An Few hours later
Someone knocks at Alice's door, she opens it to see Melaich and Silvie in semi-formal adventurer wear. Melaich wore his usual clothes, this one more bright since he'd washed it recently. Silvie wore gear similar to Melaich's, with daggers on the side and her hair on a bun.
Melaich: We received a letter that James Mgrath was being treated at this house?
Alice opens the door a bit more, taking a step to the side for the both of them to see James inside, walking around with a cane, eating an apple.
Silvie rushes towards James, hugging him
Silvie: James!
James looks very confused at the sight, yet still hugs Silvie back.
James: Wha- How- How'd you know I was here?
Melaich also steps in as Alice closes the door.
Melaich: We got a letter saying you were here.
James: Oh?
Melaich continued,
Melaich: I wondered how it was possible, with you in Lorwin and all but, looking at whose house it is...
Melaich looked back at Alice with a sense of curiosity and surprise
Meliach: It makes sense.
Alice looks at Melaich in shock
Alice: Wait, what do you mean? You don't mean-
Melaich just smiles, almost confirming what Alice was about to question.
Everyone sits down, with Alice explaining how she got into the situation.
Alice: So, Yesterday, late at night, I was walking around the Woods outside of Orliave When suddenly....
Flashback:
Alice walks around the woods surrounding the outskirts of Orliave's Entrance, looking for some berries that apparently grow in these parts when suddenly she hears a scream coming from the open field next to the forest.
She runs towards the open field, only to see an Elf standing over a guy she'd recognized from her time adventuring, James Mgrath. She hid behind the bushes for a second, debating whether to help James when suddenly she saw James's body transform into something she had never seen before, transform into the Demon General Kronos.
She sees the entire encounter between the Demon General and The Elf, she looks at it all, amazed, stunned and perplexed. Once the fight is over and James returns to his knees, she quickly runs up to him to help him.
Present:
Alice: That's what happened.
Silvie: But why didn't you bring him to Orliave? I mean it's way closer than Lorwin.
Alice: Well...
Alice looks around, debating if revealing everything about her Magic Treasure, including its weakness to the group but then sighs and reveals her Magic Treasure. All the while Melaich and Silvie listen closely, James is sipping a cup of Tea Alice made from him, since he already heard it from her a few hours back.
Alice: My Magic Treasure is called Teleport. I can teleport anything I touch. But, it's not that simple you see. I can only Teleport to places I've been to. That's how I sent the letter that fast. but It was like 3 AM and I didn't know where you guys lived so I placed the letter on the Guild Master's Table.
Melaich: Ahhh that makes sense. I always knew your Magic Treasure had a drawback.
Alice brings her head in front, curious of Meliach's Source of Knowledge
Alice: How do you know my Magic Treasure? I've barely used it in combat and not many people know about it.
Melaich too comes closer, smiling cockily
Melaich: I'm an information broker, that's what I do.
James places his empty cup of tea down.
James: Now that we've cleared up the situation.. We need to make a plan.
Everyone looks at James. Alice takes the empty cup kept by James towards the Kitchen to wash it. Silvie starts to dig deeper.
Silvie: We heard, an Elf attacked you, from the letter Alice sent. Who was that? What was going on?
Melaich: Same. I personally didn't hear of the Selvarian kingdom letting any Elf in, that would make news fast.
James: Well... For starters, he wasn't interested in me. He wanted the Demon's Soul.
Silvie: The Demon Soul? The Elves know about it? How is that possible?
James: Yeah, I don't know how they found out either, but they did. Must've been following me from that event at Orliave and saw the transformation.
Melaich: Hmm... And what else happened?
James: What else? We fought and...
Melaich: And you lost?
James looks down, not in shame but in anger that he'd lost. Sure, an Elf was evolution wise, better than him but James could not, would not ever accept the defeat.
Silvie looked at James and understood what James was thinking. Silvie outstretched herself and held his hands
Silvie: Its alright now James... It's alright.
James looks back up at Silvie, his eyes burning with anger. Those words meant nothing to him, nothing could waver his anger but, it put a lid on the raging fire inside of him... for now.
James took a deep breath, Alice came back with 2 more cups of Tea for Silvie
James: Yeah... Yeah. Anyway, This Demon Soul shit is getting out of hand.
Melaich: I agree. If I'm not wrong, the source of this trouble should have the answers we need.
Silvie: You're not suggesting-
Melaich looks at Silvie with a grin on his face
Melaich: That's right.
James lets out a small sigh.
James: Well, I can't come.
Silvie: Why not?
Alice interjects into the conversation, enlightening the others about James's condition
Alice: The poison that affected him is almost all gone. but any high strain to his body, his muscles, he will succumb to the poison. But don't worry, this condition is temporary and will probably last for 2 or 3 days maximum.
Melaich and Silvie go back into deep thought, putting this operation even a few more days ahead means new, unforeseen threats. This time it was towards James but prolonging would mean a threat against Melaich or Silvie to get to James.
