Pillars of Character
Chapter 2
(The night before…)
Pamela had wished to speak with Noel. She knew he would be leaving soon. Up until now, she had followed him throughout his life. She didn’t exactly know the reason why, but she felt as though perhaps following Noel would lead her to be brave. That maybe, the light and excitement he had glimmering in his eyes would rub off on her. Both he and Arend were driven people. She hardly knew Noel despite growing up in the same village and when they did talk, it was mostly about Noel’s future and his savings. This was because Pamela felt she was boring and without a purpose. She had nothing about herself to talk about, at least not anything she liked. She wasn’t good at anything. She couldn’t cook or use magic. She had absolutely no skills whatsoever, and yet, somehow, before she knew it, she ended up working a dangerous job.
Not a day would go by when her hands would stop shaking. The fear of breaking a Helixgrass root was far too grave of a consequence for her to bear. However, thanks to Noel’s teachings and assistance, she managed. Now she stood outside the tent where Noel and Arend were in. The only light in the area was that of the tent, which had a small gap that illuminated her face in the night. Arend had just entered moments ago. Pamela watched as the two exchanged words with Trata. Eventually, Trata gives Noel his bonus, finally giving him enough money to leave and start his journey together with Arend.
“You know what this means, right!? RIGHT!?” Arend couldn’t contain his excitement.
“We’re going to become adventurers!” The two pumped their fists in unison. Those words made Pamela feel saddened.
“They finally did it. That means I’m going to be left behind. I can’t go with them this time. I’d only slow them down.” Pamela thought. “I have to get him something. Something to thank him for all the times he’s helped me. But, most importantly, something so I won’t be forgotten.”
“This calls for celebration!” Noel said. “Drinks are on you.”
“Cheeky little… Ah, why the heck not? Not like you could afford it anyway.” Arend agreed.
“Ah!” In a panic, to not get spotted for snooping on the two, Pamela darted off so she wouldn’t get caught. She quickly dashed away, hiding behind a nearby tent. She waited until the two ecstatic young men walked by and returned to their tents before she let out a quiet audible sigh of relief. “Phew, that was close. He would think I’m a creep if he found out I was following him.” In the past, Pamela felt as though she had feelings for Noel, but quickly squashed those in her heart once she saw how ambitious of a life he was going to live. “Why did I even come all this way out here anyway? No matter what happens… I’ll have regrets about how things turned out.”
Suddenly, Pamela overheard a different conversation. One that was inside the tent she hid next to.
“We finally found it…” A voice in the tent said.
“Huh? I recognize that voice. It’s the vice captain’s.” Pamela thought. “But, who’s he talking to?”
“It only took us three months.” A separate voice was heard inside the tent. This one, however, Pamela did not recognize as any expedition member. “Now we can wrap things up here and finally return home tomorrow.”
“Home? Tomorrow? The expedition is set to at least last until next month.” Pamela thought. The entire expedition crew would head into town every three weeks to resupply their stock and return the Helixgrass they had culled. The adventurers were bound by contract, unlike the farmers who could leave at any time. There was always someone willing to fill the position they had. Adventurers, on the other hand, were scarce and hard to replace. She was bewildered as to why they would be leaving tomorrow.
“Good riddance. I was growing tired of patrolling. Killing the same old monsters gets boring after a while.” Vice Captain Alroy groaned in annoyance.
“I- should go… before I get in trouble.” Pamela quivered in fear. She felt as though she had overheard something she shouldn’t have. With great haste, she quietly attempted to hurry back to her tent before stepping on a branch. Upon snapping, the two in the tent became alert.
“What was that?” The mysterious stranger asked.
“Calm down. It’s probably some animal. I’ll go check it out.” Alroy reassured him.
“AH!” she thought in a panic. After hearing Alroy, Pamela leaped with a breakneck sprint toward her tent, almost diving into it. Luckily she wasn’t too far as it was only several tents away. “Please, please, please tell me they didn’t see me.” Pamela curled up in her tent. Unluckily for her, she was spotted at the last moment.
“So, what was it?” The voice asked.
“Seems we’ve got ourselves a rodent at our camp. Nothing you should worry about.” Alroy answered as he stepped back inside the tent.
The camp was set up with seventeen tents. Seven of them were on the north side of the camp, lined up horizontally, while seven more were paralleled on the southern side. These are the tents where the expedition members slept. The final three were at the far eastern end of camp and were much larger. These were the Ecologist’s Research Facility, Trata’s Storage Tent, and the Alchemist’s Laboratory. Pamela’s tent was located in the bottom row of tents. She currently lives in the second tent in the row.
Later, as the night went on, Pamela couldn’t fall asleep. So much was going on inside her head. She was overwhelmed.
“I need some air.” she thought. Pamela stepped out of her tent, in the dead of night. Upon doing so, she spotted Arend exiting the tent directly across from her. She caught his eye as he headed back to his chambers, which were located directly to the right of her.
