To our surprise, Fanael wasn’t too challenging to wake up. After she was ready, we snuck out of the house to tail the strange lines of people. To add to the already inherent feeling of discomfort, the innkeeper was nowhere to be seen. Amelia and Fanael didn’t seem to find it weird, or maybe they never noticed to begin with…

  Outside, the queues of people had already shifted their way closer to the center of the town.

  To my surprise, Amelia was pretty good at running quietly despite her armor. I don’t quite understand how that worked… But it’s not like I was going to question it at the moment either.

  We rushed through the town silently, finding our way to the center, only to catch the last few people entering a large building I noticed earlier before we entered the bar.

  The building was honestly far from intimidating in terms of its looks. In fact, it looked almost welcoming to an extent. It was a lot less rustic than the rest of the houses. It had a rather cubist shape. Something you’d see when searching for rich people’s houses online, I guess?

  Numerous square shapes were built upon each other, with windows adorning the sides of the squares to act as doors and sometimes… well, as windows.

  While most buildings around the village were made of wood, the one in the center was made of smoothly cut rock. The windows it had were also much clearer than the slightly dirty glass the other buildings around had. I’m assuming it was a show of power or wealth of whoever lived in there.

  A yellow warm light shone through the windows, but it was obscured mostly by curtains, so it was just about impossible to see anything inside.

  “How did I not notice how strange this house looked…” Amelia pondered aloud as we hid in an alley observing the building.

  Fanael seemed to be in agreement with her. “It’s really odd… Maybe the daylight somehow obscured it? I’m suspecting a spell of some kind.” I couldn’t quite understand what the conversation was all about.

  “Um…?” I was a bit puzzled. “What’s so weird about it?” I asked, getting a curious glance from the two.

  “Well, have you seen houses shaped like… what the hell ever that is before?” Fanael scoffed.

  “I… have.” I nodded at the two, who turned to stare at me wide-eyed. “Houses like this were pretty common for rich people in my past life.” I explained.

  “Oh…” Amelia’s eyes widened, she then looked at the house. “Do… you think it could have been built by someone from your world?” She whispered quietly.

  I shook my head. “I don’t really have a clue, but I am here… so wouldn’t it be pretty easy to assume other people got reincarnated in here as well?” I crossed my arms.

  “Should we go investigate?” Fanael beamed with excitement.

  Amelia pondered for a moment, then she seemed to glance at me…and finally, she shook her head. “No.”

  “W-what?! Why not?!” Fanael yelped.

  “We’ve only been here for a day. Wouldn’t it be a bit reckless to rush straight into potential danger without any preparation? I feel we should investigate the village further before we jump straight into enemy territory.”

  Fanael seemed to agree with Amelia’s words, even if it clearly frustrated her. She simply quieted down and shrugged, sighing. I felt a bit good about the decision. Not because I’m a massive coward. I feel we’ve established that already, but because Amelia was clearly trying to be considerate and try to approach things from a less self-destructive perspective for my sake.

  The town was completely quiet aside from the general sounds of night.

  “Uh… I don't know if this is just coincidence, but I think the people who went to the fancy house in the center of the town were mostly people who work in the town? Like the workers in the bar and the innkeeper.” I pointed at the empty desk the innkeeper was previously seen sitting behind.

  “Are you sure he didn’t just go to bed?” Fanael pondered, crossing her little arms.

  “W-well wouldn’t it make sense to have at least someone here to make sure nobody comes in uninvited?” I mumbled in my awkward defense.

  “It would…” Amelia walked over to the table, pinging a little bell to call the innkeeper.

  Only silence answered her call.

  “I guess that is a tad odd.” Fanael admitted. She walked over to the door and pulled out her sword, pressing its tip at the door frames. A small magic symbol appeared for a moment, only to disappear soon after.

  “Oh!!” My eyes widened. I recognized this symbol. “Great idea!” I nodded in approval, at which the princess smiled smugly in response to.

  “W-what? Please explain the magic to me too!” Amelia pouted.

  “It’s a spell that detects when someone walks past the threshold set for it.” I explained. Amelia seemed to brighten up as well, nodding excitedly.

  After sneaking around without really finding anything of interest, we decided to retreat into our inn room.

  Both Fanael and Amelia seemed tired, so I suggested they rest a bit, and I’d keep watch on the village.

  After some reluctant murmuring from, especially Fanael, the two finally crawled into bed. The lights were turned off and before long I could hear the calm breathing of the two in their sleep.

  I got myself a nice warm blanket and sat by the window to look outdoors.

  My mind was racing as I sat there. How could people like this possibly exist? What were those stones? What was the meaning of the word Terminus again? I had heard the term before too… but I couldn’t remember it in any other context than some video game jargon.

  I could soon feel my breathing pick up a bit. I…seriously needed to think of something else to calm myself down.

  Something about the thought of these mana-less people was really throwing me off. Like there was this instinctive fear telling me to leave the village at once, which wasn’t really an option. I started regretting signing the whole paper with Arlow at this point.

  This treasure hunt had turned a lot less cool and exciting the moment things got serious…

  But again…no… I shouldn’t think about this…

  What else… uh…

  Magic? YES! Magic!! I did cast a sleep spell without really explaining my incredible magical advancements, didn’t I?

  Anyone against a magic recap? No? No. Okay. Magic time.

  So, remember how I cast that sleeping spell on that weird mystery kid who tried to attack us on the way to the Hunter’s Outpost? During my studies, I discovered that not only the words, but also the location of the sigil affects its effects.

  You can get fundamentally different results simply depending on where the spell is!

  If you remember back when I was studying magic in the library, my first magical breakthrough was to freeze a piece of paper.

  I drew on it the sigil of solid water a.k.a. ice on it, but if I created the same sigil in the air, an ice chunk appeared!

  Placing the sigils of ice into actual water just freezes it over. Magic is actually a lot more… fluid than I expected.

  I honestly always thought it’s like… how it was in video games. You know the spell ‘Frozen earth’ or something cool like that, and whenever you cast it, the result is always the same.

  But here in this world, magic is more like a…type of energy that can result in several different outcomes depending on how it’s used. I began experimenting by inserting all the sigils I knew into animals I found going around the forest Amelia and I stayed in before we stormed Subtherma.

  Don’t worry, I didn’t actually kill anything.

  To my surprise, a lot of the spells had an effect when placed inside things! Even the ones I didn’t manage to activate originally.

