My memory of him was so vivid, and I couldn't even discern what was real or fake.
It was truly hard to digest that Tahlia was a Calamity Object all along.
Although, it wasn't as hard to maintain composure and expression to act as if nothing happened.
"Mmmm~!" Tahlia stretched his flexible and petite body. His short and wavy gray hair was caressed by the wind. "Still, I think that the reason we can reach this far is because of Narcissus."
His aquamarine gaze latched onto me as if we were a comrade that covered each other in the time of hardship.
However, after finding out his true nature, I couldn't see him the same anymore.
"Do we have enough ammunition to fuel our ballista and Fortcracker?" Lupina shared her concern. "I feel like we have been using these bolts a lot, that I'm afraid that we're starting to run out of them."
"You probably feel that way because you miss most of your first shot every time you manned the ballista," Verina casually retorted.
"We also need to start replenishing the torches and bonfire to keep our line of sight crystal clear," I told them. "Both Tahlia and I will be checking the torches within and outside the fortified perimeter.
"We might as well be heading out to procure more woods and craft more ammunition in case that we will have an endurance battle somewhere within the Ordeal of the Midnight."
I needed to isolate Tahlia first from the two of them, since I'm unsure on whether he was a silly goober or a ticking bomb.
"Verina and I will be guarding and patrolling inside the bastion then!" Lupina exclaimed.
Verina's eyes sharply latched onto me. "We only have around 15 minutes left before the Midnight of the Ordeal starts, can you make it?"
"Mmm~ you're too much of a worrywart, miss ohrtender," Tahlia said before puffing his chest with pride. "Both Narcissus and I are the fastest person with the most reliable instinct out of the four of us. We will finish our task quickly, while also ensuring our own safety like a master~!"
"Make sure that nothing happens to Narc," Verina said while she was refueling the spell ammunition for her musket. "Or else, a certain cat will be riddled in holes and hanged alongside the Bleeding Tree."
"What happens if I'm the one that got murked…?" Tahlia sheepishly asked.
Verina casually answered, "Then we will simply bury you alongside the remains of the hazardous remains of the Calamity Object."
"Nya! Such a strong bias!"
Ensuring that Tahlia and I finished the task, the two of us performed our dutiful responsibility with fervent haste and utmost wariness.
So far, there weren't any Calamity Objects in sight. It might be possible that this downtime stayed until the Ordeal of the Midnight.
After we ensured that the bastion was fully lit, we brought our trusty wagon and commenced the wood gathering, straying far away from the defensive perimeters.
"Hah… hahaha… I knew that time is the essence, but this ridiculously hastened pace is a little bit overkill." Tahlia wryly chuckled, trying his best to repair the rhythm of his exhausted breathing.
"You're a man, right? You should be more resilient than this."
"Funny how you say that, when the male within cat folks usually work as a seamstress, maids, and househusband," Tahlia bittersweetly smiled, still huffing and puffing. "None of them do adventuring, or even do any job with rough physical activity.
"Barely any of us even become an adventurer or bastioneer." He smirked. "I'm the exception, because I genuinely wanted to see the world outside my comfort zone."
"How did you manage to get here and stumble upon us then?" As my hands weaved to harvest the available wood with my makeshift saw, I looked at Tahlia straight in the eyes. "This region is isolated from any civilization, with no interlocking trade route and bustling caravan."
"You might not believe me, but I'm actually not supposed to be in this part of Carcosa," Tahlia said with a rather hilarious face. "I was actually part of a bastioneer group that aimed to claim a land on the faraway east from the Kurth Citadel.
"One day, I was struck by a Calamity Object that manifested within the Ordeal of the Midnight, trapping me into some sort of dark, abyssal containment.
"Without even knowing it, I got stranded in a place outside of my map, and luckily stumbled upon you folks just before dusk arrived!"
Recollecting the info dumps, Kurth Citadel was indeed an actual place that existed in Carcosa.
However, the mental geography that I
received puts that place in an entirely different continent than the one I'm currently in.
So if I remove the fact that he was a Wandering Imposter first and foremost, his fabricated backstory actually held some factual possibility.
Actually, I was conflicted on whether this was even fabricated or not. I wasn't even sure if he was even a Calamity Object at this point—the memory that I got of him was a little bit too real.
It didn't change the fact that this world deemed him as a Calamity Object.
And in terms of trust, I placed a greater bet on the world system than my own memory.
With how absurd and reality-bending some of the Calamity Objects were, it shouldn't be as surprising the Tahlia as a persona was this convincing.
"Say, Tahlia."
What mattered right now, was what kind of alignment of Wandering Imposter he meant to be.
"What do you think of Lupina and Verina?"
"Eh?" Tahlua was brought to a surprise. "What do I think of them? Mmm, they reminded me of my siblings a lot.
"They might be a little bit chaotic and like to take jabs at one another, but in the end, they truly care for each other's wellbeing and safety."
If what the information screen refers to as persona could be taken literally, then Tahlia was merely wearing a mask, hiding his true nature from being seen.
"What would you do if I decided to kill both of them in front of you?"