He had completely forgotten about it. Isn’t that kind of bad? He was just a freshly-minted eighteen-year-old. It was too early for him to get dementia.

The first day was okay. He could easily get out of being blamed by pointing at the guild. Emergency commissions were things that are hard to refuse. Plus, there were lives at stake at that time. But what about the second time? Should he just tell her outright that he left to run away from someone?

Why was he even troubling himself with coming up with a reason? Well, that was because the other party still looked quite nonplussed about it. Even after ten minutes had passed since then, there was still a scowl on her face. She radiated a “back the fuck off” attitude that made talking to her near impossible.

… Really? Soleil thought she was a “good fellow”? She must be out of her mind.

And Manna had been of no help at all. She had kept quiet ever since the girl woke up for some reason. Of course, he tried to talk to her, but without any response, the girl just looked at him like he was insane.

“Guess we’re stuck here for a while, boy. Do your best to look for an exit, yeah?”

“Great… Now she’s ordering me around. Aren’t I the party leader?”

It’s been a few minutes since they had been stuck in the cave. A recent tremor caused the ceiling to collapse around them. The boulders were far too large to move, and when he tried to blast them off, his first spell caused the passage to tremble again, which displaced even more rocks. While he could easily use Earth magic to create a tunnel, the sound of a raging underground river caused him to hesitate. If he used it in a bad location, then they risked getting flooded.

And besides, he had a better plan–one that may even save them the time it would take to look for Soleil through branching paths and dead ends. And to do that, he had to stand still and concentrate.

Fine magic control was far from easy.

“Boy. Are you ignoring me?”

A fist-sized rock hit him square on the head, breaking his concentration.

“You have some nerve for someone barely a tenth of my age. Have your parents never taught you to respect your elders?”

“What’s there to respect?” Matthias grumbled to himself.

The spell he was casting took time. The more complicated the effects were, the more commitment was needed in order to use it. Hero or not, that applied to everyone equally. He was already about to finish when she broke his concentration. And it wasn’t like she wasn’t aware of what he was doing. He was even chanting the spell loud enough for her to hear. But she obviously didn’t care.

“What a weak spellcasting ability. Of course, I expected as much from a little boy pretending to be a man.”

“... Why don’t you show me how it’s done, then?” he couldn’t help but retort in a subdued manner. But all he got as a response was a cold, mocking sneer.

“Oh, so you decided to talk back? Well, I don’t need to prove anything to you. Playing with magic does not suit brainless barbarians like you. You’ll do more good swinging your sword at that rock and praying to the deities that it works.”

What the hell was with her? Just because she wasn’t able to meet up for a couple of days, she decided to be a complete ass? If she was like that for every slight against her, then there was no way they could work together, much less be in the same group.

Though he had no choice at that time, he would definitely go to the guild and try to revoke her joining once everything was over. Wait, since they haven’t filled out any documentation, then doesn’t that mean she wasn’t an official member yet?

“You mean the guild’s party registration form? Sorry, boy, but it’s already been signed.”

“What?! By who?”

She threw a sheet of parchment over to his feet. It was quite crumpled, which meant that she didn’t value it at all. Upon looking at the writing, the first thing that Matthias noticed was that it was simply a copy made of a much rougher material. She must have expressly requested a duplicate of the form since the guild didn’t issue one normally. But, why? Was it to just rub it in his face once he brought it up?

And who signed it?

His eyes wandered downwards with anxiety. The first name he saw was the girl’s own.

Spear. That was her name. And her class was “Stargazer”.

… What the hell was that? He had never heard of such a thing before. What is it that she could do, exactly?

Well, that matter could be left aside for the moment. The important part was next. It was the name that had signed the document in his, the party leader’s place.

It was Soleil.

“Damn, that woman!”

Her sign even had a heart on the end as if it was supposed to serve as a ticket for her forgiveness.

“See? We’re a party now. Boy. I’m not pleased to make your acquaintance. But here we are.”

