Chapter 93: Motive
"Hey, you try casting the spell on me too."
Nathan spoke to me rather bluntly. He just assumed that I would be able to cast the spell just like that, when in reality that was probably not the case.
"Hey, just because Natan was able to do it instantly, doesn't mean that I'll be able to as well."
Nathan raised an eyebrow.
"But I pretty much get all of it anyway."
My eyelid twitched. A tense smile formed on my face.
"Well, I wasn't able to catch up to how fast you were reading, so I didn't catch it, all right?"
Nathan simply waved his hand dismissively.
"Eh, how hard could it be? Just try it. I mean, the Bryson from before should be pretty used to using this desire thing."
I rubbed the side of my head.
"Other than using it for a brief moment, I've never used it before. But fine, I'll try it out anyway."
Although it was already somewhat unclear, I tried to recall how I felt while using Dark Ar- er I guess Desire Manifestation. I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. In that old man's words, who now that I think about it never even told me his name, you have to understand what you desire and clearly feel it.
But how would that be applied to magic?
For some reason, some of the symbols I saw within the first half of that book flashed through my mind. Somehow, I intuitively understood that to cast this spell, you couldn't think too hard about it. I simply moved the mana in my body without really thinking.
Then, I felt a formless wave ripple out from around me.
My eyes widened slightly. I honestly didn't expect to get it on the first try, but I guess it wasn't that big of a deal considering I was able to cast Dark- er Desire Manipulation I guess. Although it only rippled out about one meter away from me, I was still surprised at how little mana it consumed.
From my guess, I should be able to cast this spell at least five times before feeling too mana-exhausted, assuming I had all my mana.
I turned to look at Nathan. His body trembled somewhat. He looked like he was trying to keep his balance, but was a bit awkward about it. After a second or so, he began tilting to the side and ended up careening to the ground, with unblinking eyes.
With a soft thump, he landed in the grass. I simply watched, counting down the seconds to see how long it lasted.
After five seconds, he suddenly began blinking as a small frown formed on his face.
"Damn. I thought I would still be standing up."
I raised a finger and raised an eyebrow.
"You were standing for a moment there, but then you suddenly took on the spirit of the Leaning Tower of Pisa."
Nathan clicked his tongue.
"Well, guess it's not that easy."
I rolled my eyes and laughed.
"Why did you even try that? You couldn't possibly be thinking of learning how to fight while all your senses disappear."
Nathan stared back at me seriously, completely unflinching.
"Yes, that is what I was thinking."
My face twitched.
"...That is going a bit far, I would say."
Nathan shrugged his shoulders.
"It shouldn't take that long to learn."
...I would normally say that he's full of shit, but that might be possible for someone like him. To be clear, he's the kind of guy that just learns things really quickly when it comes to physical activities.
When we used to fight all the time, he very quickly learned every single trick I knew and evolved them as well.
But anyway, there were more important things to deal with.
"Say, don't you like have a duel with that one guy in two days?"
Nathan blinked a few times.
"Oh right, I almost forgot."
I pointed at him lazily.
"Sounds like you did forget."
Nathan took the rope before looking forth and began walking.
"Since I now know, it would be inaccurate to say that I forgot."
"...No, but, that's what the word means."
Nathan cleared his throat.
"Anyway, don't you think it's about time that we dealt with the first one? We're bit ahead of schedule anyway."
I blinked a few times. It's not that I didn't know what he was talking about, but I felt hesitant.
"Should we so soon?"
Nathan clicked his tongue.
"Is it really even that soon? There are only two weeks before it's supposed to happen."
I scratched the side of my head as I followed along with him after tucking away the tome.
"I forget if I told you this already, but do you remember those bandits that would come out a few months later?"
Nathan turned to me with an eyebrow raised.
"What?"
I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly.
"They decided to attack the place where I held lunch break in the slums."
"It would be more accurate to say dinner break."