  We already know what fire, water and lightning do, so I didn’t experiment with them.

  Casting the sigil of ‘Sky’ on objects or living things caused them to float roughly 30 centimeters in the air. It functions a bit like your average curse. I can make things float, but as soon as the target of the spell isn’t fed mana, it will slowly return to the ground.

  Some squirrel-like creatures were having quite a time floating and spinning around when I tested the spell on them. I don’t really know whether they enjoyed it or hated it, though.

  I did, of course, test it on myself too, and yes; I can make myself float! Not only that, but I can slightly steer myself as I float, but it’s a lot slower than walking, so I haven’t actually figured out a practical use for the spell yet.

  The sigil of ‘Earth’ caused the opposite. It made flying things return to the ground. To kind of help understand the spell, it’s like adding gravity to things.

  At my current state, I feel it increased my weight by about fifty percent. I didn’t test it on birds because I felt it’d be a bit cruel. Birds and witches are known for being good friends, and I would rather not tarnish this sacred bond.

  Amelia really liked the gravity spell for her muscle training, though. I think I remember seeing a manga with a similar method for hardcore strength building.

  Injecting the sigils ‘Solid’ and ‘Reflection’ did not do anything, but ‘Faint and Clear’ did!

  Faint makes your sight get blurry, but nothing else. Clear makes you feel sort of vacant, and it also has an added effect of causing forgetfulness.

  I suppose you could call these curses of a very mild variety! A memory curse and a… you need glasses curse.

  I think I forgot to mention all this earlier due to experimenting on myself! But I guess as a silver-lining! I did remember forgetting it, so I guess the spell simply obscures your memory. It doesn’t permanently harm it.

  As we learned with the murderer children, inserting the sigil of ‘Dream’ into a person causes them to fall asleep. The sigils of ‘Heart’, ‘Echo’ and ‘Words’ did not do a thing.

  Let me summarize my immense magical powers right here for you to clarify everything.

  — I can light a candle with fire.

  — I can create poisonous liquid.

  — I can create little ice chunks I can shape freely.

  — I can create enough electricity to knock out a fish.

  — I can float objects in place.

  — I can make things get moderately heavier.

  — I can make people fall asleep.

  — I can make things look a bit blurry for others.

  — I can make people air headed for a moment.

  That is all.

  Pretty impressive? No?

  Well… to be honest, I do see I can at most be a moderate inconvenience. I guess some of my powers can be useful in scary situations if used creatively, but generally, I don’t have some kind of insanely powerful secret skill that will solve all of my problems.

  I wish I could just scream cool attack names at people and shoot insanely epic spells… But sadly, I am about as powerful as an annoying neighbor vacuuming their apartment at five in the morning.

  Now, all jokes aside. Just being able to walk and journey with my friends was enough for me to feel like a superhero. Having pointless but interesting magic in addition to everything I already had? Amazing. I actually managed to protect myself for the first time without losing a limb for it! While it was terrifying at the moment, I still felt pretty accomplished for protecting myself without Fanael or Amelia covering for me.

  I may not be the kind of powerhouse my companions were, but at least I wasn’t a total burden either. Just knowing this was enough to put my mind at an ease a bit.

  My little musings were finally interrupted, as I saw multiple people marching through the town. The perfect unison everyone walked in was eerie. The queue divided into groups, which then entered a bunch of buildings all along the main street.

  As if to confirm my suspicions, I’m moderately confident all the buildings the people entered were some sort of shops or bars.

  And yes… Not a single one had a speck of mana to them. They were all empty. Something about the sight made my skin crawl like no other. As they walked, I could also hear something familiar…

  Something I had heard here in this world a while ago. A kind of whispering? It’s difficult to really define what it was. I didn’t remember where I had heard it at the moment either.

  How could I hear their whispers as far away from them as I was anyway…?

  Maybe I was just hearing things.

  I wondered what would even happen if mana were to be injected into one of these people. Could you cast spells on things that have no mana? Or were these people almost like living versions of those awful nightmare stones we kept encountering, where they’d siphon the mana only for it to disappear off somewhere?

  I suppose my answer came quickly because the innkeeper walked into the building. I could hear them opening the door… and yet Fanael stayed asleep.

  Her spell didn’t seem to alert her to the man returning.

  I pondered for a moment, then standing up and quietly walking to the door. I opened it, which caused it to creak ever so slightly.

  Sneaking through the corridor of the inn, I made my way to peek at the innkeeper from the top of the stairs. As soon as I saw him, chills ran down my spine.

  He was squatting down and observing where Fanael cast the spell very closely, as if they could smell the residual mana in the air or something.

  To my horror, the innkeeper heard me as the floorboards creaked, turning to look at me. Something about the fact that his face seemed completely human made it feel all the more eerie because when looking at him through magic, he looked like nothing but a walking dark void.

  It was a mental conflict my head really didn’t want to deal with.

  “Up quite late, are we? May I help you?” He looked at me with a top-notch customer service smile.

  “Uh… I’m bad at sleeping…” I admitted, but I wasn’t bad at something else.

  “Oh my. Well, do let me know if there is anything I can do to help.” He smiled.

  “I uh, actually wanted to mention something.” I nodded awkwardly. “I don’t know the exact time… but there was someone who came into the building a couple of hours ago.” I spoke a bit shyly.

  “Oh?” The man’s interest seemed to be piqued instantly.

  “Yeah… We were short a towel in the room, so I came down here to look for you, but you were away. I instead found someone else squatting down next to the door doing something.” I explained a bit shakily.

  As soon as I finished my words, I could suddenly hear a third voice in the room.

  “Curiosity… Threat… Question further…” The third voice was a sharp whisper that echoed all around the room. I jolted in place, my eyes darting all over the area a bit. I could not locate the source of the whispers anywhere.

  “Hm.” The man nodded. “Can you give me any details on the person? Moreover, I am terribly sorry! Please just a moment” He rushed out only to return with a towel, which he carefreely tossed up at me. I managed to catch it while keeping my choralium hand concealed underneath the blanket I had previously wrapped myself in.

  “I’m not exactly sure on their gender, but they were maybe about… half a head shorter than you.” I pointed at the man. “They had a robe with some sort of symbol on it, but because of the way they were sitting, it was a bit challenging to see it…” I adjusted the towel in my hands.

