To think the very same Fanael, who was a mess of snot and tears as she had to leave Subtherma, was now shamelessly pointing at me and laughing!

  I was distraught! And she was making fun of me!

  Oh, how I wished my silence curse were less morbid…! I would have totally used it on her! After I grew more proficient with magic using my new arm, I was able to learn a bunch of simple, but convenient spells and even curses.

  I experimented by pairing multiple different words from the ones I knew, creating a number of creative and interesting spells.

  While I couldn’t just drop a meteor on someone’s head, I was capable of doing stuff like forcibly silence people!

  … Unfortunately, said spell caused a thread of black magic to literally sew a person’s mouth shut.

  How did I know this is what it did? I really don’t want to write about it. It’s better if I just forget about it, so please just let it be.

  As annoying as Fanael was being, she didn’t deserve that kind of suffering.

  Maybe this was just her way of dealing with her already growing homesickness. Amelia was still sulking at me a bit over the previous escapade, but her loving mom-side was already showing, which filled my head with a dizzying sense of ease.

  I was afraid I really hurt her feelings, but even if I felt ashamed, I still was glad I decided to talk about it. Otherwise, I would have never understood how much she cared for me.

  Amelia was like an endless well of immensely warm love, and I was a leech thriving inside the well, sucking on her delicious warmth!

  Or…at least that’s what I felt like after admitting how obsessed I was with her…

  I felt kind of slimy and…parasitic. I decided to put in effort to assist Amelia more without putting myself in danger in the process. Dealing with people definitely was a science I wasn’t good at… I cursed my lack of social experiences from the past.

  At the moment, I had an epiphany of sorts.

  I never really had a normal conversation with my friends. We had several serious talks about life and our feelings, but somehow, I don’t think I’ve ever asked what kind of stuff Amelia and Fanael enjoyed outside of work and such. This might have also been an attempt to distract Fanael from laughing at me even more than she already was, to be fair.

  “Uh… This might be a bit out of the blue, but can I ask something?” Fanael slowly stopped giggling. I took Amelia’s sassy silence as a yes as well.

  “What’s up?” Fanael was still chuckling a bit.

  “I’m just kind of curious.” I started, and knowing the kind of conversations we usually had, I wasn’t surprised to find both Fanael and Amelia tensing up a bit.

  “Yeah?” Fanael finally calmed down and seemed a bit more curious about what I had in mind.

  “Do you two have hobbies? I loved reading novels in my past life!” I blurted out.

  The two were left staring at me, completely dumbfounded. I guess the question really was unusual for us… but can you really blame me? I didn’t know anything about the private lives of these two, and I REALLY wanted to steer the conversation away from my clumsiness just a moment ago.

  “Ah, uh… I enjoy knitting.” Amelia started the conversation awkwardly, blushing a bit. This caused Fanael and I to turn our heads at her in perfect unison. We both stared at her like surprised owls.

  “KNITTING?!” Fanael repeated, wiping her eyes.

  “Y-yes… I used to make a bunch of little clothes for Amy.” The air of sass was just about gone by now.

  “THAT’S SO MOM-LIKE!!!” I declared and slapped my thigh. Luckily, even the choralium thigh gave quite a nice slapping noise.

  “M-mom…like?” Amelia repeated, seemingly a bit stunned by my wording.

  “Yeah! Somehow, when I try to think of what would be things that moms would do, knitting is definitely up there!” I beamed; content over having found out such an adorable detail about Amelia.

  “Archaic!” Fanael declared boastfully. “Moms in Subtherma mine rocks!”

  “WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE YOU WOULDN’T DO ANYTHING WITH WOOLY SOCKS UNDERGROUND ANYWAY!” I interjected while laughing.

  “SHHH! NONSENSE!” Fanael laughed. “I got a wooly hat from my mom when I was around twenty!” She giggled innocently.

  … Silence fell into the train car.

  “What?” Fanael suddenly began looking at us, seemingly confused.

  “F-Fanael…!” I crossed my arms and leaned back. “Mind if I ask you… How…old are you?”

  Amelia seemed just as curious as I was about the subject. Something about the wording of choice Fanael used caused me to think almost like she considered herself a baby at the age of twenty.

  “Two hundred and seventeen… Why?” She tilted her head completely nonchalantly.

  Silence, again. I do think it wasn’t particularly rare for fantasy settings to have elves live for a long time, but dwarves? I mean, she was a Mhiir’im, so I don’t think it was necessarily accurate to call her a dwarf…! But still…

  “How old are you two then?” Fanael dropped the heavily weaponized question. I really hoped this wouldn’t lead into future awkwardness among our group.

  “Thirty-two…” Amelia answered first, which didn’t seem to surprise Fanael a whole lot.

  “Uh… Well, since I got reincarnated, I’d say I’m a bit past my mid-twenties.” I added, and just in case you’re wondering, I did explain to Fanael about my reincarnation back in Subtherma before we left. I didn’t go into much detail about my past, however.

  “So, you two dimwits are thinking you’ll have to start treating me like a grandma now, that it’s come to light that I’m older than you?” Fanael read my thoughts.

  “Mmmmghhh….” I squirmed in my seat a bit, not really wanting to answer. She was far too cute to be considered elderly… even though some grandmas can be cute too.

  “I feel you two should understand something about the growth of us Mhiir’im!” She bounced on her feet on the seat. “Although I am a bit over two hundred, in terms of my body development, I’m around your age.” She pointed at me. “Us Mhiir’im grow and mature considerably slower than humans due to how much more mana flows through us.” She explained alongside some energetic hand gestures.

  As soon as mana was mentioned, my curiosity was maxed out.  “D-does the magical aptitude of creatures affect their growth?”

  “Yeah! Something like that. Essentially, the body grows used to the mana flow very slowly. This is why Forestwalkers and Earthwalkers both develop physically in a considerably slower rate than Plainswalkers.” The princess explained.

  “So…despite you having lived for much longer than us, your body is technically at a state similar to an around twenty-year old human? Does this also apply to your mental development?” Amelia piped up, seemingly curious too.

  “Pretty much! Think of us like humans, but with very extended periods of time reserved for everything. We have a long childhood and an even longer adulthood!” She spread her arms to emphasize her words.

  “Interesting!” Amelia crossed her arms and leaned back on her seat.

  “So, please consider me about the same age as Yverna!” She declared while pointing at me.

  “Very well! I do understand why your kingdom is so scientifically advanced now, however.” Amelia looked around the train car. “Even if you don’t develop mentally as fast, at least human children absorb knowledge like sponges, so I assume you must have studied a considerable lot longer than the average human child.”

  “The Mhiir’im value knowledge above all else.” Fanael smiled proudly. “So, you’d be correct there!”

