We continued along the road for another day or so, then we stopped by a village that was on the way. There weren't enough inns to house everyone, but there was enough space inside the walls to set up camp, so that's what so of our caravan did.
Not my party though. The big rchants had reserved the best inns before we even ca here, but Granuel knew of an out-of-the-way inn which we imdiately booked.
The building was clearly not as expensive as others, but I could tell that it was well-maintained. It was run by two centaur n who told good stories and made even better ale. They were unashad to talk about how one of them was descended from a human, so his sister actually owned the place on paper, a situation very similar to Granuel and Therick's. The two centaurs moved here after they got married because they wanted a slower and quieter lifestyle.
Apparently, people were a lot more active in the plains, not just because of its massive agricultural projects and the need for deliveries across the continent, but also because people felt safer there.
"They feel safer? Really?" I asked. "I an, maybe there are less monsters in terms of population, but it's not like you don't have your level 40 predators right? Hell, I think you have more natural level 40s from I've read."
"We do," Robb confird. He was a bulky centaur man with pale skin and pitch-black hair and fur. "I never said it was less dangerous. Just that people were less scared."
"You're probably used to it," Jark added. He was Robb's husband, and he looked like a very average centaur. "But the imposing trees of the forest, the songs of creatures just out of sight. That's scary. People prefer to stick in larger groups here from what I've seen. Not that I go out much nowadays."
"Damn, so it's already working on you!" I laughed, and ordered more ale. Jark went to get so with an amused smile. The rooms here were full because of our caravan, but there weren't too many people here in the lobby because most were fast asleep by now. We were still up, unfortunately, because we had a lot of preparations to make for tomorrow. It was admittedly Granuel who did most of the work.
"That doesn't make sense," Granuel complained. "I've done so research, and I believe the plains are actually a little bit more dangerous."
"It's not logical," I gave my friend so sage wisdom. My contacts almost glimred with the real terrifying eyes within. "Fear is not logical."
~~~
"Hey!" It was the next day, and everyone was preparing to depart. I cringed at the speech I was about to give–everyone else had already moved on and I just wanted to do the sa–but it would bother forever if I just ran away from this problem. "Sorry about yesterday. I uh, didn't realize I brought sothing contagious to camp. So, just in case, I wanted to give everyone here a heal to make sure no one's gonna get sick because of that."
People began murmuring. So rchants rolled their eyes at the disruption. The adventurers were a mixed bag, and there were accusations thrown at about making a show and a scene out of this. That was obviously projection coming from them of all people, and I hardly even felt any surge of anger from those comnts because of how pathetic they were. The other common passengers and civilians were predominantly in favor and understanding, even if many did think I was dumb for making the mistake in the first place.
I took it in stride, and I did not freak out.
Those who agreed to get healed clustered together, and Moonwash began to draw the ritual using ingredients we spent the entirety of last night trying to procure from the locals, along with so that we foraged for in the night or had brought with us to begin with.
So of the village denizens had also gathered around the park to watch what was happening, and Therick asked around to make sure that there was no one missing from our caravan who might not get the opportunity for a heal. The caravan would eventually bleed out passengers and take in new ones, but not in so random small village this close from whence we care from.
"Cure Disease."
My girlfriend spoke the words, grass grew and flowers blossod, and the people inside the circles and illustration drew sighs of relief and contentnt.
That was it. I made things right. A few people ca up to thank , and I just gave them so curt words and nods.
"Not bad," Anny the healer said, standing beside and watching everyone else pack up. "I didn't think you the type."
"I don't either. I'm not."
I did not elaborate.
~~~
The caravan rolled out of the village but then was forced to stop just a few minutes out because we encountered a downhill patch of road, followed by an uphill climb shortly thereafter. The downhill was hard, and Moonwash observed carefully how the wagons handled it. She infodumped about the winches and brakes to as she edited her designs.
Uphill was even harder. The centaur wagoners strained as they pulled the large vehicles along, and my girlfriend noted how the brakes were used to help them, but then a harness suddenly broke. The wagon rolled down the hill, the two centaurs at the lead were dragged across the ground, and people yelled as their transport crashed and broke against a tree.
“What the hell!?” A large rchant climbed out of the wagon, then began berating the injured centaurs for breaking the wagon and injuring everyone.
“Enough of this,” the deacon rchant ca down from uphill, as the other wagons had successfully parked there. “You are both exiled. Aron, I’ll see about helping you recoup the damages, but we cannot be held up by the likes of them. Understood?”
“...Okay. As you wish.”
