Chapter 8: The Border River and the Fallen Noble

The three warriors gave Lacy one last respectful nod before slipping into the dense foliage, carrying the injured woman between them with practiced ease. They used the pack-strap carry Kaguya had taught them only hour before, and there was something almost gentle in the way they moved, as if the forest itself had agreed to let them pass quietly.

With the danger behind them, the three brothers and Lacy turned south, pushing deeper into the subcanopy biome. Their destination was the nearest human settlement, wherever that might be.

As they walked, Inori studied the plants around them, murmuring half to himself and half to Kaguya. "Something's strange here," he said. "The difference between the deep canopy and this understory is too extreme. There has to be some kind of barrier keeping the big predators from the primary zone out of this area."

Kaguya nodded, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "A natural quarantine, then. That would explain it."

Takuya, walking a little ahead, glanced back at his brothers before turning his attention to their guide. He softened his tone, careful to sound curious rather than suspicious. "Lacy, the forest where we woke up — the one with those enormous trees — feels completely different from this place. Why don't the monsters from over there ever come hunting here?"

Lacy swung his machete lazily, slicing through a vine that hung low across the trail. "You woke up in the Great Jungle. This is the Zephyr Forest. The monsters don't cross because of the river between them. Well — not the river exactly. It's what lives in it. The Gatorix."

"Gatorix?" Takuya repeated. "What is that?"

"Picture a log the size of a fallen tree, except it has jaws," Lacy said, his voice dropping into something more serious. "Six thick legs, and a tail covered in scales that carry enough poison to kill a bull elephant. Worst part is, they can sink to the riverbed and stay there a full day without breathing. Even the biggest monsters in the Great Jungle know better than to drink from that water."

Kaguya stopped mid-step. Just for a moment, his easy expression slipped, and something colder took its place. He looked at his brothers. "The waterfall," he said quietly. "The monkeys. They weren't afraid of the fall — they were afraid of whatever lives in the water below it."

"We jumped straight into a death trap and didn't even know it," Inori muttered, feeling a chill crawl up the back of his neck despite the humid air.

Kaguya smoothed his expression back into something friendlier before Lacy could notice and turned to their guide. "Lacy — yesterday, a group of monkeys chased the three of us to a waterfall on that same river. We jumped to get away from them. The monkeys wouldn't follow us in."

Lacy stopped walking entirely. His mouth fell open, and then he let out a booming, disbelieving laugh that startled a flock of birds from a nearby tree. "You jumped into the border river? Gods above — you three are either favored by fate or too stubborn to know better. If a Gatorix had been resting in that pool, none of us would be standing here talking about it. It's nothing short of a miracle you're alive."

"A miracle and a nightmare, all in one afternoon," Takuya said with a tired sigh, dragging a hand through his hair. He looked around at the unfamiliar trees pressing in on every side. "If that was the Great Jungle, then what should we be worried about here, in the Zephyr Forest?"

"The Bunnymort," Lacy answered without hesitation. "Looks like an ordinary white rabbit at first glance, except its hind legs are built like springs — strong enough to launch it clean over your head. New travelers always think it looks like an easy meal. It isn't. Its teeth carry venom, and if its blood so much as touches your mouth or eyes, your throat will swell shut before you can call for help."

Inori and Kaguya traded a quick, uneasy glance. They had seen that exact creature not even an hour before the wolves attacked them.

"Good to know," Takuya said evenly, though his mind was already cataloguing just how many ways this forest seemed determined to kill them.

"Speaking of poison," Kaguya said, keeping his tone light, almost idle, "I happen to be something of a healer. Are there any local plants people use for medicine? Wound care, fever, that sort of thing?"

Lacy shrugged. "I know a couple of flowers that help with itching, but I'm no healer myself. You don't need to worry about it, though — the towns keep books on that kind of thing. Which plants heal what, how to prepare them, all written down."

Something lit up behind Kaguya's eyes, a spark of genuine excitement that he didn't bother to hide from his brothers, even if he kept it from Lacy. He switched to their native language, the words tumbling out quickly. "Written medical texts. That means either a printing press or, at minimum, trained scribes copying by hand. If that knowledge is being recorded and shared, there's a foundation here for something like scientific method. Peer review, even."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Kaguya," Takuya said with a soft laugh, glancing up at the sky. The light filtering through the canopy had shifted from gold to a deep, bruised purple. "The sun's going down. We should set up camp before it gets any darker."

"Agreed. I'll find us something to eat," Lacy said, already turning to disappear into the underbrush.

He returned about an hour later, once the brothers had gotten a secure fire pit going, hauling an impressive catch: three blue deer slung over his shoulder and one strange animal he called a "Blaze beaver." The brothers stared at it, puzzled. It had no buckteeth to speak of, and its tail looked more like a spiked club than a paddle, but its fur burned a bright, almost unnatural red.

"That bears no resemblance to an actual beaver," Kaguya whispered to Inori, tilting his head at the creature.

"Just let it go," Inori whispered back, already reaching for a stick to help with the fire.

"Best meat in the forest, if you ask me," Lacy said with a grin, tossing one of the blue deer to Kaguya to butcher while he set to work skinning the red creature himself. "You boys can have the deer meat tonight."

As dinner roasted over the flames, Takuya decided it was time to start filling in the blanks of where, exactly, they'd landed. He settled across from Lacy and offered him a canteen of boiled water.

