#35 Leaving the Capital
After I had a small talk with Esdeath for a few minutes, I left the room. I made my way towards the shopping district where most shops were situated. I bought a few more bandages just in case and then I went towards the shop selling sweets.
...Since Kurome is so addicted to them, I wonder if they are better than in my old world.
.
.
"That will be 1 gold coin and 23 silvers, young man!" The female clerk said while handing me a bag filled with mini cookies.
The fuck? How can these cookies be so expensive? Not to mention that I already convinced her to lower it from 2 gold coins.
"Here you go, thanks." I took the bag and handed her money.
---
GOLD: 6709
SILVER: 191
---
I might have a lot of money for now but it will extremely quickly disappear together because of Kurome's addiction. Anyway, I should go wait to the gate leading out of the city.
I thought and made my way towards the exit out of the city while holding the bag with cookies in my hand
.
.
When I arrived, Mez and Suzuka were already there.
"Yahooo!" Mez instantly noticed me and started waving at me with Suzuka standing beside her smiling at me with her arms folded. They were standing near the 3 horses.
Since I didn't know anyone else standing near the gate, I decided to approach them.
"Hey" I raised my hand as a greeting with a small smile.
"Are those snacks you wanted to buy?" Mez asked with a curious expression while looking at the bag in my hand.
"Yeah, I hate marching somewhere with the army, it always takes eternity just to get somewhere. Therefore I bought something to quell my boredom" I said with a small smile and showed them the content of the bag.
"Oh? Mini cookies? Can I take a few of them once we will be on our way? I also hate going somewhere with the entire army but at least we get to fight once we reach our destination!" Mez immediately begged me with hungry eyes and then changed back to her childish-like personality except for her talking about fighting with a big smile across her face.
I also noticed that Suzuka was looking at the bag with a hesitation visible in her eyes.
"Sure...Suzuka? Why aren't you talking, do you want some cookies later too?" I asked with a confused expression when I noticed Suzuka's weird behavior.
"Ah, you can ignore her, she rarely talks so it's normal." Mez said before Suzuka could reply which made her frown down at Mez.
"That's not very nice. I am a very talkative person. I am glad that you want to share with me, Akashi!" Suzuka replied with a smile but the way she phrased her words gave me creeps.
"...Anyway, what Esdeath wanted from you? Are you in trouble for arriving late? Haha" Mez looked weirdly at Suzuka before directing her gaze at me, asking me with a small laugh.
"Nah, she just wanted to talk about our spar. She is too eager to fight with me. As for trouble...I would like to cause some, just to be expelled from this boring operation" I said with an uninterested expression.
"Why? I mean, the march is going to be boring but with you and Suzuka here, we can talk plenty and have some fun. And once the boring march is over, we will be allowed to have some real fun!" Mez said and bumped her fists together with an excited smile.
---
'And who said that we can't have some fun at night too, hehe' Mez thought with an absent-minded expression and her mind wandered to another world where she was sparring with Akashi to the point of exhaustion and then...ehm.
---
"Why is Esdeath so interested in you? Akashi, are you really so strong?" Suzuka didn't let me give my answer to Mez and simply asked me another question with slightly flushed cheeks.
...I should be careful of what I say here.
"Well, I am not weak but I specialize in swift killing and as for your question, Mez. I can simply go out and find a few of those Rebel camps or bandits on my own. I don't need to march with the entire army just to have some fun after a few days of waiting." I explained and saw that Mez finally woke up from her daze. I wonder what she was thinking about...
As for my answer to Suzuka's question...that was the best answer I could come up with so she would be unable to fantasize about anything.
"Since you are an assassin, you must also know some torture and interrogation techniques, right?!" Suzuka brought her face closer to me with a delighted expression.
Ugh! I know that it's not her fault for being like that but...
"I...know some but I am not fond of torturing my enemies if there is no reason to torture them, I just quickly kill them." I explained with a forced smile.
"I see...what about allies?" She muttered with a thoughtful expression before asking me with a curious one once again.
"Come again?" Although I heard her question very well, I still asked her to repeat it with a surprised expression.
"Ugh, don't listen to her...Here goes Esdeath." Mez rolled her eyes and then noticed Esdeath coming towards the gate.
.
.
.
We finally left the Capital with a little army of more than 1.000 soldiers.
Thankfully my father forced me to learn how to ride on the horse or I would have problems right now. Well, I could always just follow them on my legs but it wouldn't look good for a noble not to know how to ride the horse. Not to mention that Mez or Suzuka would probably try to convince me to sit on their horse with them.
I was also able to convince Esdeath to let all 3 of us scout ahead so we were about 1 kilometer ahead of our small army. We were traveling on the road leading to the north through the dense forest and I was currently thinking about how to unlock that special class while munching on my cookies.
I can definitely understand why Kurome is so addicted to this...It's definitely better than cookies in my old world.
"Hm? Here you go, you two!" I noticed Suzuka and Mez watching me for a while so I thought that they wanted some more cookies and threw a few at them.
"Thanks!" Both of them thanked me after catching them.
---
'I am feeling conflicted...Akashi is so kind to me which surprisingly isn't bad...but I also want to see that stern look of his again. I don't know what I want...' Suzuka thought with an uncertain expression but she also muttered a few of those words aloud, earning a weird look from both Mez and Akashi.
---
"Mez...I meant to ask you something before but I completely forgot-" I wanted to continue but I was interrupted.
"What is it?! You can ask me anything, hehe." She exclaimed and when she realized that she interrupted me, she scratched back of her head while releasing an awkward laugh.
"Do you know a man named Gozuki? You resemble him a bit..." I asked with a helpless smile after seeing her action.
"Oh? Yep, that's my father!" She replied with a big smile and one closed eye while showing me V sign with her hand.
