Chapter 103. Talk with a monster

A few days had passed since the final battle, Bobby got better and I tried to stay away as much as possible from the Royal Family.

Now that I'm not angry and not caring about the consequences of my own actions, realize that now I have to deal with those consequences.

The worst thing is that I'm not even being looked for, and it getting me more worried than relieved.

From what I could tell they were preparing a festival to celebrate the victory over the Zombie Lord. Which seems to take all of their attention from me.

As for the reason I'm still here, it's because I'm waiting for Froggy to arrive with the other Witches and then I can go back to their clan to study more.

I don't even remember the rough position of their location and I don't have a token to pass the mist.

But I think if I study the wall some more I'll be able to make one of my own.

The only thing I could do was wait for the others to get here. Hopefully, nothing bad happened while I was gone.

Honestly, besides the constant worry that I'm going to have to 'talk' with the king, I only feel bored.

While nobody forced me to do anything yet, they didn't bother to show their displeasure when I walked down the hallways.

I think it has to do with the fact that I threatened to kill their leader or something like that.

As I sat in the bed thinking what I should do a realization over me.

"How could I forget about that?"

I wanted to slap my face once I remembered something that I should've dealt with sooner.

With that, I took some food, potions, and a loaded crossbow before leaving the castle.

I walked far enough that the guards couldn't spy on me anymore and drank every potion that I had, then raised my shield.

Then I put a golden bell down and hit it with my fist.

A loud ringing spread across the trees and I could suddenly see a glowing outline standing besides the oak tree looking at what I could only assume at me.

"Who are you, and why do you keep following me?"

I yelled while making sure I was looking in the right direction.

The huge monster only seems to tilt its head while looking around.

"I can see you even if you're invisible! You're four blocks tall and can teleport or move at great speeds. If you don't come out I'll start getting hostile!"

The monster teleported to another tree which I clearly followed, then again and again but I always managed to figure out where it was.

The more it teleported I finally managed to see some purple particles which only the Endermans can make.

Was this a different variant of Enderman like the drowned zombies that changed their appearance based on the biome?

But that couldn't be possible, there wasn't anything like this in the game, and from the monster books I read in this world, nobody else saw anything similar to this.

The effect of the bell was slowly leaving so I punched the bell once more looking for the white outline, but to my surprise, I couldn't see it anymore.

"Did it run off- What the!"

As I looked around and saw the monster, but with a key difference, it was right behind me, and for the first time I could finally see it.

It looked similar to an Enderman but more evolved. It was four blocks tall, had dark purple skin, long arms with three huge claws, the eyes were bigger, and on top of its forehead was another blue eye that seemed to look through me.

I quickly raised my shield and a sword in the other hand.

"Are you a friend or a foe?"

The monster just tilts its head.

"Can you understand me?"

To my surprise, it nodded in affirmation.

Ok, so it can understand me but it can't speak to me, is this some kind of monster lord?

"How long have you been following me, oh wait, you can't answer that. Do you want to hurt me?"

The monster shook its head strongly in denial.

That was good to hear, but then why was it following me?

"Are you following me?"

I got a nod of affirmation.

"Are you only following me And nobody else?"

Another yes.

"Were you following me before I met the Zombie Lord?"

Another nod.

"Before I was stuck in the Sand Palace?"

This seemed to get me a different reaction, it just shook its head from time to time while raising its palm and gently shook it.

From what I understood it was so-so.

"So you were't with me at the palace, but did you know about my existence beforehand?"

I got another strong yes from the monster.

"How long have you been following me? Were you following me before I met Bobby?"

The monster looked confused at my question.

"Bobby is the person that I recently fought and also managed to see you."

And to my shock, I got another yes.

"We're you following me ever since I got into this world?!"

The monster looked confused at me before shaking its head saying no.

I gave a sigh of relief, then I realized that most of my life was followed by an entity that I didn't even know existed. My only guess that this was an evolved Enderman because of the similar colors, ability to teleport, and the fact that its head had the same physical effects as the other Enderman's.

"W-why are you following me then?"

After asking the question, I realized how stupid I was, the monster couldn't speak so how could it answer?

"Because you are my human."

A rusted female voice responded which made me freeze in fear.

I looked back at the monster and saw that she had her mouth slightly opened which I could only assume was a smile.

It can speak!

And it's a she?

Do monsters have genders, do they repopulate on their own?

Aren't they a byproduct of the Void?

Wait, focus, it doesn't matter, what did she mean that I was here?

"What do you mean-"

Before I could finish my sentence I stopped myself since in the corner of my eyes I could see a glowing outline coming closer beyond the trees.

It didn't come from the castle side so they weren't spies, but if I didn't do anything I would be caught speaking with a monster, and that was not a conversation I wanted to have with anyone.

