CHAPTER E12: THE NEXT STEP

(EFFINSHIA'S POV)

Vidya's breakdown was more than I had expected. I should have seen it coming honestly. She looked fine and all but I have to remember that her brother only passed away a few weeks ago. It would make sense for her to go berserk like that knowing the true reason and the person responsible for Korva's death.

It's over now though. The man and the rest of the henchman had been taken away by the guards. This entire organization was over now. Their future, I'll let the authorities decide. That and fate. I’ve done enough damage.

I know that beating them up won't solve anything, but at the very least I got to know where the other statues were. I made a mental note in my mind to dispose of those statues when I have the time. The people around Luth E'll won't have to worry about this plague anymore.

At least I hope so.

The source, the people who made these statues are out there somewhere. I don't know who or what they are but at the very least I know that they are seeking funding. It's pretty telling when you have a bunch of powerful people sneaking around killing innocent children just for petty money.

Though, their purpose must have been much more than that. I refuse to believe anyone this good at hiding their tracks would only be seeking money. Else, why only aim at children? If one wants to maximize profits, then it would have been better to aim for the adults as well, especially the rich ones.

I took a sip from my drink as I saw the city's guards moving in an out of an alleyway. Across from me was Ride looking at the same thing. Both of us just sat down at the restaurant observing the aftermath of today's event.

It was just me and the Lucky Boy here. The others already went back to the inn, each one of them looking out for the fragile girl. As for why Lucky Boy is here with me and not them? No idea. But the boy looked like he wanted to say something to me. He was awfully quiet though, constantly touching his right arm.

“I… hope this is the end of illegal slave trading.” Ride said softly.

“Fat chance.” I shook my head.

“Huh?”

“There is a reason why they managed to thrive so well in the city in the first place. I’m sure there are a dozen other organizations that are just as bad. Sooner or later, another one will rise to take their place. Mark my words.”

“That’s… disappointing.” The boy hung his head.

“I know. It’s often how things work.”

Ride didn’t respond back, only looking at the group of people coming in and out of the alleyway.

“...”

“...”

"The guards are most likely going to lock the city down tonight. Nobody is getting or out of this city for a few days at least. I guess you guys get to enjoy life for a while huh?" I spoke to the boy, to keep the convo going.

"Yeah…" Ride just absentmindedly respond.

"... So are you guys going to collect the one platinum coin reward after this?"

Ride rubbed the cup in his hands, just staring at his drink. "I don't know. Kranis would like to claim it for sure, but Tyle and the others said that don't know what the other adventurers will think if they found out that we are involved in this."

"What about you?"

"Huh?"

"What about your opinions?"

"... I don't feel like getting interrogated by the guards if we come clean."

"Then don't. Tell them you found Vidya somewhere in the park like the first time you saw her. I'm sure she'll cooperate with you. A good girl she is." I told Ride. Drinking another sip from my cup.

"Well… That's one way to do it. Doesn't matter, we don't know where the requester is so we can't claim the rewards anyway," Ride talked about the requester before looking back the guards walking in and out of the alleyway.

"Oh… You don't have to worry about that. I've found the requester. Was quite an unexpected guy he is. I can tell she cares for Vidya a lot." I lied once again to Ride.

"Re-really? When? Where is she now?"

"When we split up in the building. Dunno, think she's going to the Adventurer's Guild or something right now."

"I see…"

Ride looked downhearted for some reason.

"What's wrong?"

“I think I owe you an apology Miss Effinshia” Ride stared at me. His chin high, neck exposed in a strong posture.

“Apologize? For what?”

If anything, I should be apologizing to you. For lying about the requester and leading you all like that.

“The truth is, I know about Korva…about his death.” Ride said as he broke eye contact with me.

…

“I’m guessing Vidya told you huh.”

“Yeah… She told us everything that she knew. She told us you were hurt and was using her as an excuse to enact your own revenge…”

Wow, talk about projecting herself onto me. She was the one telling me that we shouldn’t be going for revenge. Yet she followed along and even almost killed the man. Though I did force her to come with me I guess.

“ Wow…. Do I really look like that kind of person? Well, after that interrogation and all the things that happened, I can’t really say that I got a good defence.” I said, chuckling a little bit.

“That’s why I want to apologize. You were only doing what you think is right for her and yet. I….”

“It’s alright. To be completely fair, I wasn’t completely doing it without spite.”

"Even so I… don't think we deserve the reward. We did absolutely nothing. Throughout the entire request, I can't help but feel… feel…"

"Useless?" I finished his sentence.

Ride gave me a wide look before looking away. "Yeah… Useless."

"Yeah. People say that a lot when I'm around them."

"That's not! I didn't mean it like that!"

"It's alright. I understand where you are coming from." I waved his concern away.

"..." Ride gave a dissatisfied frown and looked towards his cup yet again. He seemed to like doing that when he's down.

"Though, you weren't exactly useless you know. You did the wonderful role of good cop!" I gave him a playful smile.

He didn't respond to the joke and continued looking down.

*sigh.

"Did you learn something out of all of this at least?" I asked him in a more serious tone.

