People will do anything to have fun. After all, boredom is the ultimate displeasure, I think. Someone somewhere has probably said something like that sometime. Somehow. Anyways, there are many ways that we as people deal with boredom. There's having fun, y'know, reading, playing, music, stuff like that. There's productive things, like work, housekeeping, personal improvement, and all that jazz. And there's also vice. Within reason, none of these are bad things. In fact, most people, including me, would argue that, for the most part, they're good things. That said, as with anything, too much of a good thing quickly becomes a bad thing. That much is obvious. But where is the line drawn? When one's satisfied? Or is it when it becomes harmful to themselves or others? What if those lines overlap, or pass each other? What then? 

Anyways, I feel like eating candy. Candy is probably the thing I miss the most from my previous world. It's like cake, or cookies or something, but easy to carry and eat anywhere. It's wonderful. And the small scale opens up so many possibilities that couldn't really exist when considering larger scale sweets. Like, could you imagine a gummy bear the size of a cake? Even just a slice of cake? Sure, it sounds fun, but I'd wager that it'd get old fast. Truly, things like that simply function better as candy. 

Where would I even buy candy? I have my doubts that there's any vendors that only sell candy, or something. In a world without mass production, is there any place for candy in the market? Actually, I'm kind of on the fence for whether or not this world has mass production or not. I mean, obviously technology hasn't come as far as it has in my previous world, but, with magic and all that, there's a good chance that it exists somewhere. I mean, they've got these 'shower in a can' thingies, so anything could be possible, even things on par or surpassing what I've experienced in my previous world. 

I'll just have to keep an eye out, I suppose.  

"Y'know..." S began. "I've already said that Purple's summons were weird, but there's somethin' about 'em that just doesn't sit right with me."

Oh? Is there more to Purple's s story than I thought? "What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, if I'd had to say... I guess there's just no passion behind it."

"Passion?"

"Yeah. Most of the time, you can feel at least a little something when coming face to face with another's magic. It's kinda hard to explain... well, it doesn't really matter. The point is, I felt nothing from those creatures. I mean, especially with magic as strong and difficult as summoning something resembling life itself, you'd think that there'd be some feeling behind that. But... nothing."

"What might that mean?"

"Well... I don't know. I-I guess I could just be pulling stuff out my rear, it's probably nothing... Still. For whatever reason, I can't get it out of my head."

Huh. "To be honest, I can't say I get it." I know squat about magic, after all. "That said, it sounds important." 

There was a pause for a moment. I guess we were both thinking about things.

"You getting the feeling we'll cross paths with them again?" S said after a while. 

"Yeah. Soon, I'd wager." 

S simply nodded. He was probably thinking the same thing.

"Well" S said, getting out of his chair, stretching. "Guess we'll just have to be ready, then." In a flash of heat and a flick of his wrist, he created his blade, and started slicing the air and practice dodging in every direction. It's sort of how I imagine a boxer would train. Neat.

I guess I should practice as well, since there's time to kill. 

I pull out a sickle. I don't think anyone's watching, so I create the holes, put them in place, and, in the same fluid motion, reach out my right hand, and I grab a sickle out of thin air. Oh yeah, that feels cool.

I've trained with these before, and I think I have some grasp on using these as a weapon, but they're still a little unwieldy. Honestly, it might have been easier just to stick with a dagger or something. That would probably have been far easier, and would still look reasonably cool, probably. Well, I say 'easier', but with my experience of roughly 0, any weapon would be a challenge. No matter what, I'm only gonna get better if I practice. Plus, even if my skill is lacking, I still have my magic and the holes to fall back on. Though, I do still have some concerns about the magic. Well, regardless, no amount of standing here thinking about nothing is gonna make me better at anything. For now, I'm just gonna swing at the air for a while until I feel confident enough to swing at other stuff. 

