8.4

“John you idiot!” Angeline’s slapped John’s cheeks, leaving a red mark on him. “Why did you do that!? Why did you have to put yourself in between me and that shapeshifter!?”

John, half furious and half confused at Angeline’s sudden behavior simply stared back at her. “Isn’t that what you do when someone is in danger?! You could have died, and—”

“And then what!? And then what, John!? And then pray for some miracle that I won’t die after your sacrifice!? What happens if Scywell wasn’t here in time?! What would I do then, run and leave you on the spot? Do you think I am capable of that after watching someone I— you die!?” Angeline shouted so loudly that it seemed like a cry for help.

“If you had died… I-I…” her voice croaked and beads of tears began to fall from her hazel eyes, Angeline quietly wiped them away before she spoke again. “I am sorry… I didn’t mean to hit you… My purpose on this team is to support others with my inventions and w-what not… Not for others to help me.”

“That’s not what I was trying to do, I only did that because I had a better chance of surviving if I was hit by the shapeshifter. I had no intentions to sacrifice myself, Angeline. Please…”

Angeline who had tears falling down her cheeks, “I don’t know what I would do if you got injured for me. I didn’t mean to slap you, I was just s-sad that you aren’t taking your own safety into account…”

John rubbed his cheeks and looked up to the nightly sky and watched the moon as he recounted the various acts of recklessness he had done for others up till now.

That night with Evie, Meli’s accident, that incident with Raina before he was exiled, he had always placed the safety of others at the expense of his own. Even just moments ago, he had used excessive magic on the coachman in hopes that a life could be saved.

Sure, he had [Heal], but did that mean he was supposed to put his own body at stake for others? Were there better ways for him to help others without risking himself? The way that he threw his body in harm’s way for others, it started to manifest inside of him ever since that day Raina almost got violated, somewhere deep inside of him, there was this compulsion that told him that he had to do things to the extreme if he did not want others to suffer.

It’s like I am trying kill myself…

He looked to Angeline, who cared more about his well-being than himself. A sense of guilt crawled in him as he came to the understanding that his actions have been hurting her.

John lowered his head, “I guess you are right, Angeline, I just can’t seem to hold myself back when it comes down to situations like these… Yeah, I’ll try to keep myself in check.”

The two of them sat in silence as they waited for Scywell to return to confirm the situation regarding the lich.

“None of you are hurt aren’t you?” said Scywell upon returning. “If you need anything, I can offer you my healing potion.” They shook their heads at that, Scywell then continued, “You both did exceptionally. Earlier, I thought you two were still at the townhall surrounded undead the lich placed but when I got there to help, I could only find the explosive marks from Angeline’s contraptions. It is a relief that you two are unharmed, but part of me still wishes that I could have gotten here sooner, I apologize for that.”

“How’d you know?” John suddenly asked, his eyes gazing towards the frozen statue of the shapeshifter that Scywell had brought along him.

“About?”

“How we are in danger. And that guy over there.” John nudged his chin behind Scywell.

“After we defeated the lich, lowly undead still spawned despite Helen’s attempts to dispel them from the roots with holy magic. That’s when we realized that someone else was behind this, there is no reason that a mere lich would be able to obtain all sorts of equipment. So I left everything else to them and hurried over.”

John nodded to Scywell’s explanation, “That monster… Is your magic enough to hold him?”

“The curse can only be lifted if I commanded it so, though, it is highly unlikely that the shapeshifter is still alive. I am hoping that the empire would be able to analyze where this shapeshifter had come from when I bring his body back.”

“And what about Olivia and the others? Were there any survivors?” Angeline spoke, her face remained still while she waited for Scywell to answer.

“We found survivors, Olivia included, however not many of the hostages were spared when we arrived, we did all we could,” Scywell had a gloomy expression when he spoke. “Now if you’ll excuse me… I shall go surveil if there are any hidden traps before backup arrives, Helen, Gobbert and Randolph should be back anytime soon, wait for them.” Scywell then got to his feet and left to inspect the surrounding area.

The coachman finally regained to his consciousness not long after, after John and Angeline had informed him what happened, he thanked both of them and explained what he remembered before he got knocked out.

“…The last thing I remember was that I would die in this cold night alone, betrayed by my fellow soldiers. Who knew that they were undead summoned by that fellow over there” the coachman said while pointed to the frozen statue of the shapeshifter in the distance. “But thanks to you two, that future is no more. I am really, really, grateful for your help, I don’t know what my family would feel if I am dead…” He then pulled out his coin pouch and placed it on John’s hands. “It isn’t much but please take these as a token of my appreciation.”

“No. This isn’t what I wanted. I simply came out tonight to help.” John ejected by pushing them back to the coachman’s arms, he looked at Angeline for help but she simply ignored him. “Really... Just keep them for yourself.”

When John rejected it, the coachman turned to Angeline, she made a polite wave and a shake of her head. “No thank you. I am just glad none of us are hurt,” she said, stealing a glance at John who had his eyes on the outside.

“Ahh… I see what’s going on,” the coachman whispered to himself. “If you don’t mind Miss Angeline, I shall be at the driver’s seat if any of you need me,” with that, the coachman left the two of them alone.

