The hero is now gone, but I’m still here, now what? (Undergoing editing)

My personal royal suite was… honestly not all that different from my old room, save for maybe several other “guest rooms” placed around the place, and the kitchen too I guess, my old room didn't have one of those as an extension.
Overall though, the place was more or less the same as my room back in the castle; with king-sized beds, a red carpet that has my family’s symbol drawn on it using gold, a dressing room full of clothes, and a bathroom right next to a gym with a military grade gravity well on it- I checked and confirmed it, it was the first thing I did when I got here.

 

… and I guess this place also had a living room where me and the rest of my friends could hang out, all of us were currently in it, just sitting around doing nothing after an entire day’s worth of searching for Envy Demons.
And speaking of Envy Demons- we found around 16 of the damn things, and if I include the Demons found by the other students and teachers, we got around 200 or so of the bastards, which I hope wiped them clean because the Infiltration Arc sucked and I don’t want to deal with it if I could help it.

 

None of that is important right now though- I wanted to just lie down and rest and that's exactly why me, Laceresta, and Fafnir were sitting on one of the three couches inside the living room (placed in a U shape with a hearth full of hot stones at the center for warmth,) doing nothing and just simply content on lazing about.

 

All three of us took over one couch and we laid our bodies across them like fallen logs while Zath ran around doing her regular job even though I told her not to.

 

Currently, she was near the hearth and was heating up… I think hot cocoa?

 

I sniffed. Yeah, it was hot cocoa.

 

Anyways, Zath was heating hot cocoa as well as preparing a tray full of bread and meat and stuff, and as always, she was doing it dutifully. I turned my head slightly to the side and eyed her, “Zath, you don’t have to do this you know? Sit back and relax,”

 

“Aye.” Laceresta agreed.

 

“It is best that I do not sit idle,” Zath replied seriously, “I don’t want to become lax just because we are now living far away from the castle,” she added, tone and expression unchanging, “even if the King and your siblings aren’t here to judge my performance, I think it’s best that I keep doing it just in case one of them comes to visit,”

 

She grabbed the whistling pot on the hearth and poured the hot water down onto the four cups on her tray, the scent of chocolate wafted into my nose and I smiled, thank Goddess I knew how to make chocolate, or else I’d have to stick with something like honey or milk when I wanted to eat something sweet. 

 

But since I made chocolate, those two sweeteners are being used as well, sweeteners by Zath and she was pouring them into the hot cocoa, the way it was always meant to be.

 

Watching the golden glaze of the honey and the white stream of milk get poured down the cups pretty much made me go hungry so as reluctant as I was to stand up from this couch, I was impatient and forced myself up- I walked up to my maid and gave her a smile as I took one of the cups, “thanks for this, Zath.”

 

“Don’t mind it,” she replied curtly, “I am simply doing my job,” she stood up and walked over to the center of the couch before unfolding a flat board- oh wait, no, it's a coffee table.

 

After it was unfolded, Zath placed the tray on top of the coffee table and as the scent of chocolate wafted across the air, Fafnir and Laceresta reluctantly pushed themselves up to start eating. Seeing Laceresta casually scoop up the honey with a spoon and shoving it into her mouth made me frown, “the bowl of honey is for dipping, Laceresta, not scooping up and eating,”

 

“Shwame fing!” The Beast King replied with a full mouth, she then proceeded to grab a round bread and dipped it into the honey before shoving it into her mouth, “dish ish ghood.”

 

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” I decided to scold since no one else was doing it and in response, they all stared at me dumbly, “what?”

 

Laceresta decided to eat in silence after that while eyeing me weirdly for some reason?..

 

What? What did I do?

 

I frowned, “I didn’t scold you too badly did I?”

“No, not at all,” the Lioness shook her head, “I just found it odd that you'd… you know, do that- I thought you didn't mind that sort of thing?”

 

“Of course I do,” I said before continuing to eat. I didn’t really know what to say in addition to that so I simply stayed silent, what else was I supposed to do?

I swallowed another mouthful of bread, “so… anything you guys want to do right now?” I looked at all of them, “we can play games?”

 

“What game?” A curious Fafnir asked, “last I checked, we don’t have any of those in the suite? Or maybe I’m misremembering things?” She looked thoughtful at that before adding, “am I forgetting something?”

 

All heads turned to me and I put the bread down before standing up and walking to one of the shelves to pull out a game called Outlaw, I showed the board game to the girls and shook it around, causing the pieces inside to make noises.