I'm only using 1 sickle for now. I intend to use 2 eventually, y'know, 1 in each hand, but I imagine dual wielding is pretty hard, and I find that gradual growth is generally better. I swing downward, I swing across, and I even practice blocking. Y'know, sickles are actually pretty good for blocking. The curvature means they take up a lot of space, probably making slashing attacks easier to avoid. That said, it'll probably be harder to block pointy attacks, like ones from spears or fencing swords. You take the good with the bad, I suppose.

Our little training session was interrupted by a loud crash coming from the east. Sounds like glass breaking. Not gonna, lie, I jumped out of surprise, and raised my sickle defensively. 

Immediately, the duke and the guard that was with him came rushing back into the room. 

"What was that!?" The duke shouted, concerned and probably a little afraid. The guard was standing in front of him, with their shield and mace at the ready.

"Probably someone who's really pissed off right now." S said. 

"You, open the door!" The dukes guard shouted at me. Right, I guess I am the closest to it, and they probably don't want to leave the dukes side. 

"A-alright." I said, a little scared, putting my sickles away as I headed over to the door. Alright, just gotta pull it open and... it's stuck! I begin panicking. Crap, is it barred? Locked? I look down at the handle to see if there's a keyhole. There is, maybe it's-

"Think that's a push door, dude." S says, chuckling a bit. 

Wow, that's embarrassing. Really? Even in this situation? This always happens to me, I can never get it right... Anyways, I push the door ope-

nope, still not opening. Panicking resumes. I look down at the handle again. And that's when I notice a small sheet of paper with crude handwriting on it poking out from under the door. There's also just a little spot of crimson on the page. Looks like blood. Fresh, I'd wager. 

Obviously, everything about this situation screams ominous. Obviously, the immediate response would be to read the note, to see if it says anything important. There's just one, teensy tiny, real small, minute problem.

I

STILL

CAN'T

REAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!

This is quite the predicament, for sure. That note could say anything. And given the blood, I doubt it's anything good. There are so many layers of not good happening here that it's a little difficult to comprehend. 

Okay, what to do, what to do... 

With my foot, I slide the note back under the door. I don't know why I did that, and have no justification for doing so. 

"T-think it's locked." I shout over to the duke and the guard.

"Oh, bloody-" The duke began before mumbling incoherently and searching his pockets. 

After a moment, I notice the note being pushed through again. Crap, it's back!! I still can't read it! Uh... pretend to ignore it! Got it.

"Ah, here it is." The duke said, walking towards the door with an odd looking key with his hand.

That's when we heard a pained, blood curdling scream from the other side of the door. Hey, is that-

"AMELIA!" The duke shouted, his voice draught with fear and despair, as he rushed to the door at seemingly improbable speeds. He quickly jammed the key into the door, turned it, and, with righteous fury, pushed the door wide op-

Nope, still not working. Hooh boy.

"AMELIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The duke shouted, banging on the door. His face was indescribable. Even with all my hours in pet simulation games, I couldn't even begin to imagine the pain he had to be going through in that moment to make that face. It was almost horrifying. 

Okay, this is clearly a bad situation. A very, very bad situation. Is this my fault? Because of the note? Crap, crap, what should I do? I can't teleport in because I don't know what the inside of that room looks like, uh, uh... 

"BEYES, THE KEYHOLE!" I heard S shout from across the room.

The keyhole? What about the keyhole? What am I supposed to do with they keyhole? How's that supposed to-

Wait... in movies and tv shows and stuff they always look into keyholes to peep into other rooms, right? I see. It's that simple, isn't it?

I peep into the keyhole, and put my hands together in a familiar way. Initially, I can't see anyone in the room. I guess they're just standing away from the keyhole. Oh well, I'll meet them face to face soon enough. Man, I'm really bad at keeping this ability a secret, huh? My hands part, and I fall into the hole I made beneath me, landing inside the room. Guess I have to save the kid again. Ah well.

Or, at least, that's what I thought.

Boy, was I wrong.