DAKU
"That was not a good idea, Daku," I told myself as I swiftly ran away from the person chasing me. No one could blame me. I never expected him to react like this. After all, I never meant anything of it.
But it was too late now. He couldn't be stopped unless I stopped him. He was so driven by the thought of what I had just said to him that reaching out to him seemed futile. He wouldn't listen no matter how many times I told him that I didn't mean any word I just said.
Fortunately, I was now able to use Support Magics. Without the Haste, I was pretty sure he would outrun me. Well, eventually, because among the two of us, I was the inexperienced one when it came to combat.
Escaping was one thing, but escaping from a skilled swordsman was a whole different story.
I turned my head behind me to see if he was still following me, but I couldn't see him. Did I really just outrun him?
"Going somewhere?" said a voice. The shock it gave me resulted in a loss of my footing. With Haste in effect, the momentum I gained threw me several meters away from where I lost my balance.
I winced as I felt multiple stings in different parts of my body. This triggered my healing magic, which instantly relieved me from the agonizing torture of my stupidity.
I was about to take my rest when I remembered what got me into this situation in the first place. I repositioned myself to face the man who wanted me dead. The way he gripped his sword and the way he glared at me were indicative of his murderous intent.
I feared him.
"That was just a joke, Kenshi!" I reasoned out, but just like earlier, my words couldn't seem to reach him.
Kenshi pointed his left hand at me, followed by the apparition of a brown magic circle. Several average-sized roots sprouted from my feet and wrapped themselves around my body, holding me immobile.
I struggled, hoping that they would lose their grip, but it was fruitless. But their thickness told me that they would easily break if I used a little bit of force.
Without hesitation, I covered my body with healing magic and forcefully broke myself through the grasp of the roots. My hunch was right about them being flimsy.
But it was too late. Kenshi's sword was on its way toward me. Dodging it didn't seem plausible as well. I had no choice but to receive the attack.
I used Endure to reinforce my body's defense, followed by the conjuration of a barrier. Something that I also learned from Thelah when she poured me with information back at Gieya Village.
Although I was quite surprised to actually conjure a barrier on my first try, a slap of reality hit me as well. Barriers only block magic-type offensives, not melee-type ones. Basically, what I just did is pure idiocy.
Knowing the possible outcome, I just closed my eyes as tightly as possible while waiting for the immeasurable suffering. But then I felt nothing. Curious, I opened my eyes and saw Kenshi wiping his sword clean with a cloth.
"And that's why you should not provoke your enemy if you're not prepared to face them," Kenshi lectured. He looked at me with his satisfied look after he scared me to death.
"You're evil, you know that!" I exclaimed. "I thought you were really going to kill me."
"I've received a lot of insults before, and it made me immune to such mockery. Plus, what you call an insult earlier is merely a tease."
"Nye nye," I teased. "Anyway, we should go back to the clearing now. It's almost lunchtime," I announced, and Kenshi agreed by leading the way back.
As we trudged through the woods, my eyes caught his sword. It's not a new one. He intentionally mended his broken sword and made it look like it was brand new. This stirred a question inside me.
"What's up with that sword?" I asked.
Kenshi looked at it and placed his hand on the sword's hilt. "It's my father's last gift to me."
"You're quite strange."
"Why so?"
"You treasured something that was given to you by a person who disowned you. Normally, people don't hold onto stuff that reminds them of that person who hurt them."
"I don't know either," Kenshi stopped walking and looked at the sky through the holes between the trees. "Something inside me is saying that I should keep the sword with me."
I watched Kenshi appreciate the sky, and for some reason, I felt a strange feeling inside me. It was a feeling of attraction. Like I was being drawn to him.
"Staring at me like that is kind of embarrassing," Kenshi suddenly said, breaking out of the trance. I diverted my eyes and acted as if I had never stared at him. "We should continue walking now. The two must've been waiting for us."
***
"You two prepared this?" I inquired as my eyes wandered through the foods laid out before me. The more I looked at the food, my hunger intensified.
"Kana mostly did the preparation. I just helped," Shiro replied bashfully. "Cooking is not my forte. I'm more on the manly side."
"Well, I wouldn't be able to make all of this if it wasn't for your help, Shiro," Kana praised, earning a blush from her friend.
It has been a week since we returned home. I have already told Grosi about what happened in the village and why Kana decided to join us. Upon knowing this, Grosi didn't hesitate to take Kana in. Grosi might sound and look grumpy and tough, but he had a soft spot for children like these two.
Actually, having Kana in the shop made things easier for Grosi. He could focus on concocting new batches of potions while the two entertained the customers.
Meanwhile, Kenshi and I were still on the search for the location of the remaining artifacts. We already went to the library but found nothing. If there were one place that we have yet to go to, that would be the restricted section of the library. But we didn't have access to that section since only Rank A and Rank S adventurers have the privilege to use it.
But we still have one more option.
"Do you have any leads on how to get to the black market? I asked Kenshi before taking a bite of the sandwich.
