+++ Alfon’s Perspective +++

“Are you sure you should be playing games right now?” I stared exasperatedly at Lucas, who had taken up residence atop my couch at the hours of dusk, “Don’t you have work tomorrow?”

“Lay off my case man, it’s been a rough week.”

“You say that every week.” I rolled my eyes at his practiced excuse.

“Yeah. Be grateful. If I didn’t come over this often you’d be a starving husk on the ground.” He chuckled.

As I resumed picking away at my dinner I could hear the simulated gunshot sound effects coming through from his console. He must be playing one of those shooters of his again. “I’ll never understand what’s so enticing about those video games of yours.”

“I’ll never understand why you don’t like them.” He shoots back.

“I can find more satisfactory means of entertainment through real experiences.”

“Not everyone can afford to go horseback riding every Sunday Mr. Moneybags.” 

My fork paused on its way to my mouth. “Lucas. That’s crossing the line. You know I don’t spend time with my father because I enjoy it.”

I couldn’t see the look on his face, but his shoulders seemed to sag a bit at my words, “Yeah. Sorry. My bad. I had a rough week.”

“You know, if your current employer treats you unkindly, I can always find you a spot in my department. It’s not like you’re unqualified.” I suggested. Indeed, despite the way he acts, Lucas’ skills were the real deal, having him on the team would be quite a boon actually.

“Thanks for the offer, but like I said before, I want us to remain friends.” He turned to look at me, “On equal footing.”

“I'd treat you the same as I always have.”

“I know you would, man. But trust me, it's more for me than it is for you. And besides, it's not even work that’s bugging me.” He walked to the TV and shut it off.

“You’re done? Already?” This was rather early for him.

“Yeah. This game is terrible.”

“Really? What makes it so bad? Seemed the same to me.”

He took out the disk and put it back into the CD case he brought with him. “The difficulty scaling is way off. It gets unreasonably hard too quickly, to the point where it's not even enjoyable.”

He complained while waving the game disk around.

“It’s like no matter what you do at that stage, you are meant to lose.”

“Oh really?” A game you were meant to lose? Sounds like a terrible product to me.

“Unless you play it multiplayer I guess. But even then...”

His words went in one ear and came out the other. I didn’t bother listening to him when he went on his rants about games.

Ding dong.

Thankfully his tangent was cut short by the sound of my doorbell.

“Oh, that must be Erika.”

++

 

“Ugh.” I awoke groggily. It’s been a while since I’ve had one of those dreams. I figured they’d all but stop after the whole awakening incident.

But I thought wrong.

It had been a couple days since we’ve been on the roads and besides the occasional argument between the convey master and the hired muscle, everything had been fine so far. Today was the last day before Halyis.

The last chance I have to confront Master Rafine.

“Oh I’m sorry Alfy. Did I wake you?” Mother called out from the far side of the tent. It was big enough for four people to lie down in, and tall enough to be comfortable sitting in. It had been made out of some sort of durable fabric and, while I never noticed it since we’ve mostly been camping with just the party members, compared to the equipment from the other adventurers and travelers, it was of much higher quality.

I shook my head at my mother's question. “No, I just finished sleeping.”

Mother chuckled brightly at my response. “What a strange thing to say.”

I crawled my way over to mother and languidly laid beside her. She brushed my hair and got me dressed in our usual traveling routine. After I ate a small snack of dried fish chips I had packed in my backpack I went out of the tent and took a short walk to our encampment.

The convoy was a lot larger than I initially expected, it was pretty much a whole traveling band. If I recall correctly, the reason behind this is because a lot of the travels to Halyis had been cut off due to the recent monster surge. The roads had only been declared safe a few days ago.

Hence the abnormal number of passengers.

“Oi, Alfy. You’re up early. Usually we’d have to drag yah out to get ready.” Prisilla hollered out. She was sitting close to a cooking pot with a look of anticipation on her face, the smell was quite tantalizing, even from a good twenty paces away. Has breakfast not even been served yet? Man, I did wake up early.

“Shut up Prisilla, you’ll bother the other adventurers.” Master Rafine looked up from her book which she was reading while nested up between the roots of a tree.

Quite a comfy looking position, I’d like to try that.

“Don’t worry yer tiny little head missy, we’re used to the rowdy bunch anyhow.” There were a couple other folks who had woken up early as well, mostly just the guards or the adventurers hired to overlook the caravan. They were a pretty fun bunch. We had been camping with them since Prisilla got the convoy captain to hire her.

During the last days the sore losers of the gambling ring she frequented got the casino folks to corner her. She had to hand over most of what she had on hand that day in order to get out of a fight.

So unfortunately we had to make some concessions with our previous plans.

