The Fresh Start In An RPG World

I look at Kay in amazement. To be a knight, many may see it as something honorable, which everyone d.e.s.i.r.es to become, perhaps it was true in other parts of the Kingdom, but not in this region. We are on the front line, that is, to become a knight here is to fight against vampires and invading demons. What's the difference between that and suicide?

Kay looked in another direction, paying attention if he could see that he was focused on a house, that had been completely destroyed, not even a wall was standing.

"I didn't want to talk before, but..." Her voice was weak and failing, she was almost crying. "I grew up in this village."

I receive your words with a great shock. During work in the morning, Kay looked pretty down, but I thought we were all the same, after all, no one there was really comfortable with that scenario.

In our group we have a motto, 'nothing that happened before matters', we did not speak at all about our past, at the beginning the rule was created to hide Mary's identity, but we realized that we all needed her.

Now he was facing the past that he tried so hard to leave behind, there, in the city where he had lived, which is now in ruins.

"I have few good memories here... "Now a few tears ran down his face. "But it was my town, you know?"

He finishes speaking and wipes away his tears, no time our glances crossed, he seemed not to want an answer to his words. I know how you feel, sometimes just someone to listen to is enough.

"I'm sorry," I say trying to find the right words. "I didn't know."

In the end I couldn't say anything too much, just words that seemed empty.

"I should be apologizing." He looks at me and forces a little smile. "'Nothing that happened before matters,' right?"

He wipes his face when a few more people approached him. His eyes were red, but he could still force a smile. Our motto was horrible, we can try to hide it anyway, but the truth is what matters. It will always matter.

"Shall we get back to work?" Kay talks by breaking the silence after a while and getting up.

Hold out your hand towards me.

"Let's go" I answer by taking your hand.

A campsite was set up near the entrance to the city, and the site was chosen because it was the safest. On the other side was a forest with dangerous beasts.

Even though I was exhausted, mentally and physically, I couldn't sleep that night. My head was working one hundred percent, Maria, Kay, the war, all this was driving her crazy. What was I supposed to do?

The hours passed like minutes and in the blink of an eye the time had come.

"Are you awake yet?" One of them says when he sees me. "You still have time."

"I'm just going for a walk, it's a custom I have," I answer.

"A few minutes ago another girl left." Another gets in the conversation. "If I remember correctly you were together before. She told me she'd just take a walk, but it's taking a while."

Probably Maria.

"Thank you, I'll try to find her," I say headed towards the forest.

On the way I didn't meet any adventurer, they were all in places near the camp, which helps a lot when someone wants to go out in hiding.

On the way, I'm watching the city. This was the farthest part of the coast, so there's not much destruction around here. Some houses were almost impeccable, while others suffered magical attacks from far away. What kind of magic destroys an entire house?

When I arrived in the forest, I found Mary sitting under a tree, beside her was her backpack and her staff. She looks at me and smiles.

"You've decided to stay." She talks by looking at me.

I'm out of equipment.

"I'm sorry," I answer without being able to look into your eyes.

I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. The truth is, one part of me wants to run away with her, but another part says otherwise.

"No need to worry." His voice was calm, but his eyes filled with tears. "I understand..."

Can't keep their tears up they start to flow down your face. I know very well how she feels, after all, we are together for a long time, she is much more important to me than a brother could be. I end up crying too.

"No... It's not that I don't want to go with you..." I end up sobbing because of the crying, but I can control myself. "I've been a little weird for a while, too, it's like I'm feeling a sense of duty. If I go with you now it'll look like I'm trying to get away from it."

"I wanted to be just like you." She says lowering her head.

I'll go to her and hug her.

"Your situation is different from mine." I'll put my hand on your head. "You need to keep your freedom so we can meet in the future."

She looks at me with an expression of doubt.

"What did you think? That we would perish forever?" I look into your eyes. "You're a best friend and you always will be, of course I'll come after you later."

She had stopped crying, but when I heard my words I started again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry," I say, going into despair.

"It's a cry of stupid joy." She gives me an even stronger hug now. "Try to read the weather."

We stayed there for a while in silence, Mary was the first to speak.

"I'm going to the city of Tot."

'Tot? That's on the other side of the kingdom...

We'll be too far away,

"You said you'd come," he says pouting. "You can't run anymore."

After all that we were laughing, just like two idiots. I will miss her very much, but as I said myself, we will meet again.

So we say goodbye. I kept looking at her until she completely disappeared from my sight. I feel a tightness in my c.h.e.s.t when I see that this really happened, but I have to hold on, that's my decision.

When I got back to camp Kay and Joe were awake, it was time for the shift change.

"Good morning," I'll talk to you both.

"Good." Joe talks focused on his coffee.

"Good morning." Kay seemed a little better than yesterday.

We sit together with the group that we will be working on today.

Adventurers do not usually eat well in their missions, today was no different, we had hard bread and some meat that was hunted nearby.

"Where's Maria?" Joe asks after a while.

They did not know that Mary was a noblewoman, it will be an arduous task to try to explain to them.

"I need to talk to you guys after lunch," I'm getting up.

I'm not ready for that yet.

"About what?" He seemed suspicious.

"Maria." I'll get away from them.

Even though they didn't know, I find it hard that they didn't suspect anything. The rule of not talking about our past, her attitude too perfect for a common plebeian, stood out even though she didn't try to do anything too much. Would that be an air of nobility?

We all worked with all our might that morning, most of the bodies were burned yesterday. Just the memory of that smell is enough to make me look bad. At the time I had to go far away. Today they were burned a little further away from the city, although it is more laborious the smell would not disturb us.

"Are you working on rubble today?" Kay asks when he sees me.

"It's better than feeling that smell," I answer.

"I agree."

On our lunch break, we all got together. We went to a place where no one could hear us.

"Maria..." I'm starting to talk, but I don't even know where to start. "She had to leave our party for a while."

I've decided to talk for once.

"Why?" Joe seemed shocked by the news.

I've been trying to think of a convincing excuse all day. I can't tell them the truth, but I also don't know if I could fool them: 'She said she went on a trip for a while', that obviously wouldn't work, I still have something I thought of.

"She has some business to take care of with her family, it would be bad if she stayed here for a long time." I end up talking too fast.

When I'm nervous, I usually do that. At least I found a way, instead of lying we'll omit the important parts.

"Is that something you can't tell us?" Kay asks.

"Something like that, unfortunately I can't tell you the details, she asked me to keep it a secret" I answer.

Joe seemed to be upset about that news, but he didn't say anything, he just kept quiet while I answered a few more of Kay's questions, like, 'Is she going to be okay?' or 'Are you sure she took everything she needed?'. Among us he was the one who always remembered things we had forgotten and Mary was always the one who forgot everything, so I understand his concerns.

"Let's just get back to work." Joe talks about turning around and starting to walk.

Me and Kay are alone.

"What's wrong with him?" I'm talking about kicking a rock.

"You're a good reader when it comes to Joe, aren't you?" He talks while he laughs.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

He just starts walking too.

"In the end he's right, we have to get back to work."

"Wait a minute," I say. "Explain it to me!"

Kay goes to work and I follow him. I wanted to talk to them more that day, but I couldn't know what would happen next.

That night we had a night attack.