Whelp, that was weird. Well, at this point I'm just standing around alone in an empty closet (citation needed) like an idiot, so I guess I should, y'know, stop standing around in an empty closet(?) like an idiot. I could just teleport out, but, I mean, since I'm here, I may as well unblock the door, right? It's common courtesy, really.

Or, at least, that's what I thought I was gonna do, but it doesn't seem to actually be blocked at all. Strange. We're they just, like, pressing on it really hard? Wait, they probably just used magic, or something. Neat. Guess I'll just, uh, walk out the door, then. 

I push the door op-

I pull the door open. 

The duke was hugging a very confused Amelia and sobbing, the guard was looking very distraught, and S seemed to be standing in the same place that he was when I warped into the other room, but he looked almost tired, and incredibly relieved. It was as if he'd just finished watching a horror movie or something. 

I never really cared for horror. I always lost sleep 'cus I got spooked. 

I didn't want to intrude on whatever was happening with the duke and the child, so I awkwardly walked past, towards S.

"Yo." S began. "What happened in there? Are you okay?"

"Yo." I responded. "Yeah, I'm fine, I think. I just had a chat with that purple robed guy from earlier."

"So it was him. Figured. What did he want?" 

"Actually, I'm not sure if it's a 'he' at all. It was a little hard to tell. Anyways, I don't really know they wanted. They claimed that they just wanted a chat. Maybe it was a warning, or a threat? I dunno... Way beyond scary, though. And also very rude." 

S chuckled a bit before continuing. "Really? They went through all this just for a chat?" 

"Yeah. I think they're nuts." I mean, breaking and entering into a rich nobles house while he's inside would be a death sentence for most criminals. 

"Right about that. Crazy powerful, too. Truth is, they've been watching us since we came entered this house."

Huh!? "R-really?"

"Yeah. I think, at least. Ever since we came in, I felt an odd presence, like eyes constantly staring into the back of my head. It didn't seem like anyone else noticed, so I didn't want to draw attention to it, in case they, I dunno, blew the place up once I mentioned it, or something.  Honestly, I can't help but wonder whether or not that was the right choice. Well, nobody got hurt, so it's probably fine. Oh, and it went away shortly before you got out, so don't worry about that."

Yikes. Holy crap, this person gets scarier and scarier with each passing moment. And yet, they claimed to be scared of me, or at least scared of what I can do. Weird.

Wait, if they were watching us the whole time... "Why'd they choose to attack here, and now? Why not earlier, when I was isolated in that room?" 

"I think it's because that room faced the front yard, which might have made it harder to break in, or something. Honestly, I'd wondered about that as well, and that was the only reasonable conclusion I came to." 

"Yeah, that checks out. Or maybe they just wanted to wait 'till we finished up with the duke." I joked. 

S chuckled. Then paused for a bit, thinking. "Actually, that could easily be the case. I mean, they weren't hostile, right? Maybe they were just being considerate, in a weird, insane kinda way."

"Huh." I said. Thinking about it, yeah, I guess that is a possibility. I mean, they went through so much trouble just to chat with me, right? That begs the question, what exactly do they think of me? Would they do all that for someone they disliked? Do they, perhaps, think of me as a friend? If that's the case, then that makes sense. You'd want to let a friend finish their business before spending time with them, right? And you also wouldn't want to stay too long if they were busy, which would explain the abrupt exit. 

But would they really think that after a battle like that? I mean, it ended in us both getting beat pretty bad, though, we both recovered fairly quickly. Oh, crap, I didn't think of this until now, but they also must've healed up after the fight, as well. Did they heal themselves, or did they have someone else do it? I guess I have no way of knowing either way. Ah well.

At the very least, they mentioned that they enjoyed my little charade at the end of our brawl, and they seemed quite interested in my ability, but, thinking about it, they didn't really ask about me at all. Plenty about my ability, and they even revealed a bit about themselves, but little about me.

