CHAPTER TWENTY: THE UNARMED MAN
The leader of the mob stopped his mad rush as soon as the gunshot rang out. He almost stumbled and fell but managed to keep on his feet as the loud shot echoed through the air. The crowd had also backed away slightly upon hearing the explosion, many ducking and screaming out in surprise.
Carter lowered his arm, the Witch Arm in his hand smoking at the barrel. He aimed the weapon’s sights directly at the leader, who was less than five feet away from him. He had chosen to go with a warning shot in the air when the big man had charged forwards. Thankfully, the loud retort of his gun seemed to bring the leader back some to semblance of sense, which was good for him since Carter did not intend on doing any more warnings.
“Next one goes in your head,” he warned the man wearily.
“Magic!” shouted one of the men in the crowd.
“It’s an Artifact!” said another.
“No, it’s just some foreigner gadget,” cried someone else. “Made in Dralov, probably.”
“Enough!” Before the crowd could work themselves up even more, Carter decided to cut in. “Fun’s over, folks! Go home! Go back to your families while you still can!” To emphasize his point, Carter fired off another shot, this one hitting a nearby tree. The people shrieked when the surface of the wood fractured as the bullet hit.
The crowd of men quickly began to disperse. They all turned around and began walking down the road, most likely headed back to whatever backwater village they had crawled out of. Several of the braver and stupider ones called out some final insults at him, but they quickly shut up when Carter leveled them with a steady gaze. The leader was one of the last ones to leave, giving both him and the wagon driver fierce glares. But in the end, he left all the same, a dog with his tail between his legs running back home.
Once all the men were gone and he could not see any sight of them in the distance, Carter turned to the man in the colorful clothing.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
The man’s head wound had stopped bleeding, but the dried blood was still present on his face. He gave Carter a wan smile as he pulled out a silk handkerchief and began to wipe up some of the mess.
“I am, yes. Thanks to you, friend,” he said. “I am grateful to the gods of this land that you came along when you did. Those thugs would have me swaying up in the trees had you not interceded as you did.” The man had finished cleaning off the blood, quickly stuffing the stained cloth in his pockets before turning to Carter with a more genuine smile. “I thank you, my friend. I am known as Solemn Rider Mattu Ving.” He placed both hands over his heart and then performed an elaborate bow.
Carter nodded and attempted to repeat the greeting with not-so-successful results. “Uh, you’re very welcome. My name is Carter Lee.” He paused, as something the man had said caught his attention. “You said you were a Solemn Rider. Is that a title of some sort?”
Mattu laughed. “Yes, yes it is. It is the equivalent of a knight in these parts.”
Oh, wow. He was the first knight Carter had met since coming to this world. “Well, it is very nice to meet you, Sir Ving.”
The dark-skinned man laughed again. “Oh please, stop that. By your appearance, I take it you are a Gentleman of Lacotia, so you probably outrank me by quite a bit. But then again, Lacotia has no nobility, does it? ‘All are fair and equal under the eyes of the moneylender’ and whatnot. Quite the unique and strange culture you have there.”
“Uh, yeah. Sure.” Carter had to agree since he had no idea what the guy was talking about.
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“But then again, Dralov is no different. Most of the world sees us as strange as well.” He was looking around on the ground, trying to find something. Eventually, he did, bending down to snatch a pair of glasses from the road where they had fallen earlier when the big man had grabbed him. Mattu put the glasses on, hiding his brown eyes behind the shiny blue lenses.
“Strange, huh? Is that why you’re out here alone, driving a wagon full of goods towards a warzone?” Carter asked. “That’s what you told them, right? That you were here to help. Was that all that true?”
Mattu nodded. “Indeed it was. Though I hail from Dralov originally, I currently reside here, in the lands of Gloria. The Western Empire, to be precise. I own a series of markets in Tidefall, and as a Lacotian you may be happy to hear that my businesses are doing quite well. I am quite the wealthy man, yet my heart aches upon hearing the plight of the men and women of the South. It pains me to know what my adopted nation is doing to them. So I traveled here, as I told those ruffians, in order to help. In what little I can do so, anyway.”
Carter nodded. “That’s quite noble, but why are you here alone? You look like you can afford to hire a bunch of guards to protect you. Hell, you aren’t even armed!”
“Yes, I can see how that would seem foolish,” Mattu said. “But I walk the Somber Path. Similarly to the sixty-seven others who have done so before me, I have solemnly vowed to take upon my shoulders all the sins of the West, and in penance, I journey to the lands of the wronged to offer what succor I can. I will continue to do so, despite the danger, until the final days of my life. In the hopes that the Western Empire, my new home which has given me so much, as well as the birthplace of my children, can be somehow forgiven.”
“I see.” So it was some religious thing. “How do your children feel about you taking this ‘Path?’”
Mattu laughed. “Oh, they were furious. But they are all grown now, and wealthy besides. This was my choice. My small way of contributing some good in the world.”
Carter wanted to be impressed. Here was a man who had gotten everything a person could ever want in life: he was wealthy, had a family that cared for and worried about him, and he even had a noble title. Despite all that, he had decided to give it all up, to leave his family and use his wealth to help alleviate the suffering of others. He had forgone his comfortable life to come out here into a warzone in order to help people he didn’t even know. Carter should have been impressed; he should have been deeply moved by Mattu’s sacrifice and how he was bravely changing the world for the better.
But Carter was not impressed, nor was he moved deeply. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He thought it was stupid that Mattu was out here risking his life, alone and without a weapon. He didn’t find what the man was doing to be noble at all. He had left his family to come out here in a warzone to die without truly accomplishing anything at all. Sure, he may distribute some food and medicine along the way, but if he kept going as he did, eventually a mob of angry assholes like before or even a simple gang of robbers would put an end to him. If it wasn’t for Carter, he would have died a few minutes before. What Mattu was doing was not noble, it was just a grandiose way of committing suicide. If he really wanted to help people, he could easily use his wealth to start a charity, or at least hire professionals to ship the food to the South and have armed guards watching the shipments. He would be helping so many more people by doing so instead of risking his life and going at it alone.
But Carter said none of his thoughts to Mattu. He had no right to judge the man, nor did he have the right to judge this “Path” of his, or whatever it was. Carter was never a religious man, but he respected the rights of others to believe whatever they wanted. He didn’t know what Mattu’s religion even was, or why this Somber Path asked so many sacrifices from the ones walking it. And so Carter kept quiet and kept his doubts to himself.
“Are you heading back to the city?” Carter asked Mattu after the man had checked on his goods in the wagon. “I can escort you back.”
“No, I’ll probably be heading to the southern villages as soon as I can,” the older man said. “I recognized some of those thugs. They were from the village I stopped in last night to rest. I think it best that I don’t stop at any others until I am well away from this area.”
“Okay. Well, it was good meeting you, Mattu. I wish you a good journey.” Carter shook the other man’s hand. Don’t die, were words that he left unspoken.
The colorful man smiled. “It was an honor meeting you as well, Gentleman Carter. I once again thank you for your aid, and wish you good health and trade.” He performed his elaborate bow once again.
Carter waved at the man as he departed on his wagon. He kept him in his sight until the wagon disappeared into the distance, and he could no longer see Mattu’s colorful clothing through the trees. Carter then continued on his way. He desperately hoped that one day, he wouldn’t come across any corpses on the side of the road that wore the same colorful clothes.