A whole week had passed since my encounter with Vaxyll and the Night Princess, but not only was Larit still standing, the Night King's troops had completely deserted the plains. This would be a good thing, of course, if not for the fact that everyone in town was convinced that I was the one who'd gotten rid of them, and were now specifically asking me for help with any quests or even just minor annoyances that plagued them. Of course, I consider any problem that doesn't directly involve me to be a minor annoyance, so I'm hardly the best judge of how serious anybody else's problems might be.
Emerald was, as expected, more than happy to tell everyone that Vaxyll was still a threat, and that I escaped through nothing but sheer luck, but people tend to believe what they want to believe, and they definitely don't want to believe her. I'm the hero of Larit, as much as I hate the title, or at the very least the responsibility that will inevitably come with it.
"Well, if it isn't the man everyone's talking about!" Vhe announces the second I enter the item shop. "Normally tales of heroic exploits fizzle out within a matter of days, and yet the whole town is still abuzz with chatter of Darius Crowley, our Uniquely Unique hero!"
"You can drop all of that, please, Vhe." I request. "You know I don't like the attention."
"Ah, but is it not human nature to want what we don't have? You, my heroically honoured customer, are proof that the inverse is also true."
Over the past week, I've gotten used to Vhe's stranger physical characteristics, but the way he always seems to talk circles around me still makes my head spin.
"Well, I'm just here to stock up on items again." I tell him, setting the array of colourful potions on the countertop. "Even with the Vaxyll situation, I still have to hit my quota."
"The situation that all of our fellow townsfolk are convinced is over, despite you, the hero they laud with praise for solving it, repeatedly informing them otherwise?" Vhe chuckles. "No, I cannot imagine the guild would postpone your duties for that."
***
Back at the guild, I'd tasked Claire with finding three easy quests for us to blitz through. I can't exactly that I trust her to not find some quests she thinks are more appropriate to our skill level, but she's more likely to see things may way than Aura or Emerald.
"Ah, there you are, Darius! Did you get the potions, Claire was struggling to find a suitable quest, so we offered to take over."
Unfortunately, that would require things to go my way even once. Both of the troublemakers had pre-empted me by a few minutes, and now I was going to get stuck with another set of time-waster quests. "That's our Aura, always helping out whenever she can."
"Would you care to explain why I detect copious amounts of sarcasm in that comment, Darius?" Aura frowns. "You wouldn't happen to be unhappy with my taking over Claire's duties, would you?"
"Why would I have a problem with that?" I shrug, though I'm sure she knows damn well why. Either she's hopped up on the praise that I'm getting for a job she knows I didn't do, or she wants to build up so many quests that I retroactively deserve said praise, and I have no interest in indulging her of either possibility. "But I'm sure a distinguished knight of Ghalytorm has better things to do than pick out quests, no? Let me take over."
"So you you do take issue with me choosing a quest!" Aura accuses. "Well, even if I did trust your intentions to be pure, I've already accepted two quests for us to complete, both in the forest. Emerald and Claire will meet us there." She explains, grabbing me by the hood and dragging me outside, much to the enjoyment of the other adventurers.
I suddenly remember why I hate knights.
***
To Aura's credit, our two quarries, forest sprites, and goldencap mushrooms are simple enough to find and defeat, and provide me with a perfect excuse not to put in any effort. Forest sprites are resistant to all forms of magic except fire, and I can't use fire magic without burning the entire forest down.
"I cannot believe I made such a simple, foolish error." Aura sighs as she harvests the last of the required mushrooms.
"The way I see it, it's fate." I tell her, leaning against a tree. "I'm just to important to waste effort on any quest that's less than vitally important."
"Don't give me that, you don't put any effort into any quest, important or not." Emerald scoffs.
"I pulled my weight against Vaxyll, unlike some people who didn't even show up."
"You would've gotten killed it the Night Princess didn't save your sorry ass!"
"And you would've been there to see it if you weren't such a coward."
"Can we please get through a single quest without bickering like infants!?" Aura gets between us before things come to blows, which I should probably thank her for since Emerald could probably cave my skull in with a single punch. "Things hardly would have changed if Emerald were present when we fought Vaxyll."
"Thank-"
"And Emerald, Darius did everything he could against Vaxyll, and it proved pointless. Can you blame him for putting on airs when his pride was damaged as such?"
"My pride is completely fine." I argue. "I just don't see the point in gathering mushrooms and fighting pixies when he's probably waiting in the shadows to attack Larit when we're not around to defend it!"
It takes a few moments of the other three staring at me to realize I just let it slip.
"You... you care about defending the town?" Emerald asks, genuinely surprised at my display of heroism.
"I just..." I falter. "The Night King came here because of me. He wants to get rid of any Uniques so we can't stop him. I don't like the idea of people dying because of me." I turn away from their prying eyes. Gods I hate showing weakness like this. "Can we just finish up and go home?"
"The Night King probably isn't just here for you." Emerald tells me. "He probably has generals placed in every region trying to take over. You just happened to draw his attention."
"And now that attention is on Larit." I say. "You can't expect me to believe that isn't my fault."
***
The forest sprites proved to barely be a challenge for Aura and Emerald, allowing me and Claire to take five and enjoy the forest's majesty, and I didn't even have to put up with any complaints afterward. Either they understood that my helping would be to the overall detriment of everyone involved, or my impromptu heart-to-heart actually made me seem like a better man in their eyes. I'm honestly hoping for the former, wouldn't want to give them the wrong idea about me, after all.
