Having the opportunity to chat with Serenity as I made my way back to village, I learned that she was a relatively quiet person. I talked to… well more like talked at her for hours, but her responses were always the same acknowledgements like, mmm, or, is that so? I guess I can’t really blame her. From what little information I could pry out of her, I learned that she had spent the good deal of the last millennia alone in this forest. She said that her last contact with an intelligent being, other than myself, was 3 centuries ago. I think that was just before the church of Sol got established as the kingdom’s main religion. It’s easy to tell what happened. Inspectors happened!

It seems that all of her followers were quickly eradicated, and she was left all alone. Wait a second… wasn’t there another inspector who came here just a few years ago?

That one was unpleasant. I did not wish to show myself to him. I was only slightly stronger than when I met you, and a battle would have done far more harm than good. Nor could he be my vessel. Your high soul purity is what allowed us to form a contract. If I were still in my prime, even those with 100% soul purity wouldn’t be able to form a contract with me.

Hmm? She’s getting more talkative. When I was telling her all about my favourite torture techniques and the different people I’d burned to death (which took up the last 8 hours) she was as quiet as a mouse. I guess she was just listening that intently. It’s good to have a friend around with similar interests. So Serenity, what are your favourite torture techniques? As I said before, my personal favourites are old-fashioned skinning alive, branding and the finger breaking and healing cycle.

…

I guess she’s tired after forming a spirit contract, poor thing. I’ll just let her rest. I stretched my arms upwards and let out a deep breath before trudging on. It would take another hour to reach the village… This really is boring. How can I entertain myself? Setting the forest on fire maybe…

Don’t!

Oh right! This was your home wasn’t it Serenity. Hehehe, sometimes my thoughts just wander like that. Don’t worry, I probably wasn’t going to do it anyway; fire without the screaming just doesn’t feel right.

…

She’s resting again. Ok! I’ll just whistle a tune. What to whistle? The beautiful tune is a no, as it’s reserved for special occasions. What else did my mother used to whistle? My smile brightened as I thought of a perfect tune. It wasn’t as slow as the beautiful one, but gave off a somewhat serene feeling. Perfect considering my new comrade.

I began whistling the tune as I made my way through the darkness. It echoed through the forest as I continued to walk. Once I saw the village, I stopped whistling. For some reason people got nervous around me when I did that.

Probably because it’s creepy

Oh! Serenity you’re up. Wait, what do you mean by creepy? The tunes I tend to whistle are all quite beautiful works in my opinion. The one I just stopped was quite serene, I even chose it to celebrate you becoming my new comrade. I felt a bit hurt. These melodies held special meaning to me, holding memories of my family with them.

The tunes aren’t creepy, you’re right to call them beautiful, but your cheery expression certainly is.

Well that’s alright then! I made my way past the villagers, who seemed to scurry away as they caught sight of me and headed over to check up on Mary and Gant’s job. I’d already told Serenity all about those two. Although we had a rocky start, they were starting to grow on me. Maybe their consideration for my love of peace and quiet is what brought about this change.

I had just reached the quarantined area and stepped in to see the situation. Those who spotted me turned even paler than they originally were. That’s a bit rude. I don’t mind the fearful gazes, but to show such an exaggerated reaction was a bit much. Gant and Mary also noticed me, greeting me with a smile and nod, but they too were taken aback by my appearance as they visibly froze for a fraction of a second before continuing with their work. What is wrong with these people?

Your clothes are speckled with blood, as well as your face.

I looked down to see that serenity was right. I should really take my appearance into more consideration. Seeing a blood covered inspector walking around must be bad for the heart. I withdrew my already bloody handkerchief and proceeded to remove the wolf blood from my face.

I quickly excused myself before heading out to change into my spare set of clothing before coming back.

Looking good as new, I re-entered the quarantined area and made my way up to Mary and Gant.

“How goes the healing?” I asked in a cheery tone.

“O-Oh, it’s good. There’s only two people left, so we should be done soon.” replied Mary.

Gant just grunted in agreement. Would it kill him to be polite and actually say a few words? I let out an internal sigh. I can’t expect that much of him, it would just be unreasonable. Using that much brain power could break the fellow. I looked towards the two remaining sick people. A child and an old man. Both appeared to be in a rather dire condition, much worse than the ones I’d seen previously. Their skin was as white as paper and their eyes were rimmed with red. Some of their veins looked black… this doesn’t look like the plague anymore.

