Stray Soul

After a few moments of silence, I decided to break the ice by apologising, and correcting myself.

Would apologising break my godly persona? Perhaps. But not like I really cared what these people thought of me, so I didn’t really mind it.

“Ahem... Sorry for being... inconsiderate of your profession, Heinrich. I am sure that in your line of work what you call yourself is more important than many other aspects as... people may react differently to different names.

“But I am not sure what I should call you. If not a grave robber perhaps... a tomb raider?”

*crack~*

Another cracking sound emanated from Heinrich’s Pen, which still seemed to hold on quite well despite all the pressure and cracking... might need to get one from the same brand myself as most pens would undoubtedly be damaged by my monstrous form after a few weeks of use.

“Ahem... correct me if I am wrong but... you sell artifacts you collect from dungeons and other such sites to scholars, yes? Then perhaps you’d prefer being called a Collector or simply a Middleman in such transactions?” I asked, not sure of what to really call him as he had just been getting angry instead of talking for some reason.

Then for a few moments no one said anything, until Heinrich sighed, and got up.

“Ahem... Lord Eternal I zee that... there’s been a misunderstanding between us.” He said, as he continued to scribble on his notebook and stepped closer and closer to the magically locked gate.

“I am not here to collect artifacts and artefacts to sell them to the highest bidder, I am here to collect them, and study them myself.” He said.

“Oh? So, you are actually a historian?” I asked, not expecting neither him, nor any of his colleagues to have any other historical or archaeological interest for anything other than money.

“...Y-yes. I am a zcholar. Though I am curious as to what made you think that I was anything but a zcholar?”

“You are travelling with a band of adventurers?” I told him, and he turned around, confused as to why would I think he was a grave robber just because he was with a band of adventurers.

But then he saw Lazarus who was just standing there, looking at us, and went “Oh...”.

“...Hey! What does that mean?!” Lazarus then yelled at him for understanding my point.

But we both ignored him, and Heinrich then turned around to the gate and continued to scribble on his notebook.

“...Colour me curious Heinrich but...” I started and even though he didn’t turn around, I saw his ears twitch a bit and I knew that I had his attention.

“Why did you come here with only a couple adventurers, instead of bringing a proper excavation group if you are a proper scholar? Or why did you come here in the first place? As I know this place is quite far away from the nearest imperial settlement, and there have been only a few, if any, humans and elves in this part of the world for the last few centuries.” I asked him and as I continued to talk, his ears twitched a few more times and he stopped scribbling on his notebook hallway through my question.

“The nearest imperial zettlement you say?” He asked, repeating a part of my question.

“Yes? Though my information is outdated by a few centuries, the nearest imperial settlement is more than 2-3 years’ walk away, according to my outdated information that is. But even if your people have settled further inland over the years, the nearest settlement should still be quite far away, no?” I said, wondering why he had asked that.

“Ahem... yes. The nearest... imperial zettlement is quite far away. The only reason we were able to come here in an acceptable time frame was because we are a zmall party, and we are all quite accustomed to walking long distances.

“Elise is a professional Explorer, so zhe often has to go on missions that last from zomewhere between months to years. Xavier, Xylene, and Lazarus over there are the only 3 actual adventurers we have, and the only reason why they are even adventurers is because they are trying to do a worldwide tour—”

“Only the love birds want to do that! I am just a third wheel, tagging along!” Lazarus then cut Heinrich off. And once again, the room was in silence as we ignored Lazarus.

“Ahem... like I was zaying—” Heinrich started.

“Hey don’t ignore me!” Lazarus interrupted and got ignored for a third time.

“Xavier, Xylene, and Lazarus are adventuring to fund their world tour, zo they are quite used to a life of travelling. As for me, I often go on zhort expeditions year around myself, and, as Caroline is an ex-adventurer herself, zhe isn’t too foreign to the idea of travelling for long times either!

“As to why I only brought 5 people with me for an “excavation” is that... well, normally I only just explore the areas of interest and if there really is zomething important, then I contact other zcholars in the area, and we fund a proper excavation. Zo, coming with this little people is actually pretty normal for me.

“And as to the reason why I came here in the first place... well I found this page from a diary in this abandoned church and—”

“Wait.” I cut him off.

“Let me get straight but... the only reason you came here in the first place was because of a random piece of paper you found in an abandoned church that might’ve been just written by a crackhead?” I asked in disbelief.

“Crackhead?” He asked, confused.

“Someone who uses a lot of drugs, or hallucinogens in another word.”

