It was a quiet street.

Despite the sun being out and it being peak business hours, there wasn’t a single soul near the houses immediately adjacent to the Three Courts. Maybe a child or two could be found playing in the street, but beyond that, there wasn't anyone.

The street was paved with cobblestones, and the houses had a unique style, all interconnected with vines similar to those on the marble gate, wrapping around the buildings.

"Sir Knight, why is this street so... so empty?" Mihe inquired, hoping that the knight didn't remember telling them that they didn't answer questions anymore.

"I AM NOT YOUR TEACHER." the knight snapped back.

Mihe slumped for a moment. They had hoped for a response, and it seemed the knight picked up on that and obliged.

"IT IS BUSINESS HOURS. ALL THE RESIDENTS ARE DOWNTOWN RIGHT NOW. YOU WILL SEE THEM SOON."

Was it that simple? Mihe initially wanted to cover their face in embarrassment; they really should have figured that out earlier. But just as quickly as the embarrassment rose, they realized it really was quite funny now that they thought about it—something as obvious as "if it's business hours, then people are off doing business" should have been obvious to them.

They chuckled for a bit before continuing to follow the knight.

The streets began to grow more crowded until they felt absolutely packed. The poor half-orc knight constantly bumped into people, and Mihe had to simply follow in his wake, apologizing to everyone along the way to their horror.

The people who weren't getting bumped into also began to make way to let the knight through. Some bowed in front of the knight, saying something about paying their respects to the Dual Crown. Others simply glared at the two.

A child chasing a dog had given up and was now staring at them in awe.

"Mommy! Is that a—" The mother quickly hushed her child and covered their mouth while staring at the knight in horror.

"Please ignore this child! They do not know better! I will punish them at home!" she cried out.

The knight slowly turned their head toward the mother before responding in a matter-of-fact tone to the best of their ability, although, there was a twinge of sadness that Mihe did manage to pick up.

"THE IMPERIAL GUARDS ARE FAIR, NOT CRUEL. YOUR CHILD NEEDS NO SUCH PUNISHMENT, AS THE 'CRIME' YOU PUNISH THEM FOR IS SIMPLY BEING A CHILD."

The mother breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much, Sir Knight! I will forever remember your kindness!"

"DO NOT CONFLATE FAIRNESS WITH KINDNESS." the guard replied before continuing.

After the Imperial Guard said those words, the people in the street stopped tensing up and returned to their normal duties—well, at least most of them. Some were still staring, though not at the knight, rather, at Mihe.

Mihe felt the weight of those stares growing heavier and heavier until they became unbearable.

"Sir Knight—no, Sir Guard, do you know why so many people are staring at me? It's quite, umm... discomforting."

The guard pointed to the window of a pastry shop next to them. Mihe walked over to the shop, and what they saw was even stranger than anything they could have ever imagined.

Staring back was a humanoid with a fairly thin and rough face, marked by many scars. On their right cheek was a fairly large gash with blood dripping down from it.

Their hair was very long, reaching down to their chest in the front, with the back going even longer. Moreover, their hair had an odd coloring; while most of it was black and messy, some sections were dyed in dull shades of blue, pink, and purple.

Despite these eccentricities, something even stranger marked Mihe’s face. The iris of their left eye appeared to be "shattered," with various colors in each "shard" of their cornea. These colors ranged from a bright shade of yellow all the way to a deep hue of red.

Their right eye was just as interesting as the left; it was pure black from pupil to the sclera. There was no color whatsoever, if they were to admit, it was quite eerie to look at.

As soon as they made eye contact with their own reflection, something appeared in the reflection behind them: a floating black box with a wave-like texture inlaid. Even stranger was the text that appeared on the box: "COURSE OF THE INEVITABLE."

Underneath that text was a series of smaller boxes within the larger box, labeled "STATS," "MAGIC," and two boxes named "???."

They jumped upon seeing the box and turned around to where the box should have been; however, they didn’t see anything. Shortly afterwards, a weak, raspy voice called out to Mihe from their right.

"If you’d like a cake, sir, please feel free to come inside! If you buy one cake, you can get another for free!"

They turned to see a frail old man leaning out the door, with gray hair and a small frame.

"I saw that you were really struggling to decide which cake to choose."

