“Boring…” (Lily)
“Lily…”
“But…” (Lily)
“No! We’ve been over this. I know it’s boring but we’re all dealing with it okay?”
“*Sigh* Fine…” (Lily)
She said that but I expected more complaints within the hour… *Sigh* I couldn’t blame her. Even I had started to run out of patience. We had been on this boat for two weeks. TWO WEEKS! Even I’m starting to just feel like I can’t wait to step on land again and I’m able to walk on water as if it’s no different from it. Two weeks stuck on a small boat you can barely even walk around… Ugh… just thinking about it makes my head hurt. Never again.
“Maybe I should have made some sort of flying device instead…”
“What?” (Lily)
“Oh… nothing…”
Thinking about it that would be… impractical. It would increase the chances for the gods finding me and might be defective seeing as I had no idea where to start… unless I created a plane… in which case it would not only increase the chances of the gods detecting that there’s a powerful existence hiding out in their world but it would also scream out to Zahrah that I’m still FUCKING HERE!
*Sigh*
We had long exhausted our sources of entertainment. I had read the book Cel bought back in the harbor town five times now. And Cel and Lily had each read it AT LEAST once. At least meaning that honestly it could have been more. The book itself was entertaining… but worthless to me in any other capacity. It was the story of an adventurer that becomes incredibly powerful so much so that he could even take on something like a greater dragon by himself. I honestly couldn’t tell if the book was completely fictional, if it depicted some kind of legend or if it was some sort of biography. It was very vague about the whole thing. But judging from how the adventurer’s name is something as ridiculous as Blaze, it felt more like a fiction from back in the tyrant’s world…
Thinking about it. I haven’t actually met any dragons in this world yet. Though both me and Kenos knew that Zahrah’s description of dragons was probably mostly a lie and her real objectives must have had something to do with Kate, the Child of Light who JUST so happened to be in the place I was born. I still thought there might have been a spec of truth somewhere in there. Even if there wasn’t honestly I was just curious about them.
On the other hand. I needed to make sure that whatever Zahrah intended to happen to Kate did NOT happen as it would probably be in her favor giving me yet another reason for finding her other than just fulfilling one of Vedqothur’s final wishes and clearing that regret… This pointed me to wonder about something which I hadn’t thought about before… What would happen if I did complete these? Would I just be fulfilling the final requests of people who were no longer entirely here? Or would something else happen. Honestly I felt that the latter might be true. Though the current me was stable I still retained some instability from all three of them. Maybe if I clear their past regrets my mind would get stronger once more? Maybe that’s why my emotions are so hard to control right now?
I guess that’s another thing to possibly look forward to. I looked down beneath the water off the side of the boat. The water wasn’t clear enough for normal people to see through it but this was me we’re talking about. My sight was anything but normal. In fact it was completely different from how normal humans “see”.
I could still see my reflection to some extent. That’s when I noticed my eyes. My eyes looked even more inhuman than before. Not because of their shape. It was just the feeling they awakened as someone looked at them. They had a strange depth which was weirdly inhuman. Like they were gateways to a whole other world… they reflected my inner world. It was hard to notice but it was definitely there. How had I not noticed this before? *Sigh* Yet another thing to worry about. I tried to change their colors but it didn’t work. That really surprised me. I tried changing my hair and that worked. So why not my eyes? Whatever the case my eyes were stuck like this. I needed to hide them. People up until now hadn’t noticed but there was always the possibility. Which brought up another question.
“Hey…”
Both Cel who was currently meditating and Lily who was too mentally exhausted to do that looked in my direction.
“Did you guys notice that my eyes look weird?”
Both of them look at each other then back at me and nod. Great. This confirms it. If they can see it then I need to hide it. I would probably be much more exposed to people… much more vigilant people from now on.
Just as I was thinking about it, as if waiting for us to be at the end of our ropes , I barely saw the elven harbor that I was waiting to come into view in the distance. It was beyond the horizon but my vision was not impaired by that in the slightest.
“FINALLY!”
Hearing what I said Cel and Lily who can’t see that far away also figured out that we had finally finished our voyage but instead of heading straight there I turned the boat west towards the shore. We would go the rest of the way on foot. We had honestly already seen a few elven ships and the only reason they did not see us is the illusion barrier I placed on our boat to make it harder to see from a distance. If we got closer they might discover us. Even if they didn’t we still can’t quite dock in the harbor can we?
