13.0

Clack.

Door to John’s room became unlocked.

“Who’s there?” he asked immediately, eyes widened

A familiar pair of pointy ears popped by the door frame.

“It’s me, Aurelius. Am I interrupting you?” the wolfkin asked in a quiet tone.

After John left the dinner table, he quickly returned to his quarters and polished his weapon to get his mind off from what Kirk said to him. He had done so in haste that it completely slipped his mind to lock the doors to the bedroom that he was allotted.

Normally, he would tell anyone who wanted to speak to him this late into the night off, but seeing how Aurelius defended him earlier from Kirk’s outburst, John let out a sigh.

“Sure… Make it quick. I want to go to bed soon.”

It’s not like I can fall asleep easily since the Harvests died…

With his permission, Aurelius entered the room and stood idyllically by the door. The wolfkin’s golden eyes darted as he became unsure of what to do when inside John’s temporary room.

“What’s up?” John asked, noticing the small notebook that popped from the sides of Aurelius’ pants pocket, eyeing at the item of interest.

“Uh… I…” the beastkin was at a loss for words when John spoke to him directly, to where even the small booklet slipped backed into Aurelius’ pants before he could see John was gesturing towards it. “Actually...”

Ah well, guess that’s a journal or something?

Letting go of the notebook of interest, John returned his gaze back at the wolfkin, squinted them at Aurelius. “Come on, you usually are chatty. What do you wanna tell me?”

“Listen… kid— John. I want to ask you whether what you said to me earlier was true?”

“Earlier?” John’s lips curved amusedly. “You have to be more specific, Aurelius. I’ve said a lot of things today. You mean when I was complaining about how dirty our clothes would be after going through the stinky swamp? Or was it about how the slimes would make great ornaments if we could somehow turn them into glass? I honestly can’t keep up with myself at times—”

“During the sandstorm, I mean.”

“The sandstorm?” John furrowed his brows.

He thought back to what happened to him while they were traveling five hours ago. Due to how much sand were in the winds, he barely spoke to Aurelius at all, even when he did, it was for thanking the wolfkin for catching his falls. The only other time they spoke would when Bran finally ordered them to take shelter—

“Oh, you mean the thing about your sister?”

Aurelius nodded, seemingly to have eased up at John remembering their conversation.

“What about it?”

“Seeing how the gauntlets I gave you broke down just like that… I can’t help but wonder what if something might happen to me and I’ll never get to see her again.”

John blinked.

What’s gotten into this guy? Back in Moxnet, he was bursting with energy…

“Listen, about the gauntlets, I didn’t mean to break them,” John apologized, thinking that the magic item must have meant a lot to Aurelius. “If you want to, I’ll get a new pair for you when we—”

“No, that’s not it. This isn’t about that.”

“It isn’t? Then it’s about Kirk, isn’t it? Don’t worry, it’s fine, he was just overwhelmed by what the gauntlets’ stored magic could do—”

“No.” Aurelius shook his head and looked at John. “This isn’t about any of that. It’s about the thing with my sister. I want to make sure whether you meant what you said.”

“I… What I’ve said?”

“Well, if you ever get the chance to see your sister again, tell her what happened. I am sure she will remember what you did. Or, if you can’t bring yourself to say it, I’ll help you out, ha!”

“You mean if you ever see her again and all that?”

“Yeah…” the beastkin said with a forlorn expression on him.

“I mean, sure, if I ever get to see your sister and you can’t tell her what happened to you after your parents' death, I’ll do it in your stead. If, I know what she looks like or know what’s her name…”

John was not exactly sure how he would uphold the impromptu promise he made to the wolfkin, since he left the details of it vague. If given the chance, he would uphold it, but it was not something that he vowed to do so.

“Velupus,” Aurelius said with a strong will behind his eyes. “Her last name will definitely be Velupus, like mine. I am certain that if you mention Aurelius Velupus to her, she’ll know it's me.”

“Do you know her first name? It might help if I know her full name. You never know if there are other people with Velupus in their names out there.”

“I… Wolfkin are not given their names until they reach three years in age. I am afraid I don’t know, considering I left my clan when I was seven. All I can tell you is my last name and she should have the same.”

John opened his mouth to retort on such a convention, but closed it when he realized it wouldn’t help ease Aurelius’ worries. Aurelius, the wolfkin was separated from his sister at such the young age, he probably had no way of knowing what her name would be.

John looked to the ground, “I’ll definitely keep an eye for a Velupus, but what brought this up?” he said, wanting to reach a conclusion so Aurelius could leave him to sharpen his mythril sword in silence.

Aurelius shrugged his shoulders, “I thought it’s better if someone knows about it, since it’s you, you might have a better chance of finding her than me.”