“Hello… A-arend.” Pamela stuttered.
“Eh? What do you want?” Arend asked as he stumbled his way to his quarters. Pamela looked at Arend, who was usually well-kept and suave, but currently has messy hair and smelled of booze.
“Oh, nothing. I was just getting some air.” Pamela explained. “He’s drunk.” She thought.
“Hah! Nice…” Arend fumbled his words with a laugh. “Say, tell me, you grew up in Toll, right?”
“Yes?” She answered.
“Then why are you here? Are you thinking about becoming an adventurer like me?” Arend grinned.
“Heaven’s no. A good for nothing like myself was not made for such things.” Pamela explained. Arend stopped swaying. The comment sobered him up a bit. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigar. After placing it in his mouth, he pulled out a tinderbox revealing a match stick and ignited the end of it, then he lit the cigar, inhaling and exhaling a puff of smoke off to the side.
“You should just go home then,” Arend said with a stern tone. “You being here endangers the lives of everyone around you. A good-for-nothing like you is bound to mess up.”
“How could you say something so cruel? You're supposed to reassure me.” Pamela was shocked, taken aback by the comment.
“You asked for it. Don’t act all surprised. I hate when people are self-deprecating. I hate it even more when people try to take advantage of others' kindness. So, why don't we set the record straight? I’m not as nice as Noel.” Arend explained while parting his hair. “He wants to become an adventurer to help people. I'm doing it because I want to impress someone.”
“W-who?” Pamela questioned.
“That’s none of your concern, but it's not you, I’ll tell you that at least. Arend answered.
“Ouch.” Pamela thought to herself, she was wounded by that comment.
“That being said, I won't forgive you if you end up getting him killed. Not after we’ve come so far.” Arend threatened.
“I see… so you’re looking out for Noel?” Pamela questioned.
“He can take care of himself.” Arend scoffed with crossed arms. “Me on the other hand, I’ve got a lot of work to do just to keep up.” He thought to himself. Arend put out his half-finished cigar. “Well, I’ve got things I need to do.” Without saying goodbye, Arend walked into his tent and turned on a lantern.
“Goodnight…? Tch! So rude…” Pamela waved slowly and then put her hands on her hips in frustration. She began to ponder about what Arend said. “Is this what Arend thinks of me? He wasn’t always this cold. Throughout our teenage years, I’ve watched many women attempt to swoon him over. It was expected since Alchemists make plenty of coins. He would let them down easily. Most of the girls in Toll knew that was his aspired goal. It was obvious since he spent almost every waking hour in his lab.”
Pamela heard noises coming from inside Arend’s tent. The sound of pages turning, glass vials clanging together, and the occasional cough from inhaling too much smoke. She peered her eyes through the gap only to find Arend practicing alchemy. He had set up a table in the middle of his tent.
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“He’s not going to bed yet? She questioned. “Arend has always been the type who would keep quiet about his passions, Yet the village girls all knew about it. Now look at him. Pink hair and nice clothes. The Arend I remember as a kid wore no such things and treated others with kindness. But once he was older he rejected every woman who made advances toward him with a heart of stone.”
Arend pulled out 6 gold pieces and began muttering to himself.
“Let this be the last,” Arend said. He flipped through the pages of a heavy-duty leatherback book until finding the page he needed, while handling a multitude of different ingredients. He then sat out a parchment of paper and began copying the sigils he was seeing from the book onto it. Once finished, the parchment had four sigils in total, each with complex intercrossing lines. One was a large circle located in the center, while three smaller ones were around the middle sigil.
“Sorry Professor Stoken, but I’m out of time. I needed to borrow these. I’ll pay you back later.” After fully prepping, Arend began to add the ingredients he needed individually with careful measurements onto the parchment paper, separating them into outer circles, while leaving the center one empty. “First, add 75% potassium nitrate (KNO3) as an oxidizer, then roughly 15% charcoal (C) as a fuel source, and finally mix in approximately 10% sulfur (S) for ignition. Adding all of these together gets you the greatest offensive mixture in alchemy, gunpowder.” Once he was finished, he placed the 6 gold pieces on the center large circle of the parchment. “Send!” He exclaimed. Suddenly, the gold vanished. “Now, exchange!” Arend hovered his hand over the center sigil, and when he did so, the ingredients disappeared. Then, from the center of the circle, the parchment began to stretch and inflate upward, becoming spherical in shape. Arend grabbed a hold of the expanded parchment and pulled, ripping out items, and with them, sigils washed away as if diffused with water. The objects from the parchment materialized into the world right in the palm of his hand.
