Chapter 13: Suspicion

“Astora? What are you doing here?” a voice from behind alarmed the girl who quickly hid the crystal away from sight. Turning back, Astora saw Alan accompanied by sir Johan together with the rest of the Crimson Legion. Based on their injuries, it was a tough battle.

“I…I was curious about the doll so I followed your trails here. But then I got lost and then..met her.” Astora looked at the broken doll.

“Is it dead?” Johan pointed his large sword and hit lightly at the doll’s leg.

“Yes…I found…it here in this state after I got lost.” Spoke Astora.

“Hum….” The old captain whisked his beard. “I see. You are quite lucky that it didn’t catch you when it got away from us. Anyway, I am glad that you are okay, although what you did was quite frankly stupid.”

“I am sorry….” The girl uttered apologetically.

“It is fine. You are unharmed, that is the important thing.” The old captain turned to his men. “Take it away!”

Following their command, the knights gathered the remaining pieces of the doll like picking trashes before throwing all parts into a box and sealed it tight. Astora understood the reason why they did it. The doll killed a civilian and several of their comrades. It was natural for them to feel some resentment. The outcome was expected. Yet, a part of her could not accept it. She wanted to raise her objection but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Alan, having noticed the girl’s intention, secretly restrained her with his hand. He glanced at the girl, telling her to stop without uttering a single sound.

“Captain, if you don’t mind, I would like to take miss Astora back to the inn.” Said Alan.

“Of course! Go ahead!” Johan spoke as he rejoined the other knights.

“Let’s go miss Astora! Can you walk?” asked the young knight with a smile.

“I can. You don’t have to worry about me.” Answered the girl.

The trip back to home was quite anticlimactic. Alan stayed silent the whole time while Astora lost all desires to talk. As for Grimora, he had to shut up like usual in order to avoid attention from the knight by their side. However, Grimora did notice Alan staring at him and his mistress. Those were not kind glances but rather eyes of judgment. The man was clearly on something.

“That’s weird….” Alan pondered to himself.

“What is?” asked the girl.

“I don’t remember the doll having her chest torn out like that, at least not after it escaped from our pursuit.” Alan spoke.

That was true. The doll did the damage to herself but only Astora knew the reason why she did that. The cloth was still intact when Astora met her so the knights shouldn’t know about the crystal. Despite his usual casual attitude, Alan seemed to be much more cautious and attentive to his surroundings than Astora assumed he would be.

“Really? That is weird.” Astora repeated. She began to sweat.

“Yesterday, you went to see that crazy doomsayer did you? What is your connection to him?” Alan changed his tone.

“What…I don’t know what you are talking about…”

“Is that so….? Do you know, miss Astora, the reason why the Angelic Faith forbids the worship of all kind of other religions in any form, from cult to a simple trinket?” Alan asked.

“Not really…” Astora muttered.

“Come on! You must know something. I know that you are smarter than you look. Take a wild guess!”

“Is it to maintain the church’s influence on the people?” Astora retold the goal of many religions back in her world. But in the end, they all withered away facing the growing influence of science and logic. However, that process took a long time and this world seemed to be in some sort of medieval setting, an era when religious belief was the strongest. Of course, that was according to the knowledge of her old world.

“Not a bad guess. But no! While the Angelic Faith forbids all other cults, it doesn’t force you to follow its teachings. In fact, the church’s main principle was to not believe in any form of higher power. In a way, you could say that the Angelic Faith’s belief was the absence of all religious belief. I am kind of amazed that you don’t know this already.” Alan spoke. “By the way, the book of yours, it looks very ominous, doesn’t it? Like the sort that belongs to a cult.”

‘Is he suspecting me to be a cultist? Is this because I went to see that old man?’ thought Astora in her mind. The girl was careless in her search. She assumed that since Alan didn’t follow her, her actions would not be reported to him. Thinking back, the matter with the innkeeper clearly showed that the Crimson Legion had eyes across the town. If not Alan himself then maybe someone else did follow her. She screwed up.

