“A damsel in distress, or a cool queen of the north.”

Fourth chapter - I learn the tongue of Roh

My hand reached to the distinctive features on my face. I could feel the small black mole under my neck I used to have. As my hand caressed my skin, the smooth texture reminded me of my youth. Feeling the body healthy and lively, the man who wore the face of an 18 years old, raised his arms and screamed in joy.

“Woohoo!” Arms stretched out, knees bent down, I jumped around the field. The dreamy expression reflected on his face as if he had just been reborn.

The sound of the corcorn brought me back from my over-enthusiasm. I paused in my track, and gave a stare down with the corcorn. Unusual as it is, my body just appeared out of thin air. Without any calculation or plan, I might have to engage in a suicidal battle with the corcorn. Otherwise, I could end up wasting my mana creating this body.

I turned to face the destructive corcorn. With one step closer to the corcorn, the corcorn mimicked my movement and came closer by a foot. If he uses the same method with the knight, tearing through barrier head-on, I may have to enhanced my agility to dodge.

Arcturus

“Huh?” I clearly heard a high-pitched voice resounded in my head. Holding up my head, I looked around me confused. The corcorn sat its huge body on the ground, wagging its tail while staring at me. His head lowered down to my eye level.

“Were you the one talking to me?” I scrunched my eyebrows.

When I voiced my question, the corcorn brought itself closer to me. It felt like I was an ant when the corcorn stood in front of me. I was conscious of the difference in level but I did not feel I was in danger.

The ferocious corcorn that was about to slaughter five humans alone was now in front of me like an obedient puppy. It snuggled its cheeks onto my chest wagging for me to pat its head. Smelling into my scent as it repeated. “Arcturus.”

My eyebrow raised itself, surprised by this turn of event. To begin with, I am a dog-lover. The corcorn’s soft fur buried into my hand, the undeniable urge to stroke the furry animal in me kicked in. I melt my body into the coat of the corcorn.

“Fuuuuu, this is heaven.”

I gave a pat on its head and looked around me. The knights lay on the ground, not far away from the trees. The scent of the wilderness reached my nose, it was refreshing. The men were two times larger than me, I peeled off their armlet and helmet to decrease the weight. I stared off at the direction of the village. The road looked tediously long, how on earth am I going to carry four armed men back to the village with this distance. I cursed at myself.

Behind me, the corcorn whimpered softly, I turned to see the red leaf from knights hanging from the mouth of the corcorn. The corcorn laid it on the ground, pushing the leaf towards me.

“There was this thing, I forgot. What a smart boy!” I patted its head while admiring how smart this beast is, “I wish I could keep you, but I’m afraid the villagers might piss their pants if they see you.”

Sweat began forming as I was going back and forth carrying the knights over my shoulder. My flimsy muscle became sore from overdoing the carrying work. The cool wind of the evening touched my bare skin. I was not so concerned about my naked body but it would be too distracting for the women in Ghamp village if I want them to welcome me in. I summoned a set of plain white clothes with little effort. I have gotten more familiar with my creation ability.

The size fits me perfectly, it was comfortable. I decided to try out some of my other abilities. Creation, Repair and Destruction. These are the three abilities I am currently able to use. The mana usage depended on the scale of range, size and properties that I want to use my ability on.

I looked over the knights and cured them to minimum where they won’t bleed to death. It would be a headache to explain to them if I were to completely heal their injury.

After I was done healing them, I aligned them on top of the leaf.

When I was in spirit form, I could not touch the magical vehicle that was made from leaf. Now that I have laid my hand on one, I was pumping with adrenaline. The leaf floated upwards carrying the weight of six person. I stood at the tip of the leaf, balancing them like I was riding a skating board. There is no remote control or any guide to ride this thing. But it reacted to me on stand-by when I was ready to go.

Hunching over the five humans behind me, the young female knight with beautiful green hair flipped her leg over on top of Eten’s face. Eten, who was sleeping soundly, tilted his head over the smelly shoe smearing the dirt on his lip in return. I chuckled at this action wondering how a graceful woman like Lady Eloiya has a playful sleeping manner.

I thought about going back to Ghamp Village. As if hearing my thought, the leaf began to hover towards the direction of the village. My legs crossed over one another sitting at the front of the leaf. The whole scenario reminded me of Aladdin riding his red carpet.

