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ILIAS VAN PAYNE

A village of stone in the middle of a big green meadow. Surrounding it were fields of wheat, potatoes, carrots, beets, and all known types of vegetables that can grow in a moderately warm climate. The village was encompassed by a protective stone wall seven feet high and two feet deep.

Its name was Gilead.

I never stepped foot outside of the village ever since I was reincarnated and was eager to head out. But as time passed, I came to long the quiet rural landscape. So when we finally came out of the woods and saw the village, all I could think was, we're home.

When we reached wheat fields, Tank took a moment to sniff the air before letting out a satisfied bellow.

Camaro patted his head. "I know, boy. We're back."

The closer we got to the village, the more farmers tending to the crops we ran into. They greeted us all with the same comments.

"Colonel! We thought you'd never return! Glad to have you back!"

"Ilias! Congratulations on passing the exam!"

"We have two State Jynxists in the village now? Very nice."

John sneered at them, the chains bound to his legs and hands clanked.

"Isn't this nice?" Camaro shouted to him. "The citizens of Rockbell could've admired you just like this."

John sighed, knowing that all he could do was keep his mouth shut and listen.

"If you protected Rockbell like you were supposed to, I'm sure you'd be somewhere nicer. All that gold you were hoarding for yourself is nothing compared to the generosity and kindness a town you hold can give back."

We made our way down the road and stopped just in front of my house. Out in the yard, Mother, Doria, and Jaime were hanging out by the garden.

The gate was wide open, so Camaro hopped off Tank and knocked on it. "May we come in?"

Jaime was the first to notice us. "They're here!" she yelled as she ran towards us. She hugged the colonel first before tackling me off my pony and giving me the same-on the ground. "Congratulations!"

"Woah," I said. "I could've done without the whole knocking me off the pony, but it's nice to see you too, Jaime."

She helped me back to my feet. "Nice hat. You look like a wizard."

"That sounds like you're making fun of me, but I'll be nice and think of it as a compliment."

Jaime scratched Tank's head while waving at the colonel's unit. "You guys took too long. It was kind of boring here."

"You three look like you had fun without us," Camaro said.

"Quite the opposite. Your guys' missing chaotic energy had actually made the last three months rather dull," Doria retorted. "It was nice to have peace of mind for a bit."

Camaro chuckled at the response. "It's nice to see you too, Lieutenant. Did anything of note happen while our chaotic energy was missing?"

"Colonel Fundin pointed out that Gilead was rather safe. A couple of drunken fights here and there, a few monster reports we took care of-but other than that, nothing."

Jaime had gone around high-fiving the colonel's unit, stopping at John and staring at him. "This man looks like a weird weasel. Who is he?"

"I'm the weird one?" he asked. "You're the one that has green hair."

"Is this the bad guy that was scamming the town?" Her eyes burrowed together. "If I were to choose your fate, I would pick public execution."

"Hey, Jaime, don't say those kinds of stuff!" Mother told her. "Anyways, everyone in the village has jobs for the party. We can get everything done in two days."

"Here's the thing," Camaro said as he leaned against the cobblestone wall. "Two days is too late. I want the party to happen tomorrow at noon."

"Have you gone mad? Tomorrow for dinner is next to impossible, and you want it for lunch?"

"John here was breaking protocols and was using the law as a checklist. This whole case will end up in court and since I'm the plaintiff, I'll need to go all the way back to the Capital to prosecute him. My body is still used to the road, and I'd prefer it to stay that way."

"That's a fair enough reason, Ray, but we don't have enough labour to get everything done by tomorrow. Let alone by noon."

"Don't worry about labour. I can summon two hundred of my Dolls to help out. If I say the party will proceed tomorrow, it will proceed."

"Geez, you really love to bend what is and isn't possible."

Jaime raised a hand. "Do I do my job now?"

"What's your job?" the colonel asked.