Astora was clearly too tense. She already had her guards ready. If needed, she would use Grimora to escape. Compared to those she encountered before, Alan should not that much of a threat. However, underestimating one’s foe was the quickest way to death. She never saw him fight. What if he had something up his sleeves? But even if she somehow defeated him, it wouldn’t be long before the rest of the knights began their pursuit. And even if by some miraculous chance that she escaped, the Crimson Legion was clearly influential across this world. For the moment, it would be bad to antagonize them until Astora had a better understanding of this world’ structure. But what should she do in this situation?

“There is no need to be that tense.” Alan’ sudden smile eased the tension. “I am only joking. There is no way you would belong in a cult. Although I do have to say that a book like that is not very cute for a lady to hold it around.”

“Oh…..Aha…..” Astora exhaled in relief. “I will take that in consideration next time I pick a diary.” She smiled awkwardly.

“Let’s go back shall we?” said Alan. “I am sure that you have exhausted yourself.”

“Yeah, I really do need a rest.”

“But be careful of your surrounding next time you mentioned the name of the Dark Lord! You don’t want anyone to misunderstand that, don’t you?”

* * *

That night

“You really screwed up this time, mistress.” Grimora said. The two were now in their room back at the inn. Having finished their dinner early, Astora wished to retreat to her bed with the excuse of being tired. However, the main reason was that she didn’t want to see Alan.

When the two were back with the girl being annoyed while the knight all smiling happily, the captain merely assumed it was youth. Little did he know that the truth was far from that. On their way back, the couple has had a very interesting conversation. Though the one who benefitted most from it was Alan. Somehow, he knew about the conversation between Astora and the old man. In this world, merely asking around about the Dark Lord was suspicious enough. Not to mention, Astora’s circumstances and her unknown background only casted more doubts on her truthfulness.

And yet, for some reasons, Alan has not reported the girl to his superior. On the contrary, he said that he would keep that conversation a secret if Astora was willing to lend him her assistance. For being a knight of such a reputable group, Alan certainly didn’t seem like a typical knight. His own ideals were questionable, although he didn’t show it to anyone.

“Will you accept his offer, mistress?” asked Grimora.

“Do I even have a choice? I don’t want to be chased by them.” Said Astora.

“Yeah…I guess so. But his offer….isn’t it weird?”

Grimora referred to what Alan asked of them. Like the book said, it was strange. Alan didn’t actually ask for anything, not yet. He promised that he would help the girl in her quest from a distance but in return, she was to agree to one thing he asked within half a year from now on. If pass that date and Alan still didn’t make any request, then the girl would be free. On the other hand, if he made such request and Astora, for whatever reasons couldn’t make it or didn’t do it, she would be reported to the authorities.

Of course, the girl didn’t wish for such sort of thing to happen. She had no choice but to agree. But Alan’ strange request, or command rather, still puzzled her deeply. What could he possibly ask of her? What if he asked her to commit some immoral act? What would she do then?

But that was not all. Aside from the already strange content of the deal, something about what Alan said bothered Astora greatly. First of all, why the deadline six months? If he wanted, he could just make it so she must head his every word from now on. But the guy didn’t do anything like that. Only one request within the next six months or nothing else. Would something happen in six months? Astora knew too little to have any concrete conclusion. She must learn more about this world.

“My head is spinning….” Astora puffed.

“Let’s just take off our mind for now! It is not like we can do anything about it.” Grimora advised.

“Yeah…we really can’t do anything.” The girl gave up. “Oh, we did obtain a few new items today, didn’t we?” Astora took out the robotic arm and the dark crystal, both once belonged to the doll.

Astora has thought about her psychic ability recently. Maybe she should use it more often, especially now that it has been greatly improved thanks to Grimora. Holding the robotic arm, the girl’s eyes shined.

Name: Stella’s right arm

Class: Bionic part (common)

Description: An arm of one of the androids of the Stella series, named after the Artificer’s daughter. Following an unfortunate incident that costed him the lives of both his wife and his daughter, the Artificer dedicated the rest of his life in researching the perfect bionic body in hope that it would bring his family back. His research brought existence to “Stellas”, the androids which all shared a striking resemblance of his daughter. Yet, he was never satisfied with the result, going as far as altering his own body so that he had more time. In the end, the Artificer failed and died before he could accomplish his goal.

