Chapter 8: Chapter - 7 - The Beginning Of Self Extricate
After taking the maroon dimensional bag from Averie, Joshua visited his room. Well, his soon-to-be old room.
He headed straight to the wall on his right and took out the black bag from the hidden hole in the wall that he showed Ruby not too long ago. Since he put more items in it before going to find Averie, he could hardly carry the heavy bag. Immediately, he shoved the bag into the maroon one. Thanks to it being a dimensional item, no matter how big or heavy things you put in it, you wouldn't feel the same weight you would if you were carrying them manually. It really was a life-saving item as long as you didn't exceed its capacity. Which would result in the item and all the things in it exploding. In this case, Joshua estimated that the bag had about 15m² room in it, so he was safe for now.
Once he made sure he got everything he needed from the room, he took out a necklace from the bag. It was one of the items he asked from Averie.
Normally, since they made the contract on the spot without any proper preparation, there was no way for Averie to give anything to him. So, he asked for a few low-ranked items she had with her, such as a pair of daggers in case he was attacked by a beast on his way, a storage device for him to keep his belongings -other than the maroon bag-, a few magic books etc.
Of course, he would take the rest of the items he wanted later on.
It may sound questionable but compared to some people who carried a whole tank with themselves in case something happened, these were nothing but a child's toy.
Other than those, Joshua already had a few useful items, books and nutrients for an adult to survive for a week at the very least.
After he wore the necklace with much difficulty, he headed back to his mother's grave. The necklace was the other storage device he planned to store his mother in for now. As there wasn't any oxygen or carbon dioxide in that space of nothingness, it wasn't good for a living thing to stay there but he didn't have any other choice. In any case, he sent half of his mana to his happy mother for her to last as long as she can. Taking his hand off her trunk when he finished, he whispered.
"Mom, It'll be a hurtful trip but bear it with me. I'll put you in a way better loam once I find a suitable house, all right?"
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her wave her branches slightly. Without wasting any time, he made the necklace touch the trunk. Starting from the place where it touched, small rays of light engulfed the tree instantly.
"Huuu..."
When Joshua saw the necklace falling to the ground, he took it and started to move. It was actually quite confusing because the way he headed was the same way he come from.
Not long after, he arrived in front of a small wooden building that looked like a stable. Even though he entered it without a hint of hesitation, he took his steps with caution. Once he was in front of a gray horse whose hair shone silver under the moonlight, he stopped in his tracks and took a few items from his black bag.
Over the past week, especially after his search with the needles, he also had the chance to loot some of these 'toys' he found in the jail. To be specific, the torture room.
"It makes me sad thinking that I'm about to hurt a horse just because of its owner but I haven't forgotten how you ran over me that day so think of it as a payback."
Saying so, Joshua took one of the bottles in his hand. He dipped one of his needles in the liquid as he got closer to the laying horse. Just as the horse opened his eyes, he struck the needle to its vocal cords. The surprised horse animal kicked him off as he tried to neigh but couldn't. His vocal cords were already numb thanks to the drug Joshua used.
Not minding the horse as he kicked all the hay around him, Joshua reached out for a long rope and gray pincers.
"Now... it's time to wrap the present thoroughly, no?"
He looked at the frightened horse as he tightened his grip on the rope.
For a side note, by the time he finished 'preparing', the moon could be seen high up in the sky. It was already midnight.
Once he was done with his gift, he placed his things back in the bag and looked around the stable. Thanks to the commotion he caused, the horses were all kicking and neighing like crazy. Even the ones that didn't hear or feel anything woke up to the smell of blood.
Knowing that he didn't have any time to waste, Joshua quickly hopped on a horse that was way more smaller than the rest. The reason he chose it was also because of that. His height didn't allow him to ride horses that easily. The horse was clearly unhappy as it tried to drop him as they both struggled.
Left with no choice, Joshua used wind magic on the horse, forcibly riding it. The horse tried to retaliate but to no avail.
Normally, if Joshua were to try and run all the way, it would take him around 30 to 40 minutes but with his speed, combined with the wind magic was enough for Joshua to reach the main gates in just 15 minutes. When he was near the gates, he got off the horse and let go off its reins.
The second he did so, the horse shot a glare at him before running back to the stable. Shaking his head, Joshua focused back on the road in front of him.
Two pairs of guards were stationed on the sides of the gateway, blocking Joshua's exit. Even though he could just take the long way, he had his needles with him so why bother?
