Treasure Map

1

It was the third day of the festival when I actually got hold of Meifan. Despite telling us guild members to be on the look out in case something was to happen in the village, the leaders of the Protectorate Guild barely paid us any attention, and rarely ever left the village chief’s mansion.

“The negotiations aren’t going well,” Meifan said, her voice low and dejected. We were having breakfast at the west residential block of the village, which was bigger and fancier than our ‘apartments’ in the east block. The houses in this area looked similar to the stacked buildings in Yorutei, with significantly more staircases that connected them. As such the ceiling was higher in this place than anywhere else in the village. It was an architectural feat that normally wouldn’t fly back on earth, but this world had magic. The fact these people even decided to live in the Everdark was insane to begin with.

I chewed on today’s bread, which was pleasantly soft and smelled faintly of butter. “So, the village chief isn’t interested in having guild presence here?” I asked. “Honestly, now that I see it for myself, I don’t think there’d be space for us here.”

Meifan sighed as she restlessly toyed with her stick. “You’re not wrong, but its more about extending our influence here from Yorutei.”

“You mean more than just the festival visits?”

“Pretty much.”

“I actually have to ask… do the villagers ever have issues with Everdark fiends? This place seems very protected.”

“It is. But the villagers leave the security of their homes more often than you think. If not to trade with Yorutei, then simply to have the freedom to go places.”

“That makes sense,” I said, remembering the time we crossed. “We didn’t encounter any fiends on our way here, though.”

“Exactly.” Meifan pointed her stick at me. “Everdark fiends are smart enough to know they can’t win against a large number of warriors crossing the forest. Or at least they’d have a terrible time trying. Now imagine if every time people crossed between the town and the village, you have a group of guardsmen and guild mercenaries as your entourage.”

“Guildmaster Yin is trying to make that a more common occurrence,” I said.

“Yes…” Meifan sipped some of her tea, then looked to the side as if contemplating something.

“Anything… wrong with that?” I asked.

“No, it’s a good thing,” Meifan answered. “It’s ultimately in everyone’s best interest. Trade between the two places also mean more resources to make and maintain sun lanterns.”

I felt a ‘but’ coming.

“But… I don’t know… the guildmaster has been pushing for better relations with Yunha for years, but it’s only in the last few months that he’s really come down hard with this negotiating tactic. He even travelled across Shusui to garner support from other branches and obsess himself with any information relating to the Everdark. He’s almost like a changed man.”

So the guildmaster wasn’t always so headstrong and intimidating? If he’d been dealing with the Everdark for years, I kind of get why he would snap at some point.

“I mean it makes sense,” Meifan continued. “The protectorate headquarters in Keslahir haven’t really been on his side, so maybe he’s taking this festival as his best opportunity. Maybe his only opportunity.”

“But it hasn’t gone well.”

“No…”

I could understand the frustration. Jennifer and I were supposedly sent here to steal the village treasure, which would only put it in chaos. Which—

Huh.

If the village had bad guys to deal with, then maybe that would help the guild’s case. Maybe that’s why fate had us do this. Maybe that was the reason.

“I just don’t understand why the guildmaster is bringing the legend into this,” Meifan said. “The village chief was against building a guild inside the village, but he was at least—”

“Wait,” I said. “What legend?”

Meifan blinked in surprise. “Huh? Oh. Did you watch the performance last night?”

“Yes, it was fantastic,” I said quickly. “An acquaintance of ours played the King of Yunha. I thought Allen could sing, but my goodness did Kazha’s voice sound heavenly. No wonder they cast him for the part. That and the cliffhanger had me locked in for tonight’s sequel. But what about the legend?”

Meifan chuckled. “I admit this year’s performance is looking better than anything they’ve done in the past. I’m excited for—”

“What did the guildmaster say?”

“Well… he asked about the original gemstone from the story. The reason why Yunha was cursed. He said it might be the key to helping the village be rid of the Everdark.”

Interesting. Very interesting.

“Of course it was a sore topic for the village chief. It’s their greatest treasure after all.”

“And that soured negotiations,” I said. “So the guildmaster thinks the gemstone is real? He thinks it’s somewhere in the village?”

Meifan shrugged. “It’s always been said it’s buried somewhere in the Everdark.” She laughed, grabbing my arm. “You look tense! Relax, the guildmaster isn’t going to order us to search the Everdark and dig for treasure. I think he only brought it up to show how committed we are in protecting the village.”

“Yeah… maybe.”

“The most we’d be doing in the next few days is escort a few people back to Yorutei and back here again. I hope you and your friends are fine helping the guardsmen with that.”