“Oh... that is... well... you zee, for most of my carrier I’ve been in the zhadow of my father...” He said and turned around to the gate once again and started to scribble on his notebook.

“He was... well, a great historian throughout his life really. Before he even hit 100, he was a well-known academic throughout the land whose theses, which were at the time controversial, zoon became accepted as facts! Though he retired only a few years after he became known world-wide at around the age of 117, zo he couldn’t benefit from his new fame too much.

“And due to... complications. He never had biological kids, but only a few years after he retired, he and mother adopted me while I was 20, and while I was a bit... zceptical about them for our first few years together, as I had gone through a few families by that time, but zoon, I understood that they didn’t intend to leave me, and hadn’t adopted me for just my elven blood, and our love quickly grew for each other from then on, and we became a great family.

“But by the time I was around 30, the world caught up to us and I realised who he exactly was and about his exploits, and a few zcandals he had in his past like the time he zaid he found out the exact age of Goddess Zolara, which had him taken away by the inquisition for heresy for a few weeks. Though whenever he talked about that to me, he always had a weird zmile in his face which is... not really what you’d associate with zomeone who was imprisoned by inquisitors.

“Anyways, after the world caught up to us, and I learned of his exploits, I immediately decided that I was going to make him proud in his own field by upping him a ztep. And after that I ztarted reading historical record written by him, and other zcholars, but I zoon realized there was a reason why there weren’t a lot of people like my father, and that is because everything is well recorded.

“From the founding of the empire to the present day, you can find at least a few accounts for nearly every event that has happened. Zo, there is not really a lot of “lost knowledge” or “lost cities” or whatever to discover.

“Zo, to one up my father, I ztarted going an... unorthodox path to history. Which... other historians zaw as clinging to my father legacy, and me trying to force my way into worldclass academies by pushing fraudulent theses forwards and zaying that I was trying to exploit my father’s name.

“Though while my father was still alive, the voices were quiet as he would be the first one to correct me and guide me to the correct answers, but after he died, and I continued to do research through my unorthodox methods, people compared me more and more to him, and... well, they aren’t that wrong in their claims. Afterall, I am ztill trying to one up him even though most of the time my theses are proven wrong. Though, after a few years after he died, I caught the whiff of zome weird rumours going on about zecrets that are best left forgotten.

“And of course, I tried to unearth them and after a decade of following breadcrumbs I found the diary page I told you about in that abandoned church.

“And the diary page was just... a confession. Confession of a man who knew he did wrong but did it nonetheless as he zaw it as the only way to “bring hope to the world run by malefactors” and at the end of his confession, he briefly talked about the next place where he’d continue his wrongdoings and described this area and a research ztation here and... here we are!

“Inside the very research station, he talked about! Where he’d bring hope to the world run by malefactors through his blood, zweat and tears! Words cannot describe my feelings of actually being inside here but also...” He stopped talking and writing on his notebook, and then started casting a spell with his hand on the air towards the gate.

“I also have a weird feeling inside me that tells me that while I’ve found the place he was talking about, I will not find the answers I am zeeking here. That I am too late to come to this place even, and the answers have already been lost to the sands of time...

“But even if I never get the answers I am looking for, I’ve at least managed to ztart my journey of one upping my father using my “unorthodox” ways... rig—”

*CLICK*

A clicking sound resonated from the door as Heinrich’s spell activated, and through sheer luck or a fluke, he managed open the gate he didn’t even hope to be able to open today.

“R-right...” He finished, stuttering a bit.

Then, from the distance I heard steps coming towards us, surely from Elise, Xavier, and Xylene.

Though they were slow, as there wasn’t a reason to be hurried to get here. Afterall, the entire floor had been empty so far, so there probably wasn’t any monsters or traps inside the last door.

Getting up from my spot, I started walking towards Heinrich, who was about to open the gates and—

Suddenly I saw a bright light coming from the barely open door and could feel the air heating up even though I was away from it.

Then, with quick motions, I kicked Caroline to the side, and she and Lazarus rolled away from the blast radius, then I jumped on top of Heinrich and took him inside my ribcage.

*SWOOOSH~*

A fire blast emanated from inside the room, not that I could tell how bad the blast itself was, as I had already pulled my soul, and lesser souls, from the outer portions of my body and was busy with healing Heinrich with the Sceptre of the Forest from his first-degree burns.

Though, even though I had pulled my soul, and the 7 souls I had captured from the undead, deep inside of me, I could still feel some of the heat emanating from the blast and all I could do was hope that the others were fine, or only slightly charred.