Chapter 27: The Forgotten Lands, Part Five

Surprisingly, the part that really sent shivers up Rin's spine when she saw those dead bodies was the smell. Their bulging eyes, the wounds they'd suffered, it was easy enough to look away and try to ignore those, but the smell that hit her nostrils nearly had her puking.

Rin backed up a bit, taking a second to swallow whatever it was that had threatened to come up her throat, and she looked over at Xhez. The water sprite was staring at those bodies, not moving.

"... Hey," Rin walked up to her and touched her wrist, prompting the girl to look over at her. "We can just go in a second, but... I need to check them first."

Xhez nodded wordlessly and Rin sighed as she walked over to them. Swatting away a few flies, she looked for any travel bags they had, trying her hardest to ignore her own disgust. She found one, opened it and looked inside.

[Okay, so... Clothes, but... I don't think any of this fits me, even with the weight I've lost. A bottle of water. Might want to take that. Oh! Some bread. Looks good too.]

The next thing she saw though, nearly made Rin cry tears of joy.

A map. An actual map, marked with the traveler's position, likely done just a day or so before this happened to them.

"Yes!" Rin stood straight and nearly jumped as she cheered. "Yes, yes!"

"W-What is it?" Xhez asked, walking up to her.

"A map! Uh," Rin looked at the bodies and then pulled Xhez away from them, "look! This is where we are."

"... Wow," Xhez said as her eyes ran over the piece of paper. "What does this all mean?"

"Okay, okay, listen. So, see that big round brown spot? That's Libera, that's where I'm trying to go! And we're..."

However, mid-explanation, as Rin saw where exactly the travelers had marked their position, her knees nearly gave out.

"Y-Yes?" Xhez asked, prompting Rin to keep going but Rin sighed.

"... We are really, really far away."

If the travelers' map was to be believed, the two of them were far to the northeast, between Cradle and Libera, hugging the very edge of the map. Her guess from earlier hadn't been far off. Considering how long it had taken to go from Dren to Libera on a high-powered mechanical train system, Rin estimated that this would take at least a few weeks to make it back to the city.

However, it was better than running around aimlessly, so, putting her hands on her hips, she tried to give Xhez a reassuring smile.

"Well, we know where we're going now," Rin said. "That way, I think."

Rin pointed at the direction the travelers had come from, while Xhez nodded next to her.

"Wait..." Xhez asked, looking like she was still shaken by what was laying on the ground behind Rin. "Are you certain?"

"Hm? Um, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think that's the way. At least, the fastest way to get back to Libera. Why?"

"I was told that those parts of the land were very dangerous," Xhez said. "I-Is there no other way?"

"Uh, well, we could go around, or go to the road, but both those options would take way too long," Rin said. "Honestly, this place, I'd say, is dangerous no matter where we go. What's the difference?"

"... I never went there, and neither did my mothers, so I do not know specifically what is there, but... Well, if you believe it is smart, I will follow you."

"... You don't have to, though," Rin told her. "I have this map, after all, if you don't want to come with me, you can stay here."

However, Xhez shook her head.

"No, no. I... Already, I have learned so much about humans from you. I would love to learn more. I am not going anywhere."

"... Okay then," Rin said. "In that case, let's go."

---

{Back at Libera}

{Cara}

"Don't forget," Cara said, as she gave her class to the first-year students. Her time was just about up, and she was trying to squeeze in some last-minute tips. "If you run into a zombie, the more rotten their body is, the weaker they are, as their muscles will have wasted away. A freshly reanimated zombie is Rank C, but a zombie who's been around for a long time is Rank D, and easy to take out."

At that moment, she looked at the clock next to her and nodded to herself.

"Okay, dismissed."

Each of the students got up then walked out the door, however, one of them approached Cara, who was organizing some notes she'd scribbled in a folder.

"... Have we still not heard anything about Rin?"

Cara looked up and was slightly surprised to see Elisa being the one who asked. The girl from the prestigious family had her hands behind her back and was wearing a concerned expression. A few others, mainly Lisa and Eve, had asked about Rin pretty much every day since she'd disappeared, but this was the first time Elisa had done the same.

"... Unfortunately, no," Cara shook her head. "This is a pretty tough situation because, well, the only hint we have to go off of is that a person can only be teleported to a place they've seen before, with their own eyes, and recently, within the last month."

Cara then packed up her things and put them under her arm as she spoke.

