Current Story – None

Character – Ryworn

Role – Major

Stage Directions –

Volunteer to join the Mercenaries

I had guessed as much.

The directions weren’t that surprising. What was interesting, was the fact that the stage directions had lost the day count. It probably meant that the days reset every time a new story was started. The first one had ended in five, that too because of Sylvia cutting it short with her plan. Otherwise, it would probably have gone on for quite some time after that.

Obviously, I did not want to join the mercenaries. I was no fighter, and even if they did teach me, I wasn’t sure that I was going to be that good in the end. Even decades from now, I most definitely did not imagine having the same amount of strength as their monstrous leader, who was currently talking to some people who had been pushed forward as the representatives of the hospital survivors.

Hess and Kaisel were distributing the morning food to them, while Sylvia was talking to Olbert. The entire time since everyone had woken up, Typhen hadn’t stopped staring at me at random times. He was still thinking of last night, I assumed. To make sure that he did not suddenly approach me and start talking about it, I headed to Sylvia and Olbert, who seemed happy enough to see me.

“Hey!” Sylvia greeted me with a smile, “I was just asking Olbert about his hand. Quite a tale, huh?”

He had probably masked it with some lie, but it was also obvious to Sylvia how it had actually happened.

“And after that, he was telling me about his plans from now on.” She continued, “Well…yeah. What about you?”

“Uh…I was thinking to volunteer and join you guys.” I tried to make the situation obvious.

“What?” Olbert shouted, “You cannot be serious?”

“Oh, I am. I was very…enlightened when I saw their leader fight. He is quite a force to be reckoned with. And such strength is necessary in this world.” I tried my best to speak while avoiding anything especially dangerous. We weren’t in a story anymore, so the chances of just dying were much higher.

“Ah, well, you’ll never be as strong as Ginzari.” She laughed, “But sure, I’ll go and talk to him about it. Maybe in the night.”

That would be the best time to talk about it, indeed. Hopefully they could help me get some job that did not include fighting a lot. I was fine just saving and helping people. I didn’t need to swing a sword. Also, the leader’s name was Ginzari. I needed to make sure I didn’t forget that.

“But, honestly.” Olbert said, “Why would you go and put your life in further danger like that?”

It took me a second to guess that there was a huge chance that those were his stage directions. To reject my idea of joining them. Hopefully it was that simple, and not something that forced him to try and stop me. Otherwise, it would end up being disastrous for both of us. But of course, the chances of that were very low. There was no build-up to it, after all.

“Weren’t you the one who wanted to save all those people? You inspired me to seek strength with your actions.” I tried to act as much as possible. It was a bit fun when it wasn’t trying to torture us, “I want to try and save people too. Help them. And maybe that’s how I will…pay for my mistakes. In fact, why don’t you join too? You also wanted to help people, right?”

“Yes, but,” He raised his cut arm, “Not at my own expense. I have a higher duty to my father and his non-violent ideals. For now, I will live in some quiet village and honor him by sharing his stories with the world! That will keep his memories alive.”

Olbert was clearly the smarter person here. I prayed for him to be happy and well in my mind. Not sure who those prayers went to, but I still hoped he would be alright wherever he went.

Sylvia was smiling at us. It made me remember what Typhen had told the doctor last night. When she was alone, that smile disappeared. It made sense. This time, her decision had caused nearly two hundred people to die. Yes, even more would have died if she didn’t summon the demon that early, but by doing that, she had taken the blame of their deaths in her own hands. This was that – the trolley problem. And based on what I had heard last night, this wasn’t the first time she had had to choose something like this. If it was two hundred yesterday, then how many in the entire time she had been working as a mercenary?

“So, you’re going to go with all the other survivors this afternoon?” Sylvia asked to confirm.

Olbert replied positively, continuing, “A lot of them were inviting me directly, since they still seem to want to thank me. Around eight different people have already invited me to have dinner with them when they all get to somewhere safe.”

“Well, that’s eight days’ worth of dinner you don’t need to worry about.” I laughed.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

For a little bit after that, we kept talking about the village that they were going to be left at by the mercenaries. After that, everyone was going to continue however they wished, or were ordered. Olbert seemed particularly keen on trying to find the place his father originally came from, and living there until he was ultimately forced to participate in some story. Right when he was telling that us, the representatives finished talking with Ginzari, and came back to the other survivors. Olbert went and joined them to see what had happened.

Sylvia watched him go, and then grabbed me by my shoulder and started pulling me away.

“You get over here.”

She took me all the way to Kaisel, who was finishing up on another survivor, and almost threw me in front of him.

“He’s a got a broken finger.” She explained.

“Ah!” Kaisel’s eyes turned to my hand, “I’d seen that. Almost forgot. Bring it a bit closer.”

I held it up and he took my hand. Then, he looked at the injury for some time, and activated his magic once more before starting to use it to heal me.

“So, you just use healing magic?” I asked.

Kaisel laughed, “Oh no! I am certainly better at healing than most, but I can also use fire magic. It’s just that I prefer not to fight or be too aggressive.”

Ah, so the option did indeed exist.

He continued, “I know you have a lot of questions. First of all, though, calm down. That’s what is most important. And then, ask.”

