Doubt and Belief

“Where have you been? It’s already afternoon!”

Eira grabbed Kaito by the collar of his shirt and pulled him towards her.

“What have you been doin all mornin’?”

Ansel grabbed Eira by the shoulder and pulled both of them toward him, a result of Eira’s grip on the shirt.

“You were right. I’m sorry.”

Ansel looked at him, truly lamenting his behavior.

He’d wanted to just punch Kaito square in the face yesterday, believing that he was just trying to run from the truth, to keep pushing him and Eira to search for a ghost instead of accepting his death. He was hurt, his mind was a mess, but when he heard Kaito’s words last night, he’d truly just wanted nothing more than for him to have been left behind in Eigo.

—--

Eira and Ansel had woken up later than usual, feeling the gravity of the news press on them like an anvil on their bed. They didn’t want to wake up, to get out of bed, to go outside. They wanted nothing more than to stay asleep and hope that the last year was nothing more than a dream.

“We should get up,” Eira said.

The two sighed and sat up straight on their bed, the deafening silence beginning to leave the room. Clothes and boots were put on. A belt and sword were placed on the hip at the same time a chestplate was put over an old brown shirt. They walked over to the door to see the floor tidied up, their friend gone.

“Heya! I’ll need some sort of payment soon!” a cheery voice called out as they walked down the stairs.

It was the dwarven woman that had allowed them to stay. She held two plates in her hands, taking them over to the sink and continuing her cooking right after she set them down. She was the only person in the kitchen, handling multiple things at once—effortlessly.

“Names Nala, and I’ve lived long enough to see when a few youngin's really need a bone thrown at them.”

Eira and Ansel walked over and sat down at the counter directly in front of her.

“We’re the Spineful Party, I’m Ansel and this is-”

“Eira. Our other member must have left earlier today.”

“Yea I saw him, just barely. I was gonna mention the pay but I didn’t even notice him till he was already opening the door. Kid’s barely got any mana huh?”

““Yeah””

They both spoke with Nala and even bought breakfast with what little money they had. They both finished their meals and got ready to leave when Nala called out to them.

“Hey!”

They both turned.

“I hope everything works out for you guys.”

“Thank you!” Ansel replied.

“But…” her tone changed suddenly and her face grew grimmer, her eyebrows furrowed and her face tilted downwards slightly, making her look like a completely different person.

“I don’t take kindly to freeloaders.”

The whole 1st floor which doubled as the inn’s in-house restaurant fell silent, the customers stopping their feeding and turning to look at the two of them. They were all adventurers, muscular, armored, conditioned and most of all—intimidating.

The sorrowful silence that seemed to suck the lives out of them in their bedroom returned, but this time created from fear and suspense. Not even a clink of a spoon touching the plate could be heard. They were all staring, almost as if telling them “We’ll find you if you run.” Eira felt the need to respond, but her face was frozen in a cold poker stare. She couldn’t move her mouth one centimeter making her turn to Ansel for help.

“Y-yeah, we’ll make sure to pay for our stay. Thank you for your kindness.”

Ansel had a drop of sweat make its way down his neck and into his shirt. He’d attempted to sound as genuine as possible, but even that felt like it was being tested, or analyzed as all the customers looked at them in contempt.

“Okay, now ya’ll go fix yourselves now!” Nala waved them goodbye and almost immediately, the bustle of the restaurant returned like the mute button on a TV was suddenly turned off.

Eira and Ansel walked out of the inn and wandered about the city for a while before deciding to just ask a random stranger for directions.

They were looking for the guild of Ydiria. They knew it was still stable since the entire inn had been filled with nothing but tab paying adventurers. Walking a considerable distance they arrived at their destination, strangely similar not only in look but in size to the previous one they’d frequented in Kamar.

Opening the door, the pair was met with crowds and crowds of adventurers. The building was way bigger on the inside compared to what the outside implied. The adventurers lined up at the register, crowded the multiple quest boards and even filled up the tables at the inside bar that the guild had partnered with. The view was like nothing they’d ever seen in the smaller towns, even Kamar the capital of the elven nation being only half as busy and half the size.

“Woah” Ansel exclaimed, having only ever passed by here once before back when it was only the three struggling to survive.

They walked into the crowded boards and searched for a quest they could handle. A quest to slay goblins. A quest to search for a cat. A quest to rebuild a house. A quest to protect a food stall. A recurring quest to assist the rebuilding of the city walls. A quest to search for some herbs. A quest to clean up rubble. To clear out land. To demolish buildings. To gather materials. To recruit workers.

“Damn.”

“They’re all centered around the city’s rebuilding.”

“Makes sense,” Eira replied.

“Let’s line up, we’ll register with the guild and ask for more quests.”

Eira swiftly made her way to the end of the line and they waited for their turn. While they waited Ansel and Eira began to consider their options, and what Kaito had said yesterday.

“Do you really believe him?” Ansel asked.

“Yes.”

“Is it because-”

“Of course not.” Eira looked at Ansel with a freezing glare. She crossed her arms and looked at him as if she was looking at garbage with an almost unnoticeable redness appearing on her cheeks as she turned away.

“It’s just…why would he lie?”

“NEXT!!”

A guild receptionist called them over from the 6th window down. They had made it to the front of the line before they knew it; now making their way down to the window.

“Welcome to the Sword Branch of the Adventurers Guild of Ydiria. My name is Lily, how may I assist you today?”

“Hello, we’d like to register our party in this city.”

“Gladly, please show me your ID’s”

Ansel and Eira presented their Identification and after a brief wait Lily came back to inform them of their status.