?! So he is Mez's father, huh? He is a former member of Rakshasa Demons and now he is most likely taking care of a few of those surviving kids from the Gifnora Forest.
"Hm? Suzuka, Mez." I noticed a strange shadow move inside the forest from the corner of my eye so I called out their names.
"Yep, we also noticed." Mez replied in a cheerful tone and exciting smile but she kept her voice down.
"Let's ignore them for a while, it seems like they are following us. If they will attack us, they are most likely just bandits but if they will keep their distance, we have to dispatch them because they could be enemy's spies." I said while looking forward with a cold expression.
"Agreed!" Mez immediately shouted with a big smile and Suzuka just nodded with a small smile.
That Mez...*sigh* She isn't exactly annoying but...difficult to be around her?
However, it seems that these people inside the forest aren't the only ones following us.
I concentrated my energy into my right fist and a few long fire needles appeared between my fingers, I swung with my right arm and sent those needles behind my horse. When my fire needles killed a few crawling bugs that were following behind my horse for more than 10 minutes, I violently snapped my head to the side and glared with my glowing red eyes at the at peak of the hill a few kilometers away from us.
---On the hill---
4 people were standing on the peak of the hill while 1 of them had binoculars and was crouching in front of the other 3 people, observing something inside the forest.
"Mera-sama, is there any need to use binoculars? You can simply use your insects to follow that guy." A woman with green eyes and long blonde hair, wearing a maid's outfit asked with a helpless smile.
"Since Babara and Taeko said to be careful, I decided to do everything possible not to be detected. Plus my insects are unable to send me images and I would like to see that Akashi guy with my own eyes. There is no need to worry, Gilberda." Mera replied with a small confident smile.
"Huh?!" Mera exclaimed in shock which made Babara narrow her eyes.
"What is it, Mera-sama?" Gilberda immediately asked with a worried expression when she noticed Mera's change.
"He just killed all of my insects..." Mera muttered with a shocked expression.
"What?!" Gilberda also exclaimed with a surprised face.
"Heh" While Babara just chuckled and Taeko standing near her smiled a little.
Mera was angered by Akashi killing her insects so out of instinct she aimed with her binoculars towards Akashi just to have a glare at him, but instantly the moment she did so, Akashi snapped his head towards them and glared right into Mera's eyes through the binoculars.
"Ah!" Mera exclaimed in shock, it shocked her so much that when she wanted to move backward, she lost her balance and has fallen down on her butt.
"Mera-sama?!!" Gilberda immediately ran up to Mera to check on her well-being.
Even Babara was surprised by this and Taeko just tilted her head to the side with a confused expression.
"H-He looked right into my eyes through the binoculars." Mera said with a shocked expression while her eyes were shaking a little.
'Hm?! To think that he would be able to sense us from such distance and even precisely pinpoint our location...I hope I won't regret that I hadn't killed him back then but...then again, I had that hunch not to do anything to him...and if he would be able to survive my attack then he would definitely cause our clan's demise as he said before. *sigh* I am too old for this...' Babara thought with wide-open eyes for a while before calming down.
"Mera-sama?! Are you alright?!" Gilberda asked while kneeling beside sitting Mera.
She didn't care about their position being discovered because Mera was acting too weirdly just from being discovered.
And indeed something was wrong with Mera...This encounter caused her such shock that she was seeing Akashi's red eyes with black vertical pupils in the sky covering the entire blue sky, glaring and looking down on her.
'TCH! To think that man would be able to intimidate me like that! How humiliating!' Mera thought while gritting her teeth.
"I am fine!" Mera replied and stood up, she looked much calmed but she couldn't help but occasionally glance towards the sky, still filled with Akashi's eyes.
She closed her eyes and started regulating her breath to get rid of this effect.
----END----
[Name: Akashi Phoenix (Age: 12)
Title: King of Sloth
Class: Warrior (Lv. 7, +10 Str, +6 Const, +1 Agi, +1 Cha) 210/640 XP
Special Class: Fire Monarch (Lv. 9; +18 Cha, +16 Int, +12 Const, +6 Str) 124/2560 BXP
[Health: 610/610]
[Energy: 1115/1115]
<Stats>
[Strength: 40 (66)]
[Agility: 40 (56)]
[Intelligence: 32 (57)]
[Constitution: 40 (58)]
[Charisma: 25 (48)]
Free Stat points: 5
Classes: Young Noble (Lv. 4; +5 Cha) 12/80 XP,
Passive Classes: Assassin (Lv. 10; +15 Agi, +9 Int, +6 Str, + 4 Cha)
Special Classes:
ACTIVE SKILLS:
[Absolute Dominance - When facing the formidable foe, show no fear, instead show your arrogance. + 55% to every stat, fire intensity, and explosiveness]
[Phantom Strike - Blink towards your enemy, the maximum distance is decided by your Agility (20 energy)] (Assassin)
[Sun's judgment - Summon smaller sphere from the sky in the form of a meteor, scorching anything in its path. (150 Energy)]
[Overwhelm - Strengthens the power of your next attack by 40% (30 Energy)] (Warrior)
PASSIVE SKILLS:
[Child of Fire - Flames love you as its own child. You are protected by the fire itself, whenever someone uses long-ranged attacks, flames will protect your body from projectiles even without your consciousness but you can still stop them if you want. This isn't ultimate defense!]
[Contempt for the Weak - Whenever you kill a human, your intimidating aura strengthens. Making possible for your aura alone to change the temperature and gravity around you. With enough deaths, it's possible to even extend the range of your aura, crushing bones of the entire army just by your aura. 34/? (As the name suggests, works only on weak or on targets under a huge shock)]
GOLD: 6710
SILVER: 214