Sky was sitting down near an open place where a pot was being kept above a fire, making substitutes of the aditote.
Some of the locals had Sun-crested petals in their house, which after requesting and paying the locals some money to sweeten the deal was swiftly handed to them as an antidote but Sky was still tasked with making the substitutes, for there weren't enough of these petals to go around.
And while Sky didn't mind such a calm task given especially compared to the nurses or volunteers with minimal medical knowledge working.
But the problem was the person that had just now arrived and was sitting in front of him.
It was the same green haired girl who he had requested and got info from in the IGS Post.
[Though all our interactions with her, she held a bored and tired expression, she seems irritated and a bit annoyed don't you think] The shadow said, putting its hands in its chin, his silhouette changing to add a hat on his head and a smoke pipe on his mouth, as if it was mimicking a certain famous fictional detective.
'It's faint but I can see it… Also is there really a need to impersonate Sherlock Holmes for such a simple observation?'
[Technically… I'm a part of your imagination so it wasn't me impersonating as Sherlock but you imagining a part of yourself impersonating-]
'Don't make excuses' Sky thought, directing his attention to the green haired girl who came here, wondering what to do.
After some thought, Sky spoke, " Hey, what's your name?"
The green girl turned towards Sky and stared at him for a bi t before she too spoke, "I'm Shirori."
"And… why are you here watching me?"
"Well Skelra came back and it's hard to have a nice long conversation with him or meet him directly without a proper reason so I'm staying here, since I'm sure the invention for a substitute antidote for the problem we faced would intrigue him enough to come and meet you or at the least inquire about the making of such a thing with you eventually."
"And why do you want to meet him in the first place?"
"I've been trying to communicate with him for a long time so we could have information about the recent few ventures or gathering missions but only he knows the details of them, well at least the large scaled ones."
"Uh, huh… So you're just going to stay here watching me awkwardly?"
"Hmm…" She seemed to think, putting her hand on her chin, "I guess I could ask you some questions."
She said, adjusting her posture to face towards Sky, "Well, from Verrith's report, you started to have been riding on the back of a white spirit, right?"
"It's the remains of the white spirit to be more specific."
"You said it was going towards the forgotten lands, which I don't know much about other than that it's dangerous but staying on topic, I was wondering how you came to such a conclusion? Because the place where you landed or at least I estimated should be not farther than 30 km of where Verrith was lying down, while I don't know the exact distance of the forgotten islands from here, It's at least more than a 1,000 km away from here, so I've wondered how you could tell it was going there."
"This feels like an interrogation." Sky spoke adding some more wood to the fire
"But to answer your question, I've been staying there for around twenty five-ish years, So you'd expect me to at least get used to the roaming pattern of the white beast. When it rises up higher for a couple hours it slowly goes down and forward until it reaches its normal altitude and the direction it was facing was the forgotten lands and while it could just turn mid-way since the forgotten lands are quite far-away I didn't wanna take a risk."
"I see."
"Hey can I ask you a questi-"
"So I've heard you used a black fruit, or at least a small part of it on the first night but not any other day, Also I've heard that you defeated Verrith in a fight, although he was injured, it's still Great enough feat to stay safe in cave for 1 night and escaped if necessary, since all you need to do is spent at max 1-2 hours making some sound traps to alert you, you can just use that and escape or stay on guard when you want and you've proven you're not an idiot, well at least according to the report I've got and the recent substitute you've created for the cure, so please explain your odd behaviour."
"Yeah this definitely has turned into an interrogation." Sky said, a sigh leaving his mouth.
"Could you answer my question?"
Another heavy sigh left Sky's mouth and he looked at her eyes, irritated.
"Look I get that you're a curious person, but isn't it rude to interrogate someone when they agreed to a 'conversation' and isn't it more rude to take advantage of a person's willingness to answer to interrogate them more? And isn't it more rude if that person saved an important person of the kingdom, helped steal the stone back and was a great friend of the people from the old kingdom who founded the kingdom in the first place?"
"Your reluctance to answer this question is odd, is it really that important?" She asked, not budging one bit.
"No, I just didn't know the exact month, I estimated the time I spent in the sky to be around 24-26 years but I wanted to give Verrith a clean number so I said 25 years, But in truth I didn't know the season, where it was summer, Spring, winter or autumn or if new monsters came or if some other thing happened, since 25 years is a long time, so I parted it safe, that's all."
"I see."
"Now let's end this conversation, I thought I could have a good conversation but getting interrogated is quite amazing, unexpected and annoying you know?" Sky asked using a small knife to chop a wood to a smaller piece before throwing it in the fire.
"Well, this batch is almost done," he said, taking the winter-citris rind that he had smashed into pulp and putting it in the pot.
