10 Walking On

After an eternity of feasting like a glutton on the breakfast, Elizabeth finally finished it and got to her feet , she puffed her cheeks and clapped her hands as they had some crumbs on them.

"Oof" she remarked looking at Kellogg lying on the floor.

"You look like a corpse"

"Just shut up", he spoke softly as he got up. A growl escaped his stomach.

"I'm hungry"

"Hi hungry, I'm Elizabeth."

The cringe he felt at that moment was beyond human comprehension.

***

After finally filling his stomach, both of them started walking west.

The forest was slowly coming back to life after the cold night. The dew on the leaves and grass sparkled as they started to evaporate. The air was cool enough to show their breaths.

"Hey, can I ask you something" she said, as they walked past a bunch of bushes.

"Sure"

"Are you dead?"

These words struck a cord in his mind. All the stuff that happened over the past day felt more like a dream than reality. Was he in a coma? People using magic? Revisiting his destroyed home? It felt more like a dream to him than reality.

"Hey! You didn't answer my question."

He stopped phasing out.

"What made you think that I'm dead?"

"There isn't any mana circulating through your body. In fact, I don't see any traces of mana in your body."

All living beings in Inis have mana in them. Even the weakest and insignifcant ant insect would have some amount of mana in them, making them much more stronger than the same kind of creature that lives in a place without mana. Even the undead are revived by injecting mana, but only living creatures have mana flowing in them. If mana ceases to reside in something then, it is considered to be dead.

But the reason why Kellogg didn't have mana was that he was born and lived outside of Inis.

"Interesting." he murmured to himself

"What?"

He raises his left hand and cuts a long deep wound on his palm with his dagger.

Blood pours out, but withing a few seconds, the wound is clogged and a red scab appears. In a minute after cutting, the scab falls out revealing nothing but undamaged skin.

"Can a dead man bleed?"

"All of that for a drop of blood?"

"Are blind? There was more than a drop of blood that came out of.."

Yes, he couldn't handle sarcasm.

"Alright, I trust you. But what if you run into someone who doesn't believe you?"

If the truth about him were exposed, it could be serious trouble. He could be hunted down due the very reason that he looks like a living creature that does not have mana.

"Can normal people see that I don't have mana?"

He wanted to know weather this ability to see mana was widespread or limited to a few people.

"Of course not! It takes someone with skill, like me!" she boasted

"Is that so? Then I'm glad that I wouldn't have to bother you for help"

"B-But there could be a possibility that you could run into someone who could."

'It isn't impossible', He thought. The chances of running into someone who could see mana isn't zero and he was not sure if he could survive that encounter.

After a minute of thinking he got an idea. He turned around and started to take off his clothes.