"To go around the village and tell everyone to start doing their jobs. But I have to tell them that the party will be tomorrow instead of two days from now."

"Going around the village and talking to people? That's certainly a fitting job for you."

Jaime found herself looking in my direction, her eyes gleaming as if she thought of an idea. "Can me and Ilias go together on the pony?"

"Ilias and your Auntie haven't seen each other in a while. They'll want to spend time with each other, won't they?"

"Don't worry about it," Mother said as she took my luggage and held onto my shoulders. "I think Ilias and I can wait a few more hours. We'll do that later."

"Are you sure?"

"Let the kids spend time with each other. I'm sure they missed each other's company."

"I'm fine with it if you are." He turned to Jaime. "Listen to whatever Ilias says and don't try to ride the pony without him."

I helped Jaime climb on the mount and find a comfortable seating position behind me.

She wrapped an arm around my waist and pumped her fist in the air. "Go! Go! Go!"

"If I told you that I didn't miss your loud personality," I chuckled, taking the reigns and leading the pony out onto the dirt road, "I would be lying."

Glancing back, Mother grabbed the colonel by the shoulders and went to the porch. I was able to hear a sliver of their conversation:

"You are not being a good father to Jaime!" Mother whispered harshly. "You will follow what I say because Jaime deserves a better parent figure!"

"How many times did she misbehave?"

"She rarely did, actually. After I listened to her, she started to become a good kid. She's misbehaving because of you!" she sighed. "Also, you owe me a favour."

"For what? We took care of each other's kids. That was the deal. You only had to stay at home while I took your son to the Capital and had him become a State Jynxist."

"Okay then, Mr Chariot, while you were taking my son to the Capital, your daughter had her first period."

Camaro's eyes widened with fear. "She did?"

"Yes. And I took care of it-I gave her the talk for you."

The colonel held up dual fingers. "I'll owe you two favours."

Village kids that were playing nearby noticed us and approached. They all paid Jaime no mind but were surprisingly very friendly towards me. I had the pony walk faster so it would be harder to get followed.

"So how have you been?" I asked after escaping the suddenly interested kids. "Did you make any friends while I was away?"

"No. How about you?"

"A couple. Two of my party members were our age and we befriended others during the exam. There was this dwarf, a jester, and a beast person who was a cat."

"You befriended a beast person?!"

"Yeah, she was actually fun to hang around."

Jaime paused for a bit. "So, what now? You just saw that everyone is trying to be friends with you now that you're a State Jynxist. They were even trying to befriend me while you were gone."

"They were probably trying to use you to get closer to me."

"I know. That's why I ignored them."

"If they thought we were weird back when I wasn't a State Jynxist, I don't really like how they're switching up now. I say we ignore the ones that tried to pick on us. But we need to diversify our friend group. It can't just be us two all the time."

"Girls or guys?"

"Girls, guys, dwarves, elves, terran-whoever we can find."

"Now that you're a State Jynixst, I heard that the other village girls are starting to have the hots for you. Do you like girls?"

"As opposed to guys?"

"How are you going to deal with the unwanted attention?"

I grinned back at her. "Who said girls having the hots for me is unwanted attention?"

She gave me a dead-eye stare before pinching my waist.

"Okay, okay! I'll stop messing around!" I inhaled deeply. "Back to being serious, I did expect this to happen. I think I'll give a chance to the ones who never picked on us."

"That sounds like a fair plan."

"Anyways," I looked back and noticed we were a good distance from my house. "We're far enough."

"For what?"

"So that the colonel doesn't see us." I offered her the reigns. "The pony's name is Bill. Do you want to control him?"

Her face lit up as she reached around me to grab the reigns. "Yes! Yes! Yes! How do I control him?"

We spent the rest of the day going from house to house telling everyone that the party scheduled two days after our arrival was happening tomorrow. They all had the same reactions.

"That's not enough time!"

"Congratulations on passing the exam."

"We're going to have to pull an all-nighter if the colonel wants everything done by tomorrow."

