It was getting a little dark now. I had spent some more time talking to the elderly group of elves and was relieved when they reacted… passively to my request. They hadn’t known where such a thing could be or if it actually existed, but they had snorted, loudly, at my question of it was impossible.
‘A stupid word made long before my time and clearly overused. Haven’t met anything impossible yet.’ Discintia had said.
They had then provided me with plenty of examples of people being able to change their bodies.
Because that was my goal. I wanted a potion of transformation.
It was in video games, it was in anime, it was in all sorts of things if you went looking. A magical potion that changes who you are and what you look like. My body dysmorphia, not feeling like I was in the right body, had plagued me forever. And every time it had shown up, it had been devastating. I had tried to put it behind me, and I even thought I had destroyed it, but it had lingered and risen anew with my transformation into a god damn demon. And then again with the stupid mirror.
My eyes… I shook my head.
I’d find it and I’d finally fix myself. That thought sent tingles through my brain. Finally, a path forward! A wide grin was on my face as I walked the dark street. I had spent longer than I had meant talking with Discintia, Rhilinth, and Rhilick. They had a lot of great stories to tell like the time they managed to fell an actual ogre. My power gauge had told me long ago that they were about as strong as I was, and seeing as how I’d seen and ‘fought’ an ogre not that long ago, I knew that was probably incredibly impressive. Old adventurers. I hadn’t been able to discreetly ask why they were so… weak despite being so old but it was entirely possible they had just never really focused on it. They had lived hundreds of years, what was a few decades being an adventurer? It’s not like I really understood how people became stupidly overpowered. I should really ask about that at some point.
As I was walking darkened streets, I heard something.
‘Oh wanderer, what do you travel for?’
Music? Is that a harp?
‘Over an ocean of light, trees of delight, what are you searching for?’
It was… beautiful. A male singer but his voice… I felt like I was listening to a siren from greek mythos. It was one of the most beautiful voices I’d ever heard.
‘Through the skies that are red, and past the place no one treads, what are you searching for?’
Like a moth to a flame, I followed the sound of the voice, arriving at a tavern. At my tavern. Looking in, I saw the singer, and now it was my turn to experience what others had felt all day. In front of me stood… I didn’t know their race. Not human nor elf nor dwarf. Light gray skin, sparkling beautiful amber eyes, short white hair. Lithe fit figure. Wielding a harp and singing that gentle melody.
‘Oh Wanderer, what do you travel for?’
I walked into the tavern and found a seat, staring in awe at the bard. I was far from the only one. I simply listened to the song, a simple beautiful tale about a person unable to understand why another man travels across the world. That is, until the last line.
‘Oh Wanderer, I can see you now. I know what you’ve traveled for!’
The narrator and the traveler finally meet, the end of the journey arriving. The bard stops playing and there is silence for only a moment, a wide grin on their face, before the inn erupts into applause. I frantically join in. That was beautiful. Their voice was beyond anything I’ve ever heard, it pulled me and tugged on my emotions in a way I didn’t know was possible from music. I felt, I felt moved. It felt like I had been that traveler hopelessly but tiredly seeking something, going across the world, only to finally find it near the end.
“Thank you, thank you!” The bard said. “Please, feel free to continue your meals and your drinks while I play us some lighter tunes!”
They reached down and began to strum the harp in their hands, a gentle melody coming out. Not one overpowering this time, grasping everyone with it, but a simple one that flowed underneath conversations, lightening the atmosphere. Most people went back to their food or drinks, a few women and men coming up to thank or generally talk to the man. He played all throughout, clearly holding a conversation without an issue. That clinched it, and I went up to talk to this man as well. I had… well, at least one question.
I walked closer to him, the last person drawing him away. We locked eyes… and my soul felt like it left my body, as I stared into those eyes of his. Time seemed to slow down, then stop. Most people froze, most of my surroundings went numb, but the gentle music continued even as everything else seemed to halt. My power gauge was going off. When I had first met people, it had felt like pressure. When I had met the heroes, it had felt like being plunged into a deep sea. When I had felt a B-Rank vampire, it had felt like the very sun itself was trying to blast me to death with condensed power.
Now? Now it felt… different. The bard was weak, my power told me. C-rank, lower end, strong but not that strong. My power told me this, it was correct. But… he also felt… different… felt…
Unfathomable.