I didn’t know where to begin. The different types and their colors had intrigued me a fair bit. As long as I understood, white was when magic was used to summon weapons, red was fire and yellow was healing. Orange…I did not understand. So that’s what I asked him first.

“Wow!” He exclaimed, “I didn’t expect you to ask me about the nature of magic itself. I was thinking something more along the lines of ‘Why is healing magic so slow if you’re so good?’ or something. That’s what other people usually ask. And since the question is now in your brain, the answer is that using it too fast would kill you. As for your first one, I believe Sylvia can give us a lesson.”

I turned my face to her. She sighed and started, “Orange magic is the base form of it being harnessed. The element exists everywhere, and all we do is manipulate it. So, when all we’re doing is giving it shape without altering its properties, its orange and fluid. Happy, Kaisel? Full marks?”

“Definitely.” He smiled.

“Well, I’ll get to Typhen. He wanted to talk to me.”

“Definitely.” His tone suggested he knew she just wanted to get away.

And so, she left.

I looked down at my hand. Only the finger was covered in the yellow haze now, which was slowly swirling around it.

“You’re her teacher?” I asked.

“Hm?” He looked up, “Oh, yeah. It has been a long time now.”

I replied with a soft nodded.

He spoke up once more, though, “She told us everything that had happened, last night. So, even though she won’t say it to you directly, I’ll do it on her behalf. Thanks for helping her out with hastening the investigation. It’s because of all three of you that these few people are still alive.”

“Well, she was the one who actually did something. All me and Olbert did was give her two clues. She was smart and strong enough to bring us here.” I replied.

Kaisel laughed, “Yeah, sure. Once upon a time, that’s all she did too. We all need to start somewhere. Humbling yourself down about it does not benefit anyone. You helped save these people, and that’s all you need to know. Don’t think too much about individual specifics.”

“Sorry.” I noted that down in my mind.

The yellow glow faded. I looked down at my hand with delight. The finger was back to normal. It sure was handy to have a healer like this around, if you could fix such injuries without a problem. I thanked him and stood up.

He called out to the next person in line, and I left that area.

Later in the afternoon, the survivors prepared to leave the area with the other members of the mercenaries who had arrived a bit late.

All of them were going to walk, since there weren’t carts for everyone, and the one equivalent of horses this world did have (a four-legged, hairy creature with a slight hunchback), refused to let anyone sit on it. Thus, to keep equality among all, it was decided that the carts would be left to the other mercenaries to take back.

Their destination was a nearby village where one of the mercenaries grew up. It was also the hometown of two of the survivors, who were overjoyed to know that that’s where they would be going. That was the village with the most options to travel to other nearby places, so it was the best bet for everyone to be able to get to wherever they wanted.

Right as they were preparing everything to leave, Olbert came to me to say goodbye.

I hadn’t known him for that long, but he had been a great friend. He had introduced me to the concept of unmonitored time, and helped me understand how exactly I could let my intentions shine through while keeping the act up. I wished he would have joined the mercenaries too, just to keep us together, but that was way too selfish. He did not have one of his hands, and neither did he wish to fight anyone. This was the best option for him.

“Well, see you later, Ryworn.” Was all he managed to say.

I also replied with something similar. Because once more, I couldn’t get sad about it. The only emotion I had was one of understanding. Other than that, everything seemed fine. I knew I should say a bit more, thank him a lot, tell him I won’t forget him, or something similar. There was no telling if he would be alive by the time, I next saw him; if I ever saw him again. But I couldn’t conjure any of that up.

And so, just like that, he went away with the others. Without even a hug.

I felt horrible, but only in my thoughts.

In the evening, Sylvia took me to see Ginzari, who seemed busy with other work. So, he pointed us to Kaisel for the time being, who heard me out and accepted my idea to join them. Of course, there would be one or two tests before they could take me in their ranks, but other than that, they were more than happy to get new recruits whenever they could.

I also told him that I had something important to tell him, whenever he was free during the night. He might have understood what I meant, because he just told me that he would let me know, and left. Then, he went and talked to Ginzari to give him a gist of the situation.

Afterwards, as expected, Typhen came to see me.

“Why did you follow me last night?”

I decided to answer truthfully, “I just wanted to see what you were going to do to him.”

He slightly shook his head, but not at me. He was probably talking to himself right now. Then, he spoke, “Fair enough. Syl says you guys helped her quite a bit, so I guess you deserved to know that too, to a certain extent.”

“Yeah. Just…seeing her always be cheerful is a bit-” I wasn’t sure how I wanted to put it.

“I know.” He said, “But she doesn’t like to talk about it. Trust me, I’ve tried. All I want to say is that if you end up joining us, then don’t bring that stuff up around her. She’ll just get annoyed. That’s it. And, uh, hope you make it in.”

He shook my hand with a smile, and then left. Very to the point.

Then after that, nothing else happened. Until two o' clock in the night.

Ginzari was once more, busy with some important work. So, Kaisel, Hess, Typhen and Sylvia came to me during that time.

There, I told the four of them of the theory I had. The one I was supposed to tell with Olbert. He never did end up staying long enough.

But I told them myself, with all determination. About my theory regarding the writer.