Tonight was a starry night that brought out the wonders of the Milky Way, it was such an immaculate sight that I barely got any sleep. Nila, on the other hand, was snoozing audibly which was a little distracting, I truly was not used to skipping over the night with someone else close by. I always preferred being alone as my perception could easily wake me up whenever something felt wrong, but I did not hate her presence, it was somewhat soothing, especially after our deal was extended. She did not summon Polaris, as she considered the possibility of Manuela tracking our location. Fortunately, we were no longer within the Monster realm, thus she, and even I could sleep tight… as long as we were away from the luminescent trap of glowing flowers and blood-sucking butterflies that nearly claimed my life once.
I wondered what kind of place could the Gods realm be, considering that the monster realm was so far off from the familiar sights of the human realm. There were also places like the Fairy realm and Spirit realm, which further boosted my curiosity. I did not think much of this world upon my arrival here, foolishly assumed that it would be the same old Earth that is consequently set in the past, but there really were far more aspects that piqued my interest. Magic, races beyond human, monsters and fantastic creatures along with realms that should be so different from each other. Long ago, I sneaked into the theatre with some of the younger gang members, and we watched "Lord of the Rings" there. It was a splendid spectacle, but one that could not possibly be true. And there I was, witnessing wonders of another world.
As much as my interest rose, I should have kept myself at the bay of reality. I should not let my mind drift away to the wrong direction, I had one goal in this world, to slay the very Goddess of it. No matter what happened from now on, my fate was sealed the moment Solitaire spoke with me. I remained the prisoner of another man, but at least this time the conditions were fair, as I would be able to return to my world and become the man I wanted to be.
The next morning, the new routine remained the same, I was up and running despite having less sleep than usual, meanwhile Nila was irritably humming at my attempts to wake her up. I was not too forceful this time, as I remembered well her fury back when I screamed in her ear.
"Come on, wake up already! Or are you planning on living in this goddamn forest?" I grumbled, to which Nila whispered in a weary tone, "Instead of nagging, you can collect some berries and mushrooms from around the place. What do you think?"
I swallowed my tongue at her nonchalant approach to my attempts to wake her up. Collect berries and mushrooms? Did she think I was some kind of servant? But this suggestion made sense as if I failed to put her on foot now, it would result in even more wasted time as she would stay at this place to have breakfast. Perhaps, during my time away, she would actually ready herself, thus I straightened up and went into the forest.
"Fine, but if I see you dozing out once I return, I will make sure to wake you up with the loudest noise."
"If you do it, I will get very upset, Dusk." She mumbled and turned over on her side.
At that note, I dived into the shallow forest in search of berries, mushrooms and some other things that looked mildly edible. I did not take any container, so I formed a basket out of my tunic and collected all the gifts from the forest there. I took every berry and mushroom I saw, along with some weeds and caterpillars, as I once heard that they are edible and highly nutritious.
Upon my arrival to our improvised camp, I noticed Nila who was awake and sound and tended to her wounds from yesterday's battle. She applied the healing spell and was changing bandages, once again with her chest out in the open. I waited a bit in the woods and came by only when she put her clothes on. Her ears twitched at my footsteps, and she glanced at me with her head tilted, "You really are a young boy."
"The hell this is supposed to mean?" She was not wrong, as I was only in my middle adolescence, but her tone ticked me off a little. I dumped my finding on top of her suitcase, with a few berries falling on the ground, and she nodded in satisfaction. However, upon noticing slow movements in the pile of food, she furrowed her brows and picked up one of the caterpillars.
"...What is this?"
"A caterpillar."
"And why is it among our food?"
"Well, aren't they protein rich foods?"
Nila sighed lightly and picked all the caterpillars out of the pile and set them to my side, "You can have those."
I groaned and threw those crawling bastards away, there went my consideration for our nutrition, but anyway, Nila quickly observed each and every berry, mushroom and plant among our breakfast. She tossed away some of the brighter specimens right away, but then pondered on a few of them, while flipping through her notebook. Seems like I picked up quite a few poisonous foods, but thankfully, she was prepared for it. After the examination, Nila added a few pieces of dried meat and stale bread on top of her suitcase, along with some water that we got from the river in the monster realm.
"All of this should be safe for consumption. Bon appétit."
I nodded and immediately pushed mushrooms to her side, which she observed with a raised brow, "Without these mushrooms there is not enough nutrition for a growing organism, Dusk."
"I would rather starve than eat them, they are gross."
"How picky of you. Now I understand why you collected caterpillars, although you refused to eat them as well..." She shook her head and took one into her hand, "What if I fry these mushrooms for you?"
"It would not make any difference, I do not want mushrooms."
Nila seemed hurt by my statement, but I stood my ground and simply dug into what was on the table. She did not battle my stubbornness further and silently followed my lead in eating the meal.
After we were done, she collected all the belongings into her suitcase and was ready to go. She could hardly walk without my support just yesterday, but now, even though injuries were still present around her body, her gait did not feel sickly. It was reassuring as I felt weird weariness ever since waking up this morning. I chalked it up to fatigue, but even after breakfast it remained within my body, weighing down on my limbs.
Nila glanced over at me, or rather my waist, that contained both a dagger and rapier that I picked up after our battle in the monster realm. Her eyes were full of hostility, probably due to unpleasant memories of how she got cornered and of her previous history with harvesters that she refused to explain.
"You just had to take this weapon with you." she mumbled, to which I only shrugged, "Having two weapons is better than having only one. I actually took her wand as well."
I stuck my hand into the pocket and took out the short wand that belonged to Manuela, I happened to strip her off of her weapons. It was done not just due to my kleptomania, but as a means of precaution as she would not be able to retrieve these weapons that easily attack us again if worse came down to worse.
Nila sighed upon witnessing my growing collection of stolen weapons and went down the road while saying, "Whatever, just make sure to not flash them too much. Our next stop will be the city of Wohr." I noticed a smile creeping up her face as she continued, "I will finally be able to use money.~"