"Damn this eyesight of mine!" Cursed Alex as he waved a hand in front of his eyes before sighing.
At first, his vision was only slightly shaky, not blurry, but now? It was both and more.
Not only was he unable to see clearly at great distances, but he also was unable properly tell distances apart anymore. If he were to look at his hand to Alex, it would look as though the palm was morphing and bending in weird directions.
The colours weren't affected, fortunately, as well as his ability to perceive objects, as long as Alex didn't move, but everything else was a mess.
Merely walking several kilometres to the city almost made the young man barf his stomach out. It felt as though he had downed an entire barrel of alcohol.
Shaking his head for a while, Alex focused and walked into the city, passing through the unguarded gate and walking straight to the inn that Ezek mentioned in his letter.
Walking straight was a stretch. The young man could barely put a foot ahead of the other without risking losing his balance.
People around Alex looked at him from the corner of their eyes, and some even asked if he was drunk.
"I haven't drank anything. It's just that my eyes are really shaky." He said in response to a middle-aged man who stopped unloading sacks of flour from his wagon only to check on Alex.
Seeing that the young man didn't reek of alcohol and could answer complicated questions such as "What's nine times nine," the middle-aged man was convinced of Alex's explanation.
One would wonder, "Why would that man care about a drunk man so much?" and one would respond with...
...because he cared?
Throughout any city, one could find dozens of drunk people at any hour of the day or night. It wasn't that uncommon of a scene, though it was rude to be drunk while other people were working.
Alex responded to whispers with the same answer, but he didn't know how many believed him.
Fortunately, no guards stopped or questioned him, so Alex arrived at the inn rather quickly.
He was looking for a particular Jessica, which could tell Alex where Ezek was staying.
'Red hair, petite, sky-blue eyes, dresses conservatively...' Alex recounted Jessica's details while pulling out his hair.
'She could be anyone... Those are common traits.' Alex cursed in his mind, counting seven women that could fit Jessica's description.
"May I take your order?" A petite blonde girl around Alex's age, though a bit younger, asked while keeping her eyes on the ground.
"Bring me a mug of weak ale, please." He said and placed five coppers into the barmaid's hand.
He didn't pay much attention to her as he kept looking for Jessica.
The waitress did pay attention to Alex and wondered, seeing him look around the room.
"Looking for someone?" She asked, her voice a bit saddened.
Realizing the barmaid could help him, Alex turned to face her and nodded.
"Yes. I'm looking for Jessica. She has red hair and blue eyes and is supposed to be here? I'm not sure whether she works here or not?"
The blonde girl nodded while pondering.
"Is she your girlfriend?"
Alex looked at the girl in front of him weirdly briefly but then noticed her reddened cheeks.
"No, she is not. I'm supposed to ask her about a friend of mine."
"Oho." The barmaid nodded and followed quickly after. "I don't know her, but I'll ask around for a bit."
"Thank you."
The barmaid sweetly smiled while blushing and walked into the kitchen and staff area, leaving Alex's field of view. Not that he watched her every step.
He saw the sweet eyes she was making but couldn't be bothered to do anything about it. Sure, she was pretty, but Alex had a hunch she wasn't a quick-hook-up girl. She looked too innocent; she didn't allow skin to show besides hands and face.
Even though he tried keeping things professional between him and that barmaid, it seemed he still caught someone's eyes.
An older lady in her mid-thirties watched Alex from top to bottom, sending him a glare worth more than a thousand words. It didn't take a genius to figure out she was watching Alex's every breath.
A few minutes later, the blonde barmaid came out of the kitchen, followed by a much older woman, a barmaid herself, before she approached Alex and handed him his mug of ale.
"Here's the ale and good news. My co-worker knows the person you're looking for, and she went to bring Jessica here. Is there anything else you would like?"
Alex shook his head and took a large gulp of the ale.
"Thank you, but there's nothing else for now. I'll ask you if something comes up later."
The girl smiled and left Alex's table, going around the main room, buzzing like a bee to a flower.
Alex focused entirely on the ale in front of him. He hoped to alleviate his dizziness by using another kind of dizziness. Fight fire with fire.
A few moments passed, and the older barmaid arrived at Alex's table with the woman Alex presumed to be Jessica in tow.
"You're Alex?"
The young man nodded, not quite sure what to ask.
"I'm supposed to meet you if I want to find Ezek. Is he staying somewhere he can't write the location?"
