CHAPTER 5 - SO… I’M NOT QUITE AS OVERPOWERED AS I THOUGHT I WAS

I froze. May and Riyan, on the other hand, did not. The two sprung into action before I could even realise what was happening.

“Form shape, spear!” Riyan called, splaying his hand against the wooden dining table. It shifted and warped for a second, transforming into a crudely shaped stick with a pointed end.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked May, but she ignored me, and instead stuffed me into her dress pocket. Thankfully, she didn’t shove me in all the way, and a little tip of my body poked out, allowing me to see.

Riyan leapt forward into the smoke, spear in one hand and a blinding yellow light in the other. What was that? Magic?

I wasn’t sure. In my previous life, I’d distanced myself from the magical community and refused to have anything to do with it once I found out that I was one of the rare cases that didn’t have any magic power whatsoever. However, Riyan hadn’t striked me as a master sorcerer or wizard, and the yellow colour of the ball wasn’t anything I’d seen before, not to mention how he’d managed to mould a fucking dining table into a spear like it was dough.

Before I could ask May, a large object in the shape of a door flew toward me out of the darkness and I squealed a little. May was quick to react though, and ducked underneath it before lunging towards the back wall of the kitchen.

“I’m really not in the right outfit for this.” I heard her mutter as she snatched a pouch containing three, small, but you-can-see-your-reflection-in-the-blade sharp daggers. She patted me softly and whispered; “Strap yourself in, cause things are about to get crazy.”

‘Huh? What do you mea-’

Whoosh.

For a second, my vision turned hazy and the next thing I knew, I was in the smoke, a figure in front of me. Something blurred from the edge of my vision. It took me a moment to realize it was May’s arm swinging forward, dagger in hand.

The smoke cleared, and I got my first good glimpse of the figure. He was a boy, about half a head shorter than May. He had short, scruffy, dirty blonde hair accompanied by an excess of dirt and grease covering his face that completed the ragamuffin look. However, no matter his scrawny build and dishevelled clothing, his eyes shone with a determination of one that didn’t hesitate.

His arm also moved upwards, so fast that I could barely comprehend it. The two arms came to a jarring halt immediately in front of me, near May’s abdomen. The boy’s fingers circled confidently around her wrist, holding it still. May didn’t drop her dagger.

“You’ve gotten faster, May.” He said, the barest trace of a smile upon his lips. Mid-fight. Mid-fight! This was not the time for conversation!

Thankfully, May seemed to think so too and twisted her body fluidly, her second dagger ready to stab into his neck. “As have you.”

Oh, for goodness sake. ‘You too, May?’

The boy was ready for it, though and caught the attack millimetres away from impaling him. They both stood there, still for a few seconds before the boy broke the silence. “Well, it seems as if we’re in a bit of a standoff,” he said casually. “Just like old times, eh?”

I watched May grit her teeth and push the daggers closer. “I’m not going back, Jay.” With every word, her muscles tensed further, and Jay faltered a little under the pressure. “I’m done with your group. I don’t want to see any more people die. You saw what happened to Dahlia.”

Suddenly, she crouched and spun around, forcing Jay to release her if he didn’t want his wrist to be broken. The two jumped apart, giving themselves a few metres of space.

May held her fighting stance of the dual daggers close to her face. Jay sighed and withdrew two of his own from where they were hanging on his belt. “I can’t kill you. But if you refuse to cooperate, I’ll have to resort to some… unadvised means.”

Damn. This guy was badass for someone so young. For some reason, I was really starting to like him.

“So you’re going to take me seriously now, huh? I guess I should do the same.” May reached into her back pocket and took out the last dagger from the pouch, placing it in between her teeth.

“Hnrgh.” I heard her say. It was quite a challenge to understand someone with a dagger in their mouth.

This time, Jay attacked first, He dashed forward and went for May’s legs, forcing her to leap up to avoid it.

[Area Of Awareness has leveled up! 2/25]

‘Go away, A.S.S!’ This was an intense fight scene I really wanted to watch. I only wished I’d brought some snacks with me.

Jay grinned and as I was wondering why, I saw his right arm slice forward for a devastating stab to May’s leg. There was no way she could avoid it.

And yet, she still tried to by twisting her hip slightly in mid air, angling it down. The attempt was futile, because the dagger was still coming straight for her waist, directly from the left where her dress pocket was… where I lay.

Ah. Shit.

‘May, you traitorrrrrr-!’

Shink.

The blade entered my potatoey body from the side and penetrated straight through. I could feel the cold steel being pushed deeper within me. I groaned and looked down, where a trickle of blood stained my skin and leaked out of the dress pocket.

Slowly, I felt myself fading away.

My life in this body hadn’t been long, and I regretted not exploring my powers further. I just wished I had spent more time with my loved ones- wait. No I didn’t. I didn’t have loved ones. Who needed to love people when you had yourself?

