Chapter 105: Him and Her, turners of Fate
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“Help me.”’
Those words were long said to him. Walking on the giant bodies of the trees, he remembered those words came out of her mouth.
“Why not help me see the world?”
She said that. He could remember his anxiousness when she asked that. That day she destroyed her abode and together he and she escaped to the western plains. She was in hiding as an unwelcomed witch, a villain.
He was someone who would be branded as a butcher and a heretic for what he did. He knew that they would find him and the oracles would soon find him. The reach of the sun’s crown eye reaches vast and thus he could only flee in order to ‘help’ himself alive.
He and She, masquerade as travelers and took a caravan to the western plains. In the western plains, they stayed in a quiet village. She had long ears and her hair was blue as a moonlight rose. To disguise her, he transmutated her ears and ‘molded’ it. It was painful but it worked and somehow she didn’t have the ears of an elf anymore.
Then, they lived for a year in the quiet village. He worked as a simple baker while she aided in the village along with the others in sowing the land. She had a knack for farming so within the months they stayed. The village’s harvest was bountiful.
While he was able to use the knowledge of his foster father who knew of an odd recipe from an other world. He made the bread and sold them, making it rather famous.
The local lord knew of this and invited him and her. They didn’t want the attention so he left the recipe to the lord, and in turn, the lord, who was rather kind, made it happened that they live in his compounds as his bakers for another year.
The local lord was a decent man and soon the local village and the territory prospered with the harvest and the new kind of soft bread that he made. The two were seen as a blessing and the people like them. Some were dubious about their identities when they arrive but it all vanished when they showed results.
The village was quiet. The western plains were largely a bread-basket of golden fields. The fields were wide and acres of crops were found. It was peaceful in the western plains compared to the main continent in the south. Wartime has not affected the place that much.
But even so there are bandits that roam around. Brigands heard of the soft bread and they went to the territory demanding it in their first day, threatening the baker who made it.
The Baker and his companion with long-blue hair then revealed their true colors. The brigands had their limbs broken by the baker while they were then tied up by his partner using the vines. The guards who heard of the commotion were surprised and due to that. The two got even famous in the village.
But they did not like the attention. He wanted peace while she wanted a quiet life because she asked him to help her so. So with their fame blooming in the lands, they decided to teach some peasants about the recipe. Then, they asked the local lord the permission to leave.
The local lord was hesitant, but he allowed the two leave in peace, even granting them two pairs of horses, a destrier and a mare for the journey.
The two left afterward, the villagers had quite tears in their eyes. They were a strange two, who aided each other yet never had they seen the two flirting. It was a mystery for the villagers.
...
Then, the two traveled across the western plains. He and she went around in various places. They saw various towns, castles and relatively peaceful areas that would make those who live in the southern continent, or at least in the mainland salivate in jealousy.
What they had was peace.
He didn’t experience peace and even the roads, the so-called overworld’s road was safe due to the constant band of guards and Knights in colorful outfits roaming around. Unlike in the southern continent where the lands are troubled, the western plains were rather tamed due to the topography of the place.
It was called western plains for the reason that the land was flat, yet fertile. Many areas were easily defendable and it was a hard task for any brigands to ransack a village without the towers built around being lit immediately. Not to mention that every mile there are armed knights protecting the peace.
Along with their journey on the road, they met a rather odd professor who studies the land. This professor met the two during a rather misfortunate circumstance, he was attacked for his boots.
The professor laughed about it when he told them. The two could only laugh back as they helped the professor to a village where they then talked about the land. While talking, the professor made a quick deduction and discovered ‘her’ as a half-blood.
She was worried. But the professor told her that he merely had enough encounters with people like her. And that revealing anything will not do him good. The man that was with her was like a hound dog that was ready to slit his throat if he did. He was afraid and then told the truth that he doesn’t mind.
The professor was witty enough for his own good which made the two wonder if that what made his attackers rob him in the first place.
The professor and two talked a lot. They accompanied the professor for a while and when they arrive in the place the professor wanted, the professor told them about something that needs concern.
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At first, he was unable to decide, for he was still ‘helping’ her. But she told him it was okay. And thus they learned of the Etherwind and were told to see it. The problem was that the ice block was far north. And in order to reach the place, they would need to cross the border to the north.