  At the same time, the door opened and a Mhiir’im girl pushed in a trolley with some food.

  “Good day! I bring some refreshments!” She beamed, leaving the trolley with us with a polite bow.

  I grabbed some croissant-like things and a couple of sandwiches for Fanael and I. Amelia came over to sit next to us while we ate. She didn’t seem to be sulking at me anymore.

  “Do either of you know how long witches generally live?” I asked the two, to which they both exchanged a glance, and then shrugged while munching on food.

  “Hm…!” I nodded, not too bothered by it in all honesty. I had delightful sandwiches to worry about anyway.

  “Fwo! Hobbief wight?!” Fanael spoke with her mouth full, activating Amelia’s mom-mode, causing her to instantly start wiping Fanael’s mouth and scolding her about table manners.

  “Feel free to swallow before you speak.” She mothered.

  “Hmph…” The princess did as told, swallowing with a loud gulp. “I enjoy swimming!” This caught me surprised, even though we saw the river near Subtherma. Somehow, I didn’t imagine someone to be really into swimming…underground. But then again, I think back in my previous life I read online about people diving in caverns deep underground.

  “Ohooo!” I clapped my hands curiously. “I’ve never swum in my life!” I commented. “I’d love to try!” Fanael seemed confused. It seemed like it was time to discuss my whole…reincarnation business.

  “Why…?” She asked so immensely innocently I couldn’t possibly lie to her.

  I exchanged a small glance with Amelia, who nodded in approval. I spent a small moment to explain to Fanael about my life, the hospital and some limitations the state of my body back in the day put on me.

  Fanael seemed quite distraught about the information I gave her. Maybe the concept of a mortal disease like that wasn’t an easy-to-understand concept in a world where magic could solve a majority of one’s problems.

  “B-BUT IT’S OKAY!!” I interjected my own story-time. “I can just swim in this world! It’s totally fine! I’ll make up for the life I missed out on in here!” I grinned awkwardly, as it was always a bit of a bummer to talk about my past. “That is, as long as choralium floats!” I laughed.

  “It doesn’t.” Fanael replied bluntly.

  “GAH!”

  “But you should be able to enchant yourself to be light enough to swim.” She added after my initial shock.

  “REALLY!? How can you tell?!” I suddenly lit up like a light bulb.

  “Well, aren’t you specializing in blue magic? Wouldn’t weight manipulation be among the easier spells?” Fanael sounded confused, as if she wasn’t sure why I was so excited.

  “W-what is blue magic?” I looked at Fanael, who looked like she had been hit in the face with a frying pan. I then looked at Amelia for help. She just shrugged. She clearly had no clue what blue magic was either.

  Fanael looked…maybe ashamed? It was a really weird expression. She stood up in total silence and rang a bell of some kind, calling a servant in.

  “Purchase me a copy of ‘The Nature of Mana’, and make sure it’s ready by the time we arrive at the station…” Fanael grumbled almost angrily, which seemed to scare the poor servant a bit.

  “Y-yes your Highness!” The little servant bowed at Fanael.

  “I can’t believe our kingdom got saved by such inept idiots…” She sighed deep before turning to face us again.

  “W-what?! What is blue magic?! Wait?! WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?!” I looked at everyone desperately, only for the little servant to escape the situation.

  “I recommend keeping your dumb mouth shut about magic until we get to the station… I bought you a book, that you WILL read, OKAY?!” Fanael pointed at me in a VERY accusatory manner.

  “U-uh…” I looked at Amelia for help. She simply shook her head, confused. “S-sure!” I nodded and sat down. I was confused, but also excited over the prospect of getting to read a new book on magic.

  “You know! This isn’t just for our sake! This is also for YOUR sake! You should at least comprehend the very basics of magic!”

  “B-but there were no books on it in Subtherma…” I whined.

  “YES, THERE WERE!” Fanael declared loudly.

  “IN WHAT SECTION OF THE LIBRARY?!” I desperately tried to defend myself! That library had been my home for a short while now! There was no way I didn’t see these books! I checked through the magic and science sections almost religiously every day.

  “THE CHILDREN’S BOOKS.” Fanael dropped the bomb of truth upon me. As the merciless fires of said explosive burned inside my head, I could feel my cheeks grow red.

  “W-wha…?” I whimpered. “C-children study magic?”

  “OF COURSE, THEY DO! What did you think?! Magic is somehow reserved only for the adults!? Age does make your mana conductivity better, but that doesn’t mean kids can’t cast simple spells!” The princess roared at me.

  I rapidly pulled my big hat over my face to hide myself. This was truly what being a witch with a big hat was all about. It provided the magical ability to shield one from socially awkward situations!

  Speaking of, do you remember that time back a long while ago when I mentioned my ideal image of a witch?

  Being clad in a dark dress that extends to the ground and the BIG HAT?

  When Amelia received her armor as a thank you, I was given an outfit as close to my dream clothes as I could possibly imagine, along the choralium prothesis.

  I was menacing! But in an elegant and sexy way! If I say so myself!

  So, in my current state, I was doing my best to be ELEGANT AND SEXY in the most tiny and unnoticeable manner, trying to hide behind my huge hat as Fanael rained a merciless swarm of insults upon me.

  “ANYWAY!” I hear witches can cast storage magic!” Fanael suddenly added. “It’d be really useful to help us carry around some luggage even when adventuring! SO, YOU BETTER GET TO LEARNING!”

  “Is it like…putting things in a subspace of some kind for storage?” I whimpered quietly from underneath my hat. Mind you, very elegantly.

  “Pretty much!” She confirmed, but then something about her words piqued my curiosity a bit.

  “Why only witches?” I asked softly, hoping it wasn’t another way to expose my ignorance of how the world worked.

  “Storage magic requires a mixture of both blue and black magic, and you should be proficient at them.” She explained carefreely.

  “B-blu…bla…?” I mumbled awkwardly, but really curiously. “Y-you know so much about magic! Why don’t you talk about it more with me?!” I whined.

  “I DON’T ASSOCIATE WITH NERDS!”

  I felt my body flying. This was definitely a critical hit. A nerd?! ME!? The elegant and sexy witch?! I slammed onto the floor with the shock of realization.

  “A-Amelia…!” I weakly reached for her from the floor. “I-I’m not…a nerd…right?!”

  Amelia simply looked away in silence. It was such a stereotypical way of silently agreeing with Fanael that my heart hurt. Even if I lacked one! What a merciless bunch! THEY THOUGHT I WAS A NERD?!

  … But storage magic though!! I could not help but wonder what kind of words would have to be combined to create magic like that. I absolutely needed to find out more magic sigils, and now I was sure there had to be more than just the ones I knew.

  I sat there on the floor, pondering to myself intensely.

