The next morning everyone got ready after eating a huge breakfast. As it turned out, Ignis didn’t have to worry about his friend as Nihil seemed completely recovered after just a couple of hours of rest, so he’d still been able to cook their food.
There were subtle bags under Nihil’s eyes that Ignis didn’t fail to miss, however no one else appeared to notice them. Even if they did see them they didn’t mention it, so neither of the two men brought up the subject either.
Nihil noticed Claude giving him curious glances throughout the meal, but didn’t bother to ask why. Claude was the type of guy to approach someone if they bothered him, so Nihil assumed that it had something to do with his unnatural aura that continued to distance him from the rest of the group. Of everyone in the Star and Moon group, Nihil actually liked Claude the best. He had a simple and honest nature, and yet he wasn’t nearly as touchy as Stella so Nihil found his personality rather refreshing. Actually, Claude kind of reminded him of Ignis.
The village they’d been in before had only been a small one that was situated within a clearing of the ancient forest. All of the trees in this forest were at least 1,000 years old, so their widths and heights were staggering to behold for the first time. However, these trees were still tiny in comparison to the ones all over in Alfheim.
Alfheim was a country on the other side of the Central Sea, and the forest that covered their entire land was even older than Avalon’s. There the youngest tree was 10,000 years old, and not even their entire party linking hands could fully encircle their trunks. Within Alfheim’s forest, there were many elven towns among the branches and they had rope bridges from tree to tree. Anyone with a fear of heights would give these towns a wide berth. However, the ground had a far greater number of magical beasts than any other country due to the dense world’s energy generated by the ancient trees. As such, the country was no place for the weak.
Soon they reached the end of the forest. Stepping out of the trees, the group was greeted by strong sunlight that took a few seconds to get used to after the dim green of the forest. Blinking rapidly, the group’s eyes finally adjusted and they saw a busy road running parallel to the forest’s edge. There was a line of normal sized trees running along the other side of the road, causing the disparity between the sizes to become all the more obvious. This was the road that led to Avalon’s capital, Imber, and the capital would be their first stop before heading to Sheol.
Reaching the road, they started to follow it into the city. However, it would still take most of the day before they finally reached the city’s walls. The large party attracted a lot of attention from the other travellers, but everyone soon looked away when they realised that the group was from the Adventurers’ Guild. Adventurers were well respected for the materials they gather by risking their lives, so no one wanted to accidentally offend one of them.
“Maybe we should split up into smaller groups in order to draw less attention. I get the feeling that we’re making people uncomfortable.” Paul suggested awkwardly.
“You’re probably right.” Linley responded with a small sigh. “Let’s split into groups of 3 or 4. It’s not like we’ll get lost while we’re following this road.”
In the end, the groups were organised as such: Alexis, Merry, Lunam and Stella; Paul, Linley, Carl and Clark; Archer, Klaus, and Lucas; and the last group consisted of Nihil, Ignis and Claude.
No one had any objections to Linley’s suggested groups, so they all parted ways and tried to merge with the crowd better than before. Nihil was surprised that Linley had noticed he was more comfortable around Claude than the rest of the group, but he was glad for it all the same. It seemed that Ignis was no longer the only one who was capable of reading Nihil’s moods.
“Umm … there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you all morning, but I didn’t get a chance to pull you away from the group.” Claude spoke up after they had put some distance between them and the rest of the party.
“Oh? Well we’re not with them now …” Ignis replied, genuinely confused.
Nihil had an idea of where this was going, but he didn’t stop Claude from asking his questions. He didn’t see any distrust or evil intentions in his eyes, so Nihil had decided to try trusting this man.
“Last night I was on my way back from taking a piss, when I noticed a glowing between the trees …” Claude started. At this point Ignis had caught on to what was about to be said, and his eyes widened in panic as he desperately tried to come up with a reasonable explanation.
“As you can imagine, I was worried about what it was, so I headed towards it cautiously, and I saw you two. Your back was to me, Nihil, so I plainly saw your tail and the flame you created with magic. I also saw you eating it, Ignis … I guess what I want to know is why you guys are keeping your abilities from the group. If Miss Stella knew, then I’m sure she wouldn’t be so antagonistic towards you, Nihil.”
