"Let's go find the old lady that gave me my scarf."
"Chirp."
I frown at furry-Markus. "No. She gave it to me."
Markus deliberately hops off my bed and back to the dresser, where he wraps the edge of my scarf around his furry-shoulders like a cloak. He looked good like that, almost debonair, with the way the red of the scarf matched the brown and red of his fur. Still, I wasn't going to give up that easily.
"It's too big for you." I point out the obvious. "It was made for a girl, not a squirrel."
Markus chirps dismissively and turns to El.
My teammate shakes her head, "This is a dumb argument, and I refuse to get involved."
"Yeah, plus she wasn't even there when I got the scarf. How would she even know?"
Markus wiggles his way even deeper into the scarf until only his eyes and whiskers are free. I could feel myself losing the argument to his cuteness. I had to rally, but I couldn't just go over and take it from him—that wouldn't be [Heroic] at all. I would have to rely on my genius mind to come up with an unbeatable argument.
My mind fractures into fractal patterns and then reforms. That was brilliant. There was no way he could argue with me now.
"I had it first."
"Chirp." That wasn't a fair argument at all; just because he was wearing it right now didn't make it his.
"If I hadn't been asleep for so long, I'd still be wearing it."
I point out completely reasonably, only to get a roll of his eyes in response. Well, if that didn't work, then I had another row of teeth to grow.
"El," I turned to my partner, my favorite teammate, my best and first future sidekick. "He's trying to steal my scarf from me; make him give it back."
"I already said I wasn't getting involved."
I gasp inside myself. This was it. This was the betrayal my books had warned me about. My team was conspiring to steal my fluffy scarf from me while I was too weak to stop them. I fumble with the sheets wrapped around me as I scoot toward the edge of the bed. I couldn't let this go; I had to do something.
El sighs as her kind-of-purple, kind-of-blue eyes flick back and forth between Markus and me. After a moment, her eyes roll to the sky, and she mutters something like, 'Why me?' followed by, 'I'm surrounded by fucking children.'
"But since I did say I would be doing the thinking from now on, why don't we find this old woman and have her make a second scarf?"
"Yeah!" My head perks up as my team's betrayal vanishes. "We can get a tiny one just for Markus."
"Chirp."
"I don't need a scarf; I already have one."
"Chirp."
"If it were yours, it would be squirrel-sized."
"Chirp."
"Nuh-uh."
"Chirp."
"Nuh-uh."
"Chi-"
"Ok, both of you shut up." El cuts off our argument with a glare. "We'll let the old lady decide."
"Chirp."
"It is fair. It's not my fault that she likes me more."
"Chirp."
"Yes, she does."
"Chirp."
"Uh-huh."
"Chirp."
"Uh-"
"Dead gods, let's go." El reaches out to wrap her hand around my arm and starts tugging. Thanks to my [Enhanced Strength], I don't move. "Ugh, fine. I'll be outside whenever you two are done with this stupidity."
I barely pay attention as she leaves. I had an argument to win. "Uh-huh."
"Chirp."
The first thing El does when she sees Markus and I walk out of her townhouse is scowl. I wasn't sure why. It had only taken us another twenty minutes before he and I had compromised by wrapping the scarf around both of our necks.
Maybe she secretly wanted a scarf of her own and was jealous that she didn't have one. Or maybe she just thought Markus looked ridiculous with a scarf bigger than he was wrapped around him like a shawl but didn't want to say so since she'd promised to be neutral.
I open my mouth to ask, but before I can say anything, I'm cut off by the stomping of her boots as she marches over to us. "I'm going to guess neither of you two have any idea how to actually find this woman."
"Chirp."
"Of course I do." Markus and I reply at the same time. I turn to look at him and lift my chin in a magnanimous request to respond first. Once again, El interrupts before I can say anything.
"An idea that doesn't involve wandering around aimlessly until we run into them?"
I grin happily; it's amazing that my teammate has already come to understand me so well. "How'd you guess?"
On my shoulder, Markus flops down to his belly and covers his face with a pair of fuzzy paws. Did they both know me so well that they could anticipate my genius plans? I was such a lucky [Hero]-to-be to have such attentive teammates.
"Because you're an idiot."
I frown slightly at that. That wasn't right at all. I was a [Calamity] and a genius. Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly tell her that, so I responded in the time-honored way of little sister [Calamities] everywhere. "Am not."