By the time we finished with the last houses, the sun had begun to set and a group of people were already clearing out the village square. Camaro's Marching Dolls were doing most of the manual labour. The men were setting up tables and chairs while the women took care of the small details. The taverns had an early dinner rush as the cooks were prepared to work into the night to take care of prep.

We ran into the colonel, who returned Bill to the Rohan Company and was kind enough to drop me off. Mother was in the kitchen finishing up her cooking.

"I'm home!" I yelled out, hanging my robe and hat on the coat hanger by the door.

"Welcome back!" Mother waved from the kitchen. "Are you hungry?"

As if it was waiting on cue, my stomach growled. "It sounds like I am."

After changing into comfortable home clothes, I joined Trisha in the dining room to find a feast made up of beef stew, spiced rice, grilled corn, and carrot cake on the table.

"What's all this food for?" I asked.

"I know they're your favourites. I thought it was fitting for your first meal back and to show you how proud I am."

I sat down and took servings of everything except for the cake, which I planned to eat later. After scooping everything onto a spoon and taking a bite, I just stared pleasantly at my plate.

"Are you okay?" Mother asked. "You're just staring at your food."

"Yeah. I've been on the road, so it's nice to taste your cooking after all this time."

"Was the food you were eating not good?"

"No, they were good. It's just that," I took another bite, "your cooking tastes like home."

Trisha's face had a look of satisfaction. "You know, Ilias. I thought you were going to be a rowdy kid that I was going to have a hard time raising. But you've turned out to be quite the opposite. You have a way with words I haven't seen before."

"Well, I had someone teach me how to have a way with words."

"See, there you go. You know that's not true."

"It is. I vaguely remember you reading to me when I was a baby. Even though you were busy with so many things, you set aside time for me. You told me a lot that I taught myself how to read, but I'm sure the catalyst was you."

She scoffed. "Illy, you're too smart for your own good. Has anyone told you that?"

"Yes."

That remark made Mother chuckle. "Can I stroke your head?"

"You don't have to ask. Feel free to pet me anytime."

I leaned my head towards her invitingly. She reached down and began to stroke it gently.

"I missed you so much, Ilias. I wish this moment lasted forever."

"Me too."

"Thank you for being born." She continued to stroke my head.

After an awkward moment, I said, "Well, thank you for having me."

Her only reply was a chuckle of amusement.

After dinner, I took a quick bath and went straight to my room. My bed sat invitingly in the corner and it didn't take long for me to doze off to sleep. When I awoke, I glanced out the window and found the village square in the distance a couple of hours away from being ready for a party.

"Mother, have you seen the square?" I ran downstairs asking. "Everything got ready so fast."

"The colonel was up all night with his Dolls directing everything."

"Noon is in four hours."

"It's not a long wait, so don't eat too much. Take a bath and get dressed. You can hang out with Jaime if you want, but you two must be at the square by noon. The party is for you and it's not starting if you're not there," Mother warned. "Everyone will grow angry if they have to wait to eat."

For the occasion, I slicked my hair back and chose to wear a blue and gold vest along with a bolo tie over top a dark brown dress shirt. That was paired with knee-high socks underneath grey short breeches that stopped on my upper thigh.

The fastest way to the library was to cut through the square. I stopped to have a few quick conversations while searching to see if Jaime was here.

"You have speech ready, right?" one of the villagers asked. "A speech must always be spoken by the person who the party is dedicated to. We're looking forward to hearing yours."

Speech? I wasn't told about a speech.

There's still time before the party starts. I think I can come up with one before then. Good thing I cut through here and ran into someone who informed me.

As I continued to pass through the square, a group of girls began making light conversation before each taking a turn to give me an envelope with their names on it.

They all fled when Jaime appeared behind me. She was a looming figure with her arms crossed. Instead of her usual loose skirt, she wore a white semi-tight dress with a matching white blazer. A gold belt with a sunflower emblem wrapped around her waist. Her hair was tied in a bun.