John was extremely exhausted, physically and mentally, even more so after the coachman tried to give him the pouch of money. His body felt though it was burning from constantly keeping his guard up, between the undead horde that masked themselves to be villagers and the shapeshifter, he was as focused as he could be.

Now that all danger was gone, he could feel all his energy draining from him.

He got to his feet and went to a meadow of grass before he laid on his back to stare at the skies. Though he preferred to be in on a bed to rest himself—even if he was just going to lie about—his desire to spend time on his own prompted him to relax with the soft wind brushing on across his face.

His thoughts went back to what Evie said to him about how he was to focus his attention and command his mana to take form.

If I learned to control my ‘demon’ magic, maybe I could have defeated the shapeshifter then?

He raised a hand in front of him and aimed at the sky.

“[Fireball].”

Nothing came from it.

John let out a tired grunt and dropped his arm to the ground.

I am too tried for this…

He took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. It was then he decided to close his eyes and have a nap to regain the energy he lost. Maybe when he woke up after a few minutes, he might find success in his magic casting.

The grass beside him rustled as a voice came to him “A long night, huh?” Angeline’s spoke as she gently placed herself beside him on the grassy grounds.

“Yeah…”

“I still can’t believe that the shapeshifter was able to cover all his tracks before we got here. I was almost fooled if I didn’t see your reaction,” she said.

“…”

“I wonder what would have happened if you haven’t got me out of the townhall…”

“I was just lucky. It was all thanks to the boy… I realize that the reason only I saw him was because the boy is a ghost.” John voice became small, “It’s just my luck that I encountered such a messenger ghost who told me about the undead back then. Did you know that I saw him before I realized something was off about our coachman?”

“I think, the term spirit would be more accurate,” Angeline corrected him. “That’s what messenger ghosts actually are. They are spirits instead of ghosts.”

“A spirit?” John made a face at her, then placed a hand on his head and ruffled his hair in awe.

“Yes.”

Spirits, though not to mistaken with ghosts, are just as ghastly, and if not, more so nefarious than its counterpart.

In general terms, ghosts are fragments of a soul that died an unjustly death haunting the very grounds until they become exorcised. Spirits however, are the copies of the soul that was left in the world to fulfill goals and desires alike—be it good or evil—that the original soul had dedicated itself to, though the owners of the original souls have passed on, their desire were so strong that a copy was made from the residue mana of their death.

“The kind that appears in children’s stories? The spirits that would kill you if you disturbed their cursed grounds or do something they don’t like?”

“Yes, but not as you put it. There are non-hostile spirits too, they often appear to those who have similar circumstances to them, guiding the living closer to their goals and to help fulfill theirs, only then do these non-hostile spirits would finally move on. Ghosts, in reality are more passive and avoid the living, but spirits go out of their way to interact with the living, as it was in your case.”

“But why me?” he blurted out in surprise

Angeline looked to the ground, her face turned into a frown from being unable to answer his question, “That... I don’t know. Sorry, I am not too familiar with the paranormal, I only know that much. But it is interesting that a spirit took on a form of a child to communicate with you, it is though it knew you would communicate with it.”

What desires did John have that would prompt a spirit to appear to him? Moreover, why did the spirit he saw, took on the form of a mute young boy? Was it to gain his trust through the guise of innocence?

“…”

John sat in silence as the night went on, for not even he himself understood what the spirit and him had in common.

Helen, Gobbert and Randolph returned with the survivors after an hour or so passed, the survivors were then given blankets and rations while everyone waited for the main force from the empire to arrive and deal with situation at Kershent Village.

The equipment that the lich had were also retrieved in order for the empire to further investigate to where they originated.

John and Angeline had not spoken a word about the ‘villagers’ that were in the townhall to the survivors, it was clear from the pained expressions of the eight villagers that was recovered from the lich, they knew what happened to the rest of the villagers that the hero and his party were supposed to bring to safety.

None of them survived.

Along with the eight that returned safely, three were actually soldiers that were stationed to Kershent Village. Oliva, the mage that informed headquarters and Scywell’s party regarding the lich’s sighting was affected by the situation the most.

“I failed… I failed… I told them that I would keep them safe…” the imperial mage covered her face as Helen comforted her. Seated on a rock where she was away from the villagers’ view, her body trembled despite the two soldiers who were with her tried to ease her worries. “T-that monster… I-it turned them all…into undead… If o-only I reported in e-earlier… T-then none of this will have happened.”

“Don’t blame yourself too much. It wasn’t something any of us could do…”

“Y-yeah… If it weren’t for you, we might have lost our own lives already.”

The two soldiers tried their best to console her but those words further stirred her worsening condition, “T-the m-monster slaughtered them in front of us… A-all because it wanted to open the sealed doors…t-the monolith…”

The two soldiers tried to comfort Oliva once more but before they could, Helen muttered a sleep spell and put Olivia into a deep sleep.

“All of you did your best, there is no one to blame for what happened.”

Helen then looked towards Angeline who was observing from a distance, she gave Angeline a slight shake of her head to indicate something before she carried the passed out Olivia to the coach where the rest of the villagers were.

