MERCHANT ADVENTURER

Dauphina

The orange red sun sunk into the horizon, its light elongating our shadows.

With a terrible grin, Septimus said, "Midas is only helping you because that is her punishment."

"Punishment?" I thought about it and then turned to Midas, "What wrong did you do?"

Midas nervously laughed. Then, she softly said, "I may have caused your death."

"Death? I died?" I asked her.

But it was Septimus who answered. "She caused your death in another world. When you were reborn into this one, she was tasked to ensure you would live a happy life in this world. This is her atonement."

Then the hazy figure of a sobbing woman appeared in my memory. It wasn't a dream. My mother had held my dying body. I had run out to save a child, but why was it Midas' fault?

I glanced at Midas. She said, "I was the guardian angel for a child. I turned around for a moment and the child ran out in front of a car. You saved that child, but died in the process. This is why, after being reborn in this world, I was punished to assist you."

"Why didn't you just tell me the truth from the very beginning?"

"I couldn't explain reincarnation to you. Your current world does not believe in such a concept. Unlike your old world, where this concept had been around for thousands of years."

As I forced myself to recall my past life, I seem to see flying metal giant birds and picture boxes. "Was my old world more technologically advanced than this world?"

Midas answered, "Yes."

"Why wasn't I reborn in that world?"

"Because you weren't meant to be reborn. You were in fact meant to enter paradise."

"Then why am I not in paradise?"

"Because my punishment had to be carried out."

I had one last nagging question on my mind about my rebirth. "Midas, you only appeared to me when I was in dire trouble? Why didn't you accompany me from the very beginning of my rebirth?"

Midas sighed, "It's because I was finishing up my task of guarding the child you saved."

"Casper, in fact, I have to thank you. If not for you, I would have failed that mission. If I had failed that mission, I was doomed to remain a guardian angel for another hundred thousand years."

Septimus suddenly interjected, "See young man, if there is someone you can't trust, it is this angel. She is full of deceit. If it wasn't for her, you would be relaxing comfortably in paradise."

My head throbbed. I couldn't quite wrap my mind around the information dump I just encountered.

Raine tugged on my sleeve. She quietly asked, "Casper, are you going to send me away?"

I shook my head. Glad to be distracted by Raine, I told her earnestly, "I won't allow Septimus to take you away."

With an elated expression on her face, Raine hugged my arm. Then a question formed in my head. "Raine, why did you run away from Septimus in the first place?"

"Because he locked me up in the castle and won't allow me to go outside."

Castle? Only nobles lived in castles.

Turning my attention back to Septimus, I inquired, "What is your status?"