D.S. Newman
patreon
Isekai Mansion Arc 2 Part 3-4
🕑 Added 2023-08-31 13:37:15 +0000 UTCLater that afternoon, Emily came to me and Higgins, holding my father’s journal.
“Okay, I think I finally have a sound strategy,” she said.
“Let’s hear it,” I replied, and Higgins and I both took a seat at the dining room table.
“Okay, so I was reading your fathers notes on World X and while there’s not much there, he wrote that he defeated the Devil of that world with a magic item he retrieved from Arduwan’s world.”
“Yes, the Scepter of Jubilation,” Higgins concurred, “he used it against World X’s Devil Queen Josephine. It neutralized her and that’s why the stone turned green. He decided not to kill her since she was no longer a threat and felt that the longer she lived, the better it would be since a new Devil couldn’t be born into that world until a generation after her.”
“He said that Josephine asked him to keep the scepter and he did,” Emily added.
“That’s right,” Higgins replied, “while I was with him on his first few encounters with Joesphine, I was not present when he used the scepter to purify her. Nor did I go when he later visited to see how things had changed. He thought he could use the scepter again on a different Devil in another world but when he returned, all he told me was that it would be ineffective to use a second time.”
That made sense. My father said in his journal of World X that:
I could give you a detailed account of this world and my extensive tenure there, but it would be a waste of time. The world that once occupied that space is no more and Josephine has completely turned a new leaf and made it her own in the wake of the scepter’s power.
However, it is of my opinion that the scepter should not be used again in another world.
“How do we know for sure the scepter wouldn’t work again?” asked Emily, “Eric’s father wasn’t very clear on why he thought it wouldn’t. Perhaps if we were to see for ourselves, we may find a way that he didn’t know about.”
“You’re suggesting I go into World X and get the scepter back from Queen Josephine to try and use in another world?” I asked for elaboration.
Higgins stopped Emily from answering, “I wouldn’t advise that. I’m telling you, in all the worlds I’ve visited, there was none more vile and destructive than Devil Queen Josephine. What she had done to that world before she was purified was catastrophic on a level we had not seen before. That stone was solidly bright red before she was stopped. It’s likely the Senior Master Noble meant that the scepter must not be used on another world because he feared that Josephine would return to the way she was before it was used on her. That’s a risk we cannot take.”
“But he left the scepter with her,” I noted, “wasn’t that risky that she might use it to revert herself?”
“Or maybe to satiate her by keeping it to prevent her from wanting to turn back,” Higgins offered.
“Well, he did write in the journal that it’s the safest of all worlds and not to be concerned about at all while Josephine was still alive,” Emily stated, “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt for Eric to see for himself and just ask Josephine what she thought. If she’s truly the exact opposite like your father wrote, and she was once his greatest villain, then logically…that would make her our ally now.”
“Very well,” Higgins acknowledged, “if you must see for yourself, I can understand the curiosity. But do be careful not to incur her latent wrath if it exists.”
“I’m going with you,” Emily said, “I can help you deduce and consider the information we uncover and since it's so safe, I should be fine.”
“Should we take Arduwan?”
“That I must object to,” Higgins urged, “if it were an openly hostile environment, I would insist she go. But it’s not worth the risk of her clumsiness setting Josephine off. The two of you are level headed enough to know when to act and when not to.”
“I agree,” Emily stated.
What they said about Arduwan made sense. She was like a force of nature. A human wrecking crew, converged into a singularity. Wildfires were less destructive.
“We’ll leave tomorrow then,” I said.
* * *
The following morning, Emily and I prepared to head down the well into World X. It was the first time Emily had gone down the well since coming here but was a common event for me at this point. She opted to wear her classic Victorian Goth outfit for this journey and I went with a t-shirt and jeans, no weapons, since this was supposed to be such a safe world. If things weren’t as we expected, we would just leave immediately.
Our entire crew stood there in the cellar to see us off on our departure. Everyone knew the routine except Stephanie.
“Please, be careful, Eric,” she said, with her hands clasped together and a look of worry.
“It’ll be fine. This will be the easiest journey I’ve made yet. And I’ve got Emily to help me figure things out,” I assured.
Stephanie looked at Emily and said, “Hey, I know we haven’t gotten along the best but if you bring Eric back alive with that brain of yours, you will have earned my respect.”
“I will,” she replied.
Anabel rushed up and hugged me, then Emily, before telling her, “You be careful too. You’re not an adventurer.”
“I’ll be fine, Anabel. Eric will keep me safe,” she smiled and said.
We said our goodbyes and climbed into the well, clutching a green stone for a change. It was strange but comforting knowing that it was green because of my father’s work. I saw the results for myself of defeating a Devil and how the world would start to change when that happened.
“You ready?” I asked Emily, as we stood, waist deep in water.
She nodded yes and put her hands on my shoulders in front of me as I held the green stone close to us. It shined brightly and we began to feel light weight. The floor fell out from under us, and we soon found ourselves in a large pool of brightly colored water.
We came up for air and saw that everything around us was brightly colored, not just the water. We swam over to the bank and discovered that the rocks had an unnatural looking color. They were pastels! But not painted, it was natural for them. I climbed up out of the water and reached down to give Emily a hand up so we could assess our surroundings better.
