Black String of Fate

Under the scorching midday sun, a carriage powered by mana engines rolled smoothly across an empty field. Inside the carriage, a large man and a young boy sat silently, their eyes closed in meditation.

While meditating, the boy suddenly opened his eyes in annoyance and looked at the man in front of him for a few moments, seeing the man have no reactions, he sighed and said,

"Alright, fine. I'll take care of it."

He pressed a button on the cart that stopped it and got out of the carriage while taking out his sword. He stood alone in the middle of nowhere, standing right beside a stopped cart.

"You guys need to learn how to hide better. It's pathetic to the point I don't even want to bother insulting you."

Xavier shouted these words out loud, and after a few seconds of silence, a few men emerged from the trees and bushes in the surroundings. They slowly approached, surrounding Xavier and the carriage in a circle.

"I don't know how you were able to find us, but you better hand over all your valuables, otherwise you might not walk out of here alive, kid."

The men around the one who spoke laughed, they all thought they had landed on some rich, helpless young master. Little did they know the one they were facing was quite literally the antithesis of that.

Xavier sighed in annoyance, he had gone through this many times already.

'Why are there so many bandits on these roads? How many has it been till now? And why do they speak the exact same lines over and over when they meet me? I swear, I've heard nothing original…

Well, let's not waste time.'

Xavier rushed in at speeds the bandit couldn't even react to. The highest among them was a Crafted Veteran. He tried to defend himself by raising his sword, but it was futile as his head rolled down with a single strike from Xavier.

He didn't even spare the severed head a second glance as he rushed toward others, overpowering and beheading them one-by-one. It was a completely one-sided battle. After killing them all, Xavier shook off the blood stuck to his sword and headed back inside. Find your next read at m_v l|e'm-p| y r

"You were 2 seconds slower, why?"

"I was distracted, but why are you asking? If you have a problem, go deal with them yourself."

"Remember, I'm the one who hired you, you can at least do the basic duties of a hired hand."

Arkham said these words with such ease that it disgusted Xavier,

"Tsk, my first impression was wrong, you're much more shameless than I expected."

Arkham just smiled and said,

"Haha, just call me wise and experienced, you'll know when you reach my age."

Xavier brushed off Arkham's weird behavior, he had gotten used to it by now.

'This guy's weird. He doesn't disturb me even a little bit if I say I'm training, but every other time he tests my patience by making me do almost all of the menial chores. He told me that this was the least I could do for him as a favor, but I'm starting to doubt that he only wanted an errand boy and I just happened to be nearby…

Well, we're gonna reach a town soon, I'm gonna unwind there.'

Xavier sat back into the carriage and rolled off into the sunset. He knew that these were the rare days of relative peace he was gonna get, so he wanted to make damn sure that nothing ruined it for him.

But unfortunately, something did.

**********

"The fire princess has escaped. What the hell were you guys doing for this to happen?"

Inside a shady, abandoned shed surrounded by filth, three black men stood around a makeshift table. On the table was a map and two gems that looked eerily similar to the ones Arkham had.

"I apologize, we underestimated her combat prowess. We were prepared for her to use the flames of the Pyriel tribe, but she was skilled in physical combat too. Our warriors and mages were overpowered by her."

"Tsk, I even told you not to skimp out on hiring strong guys, but you bastards are so preoccupied with lining your own pockets… Now go, find her and bring her here. I don't care what methods you use, she has to be captured as soon as possible, otherwise, we all will die."

The three men, though their faces were covered by a hood, had grim looks. They knew exactly what kind of risk they were dealing with, and any kind of mistake could spell their doom.

"She must've gone to the nearest town to her. That's the only sensible place where she could go with her food and energy reserves."

"Hmm, then that means she can be at Sehal town, Eriri town, or Udan town. Any further than that seems unlikely. Let's split up and look for her in each of these towns. If anyone is to find her, they will contact the other two before engaging. With access to a town, if she somehow escapes again, it'll be near impossible to find her."

The other two men nodded, and soon, they disappeared out of the shed without leaving any traces, as if they were never there.

***********

"Oho, look at that. It's Sehal town!"

Xavier looked out of his window as he took in the beauty of this town. Being more inside the border and being a relatively safe area, the town had prospered much more than Lehoria. He observed that there were a lot of merchants coming in and out of the town gate.

"Is this a trade center, by any chance?" Xavier asked Arkham with curiosity, who replied back,

"Yeah, Sehal, being one of the safer and peaceful towns, is in an ideal location to be a trade center. In fact, this place is more like a city, but all of this is a recent happening of the new trade routes being established, so it's still stuck to its old name."

"Oho, for a muscle-brain, you're quite knowledgeable."

"What did you call me?"

"You heard me, you muscle-brained child exploiter. Let's hurry, I wanna get some drinks…"

Arkham was slighted and wanted to say something, but when he heard Xavier's last words, he made a nasty smile as he said,

"You want to drink, huh? I know a great tavern around here, let's go there tonight."

Xavier suspiciously looked at Arkham for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and moving on. It wasn't worth the effort to understand his antics.

The guards at the gate stopped and asked Xavier and Arkham about their reason for visit and every other formality, and this being a quest made it easier and quicker. They were welcomed with open arms, especially when Arkham leaked some of his presence.

"Hey, can't we just live like a king for our time here with just you showing off your aura? Think about it, why live in those shabby inns when you can sleep in the comfiest bed the town has to offer?"

Arkham looked at Xavier in a weird way as he said,

"Hey, something like that is an abuse of power, is it not? Would you have done that if you possessed the power I have right now?"

Xavier innocently looked at his eyes as he replied in the most obvious tone possible,

"Of course, if I have power, why shouldn't I use it? It's not like it's something I have been given for free, I have trained hard for it. I deserve to use it to my advantage, as long as it does not cross my moral lines."

Arkham was silent at this statement for a while, before he opened his mouth and said,

"You know, you become more and more unfathomable the more I talk to you."

Xavier just shrugged and replied,

"I'm a genius, it ain't that easy to understand me."

Arkham sighed and decided to ignore Xavier's suggestion and head to a regular inn. He heard Xavier click his tongue, so he replied,

"I'm the one sponsoring this trip, you know? You can stay at the expensive inns if you want to."

"Fine, that's where I am going."

"Yeah, yeah, okay. Go on."

Arkham brushed him off and started walking ahead, before realizing that Xavier was not following him for real. He looked back and saw Xavier going for the top hotel in this town.

'...How can he even afford that? They charge like 2k a day… Oh wait, I forgot that he's actually rich. He still lives like a broke boy, but he's loaded with maybe more money than me…

Damn, I should fix up my life a bit.'

Xavier, of course, ignored all of that and went inside the top-class hotel of the merchant town. When he went inside, he saw old merchants dressed lavishly and young masters sitting around with a cup of wine in one hand and beauties in another.

All eyes turned to him the moment he entered. After all, he did not exactly look rich enough for this place.