Ignis was shocked by the last sentence. Claude didn’t seem to be affected by Nihil’s negative aura, and was genuinely concerned for him. This revelation immediately made Ignis relax his guard, and he was truly happy that Nihil was finally making more friends. He decided to leave the choice of what to tell Claude up to Nihil.
“I’m afraid that Stella’s attitude wouldn’t be swayed so easily. The truth is that at least part of her aggression towards me is due to my special constitution. I have a negative aura around me that sets people on edge whenever they’re too close to me. It’s not something that I can control either.” Nihil explained expressionlessly, but his sorrow was still evident in his voice.
“I see … but why do you have such an aura? It’s not like you’re a bad person, after all.” Claude replied confidently.
“It’s because I wasn’t born the natural way, and people can instinctually sense that about me so they get uncomfortable in my presence.” Nihil replied, surprising Ignis with his honesty.
“Does this have something to do with your tail? Come to think of it, why can’t we see it normally? Are you constantly using magic to hide it?”
“Not quite, my belt is enchanted to camouflage it. He only reason you saw it last night is because I was using all of my mental energy to create that especially dense flame you saw. As a result, I didn’t have enough concentration to spare to direct some more energy into the belt.” Nihil neatly dodged the question of his origin. He didn’t like talking about it after all.
“Oh! That makes sense. But wouldn’t a belt like that be expensive due to its unconventional nature? Why do you need to go to such lengths? It’s not like tails are an uncommon sight after all – most half-breeds can’t hide their tails and ears.”
“It wasn’t exactly expensive for us though … since Nihil was the one who created and inscribed it. He also enchanted his hat to -” Ignis started to respond, but then suddenly stopped as he realised that he was giving too much information.
Hearing his friends words and seeing his worried expression, Nihil just rolled his eyes and smiled. He then slowly reached up and removed his hat from his head. Claude was curious as he watched Nihil’s actions, but soon his eyes lit up in shock and understanding. He then quickly turned his head to the others around, but soon realised that they hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
“So that’s what the enchantment on your hat hides. But how come no one else sees them?” Claude asked in confusion.
“Just before taking my hat off, I set up an illusion so that they wouldn’t see anything more than us just walking along as we talk.” Nihil explained truthfully.
Underneath his hat, Nihil had a pair of obsidian horns that seemed to absorb all the surrounding light. However, there was something wrong with them. They were broken stubs that looked like they had previously been much, much longer. There were also a couple of other changes that Claude didn’t fail to notice. The first being that Nihil’s ears had lengthened to resemble those of elves’, and the second was that the boy’s pupils had stretched into slits like a cat’s. However, the horns were the most eye catching of the three.
“What happened to your horns? With their jagged edges, they look like something snapped them off!” Claude was understandably shocked, horns were always much stronger and denser than bones, so snapping them would take an incredible amount of force. This was especially true the darker they were, and Nihil’s were the darkest he’d ever seen.
“That I’m not sure about. I’ve had trouble remembering some things about my past. But I do know that they used to be huge. In a way, they’re easier to manage like this.”
“But don’t they hurt? I can’t even imagine the pain I’d be feeling if my horns were broken like that.”
“If you live with something for long enough, you get used to it eventually.” That was all Nihil would say on the subject.
Upon hearing this Claude and Ignis shared a concerned look for their friend, but they ultimately didn’t say anything. They knew that there was nothing they could do to help him.
Putting his cap back on, Nihil lowered the illusion barrier and sped up his pace slightly. Clearly the conversation was over for now. Taking the hint, Ignis and Claude quickly followed him.
Just then someone nearby called out to Claude and grabbed his arm.
“I should warn you that the guards at the gate won’t be too welcoming to anyone who’s not human.” The woman warned in concern. “You’re an adventurer so you’ll be let into the capital, but the guards won’t be too pleasant about it.”
“Huh? That wasn’t the case when I visited last year, though.” Claude replied in confusion.
