"Kiseki... wake up..."
"Kiseki, hey. Can you hear me?"
"KISEKI!"
Someone called out to me when I was partially unconscious. As I opened my eyes, I found myself inside a room that somewhat looked familiar. Wait- I remember this place. It's the Inn that all four of us stayed the night before. Upon looking to the side of the bed, Ellisa was there. She had this purest smile on her face, and she said,
"Thank goodness. You're finally awake,"
I didn't respond to her, yet I linger my eyes across the room and saw Ichijou and Nyoko lying on the bed over the other side. Ellisa really did the unthinkable. I'm so proud of what she has done; she saved us all.
A moment after relaxation from finding the truth, I swayed back my sight towards Ellisa and said, "You did it, Ellisa. You saved us,"
Her cheeks gradually turned red, and she started blushing. She kept waving her hands up and down on the bed and said, "Hehehe! It was nothing!"
I smiled at her cheerful appearance. Giving her the antidote first and putting my faith in her was really the best call I've made. Seems like she managed to recreate it as well as bring us to safety. Apparently, Ichijou and Nyoko are still unconscious. Maybe the drug hasn't kicked in yet.
Wait- thinking of how she managed to do all of this, how is it possible?- When Ellisa has finally done blushing, I swiftly asked her,
"Ellisa, how did you bring us all here? And of all places, why in this Inn? You know Ichijou would be furious when he woke up later, right?"
She gently scratched her head and replied, "Ah- about that-" But when she was about to tell her story to me, the door opened up, and the old lady Innkeeper walked in,
"Oh... Looks like somebody has woken up." She was holding a tray in her hand with some tea on top of it. It's probably for all of us,
Ellisa quickly budged back into the conversation and said, "You don't have to worry about the payment for this room, Kiseki. This old lady innkeeper let us stay here as long as we want until you all get better,"
"She really surprised me when she showed up to the doorstep. She looked like she just murdered someone back then, hehe." replied the innkeeper as she put down the tea onto the table.
Ellisa then helped her handing the tea to me and continued, "Since we have some time to spare until both of them woke up, I'll tell you what had happened before,"
[Ellisa's POV]
The first thing I realised after chanting the teleportation spell, we were brought back to Avonline Port. Just a bit of enclosure, teleportation spell works when you correctly imagine the place you want to be. So, the only location I had in mind at that time was here,
When I surveyed my surroundings, I realised that our exact position was at one of the bays we used when we rode on the pirate ship. Sailors were looking at all of us confusedly afterwards. Perhaps they have never seen this type of magic in their life. I can't really blame them; the teleportation spell is basically one of the rarest magic to ever use in Ruina. Hence the reason behind their expression,
Meanwhile, I didn't waste a single moment and asked for their help,
"Hey! People! Please, help me! My friends need some medical attention, PLEASE!"
Fortunately, everyone was really helpful to me, and they came close to aid us. The sailors swiftly carry all of you away from the bay. They also asked me if I had an idea where to bring all of you to. Since I found out that Avonline Port doesn't really have any medical facilities, I need to seek other methods to lay all of you down somewhere safe. So, I did whatever came to my mind at that time. I went back to this Inn.
I sprinted down the streets and headed straight to the Inn. As soon as I reached my destination, I went straight into the front door, and the old lady innkeeper was shocked to see me.
She asked me, "What in the world- Didn't you left the Port like a few hours ago?"
I was gasping for air desperately for a moment before trying to explain to her everything that had happened, "Old lady! Please! Just let me have a room for a few hours! It's an emergency!"
The innkeeper was pretty confused with what I was saying at that time. But soon after she saw the sailors behind me were carrying all of you while being unconscious on their backs, she immediately let me in. She provided us with this room in a matter of seconds. After I managed to settle you down, she asked me,
"What had happened to your friends?!-"
I swiftly responded to her, "They all were poisoned! I need to find a cure for it!" and I didn't explain to her any further, but instead, I asked, "Old lady! Do you know any nearby stores that sell drugs or any type of medicine?!-"
"Yeah, there is one not far from here. Just two blocks from the left of this building," the innkeeper replied,
"Thank you, thank you!" I ran out of the room and looked for the shop she mentioned,
It was such a blessing that everything went smoothly so far. Everything I'd hope for came true. Friendly people helping me out when I was in a dire situation, finding a place to lay you all down; everything is perfect. All that's left is to find the cure for that poison,
When I arrived at the store, I wasted no time explaining the cure I was looking for to the seller. I even showed him the vial of antidote that you gave me too. Miraculously, I was in luck. They do have the cure for sale! Although it is quite expensive, about ten thousand Prisma Coins for a single bottle. But, I accepted it with open arms.