It's hard for me to talk with the servants here, I don't want to give them more reasons to hate me.

"Someone is coming, quickly hide or something."

The monster looked towards the incoming people before slowly starting to fade away until I couldn't see her anymore.

I mean I could still see the outline of the monster but the fact that she could turn herself invisible was pretty impressive.

Was she some kind of ghost or chameleon?

Once she was invisible, she teleported away leaving me alone to meet the new guests.

The effects of the bell slowly wore off but not before I saw that the people that were coming were riding horses and almost reached me at great speeds.

I decided to put the sword and shield in my inventory to not look dangerous before realizing that I wore an enchanted diamond armor so I looked as intimidating as possible.

Soon the horses reached me and I could see who the rushed people were, and to my surprise I actually recognized them, unfortunately, they didn't recognize me, so once they saw me they came to a halt.

"Halt! Sorry sir are you waiting for someone?"

"Not really Ellen, I'm surprised to meet you in the middle of the forest. Glad to see you doing well."

Once I mentioned that name, everyone froze in place.

And why would they do that?

Because an unknown heavily armored guy wasn't surprised to see a group of witches, and on top of that he knew the name of their leader.

"Who are you?"

Everyone was tensed and took out their enhanced weapons.

"Do you really want to fight the guy that helped you with the hunt?"

I said it with a smirk, I knew I wasn't in danger, and I kind of enjoyed their confused faces with how much I knew.

"Trader is that you?!"

Finally, someone managed to recognize me, and not to my surprise it was Froggy.

He quickly got off his horse and hugged me with force.

"Yes Froggy, I'm glad to see you as well. Sorry for my sudden disappearance, something urgent happened at the castle and they needed my help."

"Why didn't you break my Perl as well?"

He yelled in frustration.

Unfortunately, I couldn't tell him that I didn't want him to be endangered by what I was about to do, so I had to come up with another explanation.

"Because I didn't want to scare the others by making you disappear as well, I'm sure everyone got alarmed when I disappeared in front of their eyes."

I looked toward the others who seemed to relax once they realized they weren't in danger.

I took off my helmet as well so they could see me better.

"What was so urgent that they needed only you?"

Froggy didn't seem to be fully satisfied with my explanation as his voice was still high.

"We can talk once well get some privacy, I'm sure you want to see the others as well. Did you come here to leave the prisoner?"

I looked especially at one of the witches who had an unconscious body tied up on the back of the horse.

Good thing he's unconscious otherwise this trip would've been the most uncomfortable one he's ever been.

Froggy wasn't too happy with my response but decided to listen to my advice and wait for everyone to be present.

Everyone decided to get off their horses and walk towards the castle since it wasn't too far away.

I talked with everyone trying to catch up and see if anything interesting happened on their side.

And from what they told me everything was pretty peaceful, besides me suddenly disappearing without explanation nothing happened.

Froggy was more stressed than usual the whole trip and even insisted on accompanying the others here to hopefully find me.

I felt sorry for doing this to Froggy once again, but I was too distracted with the trap and didn't even want him to get this close to a dangerous monster.

I'll explain everything to him once we don't have an audience anymore.

As I talked they told me they got some horrifying loot from the witch hunt. Some books, unknown potions, and body parts of villagers are in the basement.

Apparently, underneath the house, there was a dungeon that held villagers for extermination purposes.

Unfortunately, everyone was dead when they got there so it was too late to save anyone.

It was an unpleasant discovery so they didn't talk too much about it.

I asked what did they with the books they found, and was told that they were in the Elders's inventory and not to worry about them.

When I get back there I should ask if I can borrow those books, I know most of them would have some horrifying experiments but maybe it also explained how the witch could use magic like the evokers.

Slowly we got closer to the walls of the castle, and before the guards could see us Walter the hunter took a potion from his inventory and drank it on the spot.

Suddenly I could only see a floating iron armor but that soon disappeared as well.

The others didn't seem surprised by the sudden actions and continued with their walk, once I asked what was happening they only told me not to worry about it, and if I could keep this a secret from the others.

I didn't like the fact that I was out of the loop, but since Froggy looked calm I decided to keep my mouth shut.

Just in case I decided not to stay with them when they would have an audience with the king, I'll just stay on the sidelines and watched how everything would go.

We arrived at the gate, and the guards stopped us and told us to wait to get permission, I had the right to enter on my own but decided to wait with the others.

After a few minutes, the guard came back and told us to follow him. We walked for a while but slowly I recognized where he was leading us.

The throne room.

Right as we entered the room where everyone was waiting for us, I decided to sidestep a lot joining the crowd on the side.

It was an awkward thing to do for all parties involved, but nobody said a thing.

I calmly sat down and wondered how this would go about.