Finally investigators left and were replaced by a squad of holy warriors. Alex saw these fabled ‘heroes of the Lord’ up close for the first time and had to agree – they were, in fact, impressive. Not because of their shiny golden tin-can armor – it was there to impress the common folks. But because all these men reeked of blood. It was obvious they had seen their fair share of battles and under their swords have fallen tens if not hundreds.
Another impressive aspect was their discipline. The thirty-odd men worked like a well tuned clock and their leader rarely needed to issue any orders – it was almost like they had a single mind. Of course, all of that was to be expected from the most elite military troop of the empire.
While priests and chosen began to pack their few belongings, Alex managed to persuade priest Clark to think of a reason and bring him to Woodsted so he could say goodbyes to the villagers. Normally he would’ve asked priest-handyman Stan, but the old man was nowhere to be seen. Actually, Alex already noticed several of the priests and highpriests, including teacher Kiril and doctor Galen, missing in addition to bishop Phelippe, but their fate didn’t have anything to do with him.
While no one was around, other chosen secretly gossiped that bishop, some priests and even few chosen were brought to the capital to receive capital punishment, but Alex couldn’t care less, maybe even considered it a good thing if the rumors were true.
Priest Clark was in a bad mood and on their way to the village mostly complained how ‘the barbarians from the capital’ wrecked the beautiful work he and Alex did during the summer three years ago. His pain was understandable since gardening was his life, but now he was basically sent to die in a foreign land after the fruits of his labor were destroyed.
To Alex’s question why were they allowed to step out, Clark replied with a self mocking laugh, explaining that one had yet to escape from those ‘bloodthirsty hounds in golden armor’ and there was no other choice but to return on their own.
While these were bad news, Alex just inwardly shrugged and thought, ‘Challenge accepted!’
Villagers, of course, knew there was something bad going on in the college, but neither Alex nor Clark explained anything. They said goodbyes to the locals, shed some tears and hugs and, after Alex made a quick detour to the blacksmith’s place, returned to college.
This was another weak spot in Alex’s plan, but either Simeon was trustworthy enough or the investigators didn’t come to his doorstep, the two staffs Alex stashed at his place were still there. One of those was the original black staff Alex hid here after the theft of the Lord’s seeds. The second was a crude looking one, that was seemingly made in a hurry from a tree branch, Alex prepared in case someone would damage or destroy the ‘pretty copy’ he’ll carry during the investigation so he could switch after publicly, preferably under the eyes of as many chosen as possible, creating a new, a crude one.
Since it happened so, Alex quickly transferred the seeds and the map he stole back then from the cardinal Theodor’s library that were currently hidden in the ‘nice looking’ staff to the crude one, left the one he came with here and departed with a smile on his face and the crude staff in his hand, very similar to the one he arrived with, except in this one had a hidden fortune inside.
“Good choice!” Simeon patted Alex’s shoulder seeing the little chosen come out with the ugly staff in hand, “This is much more inconspicuous and no one will suspect you actually carry a deadly hidden weapon! But you must be careful out there and don’t forget to come back to visit us!”
Alex stopped in his tracks and glanced back at the blacksmith in surprise. Turns out the man didn’t even check the staffs and had no clue he was living on a powder keg. He felt a bit nostalgic remembering the time spent with the three craftsmen from Woodsted and how they helped him to create the two staffs, one of exquisite look and one that looked more like a tree branch, but both with hidden blade at one end and a hidden compartment inside the other.
“Take care!” Alex smiled back. While the villagers were simple people, they really liked him and it felt a bit bad to use them in his risky endeavor.
Alex didn’t even notice how he left without his signature ‘Lord, guide us!’ and the blacksmith also didn’t care.
After returning to the college, he mixed with the other chosen as if he was never gone and began observing the holy warriors. His project was successful so far, but to complete it he had to get away from this damned empire. Patience was a virtue and Alex didn’t lack it, he could wait.
If he had to be honest with himself, he would realize he did all of this only for fun. Indeed, this life, even though he was born in a poor family and was currently only a child, was turning out to be very entertaining. He hadn’t noticed yet how with every next reincarnation he had less and less priorities towards the material values and focused more on self cultivation and enjoyment.
Unfortunately the fun had to wait. A day later people from the college departed along with the holy warrior squad, all on foot and each carrying their own belongings. Apparently this was considered some form of a training for the upcoming expedition and since everyone practiced holy power it was not that hard.
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But when after the first day of marching Alex heard they still had three more weeks to go only to experience a tough two month training in the holy warrior garrison, he was ready to die. While some chosen looked forward to it with clenched fists and shiny eyes, Alex didn’t give a f*ck about the army training. In his eyes army consisted only from a bunch of morons who were brainwashed and trained to go and die in order to protect someone else’s economical or political interests.
And since he was not a moron, he had to leave as fast as possible or die trying!
