Chapter 9 - The Day Before Leaving

‘I said! I don’t! Want! To! Go!’ I shouted with all my might, hoping that I’d be able to attract some attention. Unfortunately, mind speech’s range was strictly limited and the fact that only people I actually directed my thoughts to could hear me didn’t help.

The scratchy rucksack I was held captive in shifted a little as I desperately moved side to side.

After thoroughly protesting for a solid minute and a few pitiful attempts at escape, Kearan had thrown me into this bag and brought me… here. Wherever ‘here’ was.

I could hear people chattering in hushed tones to my right in a meeting. I couldn’t see outside, but I could tell the little light that filtered through the bag’s tiny holes wasn’t natural by any means. It was orangey and yellow, most likely the light emanating from a few candles.

With nothing else to do, I decided to eavesdrop. The voices were slightly muffled, but I could make out what they were saying relatively well enough, even though they were talking softly.

I grunted and rolled myself a little further. Not knowing how large the surface I had been placed on was, I made small movements. I didn’t want to make the same mistake as last time, on the dining table.

“This is too good of an opportunity to miss.” A distinctively familiar voice said.

“You’re right. It is. But how can we trust it? If it doesn’t produce, we’re screwed. We’ll starve to death.” A feminine voice replied.

Were they talking about me?

“Good point.” A third person with a deep voice began speaking. “What if it betrays us? Leveling it up is cool and all, but what if it ends up becoming stronger than us? What if it decides it doesn’t want to assist us anymore? Or even worse, what if it ends up helping the baron?”

They were definitely talking about me.

I wiggled even further along the what-I-assumed was the table and was pleasantly surprised to find a small tear in the fabric. It came right above my eyes and provided a fairly decent spyhole. On the other hand, my area of awareness wasn’t big enough to actually view all the participants in the meeting-

[Area Of Awareness has leveled up! 3/25]

Or… not. Damn, these skill level ups really came in clutch.

Thanks to the level up of ‘Area Of Awareness’, I was now able to see the rest of the people. They were huddled together around a wooden table, all wearing brown travelling cloaks. Stacked atop the table was a pile of gear ranging from weapons, armour and books to a bunch of small leather bags containing what looked to be potions of some sort.

They had a serious look on their faces.

“If that happens, I can always take it down.” I recognized the speaker as Kearan, who had half of his face concealed by his hood. “It’s not like I’m going to let it get any stronger than it needs to call its Gifted. Besides, I have methods of torturing it if it refuses to obey.” At this, he stared directly at me and I could feel his gaze piercing into my heart.

I was getting a really bad feeling from this.

Shink.

Shink.

Shink.

Shink.

‘Will you quit that already?’ I asked Kearan irritably.

He was sharpening his dagger by the fire in one of the few houses that were still liveable. After the meeting, he dismissed everyone and brought me here without a word. He seemed to be deep in thought. Probably thinking about the rescue mission ahead.

Shink.

Shink.

‘I said, can you stop?’ I asked a little more forcefully.

Shink.

Shink.

‘STOP!’

His hand froze mid air and he turned towards me slowly. “I’m sorry. Were you saying something?”

I exhaled and wanted to shake my head. I’d never seen Kearan act so absentminded before. But then again, I hadn’t known him all that long either. ‘I asked you if you could stop sharpening your dagger.’

He glanced down and seemed to notice the keen edges beginning to ground away for the first time. “Oh.” Was all he said.

Placing the dagger gently on the side table, he brushed off some dirt from his tunic and sank deeper into the armchair. He yawned. “I’m going to sleep now. We leave early in the morning tomorrow, so be prepared.”

‘It’d be nice if you could give me a little more information on exactly where we’re going, you know?’ I said dryly.

“Hm?” He turned towards me and creased his eyebrows. “Didn’t I tell you already? We’re going to No Man’s Land.

‘And where exactly is that?’ Throughout all of my time as a baron, I’d never heard of a place with that name.

“You know.” He waved his hand airily. “Outside the kingdom. Where the monsters are?”

‘Ah.’ Now I knew what he was talking about. ‘We call that Oblivion.’

Oblivion was where people were exiled to, and where all the monsters resided. It was certain death to leave the kingdom’s confinements and traverse into Oblivion. Either Kearan was crazy, or he believed himself to be strong enough to take the monsters on. Something told me it was the latter.

“We?” He was more awake now, that was for sure. He stared attentively at me and narrowed his eyes further. “That reminds me. Who were you beforehand? How do you know the baron’s servants? You didn’t seem to know anything about the current situation, but you knew that there was a new baron? Don’t tell me you were…”

Oh, shit. I had to cover this up. And fast ‘Um, no.’ I said quickly. ‘I was a servant at the castle and only knew of the new baron because he forced all of us to listen. This was just before I was transformed into a potato.’ Technically, that wasn’t a hundred percent a lie.

Kearan seemed to think about it and after a few moments of doubt, relaxed. “I suppose that’s a more plausible outcome. If I ever see the ex-baron again, I’m going to slap him in the face. Heh. That’s not treason, since he’s not a baron anymore.”

'Why? He wasn’t that bad. Right?'

He scoffed. “Maybe he wasn’t that bad to you because you were his servant. To the people of Agridia? He couldn’t have cared less. This situation that we’re in right now, maybe it wasn’t his fault. Maybe the reason why Agridia came to this state was because of the king, who appointed him in such a position at such a young age. And May…” He clenched his fist in agitation.

‘May.. what?’ Although he was talking shit about me, I still wanted to know what happened that was so bad he felt like he needed to.

But he must have remembered that even though I wasn’t the ex-baron, I was still his servant or something, because he stopped talking. The anger left his body and he slumped deeper into his chair.

I couldn’t pity him. He had disrespected me.

And yet, a part of me still did.

Kearan was barely older than a child, being only in his late teens. I had been twenty nine when I was reincarnated. He was probably half my age and had already been through- and probably done- horrible things. Things that caused such animosity and hatred in him. I could see it in his eyes.

“Hey. June?”

‘Yeah?’ I thought he had fallen asleep.

“No Man’s Land, Oblivion, whatever you call it, it’s danger is the same. We aren’t bad people. And we’re going to help you get stronger.”

I chuckled a little and smiled. ‘Sure.’

“So can you not make it difficult for us? Number one rule of the guild. Treat others the way you want to be treated. You help us, we help you. Ok?” He yawned.

So at heart, Kearan was still just a child. In such a harsh world as Erobeus, simple rules like that only worked with little children. In reality, you couldn’t trust anyone. You couldn’t depend on anyone. Because that person would just turn their backs on you once they got what they needed. Just like my father did. That was my mentality, at least.

Nevertheless, to satisfy his concerns, I replied softly. ‘Of course, Kearan. I’ll trust you like my life depends on it.’

Because it did.

For now.