Chapter 26 - Bar Islands

Ever since Millinus could remember, his father always talked about the Thousand Islands. They were islands that if you conquer them then they would give you powers and treasures. As a kid, he ate it all up. His father believed it existed and as someone who thought their father was the top of the world, anything his father said was the truth.

But as he grew up and told others his dream to enter the Thousand Islands and conquer them, the more people around him laughed at his words. But still he believed his father over them. By then, it was more his dream than his father's.

But when everyone around him told him he's wrong, he started questioning if they were right.

He remembered he confronted his father and had a fight about this. He told his father that he might be having mental problems just like what his teacher told him, and he needed help. But his father only patiently told him that what he said was true. He would have believed it if his father did not leave them a few days later.

Before the day he left, everything was fine, though he noted that his father was a little frantic and excited. His young brain thought it was because he's excited to go with them on their planned trip that weekend. The next thing he knew, his father brutally left his fragile mother to take care of them. He didn’t say goodbye, he only left them a letter that said he was going to the Thousand Islands.

Millinus thought it was irresponsible for him to do that. But mostly he was betrayed that his father left without him. He thought they were a team. It was their dream.

But none of his feelings mattered as everything went tumbling down after that. The harsh life he experienced after that made him mature easily. He realized his father just left them because he was tired of living in reality where he had to raise five kids and a wife with his meager job in a ship company.

But now, with all these magical things happening to Millinus, he couldn’t help thinking what if the Thousand Islands existed?

It was just not his father. When he found his grandmother with a symbol burned to her, he immediately recognized what it was. His father loved to draw this symbol when he was a kid. The Thousand Islands.

He started searching for clues regarding this mythical place, hoping it might lead to his siblings’ location.

From his research—he even got most of them on the internet—he gathered across different literature and cultures that there were a lot of mentions about a group of islands that could give you powers and treasures when you conquer them. Though they have different names and origins, what puzzled Millinus was that almost all of the countries, as well as their mythology, had this kind of story. It was always magical islands and rewards when conquering them.

But despite that, he always thought the Thousand Islands was just a normal island, probably hidden in the world or protected by some government or conspiracies.

His reality now depicted that this Thousand Islands might be real.

What if all along his father was not delusional? Though it added a nail to the coffin that his father was irresponsible enough to leave his family sanely, it also meant a lot of things for him.

Ainuya looked confused. “A thousand islands?”

“No, Thousand Islands… is a name.” He paused. “But it could… be that.” Seeing the look of confusion from Ainuya, he explained. “Were they… a thousand islands… that will give you… treasures and powers… when you conquered it?”

“Hmmm. I don’t know about the Thousand Islands, it seems familiar for some reason. But yeah, when you pass the bar islands you’ll get a reward. Normally, a utility bar and if you are lucky a neutral skill bar. Mostly people enter it, we call them islanders, to get life bars that will help them bar up.

“But a thousand islands?” Ainuya shook his head. “I’m not sure, I hope not. The highest island known to be conquered was the 37th Island. People believed that if someone conquered the 100th island then the scourge would stop. But it has been thousands of years and no one has conquered beyond 37th and it’s only been three years since someone passed the 37th.”

Even if Ainuya said that it was not the Thousand Islands, he couldn’t drop the feeling that it was. Even if there were no thousand islands, maybe it was called the Thousand Islands because it also counted the existing mainlands. A hundred bar islands, and the 900 mainlands. No one had counted the mainlands, but Millinus had heard that there were at least hundreds of them. What if they just sank to the seas?

He had to hold onto this belief because if it was indeed the Thousand Island then there was a chance that his father was here, and if he was here then his siblings too.

“I’ll pass it,” Canto declared. “I’ll pass the 38th island, then the 100th island and I will be the strongest and largest Islander in the world.”

But Ainuya was not happy with his declaration. “May I remind you Canto that you’re going to be 18 in three months but there is still no Zero Island appearing nearby. If you turned 18, you will be stuck with your Farmer title,” he pointed to Canto’s chest.

