Chapter 530: 8. Ashore
The stars in the Southern Continent at night were as usual, the vast river of stars appeared spectacular against the backdrop of a night sky with few clouds.
To the beings looking up from below, the sky seemed like a black disc continuously rotating with the stars, showcasing the mystery of everything’s return.
This wasn’t Fisher’s first time seeing such a night. In the past, when he traveled through the Southern Continent with Raphael and a group of Dragon Folk in a carriage, he could witness such beautiful nights every evening.
Now, without Raphael by his side, the only one to enjoy the night with him was Emhart.
Hmm, however, in such a beautiful scene, this guy showed absolutely no sign of appreciation.
In the wilderness, Fisher built a simple fire pile using some dry branches he collected, continuously throwing in pieces of wood he had chopped. The nights in the Southern Continent were cold, and while he, as a mythical rank being, felt no chill, he still had a real human girl with him, so this fire was prepared for her.
Nearby, Emhart was lying on the ground, seemingly recollecting something, with pages in his stomach flipping, flashing lines of golden light, and muttering incoherent phrases like “that damn Baemon” and “she must have set her sights on us.”
Just like when he was in the Northern Region, after what had just happened, Emhart’s vigilance towards Baemon, who was Hela, increased significantly. He even began to suspect that Baemon might be hiding somewhere in this wilderness, secretly observing their every move.
Meanwhile, Fisher took out the Fluid Sword from his embrace, attempting to make it stand upright again.
Since it was polluted by Chaos in the Ideal Nation, the Fluid Sword had become excessively soft and hadn’t stood up since, no matter how Fisher called it, as if it had been broken by Chaos.
To be fair, Fisher was quite fond of this item that was gifted by Ramastia; it was very handy and could be used in almost all scenarios except for inscribing magic.
“Thud thud~”
After calling it again and receiving no response, Fisher had no choice but to give up.
Perhaps Jasmine, the Whale Folk who could communicate with Ramastia, would know what to do, but he didn’t know where she was sleeping in the ocean. He would wait until he had the chance to meet her.
Right now, the top priority was to hurry to Raphael’s side in the southern part of the Southern Continent.
“Fisher, come here quickly, I have something to tell you.”
Just as Fisher was deep in thought, Emhart’s call suddenly reached his ears, causing him to turn his head.
“What’s wrong?”
“Hurry up and come here.”
Fisher had no choice but to get up and go over. Only then did he realize that this guy had been holding a branch in his mouth which he now spat out; it seemed he had been using that to write something earlier.
By the light of the fire, Fisher looked down and saw neatly arranged Nali characters with a title,
“Defense Strategy Against Baemon!!!”
There were three punctuation marks emphasizing it.
“What is this?”
“It’s our guiding strategy for the next actions!”
Emhart spoke with confidence, floating back onto Fisher’s shoulder, and continued,
“The one who tried to intercept us in the factory earlier must be a mythical rank being, and belongs to Nali or at least temporarily associated with Nali. You have no objections, right?”
“No.”
“Good, based on the currently known elements of ‘you recklessly trying to court Baemon, and Baemon has set her sights on you’ and ‘this Baemon is extremely evil, terrifying, and powerful,’ I propose a fundamental principle: any strange incidents we encounter now are definitely 100% related to Baemon!”
“…”
“Nali is a human nation! In just a few years, they actually have one of these beings of mythical rank, which even in our time could only be found in those two mythical species. Now there’s one in the Nali army. Even if there’s a slim chance that Nali just got lucky, and someone among the humans has advanced to mythical rank, we must assume all of this is Baemon’s conspiracy!”
Emhart analyzed with righteousness and went on,
“And I would rather believe that Empress Elizabeth suddenly became lenient and doesn’t care about your mess with other ladies than to believe that humans suddenly experienced a surge and produced mythical ranks. So, assuming all of this is Baemon’s conspiracy, Fisher, you have to be careful! This guy loves to disguise herself as someone you can’t see through to deceive you and lure you into the abyss! Anyone you meet could be her shadow, including those ladies with whom you have a close relationship. Do you understand?”