  “I’ll…need to look into this at night…” I mumbled, deep in contemplation.

  “Now you’ve lit a fire in her eyes…” Amelia sighed. “Please try to rest some at night. I know you can’t sleep, but still.” She mothered me this time.

  “I’ll…do my best!” I smiled awkwardly at Amelia, but it probably wasn’t all that convincing.

  “She’s lying.” Fanael jabbed at me.

  “I know…” Amelia shook her head in disappointment.

  A good few hours were spent with me trying to come up with various excuses for why my magic studying was a very relaxing process, AND first and foremost, elegant and sexy.

  Not nerdy.

  Amelia and Fanael somehow didn’t seem to be buying it, no matter how hard I tried…

  As I was in the middle of explaining the elegance of my ideal image of witches, suddenly the train car was filled with what felt like absolutely blinding light.

  All three of us screamed in surprise and recoiled at the sight, until we finally realized the train had at long last reached the surface.

  The sun was setting, basking the vast fields the train had entered from inside a cave in a golden hue. Amelia was all smiles while looking out. It was clear enough she was the most excited one of us to see the light of day once more.

  I honestly preferred this over being enveloped in the blanket of black smoke as well. It was a slightly bittersweet sight. While beautiful in its own, it also symbolized the fact that we were no longer within the safety of the underground.

  Vast yet fearsome. There was still a lot to see in this world, and as much as I hated all the awful garbage we had to go through, the beauty of the sight before us did fill me with a slight hint of hopefulness for our next adventure.

  The ride on the surface didn’t last long, and we arrived in a little town where Fanael guided us to exit the train. The moment we stepped out, she pulled out a fancy red parasol to compliment her now crimson dress. She looked almost like a Gothic Lolita doll, who was very ready for violence. Amelia stretched out her arms the moment we were outdoors, taking a few quick steps around. I was simply glad I had my big witch hat to protect myself from too much light.

  While I did think the scenery was absolutely stunning, I was still a bit sensitive to the light due to having dwelled in the darkness for so long.

  A group of Fanael’s people greeted us with a polite bow.

  “Your Highness! We have prepared some supplies for your journey! Please accept them!” The group spoke in perfect unison. They had a big backpack that Amelia picked up before Fanael got to say much.

  “Mmmh… I told you to stop calling me that…” The princess sighed, smiling a bit still. “I appreciate your contributions…”

  “Please keep our beloved princess safe!” The group suddenly bowed to Amelia and me.

  “I’m sure it’s nerve wracking to leave your royalty in the hands of somewhat unknown people, but please rest easy. We have been through a lot! Having Fanael along is incredibly reassuring to us as well. We’ll definitely bring her back safe.” Amelia’s gentle smile seemed to ease the worries of the Mhiir’im group a bit.

  And with that, we were off.

  We had a bit of a journey ahead of us. The number one priority, was to find out more about these mysterious golden-haired people. Rushing straight to Rachasia to wage war would certainly be nothing short of suicide, so gathering information needed to come first. We seemed to have to walk to our next destination, which I honestly wasn’t against, considering the warm weather and the fact that we had been holed up underground for so long.

  Walking outdoors was a luxury I didn’t get to enjoy much in the past, so I gladly made the best of it here.

  “I suggest we find our way to the outskirts of Rachasia and plan out a method to infiltrate the kingdom for the purposes of information gathering” Amelia spoke while carrying that insanely giant backpack. I felt a bit more motivated to learn about storage magic at the sight of it wobbling from side to another.

  “Sounds like a plan.” I nodded as I walked along.

  Fanael was browsing what looked to be a map. I think she might have pulled it from Amelia’s gigantic backpack. “The Hunters’ Outpost should have Runner Cyclopes reserved for us to speed our journey up a bit.”

  “Runner whatnow?” I repeated her words.

  Amelia and Fanael exchanged a somewhat amused glance. They clearly reveled in the fact that I had no idea about this world. How petty!

  “You’ll see! I think it’d be more entertaining to see a genuine reaction to seeing one for the first time.” Amelia had a mischievous grin to herself. But WHY?! What were they hiding from me!? What in the world were Runner Cyclopes?!

  “Maaan…! You two keep hiding all the cool fantasy stuff from me! First, it was magic! Now it’s this!! What next?! DRAGONS?!” I groaned.

  …Mm…? I couldn’t help but notice a clear change in the air. Both Fanael and Amelia stared at me as if I had suddenly turned into a ghost.

  “Y-you know…!” I awkwardly tried to break the silence. “T-the uh…flying lizards that breathe fire and hoard gold…!” I laughed shakily.

  “R-right! THOSE!” Amelia was making a strange face. I don’t know what exactly it was, but I think she was lying about knowing of dragons, or maybe concealing something about it.

  “…” Fanael just stayed dead silent and marched on a bit faster than before.

  What was this all about…?! What did I say?! I had no idea. As I was about to ask in my usual blunt manner, Fanael suddenly pushed a rather thin book into my arms.

  “Study.” She was a bit unusually curt.

  In my hands, I found the book Fanael had somehow ordered for me. How did she order it from the train? Was there some kind of magical internet you could shop from in this world?

  ‘The Nature of Mana’ was written on the cover in big letters. The book had really thick pages, and it was clearly meant for tiny children.

  … But the illustrations were cute, so I guess it was worth a read.

  “THE NATURE OF MAGIC!” I began reading aloud in the most annoying voice I could muster.

  “Ugh…” Fanael groaned and picked up the pace, so I began intentionally running after her.

  “MAGIC IS DIVIDED INTO FIVE VERY SPECIAL COLORS!” I turned to Amelia with a creaky neck, most likely making a very creepy face in the process. “DO YOU KNOW WHAT THOSE COLORS ARE?”

  “U-um…” She looked away. “B-blue?” She asked awkwardly. “OH! Black as well!” She nodded to herself, almost a bit too proudly.

  “VERY GOOD! THREE MORE!” I kept on pestering the poor knight. This was my revenge for making fun of me over the running cycles or whatever.

  “Mmmgh…” Amelia seemed to rack her brain a bit. “O-OH! Fanael’s magic would be white! The healing type!” I was honestly a bit impressed Amelia had paid this much attention to magic.

  “AND TWO MORE?” I still didn’t have any plans of letting her off the hook easy.

  “MMMGHHHHH!” Amelia kept on pondering really hard. “W-well, if there is blue, surely there is red as well!” It was a lucky guess, but she was correct.

  “… Ahem.” I coughed a bit. I did not expect her to do so well. “And the last one?” I asked now, almost curious if she’d get it right.

  “Y-YELLOW!” She jumped a bit in her brave declaration.