“Me? What do I have to do with finding anyone? I am not the type of person who knows how to locate people. If anything, I am more of an indoors guy.”

“I don’t mean for you to go actively seek her out, if you just happen to meet her, you know…”

“Can’t you tell that yourself? Of course, if I ever see a Velupus, I’ll tell her where you are.”

“I…” Aurelius attempted to speak, but suddenly brought a hand to his mouth before coughing profusely, “Ack-ack! Ack! Ack! Ack!”

“Are you alright?”

“I-it’s fine, this is a persistent condition of… Ack-ack!!! …mine,” Aurelius weakly waved a hand at John. “I told you that when we first met didn’t I? It flares up sometimes… Ack!”

“Dude, your lips are pale, are you sure you didn’t inhale the sandy air by accident from earlier?”

“I-I…ack…it seems like it,” Aurelius' voice was coarse.

John immediately raised his hands and silently cast [Heal] on Aurelius, “Sigh… This is why I told you to wear your scarf tighter in the sandstorm earlier.”

Color returned to Aurelius’ face, along with it was the wolfkin’s cheery expression.

“Thanks, kid— John.”

“Yeah, no problem. Just tell me whenever you need fixing on your body, it’s the least I should do. And don’t worry about your sister. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for you.”

“Y-yeah…” Aurelius was staring into the ground as John assured him. The beastkin raised a fist and lightly tapped John’s forearm before he moved to the door. “Thanks again. It’s good to know you have my back.”

With a wagging tail, Aurelius bid John goodbye and left his room, and just a moment before John made to lock his own door, the notebook that was in Aurelius' pocket popped up just slightly from the distance to greet him as the beastkin parted.

That’s what probably written inside that journal of his, seeing how he worries of his family.

The sister of Aurelius, Aurelius’ only family that might still be alive to the wolfkin’s knowledge.

In one way or another, John understood his friend’s unwarranted concern.

The morning came before John realized it.

Bran’s groggy voice had woke John up from his peaceful sleep, informing him that they had an hour before they are to collect the artifact that for Team Rectiser’s first task.

“Just make sure…yawnnn… you are at the table in thirty…”

“Yeah…sure…”

With Bran’s tired voice leaving him from the outside, John blinked at himself for having awoken with a well-rested body.

Weird… I collapsed right after Aurelius left.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

“Was I really that exhausted yesterday?” he said to himself, as he raised a hand in front of him.

No sooner than Aurelius left, John remembered him placing his mythril sword against the ground and his body slumping down to the bed.

It had been a while for him to sleep as soundly as he did yesterday. Ever since the vampires massacred the Harvests, John would often awake in the middle of the night without reason. But for him to feel this relaxed early in the morning, especially when he was awoken by someone, it was certainly unusual for him.

His body felt light, the sores that he felt in his legs yesterday all left him, even his dark thoughts seemed to have faded from him. If John could describe it, it was as they had cast though sedative magic on him for him to achieve such a peaceful rest.

“It would be nice if I can sleep like this again later tonight.”

As of late, his peculiar sleeping habits have drained his energy more than he would like to admit, even using [Heal] on his own body could fix his fatigued mind so much. Hence, it was a genuine delight for him to wake up in such a refreshed state of mind.

“Alright, let’s get ready to fight some eternal decays!” he pumped himself up before jumping out of his bed and started his day with the feeling that his good night’s sleep was enough for him to power through days of activities without sleeping.

“Kirk, I need you to follow up right after Cacti distorts the eternal decays. After that, if there is an opening, John will go in for a few hits to further wound them. And Aurelius, since we don’t know how many of the eternal decays there are, you are to be on standby and intercept anything that would threaten any of us—”

“I have a question,” Kirksten interrupted with a hand raised.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Why is John following after me? Isn’t he supposed to focus on healing the team?”

“He knows how to use his weapon. He might as well help you out as much as possible.”

“Is that so…” Kirk made a face, making clear to everyone that his doubts from yesterday about John had not faded. “Just make sure that he actually uses his magic on me.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” John looked to Kirk in his eye. “If there’s a need, why not?”

“Hm…you make a brilliant point, my bad.” Kirk shrugged.

“If you don’t mind, Kirk. Let us get back to the plan. Assuming the three eternal decays Matilda saw were all there is to their numbers, we have to go for a pincer attack…”

While pointed to the map of the eternal decays’ lair, Bran started explaining what he expected each of them to do to defeat and out-smart the eternal decays. Most involved group work and targeting the chunks of exposed flesh that were underneath the eternal decay’s carbonite shells.

