"-I don't recommend continuing on your path to the King's castle even if it holds half a boss cell"
"And why is that?"
After that brief exploration of emotions and burden, the Timekeeper seemed to have opened up to me somewhat.
Sure it wasn't to the point she could trust me with her back or me with her, but it was definitely to the point where we could comfortably with each other.
It probably helped that we were just at each other's throats a while ago and could therefore ascertain a bit of the other's personality.
Purging all negative emotions by manner of combat did wonders on the personality.
Funny how that worked.
But anyways.
Continuing where she had left off, the Timekeeper picked up the short sword stabbed into the ground.
"If you as you are now come in contact with the golden order guarding the kingdom's palace, it's only a matter of time before you come in contact with their captain."
"The Golden what now?" Blinking, I tilted my head in confusion, I felt as if I had heard that somewhere before.
"Yeah, the Golden order, also known as the Royal guard to the common people, also known as the most prestigious placement in the Sevallian Kingdom or as the King says."
Sarcastically ending her words, I couldn't help but repeat the words golden order in my mind.
'Isn't that the order that those twin's older brother entered? Or was he also a twin? Triplets?'
'Doesn't it mean that if I were to enter there's a chance that I would have to kill their brother? Damn it.' Rubbing my forehead, the Timekeeper sheathed her blades on her back and continued to lead me towards the door opposite of where I entered.
"That captain of theirs is a monster though, three years in and he's already one of the strongest people I've ever seen"
'Three years? When did they say that their brother left them again?'
"How much of a monster are we talking?"
"Hmm..." Rubbing her chin, she raised four fingers. "I think it would take roughly four of me's to beat him. Probably five since he's now a monster"
"Oh wow. And he became infected?"
"Yeah, it turns out that even if you have the ability to fell a giant in a single stroke, you can't avoid getting sick."
"Damn."
"Tell me about it."
Opening the door to the ruined clocktower, the Timekeeper handed me a blueprint of her tower, allowing me to fill out the previously unexplored areas of the tower.
"Anyways, this is as far as I go."
"You aren't coming?"
"Nope, I have something else to do here." She gestured behind her.
"You have a very hands off approach on this whole end of the world thing." Raising an eyebrow, the Timekeeper chuckled
"You think that the world can loop all by itself without it breaking in some places? Someone has to make sure that time and space are somewhat in order."
Her gaze darkened as she turned to look at the devastated clocktower.
"Someone however broke everything here, so the next loop is probably going to render most of the maps useless for the time being."
At this point, I have learnt from many scars before that it's best to play a shameless idiot.
"Who ever did that? Tell me what they looked like and I'll probably be able to help you catch the monster"
"He had black hair, orange eyes, bandaged hands and feet, baggy parachute pants, a skin tight black undershirt, a grey colored pauldron on his right should and a red scarf."
"Ahaha..." Laughing awkwardly, I turned my gaze away from her deadly glare before letting out a sigh.
"What'll happen to the tower?"
She waved me off "Don't worry, it'll repair itself at the end of the month, it's one of the upsides in living in an eternally repeating hell."
"The way you word makes it sound much worse than it currently is, the undead aren't that difficult to deal with right now are they?"
"Right now they aren't"
"?" Tilting my head in confusion, the Timekeeper smiled softly before pushing me out of the door.
"Anyways, if you do eventually visit High Peak Castle which I know you will, fair advice that you might want to treat every single one of the guards there as an undead just below an elite, God knows how many of those guys have actually reached elite status."
"Huh, actually valuable information, thank you."
"Of course? What do you take me for?"
"A violent maniac that nearly took off my head?"
"Not that" She smiled. "I may want to know when you were born down to the very last second so I can keep track on your time, but I'm not crazy."
"Huh? I think you just said something very creepy right then-" "-But anyways, you might want to get going."
She cast a meaningful glance to the one who called himself the Tailor. "It seems he wants to talk to you."
Turning my head, it was as she said, the Tailor was touching up his bobbed haircut shaped like a pear.
"Anyways, since everything is done and dusted now, see you later."
"See ya."
