Chapter 179: 115. The Hoofbeats on Klein Mountain (6000)
The carriage soon drove out of the downtown area of Saint Nali, moving northeast towards the outskirts of Saint Nali City.
The overall terrain of Saint Nali is higher in the north and lower in the south, with nine rivers flowing from the northern mountains, seven of which flow from northwest to southeast, while only Klein River and Balam River flow northeast to south.
The peaks to the northeast are notably lower in elevation than those in the northwest; beyond Klein Mountain, slightly north of Klein River, lies the vast Nali Lake, after which the entire Nali Kingdom is named.
It has been previously mentioned that the royal tombs of the Godlin Royal lie in the suburbs of Saint Nali University, near Nali Lake.
Next to Nali Lake, which is a royal private territory, are not only the royal tombs of generations of kings but also the treasury collection hall containing Godlin royal treasures and the royal library housing numerous books.
In ancient times, this was the treasury of Nali. Since the reform that diminished the powers of the Golden Palace, it has become more of a symbolic memorial museum, rarely open to outsiders, except during New Year or Godlin Festival when it opens to the public.
This year is quite special since Godlin the Ninth’s life is nearing its end, and the Golden Palace has neither the energy nor resources to host such events.
Fisher’s carriage is heading towards Klein Mountain, passing by Saint Nali University. Jasmine sits in the carriage, watching the university grow further away. She only withdraws her gaze when she sees the empty “Southern Continent Subhuman Protection Association,” quietly moving to the front of the carriage to open a small gap, looking at Fisher who is driving the carriage.
“Fisher.”
“Mm?”
Behind, a small animal-like voice prompts Fisher to glance over at her eyes and asks,
“What is it?”
Jasmine pouted her lips and then shook her head, saying,
“Nothing, I just wanted to say thank you, Fisher, for helping me so much. I really have nothing to offer you in return. If it weren’t for you, I would have been lost after being expelled from school. The human world is so complicated for me, although I really enjoy being around Milica, Isabel, and you.”
Upon hearing this, Fisher quietly turned his head to look at the scenery ahead. The carriage was moving slowly, giving a leisurely feel.
In the distance, Klein Mountain, from which Klein River flows, gradually came into view. It was just the beginning of autumn, and many trees on the mountain were still lush with leaves.
“There’s no need to thank me. Though it’s hard to admit, humans tend to lack pure goodness, and I am no exception. Initially, I helped you conceal your identity to satisfy my personal curiosity about subhuman studies. Later, I started helping you because I learned that your aunt could create relics, a skill long lost to the world, which piqued my interest. As for helping you now…”
“Perhaps it’s because I was enraged by the constant attacks from the old nuisances behind the Pink Pavilion and lured in by you, this beautiful whale girl.”
Jasmine, hiding in the carriage, felt her face flush at Fisher’s words, her ears immediately flapping. Just as her tail wanted to swish in excitement, she remembered this carriage was rented at some expense by Fisher and froze, holding it still in mid-air.
In fact, she and Fisher both had frugal habits. When she first came ashore, she had absolutely no concept of human currency and relied solely on scholarships from Saint Nali University for meals, often leaving the restaurant barely satisfied.
Now, being able to eat freely with Fisher made her worry whether the money she had given to him for food was enough, still thinking about whether she should eat less and be more frugal.
With these extra thoughts on her mind, Jasmine began to worry about Fisher’s expenses as well.
“Fisher, do you think I’m pretty?”
That soft question came through a slightly opened doorway as Jasmine had already removed the cloak draped over her shoulders, allowing Fisher to see her impressive figure and innocent yet beautiful face.
There was some uncertainty, but her gaze remained fixed on Fisher as if wanting to hear him say the answer, Jasmine inquired.
“Yes.”
“…Hehe.”
Just that single word from Fisher made her smile foolishly; she then completely closed the carriage door, and a collision sound was heard from inside, though it was unclear whether it was her tail or body that accidentally bumped against the door.
“We’re almost at our destination. My training will be very rigorous from now on, so I hope you’re prepared.”
However, Fisher’s tone turned a bit serious afterward, and Jasmine felt as if she had returned to Fisher’s class.
“Yes, Teacher Fisher!”
Inside the carriage, Jasmine responded loudly, but soon she seemed to realize something, softly repeating, this time switching her address from “Teacher Fisher” back to just “Fisher.”
