Dawn- An age of Darkness

I spent the next few hours in the spring. The water was warm and comfortable. 

There were separate baths for men and women, so I was free to use mine. Since I smelled and all, no one from the guys' side even bothered to come with me. I had no qualms though. As long as I got soap and water, I was fine with everything. 

But was it me or was this smell not going away?

Our equipment would be washed by the maids, while though they did say they'd wash my body too, I declined. For both their and my sake.

As for my ring, I checked inside, and there was a bit of residue smell, but that was about it. All that left was my body and I had a feeling even if I didn't do anything, the smell would eventually go away. Sure didn't stop me from bleaching the hell out of my skin though.. 

There was no bleach here, so I just rubbed the soap. There was a lot, and I repeat, a lot of soap bars here. 

After making my whole body- as far as I could reach- stark red, I dived into the spring. The warm not so smelly water welcomed me. This was a well-draining spring, so the water was constantly being renewed. We were actually up pretty high, so I didn't know where this warm water was coming from. I didn't care though. 

This world was weird. 

This was a large bathroom and the other ones were divided with large wooden walls. There were actually three baths. One for royals, one for the guests, and one for the nobles. And all three were divided into men's and women's baths. Meaning, there were six in total. 'They really went all out on the baths, huh?'

This was the royal bath and as the name suggested, there was gold everywhere. Golden leaves that is. The floor was made of golden wood. For a moment I thought even the water would be golden in color- but I was glad it wasn't. 

Though the bath wasn't open air, the fact that it was part of the tree meant, there were leaves everywhere.

Water came from the nether regions of an ugly mermaid statue: a golden wooden statue. Whose questionable taste was this?

I really didn't want to know. 

Sigh. 

But as I finally got to relax a little, wild thoughts just resurfaced. This whole thing, everything was a farce. 

The duke and everyone just played it. If this country had plans to strike a deal with the demons and attack the dwarves, then it was possible this country would have been obliterated. It could have been possible that the dwarves were going to be at a risk too though. But- if the duke took over and made his soldiers into vampires and attacked at night, things could very well move in the other way. But then I came and ruined everything. But what if my coming was part of the plan too?

Hmm…

Sigh. Lately, life was nothing but sighs. I came to these lands to get stronger and here I was getting dragged into more and more politics. 'Would Dick even wait that long?' Today was the third day and I had four days remaining. But no matter how I saw this, this whole thing wasn't simple enough for us to solve within a week.

Getting stronger huh? I'd been consoling myself that I was getting stronger- but honestly, I wasn't. I got better at using my magic and perhaps the stones were a great help. But in reality, without those, I was significantly weaker than when I fought that half-demon back in Alfeim. I roughly had three and a half months remaining and yet, I didn't even have enough strength to go fight a typical monster without my magic let alone the emperor. These were my skills, but- was I anything without them?

"HOOHA!"

There was a sound in the distance, and promptly someone came inside. Once I saw his face, I wished I wasn't here. 

But unfortunately, I was. 

"Oh, my lovely Daarc!"

I really dreaded that voice, but I didn't say anything and just stayed down. He came inside, washed his body on the sides and a minute later, and entered the spring. 

Jori- had just arrived. 

He sighed in relief as he looked up. "This bath really hits the spot." He almost moaned. 

"Why are you here? Didn't you say you were a girl!? Get out of the men's bath!" And wasn't this the royal bath or something?

Neither of us was looking at each other. 

He giggled, then chuckled, then laughed really loud. "You never change." He cleared his throat. "I'm actually traveling across the world by the orders of our guildmaster. This is just a coi-"

"You're not going to say this was a coincidence, right?" I looked at him. It was more of a glare though. 

This was anything but a coincidence. 

He chuckled. "Sharp as ever." His tone changed a bit. "The guild suspected this you know. And when I got intel that you entered the Dwarven lands, I kind of predicted this. So, I contacted my acquaintance here and the rest is history." Seeing the guy without his makeup waaas kind of weird. 

He really did have a handsome face: and without those weird clothes, he even looked like a decent guy. Why he dressed up like that, I still didn't understand. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't history to me. "So, you knew these people had the prince and princess? And how did you even enter this place?"

And how could he just surmise that I'd be coming here?

He held a hand on his chin. "Dark elves I guess? And what do you mean? Isn't that common sense?" 

Huh?

"You mean everyone already knew?"

Wait, what? Was I the only one in the dark or something? It couldn't have been something like that right?

"But that's obvious. Of course, they knew. But without proof, you can't just force a war down another nation's throat and hope to prosper. That's why the dwarves sent their messenger and that's why the messenger died in a certain forest." Jori's face warped a little. "Neither country cared about their citizens or royals. They were just looking for a way to get rid of certain lands and claim certain others. The whole war was just a farce and neither side was going to back down."