“So on the journey ahead, we can only trust each other! And every person you meet from now on could be Baemon. Whatever they say to you could be something that Baemon wants you to do. Only in this way can we minimize the influence of Baemon. While it might seem limited, it’s better than nothing. You don’t want the lady lying next to you to turn into that guy, do you? Right, Fisher?”
Hmm.
Honestly, although he had many questions to ask Hela, he didn’t seem to care about her lying beside him, as he was deeper inside himself.
“Bang bang!”
Seeing Fisher’s lack of response, Emhart was furious, feeling betrayed, and quickly bumped Fisher’s head with his book body.
“You guy! You half-body driven guy! Wake up! You can’t let that Baemon brainwash you, or you’ll really be in deep trouble!”
Fisher, amused, caught him and nodded, saying,
“I know, I will be cautious and wary of her until I clarify everything.”
“Clarifying won’t do!! That guy is a terrible liar. You can’t distinguish her lies from the truth. You might take everything she says as true when they could all be lies or dismiss what sounds true. Regardless, if you listen to her words, you will fall into misery!”
For some reason, Fisher suddenly recalled Hela’s appearance when she was on the verge of death in the chaotic ocean, squinting her eyes, barely lifting the Holy Grail she had fought so hard to take back before being swallowed by death.
Could that have possibly been self-deception, just like she told herself that Cupid was the symbol of angelic love?
Whether or not it was deception could be set aside for now; what surprised Fisher was that when he assumed Hela might be deceiving him, he felt no aversion towards it.
Could it be that he was infected by that evil angel, lowering his tolerance threshold for her?
“Uh.”
At that moment, Ingrid, resting on the grass beside Fisher, slightly fluttered her eyelashes.
She covered her face, then slowly opened her eyes a little, seemingly waking up from some kind of nightmare, but all she saw upon opening her eyes was a sky full of stars and a warm fire in the distance. Hmm, and that old man who didn’t seem human.
“You’re awake?”
“I… Where am I?”
“In the wilderness.”
Fisher was forced to interrupt his thoughts, turning back with a poker face towards the intern reporter.
“You fainted earlier, broke a few bones, and I helped you reattach them. You should be fine now.”
On his shoulder, Emhart also turned to look at her, but for some reason, Ingrid felt that the gaze contained a strange vigilance and scrutiny, as if worried that she was some monster in human skin.
Hey, clearly the guy standing on your shoulder is the one resembling a monster. Is there anything more terrifying than that guy for you, broken book?
Ingrid, feeling uneasy under scrutiny, awkwardly touched her body, but fortunately, amid this action, she no longer felt the twisted pain from the bones.
She finally let out a sigh of relief, then thanked Fisher.
“Thank you, old man! By the way, where’s my recording camera?!”
“Next to you.”
Ingrid quickly looked in the direction Fisher pointed, hurriedly picking up what looked like a treasured camera and checking the photos inside.
“Great, great, I got everything!”
Seeing her excitement, Fisher couldn’t help but pour cold water on her enthusiasm, saying,
“Though I don’t want to kill your excitement right now, you’d better not bring back what you captured earlier to publish in Shivali’s newspaper. As you saw, the defenses and production details of that factory are crucial to Nali and are highly confidential. If you publish the contents back home, it will definitely cause an uproar in the Western Continent and might invite fatal consequences.”
As Ingrid listened, she drooped her head like a quail that had been badly beaten. She pouted, not saying a word in rebuttal, because she still had some sense left in her head to know that Fisher was right.
Seemingly feeling a bit cold, she moved a bit closer to the fire Fisher had lit and put on her beret that she had taken off earlier. Observing this, Emhart quickly floated up and landed on another shoulder away from Ingrid, then began to scrutinize her.
Stare.