“Now that… I remember. I think I heard… about the Zero Island… in the Dabo Mainland.” Millinus explained slowly what he heard in the Dabo mainland. Though he was getting better at learning the Counan language using an automatic translator in his head, he still needed to pause for a while to confirm what he said.

After he explained about the Dabomen kids getting their title marks, Ainuya nodded but with a tinge of relief in his face. “It had appeared near us Canto but we didn’t know. I think it was for the better that you become a Farmer.”

Millinus was confused why.

“But Baba Nuya, I can’t enter the island if I’m a farmer, Chalks told me Farmers can’t be an islander,” Canto complained.

“They can’t?” Millinus asked.

“They can enter it,” Ainuya’s face turned grim, “if they wanted to die.”

“I can enter it?” Canto asked elatedly. “Then even if I’m a Farmer I will still be an Islander!”

Ainuya’s face turned serious. “A Farmer can’t be an Islander, Canto.”

“Huh? Why not?” Canto asked, confused

Millinus also looked at Ainuya with a question in his face.

“Entering a bar island means you have to fight in it, how can you fight when you only know how to farm.”

“But… that’s n—”

“Promise me this. I am serious about this Canto. Promise me that you will only be an Islander if you have a combat title. If it’s not a combat title then you will have to work with whatever title you have. Promise me this.”

Canto did not reply.

“Please Canto, promise me this,” Ainuya said sincerely.

Canto looked conflicted at first but eventually he nodded. “But if I have a combat title then you’ll let me be an Islander.”

Ainuya did not reply at first but then he gave him a little nod. He then turned to Millinus.

“With you Millinus, let’s just hope that someone drops a title bar on the ground and we happen to pick it.”

Canto nudge him. “I said don’t worry, I will find you a title bar once I become an Islander.”

“Is this possible?” Millinus asked.

“Yes, title bars can be found in the Bar Islands.” Ainuya confirmed, “But they’re extremely rare and only in the higher islands.”

“Other than that… is there… another way?”

“Most of the title bars found in the island are sold to markets we can’t access, markets those Islanders only can enter. But there was one time years ago that someone sold a Carpenter title, and even as a common title, it was rumored sold for tens of thousands of cibar, not that I believed someone really bought it. But they said it was a desperate rich person. Whether that was true or not, In the end you’ll need money to either have a chance to buy one. A lot of money.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“So if I… save enough money… then I can buy one?”

“Yes, but where can you find a job? Even bar humans like us could barely find one.”

That did put down a little confidence within Millinus but he was still driven to find one. He was also thinking of getting his old one back. “I’ll look… for a way. I have to… get my title bar…”

Millinus meant his stolen title bar. In no way he’s going to let them steal it like that. As soon as he had the means to take it then he would try taking it back.

“By the way, what title do you have?” Ainuya asked.

“Halouise.” Millinus still remembered that name.

Ainuya raised his eyebrows.

“Halouise.” Millinus repeated

“Halo-wes? What does it mean?”

Millinus guessed he must have thought it was a foreign word.

“It’s the name… of my title bar.”

“Wait… Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait!” Ainuya’s eyes grew in shock. “It’s not a foreign language but a name?!”

Millinus nodded.

“Your title is a name bar?!”

Millinus nodded again.

Ainuya stood up from his chair and started walking back and forth in front of it. “Oh God of Bars.” Ainuya looked at Millinus. “What are you? Are you not human? First you have an innate skill without a bar, but you tell me now, that you used to own a name title bar.”

“It is also… a combat title… and it had a weapon… in it.”

Ainuya’s mouth dropped. “That’s it, say goodbye to your title bar.” He let out a sad laugh. “In no way those people will give up your title bar. In no way.” He shook his head.

“Was it… that great?”

“You have no idea! Even for common title bars, it wasn’t rare for people to kill someone for it. The central empires would wage wars to other empires just to get that single title! That kind of title is a game changer. Aside from its power, what it signifies would force anyone to make a move. Kingdoms will be razed and even the high bar Islanders, even the dead ones, would come out of their graves and fight to get it. You see now?! Name title bars are something people fantasize but never really believe to achieve. They were only stuff in the legends, a myth. But you have yours and it’s a named one and it has a weapon! You can’t imagine how valuable it was. If you’re telling the truth, then it was the greatest title bar I know that existed.”

