บท 27: A Sign of Something Different
[Location: East Main Road - Kingdom of Tevell]
[3 week have passed]
It had already been 4 days since we left Andacia and we had not talked about what happened that day or rather I was not ready to talk.
"I still can't get what happened out of my head, maybe I could handle it better"
After separating from the others we went to buy supplies and returned to the wagon, since then we have traveled to the last town marked on the map, we only stopped to rest, eat and train from time to time although my spirits did not let me get the best of it.
"If I had accepted her feelings, would I have had to give up the idea of going back home?"
We were traveling in the wagon on the highway while Celes was driving and I was sitting in the back feeling melancholy and thinking about that scene over and over again, it was the first time that a girl confessed to me and I rejected her for my purpose without knowing if it was the best decision.
-Zyrus: Celes, do you think I did the right thing?
-Celes: It is not something that you can categorize as right or not, you made the decision based on what was more important to you.
-Zyrus: Did you know?
-Celes: Yes.
I understood his words but in any case it was difficult for me to convince myself that I made the right decision. Since I came to this world, I never had the intention of falling in love but that someone else did was something that I could not control.
"How long has it been? I think it's been 3 weeks now, wow how time flies I had even forgotten, two days ago it was my birthday and I didn't even realize it"
Our journey continued smoothly and after a few hours Celes stopped the wagon and we stopped to prepare the camp. It was already getting dark and there was still a long way to go to reach the last town.
-Celes: According to the map, we should arrive tomorrow afternoon to the town near the border.
-Zyrus: And what is the name of that town.
-Celes: Let me see...it says here that the name is Galma.
-Zyrus: The Town of Galma, our last stop before leaving Tevell, it is hard to believe that we are already closer to reaching Gainsworth.
While I was preparing the food, I couldn't help but think about all the long road we had crossed, the long road I started from the capital and everything that had happened up to now. There were still many things without answers and I had many doubts but I thought that once I returned home all of that would be irrelevant.
-Celes: My Lord, if you allow me.
-Zyrus: What's up?
-Celes: You made a decision, now you must accept the consequences of that decision and take responsibility.
-Zyrus: What do you mean?
-Celes: You decided to reject Leah's feelings because you did not want to deviate from your goal, whether or not it was the right decision, you must accept what happened and move on.
I stirred the plate of food while listening to Celes, she was right on that point, I was letting a decision I made affect me knowing that I did it for the good of my goal.
-Zyrus: True, just as I live the consequences of refusing to be the Hero, I must live and accept those of having rejected Leah's feelings, it only hurts me that everything ended this way.
It was true that I was affected but I had to accept what I did and move on so I left the plate on the ground and hit my cheeks with my hands as hard as I could.
-Celes: M-My Lord!?
-Zyrus: I'm sorry Celes, I let this affect me for a long time and it's time to react, the goal is near and I can't fall now, once the sun rises we will leave for Galma and then to the border gate.
Celes was worried at first but then after hearing my reaction she smiled and nodded, after eating we went to sleep to leave early in the morning.
"I can't keep thinking about what could have happened or if I made the right decision, it's time to move on, I just hope Leah and the others are fine"
The next morning we prepared to leave again and being so close to our first goal I was beginning to feel excited, Celes took the reins of the wagon and we resumed our journey.
-Celes: How strange.
-Zyrus: What's wrong?
-Celes: According to the map, we can go directly to the border gate but to get to the town we have to make a detour through the gorge.
-Zyrus: That is strange, generally the town is on the road not to the side of it, well whatever, even so we must go to the town for supplies.
She nodded and ordered the horse to enter the detour towards the gorge, the road was narrow and luckily the wagon could pass without problems but seeing how close a bottomless drop was made me a little nervous even so the road did not seem having no problem was until we got to a turn where something appeared.
-Celes: My Lord look!
I looked where Celes was pointing and around a turn in the road two girls appeared, a young woman and a little girl holding hands, running scared while they were being chased by a group of Goblins.
-Zyrus: Shit, they're in trouble, come on Celes!
-Celes: As you order!
The girls were surrounded on the edge of the precipice, the young girl protected the little girl with her body while the Goblins approached threatening them with their knives and clubs, hungry and drooling but then we came from behind to get her attention. .