"Ilias, look at what the colonel brought me from the Capital." Jaime had a smile that reached her eyes when she unsheathed the sword hanging on her hip. "He gave it to me last night."

"Yes, I remember picking it up from the blacksmith shop with him. How do you like it?"

"I haven't tried it out, but I love it!"

We headed to the back of the library where she began testing out her blade. I constantly reminded her not to make too many sudden movements so her dress could stay clean and rip-free.

"Are you done?" I asked after watching Jaime swing her sword for fifteen minutes.

"Why are you in such a rush?"

"Apparently, it's tradition to give a speech. I wasn't told so I don't have one prepared. I'm getting ideas in my head and I want to head inside and write something down."

Jaime slid her sword back into its scabbard. "I'll help."

"I'd rather you not. By the way, you're not planning to wear that sword during the party, are you?"

"I'm not leaving this sword. I don't want it to get stolen."

"I think it has a higher chance of getting stolen during the party."

We took our seats and began writing and fidgeting respectively.

Jaime took an interest in the stack of envelopes I had placed on the table. "What are these?"

"The girls you scared off gave them to me."

"They're love letters. I told you the girls were going to start having the hots for you." She rubbed her chin. "What if the boys start falling for you too?"

I brushed aside the last comment. "I suspected they were love letters."

"Are you not going to open them? If not, I'll rip them up. Even better: I'll cut them up with my sword!"

"Hey! Those girls put work into those letters-I'm not going to throw them out. At least not before reading what they wrote."

Once I was done with my speech, we headed to her place to drop off her sword. She insisted on bringing it, but I threatened her with the idea of the colonel taking it away. In the end, she settled on hiding it within the pile of hay in Tank's stable.

We arrived at the village square on the dot to find the entire village in their nicest clothing mingling amongst themselves. The chefs were still hard at work preparing the food. Musicians and singers were tuning their instruments and practicing their songs. There were a couple of gleemen inside a store rehearsing their performances. Even passing adventurers were allowed to attend in exchange for any sort of entertainment.

Beside the buffet of food was a three-layered cake with a lifesize cake version of me standing proudly on top. On the top layer were hundreds of small candles. Below the cake table were dozens of wrapped gifts.

Are those for me?

Underneath the giant banner that read "Congratulations to Ilias on becoming a State Jynxist!" was a stage with a long table for everyone to view. The table was for me, Mother, Jaime, Camaro, Doria, Gama, Kaiser, Hendrik, Rudolf, and Heloise as there were plaques with our names in front of each seat. Since Heloise wasn't present, John, who was still bound in chains, was sitting in it.

Me and Jaime's seats were in the middle of the table beside our respective parents.

"I thought you two were off making trouble again," the colonel said. "At least you got here on time."

I pointed to the cake. "That's a lot of candles."

"The cake has a giant edible version of you accompanied by six hundred and nine little candles."

Everything in my head clicked. "The candles represent the other participants."

Once the chefs were done setting up the food, they took their seats and prompted everyone else to follow suit. Camaro had laid off the entire village to enjoy this day. The exception were the soldiers on duty who still needed to guard Gilead's outposts. But most of them were excused by the colonel himself to attend the opening part of the party. Camaro even had his Dolls accompany the working soldiers to make up for the loss of manpower.

Everyone was drinking by this point and were more than eager to fill their growling stomachs.

"Speech!" they cheered before turning into a chant. "Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech!"

I took the stage and unfolded the written speech in my pocket.

"My fellow villagers," I spoke in the clearest voice I could. "About three months ago my teacher, Heloise as you have all come to know her, taught me my last lesson. I passed her test and destroyed the boulder across the ravine my mother fell into."

The last comment summoned laughter. Trisha shook her head in a flush of embarrassment.