  “Invasion! Invasion! It is time! Relay message… Extraction begins.” The whispers grew more frantic, echoing all over the place. I shook in place, not sure if I was hearing things.

  “A symbol?” The man began to ponder, when he seemed to suddenly realize something. “Was it maybe… more towards the hue of blue?”

  “Mmm…” My voice remained a bit shaky. “I’m not exactly sure, but now that you mentioned it… I think it might have been blue.”

  “Confirmation. Relay message. Extraction begins.” The whispers echoed once more.

  “Excellent… Thank you very much for this information. I actually need to go report this…” He sighed. “Oh, what a bother…”

  “Is everything okay?” I asked carefully.

  “It’s fine… there is simply an organization that has been bothering our town due to our belief systems clashing a bit.” He grumbled in an unnervingly human-like manner.

  “Oh… It’s not going to lead into any violence, is it?” I asked quietly.

  “By no means!” The man smiled warmly. “We keep our personal issues out of the sight for all visitors.” He gave me a carefree thumbs up. Somehow it didn’t feel very reassuring.

  “Okay then…” I nodded. “Oh…um…” I turned as I was about to leave. At this point, the whispers quieted down.

  “Yes?” He smiled, weirdly contently.

  “Can you suggest any good places to eat at? My friends and I intend to go around town tomorrow.” I still spoke a bit quietly, but purposefully added a bit more cheer to my tone.

  “Oh! I’d personally recommend a bakery close to the big smokestack! You’ll be able to get some delicious and freshly baked goods there if you arrive early enough!” He beamed.

  “Oh…! That sounds pretty nice. Thank you for the tip.” I bowed at him a little.

  “And thank you for reporting the incident as well.” He smiled and bowed at me in return.

  I walked back into the room, the cold sweat settling a bit.

  My mind was racing. What did all of this mean? Who were the people in blue coats? How did the man instantly find out about Fanael’s spell… and most importantly, what in the world were those whispers?

  I could hear them echoing all over, but the man didn’t really respond to them in any sense, except for the fact that his questions somewhat correlated with what the whispers were on about.

  Whenever I was near these people, in addition to their lack of mana, I could sense a presence of something… Something a bit familiar.

  I couldn’t put my finger on what it was at all, but my immediate guess was, that whatever this presence was, it was the one making those whispers.

  Was some kind of creature manipulating the townsfolk? It could make sense…

  But at the moment, the most important thing was, that the creature…or presence was definitely not omniscient.

  Otherwise, it would have instantly detected I was lying to the man…

  Lying about stuff came to me somewhat naturally, not that I was particularly proud of it. My wild guess was, that the man was…somehow like a conduit the manipulative presence was using to see and sense things around it.

  So…if I could lie to the humans, the lies would be transferred as truths to the dark creatures or whatever, as long as the humans would not doubt my words.

  I could maybe even use information I gathered from this innkeeper to pry into their secrets further later…

  Judging by the fact, that the dark whispers ordered the man to go tell the others, I’d guess the dark presences don’t share a hivemind or anything.

  This meant I could possibly use the ‘blue coats’ as leverage to extract more information out of their kind tomorrow.

  I jolted in place a bit at my thoughts. It felt like my sense of morals was growing increasingly distorted the longer I spent in this world.

  I couldn’t help but wonder if I was slowly becoming more and more like a monster in my mindset… or was I like this to begin with? My memory remained foggy…

  I sat on the bed next to Amelia, only to hear my name being whispered around. I instantly jumped up, and cold sweat began gliding down my neck.

  Scanning the room in a panic yielded no results.

  “Yyyyy….veeeer….naaaahh…” A cold sigh echoed in the room, then I suddenly realized where it was coming from.

  “Ah…uh… Amelia’s mummy goddess? H-hello? I’m here?” I leaned in next to Amelia’s mouth, where the familiar cold whispers were coming out of.

  “I’m not a mummy…” The voice replied.

  “Ah…sorry. I haven’t really seen you, so that’s all I got going in terms of mental images…” I mumbled awkwardly. “W-what’s wrong? Is everything alright with Amelia?”

  “Amelia is fine, although maybe a bit uncomfortably dutiful. Her subconscious is currently asleep, so she cannot participate in our conversation.”

  “R-right…!” I gulped, sensing the supposed goddess was about to start talking about something sinister.

  “Yverna… I have something to tell you. It will not make you happy, but you must hear this. I would appreciate it if you’d never share this with your companions, it would simply cause them unnecessary worry.”

  “…” I stayed silent. The weight of her words was not left unnoticed on me. A goddess of all things had bad news for me.

  “Do not, ever, react or reply to the whispers…” She started, my eyes growing wide. I felt nauseous the instant she let those words out of her mouth. “Do not make them aware of your presence… Your compatibility is too…high. Please — promise me this. If things go poorly, we might attract something far worse than anything you could fathom into this world.”

  “Hh…!” I choked in my words, unsure on what to even begin with.

  “Those who attempt to bypass true death will only meet an end far worse than the one they fear…” She continued in her cryptic orders. “You should know this well enough already… You should know there is something absolutely wrong about death in the way you experienced it.

  “I…” For some reason, my mind wandered instantly to the sight of that white… creepy woman I saw as I died in my past life.

  “I-I don’t ever want to experience it again…” I whispered softly.

  “Exactly, the forces at large will only attract attention from her. Do not… engage with the whispers! Please don't hesitate to continue your little adventure, but please, do not react or reply to the whispers, always make sure whoever is talking to you is moving their mouth.”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “I-I don’t really get any of this! But… I’ll do my best!” I replied in a flurry.

  “…” A deep sigh escaped Amelia’s mouth. “I’m sorry to spring this on you all of a sudden, but please understand I am unable to elaborate any further…” She seemed regretful in her tone.

  “…” I stayed silent. “Ahem…” I coughed a little. “I…already heard some, but I did my best to ignore them! Don’t worry. I got you… It didn’t feel right to reply to them anyway.” I mumbled.

  “Well done.” A noticeable sound of relief echoed in the voice. “I wish I could give you something in return…this must not do your mental wellbeing any good…”

  “Um… Could I maybe ask some questions in return then? I’ve been curious…” I started a bit, hopefully.

  “As long as they do not pertain to this subject. I am already overreaching my rights by interacting with you in this manner…”

  I had to think about it for a moment. “Something I’ve been a bit curious about… Are you really a goddess?” I asked her bluntly.

  “No.” She replied equally straightforwardly. A cold silence fell into the room.