I turned to give my goodbye to the corcorn who was wagging its tail. It was a little saddening to leave him behind. But I finished what I came down to do.

The whole ride was silent. I enjoyed the feeling of the gentle breeze brushing pass my face.

When we arrived at the gate of the village, a few of their attention gathered on the red leaf. They were familiar with the red leaf coming to their village just this morning. So when I carried down the knights, I could feel everyone have a surprised look on their faces. Whispers and gasps entered my ears.

“Hey, isn’t that Lord Sainde? Why is that guy carrying him?”

“Look, they’re hurt.”

“Someone call the head villager!”

The head villager, Bern, came rushing to the gate when he heard his unconscious friend was brought in by an unknown young man. The young man had sharp single eyelid with dark brown iris color. Skin that was so white and smooth only rich noble who had no place for hard labor can achieve. Clearly, he was not a local from Roh. Furthermore, his messy hair seems to not have been taken care of for ages.

The head villager approached to me and asked, “Young man, can you tell us what happened to the knight?”

There was no malicious intent in the old man’s voice. Only a friend’s concern. As I was about to answer, words stuck in my throat. I panicked for a second. before realizing I could not pronounce their language.

“Dem..me…” My fingers pointing toward myself and the unconscious knights back and forth.

I have been able to understand what the inhabitants of Arcturus were talking about ever since I was reborn as the heart. It was so natural to me that I did not question it. It did not occur to me my tongue was not accustomed to the way they talked.

“Dem, meat, corcon. I saved dem. You no…corcon?” I struggled to explain myself but my tongue twisted the way I did not want it to. The pronunciation of the words came off terribly wrong. Sweat began forming on my forehead.

In front of me, many of the villagers shot me confused eyes.

Bern laughed at my failed attempt despite all of effort to get it right. He smiled at me, waving with a kind gesture.

“Young man, clearly you are not one of our people. But I can understand that you must have saved them since you brought them all the way here.” Bern said, “The doctor will have a look at them in a short while. I will not question you any more than this before they wake up.”

The knights were carried away into the head villager’s hut. Bern followed the knights to see them to the doctor. As I was pulled away by the guards, the crowd dispersed. The guards check what I have brought with me and found nothing on me.

No one paid me extra attention while I looked around the familiar street. I stumbled upon the restaurant that was serving gourmet plates before I was distracted by the battle outside earlier.

Food... I swallowed down a huge gulp of saliva. Time to fill up this big boy.

“Chev, bowl! Spicay red ol.” I raise my bowl in the air, shouting for another bowl. It’s so damn delicious. How on hell did they make such good food!

“You sure can eat a lot, mister.” The waiter laughed, “I haven’t seen anyone eating with this much excitement as you are before. Here you go, another bowl of spicy red roll.”

Another bowl of heaven was placed on my table. It has been a long time I get to chomp down this much food. Plus, the taste is out of this world!

Steam rising off the red sauced plate, I held back the urge to wolf everything down in one go. My teeth sunk into the chili crust, smudging my mouth in red, I chew and shallow rapidly before going for another spoonful of spicy red roll. Even the red sauce that were sticking on my fingers were begging to be licked.

In a swift motion, my bowl got threw aside.

The floor, that was clean of dirt, was now stained by the heavy color of red sauce. Splattered on the ground, my perfect roll was squashed flat by a stomp of heavy boot. My head was spinning from what had just happened.

Bam! The table in front of me jumped from the force of the slam. I looked up to see a vulgar looking man glaring back at me. Abs popped from his two arms, hovering on my face as he brought it down to my eyes. He wrapped his hands into a fist, a sign of threat.

“Hey, black seaweed boy, I don’t know what you did to Lord Sainde. But don’t think I will let you go for what you have done to Lady Eloiya.”

The man continued to spew non-sense. Staring at where my bowl had just been, I could feel my jaw tightened. The taste formed in my mouth was ugly.

“Why are you not answering back? You scared, pussy?”

The other customers sat aside as if they were watching a good drama. Some were cheering for the man who was insulting me.

“Blogge, calm down.” The waiter spoke up when I continued staring at the wasted food. “Can’t you bring this outside? Don’t do this in here.”

“Yeah, Blogge, bring us a good show outside.” The others cheered.

“You hear that, seaweed? They all want us to fight. You can’t pussy out now if you’re a man!”