Mihe felt embarrassed by the situation; they were so focused on observing their features that they hadn’t even bothered to check what was behind the glass they were staring at.

"Oh no! I’m sorry, I can’t afford anything right now!"

The old man cocked their eyebrow before eventually stating "Aaah! I understand then! It seems like you’ve fallen on hard times, just like me!"

"Yes... I’ve fallen on very hard times," Mihe agreed.

"Then we share our struggles. If you ever—and I truly mean it—ever need any food, please stop by this humble shop. I personally will feed you until your stomach is full!" The man began to pat his stomach before entering a light chuckle. However, that chuckle was a bit much for him to handle, and he entered a coughing fit.

The guard, who was in the middle of the crowd during this exchange, immediately rushed to the old man's side to help him.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"DO YOU NEED MEDICAL ASSISTANCE, SIR?"

The old man, in the middle of their coughing, managed to get out, "Why cough are you cough yelling so loudly!?"

They turned to their side to see who was talking to them but immediately froze upon seeing the guard's armor.

"ALL IMPERIAL GUARDS HAVE SONIC ENCHANTMENTS APPLIED TO OUR ARMOR TO AMPLIFY AND SCRAMBLE OUR VOICES. DO NOT TAKE THIS AS YELLING; IT IS THE VOLUME MY ARMOR FORCES ME TO SPEAK AT."

The guard would notice the old man freezing up in fear and would turn to Mihe.

"YOU NOW UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE STARE, YES?"

Mihe nodded.

"LET US CONTINUE THEN."

The guard separated himself from the old man and began to move with haste toward the church. The old man looked at Mihe, nodded, and waved goodbye. Mihe acknowledged the wave and quickly ran to catch up with the knight's brisk pace.

Once they caught up to the guard, Mihe immediately wanted to learn more about what they had seen in the mirror. What was going on with their hair? Their scars? Their eyes? Well... it wasn’t likely the guard would know anything, but it was better to try than not to try.

First order of business: what was the "Course of the Inevitable" box that they had seen?

"Sir Knight?"

"Yes?"

"Do you happen to know any—"

Before Mihe could finish their sentence, they felt a sharp pain in their throat; it felt as if they couldn’t access their voice box anymore, and any attempts to speak only resulted in airy breaths. In front of them, a box appeared:

"DO NOT BRAG ABOUT MY EXISTENCE FOR IT IS A GREAT INSULT TO THE ONE THAT GIFTED YOU MYSELF."

The guard turned back to look at Mihe, who seemed to have stopped talking all of a sudden.

"IS SOMETHING THE MATTER SIR?"

Finally, their voice "reconnected" with their voice box.

"Nothing, I couldn't remember what I wanted to ask about."

They sighed as they considered what had just happened. It seemed like that box was... sentient? It referred to itself as 'me' rather than 'it,' so it at least had some form of consciousness. What the hell it was trying to do, why, or where it came from was still beyond them.

What was stranger was the window referring to itself as a "gift." What did that mean? They already noticed that the black eye and the window had some kind of connection with each other. Did this mean the eye was a "gift" from someone? How do you even "gift" an eye, though? What did any of this mean!?

Before Mihe's train of thought could finish, they found themselves bumping into the guard's armor as he turned around.

"WE HAVE ARRIVED. SIR..."

The guard realized now that he never got the name of this stranger. To be fair, he hadn’t given Mihe his name either, so it was a fair exchange from his perspective.

"Mihe. I'm not certain what it means, but it sounds nice, doesn’t it?"

"IT HAS NO MEANING AND SOUNDS IDIOTIC." He bluntly responded.

They were shocked; they knew the guard was actually a person with their own tastes and preferences, but they didn’t expect him to outright refer to the name they had chosen for themselves as "stupid." Before Mihe could respond, the guard continued:

"BUT IT HAS A NICE RING TO IT." The guard extended his hand before adding, "GEDAOUS."

Mihe looked at the hand, uncertain of what to do with it.

"WE SHAKE HANDS TO ACKNOWLEDGE RESPECT FOR ONE ANOTHER IN THE DUAL CROWN."

Mihe nodded. "I know that much; I'm just wondering why you want us to shake hands."

"I RESPECT YOU. THERE IS NOTHING MORE BEHIND THAT. YOU ARE AN INTERESTING PERSON, AND I WANT YOUR RESPECT."