"Yes, you are." El doesn't quite follow the formula of a proper argument and, in doing so, signifies that Markus was, in fact, the much better debater. I don't get a chance to tell her this because she continues in a way that was completely inappropriate for an argument. "It's why you're not allowed to think."
"Am not." Despite my partner's unconventional argument form, I wasn't going to deviate from tradition.
Instead of even responding to my rebuttal, she reaches out and flicks my forehead with her finger. Well, the joke was on her; with my [Thick Skin], I barely even felt it. I open my mouth to gloat about her feeble attack, but for a third time, I'm interrupted before I can respond.
"Save that for Markus. If we want to find this woman, I'll need some information. Who is she? Why is she here? Which gate did she enter? Did she look poor?"
That was a lot of questions. Questions that I would have been in trouble trying to answer were it not for my infallible memory. "She's an old lady with a whiny, old-man husband. They came through the same gate I did, and she made me a world-famous stew for dinner."
El looks at me with a strange flatness in her stare, doubtless amazed by my impeccable memory, before turning to Markus.
"Chirp. Chirp."
"Hmm…" my partner taps at her lips as she formulates a plan based on my expert memories and Markus's less interesting ones. "For an old farming couple that entered the Salmon Gate, there's really only one inn in that price range. Especially with that tavern burning down the other day."
"Those evil mercenaries didn't burn down her inn, did they?" I didn't think I could dislike mercenaries more than I already did, but if they ruined the inn one of my favorite people was staying at... Well, I couldn't do anything right now, but I'd remember them for the next time I went on a rampage.
"No, the Boar and Stag is several blocks away from that bit of stupidity." El looks at me with a meaningful stare, and I nod. Of course, no one would ever want to stay too near a mercenary company. It might be contagious. "We'll start there and ask around until we find her."
"Right." I agree and then step out to the front of my party. Now that the plan was decided, it was my turn to be in charge.
"Let's go!"
I step inside of a door marked by a plaque picturing a boar and a stag locked tusks to antlers in a duel hanging over it. A wide grin sweeps across my face. Unlike that terrible mercenary tavern, the Boar and Stag looked like the kind of inn a [Hero] could get her start at. It was still loud, of course, but with the sounds of people eating and carrying on low conversations rather than drunks trying to sing by mimicking a dying minotaur. The food also looked a lot nicer. The bread was plump and brown, the meat looked like meat rather than slices of sadness, and a delightful aroma of something sweet and spicy covered everything.
"Eugh, it smells like peasants."
El, on the other hand, doesn't seem nearly as enchanted as I am. I turn to look at Markus, but it seems he's fallen asleep. That was one vote for, one against, and an abstention, which meant it was an awesome inn—since I was the leader, my vote counted more.
"Come on, let's go see what's on the menu."
I grab El by the arm and pull her forward, and thanks to my [Enhanced Strength], she only stumbles once before allowing herself to be dragged on. It doesn't stop her from arguing, though.
"We came here to find your old lady, not to eat, Ciel."
"We can do both!" Food was important for a growing [Calamity], after all.
Her face twists like she stepped in something gross. "We are not eating here."
I frown at that; if we didn't, I wouldn't get to try the bread or whatever it was that smelled like honey and spices. "But-"
El's brow furrows in the way it does when she's thinking about something deeply. After a moment, she nods to herself and looks down at me. "You can either eat now, or I can have a meal delivered to us later."
What a villainous thing to do, making me choose between the two meal options. "Why not both?"
"Because that's not the plan."
Well, I couldn't argue with that. I had promised not to be involved in making plans. Still, if those were the options, I needed a critical piece of information before I could decide. "Will you order another cake?"
"If it means not having to eat here, sure."
"Yay!"
As long as the promise of cake isn't a lie, I'd take that over eating at an inn a hundred times out of a hundred. Maybe we could even get a noodle casserole this time or some crunchy green vegetables. I could hardly wait. In fact, I wipe discretely at the edges of my mouth in case there's any drool coming out. Now, all we had to do was find the nice old lady, and as my eyes landed on a woman threading through the tables, I knew exactly where to start.
I walk over toward the server and tug on one of the frilly edges of her apron.
"Hi. I'm Ciel, and this is Markus, and that's El." I grin widely as I lift my shoulder where my furry partner is still sleeping and then turn to where El is staring into space blankly. "We're looking for an old lady."
"Chirp."
"Who makes scarves." I interpret for Markus, because not everyone bothered to learn squirrel.