“Jesus…”

“Hmm? Who’s that?”

“Nevermind.”

The guild must have accepted the registration despite his absence. They even stamped the corner just to show that it was a legitimate document. Since that world did not have a photocopying machine, it was nearly impossible to duplicate the exquisite pattern that the guild used to stamp their documents with. But, why? Weren’t they supposed to refer to him as the representative of the party? Or was that not how it worked? It should, though. At the very least, they should have at least asked Manna as well to obtain a majority opinion, but considering that Manna wasn’t able to identify her at first glance, he doubted it.

Unless… it was like the first case, where the guild basically didn’t give them any other options?

If so, then that meant…

“What are you doing, standing there like a statue, boy? Don’t you have better things to do?”

As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. He wanted to get to where Soleil was as soon as he could. Because something bothered him. She had already been targeted by the town guard. What were the chances that there was another party at play? If he were to assume that the town guard was as incompetent as they thought they were, then they would not have the resources nor the capability to create such an uproar inside the town.

Even though Tolg had mentioned that the taint in the land had started to dissipate after the necromancer’s death, Matthias still felt bothered. He and Manna shared the same sentiments.

“An Echoes spell enhanced by Amplify Magic. Then, Detect Magic at the same time. All the while using magic to augment your brain.” As Matthias closed his eyes and continued his activity from earlier, Spear casually listed what he was doing with surprising precision. “Creative. Unorthodox. Inefficient. With the amount of undead inside this cave, you’ll only be confusing yourself even more.”

Matthias ignored her and continued casting. In order to determine where Soleil was, he intended to use a type of echolocation magic. Two or more magics cast at the same time with complementary effects were called a very unoriginal name “compound magic.” The possibilities that compound magic brought were immense, but there were hardly any people who could pull it off. As for him, he was able to cast three spells at the same time, sure, but having to maintain an augmented state on his brain didn’t help, but only added to the load. Humans were not supposed to know how to process information like that. It was like suddenly waking up with wings while in mid-air, plummeting to your death. There was a time limit for him to learn it.

And he did it. A hero’s learning ability was nothing to scoff at. Using the four effects combined, he was able to roughly shape the terrain beyond the stone blockade. The range wasn’t much, but his awareness was able to expand from the small world that his sight provided, to a world he couldn’t even imagine back then.

Then, he thought he found her–before another rock hit his head hard.

“What the hell?!”

He was finally unable to bear it. Matthias snapped back at Spear with a glare, which the latter shrugged off.

“You're in way over your head, boy,” she sneered. “Let me guess. Do you think you found our member in peril? At the right passage, past two forks ahead of us going to the left; right in the middle of a large chamber. Right?”

Matthias’ resentment dissipated somewhat as shock took over.

“How did you…?”

“If other people use Detect Magic on your Echoes, then they, too, can “listen in” on your search. Does it make sense? Little boy.”

He bit his lip. Though that was true, he was more vexed about how insistent she was in treating him like a kid. Sure, he might be younger than her by more than a century, but was she not aware that he was already an adult by human standards? And the way she kept pushing “incompetence” to his face had become unbearable. Yet, instead of taking at least a second to think about it, Spear scoffed almost immediately.

Her posture as she sat on top of a rock radiated arrogant pride. Her legs were crossed and she leaned lazily against a piece of debris, with her head propped up by the back of her hand. Even though she was sitting at a place lower than his eye level, her slightly upturned eyes only showed a condescending glint.

She was figuratively looking down on him while physically looking up.

“Anyway, you’re wrong. That’s just an undead. Confusing, hmm? For you, at least.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Boy. That’s my line. How can you be so sure that it’s your friend?”

It was simply a deduction based on the most possible circumstances. If someone had really been targeting her all along for something strange, then it was obvious that they would place her somewhere that could maintain it. The larger the area, the farther magic can circulate, thus allowing for grander rites.

