The next day, we are all invited for a late breakfast by Miranda.

  She looks both determined and a little sad when she says, “John, Sherry…I have decided. I’d like to stay with my family. Had you come ten years earlier I would have come with you…But I waited for so long that I grew roots and I can not leave here anymore.”

  John looks a bit dejected and answers, “I understand, we will leave today then. It was nice seeing you again Mira.”

  “It was also wonderful to meet you two one last time. I wish I had a better parting gift but please take this basket of sweets.”

  She Aka receives it, “Thank you, it will come in handy I’m sure.”

  “Also a parting gift for you specifically, Sherry,” She pulls out a small pouch, “These are seeds of all the flowers native to the north. I thought they might be handy for when you get home.”

  Looking surprised and a bit sad, Sher Aka answers, “Thank you Miranda…That is very thoughtful of you.”

  Miranda hugs both of them with teary eyes, “Please fare well on your journey…”

  We then leave both Miranda and Timon behind. Sher Aka and John both seem a bit emotionally exhausted but I think in the end this visit made them feel better. They both seem a lot more...Content yet a little sad on our journey to the next city.

  Our next stop is Thalos, the capital of Skar and our last stop before we move over the mountains. It is an intense looking city built between a mountain. Apparently a king of the past ordered for a mountain to be split in two and for his city to be built between it. It reminds me of Sovar in a way but where Sovar was built in between nature this was completely artificially created. Apparently, almost all of Thalos is built from the grayish brown stone the mountains are made of and whenever they need more houses they just further mine the mountains. It is said that at the rate of expansion they’re going it will take another three hundred years for the split mountain to completely vanish and be reconstructed into this city.

  And just like the the look of the city, even the way to the entrance is quite tough, we need to drive our wagon up the steep path to even get to its gates. I’m sure if we didn’t have dwarven mountain goats drawing our wagon we’d have a lot of trouble even getting up there. But eventually, we do make it up to the top and enter. Surprisingly, the inside of the city seems quite diverse. This is the first time that I’ve seen so many non-humans in Skar. Many of them seem to be merchants and there seems no bad blood between anyone. Everyone seems to just live and work together happily without friction.

  After a while of moving through the busy streets we come upon a guild house. It seems even bigger than the one in Berk’s capital and is made of rough looking gray mountain stone. When we enter I’m positively surprised by a lot more non humans being present and even the staff has a few dwarves. We go to the receptionist counter and an older dwarven lady greets us, “Hi there. What can I help you with?”

  Rayla speaks up, “Hi, we’re the Shooting Stars. We’d like to receive our quest reward for the subjugation of the two sapphire tigers. Here are our cards and their teeth in case our client hasn’t reported it yet.”

  “Ah, the teeth won’t be necessary, I have your quest report right here. It seems the client was very impressed by you and as such asked us to give you some extra recognition. Because of that, we’d like to award you with a bonus point, putting you three at five points and you Miss at three. And here is your payment.”

  Rayla stashes the two big silver and as we’re about to leave the secretary asks, “So, are you guys not here because you’re fans?”

  “Fans?”

  Giving us a smug smile, she says, “He should know,” and points at me.

  “Uhm…No sorry Miss I don’t know what you’re talking about either.”

  She seems surprised, “Really? So why the get up then?”

  “Uhm…The simplest explanation is that it makes me more approachable, I’m cursed you see.”

  “Ahuh! So you are a fan! They’re sitting in the veterans lounge right now, if you’re lucky you’ll get to say hi!”

  “Ehm…Okay? Say hi to who?”

  “The Clown Carnival of course!”

  Rayla suddenly seems really excited and asks, “THE Clown Carnival is here!?”

  “Yep!”

  “Uhm, ane. Who?”

  John lets out a sigh and answers, “You really know nothing do you?”

  “The Clown Carnival, oki! They’re an S-Ranked adventuring group known for dealing with cultists and undead. They’re basically like the Five Winged Angel but they only get called for the potentially nation destroying threats! They’re insane! They also never take off their costumes so no one knows what they look like beneath!”

  “Huh…”

  Sher Aka says, “I’m definitely interested in seeing them in the flesh, how about we go take a peek?”

  “Sounds like a perfect idea, come on oki!”

  We then walk up the stairs to the veterans lounge where a bunch of people in clown makeup and makeshift clown masks are waiting with small notebooks and pencils in hand. They are completely blocking the way so I can’t see anything.

  A deep voice yells, “Alright everyone! The Clown Carnival is giving autographs now, once you’re done receiving your autograph please leave the premises as long as you aren’t an adventurer qualified to enter the veterans lounge!”

