'She's gone?' Rastel stared at the room blankly.
Seeing his reaction, the old man rushed to look into the room only to see it empty and in a neat condition.
His face flashed with emotions as he turned to look at the room next door before sighing to himself. His gaze shifted to Rastel and he signaled with his eyes while pointing out Myra.
Rastel understood and brought up the matter of a bath which the old man promptly provided. He brought her to the inn bathroom and after addressing everything, left her to wash.
He took Rastel to the front door away from all ears before revealing his concerns.
"The elf... he is dead?" he blurted out as soon as he confirmed they were alone.
Rastel nodded solemnly.
The old man shook his head before saying. "A little boy told me he saw the silent lady walking into the forest. That is what the settlers call her."
He looked at his old grizzled hands for a while as if counting his thoughts before adding. "I had hoped the boy was just not sure of who he saw or was being naughty. I should have known since the first time I met her, she was not one to forgive grievances or want to live a peaceful life."
He turned to look at Rastel's visage. This long haired, green eyed muan had apparently being the one to take out their most troublesome problem that had bothered them for years, he was very grateful. He hoped to seek Rastel's help once more.
"This might be insensitive of me but can yer find her? Find her and tell her to come back here. Tell her I said, beautiful flowers need sunlight to grow" The old man's hoarse voice became surprisingly soft as he laid out his request.
DING!
New quest!
The old man's request – Rank D
The old caretaker has requested you to find the mysterious assassin and deliver his message to her. Quickly set off before she disappears into the shadows.
Reward: 300exp, Unknown
Rastel who had been silent all this while perked up his brows at the sight of the new quest. This was officially his third quest in the game not counting the one for his unique class. And it seemed easy enough.
'Or maybe not, as an assassin she should have a way to stop herself from been tracked normally.' He thought about it before answering the old man.
"I will try my best and bring her back here." He answered him sincerely. Partly because he somewhat felt for her plight and partly because of obviously, the quest. Levelling up was hard!
"Thank you" the old man was satisfied. "But then remember…" he added as a warning.
"Doe might look like a cold weak woman but she is not simple" he added gravely.
"Be careful when yer talking to her. If she is who I think she is and you manage to get her angry, you might just die in your sleep someday without even knowing how!"
Rastel froze at this information as he remembered Doe's viciousness when attacking her opponents together with the scene of the unfortunate wood elf upstairs and shuddered.
Riding through the woods, Rastel stiffly controlled the horse to dodge the trees in his path. Considering the need for speed, he had gone to retrieve the horse from where their carriage had been hidden.
The horse had spent the night munching on nearby shrubs and seemed to be in a foul mood from been left outside. It had shaken its brown mane moodily at the muan and given him an attitude as he detached it from the carriage. It was with great difficulty that Rastel had managed to mount the horse and ride down the narrow path of the forest.
'I should remember to take better care of this horse in the future. It is unfortunately, our only means of transportation right now' he thought grumpily as he struggled to placate the uncooperative animal.
He had taken his time to think about where Doe would have probably gone after leaving the settlement. After hearing she had left from the direction in which they had taken the previous night, the answer was fairly obvious.
'But considering the fact that I'm on a horse and she's on foot shouldn't I have caught up to her by now? That's right, there is a chance that she is just on her way to Kurn which is in the same general direction. But considering the circumstances I doubt she would just leave like that.' his bright green eyes scanned the distance carefully as he scoped the area.
'If I don't find her by the time I reach there, I would widen my search area a bit' coming to that decision, he urged the horse to move faster the best he could. He really had no experience with horses.
It took him a bit more than 30 minutes to finally reach his targeted destination. Although it was faster than when they had been on foot, it would have been a lot faster if he actually had any experience in horse riding.
He cursed at the horse under his breath as he finally reached the location he had left just a few hours ago, the destroyed hill site.
The scene looked exactly like they had left it. The crumpled frame of the skeletal giant laid on one side, the remnant scene of their camp laid just in front of it and the pile of rubble and soil was just a little distance away while the area around it was covered with a few fallen trees.