After the conversation with Ainuya, Millinus and Canto came out of his room and went outside.

The sea was only a few hundred meters far and they trekked downhill to reach it. They reached a bench fifty meters from the sea and sat on it. It was a bench he made.

This was their habit every night. Talking in this bench, rambling about random things, exchanging stories from both of their worlds, just to stave off the boredom. Though there was solar energy inside the orphanage and they could enjoy more light, Ainuya and the kids would be asleep and they didn’t want to disturb them

Millinus heard footsteps behind him and he looked back to see Capriel bringing a parchment and his arts materials. Capriel paused for a moment then went to another bench beside them.

Canto only gave Capriel a glance then ignored him. They then sat there in silence.

“Millinus,” Canto said.

“Yeah.” Millinus replied somberly.

“Do you think I’ll get a combat title?”

“Yeah. Do you think… I’ll get a job and… earn money?”

“Yeah.”

Both of them went quiet and then they burst into laughter.

Capriel on the other table just shook his head.

Millinus turned to Canto, “Canto, what do you want… to be? Your dream title?”

“I want to be a Hugush!”

“What’s that?”

Then Canto told him about his dream to be able to transform into a huge monster that has six arms and was as big as a mountain.

“That’s so cool!” Millinus praised genuinely.

“What about you?” Canto asked.

“I— I don’t know.”

They then spent that night talking for hours just like they did most nights.

Millinus’ first scourge with the orphanage was tragic. Scourgers came and they did not just harvest the island’s bar energy, but they also trampled the makeshift orphanage building.

They went back to the island with another hundred meters taken from it. The benches that Millinus made were already submerged to the sea. He realized that life for the people in this world was limited.

“Why not migrate to… another island?” Millinus asked Tlina as he accompanied her fishing a day later.

“We love to. But no island would accept a Farmer and a Fisherwoman, especially with barless kids that would take years before they received their titles. Ainuya can, but he will never leave us.” She paused and looked wistfully to the north. “Actually, years ago, my siblings went to the north, the empires, and tried their luck. I haven’t heard anything from them since then. If there is something that would accept even the common titled people, it would be those huge lands in the north. But traveling there was next to impossible for us.”

“Why?”

She smiled sadly. “In this world, Linus. You can’t hold onto something if you can’t protect it.”

Another two scourge passed and it has been three months since he first started living on the island. The second scourge took another hundred meters of space while the third, no scourgers came.

Even so, the adults, even Millinus himself, had started worrying about their future. In about a year—if they’re lucky at that—their homes would then be submerged in the sea and they had no idea what to do about it. Even the kids were starting to worry too.

“I told you,” Canto shouted at Capriel, “once I become an Islander, I will protect our island from the scourgers. Stop talking about running away. This is our home!”

“Quit it Canto!” Capriel shouted back. “I know you’re stupid but this is not the right time to be one. The island will sink! We will have no home to save!”

“I said I’m going to save it!”

“How?! Tell me how?! You’re turning 18 in a few weeks and you’ll be stuck with your Farmer title. What can you do then? If you’re so determined to be an Islander, why did you turn down your first Title?! You’re treating this as a game!”

“I-I don’t want to be a Knifeman! It’s weak!”

“What do you want then? A Farmer, because that’s you’re going to be for being picky!”

Millinus just let the two fight. Though he understood why Canto wanted to stay on the island, as it was his home most of his life, he also understood Capriel’s concern. They couldn’t wait for Canto to be an islander. He had a combat title once, the first one he got when he was 15, but he was adamant not to incorporate it.

It would be okay as he still had two chances to change it, but his third time might not be possible anymore.

According to the others, the Zero Island appeared randomly. Usually, a Futureman or Futurewoman would predict when and where it would appear as long as it was near their mainland. But it might come months later. Canto’s 18th birthday was in three weeks. If the Zero Island appeared after his birthday then he’d be a Farmer forever.

