~~~Angelica~~~
Before we left Gaushorn I brought a horse using five gold coins that I've received from Stella as payment for the crystals. I could've only paid 300 silver if I told the owner that I was going to rent it, but since I don't plan on returning I just brought the horse outright.
The main reason is I don't want them to come running to Stella or Henry and demanding them to pay up. I am not fond of being remembered negatively after all that they have done for us.
"Angelica." [Matthew]
"Yes, Matt?" [Angelica]
"How long are we going to do this?" [Matthew]
Due to Henry uncovering my identity we've constantly avoided settlements day and night. Because I wasn't certain whether he had the balls or not to contact the Corps but it's better to be safe than sorry.
Also, even though I hadn't told him of our next destination they could easily get on our tail once they found out that we had been there. Since I had sold most of the magic crystals that I have it is only a matter of time before those are discovered.
(Tokk-tokk... crush... crunch...)
"Hey, Matt I have been wondering for some time now. What's that you're crushing in the pestle?" [Angelica]
The same as me before we left he also bought a ton of herbs from the herbalist that it almost made his bag overflow. I didn't mind the additional weight and stuff but the smell of these herbs is hellishly overpowering.
"Ah, this? It's a berserker leaf." [Matthew]
Berserker leaf? I looked inside the pestle and saw a blood-colored paste with a few remaining residues of a leaf. As Matthew noticed my clueless expression he took out a single leaf from his bag and began explaining what it is for.
"This is the berserker leaf it is mostly used for gambling purposes, particularly for blood sporting animals/monsters." [Matthew]
"So I can guess from the name that they went berserk after consuming the leaf am I correct?" [Angelica]
"Yes, but that's not all. When an animal or monster ingests this their strength is increased many times over but at a price..." [Matthew]
"Which is?" [Angelica]
"It would lose its sanity and make it hostile to almost everything even to the same species." [Matthew]
"Oh, okay... now I want to ask... WHY-THE-HECK-ARE-YOU-HANDLING-SOMETHING-SO-DANGEROUS?!" [Angelica]
I raised the tone of my voice to show my concern.
"Don't worry nothing will happen even if you ate a ton of it. A lot of people have attempted to harness the leaf's effects doing a bunch of experiments and stuff but failed." [Matthew]
"So from what I'm guessing you want to research it." [Angelica]
"Uh, huh." [Matthew]
"You're going to weaponize it aren't you?!" [Angelica]
"Not quite... but that can be a good idea to incorporate it into my smoke bombs." [Matthew]
He doesn't know what trouble he's getting himself into.
"Don't worry Angelica it is only for self-defense." [Matthew]
Even that kind of reasoning wouldn't work on me.
"Have you ever thought that if the enemy could manipulate wind they could use that against us." [Angelica]
"Mmn... good point..." [Matthew]
He stopped mixing and went into a thinking pose.
"Hey, this isn't a thing that you should be thinking over! I could see a thousand things that could go wrong with this." [Angelica]
"I only want to know how to activate the leaf's effects and if needed be I'll just minimize the dosage so that it can be safe to use." [Matthew]
"That's not the point here! What if people attempted to forcefully take the formula from you?" [Angelica]
"Easy, then I will just give them a fake one." [Matthew]
I know that he's smart but... this is not a thing that he should dabble on thoughtlessly...
I am having visions of these being used for war where countless kingdoms could fall to ruin as their people go and massacred one another. Some would seek entertainment for their cruel and sick acts, for example, forcing families or friends kill one another... and those are only a few of the worst things that I could think of right now...
"Matthew... if you ever succeed in finding out how to utilize the berserker leaf... take it to your grave." [Angelica]
"Well... I'll tr-" [Matthew]
I put my finger over his lip and looked him straight in the eyes.
"Instead of try, I would rather hear you say I will." [Angelica]
"Ok... I will." [Matthew]
After confirming the determination in his eyes I sat back and relaxed.
"Hahh..." [Angelica]
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Enjoying the warm breeze while in the shade is so revitalizing.
In an hour Matthew finished crafting the herbs into pills doing a mix and match kind of thing, then he put on different labels on the pills to differentiate the mixture contained in each one and logged them into his tiny logbook.
I cooked some pork chops from a wild boar that we had luckily came upon yesterday while traveling. It's a chore to remove the skin and guts whilst trying cut out the edible parts.
I miss Blake and Jody... because they are the ones who always handled the gory stuff. Soon, my confidence dropped when Matthew took over once he saw that I was struggling. He efficiently cleaned the boars' carcass down to the bone. I got bested by a kid... yeah, git gud...
As we had our fill we rode the horse and continued. The following days were uneventful and without much hassle, I found it odd that the paths we had gone through are lacking monsters, is it because of the herbs? Oh well, less trouble for us I guess...
"Hahh... hahh..."
"Hmn? What's that?" [Matthew]
"What is it Matt?" [Angelica]
Matthew stopped the horse and pointed straight at our path.
"Isn't that... a bunny girl?" [Angelica]
It was a small girl with rabbit ears protruding on top her head, she is running towards us.
"A demi-human?!" [Matthew]
I got startled when Matthew raised his voice. I can understand where his surprise is coming from.
The Empire is known for their cruelty towards other races be it male, female or children and to them, only humans reign superior... that is why only a few demi-humans were present here who are more than likely enslaved.
I jumped off the horse to meet her and Matthew followed me from behind. The reason that the child is running is that maybe she is being chased by a monster, considering that we are in the forest in the middle of nowhere.
We were about at an arm's length when...
(Swish-swish-swish!)
Right in front of me, the little bunny girl fell to the ground and behind her was a sickle impaling the bunny girls back...
I was stunned at what transpired for a moment.
"Matthew! Give me your strongest healing pill!!" [Angelica]
I simultaneously glanced back at him as I shouted.
