The Novel's Draft

"Fine then." I stood right in front of him.

From this this distance, even if he were to unsheathe his blade... Joka would need to step back so that the blade would be of any effect.

Otherwise, I’d stop him from pulling out his blade from it’s scabbard.

"Come on out with it." Joka’s voice was filled with hesitancy.

"If you insist... the truth is that we’re bound to Incus. If we were to stray too far away from her then we would die, that’s why we’ve always come here whenever Incus would—" I inched closer.

With a crooked frown, Joka scowled.

"Bound to Incus, what kind of idiotic—?"

"I’m not finished, so do not interrupt me." Joka then froze, "A few months ago I was just some village mutt who trained with a wooden sword until Incus came to my village... and do you know what happened next?"

Joka shook his head.

"Everyone that I knew—supposed to know had been killed within mere seconds. I know, it sounds preposterous but it’s true. How could my entire village have died despite the fact that there should have been enough time for everyone to run away."

Walking around Joka, standing behind him, I continued:

"That’s when I noticed something that no one else could, a flat box in the sky made of pure light that would never dim but never emit light onto anything. Do you know what that light could possibly be?" I placed my hand on his shoulder.

"N-No, I don’t."

"Of course you wouldn’t... well, that thing in the sky would have something be written on it, my life and everyone’s hang on whatever the maniac writes."

"What do you mean..?" Joka slowly turned his head.

"We’re in a novel and we can only stay within four hundred meters away from Incus top keep our clarity. Once we stray too far or disguise ourselves with the wrong group, then we’ll die."

Breaking my grip on his shoulder, Joka stepped back.

Looking at my hand, I grinned.

"It sounds ludicrous, I know. My party—Friends, didn’t believe me at first but as time passed, it became more evident that we were indeed in a novel. People would ignore us when they were supposed to stop us." I then raised to fingers, "Two of our comrades had died due to my mistake, their deaths would have been prolonged just a little longer if I had made the correct decision in time."

"So they died because you strayed too far?" Joka asked.

"No! They died because we had stood on the wrong spot, and we relied on Incus’ strength to get us through the situation... that’s why they died. My judgment had grown weak, and my body was too frail." A vein bulged on my forehead.

Vertere then stood up next to me.

"I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation... this man Ring, may be a rotten bastard but he’s not a liar when it comes to things like this."

Alleus then came to stand next to me also.

"As Vertere said. Ring is telling the truth, I’ve seen it with my eyes." Alleus then held up my cloak, "And this is proof of it. This is the dragon scales armor, and there should only be one of them but Ring has another one."

Alleus then pulled the fire hero’s sword out of it’s scabbard.

"And this blade, Incus has one as well."

"How are you so sure that it isn’t just some counterfeit?" Joka squinted.

Grabbing the fire hero’s sword out of her hand, I swung upwards.

"Excaliburn..!" A projectile then shot out into the sky, made of flame in the shape of an Arc.

"Would a fake be able to do this?" I lifted my chin, looking down on Joka.

The audacity of this fool to call my stuff a counterfeit.

"Hah, that could have been explained by a simple spellbound. You can’t possibly do the same thing again—!"

"Excaliburn!" I swung the blade again, but not just once, "Excaliburn! Excaliburn! Excaliburn!"

Multiple explosions of flame shot out in the sky.

"Spellbound? I see no such thing."

With a his mouth open in awe, I appeared in front of him, shutting his mouth close.

"Now do you believe me?" I asked once more.

"I do now."

"Good, because tomorrow the armies from the other kingdoms will be arriving here and you would have been pushed away to the front and would have been the first of the people to die." I said bluntly.

"Man, it’s a good thing that I asked you about the truth sooner that later." Joka laughed.

"Haha, well yeah. We were thinking of tying you near the podium so that you wouldn’t stray too far."

***

As the sun descended, we followed after Incus.

Kacon was watching the whole thing so he didn’t need much convincing.

"So this is what the insides of the kingdom looks like, it’s very lively." Joka rubbed his chin.

He was right, since the battle was going to be in a few days, the people had hosted a party.

Since this may very well be their last chance that they will... not that they decided to party by themselves.

This could very much be an indicator by the author as foreshadowing, but I don’t know what it’s exactly foretelling.

***

Reaching the front of the palace, Joka and Kacon paused.

"Are you sure we’re allowed in?" Joka asked cautiously.

"Didn’t I tell you, we’re able to pass through placed where we shouldn’t be allowed to. So stop standing there like a dunce and hurry up." I walked through the gate, the guards stood there and did nothing about us.

Seeing that we weren’t punished, the two followed.

"So you guys just waltz inside, doesn’t Incus do anything about this?"

"No, she doesn’t. But just don’t try talking to her... well, you’re free to try but everyone here has and they couldn’t."

***

Once we reached the room, Kacon was too big so he just layed down on multiple clothes that served as sheets to cushion him.