Where is Iah?
Where is Elyon?
Ask the wind.
― Common folk saying

Asteria

The hero’s quest has started!

Oren returned ten days later. He met with Katja first then they went to see me. They wanted to say goodbye because Oren had decided to search for his missing sibling, and Katja was going with him.

“I'm going to find the truth. Before he died, my father told me that his previous wife was pregnant when she disappeared. He’s sure the Kraej Company scientists took her for their experiments,” said Oren. “When her body was found later, she’d given birth, but there was no sign of the child.”

“You resigned? I thought soldiers couldn’t quit once they enlisted,” I said.

“I was only on a temporary contract since I didn’t pass the physical,” said Oren. “Even if I had an enlistment contract, I’d desert anyway. I’ll never work for the Kraej ever again.”

Oren’s clear blue eyes had a certain hardness and coldness that hadn’t been there before. This was the first time I’d seen him outside of the uniform he’d been so proud of wearing. He was in khakis and a black T-shirt.

“That’s… that’s…” I stammered.

“Don’t look so worried, Asteria,” said Katja. She was wearing her usual jeans and T-shirt combo. Unlike Oren, she was the same bubbly girl she always was.

“I didn’t mean you, Asteria,” said Oren. “I know you’re not working for the Kraej, and I trust you.”

“But where will you go? What will you do?” I asked.

“I’ll start from the beginning and look for clues in Herning where she disappeared,” said Oren.

“It’ll be fine. I’ll take care of him,” said Katja.

“I’m glad you’re going with Oren. Why don’t I go with you, too?” I said.

Oren and Katja exchanged glances. Oren scratched his head, and Katja looked up at the ceiling of my apartment as though searching for answers there.

“You guys! I’d be useful,” I said. “I traveled from Lieceni to Kraej City on my own, you know.”

“We know,” said Oren.

“Must have been a miracle,” said Katja.

“Fine. I’ll stay here, but you have to promise to call me if you need anything,” I said.

“No. These people kidnap people and leave only corpses behind. It would be too dangerous to keep in touch after we leave,” said Oren. “This is goodbye.”

“I’m just waiting for my salary. We’ll be leaving in two days,” said Katja.

I hugged Katja and Oren. “Be safe. Take care of each other.”

Katja and I were crying openly.

“Take care of yourself,” said Oren. His voice was a little choked up.

I begged them to stay one last night with me in my apartment. We didn’t sleep a wink and spent the entire time talking. We mostly reminisced about our time together. I told them about how hard life had been in Lieceni with only a mother who was mostly out of it. Katja and Oren talked about their hometown and their families.

None of us discussed their mission, but I casually mentioned that my new job meant that I had to travel to Varde, Dragor, and Virklund. Those three towns were near three important events in “Tales of Vesterland.”

“At least promise me you won’t do anything reckless. If something’s too dangerous, retreat and come back to it later when you’re stronger,” I said.

“I’ll try,” said Oren.

That wasn’t a promise at all.

I didn’t know then that there would be a complication.

***

Oren and Katja weren’t able to leave in two days.

The day of their departure, I woke up screaming.

“Calm down. Calm down,” I said to myself. I’d dreamed about one of the most spectacular events in “Tales of Vesterland,” the monster wave. That wasn’t supposed to happen until much later in the game’s plot when the hero and his companions had leveled up.

Oren and Katja had mentioned that the monsters around Esbjerg, their hometown, had been acting strangely and had glowing green eyes. I hadn’t paid attention to that, but my subconscious must have realized that something was up. When I woke up, I remembered that glowing green eyes was one of the earliest warning signs of an oncoming monster wave. That was when monsters in the continent became mad and rushed towards the eastern sea, killing everything in their path.

Esberg was a port city in the westernmost part of the continent. Kraej City was in the easternmost part. In between were sparsely populated small towns like Lieceni.

From what I remembered from my studies in this world, the last monster wave occurred more than a thousand years ago. The people in the small towns had survived by hiding in the mountains. That wouldn’t work for the people in Kraej City. There were twenty-eight million people in this megalopolis who had nowhere to go.

“Damn,” I said out loud. Time was of the essence now. I didn’t wait to brush my teeth before calling the emergency number Magnus had given me all those years ago. I explained to the person on the phone that I’d found out from friends that monsters on the west coast were acting strangely and that I believed that a monster wave was incoming.

The glowing green eyes were the first sign. The second sign was when their eyes turned red. They would start rampaging and rushing to the lowlands then. The third and last sign was when their eyes went black. That was when all the monsters would start rushing to the eastern sea to their death.

The person on the phone patiently listened to me then asked me to wait for the reply. I was not to speak of this to anyone in the meantime.

After brushing my teeth, I spent the next hour pacing in my apartment. I did have the presence of mind to order a bunch of five-gallon water containers and emergency lights in case the electricity and water were cut off in the future. I also made a list of food and other items that would be useful in a city-wide emergency.

Seraphiel, Sariel, and Uriel wouldn’t run out of essential supplies because the army undoubtedly had their stockpiles. Oren and Katja, on the other hand, weren’t that lucky. I planned to buy enough for all three of us.