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Chapter 88 - Avoid All Side Quests
🕑 Added 2017-12-23 15:03:53 +0000 UTC Alright, three barrels should be enough. It's within the price range of what Mereana told us it would cost, too. They're the type with a lid that can be locked in place by pushing a wooden bar through two holes in the upper rim. At one glance, I can tell that these three would be able to fit my children, so I better fill them with water soon after boarding. Because I just know that they'll play around with them otherwise."[How ya gonna transport them, missy?]" The storekeeper asks me with a raised eyebrow. He was already skeptical about my order in the first place, due to my foreign looks; but seeing how I'm completely alone, he can't help but ask after all. Even though I could have, I've opted not to take on a dark-skinned and black-haired appearance to blend in better. After all, Mereana doesn't look like that either, and she's from somewhere in this nation. Not to speak of Tahiri and Korenga, though they are kind of special cases.
"[Don't worry, about it.]" I state and point at the rope hanging over my left shoulder. Earlier, I went to buy one so that I could tie the barrels together and carry them more easily. Normally, Korenga would most likely have carried two or even all three by herself, but since I left her and Tokomaha in the restaurant, I have to do it on my own.
Binding the three barrels tightly, I effortlessly lift them by the rope and hoist them onto my back with one hand. I can feel the stares coming from all over but I don't really mind them. Though if I really didn't care about people's gazes at all, I could have just pulled them inside my body and made it much easier to walk around. But I'd rather not attract that kind of attention, since they might associate me with a rogue god much easier that way and report me to the authorities or something like that.
Yeah, I have no idea whether that's a thing or not, but I assume that gods not registered under the God King are treated as enemies of the state and persecuted publicly.
With the newly bought barrels in tow, I make my way through the marketplace in search of stalls that may sell large quantities of food. I can stuff whatever I buy inside the barrels for the time being, then consume them when I find a quiet alleyway. But I don't have enough time to do what I did in the Mineva Republic, which was to use a large cart to buy a lot, eat it all up in some place where nobody looked, then change my appearance to repeat the process elsewhere.
The sun is pretty much at its zenith, so I think I might actually already be running a little late to meet up with the others. Well, they wouldn't walk around searching for us even if we didn't arrive right away, since everyone would just split up and get lost. We agreed to wait for each other, regardless of how late the other group is.
In the end I went with buying my pre-death weight in meat. As always, I assume I was ripped off, but I don't really care either way. Stashing it in the three barrels for later, I carry them on my back once again. Even though that alone should attract a lot of attention, the leather pouch with my money in it rattling quite audibly is clearly even more of a focus for the more dangerous types. I can tell, because there are some among the crowd that stare at it from the corners of their eyes.
And sure enough, when I begin to walk away from the market to meet up with the others, a young boy bumps into me. I can feel fingers quickly crawling into my jacket and trying to grab at where I stashed the money. After all, my clothes are made from my own body, so I can tell when something brushes against them, let alone rummages through them with fast motions. Too bad, I already pulled the pouch into my body, so there's nothing for even the nimblest hands to steal.
Creating a tentacle inside my jacket, I grab the wrist instantly, before using my actual hand to grab the pickpocket's collar.
"[Hm, aren't you a little young to be groping women?]" Lifting the child from the ground effortlessly, I bring him eye to eye with me.
That's when I realize that the boy is actually a girl. Tan skin, brown eyes, short black hair, an average girl from this nation. She looks to be around ten years old at most, with dirt covering her ragged clothes all over. As with even the most affluent nations, there are the less fortunate who cannot make a living other than through stealing.
"[L-leggo of me!]" Scratching at my hand holding her, she struggles and kicks her legs. But even with sharp and chipped nails, she can't penetrate my tough skin, so I don't even flinch at the sensation.
"[What's the matter here?]" Two men push their way through the crowd. They are wearing cloth uniforms and wielding metal-studded staves. These must be town guards.
"[This kid wanted to steal from me.]" Holding out the child in question towards the guards, I state with what could only be described as an annoyed expression. I'm not going to be tripping some flag here and get held up with having to resolve a matter that may be bigger than it seems at first. While I have no idea what the punishment for thieves is in this nation, I don't really care what happens to a pickpocket. She could get her hands chopped off, like in some country in the world from my previous life.
"[Is that true?]" The taller of the two guards bends down to look at the girl, who clearly doesn't know how to hide her feelings, as she averts her eyes in fear. Really though, why do you ask the thief whether she's a thief or not?
I drop her down in front of the two guards and move to leave. There shouldn't be anything left for me to do here.
"[Wait.]" The shorter guard stops me and I roll my eyes.
