A splashing sound resounded at the door, a sound I came to recognize as a knocking from my supervising doctor.
“Good day, doctor.”
“Good day, Mr. Devil.” As usual any sign of expression failed to reach his face, but his tone alone showed that he was in a good mood. “Excluding the stabs on the chest your remaining wounds should be fine. As for the energy raging in your chest there’s nothing we can do, though it seems not to expand outwards. Therefore, it should be stable for now.”
“Seems like my best shot is trying to remember how I got them then.”
“That should be the case.” His blue goo shuddered before he continued, the good vibe lost for his next words. “Given that your wounds have mostly healed the arena will stop their payments, forcing us to evict you from this room.”
“I already expected it for a few days.” I forced a smile at him.
“There is something wrong with the system if a life is worth less than money.” He let out a sigh. “Though there’s nothing I can do about that. Remember to sign out at the reception. And I hope the next time we see each other won’t be inside these walls.”
“I would also appreciate that.”
He slid backwards, stopping at the door, before he spoke again. “And there’s someone here to pick you up.”
“Who?” I was genuinely perplexed, given that I knew no one aside from the hospital staff or the goblins, but the slime just muttered as he left the room.
“Ahh, to be young again…”
Turns out this place is pretty easy on people who lost their memory as I could just fill the paper whatever way I wanted, though I did get a pretty weird look from the receptionist when I signed as the devil.
The real surprise however was the dryad waiting for me outside, wearing a white shirt paired with some jeans instead of her usual nurse gown. When I walked towards her she grabbed my hand.
“Surprised to see me? I figured you didn’t have a place to stay at. My friend runs something like an inn, you can probably stay there for now.”
She pulled me with her, not even giving me the chance to ask why.
“Thanks.”
Hearing me she sped up, dragging me down the road past the cold, grey buildings. Quickly we reached the market once more, but without lessening her speed Flora guided me through the passerby, leading me further in than I ever was before.
When we left the market at the other side, we came across some kind of station, or at least that’s what Flora told me. Just like the rest of the streets it had a grey color, with a few windows rising from bottom to top, distinguishing itself from the buildings around it. Above its entry was a sign, though I couldn’t read the symbols written upon it.
But other than that, it wasn’t much different from its surrounding. If not for the multitude of people stepping in and outside one could think of it as another house. Even after stepping through the entry it seemed far too small to accommodate any kind of transport, but Flora guided me through the mass determinedly.
After weaving through the different species, we landed in front of a circle engraved into the ground. There were already a few people waiting upon it, walking to each other, but any sound failed to reach us. Then Flora let go off my hand. As she stepped upon the circle the air rippled around her, before she turned towards me, waving me to her.
Guess one can’t force someone upon this thing.
Stepping upon it showed me why, as it was akin to trudging through water. Some kind of barrier separated this circle from the outside, as I now heard the people inside clearly, while the outside was muted instead.
“The teleportation circle should activate any moment.”
Teleportation circle?
At my stupor she let out an inaudible chuckle.
True to her words a few minutes later the barrier began to ripple, changing into a light blue and blocked our sight. When it became transparent once more a whole new sight waited for us, the walls around no longer stony grey, instead a red brickwork.
Flora began to pull me once more, easily dragging me off the circle and out of the station. “Welcome to the tenth district.”
I walked through the streets with Flora. Opposed to the one we were in before it was far more colorful, with houses ranging from a warm grey, over light yellow, towards a weak red or brown brickwork. Every now and then a tree adorned the streets, bringing some life into it while spending some shade to the streets.
After walking for half an hour Flora touched my shoulder, letting her thoughts flow into me once more. “There it is.” With her other hand she pointed towards a large building, easily four times as big as the surrounding ones, looking more like a public meeting space than somewhere people lived in, especially giving the hustle of voices and the people going in and out.
“They say if you have nowhere else to go then it’s the Morning Sun. They’re pretty friendly, even to outsiders, there’s just one thing you should look out for…”
Before she could continue a shout rang out of the building.
“You really think you can just say these things and walk away!?” A young voice rang out, completely silencing the hubbub inside.
“Not again.” I could feel Flora sigh, though her lips stayed as motionless as ever.
As I wanted to ask about it a burst of flame shot through the door, blasting a bulky lion-kin outside, his mane just like the rest of his body burned to crisps. Shortly afterwards a man stepped outside and placed his fingers at the lion-kin’s neck. Then he stood up, turning around to walk back through the door as he shouted.
“Still alive!”
With his shout the noise continued, everyone ignoring the charred body lying outside. Flora continued to walk forward, waving her hand beside her to tell me to follow. She gave a passing glance to the lion-kin before she continued onwards through the door.
Is this really a place I can stay at? I began to question her words, but she just stood still, holding the door open as she waited for me to follow. Guess here goes nothing.
The inside took the image of this place even further away from what Flora told me. Wooden tables were spread all around next to a bar, turning it into a tavern. Even more than the streets this place was filled with a mixture of species, though opposed from it there was no underlying ill-humor between them. The most eye-catching one though was a fox-kin, officially called kitsune as Flora let me know.
She sprung onto the table, raising her fist into the air, three golden red colored tails swinging around behind her as she grabbed the attention from those around her. “There’s no way we would allow anyone to insult our friend here at the morning sun!”
“Yeah!” The people around answered in a loud chorus.
“And what do we do to those who try?” She shouted cheerfully.
“Burn them!”
Flora made her way through the masses. When she came near the table, I could see the ears from the kitsune twitch before she turned towards her.
“Flora!” She shouted happily as she sprung off the table towards her, not caring that she threw it over as she hugged her. Opposed to throwing her over with the sudden momentum however Flora twisted her body, making them both spin around. “I didn’t knew you were coming today!”
I didn’t know what she said as the dryad’s way to communicate made it impossible to hear anything but the way the kitsune’s ear twitched let one guess, as they pointed upwards in panic as she spoke.
“That guy had it coming for him! Everybody knows what’s waiting for those who try something in here?”
When Flora answered her ear dropped low. “Fine.” She sighed before she turned to the crowd. “Someone, take that man to the hospital.” Seemingly Flora wasn’t satisfied, as anyone could see her nag even without words. In a last attempt to be freed from it she spoke. “What brought you here?”
Now I could feel her sighing even without the telepathy as she gave up on admonishing her and instead pointed towards me.
“You brought someone?” The kitsune turned around. Seeing me she took a step sideways blocking the path between Flora and me. “The elemental.” She was guarded, sure that I did something to Flora as there was no way a dryad would walk around with their natural hazard besides them.
But a touch of Flora turned her look into a puzzled one as she muttered. “A friend?”
Before she could react Flora passed her, laying her hands on my shoulder, but before she could pass her thoughts a panicked shout rang out.
“Don’t!” The kitsune screamed, reaching out to the hand touching me and pulled it away, throwing them both onto the ground this time. “What do you think you’re doing? We need to hurry and stop the…” She paused as she looked at the hand she still clenched onto, still looking just fine. “Fire?” Her view left Flora’s hand, instead looking towards her face, an unamused expression on it.
Shortly afterwards I sat opposed the kitsune, her ears dropping down after an admonishment of her good friend. Flora laid her hand on me once more, this time not stopped by her surroundings as she introduced me.
“This is Homura Miko, leader of the Morning Sun, the place for those who have nowhere left to go to.”
