Hey, are you sure we are heading the right way?”
“I feel like asking about the direction has become our entrance sequence, Riziel.” Jonathan pushed his hair up as he effortlessly broke the walls of hesitation. His confidence was befuddling considering he had no way to know the path, but for Jonathan, the smell of romance and a chance for love was stronger than any compass.
“I can feel it, Riziel, I can feel it in my bones. The thief girls are waiting for me in the lawless zone, we are heading the right way.”
Riziel rubbed her hands at Jonathan’s impassioned words. They were headed through a downhill path outside the borders of the Shinome Republic right next to Rascarte. This was the way toward the Lawless Zone, or at least they hoped it was. Lawless as the zone was, most of it was just a barren wasteland with no end in sight.
Once one entered the wastelands, they had to follow a straight path to the ‘Garbage Dump’ or they could risk getting lost.
Riziel sighed. She had to admit, unreliable as he was, Jonathan was fucking lucky when it came to directions. The last time too, he had guessed that the Crow might be in Blue and that’s where the last possible sighting was.
She would guess that Jonathan was hoping to be stepped on by some hot thief babe but if asked, he would surely deny it.
“Even if we don’t find the crow here, information about the Garbage Dump and the next Garbage King would be very useful for the Commander,” Riziel leaned back on the carriage and muttered.
It wasn’t like she was hoping to find some big treasure in the Garbage Dump, something valuable enough for her to throw gold coins in a lake with a ‘hohoho’ twice a day for the rest of her life, much like the rich people of the world.
Riziel and Jonathan, once again, were headed towards their destination without any ulterior motives. Surely, there were no ulterior motives.
***
I had been traveling for eleven days. After these eleven days, I had learned a fundamental truth about the world. They had made me familiar with the perspective of a thug, so to speak.
Beating them up and calling them bad was natural, they were bad, but man was it convenient to have people do all your work for you.
“Tanien, go put up the camp.”
“Tanien, start a fire.”
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“Tanien, cook the food.”
“Tanien, shut the fuck up and drive.”
These four phrases had started to provide me with relief through the days. Feeling guilty about making a person with only one hand do all this work? He should instead be thankful I hadn’t killed him already.
Previously, traveling alone meant starting my own fire (Asirmo usually did it), or making my own camp and food (the Skelians were happy to indulge) and running along the paths.
They were good, but a distraction. I could instead train properly with the Skelians and Asirmo, and take the time to rest and learn spirit magic while in the carriage. Money might be able to buy such comfort, but violence was truly a currency that worked everywhere. I would say that people should replace gold backing with violence backing, that would make some of us quite rich—Huh. Thinking of it again, most currencies were backed by violence, in the form of armies.
The world was built by truly wise men.
“We’re very close, sir,” Tanien said from ahead as the carriage rolled through the narrow paths of the forests outside the Shinome Republic. It was a place where the chirps and calls of birds dwindled and the air started to get dry, the wasteland, one of the forbidden zones, was not far away.
“Have we finally reached?” asked Marco. “I was waiting for this!”
This kid, who was genuinely an old man if we went by human sensibilities, had been teaching me rather well. He was an odd nutcase with how naive he was, even Tanien was slightly surprised. Elves that age were very youthful like teenagers, but few were as purely naive as Marco.
It was disgusting to think of forty to fifty-year-olds acting snobby like teenagers and throwing around words like ‘no one understands me!’ or other bullshit, in that sense Marco was rather welcome. His skills with Spirit Magic and as a teacher were no joke either.
I was able to manipulate my mana and slowly attract spirits, getting them to cooperate was another matter altogether. I was unable to use magic, but I could tell Marco wasn’t at fault. He did say that Spirits disliked dark mages like me, and it was evident.
As we approached the end of the path, Tanien rolled the carriage to a stop and I turned to Marco.
“Alright, you get off here. There is a town just a small walk toward the East through the forest. Since you’re an elf, you’ll find your way.” I pointed at the door.
Marco met my eyes.
“You’re kicking Tanien out? He’s scary but I’ve gotten used to him.”
“No, I am kicking you out,” I answered, exasperated. What was with that selective hearing? “Get lost, the path ahead is too dangerous for people like you.”
“W-w-what?” Marco muttered, not believing my words. “But you haven’t learned Spirit Magic yet, I have to fulfill my promise—“
“You’ve done enough.” I firmly said and stood up. With one hand, I grabbed the elf by the scruff of his neck and pushed the door open. Marco plopped down on the ground.
“Off you go. Thanks for this last week. Go and live with your family now.”
I closed the door shut.
Tanien looked back, and then at Marco who was still on the ground.
“Is this fine sir? If we leave like this…”
“Tanien, shut the fuck up and drive.”
Tanien nodded and started driving. Truly those phrases were magical.
Even though a person had stepped out, the carriage did not become any faster. After another long day of travel through the wastelands, going straight under the sharp sun and the barren grounds full of sand and soil around, we found a signboard on the road.
[Trash This Way ↑]
[Humans Go Back ☠]