  “Mmh…” I mumbled. “I… uh…” I looked around awkwardly, not sure on what to say.

  “I mean no harm to this world.” She answered a question without me even asking.

  “I…somehow got that feeling.” I huffed in response. “I guess that’s honestly all I can really think of at the moment. Please keep Amelia safe. She really puts all of her faith in you, even if you’re some kinda super demon.”

  “I’m no super demon either, whatever that might be…” The voice seemed to chuckle a bit. “But I will protect Amelia. I will promise you that.”

  “That’s all I really wanted to hear.” I laughed a bit weakly in response.

  “Forgive me, Yverna… One day, you’ll know the significance of all this…”

  The room fell fully silent again, and I collapsed on the floor a bit.

  The first rays of sunlight broke me out of my stupor. I blinked a bit, realizing dawn had already broken. I decided to crawl into bed with Amelia and Fanael for comfort, making sure I didn’t scratch the bed up with my horrifying metal claws.

  It was quite relaxing to snuggle up with the two, and it helped me calm down a bit. Fanael seemed a bit cold, so she clung to my side like a little koala holding on to a tree.

  It was charming, and I had to put significant effort into holding myself back from petting her. I would rather not wake her up anyway. Amelia, on the other hand, had the most refined way of sleeping to a creepy point.

  Somehow, I never paid much attention to it when we were out and about in Subtherma, but now… I realized she truly didn’t move at all when sleeping. She was in the exactly same position she went to bed with.

  I couldn’t help but wonder if it was just a knight thing.

  Or…an Amelia thing.

  As the sunlight began shining through the curtains, Amelia started finally opening her eyes a bit. She seemed a bit surprised to find me in the bed with her and Fanael, but then she smiled gently and brushed my hair away from covering my eyes a bit.

  “Well, aren’t you a delight to wake up to… Did you get any rest?” She spoke, causing my lacking heart to explode instantly from an overload of too much flirting.

  “Y-you know, statements like that are why Fanael finds it so troublesome to let you near her…” I mumbled awkwardly with my face beet red, most likely.

  “Huhuhuhu…” Amelia chuckled and closed her eyes. “But I’m simply appreciating my friends…” She mumbled to herself sleepily.

  “You’re too good at appreciating.” I stated bluntly.

  She began giggling tiredly, patting my side a bit. “It’s your fault for being so easy to appreciate…” She hit back at me, and I reeled back from the power of the blow, lifting Fanael and placing her in-between us for protection.

  “Mmmgh…” Fanael mumbled, slowly waking up as well.

  She woke up to the princely face of Amelia staring at her from only about ten centimeters away. “Morning.” Amelia whispered almost sensually.

  “WH-WHU?!” Fanael bounced up. I was looking away, beet red with shame.

  “Did you sleep well…?” Amelia questioned her.

  “W-WHY DOES IT SEEM LIKE I DID SOMETHING WEIRD OVERNIGHT?!” She looked around in a panic, at which I almost burst out laughing, but decided to instead tease her a bit.

  “Well… You did drink a lot yesterday, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you forgot…” I lamented dramatically.

  “W-WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?!” Fanael yelped, her face a mixture of red and pale, in the weirdest way. “WH-WHAT DID I DO?!” She began looking at Amelia for help.

  Amelia simply blushed coyly and looked away.

  “W-WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?!” The poor princess screamed.

  She was really mad at us when we revealed nothing happened at all. Luckily, Amelia’s grip was too much for the little gremlin to get out of, so she didn’t manage to get to her sword to start flinging magic around.

  I felt our joking somehow made her a bit less awkward about skin ship with Amelia, though? She seemed to squirm rather contently in the knight’s arms. Maybe bringing a sense of humor into this whole topic of Amelia’s overly flirty nature was the cure for Fanael’s shyness, and honestly, Fanael x Amelia was a ship I was willing to die on.

  After we had some breakfast and Fanael calmed down, I explained to the two what happened overnight, minus anything about Amelia’s Mummy ‘Goddess’.

  They stared at me like I was a monster of some kind.

  “H-how can I ever know whether you’re telling the truth or not from now on?!” Amelia feigned horror quite well.

  “I can tell the blood of monsters runs strong in your veins… It’s like human minds are a game to you!” Fanael scolded.

  “Hahah! I’d never lie to you two!” I lied.

  But the clues I had picked up seemed to pique the interest of the girls, so we all agreed to go exploring a bit.

  The innkeeper had switched overnight at some point, for I didn’t recognize this new one. I’m guessing perhaps they had rotating shifts or something. Or could be the first one was busy tracking down those caped people out there somewhere.

  We walked down and exited the building, and I did my best to not stare at the freaky mana-lacking people. Luckily, my big hat helped in the endeavor considerably.

  To my surprise, I couldn’t hear any of the whispers again as we walked around.

  We decided to head out to the bakery the innkeeper I lied to earlier had suggested, simply to get an excuse to walk around town if nothing else. To my relief, the magic lacking people were just about nowhere to be seen. I’m assuming they were all working already, so all the people on the streets were still…normal.

  Some had a lot less mana than I’d consider healthy, which implied they were most likely in the process of ’conversion’.

  The modern building at the center of the town was somehow more eye catching than it seemed yesterday when we saw it for the first time. I don’t know how I never paid attention to how out of place it looked.

  I could sense a faint trace of mana inside it, which piqued my curiosity towards it even further. Amelia and Fanael clearly disliked even looking at it for whatever reason.

  We made our way to the smokestack, which seemed almost impossibly high from the looks of it. A black smoke was billowing from it into the sky-high above. As the innkeeper had mentioned, there was indeed a bakery near it. It was effortless to see due to the rather archaic wooden cut-out of a bread hanging on a metal bar next to the door.

  We stepped into the building, only for me to get surprised.

  The owner wasn’t one of those magic-lacking oddities.

  It was a rather tall and somewhat well-built looking man. He looked a bit emancipated, maybe? As if he hadn’t had food for a while. He had a somewhat dark skin tone, which made it a bit hard to tell, but I’m pretty sure he had dark circles under his eyes.

  “Welcome.” He stated quite normally.

  “Uh…” I looked at the two behind me, who seemed about as awkward as me. “Hi… We’re here to buy stuff.” I declared with my overwhelming charisma.

  “S-stuff?” The man seemed a bit dumbfounded by my choice of words.

