RotDG Chapter 61: Following

“I should be the one asking you that question!” Myrla huffed as she crossed her arms.

Next to me, Vorth tensed, looking like he was waiting for me to give him a command to incapacitate the young girl. But I raised a hand, indicating for him to stand down. 

He gave me a skeptical look that clearly meant something along the lines of, Are you sure, master?

Yes, I’m sure, I’ve got this handled, I silently conveyed to him with the reassuring smile I wore on my face as I stepped forward.

I raised a brow back at Myrla as I responded to her. “No, Myrla, I’m pretty sure I should be the one asking that question, considering you’re the one who followed me out here.”

The young girl immediately hesitated, shifting her feet uncomfortably as she tried to look away. “W-whatever could you mean? I was simply taking an evening stroll, and I happened to spot you here in this clearing…”

“And what exactly could have compelled you to take a walk to the outside of Albus all alone in the middle of the night?” I pressed her further.

She pursed her lips, before she finally threw her hands in the air. “Fine! I was trying to find you— but I was not following you, alright? I was searching for you, and after asking around for an hour, I eventually tracked you down here.”  

“That makes sense,” I said as I nodded. 

Not only was I still wearing my uniform from the Holy Academy, I was only a thirteen-year-old boy. It was not very difficult to track me down if you just asked a few questions.

“But that doesn’t explain why you were searching for me,” I continued, peering curiously into Myrla.

She chewed on her lower lip as she flushed. “W-well, I just thought that maybe I could’ve…”

And she added something in a small voice, which I didn’t quite catch. I blinked and leant forward.

“Sorry, what did you say?” 

Myrla gritted her teeth for a moment as she averted her gaze. Finally, she sighed out in exasperation.

“I thought that maybe I could learn from you— that maybe you had some sort of secret… I don’t know, method?” she said as she shook her head. “Or some kind of special technique— whatever it is— to help you learn and grow so quickly?” 

“I see.” I placed a hand on my chin. And then I grinned. “So you want to learn from me… even though you’re my rival?”

“That’s—” Myrla sputtered as she backed away. But then she steeled herself as she placed a hand on her chest. “But it’s exactly because I’m your rival, that I need to keep up with you! If not… if not…”

“If not?” I tilted my head.

And Myrla clenched a fist and harrumphed. “If not— Kelton, that idiot, will keep teasing me about being a bad rival!”

“I understand now,” I chuckled as I walked up to her.

But she just backed away as she pointed at me. “It’s not funny.”

“Yes, it’s very serious, Myrla,” I said, coming to a halt before her. I placed a hand on her shoulder as she paused, before I continued. “So I will help you.”

“Y-you… wait, you will?” Myrla blinked a few times.

I nodded at her as Vorth eyed me quizzically from behind.

“Of course, as you said, I’m your rival. And as your rival, I don’t want you to embarrass yourself by falling too far behind. That’s not what it means to be rivals, you know?” I smiled at the young girl.

Vorth finally piped up, “Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what it means to be rivals—”

But I held up a hand, cutting him off. Myrla just nodded back at me.

“E-exactly!” she agreed. “That’s why you should teach me your secret!”

“Alright, I will teach you my secret,” I said as I drew back from her. “In fact, it’s exactly the reason why I’m out here.”

I gestured at the forest all around me. Myrla furrowed her brows when she heard that.

“It is?”

Behind me, Vorth gave me a look of surprise that also seemed to say, It is?

I just took Myrla by the hand as I met her gaze. 

“But, if I tell you this, you must keep it a secret— promise me you won’t tell anyone about this, and I will help you,” I said as I gave her a serious look.

Myrla took in a deep breath to resolve herself, before she nodded at me. “I promise.”

“Alright.” I smiled as I took a step back, before clearing my throat. “So the secret behind my incredible fast rate of growth is…”

And Myrla leaned forward, waiting in anticipation as I took a moment to pause. Even Vorth gave me a hesitant look— like he thought that I was going to spill the actual secret behind my power.

That I was the Death God.

But, obviously, I wasn’t going to do that. Instead, I was just going to lie to Myrla.

“So, basically, I spend all my free time hunting monsters,” I said as I spread my arms wide. 

“You… what?” Myrla’s jaw dropped. 

I nodded as I mixed in some truth to make this lie believable. “Sure, learning new spells and expanding your knowledge on magical theory is good and all. But at the end of the day, if I’m a Silver Rank, I will usually be superior to a Bronze Rank, no?”

“T-that’s true, but…” The young girl shook her head. “Won’t it be better for us in the long-term if we spend more time practicing instead of just focusing on leveling?”

That was true— at Silver Rank, if I leveled up just from overpowering a strong monster with my sheer physicality, I might have gotten a +2 or maybe +3 to my [Strength] Attribute. However, if I regularly did strength-focused training every single day, before I eventually leveled up, I would definitely get a +3 or possibly even a +4 to my [Strength] Attribute.

So there was the potential to get up to nearly double the amount of Attribute Points gained from a level up.

This slow growth would maximize the benefits that came with each level up. However, as a counterpoint to that…

“Look, Myrla, what level are you?” I asked as I shook my head at the young girl.