"[What do you need from me?]" Irritation fills my voice. I'm already late to meeting up with the others, and I still need to get back to the restaurant where Korenga and Tokomaha are feasting. Being held up here is the last thing I want.
"[Please show us your identification.]"
My what?
"[My what?]" So far I haven't seen any signs for that being required anywhere in this nation. Much like the Khurut Sultanate, their bureaucracy struck me as very rudimentary, where people could easily slip through the net without being discovered.
"[You don't have your identification?]" While holding the upper arm of the girl tightly in his grasp, the taller guard turns to me with his eyes narrowed.
"[Come with us to the guardhouse.]" The short guard approaches me with the clear intent to grab my arm as well. I didn't need any ID papers to enter the city, so why now?
Ugh, this is developing into a bother.
"[I think not.]" With a quick motion, I expand my back and swallow the barrels into my body. Then I create a gust of wind around me with a silent spell, and transform into the Chaos Warhead under the cover of the dust cloud I kick up.
I shoot up into the sky and fly out of the city.
Walking through the streets of Anutawa in a new disguise - basically a copy of Awhina but in smaller - I make my way towards the city square. Only now do I notice that there have been guards walking through the crowds all the time, and most likely there's an influx of them scouring the city for my previous appearance after what I pulled.
As I thought, the guards asking for identification was most likely because of my foreign appearance. Maybe there's actually a law that requires foreigners to have papers on them, but natives aren't bothered at all. Then again, I wonder how Mereana, Korenga and Tahiri haven't been pulled aside already, but maybe it's because the former is wearing a commander's armor, and the latter two have tribal tattoos all over their bodies which show that they're at least natives.
Or maybe because they don't bother foreigners, until they're involved in some kind of problem - or place themselves into the limelight like I did so stupidly.
In either case, now I look just like a normal citizen, I don't flaunt my money and I'm not carrying a pile of barrels impossible for my size on my back. If I get bothered again, I'll be flipping a table.
I'm running really late for our meeting time. I had to fly all the way out of sight before I could land in the forest. Then I transformed into a Vularen to circle around to the other side of the city, so that I would enter from a completely different direction as we did before. I did that just to be doubly safe, even though it took a lot of time.
"[You!]" I hear a female voice shout over the constant murmur of the busy streets. I ignore it, thinking she must mean someone else, before I hear it more clearly again from my left. "[Young traveler!]"
I turn my head and find an elderly woman dressed in burgundy and dark green robes walking towards me. The lower half of her face is covered in a veil made of small beads, but her visible purple eyes are clearly trained on me. Hobbling over using a gnarled wooden staff as a cane, from which accessories featuring feathers and beads hang in a large bundle, she repeatedly calls out to me.
"[You, young lady! I have glimpsed the sign in you!]" She sounds excited, though there's a hint of anxiety in her gaze.
... I don't want to get involved. Turning away and walking faster, I try to ignore her, but her voice is really loud, and it's drawing much unwanted attention.
"[Great calamities will follow you wherever you go!]" Coming after me and seemingly abandoning her fortune-telling stall at the side of the road, she continues to yell ominous things. "[Wait! Let me help you!]"
I'm almost running, but there are more and more people turning around to me already. Dammit, leave me alone already!
Making my way towards a dark alleyway that people don't use as a passage, I dip out of the masses and into the shadows. I immediately transform into Tahiri's appearance, but with tan skin and shorter, black hair. Then I wait until the old fortuneteller comes towards me, before walking past her casually like nothing happened.
I focus my Chaos senses on her and find that she's pacing back and forth inside the alleyway, apparently still trying to find me there. Distancing myself from her as I make my way towards our meeting place, I sigh a breath of relief and tiredness.
Finally, I see Mereana, Awhina and my children standing at the large tree in the middle of the city square. It seems to be a sacred tree, since it's cordoned off with a wooden barricade, but unlike those found in Shinto shrines, this one doesn't have a shimenawa - a purification rope - hanging around its trunk.
"[Sorry I'm late.]" I approach them and they turn around to me in surprise.
"[... who are you?]" Mereana asks with a wary expression and I remember that I'm in disguise. Even then, she should have at least been wondering about how similar I look to Tahiri.
"[... Chaos?]" But even Awhina seems to be unsure, as she bends down a little to look at my face directly.
"[Mama, why do you look like that?]" The only ones who don't show the hint of a doubt and immediately recognize me are Uten and Saten.
"[There was some trouble with a pickpocket and the guards started asking me questions, so I had to get out of the city once.]" Sighing, I point at my chest. "[I got the barrels inside me.]"