Like I was looking at a black void, a blank canvas, I could never understand.
Time resumed and the moment passed and I nearly stumbled. I took another step towards him, momentum carrying me. He cocked his side a little to the left, his smile only growing wider.
“Hello! What brings you on over?”
I was at a loss for words after whatever that was. It wasn’t like it had left either. It was like I was seeing a star but also trying to understand the orbital calculations of it at the same time, beamed directly into my brain. Whatever this man or bard was, he was something else, something new. Something my power itself could not understand. It was confused. And that terrified me.
“Um. Sorry. I’m gonna need a moment.” He seemed confused but just waited patiently, smile still bright on his face. I took a deep breath, considering. Was this man unbelievably powerful? Maybe! My power had never reacted like this. Whatever it meant was objectively confusing. I felt like part of me was going mad but I could ignore that part pretty easily. That part of my mind almost felt separated, even though I knew it wasn’t. It was struggling, trying to parse apart the impossible unknown that was in front of me. It was failing, effortlessly failing. Could a man do quantum physics in his head? Maybe. Maybe one day, I could even understand whatever the fuck was going on. Today was not that day. This year or possibly this decade, may not be enough time to unravel the absolute clusterfuck that was assailing me.
But my mind, no, I quickly returned a singular answer.
‘So what?’
Even if this man was a sleeping dragon, there was no reason having power simply made you an enemy. So what if he was strong? That just meant not to piss him off. I returned to the present, the man still smiling at me, he seemed simply happy to be alive.
I looked at him and his smile widened. He reached out, offering me a hand, and I shook it.
“Interesting.”
“Hmm?” I said.
“Oh nothing. It’s just so pleasant meeting you! Tell me, why are you here in Nors? Sightseeing, traveling, planning a coup and imminent rebellion against the city government, the ice cream? Oh! Also, why are you in Eldrath at all? Weird to see a demon in Elven territory, though not unheard of!”
I tried and failed to stifle a snort. The bard, of course, practically oozed charisma. Hell, ooze felt like the wrong word. His voice was like an angel, his body was hot as fuck, his humor drew me in, I felt like I was going to fall for him right then and there. The way he smiled at me, the way he looked at me, I was growing increasingly worried magic was involved by the sheer raw emotions he was invoking by simply sitting there and talking. It wasn’t lust or love, I simply felt like I could have sighed in relaxation and talked to him for hours from just hearing a few sentences.
“No coups, though you aren’t wrong. I’m more of a… tourist? Traveler, certainly.”
“Oh, am I the one you’re searching for?” He said it with such a simple, pure smile and my heart skipped a beat in its chest, then a second one, and I felt like I was going to drown in those beautiful amber eyes as my breath sped up and- “Kidding! Hehe.”
I shook my head. Alright, bards are super dangerous. Got it. Still, I couldn’t help but, mentally, spiritually, and physically love this conversation. It felt like I was meeting my soul mate and even the danger of mind magic or something like that only felt like it was adding to the appeal, as if the danger was tasty little spice, or a little game we were playing. It felt like I was high on drugs.
How scary and why does that turn me on you bastard? I couldn’t help but chuckle a little.
“Say, I couldn’t help but notice your complexion.” I said. “Do you happen to be a demon as well? Or related in some way?”
The bard, oh god I don’t even know their name, hummed in a beautiful tone, smile never leaving them.
“Who can say, who can say? Although I most certainly didn’t arrive like you did.”
“I doubt most did.” I said easily, earning me a slightly quirked eyebrow. “I’m Derek by the way.”
“You can call me, hmm. Oh what to choose. Oh, oh yes. That works perfectly! How about Happy? Happy Go Lucky, at your service!” He chuckled to himself.
“I-I’m pretty sure you can’t just make your name a phrase…” I said, somewhat in surprise. What was he even saying?
“Of course I can! After all… all names are made up! Happy Go Lucky The Bard. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” He smiled directly at me, seeming to light up the whole room with it.
His smile melted and warmed my heart. My mind felt like it was dripping out my nose and I really just wanted to lay in his lap and- No, now what was I saying?! Focus damn it!
“And,” He said, looking at me warmly. “I might be getting lucky in more than a few ways tonight.” His smile became a slight smirk.
