My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror - Chapter 151 (Patreon)

After eating, the two spent a little time exploring the house. It was rather plain, but it was clear that Dredd took good care of it. The beds were well made and soft, although neither knew why the man would bother having two beds on opposite sides of the same room.

Outside the window, the forest seemed to stretch on endlessly. Damien couldn’t make out the end of the trees, and he didn’t have any desire to leave the cabin and wander around. He didn’t know what monsters might live in the woods and what sort of protection Dredd had put around the house, so they both decided it was safer to stay put.

The two got settled in and went to bed a few hours later, too tired to do anything else. The following morning, Delph and Dredd arrived to continue their quest of hunting the Corruption.

Second did not show himself that day, and the next was much of the same. Without the strange bandaged man, the four of them encountered little difficulty defeating any Corruption they faced.

The next few months passed quickly. Damien and Sylph progressed even further in their skills, although they rarely had energy to do much practice at the end of the day. In the later months, they took out more than ten different Corrupted creatures every day.

On a day no different than any other, Damien and Sylph rolled out of bed before the sun had risen to meet the professors and resume their hunt. However, when Dredd arrived, he was alone.

“Where’s Delph?” Damien asked.

“At Blackmist,” Dredd replied. “Summer is over in two days.”

Damien blinked. He mentally ran through the events of the last few months again. It had all blurred together due to the repetition. “Already?”

“I lost track of time as well,” Sylph said, shaking her head. “But what now? There are still Corrupted monsters around, not to mention the Void creature.”

“Delph and I will handle that as much as possible,” Dredd replied. “But you two need to return to school. We can find and defeat the Corruption without your help, and neither of you have a chance against Second. Unless that Void monster returns, the best thing you can do is get stronger.”

“Not going to argue there,” Damien agreed. “Although it feels strange, going back to school given everything that’s happened.”

“Don’t let it put you too off guard,” Dredd said, crossing his arms. “Whisp has been going on about the Interschool Tournament for the last month. She’s got her eye on you two, no matter what she says. The only other students in your class that have a chance of making it anywhere right now are Mark and a boy called Cody. All in Delph’s class. What a surprise.”

“Should we be worried about that?” Sylph asked.

“Keep it on your mind. Maybe it’ll be a good way to blow off some steam. Delph forgets that you’re both still kids. You need to relax and have fun sometimes.”

“I’m almost eighteen,” Damien protested.

“You’re a kid,” Dredd said in a tone that brooked no room for argument. “Either way, it’s time to return to Blackmist. I trust you’ve kept my home in good condition?”

“You can’t even tell we were here,” Sylph said. She grabbed a pastry from the plate, which never seemed to run out, and took a bite out of it. Ever since she’d started using her new abilities, her appetite had more than doubled.

“Good,” Dredd said. “That would have been an inconvenience. Now, it’s time to give me my house back. The portal will take you straight to your room at Blackmist. The Gray twins have already returned. I highly recommend you refrain from sharing the exact details of your summer, but you are under no compulsions. Just make sure to adequately prepare yourselves for this year.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sylph asked. “We’ve been hunting monsters for the past few months. You can’t tell me Year Two is harder than that.”

“It isn’t,” Dredd admitted. “Not in that way, at least. Both of you are far from our normal students, but there are challenges that you’ll have to worry about nonetheless. Specifically manifesting a physical version of your Companion. Only so many people will be fooled by claiming that Damien’s companion is from the Plane of Darkness. As for you, Sylph, I’m getting quite convinced you don’t even have a companion. All the energy you use comes from your own body.”

Sylph pressed her lips together. “I see. That might be a problem.”

Dredd grunted. “Figure it out. You’ll have a week or two before preparations for manifesting your companion begin. You’re both resourceful kids.”

He gave them a wave that made it clear the conversation was over. Damien and Sylph took one last look around the house that they’d slept in for the past few months, then entered the portal Dredd had left them.

