Chapter 2

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8 hours later behind the tavern

Where...? I cover my eyes. It's bright out again. Ow! My body! What happened? It feels like I slept on a bed of spikes. Ngh! Oh, that's right. Some weapon penetrated me. The heat from the sky helps. The thought of getting defeated by a small weapon irritates me and the annoying white substance surrounding me is not helping. I stand up, making the coat covering me fall off; revealing a body covered in dry blood, my blood. I'm full of wounds, holes even. I notice something under my foot, a plant, I pick it up and smell it. It sort of smells good, I eat a part of it. It tastes different than I thought, I eat the rest and carry on. I wear the coat on the ground and start walking.

I hear some loud crying. "How could this happen!" A man was screaming. I follow it. I see a man crying on the ground and there's a small crowd surrounding him. "How could one man do this?!" He cried out from the top of his lungs. So loud too, and I had just woken up. He takes notice and points at me. "That!" He yelled while trying to crawl to me. "That's the coat he was wearing!" He said accusingly. He points his weapon towards me, the same kind that put the holes in my body. "Where is he?! Answer me!" He cried, with his weapon shaking. The crowd around him also held their weapons, with the intent to kill. I freeze, overwhelmed by the situation. I remember now, I was about to kill that coat giving insect before my fire went out. Yes, I was about to kill him and thank him for everything. I grin, almost laughing. Everyone points their gun at me.

Fire spreads from below me engulfing everyone and everything in front of me, except for the crying one. Everything in front of me has turned black or screaming in pain. I guess a little extra heat from the sky was all I needed. I walk forward through the warm burnt ground. He falls back, fearing what I just did. I start my fire again on my hand, ready to burn. "Tell me, what do you know of the owner of this coat?"

After I burned and interrogated that crying mongrel, I found out that the coat giving insect was a very knowledgeable man, traveling the lands back and forth, knowing everything from everywhere; he definitely knows where the largest city to burn is. Two birds, one stone.

The crying moron told me that if the coat insect wasn't here, chances are he'd be somewhere near called Fox Town, the next area over. So, I began to walk in the direction he told me. But before I could go even remotely far, I was stopped by an animal-based vehicle. The animals dragging the cart resemble the hell horses I have in my home, minus the old creeps attached to it. "Howdy, ma'am. Are you by any chance going North as well?" The old man speaks sitting in front of the cart. "I am," I said in confidence. I believe I can use this old fool. "Is that so? Well, it'd be a shame if you'd be walking in all this snow all day. Why don't you ride in at the back and get comfortable with the rest? You can just signal me if you want to get off," he happily proposed. "If you are offering, then how could I refuse?" I get behind the vehicle. "Just hope you don't mind having company," he said as I am greeted by a row of men, sitting, all wearing the same uniform. I ignore them and get on.

The cart begins to move slowly. The vibration of the vehicle from the ground is making me sick. I begin to regret my decision, but I remember the benefit of not walking; I don't have to worry about direction. Maybe after I've reached my destination, I could kill the old man and take one of his horses. Who am I kidding? Of course, I'm going to kill the old man and take one of his horses. I smirked. "Sargent. How long till we reach Fox Town?" The old human right next to me asked. "I'd say a solid 40 minutes sir." The human with two circular glasses on his face replied. I am surprised to hear about Fox Town already but inflamed to hear how long it takes to get there. My fingers scratch the first surface it touches, in this case, it's the wood. A young-looking human in front of me takes notice.

"Are you headed there too?"

He asks. I look at him and reply, "Yes. I'm looking for someone." I said. "Do you know anyone going by the name The Messenger?" He seems to be processing the question, then his face lights up. "You mean Sir Sapphire?!" He screams. I think my head just experienced a small tremor. The man with some glass in front of his eyes smacks him at the back of the head. "Don't scream inside the wagon," he said. "Sorry," the yeller apologizes. "I've only met Sir Sapphire once, but he's a very kind merchant. He sells all kinds of goods from across the land. I even watched him take out a sword longer than the bag he pulled it from." The man who smacked him earlier leans in. "Why is this the first time I've heard of this?" The oldest looking human, which I suspect is their superior, speaks up. "Because we were setting up camp while some of you were looking for materials." "We never found enough in the end though," he pauses. "Wait, you mean The Messenger is where you got all that wood from?!" The older human doesn't hesitate to hit him on the head. "Yes," he said. "We bought wood from him enough to make the camp," he continued. "It was a unique experience to watch someone pull 30 meters worth of plywood from their bag." His face doesn't match what he is saying.

"I heard he was going to Unity," the younger one states. "Wouldn't stopping by Fox Town take him more time to get there? Are you sure he's going to through Fox Town?" He asks.

