AHHHHHH!
The screech echoed through the forest.
Sanatis backed herself into a tree, trembling in fear.
“...”
Zaleis pinched his nose bridge with a sigh, “If you’re that scared of spiderwebs, why did you even come?”
“I-I have to-”
She covered her mouth with her hands, realizing she almost said to much.
Zaleis tsked, frustrated that she kept catching herself before he uncovered her secret.
He began considering whether or not to just force it out of her.
Elric snickered at her mockingly when he suddenly gasped in pain.
Everyone looked towards him as as he buried his head into his arms while he collapsed to his knees.
“Agh!- Damn It!- Argh!”
Zaleis ran over to him, still mostly composed.
“Young master, dont do this now! Not with others-!”
He grit his teeth, realizing there was nothing he could do.
”...Fuck.”
He muttered under his breath.
Sanatis seemed concerned as she hesitated on running over there
“I-is he okay?”
Zaleis backed up, and Elric’s hands fell limply to his sides as he went quiet.
A while passed like this, entirely silent, everyone focusing intently on Elric who sat on the ground quietly. Save for Jaylin, who was totally not paying attention and was speaking with Exilis.
I just sensed the Sicklebery Vines further in the forest, you’ll fine them if you keep going straight forward.
You used mana to look for plants? Pardon me for the distrust,-Jaylin apologized half-heartedly- but I find that quite hard to believe.
Of course I didn’t, these Sickleberry Vines are infused with mana. I sensed them, and I believe the reason they’ve become a problem is because the normal animals are getting too powerful after eating them.
Exilis has the ability to sense mana. It was somewhat ironic that one of only things he spent mana on was a means to get more mana. Exilis applied a seal on himself that served as a permanent mana search spell. Jaylin, as someone who rarely ever wanted more mana, felt it was quite useless.
Elric began to stand up and Jaylin finally looked towards him.
Elric pressed his hands to his knees, gathering strength as he stood up slowly and raised his head. Something seemed different about him. He was...more sinister. His eyes shined through his unkempt locks of bangs, except instead of the short tempered immaturity of before, his eyes were extremely cold.
His icy stare looked over at Zaleis, then around at his surroundings. He stared at the trees, clearly confused as his eyes suddenly filled with annoyance.
The colder Elric ran his fingers through his hair. “Sigh. Zaleis, what did he do this time?”
Zaleis seems to be expecting the question since he responded immediately after, “The young master ran to the Izelix Guild Office to get a quest. We are currently completing the quest.”
Sanatis looked completely perplexed, voicing her confusion, she spoke, “W-what the hell is going on?”
‘Elric’ looked towards the voice, shocked. He turned and saw both Jaylin and Sanatis. It dawned on him that they hadn’t gone on this quest alone.
He looked towards Zaleis, who lowered his head muttering, “Apologies, sir.”
“Damn it...what do we do now...?”
Elric grumbled unhappily.
“E-excuse me? What the heck is going on?”
Zaleis took a deep breath and stepped in front of Elric.
“This is an important secret of the Lenova family. I ask that you two keep it a secret.”
Sanatis was still baffled
“Wai-What? What is going on?”
Master.
Jaylin looked towards his sword, who spoke suddenly
Yes?
Is it just me?
Guessing what Exilis was getting at, Jaylin responded,
No.
He has two souls?
Yes. And they seem to have entirely different personalities.
...
Exilis was silent for a while.
Oh...well...
Cool...
I suppose.
...
By the time Jaylin returned his attention to the humans, Zaleis explained what was going on to Sanatis, and made a request
“You’ve heard our secret. Now we wish to hear yours.”
“What?! I never agreed to that!”
“The Lenova family would like to avoid possible blackmail, whether from you, or anyone you might tell.”
“What about him?!”
Sanatis signaled at Jaylin angrily.
“He doesn’t have such an obvious secret... and we can always pay for his silence.”
Zaleis looked at Jaylin who hadn’t spoken the entire time.
“It really doesn’t seem very expensive, honestly.”
“Well, anyways no! I’m not telling you!”
“So you do have a secret.”
Sanatis crossed her arms, clicking her tongue in annoyance. “Well, duh. I’m well aware that’s been established by now.”
Zaleis back to the matter of importance, “I won’t hesitate to force it out of you, but I hope you won’t make me go so far.”
“I don’t care! You can’t make me!”
“That’s exactly what forcing means.”
“...”
“Are you going to keep resisting, or can we get back to the quest?”
“Yes! I’m not telling you anything! You can just sit here till the end of time!”
“It’s not like we would tell anyone, you have leverage on us too.”
“Yeah, my word against the entire Lenova family. If I even got to speak before I was ‘silenced’ the only people who would believe me are lunatics!”
“... I assure you, the Lenova’s would not stoop to such things.”
“Why would I trust someone who tried to swindle my private matters out of me!”
“We’re not doing this for personal gain, we’re doing it for young master Elric. He deserves a normal life.”
“...”
“Please.”
