Ch. 3: Paradise

Kill or be killed... this is horrible. I've just arrived in another world, and I'm already being told to do quests that are impossible for me to do?! How funny is this developer!

Eyeing the floating screen, my eyebrows twitched. An impossible thing to do and I'm being told to complete it. I hope I don't die because of this quest... it's honestly suspicious. The appearance of this quest is rather sudden. Maybe I'm in unknown danger. Glancing at the young man's back.

"We've arrived." He smiled at me. " Paradise."

"Everything is connected..." I walked step by step.

Everything was sparkling. My smile was wide, my eyebrows were raised, my eyes sparkled like jewels shining in the sunlight, reflecting the joy radiating from the bottom of my heart. Paradise. Sparkling gold. A million mora, you could say.

I immediately observed the young man. Afraid that he would realize that I was so happy to see paradise with my own eyes. Fortunately, he didn't know. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Mora?" I asked.

"Ah, this? Stolen from the house of a rich landlord in the center of the city." He boasted. "I was the biggest influence at the time!"

"A rich landlord's house? You can enter the city? How can you just walk in and walk out?"

"Heh, we have our own 'entrance'."

I nodded in understanding. "Can I touch it?" pointing at the bag of mora bag.

His eyes narrowed. Suspicious. "...please" He probably thought I was going to steal.

The moment I touched, I felt endless happiness. I opened the pouch, and was amazed at what was inside. If I took all this mora, I would definitely be filthy rich. That's right, I can immediately sign up to be an adventurer. With that in mind, I glanced at the young man and smiled.

"You want to look at some magic?"

His eyes narrowed once more. Touching the hilt of the sword at his waist. "You want to steal it?"

What a serious person. Where had his previous stupidity gone? How could he be a different person. Anyway, I don't want him to point his sword at me.

"Hey, hey... calm down. I don't want to die in a place like this." I raised my hand. Throwing the mora back into the pile. "See, I threw it away, right?"

Letting go of the grip again. "Don't do anything stupid," he said firmly. "Follow me. We'll continue walking around."

I sighed and followed him. By the time I was right behind him, I looked back slightly. The one bag of mora I had touched transformed itself into blue particles, and disappeared into the void. Honestly, my eyes widened and my lips parted slightly, then I smiled.

With a mysterious gesture, I made the mora seem to disappear from the world. As if it was swept away by an unexpected miracle. Let's say I had just added to the dramatization of the mysterious action I was presenting, inserting a touch of magic in the midst of the real world.

When in fact I only put that one bag of mora into my inventory. No one knew. If this young man was watching, he would have beheaded me right here. And, this cave. Became my tomb.

Even so... there was no way I wasn't stealing. No one would have realized that the mora was there for the taking. I mean, what favors are you lying right.

***

"What kind of work do you guys do besides robbing people of their wealth?"

He held up three fingers. "Searching for treasure, raping women, killing people." With that said, I couldn't see the young man's face. Either he was sad, or the other way around. But...

Man... your actions are really unethical. You deserve to be punished! I'll escort you all to court, and let Neuvillette cook.

While muttering that, I continued to wander around the cave. It was getting deeper, and darker. I couldn't see anything if I wasn't holding a torch. I could see many Treasure Hoarders who were fast asleep. Some were laughing out loud with their friends. And some were carving something on the cave wall. Observing them, I felt a strange feeling in my heart.

He said Treasure Hoarders kill people and rape women. But what I see here are ordinary people. They're not much different from other humans. They have feelings.

But their actions that I saw in the game were both vile and ridiculous. I could only sigh. I knew what I saw on the computer screen was some kind of entity that didn't deserve my empathy. But I didn't expect...

At this moment, the young man who had been accompanying me suddenly stopped. He looked back at me.

My lips curled up instantly. Tilted my head. "What's wrong?"

"I've been waiting for you for a long time." He exhaled. "I'm tired. I'll rest here first. You can go around on your own. Remember, don't do anything stupid."

He went to the side of the wall. Leaning his back against the cave wall. His eyes immediately closed tightly. He was completely exhausted. No defense.

I continued to observe him until a few seconds later. Then I pocketed my hands, and went around. I'll follow where fate takes me.

***

In the increasingly hot cave, my brow furrowed, and sweat began to pour down my temples. Damn... it's getting hotter the more I go inside.

But a moment later, in a twisting fit of horror, I froze instantly.

My eyes were glued to a woman: her pure white skin, mesmerizing blue eyes, and long blonde hair that reached her waist. My body soared in deep confusion. A beautiful woman!

She was confined in a cage. Her body was gracefully spread out. Her dress had a high cut at the top, accentuating her slender waist, with a wide and long skirt that reached the floor. It was the kind of dress I usually saw when walking around the city of Fontaine.

Looks like she was kidnapped by them. Treasure Hoarders. I looked around me and then approached a young man who was close to the cage.

He looked at me suspiciously at first. But immediately behaved as usual when I introduced myself as a new member of the Treasure Hoarders.

"Who is that woman?" I asked, curious. I'd never seen her in the game. Maybe she was an NPC.

The young man shook his head. "I don't know who she is."

I squinted my eyes. How could they kidnap an NPC that they didn't even know? This was really strange and suspicious. With that question, I glanced at the woman.

She was looking at me too!

Her blue eyes shone brightly in the pitch darkness. I felt like I was standing in a sea of calm as I stared. Her gaze was so deep, it seemed to penetrate my soul and embrace all the doubts within me. My eyes saw the beauty and tranquility of the ocean radiating from her blue eyes.

My body trembling, I took a step back. Letting my torch fall to the ground. I felt swept away by an unexpected wave of emotions.

"Amelia."

"Huh?!" My eyebrows raised spontaneously. What did she say just now?

The woman's lips moved, whispering the word "Amelia" to me again. Her blue eyes stared at me. So mysterious. This will haunt me.

***

Since today is a holiday, I'll write one more chapter :) hope you guys like it. support me with ko-fi so I can upload more :)

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