Aside from the seven mercenaries who had left with the survivors to the village, there were sixteen left in the ruins of the hospital till the next day, including Sylvia and her friends. She had told me in passing that the total number gathered here had been around half of the entire group, which meant that they had close to fifty members in total. Quite a sizeable and strong group if everyone was on the level of the four who I had seen in combat.

The next day, they announced that we would be heading back to their camp, which was around four days away if we walked there. Apparently, Ginzari and the others had plans to camp near the hospital for a few days until the demon was unleashed, which is why they were already present there. But once the destruction started faster than anticipated, they had gotten themselves ready and rushed in to defeat it.

The stage directions for the day had just been to –

Go with the Mercenaries

I wondered why ‘mercenaries’ was capitalized like they were the only such group in the entire world. One question to Sylvia had already told me that they weren’t, and that they weren’t even the most well-known. There were seven or eight more groups that boasted much larger numbers and achievements. This one was well-regarded, but not as much as them. That suggested that there were people stronger than Ginzari in this world, but I guess that made sense.

Due to Sylvia’s insistence, the mercenaries decided that they wouldn’t walk to the camp. Instead, since the carts were left behind by the survivors, they decided to use those. With that speed, we would finish the journey in a little more than half the time.

Once we started, I mostly stayed by myself, because all of the other mercenaries wanted Sylvia to them her story directly, and nobody else was acquainted enough with me to talk. Kaisel came once or twice to ask how I was doing, and how I was feeling, but nothing more than that. Typhen came to give me food twice a day, with a smile on his face, but usually tried not to talk much. As for Hess and Ginzari, they hadn’t even officially told me their names.

The same stage directions had continued for the next day. Now that I wasn’t in a story, the fact that more than three billion people got directions every day did not seem that surprising. A lot of them were probably contextual ones like these. That made me think how many stories were probably going on in the world at any given moment. So, I randomly asked it to one of the mercenaries during the unmonitored time. He seemed a bit surprised to hear me talk, but gave an answer pretty quickly –

“More than a hundred million, I guess.”

Interesting information. After he told me that, though, the man turned away and continued talking to his actual friends.

So, as expected, when the trip ended and we finally got to the mercenary camp one evening, I was quite relieved to be there. I looked around for a second, but did not get to see much. Typhen pointed me to a tent and told me that I would be staying there for the night.

I thanked him and went in.

It was quite a simple place. A small makeshift bed, a table and a chair, and a weapons and armor rack. The tent also had flaps that could be folded over each other to close it during the night. I checked, and it was quite difficult to open casually. One would have to put in a fair bit of force, which would easily alert whoever was inside. Or, I was just too weak to open it properly in that state.

I was ready to go out and meet people, but I did not really feel like it. On top of that, I felt a bit tired. And so, I decided to sleep for the night.

Current Story – Jillesha

Character – Ryworn

Role – Major

Stage Directions (Day 1) –

Tell Ginzari about your problem

The story had changed. I didn’t know what that word meant, but I could probably ask someone during the unmonitored time later in the day. What concerned me more were the stage directions. I had no idea what problems it was talking about. Maybe the part about me not being able to feel anything for the people of this world, but why would I tell that to Ginzari, of all people? Did he have some way to fix it?

Well, if I met him today, then I would have to do it anyways. There was no point in thinking about the ‘why’ right now.

“Hey, you in there?” An unfamiliar male voice called out from outside the tent.

“Uh, yeah!” I shouted back, and opened the flaps.

A man who looked like in his late-thirties stepped in holding a plate. Without a word, he put it on the table, and sat down on the bed.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“Umm…everything’s fine.” I replied, slowly walking over to the chair and sitting down.

“That’s some meat from a frolabeast. It’s a good animal, nice taste. And then, cooked by yours truly. It’s incredible, if I do say so myself.” He said with a smile.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

“Right.” I pulled the plate towards myself and looked at it.

The meat had a greenish tint to it. The first thing that my brain registered it as was fungus, but it definitely wasn’t that. Unless they were trying to poison and kill me. Of course, they weren’t. I kept looking at it, though, without taking a bite. Just to let it settle in for a second.

“Go ahead, eat!” The man seemed restless.

“Yeah!” I almost shouted as I picked it up and took a quick bite.

At first, I tried to just chew on it as fast as possible, while ignoring the taste. But, once I realized that it was way too hard to be gobbled down very quickly, I was forced to taste it properly. To my surprise, it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t very good, but definitely not something that I would never eat again. It had a bitter aftertaste to it, which I did not like, but the original, first flavor it left in the mouth was very pleasing.

“It’s g-o-good.” I finished the sentence as I took my final bite.

The man laughed and stood up, “Glad you liked it. Oh, and I’m Prince, by the way.”

“My name’s Ryworn.” I returned the courtesy.

“Yeah, I know.” He smiled, “Kaisel told me to show you around the place, since I was free. Everyone else is way too busy, apparently.”

“Oh, you don’t have to, if you don’t feel like it. I don’t want to be too much trouble.” I almost choked on the next bite due to speaking too quickly.

He yawned, “Yeah, you wish. But I do what I’m told, no questions asked. Hey, a fighter’s a fighter, and a cook is a cook, you know?”

“So, you’re the cook?” I asked.

He shook his head, “I am a cook. One of them. There’s two others, but they rank above me in terms of talent.”

Quite a prince.

“Anyways, I was the one who wanted to join them, so I really brought this upon myself. Come on, finish that dish and we’ll go meet all the heavy hitters.” He ordered.