After that, he took a small bit of charcoal and smashed it in the pot.
"Looks more like a witch making a potion than an antidote."
"..." Sky stayed silent, although he was getting a bit irritated.
"Also You're pretty dirty." She said pointing to Sky's now dirty hands from the charcoal.
'Ignore her, ignore her, ignore her….' Sky repeatedly chanted in his head.
From his experience, it was better to ignore others since after a while they get bored and no longer provoke you.
"Moving on, I'm still shocked you have your apologies to Verrith but haven't given it to Merick for scaring him."
"How the hell do you know about that apology? Did Verrith report that too?" Sky asked, completely ignoring the chants he was making before.
He was certain that Verrith wouldn't report such a personal things especially so quickly, some of the others like Nester who he's close to could probably get info from him, but he wondered if Nester really was the type to tell that info to the general info bank, especially early enough for even her, who he had seen as an accountant to get such info already.
"You were not whispering and you're in a public place obviously one or two or maybe a couple of people will obviously intrude and listen in in the conversation, I just got lucky that one of the scouts who heard that during his break heard it and he just told me when I was sitting with him for a bit." She said her expression, still the same as the one she wore when she first came here and when Sky first met her, "It was quite an interesting conversation especially after such a boring shift of doing paperwork."
A sigh left from Sky's mouth, 'well, from what I can see, she hasn't told a single lie throughout our whole conversation, granted that she has mostly asked questions but still, a truth is a truth.'
"Well, I still would appreciate it if you apologised to Merick."
"What do you care about him that much? You have a crush on him or something?"
"We're actually planning to marry soon."
"What!?" Sky exclaimed, shocked.
"I like him, and seeing you scare him, then apologising to someone and also not him, makes me quite irritated, you know."
"It ain't the easiest to see that you're irritated, you know."
"It's a condition I have, which makes it difficult to express myself, but I thought you'd still be able to see it since I've heard you could read micro expressions."
Well, I'm not always 'active,' for one," Sky countered, his eyes narrowing as he finally began to study the fine muscles of her face. "And micro-expressions aren't a crystal ball. They're a flash of a muscle that lasts twenty-fifth of a second. It tells me you're feeling something, but it's terrible at telling me why."
He stepped closer, his voice dropping into the rhythmic tone of a lecturer. "In a world of pure theory, sure, I could see the tension in your brow. But irritation and anger? They are quite similar. Sadness and simple physical discomfort? They both pull at the same nerves in the forehead. I can see the flicker of a feeling, but that's just a micro-second of your life. It's not a substitute for actually knowing you."
"Well but I've heard you've used it to tell lies and truths."
"Well that's because I see the body language, often not there's a body movement or act when a person lies, Obviously the more a person lies, is used to it and the more talented a person is at lying the more difficult and faint it is, Verrith didn't seem like a compulsive liar from what I observed. Still most body languages I observe are used to tell between lies and sometimes, their attitudes or behavior but they definitely are rarer cases."
"You really do know how to blabber about." She said as she stood up.
"Wha-"
"Also I think this batch of antidote is ready." She said pointing to the pot.
"Oh, you're right-wait, Hey! You just insulted me again didn't you!?"
"Just give the antidote to any nearby camp and they'll distribute it, since you shared the recipe the antidote should be distributed to everyone within 3-4 hours."
"Hey but you-"
"Please don't Lengthen the suffering of others just because of an argument and give the antidote already."
Hearing this response, Sky gritted his teeth and took the pot and went to the camp.
'Odd, I can't pinpoint his exact personality, he seems so weird, he can get irritated easily but can act rationally, he seemed to be a pacifist, not wanting to kill anyone and only deciding to attempt murder when his life is on the line. So I wonder if he would also chose to kill if it's too difficult to not kill an enemy, Since he's willing to break a rule he imposed or from what I could gather a promise, he seems like a person who tries to keep his word but if it's too difficult or annoying, he will take it back.' Shirori thought, evaluating Sky's character.
"Odd to see you here,Shirori." Skelra said, appearing from behind her.
"I was staying here since I suspected you'd be here."
"I seem but what may be your reason for seeing me?" Skelra asked, confused and intrigued at what she needed to ask him.
"Well I want to go over some information that you haven't shared the details of but firstly I've heard that you gave Merick a hard time at the gate today" Shirori spoke, her gaze Turing cold.
"Well… it wasn't necessarily my fault, more like Rose, but how did you find out about it so quickly?" Skelra asked, a cold sweat dropping from his neck.
"Well while you went to the IGS post, I went and checked up on the guard who was with Merick on the shift and found out about it."
"I see…" Skelra said, a sigh leaving his mouth.