“ARE YOU FUCKING IDIOT!?” I slap Reis so hard she falls.

Right now we’re in a middle of a forest, north of Avareel. After we teleported to the gate in Avareel, all eyes were glaring at us. I kept my composure to show the people that Reis and Erfia are my slaves. Family image is out of question now. I’ve got a name to keep after all. I just gave Reis a piece of cloth to cover her body and then we immediately headed out of town after I completed all the required administration.

My stored mana is already empty and I couldn’t make Erfia filled it as she’s not in good condition, so I chose to buy a long legged lizard carriage. I decided to take a rest and set a camp in the middle of forest. Both of them got silent right after this afternoon incident.

It is night and once Erfia asleep at the carriage, I took Reis a little bit further so that I wouldn’t wake her up. Now, here we are, Reis fells on the ground with just a piece of cloth and the pissed me.

“It’s lucky I stopped you right before you spilled the milk. If at that time they realized I’m Mada the Raider, they would try to arrest us. If, we were lucky enough, we would never be able to use gate of the world anymore. I didn’t want to cross the Land of No Man by vehicle or even walked!”

“What’s your problem? I should be the angry one here. You showed my body to all of those people!” Reis defends herself as she tries to sit.

“No, you don’t get it. As I say, we were lucky I managed to stop you. If you let the word out that I’m Mada the Raider, I’d say we were lucky if we managed to escape. Do you know what will happen if one word fugitive like me arrested?”

Reis is silent for a moment. I can see her face is showing a disturbing expression. “Execute you? Well, not that I know, I’m just a six words fugitive.”

Okay, I’m pissed than before. She’s saying it so easy like my life is just a trash. But, unfortunately that’s not the reason I’m pissed all this time.

“Execute me? That’s the best thing could happen to a one word fugitive.”

“Hah?” and now Reis is surprised.

“Let me tell you what will happen to a one word fugitive like me if I got myself arrested. First, all document, story, anything that proves my existence will be lost.”

“What? That’s it?”

“Yes, my existence will be lost as it never exists to begin with. Not only my existence, but also all of the people that I ever interacted. A person that admits they ever see me will be killed on the spot and the people that knows me will be tortured to their death.”

I close my distance toward Reis to give her more pressure about my current condition.

“My family, my friends back in the school day, and people that ever travelled with me like you and Erfia will be tortured at first. But then all of you people became a guinea pig for the government to test whatever they wanted to test. Let it be a weapon, drug, poison, anything, and some people will become their sex slave until they become bored and then they will be disposed of. The funny thing is, they got the best healer in the continent so they will always recover your body and mind repeatedly so they can observe your expression toward their test. Or merely enjoy your expression when they took your virginity over and over again.”

“And, and then, what’s going to happen to you?” Reis asked with a frightened face.

“Me? Haha. That is the funniest thing actually. They will cut both of my arm and my leg and they make me watch all those torture and test they’re experiencing on all of you. When they’re out of people to show me, they simply cast some torture magic and healing magic towards me at the same time. I’ll experience torture until the day I die of old age.”

Reis can’t say anything anymore. I watch as her face is turning pale. So pale that it resembles the face of the dead. I take a step back and put my right hand on the Keeper. I take out a curve sword and point it at her.

“Eh?” Reis only lets out a low voice of surprised. Apparently, the shock of hearing the story of one word fugitive is still remain.

“Taking you as a slave was a big mistake. I can’t afford you to put Erfia in danger anymore. Be glad that I will free you from the slavery.”

I take a stance and swing my sword toward her head. She’s just closing her eyes, hoping it will end quickly.

“Stop it dad!”

I stop the moment I hear Erfia screams at me. My sword stops right before it take Reis’s head. The edge that already touches her skin lets out a drop of blood from her neck.

Erfia rushes to our place and hugs Reis. “Please forgive her dad, she didn’t know of anything that dad mentions.”

“How, how long–“

“I heard it all, dad. Everything.” Erfia interrupts my question before I could finish it. “When I wake and see both of you gone I thought both of you have made up. But when I heard your shout before, I rushed to this place and saw Reis already on the ground.”

What? All of it? Damn! I’ve told something that shouldn’t be told in front of a little kid.

I put some gap between my sword and Erfia, I don’t want to hurt her. “But–“

“I beg of you dad.” Erfia interrupts me once again. “Look at her!”

I look closely at Reis. Her face is still pale like a dead man. I see a tear is dropping from both of her eyes. But what I didn’t realize is that she’s muttering a word. Her voice is so low that I couldn’t possibly hear it if we’re in the middle of town.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Reis is muttering the exact same words over and over again.

It seems she’s not ready at all to know all that thing. I look back at Erfia, she’s not budging from her spot to stop me. Huuhhh, it seems I got carried away. Apparently, long life doesn’t guarantee that you won’t get carried away. The gene is still there. I put my curve sword back to the Keeper and walk toward them.

“Okay, I’ll forgive her.”

Erfia brightens up as she heard me. “I love you dad.”

Erfia hugs me to show her gratitude. The only thing I could do right now is smile at her cheerful expression.

