novelraw Chapter 479: A Camel
Chapter 479: A Camel
Tsubaki's small boat quickly stopped at a place with sparse vegetation and pale yellow ground exposing. Fisher glanced behind and discovered that in just this short period, they were already at least eighty to a hundred miles away from the Ideal State. Yet, he didn't feel the speed was fast at all; even the wind blowing past his cheeks was incomparably gentle.
It was as if time and distance had suddenly become extremely blurred. Fisher withdrew his gaze in slight amazement.
"What are we doing here, there's nothing here."
Mikhail was the first to ask. He was like a wage earner engaged in the financial private equity industry in the future Saint-Nazareth, forced to work overtime until night. He was filled with resentment, revealing a trace of passive resistance from his bones, wishing he could return immediately to rest.
But obviously, Tsubaki also didn't know the specific reason. It was Margaret who calculated via the Loom of Fate that there were clues here; he wasn't privy to the specific details. The Loom of Fate was a divine artifact used by his mother, the World Tree. Yet the Elves, as her offspring, lacked such qualifications; instead, Transferred Persons hailing from beyond the world exploited this loophole.
"Let's go down and take a look, Margaret won't make a mistake."
Gou Wen glanced at Tsubaki's back, said nothing, and slowly descended from the sky along with his small boat, landing on this geologically desert-like land. Although the land appeared somewhat dry and Fisher could even see some yellow sand, the land here wasn't desolate. Fisher could also see many plants roughly the height of a person, completely unknown to him, growing nearby.
Those plants were like stalks of yellow grass magnified countless times. Densely packed, bean-sized black fruits hung on the crooked grass bodies. Amidst the slant of those plants, Fisher and his group clearly saw roads formed by a large number of people walking over.
"There's a road there, looks like a trade route between tribes."
Gou Wen quickly realized what exactly that thing was. He walked towards that trade route, glanced at the man-tall plants on both sides, and turned to Tsubaki and the others, saying,"Lord Tsubaki, this road doesn't lead to your Ideal State, right? Aside from you, is the Kakav Serpent-kin Settlement doing business with other settlements?"
"Mm, because Margaret cannot leave the loom, I handle many affairs directly regarding the Ideal State. There aren't many places on Dragon Tail Island that produce salt and sugar, and Kakav is the largest of them. They should have other business partners."
Gou Wen glanced at both sides of this road and analyzed,
"The direction of this road leads to the Dragon Heart Continent. Their business spans quite far, huh? But why haven't I heard of them in the Dragon Heart Continent before? Lord Tsubaki, besides sugar and salt, what else do they sell?"
"...I don't know."
"Don't know?"
"Mm, we only do these businesses, and I wasn't the one who actively sought them out; they came to us personally."
Fisher and Gou Wen exchanged a look, both their expressions appearing somewhat surprised.
"You haven't been to their tribe either?"
"...No." After answering, Tsubaki paused for a moment and added an explanation, "They are very friendly, their prices are favorable, and the quality of their goods is very good. We haven't had any issues in our half-year of cooperation. We are friends, otherwise they wouldn't have come to us for help this time."
It had to be said, not knowing if this was a flaw of Mythical Species or a flaw of Tsubaki, Fisher and Gou Wen both wisely did not speak further. Instead, it was Mikhail, who had been squatting on the ground continuously surveying the surroundings, who spoke up,
"The ruts here are very deep, indicating many heavy goods are transported. Since Margaret said there might be clues here, is it possible this place was also attacked by that gang of thieves, but they just didn't tell us? After all, this is clearly not the road for trading with the Ideal State."
"I'll search the surroundings."
Tsubaki didn't rashly express an opinion, merely extending his hand towards the ground. As his Mythic Rank ability was incited, fluctuations of the Resonance rule stretched out. Quickly extending from beneath his feet were fine, dense branches spreading towards the surroundings.
Everyone's gazes fell upon Tsubaki, but he simply maintained that posture Motionless. The surroundings gradually quieted down, yet there was no progress whatsoever.
After a moment of silence, Mikhail still couldn't resist speaking up,
"...Since Margaret has that whatever loom, couldn't she just look directly into the future to help us find the culprit?"
"The Loom of Fate isn't omnipotent, moreover, at present, the vast majority of the loom's power lies upon Death. Margaret has already tried her best. Besides, futures that can be seen are all predetermined, such futures are meaningless. Gui is the only one among us who possesses the power of the future, but she also once said that a concretized future being observed is meaningless."
