I woke up after sleeping for 2 weeks. The 9-month time dilation had exhausted me immensely. Going through 9 months of practice and training in 5 days’ time was insane. It wasn't something I want to do again. The world was in chaos again. The snake fairy had brought hordes of fairies with her and had been terrorizing the continent for almost 2 months now.

  What are Greg and Raishin are doing? Why isn’t that fairy dead yet? I stepped outside. Starbolt, Cee Horze, and Boshi were still moving around clumsily. Bywen must have been an anomaly for getting used to her vessel so fast which meant that I couldnt take them with me.

  I yawned and wondered what I should do first. I should figure out how Barusu and Vice Daddy are doing. Toxic Donkey will be hard to track down. Who am I forgetting? Team Moch? Maybe it’s better for them if they forget about me.

  Barusu was up first. I could finally use the normal entrance of the Yttroz Industries now. It felt a bit sad. ‘Be careful what you wish for’ applied here. I got my wish, but maybe this wasn’t for the best. My dimensional teleport brought me to the park in Gittrian and I walked to the Yttroz Industries Headquarters. I didn’t get stopped by anyone or any guard.

  Excuse me, can I make an appointment with Barusu, the CEO or anyone important. I want to discuss a possible important deal.

  The receptionist looked at me. “I am sorry, but we don’t just make appointments with people unknown to the company.”

  That was to be expected. I am curious though. Do you guys know of an ‘Agnis Hourai’?

  “We can’t give out information about people affiliated with our company and certainly not to people that are not affiliated with us. I apologize but I can’t help you.” I put my adventurer’s ID and regular ID on the counter. “What? How did I not recognize you? Wait let me verify.” I guess my name is still known but they just can’t remember what I look like. “That is odd, you seem to be an important individual to our company, yet I don’t remember you. I apologize, I will get someone who might remember.”

  Don’t bother. Nobody will remember me.

  The receptionist went to the back and started up several Teleroad transmissions. It seems that whoever he called didn’t seem to know who I was.

  “Hold on a bit more.” He started up another Teleroad message. “Hello, Damian, I have here a man named Agnis Hourai. Nobody seems to remember him, but he is an important individual according to our records. Do you know anything about it? You don’t? Wait, you want to meet him? Aren’t you busy? I understand.” The message ended. “Follow me for a bit. I apologize, we will figure out what is going on.”

  I felt a bit sorry for this guy but there was nothing he needed to apologize for nor anything he could do about this. I followed him to Jerry’s… Damian's office. Jerry and I weren’t close friends or anything, but it still saddened me to know that he was gone. This will become a frequent occurrence the more mortal friends I make.

  Jerry had been taken before his time, but every mortal will meet their end way before I will, that is, if I don’t get into more trouble.

  The receptionist gestured at the door. “This is the office of Damian Chosick, the right-hand man of the CEO.”

  I know, thank you.

  I entered the office. Damian got up and shook my hand. “Damian Chosick! It’s nice to meet you! Sit down!”

  Thank you. It might be hard for you to believe but this isn’t our first meeting.

  I sat down. Damian stroked his beard which was getting gray. “Hmm, you might be right. I might have seen you on one of the images that the CEO has hanging in his office. This might be strange but do you mind accompanying me to visit him? I just found a record that I indeed had a meeting with you not too long ago.” I nodded, and we went over to Barusu’s office.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  We found him sitting on his desk and looking at the images on his wall. Most of them seemed to be with him shaking hands with, which I assume, trade partners, but I noticed that 3 had me in them. One of my birthday when he treated me for a dinner at the restaurant, another after he completed my house in Girai, and the last one after he had finished rebuilding Alledra.

  “Excuse me Barusu, we have an important yet unusual guest.”

  “Not now Damian! Something is bothering me; I can’t seem to remember this lad on these 3 pictures here. It feels like there is a hole in my memory.”

  “Can you just turn around your stubborn dwarf!?” Barusu turned around and looked at me. Then at the pictures on his wall.

  He pointed. “You! You’re him!”

  Good day. Barusu. I am Agnis Hourai. You might not remember me, but I have sold the Hourai rubies to the Yttroz industries through Jeremiah Odell 10… 11 years ago.

  “I apologize. I don’t remember that, but I don’t put images of people that are unimportant on my wall! Welcome and thank you for visiting!” He jumped off his desk and gave me a passionate handshake.

  A lot of strange things tend to happen to me. You might not believe me but do you mind listening?

  “Sure! I will dig up anything we have on you after this meeting don’t worry.” I had forgotten how friendly Barusu was. I was also worried about the enormous piles of paperwork he seemed to have knocked off his desk.

  I told him various encounters I had with him and Jeremiah and how an event wiped the memory of my existence. They had difficulties with it but accepted it since they realized that something like that was more likely than all the records and images being forged.

  “This is a tough pill to swallow, lad. Most of the things you say line up well with the events I remember. It does seem like your presence has been missing from those events. Especially that birthday I treated you to. Nobody I know has his or her birthday on that day, so it would be strange for me to organize one.”

  Well, I apologize if it caused any inconvenience. It probably won’t be the same, but I wish we could have a similar friendship as we did before.

  I extended my hand for a handshake, which he shook.

  And for that. I have this!

  I took 20 large ruby crystals out of my dimensional pocket. Barusu’s and Damians eyes opened wide.

  How about we start at where it all began, when I sold rubies.

  Barusu didn’t hear me, he was thoroughly inspecting the rubies and being amazed by them.

  “Ahum, let me answer on Barusu’s behalf. We will be delighted. The quality of these rubies need to be determined first but… I can see from here they share similarities with the Hourai rubies.”

  “Oh uh, sorry! Deal! We were getting worried about our funds, since we had rebuilt a lot of cities out of charity. And we didn’t want to touch the funds of a mysterious benefactor, which seemed to have been you. But this will put us back on track!”

  You guys were filthy rich, how many cities did you rebuild for free?

  “We currently need to rebuild 3 more major cities, and then we’re done.”

  You guys are insane, but in the good kind.

  “Do you mind if we release these as the second batch of the Hourai rubies?”

  Sure. As long as your company doesn’t go under from being broke. The rubies are yours now.

  We had a short chat afterward. Barusu called someone over to make a picture of this event which probably will also end up on his wall. I told him that he should hire someone to help him with all the paperwork. He promised he would do so and also told me to hop by whenever I needed anything. It might not be the same, but the relationship with Barusu Onyxbeard had been partially mended.