Chapter 48 - 48: Ominous Signs and ~The Most Horrible time of the year~

I just stood there awkwardly while my mother, Rakka and Bola just stared at me while I was holding my newly bounded drajule.

After a few seconds I asked my mother, "Am I in trouble"?

"For what?", my mother said after getting out of her stupor and with confusion in her voice.

"For recklessly rushing in and doing a binding ritual on", the drajule somehow growled and jumped in my hand, "whatever is inside this drajule right now".

My mother let out a small breath and proceeded to just pat my head. "As a mother, yes. What you did was very reckless and dangerous. But as a binder, what you did was rather brave and par for the course. Being a binder means taking risks and being reckless sometimes to capture or defeat majimonsters. It goes without saying that you also passed the test", she said to me while rubbing my head.

I felt the tension on my shoulders melt away and let out a sigh of relief. But I immediately tensed back up as I remembered about what just happened and had to make sure it wasn't I think it was.

"Uh...mother? Did you notice anything odd before those two majimonsters started acting out? Like the cry of a deranged animal or majimonster?", I asked apprehensively.

My mother stopped rubbing my head and had this focused look on her. She turned towards a nearby tree and walked over to it. Taking out a hunting knife, my mother hacked into the bark and peeled back a piece. She took one look at what was underneath and let out a small curse under her breath. "It's as I feared Silvia", my mother said while gesturing me to look for myself.

[What does she fear?], I heard Voxea ask in my head.

I walked right over and confirmed with my own eyes that underneath the tree bark was the strange runes that would soon show up on every tree and stone in the valley. "Well crap. Here comes Monster's Night", I said aloud and to Voxea.

[What's Monster's Night]?

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My mother rode back home in silence. It wasn't that we didn't want to talk, but with the sign of Monster's Night approaching, we didn't want to risk getting into any unnecessary fights. However, even though I was quiet on the outside, on the inside I was talking to Voxea and explaining what exactly was going on.

[So now can you tell me what Monster's Night is? You and your mother just sorta bolted on your mounts after confirming there were runes on a tree].

[You didn't have anything like to back when the Old Empire was alive and kicking?], I thought incredulously.

[Nope. Monsters in my time were weapons and pets remember? I would definitely remember if we had a day this odd and ominous sounding in my time].

[Fair enough. Well, every autumn season there's this one night of the year we call Monster's Night. There's no set day for when it happens but it always occur on the night of the full moon and before it happens, a lot of weird and creepy signs begin to happen. A binder at the town's tavern once told me it was due to the aether acting wild].

[Wait isn't it...winter/spring right now? How are you dealing with it now if it's an autumn affair], Voxea asked confused.

[Well it's winter/spring in the valley sure, but it's autumn outside of it right now. But that's besides the point, the problem is what happens on the night itself. On this night, every single majimonster goes crazy regardless of how they normally act and I'm not sure how it is in other towns and villages, but on Monster's Night, our menhirs stop working and wild majimonsters are able to enter. Everybody in town would have to hide in the townhall bunker until the next morning while the hired binders would try and fight off the aggressors until morning. Sometimes they lived, sometimes they died either way, we would repair the damage left behind].

[That sounds...bad and painfully familiar...], Voxea said sounding a tad melancholy.

Voxea's sudden bout of sadness threw me for a loop, until I thought about it. Did the Old Empire fall because something like Monster's Night happened? Was the first Monster's Night the reason why humanity was now scattered and isolated? I shuddered at the thought and just kept riding onward.