Chapter 101: I Am Tired

General Erica pushed her husband back. The heat rolling off his body hissed against her palms, but she did not budge.

“You trying to kill the boy, Rodain?” she was almost fuming. She came up to his ear. “Your orders said to bring him back ‘alive.’ Not his cold corpse. Or is the Supreme Commander suddenly more powerful than his Emperor?”

“But Erica! He disrespected the—”

“Yeah. Screw that, sorry. You wanted to fucking disrespect the throne by disobeying its orders! Huh,smart ass?”

General Rodain opened his mouth to defend himself, but his wife was apparently having none of that. Her glare alone was enough to make a lower ranking soldier swallow his tongue.

She reached out to grab Mikael by the collar, but the boy seemed to have quite the reflex because he jumped just outside of her reach.

She sighed and rubbed her temples in exasperation. It was going to be one of those nights.

“And who, or rather what, do you think you are that you cannot heed the summons of your ruler? That in itself is an offence punishable by public execution. Have you no regard for His Imperial Majesty?”

“Do I answer with all honesty? Or is this where I feign interest in what you’ve just said and act all repentant?” Mikael asked, and his tone did not in any way suggest that he was joking or being playful about it.

“So you do not regard the throne?” General Rodain questioned, all glare and fumes.

“No. Any other answer would just be me lying under my skin. I find it difficult to comprehend that someone such as myself needs to lie in order to escape the wrath of mere mortal men in armor and also those crowned with rocks seemingly more expensive than the normal ones.”

Erica was quick enough to notice her husband raise a fist, and she reached out to his chest and physically pushed him back.

“Stand down, Rodain. He’s just a kid.” She muttered to him.

She turned to Mikael. “You, go! Get outta here. But have it at the back of your mind; you will heed the Empire’s call. You are just one boy against millions.”

“I’ll keep that warning very well in mind, General. Good evening, General Rodain.”

And with that, he bowed, slipped away into the bush and sped off. Ragnarok’s weight on his back felt heavier than ever, but he did not look back once.

As soon as Mikael was clear of the area, Rodain turned to face his partner.

“And what the hell did you think, letting the boy go just like that?! The order said to bring him in.”

“Bring him in? He’s not a fricking criminal, Rodain. Sometimes, your loyalty makes you as dumb as a mule. It’s a fucking invitation.”

Rodain drew closer, with fire and brimstone in his eyes, causing Erica to shrink back a little in subconscious fear; her instincts as a warrior yelling at her and hinting the possibility of death!

“It was just a test, I wasn’t going to actually kill him,” Rodain offered in his defense.

“That was still so stupid and reckless. Did you-” She was cut off.

“Mind your language with me, Erica. I won’t tolerate disrespect of the throne, and of myself next time. Am I understood?”

“You know, som—”

“Am I understood, soldier?” Rodain all but roared as his aura surged out in suffocating waves.

Erica quivered in fear. Begrudgingly, she answered a low, weak “yes sir” before turning away and heading off without uttering a single word. Her fists were clenched so tightly that her nails bit into her palms.

“I am so sorry. Erica!” Rodain called out. chased after her with a much softer expression and his aura completely retracted.

The man who had sentenced a boy to death minutes ago looked, for a moment, like a husband who had just realized he had gone too far.

******

The idea came to her so suddenly, as she leapt over roofs towards the city’s main plaza over the upper districts, at least what was left of it.

The Godbeast that was just defeated had been staying meters underground for many years. So there was a huge chance it may have hidden a whole lot of precious metals; gold, silver, mithril possibly. Even mana ley lines or the best of them all, condensed mana collected over those long years.

Not to mention the fact that neither Mikael nor herself knew which particular place the other person was currently at. And since Mikael had mentioned joining the fight, common sense told her that she too should head for the gates, since he would most likely seek her out there first.

The view from over the city gave a comprehensive look at the extent of the damage, and fortunately it wasn’t as much as expected; most of the Ravagers had been acting as though they had been ordered into some kind of formation. Although that only applied up until the Godbeast awoke. After that happened, even the city appeared as an obstacle to the beasts, as many actually circumvented it.