"That's nice, sweetheart, but what's that got to do with me." The waitress tries to pull her apron back, but thanks to my [Enhanced Strength], my hand doesn't even move.
"El said she'd stay here."
"That's not much help, kid." The waitress tugs at her apron a few more times before sighing. "What's she look like."
"She's an old woman. She makes scarves." I explain slowly since the waitress clearly wasn't getting it.
"That's- come on, kid. I've got orders to take," she tugs at her apron again, but it doesn't work.
"Oh, and she makes a world-famous Reitz Stew." I cut her off as my impeccable memory kicks me.
"A stew?" The waitress stops tugging and starts thinking, thankfully, because I was worried her apron would start to rip. "Are you talking about Marta? Married a man named Henrick and left to go farm somewhere."
Markus chirps, and I nod. That was her.
"Second floor, number 8. She got a bit banged up with the…" Her voice trails off, and her eyes go a bit blank.
"Thanks, miss."
With that, I let go of her apron, not really noticing that she just stood there for a few moments before shaking her head and walking off. I had a direction and a teammate to show how good my plans really were. If I kept this up, she'd be out of a job in thinking for me.
"Come on, El. I found her."
"Well, I suppose it's better than staying here."
"Hi, old lady; Markus and I came to see how you were." I slam open the door with my [Enhanced Strength] and grin.
"Ciel?" A frail-sounding voice emanates from a pile of pillows and blankets in a bed set beneath a nice window. "What are you doing here?"
I race into the room and stop a step before I collide with the bed. "Markus and I are arguing over which one of us you gave the scarf to."
"Oh, and look. I'm an adventurer now. D-Rank." I raise my arm, and Markus raises his a second later. Then I point over to where El was awkwardly hovering in the doorway. "That's my teammate, El, over there with a frowny face."
"I'm not frowning, you idiot," El steps inside the room and shuts the door behind her. She steps one step further in and then stops with a half-smile on her face. "I apologize for the interruption… and for Ciel, I suppose. I've been trying, but she's yet housetrained."
That wasn't true at all. In my bigger form, I converted everything I ate into raw mana without a bit of waste. As for my smaller form, well… I shake my head. I was absolutely housetrained. I open my mouth to say so, but the old lady smiles and lifts her hand slowly out of her pillow fort.
"I'm Marta. It's good to see you, dear." A smile crosses her face as I reach out to grasp her hand with my own. A moment later, Markus scampers down to place his hand on top of ours. "After that monster attacked, I was worried…"
"You don't have to worry about that." I chime in when she trails off. "El and Markus and I will take care of her."
"We will?"
I wasn't quite sure what to make of my teammate's doubtful tone, at least until my infallible memory poked me, and I realized that I'd not actually told her that I was going to be a [Hero]. Still, even if I hadn't mentioned it—some things were much better if they came as a surprise—that didn't change the fact that we were adventurers.
"Of course we will; that's what adventurers do."
El stares at me for a moment before shrugging and sighing, "I suppose it is."
"See." I turn back to the old lady and smile. "You don't have a thing to worry about."
"I see that." The old woman pulls her hand back, and it flops down to the bed. She looks down at her hand and frowns. "I'm sorry, dear. I was hit pretty badly by that monster's spell, and it's been taking a while for me to recover."
"Did she hit you with the-" I cut off before I can mention [Bloodrose] since that was certainly one of my [Calamity] secrets. "I mean, did she break your bones and impale you through the chest and legs, too?"
"No, it-" the old lady stops her explanation as her eyes drill in on me. "What was that, dear? Too?"
"I charged m- the [Calamity], and she broke a bunch of bones and stabbed me with a whip in a bunch of places and-"
El's hand lands on my shoulder and squeezes so tightly that if I didn't have [Thick Skin], it might have hurt a bit. "If I had known this idiot was stupid enough to charge a [Calamity], I would have kept her on a leash."
"I'm alright now, though." I raise my arms and flex my tiny arms to prove the point. "She only almost killed me."
The old lady frowns at me while El's fingers try uselessly to dig into my shoulder. "El, is it?"
"More or less." My partner cleverly disguises her fake name while not lying to the nice old woman.
"Hmm…" The old lady stares at both of us for a moment. "Well, I'm glad you've found some good friends, Ciel."
"Yep!" I agree almost instantly. I had the best team a soon-to-be-[Hero] could ask for. "El is the teammate with the secret past that I learn about in the second book, and Markus is the [Rogue] with a heart of gold."
Both El and Markus stare at me after I say that, but they let the old woman speak first. "That sounds lovely."
