Accusation

Nobody would thought that just a while ago, that room was so cheerful. Very contrast with what was happening now. The alchemists who were enjoying what they saw as a free circus, held their breath and conquered by dismay.

Alex who quickly grasped the situation, approached Horat who laid on the floor defenselessly. He crouched to check on further what was the current situation of the royal snob.

“Wait, the world will be a better place if this scumbag is out of this world...” thought Alex’s evil side. “All you have to do is nothing, and voila, one less trouble to think about,”

“No, you can’t do that,” protested Alex’s benevolent side. “Don't allow yourself stoop so low to let that slide.”

“Pfft, remember what he did to you in your previous life?!” roared the malevolent thought in Alex’s mind. “Don’t you want this asshole reap what he sowed?”

“But wait, in this life, Horat hasn’t done anything worthy of his death yet,” mumbled Alex to himself, finally gaining control back over his body and mind. “Sure, he is annoying but should the time comes, I would have more fun torturing him rather than having him kick the bucket in a pathetic way like this. He doesn’t deserve a peaceful end.”

Busy with his mind, Alex didn’t even realize Helene who was already beside him.

“Sir Hero, what should we do?” asked Helene with a trembling voice. It clearly showed from her face that she was anxious that this incident would impact the potion crafting in a negative light.

“Like what we always do, Hel! The right thing to do!” shouted Alex while rising up, scanning over the attendants in that room.

“Alright guys, open your ears wider and have a listen! This should be proven useful for your future endeavor as the pride of this land!”

Before the crowd could even respond, Alex continued his speech.

“So, I take it that you guys have been familiarizing yourselves with the potion making, and from the testimony from my cute Saintess, you guys were amazing!” continued Alex like some shady motivational speakers.

“Sir Hero, how about Sir Horat...” Helene tried to interrupt Alex’s campaign, only to be ignored by the orator.

“Now, let’s go on to the next step! What if things go wrong, for example, something like this?” asked Alex to the spectators while poking at Horat’s huge head. Luckily he was still unconscious, thus unable to retort back. “You there, the one with the funny hair!”

The appointed alchemist looked unprepared, stuttering to find any answer.

“Stay calm!” shouted that alchemist with the funny hair.

“Good one! You should practice what you preach, though!” replied Alex, inviting chuckles from the crowd. He returned back to Horat, giving him a quick examination.

“The next step is making sure the victim was still able to be saved. In this case, we’re going to check his vital signs, like pulse, heartbeat, breath, etc.”

“Afterwards, we try to wake him up, like this!” continued Alex while slapping Horat’s face numerous times. “Don’t forget to be gentle, alright?”

The crowds were like hypnotized. Nobody wished to cut in the explanation. They focused on our Hero’s charismatic yet interesting demonstration.

“Yo glasses dude, will you open up the windows on your side? Fresh air is very essential for recovery, you know? Funny hair, you do the same in another side!”

“And you, big-boobed girl, go fetch us some royal doctors or something, thank you! Hel, start showing these younglings how the best healer under the sky got the things done!”

Helene gasped to hear her name was mentioned. Same like the others, she was also helplessly absorbed in Alex’s alluring words.

“Right on!” responded Helene, channeling her pure energy to Horat. “But you may want to skip the best healer under the sky part, though. I’m still not that good enough yet.”

“Confidence, my lady! You want to focus on positive energy for our poor patient here, right?” convinced Alex, winking playfully to Helene. That gesture successfully robbed the Royal Saintess’ heart away, boosting her aura as a result. Horat’s head started to shrink bit by bit to normal.

“Sir, I’ve brought in the doctor!” the booby girl returned with a stern-looking old fellow.

“Awesome! Doc, can you take over from here? I believe the early treatments did wonders for him,” requested Alex, gesturing Helene to give space for the doctor to perform.

“Geez, this is the first time I’ve seen a cryptid creature like this,” said the doctor. “Say, where did you find it?”

“Uh doc, this is Sir Horat...” answered Helene quietly, not wanting to embarass the doctor.

“Aw shucks, you must pardon me for this poor eyesight,” giggled the doctor. “From my point of view, he’s just like a humanoid chestnut!”

Wow, somebody even worse than I am, thought Alex. He was certain that nobody could rival his performance before, making light of Horat’s life and treating it as a tool for demonstration, and plaything too. But there came this quack.

“Sir Doctor, would you mind acting like one?” interrupted Helene, voicing her concern.

“Whoops, silly me! You are correct, young lady!” said the doctor, quickly checking Horat’s pulse and opened his eyelids. “Lads, show me that youth and carry this chestnut into any bedroom available here! I shall proceed with my medical examination there.”

“Doc, do you think this chestnut will make it?” asked Alex, pretending to be concerned.

“Yup, judging from his look, he should be doing okay,” answered the mad doctor. Alex was about to rebuke it because he already knew the doctor’s poor eyesight, but he refrained to do so.

After Horat was laid on the bed, the doctor checked all the things needed to be examined and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Goodness gracious, I don’t know what caused this to happen, but one thing I know for sure, if not for that young lady’s first aid, he’s going to cross to the other side!” the quack doctor concluded his brief medical check.

“Doc, you said that he was okay, now you told us he was about to be a goner. Make up your mind, will you?” retorted Alex.

“Oh, did I then? It must be my age catching up to me, hyukhyukhyuk!”