“Of course…”

I looked down at my bowl of soup, then proceeded to finish it quickly. I gotta tell the other two.

“Where’s Jennifer and Allen anyway?” Meifan asked.

“Jennifer’s taken a liking to the village, so she’s been around… err, admiring the place.” I drank the rest of my tea, then poured another from the pot. “Allen’s practicing singing with Hakan, I think. They both want to join the performance tonight.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Nope.”

“Well, at least he’s not following me around anymore,” Meifan said, rolling her eyes. “Hakan’s cute, but… he’s too much. I’m glad he found something else we wanted to do.”

2

I was supposed to meet the others in the northeast block, the area in the map that led to the upper canopies, but I was bit too eager to get there that I arrived earlier than planned.

But that only gave me time to continue what I was doing the day before.

Unlike other connecting bridges that led to other areas of the village, the one that led to the northeastern block, and I assumed the southeastern block as well, went uphill then spiraled into a wide set of stairs. In my mind’s eye, I imagined this place to be a tower that was part of the ancient castle’s estate.

I stopped halfway through the stairs and ran my hand on the wall. It was smooth and polished, unlike the blocky section at the bottom of the stairs. Again, with the inconsistency in design. I really wondered if I was to solve this question with my knowledge of engineering. Was there a secret passage somewhere? A secret path that led to the village’s treasure? I walked up the stairs with my hand on the wall hoping I’d press onto something that triggered the place to transform.

I probably walked around back and forth for a solid half hour, randomly expecting the walls before somebody finally called me out on it.

“Oh!” A voice said ahead of me. “It’s Ryota… right?”

I looked up and saw a familiar face from the guild. It was the girl with the stereotypical witch hat I’ve seen around occasionally. She had long brown hair and green eyes, often with a big smile on her face.

Jennifer knew her, but I never had the pleasure.

“Hello,” I said, then noticed Hesina walking just behind the girl. The veteran guild member was speaking with a couple of villagers in white robes. She noticed me as well and made a curt nod.

“You’re up early,” Hesina said.

“Hey, introduced us!” the witch girl interjected. “You two worked together before, right, Sina?”

“A couple of times,” Hesina answered.

“I’ve never been more impressed with archery until we hunted those rabid slingdras,” I said.

“That’s awesome!” The witch girl looked between Hesina and me. “Well? Well?”

Hesina sighed. “Ryota, this is Kukri. She’s from an island nation northwest of Yves.”

“Of Yves?” I said in surprise. “As in the continent as a whole? I guess that makes sense if you’re talking about an island.”

“I’m surprised myself!” Kukri said. “Or, well, I’m surprised people care about that little tidbit about me. I moved to this continent and found work with the guild. I moved around from city to city until I got to Yorutei. I have to say, that town and this Everdark forest is the most interesting I’ve seen in my travels so far.”

Hesina cleared her throat. “Kukri, this is Ryota. He’s a Dark Knight.”

“Awesome!” Kukri said, tapping my chest armor enthusiastically. “I’d very much like to work with you in the future!”

I scratched my head, almost embarrassed. But I couldn’t help but notice the villagers’ reaction when they heard what I was. They whispered to each other in low voices.

“What’s wrong?” Hesina asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing…” one of the villagers said, a teenaged boy with cat-like ears. “I just remembered the village having Dark Knight visitors a long time ago. My ma used to tell me stories about it.”

“Really?” I said. “Mind if I ask what happened?”

“It’s an old story,” the other villager said. He looked like the older one of the two, maybe in his late twenties. “There’d been expeditions to the Everdark for as long as any can remember. One of those expeditions was led by a group of Dark Knights in beautiful black armor. Now that I look at your armor… it doesn’t compare to the tall tales we’ve been told. I thought you’d be spikier. No offense.”

I wouldn’t want to wear something that sounded cumbersome, so I wasn’t offended.

“I think you look great,” Kukri said clapping my shoulder.

“Thanks, I guess? What happened to the expedition?”

“They all died,” the villager boy said. “They ventured deep into the forest with no lanterns and never came back.”

“It’s really more of a story to scare children about going to the forest,” the older villager said, as if to clarify. “Didn’t mean to scare you, uh, sir.”

“Did the villagers send a rescue mission?”

“My ma was part of it,” the boy said. “But they never found the Dark Knights. It was a shame because their armor apparently looked super awesome, almost like the opposite of our guardsmen in white. Nothing against your armor, though, mister. It’s okay.”

Kukri clapped my shoulder a second time. “I think you look super awesome, Ryota.”