Ingrid, roasting by the fire, looked down at her camera, then at Fisher, saying,
“Old man, you… you wouldn’t be a cyborg that crawled out from Nali, would you? And the one in that factory was another cyborg, so that’s why you two were fighting so… exaggeratedly?”
“I’m not; I’m a normal human.”
“Right, right.”
Ingrid pouted, clearly not believing him, but still politely nodded.
After a while, she suddenly asked,
“Hey, old man, can I report on you? I happen to have captured a bit of your photos.”
“Feel free.”
Fisher initially couldn’t be bothered, but then thought about it carefully; it would be disastrous if Elizabeth saw it.
From her perspective, he had clearly promised to return to Nali four and a half years ago, but not only had there been no news for so long, he just happened to appear in the Southern Continent, not knowing where he was running off to.
His whereabouts must not be exposed to Elizabeth’s view before he decided to return to Nali; if he were discovered, it would be a huge problem.
Having thought of this, he abruptly changed his tone wisely.
“No, you’d better not do that.”
“Ha, is it because you’re a fugitive from Nali? But you’re seriously impressive; those Nali people can do nothing to you, and publishing in our Shivali newspaper shouldn’t attract much attention.”
“It has nothing to do with that. I’m fine, but either way, you would still be in danger.”
“Is that true?! Is the information you carry that dangerous?”
Fisher looked at her expressionlessly, seemingly indicating his stance. Emhart on his shoulder also rolled his eyes, whispering to her,
“Although this guy usually likes to deceive ladies, you’d better listen to him this time. If you leak his information, people will chase you from all over the world, from the Southern Continent to the Northern Region, no joke.”
As he spoke, Emhart observed Ingrid’s expressions, but aside from reluctance, he found nothing else.
After a moment of hesitation, Ingrid again raised her camera to aim at him, but before she could shoot, Emhart instantly floated behind Fisher to shield himself completely.
“What are you doing?!”
Ingrid looked at Emhart and said,
“Can I just report on you, Mr. Book? A talking book is simply the perfect subject.”
“No, no, no!”
Disappointed, Ingrid put down her camera, pouting.
“Hey, why is it like this?”
Seeing her disappointment mixed with a hint of not being too let down, Fisher couldn’t help but ask,
“Do you really want to report on something?”
“Of course! This is a reporter’s job! Bringing back accurate news about what’s happening on the Southern Continent, a hundred thousand miles away from the Western Continent, using my camera for people there to be informed and make corresponding judgments. The Southern Continent branch is a significant responsibility handed to me; they hold me in high regard!”
“So you’re saying your editor sent you here, and your specific task is to take photos related to Nali, like that previously sealed factory?”
“Not exactly; this was my own idea. The newspaper in Dragon Court City has nothing happening daily, just sitting around drinking coffee and resting… I took the initiative to come out.”
Fisher looked at her frustrated expression and refrained from revealing that her top editor might have sidelined her; instead, he said,
“That’s not bad.”
It’s quite absurd to think that a graduate from the Shivali Empress Academy was sent to the Southern Continent, which is dictated by Nali, and where the war hasn’t even ended, to be an intern reporter; no matter how you look at it, it’s a bad deal for her, yet she thought it was a sign of being valued.
However, recalling the being that might hold mythical rank, a strange gleam flashed in Fisher’s eyes.
Now, Elizabeth’s reign over Saint Nali had completely turned into a mystery, and Fisher didn’t even know what had transpired over there; he could only search for possible answers from the known clues.
Fisher remembered the geographical layout of the Southern Continent, having been there before, so he also knew how to reach the south. He would set off early the next morning.
Therefore, after glancing back at the state of the girl before him, confirming she was fine, he stood up and said,
“Rest well; tomorrow morning, I’ll take you to the nearest city.”
“Then we’re clear.”
“Ah, but what I captured is of no use.”
“That’s not my concern.”
“Why is that?”
“Well then, thank you for treating me to a meal.”
