Tolerance

Cyrus ended up granting our request. But his biggest motivator was still to watch me and stop me from doing anything to his sister. My appearance being that of a ten-year-old didn’t seem to ease his concerns at all.

We spent the rest of that day in our preparations. And when the next morning came, we set out for Nautia in a boar carriage. The iron-skinned boars they kept in the city stables turned out to be used as a draft for the vehicle. Just one single boar was strong enough to pull along the cabin while bulldozing through the forest.

“Is it reliable enough? I killed one before using only sharp wooden sticks,” I asked.

“That’s not possible. Its skin is tougher than steel,” Cyrus replied.

“You must have used up its mana when you linked to it. It couldn’t harden its skin without mana,” Sabedra whispered to me. Her words erased my shame of being the boar’s plaything; that helpless afternoon had gained a new meaning. It was to tire the boar out.

The carriage ride wasn’t an enjoyable experience. Cyrus’s smile finally made its return. He seemed to have completely accepted the current situation, allowing his façade to catch up. Though I no longer found this side of Cyrus to be annoying anymore when compared to his other states. The worst part of the ride wasn’t Cyrus’s smile, wasn’t the awkwardness of cramping in the cabin with ten armored elf warriors, but…

“You don’t even know how delicate the craftsmanship of this box with wheels is. Look at the ventilation system, the direction controls, the built-in map, the refreshment compartments. Each of them uses a different type of magic and needs a specialized craftsman to make them.” Sabedra kept repeating the same few points using different phrasings. The elves were getting uncomfortable, but they said nothing. They must have been wary of Sabedra’s status as a dragon.

Lyla gave me an eye signal. She couldn’t use telepathy to communicate with me because I promised her that I would disregard her inner voice to respect her privacy.

“So… I had seen mana handcuffs before. Do they also need a specific maker?” I asked. Lyla shook her head vehemently. But I had no idea what she was trying to communicate to me. I was a little tempted to listen to her inner voice.

I didn’t need to do that. Soon, Lyla’s message became clear, because Sabedra began another speech. She paused briefly to grab a mana handcuff from one of the warrior’s bags and went on to explain in depth the working mechanism of the device.

“What about my fire necklace? Is it magical? I heard it could protect me from fire.” I couldn’t take it anymore, so I cut Sabedra off in the middle of her explanation.

“That? That’s just a normal necklace. It’s useless.”

She was blunter than I expected. And although she was talking about my necklace and not me, I still felt somewhat hurt. But at least that broke her flow, and she quieted down.

The journey continued for two days. Unlike the airborne trip with Sabedra, this time we didn’t get lost, but moved in a straight line from Melhnora to Nautia. The carriage stopped as the city, highlighted by the midnight sun, appeared in our sight.

The elves and Sabedra refused to enter the city without permission, because they didn’t want to cause any political incidents. They would only set up a tent outside the city to stand by. Lyla insisted on accompanying me, ignoring the last-minute persuasions from Cyrus.

Our plan was simple. Lyla and I would sneak into the city and kidnap Res, sealing her magic with mana handcuffs in case she had any other powers. Then, I would try to connect with Res and use her memory magic to reverse the brainwashing of the soldiers.

“What can I do with a pair of daggers?” I glanced at the short blades that Cyrus gave me. “And why does Lyla get a spear?” There was even an emerald ingrained between the blade and the handle.

“Do I have to spell it out?” Cyrus crossed his arms.

I conceded my wish for a longer weapon. My preparation should be enough so that even the daggers might not be needed. I was more worried about following Sabedra’s suggestion of not wearing armor. She said I wouldn’t need it, but even Lyla wore the bare minimum to protect her vitals.

Lyla and I hid under cloaks as we approached the guards at the gates. The guards felt that something was up and drew their swords. I took a deep breath and charged at one of the guards. He swung his sword at me. I ignored it.

Clank! His blade crashed against my skin but couldn’t break through. This was all thanks to the several iron-skinned boars that I had connected to before we left Melhnora. They were simple creatures to understand, especially after the information Sabedra and the elves had provided to me.

I kept the pair of daggers on my belt. Instead, I punched the soldier, holding back most of my strength to avoid seriously injuring him. But he still flew across the land and ended up with his back smashed against the city wall. He instantly passed out.

The other soldier watched with his mouth agape. Lyla took the chance to hit his head with the flat side of the spearhead. And with that, both soldiers were down. We were free to waltz into the city.

