The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Side Chapter Metous 13: Potentially a…

Side Chapter Metous 13: Potentially a…

“What the fuck am I doing?" Lila put her head into her hand as she debated her most recent life choices.

Tyell answered the question she didn’t want to be answered. “Cause you agreed to my plan.”

“Oh yeah, your stupid plan.”

“Does that make you an idiot for joining it?”

Lila sighed, “Honestly, maybe.”

“I would prefer it if you said no.”

“I can’t lie about this.”

Tyell and Lila were out on a ‘road trip’ that had landed them in the small city of Merpole.

It was a few hours out from the city where the Stella family lived.

Once upon a time, it was a good place, but over the last forty years, it had gradually begun falling apart. From the outside, it didn’t look like that; businesses were still selling goods, and the buildings were still up to shape, but anyone who lived in the town in the past could feel the stark differences.

Many places had closed down, simple services took longer to be repaired if they broke, and the crime rate increased to the point people didn’t feel like living in the city any longer. All these changes happened in a relatively short period of time.

Tyell explained that Merpole was the location the artefact was being switched, so Lila took it upon herself to learn about the location. Lila was surprised as she researched the location, being from Earth, she didn’t know much about Metous cities and domains. Reading the articles in chronological order truly laid out how this city fell apart over the years.

The governing body in the city had switched a few times, but no matter what, the city never began improving or recovering.

Tyell also gave Lila his own two-cents on the situation. Being twenty-three years old, a year older than Lila, he didn’t know what the city was like before the deterioration began. What he knew more involved the criminal state of the city. 

For as long as he was involved in shady dealings, he had always known that Merpole was the hot spot for those types of activities. Tyell’s job was simply package deliveries, he didn’t know what was in the packages for the most part but he was able to get a general sense of them, especially if he put them in his [Pockettory] skill. Sometimes it was laughable things that people didn’t want on their history list as it was hard to get actual illegal items into the major cities. But there were a few instances where he wasn’t sure what he was carrying but had a feeling it was something dangerous.

Still, anything he did was child’s play to what happened in Merpole. That city had seemingly devolved into a criminal-sponsored enterprise. There weren’t gang fights in the street, as if something that public happened then national security would get involved. However, he heard rumours about drugs and other illegal items and substances being more openly traded there. They were still kept secret of course, but instead of a deal happening in an alley or garage at the edge of town, it was happening in hotels and businesses owned by criminals. 

He didn’t know this for certain but was confidently sure that underground activity that happened in their home city began from Merpole.

“The nicest-looking shithole I have ever seen.” Said Lila.

“Are you sure about that?” Tyell asked.

“Yeah, I am. I’ve been off-world a small few times to some less densely populated colonies and they are either the cleanest or dirtiest of places.”

Tyell nodded. “I will have to take your word on that.”

Lila looked around from where they sat on a cool metal bench eating some fries. She did have multiple regrets about coming here and choosing to help Tyell but she bit the bullet and was here now.

The reason why Lila ended up agreeing to this was that she was frightened that Tyell might’ve gone along if she didn’t help and it had been a while since they had last heard from Nina. She still wasn’t worried that was dead, but the minimal response did give her some worry. With Ceella having been gone for over a month with no signs of returning she had a chance of heart to try and at least find a solution. Though she was completely willing to drag Tyell out of here the moment anything dangerous and life-threatening occurred. 

Of course, informing others was a good option to prevent him, which she had done in a message she sent to Nina, but with no response she got worried. Telling Tella or Mella also felt like a bad decision, mostly because of Mella and not really Tella, but she worried if Tella knew, Mella would find out as an aftereffect of that. 

Honestly, Lila basically believed they would need to lock up Tyell to prevent him from coming, as she predicted either way might try to sneak into this city to find the artefact he was looking for, and if Mella knew about it, Lila had a feeling she might come to the city to drag Tyell back. She didn’t think Mella would look for the artefact, and she believed Mella had a lot more confidence in Ceella than either she or Tyell had combined.

“I can’t believe your plan is to sneak in and steal while the transport happens.”

“We shouldn’t talk about this in the open.”

“Embarrassed about talking about your gaming activities in public? What a child.” Lila sipped her drink. 

“You know what, yes.” Tyell shot back, “I would assume you would feel the same way.”

“Less embarrassed and more guilt on my end; I spent far too long playing on the wrong team because I thought my sister would support it,” Lila replied. 

Lila and Tyell continued their ‘talk’ with a filter. While Tyell made the comment about being public, they weren’t actually near anyone or any cameras. They were simple on the river eating food with basically no one around.

“Ceella knows all about it, right?” Tyell asked. 

“Yeah, but, what about you? You too were close from what I heard, but you didn’t let her know about most of your dark history?”

“That’s right, it felt hard to go into the details when she asked, and Mella… I gave the basics, and I wanted to give more, but I felt like dying during every moment. At the time I did tell her everything I knew, but I never went into any specific events.”

“Maybe you should,” Lila said. Her eyes fluttered between Tyell and the screensaver on her phone, which was a photo of Ceella and Rosa on a spaceship with the stars behind them.

“I talked to Nina and Ceella about it, some specific events, and they shared their own and helped me process through things.”

“I don’t think I can do that…”

“Tyell, you lost someone, it’s not easy, mine happened years ago, I didn’t even see it personally happen, but it still hurts to this day.” Lila reassured him, “There is nothing wrong about talking about it.”

“Heh, like what we are doing right now?” 

Lila let out a small smile. “If you think of it that way, sure, as long as you get it out of your system.”

Tyell stayed silent for a moment.

“Before I started playing, they were there with me, she helped a lot during many of the difficult times… Heh… once I got beaten up so bad my body was dragged back to spawn. She was there to patch me up and called up my folks and I went with her to the game alone. That helped hide the signs of tiredness from that gaming session.”

He didn’t know whether it was because they were hiding it over a loosely veiled curtain of ‘gaming’ or it was his nervousness about his plan, but he let out a lot more than he had intended.

“You had it rough.” Lila sympathised, and then she asked, “Why did you go into that alliance? I entered mine because I wanted to escape the one I was assigned when I joined the game.”

“I…” Tyell looked at the river. “I wanted to be rich. To be in a position where I could sit back and support my friends and guild so they didn’t have to go out into the world unknown full of danger, so they could stay by my side… safe…”

“Selfish in a way.”

“Yeah… we had enough money to live, but I kept wanting more so 

Lila asked, “Why did you pick money, and that way to get it? Becoming a cleric or an admin staff could’ve gotten you into the position you wanted.”

“I think the reason simply was I didn’t believe I could do it another way. I believed I didn’t have the skill to get a good enough occupation and didn’t have the talent to level up a job I was unskilled in.”

“Confidence huh…” Lila said.

“Maybe… Heh… Dad and Sis always seemed to have enough confidence to knock out a hurricane with it alone.”

The two of them had finished up their meal, but they continued to sit on the bench watching the river. Time passed, and some people and animals walked by, but no one bothered them. Emotions were simply released as the minutes flew by and the nervousness left their system.

Lila decided to be the one to start the quest, “Want to hop on and complete the raid heist later?”

Tyell laughed, “Sure, let’s make sure it's a zero-death attempt.”

This was potentially a stupid idea, they both knew that, but it was stupidity that came from worry, and if anything they at least wanted to try and do something for the one friend that they knew who would have their back.

Lila replied back, “It better be, it's hardcore after all.”

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