The next morning

[Darx point-of-view]

The next morning, I wake up expecting to find Amelia and Kiara next to me, but neither of them are there. Both of them are gone. With all that has happened the last few days, I get worried and quickly get out of the tent only to see a bunch of my friend gathered around a campfire, eating and talking. I see, I simply woke up late again.

I calm myself down and walk over to them. From a distance, I see almost everyone is there. The only ones not present are Leona, Merlara, Lilith and Kenji. Looks like for once I am not the last to wake up. I also smell the food they are cooking and it smells like soup.

“Ah, good morning, Darx.” Craig says as I get close.

“Good morning, everyone.” I say. “Sorry for being one of the last awake.”

“It’s fine, Darx.” Amelia speaks up, “I’ve already explained that this is just how you are. Here, let me get you some soup.”

As Amelia heads over to the campfire and fills a bowl with some soup from the kettle, I notice Mia glaring at Amelia from my peripheral vision. It seems like Mia wants to say something, but she chooses to hold herself back. A year ago, Mia would not have done that. Whatever it was about Amelia that bothered her, she would have taken on the challenge. She instead leans over to Roland sitting next to her and whispers something in his ear. I guess she’s saying it quiet now.

While Amelia is still collecting some soup for me, I sit down on her place, next to Kiara. “Have you two been awake for long?” I ask.

“We were some of the first to wake up.” Kiara answers. “We decided to go to the inn and get some food from there to make soup. Amelia first didn’t like it, but I imagine the owners would hate for their food to be forgotten and rot away.”

I can imagine how Amelia felt. I too would not be very fond of going into the inn, the one Oliver’s parents worked at, knowing they are dead and stealing their food. But like Kiara says, if we don’t take it, nobody will, and then it will spoil. That would be a waste.

Amelia then returns and sits next to me, leaving me sitting between her and Kiara.

“Here, Craig and Leona made it.” Amelia says as she hands me the bowl. “It’s really good.”

I accept the bowl and blow on the soup a little to cool it down, then take a sip from it. Except the soup is still too hot for me. I decide to have a conversation with my friends while waiting for the soup to cool down. “So, have you already discussed any plans for today.”

“Well, we came here to find your mother, didn’t we?” Mariko asks. “Did you find any clues about her?”

“Yeah. Apparently she has been in the mansion after the attack.” I answer. “I guess after she dispatched the source of the beast attacks, she came here. Maybe to see if she could save anyone? But like we’ve seen. All the bodies are gone. Or maybe the villagers got captured and led away. If so, she must have moved on.”

“Alright.” Mariko nods. “So, we find her trail and continue chasing after her.”

“That might not be so easy.” Craig says as he pets his marten friend. “My little friend and I have already done a little search around the village and couldn’t find any direction she went in. We did find a spot where some griffins landed. All traces of her end after that.”

“So, what? You mean she got picked up by a griffin?” Roland asks.

“Based on what Mia told me about Ilene, there would have been a fight if the griffin tried to take her by ****. Except there were no signs of a fight.” Craig explains. “My guess is the griffin was a mount. Someone brought it here, then Ilene got on it and they both flew away.”

Mariko sighs deflated and says, “So, we came here for nothing?”

Mariko’s words cause my stomach to twist itself into a heavy knot. We failed? We went through all of this to save my mother, yet now that we are here there is no saving to be done? The other party members around us start arguing. Some of them not wanting to believe it, supported by those who didn’t want our efforts to be in vain, followed by arguments that not only did we not find Ilene, but we also don’t know how to find her.

Eventually, Kiara stands up and tells everyone to calm down.

“There were several villages under threat from monsters. We all remember the village with the trolls, right?” Kiara explains. “Those trolls have been dealt with, and people can return to their homes. The same goes for other villages. That was our primary mission and we succeeded. The queen will pay us for this service to the kingdom, so you don’t have to worry about your quest reward.”

There are no lies in Kiara’s words there, but they still do little to make me feel good. I still have no idea what happened to my mother.

“As for this village, we have party members who grew up here.” Kiara continues, pointing to Mia and Cal. “I am sure they were worried about what happened to this place. Now that we are here, they have confirmation and can process their feelings about it. Imagine what it would be like, to constantly have to wonder what might have happened?”

For a moment, I imagine turning back to Riledo after the trolls and I can say, I would have thought about Merton a lot. My thoughts would have been filled with the entire village on fire. It at least did me some good to see some of the buildings still standing.

“I propose that the people who lived here go to the homes they know and take some personal belongings with them. Family heirlooms, or other trinkets that have emotional value.” Then Kiara turns to me and asks, “Darx, was Enzo a beloved member of the village?”

“He was a good man.” I answer. “He supported both the adventurers and trainees in our village.” I then look over to Amelia and ask, “Remember the low level quests he gave us?”

Amelia gets a little closer and wraps her arms around my arm. Then she looks into my eyes while answering Kiara’s question. “Yeah. Just some pocket money for some easy quests, but it helped saving up for the trip to Riledo, and to pay for the awakening ritual.”

I turn my head back to Kiara to see how she answers, but before she does, I notice Mia grabbing Roland’s arm the same way Amelia does to me. Except Mia looks a lot more grumpy when she does it.

“Then perhaps it would be a good idea to search the mansion for some valuable items Mr. Enzo would love to have returned to him.” Kiara answers. “I doub he took everything he wanted when he had to escape. In fact, he may be planning on sending a party of adventurers this way to collect his belongings and bring them to him once he knows the danger has been averted. We might as well plan ahead and bring him some stuff now.”

“Yeah, good point.” Roland says. “If we are the first to return some of his belongings to him, he might even contract us for a few more runs.”

“But how do we know what items are precious to him?” Ryul asks. “We don’t know him. Or at least I don’t. I could take something that seems like something that has sentimental value but will later turn out it doesn’t.”

“I remember Enzo having a big appreciation for books. More specifically the ones that have to do about magic.” Amelia answers. “We could just raid the library and bring him some of his most valuable books. That should be enough.”

I take another sip from my soup as my friends keep discussing how to get the most out of raiding Enzo’s mansion. By now the soup has cooled down enough that I can easily drink it. It really does taste good. Almost as good as the soup Oliver makes.

Just as I am about to finish my breakfast, Leona and Merlara come out of their tent and join us. Leona’s face seems a bit flush. I guess it was warm in their tent? I can only tell for certain if I see Merlara’s face too, but she has her helmet on already like usual. We don’t choose to wait with exploring Enzo’s mansion until the two are done with breakfast though, and split up into teams. It will be the first time I really go through Enzo’s library. I’m wondering what kind of interesting books he has in there.