Closing the door, I ignored the fact that the walls around the door suddenly broke down revealing the Timekeeper and walked towards the Tailor.
"You probably know me as the Tailor, but greeting stranger that destroyed the Timekeeper's clock tower! You certainly made a memorable appearance!
"Ahahah" Awkwardly laughing, I clasped the man's outstretched hand and shook it.
"It almost makes me want to forget how much of a disaster you look like!"
"..." I froze, a stiff smile covering my face as I mentally processed what he had just said "Could you repeat that one more time for me? I think dust got into my ears."
"You look like a disaster!"
Nope, still sounds like an insult.
I frowned. "Look Tailor, we just met, so I don't get why you're insulting my appearance, so if you don't mind, I'll just get going."
"Oh no nonononononono NO!" Hurriedly waving their hands, the giant pair of scissors appeared in their hands, brandishing it as if it were nothing more than just air.
"I can't let you leave!"
"..." The frown on my face deepened as I reached out to my inventory, getting ready to pull out my blade immediately if things showed a hint of heading the wrong direction.
Continuing to wave the pair of scissors around, the Tailor opened their mouth only to have it forced shut when a giant spool of thread suddenly flew out of nowhere to hit the man on the head.
*Thwack!
"Ack!"
"?"
"When are you going to learn dad? Explain things before making it sound so threatening."
Pulling back the spool of purple thread that had just hit the man on the head, she quickly rolled it back up and stuffed it into her waistband.
It was the girl with the incredibly strange hairstyle bigger than my arms width.
Leaping up, she grabbed the back of her father's neck and forcefully brought it down, bowing her own head in unison.
"Sorry about that stranger, it's just that when my dad sees people, he wants to dress them up in other clothes."
"It's no worries" Shaking my head and crossing my arms, I looked at her handlebar hair that defied gravity.
Rubbing the back of his head, the Tailor seemed to finally realize what he had done wrong as he stood back up, calmly placing the scissors on his side while presenting his hand as he stood back up
"Sorry about that, it's just that your clothes look so old and out of style that I wanted to get you proper ones."
"Nope, I still want to punch his face."
'It's no worries, I guess we did get off on the wrong foot.'
"Dad!"
"Oops" It seemed that my words and my thoughts had gotten mixed up.
Shaking her dad's shoulders despite being half of his size, the young girl apologized to me. "I'm sorry about this, he isn't usually like this."
"It's... no worries."
Hesitating whether I should intervene on this family matter, my eyes were locked on the Tailor shaking like the insides of a blender.
It seemed like they were used to things like this though.
Shaking off the tight grip of their daughter, the Tailor smoothed out the wrinkles on his shirt and smiled calmly at me.
"I'm sorry about that... It's just that when I see people with a good figure, I lose my mind and want to test all of my creations on them."
"It's no worries." Subtly puffing out my chest to exemplify my good figure, I ignored the obvious flattery and caught his hand again, shaking it.
"Great!" Clapping their hands in joy, the Tailor smiled brightly. "Then follow me to my Tailor shop so that I can take your measurements, I want to test a few designs on you..."
The Tailor paused just as he was about to turn around and lead me to his shop, Rubbing his hands in curiousity.
"Now that I think about it, what do I call you?"
'A name huh?'
Falling silent at the sudden question, I recalled the words that the Timekeeper had said.
Even if it was rare, there was a precedent of the Malaise infecting the people through their names, so it was generally accepted as the norm on the island to call people by their nicknames.
But what would I call myself?
Slade Bridge was definitely out of the question
And I don't think I want to call myself by my old call sign since I wanted something not connected to my previous world, besides, it didn't seem fitting to use a name from the past in the present
Flicking my wrist, the appearance of the inventory interface suddenly flickered abruptly in front of me revealing my character icon in all of it's human glory.
'Ah.'
I recalled the flames that would sprout on my shoulders.
Smiling, I opened my mouth and spoke confidently.
"Call me the Beheaded."
+++
Indie Cross Ep2 is the best thing I've ever seen, chef's kiss
My favorite part was when the Beheaded was turned into a pancake.
Tree