Chapter 197 - Only Goodness and Mercy 2

The winter was getting rowdy. The skyship was able to fly through the snowstorm but sustained some damage. The plating of the skyship melted most of the snow, but the thruster’s interiors got frozen. The skyship was forced to land on some unknown village.

“This village’s controlled by the Templars,” muttered Joshua. He could see the insignia of the Thorn Legion of the Templars guarding the village. They wore fur coats and they were helping the villagers store the reddish-purple wine that the villagers made.

Alexander and Joshua sat on one of the benches. Alexander was drinking the bottle of wine he bought from the villagers. “I couldn’t care less. The wine’s good. Reminds me of that purple wine my friend Jerne gave me once. Quite tasty I didn’t know that I would ever taste something so similar.”

“Can I have a taste?” Joshua eyed the wine. Alexander glanced at him.

“Sure,” he handed Joshua the wine.

Joshua took a sip of the wine. The sweet flavor of the wine burned his tongue. He handed the wine bottle back to Alexander. “Good wine! Do they sell more? I might need one.”

“I might?” Alexander took a sip of his wine. “I’ll warn you. This kind of wine doesn’t make you drunk.”

“I can probably make some moonshine,” Joshua shrugged. “Mix some ale or beer on it, then add sweeter then it’ll be a perfect way to get drunk.”

“Something bothering you?” asked Alexander.

“Remember that garden?” Joshua explained. “Ever since that time I’ve been dreaming of my home. That realistic feeling of standing in your own room again bothered me.”

“Is that so?” Alexander said blandly.

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“So this has been bothering you,” Alexander took a sip of his wine. He looked at the falling snow and the villagers smiling about as they carry their baskets. “I really don’t know what to tell you. I could just tell you to be positive. Live your life as it is. But that’s wrong. You’re turning your eyes away, forcing yourself from thinking what is wrong. I know the feeling. The name gives it away doesn’t it?” he smiled.

Joshua silently nodded.

“I’ve been wondering too,” Alexander continued. “I am some hopeless wanderer without a home. We all are. You know, a guy told me once, who by the way was a dragon killer, and he fell down the void protecting the person who adored him. He wasn’t like us who got lucky. He was sickly. He was broken. He was worse for the wear. He has infections and he lost three of his fingers. He told me that since we didn’t belong to this world. We don’t the blessing that the world has. He came from another world too. And somehow he found himself in this other world like me. This body doesn’t belong to this world.”

“What?” Joshua exclaimed.

“It’s hard to explain really,” he made a bitter smile. “I told you that I got trapped into a crystal once by a despairing witch right?”

“You did.”

“Anyway, the guy I am talking about fell down the abyss. He got swallowed by a spatial storm, a space storm that misplaced us into this world. He told me that he came from the same world, he thought he died when the cruise ship he was aboard got split into by a thunder. A simple thunder wouldn’t be able to split a giant cruise ship. It was a space storm, a spatial distortion. I believe that we got caught in these space storms. And trying to jump into another wouldn’t mean anything at all.”

He didn’t say anything. Joshua caught the snow with both hands.

“There’s no way back home for us. I don’t what happen to him. He disappeared. Didn’t know where he went. It was clear that we are chased by misfortune. My circumstance and yours is different from him. He was normal. He didn’t have anything other than losing his mind and somehow slaying a dragon once. I think you have your own ability. I won’t prey but we are considered lucky.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Alexander drank a mouthful of his wine. He didn’t bother wiping the wine on his stubble.

“That there’s no need to weep over parts of life, the whole of it calls for tears,” he said. “All we can do now is to keep a stiff upper lip. This old soldier told me that. I think he was fond of the stoics and he told me and my mates how to keep our cools in harsh times. But really isn’t enough. We suffer. I suffer. You suffer. Despite that saying, it doesn’t turn us into apathetic beings. My heart’s broken. But I kept on walking down this unsure path for the hell of it. I mean, who doesn’t want to go home? I miss my family. But such thing is impossible. Besides, they probably won’t recognize me in this body.”

Joshua didn’t ask what he meant by that. He could see that it was a hard thing for Alexander to talk about. “Alexander, when I arrived in this world. I starved and walked endlessly in the desert near the city of storms. I starved and I had to bit on carcasses just to live on. I prayed that goodness and mercy will follow me. But what did I get? A bunch of slavers catching me with a net, and they dragged me around like a pig. I got turned into a slave and got played by a noble. You are right, maybe we really lost wanderers.”

“Yeah,” Alexander nodded. “Still, I do not expect anything. It hurts less that way. But,” he patted Joshua’s shoulder, “we got to trek on. Whatever happens, happens. We don’t have a choice but to continue painfully. I wish that I could have avoided things. If was stronger. I was faster then maybe I wouldn’t get separated from that clumsy woman,” a bitter smile appeared on Alexander.

“I guess we can only put a bland face and pretend that thing doesn’t happen. We sure are hypocrites aren’t we?”

“Yeah, but what’s wrong with being a hypocrite? We have power over our minds, not outside events. So all we can do now is to continue.”

“I guess so,” Joshua said.

Alexander hailed a villager who was carrying a basket filled with wine and bought three bottles. He ambled back to the bench and handed one to Joshua. “Here you go.”

“What’s this?”

“You know to make moonshines right? Let’s go and make some while Archie and Eiya are still gathering the supplies.”

Joshua looked at the bottles of wine before smiling gently. “Yeah, let’s get drunk then.”

Alexander smirked. Joshua stood up and the two then went back to the skyship.