"That night, I decided to become a State Jynxist like our beloved colonel. We left for the Capital the next day so I can take the seventy-third State Jynxist Exam. The event took three weeks in total and consisted of a preliminary phase in addition to the usual three. This year's exam had the highest number of participants from any year thus far. Six hundred and ten of us took the test and only two passed-one of them being me."

Everyone whistled and cheered my name.

"I'm happy to make Gilead proud by giving it the opportunity to boast that not one, but two State Jynxists originated from this small village. I'm glad I was born and raised in Gilead. I couldn't have asked for a better home than this peaceful settlement. Our lovely colonel was the youngest person to ever become a State Jynxist. I'm sad to inform you that he's not anymore. For I, Ilias Van Payne, have taken that title. And for as long as I live, I will make sure the dawn rises on Gilead."

The village's applauding was so long that it felt like it was happening forever.

"Alright," the colonel said. "Time for the dance."

"Dance?" I questioned.

"It's not a party without a dance. It's simple really, there are so many lovely young girls out there wanting to dance with you. Pick one and I'm sure they'll love to accompany the floor with you."

I wasn't told about a dance either. But unlike the speech, there will be no problem with a surprise dance.

When I was a noble, we were taught how to behave during parties. One of the lessons was how to dance. As luck would have it, a proper dance resembled footwork similar to that in swordplay.

I was an excellent and avid dancer when I was Decan.

There were countless girls in the audience waving and raising their hands. They gave each other death stares as I glanced around for options.

I placed my left hand behind my back and elegantly offered Jaime the other. "Will you accompany me to this dance?"

Jaime was unsure at first, shooting a look at the girls that were practically baring their teeth.

"Just ignore everyone," I told her. "Pretend we're alone."

The moment she grabbed my hand, I pulled her up and led her to the open floor below. The tables were set up in a way that made sure everyone had a view.

The musicians nearby got their instruments ready.

"Umm... Ilias?" Jaime said, her face beat-red. "I don't know how to dance. I'm going to embarrass you in front of everyone."

"Don't worry. I'll lead you into everything. Just mimic my actions. You can do that, right?"

She nodded.

We interlocked our hands and used our free ones to support each other. She had hers on my shoulder while I had hers on her side rib.

The song the musicians began to play was a tune I recognized instantly. A waltz called Swan Lake that was commonly played during parties to give couples a chance to dance together.

I took initiative of the dance and began side-stepping, guiding Jaime with me. We were out of sync at first, but I added feints to the beat of the music and Jaime recognized the pattern. By then, our rhythm began becoming one and the same.

"The footwork is a bit like swordsmanship," she mentioned. "I think I can keep up."

She's noticed the similarities just like I did.

In synchrony, we moved across the dance floor and the more we danced, the more fluid our movements became.

"Since when did you learn how to dance?" she asked in a whisper.

"We had a couple of parties in our downtime during the exam," I lied. "I had some of the older participants teach me."

Jaime had forgotten that the entire village was staring at us. The red face she had when we started dancing had disappeared behind one that was genuinely enjoying the moment.

"The song is about to end, follow my lead."

As the music rose to its ending crescendo, I let go of Jaime, spinning her with our interlocked hands before ending our dance with open arms.

The villagers began clapping, and even the girls who sneered at Jaime couldn't help but applaud our performance.

This was the main dance event, but there will be a lot more as the day goes on. After what just happened, I bet each girl here will ask me for a dance.

Camaro summoned back the silence by hitting his glass with a knife.

"Before we get to eating, which I know we've all been waiting for, I think now is a good time to give Ilias his biggest gift," Camaro said. "Now, Ilias, I'm sure you've noticed the pile of presents underneath your cake. However, each family here has pitched in to get you something altogether. Think of it as a gift from the village itself."

The colonel snapped his fingers, which was the cue for Lieutenant Doria to produce a staff from the shadow of the table. It was similar to the one Heloise used.

