Hello hello.
This chapter is a short one- but a chapter nonetheless!
Enjoy!
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I woke up with back pain. Letting out a groan I sat up from the hard ground I lied on.
I looked around to see I was in the main foyer, nobody was around as it was still late. I pondered how in the world I got here but I remembered that last night I couldn't fall asleep because of my cuddle buddy problem, so I came out to the lobby and watched Rills painting. I guess I fell asleep partway through.
I stood up and stretched my limbs, the stress leaving with every pop of my bones. "Ughhhh, alright-" I yawned, "what's on today's agenda?"
I walked out the doors into the night sky, the statues let out small streams of water, filling the silence. I shivered a bit but decided it would be a good idea to do my run, I haven't done it in a few days so i'm lacking a bit.
I quickly changed and started to jog around the area, "I won't stop until the sun shines!" I set a goal and continued.
I did two and a half laps around the perimeter of the lot, my body shone with a thin layer of sweat. I slowed down and placed my hand on the wall beside me for a short break. I took deep slow breaths to calm my heart a bit.
A squirrel ran out of the wall, I stopped breathing altogether. We stared at each other, the squirrel grabbed the acorn that was in his mouth and adjusted it, then sprinted across the field to a tree near the building. I let out a puff of air as I watched it run, but focused my attention on the wall where it came from. I took a few steps towards it, running my hand on the wall. I pressed my palms on the wall but it didn't budge or go through it, I bent down, my fingertips going numb from the bricks. "There." I said as my hands randomly dipped into the wall, this must be like the black market entrance. I lied on my stomach and shimmied into the wall as it was small.
I came out the other end, it was just a normal forest. I huffed in disappointment but got to my feet, I started to jog through the trees, the shade helped cool my body down.
I slowed down and enjoyed nature, when I looked to my left there stood a deer, it watched me before prancing away. "Yoo!" I smiled and ran after the deer. A little away I noticed that the deer led me to a small altar, it was on the side of a cliff. There was a stand in the middle surrounded by a pond with a rushing waterfall behind it. The deer leaned down and took some water, watching me from the corner of its eyes. I crouched down, reached a hand into the water and it glowed blue, the water was freezing cold so I quickly took my hand out and wiped it on my shirt.
A snort was heard right beside my face and light wind felt on my cheeks, the deer stood right beside me, not sure when it came over.
"Woah!" I almost lost my balance, "hey bud- how's it going?"
The deer looked back at the water, then nudged my hand, trying to bring it closer to the lake. I leaned back and placed my hand in the water, it once again glowed a bright light blue. The deer took a few steps forward and went down to my hand, he then started lapping up the blue parts of the water, eventually settling to licking my hand.
"Uh- it's kind of sweaty- ah, you're a deer. You wouldn't care." I deadpanned. I softly ran my other hand down its neck and it didn't seem to mind.
I looked up at the sky to see the violet, pinks and oranges showing up, indicating that it's morning. "Hey bud, I gotta go," I took my hand back and the deer let out an annoyed huff out of its nostrils. I stood up and looked at the pedestal that lay in the middle, upon it was a swirling dark blue orb, magic radiated off of it in waves.
I forcefully tore my gaze away from it and looked at the deer who gazed down at me, "I better get going, hope to see you around." I waved and turned to walk through the forest, but I felt my shirt being tugged on and before I knew it I was in the pond whic was surprisingly very deep..
I accidentally gasped and water gushed into my lungs, stinging the crap out of them, I quickly grabbed my throat to stop water from going in anymore. My eyes burned as light shone through my eyelids, I slowly opened them up to see the water was the bright blue, and all around me swam white jellyfish. They swam up until they hit the surface, where they disappeared. Some seemed to notice me and pushed themselves in my direction, only to do a little twist then continue upwards. I watched for as long as I could but the need for air was alarmingly apparent so I followed them up.
I broke the surface and climbed onto the land, I coughed up water and took deep breaths. My whole body felt frigid and I couldn't stop shivering and chattering my teeth together. "D-Damn you de-eer." I stutter out. I glanced behind me to see the deer on the other side of the lake, chilling and drinking the now seemingly permanent bright blue water, not caring about my existence now that I'm not needed.
I sat up on the steps and noticed that I was at the pedestal, it was actually slightly crooked and the orb looked like it wasn't properly in. I decided before I went back to set the orb back in. I grabbed it and warmth spread through my body, the chattering stopped and I was able to relax. I closed my eyes to enjoy the heat but then noticed that the waterfall stopped. I cracked open an eye to see that the orb was slowly becoming black, the power was getting sucked out because of me.
"No- nonono go back go back!" I tried shoving the orb back in but the holding mechanism snapped off, "NO!" I fumbled with the orb before just lightly placing it down where it was before I picked it up, but as I let go the last of the blue left the orb and it now remained pitch back. I turned to look at the deer and saw it was backing up from the bright blue water, as if it was now infected. The water dimmed back to normal but went even farther and also turned black, it started bubbling as if it was tar.