Astora was stunned. The story about a man who did everything he could to bring back his family together was touching but what interested her more was the fact that this man was able to create androids with advanced technologies rivalling her own world. On the other hand, she was slightly disappointed that there was no information about the Dark Lord despite the vision it showed her previously. The girl wondered if there was some way she could pry out more information than she already had from the items she recovered. If there was such description on everything, who wrote them in the first place? Grimora did say that the info came from some sort of worldly archives but where exactly? If it was like the internet as the book said, then where were the servers located at? Or even, why did it exist in the first place? Who built it? So many questions, yet so little answers.

Unable to fathom what she just got herself into, Astora moved on to the next peculiar item that she had no idea what it was.

Name: Shard of the Black Sun

Class: Unique Item (1 fragment)

Description: One of the soul shards of the Black Sun, Ruler of the Abyssal Realm. Once, a certain deity found the Abyssal Realm and discovered a special ore growing out of strange carcasses. The ore possessed abnormal properties and became the subject of his studies, which later gave birth to the art of soul transposition. But the price of such power swallowed his entire world into darkness. As for the deity himself, he was robbed of his physical form and turned into an imprisoned black sun, forever trapped in the Abyss. Only through his vessels using the ore as a conduit, could the god hope to regain his original form and return to the old world. Alas, in the end, the Black Sun was felled and turned into a mindless slave in his own world.

This shard was held by Stella, a servant of the Dark Lord and hosted the soul of the Fallen Hero. Can be used to beckon the power of the Abyss.

Requirements: Unavailable

“Wow, this is dark.” Grimora shouted at the grim story.

“So the soul really does exist?” Astora pondered, staring at the thing she held. Something so immaterial and spiritual would not be recognized by the science in her old world. Yet, here was one, a soul in her hand, although it appeared to be in a slightly different form than what she expected. Astora told herself to be ready. This was not the world she knew and the laws of physics might not even apply here, not when things like magic were involved. Who knew what else awaited her ahead in her journey? Magical creatures? Unicorns? Fairies?

Anyway, it seemed that Astora would not be able to use this item any time soon, whatever its power was. Though it did say that this was only one fragment. Could it imply that there were more of these crystals and Astora had to gather more of them to use this power?

And there was also this story about this deity Black Sun. Each item or magic she obtained thanks to Grimora all possessed their own background story. But none so far showed anything related to her quest, except for the vision she saw through the doll’s arm. If the old man was to be trusted, fifteen centuries have passed since the time of Alastor. It would be a surprise to even meet someone who knew him. But this was a world of magic where the conventional rules didn’t apply. There must be someone, like some sort of thousand years old sage or at least a record of the events back then. Astora just didn’t find it yet. It seemed that she must move on to another place to find more clues. Somehow, Astora felt there was more to the story of this Black Sun. Perhaps there would be more info if she searched elsewhere.

The next morning, Alan gave the girl a map and a document with a red seal on it. It was actually a travel permit granted to adventurers or those close to the Angelic Faith that allowed them to travel across the continent without any reservation. Surprised by this development, Astora asked the charming knight the reason why he gave her such a paper.

“The search for your family will be put on hold until a new mayor is elected. Of course, you are free to stay in town but I doubt that is your intention. The Crimson Legion has no reason to believe that you are a threat so you can go wherever you like.” The knight explained.

“Here I thought you would keep an eye on me.” Astora said.

“I have ways to know your whereabouts without being near you.” smiled Alan. “The Crimson Legion has finished their business here so we will go back to report to the church. Drop by if you find yourself around!”

“What about…the other thing?” asked the girl.

“Like I said, you are free to do what you want for now. I will contact you when the time comes. Farewell, miss Astora! And have a safe journey!”

“Wait!”