[Kiseki's POV]
"Hence that's how we all got here, Kiseki", She explained to me,
That really was a sheer amount of luck that she had. Imagine if things weren't going as we hoped for. I'm sure I'd be nailed in the coffin by now.
A few minutes later, Nyoko and Ichijou both woke up simultaneously. They seem as confused as I was before. Ellisa eventually explained the same story that she told me. We can't thank her enough for what she'd done. Nyoko kept apologising to all of us for being useless all the time during the fight. However, we can't really blame her for not helping. She was the one to fall down due to the poison first,
"I guess using the ocean to get to the Dwarven State was really a stupid idea, huh," Ichijou muttered to us,
"Yeah. There's no freaking way I would want to go there ever again. Did you see how terrifying those creatures were? There are dozens, if not hundreds roaming around. Seems like the news that you heard from the neighbouring kingdom about not seeing the Devil's sea creature for almost a month is fake," I responded to him as I put on my shirt.
"So- we're heading to Orchard Passage? Like what Ellisa said?-" Nyoko asked,
Ichijou looked at her and gently squeezed his eyebrows, "We have no other option now, do we?"
"Most definitely not. Sigh, Ellisa. You mentioned to us about the song before, right? What are the lines about?" Asked Nyoko,
She began to stare blankly all over the place and responded, "I don't really remember well about most of the lines. I haven't heard it for years now. Ever since my mom died, the lyrics of that music slowly getting vague from my mind. But, from what I can tell, if you listen closely to that song, the lines sounded like a riddle. If somehow we manage to interpret the whole thing, I bet it will be the answer to how we can get through the mist without being lost,"
"We can't be so sure about that, though. The song that your mom told you, where did she learn about it?" asked Nyoko again,
"I don't really know. Whenever I asked her about it, she just smiled at me for no reason," said Ellisa when she lay onto the side of my bed,
"E- Eh?!- Then we don't even know if that song is a real deal or not!" Nyoko replied,
Ichijou then joined the conversation and said, "It's okay. We will find out about it when we reach Orchard Passage. We have to move now. Looks like everyone seems to be back in their optimal condition. I know King Edwin didn't give us any deadline for this mission, but the sooner we reach Elmwick Mountains, the better."
That's right. Going to Elmwick Mountains even took us months if we didn't encounter any issues along the way. If we lengthen our time on this journey, there's no way to tell how bad the war will rage on by the Devil's army. Alright, we should really move now. We're going to take the risk to use Orchard Passage no matter how treacherous the path will be. It's our only option now,
"All set and done, Ichijou. Let's go now. Next stop, Orchard Passage," I responded,
Onward with our journey. A moment before leaving Avonline Port, we showed our gratitude to the innkeeper for letting us stay there for free, as well as the sailors for carrying us up. They all wished us the best of luck for my team and me. Fortuitously, Orchard Passage was not that far from the Port. About thirty miles down south and we will reach our destination.
The path we took was notably easy. The sky was blue, and the soothing breeze kept blowing onto our skin, keeping us cool at all times. It was midday when we walked down the road. We enjoyed every bit of scenery along the way, and Ellisa even made us play some games with her. She's really good at helping us ease up the tense feelings we had about what lies in front of us.
Finally, after six hours of non-stop walking, we reached Orchard Passage. It was a long stretch of a narrow path that connected two parts of the continent together. It was such magnificent geology. Although the route seems to be a one-way back and forth, it contains a sharp angle of climb and descends along the way. But it didn't seem that hard to navigate that area. I wonder how people could disappear with that simple-looking waypoint.
Surprisingly, what made us really wondered was why is the path isn't covered with mist? From what King Edwin told us, the fog was the reason for people disappearance over the millennium. However, we can see clear as daylight how the other side of the continent looks even though we arrived at night. Was all of those folklore stories was fake? We will find out about it soon,
"Hey, look!- Isn't that the small town that King Edwin mentioned before? The one that all the traders from all over the world came to trade." shouted Nyoko as she pointed her finger towards the location,
The town was situated just across the entrance of Orchard Passage when I looked at it, "You're right!" I replied,
Ichijou then said to us, "We should head down there first and find out every bit of information we can get about the path we're going to take,"
"Alrighty then! We better not waste our time here! The sun has gone down for a few hours now! I want to get some rest before going in!-" Ellisa responded happily,
But, it was a shocking discovery when we got closer. It was utterly silent. No lights, no citizens, no carriage; the town is completely abandoned. The building has already worn out pretty bad. The windows were shattered and what was inside was nothing more than some furniture covered in a thick layer of dust. Nobody has been living here for ages, from what I can tell. Maybe ever since the curse happened to the Orchard Passage, everyone moved on to some new location,
"It's basically a ghost town now. What an eerie vibe," said Ichijou,
On the other hand, Ellisa fell to her knees and said, "Ah... hahaha... I guess we can't even get some rest in this place..." she was devastated,
"So, no idea what to find here, no one to ask about the passage, and no freaking way we would stay here. It's scary," Nyoko said to all of us,
I joined the conversation and said to them, "Perhaps the only thing to do now is to go right in Orchard Passage, huh? What's your call, Ichijou?"
