I never believed that I would be this distressed by a prophecy. I didn’t even believe in fate or similar, nor did I think that the future is set in stone. I wasn’t worried about destroying this world as well, because that would, in all honestly, be a hassle. While I didn’t think this prophecy was correct, I did worry about the unmistakable huge amount of information that was actually correct. Who knew I came from purgatory and who benefited from spreading such a prophecy? And what it really me this prophecy described? Kat and Luna both claimed they were the same prophecy, so how on earth was I going to suck the brains out of everyone? And I would never open the gates of purgatory for all these monsters … all of them were disgusting to look at!

I hid my worries deep within me, but couldn’t quite enjoy myself with the others anymore. Well, I did like seeing a yellow hue as their souls dripped with happiness, but that was all. Under the still burning tree, we played a few rounds of tag where I was rather absentminded. These kids seemed to have picked something up because more than once, I was asked if I was alright.

After two hours, we parted ways as the others became quite tired. Luna asked where I was going, to which I served her a simple lie about playing poker. She didn’t believe me, but also couldn’t stop me in her tired state.

In any case, a few minutes later I stood in front of Arthur´s tent, surprised that I haven’t lost my way like last time. Well, considering the tent was five hundred metres away and was quite noticeable, this wasn’t exactly a sign of my improving wayfinding abilities.

The air already smelled as if someone was bleeding out, but I could hear two distinct voices within the tent. Without waiting any further, I entered the tent and found myself in front of Arthur, Markus and a third person I didn’t know. Said person was male, wore a normal soldier uniform and was pretty dead. He didn’t breathe, nor did he react as I tipped him with my shoes.

“What is your defence?” Why was I always accused of murders I didn’t commit? Well, it was the first time, but it still felt quite unfair.

“It is simple. I didn’t kill him.” Said I while crossing my arms in front of my chest.

“Where have you been?” Arthur asked, still doubting if I ever told him the truth. And yet, he should know the best as he was the reason I could spend time with the others in the first place.

“At the burning tree, fooling around with a few others. You can ask Luna for an alibi.” I said and smirked in satisfaction.

“Alright … yesterday, you identified wounds and how they were inflicted. Can you do the same with him?” What have I become? A coroner? I sighed and scratched my head, not really sure if I wanted to help out here. It seemed like a fairly standard murder to me and I definitely didn’t care about those. And yet, I still needed to follow Arthur´s orders, at least for now.

“Alright … strip him.” I said while looking at Markus. I wouldn’t touch this corpse, that was for sure. Markus rolled his eyes but reluctantly started undressing the man on the floor until he was in underwear. The man was quite muscular and had a fair amount of cornea on his hands. He was a seasoned fighter and would have resisted if he was given a chance. But he apparently didn’t have one as something sharp entered his neck from behind. “Turn him around.” Except for the wound on his neck, I didn’t see any other marks on his body. “How was he found?”

“He laid on his belly inside the tent he shared with a few others. Nobody saw the murderer, nobody else claimed to be in the tent with him.” Markus answered.

“I see … you are searching for someone who knew him. The person uses a fairly thin dagger, which would be completely unusable during a fight, so it wouldn’t be something a soldier carries around. Maybe a merchant from the supply caravan behind the army … no … a woman? I cannot say anything about her height as she probably knelt beside him while stabbing him. She seems fairly good with the dagger though. Arthur … you may have a spy problem.”

“How confident are you?” Arthur asked and made me think about the other possibilities. I couldn’t think of any, but I also couldn’t say that I was too confident in my assumptions.

“Fairly, although you shouldn’t focus just on my findings alone.” I answered and looked at the man one last time, especially into his eyes. There wasn´t any different colour than brown. His soul already escaped to purgatory.

“I keep that in mind. Markus, if you would be so kind?” I anticipated that he would bring the corpse away, but contrary to my expectations, he walked to a large table with different maps on them.

“Our scouts have reported a bandit group of around a hundred men in front of us. Our plan is to encircle them and crush them completely. They have already done enough damage to the area as it is.” And why exactly was he telling me that? Why should I care? A bit helpless, I glanced towards Arthur who was beaming with anticipation.

Markus on the other hand seemed completely unhappy about the current situation. Arthur probably wanted me to explain my take on the situation, while Markus obviously didn’t want to lose his post as the acting strategic advisor or whatever he was.

“It is a great strategy to crush a smaller enemy with force alone, but causalities will still happen. You only learned to fight the enemy conventionally and while this isn’t exactly bad, it isn’t good either. Give me five hundred men and I will deal with it.” I claimed with a smug on my face. I antagonized Markus even further by doing so, but I didn’t have another choice except to show myself as confident.

“Arthur, I am against this. She hasn’t proven any capabilities as a lea-“ Markus said, but he was interrupted by Arthur how pointed to the dead body on the floor.

“Have you guys seen that?” As I was intensely looking at Markus the whole time, I didn’t look at the body at all. But as I did, I couldn’t spot anything out of the ordinary.

“Guys and girls please … What do you mean?” I asked, a bit curious if Arthur finally went insane.

“… it is nothing … may have been a shadow or something …” Although Arthur previously said it with a firm voice, it wasn’t the case this time. “Going back to our original topic, I do have faith in her. And I did promise her a unit after all.”

How touching. I nearly burst out in tears as I heard that and barely stopped myself from dancing around in joy. I knew that he didn’t trust me yet, but being acknowledged for my capabilities was the beginning.