Interlude: Days of Twilight

Interlude: Days of Twilight

‘It’s so much easier than I expected.’ Adam made the wise decision to keep his thoughts to himself. They were a few days into the Twilight Month, and though though the aura before the season had turned had been tense, the first days of the month, still a touch awkward, was far lighter than he expected. ‘Should I really be killing this many animals?’

‘I expected more,’ Lucy thought, her heart not quite into the month any longer. Her blade had cut through so many bears, she had lost count. Once per day, a large skirmish would ensue, as though the world had turned against them, but outside of that skirmish, there was little to do.

“The sixth and seventh days of each week hold greater threats,” Jurot informed. “Sometimes the day before or the day after.”

“I hope...” Lucy stared down at her soup, feeling all the glares. A bead of sweat trickled down the contour of her cheek. “I hope we can return home safely.”

While the group were assisting the North with the slaying, the businessfolk were also busy with their work.

Fred wiped his blade clean, nodding his head to Aria, Theo, Thomas, and Alfie, each of whom had come with him to assist the village. “Good work.”

“Yes, Leader,” the four replied, causing Fred to smile slightly.

Fred allowed the Iyrmen to claim the creatures on their behalf. ‘Since the Manager said we should let the village claim the creatures too...’ Fred also thought back to when Dunes had informed the group to state the titles clearly, making sure the lines had been drawn between he and the other workers.

‘If we are too oppressive, they will hate us, but if we are too friendly, they will not respect us,’ Dunes had informed Fred. ‘They need to trust us, so we can’t trek harshly into either path.’

‘How difficult,’ Fred thought, returning back to the business, where he found that man sitting near the fire. His silver hair was long, his beard thick, and he seemed almost entirely relaxed. His forehead was held no tattoos, but the man had married into the Iyr, and his dark skin betrayed his heritage from Aswadasad.

‘I guess it’s fine,’ Ashmir thought, noting the little girl to the side, who lay upon her mother’s chest, cooing lightly.

Freddie eyed up the dark skinned Aswadian, eyeing up the long spear upon his back. ‘He’s the Lion King?’

“Should we kick him out?” Korin joked, eyeing up the Lion King from the gate, biting into a hard vegetable. It was bland, but the salt brought out a depth from the vegetable. He held it out to Dunes.

“No,” Dunes replied, to both offers. He kept an eye on the Lion King, whose eyes sometimes peered towards his daughter. The complicated emotions brewed within him. He had decided against forcing a distance between his daughter and the Lion King, since he was quite a monster, and if he ended up taking a liking to the girl, then it was only a boon. He let out a defeated sigh. ‘Is this what he meant by daughters being the scariest?’

It was during this month he had decided to step out to assist with the clean up.

“Must you come to ruin our fun?” Jarot asked, huffing slightly as he swung his axe, warming himself up.

“Shall I return and spoil them without you?” Gangak asked, the smirk upon her lips outmatched by the smirk within her eyes.

“Hmph.”

Otkan stretched out her arm, feeling the blade’s magic tingle against her hand. She missed the feeling of wielding a heavier blade with both hands, and though she longed for such a day, she pushed away the thought.

“We should return,” Gangak said, pressing her blade through the skulls of the various beasts, making sure they were sent to Baktu.

Jarot followed the heavily armoured woman alongside Otkan, able to match her pace with his metal leg. ‘Should I return home? My greatchildren, they must miss their greatfather so much.’

Gangak kept an eye out through the hilly forested area of the Iyr, though for a moment, her thoughts fell to the slaughter she had witnessed from the old man limping after her. ‘Is he waking up from his slumber?’

As the weeks of the month passed by, the land continued to fight against the people. In the North, the people grew further on edge.

‘Why were they so worried?’ Adda thought, sitting beside both Kitool and Jaygak, with Sir Wick settled nearby, each resting within the fort. It was the first day of the third week, the twenty second day of the month, and since it was the first day of a week, the group had been forced to rest. She glanced to the side, towards Jaygak, then to Kitool. Kitool, who had claimed first in the tournament, in a greater segment than her own.

A horn blew in the distance, causing a silence to befall the fort.

Adam threw a look to Jurot. In the last three weeks, the horn had not been blown, or rather, it hadn’t been blown in such a way, low and long.

“Fate’s Golden” Black Blood shouted, charging through the fort to the party. “Bone dragons.”

“That sounds bad,” Adam said, standing up from his seat, stretching out his body. “I was feeling bad that I was resting here more than I rested at work.”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Lucy said, hopping to her feet, flexing her muscles. “Bone dragons!”

“Should we grab Jaygak and Kitool?” Adam asked, sending a mental note to Zeus.