The streets were colder than I remembered, maybe because grey clouds covered the sun today. Some vagrants, previously hidden away in the back streets, lay before the deserted stores in the main streets. Only some of them seemed barely conscious; others not at all. Most had peaceful smiles on their faces, as if death was the only thing left on their bucket lists. On the ground, there were needles and glass vials scattered about. This view was familiar to me, one that I had seen in psychology textbooks, in the chapter about addictions.

The smell of urea and blood also invaded the wider areas; the place felt like a public toilet that had not been cleaned for months. The permeating scent might be why there weren’t any patrolling soldiers. Or was Res planning something?

To keep a low profile, we went straight towards the closest back alley. But at the mouth, I witnessed an outlandish sight: a young soldier leaning senseless against the building wall. His pale face, though feeble, still kept its beauty; his hair perfectly styled, slanted towards the left. And a familiar helmet sat on his lap: Werly’s. Could this person possibly be Werly? That is impossible; this man must be several decades younger than Werly. I dismissed the possibility and continued on with Lyla.

We quickly found the building that Coyote and I had escaped through before. Unlike the empty shell it was before, the interior was populated once again with the fallen citizens. They were more emaciated than the ones on the street; some of them even closely resembled living corpses; a few might actually have died. So far, we hadn’t come across a single sober person, except for the two guards at the city gates.

The food-distributing operation had been set up again under the trapdoor, but it was generous to call it functional. The people in charge looked out of it, with empty vials lying on the table.

These same vials, filled with a colorless liquid, were bundled in the crates. A few crates still had food in them, food that was riddled with black spots without a hint of freshness left. The smell of rotten fruit permeated the hidden basement. I might have even glimpsed traces of insects scurrying about. There wasn’t any part of me that wanted to confirm what I saw.

I rushed to open the secret passage so I could escape this putrid room. Then, I would shove this image into the dungeon of my mind, never letting it see the light of day again. We dove straight into the darkness without a lantern.

Without breaking a sweat, we knocked out every soldier that we came across. It wasn’t even close, all thanks to the power I got from the iron-skinned boar. Getting Res should be a piece of cake. Still, when I recalled Res’s confidence back then, a sense of anxiety would swell up in my chest.

It took less than five minutes. And we had reached the central room that connected the network of passages. The bright orb remained levitating in the middle.

Res stood next to it. She continued her streak of wearing a no-sleeve dress with a hemline that stopped at thigh length. Dense scribbles lined her arms and legs.

She flipped through her notes when she noticed us. “You two must be intruders. And oh… one of you promised to join me but escaped instead.”

“How… how shameless!” Lyla wrapped her hands around her mouth, blushing intensely. “How can you wear this in public! That’s indecent!” Her shaky finger pointed at Res’s exposed thighs. And when she realized I was staring at Res, she jumped to cover my eyes.

“Get your hands off me! She is our target. Do this later!” Could she do something appropriate for once?

I continued, “I don’t care if she is naked. We need to act as we planned if we want to save the city.” Lyla conceded, letting me pry her hands off me.

“Sorry.” I was almost surprised that she knew how to apologize.

“Save the city? Save it from what?” Res let herself into our conversation.

“You are drugging the entire city. So, who else?” I blurted out. Oops, I got a little heated because of Lyla.

“Why do you object to happiness?” Res shrugged. “Do you know what happened before this? I saw it all in this city. What people would do for money, for food, for pleasure, even to the point of killing. The difference is that now everyone gets to enjoy their lives. No more victims.”

I approached Res step by step. My hand clutched the mana handcuffs hanging from my belt. “All because you took away their livelihood and everything they had.” I kept the conversation going to lower her guard.

“They are all happy now. That is all that matters. And I got some interesting observations about human behavior out of it too,” Res waved the pile of paper in her grasp.

“I thought you didn’t believe in the past.” I increased my pace a little because my time was running out.

“I don’t believe in the fake past in our heads. This, what I have here, is the only real thing I trust.”

“That pile of waste didn’t help you recognize Coyote and me during our escape.” A threat was advancing towards us. I started sprinting towards Res, hoping to reach her in time.

“Really?” Res scanned through her text.

So close. My hand was about to touch Res’s arm.

It was too late. The deep rumble marked the arrival of a formidable force. It bolted up to me in an instant. I turned my attention from Res to the bloodthirsty newcomer. With both my arms, I blocked the punch aimed at me in time, but the recoil sent me flying. I used the window midair to identify the threat. And what I saw was expected but unpleasant.

My attacker had his eyes barely open, not even focused on me. His mouth flapping aimlessly, prattling random sounds. His enormous body swayed around, almost collapsing, as if he were sleepwalking.

Only one person in this city could move with such speed. The monstrosity I had to face was Zeroc.