When it comes to the common language, I had a partial understanding, but most of my understanding came from my skill, and yet despite that some words just didn't make sense to me.
For example the word succubus, roughly translated it means lust demon, lust being a passionate desire for something, and demon being a creature that originates from the hells. So essentially they are aliens who like to steal stuff.
Despite this the others seemed to not enjoy the premise, as only Aiden and I voted to go in.
Personally I wanted to see what alien thieves would look like, and the word gameshow seemed fun from what the translation was. Aiden on the other hand was given strange looks by the others, and he tried to argue that the XP would be nice, and maybe even help us get our evos, but Jax ended up turning down the request and I was sent up to sit in the passenger seat as we continued down the road.
"Were you curious what they would look like too?"
"....."
"..."
".... Yea."
For a while we drove in silence, the hillside rolling past us as we continued on, but after a bit Aiden seemed to get a bit more serious as he turned to me.
"Hey Beatrice, how's Jax doing?"
I turned, trying my best to hide my worry, but I think Aiden caught it as I gulped and shrugged.
"He's doing ok, maybe a bit clingy as of late."
"Bea, I have been with Jax the longest out of everyone in this group, and while that really is only by a few months, I know how he is, and something has been off for a bit now."
I stayed silent as Aiden watched the road before turning back, it both felt like he wasn't trying to pressure me, but was also pressing me for answers at the same time. I stayed silent for a moment, unsure what to do when I turned to Aiden, about to answer when a knocking came from the trailer.
"Bathroom break already? We just started going like an hour ago, we're going to stop for camp in a minute, can it wait?"
I turned back to see Jax stuck his head out the window.
"Not a bathroom, Thalia said she knows a place nearby she wants to check out."
Aiden seemed to think for a minute before he pulled to the side of the road and parked the ATV. Everyone in the back also hopped out as Thalia seemed to be looking downward towards a small booklet we had received when we had passed into the kingdom of Helofan.
"Apparently there are a set of ruins about a mile north of here that used to belong to a kingdom. The name was lost from history so people just call it the Redwashed kingdom."
Thalia began to lead the way up a nearby hill as the rest of us followed
"W-Why is it called the Redwashed kingdom?"
Selene asked as she tried to peer over Thalia's shoulder before she handed her the booklet and turned to face us while walking backwards.
"Apparently there was a time before Helofan where this ruin used to be a capital city, however the mask came through and destroyed the kingdom declaring that any kingdom that dared to keep records of it in history would also be whipped out. After 3 days he destroyed two more kingdoms because they didn't listen. It's how Helofan, Desrium and Fortunz became the kingdoms they are today."
I turned to Thalia with a concerned look trying to imagine this figure that had been described to me before.
"So, why exactly are we going to a city deemed taboo by the mask?"
I asked with slight concern etching into my voice as in the distance the peaks of small decrepit stone structures loomed.
"Don't worry, this place is visited by groups from time to time, there are even the occasional dungeons that form in the ruins, so adventurers come by often."
There was still a heavy sense of worry creeping up my hackles, but I followed anyways as we finally arrived at what seemed to be an empty archway that might have once housed a set of large wooden doors.
Even from where we stood at the entrance, and looking inside, I could see around two other adventurer teams that seemed to be exploring the ruins, with one group even waving as we walked into the city.
Only the stonework remained of the city, with cobbles, the remains of a fountain, and more marking a town square that might have once been surrounded by houses based on the bases around the roadway.
"Ok, so were here, now what?"
Jax asked turning to Thalia, a bit of boredom on his face.
"What else, explore, look around, see what remains, and what you get from it."
Behind her Selene and Liora were looking around, Selene mostly studying what must have been old sections of cobble wall, probably looking at their strategic value, and Liora at the fountain, studying the carvings that once made the water move.
On the other side of excitement stood Aiden who looked like he was pretending to enjoy himself while his mind was elsewhere, Jax who was openly not enjoying himself, and me who had no Idea how to enjoy myself here.
The excited 3 began to head down a road, Liora calling back that they would meet back at the ATV in an hour if we would rather set up camp, so we all turned and began to head back.
"Would have figured you were more of a history nut Aiden."
Jax said nudging him as we walked. Aiden chuckled and said.
"Eh, not really, I think some stuff is interesting, but if it's a landmine that destroyed kingdoms who stepped on it, I'm much less inclined."
As we walked I saw Aiden watching Jax who was a few steps ahead of us, a look of curiosity on his face that had small hints of concern in it as he asked.
"Hey Jax, how is-"
Aiden was cut off as he spoke as he accidentally stepped too close to where I was walking and his boot scraped the side of my leg, not enough to really hurt, but made me unconsciously yip slightly.
Aiden turned to give a quick apology, but stopped, his body dropping into a crouched combat stance, as both his and my eyes darted towards Jax.
The obsession in him surged, even appearing like an inky substance drifting from his body as Jax's entire body seemed to shake, probably from effort as I quickly ran over, the obsession settling slightly, but not fully as Jax released the tension and let out a few shaky gasps.
"D-Didn't catch what you said, what's up?"
Jax asked, trying to play it cool, but I could see in Aiden's eyes a deep concern.
"Well I was going to ask if you were doing ok, because you have been on edge lately, but now I'm wondering what THAT was."