I’d imagine she’d think twice now about bringing her entire wallet whenever she went out.

‘If I didn’t have to look after Nina, and if we weren’t leaving for Halyis the next day I woulda given them all a good whipping!’ She declared to us when we found out. ‘Jail be damned.’

Honestly I worry for her.

“See Rafy? It’s fine nya.” Hearing that the mercenaries had no problem with it, Prisilla doubled down on her behavior, to which Master Rafine just rolled her eyes and returned to her book.

“Ey, Cat lady, you joining in or no?” I heard one of the groups, who were occupied with a card game, offering Prisilla an invitation. “Or are you scared to lose some more?”

A rude invitation.

“Oi Jagger. Shouldn’t you be coordinating the carriages or something Captain?” She sneered.

“Oh bugger off, can’t a man enjoy his morning in peace?”

“Nyahaha, even I’m not bad enough to gamble in the mornin.” Prisilla stood up and marched towards me, tail swinging around as she did so. As she got close, she leaned in and whispered, “Alfy nya, he’s here again. Can you believe it?”

“Again? Seriously?” I asked, astounded. One of the passengers was smitten with my mother and had repeatedly tried asking her for her hand in marriage. She declined, of course, but that hasn’t deterred his efforts.

I gotta say, having a guy trying to hit on my mother wasn’t the most pleasant feeling in the world.

“Oh look there he is now nya.” Looking to where Prisilla was pointing I could spot a nicely dressed individual of medium stature walking around aimlessly with a bouquet of flowers in hand. He must have been no more than twenty four I’d imagine; not hailing from a wealthy family but good enough to get by.

Those flowers were quite pretty though. 

His face lit up as he spotted Prisilla and he walked swiftly towards her, bouncing with every step, “Miss Prisilla! So good to see you this morning.”

“Oh,” Prisilla held a hand up in false enthusiasm, “Nice to see you too Henrick. What is this, the thirteenth time now nya? You certainly don’t let up.”

“I pride myself on my tenacity!” He pumped his chest. “With a maiden as brilliant as she, a hundred times would be too little!”

Gosh this guy doesn’t mince words does he?

“Nya....” Prisilla looked like she was staring at some spoiled fish sticks.

While the two of them were discussing the do and don'ts of romance I felt a small hand on my back. “Alfy. Hello.”

“Oh hey Nina. Good morning.” I greeted.

“Flower. Pretty.” She pointed at the bouquet the man had set aside near a log.

“It is, isn't it?” They were deep blue flowers with four tipped, star shaped patterns dotted throughout the petals. It resembled stars in the night sky.

“Well hello there little miss.” The man, Henrick, turned his attention towards us. “Would you two happen to like a flower? The bouquet is for a special lady I have in mind, so I can’t give you everything. But....”

He picked out two flowers from the posy and held them out for us. “Here you are, two of my finest Starknife Gladiolus for the two lovely children. Homegrown, of course.” He winked at us.

I was hesitant at first, but since Nina took hers quite quickly, I decided to reach out as well, “Thank you sir.”

“Oh how polite. It’s certainly no trouble.” I wasn’t too big on flowers myself, but this one was quite the specimen of beauty. Nina, on the other hand, seemed so happy that even her tail was wagging.

Wait.

Tail?

“Oh, is this young lady an outlander?” As soon as he asked that question I could see Prisilla narrow her eyes behind him.

Though his next words seem to dash away her apprehension. “We don’t see outlander children around these parts much. Make sure to take care of yourself, it's a lot cooler up here than the south.”

“Oi,” Prisilla turned him around so fast the bouquet nearly fell out of his hand, “You ain’t tellin anyone bout this, kay nya?”

“Why would I?” The man seemed genuinely confused.

“Aren’tcha scared of her?”

“Haha,” the man laughed and shrugged off her question, “They do tell stories about them when we’re little, but we all grow out of those eventually.”

No.

Not everyone.

We got a whole church dedicated against them in fact.

“Besides,” the man continued, despite having his collar held firmly in the hands of Prisilla, “I hear the captain hired an outlander as well? Wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.”

“Yeah, but she’s famous. And also certified, and a whole lot of other shenanigans I don’t care to know. Point is it's different.”

“Seems similar enough to me, I wouldn’t be chasing the lovely Sylvestra if I was deterred by such small differences.”

Huh. What did he mean by that?

“You’re... serious?”

“I’ve been all this time. I shall proclaim my love to anybody!” Despite the threat of an angry beastman in front of him, he looked unphased in the slightest.

I gotta hand it to him, he seemed like the best kind of idiot.

Prisilla sighed and let him go. “Hey, listen, you don’t seem like a bad guy, and you’re not too bad lookin either, but Sylphy’s got a whole shebang of situations going on okay?” She put a hand on his shoulder, “How abouts you and me have some fun later and you call it there. Girl’s got no interest in you nya.”