Just as soon as she stepped on to the roof of a house close to the gates, a bright, fiery light streaked off from the Beast’s body and into the sky. It was exactly the same as the light that had descended just before the Godbeast was finished off.

Since it had left, that meant a certain degree of safety had been confirmed, so she ran while the old clock tower, which was somehow still standing, chimed, signifying the third hour of the morning.

The groups of adventurers and knights over outside the gates were all still a disorganized crowd, busy taking sips of ale and beers, congratulating and ridiculing each other. So she passed without any trouble. She sprinted into the plains. Laughter and slurred songs drifted through the smoky air, as though the night had not almost cost them their city.

The very first gem she picked up was bright red, and was as wide and long as seven centimeters! While she wasn’t exactly sure which one it was, actually, she simply stored it away. It pulsed faintly in her palm, warm as a living thing, before she tucked it into her bag. It was definitely expensive, that she was very much sure of!

She ventured a bit deeper into the crater and a couple of minutes later, something caught the side of her eye. She went for it.

She crouched beside a cracked slab of black stone veined with silver and tapped it with her dagger. Hollow. She dug her fingers into the seam, pried loose a thumb-sized chunk of rock, and held it up to the moonlight. It shone and reflected the light. Her heart skipped. It was a slab of mithril, talk about jackpot right of the bat.

“Well, hello there,” she whispered, and into the bag it went. She bent down to dig up more.

A little distance away from where Kadre scavenged, a couple of like-minded individuals had set up ‘camp’, armed with pickaxes, and their wheeled barrows were somewhat filled with rocks of different colors.

She, however, decided to continue further ahead, away from the group. In these kinds of times, where order was temporarily dysfunctional, and where there was an active search for resources, there was always room for ‘unfortunate accidents’. Greedy eyes followed her for a moment, then returned to their rocks.

******

Thanks to his exceptional mana perception and physical capabilities, Mikael was able to catch sight of Kadre’s form under the moonlight, beside the crater left by the Godbeast when it first arose. After running for a very long while.

She was crouched over a heap of rubble, humming something tuneless.

“Good to see you are still alive, Kadre,” he greeted as soon as he got closer.

“Oh! You survived! If I had waited thirty more minutes, I would have gone all M.I.A on you, pretty boy.” She tossed a rock into her bag as she turned.

Kadre noted the bruises on his face, the dry streak of blood over his mouth. She concluded a fistfight or fight with a high class Ravager. The way he held himself, stiff in the shoulders and careful with every breath, told her it had been a little of both.

“You look like shit,” she remarked, now looking at his new clothes, now torn and burnt beyond recognition.

“Well, clothes can always be bought somewhere. So….” he sat on the ground. “What’s our plan from here on out?”

Kadre also paused her actions and sat, facing him.

“We leave before dawn. I’m pretty sure battalions would have surrounded the fort’s and the city’s perimeter as soon as the sun rises. Standard protocols for city susceptible to beast waves. Could become dangerous for me, at least for tonight. So we’ll depart before the sun’s first rays hit the ground.”

“And the rest of the itinerary?”

Kadre shrugged. “We’ll sort it out as we go. That’s the only viable way to go about things for now.”

Mikael sighed, resting a hand over his bruised ribs. “And may I ask what it is you are doing? Picking rocks?”

“Please, allow a lady her desires, kid.”

Too exhausted to drag words with the very sarcastic thief, Mikael shut his eyes and asked, “Will this take a while?”

Absent-mindedly, Kadre replied without even looking up, “Nope.”

Subconsciously, Mikael felt grateful. It was an understatement to say that he was burned out. Even Ragnarok no longer pulsed the way it had immediately after they had drained the Godbeast. Its hum had dulled to a sleepy murmur, like a beast sated and spent. The fight with General Rodain took a lot out of them both, literally. He heaved a sigh, before reclining on a rock.

Above him, the stars were slowly beginning to thin.

“I am tired.” He muttered.

REMEMBER!

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