Mihe was taken aback by how upfront the guard was, but they chuckled before shaking his hand. "I respect you too. Hopefully, we will have many years of contact with one another."

Upon letting go of their hand, the guard pointed at the building in front of them.

"THE RIVERSIDE NEW RAASTIA TEBIDNATIC CHURCH. IT IS NOT THE MOST POWERFUL CHURCH IN NEW RAASTIA, BUT ITS BISHOP SHOULD BE ABLE TO UTILIZE TEBIDNA'S DOMAIN TO RESTORE YOUR MEMORIES." Gedaous put his hand down before turning back to Mihe.

"IF ANY COSTS ARE INCURRED, I SHALL USE MY PURSE."

Mihe nodded, although they felt slightly suspicious. Just a while ago, the knight, while not cold, wasn’t exactly friendly either. Now, he was being friendly and even offering to pay for their memories to return. This alarmed them, but as it stood, this was the best option for getting their memory back.

In front of the two was a fairly shabby building that stood in front of a river. It was effectively a wooden box with some windows and not much more. When Mihe imagined a church, this minimalist structure wasn’t exactly what they had in mind, especially given its proximity to the Three Courts, which seemed to represent the capital of the country they were in—whatever country that may be.

Notably, there was a hobo sleeping in front of it, although their head covering made it difficult to see them, it was easy to tell that they were sleeping on a drum. A high quality one too, heavy amounts of gold intricacies and gems all around it. Frankly, Mihe was wondering why the hobo didn't sell it off.

Mihe took the lead this time, walking into the church. Similar to the moderate exterior, the inside was painfully bland. It didn’t feel much like a church; instead, it was more a collection of tables with bookshelves lining the walls where there weren’t windows. Some of the tables had a priest or two working on papers, trying to logically explain things to each other.

One of the priests was doing something particularly interesting. Their eyes glowed with a light blue hue, and an arm—similar to Gedaous's—extended from their eyes. This hand hovered over a certain point in space, grabbing threads as some sort of stick formed. Then, the hand grabbed the stick and began to draw something in the air.

It appeared to be... well, Mihe couldn’t quite grasp it. The writing was too complex to understand. Something that stated a relation between various "M"s with subscripts and how they interacted.

"Sir! Can I help y—" A priestess emerged from a small corner room but gasped in horror when she met Mihe's eyes.

The priestess was a woman of fairly tall stature, wearing a veil over her hair and robes that covered all but her face. Well, almost all of her hair and body. The veil had been punctured to allow what looked like elephant ears to flow out. Similarly, the robe had a thin tail, also that of an elephant, flowing out of a small hole.

Mihe had the feeling that the priestess was scared of them. They wanted to get this over with.

"Sorry, ma'am. I appear to have lost my memory and am in need of some kind of healing. That kind gentleman—" Mihe gestured toward the Imperial Guard, and the woman’s expression of horror turned to one of shock and awe.

"Ahem, that gentleman suggested that there was a way to restore my memories, could you confirm if that was true?"

The priestess snapped out of her trance and was now less intimidated by Mihe, thanks to the assurance the guard had given him.

"Absolutely! Please wait a moment for our bishop; she's always busy reviewing our papers, so it might take a while to get her out of her trance! In the meantime, feel free to read any of our literature!" she answered cheerfully.

Mihe turned back to the guard, but he simply remained silent. Mihe then turned to the bookshelves and began to examine a variety of titles.

'Applications of Tensor Calculus to Ability Theory,' 'Introduction to MFT,' 'Biothaumatical Reconfigurations'...

None of these books made any sense. Mihe looked back at Gedaous, only to find him staring at them.

"Are you familiar with any of these books?"

"NO. MY FORMAL EDUCATION WAS IN HISTORY. I DID NOT HAVE THE MATHEMATICAL QUALIFICATIONS TO STUDY MAGICAL OR DIVINE THEORY."

Mihe nodded, before actually registering what he had said. The guard had a formal education? Although they knew the knight was interested in history they didn't expect him to have a formal education in it.

"Then, were you a historian before becoming a knight?"

"A LITTLE BIT. I WASN—" The knight was cut off as he suddenly moved to cover Mihe.