The Great Crestmaster

The question was why? What happened? Could it be that he was expelled for good? That he couldn't go back anymore?

The idea was more concerning than he expected it to be. He needed to go there it was the only clue he had as to Isger's whereabouts. It was also a place that could potentially hide a few treasures.

The mystery of the old madman and the Eyes of Insight was still hidden there. What could be the reason that he couldn't go back?

Aldrich kicked off the bedsheets in time for the maids knocking softly on his door. Aldrich opened the door and the maids prepared his bath for him as he pondered on the latest events.

The answer must be in his two consecutive deaths. There was also the subsequent exhaustion. There could be a very real connection between them.

If so then could it be some sort of penalty? For dying twice in a row he couldn't return for a day? Or maybe because he was exhausted. If going into the nightmare realm consumed energy like running or swimming then that would make sense.

But he didn't feel very tired when he awoke in the nightmare realm every day. If so then the only viable answer for the time being was the repeated deaths.

Resurrection in the nightmare realm looked very simple and even replaced his body and healed all his injuries but as it seemed, it clearly wasn't without risk and it wasn't completely disconnected to his real body as he thought it was.

Aldrich went down and coincidentally met the guys heading to the great hall so they went together. Breakfast was served. The boiled eggs and chicken soup were wonderful.

Aldrich drank his apple juice, feeling much better than yesterday. The terrible headache was no more and his body didn't quite feel as tired. In fact he felt energetic. The taste was back in the food.

"Aldrich can I have your attention please. Good. Tomorrow we'll be arriving to Voryhrm. There are somethings that you should look after."

Ayemon interrupted his thoughts.

"What things?"

"First Voryhrm is the second largest city in Vorian currently. Actually the way I see it even Ordoran can't compare to it. This means that it serves as the political and economic center of the province. Watch out."

"Watch out for what? Politics? I'm not involved in any of that." Aldrich questioned back, uncomprehending. He has yet to even see Voryhrm, this seemed unnecessary.

"All Crestmasters are involved in politics to a certain extent. Despite not being one yet, you are involved in escaping a massacre that might potentially have links to the deputy governor, that sounds a little political to me."

"Yeah... that sounds about right." Now that he thought about it, he was a little involved. Quite a bit.

"The city has many undercurrents, even I may not be aware of all of them. So, remember keep your head down, advance as a Crestmaster and follow through with our deal."

"Sure I think I can do that." Aldrich was confident in that aspect.

"Oh, yeah, about the girl. Adera Elton right? Don't tell her anything yet. Not until I give the call."

"What?!" Aldrich exclaimed in surprise. "What do you mean I shouldn't tell her anything?"

"I mean just that, don't tell her about anything in regards to the village massacre."

"Her father was killed! And her entire family."

"I am well aware of that. I am telling you to do it for a good reason."

"I'm listening, but if I don't like what you have to say I'm telling her."

"Sure, you go ahead and do that if you want her to get killed."

"What are you even saying? Just get to the point."

"The point is, if she was being monitored by the enemy and they noticed strange behavior in her they might decide to kill her right off. Worse is if they see a change in her behavior they might suspect that a rat escaped the Wakefield massacre."

"That's just a baseless assumption. If they wanted her dead wouldn't she already be? Why would they be spying on her?"

"I don't have any evidence, that much is true. But my experience with the likes of them and your description of their tactics I can tell you that they are definitely monitoring her. Even if that is not true we must act with that assumption."

"But why....?" Aldrich did not understand, when did things become so twisted?

"That's what we have to find out. She is, as of now, the only real link to the real perpetrators behind the scenes."

"She'll ask me what I'm doing here."

"Tell here you Awakened your crest and came here to become a Crestmaster, which is true. Remember, she could be the key to uncover the face of our enemy and their motives for burning down Wakefield."

"She deserves to know the truth."

"She does and you will tell her, when the time is right, this is not just for you, this is for her too."

"Alright I get it." Aldrich had to admit that he made sense even if he didn't like it, "I won't tell her anything."

"Aldrich I need you to be extremely careful this is not a game our lives and potentially the lives of millions of innocent people in the empire could rest on doing this right."

"I get it already. I'm going back to my room I've had enough if that's all."

Aldrich returned back to his room, his head was buzzing with conflicting thoughts. He knew this was the right thing to do but...

This was the best way to go about this but... at the same time he felt that it was cruel to hide Adera's family's death no matter the reason. Lately it feels like he's like a lone boat against a raging storm.

At noon the ship stopped at a port. This wasn't Voryhrm, it was the port of a newly rising city called Allohis. Aldrich saw many passengers disembark here.

Many huge triangular containers were loaded out of the ship. Apparently they were cargo containers. Merchants used them to transport many commodities across vast distances.

Aldrich went down the docks to walk around and saw the many people scrambling to reach the city gates. There were even kids younger than him working in here.

Aldrich was surprised by the amount of people who had adventurer guilds pins on them, all kinds of colors and shapes were drawn on the pins. They were carrying giant sea monsters to to butchers shops.

One of the monsters looked like a hair ball with green eyes, another looked like a sea bird without the feathers and a lot of teeth. The most impactful was a horned shark with giant crab-like hands.

While looking around Aldrich even heard that there was a big construction going on in the city. They were building new city walls to expand the city into the nearby forest.

Apparently the president of the construction company was going to run for mayor and he was very popular too. When Aldrich asked about him he was enthusiastically bombarded with information he didn't ask for.

Aldrich returned back to the ship and back to his room when the ship was about to resume its journey. The next stop was Voryhrm.

Aldrich had his lunch early and went back to listen to the band of women who sang yesterday, they called themselves the Alluring sirens. They were hosting a special show tonight and he wasn't about to miss it.

Aldrich enjoyed the show over some beer and even got to talk to the alluring sirens.

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