The heavy hitters, were Kaisel, Hess and Sylvia. Those were the three brand new faces that he introduced me to.

Kaisel and Sylvia were together, talking over a book, when they saw the both of us approaching. They waved their hands, and both me and Prince waved back. He seemed a bit confused to see me wave too, and then embarrassed when they told him that they already knew me. Even then, he introduced me to them as if completing a formality.

“This is Kaisel Galhorn. He is Head Mage of our band. That’s his student, Sylvia, who is basically the designated early mole-slash-spy of the band.” He explained.

For the last part, a corner of his sleeve was burnt. Kaisel immediately repaired it and apologized to Prince, who did not mind at all. He laughed it off and continued the trip.

To Hess.

She looked at me and gave a small nod before turning and continuing to stare at a sword.

“You’re going to tell me you know her too, aren’t you?” Prince whispered to me.

“Well, she was with Kaisel, Sylvia, Typhen and Ginzari when they came to the hospital, so yeah, I do know her. Well, we haven’t really met properly, or even talked. I guess this could count as an introduction.”

He sighed, “Thank you.”

He walked up to Hess, who smiled as she looked at him, “How are you?”

“Oh, I’m doing great.” He replied, “Kaisel told me to show the kid around. Ohhhh…he is the one who told me to show him around. Right. Anyways, this is Ryworn, some guy who’s trying to be a new member. And this right here is Hess. She’s a legend in these parts.”

“No, I’m not.” She replied.

She had jet-black hair which almost reached the end of her lower back. It was quite impressive, considering these people probably didn’t have many products to maintain hair. Maybe Kaisel used healing magic on it or something. Other than that, she certainly did not look as strong as she was. In fact, she could easily be passed off as some fairly good-looking girl of a random village.

“And Ryworn,” she looked at me and smiled, “It’s nice to meet you. Allow me to thank you from Syl’s side. She won’t do it herself, so I guess we have to.”

Nobody trusted her to thank people. Absolutely nobody. Sylvia had a very good reputation regarding those things.

“Yeah. I was just doing my part. Both metaphorically, and…” I stopped. Who knew what would happen if I continued. It sounded funny in my head, but I certainly did not process it before saying it out loud.

She snickered before keeping the sword in a nearby rack and turning to Prince, “It’s not worth introducing him to everyone yet. Let’s let him meet Ginzari first, and then we’ll see about that.”

She also did not have any trust in me, apparently.

Prince happily thanked her, and, “I’ll go and ask him if he is free. I had, like, kept aside two hours for this, so I have some free time.”

And so, he left us.

“I hope you don’t mind.” She said, “I mean, I’m not trying to say that you won’t pass or anything. It’s just…I don’t want to trouble Prince too much. Kaisel loves to fool around with him.”

“Oh.” I replied.

“Sit down.” She gestured towards a nearby chair. It was the same as the one I had in the tent. Looked like she had brought it outside.

I took a seat and she picked up another sword to look at.

“This is your tent?” I asked.

She shook her head as she kept looking at the sword, “Just one of our members. She wanted me to check her weapons. Apparently the frolabeast they hunted today left a dent on the one she was using. Except, she forgot which one it was, and now I need to check all of them.”

“That, uh…”

“Sounds like a very clever way of making me appraise all of her swords? I know.” She put that sword back, and picked up another one, “But it’s fine. She could have just asked me to do it directly. I wouldn’t mind. But people seem to have unnecessarily high opinions of me.”

That certainly did not sound nice. I imagined that the constant respect could also probably get annoying after a certain amount of time.

“I’ll make sure not to do that, then.” I joked.

She laughed, “You’ll be stabbed before the day’s over. I have many fanatics in this camp. But, thank you for considering it.”

I shot up from the chair and stood up straight. “You can have a seat.”

She pulled it towards her with her feet and sat down, “You’re fun.”

“Well, you seemed much more intimidating in the hospital grounds.” I explained her, “Definitely more than the other soldiers. They were also rarely talking to you for long, so I just assumed.”

“Hmm.” She threw the sword she was holding on the ground beside her, “Or maybe I am just being friendly to you because right now, you’re a guest, and not a mercenary like the others.”

“Right.” I stuttered a little, “Maybe.” A forced smile.

She looked at me with sharp eyes, “If you get in, don’t ever confuse free days like these with the ones in which we work. You’ll find that a lot of people change how they behave. Well, except Kaisel.”

I wasn’t smiling a lot right now. She was scary when she needed to be, quite a bit too. It would probably be wise to listen to her advice.

But then, she gave me a sudden smile, “Except this is definitely a free day, so sit down and rest.”

I accepted her offer and started to sit on the ground.

“You can get a chair from another tent. Just put it back afterwards. Most of them will be busy practicing for the next few hours.” She gave me permission.

I went to the one right next to the one we had been in, and took the chair from it. Then, I went and sat beside her.

Like that, she went on looking at different swords while asking me about my side of the hospital story. I gave her everything that I could without getting into trouble, and then answered any random questions she had about the place. She also indirectly conveyed that she was quite impressed by my writer theory, which I felt happy about. None of the four who had listened to it had said anything before this, so I had been a bit anxious. It felt better now.

Around fifteen minutes after that, Prince came running and pulled me up from the chair.

“Ginzari is free right now. He has a lot of work afterwards, so we need to move.”

It made me a bit disoriented for some time, which took away my opportunity to say bye to Hess. However, as I looked in the direction, she was waving at me. I managed to return a small one.

And then, I turned and took back control from Prince, before starting to follow him.

I pinched my arm to concentrate myself, and got ready to meet the leader.