One Step Forward

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After stopping by Emma’s stall, we ended up wandering around Zale to find whatever niche items or ingredients Julia was looking for. Even the vegetation in this world was different from what I’d been used to, there were of course the typical apples and carrots here but some of these fruits seemed like amalgamations that shouldn’t even be real in the first place, but somehow, they ended up being surprisingly delightful in their own right.

There was a particular fruit called ‘Jinga’, it had roughly the same shape as a typical apple, but they were slightly smaller, and blue in color and instead of eating it in small portions as you normally would, you had to swallow the entire thing in one go. If you ever bit into it, the contents that spewed out would instantly transform into a deadly poison the moment it entered your mouth......That was what Vreena had said anyway, I’d only gotten a glimpse of the strange fruit from afar.

Jingas were supposedly meant to be used for medicinal purposes, so they were both hard to come by and expensive. Though the thought of such a thing should have usually been frightening for these humans, they actually reveled in the idea of getting their hands on one of those dicey fruits. It seems the nature of human curiosity had ultimately remained the same even in another world, these creatures got some kind of euphoric thrill from teetering on the edge of death.

“~Ahhhhh~ That was a nice little shopping session”

Stretching her hands overhead, Julia cocked her head all the way back, marveling at the sight of the cawing crows now parading across the reddening sky. At her feet were two bulky bags filled with just about everything that had ended up catching her eye today, even after all the money she’d spent, the woman showed no hint of regret.

“Speak for yourself, you’ve got me and Liam here straddling with bags.”

“Oh if you're worried about Liam, he actually wanted to help out and asked me for some of them. I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to carry any of that, but he actually pulled it off. You’re stronger than you look you know.....but then again you are my son....”

She puffed out her buoyant chest in a childish display of pride, Vreena’s eyebrows twitched after watching her carry on, a ridge was now being formed between her now furrowed brows.

“You’re not even a little bit concerned for the elderly huh?”

“Heh...I know better than anyone, a light little walk like this isn’t anything much for you.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m enjoying this though.....You and your convenient interpretations.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Their bickering continued as we walked along the paved brick road leading to our small wooden house. Thankfully, I’d already been walking a little ways in front of them so I somehow managed to escape their meaningless squabble, the trivial words echoing from behind me were hardly even registering within my earshot after a few seconds.

Just up in the distance, a little ways by the roadside I could see it, our house. The place now serving as my home was on the outskirts of Zale, what we were walking on now was a small stone bridge that connected the town itself to the wider stretches of the surrounding land. The house was on the left, and to my right was a small pond that extended about halfway across the bridge's span. Its waters shimmered under the fading light, reflecting the colors of the sky like a tranquil painting.

Along the pond's edge, clusters of water lilies bloomed atop their drifting lily pads, swaying ever so slightly in the gentle onset of lukewarm evening air that whiffed passed us like a mirage. Even with a handful of boxes and bags, looking out at the hue of the setting sun disappearing below the horizon had somehow managed to calm my dubious state of mind.

Ever since coming to this world, my focus had been locked in a perpetual cycle of gathering information and finding the answers to my own questions, but.....it was times like these that made all the confusion swirling about in my mind seem trivial.

Back in my old world, I didn’t interfere with the mortal realm unless my duty bound me to do so. I was mostly alone in Eden and while that place did have a day and night cycle, that was about it. The seasons there didn’t change, it was either day or night. What made the scenery there all the more drab was the fact that not much ever really happened outside the scope of that monotone cycle -There was no rain, storms, drought or any other significant variations in the natural order to break that monotony......The place was the textbook definition of a static existence.

I arrived in this world not expecting much from it but.....things were in fact different here. Despite the struggles and atrocities that are sure to plague this land, a world where just about anyone could use magic, the suffering must have been immeasurable. I hadn’t witnessed it firsthand as of yet, but I could tell, there were a lot of suffering souls crying out in this new world of mine and that didn’t just go for living souls either.

Ever since I started cultivating my mana core, I could hear them. The voices and in some cases – haunting cries began growing louder and louder in my mind. Mana was an integral part of the soul in this world since it was the beacon that inadvertently attracted mana to your core in the first place.

The two of them were linked together, which explains why I couldn’t detect or even see souls as easily as I could in my old world. If I wanted to do that, I’d have to refine my mana core to the highest level, but even in my current state, the voices of the damned still reached me. Whether they were hateful, remorseful or even regretful...the more I refined my mana core, the better I could see and hear them all.

Unless the soul was particularly strong or potent, they’d just appear as a hazy blue flame to me, but the more I developed my mana the clearer that image would become. Heh~ with all these wailing cries reaching my ears from beyond the grave, it felt like my duty was literally calling out to me.

It was a daunting thought, one that was bold enough to put a smile on my face. After four long years, it feels like I’ve only just begun to grasp the true meaning behind Luelle’s words from back then.