-Zyrus: Come here you little green vermins!
At the moment of hearing my provocation the Goblins turned to see us and annoyed they jumped on us to attack us but we were both confident since a group of Goblins did not compare to anything we had faced before.
-Celes: Be careful My Lord, the Goblins may be weak but they are very cunning and tricky.
Ending this group would not be complicated at all, but as Celes stated, these Goblins could carry out very cowardly actions so we quickly finished off several of them, seeing how several of their own fell, the others decided to attack from afar throwing stones and small makeshift spears
-Zyrus: Only those cowards left there, Celes, let's finish this.
Coordinating our attacks, Celes and I made our way through the rain of stones and spears to finally finish off the last remaining Goblins and thus we managed to get the girls to safety.
-Celes: Good job, that was the last one.
-Zyrus: Watching Goblins always gives me goosebumps for some reason.
We put our weapons away and went to check if the girls were okay, they were still scared but at least they were safe.
-Zyrus: Are you okay?
-Young Girl: Y-Yes...thank you very much for helping us
-Little girl: T-Thank you for saving us, mister and miss.
The two of them stood up and cleaned their clothes, they didn't have any visible injuries nor were they hurt in any way which was a relief.
-Celes: What were you doing here?
-Young Girl: We were collecting flowers, I am an alchemist's assistant in our town and once a week we go to the fields to collect flowers but on the way back we ran into that group of Goblins.
"So they both come from the border town, well this has been convenient"
-Young Girl: Oh sorry, let me introduce myself, I'm Sophia Harley and this is my younger sister Aria.
(Sophia Harley -Alchemist's Assistant- 16 Years)
(Aria Harley -Sophia's Young Sister 7 Years)
We also introduce ourselves before them, the young girl with long black hair tied with a ribbon around her neck and the little girl with short black hair with a red ribbon on her head, both wore common village dresses and carried a bag of flowers.
-Zyrus: Well, if you two live in the town we can take you there, we are going in that direction after all.
-Sophia: Really? We really appreciate it.
Both girls gave a slight bow as thanks, but before we could move a noise was heard and from the ground, one of the goblins that we thought was dead got up out of nowhere and jumped towards little Aria. In a reflex to get away from him, she moved backwards without noticing her precipice behind her, slipping and falling backwards while she stretched out her hand and saw her older sister try to catch her.
-Zyrus: Shit, there was still one alive!?
-Sophia: Aria!!
Celes managed to finish off the goblin before it touched Aria but it was too late, since Aria couldn't help but fall off the cliff but in an instinctive act I ran towards her and although I couldn't prevent her fall I threw myself into the void to catch her.
-Celes: My Lord!!
In the middle of her free fall she looked at me with her eyes tearful of her stretching out her hand while I stretched out mine trying to fall faster and catch her until I finally managed to hold her and hug her in my arms but now It was late. At that point it was impossible to stop the fall and we would undoubtedly end up falling to certain death.
"Dammit, why did I do that? Now we're both going to die and there's nothing I can do to stop it."
I could feel Aria's fear, I also felt my fear since I didn't want to die after having come so far, I could see the bottom and only a river of sharp rocks awaited us but if I somehow managed to make her survive it would be enough.
"No!...It's not enough, I don't want to die, I'm not going to die here, I didn't go this far just to have it end up like this, I won't let it happen!"
Almost as if my body began to act of its own accord, I quickly turned my body around and taking out my sword I used it to cross the rock wall and stop our fall and after a few seconds I finally stopped the fall. At that moment, my body was filled with a strange and different kind of strength, since in an instant I pulled the sword out of the wall and stomping my feet, I jumped up but it was at a speed that I had never had before. My body was enveloped in a silver-blue aura, leaving behind a flash of the same color every time I jumped up the wall.
-Celes: W-What's that glow? Could it be...
As my body continued to jump up I could see the faces of Celes and Sophia who looked nervous but surprised. I didn't know where this came from but in a few seconds I had already returned to the surface and with one last jump we reached higher leaving that silver-blue flash behind until I finally fell behind the two of them in the middle of the corpses of the Goblins leaning on the ground on one of my knees.
-Zyrus: (Gasping) Ughh....!
-Celes: My Lord!
