Chapter 5: A New Companion! An Owl Familiar?!
The long night finally came to an end. I was so completely exhausted that I summarily collapsed and fell unconscious. When I woke up, I found myself in bed back at Tetra’s house in Ieva Village.
While I’d been asleep, Nea’s manor had burned to the ground, leaving only the remains of a charred, smoking frame. The books burned completely to ashes. As for the dragon, it too was nothing more now than dust on the wind.
I spent a day recovering. When my health and magic power were back to normal levels, I went with Aruku and Amako to visit the village chief.
“You didn’t all have to come out like this to see us off,” I said.
“We wouldn’t dare do anything less,” said the village chief. “We’re nothing but grateful! The necromancer is gone, and the zombies too! We can finally live our lives in peace, and we owe it all to you!”
I looked past the chief to Aruku, who was packing all our luggage. Some villagers were passing him a big bag.
“Are you sure it’s okay for us to take so much food?” I asked.
“We only wish we could give you more!” laughed the chief.
But I still felt bad about accepting so much. I tried to gently refuse the villagers who kept ambling over, arms filled with vegetables. That was when I noticed an elderly woman walking toward us with a big smile.
“Tetra!” I said.
“You’re looking well rested and fully healed,” she remarked.
“Thanks to you,” I replied.
I couldn’t help noticing the lack of a certain villager by her side. It brought a furrow to my brow, so I decided to ask Tetra about something that was on my mind.
“I hope I’m not being rude,” I said, “but do you really live in that big house all by yourself?”
It was Nea who was on my mind. Or more importantly, it was the fact that she was nowhere to be seen. Our fight was over, and I couldn’t help wondering what that meant for the village. I wondered what impact she made.
“You’re not being rude at all,” said Tetra with a chuckle. “I’ve lived there all on my own since about twenty years ago. I lost my husband and daughter to monsters. It’s just been little old me ever since.”
Just you, huh? So Tetra really has forgotten.
But I finally knew what it was that Nea said that bugged me. Maybe she called them puppets, and she said they meant nothing to her, but in truth she adored them. She was nice to them. She cared about them. But right up until the end, she just couldn’t admit it.
In any case, now that I knew what I wanted to know, I bowed politely to thank Tetra. But a hint of sorrow flashed across her face.
“But you know,” she said, “it’s the strangest thing. The house feels bigger all of a sudden. I’ve been living there by myself for years now, but yesterday it suddenly felt bigger. I guess it must be my old age.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “You’re so healthy, Tetra. I bet you’ve got a lot of life left to enjoy!”
I thought about her words for a time. Something welled in me that I didn’t quite have words for. In any case, it was time to go.
“Damn it,” I muttered to myself. “It’s just never that easy.”
People’s memories didn’t just vanish. I’d just seen the proof of that firsthand, in Tetra. I felt something clawing up from my chest, but I pushed it down. Amako tugged at the sleeve of my coat. She must have been listening to us talk, and perhaps she was worried. She was pretty observant like that.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m not so sentimental that I’ll just burst into tears.”
“I don’t really care about that,” replied Amako. “I was just wondering when we’re going to leave.”
“Can’t you give me a little emotion here, Amako? Please.”
Can’t you be a little more considerate?
The warmth I felt creeping up from my heart cooled.
“She made her choice,” said Amako, “so I’ve got nothing more to say. She brought all of this on herself in the end.”
“Yikes, that’s harsh. True, but harsh.”
“That, and . . .” said Amako, shooting me a stern, reproachful stare.
But there’s no reason for her to look at me like that . . . I think.
“You’re you, Usato. You’re too generous to your enemies, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know if I’d say that. It’s my job to help people. You can’t expect me to be completely heartless.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain how things ended up.”
I agreed with Amako, but that didn’t make her any happier about it. But I could deal with that later; I had to make sure we were packed and ready to go. I did a last check on everything I was carrying. I put the food we’d received on Blurin’s back. We had more than enough to make it to Samariarl.
“We’re all good over here, Aruku,” I said.
“I’m all done too!” he replied.
He’d secured everything to our horse, so I turned back to the villagers.
“I know it was a short stay, but thanks for everything,” I said. “Stay well, everyone.”
“Do come back again, okay?” said the village chief. “We’ll be able to treat you even better—I’m sure of it! In the meantime, we’ll be praying for your safe travels.”
Again, huh? Yeah, you know what? I think I might come back some day.
We waved goodbye to the villagers. Nea was nowhere among them, even as they faded farther and farther into the distance. Nobody thought it strange she was gone. In fact, they acted like she had never even existed in the first place.
The residents of Ieva had no idea what had happened. They didn’t know they’d been controlled. They didn’t know who the necromancer really was. They didn’t know why the zombies had been roaming the lands around their village. And they didn’t know that a young girl, a fellow villager, had suddenly disappeared from their midst.