Sounds exactly like something Helaire would say.
Fisher thought thusly in silence, but a second later he recovered his senses. He didn't know why, despite having just left Helaire, he was already recalling the words that Angel had once spoken.
"Smack, smack... smack, smack."
Mikhail was too lazy to fuss over the unique "view of destiny" of these Elves; he was more concerned with the current problem they faced,
"The problem is you've searched for half a day and there's nothing here, what should we do next?"
"Margaret rarely makes a mistake, the clue should be nearby."
"Smack, smack... smack, smack."
Mikhail glanced at the expressionless Tsubaki looking at the ground, saying somewhat speechlessly,
"...Can we just not bring up that Margaret?"
The palm Tsubaki extended paused slightly. Following that, his expression slightly stunned, he looked up at Mikhail, only then lowering his head and saying,
"This has nothing to do with her, but the fact is, due to the power of the loom, she rarely makes mistakes."
"Smack, smack... smack, smack."
Mikhail didn't say anything more, but that subtle expression had already betrayed his thoughts at this moment. Although this Elf Tsubaki was a Mythical Species, he appeared rather slow regarding worldly wisdom and emotions. This made Mikhail find it somewhat amusing, brightening up his originally Reluctant overtime hours a bit.
"I say, you two, haven't you noticed some sound here while talking?"
It was ultimately Gou Wen behind them who couldn't stand it first. He pointed towards the direction Fisher was looking at beside him, only to see that not far from them, among the man-tall plants, the face of a camel abruptly emerged.
"Smack, smack... smack, smack."
That camel just stood among the clustered plants like that, continuously using its mouth to bite off the bean-sized black fruits growing on the surrounding plants. It smacked its lips while eating. It was unknown whether it was because it heard the conversation between Tsubaki and Mikhail just now, or because those berries were simply too delicious; in short, Fisher always felt that the camel's face invariably carried a hint of teasing and asking-for-a-beating smile.
"A camel?"
"That camel is not right, the power I stretched out just now didn't detect it."
Tsubaki narrowed his eyes, but the words had barely left his lips when Fisher saw the amusing smile on that camel's face instantly vanish. In one mouthful, it swallowed whole all the fruits it was still chewing, then turned its head and ran towards the distance.
And precisely because its head-turning sprint brushed aside the adjacent plants, Fisher finally saw clearly: it turned out to be a tall camel that was considered handsome among camels. However, not knowing if it was a species unique to here, its back possessed only one hump, and its body even hung a set of Saddle crafted from leather, painted all over with patterns resembling snake scales.
"Glug glug glug!"
"That's the camel they use to transport goods."
Fisher recognized the purpose of that camel. While Gou Wen was just preparing to follow that camel to see where the other party was going, he saw Tsubaki beside him suddenly hook his finger. Subsequently, visible branches rose from the ground, effortlessly grabbing back that wildly sprinting camel with an irresistible force.
"Glug glug!"
That camel let out a loud cry and struggled desperately, but before the power of a Mythical Species it naturally had no way to resist. In merely an instant, it was dragged back before the four grown men.
Tsubaki hooked a finger, firmly controlling that camel before himself. The other three men also successively approached that fairly good-looking camel. Fisher was somewhat curious how this fellow dodged the Mythical Species' sweep. While sizing it up, he discovered it suddenly began to shake its head, and hums arose from its mouth, emitting melodious song tunes,
"Hum~ hum~ hum~"
While humming the song, it anthropomorphically laid its head on the ground, looking at Fisher and the others beside it with an extremely pitiful expression, seemingly begging for mercy.
"My, this fellow is very smart, it actually knows how to sing, sounds quite pleasant..."
Gou Wen rubbed its sole single hump on its back, smilingly saying thusly.
And Mikhail inspected its other parts, and only after several seconds did he raise his head and announce to the others,
"It's a female."
"..."
"Snort! Snort! Snort!"
Seemingly understanding Mikhail's words, this camel suddenly started to struggle violently again. Fortunately, the expressionless Tsubaki nearby reached out in time to hold down its abdomen,
"Don't move."
Following his soft utterance, a touch of extremely pale purple light quickly seeped into this camel's body. As that light gradually dispersed, a silhouette of an item resembling a bell gradually revealed itself within its abdomen.
Upon seeing the bell, everyone present frowned, obviously recognizing what that thing was.
"This is... a Holy Artifact?"
