It was time.
I was standing in the Shadow Flame town square, a few feet from the base of the Shadow Flame’s monument. Runica was beside me, reassuring me that everything would be okay every now and again.
Ahead of us was a shock and confused crowd that was slowly increasing in size. Many people had realized that I was here, and they had gone to call others.
Between the crowd and I was the line of able-bodied men, made up of Runica’s family members and some of the men they had employed. Runica’s father, a big man in the community with a distinct, dark beard, and wide back, had rounded them up and came to support me, along with his sons and nephews.
One of the sons, Kolm, looked over at me and nodded. He was a big, muscular guy with a square jaw and dark brown hair. He especially was ready to brawl, and had reassured me repeatedly that nothing would happen.
He gestured over to the side, and I looked over. The village elder, an old hunched over man with the longest beard in the village had taken a seat on a crate his no-nonsense daughter had brought.
I nodded. That was a good enough signal to get things started. I raised my hand. The crowd quieted down.
“So… I’ve heard a lot about what’s been said about me while I was gone. Let me clear everything up. I’m alive, and the story you all heard was false.”
That got the murmurs started.
“I didn’t do anything that you heard. Veyrith was an idiot. Heck, the biggest idiot. He led us out of safety, and when we were predictably attacked, he pushed me into the Mauler.” I pointed at my missing arm. “I got lucky. Sacrificing my arm, I was able to escape. And then, I suffered as I tried to make my way back. That’s my story.”
The murmurs intensified, and then, some from the crowd blurted out that they wanted to hear Veyrith’s side of the story. I wanted to yell back that they had been fed it for so many phases, but I kept my cool.
One of the guys in the defensive line yelled my comeback out for me, which I appreciated immensely.
The crowd reacted. Some were on the side of hearing out Veyrith, while others pointed out that my being here already refuted the story. And then someone brought up that the other three had the same story, so it was four against three, to which others responded that they all might have lied.
The calls for the party to appear were increasing. So many were asking where the party was hiding. And then we heard a voice. It got louder and louded as the crowd quieted.
“Hey, why are so many people gathered here? Get out of the way. Get out!”
The crowd parted and revealed that the party had arrived—or rather, what was left of the party had arrived. Saela, Edrin, and Kastel, carried in Edrin’s arms like some sort of wounded princess. What a joke.
“H-Huh? Sneakrat Set?” Kastel yelled, eyes wide. “You’re here.”
“I am,” I replied. “Good to see you again, Kastel. I’m not a ghost—”
“I-I-It was you!!!” Kastel yelled, crooked finger pointed at me, tooth flying out like a white flag. “It was you! You attacked us!”
A ripple of shocked gasps spread through the crowd like a hot breeze. Murmurs followed—questions, confusion, suspicion. Kastel had thrown a confusing bit of information out.
People shifted where they stood, casting wary glances my way. Mothers pulled their children closer. Hunters leaned on their spears with uneasy hands. All a bit too overdramatic.
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I said nothing.
Not because I couldn’t, but because I didn’t need to. I wasn’t alone here anymore. There were people who I had given all the excuses they could ever want.
And so, a loud scoff broke the tension.
“Really?”
From the defensive line, Kolm stepped forward, looking even huger than he did a moment ago. He stood between us and the crowd, cracking his neck, unwilling to lose his chance to mock Kastel.
He jabbed a thumb toward me. “That guy? The one with one arm, a limp, and a face like he’s been chewing on rocks for breakfast?”
I winced and touched my face. “Do I look that bad?”
Runica giggled and wiped a smudge from my face with her thumb. “Only a little.”
A few nervous chuckles slipped through the crowd.
Kolm kept going. “Come on. How long are you guys going to keep your asinine lie up, huh, Shitface? You expect us to believe he took down an entire hunting party? With two blessed people in it? With Edrin there? What’d he do, throw vegetables at you until you cried? I know you never liked your greens, kid. Did you run out of the boundary because you were so scared?”
The laughter grew louder. Kastel’s bruised face found a way to turn from purple to a little bit redder, his lips quivering with rage, and a tear falling out.
“L-Laugh all you want! You weren’t there!” he snapped. “He—he came out of nowhere, like a ghost! Dark cloak, glowing eyes—he used some kind of shadow magic to beat us! He was worse than a Shadow Beast!”
Kolm raised an eyebrow. “So now we’re calling the guy you all pushed into a Shadow Beast a Shadow Beast himself? Dumbasses–”
“WE DIDN’T!” Kastel roared.
But Kolm remained stalwart.
Kastel sputtered, his arms flailing as he searched for support in the crowd. “He attacked us! He was hiding something! He’s always been strange! You people just—just can’t see it!”
“And now we’re calling the guy who protected my sister from your Veyrith the strange one.” Kolm cracked his knuckles. “Actually, where is that asshole anyway?” Kolm asked, causing some angry whispers to spread in the crowd. “Get him out here. I’ve got a nice bat I want to break on his head.”
Kastel winced, a low whine escaping him. He wasn’t answering.
Kolm looked at Edrin. “Edrin, where’d you hide Veyrith? We need to hear him talk. Come on, big guy. Don’t tell me your face can take more of a beating.”
Edrin looked down, only for Kolm to look at Saela.
“Where’s your brother, Saela?”
Saela, looking on the verge of a breakdown, stared at the floor. The crowd realized something was strange. They were already taking steps away from the group.
But Kastel had adrenaline in his veins.
“You’re not listening! He’s dangerous! He has that… that look in his eyes! Like he’s not even one of us anymore!” Kastel’s scream became more shrill. “Veyrith is dead! Saela heard his screams! Set killed him!”
Runica’s grip on my hand tightened. I glanced at her, only to see her glancing at me. She nodded in approval. I glanced over at her father. The man stood there, cross-armed and nodding, his eyes relishing the notion that some long-due debt had been paid.
Guess they hated Veyrith as much as I did after all. It’s funny. Without my life experience from Earth, I wouldn’t have been able to see it…
Kolm let out the loudest scoff so far. “You want us to believe that Set killed Veyrith, a man blessed by the cavern to always live? Is your brain bruised, Kastel?”
“He did! It’s the only thing that makes sense!”
Kolm looked at the crowd and nodded. “I’ll be honest. If he did, then good. Veyrith was a stain on this community.”
Gasps spread through the crowd. I was a little shocked, too. I could lose whatever support I had if Kolm went too hard against consensus—
“Oh shut up. All of you know my family has nothing good to say about him. Stop trying to make it something bigger than it is. And the idiots gasping, look around. You aren’t many.”
I studied the crowd at that moment. Sure enough, there were many noticeable smiles, along with many pumping their fist at the notion that Veyrith was gone.
“To be honest, after hearing from Set what happened the first time, I bet the idiot walked out of the hunting grounds again, but this time, he didn’t have Set to feed to a Shadow Beast,” Kolm said.
Kastel seethed. “We didn’t do that–”
Edrin dropped Kastel after a loud roar. He followed Saela, who was already walking to the elder, to the shock of everyone.
A few paces from the elder, she and Edrin dropped to their knees and drove their faces into the dirt.
“We’re sorry!” she yelled, shouting so loud the whole village would hear. “We lied! We won’t make any excuses! We lied about what happened!”
The crowd erupted in one unified gasp.