“…which brings us to the chalice,” the leader of Team Rectiser stopped once everyone knew what roles they had. Bran straightened his back and looked at everyone. “Roughly a hundred meters downwards into the cavern’s passages, we will reach our location, but the mission sphere doesn’t state where our item of interest is at.”

“The chalice?” Aurelius raised his brow.

The mission sphere had given them detailed information regarding the topography of Meastes so it would make sense for it to reveal the location of the chalice.

“Bran and I went to scout the eternal decays’ lair last night. My location magic did not pick up anything that resembled a man-made object, let alone a chalice,” Matilda explained. “Aside from the large radioactive pool, everywhere else of the cavern was filled with crooked rocks or the paths that the eternal decays had created.”

“How do they even feed living in such an underground habitat…?" John murmured.

Cacti answered immediately as though she was a timid lecturer waiting for a question like this, “E-eternal decays mostly gather around polluted grounds, c-created by either toxic chemical waste or corrupted mana. They f-feed on the very toxins emitted by the grounds mostly b-but if they could…living beings are also fitting for their d-diet.”

“Since that’s how it goes, might as well find the chalice when we’ve taken them all down, right?” John looked to Bran for confirmation. “I mean, this is the academy we are talking about. Given you detected nothing yesterday, it might show up once we’ve defeated the eternal decays?”

“That is the logical conclusion Bran, and I came up with… But our protection magic has its limits, John,” Matilda said then looked to Cacti had a look of uncertainty on her face.

“The s-scent magic you c-cast on us yesterday is a class above o-ours, e-even with our combined magic, at most, the protection magic we can cast on e-everyone would only last for an hour.”

Kirk gave John a look before rolling his eyes. His attitude towards John yesterday had subsided, but Kirk had become much more intolerant of John’s every move. “That’s why we are doing this early in the morning. We need to exploit the remainder of your scent magic to take the eternal decays by surprise.”

“Kirk, c-calm down,” Cacti pleaded Kirk before he attempted to start something with John like yesterday. “I’ve already explained that his s-scent magic was from the stored mana in gauntlets, t-there’s no need to—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, the misunderstanding is on my end. I am not going to jeopardize the mission by refusing to work with John.”

“G-good.”

“However, he still is a suspicious person we all have to look out for,” Kirk shot a piercing glare at John. “Everything that he does and happens around him all feel far too coincidental, I can’t help but feel like he is orchestrating everything.”

“Orchestrating….what exactly?” John poised the question to Kirksten. “I admit a few days ago I wasn’t on my best. Other than that, I absolutely have no idea what you are talking about.”

Kirk placed a hand on his shaking head, “Can’t you see it? Once we’ve gotten to Meastes, you immediately wandered off and returned with a mission sphere, our team’s mission sphere, nonetheless. You told no one who gave it to you and why. Then, when we are debating whether to go deeper into the caves to set up camp, you just so happened to be able to use scent magic with the gauntlets Aurelius gave you.”

Is he making connections that aren’t there?

“They are just coincidences, though. Like I said, I happen to be acquainted with someone and I received the mission sphere because of it. The gauntlets were out of my control. I just had my mana stored in it. I am no magic expert, but it had something to do with magic conversion?”

Kirk continued, “I still haven’t touched on the fact that you happen to know the hero’s party so well that you went on a mission with them, about you being a scholarship student… Everything just seems far too bizarre when you put them together, John.”

“This is bullshit, Kirk…”

“It is when you think no one can see through it!!!” Kirk shouted back at John. “Did you even go as far as to trick Matilda and Bran into wanting you on Team Rectiser? Tell me how can I know if you are actually mourning when you so readily adapt to this aptitude test!? Are you working for someone, John? Someone to spy on all of us, to spy on the academy?”

John opened his mouth and closed it before he realized it was pointless to snap back at Kirksten’s accusations..

He wanted to retort, about how was it possible that he, who was still mourning for the Harvests’ death, could have perfectly thought of and executed all the ‘coincidences’ that Kirk pointed out.

This disagreement that he and Kirk were having reminded him strongly of what Alwin Zinrelle said while he escorted away John from the grounds of A’vetheas for his exile.

Ah…he thinks it is a blessing to know Scywell, he thinks it is a blessing to have such ‘eventful’ life, he thinks it is great to be able to use a single spell, he thinks it is great to make many acquaintances, he thinks it's great that I appear to be successful to others…

Well tough luck, I lost Raina because of that, I lost Ephinelyth because of that, I lost the Harvests because of that, I got banished from A’vetheas because of that, I cut ties with the hero’s party because of that… A-and I probably forgot about who Kahnira was because of that.

I really don’t get it Kirk… What is it about my life that looks well-planned to you? I just want a quiet life. The world just hates me for wanting that.