"Great- I just screwed up a perfectly good altar and now I'm stuck! Of course this would happen! Nobody can just pet a deer and get away with it!" I paced, "this is your fault!!" I pointed to the deer, "if you didn't throw me in this wouldn't have happened!!"
The deer stared at me before running back into the woods.
"FLAKER!!" I yelled after it.
I looked down at the tar like water and sighed. I'm not sure what it will do if I step in it.
"Hey Martha, get me out of here please!" I called but she didn't respond, "great. Two flakers." I grumbled.
A small light shone from underneath the water, it wiggled around before emerging out of it. It was a jellyfish! More popped through in a line, making a path for me. "Thank you guys! And I'm really sorry if this isn't what you meant or wanted." I took a cautious step on the fist one and realized that it was quite stable. I took my next step, then another, and another. Before I knew it I was back on the right dry land!
The jellyfish dipped back down and vanished from my sight.
I let my gaze run across the new downgraded pond with sadness. I caused this. The water was pitch black, the waterfall was no more, and the pedestal now looked more crooked and a now black orb sat upon it, no magic anywhere to be found in it. I saw a critter go up to the water but it ran away once it got a sniff.
It was sad.
I sighed but turned away, if there was anyway to fix this place then I will be back but I'm stupid so I don't know yet. Hopefully it wasn't Rill's.
I trekked back the way I think I came from and luckily found the hole. On this side it was quite obvious there was a hole as the bricks were smashed in and dug into, whoever made it didn't think about digging the dirt underneath and just chose the hard way. I once again got on my stomach and shimmied through, the water on me dampened the dirt and smeared mud across the top of my shirt, I grumbled but got out of there and ran to the mansion.
"RILL! RILLLLL!!!" I yelled, I got cleaned up and was wearing fashionable clothes that were left for me on my bed. Even though I got a dresser with more clothes, someone still chose to make me an outfit everyday.
Rill slightly turned his head to me as he kept reading the report he was handed, "hm?"
I ran to him but didn't tackle. Only because of the papers otherwise we would be on the ground hehe! "Do you- uh- perhaps know about a- uh- pond. With a pedestal and waterfall, and it has a blue orb on said pedestal?" I asked, waving my hands around in motions to try and get a picture of the place.
"Wow, that's great." He mumbled, clearly not paying attention to me, "hey YN, why are you being summoned to the Wizard King?" He looked up at me with a not so happy face.
"I am?" Rill handed me the papers and most of it flew over my head but I found what Rill was talking about.
'Captain Rill Boismortier and YN are to come see the Wizard King at noon today. Discussing thievery'.
"Thievery?! I swear I didn't steal anything!" I panicked.
Rill sighed, "I guess we will see when the time comes, come, let's have breakfast."
We walked down the halls and made it to the dining room. We got food and sat down.
"So- where were you this morning? I went in- I knocked on your door and I didn't see you there."
"Well you would know already if you paid attention to me." I countered, "I was out on a run-"
"You run?" He asked.
"I'm not sure if I should take that as an insult." He just smiled at me, "hrm. Yes I run, I just haven't done it since the entrance exam. Anyways. I was on a run and when I stopped to take a break, that's when a squirrel came out of the wall."
He paused from taking a bite of his food, "back back wall? Yeah, someone accidentally made a hole so we just covered it up."
"That's concerning, anyone can get in there from there. You should really fix it."
"It's fine, nothing happened yet." He waved a hand.
"You're putting your subordinates in danger, anyone can go through those woods and stumble upon the hole." I pointed a fork at him.
Rill could feel eyes on him and he sweatdropped, "right. . . Yeah okay, I'll repair it. But who really is going to see it, it just looks like a normal wall."
"Actually the spell wasn't done on the other side, that's why the squirrel knew how to get through." I ate my food as Rill processed that.
"That- that was the reason I didn't rebuild it. I thought we were good." He sighed, "wait. How would you know it's not done on the other side? Did you go through?"
"That's where my story leads."
"YN-"
"So I went through the hole-" I told him everything that happened, with that jerk of a deer to the orb, the jellyfish and the turning black.
We finished eating and Rill sat there thinking, "do you know what it was?" I asked.
He shook his head, "no, but we should go back there soon to check it out. It seems toxic to the forest."
I slumped, "I'm sorry, I just wanted to fix it and I ended up making it worse."
Rill patted me on the head, "hey it's fine, you didn't know that would happen. Let's just head over to the Wizard King now."
I nodded, still bummed out I killed an ecosystem.
A door opened out in front of us and a man came out, "helloooo! Step right through here, the Wizard king is waiting for you!"
Rill walked in and I thanked the man before following. The door closed behind us and the man disappeared.
"YNN!" I heard from in front of us, Rill froze.
Julius stood up from his desk with an excited look on his face. I now noticed that we were teleported to his office. I walked past Rill who seemed to be annoyed that I knew Julius.
"Hey Wiz King!" I laughed, Rill followed me and gave his own proper greeting.
"I hate for our second meeting to be about business, but something came up." He sat back down and shuffled through the huge stack of papers. "I'm sure I put it here. . . Uh- maybe here." He leaned down behind his desk to go through the stacks of paper that were on the floor.