Cold wind bit at Damien’s face as he emerged before their room alongside Sylph. The abrupt transition took a moment to get accustomed to, but he’d experienced it so many times over the past summer that the disorientation only lasted for a few moments.

“It feels weird to be back,” Sylph murmured, pulling the door open. They walked inside and she let it swing shut behind them. “When we left, I honestly thought there was a good chance we wouldn’t be coming back.”

“And you came anyways?”

“Of course I did. I’m hardly going to leave you to face off against the Void and the Corruption on your own.”

“Hardly alone,” Henry grumbled, his voice coming out from Damien’s shadow. “He’s got me.”

“You’re horrible conversation,” Sylph said, flopping down on her bed with a smirk. “And your reading tastes suck.”

“Information is information,” Henry replied. “You’re just too young to appreciate the finer things in life.”

Henry slipped back into the depths of Damien’s psyche. Before either of them could say anything else, there was a polite knock on the door. Damien groaned, stopping midway in his motion to sit down in his bed, and strode over to it.

He pushed it open. Nolan stood before him, shifting from foot to foot. “Hi, Damien. Mind if I come in?”

Damien glanced back at Sylph, who gave him a shrug. He stepped out of the way, letting Nolan walk in behind him.

“How was your summer?” Nolan asked.

“Interesting,” Damien answered honestly.

“Informative,” Sylph added. “What of yours?”

“Boring,” Nolan said, letting out a heavy sigh. “Political garbage for my Father and lots of shuffling around with other Nobles, pretending that I care about what’s going on.”

“I thought you liked that kind of thing?” Damien asked, cocking his head. “You certainly seemed to in the beginning of last year.”

“I did,” Nolan replied, biting back a grimace. “But that was before I started learning magic here. My Father wanted me to transfer to Kingsfront, but I obviously refused.”

“Why?” Sylph asked.

“I don’t know,” Nolan said. He sighed again and shook his head. “Something in my gut told me I’d learn more here, and I didn’t realize how horrible politics were until I got away from them for a few months.”

“Well, welcome back,” Damien said, scratching the back of his head. “But, ah, is there any reason you wanted to talk?”

“Right. I got distracted,” Nolan said, blushing. “I need your help.”

“Mine? Or ours?” Damien asked.

“Yours,” Nolan said. “I’ve been enrolled in Advanced Rune Crafting against my will. Apparently, my teacher decided that I improved so much last semester that I had great potential. The problem is, I only made it that far with your tutelage. There’s no way I’ll pass Advanced Rune Crafting on my own, but I need to if I want to stay here.”

“I can see how that would be a problem,” Damien agreed. “I don’t know how much free time I’m going to have this semester, but I don’t see anything wrong with giving you a pointer here or there.”

“Thanks,” Nolan said, relief washing over his features. “What did you two do over summer, anyways? I presume you went somewhere together.”

“What makes you think that?” Damien asked.

Nolan cocked an eyebrow. “You do everything together. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, though.”

“Just training, mostly,” Sylph said. “Nothing too interesting.”

“You trained the entire summer?” Nolan asked, his eyes growing wide. “I don’t even want to think about what that means on where you stand now. I’m scared for the ranking battles. Don’t you guys do anything other than fight? Constant practice sounds horrible. It’s not like we’re at war.”

“I guess we just don’t have anything better to do,” Damien said, shrugging. “At least we’ll be ready for the year.”

“That you will,” Nolan agreed. He politely excused himself before slipping out the door.

“He seems different,” Sylph observed. “Not as much of a dick as he used to be. You think Reena’s any better?”

“We’ll find out,” Damien replied. “But honestly? My money’s on no. Maybe she needs to take up Rune Carving as well.”

They both chuckled. After taking out the rest of their meagre belongings and setting their room back up, the two headed out to get lunch at the mess hall. Neither were quite in the mood to go hunting.

After eating, they made a quick visit by the general store to pick up some necessities. The clerk welcomed them back to campus before they headed back out. The rest of the day was spent wandering around campus and visiting the library to sate Henry’s growing boredom.