  “Yeah… like stuff to eat.” I added.

  “Pf….” The man chuckled, then bursting out in tired laughter, which ended up with a coughing fit. He might have been quite handsome if not for the uh… visible signs of starvation.

  While the man had a darker complexion, his skin had a strange desaturation to it. It was more than clear he was somehow unhealthy. His clothes were draping over his frame a bit, implying he was little more than skin and bones, which was really weird considering he lived in a bakery. He was very tall, even taller than Amelia and me. I’m sure he must have been quite imposing back before he made the mistake of ending up here.

  Amelia chuckled a bit herself too. “What would you recommend?” She smiled.

  “Well! Shall I get the ladies a bag of… stuff! As thanks for the laughs!” He grinned. Somehow, I felt a lot more comfortable here in the bakery already than anywhere else in this forsaken town.

  “Please do…!” I nodded with a faint smile myself.

  “Mind if we chat around a bit with you?” Fanael poked her nose into the conversation too. “We’re new to town, so it’d be nice to hear some thoughts of locals!”

  “Certainly. It’s rather quiet at this hour usually.” The man smiled and walked through a door on the back. “But! I must admit, I haven’t lived here long enough to necessarily count as a local, though!” He added before returning with the fabled ‘bag of stuff’.

  The paper bag contained a number of freshly baked goods. Something similar to croissants, bread, and donuts were among the wonders the man provided us with, and I got to admit. Even if I wasn’t sure if I felt hunger for anything but souls, I could still appreciate good baked treats!

  “Ooohh!” Fanael brightened up and stuck one of her hands into the bag, digging out one of the donut-looking things.

  To our convenience, there were two little tables inside the bakery, probably meant for customers who wanted to eat there. Judging by the fact that there were only two, I had to make the assumption that it was never all too crowded in the bakery, or maybe a vast majority of visitors only bought things to go with.

  The general atmosphere in the room was calming and quiet. It was built mostly fully of wood. There were a couple of windows facing the street and the smokestack. Some offers and pictures of baked goods were lined up in front of the windows to attract customers.

  We had wooden chairs next to a wooden table. Fanael was sitting on the table, which didn’t seem to bother the shopkeeper.

  There were a couple of potted plants hanging from the ceiling. They seemed a bit dry.

  “Is it good?” I asked, beaming with joy simply from watching Fanael munch on a donut. Sadly, she was actually quite refined in the process, not making a mess at all… so I didn’t get an excuse to wipe crumbs off her face.

  “If goob!” She mumbled in a lot less refined manner with her mouth full of food.

  “Let me test something out as well.” Amelia reached for the bag, which I handed her. The croissant-like things seemed to appeal to her greatly.

  “I guess I’ll try something too then…” I nodded and tried to conceal my drooling as I stuck my hand in the bag only to pull out some incredibly fluffy fresh bread.

  All three of us were in bakery heaven as we munched contently on the goods. I was even provided with something similar to butter to put on the bread! It melted perfectly due to the bread’s warmth.

  “Excuse me, Mister…” Amelia gestured for the shopkeeper. “Ah… Forgive me, I don’t believe we have exchanged names yet.”

  “Where are my manners.” The man laughed. “My name is Eden.” I cocked an eyebrow at the strangely religious name, considering there was no Christianity in this world. The man walked over and pulled a chair next to the table for our incoming chat session.

  “Fanael!” The princess lifted her hand. It seemed like neither Fanael nor Amelia found his name to be peculiar in any sense.

  “I’m Amelia. We’re on a journey together.” The knight smiled at the man while digging for more things to eat in the bag.

  “Yverna.” I nodded at the man. He seemed to be left off staring at me for a bit, shaking his head, almost as if he couldn’t believe his eyes for a moment. Then he squinted while looking at me, only to groan and hold his head in seemingly sudden pain.

  “Nnngh…” Eden sighed and held his head a bit.

  “A-are you okay?!” Amelia suddenly stood up.

  “I-I’m fine… I’ve simply been suffering from a bout of headaches recently…” The man spoke in a slightly pained tone.

  We exchanged a glance. Amelia and Fanael looked at me as if asking ‘Is this one of them’. I obviously had no telepathic powers, so I decided to ask the man a few questions instead.

  “Um… This may sound a bit odd, but have you recently been given a stone that has an image of some kind drawn on it?” I began the conversation by getting straight to the point. Amelia and Fanael seemed nervous over this decision, but I waved them off.

  “Mmgh… W-why yes… Some locals gifted me one a while ago…” He replied, finally calming down a bit.

  “Where do you keep it?” I looked around a bit.

  “It’s mounted on a wall in my room…” He mumbled.

  “Mmm…” I pondered for a moment. “This might come off a bit weird… But it might be the cause of your headaches.” I looked at him carefully.

  Eden’s eyes had a rather sad hue of death to them. I couldn’t really tell what his original eye color was, but my guess would be dark brown, maybe? The reason to why it was difficult to tell, was because his eyes had this…dull grayness to them, most likely due to mana deprivation. Judging by his expression, it almost looked like he somehow expected this.

  “Do you know if you happen to have a high aptitude for magic?” I asked.

  “I… I hate to admit it, but I do not know…” He lamented, still holding his head a bit. “Ever since I came to this continent… my memories have been a bit mixed up.” He began speaking. “O-oh! But please don’t mind me rambling! I’d rather you enjoy your food.”

  “N-no! Actually!! We’re genuinely interested in hearing about this!!” I piped up, which seemed to cause the man to look at me wide-eyed. I was taken aback a bit. “Um…!” I looked at Amelia and Fanael for help.

  “As embarrassing as it may be, we do enjoy hearing some good gossip.” Amelia assisted.

  “Out with the story!!” Fanael cheered.

  “E-eheh…!” The man laughed awkwardly, but then seemed to calm down. “Well…! Since you insist…”

  “Also, we’ll buy another bag of this stuff!” Fanael declared before the man was able to start. Both I and Amelia looked at her with a chuckle. “Whaaaat!? I can afford it!” She huffed. I didn’t doubt it, honestly. She was probably quite well off considering she was literally ex-royalty.

  “Let me bring it for you.” Eden laughed warmly, standing up and walking to fill a new bag with the good stuff.

  “So, about you losing your memories?” I began as everyone settled around the table again.

  “Yes… I am definitely foggy on the details, but I arrived here from a different continent. I don’t quite remember what for…” He pondered. We all exchanged a knowing glance.