“Look at this place, Emily,” I said in awe.
“It’s more than another world. It’s another reality,” she noted.
The sky was an odd mix of orange sherbert backdrop with royal purple clouds. The landscape was like a jungle but not like one you’d find on earth, in say, Africa. It was very difficult to explain, but the ‘plant life’ if that’s what you’d call it, was three dimensional, but it was like the wallpaper found in a little girls room. We weren’t sure where we should even go so, we just started walking.
We got about twenty-five yards from the water when Emily started panting nervously and said, “I don’t like this, Eric!”
“Relax okay. It’s just your first time doing this and you're nervous. It seems fine and the environment lines up with the vibe of my father’s description of peace.”
We walked a little bit further until there was nowhere to go except through ‘vegetation’. That’s when I stopped to jot down a few notes. Just like I had in Callist, I wanted to be sure we had a rudimentary way to get back to the way out.
After stopping for a moment, we heard some shaking going on ahead in the brush, if you call it that. We froze in our tracks until we saw what was making the noise. It turned out to be ‘wildlife’. Which to the best of my knowledge, appeared to be a yellow, giraffe like creature with doe eyes that had a sparkle in them. Except it was only about as tall as Emily, who was several inches shorter than I am. The creature showed no sign of being dangerous and happily approached us. I reached out to pet and made a wild realization.
“Oh, my god, Emily! Touch it!”
She followed my lead, petted the animal, and said, “it feels like…a stuffed animal!” That’s exactly what it was like. This was a living, breathing, plushie.
After moving on from the strange animal, we kept walking in a straight line, still not knowing where we were going. But we had hoped to run into a local that could direct us to Josephine. A little while later, we started to hear the sound of running water.
“Must be a river up ahead,” I noted, “come on. Let’s take a look and see where it leads and if we can cross.”
Several yards ahead, we found a flowing river. It was clear, but the water was pink.
“Do you smell that, Eric?”
“I do…it’s bubblegum!”
I knelt down and splashed up a sip of the water and sure enough, it was bubblegum flavored.
“This just keeps getting weirder,” Emily said.
“Well, I want to continue in a straight line. Let me mark the river’s location and we’ll try to cross.”
“It’s too wide,” she said, “that water is moving too fast at the center for us to make it across without being swept away.”
I pointed overhead at what appeared to be vines, “see those. I think we can swing across using one.”
“How will you break them loose?” she asked.
“With this,” I replied, showing her my fold out pocket knife.
“I thought you weren’t bringing any weapons?”
“It’s more of a tool really.”
The two of us walked up to an area with higher ground along the bank and I cut loose a large ‘vine’. Emily put one arm behind my back and reached around to clasp her own hand from my chest. I scooped her legs up with my right arm and cradled her while holding the ‘vine’ with my left hand and forearm and used my right hand underneath Emily for extra support on the lower part of the ‘vine’.
“Ready?” I asked.
She nodded her head, and we leapt off the ledge and swung over the flow of bubble gum water to the other side. It was not a soft landing, but what can you expect? It was my first time doing anything like Errol Flynn. We got to our feet and went on walking dead ahead.
We made our way further through the wilderness and started to feel something sticky rub off onto our arms and clothes. On the other side of the brush, we came out into a clearing.
“What is this stuff?” I asked.
Emily smelled it, tasted it, and said, “it’s cotton candy!”
“That’s right,” said a strange voice, “those are cotton candy bushes.”
We looked around and didn’t immediately see anyone, but about ten feet from us was a little Leprechaun man with a Toucan on his shoulder.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Who are we? Who are ye?” he asked, in an Irish accent, “clearly it is you who are not from around here.”
“That’s right,” I responded, “we’re trying to find Queen Josephine.”
“Oh!” squawked the Toucan. Then he continued in a posh British accent, “you’ve gotta follow your nose to find her!”
Emily and I just looked at one another as the Leprechaun spun around on his heels and started harmonizing with the Toucan, ““Oohhhh!!!””
“Oh, my. They’re gonna start singing aren’t they,” Emily said, with defeat in her voice.
(Follow the Marshmallow Road,
Follow the Marshmallow Road,
Follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow the Marshmallow Road
There’s Hearts, Stars, and Horseshoes,
Clovers and Blue Moons, Pots of Gold and Rainbows, And the Red Balloons!
Follow the Marshmallow Road,
Follow the Marshmallow Road,
Follow, follow, follow, follow, Follow the Marshmallow Road)
…they sang.
“Excuse us,” I interrupted, “but how do you find the Marshmallow Road?”
The Toucan replied, “simply follow your nose!”
“What he means is,” the Leprechaun explained, “is that when you smell Marshmallow in the air, you know you’re near the road. When you get on the road, it will lead you to Queen Josephine.”
They went back to singing, so me and Emily thanked them and went on our way.
“This place is starting to get to me, Eric,” she professed.
“Emily, you come from a world where hitting werewolves is as common as hitting deer. Just hang in there. We’re gonna get to the bottom of all this.”