Jessica shook her head.
"No, he's staying at my friend's house. It's a convoluted area. Follow me, I'll lead you there."
Downing his mug in one big gulp, Alex got up from his seat and followed Jessica to her friend's house.
The city wasn't all that big compared to the kingdom's two largest cities, the Royal Capital and the City of Liquid Gold, Variace. The latter is where roads coming from different lands pass through, where it also got its name from.
Compared to those two, this city was barely half their size, but it wasn't small by any means.
Tens of thousands of people live and work here and need a place to sleep and drink.
A few minutes later, they rounded a corner and arrived in front of a medium-sized house. It was way above the paycheck of the ordinary man, but it wasn't as extravagant as the ones nobles use.
Alex raised an internal eyebrow and wondered how Ezek could afford to stay here.
'Wait... He couldn't have been this lucky, right?'
Jessica stopped in front of the house and turned to Alex.
"I need to be somewhere, so I won't accompany you inside. Just knock on the door and wait to enter."
Excusing herself, Jessica bid Alex goodbye and walked away.
Alex looked at the nice entranceway, feeling quite strange.
Knocking on the door, he patiently waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Alex frowned, and the weird feeling intensified.
'What am I even doing here?' Alex questioned himself.
He was friends with Ezek but wouldn't scout the whole world, only to talk to him. Alex knew Ezek was alright, which was more than enough for him.
And Alex now felt like a fool. Waiting here, outside a house he didn't know, meeting with someone he had never met before.
"Fuck this."
Turning around, he started walking back to the inn, thinking about what he would do for the next few days.
However, the creak of the door stopped him in his tracks.
"Whatya doing here, Alex?" Ezek exited the house and saw Alex.
"What do you mean what am I doing here? I heard you're leaving Enrilth?" Alex felt somewhat enraged about this. Maybe it was because he felt like shit, or maybe Alex really wanted not to be alone in the Fortress.
Ezek nodded.
"I am." He said, looking around. "Let's talk about this somewhere else. I'll buy you a round."
Walking back to the inn, Alex was silent the whole way. And neither did Ezek break the silence.
The barmaid brought the drinks, but neither one spoke. The atmosphere around them was stale and awkward.
"What do you plan after leaving Enrilth?" Alex finally asked, taking a big gulp of ale.
He felt weird. It was too abrupt.
Although he kinda knew what Ezek was planning to do, it was still shocking.
Ezek sighed.
"I'm going to the Royal Capital with Vaesa."
Alex was astounded by this answer.
"Royal Capital? What are you even going to do there?" Alex pinched the top of his nose and continued. "Before that, who is Vaesa?"
"Oh, you don't know her. Well, I bumped into a group of adventurers in Elor's swamp, and they helped me escape. Vaesa was the Mage of the group.
"She then asked me whether I wanted to accompany her."
"And you said yes?"
Ezek nodded.
"Didn't have any reason to refuse. I was going to leave Enrilth either way, so I might as well have a destination to go to."
Alex slowly shook his head, unable to wrap his mind around this situation.
"What are you even going to do there?"
Ezek took another gulp from his mug.
"I will help her work. She's a teacher at one of the academies there and may be able to enrol me as well."
"So you want to join an academy? Then why leave Enrilth?" Alex asked.
"Because I'm not you, Alex." Ezek barked back. "I don't have a reason to get unimaginably strong like you. I don't have an enemy I want to kill as you have. I only want to live a comfortable and easy life."
He then sighed, downing the mug in one big gulp.
"I know you will survive the Last Trial, and you know it too. But I wouldn't. Rather than risking my life to get stronger and more talented than the average human, I would prefer to take my shot at life and start from there."
"Sigh."
Alex sighed and remained silent for a long time. He didn't want to remember why he wanted to become a Recen. It wasn't the time nor the place for such thoughts.
"Fine. I won't ask you about this anymore. What are your plans after graduating from that academy?"
Ezek pondered for a bit before answering.
"Donno. I would love to get Vaesa and travel to nearby kingdoms, the both of us. But before that. I need to visit Nelenfall one last time."
Alex raised an eyebrow.
"Nelenfall? Where's that?"
"That's my hometown. It is a wonderful big village that is mostly surrounded by waterfalls. It has a wonderful view. What about you?"
Alex smiled sadly.
"I'll go back to the fallen Empire. I'll need to decimate those fuckers. Besides, it's about time I get my name back."