Mikhail's feeling of passive resistance from earlier instantly vanished. As a human who had lived with the Archangel Michael, who oversaw forging, for a long period, coupled with the fact that he was an engineer before transferring, he had come to understand quite a bit about these things even if purely Influenced by Sight and Sound.
With a serious expression, he lowered his head to observe that Holy Artifact. After a second or two, he shook his head again and spoke,
"It is indeed a Holy Artifact, but not a complete one, more like some kind of unfinished product. A blessing has already been appended, but it's very unstable. This might cause the attached effect of the Holy Artifact to deviate from what the forger intended, or the degree might fall short. If this is an item forged by an Angel, it's highly probable it's a defective product... But the question is, how did this thing appear in this camel's stomach, and even fused with it?"
An obscure light flashed through Gou Wen's eyes. But just as he narrowed his eyes sizing up the silhouette of the bell manifested in its stomach, this camel suddenly raised its head towards Fisher,
"Glug glug glug!"
"This fellow seems to be pointing a direction for us..."
Tsubaki nodded, then gently released this highly intelligent-looking dromedary camel. Although it looked a bit silly, he still addressed this camel,
"Where did you eat this thing, tell me."
"Hum~ hum~ hum~"
That camel nodded hastily, not forgetting to hum a melodious song, seemingly expressing its gratitude.
Following that, it wagged its tail and slowly walked towards a direction covered by plants, occasionally turning its head to look at Tsubaki and others, checking if they had followed.
Looking at that dromedary camel humming a song and leading the way, Fisher suddenly felt this thing would probably be very much to the taste of that bad Angel Helaire. Not only did she like to sing, but she also seemingly liked to play everywhere, thus appearing so out of place compared to the other Angels of the Sanctuary.
But he quickly realized that he had only left her for less than half an hour and was recollecting this fellow for the second time.
This made Fisher's just-raised smile collapse bit by bit. He even began to suspect if this fellow had cast some magic spell on him. He obviously wished he could stay far away from her previously, only remembering her when resolving desires...
Perhaps it was due to the unrestrained psychological possessiveness she mentioned? Perhaps it was because the agreed-upon seventh day with her was fast approaching, thus making him seem somewhat thirsty and impatient? Perhaps it was because, this Angel indeed possessed a bit of damned sweetness?
"Glug glug glug!"
Just as Fisher was subconsciously covering the mark left by Renee on his kidney, bizarrely performing a confession, that tall camel quickly led them through layers of plants, getting closer and closer to the coast. It quickly came to a halt, turning its head and continuously calling out softly at Fisher and others.
Fisher and the others arrived behind it and quickly discovered a serpent-kin clad in leather armor, dead for a long time, lying impressively in this dense cluster of plants. A weapon was lodged in his body, and his body was deformed as if severely smashed by some tremendous force. The situation appeared critical; he seemed to have encountered an attack.
But evidently, this wasn't the place where he initially encountered the attack.
"He was killed while fleeing. He was lying prone on the ground, struck in the back. The place the merchant caravan encountered the attack was the location on the trade route we stood at just now. To survive, this serpent-kin rode the camel alone, abandoned the goods and fled, but was ultimately caught up to. Because he fled too far, the people from the Kakav tribe who came here later didn't discover his corpse."
Fisher squatted down and looked at the miserably deceased male serpent-kin. He inspected his corpse and found that he had been searched Completely Clean, leaving nothing behind except that fatal weapon.
"That's it? No more clues?"
Mikhail rubbed his chin and queried thusly.
But Fisher, squatting on the ground, shook his head. Over at the side, that camel was continuously nudging him with its head, seemingly revealing something to him, but Fisher already largely had a handle on it,
"No, this camel ate that bell right beside him. This killed person held a very low position, which is why no one noticed he fled and was killed. Yet he still carried something precious like a Holy Artifact on his person. This thing wasn't originally his, but he stole it from the goods he was transporting... Kakav's settlement isn't just selling sugar and salt; they are also selling the Holy Artifacts of Angels."
Fisher turned to look at Tsubaki; obviously, his expression was also somewhat bewildered,
"This is related to your Sanctuary?"
"Who knows, anyway it has nothing to do with us..."
Mikhail shook his head and was just about to say something, but Gou Wen beside him reached out and patted him, signaling him not to speak.
He merely raised his head to look forward, extending a finger to point in that direction. At the end of the boundless desert ahead, a broad expanse of azure was faintly revealed. That azure shimmered beautifully under the slightly westward-slanting sun, and from that distant direction also transmitted a touch of human activity sounds.
That was Kakav's Serpent-kin Settlement.