  I’m sure at this moment my smile went wide enough to reach from ear to another. “WRONG! It’s green! Oh, little Amelia! You haven’t been studying your magic properly!”

  “W-wh?! I’m older than you!!” She whined in the most adorable manner. She had a very mom-like way of pouting, and in my opinion, it was objectively lovable.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “LET’S STUDY MAGIC TOGETHER! YEEEEY!” I screamed into the darkening night sky.

  Both Amelia and Fanael looked at me like I had gone insane. Honestly, maybe I did go a bit crazy.

  “Ahem…” I adjusted my voice. The squealing had taken a toll on my vocal cords, so I had to continue talking more normally. “First! Green magic!” I looked at Amelia as if the very concept of green magic had now become a source of shame for her.

  “H-hooray…” Amelia cheered awkwardly.

  “Green magic allows you to become stronger than you really are! It makes you jump high, run fast and punch through house walls!” I recited the text from the book.

  “S-surely it doesn’t actually say the last part?!” Amelia seemed a bit concerned, and her concern seemed to only grow as I showed her an illustration of a child destroying a house. “W-what in the world are they teaching their children…?!”

  “Red magic is magic for destruction! It’s the best magic for self-defense! Stranger danger will never get to you as long as you can shoot a nice big fireball at it!”

  “SURELY, IT DOESN’T ACTU-“ I interrupted Amelia's bewilderment by showing her yet another violent illustration of a happy laughing child dancing over the burning corpses of his enemies. Amelia’s expression went dark, and she simply walked on in deep silence.

  “Blue magic controls the physical and spirit realm! It allows you to move things, and hearts!” I went on…now quieting down a bit myself. “Mmm…Fanael!” I shouted at Fanael who was walking quite far ahead of us. “What does it mean to move things and hearts?”

  Fanael sighed deep enough for me to hear her from the distance away. “It means blue magic specializes in controlling mind and matter. Basically, you can move stuff without touching it. But that’s the less important part of blue magic.” She seemed to darken a bit.

  “Is it about the mind…? The important part?” I had an inkling of where the conversation was going.

  “Blue magic is valued as a tool of war even over red magic, due to its ability to manipulate and misguide people through mental attacks and illusions. Some nations have argued using it in war goes against the basic rights of life.” She continued. “Generally speaking, while wounds to your body heal naturally over time…wounds to your mind are much harder to rid yourself of.”

  “Y-you don’t seem too fond of it…!” I buried my nose behind the book a bit.

  “I hate it. It’s despicable and dishonorable magic. Luckily, it’s extremely rare among Forest, Plains and Earthwalkers … But I’d expect nothing less than a witch specializing in it.” She scowled at me. “It is very common for monsters and Nightwalkers to possess proficiency in it.”

  “A combination of black and blue magic is considered among the most heinous and evil pairings. Read on and you’ll understand.” The princess waved her hand at the book I held.

  “O-oh…” I nodded, continuing to narrate the book. “White magic… Is very rare, but special and valuable, for it allows you to heal wounds and sickness! Having strong white magic guarantees a financially cozy life!” I read, chuckling a bit at the overly honest text of the book.

  The illustrations were hilarious as well. This one had a kid smiling from ear-to-ear swimming in a bath tub of coins while throwing gold bars at people around him. The people getting hit by gold bars would say ‘Thank you sir’ even if they were being hit in the face.

  “Black magic, is the magic of evil. Only monsters know black magic.” I read on.

  Somehow, the jovial air of the book had diminished a bit all of a sudden. Instead of the usual silly child, it had the picture of some kind of quadrupedal creature covered in sharp spines. It had distorted, poorly drawn eyes peering from the pitch blackness of the silhouette its body-shape made on the page.

  “Black magic spreads diseases and curses. It fights unfair by slowly poisoning its victims until their bodies stop functioning. Always seek your closest white mage if you suspect being cursed by black magic.”

  As I finished reading about black magic, the book came to an end. I didn’t quite expect the ending to be so immensely serious after everything the book had been like so far, but I suppose it was important to instill the fear of monsters in children at a young age.

  “Your filthy kind has the power to poison both one’s mind and body. It’s a crime against anything and everything honorable.” Fanael spoke under her breath.

  “Fanael…!” Amelia seemed to try to signal to Fanael to tone down her obvious distaste towards my particular domains of magic.

  “What!? It’s true! Have you ever had a dream curse laid upon yourself?!” She barked back at Amelia, who went pale and gulped dryly.

  “I-I have…not…” She shook her head sternly. “I have seen someone with one placed upon them, however. I had no idea it was the kind of magic Yverna specializes in…”

  “W-what’s a dream…curse?” I mumbled a bit curiously, but also awkwardly.

  “It’s nothing you should need to learn about. It’s just a form of pushing the hatefulness of magic to a pretty nasty extreme. It’s completely unnecessary in combat, as it serves the same purpose as sleep curses, just…worse…” Fanael tried to force a change of subject.

  As much as I wanted to press the matter further, I decided it was most likely not the best idea at the moment. It seemed to be a pretty serious topic.

  “Mm…” Fanael walked over to me, her cheeks a bit rosy. “B-but just because you’re a horrifying freak of nature and an enemy to everything good and just…doesn’t mean I dislike you! I just dislike the domains of magic you use, not you as a person.”

  I could feel my heart skip a beat at the adorable sight of Fanael being so cute in front of me, and I lifted her in my arms despite her protests.

  “Thank you…” I spoke to her softly. “That actually means a lot.” I hugged the squirming princess awkwardly. “I promise I’ll ever show you nice dreams if I have to put you to sleep over being too loud and annoying…!” I spoke in a purposefully over-the-top, soft and gentle voice.

  Unfortunately, my gentleness didn’t seem to work on Fanael as she began screaming about my comments over her being loud and annoying. The conversation on the five natures of magic ended with all three of us laughing at the whole situation a bit.

  The sun had set and darkness covered the sky, but it was comfortably bright to walk around. The light from the moon and stars was enough to illuminate the road.

  “Is it safe to walk around here at this hour? I’m not quite familiar with the territory.” Amelia asked as we marched on. The massive backpack she had made me fear she would topple over at any moment.

  “The midlands before the Rachasian territory are governed mostly by the Hunters’ Guild.” Fanael began explaining.

  “Hunters’ Guild?” I repeated.

  “OH!!” Amelia suddenly began sparkling. “Truly?! I’ve heard rumors of their efforts!”

  “Indeed! I’d love to laugh at the idiot bandits trying to make a profit in a territory teeming with nothing but bounty hunters!” The princess grinned a bit wickedly.

  “Do they like…hunt monsters and stuff?” I asked the obvious question.