Celes ran towards me while I was immobile, I finally regained control of my body but I didn't know what had happened, I slowly lowered my head and saw little Aria still clinging to me and she slowly looked up still with tears in her eyes.
-Sophia: Aria!!
-Aria: (Crying) Sister!
She released me and ran crying towards her sister crying until they both hugged each other with happiness, Celes touched my shoulder and I reacted almost like waking up and coming back to reality.
-Zyrus: (Gasping) Celes...what...what was that?
-Celes: Was it the Blessing? But, I've never seen you do something like that before.
I stared at my left hand as I dropped my sword almost trembling from what happened, if this was the power of the Blessing, it was something completely different from what I had felt before, but I couldn't remember exactly what it was or what it felt like, as if it wasn't me who moved but someone else saved me.
-Sophia: I-Is it okay?
I heard Sophia's voice behind me and after catching my breath I got up and turned to see her with a carefree smile.
-Zyrus: Yes, yes, I'm fine, just a little tired.
-Aria: T-Thank you so much for saving me.
-Sophia: I also thank you, for saving my little sister.
-Zyrus: Don't worry, the important thing is that the two are safe.
Once everything calmed down we returned to the wagon with the two sisters accompanying us to the village.
-Sophia: You also to Galma right? then let us thank you once we return.
-Aria: Yes, once we get back my sister will cook something delicious for you, her food is the best!
-Zyrus: Well, if that's the case then we gladly accept, right Celes?
-Celes: That's right, there's nothing better than eating homemade food.
We continued walking the path of the gorge without suffering any other problem, after a short time we managed to get out of the narrow path and between the exit of the mountain you could see the town of Galma and in the distance the enormous wall that separated the Kingdom of Tevell from Drolum.
"So that's the border, it's hard to think that we finally arrived"
As we advanced towards the town we began to notice that there was something strange about it, it looked a bit or rather very damaged once we entered the town what we thought became clear.
-Celes: What happened in this town? Why does it look so...destroyed?
-Zyrus: Yes, it looks like a tornado has passed through here.
Unlike the other towns we had visited, Galam was in a state of decay and I could almost say that in ruins, damaged buildings, ruins of houses and holes with burns in various parts, the people looked dim and almost dying.
-Sophia: Our town, a few months ago, was besieged by demons.
-Zyrus & Celes: Demons!?
Sophia's expression had changed, she showed a sadness on her face as well as on her little sister's.
-Sophia: That's right, Galma used to be like other towns, full of life and people everywhere, but one day a large group of demons appeared out of nowhere and attacked and destroyed everything in their path.
Little Aria hugged her sister with tears in her eyes, implying that it must have been a very difficult moment in their lives for them.
-Sophia: Our parents sacrificed themselves to save us from some demons that entered our home and if it hadn't been for the Master we would have died too.
As we crossed through the devastated town we could see the ravages of that attack, people still with injuries and others still trying to rebuild their lives, for the first time since I came to this world I saw the real threat of demons.
-Sophia: It was thanks to the sacrifice of many Tevell soldiers that they managed to stop the attack but by the time it was all over, very few of us were left standing to raise the town and we would be able to rise again if it weren't for...
-Celes: If it wasn't for what? more demons?
-Aria: No! if it weren't for the White Knights!
-Zyrus: The White Knights?
-Aria: Yeah! They are a group of people from the Church who say that they come to help us but they are bad and they steal the food and money that they all collect with a lot of effort!
-Sophia: Aria! don't say that out loud, if someone hears you...
-Aria: But sister, it's true, we and the Master also had a hard time because of those bad people.
We had already had an encounter with someone from the Church before and it was not something pretty, for that reason to hear that a group of them that takes advantage of people in need did not surprise me. Not only had these people gone through an imminent death, but they had to pick up the rubble of the battle and having a group of looters dressed in white only made their situation worse.
-Sophia: They say that their presence here is necessary in case of another demon attack, but that they need food and resources to maintain their troops and that is why we must give them part of our supplies.
-Zyrus: Greedy bastards.
After a while Sophia showed us the establishment of her Master and then Celes parked the wago next to the place, Aria rushed down and Sophia went down after her entering through the door.
-Celes: My Lord... I...
