READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 11: Manipulation
"Link, wake up!" It was Riju's voice as she lightly tapped his face. "What had happened?"
"W…where am I?" he asked, as his vision slowly cleared. He looked around. Both Riju and Sidon were leaning over him, concern evident on their faces.
Gradually, Link became aware of where he was; he was still in Purah's lab but now lying on the ground.
As he sat up, he saw his friends gathered around him and, surprisingly, the once dark screen now showed Mineru's face. Moreover, the line indicating the state of the Depths was stable again; everything was back to normal.
"What happened?" he asked, confused "The last thing I remember is Mineru's image glitching and fading away, like there was a technical failure."
His companions exchanged surprised glances before Tulin spoke up.
"When we arrived, we all took a seat and connected with Mineru" Tulin explained "She was giving us a status report when suddenly, you collapsed and started groaning.
"Yes, the last thing I remember is Mineru telling us about the strange lack of movement in the Depths and the apparent disappearance of the temple bosses."
"What?" Mineru responded, a hint of surprise evident despite the mechanical tone of her voice. "That has not happened. The situation has been stable all day; I have no record of any disappearances. All of the monsters are still in their lairs in the Depths."
A chill ran down Link's spine. "Then… what did I see?"
Link recounted his experience in detail: a disturbing vision where Mineru spoke of anomalies in the Depths, followed by the Demon King trapping him in a nightmare. As he spoke, his friends listened in silence, their expressions somber, reflecting the seriousness of the account.
"I suppose" Mineru said after a moment of contemplation "that the Demon King may have cast a vision meant to disorient you. During the Imprisoning War, he used his power to invade our minds with nightmares. He could have used the Master Sword as a catalyst, imbued as it is with Zelda's power."
"So" Link asked hopefully "does that mean everything I saw was a lie? Is it possible what I saw was just manipulation?"
"I cannot say for certain, Link" Mineru replied with a thoughtful gesture. "The visions we experienced during the war were brief and came during moments of vulnerability. Yours, on the other hand, seem to have been longer and perhaps more intricate."
"Moreover," Link added "there's another thing, the perspective of the visions. Whenever I recalled memories through the Tears, I would see from the perspective of the person who sent me the memory."
Everyone present exchanged worried glances, fearing that what Link had seen might not have been an illusion. If what Link witnessed was real, their respective regions could once again be plagued by problems caused by Gohma, Mucktorok, Colgera, and the Queen Gibdo.
Yunobo lowered his gaze, murmuring something about marbled rock roasts.
"What are you saying, Yunobo?" Riju asked, alarmed. It was unusual to see a Goron so downcast. "Tell us what you mean about the marbled rock roasts."
"Yes" Sidon interjected, his tone always courteous but attentive "Link mentioned something about it in his vision, but we still don't fully understand.
Yunobo bowed his head, rubbing the back of his neck, a gesture that showed embarrassment… and something more.
"The marbled rock roast were gloom tainted rock roast, likely by the Demon King's creatures" he suddenly admitted, and something akin to a blush spread across his stone-like cheeks "Anyone who ate them fell into a kind of trance and couldn't stop eating. Once they finished one, they would buy more and keep eating. Workers abandoned the quarries and their tasks; merchants left their stalls and nearly went bankrupt, spending all their money on buying more marbled rock roasts."
"How could such a substance reach the population?" Riju asked incredulously.
Yunobo covered his face with both hands, unable to meet her gaze.
"It was my fault… All my fault."
"Your fault?" Tulin asked. "You don't strike me as someone who would poison their own people. Besides, the Goron are the least likely to have conflicts among themselves."
"I told you it wasn't your fault, Yunobo —Link said calmly, turning to the others—. It was another of the Demon King's manipulations.
"Yes, it was," Yunobo insisted, his voice trembling. "My ambition got the better of me; I never should have accepted that mask. The Demon King tricked me with that puppet of Zelda. I should have thought of my people before myself."
"Well, are you all going to explain this?" Riju asked, raising an eyebrow and offering a small smile to ease the tension.
Link took a deep breath, giving Yunobo time to calm down. "It was one of my first missions to investigate the strange occurrences Purah assigned me to investigate into Goron City; she mentioned a food that was affecting the locals. So, I decided to go, and it was a good excuse since I needed some fireproof gear anyway."
"Let me guess," Sidon interjected with a playful smile. "That 'strange food' was the marbled rock roasts you mentioned earlier."
"Exactly," Link confirmed, smiling slightly to lighten the mood. "And what I saw there was… peculiar, to put it mildly. Gorons sprawled out everywhere, eating non-stop. I'll admit, even I got a little hungry just looking at them."
"Of course, of course!" Riju laughed, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow mischievously. "Always thinking about filling your stomach. Good thing you held back, or you'd be lying around eating marbled rock roasts alongside them."
"Don't remind me," Link muttered, scratching the back of his neck with mock embarrassment. "Just imagining myself there, on the ground, surrounded by marbled rock roasts… I'd rather not know how that would have looked."
Laughter erupted as everyone imagined Link with glazed-over eyes and hands full of rock roasts, just like a Goron. Yunobo, caught up in the laughter, cleared his throat before adding:
"Well, even if you tried, I don't think you could've managed, Link. Those rock roasts were so hard only adult Gorons could handle them. Neither the elders nor the younglings could even bite into them. So don't get any ideas."
Link shot him a playful look, a mischievous smile on his lips.
"Oh, really?" Link replied, a spark of challenge in his eyes. "I don't know… a hundred years ago, I beat Daruk in a rock sirloin eating contest. Don't tempt me, Yunobo. I don't think a few marbled rock roasts could take me down."
Riju and Sidon exchanged amused glances. Sidon, barely holding back laughter, leaned toward Yunobo and whispered conspiratorially:
"If I were you, I wouldn't tempt him. If he takes it seriously, we might end up searching for the 'Hero of Hyrule' lost under a mountain of marbled rock roasts!"
At that, the laughter grew even louder, and Link blushed to the tips of his ears.
"Hey, I'm not that much of a glutton!" he protested, though the laughter in his voice betrayed him. "But… well, I wouldn't turn down a good meal…"
Yunobo, now more at ease, couldn't resist joining in on the joke.
"You know? I think the real challenge to saving Hyrule isn't the Master Sword or courage, but getting Link to say 'no' to a delicious dish."
The laughter doubled, and Link, caught up in the joy of his friends' teasing, couldn't help but join in. Amidst jokes and laughter, Yunobo found a moment of comfort in the camaraderie they shared.