But still, I regretted many things. As my eyes closed for the last time, I wondered whether I would get to live my next life. Would I finally meet God in person? Who knew? But what I did know was that I could feel my consciousness slowly slipping away.

‘Good luck,’ I thought, barely louder than a whisper, directed to no one in particular.

And I waited for that bright light to consume me and take me far away…

…

…

…

‘Bright light? Are you there?’

Something clinked in the background. Was that God?

I felt myself rustle around in the darkness. Wait. Darkness? Wasn’t I supposed to be bathing in bright light from the luminescence of the white glow of Lady Moon’s enthralling sexiness? Or something like that, anyways.

Heaven. That’s what I meant.

Oh? I wasn’t dead?

I looked down into the hole where I had been stabbed. It didn’t hurt. For some reason.

Perhaps…

Could it be?

As a potato god, I was invincible?

The thought was surprisingly nice. I felt unkillable. I was unkillable.

But I still couldn’t do anything about the fight raging between May and June.

Using a little bit of telekinesis, I pushed myself up, just enough to see out of the dress pocket. The two were still at it, trading blows with each other, but none ever landing. It was clear from my position that they were both equally skilled, and there wouldn’t be a clear victor.

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But even if they were at the same level of skill, that skill level was high. Crazy high. Their movements were incredibly precise and fast, moving almost too fast for my eyes to catch. I glanced downwards, at the place where I had seen the blood trickle just a minute ago. Now that I had a good look, I saw that the blood actually hadn’t come from me.

It trickled out of a little scratch the dagger had made on May’s thigh after it penetrated through my body. And then I realised. I had saved her. I had actually been useful! As a meat shield, yes, but still useful.

All of a sudden, the fighting noises stopped, and the only sounds were the two gasping for air.

“Come with us.” I heard Jay say in between pants. “He just wants to talk with you guys.”

“And how can I trust you?” May shot back. “He just wants us out on the field again, right?”

“What?” The atmosphere seemed to suddenly change. “Who said that?”

May raised an eyebrow. “Was that not implied?”

“No?” Jay said, like the suggestion insulted him. “We agreed, that day. When Dahlia died. You would no longer go back into the field. Why would you think we would go back on our word?”

She didn’t let down her guard. “I don’t know, maybe it was because you broke into our house and smashed down the door? What was I supposed to think?”

Jay sheathed his daggers and flicked his hand dismissively. “Oh come on, you know how Edith loves to make an entrance.”

May narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but then slowly dropped her fighting stance. “Then what does he want? If not for us to go back into action?”

“To talk.” Jay replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “There’s a new L’Der. We think we know who he is.”

“And what does that have to do with us?”

“Well, to put it bluntly, we think he’s your father.”

“Father, you say?” May asked incredulously. “He hasn’t shown his face in years!”

Jay sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Look. I don’t really know the exact details. You’ll find out everything when we get there.”

“Fine.” May agreed reluctantly, and looked around the room, seeming to notice the flipped chairs and broken cabinets for the first time. “By the way, where did Riyan and Edith go? I swear they were just here…”

A loud bellow outside answered her question.

“C’mon Riyan! I’m sure you can hit harder than that!”

The two dashed towards the entrance of the house- my first time seeing the outside world in this form, by the way. And what I saw was very, very confusing.

A burly, hairy man almost double Riyan’s size lay sprawled on the grass in their front yard, being beaten with a large stick by none other than Riyan himself. It took a few minutes for them to finally realise we were standing on the porch, watching them.

“Oh hey, May!” Edith called, trying to get to his feet. “How’re you guys going? I see Riyan is still holding strong.” Just as he said it, Riyan let out a blast of yellow energy from his left hand directly into poor Edith’s face.

I winced. That looked like it hurt.

Edith didn’t seem to react though, and simply wiped his face like one would do after a morning wash. “That was fun, Riyan! We should do that again some time!”

Riyan panted and pulled Edith to his feet. “Yeah. It’s been a while, Ed.” He turned towards May and Jay. “So I guess whatever the problem was, you guys sorted it out?”

May facepalmed and walked forwards to brush off some dirt and grass on Riyan’s back. “Seriously, men. Jay?”

“Yeah?” He replied, smiling a little.

“You see these guys over here? Don’t grow up to be like them. I’ve married a moron.” But she couldn’t keep a straight face, and ended up bursting out laughing and shaking her head.

Jay followed suit and, before I knew it, everyone was in hysterics.

Oh, my. What a strange, strange group of people.

Soon enough, the laughter died down and the conversation took a more serious tone. “So, where’s the meetup point?” May asked after Jay explained the situation to Riyan.

Jay opened his mouth, then closed it. “We... can’t tell you that. You’re not one of us anymore, remember?” He said apologetically.

May shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. We understand. Protocol and everything, right?”

“Yeah…” He held up a black cloth to her, which she voluntarily wrapped around her head, blocking her sight.

“Jay? Edith?”