  Right after, a bunch of people start to yell and scream so I pull out my dagger.

  “Oki, what are you doing, put that away!”

  “But…People are screaming, something must be happening!”

  Putting her hand on mine, she answers calmly, “It’s fine, they’re cheering! Some just scream to show how excited they are!”

  Feeling guilty, I reply, “Oh…Sorry, I almost got us into trouble again…”

  “It’s alright, just put it away now, I don’t think anyone saw.”

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  I then hold Rayla’s hand to help me calm down but there is still a weird feeling of dread that I get from this crowd of screaming people. Eventually, we do get moving a bit as the crowd in front of us thins and people behind us start to appear.

  Feeling a hand on my shoulder I quickly turn around only to see a worried looking Sher Aka and John.

  Sher Aka asks, “Are you okay? You look very tense and nervous.”

  “Ah…It’s just, there are so many masked and screaming people…It’s a little scary.”

  John adds, “It’s alright if you want to wait downstairs, you know? I’m interested to see them but I can just line up later once the others are done and stay with you for the time being.”

  “Thank you John, if it gets worse I’ll take your offer but right now I want to see them as well so I didn’t just go through this weird feeling for nothing.”

  “Alright, is there anything we can help you with in the meantime?”

  “Ehm…It would be nice if you could stand behind me, I don’t like strangers behind me.”

  “Sure, that’s fine, Sherry and I can do that.”

  The line then continues to move further ahead until just a very tall Orc in front of us is blocking our sight. He has a huge smile on his face as he gets his autograph and passes us by. I can now see a bunch of fans waiting in front of a makeshift hung up sideways rope, behind it are a person in the rough shape of an Orc, a small person the size of a Dwarf, a hunched over person and a woman with a tail. All of them are completely covered in what looks like a clown's costume and wearing differently decorated masks, so it’s impossible to tell what they actually look like. I’m not sure if it’s just because we wear similar clothing but in a way I feel a kinship with them.

  “Look, oki! It’s them! Woooooh!”

  While the big person is giving out autographs the eyes of the woman with the tail and mine meet but it seems even when I look away she is still staring at me. She then whispers something to the other people in her group and a man that looks like a bouncer comes up to me, “You there, the Clown Carnival want to meet with you. Come with me.”

  “Eh? Why do they want to meet with me?”

  “Dunno, just come with me.”

  Rayla excitedly says, “This is a huge opportunity, oki! Make sure to tell them of our group if we get connections with them we’re set for life!”

  “Uhm…Sure? Can my sister come with me?”

  “No, they just asked for you.”

  “It’ll be fine oki, I’ll be right here after all!

  “Uhm okay…”

  A bit confused, I follow the bouncer to what looks like a promotion interview room.

  “Take a seat, they’ll get there shortly. There are some snacks on the table, feel free to eat some.”

  “Uhm, okay. Thank you.”

  The bouncer then leaves and I sit down on a couch. There are some small sandwiches, sweets, fried meats and dried vegetable snacks on the table. I eat some of the veggies, feed some matchsticks to Sally and wait about ten minutes until the door opens and the Clown Carnival enter the room one by one.

  The big person speaks up in a deep but somewhat jittery and broken voice, “You were right Marigold, it’s faint but I smell it too.”

  The small person then points their finger at me and a child-like girl's voice demands, “You there, who are you and who are you associated with?”

  “Oh, uhm my name is Thoma Ahad and I’m with the adventuring group Shooting Stars. Nice to meet you!”

  The crouched over person asks, “Youuuuu are not just a fan. Why are youuuuu here?”

  “Oh uhm, we were just getting our quest rewards and then we were told that you are here so we thought we’d take a look. I never really heard of you but I think my sister and the rest of my party are fans of you guys though.”

  The woman with the tail angrily commands, “Take off your amulet.”

  “How do you…How do you know I’m wearing one?”

  “We’re the ones asking questions, now take it off.”

  “Uhm…Okay but I’m warning you it’s gonna smell really bad when I do. Also please read this.” I take off the cultist necklace and pull out the letter Uli wrote explaining that I’m not a cultist. They weirdly seem completely unaffected by my smell.

  The small one with the little girl’s voice then pulls out what looks like a glowing magnifying glass, reads the letter and passes it around for the others. They whisper a bit between each other and the one with the tail says, “Take off your shirt, we want to see your mark.”

  “Uhm…Okay. But please don’t touch my back without warning, I hate that.” I then take my shirt off and present my back to them.