The big man grabbed on my collar and brought his face up close. His bad breath brought me back to where I was.

I whispered, “Spicay red ol.”

“What are you talking about, boy? Speak louder!”

The waiter interjected, “I think he meant spicy red roll.”

There was a moment of silence before laughter erupted in the restaurant.

The man at the other end shouted, “He’s mocking you, Blogge.”

The man, who was called Blogge, glared at the other man before he gave his attention back at me.

“You want to eat spicy red roll, is that it?”

When I heard the name of the food, my ears perked up. It was clearly a yes. My reaction is enough of an answer to him. His face has already begun to turn bright red.

“Fine then, come outside and fight me.” Blogge challenged. “If you win me, 10 bowls…no, I will give you 20 bowls of spicy red rolls!”

I understood that he is giving me food, and that’s all I cared to be honest. I nodded at him and followed him out from the restaurant like a puppy after getting scolded by his mom.

As I stepped outside the door, I was greeted by a crowd circling around the restaurant. A few men pointing at me, lip snickered. Apparently, news travelled faster than social media here. I turned face to face to Blogge who carried no weapon at his side. He is expecting a magic battle without confirming whether I could use magic.

“I wouldn’t look down on my opponent if I was you.” I said at the back of my mind.

I tried to experiment my own ability a little before the fight start out. Sure enough, I was still able to control mana at will. This could surely be an advantage for me to try out the extend I can use my power with this body.

“Already fired up, eh? Then be prepared.”

“Come at me when you’re ready.” I returned with confidence.

Blogge launched a strengthen magic on his fist, rotating to the side. He threw himself at me.

Comparing to the corcorn I saw earlier, his speed was very slow to me. I concentrated a ball of mana on the tip of my finger. It was ready to fire at close-up. Time seemed to slow down as he came closer to me. I thrust forward my finger with the concentrated mana at the tip, breaking through his defense, my opponent took full damage from the attack.

Before his fist could scratch me, the blast from my finger blew him away. The impact scattered the wooden fence where he had landed on. There was a moment of silence when everyone was processing what they just saw.

I look from my hand to Blogge. Wave of pain and tiredness assaulted my body. My vision blurred, breathing ragged. I hold my head with a hand, my leg couldn’t find itself for a moment as I hold myself from falling over.

“It hurts,” Thousands of spikes invading my body. Blood spurted from my mouth and rained down to my shirt. Seemingly taking more damage than the man who just got blown away.

The people watched the miraculous battle that was a one-sided victory, shocked by the power between them. They got confused when they saw the young man started spewing blood.

One of the spectators exclaimed. “He doesn’t look so good to me.”

No shit, Sherlock. I cursed inward. Feeling light-headed, I started to regret conjuring too much mana when my body can’t handle it.

I was about to faint over when a petite arm wrapped itself around me supporting my fall. I looked up to see a wave of beautiful green hair. The sharp features of the young woman carved itself into my memory. Her hair looked like a green garden, lushes of fresh leaves blooming under the sun.

“What the hell is going on here, Blogge?” She shouted angrily, instantly breaking the image of a beautiful garden. “While I was unconscious, you had a fight and injured him? Is that what you should be doing?”

Seeing the arrival of their Lady Eloiya, Blogge got on his feet despite the injuries that were causing him pain.

“Lady Eloiya, I didn’t know he saved you. I swear I didn’t mean to.” Blogge tried to explain himself. “He agreed to a match with me. I swear I didn’t harm him a hair!”

“If you did not harm him, then why is he on the brink of dying?”

“I-I don’t know! But I swear it wasn’t me!”

“Are you telling me a man half your size injured you like that?”

Their talking is hurting my ears. My pride is also hurt. Defended by a beauty makes me seemed weak. I coughed out loud to stop them from talking to each other. In return, I have their attention on me. Eloiya threw me a concerned glance seeing my body full of injuries.

She asked, “Young man, could you tell me who did this to you?”

Taking a moment to breathe in, I repeat the words over and over in my mind to get the pronunciation right. It only took a brief second before Blogge turned ashen white.

“He. did. it.” My finger pointing at him. I smirked through my bloodied mouth.

That’s what you get for spoiling a good food, brother.

“Gold can too be dust.”

Chapter 5 – Befriending the archer