Book 2: Chapter 63: Forgetting and Conjecture

Book 2: Chapter 63: Forgetting and Conjecture

Xer'rava dutifully followed behind his charge, the young princess of all Mineral Dwarves, and, dare he think it, mayhaps even all dwarves period. He checked every corner, every street, every window, every alleyway, every passing individual.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

Nothing would harm the Taker with him putting his all into guaranteeing her safety.

He really didn't have to be so on-guard given that the stronger person in this fringe krieg was the local adventurer guildmaster, a mere higher-stage SS-ranker. It would only take a single punch to kill her.

Still, it was good practice in his opinion to never leave even so much as a single opening. Even if he was essentially a god here, his charge was not.

"Xer'rava," she spoke, calling his name.

Not an uncommon thing. The young lady was a curious soul who wasn't willing to abandon her personality as all other Takers had before her. It would come in time. Such was her responsibility.

The skills she ripped from the souls of others would slowly corrode her own soul and turn it into something hollow and without the charm a normal vessel of existence would exude.

She wasn't mentally strong enough to accept that burden just yet and Xer'rava understood that given she was still barely a century old.

Still, the less she conformed to her fate, the more it hurt her when she did her duty. Such was the working of the soul of a Taker. Even a master Soul Oracle couldn't change this indisputable fact.

"What questions have you of me, My Lady?" he answered curtly but with respect in his tone.

"How can you so blindly work to protect what amounts to a somewhat special child with nary a complaint?" she asked, her voice sounding... odd. "There are so many vast wonders just begging to be explored and discover on this continent, not even mentioning the planet as a whole. I can get not going further down. Creepy stuff there, but with your powers, you could scour so much of this world and grow so much from such an adventure! Why you don't baffles me if I'm being honest. X-rank is hardly strong, cosmically speaking."

Xer'rava felt this was a very out of character question. The Taker did usually ask about the world outside of the kriegs and urds, about the creatures that dotted the planet they resided on known as Altros, about all things foreign to her, yes.

She was a curious being, but never curious about him. She knew he was a tool for her to use and had never questioned that role he filled. Until now. Still, he answered as he felt compelled to do so. "Because it is my duty."

"That's so boring. I do my duty too but I also have fun when I need to. Y'know, between correcting? Well, whatever. Everything's been corrected here. And as fun as it is to become a young woman who's slowly turning into a plank of wood - metaphorically, of course. Dwarves are much too literally thick for it to be, well, literal - I think it's time I visited the spires of Taslo once more," his charge declared, befuddling him.

The words made sense to him but they were utter nonsense coming from her mouth. Visit the spires of Taslo? Again? He wondered briefly if someone had somehow cast a spell on his charge, befuddling her mind.

He watched the Taker stretch her back as she cracked her fingers above her head. "Loosen up a bit, yeah? He's an annoying boy, but Lone sure knows how to be himself. You could learn a thing or two from that pawn."

The Taker then sighed and clicked her fingers together. The next thing Xer'rava knew, he was travelling down the Farwinds while escorting a much more muted version of his charge.

He felt like his memories were fuzzy when he tried to recall his conversation with her back in Krieg Moor's streets, but then he realised that he must have simply been imagining it.

He was an X-ranker. There was no way his memory would be imperfect. He specifically has three skills that reinforced his memories not even counting the enchantments on his mind to stop tampering up to the Divine level.

'I must be shaken up by the fight with the fox. For me to imagine fragments of a conversation with the young miss... How foolish,' he thought.

Not a second later, even that thought was forgotten as were all of his doubts. It was as if they had never happened at all.

"Here's where ye'll be stayin' for the next few decades, so get used to it. Make friends wae the bugs tae, they'll likely be yer only consistent company 'ere fer ah while," said the dwarf who had rather rudely shoved Lone into the room that was barely big enough for a dwarf to stand in, let alone him.

