AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Year 5, Summer, Second Month, Fourth Week

Under the scorching sun, a shadow blinked through the endless sand sea, sometimes unnoticeable but visible to those who looked carefully. The shadow moved at high speed, ignoring all obstacles. Stones, dunes, quicksand, and the eventual beasts, would at most earn a diversion from her.

Samia was tired of the desert, which wasn’t considered a true desert according to her gattered information. If the “true” desert was even drier and hotter than this, how could anyone survive there? The shadow element only had a protective effect against the sun, so the heat was still there.

The lack of trees to help her move above ground forced her to jump through the sand, which proved to be another source of discomfort and unwelcomed delay. Two days ago, the bat messenger arrived with a mission to check on the situation of the Beastkin frontier. Although the beast courier proved to be reliable, the Council decided to commission the capture of a faster flying best from the Hunter’s Inc. Either way, it could be years before they had other trained messengers, so she had to contend with the bat.

Due to the emergency of the task, Samia decided to use the LQ wind crystals she got from a few beasts wandering around the hideout. The wind booster was sure wasteful, but the information she gathered would be vital for negotiating with the independent tribes. However, even burning one and a half crystals, she took almost a day to travel 80 kilometers and reach the Beastkin camp.

Their numbers were unsurprisingly disappointing. By her rough estimations, they would amount to almost a tenth of the Kingdom’s forces stationed on the oasis. Even so, the Beastkin camp should have at least double of what their ex-village had. Samia couldn’t help but wonder if they would be capable of facing thousands of Serions’ soldiers with half of the Beastkin numbers. Actually, since only a small part of AK were trained to fight, they would be fighting against an army one hundred times bigger.

Fortunately, for now, they would only help the Beastkin with weapons and not fight directly. Hopefully, their enhanced weapons would be enough to turn the tides.

The tired special agent was thinking about stopping to recover some energy when she spotted the oasis. She pushed herself further and finally arrived at the entrance of the hideout.

To Samia’s relief, the stones that hid the underground room looked unchanged. After the standard search on the surroundings, confirming nobody was near, she activated the arrays and moved the stone to enter.

“Finally, I thought you died out there! You look like a nice lady, so you should release me and not leave me to starve.”

Instead of paying attention to the mumblings, Samia searched for any abnormalities inside the bunker. The magic restraints tying the boy shined in the usual blue of the bubble element, and the rest of the room seemed to be as she left it. Even so, she proceeded with caution and checked the restraints before relaxing.

“How’re your wounds?”

A hint of shame appeared in the boy’s expression before he answered.

“I’m fine… It’s practically healed… You should call me by my name. What’s yours, by the way?”

The awkward attempt of changing the subject didn’t escape her perception, but she couldn’t care less. If he was fine with the wounds, she wouldn’t be the one making a problem out of it.

A week after Samia saved him and treated his wounds with the healing ointment, the boy, who asked to be called Akino, finally woke up. Although he was restrained, he didn’t show any hatred towards her. Apparently, he understood his dire situation very well. Unfortunately, his calm response only made the agent more suspicious. Who would act like this while being maintained captive?

However, what Samia didn’t know was that Akino had lost all sense of liberty ever since he became an army slave. When he survived being used as a disposable shield and was promoted to the Fighters’ squad, a spark of hope ignited in his heart, only to be crushed by the reality of the abuses he would suffer later.

Akino wasn’t dumb. The ointment, the restraints, and the unusual place couldn’t be the army. Instead of being defensive, he decided to accept his fate and go with the flow. His only hope was that he wouldn’t have to kill for the Kingdom anymore.

***

“Where should they be? The message only said to meet them in the forest's borders, but that’s not very specific… Hey Arthur, can you cast a locating spell or something?”

Lana has been talking non-stop since they neared the forest, but that was just her way of dealing with the uncertainty and danger. Two weeks ago, she received a message from her uncle offering her an opportunity to open a new trade route. It has been four years since she became a Merchant, and now the chance to open her own route has finally come.

Unfortunately, nothing could be that easy. Otherwise, even she would suspect foul play. The trade route would connect the mysterious AP to the independent southern tribes through the Eastern Forest without entering the Kingdom, which meant crossing hundreds of kilometers of forest. The whole thing looked too dangerous and costly to be worth the gains, but she wouldn’t lose the chance to test it.

So, Lana left Twin Suns as soon as she could. Now, she was facing the forest without knowing where to go and what to expect. Her only consolation was that her uncle promised her a hefty commission, including access to those miraculous potions. In fact, she only accepted the commission because it included the potions, or else, how would she survive weeks in the wild?

For now, Arthur could keep pushing the magic energy away from them, but this would soon take a toll on the Mage. Since the first trip would require more time, they needed to save detoxifying potions and Mage’s strength, so she only brought Tauron and Arthur. The Spellcaster was her lifeline, and the Beastman would help with the negotiations.

“Do you have anything from the contact? You know that I can’t cast a locating spell without a specific target…”

Lana rolled her eyes as the Mage started to explain the specifics of the spell.

“Urgh… Who would have thought that an Enchanter would be so useless…”

“Who’s useless? Let me tell you…”

Before the pair launched themselves into one of their daily bickering episodes, a shadow jumped from the trees. Tauron was the first to react, moving forward with his mace prepared to strike the potential enemy, but the shadow stopped and said:

“Greetings… Keller sent me to lead the way to the tribes.”

Shadow one enjoyed playing mysterious and cryptic. He even tried to copy Samia’s actions while talking to others, especially outsiders. Lana quickly recovered from the sudden approach and analyzed the hooded figure carefully.

“Hi. How may I call you, sir? I had the pleasure of meeting your boss a couple of times… She’s your boss, right? You have the same… reserved approach.”

Shadow one almost coughed with the Merchant’s unexpected remarks. He felt like his attempt to act as a shadow had become childish in front of the cunning woman. Of course, Lana’s comment wasn’t aimed to ridicule the agent, just to put them back on the same page. As a Merchant, she knew too well the importance of leverage, even amongst allies.

The hooded figure nodded and told them to follow. Fortunately, she hadn’t brought her cart, or they would meet problems to move inside the forest so freely.

***

Once again, shadow one appeared out of nowhere and startled the group. Lana was pretty sure he was doing it on purpose, and one more time, she made a promised not to be surprised by the man in the future.

“The tribes are in less than a day of travel… There are three tribes close to here, and another eight spread 50 kilometers into the forest. One of them has Beastkin very similar to him…”

Lana exchanged a complex look with Tauron before replying.

“We know… That’s Tauron’s tribe. He still hasn’t decided if he wants to go there…”

“I do.”

Surprisingly, the Beastman spoke without a hint of indecision. He still kept his usual few-word behavior, but the pain in his voice was evident. The silence and staring made the situation a little awkward, but Lana decided to give Tauron the time to arrange his words and thoughts.

“You said that the tribe would benefit from the trade… I want to help them… I can’t go back, but I can do this…”

The Merchant stared at the Beastman apologetically.

“I see… Do you want to stay hidden and let us talk with them.”

“No. They wouldn’t trust Humans…”

***

“Tauron, is that you?”

The young Bull Beastman ran towards Tauron without considering what miracle brought him back after five years. However, he stopped midway when he saw the group behind the returnee.

“What? Who’re they? Why did you bring them here?”

The commotion soon attracted other Beastkin. It didn’t take long for a dozen spear-bearing Beastkin to appear. They pushed the curious away and formed a line between the others and Tauron’s group. As they say, nothing ever goes as planned.