“Yeah?” They responded unanimously.

May smiled. “It’s good to see you guys again. Really.”

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While the group of four idly chatted about all sorts of boring things, I lay, sulking, in May’s dress pocket. I was not happy. They were all so busy with their reunion, that they had forgotten all about me! Like, seriously? Their group of friends was more important than a former baron-turned-talking potato?

Since there was still some travelling to do to reach… whatever this place was that they were going to, I decided to do some sightseeing. If the place where we were now was really Agridia, I might as well rack up a list of complaints to tell the king about when I finally claimed godhood- or my old body back. You see, now that my uncle was in charge, everything would be his fault. Meaning, if he was doing a terrible job, I could possibly have a chance to become the Lord once more.

Using the little telekinesis I had control over, I pushed myself upwards, just enough to see out of May’s pocket.

The sight that greeted me was… unpleasant, to say the least.

We were in the outskirts of the city, a place where I hadn’t been often. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have even realised it was my land if May and Riyan hadn’t told me over dinner.

The streets were dirty, littered with all sorts of rubbish and… were those rats? Only one in a five shops were open, and those that weren’t seemed abandoned. The paths were all cracked and overgrown with all kinds of weeds, windows were either dusty or broken, and worst of all was, a stray dog curled up in a ball, tenderly licking an injured paw. Uncle must really have let the place fall to pieces in my absence. What happened to the beautiful territory of Agridia? This was… this was terrible.

Just as I was about to slink back into the warm depths of the dress pocket, the group’s pace suddenly slowed to a stop. There was something- or someone holding us up.

“Jay!” A high pitched voice called out.

I leaned out a little bit further and watched as a young girl wrapped her arms around his waist lovingly.

“Hey, Mina!” Jay said, tousling her hair lovingly.

“Mina?” May asked.

“Auntie May?” Mina peeked out to the side, and her face lit up. “Auntie May! Uncle Riyan!” The girl rushed to her side and hugged her like they hadn’t seen each other in years. Ah. Maybe a little too accurate, because that may as well have been the case.

Jay sighed and shrugged. “Guess you guys might as well take off the blindfolds now. I don’t even know the point of putting them on when you’re obviously going to know where we are, anyways..”

They did so gratefully, and although their tones seemed to be excited at Mina’s presence, their facial expressions fell when they opened their eyes.

“What… what is this?” Riyan asked accusingly as he touched the knobbly stone walls like they would disappear. “We can’t be far away from the farm. We didn’t have horses and only walked like, what, an hour or two? This is… Omani?”

Jay nodded seriously and gestured his head to a door on his right that was slightly ajar. “Let's go. Honestly, I don’t know what Kearan was thinking, meeting you guys here. This isn’t exactly… discreet, to say the least.”

Edith sighed, and spoke up for the first time. “The situation is serious. It was great to see you guys again, but it’s time to get down to business. Out there on the farm, secluded from the outside world, you wouldn’t have really known about the true matters regarding Agridia. You know the Barons- both the current and the previous, liked to hide the true problems their land faced. Ever since the rise of the L’Ders, the Lord has been blatantly ignoring the situation out here. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

May and Riyan nodded and entered the tavern, followed closely by Jay and Edith.

The room was dark, the only light filtering through the dusty, cracked skyroof. Broken tables and glass bottles sprawled across the edges of the room were evident of a bar fight. While I couldn’t smell, I expected the room to probably stink of alcohol. The only furniture intact were two wooden chairs in the centre. You could hardly call this a warm welcome.

May and Riyan took those seats, while Jay and Edith waited outside after closing the door.

What was this? Some kind of interrogation? It scared me. There was no one else in the room, unless the room was bigger than I thought. This area of awareness really was limited. However, both May and Riyan seemed exceptionally calm, like this was normal.

‘May?’ I mentally asked. It was my first time talking to her since she saved my life. ‘What’s going on-’

Before I could finish, she spoke, staring straight ahead.

“Hello, Kearan.”

‘Kearan?’ I thought. ‘Is she crazy? There’s no one here.’

“Hello, May.”

The voice came from directly in front of her, exactly where she had spoken before. The air seemed to shimmer and warp right in front of my eyes, revealing a lanky figure wearing all black.

He had red hair that covered his eyes and a hood that concealed most of his face. His clothes were dusty and old, like he’d never washed them before. There were bags under his golden eyes as dark as my surroundings.

How long had he been standing there? From the moment we came in? How did he do that?

These were all questions that I wanted answered. But the most pressing thought was;

‘This was Kearan?’ I had imagined a king, a royal. Someone who wore in-fashion clothes with servants dancing around him. Not some homeless man.

Slowly, I watched as Kearan pulled off his hoodie and looked up at us.

The light caught his face and the shadows disappeared as I saw him for the first time. A small button nose, pale lips and eyes just barely bigger than slits, the thought came to me. He was barely older than a child.

“It’s been a long time, sis.”