My heart, my poor, new heart. It was pounding away, harder and harder. Just like he would when- I would when I grabbed him and- focus focus. No, brain, focus. Scary power gauge warning, but, god he can’t, I, focus.
Ba-thump. Ba-thump. Ba-thump.
Oh my god.
“What room are you-” I began to ask.
“Derek!”
I blinked, the trance of awesome hotness falling away. I looked at… Happy? Lucky? Who still just had a smile on their face. Both hands were playing the harp and he was chuckling.
“Perhaps another time beautiful?”
Even though I knew I had to turn towards the angry woman that had practically shouted my name across the tavern, I couldn’t let that comment go.
“B-Beautiful?”
“Oh yes. After all, perhaps we came the same way after all. And I can see just how beautiful you really are.” He got up, gracefully sliding past me briefly, but whispered into my ears a few final words.
“The real you.”
I turned around in shock, watching the man disappear into the crowd of people. More than a few fans swarmed him now that he was free from his conversation, making it seem like the whole inn wanted a piece of him. I still felt my mind reeling. Those words… they meant more. I had known they had meant more. My power gauge finally started to relax now that… Happy was leaving. That part of my brain practically gave up, because now it only had the memory of that unfathomable power I had felt available to decipher it.
Sadly, all of my musings would have to wait as an angry fiery red head nearly burned a hole through reality walking up to me.
“Yes?” I said tentatively. I hadn’t done anything! Why was she so angry now?
“Where were you today? Where did you go?”
What? What kind of weird yandere crap was that. Wait, was she tsundere and falling for me? I looked at her hateful expression. Yeah, nope. She was grade-A angry though for some reason. My mind couldn’t handle you right now dang it!
“I toured the town, like I said I was going to do. Now I’m back and was having a conversation before you interrupted.”
That was the wrong thing to say as Riary stiffened and fires appeared in her eyes. Uh-oh. She stared me down, death by fire moments away. More than a few adventurers had started to move away, noticing the atmosphere as Happy Go Lucky left and Riary got angrier and angrier with me. Eventually, she spoke with iron in her voice.
“A conversation huh? Whatever.”
And then she just turned around and left.
What the fuck was that about? What did I do?!
Warix_Viviana
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It was getting a little dark now. I had spent some more time talking to the elderly group of elves and was relieved when they reacted… passively to my request. They hadn’t known where such a thing could be or if it actually existed, but they had snorted, loudly, at my question of it was impossible.
‘A stupid word made long before my time and clearly overused. Haven’t met anything impossible yet.’ Discintia had said.
They had then provided me with plenty of examples of people being able to change their bodies.
Because that was my goal. I wanted a potion of transformation.
It was in video games, it was in anime, it was in all sorts of things if you went looking. A magical potion that changes who you are and what you look like. My body dysmorphia, not feeling like I was in the right body, had plagued me forever. And every time it had shown up, it had been devastating. I had tried to put it behind me, and I even thought I had destroyed it, but it had lingered and risen anew with my transformation into a god damn demon. And then again with the stupid mirror.
My eyes… I shook my head.
I’d find it and I’d finally fix myself. That thought sent tingles through my brain. Finally, a path forward! A wide grin was on my face as I walked the dark street. I had spent longer than I had meant talking with Discintia, Rhilinth, and Rhilick. They had a lot of great stories to tell like the time they managed to fell an actual ogre. My power gauge had told me long ago that they were about as strong as I was, and seeing as how I’d seen and ‘fought’ an ogre not that long ago, I knew that was probably incredibly impressive. Old adventurers. I hadn’t been able to discreetly ask why they were so… weak despite being so old but it was entirely possible they had just never really focused on it. They had lived hundreds of years, what was a few decades being an adventurer? It’s not like I really understood how people became stupidly overpowered. I should really ask about that at some point.
As I was walking darkened streets, I heard something.
‘Oh wanderer, what do you travel for?’
Music? Is that a harp?
‘Over an ocean of light, trees of delight, what are you searching for?’
It was… beautiful. A male singer but his voice… I felt like I was listening to a siren from greek mythos. It was one of the most beautiful voices I’d ever heard.
‘Through the skies that are red, and past the place no one treads, what are you searching for?’