“I appreciate the enticing offer. But I must decline and preserve my body for my future wife.” Wow, certainly a brazen comment.

“Nya... that wasn’t what I meant by havi-.. You know what nevermind.” Prisilla seemed agitated once again, “ Why are you even still here, she’s rejected you twice already. ” 

“Her exact words were 'I would rather not answer that now' and ‘I’ll think about it’.” He countered.

“You little...” Prisilla appears to want to strangle him. Just when I was worried I’d have to step in to stop our impulsive swordswoman, a familiar figure walked into our conversation.

The woman of the topic, in fact.

“It’s fine Prisilla, I should have made it clear.” Mother spoke gently.

“AH! Your loveliness Sylvesta, truly it is a miracle unworthy of me to gaze upon such beauty, my soul lo-” Henrick started going on this long winded speech upon the sight of her, but mother put a stop to his pseudo-ballad with an extended palm.

“Henrick. Your repeated visits are flattering, but I must decline all offers for romance at this time. I am not yet in a position where that option is open to me.” Mother declined his attempt at courting gracefully.

“Could we perhaps start out as friends instead?” Henrick desperately proposed.

“Can you truly say that you offer that friendship with no motive of turning it into something else?”

“I see...” A heartbroken Henrick lowered his head like a sad puppy in the rain.

“HENRICK! You damned fool there you are!” His moment of reflection was interrupted by a bellow from a short, stout woman, “What the hell do ya think you’re doing in someone else’s camp this early? Is it that lady again?”

A woman with a wide figure and thick eyebrows hurried up to us. A plain beige apron hung by her waist and a brown bandana ran across her forehead. She came into the scene like a rolling boulder and forced the head of Henrick into a bow. “I apologize for my son’s rudeness. The lad doesn’t know the meaning of stop. He musta been troubling you nonstop.”

“Haha,” mother chuckled at the humorous scene, “it is not all his fault. The blame rests partially on me as well, I was unclear at the beginning of the journey.”

“We’re lucky you're such a graceful lady.” Henrick’s mother remarked. “But it wouldn’t do for us to owe a favor. I know yah might feel awkward and all but we’re a pretty famous flower shop in Halyis. If you’d could visit us during the social season, we’d be glad to arrange something special for you.” She offered.

“Oh. I shall take you up on that offer.” Mother accepted graciously, “I could tell by the bouquet you’ve brought that the flowers you sell must be quite lovely.”

“They’re the envy of all the nobleladies,” she beamed in delight at the compliment, “though I’ll have to figure out how my little idiot here got a hold on them. Come on you toot, you’re in trouble now you hear!” With the force of a landslide, she dragged her son away by the collar, who had still yet to recover from mother’s rejection.

“What was that all about?” Master Rafine, with her horns hidden, had come over to us after seeing the commotion last so long.

“Nya, young love.” Prisilla commented vaguely. “Come on, soup should be finished by now.”

As the party started heading over to the breakfast table I latched on to Master Rafine’s sleeve before she could leave.

“Hm? What’s wrong Alfy?” She asked, concerned. “You seem a bit anxious.”

Did I? Perhaps I did.

There is no indication this would go well. I sincerely hope Master Rafine won’t think I’m a total nutcase after this.

“M-Master Rafine, I found this book the other day...”

Well here goes nothing.

++

Tap tap tap.

I could hear the rhythmic rapping of her nails against her horns. We had chosen a rather discreet location to converse in, and she had undone her illusion spell midway through my explanation.

Tap tap tap.

It had been about ten or so minutes since I finished.

Tap tap tap.

“Um...” Not being able to take this suffocating atmosphere much longer, I spoke up, “Master R-”

“So.” She spoke sternly, “Alfon. You’re saying that this book tells you of the future? And that you know this for certain?”

I nodded vigorously.

“And that future lying within the annals of this book tells of an alternate version of yourself in an alternate Miverrente, in which Halyis is brutally besieged by a monster attack originating in the Scorluk forest?” 

Miverrente? Oh right the name of the continent.

I nodded again, “The details are written in the book. It's strange that the Alfon Adelmire within that book is different from me, but-”

“Alfon.” She stopped me, “The book is blank.”

...

“W-What? That can’t be.” I rushed forward to examine the book once more, but from what I could see... “No, it's not blank. The words are written right there Master Rafine.”

I pointed to the page I had flipped to before giving it to her. It describes the journey we had before arriving in Darisport. I had hoped the evidence would have been enough to convince her.

“If there are words written there, they are not visible to me. I see only white pages before me.” She said plainly.