Capriel too just turned 14 last month, by the time he was able to enter the Zero Island and get his first title bar, the island would be long gone. Not that being a one-bar islander would help much. In terms of islander hierarchy, one-bar islanders were considered as babies.

Another week passed with no news about the Zero Island. Though Canto was always easy with how he dealt with life, Millinus noticed how his situation started to affect him.

“Do you think I’m dumb?” Canto asked him as they sat on a newly made bench that night in front of the sea.

“No,” Millinus answered without hesitation.

“But I am. Capriel thought so, even the small ones thought too. Chalks even told me I am one.”

“No, you’re not dumb.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I think you’re smart. Just like what Ainuya said, you just don’t like thinking complicated things.”

Millinus meant that. He did assume at first that Canto was an idiot but for the three months that they have been together almost everyday—swimming in the sea, cooking, farming, playing with the kids, and talking—he learnt that Canto was not dumb, in fact it was the opposite.

“Nah,” Canto denied. “You’re too nice.”

Millinus snickered. “I’m not.”

“You are. I heard Capriel say it.”

“Capriel? That's… but he hates me.”

“Not hate. He doesn’t like you. I heard him say it was because you’re too nice.”

“Because I’m too nice? That doesn’t make sense.”

“That you’re nice? But you are”

Millinus laughed dryly at what Canto said. “Trust me, I’m not nice. If both of us were facing death, I'd probably leave you.”

Millinus still remembered the students he ignored in the Oxygen High and the Sinilians that he searched only for a little time because he was scared by the scourgers on the shore. He was not nice, when faced with death, he’ll prioritize his own.

“But you’re nice. You did not blame me when I tried to push you in the sea before. You shared your meat with us—”

“But that was a payment” Millinus interjected but Canto only continued.

“— you always help, you cook for us, you clean for us, you always play with the kids. You teach them.” He proceeded to list all of the random things that Millinus did, which were things that Millinus thought he ought to do for them for sheltering him. “You never lied to me. You never scold me whenever I make mistakes. You never laughed at my dreams. You always play with me and hang out with me. You teach me how to cook new foods even if I am bad at it. You’re nice.”

“And you’re smart,” Millinus deflected the topic from himself. “How could you remember all of these things if you’re dumb? You’re also observant. You might be simple, but you’re not impulsive. You think before you make an action. Just like back in the Dabo Mainland. You know it was easier for you to sail away when there was more space and less weight in the boat. You thought I’m dead so you had to dispose of me. That’s smart. I understand why you did it so I am not angry at you, it’s not because I’m ‘too nice’.”

Canto chuckled. “Yeah, you’re right. But you’re still nice.”

“I am not!”

“You are.”

“I take it back, you’re dumb.”

“You’re lying.”

Millinus gave him a challenging look. “But you said I never lied to you.”

Canto gave him a playful smirk. “I know you’re joking.”

Millinus sighed dramatically. “Yeah, you’re really not dumb.”

Then they burst into laughter.

It was another week when they learned new news about the Zero Island. It was when Ainuya came back from his weekly trip to a mobei mainland where he worked.

Millinus noticed how Ainuya was reluctant to say something that night, but after dinner he announced that the Zero Island was predicted to come out near Sucix Mainland.

While Canto was grinning with joy from the news, Ainuya turned to Millinus.

“Millinus, you can come and accompany Canto. It’s about time you visit another mainland.”

Millinus' eyes glimmered from the news. He did ask before if he could accompany the others whenever they visited the other mainlands, but he did not push more when they told him it was not yet safe for him to show his face in public. He understood their concerns. He still was foreign to their world and could hardly speak Counan straight months ago.

But all his plans to change his life would only be possible if he was able to visit another mainland.

In no way he was going to sit all his life while his title bar was somewhere, and especially stolen. Even if he could not take it back, he would squeeze any benefit he could get from it.

Canto was wrong, if he was ‘too nice’ then why was he feeling thrilled just by thinking of doing a bad thing.