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But that was it. Despite all of his efforts, he could only point out general locations where Soleil likely was. Then again, he couldn’t think of anything else. It wasn’t like she released some sort of signal. There was no GPS in that world, either, not that it would work so far underground.

“You’re not sure. You realize that. Fortunately, you kept quiet instead of making a fool out of yourself.” After saying that, her mocking frown turned into a satisfied smile. “But… fine. We should get moving, it’s true. Step aside, boy. I’ll look for her.”

With airy movements, she jumped down from the small rock she sat on and walked towards him. Her garments flowed gracefully behind her like it was as light as feathers. As she did, she held her left hand up. A flat, triangular plate floated from her back and stopped itself a few inches above her hand. It was a purple plate with glowing spots that reminded Matthias of tiles back in his old world. What was strange about it was that, while it was rotating at a steady speed above her hand, its color remained still, as if it was a mirror reflecting the stars in the sky.

She stopped in front of the rubble that blocked their path. Then, she raised her hands ahead of herself with her palms facing upward in a receiving pose. The plate continued to spin above her arms steadily.

“I’m curious,” she suddenly said with her eyes still closed. “Aren’t you the least bit curious about what a “Stargazer” does?”

“... Yeah, I am.” was his honest reply. He figured that it wasn’t like the ones in his old world; people who observed the stars through high-powered telescopes either for a living or as a hobby. In the first place, the only telescopes in that world were the handheld ones used for navigation. Everybody simply thought that the stars were the manifestations of the deities or great heroes.

“It looks like you have an idea, though. Interesting…”

Her voice trailed off. Matthias looked toward her and saw that the plate had stopped spinning. But its color had entirely disappeared. It looked pitch-black. Not even the light from the glowstone he lit at the corner of the chamber could be reflected off of it.

It was then that he noticed that she had her eyes opened and was staring at the ceiling. He followed her gaze and–was shocked.

The night sky was on the cave’s ceiling!

What was more, it didn’t look like a flat membrane with bright spots. It was a three-dimensional depiction of space, with glowing orbs of different colors suspended midair and moving slowly like stars.

It shocked Matthias to his core. How could she, who lived in a world with no knowledge of astronomy, recreate such a realistic depiction of outer space?

“You seem like you have something to say, boy. Out with it.”

“That… what is it?”

She grinned and explained proudly, “It’s a Light Augur. It translates the gods’ wills on each person, their “Fate”, and marks them on the Roads of Dust; the World of Man as you might call it. What you see there is simply a projection of the world if only Fates can be seen.” Then, she took a step backward and pointed toward two bright stars floating closely together. “These would be us two. Yours is the gray one, while mine is the red.”

Matthias looked at the orbs with brimming curiosity. To test it, he took a few steps backward, and sure enough, the orb that represented him moved away from the red one simultaneously.

“Meanwhile, your friend… must be this.”

Spear pointed towards another orb, one with a much darker monotone color than his. It was behaving ominously, flickering weakly like it was about to go out.

He also noticed that there were other orbs near her. Two of them. One glowed a sinister green, while the other a pallid color similar to the many much smaller ones that floated around seemingly at random.

“There are people with her.”

“Likely the masterminds of this event. The sickly colors say it all.”

“... What about the other lights? The smaller ones?”

She grunted in disdain and spat, “the undead. They’re all fated to die, but they do have remnants of their past selves inside. Such is why their lights are dim.”

According to the “Light Augur”, they were completely surrounded by undead. New ones would periodically appear from the bottom and work their way up before disappearing from view, likely towards the town above. Judging by their movements, none of them were aware of their presence at least.

“So, Soleil is around two kilometers away from us," he said after judging the distance from his earlier test. "How are we going to find them through the caves, though? This only gives us an idea of where they are, but not how to get there.”

“Don’t worry your little head, boy. I’ll take care of that, too.”