"It's great, I-"
I'm about to tell her all about how we found a brand new dungeon and then were really responsible and rescued a bunch of people and defended the city, but before I can, my genius mind pokes me. I turn to El with a panicked look.
"She's hurt!"
"Your genius never ceases to amaze me."
Despite my chest fluttering at the words, I don't have time to bask in the feeling. "You can praise me later, El. We need to get her some of the potions that put my bones and organs back where they belonged."
"That's definitely what that was…" my teammates sighs in agreement. "Top-grade healing potions are expensive, Ciel."
"Use the gold we got for saving the city, then," I tell her, somewhat surprised that I had to suggest money stuff to her. She was supposed to be the money-smart sidekick.
"They didn't give us…"
My face twists up at that. I did [Hero] stuff; even the guildmaster said so. Surely, the city had lavished us with gold and fancy weapons and roasted cows.
"Oh, right… that reward." I wasn't sure why El's voice sounded so flat, but maybe she was just ashamed of not having an infallible memory like me. "Yeah. Let me take care of that. You three have fun here."
El comes back when I'm halfway through telling the nice old lady about how we rescued a bunch of people from the blood-slimes. "And El went *pew pew pew* with her fire bolts while I stomped on slime-goblin heads, and Markus bravely stayed back and led people to safety."
"Chirp."
"I am not downplaying your contributions just because I want her to say it's been my scarf all along." Which was a rude and totally unfair accusation from my furry-teammate.
"Chirp."
"Nuh-uh."
"Chirp."
"Nuh-"
"Ciel, Markus. Shut. Up."
Despite wanting to win my argument, the current of violent rage in my teammate's voice stops me. Normally, when my sisters got that angry at me, it was accompanied by [Void Blades] and [Decohesion Beams]—it was how I knew they were serious.
"Here, Miss Marta." El holds out a bright green potion. "Straight from our share of the reward for saving the city."
"Are you sure, dear?" The nice old lady looks at the bottle for a moment, but when my teammate nods, she reaches out to grab it. "Thank you."
My teammates and I watch as she uncorks the bottle and brings it to her lips. She downs the liquid in a single gulp, and a flash of color returns to her face. A moment later, she kicks herself free from her blanket fortress and edges over to the side of her bed. She pushes herself upright and moves over to El, who takes a step back with a slight shaking of her head. Then she turns to me and wraps her arms around my shoulders.
"Thank you, dear."
I stand still, momentarily confused about what to do. No one other than my sisters had ever hugged me before. Eventually, I decide to bring my arms up around her waist and squeeze, though I'm careful not to use my [Enhanced Strength]. After a long moment, she pulls back, her eyes blinking rapidly.
"So," I ask as she looks down at me. "Was the scarf for me or Markus."
"Hah!" the old lady cackles once and smiles fondly. "How about I make a second one so you both have one."
It's afternoon by the time we leave. Markus is wrapped up in a lame, way-too-big-scarf, while I have a cool ribbon-scarf tied into my hair. "We should go talk to those adventurers we fought with. You know, the cat-girl and the red-haired guy."
"Ciel, I don't think that's a good idea." El turns down my genius idea with a strange sort of look.
Why was she looking at me like that? She didn't seem happy about meeting our temporary partners at all. But why? Fighting blood-slimes with them had been so cool. Was she jealous that I would think one of them was cooler than she was? I'd have to ask later; for now, I had yet another argument to win.
"Come on. She punched slime-monsters to death, and he exploded them with his mace."
My teammate stares at me in the same kind of way my sisters do when they're being weird. "Ciel, they're-"
My head bobs as I agree. "Yeah, they definitely got promoted just like we did. I bet we can all celebrate getting our new ranks together."
"Ciel…" El says my name in a way that sounds kind of like a sigh.
I frown. This wasn't the enthusiastic approval that I thought my idea would receive. "Is this one of those plan things I don't get a say in? Because I really want to see them."
"They're dead, Ciel."
My face twists in incomprehension, and my eyes fall to the ground. How could they be dead? They were side characters in my [Hero] story. People like that don't die. "But I wanted to eat roasted cow with them—or raw cow if cat-girls prefer that, I'm not sure. We would sing songs, and there'd be cake, and then we'd swap adventurer stories."
El places a hand on my shoulder and squeezes gently. I look up at her and blink something out of my eyes. "The guild put up a memorial for the adventurers who died during the attack. Do you want to go see it?"