The handle was a smooth and fossilized hardwood. Along its shaft were pairs of golden rings that were only there for show. Heloise's staff curved at the tip where a blue rigged crystal levitated. This one had a tip that divided itself into three even prongs and inside it was a smooth circular light blue crystal.

Just by looking at it, I can tell this was very expensive.

Wands and staffs helped cast spells, but the type of material they were made off had a certain affinity to the different types of jynx. My wand had a ruby crystal at its tip which meant it was more suited to fire jynx-Heloise wasn't expecting to teach me so she had to use whatever materials she could find. This was why Erina had such an easy time using it.

"We present to you: Aurora Ventus," Camaro explained. "The staff itself is made of petrified wood from an ent tree in one of the country's few protected labyrinths. The crystal is a rare gem found in the Dreaded Depths. This particular one was left in another labyrinth to gain stronger magical attributes. Heloise is a wind mage and so are you. Those materials will make a wind mage like you cast spells easier."

I took the staff and caressed its smooth handle.

"How do you like it?" Doria asked.

"I love it, of course. I never knew everyone would pool together enough money to get me something like this. I just know this was very expensive."

"Don't worry about the cost. You deserve it."

"You're a great jynxist, Ilias," Mother told me. "You need a great staff to match it. Go on, give it a try."

I spotted fireworks beside the wagons and used jynx to throw one in the air before shooting it down with a Fire Ball. An explosion of colour filled the sky.

That was a fifth of the amount of mana needed to cast it. This staff is definitely a massive improvement compared to my current wand.

With that out of the way, the party finally commenced. All of us on stage were the first to grab food from the buffet of tables followed by the soldiers who were supposed to be on duty-they took food with them back to their posts.

Camaro made it clear to John that this was going to be the last event like this he'd ever attend. He seemed to enjoy himself, though the colonel only allowed him two glasses of wine. Apparently, John was a master of the Drunken Fist, a form of martial arts where one trained when drunk. So if John ever succumbed to alcohol, he would suddenly become a worthy opponent.

When it was time to cut the cake, I was given the first dibs to cut it. Jaime told me to behead the cake version of me, which I did. But the image of myself with its head separated from its body brought about a haunting scene that, until now, I had managed to suppress.

I stared at the head before snapping back to the happy occasion.

According to Mother, they bought the materials for the staff a couple of days after receiving my second letter. They were originally going to hide it under my bed but were afraid that Jaime might snoop around in my room and play with it. Instead, Doria was given the burden of keeping it secret and safe.

The party went as expected. Everyone was quiet at first as they enjoyed the food. Each family took turns coming up to our table and talking to us. Then as everyone's meals settled in, they began socializing with each other. Then came the adventurers and musicians and singers and gleemen to entertain us.

Every hour or so everyone got into the mood to dance and there was a line of girls wanting to dance would me. I politely accepted their offers and I would spend the entire time jumping from girl to girl mingling with them while sharing the floor.

During this, Jaime was at the buffet stuffing her mouth with sweets.

Camaro was surprisingly loose today as the alcohol he had avoided while we were on the road kept finding itself in his glass. His unit tried to hold themselves back but were unsuccessful, getting drunk and being the life of the party at one point.

The colonel was a stiff man, but with the right amount of alcohol and music, he'd let loose. He even asked Mother, whose face was fuzzy from all the wine, to dance.

It was an enjoyable party. Everything was, dare I say it, perfect.

At the end of the night, the soldiers who were manning the outposts each grabbed a crate of fireworks. One by one, they shot them into the sky in an array of pretty colours.

The still-sober villagers escorted the drunk ones back to their homes. The off-duty soldiers, along with Camaro's Marching Dolls, helped clean the place up by stacking up the dirty dishes and pots. Everything else was going to be taken care of tomorrow.

"I hope you had fun," Jaime said as she and Camaro headed home.

"Yeah. I had lots of it."

That was how the party commemorating Ilias for becoming a State Jynxist came to a safe end.