“Mary, shouldn’t you have prioritised these ones first? They look much worse off than those you’d healed earlier.”

“S-sorry” timidly replied Mary. She looked a bit confused.

Gant gave me frown before looking at the two remaining people with a puzzled look on his face. Don’t try too hard Gant. You just have to look pretty and say cliché lines to get by.

“They look ok to me.” Said Gant.

Gant… I’m concerned about you. Not only are you stupid, but you are also blind. Both Mary and Gant seemed to have trouble understanding why I had said the two villager’s conditions were poor… This was starting to get annoying. I supressed the urge to shout insults at the two dimwits.

“Just heal them and get it over with”

“O-ok” stuttered Mary, still puzzled.

She proceeded to purify each of their disease… Their complexion got a bit better and the redness around their eyes died down, but the black veins were still present.

“Ok, done!” happily exclaimed Mary.

…No, you’re not done. I felt my smile tighten, and then raised my hand to my face, pinching the bridge of my nose as I tried to think of the reason they would make such an incompetent display.

Cyne, they can’t see it. These villagers have been corrupted with natural magic energy. Our contract allows you to see the symptoms. Your comrades cannot.

Mary looked over to me, probably expecting some praise or something. I ignored her however; those puppy dog eyes couldn’t work on someone like me, who had mastered the art, and I was also still looking at those black veins. What does getting corrupted by natural magic energy even mean?

Those people have a terrible fate. It would be best that you kill them now. They’ll eventually lose their sanity, and turn on their loved ones. It’s because they live in this forest. The presence of natural energy here is dense, making such occurrence more common than elsewhere.

If allowed to live, eventually these two would become twisted creatures, driven to destroy all life they come across. Two cases at once is an extremely rare occurrence. Were there more I’d fear that another shadow uprising, as you humans call it, was about to start.

Insanity and violence towards loved ones, that reminds me of something. Nathaniel! He must have had the same affliction. Poor John was pretty unlucky, his house was one of the closest to the forest. I couldn’t help but look back fondly at the good deed I’d done at John’s. Bringing myself out of such fond memories I refocused. So now I know how shadows are spawned, mystery solved. Does that mean natural energy gets thicker as you go to the west, towards the wastelands, their home? I wonder why that is… Serenity?

I’ve not left this forest since my birth.

I’ll take that as an ‘I don’t know’. While relatively happy to found out something interesting, I was also quite unhappy. If Nathaniel was taken into account, this meant a new shadow uprising… For Sol’s sake! Dammit! The church always sends their troops to the front lines when this happens. I just want to go heretic hunting in peace, why is life so unfair?! Alright calm down. I took in a large breath and started to relax. I just need to find a way to get out of this. I can either run away and become a wanted heretic by the church, somehow increase my rank to commander before it begins (then I can just stay at the back and take it easy), or join the heroes party when they’re summoned…

First one is very risky, so no. I also kind of like having the authority to burn people alive. The second option is a bit unrealistic, I might be a ‘genius inspector’ but that would require years, and at most I have a month or two. Heck, the kingdom may already know it’s about to start. That leaves option three. Accompanying the heroes’ party as they gain experience. At most I’ll only be involved in the final battle, and I can just let those ridiculously strong summoned people do all the work. To be honest, I’m also pretty curious about them. Every time heroes had been previously summoned they all appeared to be from the same land.

I too am intrigued about these summoned heroes

Well that settles it! Option 3 it is. The heroes’ party is comprised of the 3 summoned heroes, a representative from the church, a representative from the adventurer’s guild, and a representative from the royal guard. Tradition has it that the representatives have to be within 3 years of the age of the summoned heroes, who for some reason always happen to be teenagers around 16 years old. I only just turned 18, I’m considered a genius, and I have a versatile set of skills. I’m a shoe in!

By this time I had started to completely ignore Mary and Gant who still looked towards the villagers, trying to figure out what I had meant. After a few moments of thought, I turned my head back to them and gave them an appraising gaze.

The only issues could come from my two comrades here. They also have a chance to be selected. In the end the heroes make the final decision, and if they want an idiot knight or immature priestess, I’m in trouble.