  The small one says, “I’m going to touch it for a bit so please bear with it.”

  “O-okay.”

  I can feel her inspect my mark for a bit before saying, “It’s genuine,” which seems to relax them a little. “You can put your shirt back on now.”

  “Uhm okay…You probably wanted to check on me because you think I’m a cultist but I don’t do that sorta stuff.”

  The small one sits down on the couch across from me and says, “I know, don’t worry.”

  The big person with the deep broken voice walks up to me, puts their hand on my shoulder and in a jittery voice says, “It must have been tough…”

  The one with the tail then brings me one of the bowls of fried meats, “Eat, they’re good.”

  Feeling a bit awkward, I take a bite and ask, “So…What is going on? I’m a bit confused.”

  The small one asks, “You’re an adventurer, right? Can we see your card?”

  “Uhm…Sure?”

  “D-Rank huh…Thoma Ahad, do you want to join our group?”

  “What? Not really, no.”

  She starts to laugh, “Instantly rejected, huh? You definitely are a good fit. To answer why I asked, I'll let you in on a little secret. We’re also all afflicted, just like you. Just in different ways…” She takes off her mask and reveals the pale face of a child. She has red slightly glowing eyes and two sharp teeth poking out of her mouth.

  The others then also take their masks off. The hunchbacked one's face looks like an owl fused with a human in a cruel manner, the big one has a face that looks like a spider's head and the woman has a face that looks like a wolf.

  “See? You can trust us, we’re just like you.”

  Scratching my arm and avoiding their gaze, I answer, “Uhm…I don’t think it’s fair to say I have it nearly as bad as you guys…” I then take my mask off too, which causes the little girl to giggle.

  “There is no need to compare who has it worse, tell me does it feel like your body is wrong? Like you wish you could rip off your skin and just be yourself again?”

  “Yes…How did you-”

  “It’s because we all feel like that.”

  She then puts down a crescent moon shaped pendant on the table, “This pendant takes about a year to fill up, depending on your luck, it might take longer. It needs to bathe in the light of ten full moon nights for at least five hours per night. Once it is charged up, it will allow you to keep the curse at bay for one day. If you join our group you may keep it.”

  Looking at the pendant it feels like my heart calls out to it. To finally be able to know who I really am…I would give almost everything for it.

  “I…Can my sister and my two friends join as well or just me?”

  “Are they cursed too?”

  “No.”

  “Then they can’t join.”

  “...”

  My heart aches, when I answer, “I’m sorry I can’t join you then. As much as I’d like to know who I really am I…I can’t leave my sister and friends behind for it.”

  “Do they know you’re cursed?”

  “Yeah…We’re working together to find a cure. Our hope is to find a dark magician that can remove the part of my curse that makes my body reject light magic and then get the rest removed by the saints in the middle kingdoms.”

  The wolf woman scoffs, “How childish. Are you willing to sacrifice people?”

  “No?”

  “Then you will only be able to remove parts of the curse. A curse paid for in people's souls can only be completely removed by extremely strong holy magic or another sacrifice. That’s why the worst curses always protect against holy magic.”

  “Then…How about the Everglade? I heard if we go there we can at least remove that part of the curse.”

  “Pffft, sure if they let you in you MIGHT have a chance. But it’s impossible, we have all asked and we were all denied. Give up, it’s better than keeping up a false hope.”

  A bit annoyed, I answer, “I…Just because it was not possible for you doesn’t mean it’s impossible for me too. As long as there is a chance I want to take it!”

  Walking over to me while growling, the wolf woman slaps me, “Arrogant brat, it’s not possible!”

  As I rub over my cheek in shock, the little girl puts her hand up and the wolf woman becomes silent, “I understand where you’re coming from Thoma Ahad. Please excuse my companion, we all had hope once and we all had it crushed. She’s just trying to protect you from that in her own way.”

  She then puts her mask on again and the others follow suit.

  “I hope you will be able to remove your curse, I truly do. But in case you find that you can't, you have a place with us. Take the pendant with you, when you’re ready to join us you can show it to a big guild branch like this one and they’ll contact us.”

  “A-Are you sure I can keep it even if I don’t intend to join?”

  She answers in a cheeky voice, “Yes. We might be monsters but we’re not cruel.”

  Still a bit confused, I pick up the pendant and feel a cold calming feeling from it in my hand, “Thank you.”

  Not answering me, they get up and leave the room. Before closing the door the owl person says, “Youuuu may take the snacks with youuuuu,” before leaving me behind.