 

Zath was the one who spoke first, “I- why do you want to do this?” She asked with a painful groan and I only grinned and seeing the exchange, Laceresta now had an interested look while Fafnir tilted her head. Zath sighed, “do you want us to stuff- why not pick something that you aren’t good at?”

 

“Please,” I smirked, “I’m not that good at it,”

 

“Well that’s up for us to decide,” Laceresta said and I didn’t know if she was talking to Zath or me but she wanted to play and that's good enough for me! The Lioness patted the floor right next to her and gave me a feral grin, “so? Let’s do this!”

 

I shrugged and did as she said and laid out the pieces on the flat floor, reluctantly, Zath went near to join while Fafnir, still as curious as ever, looked over the board game, “what is this?”

 

“The rules for the game are simple,” I started, “we all get a single piece each,” I gave them the ‘outlaw’ pieces, “and then we place these pieces on all the available starting points on the map,” they all did as followed, “and what we do to play is that we all take turns on moving our pieces and making them do “actions” which you can find on the booklets, while these circles-” I pointed at all the blue circles across the board, most of them labeled, “those are our objectives,” I said, “and they all have names, like for example, this one-”

 

I pointed at a circle near a place called, ‘Rocky Outcrop’ and it was labeled as ‘Limestone Quarry’.

 

When my friends nodded, I continued, “- is called Limestone Quarry, and if you want to know what it does when it has been taken over then you find it through here,” I grabbed the booklet that held the functions of the objectives and after waving it around, opened it up and started scanning the pages for the name of the objective and when I found it, I started reading it out loud.
“Let's see, Limestone Quarry does… uh, it gives your outlaw 250 Nuggets per turn,” They all nodded, “and we can use Nuggets to buy or influence the “towns” across the board but our biggest goal is to essentially buy our “wanted” poster out of commission, doing crimes would obviously increase it but if you guys take over objectives that give you nuggets then I’m sure that it would be fine in the end right?”

 

They all nodded and I smiled, “great- so there are also special areas, terrains, and towns that can give you weapons, make your travel easier, or allow you to buy horses and you can read it all here,” I grinned and handed them the piece of paper that beheld such information, all three girls took it and I placed my outlaw on one of the starting locations, a town called “Cheapskate” before watching my friends do the same, “okay, so, we’re about to start?”

 

“Yes.” Fafnir nodded.

 

“You said you’re good?” Laceresta asked.

 

I shook my head, “that was Zath, I didn't say that,”

 

“She is good, yes.” My maid nodded, “but if you want to beat her, then be my guess,” she shrugged and grabbed the 10 headed dice to our side, “biggest number gets to go first,”

 

We all took our rolls and our turns were as follows: Laceresta, Fafnir, Zath, and me- and I got last place, talk about unlucky.

 

“So how do I do this?” Laceresta asked.

 

“Well, if you open the booklet and search for your starter town, you can find the items written there as “for sale” and you can buy them for Nuggets, all of us start out with 60 Nuggets to our name unless you modify your character so make sure that you pick the right things, oh, and uh, don’t go down on less than 10 Nuggets before you travel,”

 

“Why?” The Lioness stopped reading and asked.

 

“Because they are for supplies, which makes your Nuggets go down by 10 after you travel, I found it on this page right here,” Fafnir answered while waving the booklet she was holding around.

 

“Oh.” Laceresta nodded at that, “I’ll take note of it,”

 

As the game got going and Laceresta did her turn, I decided to open my own booklet to prepare for the stuff that I’d do in my turn and it seemed that everyone thought the same because as Laceresta called out her actions for this particular turn, we were all reading our booklets.

 

…

 

The taste of ash and sand, those two things washed over my dried tongue as I walked into the poor town that the folks here called “Klypsdale”.

 

With an iron gun hanging on my hip and a bulky horse underneath me, what little amount of people that lived in this here town didn’t bother to get in my way and I was free to move along the open road alongside the rolling tumbleweeds and the harsh western winds. I silently smiled, folks who knew how to move aside in the right circumstances were always people that I can respect.

 

I passed by a cacti and reached a fence, there, I dismounted from good ol Nessie and landed on the ground with a hup, my boots were caked with dry sand and so was my vest, the discomfort that I felt as I grabbed the lasso from my hip and tied it on the fence was bad- itchy.

 

With Nessie now safely tied, I left to go to the only saloon in the town.

 

I pushed open the grated doors of the Saloon and my eyes moved from left to right to scan the patrons inside, 4 in total, and among them, only one carried a gun but the bartender at the counter probably had a shotgun or two ready in case of a fight, they wouldn’t get any from me, not unless they fight me first.