Melaich: What a pain...
James: Do one thing then
James stands up with his cane, Alice stands up with him, ready to help James if need be.
James: Research more on them. Far Deeper than your initial surface level reconnaissance.
Melaich: And what good will that do?
James thinks for a moment,
James: In my experience, knowing where these people came from, gives us a lot more answers to questions. It's just a hunch but I'm just saying.
Melaich: Alright, I'll start working on it.
James: Give me a second
James goes back to the bedroom he was kept in and looks for his pouch-belt that he wears. He finds it and opens one of the pouches to grab a bag filled with gold coins. James returns back with the bag.
James: 100 Gold coins.
Melaich's face glows as James bring out the money bag
Meliach: Payment? for this?
James: Yep.
James throws the bag to Melaich
James: It doesn't feel right not paying, especially since neither of us got the money for the Red Gem thing.
Melaich gleefully checks the gold coins
Melaich: Alright, I gladly accept it.
Melaich and Silvie rise up from the chairs,
Melaich: Okay, we'll get going then.
Silvie: Oh we are?
Silvie looks slightly disheartened but Melaich shows the bag of coins to Silvie.
Melaich: We got work to do, Woohoo!
Silvie looks at James
Silvie: When will you get back to Orliave
James: Soon, Very Soon, Don't worry.
Silvie turn back to Alice and bows to her, thanking her for helping James. As both of them leave the front door, James calls Silvie for a moment, while having Melaich wait a bit.
James: (whispering) Don't pull moves on Melaich. He might not know you like him but it's pretty obvious you dumbo
Silvie: (whispering) Who are you calling dumbo, dumbo? And don't worry, Nothing is happening between us.
Silvie walks back towards Melaich,
Silvie: Yet!
James: Hey!
Silvie Grabs Melaich's Arm and runs away. James puts his hand to his head
James: God forbid this girl....
Alice: Quite the power couple there, huh?
James turns back in a small shock,
James: Couple! No, no. They're not a couple...
James: (under his breath) I hope not anyway.
James walks back to the chair and sits.
James: I am once again, so sorry for troubling you.
Alice waves her hands in opposition.
Alice: No, NO! It's alright. You're injured, nothing much you can do about that. Plus, it makes this mostly lonely house a bit more lively.
James: Lonely huh?
Alice sits down,
Alice: I've heard a lot about you, you wouldn't mind me asking questions, right?
James sits more confidently, expecting to praise himself,
James: I don't mind at all.
Alice claps her hands and gets more excited, as if she's been meaning to ask this for a long time.
Alice: Okay, I heard your unique Magic Affinity is a Magic Treasure. Is that true?
James: Nope. I remember when I was 11, after my parents died, it just sort of.. activated. Later on in life, I paid 1000 Gold coins to get checked, to see if it truly was the result of a magic treasure my parents gave me but no luck. My Affinity is a natural one. One in the whole wide world.
James sulks slightly at the remembrance of the 1000 Gold coins he'd wasted.
Alice: Ahh I see.
Alice looks at James more closely, blushing as she does,
Alice: (Mind Voice) He really hasn't changed in all these years, has he?
James looks back up, with a question of his own.
James: I heard you retired, why? Is the adventurer's life too boring?
Alice: Well... I'm not surprised you found out I retired. I retired cause I got enough. Enough Gold, Enough Fame, I don't need more than this.
James looks at Alice like he'd found a rare species in the wild.
James: Wow.
Suddenly the howls of wolves can be heard from a distance. Alice stands up and looks over Lorwin through the window next to the main door. James too looks at whatever amount of the city and night sky he can see through the window from the seat.
Alice: Its almost night.
James looks at Alice, she looks back with a serious face.
Alice: You need to get some sleep right now
James: Huh? It's not night yet
Alice: You've been walking around a lot. Your body is healing incredibly fast, faster than I've seen before but I can't take risks so..
James stands up
James: Alright. Where do I rest?
Alice thinks for a moment.
Alice: Well, there's two rooms. One you were in and one upstairs. I'll take the one upstairs and you can take this one.
James hesitates for a second. It felt like extorting the poor woman who saved his life by taking her bed to sleep off the night but James was not in a position where he could do anything else.
James: Thank you.. really, Thank you. If there's anyway I can repay you later-
Alice shushes him
Alice: No need to thank me. You can take this whole thing as a You Owe me type of thing.
James nods.
Alice walks around the hall and kitchen, turning off the lamps. James too goes inside the bedroom and turns the lamp off. He looks at his obsidian sword kept on a sword standing in the side, next to where his cane was.
James goes to bed, tired from everything yet one thought, one image, still clings to his mind.
James: (Mind Voice) That Move Kronos pulled with The Elf, closing his eyes and predicting where The Elf was going to hit him. How did he do that? He didn't even use an Area Magic skill.
James, from his bed, looks back at his sword.
James: (Mind Voice) If he could do it, could I as well?
James closes his eyes and sleeps the night off, putting this task off till tomorrow