The sun sat high and unashamed above the dirt road. There wasn’t enough mana in its heat for Aiden to feel the heat, but he knew that it was hot. Sometimes he missed what normal temperature felt like, but not enough to allow himself to feel it. Like most things that one lost a taste for the more they leveled up, it was not that they were gone, merely muted. What would’ve once felt like a blow to the face became a simple touch. If he wanted to feel the actual temperature, all he had to do was focus.
Aiden did not.
The road beneath the feet of his jepat was the color of old bone, pale and straight. It threaded through bush and scrubland that smelled of dry grass and something putrid. Aiden guessed it was the animals that had failed to live through the heat. The feet of each jepat struck the dirt in loose, overlapping rhythms. While they were quiet, Aiden could hear every sound, the chaotic overlapping of jepats moving together but not in unison.
Afternoon deepened around them. The light from the sun shifted from white to amber. It poured sideways along across the road, stretched the jepat shadows into long, exaggerated clones of themselves.
Aiden’s jepat walked carefully forward with Valdan and Melvet flanking him on both sides. Rometo rode behind them, silent. He’d been holding his tongue ever since their conversation last night. Even this morning, he had returned to his normal melancholic mood, leaving nothing but careful glances at Aiden for any to see.
Zen, Fjord and Feira rode side by side, conversing about the most interesting and the most mundane thing. Aiden clearly remembered Feira talking to Fjord about a boy who’d liked her so much that he had promised to get her the moon. Zen had laughed hard when he’d updated the story, letting Fjord know that the boy had not been trying to get her the moon but the mune an interesting plant that grew outside the town but was not the easiest to find.
The growing friendship between Fjord and Zen still pricked a little at Aiden, but he was coming to terms with it. Both boys were getting as close as he and Zen had gotten in their past life. A part of Aiden blamed himself for it, not for making them meet but for finding Zen and automatically placing himself in a position of power with Zen. This was something the manhwas and regression stories on earth rarely ever talked about, at least not the ones he read. Sometimes, the person you meet is not the same person they were ten years prior.
Ultimately, Aiden was making peace with the metaphorical loss of his friend.
Telma walked alone behind them, silent as always. But there was an edge to her silence now. Ever since Ted had put her in her place, shown her what her position in the hierarchy was, she’d been sullen and sulking. Even now, she clearly could not think of a way she could have done things differently to emerge victorious in that encounter. Aiden could not blame her and, in truth, he was happy with her displeasure.
As for Ted, he and Elami rode, keeping an eye on the rear. Aiden was still not a fan of how close they were, but he still had too much on his mind to look into dealing with them. Also, the team did, in fact, need a [Healer], and Elami had shown that he was a good one that he and Ted had nothing to fear from.
But there was one specific problem that plagued him.
How much of what Rometo had told him was true?
Just because his family shared a family name with a [Demon King] it did not mean that they were true descendants of said [Demon King]. He could not imagine a civilized world allowing such a family to grow into power and prominence. Then again, it had been so many years ago, the years between each known summons capable of seeing civilizations rise and fall. Even he had needed to think to remember where he had heard the name.
So how did his family rise to power? he asked himself as his jepat strolled forward, their current destination not too far away from them, perhaps another day’s ride.
Besides that, if the [Demon King] was in fact their ancestor, then they could not categorically say they were the only descendants deserving of power due to their ancestry. For one, there would be other descendants. Secondly, it was more likely that with the fall of the [Demon King], there would be a purging of all those related to said [Demon King].
Aiden was finding himself at a stale mate on the subject. He could neither come up with an argument that disproved it substantially or one that disproved it substantially.
He trusted the master well enough to know that this was not part of his plan, but Rometo could be playing his own game, going on a tangent to meet his own desires.
When a sigh left Aiden’s lips, he had not intended it.
“Does something trouble our young lord?” Melvet asked, her voice slightly teasing. It was interesting how she sometimes sounded like an annoying older sister and sometimes like a doting mother. Sometimes Aiden wished she would pick one and stick to it. Sometimes he wished she would pick none and stick to none.
Personally, he worried that creating a relationship with the [Thirteenth] would not be in his best interest. She might not care that he killed a [Saint], but if he was going to end up being the [Demon King], all her lack of fanaticism would not save him from her ire.
In response to her statement, Aiden shook his head. “Just the weight of it all.”
“If it’s heavy, put it down.” Melvet shrugged. “Simple as that.”
“Can’t put it down.” Aiden turned his head skyward at the clouds and the mountain peaks in the distance that were not frosted. “Not all burdens should be put down.”
“Then share it,” Valdan said casually, a hand barely holding on to the reins of his jepat. “I’m yet to see a burden that can’t be shared.”
Aiden paused to give the knight a glance. He smiled a little, knowingly, cockily. Then he leaned in Valdan’s direction, his smile now a half-grin. “Think you can carry the weight?”
Valdan laughed. “Nope.” His eyes looked to the peaks in front of them, soft and gentle in whatever thought he was having. “At least not alone. You should share more, Aiden.”