He's still talking about The Messenger, but my mind is stuck on Unity. The largest kingdom; he's headed there too. I smile. I have to thank these men when we reach Town. I'm already burning with excitement.

1 hour later

"Mmm! Mm! Mmmm!" What the hell is this?! Where's my fire?! Why can't I break free of these rags?! I try to wiggle out, but the two men carrying me are holding me stiff. "Jeez, where'd you get this crazy one?" Asked the human. "She was with us on the wagon," the glass wearing one replied with concern. "She started attacking us while yelling 'burn' and 'go to hell', we tied her with the equipment we had for setting up camp." I would have killed them if it wasn't for this curse! They drop me in a cell, like a lump of meat, and lock me in. "Mmmmmm! Mmmmmmm!!!" The human backs off. "She really is crazy," he says. "You two should get along then." He walks off along with his buddy. My mind lingers on what he said. You two? I look around with the little inches of movement I am capable of.

Then right before me was an insect. A coat giving insect.

What in the hell?

Why is this demon here?! Don't these people know what a demon looks like?! I run to the cell doors. "This is a demon! Are you people crazy?!" But no one humored me. "Mmm! Mm!" I jumped away. The tied demon managed to wiggle her way near my feet. I moved back, staying away from her. The way she moves is disturbing, at least her powers are nullified here. The Fox Engine's effect is multiplied because of the inhabitants, it even crippled my Engine. It shouldn't affect me, but it's reading my ability to pull out gold as 'too powerful'. I should have prepared before going in. Now they think I'm a lunatic with bullet holes in his arms. Luckily they treated me before I got locked up here, or my Engine won't be the only thing getting crippled here.

I only need one guard to notice who I am and I'm free to go. I sit down at the corner of the cell, I know I can wait it out. I watch the demon desperately try to break free. "You're stuck like that. You know that, right?" She stops moving and looks at me. Her eyes are filled with burning rage. She then proceeds to attempt to get to me from across the cell. She looks like a worm who just survived to be stepped on.

I watch her switching from trying to break free to try to reach me. She doesn't seem to want to commit to doing either one. She tires herself out, then continues to spasm out again. Maybe comparing her to a stepped worm was too accurate. I need to conserve energy. I'll get out of here soon, just gotta be patient.

It's reaching nighttime.

I've done nothing, but watch this demon wiggle, and attempt to convince every guard that passes that I'm not crazy. Now they're telling me to wait till I get a hearing with the judge. I've spent one night in the clinic and now I'm gonna spend a night in a cell, with a demon. At least she stopped moving, but I'm sure the moment she gets back her strength she's gonna wiggle her way into damnation. She won't even eat the food she's given, she'd just throw threats everywhere whenever they took off the cloth on her mouth.

I could've passed two towns by now. I yawn. Jumping over towns like sheep jump fence. One by one, day by day, night by night. The wiggle demon is pretty placid now. Actually, I think it died. I'll take that as clearance to sleep. I adjust myself facing the corner and close my eyes. As my body starts to feel less tense, I begin to doze off...

"My back. Why is it so hot?" I turn around to find a familiar place. "It's my home town, and there's my house. It's on fire. It's all on fire." Someone is crying. A girl. What is she doing here? I don't see anyone else. Her hands are on fire. Did she do this? I came close. It's cold all of a sudden. And my hands are wet. It looks like it started raining...

It's raining? I open my eyes and it's dead cold down here. The floor is wet. Did the snow get in? It's too dark to see where it's coming from. I attempt to pull out a piece of wood from my satchel. It worked. I sigh in relief. Next, I start to gather other materials. I started the spark and fire grew from my makeshift torch, lighting the room, revealing the blood tainted floor and the demon that it's coming from.

The blood is exceedingly plenty. How many litters has she been bleeding out? I begin to walk towards her, my footsteps are making ripples off the floor. The fog from my breath is clearer now thanks to the torch. I arrive in front of the demon, now covered in blood, drenched even, and in subzero temperatures. I can faintly see the coat I gave her underneath all the red cloth. That's the second one soaked.

I begin to craft and attach torches around the room to see the situation more clearly. I check her body. She's breathing, it even surprised me a bit. I tried to pull out a flat shovel, but only the head came out. I use what I have and begin clearing the cell of the blood, pushing it out of the cell.

I couldn't pull out a knife, but I can pull out some scissors. I cut the cloth off she's tied in and took off the drenched coat. The bullet wounds from before, it looks like they've reopened. I lift her body and put as much fur underneath to get her off the cold concrete. I pull out herbs and stitching equipment from my satchel and place them on the floor. I then began cutting off the clothing covering her chest, revealing more of the source of bleeding. I begin locating which wound has a bullet inside and which one went through. Blood is still coming out, the wounds themselves look like they just happened a few minutes ago, despite her looking so healthy and active this morning. Her Engine must be connected to her body's recovery rate. I locate the bullets quickly and remove them using the scissors as tongs. I pull 8 bullets out of the 17 holes from her body. I stitched them shut and applied the herbs carefully. I then pull out some cloth, a bowl, and water. I clean off the blood that's still on her body, some of it has even dried off. It took a while to fully clean her to the best of my ability.