"Lacy, since we lost our memories, we don't even know what country we're in," Takuya said, keeping his voice casual. "Can you tell us?"

"This is the Kingdom of Cynthia," Lacy said between bites, chewing slowly. "Ruled by King Regis Cynthia. Folks say he's a fair man. The whole royal family carries the Cynthia name — the Crown Prince is Julian, and there are three princesses: Seraphina, Aurelia, and Lysandra."

Takuya filed each name away without missing a beat. "And where exactly are we headed?"

"Dian Village," Lacy said, pointing south with a greasy finger. "Good people there. They hunt, farm a bit of fruit and vegetables, and sell what they don't need at Suebic Town nearby. Suebic's the real hub — three villages around here all bring their goods to market there."

"Do you happen to know the name of Dian's village leader?"

"Can't say I ever bothered to learn it," Lacy admitted with a shrug.

"Thank you, Lacy. That's a real help." Takuya smiled, but as he watched the big man eat, a few small details caught his attention. Lacy chewed with his mouth closed. He barely used any slang, and when he spoke the names of people and places, his pronunciation was clean — almost formal, like someone who'd been taught to speak that way rather than someone who'd simply picked it up on the road.

"Lacy," Takuya said, careful to keep his voice gentle, "you're clearly a skilled fighter. But you speak differently than the other hunters we've met — more polished, somehow. Were you raised among the nomads, or did you come to this life some other way?"

Lacy's jaw stopped moving mid-chew. He lowered the food from his mouth and stared down at the dirt between his boots. Whatever warmth had settled over the campfire a moment ago quietly drained away.

"I'm sorry," Takuya said quickly, raising both hands. "That wasn't my place to ask. Forget I said anything."

"No... it's fine," Lacy said after a long moment, his broad shoulders sagging. When he looked up, the firelight caught something heavy and sad in his eyes. "I wasn't born into this life. My father was a nobleman — lord of a small town on the edge of another kingdom."

The brothers went still, listening.

"He was a good lord," Lacy continued, his voice tightening with every word. "When our town went through a drought, and then a flood right after, he opened up our family's own stores to feed everyone. Didn't hesitate for a second." He paused, staring into the fire. "But our town sat on top of a rich iron vein. A Viscount from the capital wanted it for himself. So he spread lies — told the townsfolk my father was stealing from them, hoarding gold, that he'd somehow caused the drought through dark dealings."

He swallowed hard before going on. "And they believed him. The same people my father had fed with his own hands formed a mob. They dragged my mother, my father, and my older brother out of our home. Killed all three of them. Put their heads on spikes at the town gate for everyone to see."

Inori looked down at the ground, sick to his stomach. Kaguya's face stayed carefully blank, but his jaw was clenched so tight it looked painful.

"I only survived because I was out hunting that day," Lacy said, his voice barely above a whisper now. "I ran the moment I heard what happened. Kept running until I'd crossed the border and found the nomad hunters out here. I've been happy with them ever since. The forest doesn't lie to you, at least."

"That's a terrible thing to carry, Lacy," Takuya said softly. "What happened to the town, afterward? Once you were gone?"

A humorless smile crossed Lacy's face. "Oh, they figured out the truth eventually. Realized the Viscount had lied to them the whole time. By then he'd already claimed the mine and doubled everyone's taxes for good measure. The people tried to rise up against him."

"Did it work?" Inori asked quietly.

"No." Lacy shook his head slowly. "The Viscount brought in his own private soldiers and wiped out the entire village in a single night. Men, women, children — everyone. Then he burned the bodies and told the King a plague had swept through and killed them all."

"I'm so sorry, Lacy," Takuya said, and he meant it — there was real weight behind the words. "I shouldn't have made you dig all that back up."

"It's alright, Takuya," Lacy said, exhaling slowly and forcing his usual easy smile back onto his face. "It was a long time ago now. We keep going. That's all any of us can do."

Takuya returned the smile and nodded along. But the instant Lacy turned back to his meal, all the warmth drained out of Takuya's expression, replaced by something colder and far more calculating.

He switched to his native tongue, his voice dropping to a whisper meant only for his brothers.

"Classic failure of a decentralized government," he said, almost clinically. "The farther a kingdom's borders stretch, the weaker its oversight becomes at the edges. An outlying town turns into a blind spot nobody's watching. That Viscount used the information gap to manipulate an entire population, remove a rival, and seize a valuable resource — all while keeping his hands clean in the eyes of the crown."

"People don't really change, no matter what world you drop them into," Kaguya said, just as detached. "Greed seems to be a constant."

"A weak system depends entirely on its lords choosing to be good men," Takuya said, the firelight flickering in his eyes. "A well-built system doesn't rely on hope. It assumes people will be greedy and makes corruption impossible by design. If King Regis can't keep watch over his own outskirts, then this kingdom has a serious weakness running through it." He paused. "And weaknesses like that tend to be useful."

Unaware of the quiet, calculated conversation happening across the fire, Lacy stretched his arms over his head with a satisfied groan. "I'll take first watch tonight," he announced, switching back to the common tongue. "You three get some sleep. We'll reach Dian Village tomorrow."

"Thank you, Lacy," Takuya said, his voice warm and unguarded again, as if the last few minutes had never happened. "We'll rest well tonight."

The brothers lay down on beds of gathered leaves, the fire crackling softly beside them. Another strange day in this new world had come to a close — but for Takuya, staring up at an unfamiliar sky, the real work was only just beginning.