  “Well, it is in the name, isn’t it?” Fanael scoffed. “The Hunters’ Guild is a group of mercenaries. They don’t only hunt monsters, but they also handle criminals of various kinds too. They’re like a mercenary police force.”

  “Hum…” I crossed my arms, still holding on to the book Fanael gifted me. I had admittedly grown a bit fond of it. “So, they’re active even at night?”

  “Indeed. I’m quite confident we’ll come across a patrol group or two on the way.” She spoke.

  “I’ve always wished to meet some! I heard plenty of tales of their ventures in Rachasia too. Some hunters would drop by to exchange materials for gold sporadically. They always had the best stories to share.” The paladin beamed as we marched on.

  As if to fulfil my dreams of classical fantasy, there were small light posts every two or three hundred meters or so as we walked over the plains. Some slightly butterfly-like insects were living inside the glass spheres on the top of the lamp-posts. They were emitting a slightly greenish blue light, which lit up the path surprisingly well.

  It was a comfortably cool night. Walking kept us warm, and the general atmosphere was quite relaxing. Amelia and Fanael seemed to find it very amusing how easily impressed I was with every little fantasy-themed thing. It was quite an ordeal to explain to the two how stuff like this only existed in books back in my world.

  The walk felt really safe and cozy, and there were small campsites by the roadside about once every hour.

  “Should we stop here for the night?” Amelia looked around as we stopped by one of said campsites. There was a fire pit dug into the ground and a small wooden cover built to protect any travelers from potentially bad weather. It had just about enough space for four people to sleep in.

  “Seems like a good spot to stop.” Fanael looked around a bit. “I suppose Yverna will keep watch?” She grinned at me, and Amelia laughed a bit apologetically at the comment as well.

  Not that I really had any qualms with it! I was basically the best person to keep watch, since I didn’t sleep in the first place. We quickly set up camp, and Amelia was out like a light the moment her head touched a pillow.

  We had some sleeping bag-like things and pillows in the supplies provided by Fanael’s entourage. The giant backpack also contained basic survival supplies, kitchenware, and a few cute outfits for Fanael.

  The little princess fell asleep soon after staring at the starry sky in silence for a while. I decided to use my time to the best of my ability and began browsing the pictures in the book Fanael gave me.

  To my dismay, my giggling at the illustrations got interrupted by a surprisingly thick veil of mist falling over the area in what felt like the blink of an eye.

  I could swear the mist wasn’t there before I peeked at the pages of the book…and yet, the moment I raised my line of sight from the book, it was literally everywhere.

  The air was still somewhat warm, but something felt inherently off.

  Only when I began really focusing, I realized what was bothering me about the mist the most. There seemed to be a surprisingly large amount of mana swirling in the veils of cloudy air, almost like it was of magical origin.

  I instantly began shaking Amelia and Fanael awake. I didn’t know if I was just being paranoid, but something about the mist felt wrong. Not only that, but I had just promised not to put myself in harm’s way unnecessarily, so having my companions awake was definitely the best course of action, even if the mist turned out to be harmless. Furthermore, I’d rather have the two whining at me over me waking them up, than something more serious.

  “Mmmgh…” Fanael mumbled, but soon perked up a bit as she saw the substance surrounding us.

  Amelia was up as well, already stepping out in front of us with her sword and shield drawn. Also, yes. She did sleep with her armor on, just for the record.

  “There is a weird amount of mana in the mist…” I spoke quietly, at which the paladin tightened her grip on her gear.

  At first, nothing happened. I figured maybe my response to the mist cloud might have been unwarranted, but then I realized it was silent.

  And by silent, I mean nothing. There was nothing. No bugs, no birds, no wind. Nothing. It was completely silent.

  If you remember what Amelia said in her story about the weird cave, when nature gets totally silent, there is usually a reason for it right around the corner.

  It was clear Amelia and Fanael were on their toes about it as well.

  “W-why is it so qui-“

  “Shh…!” Amelia hushed me down and gestured for me to listen.

  Somewhere deep within the mist I could hear a noise of something slowly approaching. It was like a subtle chime of some kind.

  The closer it got, the clearer it became the sound came from something metallic. A set of three figures began approaching us in the mist. One notably taller and two shorter.

  “WHO GOES THERE?!” Amelia shouted into the mist with enough volume to get a yelp of surprise out of me.

  The chiming noise got clearer as the group drew near. Judging by the silhouette of the tallest figure, I’m assuming they had a staff of some kind with metallic chimes or something of the like attached to it.

  The two shorter figures were a bit too tall to be Mhiir’im like Fanael. I’m suspecting they were around ten- to fifteen-year-old human children.

  “We’re terribly sorry if we spooked you…” A soft, almost whisper-like voice emanated from the mist. “We mean no harm…”

  A tall woman finally broke through the veil of white. She was easily around a hundred and eighty centimeters tall.

  The sight of the three was both fantastical and exciting in a sense, but also somehow eerie and unnerving in another.

  I’m rather confident the tall woman was an elf. She had the signature long ears and a very fair complexion. Her ears had little notches to them, almost like small triangular pieces had been cut off from their top sides.

  She had a pure white ceremonial dress or…veil of some kind. It flowed in the mists in a way that made it hard to fully comprehend where the veil ended and the mist started. Her arms were covered in highly decorated metallic armor, and the sounds she made as she walked implied, she had armor covering her legs as well.

  The most striking part about her sinister beauty was her long platinum blonde hair, which seemed almost transparent against the faint rays of moonlight the thick mass of fog let through.

  Now, everything, so far, was pretty regal and elegant…so let’s talk about the less conveniently pretty things. The entire upper part of her face was covered in a metal plate or mask of sorts. It was covered in extravagantly detailed engravings of spiked thorns and multiple eyes staring out from in-between the vines.

  In her right hand, she had a long staff with a strange symbol bent out of metal at the tip. It had eight slightly…lemon shaped pieces attached to it, which caused the chiming noise.

  The elven woman was accompanied by two children, who I presumed to be humans. They had fully identical clothes to each other, those being some kind of ceremonial garbs consisting of baggy pants and extremely long sleeves on the top parts of their outfits.

  The only thing about their outfits that was different, was the color. One wore fully black and the other fully white.

  Their faces were hidden by some sort of cloth bandage, but I could swear I saw some burnt skin under the wrappings around their necks in some parts where they weren’t properly applied.

  “… What do you seek.” Amelia spoke in a hiss-like whisper.

  “We’re merely travelers passing by…pay us no heed.” The tall woman spoke in her eerie specter-like voice.

  “… Be on your way then… The next town is about three hours away from here…” Amelia kept speaking. Fanael seemed bewildered by something. Her expression was one of pure confusion, and I couldn’t figure out why at the moment.