Fisher prepared to lie down and rest, covering himself with nothing, feeling like he was using the earth as a bed and the sky as a blanket. Ingrid sat in front of the fire, glanced at Fisher, and rested her chin in her hand.
“Where are you going afterward, Uncle?”
“With you.”
Fisher originally didn’t plan to answer, but beside him, Emhart observed her and suddenly said,
“We’re heading south to that ‘Pseudo Dragon Court’ you mentioned.”
Fisher glanced at Emhart beside him, unsure of what he was doing, but he kept staring at Ingrid in front of him.
“Great! Can you take me with you, Uncle? It would be a good choice to capture things happening in the Pseudo Dragon Court to bring back.”
Upon hearing that the other party wanted to join them, Emhart had a “just as I thought” expression, grinding his teeth as he charged toward Ingrid’s head.
“Ha! Baemon! You’ve revealed a flaw!”
Ingrid didn’t react in time and was knocked down by him, but as she fell, Emhart became more courageous, as if he had shattered Baemon’s despicable scheme, shouting while he bumped,
“It’s so dangerous for humans over there! How dare you, a young human girl, go?! You even say you’re not Baemon?!”
“Hey, hey, hey? But Uncle, aren’t you very capable?”
“Oh? Do you think I’m a fool? Why would Fisher help you, a stranger little girl? If you weren’t lacking a few screws in your head, how could you make such a request? It’s just because you’re used to being close to Fisher, right?! Hahaha! You’ve been found out by your Grandpa Book!”
“Ha? I don’t like the older style; I prefer someone younger than me, okay?! What are you talking about, stop hitting me!!”
Ingrid covered her head with one hand while rapidly counterattacking with the other, and for a moment, it was like two children bickering, not stopping at all.
“Enough! So, what exactly is Baemon, and why did you suddenly come over to hit me?!”
Ingrid gritted her teeth and shouted, scaring Emhart to quickly retreat into Fisher’s arms, repeatedly telling Fisher,
“Hurry, Fisher! She’s about to blow her cover! We need to escape!”
Fisher looked speechlessly at Ingrid, who was lying on the ground with her head covered, and waited for a while, but the other party showed no signs of moving.
If it weren’t for the two of them being too childish, it was just kids pecking at each other, Fisher wouldn’t remain idle.
He looked at Emhart in his arms and asked,
“Do you have any way to expose Hela’s disguise?”
“…No. Baemon is an 18th rank Demon God, and it’s not easy to unmask her disguise. Or if you could kill her cover, that might help, um, make it apparent?”
“…”
Fisher tapped his head hidden in his arms, waking the panicking Emhart a bit.
Then he looked at Ingrid, who was sitting up with her head covered, and said to her,
“We can’t take you with us; the plan remains as I said earlier. You can try to report on other things; although I think resting at the report department is better.”
“Fine, fine, if you don’t want me to go, why hit me and call me that Baemon? I’m a legitimate journalist from Shivali!”
Ingrid shot a fierce glance at Emhart, but Emhart just stuck his tongue out, infuriating her to the point where she almost smashed her camera at him.
Fortunately, before that, Fisher took the no-longer-panicking Emhart and lay down on the distant ground, leaving the spot next to the fire for her, along with some furs and leaves he picked up from the wild.
This was fine; Fisher originally didn’t plan to take a woman he had only known for a day with him, nor did he see the need to do so.
Even excluding Hela’s issue, Fisher wouldn’t want to create any debts out of his own greed; he still had many ladies he hadn’t repaid, and he should hold back. Moreover, just taking her over, he wouldn’t even know how to explain to Raphael.
According to Fisher’s strategy, he planned to tackle these contradictions gradually, one lady at a time, absolutely not letting them meet without preparation, otherwise, without Renee, it would truly result in catastrophic mistakes.
Fisher held his head while looking at the starry sky, unable to sleep for a long time. On his chest, the square-shaped Emhart was also lying there staring at the sky, occasionally glancing at Ingrid, who had curled up in the furs and branches in the distance.