“T-tha... I...” 

“A book describing the future in which you are the only person written differently, whilst also being the only one able to read it.”  

“Nina can read it too!” I quickly refuted.

“Can she? Or is she just listening to you describe the events to her?” Rafine gave me an expression I hadn’t yet seen from her.

Suspicion.

“With any other child I would have waved this off as an overeager imagination, and maybe I’ll still do that when this is done, but I feel like I should ask.” She closed the book and looked me dead in the eyes, yellow irises burning a hole through my skull, “Is there something you’re not telling me Alfon?”

God she is terrifying when she wants to be.

A simple denial would be best here, sticking to my original scenario would have the least amount of inconsistencies.

But...

 I seem to be a terrible liar, so I should probably just tell the truth.

“Yes. There is.” I whispered meekly.

“Hm.” I felt her gaze lessen, “Is this something you’d like to share with me?”

“No.”

“I see. But you do want my help with this I presume?”

“Yes.”

“Will you tell me after we are finished?”

I thought for a bit before responding.

“...No.”

“Quite the tall order. I’ve always known adventurers have secrets they can’t share but I never imagined children do these days as well.” Master Rafine joked, “Well, you’ve been quite the delightful kid to take care of, so I can’t see why we can’t afford to indulge an elaborate game or two.”

“I’m sorry abo-” I held my hands in front of me and began to apologize before Master Rafine stopped me.

“Hold it. We’ve talked about this before. No apologies. You’re a much cuter child when you’re smiling along.” Her expression turned grim as she returned to tapping on her horn, “Still... a monster wave with a demon no less? I’ll be quite grateful if this is all an intricate prank, but if you’re being serious there isn’t too much I can do.”

Ah.

Again.

It’s my fault isn’t it?

Though a gentle flick to the forehead indicated that Master Rafine did not share my sentiment, “Your expression tells me you’re thinking unnecessary thoughts again Alfy.”

“Aren't you unable to cast powerful magic without your left arm?”

“Not necessarily, but even if I was in perfect form, I won’t be able to deal with a demon alone. I meant that I have never been to Halyis, and I’m pretty sure the mages guild in Osiginin don’t communicate with the ones in the Republic. My word doesn’t carry the weight needed to deal with the situation you’re describing, unless someone knows me personally.”

“Can’t we ask Auntie Hilar?”

“And how would we do that when we neither know where she is or how to contact her?”

“Good point.” I conceded.

“From the looks of things, we’ll have to ask Sylvestra for help. The Telderane name is rather large around these parts.”

“How are we going to convince mother?”

Master Rafine shrugged, “The magic auctions I’ve been to had significantly more items than normal, Darisport has been in the middle of a heavy trading boom, and the monsters nearby are acting up? It wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary for a monster wave to appear.”

“Wait?... You knew?” I was dumbfounded.

“I am saying it could happen, not that I suspected it would. Though it would make more sense for them to hit Darisport, not Halyis, and there aren't nearly enough mana abnormalities for a demon to appear.” She mused, “Oh right, that woman you named, Helena was it? Maybe we should talk to her first.”

“She’s... here? Not in Halyis?” I asked, confused.

“Yes, she’s positioned at the very front of the convoy. Judging from when I met her sh-”

I tuned Master Rafine out as a thought suddenly occurred to me.

The monster wave originally led to the deaths of mother, the siblings of Saphira, and Helena.

And here we are.

All in a single place.

But that was impossible wasn’t it? The attack shouldn’t have occurred until AFTER we arrived in Halyis. Nothing I have done would have changed this fact...

Unless...

“Oh no.”

“What is it Alfy?”

Unless...

It wasn’t that the monster wave was happening early.

It was that we were late.

After taking too long in Talis.

My hand... wasn’t supposed to have hospitalized me for a month.

It wasn’t supposed to have been hurt at all.

“ALFY! Where are you!” I heard the cries of my mother, echoing through the forest.

“Sylvestra!” Master Rafine yelled, “We’re over here.”

Like a gust of wind, Sylvestra bolted through the trees towards us. The woods seem to part for her as her emerald garb flew like an arrow across the verdant leaves. 

I recognized that outfit, it was her battle garments.

She landed right before us, the zephyr of her arrival stirring up the foliage surrounding us. She spoke, out of breath.

“I’m so glad you're safe Alfy!” As she hugged me tight I immediately knew that my fears had come to light.

Mother wasn’t uninjured, I could see scratches and bruises around her arms, and even her shoulder was bleeding through her clothes.

“What’s going on Sylvestra?” Master Rafine likely also understood the gravity of the situation, and we both shared a look of horror.

No. Not now, I wasn’t ready.

“Rafine, it’s a monster wave. A big one.”