Still, all this was to say that we only needed one more quest to finish our quota, and with practically an entire month to do it, I feel like taking a break and enjoying myself for a while.
"Darius! Hey, Darius!" Emerald waves her arms from what I'm trying to ignore is the direction of the quest board. Seriously, we just finished some quests, is this gonna be my entire life from now on? And what's with the sudden personality change? You find out I'm not some unfeeling monster and suddenly you act like a kid around me? Is that how this works? "There's been reports of a mysterious knight wearing black armour near Inesrov City! Do you think it's him?"
I trust I don't need to elaborate on who 'he' might be. But if he's attacking Inesrov and not Larit, it's hardly my business anymore, now is it?
"Could be, I guess." I shrug. "But plenty of knights wear black armour. It's cooler than plain old white."
"But it's a little too perfect, right? The Night Princess asks Vaxyll to spare you, so he attacks the closest settlement instead of the one you live in."
"Look, if this is your way to ease into the topic of rushing off to help Inesrov, a place to which I have no connection, I suggest you save your breath, and my time."
"What happened to wanting to help people!?"
"Don't put words in my mouth. I said I want to avoid people dying because of me-"
"And the reason Vaxyll's attacking Inesrov is because you aren't there!"
Oh, oh she's good.
"You won't actually have to fight him, just show up and he won't be able to attack the city!"
She's very, very good.
***
"So, Vaxyll's been seen outside of Inesrov?" Claire asks as we trek back through the forest. "And we're going to help? Even though we... well, we lost pretty bad last time." She pauses, before rushing to catch up to us. "N-Not that I'm saying we shouldn't help, of course, it's just that, well, like I said, we lost, and we've not really gotten any stronger since then, so I just..."
"You don't think we'll be much help." I finish. "Yeah, I get it, but we're kind of being strong-armed here, aren't we, Emerald?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Emerald says, leading the way, despite running away last time, she seems dead set on facing Vaxyll herself this time. "I was under the impression that we were helping out of the goodness of our hearts."
"Nope! Definitely being forced against our wills."
"I sense we may have missed some vital information." Aura notes. "Just what exactly happened while we were getting our payment?"
"Oh, allow me to regale you with the story!" I say with a bitter laugh. "First, the lovely miss Emerald finds a notice, warning against a mysterious knight garbed in black harassing the city of Inesrov by merely existing! Then, she takes advantage of my newly discovered good nature to force me into investigating what could very well turn out to be absolutely nothing, and here we are."
"While I'm sure every part of that is technically correct, I feel you're being uncharitable to Emerald." Aura says. "That does seem to be how both of you take shots at each other, after all."
""You say that like we're anything alike."" Emerald and I grumble, proving once again that if nothing else, we're all experts at comedic timing.
***
Far from the quaint little town of Larit, Inesrov City serves as the Regional Capital of Inesrov, making it the largest city in the area. The streets full of people going about their lives, be they Adventurers, or just ordinary people trying to survive.
Of course, it being such a big city made things a lot harder for us, or, most importantly, me. The rumors of the man in black armor were widespread, but none of the people we asked had actually seen him. Even at the local Adventurer's Guild, real, solid information seemed impossible to come by, especially given one irritating factor...
"No way, that guy's the Unique?" I hear one of the adventurers behind me gasp. "The guy you came in with? For real?"
"Wait, you were serious?" I hear another to my left. "Man, no offence, but I figured you were makin' it up."
"He doesn't look all that special." A woman scoffs. "Have you actually seen him use his ability? He might've been lying so you'd join his party!"
"Wait, people have been doing that?" I turn and ask. "Who's been impersonating me?"
"Feeling a little threatened, Darius?" Emerald jeers.
"Nope. If I could give him my ability, I would." That sends a murmur through the room.
"So, what's a Unique from Larit doing here?" One of the patrons asks, apparently convinced.
"They were askin' about the Black Knight." Another answers. "You're here to finally deal with him?"
"We might be." I say. "Depends on who he actually is."
"This Black Knight..." Aura mutters, it sounds like she's just remembered something that might make this whole trip a bust. Lucky me. "It wouldn't happen to be the same Black Knight that once prowled the streets of Ghalytorm, would it?"
"Who knows?" The adventurer shrugs. "Those knights keep to themselves, I didn't even know they had their own Black Knight. Guess it makes sense that he'd come from there, though."
"You know something, Aura?" I ask, hoping she's about to say what I think she's about to say.
"There was a serial killer known as the Black Knight in Ghalytorm years ago. He was executed for his crimes, but we later learned that was a Unique with the ability to transcend death by forcing his soul into another body. If he's found a new host, then this may be a bigger threat than even Vaxyll."
"A threat that isn't our problem." I announce. "Sorry to have wasted your time, folks, but we'll be going on our way now."
For some reason, the guildhall erupted into chaos.
"Hold on, you can't just tell us an immortal serial killer's somewhere in town and then just leave!"
"We can, and will." I tell them, already halfway out the door. "If you don't understand how, you're welcome to watch us do so."
"Wait, Darius!" Emerald chases after me. "They're right, we have to do something."
"I'm only here because you convinced me the Black Knight was Vaxyll, and him being here was my fault. Neither of those things are true, and my conscience is clear. We're leaving."
Emerald calls after me, but I'm not even giving her a chance to convince me to stay. Even if we're the ones who made these people aware of the danger, we didn't cause it, so it's not my problem, and she's not changing my mind on that. "You're welcome to stay, if you like. Join a party here and save the city, but it's got nothing to do with me."