"Hey. Zartha." 'Yes, Master?' "I'm not hallucinating from a lack of water, right?" 'Master, you don't need water to survive. If you did, you'd have died long ago.' Nodding, I brushed aside my crazy hair, staring at the distant land, a faint smile splitting onto my face. "Then the land I'm staring at is truly land. Thank Goodness."
Smiling widely, I fell backwards, plopping onto the boat's surface, gazing up at the slightly cloudy sky with relief and joy; over two months at sea, and finally, finally, I've found land. Holding back the tears that threatened to escape, I sat upright, grabbed Zartha, and rapidly paddled.
After an hour of paddling, I got close enough to carry the boat the rest of the way home through [Air Step]. When my feet touched the solid shore, I dropped the boat and threw my hands into the air, shouting as loudly as my vocal cords would allow. "LAAAAAAAAAAAND!!"
Laughing in joy, I fell, rolling across the shore, creating a sand angel, though it was missing a left wing; once the immediate joy began to subside, several minutes later, I glanced at my left shoulder, which was nothing but a stump.
I've refrained from using [Rebirth] as the sea was too dangerous for me to waste such a life-saving ability just on an arm; however, now that I was on land, I was far more confident in my ability to survive dangerous encounters.
As I used Rebirth, a potent, almost violent, vitality coursed through my body, regrowing my left arm; once the light faded, I now had two arms, causing me to clench my fists. "Yes! Finally!" Feeling complete, I just lay down and decided to sleep, something I hadn't done much at sea, and I could tell it was weighing heavily on me. After everything I've been through, my mind could use a good rest.
"Ahh, I could use this." Yawning, I rolled onto my side, drifting to sleep without a care in the world.
___
___
Shaking, I slowly came to, lightly groaning in satisfaction from the deep sleep. "Ugh, that was wonderful; I want to sleep some more." Sitting upright, I stretched and yawned, my mind feeling much sharper and clearer compared to before. Scratching my cheek, I took in my surroundings, which were no longer the shore I'd fallen asleep on; instead, I was inside a caged carriage, and I wasn't alone.
There were several others within the carriage, a few humans, a couple of demons, and a demi-human. 'Man, one thing after the other. First it's Mavis, then it's the sea, and finally it's a prisoner.' Shaking my head, I looked outside, glancing at a few Elves on horseback guarding us; rather, they were probably ensuring we didn't escape.
"Hey, where are we going?" Gesturing to one of the Elves, she gave me a disgusted look before raising her arm, activating the compact-sized crossbow attached to her wrist, firing a bolt at my knee.
"Don't speak to me, you disgust–" Having caught the bolt, I flicked my wrist, throwing it right back at her, leaving a shallow cut on her cheek, causing her to go silent mid-speech.
"Welp, at least I know where I landed. Asckbon, right? Tsk, well, guess I can't complain much, the only better option would've been Mezcla." Rubbing my head in mild annoyance, I stood up, stretching under the slightly fearful gaze of the female Elf, and promptly broke the bars off.
'I was just trying to bend them. Must be iron.' Stepping out of the carriage onto the ground, I glance at the two-iron bars in my hand, only to tilt my head, dodging an arrow from the second Elf, who clearly hadn't seen my early display.
Before he could even open his mouth, I swung the iron bar at him, causing his head to explode into a pulp while his headless corpse fell to the ground. The female Elf tried to gallop away, fleeing, though she didn't make it far as I hurled the other iron bar, impaling the back of her chest while the momentum took her off the horse as it pierced a tree, leaving her hanging.
'Man, I feel bad. The first thing I do after waking up is kill someone.' Sighing softly, I turned around, glancing at the carriage, which had stopped from the noise, only for two Elves to walk out from behind it, staring at me and the carnage.
"Just leave, I'd rather not kill any further right now." Stabbing the iron bar into the ground, I eyed the two of them, causing them to gulp before they promptly fled. With the Elves taken care of, I shifted my gaze to the other prisoners, who had been watching everything with bated breaths; they flinched when my gaze settled on them.
"Relax, I'm not going to harm you guys. Use this chance to flee; take their horses. Whatever group they're part of, they'll probably kill you guys when they catch you for what I did." Their fear was quickly replaced with reverence as they profusely thanked me while pouring out of the cage, causing me to nod.
While they left, I jogged down the path they were taking, catching up with the two fleeing elves relatively quickly. "Man, you two really don't want to live, huh?" Arriving between them, they widened their eyes in shock while I grabbed their nape and came to a stop.
"P-Please, don't kill us!" "W-We'll do anything! J-Just don't kill us!" "Yeah, yeah, shut up. Where's your base at?" Lifting them off the ground, I rolled my eyes at their pleading and shook them. "I-It's further west, I-If you keep going, y-you'll arrive. I-I promise!" "Y-Yes!" "Wow, you're not lying. Either you don't care what I do, or you think the people there will kill me."
Shrugging my shoulders, not caring either way, I tossed them off the trail, into the forest, while I dashed west, taking the path further down, using neutral mana to strengthen my physique.
Despite covering a lot of ground, it still took nearly half an hour to reach the base they spoke of; it was at the bottom of a mountain, and from the large stones I saw, it looked like a quarry. 'Hmm, probably planned to use us as manual labor.'
Taking the front entrance, moving faster than the guards could perceive, mistaking me as a strong gust of wind, I headed to the tallest building; arriving just outside, I opened the door, and was immediately attacked with a rapier.
However, I tilted my body, dodging the initial attack, and grabbed the warrior's head before throwing them through the wall, sending them flying far into the distance. Dusting my hands off, I glanced at the now-terrified boss to my right and walked forward, sitting opposite his desk.
"You're the boss, right?" "Y-Yes." "You're a bit hefty for an Elf. You should join the manual labor." Eyeing the plump Elf, I crossed my arms. "We're going to have a conversation; I can tell if you lie, so tell me the truth. If you don't, I'll start with your fingers, something I'd rather not do, okay?" The mention of his fingers caused him to recoil in terror as he rapidly nodded as I began my interrogation.
___
___
Having gathered all the information I needed, I stood up. "Thanks, you've been a big help… Also, release all the prisoners. You've probably captured them unlawfully, acting only on your prejudice against other species, right?"
Tapping the desk, the boss nervously nodded. "G-Guards! G-Guards!" As the boss called the guards, I left, climbing the mountain to the peak to scout the surroundings.
'From that fool's words, we're at Southern Asckbon.' I wanted to head west, find a port city, and smuggle aboard, which shouldn't be too difficult; granted, considering I don't have anything on me other than my swords, I'll have to do it stealthily. 'Tsk, they'd make it painfully difficult for me if I did it the correct way anyway.'
Unlike when I first came here, I now had a decent level of strength, so I was fine with taking a bit of risk; if I happened to run into an Elf much stronger than me, well, I'd just have to chalk it up to bad luck.
Brushing my hair back, I glanced down, watching the guards free the prisoners, only to look at my overgrown facial hair. "Hmm, I need to shave; I look terrible… Actually, I'll keep it for now, at least until I return home; the girls might like me with facial hair. What do you guys think?"
Playing with my beard, I stretch and face west. 'Ask us after you've cleaned yourself up, Master.' 'Yeah, you look like a hobo, Master!' "Thanks for your inspiring words, Trina." Rolling my eyes, I leaped from the summit, using air-step as stairs to the ground before dashing through the forest, heading west in a straight line, intending to return home as quickly as possible.