Shades of the New World

Chapter 262: Evin's new team

In any case, the two flew through the landscape, making rude comments on Evin's new team members. Currently, they had just entered a giant forest that seemed like it was going to span for a long time. 

[Who do you think the last male is named?] Evin asked as he looked at the slightly plump mage who had a single white horn in his head. The man had flown emotionlessly for the past 20 minutes or so, not even bothering to look around like some of the others were doing. A hint of restrained pride came out of his manner, making Evin wonder if he was some sort part of nobility before this.

Runa seemed to observe the man for a few seconds before coming up with a verdict.

[False Lord.]

[Why is that?] Evin asked.

[He reminds me of a story you once told us about a double for a king who killed the real king and managed to replace him successfully, since he was highly trained to act in a way that made him a very convincing king of the country. Afterwards, he started to rule over the country, but he couldn't really do a good job of it. After all, he wasn't trained to be a king of a country, he just knew how to act kingly and nobly. Anyway, you told us that he eventually succumbed to vanity and started to just abuse his powers as a king. He acted tyrannically, he threw many tantrums and you also mentioned how he became very obese due to his bad eating habits. Eventually, he died under the hands of the late king's wife.]

[Did I really call him fat?] Evin asked, wondering how the hell he even came up with the story.

'What's the moral of that story, anyway? Don't swindle people?'

[You did. And you also called him bad at maths and magic as well, for some reason,] Runa recounted.

[No, I didn't. Why would I even say that?]

[You definitely did! Stop being so dumb!] Runa shouted back.

[Alright, alright, I did. Anyway, did you call him False Lord because I called some fictional False Lord fat and he fit the bill?]

[Yeah]

[Alright. I guess that's fair enough,] Evin said, and the two fell into a brief silence. 

Honestly, it was one of the better ones that the girl came up with. The young woman who was looking at Evin previously was named Worrisome Sister, while the two other men were named Secretive Scholar and Thug #1.

Worrisome Sister's name came from the fact that the woman really looked like someone who worried about others way too much for comfort. She'd looked at Evin for about 5 minutes straight, seemingly worrying about his safety and future like some kind of overprotective elder sister, like her name suggested. Evin could even notice her occasionally glancing at him even now.

As for her looks, she seemed to be in her early 20s and had a rather pale white skin on her body. One thing that Evin had to note was the beautiful and vibrant blonde hair, fluttering in the wind as she flew through the air. She'd collected it in a ponytail above her head, which suited her very well in Evin's opinion.

As the only woman in the team aside from the captain, she also seemed to look up to the captain very much so. She would give the others a scorning look if she thought they were slacking off at flying properly, and Evin could see her very seriously looking around and beyond the horizon, actively searching to find something out of place.

She also took care of her appearance very neatly, just like the captain: clean and orderly. This coincided with Secretive Scholar, who also conducted himself in an orderly fashion. 

But Evin could notice that the Scholar's love for order and perfection seemed to stem from something other than one's admiration for their superior, like Worrisome Sister. One look at him was enough to tell as much.

His perfectly combed black hair with no horn, the crustal-clear pair of glasses on his head that looked to be cleaned every hour, the way his clothes were tucked tightly together like some kind of latex suit, even the way he flew was the textbook definition of, well, textbook flying methodology. 

'But weirdly, there's a sense of laxness, or should I say, chaos in his behavior.' 

This thought came up in Evin's head many, many times as he looked at how Secretive Scholar behaved. The man did scout around the place occasionally, but none of Worrisome Sister's passion was apparent in his scouting. He only seemed to do it because he was ordered to and nothing else. Through some observation and dumb luck, Evin was also able to notice that the Scholar only scouted in set intervals, which was once every minute. Evin also decided to take on the man's example and scouted the area with his Eagle eyes every minute or so. 

As for Secretive Scholar's chaos well, it was a bit weird to explain. It was the same emotion that one felt when they mixed two things that were completely normal and the end result feeling awfully wrong. One example of this would be seeing human shapes in inanimate objects in a creepy way. Or some random person drinking tea inside a swamp. Or maybe even putting flower decals on your butcher knife.

The man acting so orderly and cleanly gave Evin the same vibes. Naturally, Evin could be completely wrong and Secretive Scholar could just be a Tall Scholar. 

Anyway, Thug #1.

A bit of a derogatory term, as the man was just a very buff. He also had a pink horn on his head, so there really wasn't any question on the man's specialty. As for how Runa came up with the man's name, it was most likely because of Evin's stories (again).

When Evin didn't really know what to talk about, he usually opted to talk about random things and occasionally, the concept of thugs and bandits appeared in them. In these stories, the thugs were numbered for better clarity, usually named Thug #1, Thug #2, etc.

And as it happens, Thug #1 usually portrayed a buff man, whose whole personality revolved around being very strong. Hence came the temporary name for Evin's new teammate. For those who are interested, Thug #2 was backstabbing bastard, and Thug #3 was someone who ran away at the first sign of trouble.

Anyhow, Thug #1 on Evin's team wasn't really a thug-like person. He even seemed to be the harmless type, who diligently followed orders, but focused more on making friends along the way. That kind of guy. 

He occasionally looked over at Evin's way with a friendly and approachable smile, but was polite enough to not bother Evin. Perhaps he thought Evin to be scared and confused at first and didn't want to pressure the new guy in any way. 

As Evin was concluding his observation analysis on his new teammates, Runa said something unexpected.

[I think there are people walking around in that area, covered in illusions,] she said and directed Evin's head towards a certain part in the forest.

Evin looked over with his Eagle eyes and sure enough, he could see some branches of trees moving around in a very unnatural way some 400 or so meters away, but nothing visible was moving them around physically. The only conclusion left to make was that someone had made themselves invisible and were walking through the forest.

'Wow, I actually didn't expect to find anyone here.'

[Good job, Runa!] Evin said to the skinshifter before flying over to Sannah's side.

Getting close to the woman, he motioned at her to stop and pointed at the direction of the movement. Thankfully, it was still visible from their current position. Sannah looked over for a moment before stopping and gesturing at Secretive Scholar in some code, and the latter created a World of Storms spell around the team as discreetly as possible.

"How did you notice them?" she then asked Evin.

"Dumb luck," Evin replied.

[Don't chalk me up to luck! And don't call me dumb! If you have to make an excuse at least make a good one!] came the swift protest. 

[Sorry, sorry,] Evin replied and focused on Sannah, wondering what she would do.

"Ertu, try and peek past their illusion," Hannah said and the young lady of the team started to cast her magic with a 'Yes, madam!'.

[Guess Worrisome Sister's real name was Ertu,] Runa commented during the brief moment Ertu worked her spell.

"Two humans and one layeq. I can't tell whether the humans are just hornless Ivari or normal humans. They're not wearing anything on their bodies to suggest they belong to any known group. From the information I'm seeing, I'm guessing they come from one of the many organizations of Tower City," Ertu reported.

"Anyone else here thinking otherwise?" Sannah asked.

____

Author's notes for Mar 21st, 2021:

So, lately, I've been thinking a lot about the state of my novel, especially the past 200 chapters or so. I'm also facing a small writer's block, which lead to less uploads and reduced quality in the later chapters.

Maybe I need a proper break, or maybe I just need to sleep more. But for some stupid reason, my mind can't unthink of this stupid idea that got lodged inside it. I'll give you all more information later. Also, you can expect a huge chapter where I properly explain the state of my novel to you all. Thanks for reading, peace.