Novel Full Chapter 323 - Trust
The distance between Stahurt City and Lighthouse City was a few days’ drive, so before Hazor, Meredith and Luke had to go into town the next day to buy food, water, and a wagon. As they had a lot of money after the looting of the Church, buying all this was very easy.
Luke Lange also wanted to thank Everton and Norgold for their help, but he couldn’t find them. As there were already rumors about the city’s underground rumblings being spread across the city, Luke decided he wouldn’t have time to find the knights who chose to betray Sakan to help him and set the road ahead. Everyone in the trio was exhausted from the fights, so it would be a problem to have to deal with reinforcements from the demons.
As they were in the summer, they didn’t have any problems at the beginning of the trip. During the day they covered as much of the way as possible, and when night came, they let the two old horses rest.
Timing was crucial to their grand plan, and the half-wolf was very excited too. If the cursed items could indeed increase his vitality, this could probably be the only way to delay the final effect of the mana curse, which would be the death of his soul. Meredith prayed this would work out, for it would give them momentary relief.
One day, after breakfast, everyone was breaking camp and putting things back in the carriage, and Luke asked Hazor,
“Old man, how did you get into the Twelve Thrones? Like, do they throw you a little surprise birthday party or is it like a tea party?”
Meredith laughed a little at the way Luke asked, as did Hazor who smiled as he answered. “No, it wasn’t any of those ways. To become a member of the Twelve Thrones, it is necessary for you to defeat a member and take that person’s seat, in other words, his Throne.”
“Did you need to win a Throne too?” asked the half-fox, interested in the matter too.
“Yes, I defeated my father. He was old and I was young, but it wasn’t an easy battle. We Hazors have special gifts for spells. My father had the gift for mana control, to the point of materializing it, while I have the gift for creating illusions.”
The two half-beasts were quiet for some time, and just as Commander Hazor turned to look at why they had been quiet, he saw them dumbfounded looking at him.
“What’s it?” Hazor asked, not understanding.
“Isn’t your first name Hazor?” Meredith and Luke asked simultaneously.
“No, my first name is Kenrie.”
“But the hero Arani’s name was his last name, wasn’t it? I thought your full name was Hazor Arani.” It was clear to the half-wolf that the old man’s name was Hazor from when the Scales first mentioned him.
“Arani is my father’s maiden name. However, since I was just a child he knew that the world was changing, and that carrying the Arani surname and the genes of the last hero in my blood could someday kill me, so my mom and dad decided that I would inherit the title her last name: Hazor.”
*Thuff, Thuff!*
The old man patted the cloth tarp he’d placed across the back of the wagon twice, in order to protect the food from the wind.
“We are ready, we have to go on our journey.” said Hazor.
The half-wolf climbed into the front seat and took the horse’s lead. Hazor and Meredith sat beside him, because the bench was spacious.
“So what’s the story with you two? What brought you to the point of fighting demons in another nation?” Hazor asked as the horses started pulling the cart.
“The story is a little long, are you sure you want to know?” replied Meredith. She knew Luke didn’t much like to talk about the past, not because he was embarrassed, but because their pasts revealed their weaknesses.
“We have enough time, I believe. Stahurt is still two days away because this is not the main route.” The old man was really interested in the past two half-beasts.
“Right…Luke and I and a few other friends used to be thieves on the streets of Oukiwa. We started out stealing fruit at the fairs…”
At the same time Meredith was counting, Luke Lange remembered those old memories with a heat in his chest, and he remembered perfectly the day in question that Meredith was talking to Hazor. Typically, they followed a tactic to steal food from marketers, which involved distracting them to steal food directly from the marketers’ blind spot.
Meredith was a pretty little girl with a face, but her ears and tail drew a lot of unwanted attention, so Luke always tried to leave her out of the plans, however, that one day she insisted so much that the half-wolf eventually gave in to her will.
“So pay close attention. Luke will go behind the stalls to steal as much of the fruit crates as he can. Me and Meredith are just going to be whispering in front of the target tent, it will make the potbellied old woman suspicious of us.” Matthew explained with poise and determination. “After Luke manages to get everything he will whistle, this will be the signal for us to walk calmly away from the tent, all right?”
“Understood!” Meredith and Luke nodded and walked out of the abandoned house they called home, near a dirty stream in Undercity.
Shiro and Sarah watched as they left and began to pray for them to return home safe and with food. Of course, this time they had Meredith on their side, who was the shrewdest person in the group when it came to imminent danger, so they would probably be fine.
As expected, the whole plan went very well in the beginning. Matthew and Meredith approached the hooded tents and stared at the fat, cross-eyed old woman in the tent while whispering whatever words came to their minds. The half-wolf crept behind the tents and as there was a lot of noise in Middle City, he was not heard.
Luke Lange stuck his head inside the apple, pear, and guava stall and saw that the woman’s eyes were fully focused on Meredith and Matthew.
The owner of that tent had never seen the half-fox before, but the brown-haired boy with white streaks was someone her eyes were already wary of. Whenever this boy appeared, fruit disappeared. As she recognized Matthew, as soon as she saw him, she made the final move for her eldest son, in the front tent, to act.
Meredith noticed the big-bellied old woman’s gaze, especially the sign the old woman made, and warned Matthew, who didn’t believe her words. They always made that same plan and nothing ever went wrong, it wouldn’t be all of a sudden that everything would fall apart, after all, the woman had no evidence to call the guards for the children.
However, the old woman’s son was not a guard, not even an adventurer, he was just a very large, idiotic man whose brain was so small that he would do whatever his mother told him to do, and that included pushing some children away. The big man ran towards Meredith and Matthew as soon as he noticed the old woman’s sign, at the same time he screamed like a ferocious bear, which caught the attention of everyone on the street, especially the children.
Instinctively, Matthew shielded Meredith, stepping in front of her and opening both arms wide. Matthew didn’t even think much about what was happening, nor did he try to fight or flee, because the man was huge and he was already very close. However, Matthew was very lucky that Luke was more attentive than usual as it was Meredith’s first time in a robbery with them.
Inside the fruit stand, the half-wolf picked up an apple and threw it as hard as he could. The apple exploded in the idiot man’s face, causing him to fall backwards from the impact.
The landlady looked at Luke, and Luke looked at her. The half-wolf could see the woman’s pale face turn into a pepper in a single second. She tried to grab him, but Luke was naturally fast even before Yoelona’s training, so he jumped up and used the woman’s own head as a springboard to jump even farther. Consequently, they managed to get away easily after that, as both the disgusting mother and the idiot son had been totally bewildered.
Hazor smiled listening to this story from Meredith’s mouth, who told it with care and affection.
Yes, it was sad that they had to steal to survive, but this was a reality all over the world, people had risked their lives for hundreds of years to advance in the Dungeons, but street kids couldn’t try their luck in the Dungeons, so just they only had to steal from others to survive.
On top of that, Meredith didn’t stop at that one story, throughout that day she told about many things about them and Hazor also shared some of her stories. As they set up camp that night, Hazor no longer felt like he was alone, and it had been a long time since that feeling left him.