“I thought you might not know, did you guys travel through the ancient forest from Kuk?” At Claude’s nod, the woman continued. “About six months ago, Crown Prince Pravus took over control of Imber’s security and governance in preparation for his duties as king. Since his father is occupied with managing the rest of the country, the prince has been left to his own devices and he started making his loathing towards other species much more evident. Obviously that made the guards at the gate try to curry his favour by giving the other species a hard time.”
“That sounds about right …” Ignis muttered under his breath.
Hearing his words, Claude gave the two men beside him a strange look but ultimately decided not to ask. Luckily the lady didn’t seem to hear, so she carried on explaining the situation to the guys.
“Since you’re an adventurer you’ll be allowed to enter, but the fee will be much higher than for humans. There will also be an additional fee when you leave and for the duration of your stay.”
“That’s really pushing the limits of the Non-Aggression Pact.” Nihil commented derisively.
“That’s what I think too! The Non-Aggression Pact might not specifically prohibit this sort of discrimination, but it still goes against everything it stands for.” The woman seemed to have a personal reason for such strong antipathy towards this new atmosphere. “Sorry for my outburst, my husband is a dwarf so I know first hand just how difficult and outrageous the guards have become under Prince Pravus’s rule. It’s got to the point where finding a job is even difficult for a skilled blacksmith such as my husband. I’m actually on my way back into the city to let my family know that I’ve managed to secure us a new home in a relatively nearby village.”
“Thank you for letting us know. By the way, how can they tell what species someone is? Do they just go by appearance and miss a lot of half-breeds and the mysterious beasts in human form? Or do they actively scan people for their species?” Nihil spoke up in concern for himself and Ignis.
“Oh that! I’m not quite sure … I guess they have some sort of scanner, but I’ve never seen it. I just know that they don’t miss even the people who look to be human.” The woman speculated. She’d never thought about it before, but the boy did bring up a good point.
“Thank you for the warning, I hope you and your family can make a more comfortable life for yourselves in your new home.” Ignis spoke up, letting the woman rush ahead to see her family again.
“We need to find the others to let them know of this change. We may be able to get better prices for our materials here, but with all those additional fees it might not turn up more profit for us in the long run.” Claude commented after she’d disappeared from their view. “Most of our group isn’t human after all …”
“That sounds like a good idea.” Nihil spoke up, but something in his voice seemed off.
After rounding everyone up, Claude explained to the group what the situation was.
“It’s up to Miss Stella and Miss Lunam to decide what to do. Since we’re here already, it would take less time if we go, but we’d probably end up with less profit in the end …” Claude laid out the options after he’d finished explaining everything.
“My sister and I need to make a stop to see someone inside the capital, so we don’t really have a choice in the matter …” Stella answered in frustration.
“Well, how about this? Ignis and I were thinking it might be testing fate a bit for us to head right into the Royal Guard’s headquarters, so we and some of your group can stay behind here and limit the cost of entering the capital that way.” Nihil spoke up, quickly coming up with a reason for him and Ignis to avoid the scan at the entrance.
“That’s a point, we could do that.” Claude responded before Stella could jump down the guy’s throat. “If we head toward the next town on the way to the ruins, we could resupply and meet up there. That way we would probably even end up saving time.”
“That’s true …” Lunam mused. She then seemed to suddenly reach a decision. “Right, that’s what we’ll do then. Stella, Carl, Clark and Paul will enter the capital with me, while the rest of you should all go on ahead to the next town.”
“Hu~h?” Alexis whined half-jokingly. “And I was so looking forward to finally sleeping in a proper bed tonight as well … now it will be another few days at least.”
“It can’t be helped …” Linley responded, resigning himself to the trek ahead. “That prince is considerably shortsighted … if he pushes his luck too much, he’ll have the council breathing down his neck.”
“From the sounds of the douchebag, I would really like to see him knocked down a peg or two, though.” Paul piped in angrily. He may have been human, but most of his friends weren’t so he really couldn’t abide the prince’s behaviour – perhaps even more so because he was human.
Having decided on a plan, the group went their separate ways. After all, there was no point in just standing at the side of the road talking to each other.
Nihil and Ignis were just glad to have managed to avoid the scan by the guards. They’d been passing themselves off as human this entire time, and explaining themselves now would be a hassle that was likely to draw the Royal Guard’s attention.
Aerone Grey 