Sunlight on the Water

Year

**Sunlight on the Water** is a short story about Priscilla Barielle and Al

## Story

One afternoon, Priscilla ordered Al to entertain her, threatening to behead him if he didn't. Unfortunately, he took too long to do so, causing her to push him off the balcony. Fortunately for him, he managed to grab onto something to stop his fall, however he realized seconds later that he was holding onto her left arm, earning him a flick to the head that sent him falling into the pond in the garden below. Schult worried for his safety, nonetheless he obeyed her orders to make her some tea.

Soon after, Al complained about his condition while drying out some of his clothes, prompting Schult to volunteer to help him, fearing that Al would become headless if he lost his helmet, but when Al pointed out that his helmet wouldn't rust and that he still had a head underneath, Schult expressed his disappointment. When Priscilla questioned him about the helmet, he revealed that he was given it by a someone when he left the gladiator arena he used to be a part of. Hearing this, she guessed that he was from the Gladiator Island Ginunhive and that the helmet was a replica of a helmet related to the Gladiator King, leading him to confirm all of it, adding that he also lost his arm there. Getting bored of his past, she ordered Schult to entertain her instead. He struggled with her request for a few seconds until he remembered something, then told her that people from a village in the southern part of the Barielle Territory were disappearing after they got too close to a spring in a nearby forest, causing it to be known as the Nightmare of Ladrima.

As the story caught her interest, Priscilla took the both of them to the village of Ladrima. At first she was reluctant to ask around, however as Schult was busy reading the book she ordered him to read, the remaining two decided to ask around anyway. Eventually, they learned that people had been disappearing for two months, with mist appearing in the forest, and that there was a rumor that one could meet the dead if they successfully reached the spring. Al was reluctant to go, though as she was unusually motivated to investigate the forest, he couldn't disobey her orders, and the three of them headed for the forest. While he cut their way through the forest, he remarked that most people who came to the forest were trying to meet dead people at the spring, prompting her to refer to it as a hackneyed tale, nevertheless he noted that her voice seemed to be filled with something similar to envy and jealousy. However, her tone returned to normal when he asked her if there was a dead person she wanted to meet. Leaving that aside, she questioned his stance of being against meeting the dead, and correctly guessed that there was a dead person that he didn't want to meet. Her words agitated him, causing him to try and regain his composure, but before he could respond he realized that he was alone in the mist.

Wandering through the mist in search of his companions, Al encountered an illusion of Leip, and complained about him still being alive before attacking him, with the illusion dispersing into mist as it died. The mist seemingly heard his complaint, this time summoning gladiators he knew from Ginunhive. Once he killed them, the man who gave him the helmet appeared, who he also killed. Getting through the second wave smoothly, he continued to complain about the choice of people, pointing out again that none of them were dead the last time he saw them except for one person. For the third wave, the mist created an illusion of a shadowy figure wearing a shadowy dress, which Al was unable to bring himself to harm even though he tried some 100,000,000 million times. Unable to do anything, he was gripped with fear, and tried to retreat as it attempted to touch him lovingly with its fingers. Fortunately, Priscilla destroyed it with her Yang Sword, yet this caused him to be filled with rage, though she easily dealt with him by smacking his helmet with her sword. Although he was still scared somewhat, he was relieved that the shadowy figure was fake.

Right after, Priscilla informed him that Schult was in the process of dispelling the illusion, and sure enough the mist disappeared to reveal that they were at the bank of the spring. Schult returned to them with a transparent crystal that was slightly white which was broken in two, which was how he got rid of the illusion. A short while later, the broken crystals turned itself into one Evil Spirit that tried to escape, however it was quickly killed by Priscilla. Normally, Spirits weren't influenced by the concept of good and evil, though there was a very rare chance that they would be born with hatred towards others, causing them to be referred as Evil Spirits.

Several days later, Al informed Priscilla that they were now in the process of sorting through the bones discovered in the lake to see who they belonged to, but to his surprise she was already bored of it and didn't care much about it. Despite this, the moment he revealed that he got his information from a messenger of the village, adding that he also brought flowers, she immediately rushed to the entrance to retrieve them, and explained to Al that they were Kurenai flowers that only bloomed during a certain time every year in the forest near the village. Hearing this, he realized that she only saved the village just to see the flowers, and she promptly ordered him and Schult to decorate the mansion with the flowers.