Forging Legends

Chapter 42 - What was Secret

The rain lasted for another half hour before letting up. That put it toward the longer end of moderate rains, according to Maria. Bigger storms might last an hour and cover an entire town and surrounding farms. Smaller ones could be the size of a farm, or even smaller, like the first one she ever saw. Incidentally, the first violet rain cloud with the single lightning bolt was actually the second rarest. The rarest was a storm that was several miles across, lasted several hours, and contained much more lightning.

Since it had happened this time, Reina asked Maria and Vyrdrun about the lightning. The bigger the rain, the more likely it was to occur. Most of the ones she'd been in so far, the more moderate-sized ones, didn't have any lightning.

As for what it did to monsters struck, they were usually permanently changed. That doll on her first day would have stayed like that until it died. Its stats would be increased across the board, and it would give increased XP. But that was for normal monsters. For a dragon? They didn't know. Dragons didn't come by Vyrdrun's village, and the shaman who taught him didn't mention anything about them. Maria's knowledge didn't extend too deeply into either dragons or violet rain, let alone both together.

Kuromo was still fine after the bolt, his stats the same as they were before. Reina hadn't checked to see if they changed when he was glowing, so she couldn't say if they did. She just knew his HP didn't decrease, since that was always visible in her status without looking further. All they could do for now was keep an eye on him for any changes.

Speaking of changes, Reina noticed something after talking with her party. The curse damage they took during the Wave was already gone this morning, not even a full day. They experienced no stiffness or aches or anything.

Reina, however, was still cursed. She didn't experience any pain or anything, but her HP was still below maximum.

"Maybe it's because you're a hero?" Maria asked as they continued on their way.

They'd been on the road for several more hours and were well into the evening. Soon, they'd stop and make camp for the night.

"I don't think so." Lola shook her head from her place on the advanced doll spirit's arm. She was still slowly healing, able to walk, but they decided to have her continue as they were earlier. "Daddy said heroes weren't any weaker to curses than normal people. They might even get more resistant against curses."

With all the different bonuses her weapon gave her, Reina could believe it. "What else could it be? Maybe because I was caught in violet rain before?"

"Possible." Vyrdrun nodded. "The rain is known to disrupt spirits, and a curse is damage against one's soul, is it not?"

"Maybe, but that's not the case." Grim added in. "My master has been in the rain before, and been cursed. She's never seen any difference in the damage or the time it took to recover."

There was one thing that could be related to her curse, though Reina was hesitant to mention it. Dream Eat. The spirit that granted that spell was known as an evil spirit, and a being like that could easily be equated to something that gave out curses. In a way, the spell was a curse, since Reina couldn't exactly control it, and she couldn't break the contract either.

However, she didn't bring it up. The chief reason for that was...she still hadn't told Maria about what she saw in her dreams. The one who taught Maria magic, whose name was close to hers: Mary. Reina was certain that's who it was. When Maria's mother found out, she killed the teacher. When Maria left her family, she changed her name. How could Reina even begin to bring something like that up, something that was clearly such an important and painful memory.

Reina noticed something else. They passed by a couple villages, since that was in fact how roads worked, but no one was outside. It made sense yesterday, with how close to the Wave the previous villages were; less so now a day's travel away. Sure, it made keeping Lola out of sight much easier, but Reina didn't like it.