"We head in. We got plenty of rest when we were in Avonline Port. The route ahead didn't seem that long. We can even see the Dwarven Continent over the horizon. It'll probably take about three hours of walk to get there," Ichijou stated,
"Okay- Fine! What are we waiting for! Let's go in there! I don't like the creep from this abandoned town!-" Ellisa responded,
Ichijou then turned towards us and said, "Before that, we should check all of our supplies. In case something unexpected happened,"
We all complied and started rummaging our bag to see what we had left. Looks like it's all good. Ellisa had tons of bandages and other medicine with her if we got injured. Meanwhile, Nyoko had enough food for all of us to survive at least three days. For me, I had all other survival necessities in my bag and camping equipment if we needed to take some rest,
"Good to go," Each one of us stated to Ichijou, and so, our mysterious journey began.
Just a few feet after walking through the entry point of Orchard Passage, everything seems relatively normal. But that changed in just a split second. Somehow the sky gets darker than black right now. There were no stars nor the moon above us. It was complete darkness. The only thing that shone the path ahead of us was the fire spell that Ellisa had created,
"Wait- wait- wait! What's going on right now? We just stepped into this place, and everything looked different!" said Ellisa,
"Stay close for now. No need to worry, okay?" I replied to her as we walked closer to one another,
Things turned from weird to utterly bizarre afterwards. A plume of white smoke slowly filling up our surroundings. Our vision gradually gets blurrier as time goes by.
"Ichijou, maybe we should head back to the entrance! This is too dangerous to navigate at night! We can't see a single shit right now!" Nyoko suggested to him,
As supportive as Ichijou always is, he agreed, "Affirmative, we should fall back and stay put until tomorrow. Ellisa! Let's turn back around now! You lead the way,"
"O- Okay!" She responded,
Somehow, it felt like we've been walking for a long time to head back to where we began. We haven't gone that deep in the Orchard Passage, though. Then why can't we reach the entrance yet? This is strange-
Every minute passed, things didn't seem to get better. Then, I realised that we kept stumbling across the same boulder that we passed through not long ago. I ignored it at first. But then it happened again, and again, and again. Seems like I wasn't the only one who noticed. Ichijou constantly pointed his head towards the boulder whenever we walked past it.
"Everyone, stop," Ichijou muttered,
"What's the matter, Ichijou?" Nyoko asked confusedly,
Instead of Ichijou giving her the answer, I'm the one to do so, "We're going in a loop, aren't we?"
Ichijou blatantly answered, "Yes,"
Ellisa and Nyoko were shocked by the discovery. I guess they really don't pay that much attention to their surrounding just now,
"E- Eh?! Then what do we do!" they both asked,
I quickly interfered and said to Ichijou, "Take out the map, Ichijou. Maybe we can have a vague understanding as to where we are right now,"
"Good idea, Kiseki," he replied as he swiftly pulled the map out of his jacket,
To our utmost fear, we couldn't believe what we just saw on the map. The indicator that shows where we are right now in real-time... was gone! Like literally non-existence. Even after checking the map over and over; zooming in and out around the location of where Orchard Passage is, there's no trace of where we are at the moment,
"W- WAIT?! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!-" Ellisa shouted in fear, "We didn't go that far from the entry point! There's no way we could get lost this easily!-"
"Calm down, Ellisa. Being panic in this situation really doesn't help. Take a deep breathe and relax," I said to her,
"I'm trying, I'm trying!-" she responded,
Ichijou then merged into the conversation and said, "I'm afraid to tell you that we've lost our sense of direction due to this mist,"
"Does that mean the curse was real?!-" as Nyoko was about to finish her sentences, we saw the boulder that we walked past several times started glowing and etchings of words began to show up.
"Welcome, dear travellers, to the Orchard Passage. The path of mystical mist,"