Chapter 73: Looking for Answers
No one was happy about how the battle at the main gate ended, least of all Simon. Strangely, though, none of the survivors blamed him for what had happened. By this point, he was more than a little used to being the scapegoat whenever anything went bad, but this time, it was the adventurers who were forced to retreat with their tails between their legs. They’d come as heroes, but no one saw them that way. Least of all, Simon; he knew that in other versions of this same event, they were the ones that had unleashed the zombies across the land.
They vowed to make him pay, of course, but down two men and an arm that was going to need to be amputated, he didn’t see how that was going to happen. In spite of everything, he’d probably have been willing to heal that horribly frostbitten limb. He probably could have done it with a greater word of healing, but magic wasn’t on the table for a few days, thanks to his heroics.
These days, uttering a few words of power was no big deal, but back-to-back uses of a greater word felt like they were giving him throat cancer. That was only one of the reasons he hadn’t tried the other words that had been burned into his memory, though.
He reflected on that while he healed for a few more days and watched the zombies dwindle to almost nothing. The other was uncertainty. There was still so much he didn’t know. He didn’t even fully understand how the sword he carried was powered, and he could examine those runes whenever he wanted. He needed to learn more, and though there were a couple opportunities to do exactly that on this level, he had not yet decided which one would be more beneficial once he made sure the zombies were finally purged.
Then, word came that an army was approaching. Simon thought he remembered this too, or at least a version of it. He certainly remembered fighting an army some nights; his nightmares would never let him quite forget something about an army losing, along with a castle and a mage. He was hoping to track that guy down one day, honestly. If there was some officially sanctioned order he could learn from, that would be worth the mistakes of a dozen lives, but so far, he hadn’t found his Hogwarts yet.
That wasn’t a mistake he was about to make this time, though. This time, he could already see the pieces fitting together. If the army was as big as the rumors and his memory said they were, then they’d almost certainly found the remaining adventurers he’d let flee with their lives. That meant that by now, their words had turned him into the devil himself, which meant that Simon needed to either prepare for a fight or make himself scarce.
To him, it seemed straightforward, but the people he’d saved weren’t very pleased when he told them he was going to have to disappear for a while.
“You can’t just leave,” Marken had wailed. “We need you! You’re the only one that can battle the zombies and the slimes!”
“I think the army can handle the cleanup at this point,” he said confidently. “And I’ll be back in a few weeks to make sure things turn out all right. So, if you need help, just keep ahead of them, and I’ll be back to save all of you a second time if I have to.”