Another Stupid Isekai

Despite an easy route of escape, I went in, since I was actually quite curious about what was going on, and on top of that, I felt quite safe. I trusted Bashan moderately, as he proved many times to be a friend, but his connection to Yagg always was leaving this thin possibility of betrayal. I just couldn’t help myself but feel this way, because of my history with Calludins.

– Nice costumes – I mumbled loud enough for everybody to hear me, as I was stepping forward.

To my surprise, one of the hooded persons laughed and then took off the hood revealing their face. It was a human face, which almost knocked me off my feet, as I never expected to see any of the representatives of my race anyway soon. But that wasn’t the end of the surprises, as, despite all the punches to the head and everything, my brain was still working fine, and I could say I was a pride owner of a good memory. I knew from the very first moment that I already saw that face, but I needed a couple more for it all to snap in the right place.

He had brown hair in an absolute mess and a beard that desperately needed some trimming, but despite that, you could easily see that he was quite a handsome fellow. A fellow named Daniel.

[0)ᴠʟ – Danie? – I asked, and my voice came out unusually squeaky.

– Yes, that’s me… But not me you remember exactly – he added quickly, showing me a sad smile. – A lot had happened, so maybe allow me to explain a few things.

I looked at Bashan, and then at the Atri. The short fellow was smiling with his usual calmness, and the rest of the aliens were emotionless as usual.

– Yeah, sure – I answered, as I focused my eyes back on the human.

– The queen came and cleared the memories of people on earth, so we didn’t remember you ever existed at all – he said, and his smile disappeared completely, giving me a full display of the sadness his whole body was expressing.

– Yeah, I know. What the hell happened on earth? I had some bits and pieces, but… But that’s all I know.

He nodded.

– Then let me explain – the continued immediately after. – Everybody forgot you. And the evidence of your existence also got erased. The footage, the pictures, the documents. Everything. And she made us to it, but she made a few little mistakes here and there. I had to put it all together, which was not easy… Maybe I’ll start from the beginning.

This time I nodded.

– So we won the tournament, thanks to Will’s effort. Your existence was erased, but there was a bunch of questions left. Sadly at this point, nobody was asking them. And as we celebrated the victory, still quite sad because of Boris’s death, a bunch of aliens came using the queen’s name to force us to let them do whatever they wanted. They almost immediately went out, heading to the wastelands, and after a few days, a massive earthquake started. Nobody had any idea what the hell was going on, so we sent a few scouts to check discreetly.

– Let me guess. They find a bunch of ghosts? – I asked.

– Worse. They found a massive flying city, which was covered by some invisible barrier, and from that city, an army came and annihilated almost all of them. Few heavily wounded escaped in the middle of the battle, and our scouts managed to later locate them when the dust fell and the ghosts left. They brought them back, but they refused to talk to us, so we just healed them. They returned to wherever they came from as soon as they could, leaving us with fear of an army of ghosts decimating our city.

– Don’t tell me they did attack? – I said slowly, as fear climbed my spine.

– No, they didn’t. We evacuated most of the people and waited, but nothing happened for a couple of weeks, and then the queen herself came.

– What? – I asked surprised, as my eyes went wide.

– She came herself, and without a word headed straight to the wastelands accompanied by a small entourage.

– She wanted Aaraam’soturi – I said, as that was the only logical reason I could think about.

– No. She was actually searching for Loistavadvaar – Daniel said. – But her men found Aaraam’soturi, so she came to look herself because there was no other choice to find it.

– You might be right. She could have thought that The Great One was hiding there, despite having my memories of not finding him there.

He shrugged his shoulders as he had no idea what I was talking about.

– So what happened then? – I asked immediately.

– The worst earthquake I ever felt. We thought the whole planet was splitting apart. We thought we were done for. Some hunters just blasted to the gate not even looking over their shoulders. Which, by the way, was not easy due to all the shaking. A lot of buildings collapsed, and then… Silence. She never returned, although as we found out she went back to Sky Palace somehow. Ghost didn’t come this time either. We were simply left with a massive question of what the hell was going on. Nobody answered it. I couldn’t just let go of it, and I started looking around. Almost immediately I found a ton of things that were either weird or not really matching with the rest.

– What do you mean? – I asked.

– Well, first of all, my own notes. I had a bunch of them missing. Pages in my notebooks were torn off and nowhere to be found but to tell you the truth, it all properly started with a chicken – he said, fighting with a smile that emerged on his face.

I immediately thought of Tam. My pet left under Tihana’s care back in Arc. I couldn’t help but also smile.

– As all good things should – I said and then repeated.. – As all the good things should.