This Clueless Hero

It was a little nostalgic seeing Mark after so long, though the conditions definitely could've been better. There seemed to be some sort of secret that Mark was a little sensitive about. However, that really didn't involve me.

I raised my hands helplessly.

"I was just using the alleyways as a place to sneak past the patrol!"

Mark narrowed his eyes.

"Is it really that important?"

The side of my face twitched.

Honestly?

Not really. I mean, there is a limit to how important a piece of paper can be, especially if it was blank. It's not like I had some kind of letter that would stop a war.

But it felt important to me, at least.

"Well, kind of?"

Mark smiled in that strange empty way he always does.

"Then why do you have to use the roofs?"

I scratched the back of my head.

"Of course I don't have to use them, but it makes it a lot easier to avoid the guards since they don't get up on the roof."

Mark remained silent for a moment.

"Don't use the roofs."

My eyelid twitched.

"Isn't this..."

I moved my hands around exaggeratedly as though that would somehow convey the thoughts in my mind that not even I understood.

"...just unreasonable?"

Mark shrugged his shoulders.

"Maybe."

I tilted my head to the side.

"So-"

"But I don't care if it's unreasonable."

Mark raised his hand, cutting me off.

The side of my face twitched.

"...Not even until I get back to the palace?"

Mark kept the familiar smile on his face and leaned forward ever so slightly.

"No."

A helpless sigh escaped me.

"Ok, ok. I won't use the roofs anymore. At the very least, you can let me stay here until I find an opening, right?"

Mark chuckled.

"Well... that much is fine."

I gave a slight nod, then walked close to the edge of the roof. I peered off, looking at the ground with my peripheral vision. As of now, there were no guards around, prompting me to hop off.

Upon landing, I gave one last look above me, but Mark had already left. And with that, my encounter with him was over.

It made me wonder.

What was Mark trying to do here in the first place? More so than just this alleyway, but this kingdom in general.

From my past experiences with him, he definitely wasn't weak, but aimlessly spent his time here anyway. And in the same vein... why was he in such ragged clothes all the time? It was almost like he didn't care about worldly things, or just didn't care enough.

Nonetheless, there was no time to think for too much longer.

There were footsteps in the distance.

This time, there were far less guards. After all, they had scattered throughout the entire alleyway aimlessly, while before, they all began to swarm towards me. Hearing a few guards coming from the right, I silently ducked towards the left.

Hearing a few footsteps coming from my front, I scaled up the walls, then remained there silently. A few moments later, a couple guards passed by. They did not even notice that their target was right above them.

Like this, I navigated the alleyways until eventually making it back to where I started. The roads were unguarded, making it quite easy to walk from the alleyway to the palace.

The night was dark, only lit up by the moonlight. I was very tempted to continue to draw the spell, but remembered that I needed to fix my terrible sleep schedule.

In my heart, I promised that I would wake up in time to cook with the others.

And so, I went up to my room, put away the parchment, and fell onto the bed. Sleep came almost instantly. It seemed like I was more worn out than I thought.

...

I woke up, greeted by a few rays of the early dawn. Seeing how early it was, there should be enough time to water the farm, especially if I get into the groove of doing it like that with the bucket.

And so, that's what I did, wildly rotating the bucket of water around. It felt a little awkward at first, but became natural after a few rounds or so.

Before I knew it, I was standing before the farm with an empty bucket in hand, while the farm itself was completely watered.

After setting the bucket back, I hurried on back to the palace so that I would arrive on time.

By the time I reached the cased opening to the kitchen, I heard some voices.

First, Erin's soft voice rang out.

"Hmm... Jay isn't here."

Then, Alyx sighed.

"If only he didn't have such a strange sleep schedule."

After that, Ned laughed.

"Ironically enough, he was the one that told me it was dumb to mess up your sleep schedule with an all-nighter."

I put my hand on the cased opening and took a step forward.

"Hey, I woke up early this time, alright! And that's how it's going to be from now on!"

The three turned to me with mildly shocked expressions.

Erin raised both hands in the air.

"You made it!"

A small smile appeared on Alyx's face.

"Oh my, a blue moon rose."

Ned laughed.

"Ah, I take it back, you did wake up on time."

I pointed towards them.

"Look, I get that I haven't been for quite a while. But that isn't going to happen anymore. If I do end up oversleeping, you can just forcefully shake me awake and call me a filthy liar when I wake up."

Erin clapped excitedly.

"Yay!"

Alyx laughed.

"I will be sure to do that. You can be rest assured of that."

Ned smirked.

"Haha, you want to try to cook then?"

I blinked a few times and raised a finger in the air.

"Uh... no."

Ned chuckled.

"Come on, you haven't tried a single time before."

I pointed accusingly towards Alyx, selling her out immediately.

"She hasn't tried before either!"

Alyx smiled teasingly.

"Actually, I already have."

My jaw dropped.

"What!"

Erin giggled.

"But she did burn it pretty bad."

Alyx's eyebrow twitched.

"...You didn't have to say that part."

Ned shrugged his shoulders.

"At least she didn't mention the part where you spilled more than half of the vegetables."

Alyx looked at Ned angrily.

"You!-"

I ended up laughing, cutting her off completely.

"Alright, alright. I guess it won't feel so bad when I mess up if Alyx already did."

Ned raised a finger.

"If you mess up."

Erin smiled brightly.

"I believe you will get it!"

Alyx simply rolled her eyes and went into the kitchen.

And with that, we got to work, but I was one of the main cooks.

I tried with everything I had to do it properly.

Keyword there is tried.

Erin gasped.

"Wah! You did worse than Alyx!"

Ned coughed awkwardly.

"Well... there's always next time."

Alyx smiled bitterly.

"There's no need to do even worse just to make me feel better..."

I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.

"Uh... yeah, yeah."

I was granted the duty to cook a piece of meat, and some vegetables. Apparently, Alyx had burnt the meat, but it was still edible. As for me, one side was pure charcoal, while the other was raw.

I actually completely forgot about the meat. It was only when Ned noticed a burning smell did he take away the pan with the meat. Since it was already unsalvageable from one side, we decided to just leave it.

As for the vegetables...

I wasn't used to my own strength yet, alright!

I never did any exercises to improve my control, so when I tried to stir the vegetables, they might have all flown out.

Ned and Erin took over, while I went back to helping with miscellaneous things. The sorry sight of what I had cooked was discarded, and a new meal was made.

From there, the four of us ate. The three didn't forget to tease me a little bit every so often, while I tried my best to justify myself.

Though my success in that was pretty much the same as my success in cooking.

Regardless, once that was over, I decided to go use that parchment to finish drawing the other half of the spell diagram.

And so, that's what I did.

After a flurry of strokes, the parchment was covered in ink with the spell diagram. This time, I waited for the ink to dry, before flipping it over and attempting to retrace the diagram with my eyes closed.

...And other than a small mistake, I succeeded.

My memorization definitely wasn't perfect, as I had messed up on both halves of the spell diagram. However, I figured that should've been enough to cast the spell.

Though that was with the spell diagram in front of me, so I could follow it.

And so, I tried to cast it.