“Phew, I half expected that to blow up in my face.” Arend wiped the sweat from his brow. He then looked down toward his left hand which began glowing yellow. Appearing out of thin air, on the back of his hand, was a sparkling gold tattoo representing the goddess Pheiress. Its symbol appeared as a flask full of liquid. Inside the flask was a weighted scale resting within, and each scale was perfectly balanced toward the center.
“I’m confused?” Pamela watched in bewilderment. Due to the practice of alchemy in society being commonplace over magic she had heard of such a phenomenon in the past. “Isn’t that the alchemist seal? To receive something that grand is an achievement for even intermediate alchemists.” The Achievements of Pheiress. An incentive the goddess gave to those who invested in her methods and crafts. As one progressed their skills they would gain benefits over time after big accomplishments throughout their alchemical careers. These benefits were more quality of life changes to their alchemy if anything. Such as a discount to use alchemy outside of the Gold Continent or creating a second dosage of a potion using only enough ingredients for a single one.
“If I recall… the alchemist’s seal allows those who have it to perform alchemy without a parchment as long as they have the ingredients on their person and the gold to spend. It's much faster. However, it requires a great deal of memorization. The user needed to visualize the transmutation circles in their head. But… to obtain such a thing, one needed to complete advanced alchemy at least once. Don’t tell me?”
“Hah! I can’t believe after ten years, I have something advanced of my own. I’m finally catching up to you...” Arend chuckled as he pictured Noel saving him with magic years ago. “Okay, now… what to do with this?” Arend inspected the objects he was holding. He was carrying a single-shot flintlock pistol with three unloaded steel ball bullets.
“A firearm!?” Pamela was completely shocked. From her understanding, advanced alchemy wasn’t instantaneous like regular alchemy, which only required parchment, sigils, ingredients, and gold. Instead, one would send ingredients along with gold, with no returns. It was an investment of sorts. The items sent would vanish and be stored away in a place unknown to all. They would stay there until the entire list of ingredients for the thing one wished to create had been sent. This allowed for complex creations to be made over a long period if needed. Although more expensive, it is far more beneficial than having a humongous piece of parchment with an unorthodox amount of transmutation circles spun about.
Pamela waited outside Arend’s tent. She was stunned in amazement. Her thoughts changed from praise to regret and began to haunt her. Arend's words echoed throughout her mind.
[A good-for-nothing like you is bound to mess up.]
“All this time… he was working towards this? What have I been doing up until now? I don’t even have the time to change things. They leave in two days.” She began to lose hope until she remembered exactly why she came all this way.
(Eleven years ago, before the bandit event in Toll…)
Seven-year-old Pamela was playing alone with her doll out on the front porch of her house. She was bored out of her curious little mind. The weather was hot out, as the sun beamed down with an intense heat.
“Mom, can I go play with my friends?” Pamela asked behind her toward the front door which was left wide open.
“No sweetie. It’s too dangerous for you to go out alone. It's far too hot out for you anyway.” She answered and then coughed a few times. Pamela’s mother was currently lying in a bed inside. She was ill and bedridden with a disease known as Autumn Bride. Pamela’s father was often too busy working so he could afford treatment for his wife.
“But… I don’t want to stay here anymore.” Pamela was dejected from reality. She was locked up here for so long, she forgot what it was like to go outside and play. Toll was a cage to her. Suddenly, the sound of a young boy caught her attention. A young Noel was currently walking down the street. He was distracted by his amusement. He was casting the breeze spell in fluctuation, blowing aside leaves, dirt, and rocks. Noel passed in front of her house and Pamela shouted at him.
"Is that magic!?" Pamela asked. Noel stopped in his tracks and looked toward Pamela.
"Hehe. Pretty cool, right?" Noel bragged. "I've been using it to cool people off all day."
"Really? Show me?" Pamela said with excitement. She had only seen magic used a handful of times.
"Sure." Noel extended his hand and outstretched his fingers. "Breeze!" From his palm, a calm and serene wind cooled the young girl.
"Woah. Thanks! That helped a lot." Pamela realized just how much she didn't know about the world. She knew there were many things to discover.
“All in a day's work for Wind Boy.” Noel struck a pose like a superhero.
“Heh. That’s a stupid name.” Pamela chuckled. “Why are you going around and using magic on people anyway?”
“Huh?” Noel looked at Pamela, dumbfounded. The answer to her question should have been obvious. “Because they were getting too hot. My dad told me I should always help out when I can.”
(“It was such a simple and kind answer. He never even considered the option of leaving a person to suffer...”)
“I’m not sure I get it. Say, where are your parents anyway?” Pamela asked.
“My mom and dad work at the farm,” Noel replied.
“But… they let you walk around town alone?” Pamela questioned.
“Hah! Of course not. If either of them found out I was out here, I wouldn't get dinner for the night.” Noel explained.
“What? You need to eat! You’re going to get in trouble!” Pamela panicked for Noel’s sake.
“It’s alright. I needed to practice.” Noel explained.
