Burning Embers Part II: Conspiracy [Arc 6-10]

Arc 6 Chapter 2

—Sean's Perspective—

Del Roddea.

That is what the King himself had called Finrod. Wait, his name wasn't Finrod, was it? It was Findaris. Findaris Del Roddea is what he had been called. The only thing that meant was that Finrod had wanted to keep his real identity a secret from all of them. Sean understood why, but the others would probably not see it that way. Vector probably knew, and Kotori too, if his suspicions about her were true.

But he knew Nat, Lediga, Andrea, Zero and Kuri would not be happy about this. They were the sort of people who valued this trust, and believed they had it. At this point, the guild had been together for many months, and been through plenty with each others. Adventurers could not survive without trusting each other with their lives; such was the nature of their job.

After that outburst, they had all apologised to the King, and listened to everything else he had to say. He commended them for their impressive achievements, and told them they could rest today, but tomorrow they were expected to attend a high-profile gathering. A "royal party", if Sean had to guess.

Right now, however, they were all gathered in Findaris' room, and an awkward silence had set over them. Findaris himself sat on the bed, arms crossed and his usual, emotionless expression on his face. Vector stood beside him, leaning against a bed-pillar, looking more serious than usual. There was a couch and some sofas in the room as well, and most of them were seated.

Most, except Kuri, who paced around, looking both angry and anxious. Over the last few months, they had all gotten to know a lot about each other, and Kuri was the driving force of that.

"Adventurers need to fully trust and rely on each other, since our jobs constantly put our lives at risk, and we depend on each other to have our back," she had said.

And thus, they learned Kuri and Zero were from Kazeji Temple, and had been adopted and raised as siblings. Not just that, but Kuri was heir-apparent for Warrior Supreme of the nation. When Sean had tried to imply it made her basically a princess, she rebuffed that claim, saying that was not how things worked in their nation.

On her own insistence, they had continued to treat them both the same as they always did before, as "there is no royalty in Lanexi, and we are all equal, judged purely on the base of our abilities."

Lediga had told them vaguely about his past as well. He was from a poor family, but his family was quite dysfunctional and abusive, so he escaped when he was old enough to be an adventurer. According to himself, there was "nothing interesting", but his own story tied up with Andrea's.

Her tale was both sad and dark, and she had been incredibly hesitant at first, but with Lediga's encouragement, she eventually opened up, but said she wouldn't "go into details". Sean and Nat were probably the most normal of the entire group, and had related their own little interesting stories from life.

Luuk decidedly said they would be sitting there forever if he told them all about himself, since he was "older than you think". However, he did tell them about his loss of purpose like the rest of his people, and how his natural talent for light magic and hatred for the undead made him choose to be an Exorcist.

As they had sat by the fire in the common room of the palace late into the night, they had learned a lot about each other. The only person who stayed decidedly silent was Findaris. Even Vector had told them about how he became the "greatest archmage", though it was hard to tell if he were serious.

When questioned about it, Findaris had claimed he was nothing but an ordinary city boy who trained to be an adventurer, took on a dragon-slaying quest, got lucky and slayed it. He had no family, and was raised by the smith in Liburn, who also gave him the fire-sword in his possession, though Findaris did not ask him where he acquired it from.