  The tall woman smiled faintly and bowed. The group kept walking slowly along in the mist, but then one of them stopped. The child clad in black suddenly began staring at me… or I assume it was me as I was the only thing to look at in that direction. I peered around myself a bit awkwardly, partially in hopes of the child simply continuing on their way.

  While the small figure was wrapped in the mist swirling around, I could still see their silhouette clearly.

  Slowly, something began pushing out from one of those long sleeves, and as soon as the reflection of our camp’s lights hit the thing extending from underneath the clothing, my breathing began to pick up.

  In what felt like the blink of an eye, the child lunged towards me at an incredible speed. A large cleaver-like blade glinting in the illumination of our campfire.

  Amelia attempted to block the way of the child, but the nimble assailant dodged her with seemingly relative ease. Fanael had already drawn her sword and was getting ready to retaliate, but the child simply slumped over and stumbled along the ground all the way to my feet. The momentum of the child’s movement caused them to flop around in somewhat…unhealthy looking ways, but their wellbeing was really the least of my concerns right now.

  I was panting, wide-eyed, staring at the cleaver only half a meter away from my feet. The beads of sweat gliding down my neck were cold enough to feel like tiny daggers carving their way over my skin.

  “Oh my…!” The tall woman began speaking in what sounded like a rather passionless mimicry of what shock should be like. “Please pardon this child…! His parents were killed by a witch, so he has a rather…antagonistic mentality towards them.” Something about the voice of the woman was off, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

  Amelia rushed upon the child instantly and disarmed him, tossing the long blade away quite far off from us. He was completely unconscious.

  “Admittedly, I am rather puzzled to see a witch traveling with a Mhiir’im and a human.” The woman continued to speak. “Are they under a spell? No… I can’t quite sense any mana of that kind…” She seemed to mumble to herself.

  “WE ARE TRAVELLING WITH HER FULLY OF OUR OWN FREE WILL!” Amelia roared with enough force to cause the surrounding mist to part a bit. “I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d avoid having your companions attack us!”

  “If I see any of you take a step closer to us, the kid’s head is gone!” Fanael declared in turn and rushed to Amelia’s side.

  “My…! My…” The woman sighed. “When I said we mean you no harm, I did mean it. This child is simply a bit impatient. Please forgive him.” The woman whispered.

  “He attacked our companion…” Amelia spoke in a low tone.

  “To this day, I must say I haven’t seen anything particularly different from my experience in Ofashia… But this. This is quite something.” The woman spoke to seemingly no-one in particular. “This truly is quite a different continent.”

  “What?!” Amelia shouted at her. “Stop muttering to yourself and speak up!”

  “Your companion is a monster. It’d be more than normal to assume something is wrong here.” The woman chuckled. At this moment, I realized what was so wrong about the way she was speaking. I think she had a hint of amusement in her voice. I don’t know for sure, for it was very subtle, but I think she was enjoying the scene unfolding somehow.

  “Didn’t your mother teach you not to judge a book by its cover!?” Fanael shrieked. “Take your brain-dead kid and leave!”

  The woman smiled gently and nodded. Her ears flicked a bit.

  Amelia tossed the child to the woman, who caught him with a single hand, hoisting him over her shoulder like a sack of wheat.

  “Dearest Witch. Pardon us for this transgression, and I will make sure to make amends one day…” The elven beauty smiled her usual faint smile. “I’ll assume it is merely a dream curse…?” She continued, at which both Amelia and Fanael’s heads jolted to look at me with impressive speed.

  I paled at her words, and my companions seemed just as nervous over the question. “N-no! It’s just a sleep curse…” I mumbled, somehow it was difficult to speak up near her. The woman looked genuinely surprised and stopped for a moment.

  “A…sleep curse…?” She repeated in seemingly utter disbelief.

  “Y-yeah… No dreams…” I nodded again, absolutely unnerved by her behavior at this point.

  “Hm…” She seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. “Quite a peculiar creature you are indeed… Or should I even perhaps call you… a person?” She continued in her habit of monologuing.

  “Uh… Well, you know, I feel it's kind of rude to call someone a creature…witch or not.” I retorted, slowly growing a bit irritated of her attitude.

  “Puha…!” The elven lady chuckled. “Quite right you are!” She turned around and slowly began walking away into the mist. “Quite right you are…” She repeated until the group slowly disappeared out of our sight.

  As soon as the elf was far enough from us, the mist began thinning out as well, as if it was somehow attached to the woman. It only strengthened my belief that it was somehow artificial, or more accurately magical in nature.

  “A-are you okay!? Yverna?!” Amelia rushed to me and began inspecting me all over. Fanael was left staring off at the slowly disappearing mist in the distance.

  “I-I am…! Somehow…!” I nodded, still very shaken by the encounter. I collapsed onto my rear on the ground as my body finally relaxed a bit.

  “What happened to that child? He just fell over!” Amelia seemed quite agitated, sitting next to me and looking at Fanael, who was still staring off into the same direction.

  “I-I uh, don’t know how to do that dream curse thing, but I did practice basic curses in Subtherma.” I began speaking shakily. I know my spell wasn’t really the interesting topic here at the moment. It was those sinister words of the woman. “It just puts things to sleep…but…”

  “But…the elf assumed you cast a dream curse…” Amelia was dead serious.

  “Wasn’t that stupid kid one of her companions?!” Fanael piped up too. “What the hell was that?! Why did she assume it was a dream curse so nonchalantly!? It was like…like…!”

  “Like…those children meant nothing to her.” Amelia finished Fanael’s sentence.

  A cold silence fell over our camp. I didn’t really know what a dream curse is, but judging by how serious the topic was to Fanael and Amelia, it was clear it was something completely horrifying, and this woman had just had that horrifying reality as her basic assumption.

  Sure, I was a witch, but were witches truly the kind of evil that casts such awful things all over the place without a care in the world?

  … I mean. I had never seen one outside myself…so maybe they were…

  It’s just…the way she spoke of that child. A child, whose family was apparently killed by a witch, was as if she were speaking of a tool or a toy or a mild source of amusement.

  My mouth felt dry from everything that had just transpired. Somehow, it felt as if I had forgotten how sinister this world was in our stay underground. Being almost killed the moment I returned to the surface was a mercilessly cruel wake-up call to the reality I was currently living in.

  “… We got so lucky…” Fanael suddenly interrupted the moment of silence.

  “W-what do you mean?” Amelia turned to look at the princess, who was pointing out in the nearby plot of grass where the bladed weapon Amelia took from the child was thrown.

  It wasn’t there anymore. As if it had turned into mist and vanished along the cloud.

  The large, almost guillotine-like blade had disappeared into thin air.

  “What?!” Amelia suddenly stood up and rushed to inspect the area.

  “You sensed it too, right?” Fanael walked over to me, shaking her head.

