Restart Again: Volume 2 by Adam Scott (hardest books to read txt) 📕

her eyes slowly across the treeline on the horizon. Apart from the minute movements of her eyes and the dim flashes of violet mana that occasionally circulated through her core, it would have been easy to mistake her for a long-forgotten monument. When I found that she had no intentions of moving, I pushed my attention out farther to see how far my Detection could reach.

I felt an exhilarating rush as the world shifted around me. My mana bolted along the ground, scanning out to the forest edge that Val watched and even further beyond. As my reach extended, the finer details of my surroundings began to blur out of focus, and a dull ache grew in the center of my forehead. It was an issue I hadn’t encountered since my early experiments with Detection magic: my mind couldn’t process the sheer amount of information that my mana was relaying back to me. While I could have activated my Combat Acceleration to keep up with the overwhelming data flow, I chose to instead pull the energy back and relax.

As the world began to retract towards me, I noticed Val had turned from her place atop the hill and begun the trip back towards camp. Her casual pace down the hill quickened as she moved, and before long she was running full tilt towards the treeline. At the last possible moment she primed her shield arm and launched herself forward, smashing the nearest tree into a cloud of splinters. A few moments later, the dull smack echoed over camp, just loud enough to discern over the ambient noises of the countryside.

Her brash assault against the tree continued with a series of strikes from both her shield and her heavily armored offhand, smashing large chunks of wood out from its base until it began to sway perilously above her. After a final, brutal punch, she leaned forward against the mangled trunk and panted heavily, her chest heaving from the exertion. Her lips moved as she spoke silently to the clearing, and her face twitched with the effort of holding back a clearly powerful emotion.

I withdrew my mana all at once, suddenly ashamed of spying on what Val clearly considered to be a private moment. While it wasn’t nearly as strong as my connection with Lia, I had gleaned a faint sense of what she was feeling through the Detection magic: there was an overwhelming storm of anger and dread which resonated strongly with my own emotions about the approaching meeting with Virram, but a pervading feeling of loss and sadness caught me off guard. What did she lose?

I lost track of time as I laid sleeplessly in my bedroll, plagued by the unanswered question. Val returned to camp with her placid, stone faced demeanor restored at some point in the night; after a quick check to ensure Marin was sleeping safely, she returned to the driver’s bench of her wagon and propped herself up in the corner just out of view from my position by the fire. As worried and curious as I was about her emotional state, I refrained from using Detection again out of respect for her privacy.

The sound of morning birds calling back and forth through the trees came far too soon for my liking. Begrudgingly, I rose in the predawn light and gently woke Lia before starting the process of breaking camp. Our morning rituals proceeded without deviation: Val took care of the Strategist while the rest of us prepared the horses and carts for travel. After a light breakfast, we returned to our wagons and set out on the final leg of our journey.

Marin’s estimate of the remaining distance to Tolamar proved accurate, and we arrived at the crossroads while the morning sun still hung low in the sky. “Tell my parents that we’ll be home as soon as our business in the city is finished!” Lia said to Marin, giving her a hug. “And good luck with your meeting! I’m sure you’ll work something out with my father.”

“Don’t let Marten give you a hard time,” I advised her with a wry smile. “He might seem harmless, but he’s had years of practice getting under Lia’s skin.” Lia elbowed me in the ribs, and the three of us shared a laugh.

“I know all about dealing with difficult people,” Marin said confidently. “Speaking of which…” she paused, standing up on the driver’s bench and cupping her hands around her mouth. “You’d better come visit me as soon as possible, Val! And tell Mom and Dad that I’m back, too!”

With our goodbyes finished, Lia and I gathered our things and waved goodbye to Marin as she drove off down the dirt road towards Tolamar. When she had disappeared from sight, Lia joined Val on the front bench while I sat across from the Strategist in the back. He met my eyes as I first entered the wagon, regarding me with the cold, calculating stare I had come to expect from him, but he closed his eyes and rested his head against the bench behind him as soon as our journey continued.

It wasn’t long before the great stained-glass window of the Golden Throne came into view on the horizon, looming over the city walls from its central hill. The sight immediately set me on edge, flooding my mind with memories from my time in Yoria. Jack and Porks. Melrose and Sherman. The dungeon. King Virram. Lia. I paused for a moment as the events replayed over again in my head. It was worth it.

The road grew busier the instant we passed the intersection to Tolamar, but the traffic never slowed our pace. Without fail, everyone we encountered immediately made way for our wagon, oftentimes with shouts of praise and adoration for the Commander of the Trinity Guard. Val acknowledged each one with a curt nod or a small wave, to their great delight; by the time we had reached the city walls, we had amassed a large following of onlookers