***

The news about Horat’s incident spread far and wide. Alex and Helene was still there, idly standing by awaiting Horat’s recovery. Different from Helene, Alex didn’t do that out of benevolence. He just wanted to see the aftermath of the demon potions with his own eyes. If there’s any side effect, he was going to put it in his record.

Some of the alchemists were also there. After all, the incident took place in their own ground, so anything that took place there, they did have their fair share of responsibility. They were also feeling guilty for laughing at the chestnut human.

“Hey, why the long faces, fellas? Cheer up!” the doctor broke the gloomy atmosphere in the room. “You all will slow the recovery process with your negative aura, come on!”

Hmph, trust me, I would love it so much to dance around and celebrate the stupidity of this snob, thought Alex. But I would surely look like a petty asshole if I do that in the middle of this atmosphere, right?l

“That’s right, amigos! Some fine tunes can help brighten the mood, that’s why I’m here!”

Everybody present was surprised to hear that voice which came from the doorway. It was Salieri!

“Pipe it down, Sal! We’re visiting a sick person here!”

Apparently Salieri was not alone. Gremio was also there. In fact, the rest of the party arrived too. The news certainly have reached their ears.

“What’s with this ruckus? Behave yourselves!”

Everybody stood still to hear that voice. They recognized that majestic voice which belonged to King Romeus. Even the king himself came to find out what’s really happening.

“Urrggh...”

All of those loud noises finally woke Horat up. He rubbed his eyes and stretched his limbs, exactly like a person waking up from his slumber.

“Hey, the chestnut woke up!” yelled the doctor in joy. “Everybody was worried about you, you know?”

“Not everybody, because I sure don’t give a rat’s ass of what’s happening to him...” grunted Alex so faintly nobody heard him.

“Horat, are you okay? What happened?” asked the king while approaching the bedside. “Your father was extremely worried that he went unconscious. I visit you in his stead.”

Though feeling a little bit groggy, Horat’s devious mind grasped what was going on and being a person talented in scheming, he swiftly executed his plan.

“Your Majesty, that guy...” said Horat, acting as weakly as he could to muster up the king’s sympathy while pointing at Alex. “That guy is the one behind all of this!”

The king looked at Alex, paused a bit, and turned his gaze back to Horat. “What do you mean by that?”

“Thanks to his accursed stuff, unimaginable things started to happen to me!” yelled Horat. “His grotesque demon potions did a number to my body in a horrible way!”

Alex frowned, he didn’t remember doing anything to this bastard.

“Uh dude, you must be confused. You were already out cold when I arrived at the Alchemy Center,” argued Alex, trying to defend his innocence.

“Excuse my rudeness, sir, but weren’t you the one who experimented on your body yourself?” testified the funny hair alchemist. “I saw one of us trying to warn you about the unstability of the potion, but you decided to go on and here we are.”

“Yeah, we thought you were performing for us, so we just enjoyed the moment,”

Other alchemists one by one began to express their thought, strengthening Alex’s alibi. Finding the situation wasn’t favourable to him, Horat repressed his shame and continued barking.

“Peasants, nobody asked for your opinion! If not because of that fake hero’s blasphemous ingredients, I wouldn’t be harmed!”

“You got balls to strut around and poison the pure mind of Holy Saintess. Knowing that she was the person in charge of potion making, you smuggled your suspicious items to corrupt the potions!” Horat was still not satisfied blurting out his anger. “Oh, I know it. You want to sully the name of the Shrine by inserting your unholy knowledge of black arts, don’t you?”

Hearing their leader got accused senselessly like that, the party members joined the heated debate.

“Rasheed has enough of Horat’s blabbering. Horat is better asleep like before,” suggested Rasheed.

“Oh, I can help with that,” Pandora followed Rasheed’s statement. “By force, if I must.”

“Friendly reminder, mouthy guys are not popular with the ladies,” stated Stella, glaring at Horat from head to toe. “Well, that explains a lot about your condition.”

Being cornered like that didn’t even make Horat flinched. He howled even more instead.

“Rich words coming from sub-humans like you! Stop talking like we’re equal!”

Helene who felt the danger of things if allowed to escalate further, decided to mediate the situation.

“Everybody, please behave yourself in front of the king!” yelled Helene. “With all due respect, Sir Horat, I was not under any influence of anyone. While it’s true that the choice of ingredients is peculiar, but the effectiveness isn’t something to be sneezed at!”

“I could vouch for that, it saved my skin couple of times back in our battlefield with the demon horde,” testified Gremio. The other party members nodded in approval.

“Ahem!” King Romeus cleared his throat, requesting the crowds to respect his authority. “I will not tolerate this barbaric behavior any longer! I come here to visit a sick person, not to watch this unsightly drama!”

“We will discuss this deeper after Horat got enough rest!” commanded the king. “Alex, I demand a detailed explanation by that time! Hereby, I dismiss everybody!”

The crowds quietly left the room, with no exception for Alex. He pondered hard, trying to convince the king about the benefits of demon potion.

“See, I told you to let that crybaby die back then!” expressed Alex’s evil side.

“Hate to break it to you, but I just couldn’t counter his opinion,” replied Alex’s good side. You know it’s a really ugly situation when even angels sided with the devils.

“Well, what’s done is done,” said Alex, calming his mind. “I wouldn’t be able to call myself a hero if I let little things like this bother me, would I?”

Alex and Helene looked at each other and couldn’t help but to feel anxious. The doctor’s bizarre laugh didn’t help as well.