"[I see... Hm, where are Tokomaha and Korenga?]" Awhina asks while still staring at me strangely. She must have finally recognized my resemblance to Tahiri, and it's making her feel weird. If only she had the form before then, when I was a smaller version of her.
"[I left them at a restaurant. Let's go there to pick them up.]" Waving at the others, I signal for them to follow me.
"[I... I do not have much money left.]" Mereana looks at me with a troubled expression. She knows that these two goddesses are quite the gluttons, so the bill will most likely be horrendously expensive.
"[Don't worry, I have money now.]" I won't tell her how I got it, though. She seems skeptical, but doesn't question a person she considers a powerful god with some really strange powers of transformation and seemingly even creation. After all, that airship still had a life-sized me riding on it, so to her it might as well have been conjured out of thin air. "[So, how did it go for you? Got everything you need?]"
"[Yeah, we got provisions.]" Turning around to show off a huge straw basket filled with all kinds of foodstuffs, Awhina replies to my question. Mereana and the twins follow her example. "[But are you sure Tama, Tane and you don't need any?]"
"[It's alright, we'll hunt for ourselves during the journey.]" Or rather, I'll have the twins hunt for my part, since I have to stay inside the airship for it to exist in the first place. I don't know how long the journey will take and what will happen on our way across the Nukumania plains - although I'll do my best to stay at a high altitude - so it's better that we stock up on a lot of food for those who need it.
"[Do you think this is enough for the Black God?]" Looking at me in worry, Mereana voices her concern. I totally understand what she means. The morning after our battle to the death she had a huge breakfast involving a large portion of the animals we caught that night. While it seems like she gets hungrier the more she moves around and uses her black form, her normal meals are already substantially larger than what a human of her size would eat.
... that may explain why she was shoving so much food down her throat earlier. Don't tell me she actually held back during breakfast on the Chaos Carrier? Then again, she clearly wasn't holding back in the restaurant I left her in, as if to make up for it.
"[If it's not, I'll hunt some more for her.]" In other words, more work for Uten and Saten. Well, they can use the flight and hunting training, and increase their own mass along the way.
We make our way towards the restaurant where I hope we'll find the two goddesses. I'd rather they're still eating and ordering more food, than having disappeared to somewhere. After all the pains I went through to avoid getting caught up in something, it'd be the last thing I need. And if they ate over the limit of the money I left them with, I'll be able to do something about it with what I still have on me.
"[Someone stole it.]" Tokomaha states with a natural expression while leaning back on her chair in a relaxed manner. There's not a hint of remorse in her attitude and I bring a fist down onto her head.
"[You should have been able to stop them!]" I reprimand her while pulling on the corners of her mouth. It's not that I'm particularly angry with her, since I know that neither she nor Korenga have any understanding of the importance of money in society. If I were on my own, I wouldn't bother with it either, since I can just take what I want.
Wait, that sounds like I'm a bully. Well, if I really didn't have to worry about opinions and my future around these parts, I'd certainly do that.
"[How much is it?]" I turn to the waiter who has been standing by with a concerned expression. He seems to fear that we won't be able to pay for the meal, though I feel like irritation would have been more appropriate. I know I would be angry, if my customers couldn't pay. After all, it's my loss even if they get punished for it.
It seems that at one point the boss of the establishment had become uneasy about the bill since the two goddesses just kept ordering more and more, so he asked them to pay. Luckily that was only shortly before we came around, so there wasn't much of a scene. If it had gotten to the point where the guards would have been called, it could have turned quite ugly. I don't want to get bogged down with something like that right now, when we may be in a race against time.
The price seems appropriate for the amount of empty plates on the table, so I pull out the leather pouch, which the pickpocket had tried to steal earlier, from inside my jacket - though really from inside my body. Paying for the meal, I give the waiter and his boss peace of mind. Then I ask him to clean up the table, so that we could all go for another round. He complies with a broad smile and quickly goes to the kitchen to relay the order for even more food.
"[Are you sure you don't want to chase down the thief?]" As we sit down, Mereana asks me in a hushed voice.
"[I don't want to waste too much time with something like that.]" I shrug and lean back on the wooden chair. The money doesn't really hurt me, since I can always create more gold from rocks and sell it without inconveniencing myself. But more importantly, I don't want this to go off-track.
Then again, last time I went off on a side quest due to encountering some shady people, I met Kamii.
But I can't - or don't want to - do that simply based on the remote possibility that I could have a fated meeting with someone. It's more likely that it'll be resolved with catching the thief and handing him or her over to the authorities. Which in turn could result in some uncomfortable questions, another hasty escape, and more time wasted.
I'd rather just enjoy a meal with my companions, right here right now.