John had to be some kind of clairvoyant or oracle to have predicted things with pinpoint accuracy and then followed through his supposed ‘planned out’ life.

But so far, every time he tried to adapt to the unfortunate events that occurred in his life, he was thwarted and thrown ten steps backwards for his effort.

If he had powers to predict the future or even know how it would play out, he would have prevented the Harvests from falling victim to the vampires, he would have stopped Raina from using the teleportation the other day, he would have been more patient with Evie, he would have…

“You’ve said enough, Kirk,” Matilda snapped at Kirk. “You really love upsetting anyone you see. I don’t know what is up with you, but ever since we arrived in Meastes, it's like you have become this insufferable prick who challenges anything that you don’t think is right.”

“That’s not what I am trying to do, sis! Can’t you see it too? It’s like wherever John goes, you are bound to find something happen around him! It is far too coincidental for that!!!”

“Oh yeah?!” Matilda started shouting. “Then, explain why do you keep giving Bran and Aurelius this dirty look whenever no one is looking at you!? This isn’t just about John too. You are being far too suspicious of everything, i-its like something is propelling to act differently!”

“I a-am not! Y-you’re the one being irrational, Matilda!”

“Y-you two p-please, stop fighting…” Cacti pleaded with the siblings, but it was to no avail.

With the constant bickering between the two siblings, the atmosphere of Team Rectiser grew heavier. Bran looked like he wanted to interject and break Matilda and Kirksten’s argument but when even Cacti who was Matilda’s best friend and Kirk’s fiancée can’t soothe their argument, all he could do as their team leader was to wait for this whole ordeal to blow over.

And as for John, the longer he watched as Kirk and Matilda engaged in the heated argument, his thoughts muddled as he watched the siblings spat against the other.

Their intense expressions, their brash hostile tone, it all reminded him of a scene that he once knew from his past.

Inside of him, John knew that in some way, his very presence had contributed to the sibling’s unnecessary discourse.

Everything about this is just plain sad...

“G-guys please… N-now is not the time…” Cacti tried placing herself in between them, but Matilda and Kirk ignored her pleas once more.

“So what you are saying is you are siding with everyone else except for me, Matilda!?” Kirk spat his words. “You, my very blood sister, are willing to take the side of someone who has the lineage of those in the Eastern Continent?”

“With you being this much of a dick, yes!”

“Admit it! Deep down, you know I am right! I have always been the smarter of the two of us since we were children. I always have a hunch about unusual people and I always end up right!” Kirk boasted.

“And in that category, is Bran part of it!? Is Bran, who almost died saving your life during your silly dungeon expedition, a suspicious individual!? Kirk, you are the one acting irrationally!”

“ME!!!??? IF IT WEREN’T FOR HIM!!! I WOULDN”T HAVE...”

Then, John heard it.

Voices that were buried deep inside his conscious mind had once again popped into his brain.

“It’s all your fault that he is a failure!!!”

“My fault!? Had it not for your lack of discipline, he wouldn’t have brought us disgrace!!!”

“Me??? You damn well know I did everything I can to teach him, but our son is just far too stupid to learn anything. He can’t use magic, he can’t excel even in basic academia! You are also to blame!!!”

“Last I checked, I was at the top of my class when I was in his age. If anything, the shitty genes that John inherited came from you!!!”

What’s… Why am I remembering this?

John brought a hand to his head. The voices in his mind belonged to a couple who were no longer in his life, people who were supposed to by his caretaker, people who were supposed to understand him more than anyone else in this world. The very people who had given birth to this existence of his.

M-my parents…fighting?

His heart sank when he understood what he remembered. The tendons in his heart stretched into a thin film as he watched Matilda and Kirk before him.

But all he saw were the developed backs of the parents he long forgotten.

“You better do something about him. As of late, this ungrateful son of ours has been getting worse and worse! He’s been neglecting everything we told him to do. His achievements are waning, his magic sees no sign of developing! And what’s worse, he’s been snapping back at us!!!”

“You are right... Perhaps it is time to set an unorthodox method to punish him. Very well, I shall conjure up with an adequate solution to neuter his rebellious personality.”

“Sigh… Why can’t he be just like his other siblings? All this child ever does is to cause us trouble, always disgracing the Sarvod family name…”

John's body flinched.

He knew those words in his mind meant nothing to him. He knew it was all the fragments of his forgotten past. But at that moment, it was as though the instincts that he once had as a child kicked in and caused him to withdraw.

The longer he watched the siblings, the backs of his parents flashing before his eyes, the stronger the voices rang in his head.

“I need to get out of here,” he mumbled before he excused himself from Team Rectiser’s team meeting.