Spear reached out and grabbed Soleil’s orb. The moment her fist enclosed around it, the entire Light Augur disappeared, temporarily enveloping the chamber in complete darkness before their eyes adapted to the dim glowstone’s light again. With Soleil’s “fate” in her hands, Spear walked back to the floating prism and “dropped” the orb into it. For a second, Matthias thought he saw her hand sink into the flat surface. It rippled like water, visible despite the lack of sufficient illumination. Soon, it lit up and started rotating again. From its surface, Matthias could see a beam of light extend from the middle before ending at the edge. It was like a compass of sorts.

That was impressively handy.

Now all they needed to do was to remove the debris blocking his way somehow. Fortunately, he had already determined where the underground river was. It was just past the right wall if they were facing where the compass led them to. All he needed to do was tunnel through the left side using magic.

“This is what we “Stargazers” do. We keep track of and maintain people’s Fates. We serve as guides, healers, and caretakers. Put simply, in adventurer terms, we are a mix between priests and scouts.”

“I’ve never heard of such a class of people in the church.”

“That’s because I’m not affiliated with the church. Strictly speaking,” she laughingly said. “I worship the Local God of Travelers. To the church, I would be what you would call a “heretic”.”

Well, that was true. “Local Gods” are… technically not gods at all. They were former mortals who were worshiped due to their acts of heroism or charity. They were especially prevalent among villages and settlements far from the large cities and towns, where the nobility and the church had little influence. In the first place, it was debatable whether or not mortals could become gods. But they did have one very compelling argument; it was that their worshippers could also perform faith-based magic. And that could only mean that their god existed. And the church hated that. That was why they were branded as “heretics” and hunted down.

“Wait, so why are you here? Or rather, why tell me?”

To that question, Spear laughed once again.

“Because both you and your friend have a very interesting fate. So, I want to see it through. Especially you,” she said with sarcasm. “Are you trying to be a “hero”? Boy…”

“You don’t have the heart. You’re not fit to be the kind of “hero” you imagine them to be. It would do you better if you–”

Right as she was talking, Matthias felt a chill shoot up his spine. He was all too familiar with the feeling. It was the sensation of Manna’s anger reaching a certain point. The ferocity in her gaze would spill to the surrounding people, affecting them slightly even if they were not the target of her rage. Spear’s eyes widened in alarm and she dove onto the ground. An arrow, gleaming black and as long as a human body, passed through right where her head was with incredible speed. Instead of impaling her skull, it crushed and went deep into the rubble behind her with a loud crash.

Spear immediately retaliated. Without using a staff, she launched several arrows of light toward a corner of the chamber. But there was nobody there. She clicked her tongue in frustration. And right as she was recovering from that, Matthias saw Spear’s shadow quiver slightly. A black knife flew towards her neck. He almost shouted for them to stop until he saw Spear react just as quickly, launching the black tile behind her.

That was where they stopped. Manna’s form slowly emerged from the darkness. She had her dagger pressed against the back of Spear’s neck, while the black tile continued to rotate a few centimeters away from Manna’s own.

“...”

“...”

Though they had their weapons against each other’s necks, it was clear who won. All Manna had to do was push slightly and her knife would sever her spine. Spear, realizing that fact, raised her hands in surrender before retrieving the spinning tile.

“You win, girl. You win.”

“Apologize to him. Now.”

“I won’t. Even if you kill me. So, you can place that dagger down. It’s useless.”

Despite losing with a blade on her throat, Spear continued to be stubborn. But Manna was unperturbed. In fact, it seemed like her mind was on something else entirely. She didn’t even react when Spear turned around to face her, without distancing herself from the knife against her skin.

“How did you hide? I did not see your Fate earlier.”

“... Magic.”

“Oh? I wasn’t aware you could hide from a god, even if he was just a local one. Interesting. Or maybe it’s something else?”