But in the midst of the mass that was once a fairly large hill, the crouched figure of a woman could be seen. She was holding a basket that was filled with flowers of different types and was diligently arranging them on top of the rubble.
Doe!
Rastel was not really surprised seeing her here. If what he suspected was right then her daughter's body was still buried down there, but looking at what she was doing left him mildly curious. Before he could open his mouth to call out, he heard her voice.
"Did that stubborn old man send you?" she spoke up without turning back or lifting her head from her work.
Rastel smiled a bit as he jumped off the horse and tied it to a nearby tree trunk. The horse huffed at him as he passed by and scaled the rubble to meet her.
She paid him no mind as she continued her work while waiting for an answer. Standing by the side for a few seconds, Rastel suddenly bent low and reached out. Doe's eyes took a sharp glint as she watched his actions.
But contrary to what she was expecting, he only grabbed a bunch of the flowers that filled the basket and joined her in laying them out.
She looked at the muan for a moment before turning back to what she was doing silently. It took them a few minutes to finish before the entire area was covered with flowers of different types and colors, it looked really beautiful.
Doe and Rastel stood side by side as they watched the scene for a few moments in silence. Rastel nodded his head a bit as his tail swished slowly behind him, it looked really beautiful indeed.
He bent down and picked a particular flower that caught his attention, it was a yellow flower that looked like a sunflower of some type. I was large and bright yellow with numerous petals alternating between large and small which formed a beautiful pattern. The center was made of numerous brown filaments that were soft to the touch and it had a short green stalk.
He twirled the flower between his fingers as he admired it. Doe turned to look at the flower in his hands and her brown eyes softened.
Hanging the basket on her elbow, her dress swayed lightly as she turned around and went to the abandoned campsite and took a sit on a fallen tree trunk that was a result of the earlier battle between the two giants.
Rastel followed her and sat on another fallen trunk opposite her still twirling the flower. He raised his gaze to meet hers before replying her former question. "He said I should tell you to come back"
He looked down at the flower in his hands before adding." He said I should tell you that beautiful flowers need sunlight to bloom."
At this statement, a light chuckle came out from Doe's lips. Contrary to before, her voice sounded a bit lighter and less depressing.
Hearing her laughter, Rastel was first stunned before chuckling himself.
"He acts unreasonably while also trying to help others, I have never met such an indecisive man" she said with a low voice.
She turned around to look at the collapsed hill mound behind her. "I met him not long after I lost my daughter, at that time he was coming back from Kurn with a small mercenary group as an escort. After seeing me, he was quick to lash out at me, a total stranger to him about the dangers of travelling alone." She smiled softly as she reminisced.
"At first I had ignored him but he was a very annoying man. After a short exchange of words, I had found myself joining him to go back to the settlement under the protection of mercenaries." She shook her head a little at the irony of it all.
Rastel was really curious about what happened to her daughter and her grudge with the necromancer but felt it wasn't in his place to ask so he kept quiet.
"I should really thank you sincerely. You gave me the chance to vent out my heart demons and get my revenge, now I can move on and continue to live." Her voice sounded low as she stared at the flower in his hand.
Rastel looked at her face and saw a bit of hesitation flash in her eyes. He was about to tell her that it wasn't necessary when she suddenly asked. "Do you wish to know? Why I killed the elf like that?"
Rastel was silent for a moment. He looked at the flower in his hand and without much thought, brought out the immortal's blade under Doe's silent gaze and cut out a chunk of wood from the trunk beneath him.
The timber was really hard but cut easily under the blade and he brought out a roughly spherical shape. Dropping the sunflower in his hand on the trunk and using it as a model, he suddenly started sculpting.
"I would be happy to hear your story, he said with a smile while not looking up from his sculpting."
Doe looked at what he was making before starting her story," I am sure you already know but I was an assassin, and a very good one. my reputation got so good that some nobles in the walled city of Kurn decided to hire my service at one point."
Her eyes flashed with anger at this point. "But the contract was a failure, an unknow factor came up which brought up losses to both our sides and they decided to get rid of me as a 'loose end'"
She laughed a bit at this before continuing.
