Chapter 7 (Part 1)

When we got out of the city, my two mysterious, still hooded employers greeted us. But this time, I could clearly see their faces under their hoods. The bigger guy with the deep voice looked exactly like how I imagined him. He was tall, dark skinned, muscular, bald and wore a very stern expression like your average hoodlum. He also had this intimidating aura around him that made you feel like he was born a leader or a leader of a gang. But of course, although I could feel the aura he was exuding, it could not move me in the slightest. I’m pretty hard to impress.   

The smaller, silent one was actually a lady. She wore a faint smile that accentuated her emerald eyes. Her beautiful face was framed by locks of red hair that cascaded down her shoulders and peeped out of the hood. She looked elegant, composed and refined which are characteristics I admire and ahem, lack just a tiny bit. I maybe a bit rowdy and uncouth but I can be elegant, composed and basically employ that entire superficial lady-like acting if I wanted to. But that is simply not me. Nonetheless, I received a good impression from her. I hope we could get along well on the journey. The sad truth is, because of my previous vagabond life with Master, I don’t have many (or any, to be brutally honest) female friends but I have other friends.

“Who are these people?” Noirxus whispered, nudging me with an elbow. He eyed the two strangers with suspicion.

“I didn’t mention them when I told you to buy supplies?”

He shook his head.

“The thing is, I found this escorting job during the tournament and they are our employers. They just said they’d provide the horses but the food supply is ours. About the money… now that I think about it, I didn’t ask their reward at all! That is so unlike me!” I said hitting my forehead with an open palm. “But that doesn’t matter. You got our money right?”

Noirxus flashed a fat bag of coins. “You asked. Luckily you specifically asked for food, water and other survival stuff or I would’ve bought some horses too and wasted your money.”

I nodded with satisfaction. So he takes orders by the letter. I have to be more specific in the future then.  

“So you don’t know their names at all?” Noirxus continued.

I smiled sheepishly and shook my head.

 “You are too careless for your own good.”

“Well what’s done is done. You just need to ride my flow,” I grinned. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

“That’s what worries me,” he whispered half to himself. I simply ignored him.

The bigger one helped us, and by us I meant Noirxus, secure our belongings onto the horses. I would’ve loved to help (not really) if only my back didn’t feel quite sore. After they were done packing, the big guy helped the lady onto a horse and then mounted another horse by himself. He didn’t speak but simply looked at us with stern eyes as if saying, ‘do likewise’.

Noirxus got the message and mounted gracefully. I inhaled sharply, preparing myself to embrace the pain as I climbed on the last available brown steed. The pain came as expected but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I imagined a stabbing kind of pain but this was like having to put lemon juice on an open wound kind of pain.

Now the challenge is to put up with that constant kind of pain with every move the horse makes.

I breathed in deeply, gathering rion from the air and sunlight to replenish my own, as we galloped forward. The fight with that slayer left my rion reserves half full. I had to fight and maintain a spell at the same time plus having to give him a large portion of my rion.

I still can’t believe that I had to give him rion only to let him die…. What a total waste! Give me my rion back!

 “I believe we have yet to introduce ourselves,” Noirxus said out of the blue, making me lose the mental image I had of beating the soul of the dragon slayer like an usurer asking for payment in rion. We didn’t slow down, much to my disappointment, but because we were galloping behind them, our voices were being carried by the air in the opposite direction. Afraid we couldn’t hear each other, we conversed in higher volumes than normal on speeding horses. In other words, we yelled at each other.

“You can call me Captain D,” the guy with the low voice said. “And this is Lady Rascielle,” he pointed a hand to the pretty lady riding beside him. “Our goal is to bring her safely to the capital – Etherion City.”

Captain D? I wonder what that D stands for.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Captain D.” Noirxus replied or yelled back. I heard it both ways. “My name is Noirxus. I assume you know Chryisle?”

“We know you caused quite the ruckus in town a while ago. Both of you,” he replied.

Noirxus didn’t know how to reply to that so he kept silent.

But that sentence reminded me of my fight and the pain in my back as consequence. Why do I force to let myself suffer this pain anyway? It could either be because I forgot that I can heal myself or I was simply challenging the limit of my pain tolerance. I choose the latter. So even if my rion reserves drop some more, I’m going to cast a healing spell on myself!

With that in mind, I chanted a short simple spell that would dispel all wounds in my body. After I finished, my body felt good as new but my rion was….Damn that slayer! I cursed in my heart. If he was alive, I would have killed him again!

Wait I’m not the only one injured right? I looked at Noirxus’ shoulder. I couldn’t see quite well because his dark clothes are…well black. But I could definitely discern that there was a spot darker than the outfit. He was bleeding from the nick I gave him during the semifinals so I generously threw the same spell at him. That should do the trick.

Noirxus looked at me with wonder and slowed down a bit so he could let me catch up. As soon as I was beside him he said, “I didn’t know you were emotionally capable to perform acts of kindness.”

“That’s rude. I tried to heal the Dragon Slayer now did I?”

He paused. “Sorry. I misunderstood. I genuinely thought you were enjoying his suffering.”

I smiled. “I’m sorry I didn’t meet your expectations. Here, let me replace that nick on your shoulder I just healed with a bigger one, perhaps one big enough to cut your whole arm off!”

“Now, now; don’t get too excited,” he said speeding up and leaving me a few feet behind. “I meant the first statement as a half-compliment!”

What’s that supposed to mean?!