Sanatis grit her teeth
“AS IF!!! if you wanted a normal life so badly, don’t take him out on quests!”
“I don’t have the authority to stop young master Elric from doing what he wants.”
“You can’t stop him on behalf of his parents, or the Lenova family elders?! Ridiculous.
Wait. Unless...”
Zaleis flinched.
“You’re not acting on behalf of his parents! They don’t know about it, do they?!”
“Tch. Yeah, and you’re a underage girl taking quests. The guild office might turn a blind eye, but it’s still most definitely illegal! If we turned you in, the guild wouldn’t be able to ignore your age anymore!”
It was Sanatis’ turn to flinch now. She clenched her fists and shouted, “I’m not gonna tell anyone anyways! But you’re not getting anything out of me!”
“It’s a reasonable request! You have our secret, give us yours!”
“PAH! it’s not my fault you revealed yourself!”...
This continued back and forth.
In a place where the group couldn’t see, Jaylin facepalmed.
I consider myself a patient person. But I’m getting sick of this.
Exilis, remembering a certain ‘incident’ 10,000 years ago, muttered
Patient. Really?
Sorry did I hear something?
Exilis sighed,
Of course not, Master.
Jaylin looked towards Zaleis and Sanatis, still arguing, except Zaleis seemed to be on the verge of starting a fight.
He sighed loudly and they temporarily stopped their argument to looks towards him.
His face was still as indifferent as before, save for his somewhat furrowed brows.
“You really want to hear her secret?”
Zaleis deactivated his spell, confused.
“Eh?”
“She’s got a dragon hiding in a mana bubble.”
“!!! HOW DID YOU-!?”
“Wait, it’s true?!”
“Let’s get going.”
Jaylin walked towards the Sickleberry Vines, past the dumbfounded party members.
He walked past ‘Elric’ who looked at him with his cold glare, clearly filled with suspicion.
Jaylin stared back.
Only after staring at him in the eyes, did ‘Elric’ see how empty Jaylin’s eyes were. As if he were looking at an ant.
Needless to say, Zaleis and Sanatis didn’t follow him, they took some time discussing their ‘secrets’. Like gossiping schoolchildren.
Jaylin had made his way to the Sickleberry Vines, ‘Elric’ a distance behind him, with his guard up.
Eventually, Zaleis caught up with them, informing Elric that Sanatis wanted to split up in a telepathic message. Jaylin could hear it very clearly, but of course they were not aware of this. For some reason, they thought communicating this way was a good idea. Not that Jaylin could blame them. The telepathy spell is known to be strangely efficient. Even if one manages to cast one of the weakest grade, someone tons of times stronger than them still wouldn’t be able to hear. Unfortunately they were not aware that the difference between their magic power and Jaylin’s was so abysmal that such rules didn’t matter.
But really.
Jaylin glanced back at the two men, who had been talking about classified details of the Lenova family for nearly five minutes. He would never understand what in the gods convinced them to talk about this here, but oh well. It didn’t matter, they were nearly at the Sickleberry Vine Infestation.
Tearing away some other plants blocking the way, Jaylin was faced with a massive tangle of vines. The vines were covered entirely by curved spines.
Well, I get the name now.
Muttered Exilis.
Indeed.
...
Well the mana crystal supporting it is embedded in the very center.
Oh.
While Jaylin was trying to find where in the gods the center was, Zaleis fired a B-grade wind blade and sliced the lump of plants clean in half. He spotted a shiny blue mana crystal and went to pick it up.
Jaylin thought it was nothing special, merely the size of a thumbnail.
Zaleis seemed to think differently. He held it carefully as if it was a treasure, and slipped it into his pocket. He looked towards Jaylin, checking if he saw it, and if he did, if he would see a problem in him keeping it. Seeing Jaylin, still as indifferent as ever, he breathed a sigh of relief.
The Sickleberry Vines started shriveling up at a speed visible to the naked eye. The Hollowed Forest wasn’t suited for their species at all. Their survival was solely supported by the Mana Crystal.
‘Elric’ cast a C-grade fire spell and burnt the remnants of the vines, as he turned and made his way out of the forest.
Jaylin looked at the trees that surrounded them at all sides and felt that a fire spell wasn’t the best idea.
Luckily for the forest, Zaleis and ‘Elric’ had a good tacit understanding, and Zaleis knew to use a water spell to extinguish it after the Sickleberry Vines had burnt.
Zaleis followed after Elric, and Jaylin was left staring at piles of soggy plant ashes.
The boredom that encased his being since the beginning of time was still ever prominent.
That’s it?
Seems so.
Replied Exilis.
Doing quests is boring.
Well, with your strength, what else did you expect?
Something to fight.
Low level guild quest are basically just odd jobs that no one else wants.
Jaylin rubbed his temples with a raised brow.
Well, I believe it was recommended to me as an entertaining occupation.
Exilis sighed in exasperation
As a man with no conventional hobbies, you asking for a suitable job is like asking the heavens to rebuild themself.
...
Jaylin sighed, then turned to walk out of the forest.
“How utterly disappointing.”