Kenshi nodded. "But going there is not easy. According to him, the market has tightened its security and is more strict about newcomers like us because of the incident before. A gate pass must be presented, and it can only be given by those who are inside."
"So you're saying that we have to find a merchant who does business in the black market and ask for a gate pass?"
"Isn't it taboo to engage in business in the black market? I heard that the punishment is death," Shiro suddenly butted in. How did he know about this?
"Shiro is right. This is why merchants feared to say the market's name."
"So finding one is difficult," I concluded. This was not going well.
"For others, yes. But for me, no," Kenshi declared. "I know someone who can give us the gate pass."
Thank the gods for giving me this kind of companion.
***
It was already sundown. Kenshi and I just finished our training for the day, and we were on our way back to the city.
A hue of orange and pink colored the sky, making it almost a painted canvas. The clouds in various shapes decorated it as well. Birds flew through it like bullets. I could watch this all day.
"Did you know that an orange sunset is good but not an orange sunrise?" Kenshi blurted out all of a sudden.
"I didn't. How can you say so?"
"An orange sunset means the night will be peaceful. No rain or storm. But it's the opposite for the orange sunrise."
"You're saying that if I see an orange sunrise, there's a storm brewing and it would rain on that day?"
"That's what I heard."
"And you believe them?"
"Nothing will be lost if you belie—"
Kenshi's sentence was interrupted when a child's voice called out to me. We just reached the road leading to the entrance of the city, and the voice sounded like it came from the gate.
I looked in its direction and saw Shiro sprinting toward us. He almost tripped, but he was able to regain his balance. From this distance, I could see the beads of sweat on his face, implying that he was running for a while.
"Something's wrong," said Kenshi, and when I looked at him, his brows were already furrowing, creasing his forehead.
I returned my gaze to Shiro, and fear suddenly enveloped my body when I saw Shiro's expression. It's a mixture of exhaustion and trauma. The latter suggested that something bad might have happened.
I knelt to match Shiro's height upon reaching us. His breathing was fast and heavy due to running, but his expression remained the same.
"Breathe. Breathe, Shiro, slowly."
Shiro followed my lead until his breathing returned to normal. But Shiro suddenly teared up, and now tears were falling through his face. He was crying.
"I'm sorry, Mister Daku," Shiro cried. "Kana was kidnapped because of me!"
As an instinct, I looked at Kenshi wearing both worry and anger.
I hugged Shiro and comforted him as his crying intensified. We didn't know what happened or why Shiro blamed himself, but I was sure we would know about it sometime. But first, we have to find Kana and punish those who abducted her.
***
"Can you describe the victim?" asked the clerk. We were in the guards' headquarters to report Kana's kidnapping.
I was about to respond when Shiro got ahead of me. "She's as tall as mine, sir. Her black hair is shoulder-length. She's wearing a plain-white dress and an apron. And she has a burn scar on her left upper back."
I never knew Shiro paid so much for such details. He must've really cared for Kana. It looked like it was a good move to bring Kana with us.
"What is your relationship with the victim?" the clerk asked again without even establishing eye contact with Shiro. She was just busy writing things down.
"We're not blood related, but we are both apprentices of Grosi's apothecary. She's like a younger sister to me."
"What happened before she got kidnapped?"
"Running errands is part of our training as apprentices. Kana and I were sent to obtain a package at the bakery near the barbershop. I've been there a lot of times and found the fastest way to get there. I showed Kana the shortcut, but ended up witnessing a kidnapping. I didn't get to see the boy's face because we were already being chased by one of the kidnappers. I ran nonstop until I got out of the alley. The next thing I knew, Kana was not behind me." Shiro's voice turned shaky. He was about to cry again. "I wanted to go back, but I was too scared. I should've held her hand or looked after her. I'm sorry."
Shiro began crying again, and so I consoled him with a hug.
I knelt before Shiro and looked him in the eye. "It's not your fault, okay? Actually, you did the right thing in getting yourself to safety because if not, we would never know about what happened."
"Once this report gets the approval of the Chief, an investigation and a search party will be formed. Incidents such as this have the most priority, but after a week, and the investigation is still fruitless, it will lose its urgency."
What a trash justice system. But that was how it was. This meant we had to do our own investigation as well.
Shiro and I finally left the building and were on our way back to the shop. Shiro was still devastated about what happened—his head was down. I felt sorry for him. He must be blaming himself right now.
"How was it?"
Kenshi walked near us with both of his hands in his pockets. He didn't join us in the headquarters because he went to where Shiro and Kana met the culprits. As I've said earlier, we have to do our own investigation. Relying on the guards widens the chance of us getting Kana back.
"The report still has to get approved before the investigation starts. How about you?"
"Looks like we will be going to the black market for two different reasons," Kenshi said, and he pulled something out of his right pocket. It was a gate pass—a used one because of the stamp that said, "APPROVED.".
Hang in there, Kana. We're coming.