An empty city

In the Kortul empire, in the South West corner of the human territories, existed a small city named Grinna. It was an average city with not much worth mentioning. It processed an inn but no Aerch Militia barracks. For Keita and his party though it was heaven. That was because the city was located close to a natural hot spring. Reika's eyes shinned with a new light when she learned that. After checking in the inn, the party immediately headed to one of the hot spring facilities. They had separate baths for men and women, as well as a mixed one. Keita was relaxing inside the pool, feeling his exhaustion leaving his body. Meanwhile Koba and Nao were in a heated debate.

"I think Lia is better to be honest." Koba said with a hand holding his chin.

"She is pretty it's true, but Anne has a better face." Nao responded.

"Maybe, but she never really smiles. It's such a waste."

"It's fine, I get the feeling that she is the kind of girl who secretly smiles when no one is looking. Besides, her cold demeanor isn't bad in it's own way." Nao said with a weird smile.

"I can't believe you guys are thinking things like that about your comrades. If they heard it would disrupt the party's balance. Better leave it at that." Keita said. He stretching his back and neck, not even looking their way.

"It's fine isn't it? We are the only one here. So back on topic." Koba said and turned to Nao. "When it comes to Lia, you can't just think about the face. I mean just looking her figure through the robs is alluring enough, right?" he continued.

"Yeah, but we are talking about the face right? Even though she never talks about it, Anne is undoubtedly a noble. Or she used to be. Anyway, point is nobles are different, right? Like their air? Or maybe their skin? I can't really put it in words." Koba said, uncertain what his point was.

"That's kind of a surprise." said Keita. "I thought you would be supporting Reika all the way. Don't you have a thing for her?"

Nao looked at him. His cheek reddened with embarrassment.

"No... I mean... I have a thing for her. I just can't look at her that way-" Nao stopped himself abruptly.

Keita took a moment to figure out the reason. Reika was a shape-sifter. She might look like a beautiful Half-elf girl right now but she could change appearance with a snap of her fingers. Not only that, shape-sifters did not have a gender. It was most likely a touchy subject for Nao and one he could not share with others.

"Well, I guess you two grew up together so I can't blame you for not thinking about her looks too much." Koba said, conveniently giving his own explanation.

"Yeah, I guess it's something like that..." Nao said, looking sad.

'It pains him.' Keita thought. Nao was clearly an honest person. The fact that he kept secrets from his closer friend hurt him. 'Not that I am to talk.'

"So, Keita which you think is best? It's Lia right?" Koba, sensing the uncomfortable atmosphere decided to change the subject.

"This is stupid, I'm going back to the inn." Keita said and got up from the pool.

"It's no use asking him you know." Nao said with a hand over his mouth, pretending to conceal his smile. "Helene, Helene, Helene! You can hear him muttering a girl's name in his sleep every now and then."

Keita pretended he didn't hear anything and got out of the baths with hastened steps. He didn't realize he did that. He never talked about Helene to the others so what Nao said must be true, he figured. He wanted to dig a hole and hide inside. Since he couldn't do that, he put on his clothes and left before they could corner him and ask questions.

'I can't help it, though.' he thought. When was the last time he saw Helene, heard her voice.

Half a year has passed and he hasn't returned to the village even once. What was Helene doing right now? How about his parents? Did the receive the money he sent them? Did his father manage the farm by his own okay? How about the village chief? Was he even still alive? The blacksmith, the other youths who left to join the militia before him, was he even the younger member of the village still? How about Helene, what if she decides she can't wait anymore and marries someone else?

"I want to see everyone..." he mumbled to himself, letting out a deep sigh.

"Who?" a voice came from next to him.

Keita was startled. He didn't even notice that Lia was also leaving the hot spring and was walking next to him. Since when have they been walking together, he wondered.

"Sorry, just thinking out loud, please forget it..." he said with an awkward smile.

"Well, if you say it's fine..." Lia responded.

They kept walking towards the inn. The air was turning uncomfortable.

"By the way" Keita started talking "how come there is no one around? You think they heard about the goblins and evacuated?"

The town was completely empty. The inn keeper was nowhere to be found so the party decided to take advantage and just stay the night for free. Keita went through the whole city but couldn't find any sources of magic power. It wasn't a rare sight for the civilians to evacuate when an invasion was under way, but for a handful of goblins?

"Maybe they didn't know their numbers and just decided to take the safer option?" Lia asked.

"Maybe..." Keita tried to think deeper. A while after the events at Atestari, he became the leader of the party. He thought it was a role fit for him since he used to be a general but he soon found hardships. Back when he was a Demon, he solved all his problems with brute strength. In terms of tactics, formations and strategic maneuvers, he left all that to his deputies. Now that he was considerably weaker, he had a hard time considering his companions' positions and stamina while fighting. He figured he had to think a few steps ahead and be prepared for unexpected situations.