The carriage rocked and soon arrived at Fisher’s destination. At the foot of Klein Mountain, a river cascaded down the mountain and merged at the base, flowing towards the downtown area of Saint Nali.
After properly stopping the carriage, Fisher untied the reins of the horses, leading them to a grassy area to graze, and after confirming that no one was around, he helped Jasmine down.
They walked a short distance into the mountain and set up camp by a small creek, where the visibility was good. Standing at the cliff’s edge, they could clearly see the direction of Klein River in the distance.
However, observing Klein River was not the main focus; the priority was to stabilize Jasmine, this uncertain factor.
The previous instruction to Jasmine had been entirely theoretical, and Fisher held doubts about whether Jasmine could truly master balance. Nonetheless, her mother was a gifted flow athlete, so he figured her daughter couldn’t be too far behind.
Fisher returned to the open forest, holding his staff and speaking to Jasmine in front of him,
“Now, let’s test your stability.”
“Mm!”
Jasmine nodded seriously, focusing on Fisher, but after responding to him instinctively, she tilted her head in confusion and asked,
“Huh? Test stability, how—”
Before she could finish her sentence, the staff beside Fisher suddenly glowed brightly, and phantasmal threads along with humming rings appeared around him.
“Whap!”
Without a word, he waved his hand at Jasmine; the spinner extended along the ground like a whip, rushing towards her with a crackling sound.
“Ah!”
Jasmine’s pupils contracted; she instinctively hugged her head and huddled down, remaining motionless, waiting for the worst.
Fisher’s gaze turned into that of a dead fish, pulling the magic away from her, but the Dance of Bees and the spinner brushed past her body. Feeling the wind generated by the magic and the sound of it, her body trembled even more.
Seeing Jasmine’s “poor, small, and helpless” appearance, Fisher showed no mercy and spoke,
“Jasmine.”
“Yes, yes!”
“What do you mean by staying completely still? Are you waiting for me to use magic to chop off your head?”
“B-but, if it comes to fighting, I will lose control… then the curse will—”
Having grasped the operational condition of the whale folk’s blessing and curse, Fisher looked at the shrinking Jasmine, unconcerned with her excuses, and ruthlessly exposed her,
“When you enter that state, you are conscious. It’s not that you cannot control yourself; fundamentally, you always feel fear when encountering enemies and instinctively want to flee. You have said that when the curse’s power becomes too overwhelming, your accompanying sea beast will suffer, leading you to a deadly conclusion. Yet, you still want to escape. When will you be ready to face this yourself?”
“You can avoid facing humans, avoid those monsters, avoid being captured, but how will you find your aunt? Relying on that curse that can lose control at any time? Or will you place all hope on my help?”
Fisher’s cold reprimand made Jasmine nervously press her lips together, but this time she didn’t respond. She wiped the corners of her eyes and stood up, adopting a combat stance facing Fisher, clearly indicating that she wanted him to go again.
Fisher’s teachings were succinct. This time, the light on his staff reignited, and the same magic rushed forth to attack her again.
Fisher’s reminder took effect, and she finally no longer huddled foolishly but struggled to run sideways, avoiding the attack.
Seeing her awkwardly tailing out while swaying like a fish, Fisher knew she wasn’t giving it her all.
Previously, when the curse controlled her body amidst the spatial magic of the Pink Pavilion, her physical strength alone had been enough to smash through the walls of that building, to say nothing of the speed that rivaled swimming in the sea.
Her progress was slow, which Fisher expected. He didn’t hope to ignite her potential with a few words; otherwise, his training would be meaningless.
Fisher decided to increase the intensity, pulling the phantasmal threads to hasten towards Jasmine. She was caught by the threads when she moved slowly, and though the force was much stronger than usual, it still didn’t reach its peak.
Fisher’s gaze slightly shifted, and countless threads spread out again, engulfing Jasmine like a large net, ensnaring her entirely.
“Yip!”
She made a cute sound as if to plead for mercy, but Fisher showed no mercy. Countless rapidly spinning Dance of Bees sliced through trees and streams, heading straight for her.
Seeing the approaching Dance of Bees, Jasmine’s mind went blank with fear; everything she had learned about balance flew out of her mind as she panicked, closing her eyes. The next second, streams of dark light began to flow from her eyes, though the amount of curse was not as much as that night, indicating it was still within a normal range, especially since Fisher wasn’t as terrifying as the human-worm from the Healing Room.
