Chapter 97 (2/2)

Like a falling leaf toppling in the wind, the s.h.i.+p moved in all directions at the mercy of the winds, getting seasick whilst in the air. If it weren’t for the restraints, many would have died on the spot.

“You should consider yourself lucky. The shaking in this part of the s.h.i.+p isn’t as bad as it used to be thanks to magical attunement.”

“This is?”

The shaking was so intense that you could hear the entire s.h.i.+p creaking. One would worry if the s.h.i.+p could actually survive, yet Mazelan called this the ‘better part.’

Mazelan answered Isaac, explaining the even worse h.e.l.l that existed.

“I’d guess where the agents of the Directorate of Security are right now is a living nightmare. You have no idea how bad things get whenever we lead a group of recruits into here. We at the very least can sit like this and look outside, but the agents must lie down on a bed and restrain themselves. Imagine if one of them fails to hold the sickness and throws up – only instead of watching it drip to the ground, it lands on their face. Because the s.h.i.+p shakes so much, the droplets of vomit are bound to splash all over the s.h.i.+p. So when one throws up, it starts a chain reaction, and even those who have been holding on gives in. It’s a constant cycle of throwing up and choking down vomit – and it most likely won’t be your own too.”

“Wow. It sounds disgusting.”

“Right? Thankfully for me, I had a short flight where we pa.s.sed through in just 1 hour, but I also heard those after me had the worst flight.”

“How long did it take them?”

“They caught the worst draft possible, catching the outermost wind of the storm. It took them about 3 days.”

“Uwah. Spending three days while tied up in this place? That’s one way to turn someone into a corpse.”

“Right? And you can’t even think of having a proper meal in here. Even worse is that you lose grip of your mind and can’t help yourself when it comes to excretion. Think about it. You are covered in your own p.i.s.s and feces. What a nightmare.”

“Wow! That’s horrible. Did you suffer through that too?”

Rivelia’s body shuddered when Isaac asked, as if she was remembering those nightmarish times. She grit her teeth and nodded. Isaac dashed his lips and cursed.

“What a shame. If I knew, I would have sent you to be with the agents.”

Mazelan snickered to Isaac’s muttering, while Rivelia stared daggers into Isaac with all her might. Isaac noticed Rivelia’s glare and changed the topic.

“But shouldn’t you come up with a different method at this point? Let’s say, hm… You place walls in between the beds to limit the damages as much as possible or something.”

“It’s true that such discussions have been brought up in the past, although all of them were rejected eventually.”

“Why’s that?”

Mazelan hesitated to answer Isaac, so Isaac redirected his eyes to Rivelia. Rivelia answered with the calm voice of hers.

“The reason is that it interferes with the camaraderie of the agents.”

“Camaraderie?”

Mazelan sheepishly smiled as he explained.

“You know these recruits are elites who think they are at the top of the world because they are graduates of the College, long before they were recruited into Central. And once they learn of the truth behind this world, it’s easy for them to grow overconfident and walk around like they are chosen ones. We then force them to cover themselves in their own puke and excrements together, be it man or woman. They would have seen each other at their lowest. There’s nothing better than that to crush their arrogance right? And the fact they suffered the same indecency gives them a bond. But imagine if we do put barriers between each other, and only those who couldn’t restrain themselves suffered. It’d only cause mutiny.”

“True, only those that threw up would be ridiculed.”

“Well, that’s the reason on the surface. The true reason is different.”

“The true reason?”

“Every agent from Central refused it.”

“Don’t tell me it’s that ‘You have to suffer it too because I did’ excuse.”

“Of course it is. I couldn’t help but agree after going through it myself.”

“I guess it does feel like you’ve been cheated.”

Humans wanted to be rewarded for their troubles. Mazelan snickered and continued.

“Shall I tell you something funny?”

“What?”

“Your brother.”

“Which one?”

“The vicious one, not the idiot.”

“Kainen?”

“Yeah, him.”

“Although I don’t feel sorry for him, he is a pitiful fella. But what about him?”

“Kukuku! He was in the team that took 3 days to pa.s.s through.”

“Puhahaha!”

Isaac burst out in laughter the moment Mazelan finished, and even Rivelia ducked her head to hide the slight change in her expression. Just imagining how that cold and vicious face of his would have changed after covered in excrement was pure joy.

Once Isaac had gotten used to the shaking to the point he could enjoy his cigarette in this turbulent s.h.i.+p, one last shock ran through the plane before everything went still.

“We’re out. It’s faster than I expected.”

Mazelan muttered as he took off the restraint and got on his feet. The others followed Mazelan and got on their feet as well.

“So we’ve arrived?”

“No, we’ll need to travel for 2 more hours to reach the gate.”

“I thought we were out of the mana storm?”

“We are out, I guess, since we’ve entered the eye of the storm.”

“What a desolate place…”

Isaac said as he looked down at the Forbidden Lands with a cigarette in his mouth. Looking at the grand, empty plain where not a single blade of gra.s.s existed gave him a gloomy feeling.

“It’s always unsettling no matter how many times I come here…”

Mazelan nodded with Isaac, when Rivelia came to them with two gla.s.ses of pumpkin-coloured wine. Isaac grabbed at it without a thought, but Mazelan was momentarily paralyzed, hesitant to take a gla.s.s before deciding to do so.

“Bring me some ice if there is any.”

“Yes sir.”

Mazelan saw Rivelia, the Vice-Director, being ordered around like a secretary. When she disappeared without a word back into the kitchen, Mazelan complained to Isaac.

“s.h.i.+t! I told you to take care of her, so why has she changed so much?”

