Chapter 72 - Came in like a wrecking ball

While walking through the market of the village, that wasn't very advanced. The houses were mostly built out of ice, but some were made out of wood and stood out. Most traded indoors as the temperature outside could ruin the goods.

Marc looked around curiously, and then he got his eyes on a woman dragging a man he saw yesterday. It was one of the captured people that was brought by Nakoto. He couldn't remember seeing the woman before, but she was the one dragging him back to the village in chains. Although the man wasn't in chains anymore, he was being dragged by the hand. His complexion didn't look good and was walking very tiredly like a zombie. The poor man had to work really hard the previous night to satisfy his new wife.

After giving a silent prayer to the man, Marc looked at Najah, who was looking in another direction with a frown.

Two kids were fighting over a girl with wooden swords. A good-looking kid with dark blue hair, and a black-haired kid that looked like he was dropped when he was born. The oddity about the ugly kid was his big double ball-sized chin.

They exchanged a few strikes before it was obvious who had the advantage. The good-looking kid soon lost and was beaten mercilessly on the ground. Obviously, this wasn't just a kid's fight.

Looking at this scene, Najah's heroic heart couldn't ignore it any longer when the beaten kid was bleeding out of his head, and blemishing the white snow with red droplets.

"STOP! He has already lost. Why are you still beating him?" Najah quickly stepped in and stopped the wooden sword from hitting the bleeding kid anymore. Though when she asked that, they looked at her weirdly— even the bleeding kid.

It was the girl that was watching the two boys fighting for her that answered Najah's question. "They are fighting for dominance. I won't have a weak pursuer, so don't butt in on my selection. Go away, outsider!" The girl knew Najah was an outsider as she didn't carry a sword with her. The natives here are dreaming of mastering the sword and always carry swords around. The talented children were given wooden swords as soon as they showed the talent.

Najah was taken back by their response. Mostly the kid that she was trying to save. He was looking at her with hostility while saying "I don't need your help! I will take whatever I want with my own strength." He said before he left humping away. The ball-chined kid walked away with the girl and left Najah there not knowing what happened. The children only looked to be around 12 years old and already had such megalomaniac ideals.

Marc placed his hand on her shoulder and asked "Are you okay?" to pull her out of her stunned state.

"Why do they pursue power so much? What about love? Doesn't that have any value here? I don't understand this village. They use their power to take and do whatever they want. Doesn't everybody want peace?" Mumbled Najah with a low voice.

Marc lifted his arms behind his head and just answered her questions with other questions nonchalantly. "Why pursue love if you aren't strong enough to keep it? Strength is mostly gained from conflicts, so peace is a nuisance. Why pursue peace if you want to get stronger? Swords get rusty if they aren't used. 90% of the human population can't use magic and they are defenseless if they meet a decently strong Magic Beast. Have you ever asked yourself how many of those people are frustrated that they can't give birth to children that can protect themselves in this dangerous world? I kinda understand why people in this village want strong children, though I don't agree with their forceful ways. Nonetheless, power means everything in this world— everything can come after."

"But-but, are you fine with how this village is?" Najah was wondering how he knew how many mages there were in the world, but she wasn't content with his questions so she ignored the fact.

"Instead of thinking something is wrong with this village's culture and traditions, I think it's the world that's unfair by only giving a few rights to learn magic. On the other hand, if everything was fair, then the people who had worked hard to achieve something, might get their achievement robbed. " Corrected Marc

"So what's the right answer? I want to help people be happy and smile." Asked Najah confused.

Marc flapped his arms a little and said without looking at Najah as he was still looking around. "Dunno. But I want more people to enjoy fairness, but only a few that can appreciate it and make the world more exciting. I'm not a saint and I don't really care about something as grand as world peace. I just want to experience the thrill of the world. But a point of advice. It's stupid to try to force your ideals on someone that doesn't share your outlook. That's why you shouldn't take my words too seriously as they are just my own thoughts and principles. Nothing more, nothing less."

Najah was continually getting more agitated the more she listened. She couldn't understand how he didn't care about world peace. She was questioning herself if her goal was too idealistic. While she was thinking, Marc heard two passersby talk about an outdoor ice bath.

Passerby One. "Have you tried the new outdoor ice bath yet?"

Passerby Two. "No. Have you?"

Passerby One. "Yes, it was fantastic. A totally different experience than bathing at home. It really relaxes your muscles after training."

Passerby Two. "Really? Then I think I will try it later."

Hearing their conversation, Marc stopped his tracks and called out to the two guys that were talking. "Wait a minute. I couldn't help hearing your conversation. The outdoor bath you are talking about, can you tell me its location?"

The two guys looked at each other for a second, before the one that had already tried it, pointed Marc in the right direction.

Getting the directions, Marc was very lively and yelled without looking back. "Let's go, Najah!! To the outdoor ice bath."

Although Najah heard what Marc said, she was too deep into her thinking to react immediately. When she realized that Marc called out to her, he was already gone. "Huh? Where did he go? He said something about an outdoor ice bath." Then she asked another passerby for directions to the ice bath to find Marc.

…

Marc was 'following' the directions he got from the two passersby, but his messed-up sense of direction let him astray without knowing.

"Ice bath~ ice bath~, ice bath~," said Marc continually while humming in between.

"We are almost there Najah. Najah?" When he heard no response, Marc finally realized that she wasn't following.

To that, he just shook his shoulders and mumbled "Whatever. I already told her where I'm going, so she will properly catch up. Ice bath~, ice bath~, ice bath~…"

"Finally here! It looks even grander than I thought." Exclaimed Marc while looking at the magnificent building that looked like a roman bathhouse made out of ice.

"Damn I'm the best. I might have fixed my dementia since I actually found this place without getting lost. Hope it's as good as it looks, though where do I enter? They should have placed a sign or something for easier entrance. I will tell the staff later… For now, I will just fly over the roof." Although it looked like a Roman bathhouse, the entrances were sealed by ice. He jumped and used his paws under his feet to repel the air before flying into the bath.

Inside was one big square bath that oozed coldness. The ground around the bath was carved with ice and wasn't slippery at all. The place was brightly lit as the ice reflected the light evenly around.

"There are no people here? Have they closed today or something? But now that I'm here, I'm not going home without trying it." Marc then took off all of his clothes— he didn't wear underwear as they crumbled when they swam in the cold ocean before arriving at the village— and jumped in like a cannonball while singing the song:

Wrecking Ball - Miley Cyrus ♫

Unknown to Marc, his decent voice and good song managed to make an unfamiliar mature lady stop in her tracks. She was just about to completely freeze the water and kill Marc for intruding into her private bath. The lady had long— and a little curly— light blue hair. She was only wearing thin clothing that only covered her chest and down. Her shoulders and part of her cleavage were left exposed to the cold. The oddest thing was that she was wearing dark gloves. Her expression was at first very cold, but Marc's song eased it a little.

(A/N: Reference is Lan Jiao from Peerless Martial God.)

***

(A/N: After some research, I can conclude that light-blue-haired female anime characters are actually pretty rare. I thought about using Rurumu from Magi: Adventure of Sinbad, but in the end, I chose Lan Jiao.)

(Words: 1559)