Like a moth to a flame, I followed the sound of the voice, arriving at a tavern. At my tavern. Looking in, I saw the singer, and now it was my turn to experience what others had felt all day. In front of me stood… I didn’t know their race. Not human nor elf nor dwarf. Light gray skin, sparkling beautiful amber eyes, short white hair. Lithe fit figure. Wielding a harp and singing that gentle melody.
‘Oh Wanderer, what do you travel for?’
I walked into the tavern and found a seat, staring in awe at the bard. I was far from the only one. I simply listened to the song, a simple beautiful tale about a person unable to understand why another man travels across the world. That is, until the last line.
‘Oh Wanderer, I can see you now. I know what you’ve traveled for!’
The narrator and the traveler finally meet, the end of the journey arriving. The bard stops playing and there is silence for only a moment, a wide grin on their face, before the inn erupts into applause. I frantically join in. That was beautiful. Their voice was beyond anything I’ve ever heard, it pulled me and tugged on my emotions in a way I didn’t know was possible from music. I felt, I felt moved. It felt like I had been that traveler hopelessly but tiredly seeking something, going across the world, only to finally find it near the end.
“Thank you, thank you!” The bard said. “Please, feel free to continue your meals and your drinks while I play us some lighter tunes!”
They reached down and began to strum the harp in their hands, a gentle melody coming out. Not one overpowering this time, grasping everyone with it, but a simple one that flowed underneath conversations, lightening the atmosphere. Most people went back to their food or drinks, a few women and men coming up to thank or generally talk to the man. He played all throughout, clearly holding a conversation without an issue. That clinched it, and I went up to talk to this man as well. I had… well, at least one question.
I walked closer to him, the last person drawing him away. We locked eyes… and my soul felt like it left my body, as I stared into those eyes of his. Time seemed to slow down, then stop. Most people froze, most of my surroundings went numb, but the gentle music continued even as everything else seemed to halt. My power gauge was going off. When I had first met people, it had felt like pressure. When I had met the heroes, it had felt like being plunged into a deep sea. When I had felt a B-Rank vampire, it had felt like the very sun itself was trying to blast me to death with condensed power.
Now? Now it felt… different. The bard was weak, my power told me. C-rank, lower end, strong but not that strong. My power told me this, it was correct. But… he also felt… different… felt…
Unfathomable.
Like I was looking at a black void, a blank canvas, I could never understand.
Time resumed and the moment passed and I nearly stumbled. I took another step towards him, momentum carrying me. He cocked his side a little to the left, his smile only growing wider.
“Hello! What brings you on over?”
I was at a loss for words after whatever that was. It wasn’t like it had left either. It was like I was seeing a star but also trying to understand the orbital calculations of it at the same time, beamed directly into my brain. Whatever this man or bard was, he was something else, something new. Something my power itself could not understand. It was confused. And that terrified me.
“Um. Sorry. I’m gonna need a moment.” He seemed confused but just waited patiently, smile still bright on his face. I took a deep breath, considering. Was this man unbelievably powerful? Maybe! My power had never reacted like this. Whatever it meant was objectively confusing. I felt like part of me was going mad but I could ignore that part pretty easily. That part of my mind almost felt separated, even though I knew it wasn’t. It was struggling, trying to parse apart the impossible unknown that was in front of me. It was failing, effortlessly failing. Could a man do quantum physics in his head? Maybe. Maybe one day, I could even understand whatever the fuck was going on. Today was not that day. This year or possibly this decade, may not be enough time to unravel the absolute clusterfuck that was assailing me.
But my mind, no, I quickly returned a singular answer.
‘So what?’
Even if this man was a sleeping dragon, there was no reason having power simply made you an enemy. So what if he was strong? That just meant not to piss him off. I returned to the present, the man still smiling at me, he seemed simply happy to be alive.
I looked at him and his smile widened. He reached out, offering me a hand, and I shook it.
“Interesting.”
“Hmm?” I said.
“Oh nothing. It’s just so pleasant meeting you! Tell me, why are you here in Nors? Sightseeing, traveling, planning a coup and imminent rebellion against the city government, the ice cream? Oh! Also, why are you in Eldrath at all? Weird to see a demon in Elven territory, though not unheard of!”
I tried and failed to stifle a snort. The bard, of course, practically oozed charisma. Hell, ooze felt like the wrong word. His voice was like an angel, his body was hot as fuck, his humor drew me in, I felt like I was going to fall for him right then and there. The way he smiled at me, the way he looked at me, I was growing increasingly worried magic was involved by the sheer raw emotions he was invoking by simply sitting there and talking. It wasn’t lust or love, I simply felt like I could have sighed in relaxation and talked to him for hours from just hearing a few sentences.