Damien spent much of the next day in the library as well, much to Henry’s pleasure. When he returned to their room that evening, Sylph sat on her bed, eyes closed in meditation. A slip of brown paper rested on his bed.

He sat down, picking the paper up and scanning over it. “Well, I guess some things stayed the same. Guess who left us a letter?”

“Delph?” Sylph guessed.

“I’m not giving you points for that one. It was too easy.”

“What does he want? Wait, don’t say. He’s probably telling us to show up to the arena. Sometime early too, I bet. Before the sun has risen?”

“Right on all counts,” Damien said as Sylph opened her eyes. He handed her the letter, but she’d already guessed just about everything on it. “I wonder what he’s got to say. Classes, maybe? Either that or something about the tournament or ranking battles.”

“Or he just wants to punch us around now that the school year has started,” Sylph said. “Fifty fifty chance.”

They both chuckled. Sylph set the letter on the floor near the door and they spent the rest of the day training before heading to bed so that they wouldn’t be tired the following day. With Delph, it was always best to play things safe.

The following morning, Henry prodded Damien awake. He headed into the bathroom to get ready, then met Sylph at the front door. It didn’t take them too long to get to the arena, where a small crowd of students was slowly building.

Of the ones present, Damien only recognized Loretta and Cody. He gave them a small nod. They both returned it, Loretta looking slightly more pleased to see him than the bald boy was.

They didn’t move to chat. It was too early in the morning and nobody was willing to break the silence. Several minutes passed. Nolan and Reena showed up along with Mark, but nobody appeared after them. There were less students there than there had been at the start of the previous year.

The wait didn’t last much longer. Delph appeared from a small gray dot in the center of the arena, brushing his cloak off and wearing his typical scowl. He cast a critical eye over all of them.

“All here I see,” Delph observed. “Good. A lot of students get lax over summer, but I hold you all to a higher standard than that.”

“Are you still our professor this semester?” One student whose name Damien had never learned asked. “I thought they changed every year.”

“Your nonprimary subject teachers will change,” Delph said. “Unfortunately, you aren’t getting rid of me that easily. However, speaking of which, you’ve stumbled across the main reason I’ve called you here this morning. We’ll be hopping right into things this year, so your new subjects have already been assigned. Many of you already know your teachers, as they reached out to you during the summer. This will just make it official.”

Delph pulled a bundle of papers out of a pocket in his coat and walked amongst everyone, distributing them. By the time he was done, everyone other than Damien and Sylph had received one. They glanced at each other but didn’t mention anything out loud.

“There we go,” Delph said. “Happy? I don’t care. It’s not my problem if you don’t like your subject – take it up with the teacher. The school has chosen teachers and topics that it believes will benefit you the most in your path.”

There were a few grumbles at that, but nobody protested. Delph clapped his hands together. “Good. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’ll cover my own schedule. Like last year, we’ll be meeting every other day. I’ll contact you the day before with the location. There are several tournaments coming up, but I don’t care about anything other than the ranking battles, so I’ll let you all figure those out yourselves. If you’ve gotten out of practice during the summer, you better start getting back in shape. I expect an outstanding showing from every single student in my class.”

Everyone automatically gave Delph a nod.

“That’s all for today,” Delph said. “School starts tomorrow. I’ll let you do whatever it is that kids do for fun. Be ready to train tomorrow morning. Dismissed.”

People watched him warily for a few moments. Nobody left. Delph rolled his eyes. “I was serious. Get lost.”

Students finally started to disperse. As they left, Damien cleared his throat.

“Professor? You didn’t give us the slips with our classes on them.”

“Didn’t think I’d need to spell it out for you,” Delph replied, nodding at something behind them.

Damien and Sylph turned as a brilliant red portal sprung open behind them and Dredd emerged from within it.

“I hope you’ve enjoyed your break,” Dredd said without a hint of a smile. “I’m sure this year will be incredibly informative for all of us.”