“Let’s get back. You’ve got to sleep. Little kid shouldn’t be awake at this time.”

I carry Reis in front of me like they so called princess carry while Erfia walks beside me.

“Okay!”

I can still hear Reiz muttering “I’m sorry” over and over again.

I move my head closer toward hers and whisper. “It’s okay, I forgive you.”

Right after I whispered those words, the muttering finally stops and she falls asleep on me. She’s still young indeed.

After that, all of us are sleeping inside the carriage. Erfia refuses to use the pillow I give to her and instead, she chooses to use my body as a pillow. I can’t say no to her request and so my right body become her pillow. After I change the piece of cloth that covering Reis body into a decent cloth like a normal villager, I let her sleep on my left side.

~~~

I put my plate and spoon as I finish my breakfast. Because I’m the only man in this place, I’m the fastest one to finish the meal.

“So, now that we’re relaxed and we’re also not in a hurry, is there anything both of you want to say or ask?” I start the conversation to live up things. I’m not really fond with silent after all.

“I, I’m sorry about yesterday, I didn’t know that the punishment for one word fugitive is so cruel. For so long, I just think that having a one word title is a cool and great thing. Thank you for not killing me.” Reis starts to talk while she’s having her meal.

“Say your thanks to Erfia, she’s the one stopped me from killing you. I forgive you with one condition, you will never ever mention my one word fugitive title. I don’t care whoever it is. You will never tell it to anyone, okay?”

Reis nods slowly.

I look into Erfia. Erfia already heard anything so I guess it will be wise to make her promise about it.

“Okay dad.”

Good, both of them agree. With this, I can minimize the risk of being arrested.

“Dad, I got a question, what is that one word fugitive or six words fugitive you’re talking about last night?”

Ah, great question.

“It is a title given to any individual that doesn’t obey the law.”

Reis took my spot to explain things. Ah well, I guess I’ll let her have the spot for this one time.

“Normally, people will have a different title because law of each race is different. Takes example my tittle ‘One of the Six Desert Master’, if you count the words in it, it contains six words. This title is given by the Beast Man race.”

“And yesterday, apparently her title has been increased into three words tittle, Reis the Six Desert Master.” I add more explanation into it.

“Ahh, what is this number of six, three, and one?” Erfia scratches her head with the back of her spoon.

“The greater you are, or in this term the worse you are seen by the law, your title became shorter and shorter. The shorter the title the easier it is to remember. An amateur or small caliber fugitive like me, who only earn six words tittle, has a pretty hard to remember the title. How hard it is to remember makes it meaningless to remember meaning we are not a threat yet.”

“But one word fugitive like me, Mada the Raider, is very easy to remember. It shows that I’m one of the worst threats ever to every race out there.” I add another explanation into Reis’s explanation. “My title is Raider. I got this title because when I rob some big place or treasure, I never left anything in that place.”

“Ahh.” Erfia confirms with a high tone. “So, dad, you always empty the places like that time in the ruin?”

“Hehe, yeah, I’ve got a lot of spaces in the Keeper after all. To add another thing, because the guards already took Reis as my slave yesterday, it means she’s no longer has any title on her.” I add some for Reis too. “So, is it enough to answer your question?”

“Yesss.” Erfia answers with a long tone. It seems she’s having fun hearing our explanation.

“Now I’m the one with the question, what is that Mada Jeian of the Vorks thing yesterday? Are you some kind of noble?” Reis asking me a question.

“Yes, yes, I’d like to know about it too.”

It is understandable for her to ask about it. It is the reason they accepted her as my slave after all.

“It is my underground merchant name.”

“Underground merchant?” Reis and Erfia respond in sync.

“Yeah, basically I sell some of the thing I got and some of my customer is a government people so they know me as a merchant. If they arrest me for some simple case like having a small fugitive with me like yesterday, they’ll rug it off as one of my businesses.”

“Then–“

“But,” I interrupt Reis words as I can see what she’s going to ask. “If they know that I’m a one word fugitive, that thing can’t protect me at all. So, anything else?”

I wait for them to say anything or ask anything else. But as I wait, they just look at each other without saying anything.

“No? Then, let’s go. If we go at this pace, we’ll arrive in my friends place in a week. And–“

~Blarr blarr~

Suddenly a sound of explosion interrupts me. I jump at Erfia to protect her from anything that could be flying towards us. The sound of explosions keeps and keeps ongoing.

“Shit, have the war reaches this place?” I darn to myself.

“What are we going to do?” Reis asks while trying to cover her head.

I take Erfia and put her in the carriage as Reis follows me. “Let’s get out of here! The explosion is coming from the west. We’re going east then we’re going north.”

I put all our eating utensils in my Keeper and then back to the carriage.

“Erfia, I know you’re not in your fit condition yet, but I need you to fill the mana ring.” I take my mana ring off and put it in my hand.

“Okay dad.” Erfia takes the ring from my hand and she’s starting to fill it.

I start to ride the carriage with three of us inside of it. I never thought the war will reach this place so fast. I should have look for information in Avareel.