Leaving pt.2

[Seventeen/Sephil]

"My house?" Tessa sighed. "Are you sure?"

"Is it inconvenient? From the memories-"

"It's not inconvenient. It's just that… there are probably still some troublesome people in town right now. And there's not much room, so you'll have to sleep on the floor."

"That's alright, right X?"

"Yeah."

"It is also quite far away. It will take at least a few days by walking from here." Tessa said. "It's on the border of the Bronze and Silver sectors on the North Side."

Sectors. That was somewhat familiar to her now. The blowfish, although annoying, had been quite helpful with its incessant chatter right next to her left ear before she had thrown it far away to try for a long-distance relationship. Despite the still novel nature of this new world, she had begun to understand the basic setting.

The world they had traveled to seemed to hold quite a few parallels to Earth. There were many common technologies found on Earth like sinks, lights, and toilets. However, the difference lay in magic. The world had developed similarly, but everything revolved around the idea that people held innate magic. For example, the sink would use a water magic stone - the blue shining stones from the island - to function rather than needing pumps and drains. Similarly, weapons seemed more medieval because there was no need to develop artillery with the presence of magic.

Other than magic, the social advancements of this world would also be difficult to get used to. The class divisions while present on Earth as well, were especially apparent here as demonstrated by the Sectors. There were three sector types split into four directions in Delipso. The Gold Sectors, generally closest to the ruling houses', housed the aristocrats, merchants, and anyone who was rich enough to afford the housing as well as high-class stores like the ones they had just passed. Further from the center were the Silver Sectors which varied in wealth and living conditions. In general, however, it was the middle class that lived in these sectors, those who could not afford the costs of living in the Gold Sectors but still held enough to live peacefully. It was the Copper Sectors where the social disparity was seen the clearest. Especially at the outer edges of Delipso where the barrier was, poverty was apparent at first glance. It was also quite clearly an expansive area where law enforcement had long given up.

It was beginning to darken, the sky turning a purplish-pink hue as the sun set in the distance.

"There's a park near here where we can rest for the night." X said, breaking the silence.

"Alright. When do the patrols usually come?"

"4 in the morning. They'll be leaving soon though."

"That's so early." Seventeen whined. She looked down at the road and kicked the unfortunate stone that happened to be in her way.

"Not if we sleep now." X replied, ignoring her whimpering. Just as they turned the bend, the park came into view as well as the backs of patrols doing their last rounds. It wasn't as beautiful or carefully crafted as the park they had passed earlier nor the garden in the duke's mansion, but that was to be expected. They had nearly reached the middle of the North Gold Sector.

"How did you know it would be here?" Tessa asked. "We've never been here before. And how do you know when the patrols come and leave?"

"We are not the first ones to try saving this world." X explained. "There have been 43 teams before us. For each team, we recieve the information they collected during their attempt, so we know general knowledge from the previous teams. That being said, anything that they did not find out, we do not know about."

"We also do not have the information directly in our heads because there is too much. The floating blowfish is the one who knows everything from the previous teams."

"Floating blowfish? Don't tell me, this is your 'spirit bond' again?" Tessa sighed. "Nevermind. I promised you I wouldn't doubt you for the entire week."

Seventeen smiled. "Right. Trust. Anyhow, let's sleep for now. We'll have an early start tomorrow."

She watched as the last of the patrols disappeared from sight before plopping down on the soft grass. It was not yet dark enough for the stars to come out, but the glowing colors across the sky had darkened, and the sun had almost gone, just peeking over the horizon. She sighed. Although she herself had said it was time to sleep, there were too many unanswered questions she had. The hunger from only having a slice of bread and the dampness of the grass beneath her only added to the discomfort. It was like natural caffeine.

But perhaps what kept her awake the most was the chance that she might have to revisit her past. Earlier when she had thrown the blowfish away, it was not only to reflect the information about the world she had already gotten but also because she needed to process what it had said about what had happened in the dark void. The memories she had felt pulled out of and flashed in front of her, the memories she had long buried, were likely to resurface in her subconsciousness. There was the possibility - and from what she knew about herself, it was a high possibility - that she would feel that same helplessness again.

She sighed.

"What's up? I'm back… no thanks to you."

"Annoying blowfish?"

"Annoying, who are you calling annoying?!"

"You?" She smiled at the fuming blowfish, it was certainly useful if only to poke fun of. "What's your name?"

"Esteemed blowfish? Most awesome being? The revered one? Any of the above work."

"So self-centered haughty arrogant blowfish it is. Schab for short."

"You're hilarious. Pick a different one."

"But Schab is actually such a good name. I think I'm a genius."

"That makes one of us."

"Anyways, Schab, what happened? Want to explain now?" She picked at the grass, tearing it up at the roots. "We have the time now." She looked over at Tessa who had already fallen asleep. It would be especially convenient now so that she wouldn't have to look like a delusional child who had long lost any sense of reality.

