The Return | Cricky

Chapter VIII: The Encyclopedia of Potions

Ricky picked Kuza up and brought him to his bedroom, which happened to be just a few doors down from the isolation room. It was rather simplistic. There was a bed suspended from the ceiling by chains, outfitted with silk black sheets. A fireplace, with a chair and a table of books before it, and a few chests stacked near the walls.

Only two things hung on the walls: A pentagram above his bed, and a framed piece of fabric over the fireplace. I took a closer look, realizing it was a tattered Avenged Sevenfold shirt.

"That was what he was wearing when he came to this world." Ricky informed me, "He just woke up here one day, just like you." He laid his servant upon the bed, resting Kuza's head in his lap. I was taken back by how much he truly cared for Kuza. Ricky petted his hand over his long hair, attempting to sooth the nightmares plaguing him. "You'd think at this point in my life, I'd know what the Hell I was doing, but I still make just as many mistakes now as I did when I was a young man."

"How old are you?" I asked.

Ryan, who had remained stationed in the doorway, piped in, "Years are longer here. By our calendar, he's almost six hundred years old."

"Two hundred by our calendar." Ricky clarified.

"Your calendar?" I teased him, "By your calendar, I'm only ninety, if that. On Earth, I'm two hundred and sixty."

Ryan finally showed some intrigue in, well, anything. He looked to me, "Your accent-"

"Millennials." I scoffed, "The American accent was the original British accent. People didn't just decide to start talking differently when they settled America. Well, I take that back, that's exactly what the British did. Anyways, I was a settler in Pennsylvania, but I doubt your Master cares to hear about all of this."

Ricky shot a glare our way. "No, I don't, and I'm your Master now too. Don't make me remind you." He seeped a frustrated sigh, refocusing on Kuza. "I should be honest with you. I have no way of getting you back to Earth right now, but I'll be damned if I don't die trying. That's all I've been trying to do for these two for years. In the meantime, they've chosen to serve me, but they aren't just servants to me.

"On Earth, Kuza struggled with depression, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies. Not that we don't have those illnesses here, but when someone who isn't from here gets exposed to the strong energies of this realm, it can cause their mind to implode on itself. I've been keeping him stable, but the only real cure will be returning to Earth.

"Usually, it isn't an issue where our enemies are concerned, but I made a bad call. I asked him to spy on the one person outside of this castle who knows about his condition, and they exploited it."

"Let me wager a guess. The servant you had that left?" I responded.

"Yeah," He shamefully answered, "He wasn't like you three. He was from this realm. I made the mistake of telling him how I became a demon lord, and he went out and did it himself. Now he has his own castle, his own servants, and unlike me, he seeks out ways to increase his power."

"Why don't you?"

"I'm not in it for the power. There's some demon lords out there that rule over entire kingdoms. Others rape and pillage or do whatever they can to flex their muscles. All of them fight with each other constantly. It's one big swinging dick contest. I, on the other hand, just want to be left alone."

Here I was, under the impression that he was born a demon lord. Apparently, they're an artificial species like vampires. And he has the gull to call me a parasite? Granted, he never elaborated on how one transforms into a demon lord.

Why did he bother becoming one himself if he doesn't care for the game? I suppose it did give him this nice castle, and the power he wields is nothing to scoff at. The legends surrounding him did give him exactly what he wanted—Solitude. If he spends his time locked up in this castle while the others are out seeking evolution, then my fears were confirmed. He is one of the weaker demon lords. That thought alone is terrifying.

As he watched Kuza sleep, something caught his attention. Ricky conjured up a small flame at his pointer finger's tip to provide light. As he hovered his hand over Kuza's face, we could see a redness rising across his cheeks and nose. If Ricky wasn't angry before, he was now.

"He's getting something called a post-invasion reaction. It happens when a powerful spirit exists the body. It's nothing life threatening, but it'll make him sicker the longer it goes untreated." Ricky explained, "There's a recipe for a treatment in the potions encyclopedia. I'll stay here and watch over him. You two, leave and don't come back until you have that potion."

Ryan seemed annoyed with the order. I'll go ahead and assume that's because he doesn't want to be taking me along with him. He doesn't seem like the type interested in teaching. Surely he was as lost as I am when he first arrived here. I doubt he was anything short of a spring chicken. Sooner or later, we all have to occupy the position we once put someone else in. Someone showed him the ropes, and now it's his turn to do the same for me. He'll just have to suck it up.

I followed him to the library, which wasn't as big as I was expecting it to be. Obviously, it was larger than any home library I'd ever seen, but it was no Beauty & the Beast level shit. Ryan pulled out a monstrous book with an emerald cover. Two more sat on the shelf it'd come from. There must've been four hundred pages per book. How many potions could you need?

He thumbed through the table of contents, then flipped to the right page. It seemed he was even more annoyed with the book than me. "There's pen and paper on the table. Write this down for me." I hurried over there, knowing damn well he wasn't going to wait and he wasn't going to repeat anything. Ryan continued, "Rosehip, rosemary, ginger, apple, Tenshi river water, and a lock of a moon elf's hair."

"You don't seem too thrilled about that last part." I said.

"Do you see any moon elves around here?" He snapped.

"Well, I don't exactly know what they look like." I responded, knowing that keeping my cool was probably getting on his nerves even more than if I'd blown up at him.

Ryan sighed dramatically. He retrieved a thin book with a dark blue cover and silver writing along it's face. As he threw it on the table, it managed to land perfectly on the correct page. This must've been some kind of species book. Depicted on the page before me was a gorgeous creature with pale skin, extremely light blonde hair, and glowing silvery-blue eyes.

"They're hunted because their body parts are used in potions and rituals often, which means they don't exactly make themselves easy to find." He told me.

I slowly stood up from the desk, replying, "I very well could be wrong, since I haven't been in this world very long, but I think I may have possibly met one when I first arrived."

He sighed again, walking for the door, "Let's go. We'd be walking around aimlessly trying to find a hidden village anyways."

Why couldn't he have been the one who got sick? I'm all for going on a quest, but I would have much rather preferred to do this with Kuza. He and I have similar music taste at the very least, and he didn't seem this annoyed with my entire existence. The fact that I did see a kindness in him makes me want to help him. I only hope I was right about my hunch, or else Ryan will actually have a reason to hate me.