I was glad to have a trusted friend at a time like this. Heidemarie had always been a good, outspoken person since our days back in our hometown of Lorlifeld. She didn’t get gloomy or overly sympathetic, so it was easy to pour my heart out.
She sat silently next to me, stuffing her cheeks with a potato as she focused on listening.
“They didn’t give me any time to transition things over. I left all the documents they’ll need behind, so they’ll probably be fine even though Sophia hasn’t done support work before. Though, well… It’s the sort of thing anyone can do, so I think they’ll be okay as long as they split up the tasks until she’s ready to take everything on herself.”
“Sophia? Is that the girl who replaced you?”
“Yup. She’s an elf. A pretty one.”
“Oh, so she must be one of Chronos’s chicks.”
“You’ve really got to keep comments like that to yourself. Though you’re probably right.” I chugged some more beer.
Now that we were on the subject, I realized my room was the only one that was separated from the others. There was something not quite right about the air that surrounded them sometimes, so maybe that’s what was going on.
Now that I was gone, the party was made up of one man and three women. The girls were free to try to appeal to Chronos as much as they wanted. In that sense, this was probably the happiest outcome for everyone.
“Fweh heh heh…”
I really was always out of the loop. Not that I wanted to be roped in to their romances, but maybe things would have ended differently if I had been able to build some rapport with them.
I glanced at Heidemarie.
She was staring at me. “So, it’s back.”
Huh?
“That laugh.”
“Oh, sorry. I know it’s creepy.”
“No, I love it. It’s very you, Wim. I was sad when you stopped.”
“What’s gotten into you? Ladies shouldn’t be throwing the word ‘love’ around too casually with guys, y’know. They’ll get the wrong idea.”
“I don’t mind you getting the wrong idea.”
“C’mon, cut it out.”
Despite that, I truly was grateful that she was there. I was beginning to get drunk, and I could feel it was getting harder to think. I wasn’t feeling good, but I wasn’t depressed either. I was just spacing out—my eyes swam around the room and finally landed on a tapestry hanging from the wall. Every tavern in this nation had one, and it served as that pub’s symbol.
The scene depicted didn’t look like Filburn. It must have been some other land, probably one up to the north. Blue threads formed the waves of the sea. The white head of a lizard and something that looked like a tail peeked out from the water, facing each other like two touching fingers. I had visited this tavern plenty of times before, but this was the first time I noticed the tapestry.
After a moment, Heidemarie began to speak. “So, is it my turn to ask some questions? Why were you kicked out of the party when you’re the one who defeated the boss?”
“Pwah!” I choked. She had suddenly hit the nail on the head and completely saw through what I was trying to hide.
“What’s wrong?” asked Grete, checking on me.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“How long do you think we’ve known each other?!” Heidemarie said. “Your story was clumsy. You were tripping over your words.”
“No, don’t get me wrong! I just…landed the finishing blow? I guess? I mean, Drachenflügel’s centered around Chronos, and we miraculously—”
“This is hard to watch, Wim. Drachenflügel isn’t strong enough to beat a boss. There must have been some other factor.”
“Not at all! Seriously, what are you getting at? This is a boss! How could someone defeat one on his own?!”
“Well, they say only God and the party can know the secrets of the labyrinth,” Heidemarie said, staring off into space. “No matter what I say, it’ll be hard to prove I’m right if you’re so adamant about denying this. But I can make my guesses. I know everything about you, Wim.”
She then looked right at me. Her stare deprived me of the ability to put words together. We had already submitted our report to the Abenteurers’ Guild, as well as the limb we recovered from the Giant Alligator to prove we had defeated it. I included tons of details about what Chronos and the others had contributed, making sure it was recorded as a feat of all of Drachenflügel.
People often talked about the secrets of the labyrinth. When a party went inside, there were no others to observe what happened. As long as there was physical evidence, the reports of the people involved were taken at face-value.
But once I looked into Heidemarie’s eyes, I knew there was no hiding it. Sometimes, she saw right through me, and that’s exactly what was happening now.
“I think…it was the superhuman strength you sometimes get in the face of emergencies.” Heidemarie looked quite proud to have gotten this out of me, while Grete just seemed confused.
“I can’t believe it myself,” I said. “Yeah, I guess I’m proud. But I’m even more shocked. Someone must have done enough damage already. That’s the only explanation.”
“You don’t really think that, do you?” Heidemarie asked.
“And you can’t really believe him—right, Heidemarie?” Grete asked.
“Of course I do. So? Why hide it?”
“I mean, things would just seem weird if the man who defeated the boss was immediately kicked out of Drachenflügel,” I said.
“So, you’re covering Chronos’s back.”
“I don’t think I’m doing anything that grand. It’s just…I don’t think it’s right for someone like me to continue to get in the way of someone like Chronos.”
Grete and Heidemarie shared a look.
“Explain this to me, Sue,” Grete said.
“Well, it’s true, though there’s only circumstantial proof from the discussions between his party members and his own latent potential,” Heidemarie replied. “Wim defeated a boss on his own.”
“Like, metaphorically? It was as if he defeated it on his own?”
“Nope. Literally.”
“You can’t really mean that, right? That would be impossible! Sounds like the weird mumblings of some stalker to me.”
“I get your point, but I don’t really sound like that, right?”
“No, you don’t. But a boss? On his own?”
“Just believe me. It’s easier that way. There’s nothing you could possibly lose, and when people inevitably find out, your pub will be able to say it knew this whole time.”
“Well, as long as I only have to say I believe him.”
The two seemed to have come to an understanding and turned back to me.