Chapter 100: Beloved

Chapter 100: Beloved

My beloved Lilly,

Your belief is founded on blindness, which is understandable.

It’s impossible to know how things function when all you can see is a bright fire in a dark room, but please, I beg you to reconsider your ritual to the church. They’ll tear away that beautiful part of you that is purely you, that this universe has entrusted within you.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

Please, my dear, think carefully about this decision.

And while the fool is the first step to a journey, some paths only lead to tragedy.

- Dame Morgana, Confiscated Letter To Priestess Lilliana (3rd Era, 303)

Erec trudged through the dirt of the wasteland alongside Garin. It was a pleasant day. They’d ditched their Armor since, according to Dame Juliana, it wouldn’t be needed for today’s test.

That suited him fine. Wilderness survival wasn’t necessarily about relying on your Armor, not at this level. Though, in future conditions, the environment might make adapting to it with Armor necessary for survival. But that was in a future course, Advanced Wilderness Survival. Available as long as he passed the final for this class.

Those were rapidly approaching. Finals had crept up. They'd have an academic evaluation from each course in less than a month to test their knowledge. It differed from the first test they'd taken in that each was specific to a class. Though the results were similar. Based on how they did, their Order determined their coursework and available electives for the next half of the year.

The test today was a warm-up for their finals in this class. Dame Juliana wanted an excellent grasp of where everyone stood and what they needed to improve to pass.

She was a good teacher in that respect.

Garin started to whistle, peaceful as could be. His lack of care about it all was almost grating to Erec. While he knew he shouldn’t feel annoyed at his friend's happiness, but he took life too easy.

Even when Erec mentioned the woman Boldwick said would test him—Garin blew him off and acted like it wasn’t a big deal.

But the finals of this class, of any they took or wanted to take... It would determine what they did for their Order after they graduated. What direction they’d take as Knights?

Advanced Wilderness Survival almost purely encompassed what Erec saw himself doing. He wanted to spend every moment not spent laboring over his Cavern on the surface. Preferably far outside and away from this Kingdom.

Whether or not that meant searching for his mother was starting to matter less.

No matter what, when he got outside, he could never shake the feeling of absolute freedom it brought. There was so much to this world to see.

That wasn’t to say he wanted to do that to neglect his duties... no... Or so he’d argued to himself damn near a hundred times.

As happy as Garin was, walking along right now—or the past couple of weeks spent with Olivia... He’d been continuously worn down. It was like being wheat ground between two stones. His energy wore away as he broke apart.

Planning for the feast, finals upcoming.... All of the details in both his academic and now noble life. It was so involved and draining, and each failure he might make could ruin his future, from not inviting the right guests to flunking a final and wasting precious time to retake a course.

It was like drowning.

At least the dinner was planned. With Lionel and Garin’s help, Erec thought he’d avoided total disaster.

The weekend after the finals, he would hold his feast, establish alliances, and clean up his Cavern.

Shortly after, he’d be free to head out on the expedition with Boldwick.

Then it’d be peace again, nothing but him and the open road.

Erec set his hands behind his head, trying to take himself down a notch and enjoy the out-of-tune song Garin whistled. It was hot today, the last rallying cry before the cold winds came in.

But Erec couldn’t quite settle. He found himself pulling up his Blessings for probably the third time today.

Name: Erec of House Audax

Health: 100%| Mana: 100% | Stamina: 100%

———————————————————————

“Right. Survive. No weapons, aside from a knife I’ll hand out shortly; you must make it through the night on your own. You’ll get an hour's head start; you must find your way back here in the morning.” With that, Dame Juliana walked past Dame Morgana and nabbed the sack next to her. She pulled free a survival knife and handed it to the closest student.

Soon a line formed, and Erec sunk into behind his friend.

Garin was... moving stiffly. He kept trying to give secret glances at Dame Morgana, but the woman didn’t even pretend to hide her interest in him. As they approached, her eyes tracked him. The vortex of makeup around them drew Erec’s attention every time he looked at her; it was like staring into an abyss.

An odd sensation welled in his gut as he got closer to the woman. Both from how his friend was acting and how she... felt. For lack of a better word.

Garin didn’t freak out like this. Didn’t get tense unless his life was on the line. Even when Erec told him about this coming in his future, his friend brushed it off. But now?

Was he angry at her being his only option? Was he scared of her?

Whatever it was grated on Erec, something about that lady felt unnatural.

Eventually, they reached the instructors. Dame Juliana handed Garin his knife.

Garin’s mouth opened as if to say something, but he stopped himself. His friend shook his head, then meekly walked away.

What the hell?

Erec moved up to the two Knight Commanders. For the first time, Dame Morgana looked away from Garin. At him.

Her wild eyes widened as she took in Erec—eyebrow-raising comically.

“Oh, dear! The aura of the devil hangs thick around you. Are you quite alright, lovely?”

“...Goddess above, you sound like the church,” Erec found the words slipping out before he could even contain them. Being so worried about his friend, he couldn’t stop them.

Dame Morgana’s jaw dropped, and she covered it. Then she laughed. “Oh no, no. Don’t be ridiculous; I’m not part of their misguided flock.”

On that note, Dame Juliana shot her a glare, only to get waved off by the little woman in a black dress. That same small woman grabbed Erec by the collar to yank his ear closer to her to whisper into.

“They think it stems from a lady above, but they can’t feel the energy thrumming from the world itself or our hearts. I think you know that, though. Boldwick told me about you. And you do have quite the fire in your essence. I can feel it as it is now, a tiny spark; it isn’t the same as Hers. It must be confusing to be so similar but not the same.” She let him go and then shook her head like the world was one great tragedy only she understood.

Erec frowned. That was almost... too close to what the priests knew about him. How much of that was from what Boldwick told her, and how much was from this woman being... herself?

And also, holy shit. That blasphemy. The church would exile her for words like that—though, if they knew about him, they’d also exile him.

She was strange. Dangerous. Off. Yet he knew that instinct wasn’t based on her appearance alone. It went far more profound, and he couldn’t understand.

[...Oh no.]

Dame Morgana batted her eyelashes and made a symbol with her hands as Dame Juliana yanked Erec by the wrist and shoved a knife in his hand.

“Go. Prepare for the test. Forget whatever nonsense she just told you. And focus on what matters.” Dame Juliana sighed.

It was an excellent chance to get away, so Erec took it. He trailed his friend from a distance.

[I’d thought those good-for-nothing new-age hippies were gone. What an unpleasant shock to find their spirit lingered on... Yikes. Keep away from her buckeroo, don’t let her infect your mindset. You’ve got a bright future ahead of you. If she approaches you asking to join a drum circle—politely decline and run away.]

That made absolutely no sense to Erec, but sometimes VAL went on strange old-world tangents.

What mattered was that he didn’t entirely trust that woman, and she was the key to his friend joining them outside the wall. Who knew what she was capable of or how she might be helping Dame Juliana conduct this test, but Garin acting so off had him worried.

As Garin began to make his way from the encampment, Erec kept a distance behind him, as quiet as he could be.

He wanted to see how it would go, to be sure that Garin could make it through whatever was in the designs of this lady.

They were supposed to conduct their tests alone, but if Erec just so happened to have his test not all that far from Garin... He’d say he had no idea if it came up. Dame Juliana wouldn’t be watching anyway.

It’d be fine.