  “There was definitely something off about that woman…” I replied to her. “Somehow, I sense that she sounded almost amused. I don't understand why though…”

  “THAT’S WHAT IT WAS!!” Fanael began nodding wildly. “Something about her demeanor really ticked me off! That’s what it must have been!”

  “How in the world…” Amelia returned, shaking her head over the disappeared weapon.

  “Well… Hey.” Fanael slapped me on the back a bit. “She said she’s in your debt now! Good for you!” She sneered.

  “I don’t need that weirdo indebted to me!! In fact! I’d rather never meet her again!” I raised a ruckus, at which Amelia and Fanael chuckled at me a bit.

  Silence fell over the camp yet again. It was definitely about time for me to bring up the focal point of the conversation.

  “What’s a dream curse?” I repeated my question from a while back.

  Fanael and Amelia exchanged a concerned glance. With a deep sigh, Fanael gestured for me to sit by her in the camp as Amelia patrolled around just to make sure we were safe. The moonlight shone upon us from the otherwise dark sky.

  “You know, how everyone’s got their fears and stuff like that?” Fanael started a bit clumsily.

  “U-uhhuh?” I nodded awkwardly in response.

  “A dream curse generally makes you see nightmares, but they feel very…real.” Her explanation was surprisingly simple.

  “Uhuh…” I nodded again, not really fully understanding what she was trying to get at. “So, what makes them so bad? A dream is still just a dream. It’s not like it can hurt you, right?”

  “Yeah…sort of.” Fanael grimaced. “Generally, low-level dream curses are exactly that! A momentary bad experience.” She began raising her voice. “But…high-end dream curses can distort your concept of time. They distort all of your senses, and you might end up living in a horrifying nightmare for years and years and years.”

  “…” I felt my skin crawl. A nightmare was one thing…but an endless one was far different.

  “Even if you sleep only an hour in real time, you might have experienced endless horrifying atrocities in your dream, which can turn your spirit…or in the worst case, your soul into a total mush.” She continued.

  “The…souls can be attacked by that stuff too…?” I whispered quietly.

  “See, magic can’t affect souls.” Fanael’s explanation continued. “Not…directly, at least.” She continued. I was starting to see what she was trying to lay down.

  “The soul is tied to the mind…” I spoke to myself, at which Fanael nodded with a heavy sigh.

  “We believe in a cycle of rebirth of sorts.” Fanael’s voice quieted down again. “All of our world religions revolve around the concept, which is why it’s not completely out of the ordinary to meet someone like you here.”

  “I-I see…! This is interesting but… I don’t want to sound rude by bombing you with too many questions, so please go on.” I nodded despite having multiple questions to ask her already.

  “Attacking the soul is one among the greatest sins in all the faiths of our world, which is why you Nightwalkers and monsters are so poorly received.” Fanael pointed at me in a slightly accusatory manner. Or at least that’s what it felt like to me.

  “We are…the only beings capable of hurting the souls of living things?”

  “Specifically, your kind who is proficient in blue and black magic…” She nodded at me more directly, at which I gulped dryly in response. “A severe enough dream curse can permanently damage one’s soul, which will negatively affect their rebirth cycle.”

  “T-that…sounds awful…” I shook my head. Sure, being a cool and dangerous witch was one thing, but this felt a bit excessive.

  “The thing about dream curses is, that they can cause you to be reborn infinitely in a debilitated state.” She spun her finger in a circle a bit to emphasize her words. “It can manifest in physical deformities, and most often mental and especially in moral deficiencies.”

  “So, what you’re saying is… By getting dream cursed, it harms your soul just the right amount to make it very likely you’ll be reborn a worse person…”

  “That’s a very elementary way of looking at it, but yes. To an extent.” She looked up at the sky. “Being reborn from a human into a Nightwalker like you…”

  “Implies…my soul is somehow flawed.” I finished the sentence. It suddenly made sense why Amelia and Fanael didn’t want to talk to me about this. They probably didn’t want me to worry over something like this.

  I sat there in silence, staring at the sky with Fanael. There were countless stars strewn across the heavens like a beautiful albeit chaotic diamond necklace.

  Somehow, I never even thought that there was something wrong with my soul. Could there be? I did consider myself a somewhat mean person. Had I been dream cursed a long time ago, so now upon rebirth I was deemed close enough to a monster by some kind of sorting deity that decides what you get reborn as?

  “What happens to people whose souls are destroyed or absorbed, like what I did to Godwyn?” I suddenly blurted out.

  “Well, as it is all simply our belief, I can’t say this as a fact…” Fanael pondered her words for a moment.

  “They don’t enter the cycle of rebirth, and are just permanently erased from existence, right?” I continued staring at the sky.

  “…” Fanael remained silent, but the silence was enough to give me my answer.

  “Good.” I replied silently, causing the princess to jolt her head at me rapidly.

  “Wh…?” She uttered in shock.

  I turned to look at her and pat her head a bit. “I’m not so good of a person, that I believe mass murderers like him deserve a second chance.” I replied bluntly. To my surprise, Fanael…brightened up a bit??? She began swinging her legs carefreely a bit, then shuffling her way a bit closer to me.

  “It goes against my faith to agree with you…” She spoke softly. “But sometimes… SOMETIMES I do feel maybe witches make a bit of sense.” She added. “I WON’T STATE ANY SPECIFICS, THOUGH!” She crossed her arms and grinned at me.

  I chuckled a bit in silence and pat her back as we basked in the starlight. Amelia returned from her patrol at this point as well.

  Amelia and Fanael were too drunk on adrenaline to go back to sleep, so we decided to continue our journey. I was honestly all for it. Even the thought of meeting that elf made me anxious enough to desire nothing more than getting as far away from her as possible.

  “So, what the hell was an Ofashian War Elf doing in here on Rachasian territory?” Fanael started the conversation.

  “A whatnow!?” My eyes were already sparkling the moment she began speaking. What the hell?! That was such a cool title! ‘Ofashian War Elf’?! What was this?!

  “Mmm…” Amelia mused to herself. “You know, how in human culture we consider scars of battle like badges of honor?” She started, and honestly speaking, I had no idea where she was going with this.

  “Uh…yeah! Kind of? That was a thing back in my world too.” I pondered aloud as we walked along the comfortably paved road.

  “In most Forestwalker cultures, especially in elven culture, it is considered a great shame to have scars or wounds of any kind.” Another interesting culture lesson by Amelia started! Yes, please! “Elves strive for a sense of perfection. Not only in lifestyle, but in combat as well.”

  “Uhuh…!” I nodded and wrote notes in my diary excitedly, until I realized something. “So, then, why did she have those notches cut from her ears?” I stopped walking. Amelia and Fanael exchanged a somewhat unnerved glance.