'How am I supposed be prepared for something unexpected though? It's unexpected for a reason right?' he thought.

"It's still weird." he figured. "Even if they heard about a goblin attack, some of them must have been unwilling to leave. Or some should have been unable to, like the elderly or the sick."

Lia didn't respond. She just thought about the subject and then nodded.

"Anyway, let's have Koba look over Reika one more time. We should leave as soon as dawn. I got a bad feeling about this place." Keita said.

The moon was hiding behind the clouds that night. Traveling in the dark wasn't an option for the party. They could barely see in front of them. They had gathered torches and candles from the inn to light their way and rooms, and left some money on the inn's counter.

"If we are leaving so soon, could you look at my Magic Bullet one more time? I was planning on asking you in the morning..." Lia said.

"Yeah, I guess it's fine. Let's do it now." Keita said. He took the role of the teacher after all. If he didn't do at least that, he couldn't really face Lia.

The two were the first to arrive to the inn. Lia took her staff from her room and came back in a flash. She was very excited. After all, they didn't have any time for lessons since they started the goblin extermination quest.

She waved her staff and a Magic Missile appeared above her. The spear like clump of magic power, started vibrating and became smaller and smaller. Then she added rotation and the Magic Bullet was ready.

"How is it?" Lia asked Keita.

"It still takes too long. As I said, I've never cast the spell so I am not sure about the specifics. How about trying to add the rotation while you compress the Missile? Other than that, I have no more advise to give you. Think for yourself how to improve the Spell." Keita responded.

Lia nodded and tried again. Keita watched as she made one Magic Bullet after another. He only commended a few times, "It needs more rotation." or "It needs to be smaller." but he was amazed by the progress Lia was making. Her talent for as a Mage, might even compete with Sloth's.

"As I thought, you are amazing. How could you master the Magic Bullet to such and extend is truly amazing. You probably can aim for a royal advisor with your talent." Keita praised.

Lia stopped the spell and looked at the ground. Keita was a bit surprised. Did she think he was making fun of her? That shouldn't be the case. Did he say something wrong?

"You are wrong..." Lia said in a sad voice. "I am just cheating. I don't have that kind talent."

"What are you talking about?" Keita asked. He couldn't understand what she meant by cheating.

"I... I have a Gift. One that makes it easier for me to learn Spells..." Lia said in an quite voice.

"Ahh, I see. No wonder." Keita said. "But it's a pretty good Gift. No reason to feel down. After all it means that Alcione has high expectations of you right?"

Gods gave Gifts to their subjects from time to time. It usually meant to help them fulfill some destiny the gods have in stored but that was rarely the case. After all, the gods were mostly silent and always talked to their most devoted with riddles. No one ever got a straight answer from the gods. Not only that, people with Gifts had a target on their back. It was like telling their other races who to target. Most of the times, the Gifted never talked about it.

"It only brings trouble..." Lia said. "The people I've told had either tried to take advantage of me or abandoned me..." she said. Her voice was shaking and she had her back turned to Keita.

Keita was silent. Lia had her share of trouble because of that Gift. He should be sincere with her instead just laugh it of.

"Well, I won't tell anyone." Keita scratched the back of his head. "Magic Bullet is a spell that's been forgotten though the ages but maybe you shouldn't use it in front of other Humans. I only knew three people who used it after all. There might be others but it is an almost impossible Spell to learn. If you shoot Magic Bullets left and right someone might realize you have a Gift. For now how about we keep it between us?" he said.

Lia didn't respond. She just nodded and went back to casting the Spell. There was already progress. The magic Bullets flew one after the other. A whole hour passed and the others came back from the hot-spring.

"You took your time." Keita said and smiled.

Without anyone realizing, a shadow came from behind Koba and put it's hand over his shoulder, while making an unholy groan. No one reacted until it was too late. The shadow sunk it's teeth on Koba's shoulder and he screamed in pain.

"Magic Bullet!" Lia sent the spell that she had already prepared right at the shadows shoulder. It didn't even budge.

The others finally started moving. The moment their companion screamed, they realized they were under attack. Nao tackled the shadow and they both fell to the ground. Without his shield and armor he was also hurt but didn't hesitate even for a second. He held the thing down as it clawed and tried to bite him. Koba was on the ground, trying to crawl away. Anne and Reika took their distance while Lia - the only one with a weapon - started casting another Spell. Before she could finish, Keita flew over, kicking the things head with the metal in front of his boots. It's head came clean off.

Reika and Anne grabbed Koba. There was flesh blood coming out of his shoulder. No, there was something else mixed in. Something like black mist.

"What the hell was that thing?" Koba asked, clenching his wound.

"Undead."