A metallic clang echoed in the park. Chains fell to the ground with a heavy thud and Matthias heaved a sigh of relief.
"I really thought you were going to kill me." He got up and jumped around gleefully. The chains no longer restricted his movement and wore him down. He felt much lighter and freer than before.
Dylan frowned and looked at his hands. They were red and weird from the vibrations resulted from the swinging. He opened and closed his fist, looking back at Matthias resolutely. "I'll succeed this time."
Matthias put his hand against the bench for convenience's sake. Clang! Clang! Clang! The same rhythmic sound echoed in the park for a few minutes, with each sound making Dylan more and more frustrated. He put more strength into his swings, even going as far as disregarding what'll happen if the blade continued on its path, unobstructed by the restraints. Even so, the restraints didn't even have a scratch on them, they were still the same glossy black they were before.
Panting, Dylan cursed under his breath. "Damn thing won't break!"
"It's useless, Dylan. These are made of one of the strongest materials on Diva. There's no way you can cut through them." Matthias informed. His arms were sore from the restraints hitting them each time Dylan swung his sword. He didn't see the point of suffering through the pain without any signs of success.
"Shut up. If someone can forge it, I can cut it." Dylan stubbornly persisted. He tightened his grip and tried again. As with the previous attempts, he was unsuccessful.
"That makes no sense, Dylan. To forge a metal, you melt it, not cut it." Matthias looked at Dylan as if he was dumb and continued to dissuade him. "I think physical attacks would be useless against it."
Dylan glared hatefully at the ugly black bracelets. "If whatever's wearing it is cut, then it'll be off."
Matthias instantly withdrew his hand. "You are NOT cutting my hand off." He firmly stated.
"I can put it back with magic."
"No! No means no!" Matthias cried and refused. "You're so mean to me lately."
Dylan clicked his tongue. "You only have yourself to blame for that."
"Even if you do cut my hands and feet off, what're you going to do about this one?" Matthias pulled down his collar and pointed at the choker around his neck.
"If I do it fast enough, you might just survive." Dylan's lips curved up as if he found the situation funny.
"I am NOT letting you play with my life! I only just came back to life, I'm not going to die again!"
Dylan clicked his tongue again, this time, extra loud. "Then what are you going to do? Live like this for the rest of your life?"
"I think they used magic to make this thing work. If I can somehow find out the pattern used, then I can reverse the process and unlock it."
"Think? You were the one they put this on, you should know, Mr Royal Mage."
"I was asleep when they put this on me, alright? When I woke up, they already finished." Matthias grumbled.
Dylan scoffed with disbelief. "Two around your wrists, two around your ankles and even one around your neck. It must've taken some time and effort to do, and you didn't even wake up once through all that? I taught you better than that, Matthias."
Feeling wronged, Matthias pouted. "I think Mother fed me some sleeping pills. I even woke up later than usual that day."
"Anyways, you can't go around like…that." Dylan looked up and down Matthias, scanning his outfit with disgust. It was clean but old and ragged looking. The coat had holes in it and combined with the ugly restraints, he looked really, really, strange and unpresentable. "You look like a runaway criminal."
"Maybe because I am technically a runaway criminal." Matthias shrugged and continued. "I would change but I can't use magic right now, so I can't open my storage."
"They will be baggy but I will lend you some of my clothes." Dylan didn't get the clothes out though. He could feel the gazes of the kids piercing through his back, he definitely couldn't do anymore strange things right now. Besides, they were outdoors, this wasn't the place to change.
"Can I change now? It's really hot here." Matthias fanned himself and complained.
Dylan was sweating a lot as well, especially after all that workout. He usually had Fir around to regulate the temperature but he sent Fir away so he was at the mercy of the sun.
"Let's go to Sherry's house then."
Matthias beamed. "It's been so long since I last talked with her."
"There are also children at her house. They are original residents so don't do anything too strange." Dylan reminded Matthias.
"Children? Oh, the ones I saw earlier." Matthias turned to look at Sherry's house. He saw the kids peeking through the curtains to look at them and waved with a smile. "Don't worry. I can handle this."
"They don't speak our language either. They speak a language called 'English', it is the main language spoken here but there are many others too."
Matthias nodded. "I'm assuming that I'm going to be learning English."
"Yes." Dylan picked up the chains and his sword and put them in his storage and started to walk across the street to Sherry's house but stopped abruptly. "Do you know what happened to my belongings? I burnt most of Sherry's stuff for her funeral but what did you do to mine?"
"Your step brothers and sister were trying to take all your stuff so I just took them all and threw them into my storage." Matthias thought for a bit and replied.
Dylan held Matthias' shoulders. "Give me back my stuff." He demanded.
"I can't use my magic right now, remember?" Matthias lifted his arms so Dylan could see his restraints.
Dylan looked at them with disdain. "What do we need to do to take them off?"
"I already told you. We have to find out the key to unlock it. And to do that, we'll have to use magic. I can't use magic so it'll be up to you and Sherry. It's just that I think it will take awhile because you two are terrible at it."
Dylan frowned. "I'm about as good as the average mage and Sherry's the saint for god's sake."
"She brute forces her way through things and you don't know much spells." Matthias bluntly revealed.
"Well, it'll eventually work. And as soon as it does, you're giving me back all my stuff."
"Was there something important in there?" Matthias asked. "I thought you put all your valuables in your storage."
"I do, but that was extra important. I didn't want it to become the space spirit's plaything after I died."
Matthias sympathised with the sentiment. Each person had their unique storage that only they could access, aside from the space spirit. After the space's owner died, only the space spirit could open the storage. It often took things out of dead people's storage and randomly chucked them into other people's. There were cases where people woke up to suddenly find a legendary item in the storage because of the spirit's playfulness. Of course, they sometimes found useless things in them too.
"What was it? I chucked everything in at once so I don't know exactly what's in there."
"It's my mother's pocket watch."
Matthias instantly understood. The pocket watch was old and no longer worked but Dylan treasured it more than anything else. He never carried it on him in fear of losing or damaging it but every night, before sleeping, he'll look at it. It contained within it, Dylan's fading memories of his mother and who she was to him. It was his only reminder of her. It was special to Dylan.
"I can't use magic but I can still sense mana. I'll try my best to give it back to you." Matthias swore.
"Mm." Dylan nodded.
Author: You guys should've at least pretended to be oblivious to what Dylan was intending to do.
Reader: It was too obvious.
Author: But you didn't have to call me out on it~
Reader: Then maybe you can write something a little less obvious
Author: Urgh, fine