"Explain what?"

"The whole world-ending thing that X dropped earlier. From what I've seen, this country looks rather prosperous on the outside. From the memories, there does seem to be an issue with poverty levels that may create a revolution, but even if this country ends, the world will be fine."

"Almost. You are right that if the only issue were its poverty levels, which will still lead to a quite a few revolts, there would only be deaths in Delipso. However, the issue is that the delicate power balance between nobles and kings and between Delipso and the rest of the world is going to breakdown within the next decade. Currently, the Ruler of Delipso, Alexander Pyrolis, has four children. There is the crown prince and his twin siblings as well as the illegitimate prince."

"Ooooh. Succession drama?!"

"Yeah, but considering this is what caused the end of this world, I wouldn't be so excited."

"Pshhh. Just let me have this."

"The crown prince is backed by the majority of the nobles while the king and the illegitimate son are backed by the other nobles. However, the most concerning force is actually the nephew to the King. He is the only child of the king's younger brother and aims to be king but doesn't have the skill nor the diligence to support his ambition. The issue is that his parents are not only powerful but don't seem to know any demonic side of him no matter what he does; in other words, he became a spoiled brat. To become king, he unwittingly became a tool for the two surrounding countries and essentially caused a world war.

"Of course he can't get all the credit for the world war. The surrounding countries already planned to attack Delipso at some point because not only is this generation's royal family powerful, but there will also be disasters soon that force the other countries to look at Delipso for resources. After all, Delipso has the most natural resources."

"So I assume we are supposed to make sure the crown prince becomes the ruler and get rid of the nephew and illegitimate prince?"

"Right."

"That's easy. He's already supposed to be the ruler, isn't he? Just protect him from the bad guys and yay, he's the king."

Schab sighed. "How come I have such a dumb partner. If it were that simple, why would the previous groups fail?"

"I don't know. Maybe they weren't part of a secret organization and have the skills that come with that?"

"How are you a doctor with that brain of yours?"

"How do you know that? Stalker."

"We've been over this. I told you at the beginning, Remember that prodding in the black space, that was to check your memories."

"An invasion of privacy. So rude of you."

"Yeah. What can you do about it?" He stuck out his non-existent tongue. "We had to make sure that you and your smarter friend over there were not going to destroy this world."

"We passed? I'm feeling quite destructive right now." She rolled over. "You murdered me and sent me to some strange place. And now you want to make me do some task. Did you know, I was about to clear up all the debt I had left and leave the organization to live out a normal life?" The more she spoke, the more infuriated she became. "I was so close, just a few more missions and I would have been done. And you killed me."

"I didn't kill you. The sword killed you." Schab said. "Alright fine. There are some benefits for you. If you complete the missions, you can choose to stay in this world or return and be granted one wish as long as it can be granted."

"Can you give me unlimited wealth?"

"Yes. I can't, but the sword can."

She relaxed as though the small outburst had never happened. "You should have started with that. Anyways, I heard missions plural?"

"Correct. Your friend, X, only told you the overarching mission which is to prevent the world from ending."

"There's more?"

"Of course. The almighty sword that will be giving you money is actually one of three divine swords in the world. Its owner was the Crown Prince's younger sister, Evelyn Pyrolis. She is actually the one who succeeds the throne after the Crown Prince's assassination and murders a ton of people. This is also why you have to make sure the Crown Prince lives."

"We just need to protect him then. As long as he ascends the throne, it seems like the other two will be solved."

"I wish. There was actually a team that managed to push the crown prince onto the throne early on."

"Then why are we here?"

"Let me finish, then you'll know." He made a face at her, puffing out his cheeks. "The group managed to place the crown prince on the throne. However, three months after, the crown prince killed himself."

"Why?"

"We don't know for sure, but one of the later groups found out that the crown prince fell in love with a duke's daughter who supported the illegitimate prince.

"It's getting late, why don't you sleep for now? You have to get up at 4 in the morning to avoid the patrols."

"Stop. Don't remind me." She sighed. "I can see why there could be a world war now. But why does that lead to the end of the world?"

"Magic. It's all because of the magic cycle. It works somewhat like your water cycle. Humans are magic purifiers. Just by living, you absorb magic mixed with other particles into yourself. This is then purified by your souls and released back into the atmosphere over time or in bursts if you use magic. This purified magic then mixes back into the atmospheric magic. Other organisms then use that magic to live and dilute it again. Thus, when a devastating number of lives were lost during a short period of time in a specific area of the world, there was a significant drop in magic purity, and this area as well as most countries that participated in the war became uninhabitable save for the few animals who adapted."

"Magic, huh? I want to learn magic."

"Go to sleep."

"Do you need to sleep? What are you? Where are you from?"

"Go to sleep." Schab disappeared from sight, but there was still a voice that echoed in her head. "I'll wake you up tomorrow."