“W-what?” one of the bleeding centaurs said in horror.
“No, please!”
The woman’s guards pushed them away when they tried to beg, further worsening their wounds. They were exiled just like that, and they limped away in a defeated daze.
Another pair of centaurs took their place, and then a woman of the sa species was sent off to deliver the news of the people who had just been exiled. Those injured from the incidents were healed if they could afford it, and workers buzzed around the damaged wagon to repair it. At least no one had died in this ordeal, but people were already complaining about the hold up.
“Can they even just exile people like that?” I asked. Moonwash made a privacy barrier around us that actually kept her out because she watching the repair process of the broken wagon and harness. “They’re just so rchants right?”
“The decision is with so other officials, I believe,” Therick said, “but it’s most likely going to go through.”
“Being abandoned here is like a half-exile already,” Berry added. “It’s very hard to enter towns and even villages without any sort of identification, which I doubt they have. News of two exiled centaurs would just make them be treated as bandits on sight.”
“...Excuse what?” I looked at her incredulously. “Why would they be treated like bandits? How!?”
“I don’t understand either,” Granuel said. “I get that they’re likely to beco bandits, but… they’re not necessarily going to steal from random travelers, right? Or live with those sorts of people…”
“Oh…” Berry sighed. “It’s not that simple. Effectively, and even officially, they will be classified as bandits. I know because I have gone on missions t-to…” she hyperventilated, but eventually got her breathing back under control, “to exterminate them.” She made one long scream, before continuing. “I-it isn’t whether or not you pillage and rape that determines if you’re a bandit. If you look like a bandit, if they think you’re a bandit, then you are a bandit.”
“Oh.” The both of us fell silent at that. I patted my friends back as the privacy bubble ca down, and people were complaining even harder as the repairn and won were taking a bit of a while to fix the broken vehicle.
The two exiles did not co up in conversation once. They were long forgotten.
~~~
“This is great.” I practically inhaled the noodles, savoring the taste of my al. It was a beautiful night, spent under the starry sky. Granuel knew just which herbs were best and fresh, anwhile Moonwash was able to make pasta in record ti.
“Thank you,” my girlfriend said, her voice still bland but sohow full of love. “I’m glad you like it.”
I smiled back at her, but the mont was unfortunately interrupted, and I very nearly killed soone.
“Hey, Haell right? Haell Zharignan?”
A human man suddenly sat across from along the campfire. He was dressed in the scales of a creature that was far above his own level. I narrowed my eyes at him and settled for a curt, “Yes.”
“Excellent! I’ve been hearing about you, and I saw what you did with giving those who were born less fortunate charity! Your friend even did an entire ritual!” His voice bood and flowed like silk, causing many of the nearby onlookers to turn our way. “I must say, it’s very becoming for the heir of Golex the Hero to be like this! I would love to get to know you better, if you Harvesters would be willing to join my Antiraiders in a quest or two? Or we might instead just go for a drink if that’s what you prefer!”
He winked. He actually winked at . He had a very punchable face.
“No. Not interested.”
He clicked his tongue.
“There is no need to be this rude and unfriendly. Why are you even still wearing your helm while you’re eating? It’s quite rude, and the grandchild of a hero mustn’t be so shy–”
His words were cut off when I slapped his hand away. My face had settled into a furious grimace, and I realized just then how much force I had actually put into that. My hand stung from the telltale aftereffects of using wrath magic, but his was bent at an awkward angle.
But this insolent fool was about to grab my fucking horns. No one did that. Not unless I fucking allowed them to. And I certainly did not rember giving him permission. That was justification enough to kill him. I could even slaughter everyone else here. They were all part of the problem. If all these hateful creatures just disappeared, then I would have to hide no longer. And then they can finally see my face in death! Just like they fucking wanted!
“Y-you dare!?” he squeaked. He didn’t know how close I was to killing him right here and now. “My grandfather is a shepherd, you know? I’m a knight! You're nothing!”
His grating voice pushed closer to the ledge of violence, but I didn’t act on that desire just yet. “Don’t fucking touch .”
He flinched, as if struck for a second ti. “You ungrateful bitch…”
The tension got worse, everyone could feel it. His party mbers moved behind him, ready to back up their leader, if very visibly shaking and scared. I too quivered in hatred, and the excitent gnawed at my bones.
Bring on the fucking bloodshed.
“Hey! What’s going there!?” A richly dressed man–one of the head organizers here–walked over to our group with his three guards in tow, two of them higher level than . It would not be enough to stop from murdering them all.
Therick quickly stepped up to explain before things could escalate that far.
