With that, an hour passed rather quietly. The morning sun rose into the sky and the full light of the world brought them back some well-needed vision. They could finally see what lies beyond the river and the forest.
The mercenaries were on edge since their eyes couldn’t really see that far in the darkness. So, when the sun finally ascended, they felt as if a glimpse of hope had appeared, beckoning for them to move forward and not fear the unknown.
Arthur, on the other hand, didn’t have any problem with the darkness as he could see well but he also was very much happy the morning had finally come.
‘Nothing so far… Did nobody notice us other than that monster and that woman?’ He asked himself as he sat there, resting his face on his hand casually. He was keeping an eye on their surroundings without losing focus, but he was still quite confused as to why there were not enough monsters chasing them.
From all the stuff Deka said, he expected a brutal battle from the moment they set sail till they arrived and so far, several hours passed and he only fought once. Granted, it was a very tough battle and he could’ve lost, but it was still far from the worst situation he could’ve found himself in.
At the one-hour mark, Arthur decided to go down to check on Deka and Sergi who didn’t leave the storage room ever since she called him to talk to him. He wondered if the man had calmed down and realized how childish he was acting.
“Where are you going, sir?” One of the mercenaries saw him and asked.
“Hm? I’m checking on Deka. She had been in there for almost an hour.”
“Mm, she is still talking to Sergi, sir. I believe you should leave them be.”
“…” The boy frowned. “Weird… But sure.”
“Yeah, she told me it would take some time to calm him down.”
Arthur nodded his head faintly before he looked at the door. He could hear some noises coming from the inside so he figured she was indeed still talking to him. Turning around, he walked back to his spot and sat down.
“Well, I guess there is nothing else to do other than to wait and make sure things are going flawlessly.”
With that, another hour passed in complete silence except for the whistling of the wind. At this point, Arthur was even more confused than ever before.
“Nothing… We had gotten nothing.” He muttered as he put his hand on his chin. “I did pray for this, but… Something doesn’t sound right.”
Although there was no threat he could feel, Arthur was quite shocked that nothing truly tried to stop them in their tracks.
“Sir? Is everything alright up there?” One mercenary asked.
“… So far, nothing is happening,” Arthur replied with a not-so-happy expression. “Don’t let your guard down. How long do we have left before we reach the port?”
“It has been three hours sir… Mm, we should be there soon.”
“Soon, huh?” Arthur muttered as he stared into the distance. For some reason, he couldn’t believe those words. For him, it didn’t feel like they were getting close. The entire atmosphere around him was only getting more and more tense when it should’ve been getting calmer and calmer as they got closer to the port.
At that moment, the door to the storage room opened and Deka walked inside with a calm look on her face.
“Is everything good?”
“Must’ve been quite the lengthy chat you had, Deka,” Arthur commented from above in a casual tone.
“… Yeah…” She replied as she looked around her. “We didn’t get attacked?”
“Attacked? I didn’t even see a single living creature this entire time. We have been sailing without a problem for hours now.”
“We should be near the port. An hour at most according to the compass.”
At that moment, Arthur jumped down and approached Deka. “Hey, Deka, can I talk to you for a moment?”
The woman stared at him and quickly realized that something was very wrong. Arthur didn’t look that pleased at all.
“Sure…” She muttered before walking away from the group to a corner where they could talk without anyone listening. “Did something happen?”
“Listen, something very odd is going on and I don’t know what it is,” Arthur replied.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s… I can’t put it into words but there is something wrong with this river ever since we escaped those monsters. I feel like we are in a lot of danger but there is nothing dangerous happening.”
This was Arthur’s entire dilemma, his senses were going off telling him that something wrong was happening but his eyes and ears could not sense anything. It was as if two sides of him were conflicting with one another and he could not find the reason why.
Seeing the distress in his eyes, Deka frowned visibly. “It certainly could be something dangerous we are going through without knowing. I will tell the others to stay even more alert.”
“Yeah…” Arthur muttered. He was still not convinced and Deka seemed completely unbothered which proved to him that she wasn’t fully up to his suspicion. It seemed he was the only one who felt something was off.
Turning around, he walked back to the main area of the deck, his mind still bugged with worry.
Slowly, time ticked down as another hour passed for the group. Yet, the port didn’t appear in the distance as they eagerly waited.
“Are we really close, guys?” One mercenary asked. “I can’t see anything.”
“W-We, ehem, we should be there any moment now. It can’t be that we are still far away. The map is telling us that we are very close and we haven’t stopped moving this entire time.”
“…”
The squad stared at one another in confusion. A sense of confusion and worry starts creeping into their hearts. They couldn’t understand what was happening.
“Maybe it’s the maps… They are quite old, you know?”
“How the hell would the maps be wrong? This river had been the same ever since we discovered it.”
“I don’t know, man! I’m just trying to suggest possible answers!”
“Calm down everyone,” Deka said as she approached the edge and looked down. The water was running clear as ever and there were no abnormalities worth mentioning.
She then stared up at the scenery near them. The large trees and the thick forest moved slowly as the ship sailed through the river.
“Nothing… It’s as normal as ever.” Deka couldn’t see anything eye-catching happening.
“What should we do, Deka?”
“Let’s wait. We might be close. Don’t forget that the wind did calm down a bit for a few hours now, that could’ve delayed us.”
Her words were purely to give the squad some hope and it was based on no evidence. Their speed had been very stable and quite ideal for the better part of the trip. In fact, it was so ideal that she thought they would make it earlier than they expected.
‘It could be that. We should wait.’
Meanwhile, Arthur was completely detached from the group, watching the river with a keen eye. He had been keeping an eye on everything with extra focus. An entire hour had passed with him searching for clues about his suspicion.
“Nothing… Absolutely nothing.” He clenched his fist in frustration. “I can’t find anything!”
Arthur was getting more and more frustrated by this feeling. It didn’t ease down and kept getting stronger and stronger, keeping him on the edge for hours. But, it was useless as the river kept flowing calmly and the day passed rather flawlessly. It felt like everything was mocking him.
Experience tales with My Virtual Library Empire
But, Arthur didn’t want to give up as he kept looking for that small detail that will unravel this weird feeling he had.
Time passed, minute by minute as the group waited in eerie silence for the port. With each meter they move, their eyes searched eagerly for that port. They wished it could appear at any given second, hoping they could finally leave this hellish trip.
But… It never came.
An hour passed, then another hour, and then another hour, and the result was… nothing. At this point, the squad realized that there was indeed something wrong going on. The ship wasn’t approaching the port… It was not even cutting the distance down.
“What the hell is going on? Where is the port?”
“Did we make a mistake somewhere?”
“Maybe those monsters are playing with us!”
“That doesn’t matter, we need to make it back! We can’t be stuck here forever!”
Panic was slowly spreading amongst the group. They weren’t sure if the ship was even still moving or if their eyes were betraying them.
Deka was the one who felt the most stress. She was trying to figure out what was wrong, just like Arthur. However, her eyes are her only weapon and they are very limited.
On the other hand, Arthur had one other thing that made him see far beyond what a normal person could.
Something that gave him an advantage over every other person in this world.
A//N: Thank you all for the gifts, golden tickets, and PS. Let’s keep it up!