However, Jasmine couldn’t hold back her instinct to escape, and the curse took over her body. In the next moment, her hair turned black, and the softness in front of her shrank again. When she opened her eyes, her gaze was filled with a greedy aggressiveness directed at Fisher, instinctively wanting to tackle him and drag him back to the sea.
She took a deep breath, causing nearby branches to shake wildly like a whirlpool; this was the moment when Jasmine, the whale folk, or perhaps the prophesied doomsayer, unleashed her full power.
But just as Fisher had said, once she entered this state, she would completely lose her rationality, indiscriminately attacking everything around her.
Jasmine was like wielding a peerless sword; every time she swung it, she gripped the blade instead of the hilt, which meant harming her enemy while injuring herself in equal measure.
After inhaling a breath of air, she suddenly grasped Fisher’s spinner, ripping it apart.
In the next moment, Jasmine leaped into the air, gracefully and powerfully like an orca breaching the surface, droplets of water splashing onto Fisher’s face. The next second, she dove down, charging past the Dance of Bees Fisher had launched towards him.
Her face exhibited a fierce blend of hunting and mating instincts, canines protruding like fangs, and she reached Fisher in an instant.
Fisher’s expression changed; his dragonkin physique activated fully. He abruptly threw the nearby staff aside, lowered his center of gravity, and spread his arms horizontally, welcoming Jasmine’s approach.
This dance-like motion contrasted sharply with Fisher’s calm demeanor, for this move was not inherently his skill.
It was a demon’s combat technique written by Eil for Fisher to learn. Fisher had practiced it in front of her many times before, but she had never been satisfied.
Now that so much time had passed, Fisher’s understanding of these combat techniques had deepened. However, this was still the first time he would apply this technique practically.
Fisher’s eyes flickered; seizing the moment Jasmine drew near, he hooked his open hands forward, quickly wrapping around her waist, denying her any time to react as he pivoted, flipping her upside down and hurled her to the ground.
“Boom!”
With the enhanced strength of his dragonkin, this move produced significant damage, creating a large crater in the ground. Jasmine’s whale tail twitched slightly, but the dark curse in her eyes seemed to have been repelled by Fisher’s force, revealing her original light blue gaze.
This was the first time Fisher fully executed Eil’s fighting method. During training, he had always thought the bizarre movements outlined in Eil’s materials were mere “demon dance homework,” as many of the poses looked unusual and dance-like. Now, applied against an uncontrolled Jasmine, they proved surprisingly effective.
At that moment, Jasmine, lying in the crater, felt a bit of moisture in her eyes. Facing yet another instance of loss of control, she hesitated to look directly into Fisher’s eyes and apologetically murmured,
“I’m so sorry, Teacher Fisher.”
It seemed that her sense of guilt caused her to revert back to addressing him as “Teacher Fisher” once again.
Fisher shook his head, extending a hand to her and saying,
“Get up. I didn’t expect you to achieve balance in one go. Progress gradually is fine. But you must understand, we don’t have much time; you need to put in more effort.”
“Mm.”
Fisher helped her up while explaining and looking at the afternoon sun, obscured by branches, pondering his plans. He turned to Jasmine and said,
“Let’s tidy up the campsite first. I brought camping tools from home. Later, we will go hunting, which will also help train you. Just a reminder, if you can’t catch any prey, dinner may be at risk.”
Hearing that dinner could be in jeopardy, Jasmine felt quite anxious and pressed her lips together, as if undergoing some enormous test, and decisively nodded in agreement.
Her enthusiastic demeanor led Fisher to wonder if he should change his training methods. He understood the principle of tailoring approaches—for example, Rafael required a provoking method; was there a possibility that Jasmine could respond better to a method oriented around “based on Jasmine”?
Merely kidding around, Fisher thought this approach couldn’t fundamentally change her tendency to fear avoidance, and he quickly abandoned that notion.
Later, after some time, Fisher looked contentedly at the erected campsite in the woods, their resting point for the past few days nearly complete.
Fortunately, since autumn began, Saint Nali hadn’t seen much rain, alleviating worries of their campsite being flooded like in summer.
After settling the campsite issue, Fisher planned to take Jasmine into the mountain to find some wild animals for dinner.
The ecology around Klein Mountain was healthy, and since it was a private territory belonging to the Godlin Royal, few hunters ventured here.