Jurot thought for a moment. “I will trade places with Kitool.”

“Kitool?”

“She will face a bone dragon with greater might than any of us.”

“Yeah, but, we should take the glory for ourselves,” Adam joked.

“I will trade my place with her.”

“No, no, you should come, since we need to bring back the best story for our children.”

“...” Jurot slowly nodded.

“You’re going with just the four of you?” Eddard asked, raising his brow.

“No, no, we’re not that stupid,” Adam replied, while Jurot blew his whistle, three wolves howling in the distance. “There’ll be seven of us.”

“You shouldn’t underestimate...” Eddard closed his eyes, sighing. “Good fortune to you.”

“Huh?” Adam replied, upon noticing he had returned back to the fort, meeting the Princess’ eyes. “Sorry, what was that?”

“How did you defeat it so easily.”

“Is a bone dragon that strong?” Adam asked.

“...” The Princess blinked. She turned to face Kitool and Jaygak, who returned a look.

‘Adam is Adam.’

“I would like to face a dragon myself,” the Princess admitted.

“One day maybe we could fight one together,” Adam offered, only realising after that it was a good idea to make such an offer.

“...”

As the night came to them, Adam stared at the ceiling, trapped under his blanket.

“Okay?” Jurot asked.

“I wish I could have a warm...” Adam fell silent, stopping his stupid joke. “Jurot?”

“Yes?”

“Aren’t I strong?”

“Yes.”

Adam blinked. “Yeah.” Adam closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

‘...’ Jurot closed his eyes and also fell asleep.

The morale of the North increased, the blood lust growing within the region. Unfortunately for them, the undead began to rise. Defeating the undead proved to be little trouble for the likes of the figures which had come to assist North Amber, however.

‘The Grand Duchess probably made a bunch of moves to make sure the Princess wasn’t in danger,’ Adam thought, throwing a look to Sir Wick for a moment. ‘That’s fine by me, since I’m just farming XP.’

As the last day of the month approached, Adam thought of casting a spell, but he decided against it, since it was the Twilight Month. ‘Konarot...’

It was the last day of the year, when the little girl rushed up towards the Ray before breakfast. “Mummy! Mummy!” Konarot called, holding up a letter to her mother, placing a hand on the woman’s knee gently.

“What is this?” Vonda asked, plucking the letter from the girl.

“Daddy write the letter.”

“Mm?” Vonda undid the seal and began to read the letter, taking in the sight of each word and how it had been written, memorising her husband’s handwriting. She smiled as she read the letter. She reached down to brush her daughter’s hair and cheek gently. “What will your father say when he returns?”

“Daddy coming?”

“It seems your father might return in noonval instead,” Vonda replied, still rubbing the girl’s cheek. She recalled when the girl first had come to her, bringing her a glass of water, and calling her mummy out of the blue. Somehow, the girl had accepted the woman into her heart.

“Is my turn to read?” Jirot asked, holding up her hand for the letter.

“This letter was for mummy,” Vonda said, brushing the girl’s hair tenderly. “Do you wish to read to Virot?”

Jirot smiled. “Yes! I will read!” The girl shuffled down from her seat, rushing out to find a book to read, her brother darting after her.

“Mummy,” Konarot called, rubbing her mother’s knee gently. “Comfortable?”

“I am comfortable,” Vonda replied.

Konarot smiled, before she shuffled her way to her aunt, and asked the same question to her.

Vonda leaned back in her chair, looking down at the letter. ‘Should I tease you for working too hard when you return?’

Vonda had no idea whether Adam had won or not, but she was certain he was still alive. She thought about whether to send word to him, but it was the Twilight Month. She caught Pam’s eye, the young woman smiling lightly, while Konarot went to bring her a cup of water, since she needed to make sure the pair were comfortable, as her father had taught her.



Daughters are the scariest, but it's not the daughter we expect.

Thus ends Y04! 1000 chapters, finally!

I want to thank you for your support, and I hope to continue to see your names in my feed as the chapters reach tens of thousands of chapter.

Just a note that I will be editing some of the earlier chapters, Y0 at least, maybe even as far as Y02, though the story won't change much. Also, I'm abandoning the 100 chapter limitation per year, I realised just how much it goes against my original philosophy of writing this novel, however, the novels I'll be writing and publishing in the near future might follow that limit.

I'll have another post after this that will be another QNA.

Last thing, which is very important! I want to inform everyone right now that Y05, the next 100 chapters or so, probably will be the most important part of the story. I highly recommend sticking for the next year, and committing to reading all of it, because I think it will be better than any other year previous, and...

Well, if you subscribe to patreon, you'll see why.