"Uh, I don't know if you're just trying to scare me, y'know, break me into the situation and whatnot, but I am aware that I can hire adventurers to help me with my assignments. I also have a talent for making asshole dwarves grow on me," Lone said as he hunched down so as to not bump his head.

"Uhuh, pumpkin. Think ye'r so smart? Clearly nae smart enuff since we foond oot ye learn'd oor sacred art," the dwarf scoffed before he closed the door, slammed it on Lone's seventh, eighth, and ninth tails, before promptly locking it.

"Ah! Fucker. That hurts," Lone yelped.

He fixed his situation with his tails and then took a proper look at his new accommodations.

"Better than the prison cell, way worse than the inn. They could have given me a desk at least," Lone complained with a sigh.

"Just based off the weird name, but that's super loose of a connection. Think it might have been the same person? I'll give you that he was hella cryptic when I spoke to him and I never actually landed a hit on him before he surrendered," Lone pondered aloud.

"... We know too little. Still, we should avoid ever meeting that Taker again or her pet X-ranker," Sophie declared.

Lone nodded. "I agree wholeheartedly. Someone that can ignore your Mana Sensing sounds scary as all hell. Four-twelve was spooky enough as is. This sounds even worse than his case."

"Indeed. We are glad you can see the sense in this for once," Sophie said as she returned to her adult form, filling out her loose clothing.

She then approached Lone and kissed him softly. "We shall shelf this topic for now then until we have more evidence to support our theorised connections?"

Lone nodded as he smiled. "Sounds like a plan."

The look in Sophie's eyes then changed, becoming far softer and more full of an overflowing sense of love.

"Hey, stranger," Lone teased.

Soph pouted. "It's not my fault Sophie's better at being the tough one."

"Can't argue with you there. Will I get to see more of you now that the dangerous expedition and following court case is over? I love Sophie to bits, but I feel the same about you too," Lone said. "I've missed you."

Soph grinned. "I've missed you too. Worried about you as well. A lot."

"I'm trying to be better when it comes to risking my life," Lone said with a wry smile.

Soph gave him a sceptical look as she pressed her forehead against his. "Says the guy who provoked an X-ranker who was probably being controlled by an uber-powerful being?"

"Hey, give me some credit. I didn't know that and I hardly provoked the guy, just asked him if he was cool with me using his as a skill grinder," Lone retorted.

Soph giggled before kissing him. That kiss soon turned into several kisses. "Credit granted."

"Man, I fuckin' love you so much," Lone mumbled.

"The feeling is mutual, you big idiot," Soph replied as she pulled away from him.

Lone raised an eyebrow. "That's it? Only kisses?"

A coy look entered Soph's usually soft eyes. "To use Sophie's exact words 'Go no further with him right now. He stinks, he looks awful, and he will never learn to properly clean himself up if we keep giving in to him.'"

Lone winced. "Harsh. What an ultimatum. Grind out annoying resistances, or sex. You're putting me in a hard place here."

Soph cocked her head to the side. "No, I'm not. That's, uh, kinda the point. I do agree with Sophie though. Go have a shower and eat something. Sleep too. I know, uh, you have your nightmares and stuff but you looked way better when I couldn't see your ribs pressing up against your skin. You're wasting your nice body and dashing good looks."

She smiled impishly then teleported away.

Lone chuckled. "Sophie's influencing her quite a bit, huh?"

He sighed, cracked his neck and got up.

Lone pressed his fingers against his stomach and then trailed them against his ribs. "Yeah, yikes... Why Basic Regen does fix this, I have no idea... Maybe that's worth exploring later."

If he was going to do as requested, he sure as hell wasn't going to waste his own resources on it.

Who cared if he had a small pond's worth of water tucked away along with a week's worth of prison food? If he could get some free stuff, some free stuff he would get.

Banging his fist against the door, he yelled, "Hey! Any guards around?! I want some food and I could use a shower! Please and thank you!"