Taking out 8 needles from his pocket, he controlled them using magic. But this time, he added a bit of lightning magic to each of them, feeling a fierce feeling pass over his body. Then taking out 〔The Linker〕, he activated his [Stealth] ability on both himself and the needles. As this was his first time using it, he was quite surprised to see his body flickering like a blurry image, he couldn't even see the needles anymore.
Thanks to using his magic on the needles, there was no need to worry though.
Once he had gotten used to the feeling, he hid behind a tree close to the gate and started to direct his needles. He decided to use 2 needles per person in case one of them survived.
Like a bullet, the needles shot straight to the guards' napes swiftly. The needles completely pierced their necks as their other ends could be seen from the other side. By the time they noticed the attack, their consciousness were already fading.
-𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘥!
What followed right after were four bodies dropping down to the floor at the same time. Since there weren't others near the area at the time, Joshua hurriedly took the items they had on them. To his luck, one of them had a lowest-rank storage device that was like his bronze necklace. The only visible difference was that this one was a ring and not a necklace. As he didn't have the luxury to check its contents with four corpses surrounding him, he picked the other items from their clothes and made sure their phones were destroyed. However, before he could leave, he realized that he forgot something important
"Fu-"
Swallowing the curse that was about to escape from his mouth, he took out a dagger and kneeled over one of the corpses. He raised the corpse's wrist and slashed his dagger down harshly. When he did so, a cracking sound was heard with a 'bip'.
𝘉𝘪𝘱
--𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘬𝘬𝘬!!!
He repeated the same progress with the other corpses. Once he was done, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Since the technology was more advanced in this world, there were things that were a bit different from his old world, too.
One was the usage of 'chips'.
In his old world, most people didn't like chips because they thought them as a violation of their private life. However, it was the complete opposite here. From medical purposes to normal life, chips were everywhere.
-And most of the employers liked to use 'chips' to supervise their employees. Not only could they see the exact location of an employee, they could even check their heartbeats per second. Which was not helpful in this situation, at all!
After he was sure the chips were thoroughly broken, Joshua put the needles back in his pocket. He reactivated his [Stealth] skill and ran next to the dirt path. Not too long after, he came across a group of travellers that were resting around a campfire. Lucklily, he didn't encounter a single animal on his way.
Approaching the man who was smoking a cigar a bit away from the campfire as he gazed into the distance, Joshua deactivated his skill and started to talk.
"H-hello. Are you guys going to Rutherglen?"
Even though the man was scared out of his wits by the sudden voice, he played it cool and looked directly at Joshua with annoyance.
"Sneaking up on someone isn't a good habit, brat. Did nobody teach you that? Tch..."
Looking Joshua up and down, the man chose to answer him at the very least because of his good looks.
"Yes, we are. However, as you can see, we can't go our way when its this dark. We'll continue once the sun rises."
The man licked his lips as he puffed up a smoke.
"I don't know where you appeared from but you can stay with us if you want to."
Noticing the wry smile on the man's face, Joshua had a hard time controlling his expressions. He was disgusted to his brim.
"No need, I have a tent for myself. Though I shall thank you for your kindness, sir."
He tried his best to hide his emotions as he thanked the man and ran off to the woods before the other could say anything.
Joshua was completely immersed in his disgust that when he noticed he was still running, he stopped immediately. He was deep in the forest and could hardly see the fire from afar. He leaned against a tree to catch his breath.
Just as he was about to head back, he sensed something moving on the trees. He stopped and turned to the source.
"...You seem to be sharper than you look."
Joshua had a hard time perceiving the black figure. It was a boy around his age with a large bow on his back.
-𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘥
Once the boy jumped down from the tree, his cloak dropped to his shoulders, allowing Joshua to see his features more clearly.
He had rust-coloured eyes and a fit body. His burlywood hair was tied to a bun on his back.
"What do you want?"
When Joshua replied to him in a disrespectful tone, he could see that the boy before him was quite offended.
"Hey, you are the latecomer here. What do YOU want?"
"I want to leave, if a certain person lets me be."
Maybe because they were both the same age physically, Joshua found the boy quite hard to deal with. He was alright if the other person was an adult but he didn't know what to do when it was a child. He wanted to get this conversation over with as quickly as possible to avoid being awkward. Of course, his feelings were not one-sided as the other boy also started to get annoyed.
"You have quite the guts, I'll give you that."
Faking irritation, Joshua turned his back to the guy and walked off to a random direction. He wanted nothing more than to lay down his exhausted body and looking like an idiot to this guy would only leave him thinking about his life-decisions.
' Looking like a brat would be way better than an idiot. Don't I already look around 10 anyways?'
Even though he knew he was being immature, at this moment, his exhaustion won over his common sense.
"He-Hey! Where are you going?"