Hearing his words, I simply rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, smartass. Anyways, what's important is that the events seem to be going out of line a lot. At this rate, who knows if we can even act on the knowledge we have?"
Nathan fell silent, but only for a moment.
"It's the only thing that we can go off of. We're bound to be quite wrong in certain situations, but that just means we have to get powerful enough to forcibly overcome those mistakes."
So we need to be stronger, huh?
I didn't say anything, which was one of my ways of telling him I understood.
We both climbed up onto some nearby trees. By now, the sun was already gone, and only a few wisps of orange light were on the horizon. The day was going to be over soon, and going through the forest at night was going to be a pain, so we naturally didn't.
We were next to each other, though each on a different tree. In a sense, it almost felt like we were both on an apartment balcony, just one room away from each other. Despite feeling exhausted, I didn't fall asleep immediately.
Nathan was simply sitting there as well.
A few minutes of silence ensued before he decided to speak up.
"Say, what happened to Bryson?"
I blinked a few times.
"...Now that I think about it, he hasn't been talking for a while now."
If I recall, it seemed to happen near the time that the old man binded me with his show of desire manifestation. It seemed that Bryson was somehow knocked out cold because of that.
"Well, he should come back sooner or later."
Nathan shot me a strange look, but didn't pursue it any further.
We still didn't fall asleep for a while. And in the end, a few words slipped through my mouth before I even knew it.
"Do we really have to save the kingdom?"
Nathan didn't respond. I took in a deep breath.
"I mean, it's not like either of us really cares in the first place, right?"
Nathan leaned back, resting his head against the tree. He let out a long sigh.
"Then what else are we supposed to do?"
...A bitter smile formed on my face.
"I don't know."
Nathan let out a small laugh.
"Then we might as well keep trying. After all, there must've been a reason why we liked that shitty game so much, right? Maybe we can find it if we keep going."
I shut my eyes and grimaced.
"Fuckin' hell. I never should've made that stupid promise."
With that, I let myself fall asleep. To normal people, it would be quite difficult to fall asleep in a tree. And it definitely wasn't that easy, but Nathan and I had done this very thing many times before.
It was the only way to get people off our asses and waking us up while we were sleeping to ask if we were lost.
...
My eyes suddenly opened, and a feeling of falling assaulted me. Instinctively, I reached out behind me and grasped onto the tree. After my mind cleared a bit, I realized I nearly fell off the side, because my balance was a bit poor.
I guess it was because this body had too many muscles, making it heavier compared to my old one.
I looked to the side and noticed that Nathan had already woken up. But considering that he was currently rubbing his eyes, it probably wasn't too long ago. After yawning, I called out to him.
"So should we go back and take care of the first one?"
Nathan gave a small nod.
"Might as well."
With that, the both of us leaped off the trees and began running through the forest. Unlike the first time, it was completely uneventful. The only real thing that happened was meeting with the rotting corpse of the bear we had killed earlier.
Nathan said that the smell of blood would attract other beasts, but other than the chunk we took out to eat, it was untampered. Which meant he was wrong on that call. On top of that, since we were going back earlier than expected, there was no actual reason to eat the raw meat, since the rations we brought along were enough.
Other than letting out a sigh, he didn't say anything as we passed by, but there was probably a nasty expression on his face. With a smirk, I called out to him.
"Hey, it's not like we really understand the ecosystem of this world in the first place. It's reasonable to make some mistakes here and there."
Nathan put one hand on his mask.
"The problem isn't the mistake. Everyone makes those. The real issue is I have no idea why that happened. If I'm going to make a mistake, I'd at least like to learn why so I don't make the same one again."
"You sound like one of those shitty teachers, man."
To my comment, Nathan only clicked his tongue. I decided to just continue along with him.
Before long, we found ourselves at the wall again.
Nathan untangled the grappling hooks and gave one to me. We got over the wall without much issue. We stayed at the peak for a few moments before surveying the land.
I looked at Nathan.
"What was the name again of the first asshole again?"
He responded promptly.
"Elijah."
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