“I’m a Level 15 Silver Rank,” she answered.

“And what level were you when we first met?”

“I was Level 13.”

I wagged a finger at her as I spoke in a lecturing tone. “So, back then, I was a Level 10 Silver Rank, and you were obviously better than me at pretty much everything, right?”

“Right…” Myrla said, following along.

“But now, I’m nearly Level 30, and that’s why I’ve improved so much in such a short amount of time,” I explained as her eyes went wide.

The exact numbers of the levels I gave her was a lie, but that was only to make the situation seem more believable to her. 

Myrla placed a fist on the palm of her other hand. “And you leveled up so quickly because you were out here killing monsters every night, right?”

“Not every night,” I corrected her, before I waved a hand dismissively. “But anyway, that’s a little ‘commoner’ secret for you, I guess. Unlike most of the nobility, we can’t all afford a cushy education to be as efficient as possible with our leveling. So we do what we can instead, leveling as fast as possible, even if it risks our life.”

While I myself didn’t have any experience with this in my past life, it was a subject which Laffyr regularly brought up when she was arguing with Zerek. So I was pretty much just regurgitating her argument here to make my lie seem believable to Myrla.

And it seemed she bought what I was saying as she placed a hand on her chin in thought. “I get you, it makes sense. But…” 

I watched as she gave me a worried look.

“Isn’t it dangerous? I mean, we could die!”

“It is dangerous,” I said in agreement. “You can get hurt, and you can even die. That’s why even most commoners don’t go out of their way to do this on a regular basis, and you shouldn’t either. But as a [Healer], I’m able to mitigate some of the risks, you know?”

“So what you’re saying is that as long as I go hunting for monsters with you, I’ll be fine?” Myrla said as she rubbed her chin.

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, that’s what I’m saying. But not tonight. It’s getting late, and I’m already done for the day.”

“Of course. But the next time you sneak off, you’re bringing me with you. Or I’ll get mad.”

Myrla poked my side, and I nodded. “Yes, yes. Come on, let’s head back to Albus for now.”

I stepped past the young girl, and she followed me. As I headed out of the clearing, I glanced back and held a hand out to Vorth. A spell circle began to overcome him as I sent him back to the spirit world.

“I’ll summon you when I need you, alright?” I said, being careful not to say his name in front of Myrla.

“Yes, master,” he said, before vanishing behind me.

***

It was not a long walk back to Albus. So it didn’t take us long to arrive back at the Capital City of the Sanctus Empire. As students of the Holy Academy, getting through the checkpoint at the gate was quite easy. All we had to do was flash our student badges, and we were allowed to skip the line entirely— treated like we were nobles.

Well, Myrla was a noble, so she was used to this. But I remembered just how long it had taken me to get through the city gates when I first arrived. Not only that, but seeing just how long the queue to enter Albus had been as we skipped the entire line…

I was just glad that it wasn’t going to take me too long to get back, considering that I had to wake up early for classes tomorrow.

But as Myrla and I made our way through the outer city of Albus, the both of us spotted something peculiar. 

Or, rather, I noticed something peculiar, while Myrla was excitedly muttering to herself about how much stronger she was going to get with my help.

It was only for a brief moment, and it was extremely weak, but I sensed the essence of death magic coming from just up ahead. It reminded me of the magic that was emanated from the Lesser Death Dagger, except like it was being suppressed to be undetected. 

Looking past the evening crowd in the direction of where I sensed the death magic, I saw a familiar face. Even though she wasn’t wearing her school uniform, all the while trying to mask her face with a hood, I recognized her, catching a brief glimpse of her face as she looked down into a Bag of Holding.

“Isn’t that Sonia?” I asked, watching her quickly close the Bag of Holding shut.

The death magic I sensed instantly vanished as soon as she did that. She looked around nervously as if she was checking if she was being tailed, before she vanished down a quiet alleyway.

Myrla blinked as she raised her head a second too late. “Sonia? You mean our classmate Sonia Redheart? The daughter of the famous adventurer Natalia Redheart?” 

“Alright, you don't need to give her a whole introduction,” I snorted.

“Well, I don’t see her,” Myrla said, narrowing her eyes as she swept her gaze over the busy street. “Are you sure you weren’t just imagining things?”

“That’s because she went down that alleyway,” I sighed, before stepping forward. “Come on, let’s follow her.”

“Wait, but why do we have to do that?” she asked as she followed after me. “That’s an invasion of privacy!”

I paused right at the entrance of the alleyway, giving the young girl a flat stare. “Coming from you, that’s rich.” 

She flushed at that, before I shook my head and entered the side street, leaving the busy main street behind.

“I don’t know why, but Sonia was acting… suspicious,” I said, unable to give Myrla the full details as I snuck my way down the alleyway until I reached a turn. 

“But that still doesn’t mean—” she started.

However, I cut her off, raising a hand. 

“Shh,” I hushed her as I peered down the corner.

And there, all the way at the very end of the alleyway, was Sonia. She was standing there, now with her hood down, whilst holding up the Bag of Holding she was carrying. But she wasn’t alone. 

Three thugs surrounded her. But they weren’t ordinary thugs— I could tell just from a glance that every single one of them was Gold Rank in strength…

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