“Heroes are solitude beings.”

“What bulls.h.i.+t is this?”

Isaac ignored Mazelan’s retort and leisurely sipped his wine. He looked down again before saying.

“It’s pretty empty.”

“The Forbidden Lands was once a human kingdom before the 7 Days of Calamity. It boasted of the continent’s most fertile land, and now it’s turned to this.”

“There’s an end to everything.”

Isaac muttered with a cigarette in his mouth. Mazelan glimpsed at Isaac and said.

“I’ll start you off with some warnings since we still have time before arriving at the base.”

“What’s that?”

“You can’t use magic in Forbidden Lands.”

“That’s got nothing to do with me then.”

“No mana exists in the Forbidden Lands. The reasons why are still a mystery, so don’t ask me. Anyhow, in order to use magic in this place, you have to use mana crystals.”

“So?”

Isaac replied half-heartedly, frustrating Mazelan. He growled as he continued.

“You know that mana crystals absorb mana from nearby right? So mana crystals that have been depleted of its mana can be recharged, although not to its original capacity. But in the Forbidden Lands, there is no mana. So the only way to use magic is to use the mana within these crystals. Therefore, the mana crystals that are supplying that coat you trust in so much depletes much more quickly in the Forbidden Lands.”

“I get that, but what does that have to do with me?”

Mazelan sighed and said.

“You have been causing incidents and making enemies everywhere. And that t.i.tle as Director of Security is also a problem. General Noxvil, the commander of the Gate’s garrison, is a sword master and has fought in three separate battles to defend the gate. He was also a close friend of Duke Lopez, now the former chief instructor of College.”

Isaac chuckled and smiled.

“Is he so high and mighty that he can go against Central’s orders?”

“He has the utmost regard for the rules and principles but…”

“That’s fine then. If he’s as hard-headed as you say then no matter how disgusting it is, he’ll come bowing since I rank higher. And if he’s just proud, then he wouldn’t like it if I grovel at him either.”

Mazelan sighed and shook his head.

“Anyway, this is all just a formality, and we’ll be leaving as soon as we are done with resupplying, so please stay out of trouble until then.”

“Then why’d you bring me to this place?”

“To quell the discontent, even if its effect will be minimal. I’ve already told you before, but Central’s in a bit of chaos because of your rise to Director. But if you were to skip the formality that all agents of Central go through, then there will be arguments that they cannot accept you as a Director. Which is why I will act and treat you as my superior when others are around.”

“Tsk tsk! You’re still lacking some basic formalities. The nerve to say that you’ll only act when I’m recognized as your superior…”

Isaac clicked his tongue and shook his head tauntingly. Before Mazelan could shout out, Isaac said.

“Ah! There’s a question I want to ask.”

“What’s that?”

In face of Mazelan’s cold answer, Isaac took out a new cigarette and said.

“You said that you guys made a path through the storm right?”

“I did.”

“Did you use an airs.h.i.+p back then too?”

“No. The airs.h.i.+ps had yet to be invented back then. So we had to pa.s.s through on foot.”

“Wow! You pa.s.sed through that horrendous thing on foot?”

“It was difficult. We had no choice but to place down signs as we progressed slowly. The signs were made to deflect the wind using magic, but since we couldn’t use mana, we had to use mana crystals to sustain it. Which was why our mana crystal expenditures were extremely high back then.”

“But all of that changed once airs.h.i.+ps were invented?”

“Yes. Although brutish, using airs.h.i.+ps allowed faster travel and significantly lowered the costs, so using the land route became obsolete. It was closed down.”

“But it must have been a h.e.l.l of a work to demolish all the signs.”

“No need. The signs would just stop functioning once its mana crystals ran out of mana.”

“I see.”

Isaac nodded as if he’d understood everything. When he grabbed for another cigarette, Isaac saw something at the edge of the horizon.

“That is?”

“We’re here. That’s the garrison for the Gate.”

“A hedgehog?”

Isaac muttered as the shape of the strange looking building became clearer. Mazelan said,

“We are just repurposing the castle of the kingdom that once existed in this land. These are the only buildings that exist in the Land of Beginning.”

“Didn’t you say the expeditionary forces made a camp last time?”

Isaac asked, and Mazelan answered with a somber expression.

“We don’t know how, but the location of the gate’s opening changed the last time. Since then, we decided to create and staff a garrison in the centre of this land in order to react in a timely fas.h.i.+on no matter where the gate opens.”

“We don’t know where the gate will open you say?”

“Yes. That’s why we suffered extreme casualties in the last battle. We almost lost every man in that defence.”

“So what’s the point of all those flags there?”

As the s.h.i.+p drew closer, one could make out the silhouettes of many flags stuck onto the castle. Some were vertical, while others were horizontal, and these flags practically covered the entire building. Although the flags did look cool flying in the air, it seemed rather hypnotic because of its sheer numbers.

Clang!

Isaac flinched when he heard gla.s.s shattering. Isaac turned to see Mazelan stiff as a stone as he stared at the castle.

“You surprised me. What’s wrong?”

“The flags… They are being flown.”

“I guess it’s quite windy today.”

“There is no wind in the Forbidden Lands.”

Isaac started to wonder why Mazelan was acting that way, his voice getting more shaky as he continued. Rivelia came to the observatory with a bucket of ice, and when she saw the flags flying, she threw the bucket in her hand and came right up against the window, her expression deathly serious. Isaac glimpsed at the two and asked.

“Is it bad if the wind is blowing?”

“… The only times the flags wave are when a gate is about to open.”

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