The Day After

Luke opened his eyes and clenched his teeth.

'Did that really just happen to me?! I couldn't even tell that there was a presence behind me...'

Luke furrowed his brows.

'No, Luke, calm down, it could've happened to anyone…'

Luke relaxed his face and heaved a sigh.

"Phew…"

He looked around himself.

He was sitting at a table in a familiar house, a map laying unfolded on top of said table.

'The watch says 5:32… I went back in time by around four and a half hours.'

Luke made sure to remember the time difference.

He glanced at the map.

'I should mark the places I know of now.'

Luke unbuttoned his shirt's front pocket and took out a pen.

He always carried a memo pad and a pen with him, just in case he needed to write something down.

'So, there's the very poor village to the east, the name of which I don't know, and to the north of it there's a town called Millef.'

Luke made notes on the map with his pen.

He took out his memo pad as well and made sure to write down a few notes, because information was now piling up, and he didn't want to forget anything down the line.

'Although, whatever I write now will possibly get erased with the next loop. But, if I keep writing the same information over and over, I'll eventually memorize all of it.'

Luke wrote down what he knew about elementals and artifacts, the people he met, their names, the information he knew about the Wind Temple, the time of his last death, and so on.

He could write pretty fast, so he jotted it all down in no time at all.

He put the memo pad and the pen back into his shirt's front pocket, and also put the map back into his pants' pocket.

He also gathered his other supplies like last time, and then left the house.

He turned to his right and started running towards the direction of the village.

'I want to spend the night somewhere, and I'm definitely not sleeping in this forest.'

Luke kept an eye out for any Gleems he might run into.

'I may be able to persuade Boldee into letting me stay the night in his tavern, but if not, I'll probably just head to Millef straight away to at least check it out.'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Luke was running through the forest and glanced at his pocket watch.

'7:12 o'clock… It seems like I've made a mistake. It can't be early in the spring if the sun still isn't setting when it's this late. It's likely to actually be late in the spring or early in the summer instead. I kept repeating the same chilly couple of days, so that's why my assumption was incorrect.'

Luke kept running for another hour before reaching the farmlands.

His stamina had also exponentially improved thanks to his wind elemental.

He arrived in the village soon thereafter.

Luke took out his memo pad and jotted down the time of his arrival in the village.

'8:28 o'clock.'

He then made his way to the tavern, just to be greeted by the drunken soldiers yet again.

Luke sat down at the same table as last time, and saw Boldee approaching him.

"Welcome to "The Drunken Woodsman"! What can I get you, sir?"

'I would've liked to question him about artifacts and elementals, but as far as I'm aware that's supposed to be common knowledge, so it'd just arouse his suspicion of me.'

"I am heading to the town of Millef, so I was looking for a place to stay the night at."

"Well, sir, you're in luck. I do happen to have a vacant room!"

Boldee answered energetically, until suddenly becoming gloomy, dropping his shoulders down.

"Actually, they're all vacant, ha ha…"

Luke then smiled slyly.

"That's great, but the problem is, I don't have any money. I'd like to help you out around the tavern, and in return, you let me use one of those vacant rooms for just a single night. Sounds good?"

Boldee fixed his posture and made eye contact with Luke.

"I'm Boldee. What's your name?"

"My name is Luke."

Boldee kept looking Luke over from head to toe, before finally opening his mouth:

"You know what? Sure. You seem reliable enough. Serve those soldiers over there until they leave, and you've got yourself a room for the night."

Luke nodded his head.

"Got it."

Luke then tended to the soldiers for an hour or so, before glancing at his pocket watch.

'9:53. It's almost the time.'

Luke walked over to Boldee.

"Hey, boss, I need to take care of something real quick. I'll be right back though, alright?"

Boldee nodded and waved his hand off.

Luke nodded back at him as well, and left the tavern.

He looked at his watch.

'9:55.'

Luke made his way to one of the alleyways in between the houses.

He kept glancing over his shoulder, and sure enough, a scrawny man was sneakily approaching him.

Luke gathered a tiny wind spike in one of his hands.

When the scrawny man was a few meters away from him, Luke turned around and silently shot the wind spike out of his hand, directly penetrating the scrawny man's forehead and making its way clean through his brain, before exiting on the other side of the skull.

The scrawny man's corpse hit the ground and blood started gushing out madly out of the two new holes made by Luke.

'Who knows how many people he had already killed before, and how many more he would've killed if I didn't put a stop to it. This is probably for the best...'

Luke didn't feel as much remorse about this as he thought he would. Was it because it was the second time he commited murder, or was it perhaps because he really believed in his justificaion?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Rays of sun made their way through the crack in the window, landing on Luke's face.

He soon woke up, rubbing his eyes and sitting up on the bed.

'Ahhh, this bed is much better than the one in the small house back in the forest.'

Luke got dressed and made his way downstairs.

Boldee greeted him.

"Morning Luke, how did you sleep?"

Luke smiled at Boldee.

"It was pretty comfortable. And you?"

"Same old, same old! Anyways, will you be making your way over to Millef right away?"

"That's the plan."

"Alright, Luke. Take this then."

Boldee opened his hand and extended it towards Luke. On his hand lay a small, round metal token, with a rose engraved on it with great detail.

"Since you told me you were broke, I figured that you're going to Millef to get a job. Head over to their Bounty Hunter's Association, and if they give you any trouble, just show this to them. It should at least give you a head start."

Luke took the token and put it in his pocket.

"Thank you, but why are you giving this to me?"

"Like I said, you seem reliable. My gut is usually never wrong, but on the occasion that it is…"

Boldee's eyes seemed to lit up for a moment.

"…Once again, thanks for everything. I'll be sure to come and visit you again."

"Take care Luke!"

Boldee waved at Luke as he exited the tavern.

Luke took out the token and studied it for a bit.

'Bounty Hunter's Association, huh? This should be interesting.'

He put the token away and started following the paved dirt road north, heading towards Millef.