CHAPTER 14 - QUESTIONS

I instantly went into a fighting stance, gritting through the pain from the sudden movement, with my knife in hand and Lu in confusion as he stood back.

Facing the carcass, I pointed my knife towards the lifeless body.

I swear to God if this corpse is the one talking…

A melodic chuckle made me look around for the source of voice. I had thought it was Lu at first glance but it seemed that I was wrong. It was someone or something else.

‘Do not worry, that corpse won’t be reanimating.’ The voice assured me.

Still on guard, I managed to mutter a less than elegant response.

“Who are you? Are you the one that saved me? Or was it Lu?”

Of course, when I turned to Lu he instantly shook his head indicating that he wasn’t him. Soon after his response, I got mine.

‘Yes, to your second question. As for your first, you two will find out when you arrive at my dwelling.’

This voice seemed to be awfully sure that I would try and find it.

As if reading my thoughts, the voice continued, ‘I am the only one that will be able to get you home, Luke included, so I advise you to make haste.’

Jerking some sense into me, it seemed that my time here was little to none. That’s right! I had to get back home! Mother! Father! The Twin Horns! My baby sibling! Are they alright? Did they reach Xyrus safely?

If the voice could really take me back home, I had no choice but to find it. “Ahem, dear uhh… Mr. Voice. May I ask for directions to your location so that you may bless me with your presence?”

The voice let out another soft chuckle before replying with, “Don’t you think it’s a little rude to call a lady ‘Mister’? And yes, I’ll show you the way. Will you tag along, young one?’

Ahh… so it was a lady.

Wait, young one?

Lu, who had been staring at the horizon which was blocked with trees and other natural obstacles, turned to the top of the cliff–where I believe I had fallen from–and let out a long sigh.

“Yes, if you can take me home and away from here, then yes Ma’am.”

Immediately, my vision shifted into a bird’s-eye view. Zooming out, a location that was roughly around a day’s trip to the east came into sight and lighted up before my vision shifted back to normal. Lu too.

‘I recommend departing immediately. It will be a lot safer traveling during the day than when it gets dark.’ Gently chided the voice.

“”Yes Ma’am!”” Quickly we both said. I picked up my knapsack, Lu destroyed the bonfire, saying that it was better to erase any traces before another bad person came looking for me or the corpse behind me which I too agreed.

It became less painful with each step and, by mid-morning, I was only left with a few aches here and there. Whatever that lady did was some powerful magic. I’ve never heard or read of casting a spell with that much of a distance. Or maybe she left after casting the spell right before I landed? Well my questions here were answered when Lu told me that it wasn’t him, but there still could be a possibility that he had something to do with it, and there is the mana radiating from him too.

Hypothetically speaking, if Lu didn’t save me and I took his word for it. Then how could she have known that we were falling, and why did she only save me? The more I tried to solve the mystery, the more questions I seemed to end up with.

Hearing a faint gurgling sound, I headed towards the direction, spotting a narrow stream.

“Yes!” I exclaimed.

I was absolutely filthy. My face and neck still had the stench of stomach acid, while my clothes were torn and caked with grime. Almost sprinting, I cannonballed into the stream, vigorously scrubbing clean my face and body. Taking off my clothes and after briefly washing them, I laid them down on a nearby rock to dry. After finishing the refreshing bath, I walked towards my damp clothes when…

‘Kukuku… How pleasantly carefree.’

Reflexively, both my hands shot down to cover my precious area as I hunched my back, trying to make my body as small as possible. Luckily, Lu wasn’t near the stream, saying that he was hungry and went on a search for food.

How rude! My pride…

Grumbling, I almost wanted to argue that my body wasn’t developed, but I chose to ignore the Voice and put on my clothes.

‘Aww… don’t pout. I apologize,’ the Voice stifled a laugh.

Calm your mind, Arthur. A king must be calm…

After putting my clothes on, the perverted voice seemed to go silent. Not minding too much, I rummaged through my bag and dug out the last of my dried rations. Water wasn’t going to be the problem for a while since I had just refilled my water sack, but I would need food soon; Hopefully if Luke doesn’t find anything, maybe the voice would provide us with something.

As in queue, the boy with dark black hair walked to me with rations of unknown fruits and even a bunny. “Are these fruits even edible?” I asked, giving him a concerned look.

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

Luke looked at the rations of fruits–which looked to be juicy–and ate one without hesitation. I expected a reaction towards poison or some other allergies involved with the fruits but it was futile. Luke was fine even after eating two more.

“Happy?” Luke responded, giving me that “trust me now” look as he handed a handful of multi-colored fruits to me. Putting them into my pouch, I felt relieved that the food situation was already solved but I couldn’t get out of my mind how Lu had known these fruits were edible. It was eating at the back of my mind, since the time that I met him during dawn.

Looking around, I began wondering where I was. Since I fell off the mountain towards the east, I must be near the elves’ domain. I don’t think I’m in the Forest of Elshire because I’m not surrounded by fog. Was I in the Beast Glades? No. There would be some mana beast… I spotted a few bunnies and birds here and there, but I’ve yet to see anything else. Something even stranger that I noticed a bit before was the abundance of mana in this place. It was mostly due to the richness of the mana here that I was able to recover quickly. Although, it still doesn’t explain how I survived in the first place, I hoped that the source behind the voice would tell me.

We should hurry.

