A Game

"Ahh... Shit, this sun is killing me," says Alex, arms spread while lying on his back on the grass.

The sun is really scorching and, in this clearing, there's not much to do besides accept being slowly cooked.

"So why are you making sure the sun can hit the largest possible area of your body?" Dan mocks, sitting beside him, slapping his friend's foot.

"I can't think straight. It's hard with this sun in my face... You and Oliver would understand if you didn't have caring girlfriends —Alex briefly turns his head to Joseph— Or a Joh..." He responds with a whiny voice, but switching to strangeness at the end.

At this moment, my group and I are already sitting in a circle on the grass of the clearing where our treasure hunt was scheduled.

Helena, beside me, shares the shade of her parasol with me and Clara, beside her, shares the shade of her own parasol with Dan.

"What girlfriend, idiot!" Clara shouts hearing Alex's provocation, throwing a handful of grass on the ground in his direction, but it scatters in the air before reaching him.

"I agree, stop talking shit..." I support Clara, making Helena look at me with a frown and, surprisingly, Clara slightly furrows her brow.

Is it my impression or, as the days pass, has Alex been behaving more and more like Dan? Or is this his normal?

"Joh, get closer, half my body is getting sun," says Joseph, who shared the shade of the parasol with the not-very-thin Joh.

"I see everyone's already here," says Lady Evelyn, with her now white, but equally tight, nun's outfit, observing the last group of youngsters that were missing getting down from the recently parked carriage that had just returned with the latecomers.

I can't help but be impressed looking at the nun's figure. I mean, don't they have the right size for her? Because every outfit she wears looks like it was vacuum-packed? Would this be the isekai effect?

When will I find female warriors wearing only metal underwear, like the nonsensical armor from games in my previous world?

So many questions, so few answers...

Right behind Lady Evelyn, the same procession of priests that always accompanies her like bodyguards always gives an oppressive air.

"We scheduled this meeting to deepen our bonds in a fun game to know and explore the outer areas of the great royal capital," Evelyn says, while a priest, who until now was standing still, walks to her with a small wooden box in hand; which she promptly opens, revealing a round flask with golden adornments and a gleaming blue liquid.

"This here —she says, while showing the round potion flask in her hand, making its slightly viscous blue liquid move— is a rare magical affinity potion, which greatly increases a person's sensitivity to magical particles."

"Honestly, this is useful even for me, but when I thought about using it, I asked myself: what would happen if a person with the highest natural sensitivity possible for their body took this? Well, we'll soon find out, since one of you will find this prize!" She completes, returning the potion to the wooden box.

Pointing to a group of tall, compact trees no more than 400 meters away, she continues "As you can see, we're in front of a small forest, called the fruit forest."

Meanwhile, the potion priest, after receiving it back in the box and leaving the scene, walks with 3 other priests toward the forest, but, as if feeling my gaze, he quickly turns to me, giving a smile and subtly pointing with his head to one side of the forest suggestively.

Confused, I look around, realizing that everyone is paying too much attention to the nun to notice what happened and, returning my gaze to the priest, I realize he had already returned to his walk, as if nothing had happened.

Okay, this is suspicious.

"Despite the name, don't think about eating any fruit from the forest, unless, of course, you want a very agonizing death... —she gestures with her hands on her belly, simulating pain— All the fruits from this forest are extremely poisonous, but that's exactly why we're doing our treasure hunt in it. Since, because of its peculiar attribute, there are no animals around."

The youngsters, who haven't even had the opportunity to know the outer city, listen excitedly to her speech, after all, besides us, they couldn't even go to the outer city, let alone go to some outdoor activity far from the city.

But I have my reservations: Unlike the large and comfortable carriage of the geriatric twins, the carriage that brought us, despite the chic exterior design and the internal padding with fine fabrics, was still uncomfortable due to the horses' jolts and the apparent lack of suspension.

But the main reservation is: All this is very strange and sudden.

From what I heard a few days ago after getting lost, I know the redhead nun is angry with the twins and is unhappy with me being their disciple.

Well, not like I'm not also angry with the twins, after all, weeks have passed and nothing about the 'soon' destruction but, after what I heard that day, Evelyn certainly wouldn't be doing a game and giving rare gifts.

"That said, obviously, we won't have just the potion as a prize, it would be unfair to all the others." Evelyn says, clapping two rhythmic claps.

As a signal, some priests leave their formation and begin distributing maps among the students.

"You can go individually or in groups and the prizes are diverse: From bags with coins to invitations to the weekly auction held at the capital's auction house —she continues, while the priests hand out the maps— The treasure hunt will last a maximum of two hours and, after the time limit, you'll hear a loud noise and, after that, the green light in the sky will turn red. Then just follow the trail and you'll return here. Any questions?"

Hearing the explanation, a young woman with braids raises her hand.

"Yes?"

"And when will the game start?" The young woman asks.

"It already started!" Evelyn says, making, with a hand movement, a green light appear in the sky followed by a trail going to the ground.

For a moment, the youngsters stare at each other, before finally getting up and running to the forest in a mixture of play and competition.