Isaak kicked at random pebbles on the ground as he walked, looking around at the scenery of his home village, basked in the yellow-hued glow of a summers dusk. Contrary to his wishes, he had, in fact, not been allowed to join the town guard in Veleheim. He hadn't even been laid off, as he'd been too intimidated by Vinda, his Captain in the reasent effort of the kingdom to find the scource of the magica spike, to fumble his part of the workload.

  "Hahhh."

  So now he was home on a paid leave.

  A paid leave.

  Paid!!

  That didn't happen in the military! He was supposed to be used as a disposable resource and then discarded into the nearest town after recieving payment for his service, not go on a paid home-visit!

  But he just had to start making an effort after the... after the incident, didn't he?

  He couldn't help it. After the encounted with that... that room, that book, he'd ran back to the other two soldiers he'd been sent off to explore with, but when they questioned him, he hadn't... He hadn't been able to answer.

  The worst thing was, he didn't even know what stopped him. Or, he knew, but he didn't understand.

  When he first saw the inconspicuous room at the end of the tunnel, he'd been on guard - obviously he had been on guard. But when he entered... But when he entered, it was as if his soul stilled. It was as if his mind, soul and body were suspended in the air, yet more grounded than ever before. The feeling of focus was incomparable. And the book. The small, light-green book that had called to him, the book with only two pages. The foreword - a welcome, a greeting, the warmth of which he had never been shown by anyone before...

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  And then there was its contents. The Felitos plant; One of the most common, cheap yet high-quality tea leaves that you could find just about anywhere. For such a magical book to have given him such absolutely obsolete, seemingly random, even, knowledge - how was he supposed to explain that to someone?

  Truly, how was he supposed to even begin to explain that to anyone?

  So when Idiot One and Two asked, he'd hesitated, and they'd moved on, heading back to the encampment without paying him any mind. And he'd trudged listlessly after them like a lost Perka.

  When they met up with the others reentering the camp and been faced with Captain Vinda's scrutiny, they'd just told her the usual - "There were some monsters in the tunnels, two in total, to be excact. Other than that, all clear."

  - And they were dismissed. What was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to go up to the Captain and say "Hey, by the way! There's a tiny, magical stone shack at the end of one of the side tunnels of ancient wisdom, with a magical book that feeds a stream of knowledge about tea directly into your mind!"

  So in the end, he said nothing. Even so, it was as if Vinda had seventeen senses, as she delegated more work to him than the other 'Perkas' as if she could sense his witholding of information. Surprizingly, however, Isaak had taken to his tasks with vigor unlike the other Idiots, though that was only because he needed something to distract himself with.

  How was he supposed to know that would lead him to get a reccomendation letter from the Captain, consequently getting him officially drafted into the army!? The madwoman didn't even like him!! Though, perhaps that was why...

  "Haaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh......"

  So, here he was. On a paid leave to essentially say goodbye to his family he wouldn't be seeing for the next who knew how many years.

  "At least I'll be living in a proper city," he consoled himself, trudging along morosely.

  'And,' he added internally, 'at least I won't have to deal with my mother.'

  "ISAAK????"

  Isaak flinched, cursing his mental tongue.