“Everything seems to be in order. Just make sure to bring Kaito and Talos here and have them register as well, they still need to come in person or else they’ll have an out of city deductible added to all the quests they complete during their stay.”

“...”

Ansel grew quiet at the words of the receptionist, inform Talos, echoed in his mind and bounced about.

“Yes we will”

Eira coldly gave her a response, her voice stark and pointy despite herself. The habit proved to be etched too far into her soul to ever show her true feelings with ease. It had taken her about half a year to begin to defrost around Kaito, and even longer when she first met Ansel.

She looked at Ansel in that moment, her emotionless face looking at Ansel, then away at the door behind him.

“Ah- yes. Thank you for your time.”

They began to take their leave when a flash of yesterday replayed in Ansel’s mind. He was tired of chasing an endless ghost, but Eira had proved a point. Kaito was not the type to just run from reality—”especially him” is what Ansel thought, remembering their first meeting.

Ansel promptly turned and put his hands together in apology.

“Sorry! Can I ask one more thing?”

“Sure thing.” Lily smiled, putting down her waving hand, a gesture to call over the next guest.

“When we got here, we saw some four kids in the city’s defense force. They were wearing some large headbands almost like blindfolds.”

“Oh yes, you should be sure to steer clear of them.”

“What? Why?”

“Those aren’t kids, their the Kings’ summons, Ydiria’s Shields.”

—--

“You ever think how different we would be if we were born a different race?”

“No. I don’t.”

“Like… imagine if we were born as dwarves, you think we woulda made some crazy inventions instant of being here, on the front lines?”

“Don’t care.”

“C’mon Veta just think about it for a sec. Instead of burning Jandra we coulda been… the Treehouse Twins! The genius inventors of- offff…” Phlerio struggled to think of any new invention that had yet to exist.

“...of something,” is all he managed to pull out of his brain.

“Wow. We woulda been millionaires with you “Of Something” brain” Veta mocked.

“No but listen! What if we were born as elves”

Phlerio laid on the couch in the office and motioned his hands to “outline” the shape of his ears.

“I remember hearing that Elves with longer ears have smarter brains or like… are found more attractive in Gyoral.”

Veta walked past him to the desk behind the couch, looking down at him with a book opened in her hand.

“If we were born as elves we wouldn't even look related.”

“What? Why?”

Phlerio lifted his head and looked at Veta.

“Because you woulda looked like a human, and me the smartest elf in history.”

The laying demon grabbed the nearby pillow that he’d knocked over at the ground and threw it at his twin sister, perfectly covering her grinning smile.

“At least that woulda meant that I could have that monstrous power.”

Veta threw the pillow back at Phlerio.

“Are you envying humans?!”

“No no, but you saw what happened.”

“But they can also be so weak that they fear a Larock”

“OR” Phlerio continued her sentence, “ as strong as one of our King’s ships.”

“So w-”

“I mean… YOU SAW THEM! Those freaks of nature, and they still looked like children.”

“They were children” Veta confirmed.

“Next time for SURE I’ll win.”

Phlerio punched the air with his fist, nothing moving and nothing changing for a few more hours.

…

“Mannnnnnnn, it should’ve been me!!!”

“Yes. It really should have. But because of your slip up, those things are now protecting that damned city”.

—--

“So there’s four of them.”

“And from the looks of it, Talos might be the Sun Shield, it lines up with what Kaito said.”

Ansel and Eira walked over to the walls of the city, having chosen to accept the recurrent reconstruction quest. They had to go and meet the head of the operation to let him know that they were going to assist in the rebuild.

“It might also not be him.”

Eira looked at Ansel in scorn.

“I just need you to know… he might’ve-”

“Shut up and keep walking.”

Eira sped up and turned the corner to the jobsite. Ansel sighed audibly and soon turned the corner as well.

What he was met with was the frozen body of Eira startling him slightly as he almost bumped into her because of the speed he was walking with.

“What the heck? Why’d you-” Ansel looked at Eira and saw her mouth gaping open, her eyes wide with her pupils shaking. He looked at the direction her eyes were facing and immediately felt his throat tighten.

A lone boy with golden wavy hair made his way down the road. He wore a large headband with jewels embedded around its perimeter, and a strange looking hand covered in a black glove. The moment they laid eyes on the boy they knew it was him. Despite the now taller physique and emotionless face, they knew without a doubt that the boy walking toward them was him.

Ansel tried to speak but his tongue betrayed him. As the boy approached the two, time seemed to slow down and their minds began to race. Thought of He’s alive! Talos! He’s here! Shot around in their minds and soon the boy was within a few meters. He never looked in their direction, only straight ahead almost as if they were invisible to him. Time soon returned to its normal state, the slowness being but a fantasy of Eira and Ansel's minds, and soon the boy was gone, having turned the corner they’d just come from.

They both quickly looked back at the main road and saw his hands glow. In an instant the boy was launched up into the air and soon flying in the sky. Ansel and Eira saw him fly about for a few seconds before landing on the roof of the large white castle at the center of the city. There they saw distant guards and some other random passerby’s, one of which they noticed quickly to have a strange spiky texture to his hair and an out of place black to their hair.

“That’s Kaito!” Eira exclaimed.

She looked over to Ansel, who was still in shock and began to run ahead.

Ansel stood there in a daze, feeling like what he’d just seen was nothing but a dream. Droplets started to well up in his eyes and a runny booger dripped from his right nostril. He sniffed and wiped his face with his sleeve and ran after Eira thinking, He’s really alive! All the way to the center of Ydiria.