After a long while, he noticed Fisher hadn’t closed his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking, and opened his mouth to ask,
“Aren’t you going to rest? It’s good to stay alert against that person. If she is Baemon, she might secretly take you away at night. How can a book stop her? Oh right, I forgot to ask, how did you enter the Mythical Rank?”
“Earlier, you said that while observing me, Archangel Gabriel brought you above the Ideal Nation; that’s when I entered the Mythical Rank. Didn’t you know?”
“I’m not watching you every moment, and seeing you with that person, looking like you didn’t notice and were lost in a gentle world, it made my heart ache, nearly killing me in my mother’s embrace!”
Upon hearing that term, Fisher couldn’t help but lower his head to look at him, asking,
“…Do you think Gabriel is the creator you’re looking for?”
“I don’t know, but I think she is. Even if she isn’t, it doesn’t matter. I originally lost my memory twice, once when the Holy Realm collapsed, I lost all my memories, where I came from, who made me, what I was supposed to do; another time was in the abyss of the Demon Dynasty, where I lost a lot of knowledge I had seen and forgot the things I saw in the abyss. But either time, it had something to do with Baemon!”
Fisher touched the cover of his book and then answered Emhart’s earlier question,
“I entered the Mythical Rank with Hela’s help.”
Emhart looked up at him in surprise, and after a moment of thought, he said with the greatest malice while considering Baemon,
“Heh, then she must have some ulterior motive for you, she can’t possibly really want to help you; she’s definitely not that kind of person. Hmm, she might want to take out your kidney for research?”
“What kind of speculation is that? Let’s not talk about her, let’s rest, Emhart.”
“Mm, good night.”
Emhart turned over, facing Fisher, just as he was about to rest, he looked at Fisher again, asking,
“And you, not going to rest?”
“I’ll rest later.”
“What are you thinking about?”
“I don’t know, maybe nothing at all.”
“Ha, anyone who does anything absolutely has corresponding purposes and reasons, right? You’re certainly thinking about something. Should I guess it as the great Sir Book?”
Fisher smiled slightly, looked down at him, then looked at the sky, candidly saying,
“…I was just surprised. I thought I would return to the time I originally left, at least not too far back. Yet I didn’t expect to come directly to four and a half years later, and so many changes happened.
“Emhart, actually, I entered the Mythical Rank through a method outside the rules, that is, entered through chaos. I am different from the usual Mythical Ranks, needing to bear the crazy risks like Erwind and them. Perhaps you might not notice now, but in the future, as I continue, I might become a monster that doesn’t resemble a human.
“And to be honest, my purpose for choosing to enter the Mythical Rank isn’t for anything else, but to provide some security and confidence against potential problems I might encounter in the future. For example, Elizabeth. If I continued as before, I still wouldn’t be able to stop her from harming others, from harming herself. So I took the risk of using chaos to enter the Mythical Rank, hoping to make resolving contradictions a bit easier. I was originally planning that after I resolve everything, I’d go to some place and be a teaching professor.”
Emhart leaned forward to look at him, then replied,
“In the end, after just one day back, the contradictions you thought could be easily solved by entering the Mythical Rank still appear so complex, like that beaten-down red dragon person, those mechanisms, and that suddenly appearing, unknown Mythical Rank?”
“Not entirely. I’ve never feared the difficulties encountered, even when I was escaping with Jasmine and the others in a leaf boat, isolated in Nali.”
“So you’re worried about when it can reach an end like you envisioned? But since that’s the case, then why did you leave Elizabeth back then? If you hadn’t left her, today you could have been a prince to the Empress, still a renowned genius professor in Nali, isn’t that halo enough?”
Fisher looked down at Emhart and said,
“If that were the case, we probably wouldn’t have met at all, Emhart.”
Emhart floated up, looking at Fisher with his one eye, speaking slowly,
“That’s the problem, Fisher.”