Can we stop it with the armor? I suddenly felt self conscious.

Hesina sighed exasperatedly. “What were you doing here anyway?” she asked me. “Sightseeing?”

“Actually, yes,” I answered. “I’m meeting some of my friends up there later. Right now, I’m really interested in this wall.”

“Oh?” Hesina and Kukri both looked at the smooth surface of the wall next to us.

“I just think it’s interesting how different it is from other places in the ca—in the village. I was wondering how it was constructed.”

Hesina and Kukri looked at each other as if confused.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s constructed using earth magic, obviously,” Hesina said. “Have you never seen construction work before?”

Not in this world, ma’am! Dammit. I already assumed it was magic, though.

“I only asked because, you know, we’re here.” I tapped my foot as if to indicate the village. “People aren’t allowed to use magic and it’s dark everywhere.”

“The village was said to be built by the king of Yunha after the curse struck the old kingdom down,” the older villager answered. “He used the gemstone that we were given to—”

“Hey!” the boy elbowed the other man. “You’re spoiling the festival story for him!”

“Oh…”

Hesina fixed her glasses in place. “That’s right, Ryota. Don’t ruin the fun of the festival.”

As far as I knew everybody should already know the story. Jennifer would’ve heard of it when she did her research, but I suppose minute details involving the creation of the village was left in the performances. It might’ve even been added later in the story as part of the creative process.

“I hear the story changes every year,” I said. “Depends on how the legend is interpreted, right? Can you guys at least tell me what the story last year was like?”

The two villagers looked at each other, then shrugged.

“The King of Yunha built this village by using magic right before the curse fully took place and made everything dark,” the younger one explained. “He cobbled it together in haste, then the treasure used for magic just disappeared. Before he died, he assigned some of his people as defenders of the village.”

“And that’s the eight families,” the older one finished.

I raised my eyebrows and nodded. “That was interesting! I wonder how its going to be interpreted this year.”

The villagers suddenly looked perplexed.

Guess they couldn’t spoil the story for me after all, huh? Though I did remember hearing during the rehearsal that Kazha couldn’t quite pin the final act down. They were really writing at the skin of their teeth.

“We should probably go,” Hesina said to her companions. “I hope you enjoy the view up there, Ryota. Tell your friends, I’ll see them later at the festival performance.”

Kukri and the villagers waved as they left.

I walked up the stairs and eventually found the apex of the tower. What I found there was a large room about the size of a tennis court. There were two hallways leading to other rooms and another set of spiraling stairs leading upwards. With the way the ‘darkness’ wobble above it, it was probably safe to say it led outside.

There was a good number of guards on standby too, and a few visitors from Yorutei walking around in groups.

I walked up to one of the guards, a tall, muscular woman with fluffy grey hair and fox-like ears. I asked if there was anything to do in this place but was told the only real place of interest was the stairs leading outside. When I asked if it was safe, the guardsman simply smirked at me and told me to see for myself. Keeping me in suspense here, lady. In fairness to her, that was probably the twentieth time somebody had asked her today.

I loitered around the area while waiting for my friends and collecting my thoughts. I haven’t figured a single thing out to the location of our gemstone.

I wondered how the other four champions were faring.

Maya and Julio’s mission sounded tricky, so they might be struggling a little bit. Knowing Clare and Virgilia, they probably finished their mission already and waiting back with the arbiter. Since time worked differently there, we would all meet up roughly at the same time, so… what? They were in suspended animation until we arrived? Were they all moving in slow motion while we were moving super fast over here? That was weird to think about. And what about home? We’re supposed to return pretty quickly too. That’d be weird, specially for me who was only gone for two hours last time. Now I had two months.

Two months and I was still undecided what to do about Ilyana. I thought I had it figured out. I was going to confess my feelings that day, but I backed out when I found myself in the hospital instead.

And who was there to care about me? Ilyana. I think that made me feel safe. Complacent.

Rumor was it that Jensen, a popular, good-looking dude in the science department had the hots for Ilyana too. He was planning to ask her out. So, I panicked and decided to confess my feelings first.

But fate had other plans.

A week passed however, and Jensen never so much as ask Ilyana out on a date. Or maybe Ilyana turned him down. Who knows.

But could I remain complacent? I could die if this mission fails.

“Hmmm…”

Contemplating my own demise wasn’t funny. But finally, after realizing just how realistic it was for us to die in this world, I acquired a better reason to tell Ilyana how I felt. There might not be any second chances.

Suddenly, a woman’s face was in front of me, standing so close she was all I could see. It wasn’t Ilyana or Jennifer for that matter, but the guardsman from earlier.

