring at the wide-open mouth in its palm.
"You remember! That means I'm not crazy!" He chuckled, breathing out deeply in relief. The headache wasn't clearing out, but at least he knew he didn't have a screw loose.
"Well, you have a speaking hand and you're talking to it. If that's not crazy, I don't know what is..." The young man ignored the entity's mockery and pushed himself up from his seat. He could feel a surge of energy just knowing that this diabolical occurrence was indeed real.
"Hah, feels good to know that I still have most of my marbles..."Glenn smiled tiredly, before getting out of his tent and dismissed the Silence curse surrounding it. That made him think that he could barely feel the Mana consumption of the spell, which either meant the spell used very little Mana, or his Mana reserve got that much bigger. In both cases, it was good news.
The sun blinded his eyes for a few seconds, making him take a few seconds to get used to it. His stomach grumbled slightly, but he ignored it and gazed over the camp. Sahro was discussing something with Monsieur Maron around the large table he had set up outside to put the plans for the brewery's construction. The counter master was coordinating the workers' efforts as they kept on laying the foundations of the construction. Most of the materials had been carried through dimensional bags, but some necessities still needed to be harvested from the surrounding forest, mostly timber.
"...At least this seems to progress well," Glenn muttered, nodding at a patrolling mercenary group. The team nodded back without stopping, keeping on a wary lookout for any threats. Even if nothing seemed to put the camp in danger, they still had to keep their eyes wide open for anything. We never know what might happen.
Glenn walked in the plain of ashes, noticing that most of it had been pushed away to free some space on the ground. He wondered why until he saw a group of skinny folks carry building materials to start laying the foundations of small homes.
"Are the natives already back? They're here sooner than I thought..." Glenn rubbed his chin, looking at the villagers' faces. They were emaciated and pale, but a strange light of happiness shone in their eyes as if nothing would stop them from enjoying their time on this Earth.
'How...surprising. Well, it's better to smile than to cry, in my opinion,' The young man shrugged it off, before heading to check on the fields to see the progress on that side and also to see if Tarana was doing well. Perhaps the woman also noticed something weird, but Glenn doubted it. If Sahro forgot everything as to why they originally came here, Tarana was probably not doing much better. He quickly arrived there, seeing her kneeling on the ground, her waist empty of any of her weapons. Glenn frowned but ultimately chose not to say anything. The woman whispered something and a green light came out of her hands. A farmer standing next to her with an interested expression, and stepped back in surprise when he saw the crops he previously planted sprout out and grow at the naked eye.
"I...Incredible!" He exclaimed, laughing with awe. Tarana laughed as well, looking the most happy Glenn had ever seen her. Not that he had known her for a long time, but well, never had such a bright smile been hanging on her face.
'It seems like this place doesn't have the same effects on everyone...Maybe your affinity is opposite to the surrounding fire Mana?' Diamanes theorized in his mind, inviting a serious thought. Perhaps he was indeed going nuts because of that. Was it possible to lose one's mind because of a surrounding restraining one's affinity? That seemed a bit severe of an effect...
'Oh, but you didn't hallucinate anything, though, so I doubt that's it,' Diamanes hurriedly added, making Glenn freeze both in his thoughts and steps.
'Yeah, I didn't hallucinate anything, so why am I subconsciously trying to find reasons to explain the memories I possess that Sahro doesn't? I'm the one normal, he isn't!' He tried to convince himself with that last phrase, but something still seemed strange to him. He just couldn't put his finger on it.
He trailed back the way he came from, meeting a few other groups of villagers building their houses back up. Too curious to restrain himself, he stopped one of them. It was a middle-aged lady carrying a bag of lime on her shoulders. Glenn relieved her of it, making the lady sigh in relief. She turned her head with gratefulness, before freezing once she saw the ember of the Blood Cross emblem burning on his chest.
"M...Mr...Sir Fixer...You shouldn't!" She weakly tried to take her bag up, but Glenn's shoulders were too high for her to reach.
'Haha, I'm too tall, sorry!' Glenn laughed inside while smiling at the lady.
"It's fine, let me carry it. Instead, answer a few questions of mine, alright?" The lady hurriedly nodded, her eyes not quitting the burning ember. Glenn sighed in relief secretly and infused a bit of Mana to create an invisible platform under the bag, making it float in the air. He began walking, the lady trailing behind him.
"So, what's your name?" He asked with a cheerful tone, rubbing his hands together while waiting for the lady.
"R...Ralema, M...Milord!" She stuttered, running up to him.
"That's a nice name, Ralema. Tell me, how is it that you're already back? I thought the villagers would wait until we cleared the place a bit more from all the mess," He waved at all the ash that remained to get rid of. Ralema smiled with flushed cheeks and played with her auburn hair. Glenn didn't know how to feel about charming an older woman, but it wasn't an important enough matter for him to care about it right now.
"W...Well, we would have remained in the caves of the Still Peak for a few more weeks if it wasn't for them a month ago," She explained, her stutters calming down gradually as she felt more and more comfortable around the young man. The latter frowned, before changing directions to go to the right house.
"Who's them? The support requests only arrived a few days ago, no way someone came a month in advance..." He asked, putting the bag of lime down at the place Ralema pointed at.
"Thanks, I'll take over now," She said with a warm smile, before kneeling in front of the lime bag, preparing it for later use,"...That's the Thorn's Church, of course!" Glenn's smile froze, replaced with a cold, terrifying expression. Ralema didn't see it as she was busy taking care of the lime, so she continued her explanations.
"They arrived a month ago, guided by a holy prophecy. A scourge to our sacred order would soon come upon Palancar to flee from the punishment of God's armed hand. They came here looking for the scourge, I think." Her movements froze, as she remembered the description of said fiend.
A charming young man with black hair streaked with a white strand, possessing two evil eyes of different colors, one purple and the other of a deep green. A young man wearing a black classy sleeveless suit, with a purple left arm that seemed to exude unholiness. Ralema trembled as she turned around slowly.
"Sir...Sir Fixer?"
Glenn was gone.