 

“Sup’,” I greeted with a nod before eyeing the wanted poster that the bartender is looking at, my wanted poster, “why’re ye starin' at it like it killed ya mum?” I asked with narrowed eyes as I walked into the counter and dropped a single nugget on top of it, “never seen an outlaw before?”

 

“Plenty like you pass along here miss,” I scoffed at his words.

 

“Good,” I feigned a confident nod even though I was well aware of my lackluster reply. Good? What was Good? I didn’t know, nor did the Bartender if his expression were to go by, “so, any info related to the lands outside yer town?”

 

“Nothing other than knowledge on how to go through the prairie sadly,” he said with a sad sigh, “if ya want, mayor’s got a map on the mines up north, it’ll cost ya a bag of Nuggets though,”

 

“Don’t need it,” I said with a scoff, “I want what ya have on the prairie,”

 

“A drink first, if you will?”

 

I slid the Nugget on my hands forward, “I want a mug of beer,” he nodded and started talking about the prairie as he poured me a mug of foamy beer, he handed it to me and I took a sip, I blanched.

 

“This tastes like piss,” 

 

“You get what you pay for, miss,” I scoffed but as promised, he told me everything he knew about the Prairies.

 

“Fer nough.” I nodded as he finished talking, “so, that’s all there is to the prairies?”

 

“Yes.” He nodded.

 

“Aight, thanks for this,” I gave him another Nugget for his troubles.

 

…

 

“So you’re heading straight for the Prairie?” Fafnir asked while raising her eyebrows, “why?”

 

“I’m not leaving that rodent infested land until I get my special gun,” everyone save for the grinning Laceresta turned to each other in confusion.

 

Neophyte shrugged, “... good idea?..” she said, “so, what will you be buying for your expedition?” She asked, “that tie of dynamite looks useful,”

 

“Nah, I’m spending everything on supplies,” Laceresta said without missing a beat before moving her now knowledgeable outlaw to the prairie, “alright Dragon, it’s your turn,”

 

Fafnir nodded, “I’ll go ahead and head straight for the store and buy a bag of silver bullets for 20 Nuggets, then I’ll spend the extra 30 on upgrading my gun by two levels and after that, I’ll spend my turn on walking through the Haunted Forest to Bronzerush’s right and I roll the dice for the fight…” the Dragon smirked, when it landed on 4, “4 but I have silver bullets and an upgraded gun; looks like I get to pass the forest and move to the Free Plains next turn,”

 

The girls nodded at that.

 

…

 

Bronzerush is a town of complete mystery to someone like me, though I knew that the reason why it kept itself standing after all this time is related to and something that can mostly be attributed to the bronze mines located in the mountains near the town is obvious.
But as for why the folks kept living here despite the constant raids from wraiths from the nearby Haunted Forest, the occasional werewolf attack, and Worm Lords spitting on them from the mines is something that baffles my mind, though it can also be said that it speaks of the resilience (or greed) of the townsfolk.

 

I walked into this decently rich town with naught but the black cloak adorning my back and the prosthetic rifle attached to my right hand, getting it replaced by a gun felt nice but relying on my left hand for my day to day activities has been a chore since.

 

I’m right handed, first and foremost, and getting it replaced by a gun made it easier for me to aim but it also hinders me- I am being redundant, I realize as I snapped back to the present.

 

I walked past the saloon and headed straight for the store and after buying silver bullets, proceeded to go to the gun smith- I neared and moved into his shop with lithe and grace and as my cloaked form went past the doors, he looked at me appraisingly, like a cow deciding to whether or not charge at me.

 

“Hello, dear smith,” I nodded at him before showing him my wanted poster, my pretty face drawn on it badly as though purposefully done for mockery, “you have talents that can help me in my quest for vengeance,”

 

Truth be told, I had no such goal, I just wanted to pay off my wanted poster, but he did not need to know that, “that I do,” he said with a serious nod, “what can I do for ya?”

 

“Upgrade my weapon,”

 

“You want to go through the haunted forest?”

 

“What else?” I answered questioningly, “are you gonna do it or not?”

 

He nodded and I went to give him my bag of Nuggets, “thirty in total?”

 

“thirty in total,” he said, noting the discount thanks to my prosthetic, “but you know this won’t happen again,”

 

“Aye.” I  nodded.

 

A few hours later I walked back into the smithy to take my new gear, I wore them proudly and went outside to head for the forest to start my journey through its wooden depths and though I was faced by spirits and wraiths alike, I managed to persevere and got out of the woods in one piece, glad to finally be able to reach the Free Plains, I walked forward and continued on my journey to turn myself into a free woman.