I yelped, then jumped away by reflex.

“Are you sure you’re a mercenary from the outside world?” the woman said. She scratched her fox ear, then looked the other way. “Look, man, if its that scary, I can accompany you.”

“Huh?”

“Outside. You want to see the upper canopies, right? I’ll go with you, so you don’t have to be scared.”

“I—I wasn’t scared!” I turned to look at the direction of the stairs I came from. “I was just waiting for my friends to get here so we can go together.”

“Riiiight.”

I scratched my head. “I am a mercenary from the outside world. A Dark Knight, in fact. I’ve even defeated Everdark fiends in my time working at Yorutei.”

The woman snorted. “Have you now?”

“Yeah… it’s probably not that impressive for you Yunha guardsmen, but I did kill one of the flying ones. I was told it was rare to see them down south.”

To my complete and utter surprise, the guardsman suddenly grabbed my armor and pulled me closer to her face again. “Are you serious?” she said, expression grim.

“Um… yes? Can you please let go?”

The woman clicked her tongue and did as I asked. “Shadows take me, so the rumor was true.”

“What rumor?”

“That a flier escape and made its way south.”

“What do you mean by escape?”

The woman stared me in the eyes, looked around at the other guardsmen, then grabbed me by the shoulder. She dragged me towards the staircase leading outside. “Let me come with you after all. I can give you the full tour.”

“But—”

“Just calm down, everything’s going to be fine. Name’s Misha by the way. Misha-En Yena.”

We reached the stairs and I reluctantly followed her up. When the darkness came, Misha simply walked towards it.

I swallowed hard, then followed along. This was part of the village. Misha was a guard.

I repeated those words over and over as I walked in pure darkness. No white lanterns, no torches or fire magic, nothi—

I suddenly felt wind on my face. And then—

Smack!

I felt a large, flat thing hit me in the nose. It was soft, so it didn’t hurt, and eventually… light appeared at the edges of my vision. When I saw what hit me, I realized it was a giant leaf. Almost like a banana leaf except it was greyish white. I let it go then kept walking upwards.

And there I saw Misha standing in her white armor… bathed by the rays of the sun.

Oh. My. God.

It was so bright I had to squint and rub my eyes for a bit. I looked around me and saw the top of the Everdark forest. There were black leaves and branches as far as the eyes could see and I was swimming in it. Or to be more precise, I was swimming in black miasma that swirled around like mist. Like shadow.

“You can keep walking,” Misha said. “There’s a wide, circular platform in here that we can walk on, practically above the shadows. There are railings too, so you won’t just fall. Hopefully.”

I did as Misha said and eventually stood beside her.

“Like the view?” Misha pointed in the distance. “That’s the northlands over there. See it?”

I squinted and put a hand over my brow. “I see mountains… snowy mountains.”

“There used to be more according to ancient history. An entire empire.”

“Lusia, right?”

“You know your stuff, mercenary. Yes. One day it was there, one day it wasn’t. The people ‘ascended’.”

“What do you think that means?”

Misha shrugged. “They probably died off. A plague, maybe. But somehow, we were spared.”

“So you don’t think the Everdark is a curse?”

“I don’t know that. I’m just saying, unlike them, we’re still here.”

I saw the logic in that. If I were to follow that line of thought, then maybe the Everdark acted as a barrier to prevent the plague from spreading.

Still, those snow mountains look normal enough.

“Huh? Wait a minute, I think—”

Misha suddenly blocked my view and stared me in the eyes again. “It’s a good thing nobody else is up here. Is it true you fought a winged beast?”

I nodded.

Misha scratched the back of her neck and turned away, pacing. “Did, um, did anybody get hurt? Anyone die?”

“Not that I know of,” I said. “The fiend was acting like a pest, so the guild put a hunt mark on it. I think a week has passed when my team took on the job and killed the thing.”

“So everyone’s alright?”

“For the most part, yeah…”

If I remembered right, a few farms got ravaged, but I decided to not tell her that. I also learned my Dark Knight skills fighting that thing, so in a way, I was thankful for the experience.

Mischa breathed a long sigh, then collapsed on the ground.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Yes… and thank you for taking care of it. Tell you the truth, it was partly my fault it escaped to your side.”

“Really? Why? How?”

“We sometimes capture beasts for training and the group I was in charged of decided to catch one of the flying ones. They’re easy to deal with in the forest, but outside? They’re a pest, like you’ve said.”

I might’ve sold the fiend rather cheaply. It was a monster.

“I’ve only realized what my subordinates have done when we were already training. Suffice it to say I punished them for what they’ve done and told them to bind the beast.”