"Learn something…?" Ride closed his eyes. He then kept quiet for a few seconds before opening his eyes again, ”I… like to think I learn something I guess.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“I see.” I flicked his forehead.

“Ouch.” Ride only rubbed his forehead and gave me a dissatisfied look.

“If you truly learn something from this, then you aren’t all useless. Don’t pay attention to what comes after. Focus on what you can do now, focus on what you can learn. Focus on learning from your mistakes and your experience.”

I gave Ride a heartfelt smile. “Focus on moving forward, one step at a time. Strength will come later.”

“I’ll… I’ll try my best.”

Then I guess that will have to suffice. Ride finally took a sip from his cup, finishing it in one big gulp. He then put the cup back onto the table before once again touching his right arm.

…

“Hey, kid. Can I ask you a serious question.”

“Um? Uh sure. Go ahead.”

I took a moment to pause. Looking at the streets of Luth E’ll. Carriages moving around and kids frolicking around. Their voices of laughter entered my ears as the act of the kids playing around in the shining yellow sunset gave the place a calm serenity.

“Are you afraid of me?” I said to Ride as I kept observing the children.

“...” Ride only gave me a complicated expression and kept quiet.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice all the times you unconsciously touched your right arm. During that time in the interrogation room and even that time in the hideout. I thought maybe you had an injury or something. But I think I understand now. Is losing an arm really that scary to you? Or is the thought that a monster who could easily kill you is right in front of you?”

Ride seemed perplexed at the question. His eyes darted around looking for an answer.

“... a little bit.” He replied before letting go of his right hand. He then put his right arm on top of the table for me to see. It was shaking slightly before becoming completely still as he took a deep breath, “I don’t think you are a monster Miss Effinshia. But… It’s just that… I can’t help but have these scary thoughts…”

“Not a monster huh... ” I muttered under my breath. I could feel my lips curved upwards as he said that. “You know. I knew a person like you once.”

“Hmm?”

“Yeap. A young boy with a grand dream. The boy had no money, no power, no fame and even had nowhere to go. You see… this kid has all sorts of paths laid out in front of him but he denied every single one of them. He didn’t want to be the same as the people who left him so he resorted to the scariest option. Picked up a knife from nowhere and went out to the fields by himself.”

“This…” he muttered.

I took the final sip from my drink before continuing the story. My head rested on the palm of my hand. “He was scared of course. His entire body quiver from the thought of having to fight with monsters, all alone without even the knowledge on how to do so. But he gathered his breath and moved on regardless. Despite being so afraid, his movements never stop, he kept moving forward, without anybody telling him to. Nothing but his sheer courage and will.”

I looked towards the boy, staring right into his eyes. “I see a lot of that boy in you, Rydealark. Being afraid is fine. I know you will find the courage to stand up and move forward.”

Ride eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped. A wide range of expression could be seen on his face. A little bit of shock, a little bit of astonishment and even a little bit of disbelief.

*Pak!

I flicked his forehead once again.

“Ouch!”

“I’ll see you around, kid,” I stood up from the chair.

“Wait! Where are you going?” He asked.

I waved at the kid with my back facing him.“There are a few more things I need to settle. Oh right! If the authorities ask, tell them you never met me. Keep my identity hidden will ya? I don’t want random guardsmen questioning me out of nowhere.”

“Oh...ohh okay.” He responded absentmindedly.

“Don’t get involved with them, Ride. The Oni. The Shrouded figure. The underground scene. These things are out of your league. Nothing much will change even if you chose to get involved.” I warned Ride before leaving the area. Not bothering to wait for his response.

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“You alright Vidya?” I entered the room to the Inn and saw Vidya just hugging her knees on the floor. Lanarya next to her sleeping. Her head rested upon Vidya's shoulders.

“Why aren’t you on the bed?” I asked vidya.

“...The bed’s hard. Like rocks.” She replied. Her eyes still looking to the ground.

I sat down right next to her. “I see.”

“...”

“...”

I didn’t say anything to her. Just sat there in silence and staring off into the walls. If it’s one thing I learned well in life was that there were no words needed during times like this. No need for fancy comforting or extravagant speech. Just silence and one's presence were all that one needs. The knowledge of knowing that someone is right there, by your side was more than enough.

“I’m sorry,” Vidya said to me.

Feels like a lot of people are saying that to me recently.

“Don’t be. I’m the one who should be saying that. You calmed down now?” I answered back before shooting her a question.

“Yeah, I’m alright now.”

“...”

“...”

“You should have at least broken his other arm.”

I gave her a snort “I did even better. I sent him to jail and freed all those slaves you wanted me to do the first day we met. How’s that? Aren’t I’m a great person,” I said nonchalantly.

Vidya only replied back with a small chuckle. Glad to see that she’s alright now.

“I’m going to find all those statues and break them. Those bastards put them all over the place.”

“...umm.”

“I’m not going to force you to follow me. But I might as well let you know.”

“...”

“You want a ride back to the farm?” I asked.

“Please no, I rather walk back.”

“Alright. If you say so.”