Nali had no wildlife protection laws, but in reality, rushing into the mountains without sufficient preparations could very well lead to death. One couldn’t rely on the Nali Police to come to the rescue; they wouldn’t even know which year or month your remains might be discovered.
Fisher’s outdoor exploration abilities were excellent. He had been capable of proficiently using firearms since his time at the Royal Academy, compounded by the knowledge needed to study subhumans, relying on numerous notes left behind by adventurers of the exploration era, many of which detailed ways to survive in the wilderness, so Fisher was relatively experienced.
Not to mention, he had successfully driven a carriage through the wilderness of the Southern Continent before.
In this hunting expedition, Fisher did not initiate any actions; he was merely responsible for tracking signs of prey. The actual capturing process was up to Jasmine, with Fisher following her closely to ensure her safety.
“Mm, there’s likely a [Cynel Wild Boar] ahead. It’s a species of wild boar with a large head, a small body, and very long tusks. This wild boar is fairly aggressive and would be perfect for training; tonight’s dinner will be him.”
“Wild boar?”
Jasmine was entirely unfamiliar with the land animals, and upon hearing Fisher describe the beast, the taste of roasted chicken first appeared in her mind. Then, she became curious about what this wild boar would taste like and whether it would be good.
After instinctively swallowing, she nodded at Fisher and dashed towards that direction.
Fisher took his time in following; they were currently near the peak of Klein Mountain, and from this angle, looking north revealed a large lake peacefully resting before the mountains, resembling a black eye gazing at the sky.
That was Nali Lake, the place where Godlin the First had sent troops. The lake appeared to be enclosed, but if you looked further north, a river extended into the Southern Ocean, though it was not in the direction of Saint Nali.
Beside the lake were court facilities made for royal vacations, villas, the Royal Library, and the treasury collection hall—all of which were currently closed off, with many Royal Soldiers stationed to guard the areas leading into the mountains.
Seeing the group of soldiers in white uniforms, Fisher withdrew his gaze and gradually caught up with Jasmine’s steps ahead.
Before long, he saw Jasmine cautiously gazing towards the bushes up ahead from behind a cluster of trees.
Looking towards those bushes, a slender, red pig-like creature stood, roughly knee-height to an adult. Its back was adorned with many wavy strands of white hair.
The white patterns resembled the Shivali traditional pattern known as the [Cynel Pattern]. Moreover, this type of pig was distributed both in Nali and Shivali jurisdictions, hence it was named the Cynel Wild Boar.
Jasmine felt a bit nervous, instinctively afraid of the wild boar’s long tusks. However, recalling Fisher’s advice, she understood she could not keep avoiding battle, nor could she continue to flee from her fears.
She had to face it.
Jasmine mustered herself for a fair while, then picked up a huge log beside her. In reality, she had quite a bit of strength. She focused intently on the wild boar, not even realizing that she could effortlessly lift the log higher than herself.
In Fisher’s view, she slowly raised the log in her hand, took a deep breath, and then aimed the log at the wild boar, gradually standing up.
“Swoosh!”
Just as Jasmine was about to charge forward with the log, a sharp sound ripped through the air.
Fisher’s expression changed, and as he was about to rush to Jasmine’s side, the wild boar collapsed with a thud, an arrow’s feather jutting out from its neck. The force of the arrow had pierced through the wild boar’s neck.
Jasmine fell silent, warily looking in the direction from which the arrow had come. After a second or two, the sound of crisp hoofbeats echoed through the mountains.
Fisher’s expression shifted slightly because in the next moment, a familiar figure came running toward them from afar.
It was a female subhuman with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse. However, compared to when Fisher had first encountered her dressed in Nali’s long skirt, she was now wearing the tight-fitting garments she donned while running with Fisher.
She held a curved bow and carried a quiver, clearly the one who had just shot the arrow.
This centaur subhuman was Xiatu from the Southern Continent Subhuman Protection Association, who sang happily as she emerged from the bushes, only to spot Jasmine still dazedly holding up the enormous log.
Thinking she was about to be attacked, Xiatu’s expression shifted; she raised her hooves aimed at Jasmine and shouted in Nali,
“I am Xiatu, a centaur from the Southern Continent Subhuman Protection Association. Miss, though I don’t know what kind of subhuman you are, we are not enemies. As a last resort, we can share this wild boar; how about one half each?”
The overdue chapters have been completed! I need to take a break now.
I humbly request votes, tips, and support; they mean a lot to me.
Thank you very much for your support!
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(End of Chapter)