“And they messed up?”

“More than you think. The beast escaped and that was that. I hoped it went back north where it lived, but I had a feeling it went the other way. I was planning to leave for Yorutei during tonight’s exchange to see what our counterparts in the southern town would say about flying beasts. I’m just happy I have an answer.”

Well, that little mystery got solved rather neatly. I had thought maybe somebody from this side purposely let loose a flying monster on Yorutei for nefarious reasons. It was good to know not everything was masterminded by somebody evil.

I held my hand out to Misha. “Maybe I can introduce you to Tori later. She’s a veteran from the Protectorate Guild who I fought the monster with. She could probably give you more information than I could.”

Misha took my hand and got up. “I like that,” she said. “Maybe we can meet during the song tonight.”

“At the recreation block?”

“Yes, tonight is my family’s turn to use magic and wow the crowd. It’s going to be spectacular. My sister’s singing is the best out of the eight.”

I laughed. “I didn’t know you were from one of the families that had a gemstone.”

“You already know more than most visitors by saying that,” Misha said. “But it’s not your fault for not recognizing me. Most of the people from Yunha wouldn’t know who is of which family either, since the eight families are mixed in with everyone else. We’re just regular people at the end of the day.”

That made sense. Kazha was rich having owned the Yan Tak at Yorutei, but after meeting him he was just a run of the mill guy who loved to sing.

“That said, I picked the northeastern block as my area of responsibility because of my family crest,” Misha said. “It just felt right.”

“How’s that?”

“Ah, forgive me. Well… think about it this way. Eight gemstones. Eight families. Eight blocks. Notice anything?”

In my minds eye I saw Jennifer’s sketch of the village map. A big circle in the middle, and eight lines protruding outwards making an asterisk.

“The eight families originally lived in each block,” Misha continued to say. “The layout of the village was made for that reason long ago.”

“Huh. I see.”

Oh.

Oh shit.

I think I just figured out where the original gemstone was hidden.

3

Jen finally reached the top of the tower in the northeastern block of the village. She’d been walking around all day and hadn’t eaten anything, so she was hoping she’d catch Ryota and Allen before they went up so she could grab something. Allen appeared looking very exhausted, but Ryota was nowhere to be seen. After some time she said to heck with and scaled the tower with Allen.

What else did she see but Ryota going down another set of stairs… with another woman in tow.

Jen felt irritation bubble inside her but she knew it was fake, so she bottled it in. They were so close to the end now. It was only a matter of time. Assuming they won the mission of course.

But in the event they didn’t… could she just enjoy these last moments with Ryota? Let her fake feelings take over?

That was a terrible thought, and she knew it. She wished she had someone she liked back home too so she could focus on that like Ryota did with Ilyana. If he didn’t have his crush, the two of them might’ve fallen for the arbiter’s trap.

Ryota took notice of her and Allen and immediately ran towards them with a big smile on his face. That goofball. Does he not understand—

“Jennifer! Allen!” he said, grabbing her hand casually. “Let’s go to the top of the tower. There’s nobody up there so we can talk about what we found.”

“This isn’t the top?” Allen asked, crestfallen. “How much more stairs?”

“We can see the sky out there,” Ryota said, pulling her hand.

Jen hesitated. “I actually searched the administrative block all morning,” she said. “I even went into the village chief’s mansion.”

“You did?” Ryota looked shocked before narrowing his eyes. “You didn’t… sneak in like a ninja, did you?”

“No, I went in the normal way! Unfortunately, the guildmaster was already there and scolded me for wandering around areas that were normally restricted.”

“Oh, damn. Are we still good? He was already suspicious of us, wasn’t he?”

Jen sighed. “I think we’re okay. I practically dragged Tori with me and made it seem like it was her idea to go there.”

Ryota whistled.

“Wow, you could do that?” Allen said in awe. “You’re so cool.”

“It didn’t matter,” Jen said. “I found nothing yesterday and found nothing today. I was thinking of extending our investigation time to tomorrow since we already lost our first day and—”

“Hold that thought,” Ryota said, squeezing my hand. “We might actually use all of our remaining days for planning after all.”

“Why?”

“Because we might go with your original plan.”

“But that’s only if we’re taking the gemstone they use for the ritual performances.”

“Exactly!” Ryota pulled my hand and turned towards the direction of the stairs. “But first we go up. I’ll share what I found. Allen might have to sing after all!”

Jen’s heart skipped a beat. Stupid fake memories. Stupid arbiter.

But was it? With the way Ryota had been cheering her recently, she might actually just fall for him.