The borders were well guarded but he remembered a particular woman named Lulu. He’d met with the woman in the town of Garclasse. A femme fatale who told him about an island in the eastern tall lands where an island named Hando, was rumored to have a tunnel that could take them to the elven lands.
The professor dismissed the tunnel as rumors, he’d heard of it already. But he wanted to try and thus they set off to the eastern tall lands and went to the island of hando and indeed found the tunnel in the island. They discovered the tunnel using her senses and with that, they were able to sneak to the border and arrive on the far north where they then saw the gray lands and the mutation caused by the Etherwind.
The professor told them the details and in order to protect themselves. He had to change his and her skin’s exterior into something hard. This allowed them to resist the corruption, long enough to blow the icebergs containing and producing the Etherwind to oblivion and gaining the sample for the professor.
After dealing with the Etherwind they found themselves roaming around the giant forests of the elven lands. And right now, as he ends his recalling for the past three years, he stopped and then eyed the woman that was with him for the last three years.
She was watching the giant trees that stretch like towers. Beneath them were the ground covered in fog. The towering trees were blocking the sun but it was not enough to make the forest dark.
Arden has been loitering around with Lafiel in this forest after blowing the Etherwind source. He didn’t know that what he did change something. He was oblivious to it and even so, he wasn’t really particularly interested in playing Hero at the moment.
Odd, he would always think of not playing Hero. It was his dream to roam the land, and Lafiel taught him to live for himself and for her.
He was saved.
He was healed.
While with her, he felt like he wasn’t an imitation. He felt like he was someone that had something instead of just being a reckless fool.
“Help me.”
Those words that she asked were supposed to help her. But instead, those words helped him instead. Now his eyes were lit like the sun, the impassive, cold look on him was gone.
He was alive.
“Hey, why are you staring there?”
“Nothing...”
He answered her. She wore a robe and her coiled staff was with her. She was standing on one of the branches of the big trees. They were far apart and when it comes to navigating the area she was better. She was half-elf so it came naturally.
He followed her and went to her side.
“You know, I noticed your constant staring at the skies again. Are you troubled?”
“No, just remembering something.”
“Ah, it has been long since we have been traveling. You are helping me well.”
“I am? I feel like I am the one being helped here.”
He made an exasperated sighed.
“If you didn’t say those words I might be still in this place. But instead of looking at these giant trees I would be looking at corpses and entrails.”
“True, you were kind of an oddball.”
“I was. Weird, how can I say ‘was’.”
“That’s because you finally realized moderation. No need to help those who won’t call for help. Do those who need good if they need it. Really, it took me a year and a half to make you less idiotic. I wonder how I did it.”
“Maybe it was the peace.”
Arden sat cross-legged on the giant branch.
“The peace...it was odd. And you were there to hold me back.”
“Mhm, I did because you will hurt yourself if I don’t. We were the same. Fools who forced themselves into roles we didn’t love. I was happy just being the guardian of my tribe but getting some freedom made me question things. And for you, you are the one who changed the most. The smell of freedom, and finding something that you enjoy made you, you.”
“I should really thank you.” He said seriously, “If you didn’t then I would still be lost like a machine. At least I am a bit better now. I just hope that I won’t be that foolish anymore.”
“As long as I am here then you won’t.”
“Yes, as long as you are here.”
Arden mumbled. He thought of Lafiel as his moral chain. He wasn’t good at judging good and evil. He lacked the judgment and he was whimsical in his choices. But now Arden was taught, and it was all thanks to the companion who told him two simple words that lead to him being changed, even for a bit.
There are still wonders in his head. He wanted to do something and there are remnants of himself that wants to save. But with Lafiel around he would forget and just be himself.
A person that travels and help, he wanted to become an adventurer. A dream he had lost and discovered after arriving in the western plains with her.
And even right now he travels seeing this beautiful place while helping someone. It was a balance to his desires and he can accept it.
Arden was quelled.
And at the same time, however, he didn’t know that his actions would prove to change something. He was now just acting as the wheel of fate, turning events without him knowing.
Not by choice but merely by chances that what he did will change things.
For what he did was something outrageous. He rid the invaders the prime reason for their invasion. And the overlord who sat on his castle has not noticed it yet.