Angeline then let out a deep sigh, shook her head dejectedly as Helen returned tending to Olivia, carrying the imperial mage into their carriage and allowed her to rest there.

“We’ve lost her. She can’t be a field mage anymore…” Angeline pushed her hair to her side, looked at John for a brief moment before she turned her head to the grass grounds. “It’s not like I can’t understand Olivia’s feelings but to have watched people you pledged to protect be murdered in cold blood before you... It seems that the lich delivered a big blow to her psyche.”

“…”

“John, things like why I don’t specialize in combat magic, or rather why I choose to be the supporter in Scywell’s team. Because when the responsibility of other lives falls into my hands, I don’t think I will be able to do what it takes. Helen, Scywell, Gobbert, you…or even Randolph, all of you face danger so bravely on that I sometimes wonder, if everyone are better off without me in the team and I should just stick to my little experiments. Oliva was different though… She was ambitious, much more than me, I guess that’s why she is my senior back when I was in the empire’s Inventor’s Department”

“Inventor’s department?” John raised his hands and paused himself. “You mean the actual Inventor’s Department? The department that made mass production of magic tools possible? The place where gene modification on the wyverns was successfully done?”

“Um, yeah? Didn’t I tell you about it awhile back?”

John squinted his eyes, and shook his head, “No… You said you worked for the empire before this, you never mentioned anything else.”

“O-oh… Well, now you know…” Angeline’s face blushed.

“Then why did you leave? Isn’t that a great place where many people aspire to be in?”

“Who knows… It’s been a long time since I was there, I honestly can’t remember a life before working to save people’s lives. It’s not like that place was made for a kid anyways, so I guess I got bored.”

“A kid— Hang on, how old were you when you entered?”

“Fourteen? Yeah, around then, but I left not long after that.”

“Fourteen—” John stopped himself before he exclaimed.

“Hmm? Did you say something?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. You can continue.”

Doesn’t that make her a child prodigy!? I mean, she is not in the hero’s party for no reason. But still… John felt a little overwhelmed that Angeline’s background was much different than the average Moxnet student. How old is she again? Twenty… Ah twenty-two, she’s three years older than I am.

“But you know… Maybe that place isn’t such a bad place after all, I’ll consider returning when saving people with everyone becomes too much for me. Or when I get married…” Angeline stopped speaking, her face became pink as she gushed to herself with hands on her cheeks as she shot a glance at him.

John rolled his eyes at her sudden change in personality, one moment she was the uncertain child prodigy, the next she became a blushing idiot when marriage is brought up.

“That is, if you find someone who will marry you…” John let out a sly comment, intentionally provoking Angeline should she hear his quiet comment.

Unfortunately for him, Angeline’s ears were as sharp as a bat’s, she immediately turned to him with a face that dared him to repeat his words, “What did you say?”

“Ahahaha, I said, I like potatoes. They are good when you bake them in slices.”

“That’s not you said, John!” she became even flustered, her arms akimbo as she tried to get him to apologize. “And why potatoes?”

“Cause that face you are making right now looks like one! Hahaha!”

“You moron! Rascal!” she started to deliver soft punches to his arms in protest.

This charade of theirs continued until the break of dawn when help came. Troops and troops of soldiers from Dezarith Empire arrived and flooded into Kershen Village, the many soldiers marched in bravely into Kershent and began undoing the traps and destruction that the lich and shapeshifter had done. And thus, this mission of theirs came to an end, the lich was defeated, the few villagers who still lived were saved.

In the very distance, on the very hill that John and Angeline had first found themselves after escaping the undead horde, a ghastly image of a little boy was staring at the influx of imperial carriages and coaches entering Kershent Village. His stretched his hand to the one person who acknowledged his presence from where he stood.

The boy knew it was futile, but he hoped that that person was able to notice him despite the distance between them. He mouthed the same words over and over at that person but no matter how much he called to him, that person who saw him earlier could not hear him.

And when that person finally did looked at his away, the sun was already up, and the boy’s image had disappeared and the final message that he wanted to give the person disappeared along with him.

Thank you for allowing this humble one to serve, my lord.

“Hey John, let’s go!” Randolph called out to John who was staring off in a distance when everyone in the hero’s party had boarded the coach. John was the last to board their return trip, but for some reason his eyes were focused to the distance.

He can’t help but feel a sense of emptiness before he left Kershent Village. He had to wonder, if just for a little, what did he gained from this adventure with the hero’s party. If he could, he wanted to see the boy again and thank him once more for what he did for him, alas, the sun had risen and the spirit who he encountered was nowhere to be seen.

He closed his eyes, lowered his head and muttered his share of thanks, to the open fields of Kershent village, in hopes that his gratitude would be received by the boy.

All of a sudden, a large hand found itself onto John’s shoulders. “Let’s go, John,” Gobbert said to him in a kind smile. “You can sleep when we get back, the empire will handle the rest.”

“O-oh, right!” John returned from his daze, quickly stepped into the coach before it took off.

He did his best to succumb to the drowsiness, before he knew it, John and the hero’s party had arrived Moxnet Academy and he somehow returned to his room and collapsed on his soft bed.