Unfortunately no opportunity presented itself during the first week. Even worse, since Alex was basically a kid and didn’t have much physical training up until now. Even though he constantly practiced the force of nature, it only alleviated his exhaustion in the beginning. But the fatigue continued to pile up with every step he took and already on the third evening he became desperate.
Alex was a complete opposite to the other chosen, even the youngest and weakest ones, who while marching or during the short breaks lit up with a golden halo from time to time seemingly receiving some kind of energy boosts from their awakened abilities.
Even though bishop Phelippe thought Alex’s holy energy might have a special way of manifesting, the more he thought about it, the more Alex got convinced he was not only not born ‘chosen’ in this life, he was not even a little bit special.
On the contrary – after going against the nature and committing suicide in his first life, he got ‘downgraded’ to an animal. Only after making some advancements he was reborn as a human again, but it was illogical to be born as a prince or a chosen – he definitely needed to cultivate more to evolve. Alex was not clear on how that worked, was it some kind of ‘universal karmic system’ or just principles of force of nature and that was one of the main reasons he needed to educate himself on the concepts of reincarnation and rebirth.
In the previous life headmaster had some theories, but the few days spent with him were not enough to milk all the old man’s knowledge. It might not have helped much anyway and it was more efficient to find someone who researched and specialized in this field. Obviously the Holy empire was not the right place, but currently Alex was tailing behind neat rows of priests and chosen, barely dragging his feet and might die even before escaping this place.
Luckily the sun was already setting and the procession stopped for the night at the bank of a slow, around fifty meters wide river. In an orderly fashion crude tents were quickly erected and priests began to cook dinner, but Alex weakly dropped on the ground right at the roadside. He didn’t care for the beautiful sunset or the tempting smell of food even though some other chosen were impatiently gathering around the bonfires, salivating and their bellies rumbling.
This was how it went every evening. The best Alex could do was to crawl in the smelly sleeping bag that was still moist from the last night’s dew and pass out with a hope he would not wake up. He was just a ‘regular’, albeit a weird chosen already back in the college and here it became much worse – he already heard others describing him as ‘useless’ and ‘luggage’. It was only a matter of time till the holy warriors would get rid of him.
‘Damn.’ Alex silently cursed to himself while taking a deep breath and gathering his strength. Then he got up and rolled out the sleeping bag directly in the grass, ‘I wonder how long I can still take it.’
He looked at the sun setting behind trees on the other side of the river and sighed. If only he was few years older! Even if he was only chosen in name, he would be physically much stronger. He could join others and also take a swim. But now if he stepped in the water he would probably drown.
‘How I miss Rimini!’ He thought and crawled in the sleeping bag ignoring the wet and cold fabric, ‘Sigh … Daniela … I wonder what are you doing …’
Daniela was Italian girl he spent a couple of months with after he turned thirty. She was a former swimmer who discovered her talents were more suited for triathlon. She was as tall as Alex, athletic, beautiful and hot blooded. The days with her were filled with love, laughter and quarrel, and for some reason Alex even enjoyed the latter part.
Unfortunately she was also incredibly competitive and to her sports were more important than anything. Alex knew she was secretly using some kind of doping to get better results, but unfortunately it came with side effects – thin black hair began to grow on her whole body and her voice became lower, more masculine. The sudden degradation happened within weeks and needless to say Alex lost his interest.
‘Stupid, beautiful Daniela! So what if you became faster? Who gave a crap? Why do those idiotic athletes use steroids? Morons …’ Alex thought while falling asleep, but then suddenly sprung up with his eyes wide open and heart beating fast.
‘F*ck! I’m the stupid one! I’m the moron!’ He cursed himself while grabbing the end of his treasured staff and pulling it inside the sleeping bag.
All this time Alex was carrying a fortune in a form of natural steroids which could be consumed without any side effects if done properly! The only risk was him unconsciously lighting up like other chosen did when they manifested their holy power, but currently he couldn’t care less. If someone noticed something, then so be it – he was too tired to live, literally.
Alex stealthily fished out one Lord’s seed from his staff, one more time glanced around if no one was looking, slid in his sleeping bag and put the seed in his mouth. Immediately the long missed feeling assaulted him as if he jumped in a pool filled with the warm and nurturing golden energy.
Luckily Alex was already familiar with it and didn’t go into deep trance state or pass out. He continuously performed one of the force of nature cultivation techniques headmaster taught him until the seed’s energy completely disappeared. But when he opened his eyes and poked his head out, he realized the sun was about to rise.
Trying his best to hide the wide grin that was involuntary forming on his face, he packed his sleeping bag that for some reason was warm and dry, and even smelled nice. Then he directly went towards the river, washed up and took a refreshing swim.
After coming out Alex directly wore his robe on the wet body without any care and thought with a smile, ‘Alright! Now we’re cookin’!’
Even if it seemed as if he didn’t sleep last night, he was completely rejuvenated and there was not a single sign of fatigue left. His body felt full of energy and the upcoming who-knows-how-many-kilometers travel didn’t look so bad anymore.