Aside from there being no official road, it turned out to be a peaceful, pretty uneventful trip, with minimal obstacles and terrains we had to go around. As I drew near the location the voice showed us earlier, the density in mana was getting richer and thicker. Ignoring the temptation of stopping and absorbing the surrounding mana, I ventured on. Training wasn’t important right now. I needed to get home.

Since everyone thought I was dead. I couldn’t help but to worry about Mother and Father. Not so much physically, but rather their mental health. I’m sure they wouldn’t forgive themselves for my death. The only thought that brought me some sort of peace and comfort was the fact that my mother was pregnant. Yes. For the sake of my unborn brother or sister, they both must stay strong.

Reaching the area where the Voice directed us towards, but I was unable to see anything besides a cluster of rocks surrounded by a cluster of trees.

‘I’m glad both of you were able to make it here safely,’ the Voice echoed confidently, ensuring that it had already known we would.

Luke didn’t say anything. At first I thought he was being rude but from what I’ve gathered he would seem to lack manners. Or at least I thought. I had to initiate it so that he could learn from me.

“Nice to meet you uhh… Ma’am? Miss. Rocks?”

‘I’m not a rock, nor a cluster of them. There’s a crevice between the back of the adjacent rocks. That’s where I’ll be,’ the Voice chuckled.

Looking around, Lu managed to spot the small gap, about the width of an adult, between two of the larger rocks leaning against each other. The slight breeze coming out of the crevice told me that we found what we were looking for. If it weren’t for the Voice directing us to this exact location, we would never have even noticed the small fissure.

‘Children. Go on and enter through the crevice, but strengthen yourselves with mana before you do.’

I can finally meet Mother and Father soon!

Without a second’s hesitation, I slipped in through the gap easily while willing the mana to strengthen my body.

I had expected a platform to step on but instead, I immediately plummeted down the dark hole.

“Art!”

The voice failed to warn me that I was going to be doing a vertical fall.

‘I guess that was why she mentioned using mana to us’ was the thought that ran through my mind as I descended, screaming at the top of my four-year-old lungs.

Rubbing my butt, groaning, I slowly supported myself up.

“We finally met, child.”

I felt the blood drain from my face as my mouth gape open and eyes bulge. Feeling lightheaded as my legs failed to support me, I crumbled back onto my aching butt, staring at the one who’s been helping us this whole time.

LUKE HODGES

Dammit!

I cursed, running towards the small hole Art fell from. His yell of fear stopped, by that time he was already face to face with ‘her’.

As I staggered to where Art was, I heard his voice saying, “W-What are you?”

When I finally got there, I froze in shock, but most of all, in fear of what was in front of me. A monster, for a lack of a better word, which easily towered over ten meters high, was seated crossed-legged, on a crudely carved throne of jagged stones with an arm lazily supporting its head. It had red eyes like me but they were petrifying as they gazed down, not on me, but on the other boy in front of her. She was in a tranquil quality of a mood, showing off her two massive horns which protruded out the sides of its head, arched down and around its skull, curving up to a point near the front. Her mouth had two fangs peeking out of her lips and while its body was adorned in a sleek black armor that had neither decorations nor embellishments, it still glowed with the quality of a priceless treasure.

Now I knew why Arthur felt this sort of way when he first met Sylvia. This wasn’t a normal meeting that you would see on a Tuesday afternoon, but a meeting that would change the fate of this world along with its people.

Wait wasn’t she–

Before I finished my thought of a reminder, I saw a gaping hole in the side of her chest, oozing out blood profusely.

Sylvia’s red eyes turned to me next when she noticed my presence. “We finally meet,” she repeated with a lazy half smile that revealed a row of pointed teeth.

I walked forward despite my own feet and body telling me to run the opposite way. I ignored its signs and continued until I had reached Art’s side. “Bugs will fly into your mouth if you keep it open that wide.”

A grin crept on my face, “Great sense of humor, but it was the wrong time.”

“Hmm, I see, but it was better than having you both stare at a young lady with terrified eyes.” Sylvia responded by touching her chin. “As for what I am, I won’t say anything more than what you can both see.” The horned humanoid monster eyes seemed to gaze straight through Arthur.

We stayed quiet, having nothing to say but only thinking, which wasn’t a good idea to say out loud if we approached it like a weapon. Potentially making Sylvia hurt with our words and not letting her make the portal for us to go home.

“It’s going to take some time, a while, for me to open a dimensional rift that will transport you to your house, so until then just be patient and wait here. There are special roots that grow here. You will be able to live off those when you run out of the fruits in your pouch until I finish,” she sighed.

Well, she was and still had a proper smile and a heavy weight in this world, this life. Sylvia was the very reason why Arthur was able to become strong in the first place, without the dragon princess’s ability that was passed on to him, he would’ve for sure died and lost more than he ever did in the war.

If anything, I should be grateful for her. Not only to her, but to the author of the novel as well for sure a great book that made me laugh, cry, angry, and many more other emotions that I never knew I had in me before this novel.

Arthur bowed at the giant monster, saying, “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me and what you will do next. If there is a way for me to help or repay you, I will do whatever is in my power.”

A great speech coming from a four-year-old child.

“Such good manners for a child. Do not worry; I am expecting neither a favor nor your gratitude. I am merely and simply doing this for my own amusement. Come! Both of you sit closer to me and keep me company. I haven’t talked to anyone in such a long time, I hope you two can have patience with me,” the blacked armor humanoid creature laughed, patting an area with her two arms next to the throne for us to sit on.