"Matthew!!" [Angelica]
He was frozen so I called for him to snap him out of it; with his still trembling hand, he rummaged through his bag and passed me a red pill.
"Hey, stay with me it's going to be alrig-" [Angelica]
"W-whats wrong Angelica??" [Matthew]
As I picked up the little girl and turned her; I saw her eyes... they were... open and lifeless...
I then checked for the sickle. It had gone straight through her heart which killed her instantly... It filled me with both sadness and anger. Who in their right mind would do this to a mere child...
I noticed that the sickle was worn down. Could the weapon come from a monster? What came to my mind are kobolds, goblins, and orcs. I stayed vigilant and scanned the treeline to prevent an ambush.
"Hey there!"
"?!" [Angelica/Matthew]
"Good thing that you cornered that bunny girl for us she was a handful."
Two people emerged from the treeline, I had barely noticed their presence.
They were a man and a woman both of whom worn leather armor and bandanas. The man had a curved axe while the woman had a sickle similar to the one that struck the bunny girl...
"Gosh hunting these strays are a pain in the butt." [Woman]
"I told you that they got used to hiding from being hunted by the Empire." [Man]
They were... hunting demi-humans?
"Don't you feel any guilt from just killing a child?!" [Angelica]
"Yeah, you could've just caught her and sent her off to a slave trader." [Matthew]
I felt relieved that Matthew had backed me up, I expected that he was unable to answer due to the shock.
"But... What's the fun in that?" [Man]
"Fun? Killing a harmless child is fun?! What the fuck is wrong with you!!" [Angelica]
"What are you so riled up about? It's not like you're a companion of this pest or are you?" The woman said as she retracted her sickle from the girl's body.
They both released their hostility towards us as they looked.
My palms began to sweat. Why do I feel so threatened by them? Most of the people that I have fought up till now felt nothing compared to them, except those guys from the Corps.
"We were just passing through here and was just caught off guard when you guys executed that bunny girl." [Angelica]
Matthew nervously glanced at me, I know that he didn't like what I said, but I needed to do it for our safety. The woman furrowed her eyebrows when she noticed Matts reaction.
"You seemed a little suspicious... why are you traveling out of public roads?" [Woman]
"Oh, I haven't thought of that! It is certainly fishy." [Man]
Shit! Improvise Angelica, improvise!! I racked my brain trying to think up an excuse.
"We had lost the map while my master and I were chased off by monsters. Perhaps would you two be so kind as to point us to the nearest path so we could go on our merrily way?" [Angelica]
I explained as calmly as I could.
"Your master?" [Man]
With a smile I lightly bowed with one hand on my chest and gestured my other hand towards Matthew, doing that maid like thing that I always see in anime.
"So she's your servant huh." [Man]
After scanning me from top to bottom. The man glanced at Matthew trying to gauge his reaction, but Matt was already in his poker face mode.
"... Go there it's about three kilometers." [Woman]
The woman looked and points at the far east with her finger.
"Why thank you very much for showing the w-" [Angelica]
I tilted my head back to thank her and just then, I saw something shine from behind her.
I've got only a fraction of the second to react and had pulled Matthew by his jumper.
"Argh?!" [Angelica]
Just as I was grabbing him pain had coursed right through my shoulder. I turned and saw an arrow wedged in it...
"A third person?!" [Angelica]
"A-angelica?!" [Matthew]
Those mother fuckers!! The arrow was going right for Matthew's skull! If I was late even with just a milisecond he might've been dead.
"Heeeeeeeeey, where are you going? The path to the afterlife is that way! Hahahahaha!" [Woman]
Her laughter echoed through the forest.
It may sound shitty, but I turned tail and ran. Three on one isn't a good idea, especially when I'm getting that weird feeling towards them.
Occasionally I'd slip a few glances here and there to see if they had thrown or launched any projectiles our way. The fear of being killed unknowingly from behind scares me.
I thought that we had lost them so Matthew and I hid behind a fallen log.
"Huff.. huff..." [Angelica]
I rest my head on the log as I try to catch my breath.
"Aw... damn." [Angelica]
I groaned when the arrows' tip brushed against the log as I sat down. I looked at it and saw that it was stuck in between my right clavicle and scapula. I am really thankful that the adrenaline helped me ignore the pain up till now...
"I'll cut it and quickly pull it out." [Matthew]
I grabbed a fallen branch and bit on it, then nodded to Matthew once I had prepared myself. Using the fire crystal that I gave him the edge of Matthew's dagger lit in a bright crimson.
(Snap!)
"Mnghgn!!" [Angelica]
I cussed and cussed in my mind as I let out a muffled cry. When he cut and pulled at the arrow sudden motion made my wound open up a bit.
"Here, Angelica." [Matthew]
"Thanks... Matt." [Angelica]
I swallowed the healing pill that Matthew gave, it always had this herb like aftertaste that I wasn't used to. I much preferred drinking a healing potion because it tasted like normal water, but beggars can't be choosers...
At the next second my whole body felt warm and my wound closes. I hate the healing mechanics in this world, because before you can heal you needed to take out the object that was occupying your wound or else the said object would be left there during the healing process.
There is some news in my past life about someone who had surgery and during the operation, a medical staff had forgotten to take out a tool, for example, a scissor and it had been left in your stomach. After they had stitched you up you only discovered it during an x-ray from your follow-up.
"No, I'm the one who should thank you for shielding me. Did you know why those people attacked us?" [Matthew]
"I have no idea..." [Angelica]
I try to think the reason why those people and during mid-thought.
"Found... you..."
"?!" [Angelica/Matthew]
We heard a voice and Matthew and I snapped our head back to see the axe-wielding man hunched over at the top of the log that was behind us. We were frozen like rabbits caught in headlights.