  “Another continent.” I looked at Amelia. I had a guess, considering our earlier conversation about the elven woman we encountered in the mist.

  “It must have been the Southern continent.” The reliable knight nodded. “There is a war going on there between a horde of Nightwalkers and the local Plainswalkers. I believe countless people escape the continent to take refuge from the war.”

  “I’m not sure, but it does sound partially familiar.” Eden seemed to brighten up a bit at Amelia’s words. “I do remember arriving here in…search…or maybe fearing something?” He crossed his arms and leaned back on the chair. It felt a bit bad to look at his boney figure, sometimes getting accentuated as the clothes pulled over it tighter from the movement.

  “And then, something happened, and you lost your memories?” I leaned in on the table, tenting my fingers in a very investigative manner.

  “Yes… I remember meeting something…or someone?” He leaned back on his chair. “And then I simply… remember deciding to move over here to start a bakery.” The man chuckled a bit tiredly. I could swear there was a very slight hint of irritation to his tone. “It was a bit unexpectedly easy. The rent of the building was very cheap, and the people welcomed me with open arms… but…”

  “But…?” Amelia seemed to have her interest piqued as well.

  “Please don’t laugh at me for this, but somehow I feel almost like the people in here are under some kind of law or court order to be nice to me?” The man laughed, scratching the back of his head. “Sounds pretty nonsensical, right?”

  We exchanged knowing glances. “Can you elaborate on this?” Amelia asked while stuffing her hand into a bag for more baked goods. It did admittedly take away from the seriousness of the situation a bit.

  “Mmm…” Eden seemed to ponder to himself a bit. “It’s just, everyone in the town outside the visitors from elsewhere are always so… nice?” He laughed tiredly. “I feel like a few of their usual emotions are locked behind something? I’ve never seen people who live here be angry or mad or…simply vain in any sense.” He scratched the back of his head. “I know it must sound like a nonsensical thing to be unnerved by.”

  “Hmmm…” I glanced out the window, looking at people walking around. “Like you feel as if the uh…community spirit here is a bit unusually high?”

  “Hahah…! That’s one way to put it!” He chuckled. “But yes. Something like that.” His mood turned a bit gloomy over thinking about it. “It’s a bit hard to explain, but I feel like I have been blinded from something vital.” His expression darkened. “Whenever I feel I’m close to a memory, I get a severe headache, as if there is something in my head preventing me from remembering on purpose. It’s been giving me issues with falling asleep.”

  “You seemed to get a headache from looking at Yverna. Do you have any idea as to why?” Amelia replied.

  “Yes… I get a headache from looking Miss Yverna in the eyes. I do not know why.” The man looked away solemnly. “I by no means am trying to be rude! You are all very fine young ladies… I simply…do not know why I cannot look at her.” He seemed genuinely distressed over his situation, which explained the hint of irritation to his voice from earlier.

  I gave the gentle baker some instructions on how to get rid of the stone he had been graciously gifted with. Despite the nonsense I told him about not touching the stone, the man seemed perceptive to my words.

  He nodded, and looked almost happy to have met someone who thought there was something strange about the town.

  All four of us ended up sighing deep.

  “Do you have any information regarding the cul… I mean. Organization operating in the town?” Amelia almost called it a cult… ALMOST. She was clearly already pretty… negatively aligned towards the people of the town.

  “Um… I don’t know if you’ll be able to make anything of this, but they keep carrying barrels of what I believe to be pickled foods of some sort into the big building in the center of the town.

  “P-pickled food…?” Amelia repeated the statement, but then she seemed to remember. Fanael and I glanced at each other nervously.

  “Yes… I haven’t got the faintest of clues as to what they do with that much of the stuff.”

  I felt like we ended up with more questions than answers from our visit to the bakery. We bid Eden a goodbye as we exited, reminding him to make sure to toss the dark stone. Hopefully, he’d be able to follow the guidance, instead of ending up completely obsessed like that girl in the Hunter’s Outpost. Somehow, despite being clearly drained of some mana, he seemed to be still of somewhat clear mind, which implied Luna might have been an extreme case after all.

  Walking around town, we headed to the center to look at the weird building again. I began to ponder and stare at it. I definitely could feel some magic from it. All the people around us simply walked past us without paying any of us much attention.

  “Does it look different from the last time we saw it?” I avoided mentioning how we were here at night, just in case someone might have been listening.

  “Mmm… I feel it might have been darker?” Amelia crossed her arms.

  “I think it was dark blue.” Fanael nodded.

  “Now it’s more like beige…” I confirmed while looking the building up and down. It did still look like a modern mansion, and to be fair, it could have simply been the darkness of the night obscuring our sense of color…

  Something about the situation felt strange to me. Almost… familiar, again. I could feel my skin beginning to crawl faintly every time I looked at the building, but I couldn’t pinpoint the reason in my mind at all.

  It was almost as if I had seen a scene… or something very similar to this before? But where?

  I ended up yielding on trying to dredge up some lost thoughts. It didn’t seem to provide any results at the moment anyway.

  “I know a spell that obscures people’s visions…” I spoke. “Maybe if I can find a way to refine it, so it could obscure people’s perception of us somehow? It might allow us to infiltrate the building.”

  “Oh…!!” Fanael bounced up. “I… think I’ve seen some monsters using an invisibility spell.”

  Amelia suddenly gestured for us to quiet down, as a couple men approached us. It was more of those freaky void people.

  “Excuse us ladies!” One of the men approached us. “We’re searching for some people! Could you answer a couple of questions really swiftly?”

  “What is it?” Amelia smiled at the men gently. She was pretty good at controlling her facial expressions even in stressful situations.

  “Have you seen any suspicious looking individuals skulking along the town? Especially at early morning or twilight hours?” The other man walked by the first one. I couldn’t really tell what they looked like due to the mana-lacking darkness they were enveloped in, but I put in great effort to look directly at their mouths to make sure they were actually speaking.

  “Uh!” I raised my hand awkwardly. “We only arrived in town a short time ago. We don’t really know who is and isn’t a resident… what kind of suspicious people are these exactly?” Amelia glanced at me as I walked beside her. I know she was creeped out by me now that she knew I was purposefully extracting information from these people, but she managed to maintain her facial expression respectably composed.

  “Ah! My apologies!” One of the men laughed. “We’re terribly sorry to involve tourists in such trivial issues!”