Do I? I don't know. Maybe. Kind of. And yet...
"Come on, let's go pay our respects." El smiles softly at me, and I nod.
"Their names were Othara and Voyce," El murmurs quietly as the three of us stand in front of a small stone plinth guarded by the drooping branches of a willow tree and inscribed with dozens of names.
My eyes trace the names written on the memorial stone before they stop on Othara Qestel. My mouth moves, but no sound comes out. Othara was almost my teammate instead of El. Would she still be alive if she were? Would El be dead in her place? My breath catches in my throat at the thought. It didn't seem fair that the difference between dying and not was that close.
My thoughts chase themselves in circles, but even my genius mind can't find any answers. I turn to look at El, perhaps hoping that she would have answers to my questions, but she doesn't turn away from the stone.
Maybe there were no answers.
I blink away something in my eyes and reach out to trace her name with my fingers. It felt strange that I had never learned it in life, and now, thanks to my infallible memory, I will never forget it.
My eyes unfocus as I take in the names around hers. Was this all there was in the end? A name on a stone in a quiet park near the adventurer's guild. What about the guards who died out there? Or the civilians? Was Reitzland full of parks and memorial stones with the names of the dead carved upon them?
I look away from the stone. Not that it matters. It's already burned into my perfect memory. But at least the clattering of those unanswerable questions in my head quiets down.
"Can we go home now?"
"Yeah, let's go."
True to her promise, from what I was certain was weeks ago, but my infallible memory tells me was actually earlier in the afternoon; an extravagant feast is waiting when we get back to El's townhouse. My stomach grumbles at the sight of juicy meat, golden-brown rolls, a casserole covered in bright orange cheese, and a cake even larger than the one I'd scarfed down a few nights ago sitting off on a nearby counter. Despite that, and the line of drool I can feel slowly forming on the edge of my mouth, I don't feel like eating.
What did it even mean to be hungry and yet not want to eat? Was I failing my nature as a [Calamity of Gluttony]? I didn't think so, but at this moment, I wasn't sure if it would bother me if I were.
"If I'd known, well…" El laughs in a way that doesn't sound like there was anything funny. "Let's fix some plates, and we can discuss where to go next."
"Ok." Maybe talking about our first real adventure would help dispel the weird feelings in my chest.
Despite agreeing, I don't move. After a moment El rubs a hand on top of my head. When I look up at her, she grins faintly. "Go find a chair. Just this once, I'll get some food for you."
"Ok."
El mosies over to a table laden with the promised feast and starts to fill two plates with food. After watching her spoon the cheesy casserole onto a pair of plates, I turn and find a plush, cushiony chair set on one side of a low table. With a quiet flop, I fall into the cushions, only to flinch as Markus chirps loudly in my ear.
"Sorry."
"Chirp."
"I don't know. I feel empty but not hungry-empty and also hungry-empty." I didn't really have words to describe what I was feeling. Not only had I never felt any of them before, I wasn't sure whether it was a [Calamity] sort of thing to feel. After all, it had never bothered me that I'd killed-
My genius mind kicks that thought out of my brain before it can finish forming, and a moment later, El returns with dinner crammed in her arms.
My stomach growls as she sets the biggest plate down in front of me. It's laden down with a dozen slices of beef oozing beef juice onto adjacent piles of cheesy noodles and a green vegetable my infallible memory told me was asparagus. Next, she sets down a bowl full of rolls and some saucers of butter and jam, as well as a bowl of roasted nuts for Markus. Finally, she sets down her own plate and then drags another of the cushiony chairs up to the table.
"Today's been a day, hasn't it?"
El slides a fork and knife across the table to me. When I catch both of them, she picks up her spoon and dips it into the casserole. A string of cheese stretches halfway up to her mouth before snapping. My stomach growls. She bites into the noodles covered in cheese and makes a loud sound of enjoyment.
"Macaroni au gratin is what they call it when it's three gold a plate, but you can find mac and cheese pretty much everywhere." She scoops a second bite, one that looks just as cheesy and delicious as the first one. My stomach growls. "It's one of the only good things peasants have ever created."
"Although…"
El muses to herself as she reaches out to the rolls and plucks out the golden-brownest of them all. She splits it with her knife and then carefully wedges a thick slice of roasted meat between the two sides. She takes a delicate bite, her teeth carefully tearing through bread and meat that looked so tender that it might just melt in her mouth. My stomach growls.