Melvet snorted as if at some type of joke. “Says the man who doesn’t know how to share.”
“I share everything with you,” Valdan protested.
Melvet gave him a knowing look. “Me and who?”
“I share with the young lord.”
Aiden paused, then pointed a finger at himself. “Me?”
“You see.” Melvet gestured at Aiden with both hands, releasing her reins for a moment. “Even the young lord is flabbergasted.”
Aiden opened his mouth to say more, then paused. “Excuse me, but when did I go back to being the young lord?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Melvet gestured dismissively with a wave of her hand. “You’re a young lord when you go brooding like a young lord.”
Aiden said nothing to that. And while he would like to say that he was glad for the distraction from his melancholy, he was not. He didn’t like leaving a problem alone until he had solved it or was completely unable to solve it.
He glanced back while Melvet and Valdan continued a friendly argument about sharing, easily forgetting about him, and looked at Rometo. The man had a face like a sheet, plain and simple, emotionless.
A descendant of a [Demon King]. He wondered if his family had been arrogant in the weight of their bloodline. It was always possible that…
Aiden’s mind came to a halt.
Hold up.
Something wasn’t right.
His knowledge was spotty, but he was very certain that the barrier that separated both sides of Nastild had something to do with a [Demon King]. And while all system-sanctioned monarchs had the authority to open the path to the other side, there were actual guardians of the barrier, [Mage]s and [Enchanter]s and the likes who kept checks on the barriers, making sure that they were in order.
There had once been a noble family in charge of that, but he couldn’t remember who they were. By the time the barrier had come down and Aiden had started carrying out missions on the other side, the royal families all had joint custody over keeping watch of the barriers.
What were the chances that the house originally in charge of watching over the barriers was Rometo’s?
You could always just ask him, he told himself, knowing that he was not ready to.
If in the end, Rometo was simply playing a long game, then no matter how he tried to fish answers out of the [Time Walker], he would only end up revealing more to the man than was worth gaining. It was the problem with trying to figure out the smart, they learnt just as much from the questions you asked them as he could learn from the answers they would give him.
The thoughts plagued his mind for the rest of the day. The ride was not the quietest but it was uneventful. Aiden did not expect to run into anyone since the path they were taking led to nowhere that anyone wanted to go to.
When evening came, it was simple and without declaration. The sky grew a slight shade of purple at the edges, then darkened. There was, for some reason, no horizon to look upon with awe and bask in the beauty of nature. If there had been, Aiden had not been aware of it and conversations had continued on in his silence. The jepats moved on unbothered, eyes adjusting as the evening dimmed further and further in its slow descent into night-hood. Interestingly, the color of the road beneath them did not change even as the light grew absent. Aiden was sure there was something to that but didn’t care enough to find out why.
The evening met Aiden with thoughts of the [Demon King] and his potential descendants.
Eventually, night fell. With his heightened perception, things were clearer in the dark than they would have been many levels ago.
Midnight came and went on its way. They did not slow down or stop to set up camp. Apart from Fjord, Zen and Feira, every member of the group possessed levels high enough to going a few days without sleep would not prove detrimental to them.
The mountains ahead of them continued to stand tall in the darkness, two dark masses where the sky simply stopped. As the party grew closer, the mountains stood taller. They remained enormous, seemingly ancient, drawing closer over long hours of riding as even the night aged and the stars grew tired of the stationary presence standing guard over a crescent moon that couldn’t even be bothered to shine brightly.
The night found Aiden still worried in his own thoughts, worried that he was being played but could not prove it.
Dawn broke more eventfully than the night had fallen. Aiden heard a yawn behind him and guessed it belonged to Zen. Fjord was better composed, always doing his best not to so much as breathe in a way that could disturb somebody. Feira was more refined than her brother and tried her best—when she was not challenging Aiden—to be lady like.
Eventually, the dawn gave way to the golden light of the sun, peeling from a soft and gentle blue to an outpour of golden light that flooded downward. When afternoon finally settled in, the mountains so close that Aiden had to spread his perception as far and wide as possible, it found him in the same thoughts—filled with worry and wonderings and now riding alone at the lead.
Aiden was beginning to hold a grudge with Rometo for planting such a seed in his mind.
It wasn’t long before a new jepat trudged up alongside his. Aiden spared the person a glance, not surprised to find Ted now riding next to him.
“Still brooding?” Ted asked jovially.
“Not brooding,” Aiden answered. “Thinking, there’s a difference.”
“Oh, please.” Ted rolled his eyes. “I know when you are brooding. Your silence becomes different. It’s less ‘I don’t want to talk to anyone’ and more ‘I don’t want to give anyone a reason to annoy me.’ The difference is slight, but there.”
Aiden gave him a side glance, his awareness still spread as far as he could reach. “And you know this how?”
“You’ve had the same type of brooding since you were born.” Ted leaned in conspiratorially. "I guess special training can’t teach everything out of a person.”