“It’s a sort of… conflict. They tried to grab my companion’s… head, so she swatted his arm away.”
“Lies!” the man in shining armor shouted, wincing visibly from the pain of his broken right arm. “She attacked without provocation! You don’t just break soone’s arm from a swat! Everyone here can attest to that!”
His party agreed, but almost everyone else looked away, clearly not wanting to get involved.
“Maybe you’re just weak,” I couldn’t help but taunt. I knew it was unproductive and would just make the situation worse, but I was fucking mad, and it was the least I could do to insult the opposition.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY!?”
I looked him straight in the eye. “I said that you’re fucking weak.”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” He screeched like a dying pig, before drawing his sword with his one good hand. I drew my own, the mana within roiling at the inevitability of the coming fight. But then the rchant’s shout ground us to a halt. Again. I really could not get to fight tonight!
“ENOUGH!” He watched as all movent ceased for a second with barely concealed satisfaction, as if his words could actually control when I could kill him so easily. He looked at the two parties in conflict with each other, his gaze lingering on with a calculating glint. “Stand down. We will deliberate.”
I tensed, wondering if my secret had been exposed. I had shown a very small part of my true strength earlier, when that pathetic freak tried to touch my horns.
The rchant didn’t say anything about that, however, nor did we have a quick and bloody battle. What we did instead was a long and boring investigation, wherein the rchant and so of his aides asked the other witnesses to piece together what had happened.
“Mr. Areth here had certainly overstepped his bounds and made a fellow escort of this caravan extrely uncomfortable,” he eventually concluded.
“What!?”
“Silence!” He glared at the jackass who interrupted him. “However, I believe that Haell’s reaction here was a little bit overblown and violent. Hence, she will be asked to pay for his healing, or otherwise provide it herself.”
I stared, in part in shock, and another part in dissatisfaction. The rchant’s expression turned into a deeper frown the longer I stared at both him and the other party. I didn’t wish to give this horn-grabbing bastard anything. I wanted nothing more than to fucking kill him.
But, I knew what troubles that would bring. So, I reluctantly accepted the offer.
“Fine.” I growled. “I’ll pay for it.”
Just as I’d declared, I went to go find Anny, inford her of what had happened, then left back to my camp. The person who’d started all this glared at the entire way, but he got his healing, then finally walked away from us and this entire fucking ss.
“I hope there is no bad blood left here, Haell Zharignan. The cost of the healing was surely trivial to one such as you,” the rchant whispered to when we passed each other by. “I’m Ven Diagro, of the Diagro Company. I hope we can work together again soday.”
Huh. For all my anger, did I actually get off easier than I otherwise would have in that ordeal? Well, easier being a relative term. I would just have to kill a bunch of people if it ca to it. The only problem was how that may affect and bleed over to my party.
“...Sure.”
~~~
The days marched on, and so did we. Even the vast and beautiful natural scenery around us began to blend together, yet I still loved to be in nature like this. It would be even better if most of the people here other than my party were just gone.
I remained vigilant even when most of the adventurers had abandoned their attempts at emulating true readiness. But I hardly saw any action because the few monsters that dared to attack us were swiftly taken care of by the sheer power of numbers. The only tis I got to fight was when I hunted for our als. It helped that I shared my kills sotis, so most of them had gotten used to by now. They appreciated getting to eat sothing better than dried rations.
"Why don't you guys just do the sa thing?" I had asked them at so point. They did hunt sotis, but they mostly looked for easy and small ga. "Your prey is right there. Just get soone good at tracking, soone who can fight, and there you go. You can have fresh lunch anywhere.”
I got a range of responses from the adventurers, from those who were offended, to those who gave a chance and just took my question at face value.
"Not everyone is as insane as you!"
"It's way too risky."
"Even a small party might lose soone."
Those were reasons that I... did understand. My eyes flitted over to Berry and the rest of my friends, and I understood that most of them did not share my sa drive to be the strongest thing in existence. But this realization still made feel confused and perplexed.
Here was a fantastical world, where power was within reach. How could anyone settle for the mundane and the diocre when they had unlimited potential at their fingertips? They could be free, they could be immortal, the powers they might get were amazing and fun by themselves!
But I didn't begrudge them their choices. I knew what I wanted, and it was fine that other people desired different things. Even now, during this entire journey, I did not slack off. I used what little combat I saw to further train using my mory core. I spent the long marches parsing through the mories of my countless battles and trying to spot the countless flaws with my approach. I planned with Moonwash, coming up with new potential use-cases for my magic, discussing what materials may be good to obtain, and working on the design of my new greatsword to co.
