Voyage Of The Villainess

After almost an hour of trying different clothes, Lila finally stopped once she was satisfied with what Malaya was wearing when she came out of the wardrobe for the umpteenth time.

Lila clasped her palms with delight as she looked in awe with Malaya.

"You look like a very cool woman in your attire."

Malaya glanced at what she was wearing, it was a pair of grey trousers partnered with a white blouse tied with silvery laces. Then she had this cloak with silver linings as well. The color of her attire complimented well with her hair color and eyes. Though she was not that fond of white but compared to all the clothes that were all dresses, this was much better.

"Are you sure you don't want to wear a dress, instead?" Lila asked as Malaya continued to check out her attires.

"This is much better," Malaya said with a smile, looking at Lila with delight. "Since I go on lots of journeys, this attire is perfectly suited for me. Thank you, Lila, for this. Are you sure you don't want any payment for this? I thought that you would only lend this to me, but to think you will give this to me..." 

"It's alright, accept it as a token of our friendship," Lila said with all smiles on her face., "I always dream of having a close friend and be able to play dress-up with them, and you fulfill it all for me, Malaya. I'm really happy that I'm the one who is in front of you at the gate at that time."

"I'm happy as well, to meet you, Lila." Malaya smiled hearing her words. 'Though she had a scary appearance her heart is as pure and delicate as any beautiful woman she has ever met.'

"Ah, one more thing!" Lila grabbed some torch in the room then lit it with fire. Malaya was confused about what Lila was doing, but her next actions made her confused and startled. Lila ran towards her without any warning and pressed the torch to her shoulders.

"What are you doing?!" Malaya stepped a few steps behind away from Lila.

But Lila remained calmed and put the torch back to the wall where it was supposed to be. She turned back to Malaya and said, "That cloak, you are wearing. Do you get some burns?" 

That's when Malaya looked at her right shoulders and noticed completely that there were no burns in it. Malaya's eyes widened in surprise. 'Don't tell me this cloak is an enhanced item?'

As if reading her mind, Lila spoke. "That is an enhanced item specifically enhanced by me last night when everyone was sleeping. It has high fire resistance, shock-absorbent to some degree, and the basic cleaning magic, that's why you don't need to wash it. I thought since you are a scout, you might need such an item when you started to travel above again. Though I don't look like it," Lila scratched the back of her head, looking very bashful, "I am also the one who weaved these clothes, you are seeing here and the ones you are wearing."

Malaya looked at the white cloak she was wearing and was completely baffled. "Three enchantments into one item?"

'This is too much, at best, best enchanters could only put two enchantments in one item, and it usually takes a lot of days and Lila only did this last night?! Heck, even my trinity has only the shock absorbent enchantment since there were not a lot of enchanters in the empire that could put more enchantment in one item. And mostly they combined a lot of magic stones and put them into objects to add more value. Ah, and one more thing, enhanced items are quite costly as well."

"Don't tell me, you're an op enchanter! Amazing!" Malaya excitedly said as she grabbed Lila's hands. Her eyes were sparkling in excitement! "Are you really sure you want to give this cloak to me for free?!"

The startled Lila stuttered in her reply, "Ye-yes." She was not used to having anyone compliment her and someone who was as close to her as this. 'And what is op?' she thought.

"Thank you, really!" Malaya said as she squeezed Lila's hands.

To change the sudden awkward situation for her, Lila decided to step back and head to the door. "Let's clean these clothes later and have breakfast first." 

---⚓⚓⚓---

"So about those laughing creatures?" asked Malaya, interrupting the silence while they eat their breakfast.

"Ah right," Lila said. "Those laughing creatures are actually the souls of those who died in the pandemic. We called them the laughing fairies."

"Soul? More like don't tell me, they are Malice?" Malaya said with surprise.

"Yes," Lila said with a sad tone in her voice. "They die in pain and distress that they got a curse and become malice that always laughs. But there was no one who really knows who caused that curse to them. But they don't harm anyone."

'This is getting clear and at the same time only brought up more questions,' Malaya continued her inquiry to Lila.

"But I saw them harming some creatures when I was above the ground. The villagers up there have this advice that doesn't ever speak when you hear laughter or you'll get hurt."

"That is wrong, they are not the ones who attacked people but something else, it is another malice, someone who hated their laughter. And we still don't have an idea on who was that. In fact, these laughing fairies always help us. When it is 6:00 am in the morning, they always appear everywhere here to wake the citizens of this city."

{'Stop,'

'Stop laughing!'

"I said stop laughing!"}

Malaya remembered the time when she was on the cliff. 'Could that be that voice? But it still doesn't connect to anything. If they aren't the ones who are killing, why do the killings happen when those laughing fairies are there? Then if nothing happened here when those fairies were here, then does it mean, it only happened above the ground but there is one more thing that didn't add here.'

"Lila, how do you know that there is someone else who is killing and not the laughing fairies, when you are in this city, in the first place?"

"That," Lila hesitated for a moment before deciding to tell Malaya. "I have someone who was killed by that creature when I sneak back in the above again. Will you be willing to listen to my story? This might become a long one." Lila said with gloominess laced in her voice.

Malaya looked at Lila with much seriousness this time. "Are you sure about that? If you don't feel comfortable telling me, I won't pry anymore."

"No, it's alright," Lila exclaimed. "I made a promise to someone that when I made a new friend, I should be honest with them and not hide anything. And it's time for me to move on as well. I know you will not tell this to anyone either. But if you find this troublesome, I will not speak anymore."

"Friend, but we only met yesterday.'' Malaya felt a pang of guilt hit her. 'And I've been telling lies to her. How can she easily trust someone she just met? She reminded me of those children back at the orphanage who always got fooled by the people around them and ended up being sold out. I don't know whether this is simply naivety or stupidity. But she has done a lot of things to me and I'm really grateful to her, this is the only thing I can do for her now. To listen.'

"It's alright," Malaya said in the end. "I will listen to you. Thank you for trusting me as your friend."

"Thank you, Malaya," Lila said with a sincere smile on her face. "Then I will begin now."

Malaya focused more on Lila as she began her tale-telling of her life.

"Like everyone else, I live above ground, in fact, I belong to the West Tribe. But two decades later, as you know, a pandemic struck the whole sun island. And it was rumored it was due to that unknown man who appeared and disappeared on the island at the same time when the pandemic was occurring. It spread like a wildfire, killing a lot of islanders in every tribe. Some of those who died became malice but strangely there are instances that some were abandoned in the forest and they became monsters. That's what happened to me."

'A disease that causes someone to become a monster? But they say it was malaria. How come there are other effects such as this? And they say Oliver was the one who stopped this pandemic. Does Oliver know of this too? Just what is happening on this island?'

Malaya continued to listen to Lila.. And things became more complicated and at the same time somewhat connected as she tried to connect the story of Lila and to all the stories she had heard so far.