Spear smiled and pushed herself closer to Manna. The blade sank slightly into her skin, spilling a stream of blood that crawled to her robes. Her pristine white collar, unsullied even by the dust and mud around them, was finally ruined. It must have stung, at least a bit. But Spear looked like she didn't even feel it. Her smile was still as condescending as earlier. The arrogance she exuded created pressure that even Manna couldn’t handle. That was the first time he saw Manna shrink from someone, even slightly.

“I'm curious, though. You haven't shown yourself to me since I woke up. Why now? Little girl… Perhaps… you were scared?"

"... You monster."

Spear laughed. She laughed hard, and without restraint. Her shrill voice echoed unabashedly against the walls of the cave. "Monster? You're calling me a monster? We're both monsters here, ye who can hide from a god."

Manna’s hand trembled. Her expression, already strained from the pressure, flinched visibly from Spear’s words. The sound of teeth grinding could be heard from where Matthias stood at a distance. He saw how Manna broke away from their eye contact first, and how Spear’s mood plummeted afterward. Soon, both the dagger and Manna's gaze were lowered.

“How disappointing.”

Despite the apparent threat to her life, Spear turned her back to Manna and headed towards the rubble. There, she resumed her earlier task of minding her crystal tablet. And all Manna could do was kneel where she was.

“... Are you all right?”

Matthias crouched beside her and held her shoulder. Though faint, he felt that her body was shaking from the ordeal. Even though she had won the physical exchange, Spear was able to dominate her with just words. But, what did all of it mean?

“Sorry… I’m sorry. I couldn’t get her to apologize.”

When she spoke, Matthias noticed that she was also exhausted. Her skin felt cold to the touch, and he felt her lungs heave in the air with difficulty.

But still, her words warmed his heart. And he soon forgot about his doubts.

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind.”

Regardless of what the old elf said, he was still committed to becoming a hero. He didn’t want to be an ingrate to the god who gave him a second life. But then, he also had the feeling that what Spear had said wasn’t without reason. For someone who had based her faith on the path that people traveled, Spear seemed like the kind of person that was invaluable to someone who didn’t want to lose his way.

“You should rest. We might be fighting something big later on. Okay?”

Manna nodded… but didn’t move. Her gaze was still rooted on the floor. Her disappointment with herself was clear from her body language. It made him smile. She always did her best for him, and more often than not she always got what she wanted. But very rarely they would meet someone who had a stronger personality than her. At least, that was what he thought.

So, he pulled her into an embrace and assured her that he was fine.

She buried her head into his chest and breathed in deeply.

It was then that he heard that strange creaking noise again. But before he could check, Manna was already gone.

“Thanks, dude.”

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

A short while later, Spear had finally managed to finish all of her preparations.

She was not only able to pinpoint where Soleil was, and which path they should take to reach her, but she also knew spells that allowed them to get past the pile of rubble blocking their way without disturbing the unstable cave walls around them. And it was by using strange magic that turned the stone and dirt into a permeable wall that they could pass through.

As someone whose main task was to “guide” people, she possessed the means to do so quickly and accurately. If only she wasn’t so hard to get along with, then she was the perfect addition to the team.

Matthias stood up and started walking to the “portal” that had “opened” on the face of the debris. But then, he stopped when he made eye contact with Spear.

Her earlier arrogance and mocking attitude had disappeared. In its stead, she wore a solemn expression that she directed towards him with sincerity.

“I meant what I said, boy. About trying to become a hero… But, it’s a fine dream. Trust me… I know.”

After leaving those words, she left the chamber first, her body disappearing through the rubble like it was an illusion.

And it was then that something caught Matthias’ eye. He had never noticed it before since she had never turned her back to him until that time. But even though he had been through a lot during the past couple of days, he remembered what he saw clearly.

There was a pattern sewn on Spear’s veil. It was a winged, four-armed angel in prayer above a six-pointed cross, with an image of a skewered human underneath it.

It was the exact same image that was engraved on the pin that Lod, the hooded man that he encountered at the bandit cave, had.

“We’re actually on your side.”

“We even prepared a gift for you.”