“No coups, though you aren’t wrong. I’m more of a… tourist? Traveler, certainly.”
“Oh, am I the one you’re searching for?” He said it with such a simple, pure smile and my heart skipped a beat in its chest, then a second one, and I felt like I was going to drown in those beautiful amber eyes as my breath sped up and- “Kidding! Hehe.”
I shook my head. Alright, bards are super dangerous. Got it. Still, I couldn’t help but, mentally, spiritually, and physically love this conversation. It felt like I was meeting my soul mate and even the danger of mind magic or something like that only felt like it was adding to the appeal, as if the danger was tasty little spice, or a little game we were playing. It felt like I was high on drugs.
How scary and why does that turn me on you bastard? I couldn’t help but chuckle a little.
“Say, I couldn’t help but notice your complexion.” I said. “Do you happen to be a demon as well? Or related in some way?”
The bard, oh god I don’t even know their name, hummed in a beautiful tone, smile never leaving them.
“Who can say, who can say? Although I most certainly didn’t arrive like you did.”
“I doubt most did.” I said easily, earning me a slightly quirked eyebrow. “I’m Derek by the way.”
“You can call me, hmm. Oh what to choose. Oh, oh yes. That works perfectly! How about Happy? Happy Go Lucky, at your service!” He chuckled to himself.
“I-I’m pretty sure you can’t just make your name a phrase…” I said, somewhat in surprise. What was he even saying?
“Of course I can! After all… all names are made up! Happy Go Lucky The Bard. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” He smiled directly at me, seeming to light up the whole room with it.
His smile melted and warmed my heart. My mind felt like it was dripping out my nose and I really just wanted to lay in his lap and- No, now what was I saying?! Focus damn it!
“And,” He said, looking at me warmly. “I might be getting lucky in more than a few ways tonight.” His smile became a slight smirk.
My heart, my poor, new heart. It was pounding away, harder and harder. Just like he would when- I would when I grabbed him and- focus focus. No, brain, focus. Scary power gauge warning, but, god he can’t, I, focus.
Ba-thump. Ba-thump. Ba-thump.
Oh my god.
“What room are you-” I began to ask.
“Derek!”
I blinked, the trance of awesome hotness falling away. I looked at… Happy? Lucky? Who still just had a smile on their face. Both hands were playing the harp and he was chuckling.
“Perhaps another time beautiful?”
Even though I knew I had to turn towards the angry woman that had practically shouted my name across the tavern, I couldn’t let that comment go.
“B-Beautiful?”
“Oh yes. After all, perhaps we came the same way after all. And I can see just how beautiful you really are.” He got up, gracefully sliding past me briefly, but whispered into my ears a few final words.
“The real you.”
I turned around in shock, watching the man disappear into the crowd of people. More than a few fans swarmed him now that he was free from his conversation, making it seem like the whole inn wanted a piece of him. I still felt my mind reeling. Those words… they meant more. I had known they had meant more. My power gauge finally started to relax now that… Happy was leaving. That part of my brain practically gave up, because now it only had the memory of that unfathomable power I had felt available to decipher it.
Sadly, all of my musings would have to wait as an angry fiery red head nearly burned a hole through reality walking up to me.
“Yes?” I said tentatively. I hadn’t done anything! Why was she so angry now?
“Where were you today? Where did you go?”
What? What kind of weird yandere crap was that. Wait, was she tsundere and falling for me? I looked at her hateful expression. Yeah, nope. She was grade-A angry though for some reason. My mind couldn’t handle you right now dang it!
“I toured the town, like I said I was going to do. Now I’m back and was having a conversation before you interrupted.”
That was the wrong thing to say as Riary stiffened and fires appeared in her eyes. Uh-oh. She stared me down, death by fire moments away. More than a few adventurers had started to move away, noticing the atmosphere as Happy Go Lucky left and Riary got angrier and angrier with me. Eventually, she spoke with iron in her voice.
“A conversation huh? Whatever.”
And then she just turned around and left.
What the fuck was that about? What did I do?!
Warix_Viviana
Patreon
Discord