After the blood had been removed, I wrapped the bandages over the wounds and re-stitch the clothes she had on earlier. "I've done the best I can, so could you please stop crying?"

Her face's been crying quietly since I first noticed her.

I'd feel sorry for her if she wasn't so... Demonic. I grab some metal shackles from my bag and begin to chain them to her arms and legs. Tying up a crying girl, I'll cross that out in my list of things I never thought of doing. After I've tied her up, I cover her with the jacket I'm wearing. It's the one the clinic gave me, which was an upgrade from the last one; I'll wear my old one for now. This would make it the third coat I've given her.

Third time's the charm. I rest back to my corner. I can call it quits now, only a few hours before sunlight. I take a long breather and look at her. She doesn't look anything like she does when she's crying, which almost made me not regret my decision. Now my hands and clothes still have some blood on them, some of which are gonna leave a stain. She'll probably say something within the lines of "I'll kill you," and "burn." I can't believe I helped her just because she's crying. Looks like she stopped now though. That's good. I close my eyes and finally fall asleep out of exhaustion, expecting a loud morning.

At least it's warmer.

"Sir? Are you awake, sir?"

I wake up to the voice of a young man. The light of the sun immediately hurts my eyes. "Sir, are you alright?" I clean my eyes and look up to see a young man in uniform. "What is it?" I said tiredly. "I'm here to set you free, sir," he said. "We'd like to apologize on behalf of the whole Militia." As he lowers his head along with two other men. "I'm free?" I take a good look at him and I notice something familiar. "Have we met before?" I asked. "Yes sir, we've met before. You sold me and my friends some wood back when we were building the camp," he said as he lends me a hand. I recognized his face. He's one of those recruits I ran into while traveling. I grab his hand and pull myself up. "I remember. Did the wood help?" I asked. "It did!" He says out loud. "Oh-" He stops himself from getting overly excited. "Please excuse me. I forgot we should probably get you out of here and get you all cleaned up." I pat myself clean. "I guess one of you finally recognized who I am," I said jokingly. "Yes, we'd like to apologize formally outside," he said while being embarrassed. The young man and two other guards ready to escort me out of the cell, but it is impossible for me to ignore the demon in the room.

"How about her?" I pointed at the girl on the floor. "Do you know her, sir?" He asked. "We were quite surprised to find the outside of the cell covered in frozen blood, even more, surprised that it came from her. Were you also the one who treated her sir? If so, we'd like to take responsibility for everything." He said while lowering his head. "No need to feel sorry," I said reassuringly. "She's actually a demon." The young man staggered. "You were locked in a cell with a demon Sir?" I nod. "Looks human, but this one is capable of burning towns on her own." "That's terrible sir!" He said with concern. "I guess it's for the best that she died last night."

My eyes widened. And he said it so casually.

The shock made me confused. Because of the way she looks right now, she doesn't look dead at all. "We checked her immediately when we got here, her body had already gotten stiff by then. She must have died 3-4 hours before we got here." 3-4 hours, so she died after I fell asleep. The young man notices my expression. "Thinking about it sir, why did you try to save her?" I paused thinking of an answer. "Pity," I said, it was all I could think of, even though I'm not so sure myself.

After I was escorted out of the cell, the misunderstanding was quickly resolved, the Militia wanted to pay for everything that had happened, even though I said it was fine. They even apologized as a whole for the incident. It was very overwhelming having a room of soldiers bowing down to you. They offered to clean and fix my clothes, which was great because they were either covered in blood or bullet holes. During that time, they gave me the opportunity to try their hot springs, which gave me enough time to unwind. I don't even remember the last time I tried to relax. They then gave me a new set of clothes to try on, it made me look like a citizen of the town. Then I was invited to eat the town's specialty which is oddly enough a Snake Stew. It was delicious, it beat the cold right out of me. Nearing sundown, while the army was drinking. I grab my freshly cleaned clothes and wear them, they might as well be my uniform at this point. I bid my goodbye to everyone at the party just before the sun had set, they wanted me to stay, but with my job, time was ticking. Leaving town, I pull out my original coat, the first one I gave to the demon. It has bullet holes that I didn't even notice. I guess she was wearing it when she got shot. I put it on and started walking.

I feel warmer than before but something inside still feels cold.

\\end//

Author: I'm joking