Chapter 193 Paperwork...

Log 1 - It had been three days since we were dispatched through the northern path. An order from the king himself. I had been excited for the first day. The merit that I would gain as a result of this expedition would allow for me to ascend my position of a knight but these harrowing days have disheartened me.

It started as well as any journey, the food was dry as ever. The paiges complained and the other knights were yelling at them to do their jobs with no complaint.

That did not last though, instead it started to take over. Little by little my soldiers fell, replaced by their dead bodies.

Through the last two days most of everyone had been consumed by this being. I fear I may be the last remaining. I can not do anything though. As much as it aches my heart to see my comrades torn asunder by this being… It was too powerful.

The dead eyes of another just passed me as I write this message. Give me strength oh' King.

Log 2 - it has been another week since my last entry and my fears have come to fruition. I am the last remaining with my own mind. No others remained with any of their mind intact.

It was a harrowing sight, to walk around the camp that we had created and to know that none of the expedition members were themselves.

I can only hope that I may survive this ordeal. My guard is always up.

On a brighter note I had found that they seemed to want to leave me alone. Whatever their purpose was, they needed me. What they needed… I could not tell you. However I have some speculations.

If you are reading this then you are either the king or someone that has taken it from him but if you are the king then I would suspect that they are keeping me alive for my inherent ability. Whatever they are they are not able to replicate the inherent abilities they held in life.

For example just the other day, Ilden, had snapped his hands on instinct to light a fire. Yet no fire came. It was a curious phenomenon but not one that was unique to him. Every other that I knew had an inherent ability kept their instincts yet they could not use their abilities.

Onto progress, we have made our way halfway through into the territory of the dragon. So far I have had no thoughts of violence against myself. But for the others… I have no clue. I would interrogate them but I feel as if that would not be the right move.

Log 3 - we had made it three quarters of the way to the lair of the dragon. At this point we were preparing for battle. It wasn't anything different than usual. My Paige armored me however there was a slight poke that I felt. It wasn't anything unusual as when my armor is out there are some uncomfortable parts that would poke and prod at me. However, now that I am writing this, it stood out to me.

I can feel my mind going, as it is consumed by a hostile intelligence. Thoughts that I didn't think appeared. It's wearing on my consciousness. I don't know how long I will last but I hope that this log will make its way towards you my king.

I have enchanted this so that no one else but you may decipher it. Hopefully if they take my mind they may not take the translation code.

This is my final message to you, my King. I hope that I did you good service.

…

I read the last log of this knight. Though a part of itstood out to me.

"Delta, how can I read this?" I asked, pointing to the part where the knight had told his king that he had encoded it.

"I decoded it for you."

I just nodded at Delta's explanation. Taking it as fact, there was no need for me to be suspicious of her. Though with that question out of my mind came the implications of the journal and letter would have. Obviously it pointed to the time that the mage had started to take over but it also gave us clues to the location of the apparent dragon that had been mentioned.

The northern path, that meant that somewhere to the north or following the northern path we would find the lair of this dragon. Whether or not it was the realm protector or owner would come later.

Though if we judge by the size of the expedition that had been taken and how it seemed, from the other documents, that most had been wiped out in their attempts that the dragon was more powerful than even the mage.

Or at least more powerful than the slaves of the mage. Though that didn't say much because the slaves of the mage that we had fought had been nothing but mere peasants. None of them had the ability of a knight.

Though either way, the dragon was most likely still at large. With how the expedition had failed and the relatively short time frame between then and now. It didn't give the mage much time to prepare for a second expedition and even if he did it wouldn't be a waste to seek after it. The journey may bring us closer to other kingdoms that might have more information.

That was for later though as I had documents to read however I still felt proud of myself as I had gotten so much out of a simple journal and some supporting letters.

I could feel the disapproving gaze of Delta on myself however I wasn't going to stop my self praise just because she knew more. I had to read through all of those documents and had concluded so much evidence and plans from them. It was an accomplishment as it was my first time going through such documents.

Though it hurt my eyes to do so much reading, not to mention how dry it was. The journal was one of if not the best written one. My eyes had healed soon after being strained however the mental strain still hit me.

By now though it had already been a couple of hours of just reading through dry documents. My eyes were drooping at the thought of any more paperwork.

I sucked in a deep breath and let it out. My eyes closed and I felt my consciousness start to fall before it was pulled back by a shock to the neck.

My eyes opened in an instant and started to glare at Delta.

"No sleeping" was the only thing I got from her before she buried me in more paperwork.

I flipped through the prices of paper and saw that they were all scattered in their contents. I wondered what I was supposed to do with this outloud.

"Organize it into one document with all of the important aspects cataloged"

…

I groaned as my head fell into my arms. The desk was filled with papers thrown haphazardly around. Under my arms was a document that contained the combined reports of everything that was in the giant stack of paper that had been thrown all around the desk.

It was boring, so boring. All of the reports was about management. About how this one person had this problem and it was solved with solution a. Or maybe solution b.

Delta had wanted me to take all of the important data from it and organize it into the document and that was what I did.

I looked at the solutions that worked and those that didn't and found the parts of the ones that failed that I could use and the parts of the ones that succeeded that I could also use.

Those were put into the experimental part of the document while the other pages were of the various successes and failures.

I was finally done. It was educational, in ways that I didn't want to acknowledge but I was forced to. The smug smile that had appeared in my vision just begged for me to admit that I was wrong.

"So~"

The singsong voice of Delta rang in my ear. It must have been mechanically tuned because no voice could be that tuned.

"This was good practice" I spat out, my tired brain not caring for formalities at all.

"Good, now sleep"

With that my eyes dropped, my consciousness slipping. For a second I wondered how she had done it. With but a single word I was falling unconscious against my will.

…

I woke to the scent of paper and ink. It was weird, for all I knew we used Delta as a sort of note taker.

If either Aoif or I wanted something written down for further use we would either remember it or if we didn't have time would have Delta memorize it.

That was why it was so weird that I could smell the faint scent of ink. It was because none of us had nor used ink for notes or anything else I could think of.

I opened my eyes, my back slightly strained from sleeping in a chair the whole night.

On the chair beside me was Aoif, her eyes closed as she snoozed away.

I looked up and saw Delta focusing on something. A paper on the desk as she wrote and rewrote something.

Small adjustments were made here and there but overall the image stayed the same.

It was of a rune, one that looked to be an inverted K with lines here and there.

I could feel the aether that flowed off of the rune though every time it was rewritten it would flow just that much more powerfully.

There was even a faint sense of dryness in the atmosphere. I could only conclude that whatever that rune did it had to do with fire or something similar like moisture.

Why Delta would play around with stuff like that in a room full of books and documents was beyond me but I guess she might have had some countermeasures.