  “By no means! It would make our stay here feel safer too, knowing there are no odd skulkers around!” I giggled.

  “Mm! Makes sense!” The men agreed. “We’re specifically seeking men and women wearing blue pieces of clothing with this symbol on them.” The men pulled out a piece of torn cloth, showing off a symbol resembling some sort of fanged beast.

  “Hm! I wonder…” Amelia crossed her arms, analyzing it in depth.

  “I have a feeling… I might have seen something similar to it…” I began acting as if I were deep in thought, which came to me naturally considering how often I was actually lost in thought. “Blue clothes aren’t really outright rare…” I mumbled.

  “Oh! Please do take a careful look. The fabric is quite high in quality!” One of the men nodded eagerly.

  “Oh!! So, they are some sort of nobles or elite? So, we should be on the lookout for expensive blue clothes with this sort of patterns?” I repeated. Fanael walked over to us and gently grabbed my normal hand.

  “Mama… I think I saw a blue rich man on the way to town.” She nodded at me. Hearing her call me ‘Mama’ made my motherly instincts swell up. I couldn’t help but lift her up in my arms.

  “No dear, that was a grandma’s quilt.” I teased her, at which she pouted.

  The men laughed at the interaction and smiled. Despite their sinister nature, they were still human to an extent. If nothing else, they were high-end mimicries of humans to the point of mimicking even the flaws of people.

  “An easy way for little lady to tell if they are the right kind of people, is by their builds! They are the elite force of the Hunters’ Guild, after all! They have big, burly and scary bodies!” One of the men babied Fanael.

  “Hey…! Don’t tell them too much. You might scare the little one.” The other man scolded the loose lipped one.

  “Oh! Please don’t mind her. We’ve been teaching Little Fan-fan here all about stranger danger recently! It would be in her best interest to know when to start screaming if a bad hunters’ guild man starts approaching her!” I cooed at Fanael gently, which seemed to irritate her profusely, judging by the veins bulging on her forehead, but she kept her cool, somehow.

  “My! What a big girl she is! Then please promise to always shout if you see someone like that young lady!” The man smiled at our fake baby.

  “I pwomise…” Little Fan-fan replied in her best baby speak.

  “What a smart girl! Those mean Hunters have been harassing local business owners with completely baseless claims!”

  “What?! How shameless!” Amelia piped up now as well. She was getting a hang of being a deceitful piece of scum, too. “Shouldn’t the Hunters’ Guild of all groups be acting cordially!? As a retired knight of the holy order, I cannot believe they’d do something as brutish!”

  “OUR THOUGHTS EXACTLY! They keep demanding the rights to invade our humble townhouse!” The shouting man pointed at the strange modern building behind them.

  “How vile! What are they using as an excuse to invade your private property!?” I couldn’t help but join in. There was a certain kind of pleasure to see your plans work out this well…

  “They keep claiming the sulfurous odor of the smokestack our town has is scaring the wildlife around the nearby plains!” He laughed.

  “WHY WOULD ANYTHING BE SCARED OF A SMELL?!” The other man laughed. “How preposterous!”

  Amelia simply shook her head, and to my surprise, she was pale. I could tell, but her expression was still unshaken. “Well! We will be more than certain to inform you if we see any of these lawless hoodlums!” She bonked on her chest armor a bit. It was clear she wanted to end the conversation.

  I don’t know what got her so rattled, but it was clear she managed to obtain some knowledge by reading in-between the lines in places I couldn’t.

  “We greatly appreciate it.” The men gave us a salute of some kind, and walked away after waving Fanael goodbye.

  We headed over to the inn in total silence, finding our way upstairs. The innkeeper still wasn’t the same one I spoke with overnight.

  Amelia was clearly distressed. She was walking in circles around the room.

  “IT’S NOT THAT!” Fanael suddenly shouted at her. “IT CAN’T BE!”

  “W-what makes you so sure…?” Amelia’s voice was shaking. SHAKING! Amelia’s!! What was she so scared of?! Her voice was like a steel wall most of the time!

  “W-wait! Please let me in on this conversation too!” I basically begged as I desperately didn’t want to be left out.

  “Amelia thinks the town is hiding a dragon.” Fanael scoffed.

  “What makes you so sure it isn’t one?! All the signs point to it!” Amelia spoke in a very uncharacteristically hasty and jittery manner.

  “Wha…dr…dragon?!” I turned to look at the two. “D-dragons are a thing here?!” I began beaming with excitement! The most noble of monsters! A dragon?! Here?! YES, PLEASE!

  “NO! THEY ARE NOT!” Fanael basically screamed, earning a shocked silence in response. Even she herself seemed to realize her behavior was unusual. “It’s most likely just a volcanic zone hidden underneath the village.”

  “W-why are you so vehemently sure it’s not one?” Amelia asked quietly in response.

  “Because I’ve seen one before, and they are NOT small enough to fit underneath a crappy little town like this.” Fanael’s words seemed to get a visible shock out of Amelia.

  “Y-YOU’VE SEEN ONE?!” Amelia basically shouted at this point. “HOW?! WHERE!?” I had no idea why both of the two were so serious about dragons, but the conversation seemed to go on without me inserting questions in it.

  “None of your business…” Fanael grumbled in such a viciously venomous manner, it was as if an entirely different person was speaking.

  “Fanael…?” I interjected before the conversation started going into a bad direction. “I’m not going to pry into why and where you’ve seen a dragon, but I’d like to hear your full reasoning about the whole… dragon situation, even though I don’t really even know what you two are talking about.”

  Both the girls suddenly turned to look at me and somehow, they seemed to calm down a little.

  Amelia sighed deeply and then walked over to sit on the bed. “You are correct. Forgive me. I acted out of line.” Amelia gestured for Fanael to come over to her.

  The little royalty seemed a bit apprehensive at first, but she then walked over and climbed onto Amelia’s lap. “The reason to why Amelia thinks it’s a dragon, is because they exhale a sulfurous gas and they exclusively live underground.” Fanael began speaking.

  “The sulfurous odor is known to repel animals away from areas with dragon sightings. The hunter’s guild is here because they suspect the village is hiding a dragon, and the smoke stack is the exhaust used to make sure the gaseous matters the dragon produces won’t explode due to pressure.”

  “And obviously…the whole place blowing up would be a bad thing.” I acted like I was totally onboard with the conversation. I most certainly wasn’t. “So… What benefit would there be to keeping a dragon here?”