“If you had never left Elizabeth, and hadn’t faced such a tough climb today, then regardless of rank, those ladies, and the terrifying Baemon, you perhaps wouldn’t worry as you do now. But that said, aren’t you, back then, facing other problems? Such as the slander from fellow humans, the Godlin Royal family, and the humiliation from Elizabeth’s kin, which perhaps today after your climb and entering the Mythical Rank would feel trivial.”
“However, without you, the conflict between that red dragon and humans would still be on the verge of breaking out; without you, Jasmine’s aunt would still have been killed, Jasmine would still harbor hatred towards humans and seek revenge; without you, the base of the Phoenix Race would still descend, and possibly, the whole world would be destroyed by that base; without you, Baemon would still exist, she would still deceive many others and harm others. At that time, it was merely because you didn’t climb up that you didn’t have enough perspective to see them, but it didn’t mean they didn’t exist.”
“Now it’s the same. We always think that struggling forward will lead to a shore where we escape suffering, but all along, we’ll always be in the sea. Because even after climbing and shedding previous problems, you will encounter new problems that you have never discovered before. Even that group of gods who transcended the ranks and created this world are deeply troubled by the need to guard against chaos; how much more for you who have just entered the Mythical Rank?”
“People are always adept at ignoring what they have, yet they are often great at focusing on what they have lost and what they have yet to gain. You have already solved many problems, won the hearts of those ladies, so you must treasure them and pay the price. Although I often wish they would stab you, at least you take each lady seriously. You’re just too greedy.”
“You can’t possibly think that even in an ideal scenario, letting them temporarily cease hostilities and coexist peacefully without arguing means that everything will go smoothly in the future, right? Perhaps one day in the future, because you paid particular attention to someone a little, but neglected someone else just once, a conflict could spark again. So, since you want everything, then brace yourself and make solid plans that never stop!”
Emhart stood on Fisher’s chest, watching him stare blankly at him, then knocked his head against him in frustration, confirming once again,
“Did you hear that, Fisher?!”
“…I was just surprised that you could say such things.”
Fisher smiled slightly and, instead of being too shocked, sincerely praised Emhart in front of him.
He might not be unaware of such reasoning, but sometimes, even if you know, you still feel doubtful and tired; at such times, many people just need comfort and support.
In Fisher’s eyes, Emhart’s words were support and comfort, so he said so.
“Hum, of course; I am the great Sir Book, Emhart!”
“You’re right.”
Fisher just smiled and didn’t deny it; Emhart didn’t mind Fisher’s perfunctory response.
He was almost being praised to the sky by Fisher, but after a bit of pride, he once again lay still in Fisher’s embrace.
Not knowing if it was because he had gotten tired from bumping into Ingrid earlier or perhaps just because he had just returned and felt fatigued.
While staying in Fisher’s arms, he suddenly said in a low and muffled voice,
“If you feel like you need some time to prepare, resting a bit in the Southern Continent isn’t a bad idea; it can delay facing the risks of other ladies trying to stab you.”
Fisher patted the book cover on his back, shook his head, and replied,
“Forget it, if I don’t go to Raphael soon, her head will be smashed by Elizabeth’s army. Moreover, she is the lady I’ve been away from the longest, and I miss her.”
“Mm, that’s true, but thinking about it, in the Holy Realm before, that Trans was with you; it seems your relationship with her wasn’t bad either.”
“Indeed, she was my student in magic.”
“Objectively speaking, from Raphael’s perspective, you two have been apart for no more than six years; in that Trans girl’s eyes, haven’t you been apart for several thousand years?”
“…Yes.”
Fisher’s gaze flickered for a moment before he closed his eyes and added,
“Hela is the same.”
“Could you not mention that person?!”
“No way.”
“You mother…”
Emhart’s muffled voice came, but he didn’t move again, instead falling into a soft sleep together with the calmed Fisher, preparing to face the various challenges to come.
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(End of this chapter)
