Page 2 of I Ran Away to Evil #3
Previously on Dungeon Delves and Debutantes
Gerda
Of all the places I’d visited in Valaria, North Sumbria felt the most like home .
Living in a video game set in a mythical blend of eastern and western medieval fantasy meant I’d spent a lot of time searching for the creature comforts of my old world … and this was about as close as I was going to get.
Courtesy of Grand Duchess Calisto, North Sumbria had paved roads, magical streetlamps, elevators, and public transportation. Mana-fueled construct carriages worked much the same as cars, and magic did wonders on the suspension.
I heard my name, and I turned to my travel companions.
Rufus was the former commander general of the Dark Enchanted Forest, a canine beastman who looked like a blend of wolf and golden retriever.
He was sitting on the wagon beside his fiancée, Minstrel Bronwynn Lyriel.
Brownie was a half giantess who had fiery-red-tipped brown hair and dark eyes with a glint of red.
They were both much taller than I.
As a troll, I was sturdy, curvy, and on the taller side of a human, but nowhere near a giantess.
My light-green skin and dark-green hair were also uniquely troll .
I currently had mine in thirteen braids bound back at the nape of my neck.
On top of being green, I also had long, sharp lower canines that stuck up and out.
Surprisingly, they didn’t get in the way much or affect the way I spoke.
The only resemblance to my former human self were my eyes, the same honey brown they’d always been.
I enjoyed the physique of a female bodybuilder, but the thing I loved most about my new appearance was the smattering of white fawnlike freckles on the bridge of my nose.
They were hardcore cottagecore.
“Are you both heading straight for the Coral Palace?” I asked.
Rufus jumped down and offered Donna the horse an enchanted carrot. The mare happily accepted the treat.
To me, he answered, “We are, and you?”
I held up my invitation. It was a pass through the city gate and my ticket to the wedding ceremony of Calisto’s daughter, Countess Julia von Slyke, the Paladin of Light, and Necromancer Chloe Watercress—the original villainess of this season.
There was nothing on this godsforsaken world that was going to stop me from seeing those two women get married, since it’d been my hard work that had set them up in the first place.
Not that they knew that.
“I’m also staying at the palace,” I informed them, waving the invite once before shoving it back into my storage space. “But I’m going to visit the market first.”
“We could walk around together?” Brownie asked, hopeful. She sat in the driver’s seat, pretending to drive the wagon. Her horse chuffed, and the minstrel added, “ After we settle in Donna first, of course.”
“Alright. I’ll stay close to the fountain.”
Brownie nodded. “We should be back in an hour.”
Rufus eyed the wagon. “Do we want to store everything first?”
We were standing in an open courtyard full of other wagons and travelers being let into the city. It was crowded.
Due to the Summer Solstice Festival, shops that would’ve otherwise been getting ready to close were instead preparing for the night market. The city wouldn’t be asleep until long after midnight.
“Good idea.” Brownie fixed her lyre harp’s shoulder strap then grabbed her fashionable red bag before climbing down to join us.
Donna shrugged , and suddenly, all of the ropes and straps and hitches fell loose until the horse was free of her wagon. The joys of a magical world. Brownie waved a hand, and everything disappeared into the bard’s storage ring.
“Why do you load the wagon with things if you have a storage ring?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
Brownie shrugged. “If they’re busy stealing the decoy wagon, then I can run away.”
“I see.” Made sense with her history. After I’d found out the bard would run into three encounters every trip, I’d started making sure I was one of them. A bridge troll riddle was much safer than a flock of griffins or a bandit camp …
“Alright.” Rufus took Brownie’s hand and nodded my way. “We will see you later, Miss Gerda.”
Brownie waved. “Fair weather.”
I finished the saying, “And fine luck.”
After they were out of sight, I headed for the nearest inn. I’d need a room; somewhere I could review my new notifications in peace.
I quickly found one off the beaten path. The Morbid Mule wasn’t the name of an inn I’d otherwise frequent, but it was cheap and serviceable for a few minutes of quiet.
There were updates to my quest and a few notifications in my log.
I had to open each tab to see their full information, but otherwise, I could scroll through three notifications at a time in the preview window.
[Perk Quest: Previously on Dungeon Delves and Debutantes …]
[Passive Perk: Sense Fate has activated. Duke Julian von Slyke will lose his locket at the Coral Palace West Fountain tonight …]
[Passive Perk: Sense Fate has activated. General Visha Hemsworth will be poisoned at the Fardew tavern tomorrow …]
I opened my Season Two quest and grinned at all the changes that were happening.
Every Error was a victory. Five years spent preparing to subvert the tragedies of the first season. It’d made Season Two harder in some ways because the story had gone so wildly off base, but I’d made it work.
Because listen to me when I say that an orphanage burning down was a simple plot device until you walked past said orphanage every time you visited your favorite bakery in Servalt.
And who said the Heroine of Justice had to slaughter the entire Dark Enchanted Forest and then finish off the Dark Lord with a well-timed punch to the face? No one. Not on my watch!
I’d had plenty of time to level up to boss monster status and carefully curate a character build that would let me change the storyline.
Every ten levels came with a title, and every title came with one skill selection.
For example, at level forty, I’d chosen the Oracle title and the [Foretelling] skill, which allowed me to pick anyone and see where they would be right now in any of the original storylines.
Every two levels gave one skill point, and every two skill points gave one perk.
With [Foretelling 4], I’d chosen the perks [Sooth] and [Sense Fate].
[Sooth] showed me where key events were going to happen on my mini map, and [Sense Fate] notified me if I could change someone’s fate as long as they got close enough to me to enter my area of effect: Level 65 x Perception 43 x Foretelling 4 = 11,180 sq/ft.
A perfect size for anyone crossing my troll bridge.
I sucked at math, and so spent an unreasonable amount of time double-checking or guessing where the limits of my area of effect were …
but I managed. While we’d been standing around talking about our plans at the gate, one of the main love interests had entered the city and passed us by, activating my passive perks.
It would’ve been nice to relax and walk around the market before getting straight into it, but an NPC’s work was never done.
I summoned the Master Crystal from my storage.
The future wasn’t going to tell itself.