"You can't go wrong with a simple sandwich either." She polishes off her sandwich in another handful of bites, and I feel my hands twitch toward my silverware.
"Eat all you want, Ciel. There's plenty more in the kitchen." She smiles as she sticks her fork through a pair of asparagus spears and I listen as they crunch delightfully as she bites into them. "It's important for a growing girl to eat her vegetables too, and asparagus is the best of that sorry lot."
"Chirp." I turn to look at Markus and watch as he bites the head off a roasted almond.
"And there's always cake for dessert." I turn back to El and watch as she takes a bite out of a piece of roast, this time without a roll.
My stomach growls and growls and growls—the weird, not-hungry emptiness snaps. I reach out for my dinner.
I slump down in my chair to give my belly more room to breathe. My thoughts were sluggish, caught in the haze of too much delicious food, but I felt better. The name of a would-be teammate carved into stone still hovers in my memory, but it was just there. It was not overwhelming me with questions I didn't know how to answer. It was just sitting in my mind with an almost familiar weight.
"While you were recovering, reports started to come in." My teammate draws me from contemplation of my belly poking out from beneath my shirt. "It seems the [Calamity] is true to her words. Every city-state on the continent is bedeviled by some sort of problem."
With a whisper of [Miniature Map] and a flicker of mana, a glowing white map of Dynegard materializes in the space where our dinner had been an hour ago.
"To the north, the clans of the Jhoral mountains have apparently started to lose contact with their outposts and mining runs." The map flickers, and a red circle wraps around a jagged, v-shaped mountain range covered in snow-topped peaks. "Quests have been issued by the dozens for adventurers to come and investigate what's happening. The dwarves place great stock in reciprocity, so any successes we have will see us rewarded far beyond what's on the quest flier. If we want to get some better weapons and armor, we couldn't do much better than the Jhoral mountains."
I nod at that but stay silent. A new sword or shield would be cool, but since I was a soon-to-be-[Hero], I was sure I'd get my relic-level weapons whenever it was narratively appropriate.
"Alternatively, we could go south. It's a bit longer of a trip to Belizia than the rest of our options, but due to its status as the continent's largest port city, Belizia is by far the richest of our options. Not that money's that important, but still." A second red circle wraps around a city positioned at the end of a tapered peninsula.
"What's wrong with them?"
"Pirates. Which is pretty common for them, but there are rumors of a [Pirate King] and an impenetrable fog bank." El shrugs. "The reports are still very preliminary. Apparently, the only survivor is currently a gibbering wreck."
"If you don't like mountains or the ocean, there's always the desert, specifically Awanu." my teammate grins, "Where there are hundreds of reports about a permanent sandstorm that started after some kind of earthquake."
A third circle encloses an oasis in the heart of the Sandswept lands. "There's also a single report of some kind of city being hidden behind that sandstorm, but even by the standards of adventurers, this report is considered unreliable."
My larger form didn't like sand too much. It got in between my armor plates and made an unpleasant grinding noise as it was reduced to powder. Fortunately, that wouldn't be a problem this time.
"Our final option is into the ancient forests of Lothenar." This time, instead of a neat circle, a jagged shape wraps around a vast, forested area. "Unlike the other city-states, Lothenar is more a confederacy of small towns and villages. Though they do have seasonal meeting sites that have accumulated some of the detritus of civilization over the centuries."
"Here, the situation is much more straightforward. At least depending on whether you believe in fairy tales. The reports all say one thing: three nights ago, a horn resounded across the length and breadth of the territory. They say the Wild Hunt has been called."
I nod as I commit the four options to my perfect memory. Each of them sounded like a lot of fun. I wasn't sure why El was asking me, though. "I thought I wasn't allowed to make plans."
"You aren't." My teammate smirks while Markus rolls onto his belly so he can chirp out an agreement. "But since you're our leader, I think you should be the one to decide where we go."
"In that case, let's go:
[] "North to the Jhoral mountains."
[] "South to Belizia"
[] "West into Awanu."
[] "East into Lothenar."
[AN]
This marks the end of the first arc of Ciel's story, and I find myself oddly proud of it. Beyond wanting to write a fun and cute (and hopefully funny) story about a girl who wants to be a hero even though she has very little idea of what that means, I wanted to write a story about a girl starting to grow up and learn what it means to be "human". I think I managed both, at least a little bit, but I would love any feedback anyone wants to give on where I could do better (either in the chapters that have been written or suggestions for going forward).
Also, bonus points for speculation about what's happening in each of the four directions.