She told Rastel about how she went on a rampage when she found out that they had tried to eliminate her and how she ran into trouble when she had gone to take out the final target. Her encounter with the necromancer and how he had chased her and her daughter down.
As she told her story, Rastel diligently chipped at the piece of wood as he listened with rapt attention. He couldn't help but be filled with awe and fear for this female assassin.
Although she didn't explain in detail, he was sure that the strength of someone capable of taking out nobles of a walled city in their own homes was not something so simple.
When she finally finished her story, she looked at Rastel as he worked and added. "Although it doesn't mean much now, I don't think I would have ever found peace if I had not ended his life personally with my hands. So I must say, thank you."
Although her words were sincere, Rastel felt a chill when he matched her gaze. He sighed as he thought of the old man's mission, there was no way he could bring her back. This was a woman who lived for blood!
He raised his work in the air as he gave it a few more chips with the immortal's blade and looked at it admiringly. Since he got the unique class, this was truly his first work of art he made excluding the golems.
The petals were as thin as he could make them and the shapes were uniform which showed his improvement in wielding the blade.
The center of the flower was marked by the blade to imitate the feeling of the original and as the wood was still fresh, it was soft to the touch.
He had also given it a short stalk as a way to hold it. The flower was big enough to cover his palm and after he had put in what he considered the final adjustment, he heard a soft ding.
DING!
YOU HAVE CREATED A SCULPTURE!
WOULD YOU LIKE TO NAME THE SCULPTURE?
'A name?' Rastel had expected something like this as he had successfully completed a sculpture before but he wasn't sure what to name it.
As he was inspecting the flower and the notification, Doe was also observing it closely. Seeing Rastel wasn't giving any comments on her story, she stood up to leave.
"Tell the old man…... Tell him I said, I am a flower that wilts under the sunlight" she looked at him meaningfully.
'A flower that wilts under the sun?' Rastel echoed her words in his mind before suddenly getting inspired.
Doe put her hand into her basket and brought out a ring. It was made from silver and had a black stone set in that seemed to swirl with fog. It was the interspatial ring she had taken off the elf's body after killing him.
With a wave of her hand, a small glass bottle emerged out of thin air which she handed to Rastel. Seeing her gesture, Rastel put back the immortal's blade and stood up to accept the gift.
"They are healing pills, they are strong enough to quickly heal you even when you are near death." Rastel's eyes widened at that part. This is definitely a precious lifesaving treasure!
He took the bottle and saw 7 small dark green pills in the bottle. He looked at Doe in shock before chuckling and then putting it into his inventory.
He extended his other hand and gave her a gift also, it was the flower he sculpted.
"I would give this to you then." He said with a smile.
"I hope you can consider that there are beautiful flowers that bloom in the darkness too" as he said this, Rastel had already made up his mind to fail the old man's mission.
Doe looked at the sculpted flower in his hands and took it in hers. It wasn't really a thing of great beauty or a wonderful artwork. But there was something about how the flower was sculpted that appealed to her.
"Thank you" she said while looking at it.
She then walked up to the collapsed hill mound and placed it gently in the middle of the flowers. Rastel walked back to the horse that was still huffing with an attitude and mounted it.
"I hope we meet again someday!" he called out to her as he tried to put the horse under control.
She slowly stood up and turned to face him, she looked at him for a while before saying with a cold gaze. "I hope we don't"
And with that, her body blurred indistinctively as she seemed to turn into a shadow and disappeared!
Rastel paused with his mouth wide open still in shock of her words and her sudden disappearance.
"What skill is that?" he mumbled to himself before guiding the horse back from where he came. It was time for him to go back to the inn and log out for a while and hopefully, be on time for dinner.
The sound of hooves faded as the horse clopped into the foliage.
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Back at the collapsed hill, a few minutes after Rastel had left. A figure blurred into existence as a shadow seemed to form out of thin air. Doe appeared at the site exactly where she had disappeared before.
She looked towards the direction where Rastel had left before turning her gaze to the sculpted flower on the ground.
Her eyes only showed a bit of hesitation before she bent to pick it up and promptly vanish again without a trace.