-Zyrus: Celes, I know what you think and despite how we feel about his situation, we cannot enter into conflicts with the Church, that would be a terrible mistake.
-Celes: Yes... I understand.
I could imagine how difficult their situation was for them but being so close to our final goal becoming the Church's target would only complicate everything in a very unnecessary way and I highly doubted that the help of a noble would be enough to get us out of that problem this time.
-Zyrus: Let's just prepare to cross the border, we will accept the hospitality of the sisters and continue with our journey tomorrow.
Not very satisfied with my decision, she nodded and we entered the building, the first impression she gave us was that of a makeshift alchemy shop, the walls were damaged and the shelves had some cracked vials.
-Sophia: Oh! Master, look, they were the ones who helped us.
-Old Alchemist: Ohohoho well, well, I appreciate the help that you two gave my girls, they already told me about your heroic act.
The old man in front of us was the Master that Sophia mentioned, a man with short hair and a long white beard, a brown robe and a wizard's cap, he came up to us and shook my hand in a very cheerful and somewhat awkward way.
-Zyrus: I-It was nothing sir, seriously, we just did what anyone would have done hehe.
-Old Alchemist: Sir? come on don't be so formal boy, my name is Conrad Osmond, owner of this little alchemy shop and caretaker of these two beautiful girls.
(Conrad Osmond -Alchemist- 79 Years)
Once the introductions were over, we sat at a table to eat and drink tea while Sophia and Aria told their Master what happened in the gorge in detail.
-Conrad: A silver-blue flash you say?
-Aria: That's how it was Master, it was like fuuuaashhh and Zyrus flew to the sky, I could feel it.
-Sophia: It was something really impressive, when I saw him fly off the cliff I felt my heart stop for a few seconds.
-Conrad: That's really interesting, tell me boy, are you an expert in magical arts by any chance?
-Zyrus: What? no...no, I can barely cast basic level spells.
The old man Conrad looked at me seriously as he stroked his long white beard, he wondered what he was thinking or if he was thinking that I was someone suspicious.
-Conrad: I see, so the only explanation I see is that you, boy, have a Blessing.
Celes and I were surprised to see that the old alchemist managed to realize my Blessing so quickly just because of the story the sisters told them.
-Sophia: A Blessing? wait, like in the First Hero story?
-Conrad: A power like that in someone who does not possess great magical power can only be explained by the presence of a Blessing, tell me, you were already aware of the presence of him, right?
-Zyrus: That's right...I don't know what it is or how to use it, but at certain times it has manifested itself.
Then old Conrad got up from the table and walked over to the floor behind the counter, we watched curious as he pulled out an old dusty book from under a false floor and then came back to the table.
-Conrad: This book is one of the many that the First Hero wrote during his life, many things that we see today as something common were discovered and written in books by him, this is one of them.
He placed the book on the table and opened it, then turned it towards me and pointed to the page with his finger.
-Conrad: Tell me, can you read what it says here?
No matter how much I looked at the book, the words written in it were just a bunch of illegible scribbles for me and no matter how much he wanted to continue pretending, he could no longer deny this truth.
-Zyrus: No, I can't read it, I don't understand this writing.
-Celes: My Lord?
-Conrad: I see, just as I imagined.
Then the old man turned the pages to those near the end of the book and once again pointed his finger at me.
-Conrad: Now tell me, can you read what is written on these pages?
I reviewed the book one more time, thinking that I would only find more of the same, but it took me quite a surprise to see that the content of these pages was totally understandable.
"No...this isn't Japanese, but I can still understand this language, why?"
-Zyrus: What this language? why can i understand it?
-Conrad: So you're just like him, like the First Hero, a young man brought from another world.
Only Sophia was surprised to hear what Conrad said while Aria looked confused at her sister asking what, what did that mean and she explained to her little sister what it was, but Celes seemed confused looking at the book and it seemed that she did not understand what it said ..
-Conrad: This is the language of what we call the "Ancients", the first civilization of our world, it was said that their language was taught by Divinity itself, we could say that this is the language of the gods.
We were all silent because of what Conrad had revealed to us, the fact that I could understand the meaning of these pages without knowing why I could understand them left me very uneasy about the fact that I could fluently read the language of the Ancients.
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