“I’m just taking in the view, Teddy,” Aiden sighed, even though his lips quirked up in a content sigh. “I’m just taking in the view.”
Ted looked around. “What view?”
“The view.” Aiden nodded forward, somehow encompassing everything in front of them.
Ted looked at the mountain peaks still somewhat in the distance, then around them conspicuously. “There’s no view Aida. There’s dirt and more dirt. And the mountains are too far to admire.”
“How many points do you have in perception, Ted?”
“A hundred and fifteen.” Ted shrugged. “Give or take.”
“Hold up.” If Aiden was walking, he would’ve probably stumbled. How the hell was Ted’s perception stat that high? It was even higher than his by at least twenty points. “What level are you now?”
“A hundred and thirteen.”
Aiden blinked. He couldn’t help it. He knew Ted had dealt the killing blow to Nosrath and had been killing monsters through their journey so far, but a hundred and thirteen already was wild.
Without even meaning to, Aiden’s head juggled some mental math and came up with nothing. The question now was if this speed of growth was Ted’s normal growth speed or if the time spell had actually favored Ted in his level ups as it had done Aiden.
“I really don’t know why you look so surprised,” Ted said. “I’m a [Summoner]. You know I don’t even really need to fight by myself to level up, right?”
Aiden understood that, but that still wasn’t how it worked. The [Summoner] class was not secretly some overpowered class that nobody knew about or that nobody had cracked. In fact, as a [Summoner], when you fought with your summoned creatures, you distributed the experience between yourself and all of them, reducing how much you gain from the battle to level up. Statistically speaking, while they were an annoyance to deal with because of their strength in numbers, their level ups were slow.
So, what explanation justified Ted’s abnormal growth?
Aiden sighed. I guess he’s just him.
“Oh, yeah.” Ted’s finger moved to his lip. “I almost forgot the reason I came up here.”
“It wasn’t to cheer me up?” Aiden deadpanned.
“Oh, please,” Ted laughed. “Brooding’s your new thing. Even when you brood, you’re fine.”
“Lucky me,” Aiden muttered. “So why are you up here?”
“Rometo thinks we’re being followed.”
That got Aiden’s complete attention, but he kept it from his expression. If Ted had come up here to chat casually with that information, then chances were that Rometo did not want anyone to panic and let whoever was following them know.
Still, he looked back. Rometo rode with the loose, deceptive calm of a man who had never once in his life been in trouble before. His eyes did slow, unhurried passes of the ridgeline as if simply taking in the annoying view. On his left, Feira rode straight-backed and silent. Her eyes were sharp but not necessarily alert. If she was aware of this, then she was doing a very good job at hiding it.
“Followed by what?” he asked, knowing that they weren’t close enough to the mountains for any of the two conflicting groups to be paying attention to them.
There was also the part about how someone could be following them even with his awareness spread so thin. For it to be possible, it would mean that the follower’s awareness probably spread farther than his. The new question was why. Was it a matter of specialization of class or was whoever the person was significantly more powerful by level? Were they using a [Stealth] skill of significant mastery?
Ted shrugged casually, as if they were talking about the weather. “He didn’t say.”
“Well,” Aiden looked around again, pretending to be taking in the sights, “tell him to stop being calm about it.”
Ted paused. “You sure?”
“I’m sure.” Aiden continued to look around. This time he made it obvious that he was looking for something, searching. "Tell Valdan I need him to keep an eye out too. Watch the ridges. And spread the word. I don’t need panic, but we need subtlety.”
“I feel like I should ask if you’re sure again.” Ted gave him a worried look. “Are you sure? Showing that we know might make someone act. We’ve got Feira, Zen and Fjord out back.”
Aiden wasn’t worried about it. Among everyone in the group, he trusted Rometo’s ability to keep all of them alive the most. With him and Rometo present, it would take the very presence of God to convince him that they could not keep three people below level fifty safe.
“If we're being followed,” he answered simply, “I'd rather whoever it is know that we know. Frightened men make mistakes.” He paused. “So do confident ones, but it takes longer."
“Alright then.” Ted let his jepat speed wane and slowly fell back. “Frightened men it is.”
The news moved through the group quickly, then the tension grew, strong and taut, like a drawn rope.
Good, Aiden thought to himself as he felt it. It was in the worried movements. The darting eyes. The shifting heads. Let them know that we know.
He spread his awareness further, as far further as he could.
[You have used Class skill Enchanted Awareness]
Aiden frowned at the result as the vibrations came slowly alive. They buzzed with the gentle home of alliance. The enchantments he could feel were only the ones within the group. There was nothing else, nothing around them for as far as the skill could reach.
Whoever or whatever was following them was hiding itself almost perfectly.
In this way, cautious and tense, they continued to ride. The tension settled in on Aiden, and he began to believe that maybe he had been wrong, that maybe whatever was following them was beyond him. Hopefully, it was not beyond Rometo.
They made the mountains by dusk and finally camped. Aiden took the first watch without being asked.
None of them slept.
Nothing came.