Calypso gave me some bad vibes. The Bandit Hero I had met outside Calypso’s Tower was a feeble old man, while this was a young lad in his youth. Even so, there was no guarantee that they would look exactly alike. This was just an approximation of a captured memory. Just like the giant who didn’t look anything like the real Xin, there was no saying the replica was identical. Still, I did not doubt that they were the same man. If that was true, then Calypso was the Dark Priest who betrayed him. Calypso’s Tower was named after his betrayer, not something related to the sea. While the faces were different, the names were the same.
It was odd dealing with the man at this point in his life. I quite literally knew his future and had even been the one to help him pass on his trapped and cursed soul from another dungeon. To now see him at a younger point in his life in this dungeon, it had a strange feeling to it. What if I told him what had happened to him? Was there some way to convince someone from a dungeon that they were in fact from a dungeon?
The very first skeleton I had encountered in this world seemed to be aware he wasn’t a human, but he also was nearing death. Was that what it took? Had I still had Calypso’s Blessing, I wondered what effect it would have had on the pair of them. Would my more direct knowledge update the dungeon, making them more accurate representations of themselves?
Naturally, I had far more questions than I was getting answers for, and I wasn’t going to ask it from either of the two bandits who were treating us as guests. I didn’t trust Calypso at all. From the beginning of the meal until the end, she skillfully asked questions trying to probe information out of me. She wanted to know everything from where I came from to how powerful I was. She never flatly asked though, always choosing to word things in coy ways. She was very clever, probably smarter than me or the Bandit Hero.
As for the Bandit Hero, he was just as naïve and idealistic as Calypso’s lore had suggested. However, I had thought he had lost most of that childishness after the Capital. I guess it took a few more betrayals before he became the embittered old ghost I had met those months ago.
Once we finished eating, Calypso was the first to excuse herself, saying something about doing some kind of invocations. As for the Bandit Hero, he seemed to like to talk and was charismatic in many ways, but he also knew that there was a purpose that we were there. He decided we needed some time to rest before the forging started. He left us in a room to rest until the ovens were heated. Once the door closed, I glanced at the single bed in the room and then raised an eyebrow.
“I think they think we’re lovers.” Garnet chuckled.
I prayed to whatever god sent me here that no matter what happened, I didn’t go down in history as the loli hero.