  Fanael began speaking, “The Southern Continent ruled by the Ofashian Empire is long known for selectively breeding and cultivating elves they kidnapped from their homes into war-slaves to be sent out to their unending conflict with the Nightwalkers living on the continent.”

  The darkness of this statement hit me like a truck. I suddenly felt ashamed of being so excited to hear about this. They were slaves cultivated for war? What does that even mean?

  “Elves are not all too common on the Southern Continent, which is why they have little to no resources to oppose the merciless exploitation by the local majority cultures, be they Plainswalkers or else.” Amelia picked up the conversation. “Cultivating war elves is considered strictly illegal anywhere outside the Southern Continent.” She lectured.

  I looked at my short companion. “And those notches on their ears…”

  Fanael walked next to me, her expression was rather serious. “They ensure the slaves will never be accepted back into elven societies due to the so called ‘imperfections’ inflicted upon their bodies.” She then turned to looked ahead. “It’s basically a failsafe to make sure the war elves have no place to run to in the rare circumstance of a successful escape.”

  “I have also heard they are forced to commit unfathomable atrocities during their so called ‘training’”. Amelia shook her head and grit her teeth.

  Fanael sighed heavily in response. “They’re a pretty bitter existence, but it’s hard for us over on the Northern Continent to really do anything about it due to the political climate…”

  The words the two spoke at me seemed to fly over my head for a moment, but as they landed, I felt conflicted. I understood it was the elves’ own culture, so I definitely couldn’t fathom to understand its complexities, but this world was so brutal and cruel to begin with… Why would they make life so much difficult for themselves like this?!

  It was like they found life on hard mode to be too lame, so they turned it to VERY hard mode on purpose!

  All I could do was shake my head in disbelief.

  “It was weird though…” Fanael crossed her arms as she trotted on.

  “It was quite peculiar…” Amelia seemed to agree with…what-ever Fanael found so weird.

  “What was?” I asked as I caught up with the two with a small jog.

  “Elves don’t have hair colors like that.” Fanael pointed at her vibrant hair.

  “Mm?” I tilted my head. What did they mean?! Platinum blonde was the PERFECT elven hair color. Sure, the woman was creepy as all hell, but she was also pretty. Most elves in the depictions I knew from fantasy literature in my world had hair color exactly like hers.

  “Elves always have earthen colors or green hues in their hair color.” Amelia broadened the discussion. “They never have black or blonde hair.”

  “I see…” I furrowed my brow. “Back in my world, elves didn’t exist. They were fantasy creatures from storybooks.” Both the girls turned to look at me curiously as I spoke. “But in almost all depictions of them, they generally had blonde hair like that.”

  “Really?” Amelia cocked her eyebrow. “Quite curious! I suppose she looks more normal as an elf to you, than she does to us then!” She laughed a bit.

  “RIGHT?!” I chuckled. “It’s YOU two who have been living too long in this nightmare of a world! This kind of places were depicted as fantastical utopias of great adventure back in my past life!!”

  “Who would have thought it’s just as crappy as your past, huh?!” Fanael sneered and made a face.

  “Mmm…” I mused to myself, weighing my thoughts. “Honestly, to me, it’s still a utopia of sorts.”

  “H-how so…? You almost got killed back there just a moment ago, just in case you forgot!” Fanael interjected, slapping my thigh.

  “Yeah, and in my past life I was already dead at this age. Dead without doing anything with my life.” My statement was clearly a bit of a bummer to my companions. “But here I can keep travelling with my friends… And uh, maybe my soul is tainted or whatever, but I can still appreciate the presence of you two!” I grinned a bit awkwardly at the two walking beside me.

  The mood lifted a bit and a group hug commenced. Fanael had to be lifted to be able to join the hug at the same face level Amelia and I were at. It was a bit funny due to how her legs flailed as we cuddled.

  Soon, our journey in the moonlight continued. Oddly enough, I felt a bit invigorated by it. I don’t really know if it was simply due to having never had a nice walk outdoors at night before, or something else.

  I began pondering to myself a bit as I followed Amelia and Fanael. Now that the stress levels had decreased, Amelia and Fanael began yawning again. As bad as I felt for them, I really didn’t want to get ambushed by some new kinds of horrors during our trip, so I decided to start a conversation again.

  “I wonder why they had those weird masks.” My words caused Amelia to turn her head to me and wait for me to catch up a bit with the two. I feel I was constantly being left behind a bit due to my habit of getting lost in my thoughts. “They were kind of creepy.”

  “I noticed. Eight eyes on each?” Amelia commented, at which both Fanael and I went silent. We clearly shared the realization as we turned to look into the road behind us, as if the elf and her companions would still be there.

  “A-are you sure it was eight?!” I asked shakily.

  “I’m quite certain, although with how long the elven lady’s hair was, the mask could have hidden several more.” Amelia pondered aloud. “Why?”

  Both Fanael and I stopped walking now. It was as if this symbolism just kept haunting us, or was the reality just that this sinister presence had spread so far and wide, that it was almost impossible to avoid anymore.

  “The stone…the mana draining thing had a symbol with eight eyes on it too.” I reminded my paladin companion.

  “Oh…” Now Amelia realized what was going on too. “Then, the metallic pieces on her staff must have been eyes in shape too.” Amelia’s words made my mind race. I…honestly didn’t even think of this!! I thought they-

  “I thought they were lemons!!” Fanael slapped her little fist in her palm. “THAT MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE!” At this moment, I was glad I didn’t voice this opinion, even though I shared it. Man, did it sound stupid now that it was vocalized. I don’t know how it didn’t sound nonsensical enough in my head back when I first let the thought invade my mind.

  “W-why would they be lemons…?” Amelia seemed perplexed for good reason. I felt I should just keep my mouth shut about the lemons.

  “I don’t know!! Maybe because she’s a bitter woman?!” Fanael laughed, at which both Amelia and I shook our heads. Good thing, at least someone wasn’t too stressed out about the situation.

  I couldn’t help but start lagging again as I began pondering the implications of this. Did those eye stones have something to do with the elven woman we encountered? Or was it just coincidence…?

  After walking onward for a while longer, some rooftops began appearing in the horizon behind some modest hills.

  “There it is!” Fanael cheered up and began bouncing ahead a bit after opening her parasol. The sun was slowly rising and the slightly haunting darkness of the night began dissipating.

  To my surprise and horror, Amelia began running towards Fanael all cheerfully.

  Why was I horrified?

  Amelia was still carrying that massive backpack!! AND SHE WAS RUNNING!! What was this woman!? Pure muscle?! She was pretty soft to hug!! Where were all the muscles hidden at?! I began running after the two, questioning my reality a bit more with each step.