A few minutes after waking up and going over my status, a knock comes at the door. The door then promptly opens, revealing Selaria, and behind her, Dmitry the healer and a very familiar icy woman from yesterday.
“It’s good to see you Rowan, I hope you are feeling better?” Selaria asks calmly.
I nod as Dmitry walks towards me, putting his hand on my back and sending a pulse of mana throughout my body. The feeling, while unusually, is far from unpleasant, and actually leaves me feeling a small bit energized.
“Welp, you look all good to me, unless you’ve got some invisible curse with wards on it, you should be fine!” He says while chuckling.
My face pales at that.
“Is that possible?!” I ask worriedly.
This cuts his chuckle short.
“Uhm, it’s sort of a common joke that healers say when they use the inspect body skill. I mean, technically it’s not NOT possible, but unless you’ve got a tier 17 or higher that can weave complex curse magic, you should be fine.” He explains hurriedly.
I breathe out a sigh of relief.
Selaria clears her throat, indicating her wish to speak.
“Anyway, so my friend here has something to say to you Rowan, after last night’s so called ‘incident’ that I heard about.”
The cold-looking woman then grits her teeth, and steps up to me before bowing slightly and saying,
“I’m sorry for harassing you last night.”
This takes me aback and, to be honest, slightly uncomfortable.
I throw my hands in front of me placatingly.
“Hey hey, it’s all good. No need for all this, right? She wasn’t harassing me, just… showing me around to be nice.” I say, hoping to stop the frosty woman from straight up killing me right there and then.
Unfortunately for me, it seems my attempt at placation failed, as the woman grits her teeth and clenches her fists somehow even harder than before, give me a death look so cold it could give me frostbite.
Selaria chimes in,
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“No, it was necessary. My people are very ignorant when it comes to other races, and as much as I’ve been trying to change that, SOME of us still haven’t learned that not all races are like the Decadant.”
I nod at this and look over to see the cold woman now less cold, and more ashamed at the chastising she’s currently receiving.
“Now hit the courtyard, I don’t want to see you doing anything but running for the next twelve hours.” Selaria says sternly.
The woman then walks out quickly with her head hung low.
After a few moments of slightly awkward silence, Selaria sighs out.
“I’m sorry about her. That’s my little sister. She’s a good person I swear, but she’s taken the loss of our parents… differently… than I have. She’s also one of the best warriors we have, though I really wish she wasn’t.”
After another few seconds pass, Dmitry gets up and excuses himself, leaving just Selaria and myself in the room.
“Well Rowan, have you made up your mind on what your plans are? Again, the Order could really use you, but I won’t be mad at any choice you make.” Selaria says calmly.
The notification I receive surprises me for a second, but I quickly recollect myself.
‘Hm, well that just made my choice ten times harder. I wish I had more information. As far as I know, there could be only one other completion condition available, and that one other condition is something completely insane and difficult to the point that I’m just stuck here, which yes, is something that happens.’
‘On the other hand, am I really sure that I want to help the Divine in this war they have going on? From my point of view, not only will it be ten times harder to get anything done if everyone looks at me like I’m some sort of demon, but also I’m almost ninety percent sure the Divine have something to do with starting this war, or, at the very least, instigating it.’
Like this my mind goes back and forth, and before Selaria can say something, I answer.
“I’m sorry, I can’t join you. As nice as you are and as nice as Dmitry is, with all that I saw from not just your sister, but everyone here, I think it’s best I keep a safe distance from the Divine. After all, if the majority of the race thinks like that, then system forbid I run into a Divine that’s a bit… extreme.”
She once again sighs before replying,
“I understand, if that’s your decision I won’t fight you over it. I will say though, my people warm up quickly, is there any chance I can change your mind? I know your first impression of us wasn’t the best, but we are a good people, I swear it.”
I shake my head.
“I see, well I’m sorry things didn’t work out. Do you require anything for your travels?” She says politely but with a hint of disappointment in her voice.
“A map and some rations should be plenty.” I say.
She nod.
“I’ll have someone bring them here. Good luck Rowan, I’m glad we can leave here on good terms, but know that if you eventually decide to join the side of the Chaos, we will not show mercy.” She says uncharacteristically menacingly before leaving.
This causes a bead of sweat to drop down from my forehead at that little intimidation tactic she just pulled.
‘Unfortunately if the Decadents are more tolerable than the Divine, then I might just have to do that.’ I think to myself.
‘Thinking about it now, that Decadent scout probably only attacked me because we were in Divine territory, so he must have assumed I was with the Order… or the Decadents really are just as evil as the Divine said they were, though I’m still having trouble believing that after seeing how… touchy, the Divine are. Either way, I need to figure out the full picture of what’s going on here before I make a decision on what to do, though I have a feeling the longer I wait, the worse off I’ll be.’