But the knight never turned back, only smiled to himself. In his mind, he believed that the girl was someone special, someone he might need in the future, for his grand plan. But for now, he would leave her to her own fate, watching from afar how she would fare in this world. If one wanted to ask why the young knight of the Crimson Legion took so much interest in Astora, one had to recall the events that happened a few days before, the day a certain star fell onto earth. It was the day Astora arrived in the world of Valhalla. That day, the knight was not with the rest of the platoon. That day, he has just finished a mission of his own and was on his way back to Brehem to meet Johan. That day, he was at the lake and saw the person who came out of that iron sphere that fell from the sky. That day, Alan saw Astora coming to his world. And not only did he see the girl, the young knight also saw a white knight who supposedly let Astora go without capturing her. Unbeknown to Astora, Alan was fully aware of the true identity of the mysterious knight. It was then that he forged a plan, one that would make use of that particular detail. But for now, he had his own preparations to make and he shall let the girl roam free for a while.

With Alan out of the picture, Astora found herself a bit lost about her next destination. She decided to take a look at the map he gave her. Drawn on an old sandy paper, the map was quite detailed with its inscriptions.

According to the map, the world of Valhalla was divided into two main continents: the western continent Oros and the central continent Mara.

First, the continent of Oros, in term of size, was much smaller, about a tenth of Mara. However, images of multiples towers siding each other were drawn with a certain familiar name above them: the Circle of the Magi. From what Astora knew, the Circle of the Magi was an organization composed of sorcerers with the aim to study and develop the art of magic. Not only did it possess all kinds of knowledge and wisdom gathered throughout its intercontinental members, the Circle was also a place of where one of the Six Pillars of Valhalla resided. As their name suggested, these were the people that supported the world and were a symbol of absolute power. Even more, they have lived for a very long time, although Astora didn’t know how long exactly. So if she had the chance to encounter them, it would be the perfect opportunity to ask some questions about Alastor.

Secondly, the continent of Mara. Known as the largest continent, Mara was deeply divided within its own borders. From below, a land colored in black on the map occupied most of the entire southern region which was more than a third of the land, leaving only some kind of mountain or volcano to its eastern direction. This area was named the Blighted Woods, the place the white knight warned Astora about. Though she had no idea why. The rest was divided into three kingdoms in the upper half. From left to right as indicated on the map, the Empire of Scyentia, the Angel’s Crown and the Sunless Kingdom of Twilight. Unfortunately, not much was known about these places just by looking at the map.

However, aside from these two continents, two other locations stood out: the Great Ash Tree Zwiggdrasil located in the upmost northern tip of Mara and the Depths of Leviathan located above the continent of Mara. What could this tree be to be drawn on the map like that? As for the Depths of Leviathan, it was not on any continent. In fact, it was not on land but actually located in the northern ocean of Mara. Though Astora had no idea whether it was some sort of underwater kingdom or maybe it was just the name of the ocean.

Aside from the inscriptions on the map, Astora could see a pair of foot with the code “Here” written on it located in the central part of the continent, slightly above the Blighted Woods and at the southern region of Angel’s Crown.

“I see what it is.” Grimora jumped in. “I can feel magic imbued in this map. It is certainly a magical artefact and that dot right here shows where we are.”

“That’s convenient. Wait a minute….do you think that Alan could someone track our progress with this thing? I mean, this can clearly show where we are.” The girl spoke her mind.

“Indeed it is possible. If this map can track us, then maybe he also has his own map that can track this map, telling him where we go in real time. Maybe we should throw this away after all.”

“I don’t think it is wise to do so. If Alan somehow learns about that, he might change his mind and reports us. Besides, we kind of need this to locate ourselves. I think we should at least hold onto it, for now anyway.” Astora admonished.

With a convenient map in their hands, all the two needed to figure out next was their next destination. There was also a problem with money. As far as Astora has seen, the currency in this world was the Valhalla Coin, or VCs for short. A gold VC was worth a hundred silver VC and a silver VC worth a hundred copper VC. Captain Johan, before his departure, did give the girl a few silver coins so Astora would not have to live in the street any time soon. However, money making was also an urgent problem that needed to be addressed.

It was then that the girl had an idea. She could try going back to the inn she stayed and asked if she could work there. Working at the inn would provide a stable source of income and serving in the tavern could allow give her more information about the world. Plenty of travelers and merchants went there every day. There ought to be something she would find useful until she figured out what to do next.