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As the boat got up on the shore Lily and Cel instantly got off it. While Lily started running around screaming happily Cel instantly laid down on the ground with a content smile on her face. I myself was also happy. We finally reached the elven country. It had taken… so… long to get here… How many times did we experience death because of something stupid? First it was Vedqothur because of his lack of knowledge of this world. Then it was Kenos because of his complacent attitude due to his power being one with the potential to greatly surpass the gods. I could only laugh bitterly at the memories of death in my fragments.
Seeing as I was on the elven continent I went for a more proper look by extending my ears and pointing them. Yes. I was making myself into an elf. I knew humans in this country weren’t treated badly but I still thought that If we had at least one elf in the group then we would seem at least less suspicious. I also made my hair completely white erasing the black outlines. As for covering up my eyes. I just simply made a black blindfold. I didn’t need them to see anyway so I just needed for other people to not see them.
The next problem was the boat. It was just weird. Normal boats and ships are made out of planks and different parts. Mine was just wood. One boat-shaped piece of wood. That was unnatural so I didn’t want to just leave it here. It was possible that there existed nature magic in this world or something though I had not yet read about it but just in case. I used earth magic to pull the boat completely on land and a white fire blazed in the middle of it quickly devouring it and turning it into nothing but black charcoal. I was worried that the smoke might attract people so I urged the girls to stop playing around.
We needed to visit the town. Our supplies were running out again and I was sure the girls would appreciate sleeping in a proper bed for the first time in weeks. Now that I think about it. The last time they had slept in a proper bed was… back when we left the Evermist Forest. After that we tended to avoid towns and villages which resulted in them generally sleeping on the ground. Even in the harbor town I had only been hurrying to get on with it so I didn’t think about letting them rest in a bed for a night. I sighed as I understood how much I had neglected their needs due to my own lack thereof. Well at least I would let them rest in a bed tonight. I swear even if the town somehow denies humans I’ll at least assure them a proper bed to sleep on. Worst case scenario I would either sneak them in or create a bed for them to sleep on somewhere else.
We parted with the beach going up on the path and following the direction towards the town. It took us a few hours until we got there but once we did I could see the magnificence the town exuded. It was nothing compared to the dirty and bland towns we had been in until now which I had not even bothered describing.
Technically we could not see the inside of the town but… just the feeling it let off somehow made us ecstatic to see what’s inside. The walls were tall and white. Much different to the gray boring stone walls in the frontier human countries which seemed more like they were keeping their citizens in rather than keeping threats out.
The guardsmen posted at the entrance also looked dignified and were wearing fancy-looking armor. Not quite the kind of armor that heroes would wear with designs on it and stuff but as full-body armor they already looked much better than the barely passable as armor uniforms the soldiers in the human kingdoms wore. The Protection Front also had a good design for armor but I couldn’t help but think that this one was better if not slightly more impractical. It might have been the result of having less soldiers than other countries so they might just be pouring as much resources as possible to ensure that each and every one were as well equipped as possible. Then again these weren’t royal soldiers so I guess it’s jumping to conclusions.
The guards saw us from afar but stood tall. There was no greed in their eyes but only pride and dignity. They did not stop us as we proceeded into the town. Probably the effect of my presence in the group. The town almost shined. It was evidently lively and had a good feeling about it even before we entered. It wasn’t just simple grey stone. The different buildings were painted differently based on the preference of the owner while a lot of them were white there were also other colors present here and there with most of them being bright. The people were going about their business in the busy street but most of them seemed content with living in this place whereas in the human countries most were irritated as if they’d like to be anywhere but where they were at that point in time.
We instantly started searching for an inn. We were incredibly tired from the long journey. How long had we been travelling without stopping at a town. Three weeks? Four? I had honestly not been counting. Fact us the girls were tired and though I myself was not capable of being that. I still felt the urge to just lay on a bed for a while and think about nice things.
We were finally here. We finally made it. And it was just what I wanted. I hoped that I could get some good conditions for studying magic amongst other things in this country. And by the looks of the happy look on most of the citizens’ faces. I might even get it.