I took a look around the wide room. It looked gaudy and beautiful. Must have been quite the expensive room to rent. Other than that, it looked pretty empty. I then took a look at Lanarya who asleep. Her face has this tranquil smile as if nothing can go wrong.

“I don’t know what to do,” Vidya said to me out of a sudden.

“Go do what you want to do. That’s all I can say really.” I gave Vidya my heartfelt answer.

“I don’t know what I want to do though. As long as I can remember, I… was taking care of my family, taking care of the farm, taking care of Korva… those were the only thing in my mind. Now that he’s gone… I don’t know what I want to do now.”

“Hmmm. Didn’t you tell me you wanted to master space-time magic one day? Why not do that?”

“Space-time magic huh… yeah, I guess I could go back to my studies...”

“Or could it be that there is something more interesting to you right now?” I asked another question.

“More Interesting?” Vidya tilted her head.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed. You seemed to be having a lot of fun. Minus whatever happened earlier I guess. Maybe you should just do whatever it is that you are doing right now?”

Vidya gave me a deadpan stare, “You mean just staying in a big wide room doing nothing but just sit in a corner and only going out for the occasional meal? I’m being serious here Sis Effy.”

“I’m being serious too you know. Least you are staying in this room with a friend to talk with. Least you are eating with a bunch of people that you can get along with. Your brother would have definitely liked these bunch of jokers. A bunch of cool and funny adventurers.” I took a look at Sun Girl who was sleeping peacefully.

Vidya looked like she come to a realization, though she said nothing about it. Her eyes then locked onto mine before asking, “Is this goodbye Sis Effy?”

“... yeah.” I muttered. “There are things that I still need to do.”

Vidya did a slight pause before saying:- “I’ll miss you. You are like the big sister I never had.”

I stood up from the floor before heading towards the door. “This isn’t farewell you know? I’m sure we’ll meet again. See ya later Vomit Girl.”

I could hear Vidya faintly yelling out her name to me, but I’ve closed the door before she could finish what she was saying. The next thing I heard was the sound of Lanarya’s surprised voice coming through the door.

----------------------------------------

Back to a park that I had the honour of calling my base of operations. Back to a certain bench that I’ve spent several nights sitting down on. I crouched down and started digging the ground right underneath the bench before uncovering a certain tainted bauble. An Arachne Statue.

Tsk.

Another blunder... Have my skills gotten rusty? Or is it because I was too preoccupied with other things to notice that this statue was right under my nose this time? I would have never known about this statue if that Morello dude never told me about it. I would have just walked off not knowing any better.

*Smash!

Just like with the other statues, I dispelled the black shroud before smashing the statue into pieces. The remains were thrown into the fountain. I wished goodbye to this beautiful park before walking into the distance. Into the city, thinking of my next move. There wasn’t much to think though. My next step was obvious. Find the rest of the statues and break them. It’s finding the Oni and this ‘Unknown Masked Figure’ that’s hard.

I don't know what their aim is nor do I know where to even start finding them. Maybe I should be chasing after the purple skin in hopes of catching them in the act like what happened when I freed Vidya?

Hmm?

My movement stopped when I saw a weird carriage with a weird logo near the adventurer's guild. The logo looked like several different monsters stitched together to form an emblem. It has a spider, a wolf, a bat, a snake and a stick figure. Covered in what looked to be cute miniature black shrouds with wide puppy eyes. One red, one blue. It looked like a carriage for a circus.

I wouldn't have cared about the carriage if it wasn't for the drawing of the black shroud. I'm probably grasping at straws but anything related to black shrouds set off big alarm bells within me now.

It was then that I saw a person wearing thick clothing and a hood walking towards the carriage. Twin swords by the person's waist. Twin swords... The barkeep said something along those lines as well.

I immediately hid my presence and started to spy on them. The person, went over to check the horses before checking the wheels of the carriage. Once the person inspected everything, be went to the carriage handler and tells him something in silence. He then sat down at the seat before the carriage started moving away.

I was curious to say the least, so I followed the carriage. Followed it all the way to the north gate of Luth E'll. The guards stopped them, but soon let them go after checking their carriages. The city hasn’t entered complete lockdown yet, so there was still traffic of carriages going in and out of the city.

North…

Aside from the small towns and villages up north, there was one other place which is as big or bigger than Luth E'll.

Makaran. The capital city of Rydark.

Hmm. I was tempted to follow the carriage and maybe ambush them along the way but then I remembered that I still have to deal with the multitude of statues that are scattered around Luth E'll and the towns nearby.

There was also the matter with Vidya and the kids. Do I just leave them here like that? I said all those things to them, but I didn't think Vidya have recovered just yet. I would like to observe them during the next few days, until at least until the lockdown was over. To make sure they don't get into trouble with the authorities. I owe them that much.

As I was deliberating, the carriage went away from my sights and off into the horizon.

Arghh… I quickly tore apart a page from my notebook before running to the adventurers guild. Wearing a mask on the way. I need to confirm the Carriage's true destination first. Then I'll find and break all those statues. Then I'll confront them.

Taking out my Pen, I wrote a letter.