Alright, I think that, if nothing else, they hold a positive opinion of the things I can do, and it's unclear what they think about me. Probably. I'm kinda grasping at straws here. 

"Anyways," S began, brining me back to reality as my train of thought concluded. "What were they like? Maybe we can figure something out about them." 

"Well... it's kinda hard to say. They're young, tallish, and were clothed very practically. Also, they also had this huge backpack, full of god knows what. Their face sort of reminded me of a cat, for some reason." 

"A cat?"

"It's hard to explain... you'd know if you saw it. As for their personality, they seemed eerily confident, and kept talking in acting terms. The whole thing felt vaguely threatening." 

"How so?"

"I dunno... we weren't talking for very long, so I can't elaborate on much."

"Right, that's fair. Nothing we can do about that... Anyways, what should we do once this is over with? Should we still head to the mountains, or should we check out Basenholm?"

Oh yeah, we had plans to go to the mountains, didn't we? Honestly, I'm more than fine with skipping that for a while. "Checking out Basenholm seems like a good idea, since we're gonna be living there soon."

"Right, I was thinking the same thing. I've never been there, personally, but I've heard it's real nice. Small, but nice." 

"That's probably a good thing, since we can just go to a larger town any time."

"Right on." 

After that, S and I just sat and chatted about nothing in particular for a while, until the duke finished his thing. Apparently, the duke's in his 40s, according to S at least. That's surprising, though I guess he did look a little young to have a kid.

Eventually, the housekeeper lady returned with the map the duke had asked for earlier. She simply walked in, handed him the thing, said "Here you are, sir." and then left, all with machine like efficiency, paying no mind to the dukes current state. It was very impressive, and incredibly professional. I almost wanted to give he an applause.

Soon after that, the duke finished up with his episode, and stepped out of the room for a moment. Amelia seemed very tired by that point. She quickly greeted us before she left, presumably to go to bed. It was probably a reasonable response. 

It wasn't long before the duke came back, with his posture regained, though his hair and his clothes were a little messy.

"Terribly sorry about that, er, incident." The duke began.

"Ah, don't worry about it." S said.

"Y-yeah, it's no big deal." I said. 

"Please, you are too kind." The duke continued. "Now, I hate to push you boys out at this point, but there is much work to be done, so I must ask you to leave." He handed me the map. "We'll be sending men out to Basenholm tomorrow, and they should be done with the finishing touches in a matter of weeks. After that, the place is all yours." 

I looked down at the map. On the front side was a map of the continent as a whole, with what I assume are cities and towns marked out. Towards the southern part of the eastern border, there was a little red spot with some writing on it on a tiny peninsula. It's like a river sliced out a part of the continent, it's kinda odd lookin. I presume that's where Basenholm is located. On the back there was a more detailed map of just the little island peninsula thingy, with more specific directions to the property. By that I mean a massive, obvious dotted line. A mostly illiterate friendly map, just how I like it.

"Whelp, guess we'll be off then." S said. "Later, Goldy!" He continued, waving.

"Y-yeah. Goodbye." I said. Man, S is really informal with nobility. Though, it's not like I know how to properly interact with them, either. 

"Indeed. Once again, thank you boys ever so much. Until we meet again!" The duke said, also waving us off. 

After that, we were lead outside by the housekeeper lady, and, after an almost tiring amount of walking, (seriously, that house is huge.) we were outside. 

"Right, should we head strait to Basenholm, or should we hang town for a bit?" S said. The duke's place was within walking distance from the regional capital, a pretty major city. 

"We may as well see the city, so that I can warp us there if need be, but we don't have to look around much." I said. 

"Right, that's a good plan. We may as well stock up on travel supplies while we're there, as well." 

"Yeah, lets do that. Also-" My stomach growled rather loudly, interrupting me. Boy, I'm glad that didn't happen while we were in the duke's place. "I haven't eaten since breakfast."

S chuckled. "Right, we'll do that too."