“Practice for what?” Pamela was curious.
“If you do something long enough, it will become a habit. That’s what my mom said. That’s why I need to practice using my magic to help others. Because one day, I’m going to leave this place and travel all over the world.” Noel bragged. Pamela’s eyes were filled with wonder. The idea of leaving Toll never occurred to her. To travel the world and be completely free was an enigma as much as it was an idea.
“Can I come with you?” Pamela asked.
“Huh?” Noel was confused.
“Can I come with you when you leave!?” She asked again in a serious tone.
“Um… sure if you want to,” Noel answered while scratching his head.
"Really? YAY!" Pamela jumped for joy.
“You know what. That sounds like fun.” After giving it some thought he reassured her. “You look like you need some freedom too,” Noel said with an infectious smile.
(Back to the night before…)
“Freedom, huh? I… I can’t go back to Toll.” Pamela reminisced, his smile still infectious even now. She left from outside of Arend’s tent and returned to her own. “I may be useless… I can’t use magic or alchemy. I can’t even properly defend myself… but still, I want to go with them! I want to see the world for what it is!” Pamela encouraged herself. “No… I’ll go with them. I have to!” She began packing her things inside her tent. After doing so, she looked at her work equipment.
“There has to be something I can do. I need to contribute for them to accept me.” Pamela emboldened herself and equipped her work gear. “I need to make use of the time I have left here.” She then departed from her tent, bringing a lantern with her. She intended to work throughout the night. Her goal was to harvest Helixgrass in secret so she could give them to Arend and Noel for potion creation. Hesitantly, she approached the fields toward the south.
The plants were scarce and spread far apart. The area in which the expedition was assigned was roughly ten acres. Helixgrass was easy to spot if it wasn’t surrounded by tall grass, which the Wind Valley was filled with. The farmers needed to cull the normal grass first, being extra careful not to accidentally damage a Helixgrass in the process. Since the Helixgrass was only half the height of the greens, this wasn’t too difficult, but instead time-consuming.
Pamela arrived at the edge of the work area and began cutting the grass at the neck with a sickle and then searching below for any Helixgrass. It was challenging in the dark. The thought of being mauled by a monster was always looming in the back of her mind. At one point she had gotten spooked from noises coming from around the camp, but figured it was adventurers heading out into the woods on a patrol. Worrying would only heed her progress. The process took hours and results often varied. Luckily for Pamela, her hard work paid off. By sunrise, she had accumulated more than fourteen Helixgrass to give to Noel and Arend.
“I did it! Good job me!” Pamela clapped her hands in self-praise. “It probably wasn’t too bright of me to work all night, but oh well. I best return to camp before Trata wakes up. I should be able to get at least some rest before our shift starts” Pamela let out a yawn.
Off in the distance, roughly 30 meters away, Alroy and two other hooded figures sat on horseback. He spotted a preoccupied Pamela off in the fields. The sunrise reflected on her revealing the basket she was carrying was full of Helixgrass, wrapped in thin cloth. He chuckled with a sinister smile on his face. He was amused by the outcome.
“An early riser? That makes things easy. Now I don’t have to wait all day.” Alroy outstretched his hand and from it, a deep green glow of light shined briefly. “Plant Bind,” he whispered and chanted. Words of power were spoken as Alroy cast a spell on the unassuming Pamela who was currently heading back to camp at a hastened pace.
“Huh…!?” Suddenly, beneath Pamela’s feet, grass folded over her footwear while she stepped, catching her off guard. The restraints caused her to trip and fall over. From Pamela’s perspective, she simply got too excited and wasn’t watching where she was going.
“Ah!” Pamela crashed toward the ground. Her first instinct was to protect the Helixgrass, but there was no time at all. Before she knew it, she landed face-first on top of the basket and the result was the sound of glass breaking in succession as her body made contact with the Helixgrass.
“...” Pamela lay there in silence for a moment. Then she stood up on all fours looking at the pool of Helixgrass fluid on the ground beneath her. Her eyes had lost color in them as they fixated on the crushed basket she spent all night preparing. It was her worst nightmare that had come true. It wasn’t that she was now covered in a blood-like substance and became a prime target for all the monsters in the area, or even the pain from the grass shards piercing her torso. It was none of those things. Instead, it was the fact that Arend was right about her. That she overplayed her hand and messed up like he said she would. Now she was potentially the reason everyone here would be killed. Pamela sat on her knees as she despaired.
“AHHHHHHH!!” Pamela screamed. She had a complete and utter mental breakdown. It was too much of a burden for her to carry. The ear-wrenching scream echoed through the fields. This woke up every sleeping creature in the forest as well as all the members of the expedition team who were still unconscious.
“Go.” Alroy then ordered the two who were with him on horseback to leave his side and start their plan. The two took off in separate directions, leaving Alroy alone.