"Now, that does mean that it's highly unlikely Rin was sent past Cradle or Dren, but still, it does leave a lot of room to be searched. She could be anywhere from the west, to the east of the city, and we'd have to check through every single mountain and field to make sure."

"I see," Elisa said, sighing. "Are we going to be getting any help though? It's only been you, Eli, and Harriton going out there and searching, right?"

That was true. Mannon had written that letter to the Mages Guild, but their assistance hadn't arrived. And, of course, Maria hadn't gone out to look for Rin, despite saying she would, due to those very issues which had caused the divide between them.

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But, listening to Elisa right now, Cara resolved herself. It would be far easier to do this if Maria joined her, and the two of them could wipe out any monsters that stood in their way easily as they searched.

So, Cara took a deep breath.

"There should be some help coming soon enough, don't worry," she replied as she walked out the room, heading straight for Maria's.

It wasn't her turn to give class yet, so Cara felt she had a little while to talk to her. The problem was, would Maria want to talk to her? [Have to try anyway,] she thought as she marched up to the Meditation Center and walked in. Maria was standing there, looking out the open wall.

"Maria," Cara said, announcing her presence.

The woman turned to look at her, quickly scowling.

"What do you want?" She asked as she looked away.

"Look," Cara said, walking up. "I wanted to see if you were willing to come with me to search for Rin."

She had no reason to waste Maria's time, so she came out with that as quickly as she could. And, predictably, Maria's shoulders slumped.

"... I have to teach the students, I can't go with you."

"You can't set aside a few hours?" Cara asked, knowing she was pushing it, but she felt like the situation demanded her to try something. Even if she knew she was only burning whatever was left of the bridge between herself and Maria with this, she still wanted to at least attempt to get Maria out there.

"I will not," Maria said in a low voice. "That's final."

"... Even with the person who went missing being your student? Your private student, I mean," Cara said.

And that was what got Maria to stomp over to her. She tapped a finger on Cara's chest and said:

"And whose fault is it that she's missing!? I-It's not mine, so do not ask me to follow you out there because this is... It is not my responsibility."

"... Got it," Cara replied as she watched Maria take a deep breath. "And here I was, hoping that because you helped out the students with their missions, you'd gotten over what happened. Hopefully, someday, you'll stop being so scared."

"..."

Maria turned away and she sat down on the ground, crossing her legs.

"Just leave already. You're wasting valuable time, right?"

"Right."

As Cara walked out, she swore she heard a sniffle come from behind her, but by now it had been made painfully clear that nothing she did would get Maria out of this hole she was in. So, she focused her thoughts on Rin, instead.

[Need my armor and my sword, and then, it's off to go check the west.]

---

{Rin}

For a couple of hours, Rin and Xhez walked, but the sprite's demeanor had changed. She was a bit quieter, even as Rin explained to her how schools worked and the different levels of education one could achieve, in detail.

It was very likely due to the bodies they had run into, but, well, Rin couldn't do anything about that. Everything she'd seen was weighing on her just as heavily, after all. Every now and then, images from the cave would resurface in her mind and Rin would have to shake them out of her head.

Before too long though, the area around them began to change.

[Wait, wait, what?] Rin looked down as the dirt under her feet changed color. From the regular browns of mud to a strange ash-like grey.

"Uh... Know anything about this, by any chance?" Rin asked.

Xhez shook her head.

"I am afraid not," she muttered, looking ahead.

The trees around them slowly began changing in color too, as well as becoming far scarcer until finally, they reached a point where there was nothing but a thin fog in the air, as they walked over an ashen land.

"... Well, this looks shady," Rin took a deep breath.

"I feel..." Xhez muttered. "Something heavy in my heart. As though I can hear many souls calling out to me."

[Definitely don't like that one bit.]

"Just, keep an eye out," Rin said. "We'll probably be out of this in..." She stuck a hand out though, halting Xhez as she saw something in front of her.

A hand emerged from the grey dirt. A skeletal, bony hand that was then joined by a second. Then, a skeleton, a genuine, human skeleton much like the one they'd seen before, began pulling itself out of the ground.

"... How about we turn..." Again, before Rin finished, she stopped as she turned around.

Behind her, the same thing. Two more skeletons were rising out of the dirt.

"R-Rin, what are these things?" Xhez asked.

"... Monsters, probably," Rin replied as she threw that traveler's bag down, preparing for a fight. "And we don't have a way out either. Crap."

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