Darkness into Light - Espresseleine

Chapter Thirty Seven ~ Cutting Corners

Dark Cacao loomed over the table, squinting down at the laid out map that Madeleine had spread out for him to analyse. The paladin with his well-known big mouth which was physically unable to keep quiet about a big important quest they were on, told the King all about their current quest to the Forgotten Library. His confident attitude boasted about how their mission would be a piece of cake with his flawless self by their side, by the will of the Divine of course.

Classic Madeleine, preaching the Divine in every room he steps foot in. While his side-kicks, which Latte and Raspberry very much disagreed with the title, stood to the side and rolled their eyes, waiting for him to shut his trap. Eventually Raspberry got sick of the over-exaggerations he was mindlessly spewing out and snapped at him to zip it, stealing the blond's role of being the one who explains the missions.

Madeleine pouted half-heartedly with his arms crossed as Raspberry took over the explanations, giving more reasonable details while Latte butted in with some facts here and there. Cacao listened to all three of them while stroking his chin, choosing to ignore the fact that Custard was running around and waving his staff everywhere, almost knocking over veeery expensive vases on multiple occasions.

But he was just a kid, so he let him have his fun while it lasted.

The King nodded along with what Raspberry was explaining, glancing down to the map once more.

"You kids realise there is a shortcut from here?" Dark Cacao spoke up, smirking.

Raspberry blinked in confusion, "We can't just cut corners... this is an extremely important quest, we cannot afford anything going wrong."

"But you'll get there quicker," He shrugged in reply.

Latte pursed her lips, tapping her foot in thought before leaning over to whisper something in Raspberry's ear. Madeleine sighed loudly, emphasising his annoyance.

"I say we cut corners as long as it gets us to the end goal as the sun sets!" he voiced his opinion, a hand on his chest.

He shoved a carved stick into Cacao's hands, brows furrowed. "Here, mark it out."

"With... a stick?" Dark Cacao looked at him, clearly unimpressed.

"Hey--! That's all I have at the moment!" Madeleine placed his hands on his hips firmly, face serious yet fairly offended by the sudden questioning. 

Cacao rolled his eyes and tossed the stick over his shoulder, producing a shiny ball-point pen with fancy engravings from one of his pockets, wearing a smug grin as he began to mark out an unfamiliar path through the thick forest landscape.

Madeleine huffed in embarrassment, prompting Raspberry to snicker at him. Latte followed the ink line that Dark Cacao was marking on the sandpaper-like surface of the map, frowning nervously. The dark line of ink appeared to wade through an unknown location, a part of earthbread that no one had dared to explore yet. Well, there's a first for everything right?

"Are you sure that's safe..?" Latte asked, an unsure look in the brown of her eyes.

Dark Cacao continued to stare at the map blankly, tapping his chin with the pen before scribbling a few notes down at the sides.

"Should be." 

The white-haired professor raised an eyebrow, not convinced that he was being truthful. She glanced down to one of his notes and pointed to it.

"Why'd you write a weirdly detailed guide on how to disinfect and treat open wounds?" she stated nonchalantly, an eyebrow still raised.

A bead of sweat rolled down Cacao's temple as he looked at her guiltily, "Um, well you have to admit, it's a useful survival tip."