Chapter 23

POV: Bash

Location: Southern Empire

We have now searched four different buildings and the closest thing we got to finding a sword was rusted metal scraps. The sun has turned yellow and warm red with its soft rays highlighting the ruins of the ancient castle, now nothing but a house to overgrown weeds and reptiles.

Sitting and leaning against a wall, Delta's sword wrapped in a scabbard was resting on the edge of her left shoulder. "Let us stop here for the day," she said, "Kanade, Hanabi, prepare the tents before the sun disappears."

Hanabi groaned, getting up from her sitting position and dusting her white battle dress, "Hanabi," Kanade said in a low voice, grabbing the forest green bag from her side.

Me and delta watched as the two of them skillfully cleared out the area in front of us and began setting out two tents, each having two emblems of the Empire painted on it.

"Bash, let us start a fire before they are done, the earlier we start cooking dinner the better," Delta said, getting up from her sitting position.

I also left my sword leaning against the wall when I got up, Delta was walking in front of me, her long blonde hair covering her entire back.

We gathered dried old wood from a nearby building, likely a residue of the furniture once used in the castle. Walking back with arms full of brown wood, we tilted them against each other, making them look like a cone.

I lifted three pieces of a crumbled wall using my ability, I placed them in three positions, each at equal distance from each other and the woods located at the center.

"I have some oil in my bag, let me get it for us," I said to Delta after dropping the third stone. she was standing in front of the woods, trying to start a fire.

"It's okay, I got this," she responded, then stood up and walked five feet away from the woods.

She raised one of her hands and squeezed her fist, letting only her dumb and forefinger out, she pointed at the woods, "BATTLE ARTS, LIGHTNING ARROW."

Like a snake bending in a zigzag, a blue arrow left the tip of her finger and landed on the woods, they instantly caught fire, burning with clear orange flames.

"That looks handy," I said, my eyes fixed on the flames.

Delta walked to one of the stones and sat down, the dancing flames highlighting her face, "What do you want to have for dinner, Bash," she asked, "Roasted pork, Soba noodles with pork broth, or a pork meat placed between two bread slices."

Throughout my travels, I have always carried the easiest ration to consume, dried fish, dried frogs, or a dry piece of ham. Cooking anything resembling a complete dish was never my strength. 

Getting the opportunity to have warm Soba noodles against the background of a crisp night was something I couldn't pass.

"The soba noodles would be great," I responded to Delta while sitting on a rock beside the campfire.

"Alright girls we are making soba noodles tonight," Delta exclaimed, getting up to meet Kanade and Hanabi dabbling their hands inside the forest green bag.

My eyes got distracted by the starry night above the castle, I looked into it and wondered, did Ash made it out alive, out of the witch's basement where she was captured.

I have slept every chance I got yet our dreams have not connected, just when I desperately want to get into the white room, it distance itself away from me, how cruel, how could it make me wait this long to see my Salvation.

Suddenly, the air under my chin became hot, coming out of my thoughts, Delta was holding two bowls filled with soba noodles and thin round pork slices on top. The noodles were swimming in a thick broth, making the aroma of the noodles, vegetables, and pork to mix.

I collected one bowl from Delta, she looked into my eyes then a smile went across her lips, "Can I join you," she said.

I moved slightly to the left and she sat down beside me, Kanade occupied one of the three stones I brought around the fire and Hanabi was sitting on the last stone.

Delta sat beside me silent, she turned her gaze to the sight of Kanade and Hanabi then to the fire in front of us.

"Those two girls are like sisters to me," she said, moving the two chopsticks sticking out of her bowl in a circle.

Moving my dark eyeballs to look at them, I saw how busy they were chatting with one another, their voices hardly reaching our location. Kande's brown hair was weaved in a circle going around her head, almost resembling a crown. Her hazel eyes switched between the bowl of noodles she was eating and the sight of Hanabi.

"They looked close to one another," I said.

"They are best friends," Delta added. Her chopsticks grabbing on a piece of round thin pork.

"Why did you save me in the sword garden?" she suddenly asked, her voice lower than usual.

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to not volunteer myself as a hero.

"The mustache man gripping his axe, you moved when you saw that, didn't you?"

"I guess I can't run away when you put it that way," my chuckling voice said.

"But seriously Bash, why would you stand up for us when you know clearly who we are, we are the descendants of the witches, the people you hate the most."

My eyes widened and the skin on my face squeezed itself, an unfamiliar feeling gripped my heart, it was squeezing it heavily and making my body flinched in pain.

"I don't hate the witches," my shaky voice trying to hide my anger said, "I was saved by a witch."

Delta was startled at my response, her shaky hands almost dropping the ball of noodles, "What do you mean?" she asked.

"A witch named Ash saved me?"

"But there are no witches in the Southern Empire,"

"She lives in the North?" I murmured.

Delta's gaze left my eyes and landed on the campfire in front of us, she paused for a moment then opened her mouth, "You a one strange swordsman Bash, probably the only of your kind."