  The question left both Fanael and Amelia silent. Fanael then nodded at Amelia, as if saying ‘I told you so’.

  “You make a fair point.” Amelia admitted.

  “Back in fantasy stories in my world, dragons were usually guarding treasure of some kind!” I piped up a bit. My statement earned a completely and utterly flabbergasted look from both Fanael and Amelia.

  “What a…suicidal way to hide treasure!” Amelia chuckled.

  “I guess the fantasy writers of your life must have really hated life, huh?!” Fanael outright laughed.

  “R-right?” I was a bit confused over their reaction, but decided to just let it pass. I was a bit disappointed there was no dragon hidden underground, but at the same time, I was glad Amelia and Fanael weren’t so tense anymore.

  “Look. We got more important stuff to figure out than the dumb sulfur deposit underneath this town.” Fanael shook her hand around. “To infiltrate that weirdo house, Yverna will need to learn how to use the invisibility spell to hide us.”

  My eyes lit up at this. “YES!! I TOTALLY FORGOT!! Please do tell me everything!” I beamed. Amelia chuckled a bit and went over to our backpack to bring out a little portable stove. It heated with magic! She started making us tea to drink while we discussed the spell.

  “So… In my experience, plenty of sneaky monsters and especially magic caster monsters like goblin shamans are common to cast the spell. I don’t really know what to call it, but it looks like a veil of water slowly sliding over them, which makes them disappear.” Fanael began to speak while kicking her legs a bit as she sat on the bed. I think she was excited about some tea.

  “Water, huh?” I wrote it all down in my magic notebook. “Well!! I happen to know a magic word for both ‘Water’ and ‘Faint’ AND they seem to be words I can combine!” I nodded excitedly already casting the spell. To my surprise, it worked! … But not in the expected way.

  A rather sizeable puff of some kind of mist exploded out of my hands, causing both Amelia and Fanael to squeal. I could hear both of the two voicing their unending gratefulness for my spell as I stumbled along the walls until I found the window.

  The mist slowly wafted out of the room, as I stared at my companions, who were staring back at the ceiling wide-eyed… and uh… they were on their backs.

  “Um… Girls…?” I mumbled awkwardly.

  “Chnt….mooh…” Amelia’s strangely sluggish voice slurred through her teeth as she laid there on the floor.

  “W-what?! I can’t understand? What are you saying?” I walked over to her.

  “Sheessh…shaying….she….chaant….moooov….” Fanael’s extremely grumpy voice slithered into my ears from the bed. She was twitching there, clearly trying to move around, but something must ha… oh…

  Oh… no… They… I get it…! I slapped my fist on my hand as if all the secrets of the universe had suddenly clicked.

  “Water magic I create is poisonous…!” I nodded awkwardly. “I guess I’m immune to my own spells too! Eheh…! Pretty uh c-convenient…” It was a lot more awkward to be experiencing the joy of magical discovery by accidentally using my companions as guinea pigs.

  After about fifteen minutes, both Amelia and Fanael regained movement in their bodies, and I earned two big bumps on my head for my scientific advancements. My achievements would surely be written about in the history books.

  “So, maybe try something else?” The princess’ suggestion was feasible. She was snarling on Amelia’s lap as the knight-mom was combing her hair. It was clear that Amelia was enjoying being given the right to such an honorable task.

  “Okay… uh… how about ‘Water’ and ‘Clear’?” I pondered aloud. Amelia raised her shield in front of her and Fanael. I get that the previous spell was a bust, but this still hurt my feelings a bit.

  As I combined the sigils, a very transparent bead of water appeared above my hand. It was sparkly! But… would definitely not be hiding anyone or anything.

  “… You made, uh… drinking water?” Fanael’s disappointment in my spells was more than apparent on her face.

  “I still wouldn’t drink it… Especially knowing what happened with the mist.” I hated to admit it, but even the sparkly water was suspicious with my track record.

  “Magic is quite spectacular!” Amelia was genuinely impressed by my bite sized bead of water. Somehow it just made me feel even worse about it.

  “I… I’ll try something else… mmm… maybe ‘Water’ and ‘Reflection’ could do something?” I was feeling a bit defeated at this point. “I just need to turn the sigil for water upside down… Or possibly the one for reflection?” I pondered aloud.

  Seemed like the order in which the sigils were aligned didn’t make a difference. The spell created a little disk… or more like a flat donut of shimmering water. It just hovered over my hand a bit, not doing much. The moment Fanael made eye contact with it, she began pointing at the disk very unnecessarily aggressively.

  “I think that’s it!! You’re supposed to lift it over your head and kind of spread it over yourself like a veil.” She instructed.

  I lifted the disk over my head and tried grabbing it with my choralium hand to pull it down, but as expected, it was made of water and magic, neither of which are particularly… grabbable things, so it stubbornly remained in place.

  I got a puzzled glance from both of my companions, and stage fright was on at full blast.

  In my unending desire to not embarrass myself in front of my friends, I decided to THINK a bit before acting.

  I had practice of moving magic around already. I made a spiral and a bunch of other things back in Subtherma during my magic experimentation. Considering I needed to make a veil out of the water, I figured a spiral would possibly work, and I began spinning my hand around slowly.

  The sparkling mana began rotating, and to my delight, the edge of the weird donut thing I was holding began stretching out in a wavy motion as the spiraling magic encircled it.

  It began expanding slowly, pulling itself down like an incredibly thin waterfall. I led it all the way to the ground, making sure I was inside of it fully.

  Both Amelia and Fanael were staring at me wide-eyed. Amelia suddenly began waving her hand at me, slapping my side.

  “Ow!!” I yelped.

  “OH!! Forgive me!” The knight stood up, lifting Fanael at the same time. “It’s just… you really did disappear!”

  “I DID?!” I jumped in place with joy, a bit.

  “It’s so creepy to hear your voice coming out of nowhere…” Fanael commented.

  “… I can’t seem to feel my hand…” Amelia commented about the one she smacked me with just a moment ago.

  A dead silence fell into the room, and honestly, I couldn’t even blame them. Even I thought it was stupid. WHY DID ALL THE COOL STUFF I MADE HAVE TO BE TOXIC!?

  After the two yelled at me about RESPONSIBILITY and the CONSEQUENCES of my actions, we finally had a preliminary way of infiltrating the weird building.

  It was time to put the method to a good test.