I was just in a private conversation with Therick about swordsmanship when Angerly suddenly stuck her head into our bubble and yelled right next to our faces, “BARKBARKS!”
The sound barrier went down, then I heard Granuel’s voice appraising us of the situation.
"Over there! From straight ahead!"
I looked at his finger, then the road ahead of us. Soon enough, I saw dust and disturbances coming from far away, followed by the soft sound of a thousand tiny feet that was quickly growing louder. The white grasshopper-dog hybrids finally ca into view, and I roared out a warcry that made way too many adventurers pause for a second as I ran ahead to the frontlines.
If that much makes you hesitate, then what the fuck are you here for!?
I was hardly able to hold back the retort as I felt the tsunami of hatred that begged to curse and berate them, do even worse. But that was dumb, it would make unnecessary enemies, and I didn't actually want to do that even if they were a bunch of pathetic cowards.
I reached the front of the wagons, and there I stared at the approaching mass of sharp teeth and large maws.
I felt that they were weak.
Individually, they were nothing to , and they would fall so easily if I just unleashed all of my pent-up rage. They would freeze under the glare of my eyes, and they would stagger upon the weight of my aura. So would die without ever doing anything.
But I could not show those abilities here, so I crushed the first wave that reach to pieces with one swift slash using my sickeningly normal greatsword.
That was only the beginning. I kept up the assault, killing dozens of them with each strike, but many more began to make it past my guard. I stepped back, Therick helped pick off the ones that had clung to my body, and I used a regular old fire wand to burn them all.
The result was clearly not as great as the magic I inherently possessed, but it was still enough to throw my enemies into disarray. The chaos only spread the flas further, and they began to die in great numbers as the other adventurers finally got their act together and fought.
Ogres and centaurs took to the front. Kobolds breathed fire that slaughtered many of them at once. Humans and others darted in between the lee and killed the monsters. Others yet stuck from afar, with arrows and spells of varying kinds.
And then an ogre woman was overwheld by way too many barkbarks and had to be pulled back. A man of the sa species suffered the fate, but could not be saved on ti because he got separated from his own party. A human rogue had an arm ripped off by the sheer mass of them, and a human mage had strayed too far towards the frontlines and had her face bitten off. Screams started to co from the wagons, as the civilians found themselves under attack by the barkbarks that had snuck in between the gaps of our formation, or had circled around through the trees.
Large masses of soil then started to land in front of , covering the road and burying so of the monsters, though many of them managed to dig themselves out. That was not the purpose of this, however, for my friends soon joined on the frontlines. It was Granuel and Moonwash that had shot those clumps of dirt, and they now used it to grow thorny grasping plants that stemd the flow of enemies. Berry and Angerly soon arrived at our side too, and the Harvesters had finally assembled as one once more. The barkbarks had no chance, and we slaughtered them with impunity.
“NO!!”
“RUN!”
“It’s a dodoom!”
“AAAAHHHH!!”
Cries of fright and pain suddenly ca from behind us, just as the barkbarks were finally starting to scatter and flee. I glanced briefly at my party, and Granuel shouted, “GO!”
I gave one curt nod, turned around, then charged for the bird/T-rex monster. I used as much wrath magic on my legs as I was willing, speeding up a hair beyond what any human my level should be capable of if they were to use their adrenaline gland.
A centaur man had already been killed by the dodoom, his guts spilling on the road. Anny the healer was staring down its beak, and I could possibly make it if I ran at my true full speed…………… but she was not worth risk. I did use my eyes to try and stall the monster a little, but it barely paused with my contacts in the way, and Anny's head was entirely bitten off before I could make it there. A human man was crawling away and was about to be killed in the sa when I finally arrived and t the monster's beak with my greatsword.
"AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!"
My shout resounded as I let out the rage for having to make the choice I just did. The dodoom looked back at with disdain as blood poured down its face, but I dashed past its bite and slashed at its thigh. The monster tried to turn around and face , but it stumbled on its injured leg as I circled around it.
I observed my prey’s movent, dodged a swipe from its wing claws, then attacked its other leg, thereby robbing the monster of most of its mobility. The rest of the fight was not hard, I did not make a single mistake as I systematically tore apart the enemy, until finally it died to a vastly restrained version of myself.
“Weak,” I muttered as the crowd that had ford by the end watched with bated breath.
More of their people would have survived today, had I only been free and unburdened. It was this oppression, as much as it was my choice, that killed a promising healer today.
What a waste.
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