"I understand. . . How much work do you have?!" There were stacks of paper all around the office.
"I've taken off a few times and this is my punishment. I should have most of it done by the end of the day." He sat up and looked around, "hm. Give me a minute."
Rill sweatdropped with a small smile and I chuckled.
"So." Rill whispered to me as Julius continued his search, "how do you know the Wizard King? I haven't brought you to any meetings?"
"I met him last night actually," I whispered back, "I teleported-"
"You didn't sleep with him did you?"
"No. Shut up. Did not."
"Suspicious."
"Shut. Anyways, I was teleported by Martha to him as I couldn't sleep. Honestly we kinda just chilled and talked before mushroom head kicked me out."
"Mushroom head?" A new voice popped in our conversation.
"Yeah, mushroom!" I didn't realize who said it wasn't Rill, "he had blue short hair that curved real close to his ears-"
"YN." Rill tried to warn me.
"Truly looked like a mushroom, I can't remember his name or if he said it but he was a grouch." I crossed my arms.
"Oh hey Marx!" Julius seemed to have found the papers and came back up and greeted the new presence.
I turned and saw mushroom he- I mean Marx glaring at me. "Mushroom head! So nice to see you again!" You thought I didn't know he was there? I'm just being an ass! I felt his mana presence when he entered the room.
Rill facepalmed. Marx sighed, not having enough energy to deal with me when he already has Julius on his plate. "I'm just here to drop off some more assignments." He walked over to the now bored Julius and added it to a pile. "Get these done soon." And he walked out.
Julius picked up the top sheet of paper, read it and groaned in annoyance. "Great, more work." He passed the right paper to us, Rill and I shared it by putting it in the middle.
"YN was at the black market yesterday so I knew that she would be able to solve it." On the paper was a drawn sword, the sword that I wanted, I deflated a bit. "Around the time that you were there this sword got stolen, the vendor didn't notice until later but it was worth 560 gold coins (I don't know how money works in this universe. I'm assuming that's a shit ton cause- gold.) and he wants it back. So I've decided to give you this task."
"I saw this sword on display there! Funny enough I actually really wanted it but it was too much." I clenched my fist and gave Julius a determined look, "we will solve this ca-" I paused.
The two men blinked, waiting for me to continue speaking but I didn't. "Uh- YN-" Rill started.
"You did not." I lowered my fist, my determined smile became a nervous one.
"Did what-" the men grew more confused and worried.
"Okay so- funny story!" I giggled nervously, coming back to the two males who looked deeply concerned. "I stole it!"
They blanked, "You said you didn't steal anything!" Rill yelled.
"I didn't know I stole it!"
"What does that mean?! The sword is more than half your size, how do you not know you stole it?!"
"Martha stole it!" I made a portal to her realm and took out the sword. Same sword that got stolen from the market. "I wanted the sword and didn't have enough money, so she took it and was going to give it to me as a birthday gift. I'm sorry.'
We all stared at the sword as I laid it on both my hands.
Julius chuckled, "Guess that jobs done. Why don't you return it to the vendor and then you're free to go."
"Right."
"Why did you want the sword anyways?" Rill asked me.
"Martha only has so much power, so I thought- if I learned to use a sword then I could be more useful." I put the sword back in Martha's realm so I didn't have to carry it back.
". . . Then, I will buy it for you." Rills face gained a light shade of pink. "You got me a gift, so I will get you one back."
"That- that cube was less than five gold coins!! This is 560!! It's unfair!"
"How about you pay him back later?" Julius suggested.
"I don't have a job though-"
"Be a magic knight!!" Both men yelled.
"No."
Rill slumped, "how about just a temporary one, until you pay me back. You've already earned the Black Bulls a star when you helped out."
"I guess, but what group would I do? I'm indebted to Nozel, your my best friend, and I've already helped the black bulls."
We all looked into space to think about a solution.
"Oh! How about I make you a robe and you can take jobs from all the magic knight squads, I'll be sure to give you ones you can handle." Julius said, writing down a to-do list.
"Perfect! Thank you!" I bowed.
"I guess that works." Rill nodded.
"Actually, I have a mission that you can do right now!" Julius once again started to search in the piles of paper, "give me a sec-"
Rill and I sweatdropped.
"'Thievery?! I swear I didn't steal anything!'" Rill mocked me.
I got my assignment after a few minutes of searching and now Rill and I were on our way to the black market, we landed and walked towards the wall.
"Oh shush." I grumbled. "How was I supposed to know about a birthday gift! You're not supposed to know until that day!" I led Rill through the market, everyone gawked at the boy. "Are you even supposed to be here? Isn't this illegal?" I asked.
"As long as it's not selling people, then I don't mind."
We came to the stall, the vendo saw us and jumped in joy. We explained everything and I gave him my deepest apologies. Rill had to pay more because of that.
"Thanks bestie~" I sucked up to Rill, he rolled his eyes but laughed.
"Yeah yeah, go get ready for your mission. Don't want to keep Captain Vangeance waiting."
"Right!"
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3360 words!!
Not proofread or edited.