Joshua kept ignoring the guy as he found a nice place for him to sleep. Taking a blanket out of his maroon bag, he laid down and curled in the blanket before turning to take a look at the archer boy.
" I'm going to sleep now, let's talk in the morning, sure?*
Meanwhile, the boy, Lucas, was left dumbfounded. Until now, even without him needing to do anything, everyone would be captivated by his beauty and try to strike up a conversation.
'Is it because he's also good looking?'
"Y-Yeah?"
"Alright then, good night."
Looking at Lucas who was in his stupor, Joshua replied to him as he yawned.
"W-Wait. No! Don't sleep in the middle of the forest! it's dangerous."
"So you're saying that staying with the pedophile guy would be a far better choice?"
"T-That... ugh, you can just stay in my tent, come on."
Seeing that Joshua was gouging him up and down as if the whole situation was on him, Lucas was embarrassed.
In the end, after realizing that what Lucas said was true, Joshua got up and put the blankets back in his bag as he followed him.
Lucas' tent wasn't that far away from the campfire as one could see some shades of orange reflected on it's silk. Unlike what it looked like from outside, the tent's insides were nearly comparable to a room. When he entered the room, Joshua stopped and looked back at Lucas.
"Now, what do you want?"
"What are you still on about?"
"You are not expecting me to trust a guy who just invites random people to his tent, are you?"
Seeing Joshua look up to him in disdain, Lucas shot back.
"What! I am not a pedophile like that guy!"
He made sure he lowered his voice at the end of the sentence. The last thing he wanted was getting kicked out of the travelling group for being loud.
Hearing his words, Joshua looked up to him skeptically.
"How old are you?"
"17."
"And I'm about to turn 16, y'know."
Lucas thought that there was a problem with his ears or Joshua was kidding with him for a second but fortunately for him, it was the truth.
"No way!"
"I just have an underdeveloped body."
"There's no room for doubt for that! In any case, I'm not planning on hurting you. But if you are still skeptical, what about this? We can take turns on night shifts. I don't know how you ended up being this deep in the forest but you should know about the beasts right?"
"Uhm. I do know a few things."
"That's great. I'll take the first shift and after I wake you, all you have to do is waking me and the rest of the group up in case you see a beast or what looks like one. Alright?"
"...I can do that much even if you didn't ask."
"Then that's great, my life will depend on your shift so let's trust each other, okay?"
As he finished his sentence, Lucas waved his hand in front of him as if urging him.
With exhaustion creeping in his mind, Joshua shook his hand and ran to the bed immediately. As long as he could get his good night's sleep, he didn't mind working for a few years.
Watching him losing himself in the dreamland, Lucas shook his head. He didn't know if Joshua was right about the age part but he looked nothing more of a small child right now, completely undefended.
'Not that I'd go back in my word though, that would be too unmanly.'
'But what was his reacting to seeing me? Am I less attractive than I thought?'
While Lucas was thinking deeply about this ridiculous topic as he climbed to a tree, Joshua was sound asleep.
/-----/
"M-Marquis!"
Marquis Courtner, who was in his dressing gown was sipping his morning tea by the window when an attendant rushed to him hurriedly.
"Midnight is..."
Seeing the horrified face on the attendant, Marquis understood the severity of the situation.
"Lead me to there."
"Y-Y-Yes!"
He didn't know if Midnight, his dear horse, was sick again but he knew he had to hurry as much as possible.
[*]
"Oh my god..."
"Gasp-!"
"Who in the world would..."
When Marquis Courtner reached the stable, he could hear the voices of his terrified workers. He was already curious about the situation but for some reason, hearing those words made him impatient.
Quickly entering the stable, he could catch a thick metallic scent hovering in the air. He entered the place where everyone gathered hurriedly. But once he did, his usually calm demeanour collapsed fully.
"W-What?"
As a war veteran, he has already seen lots of cases when the enemy forces would kidnap their man, torture them and then kill them ruthlessly but seeing the same scene on his 20-year friend froze his whole body.
Right in front of him was Midnight with his whole body covered in marks and his flesh being twisted here and there. His legs were tied and his whole chest was left open for all to see with his organs spilling out. His whole chestplate and ribs were broken to tiny peaces. There was no need to even talk about his head as it was full of scars.
Just the scene alone was to left many scared, making them puke.
"Who did this?"
As Marquis Courtner's voice rang out in the chilly silence, many were brought back to their senses. Bringing up his courage, one of the maids in the corner got up and pointed to the hayloft behind the horse so he headed to there.
Swiping the hay to the side, he took a step back.
[vhét gocs arund, cumcs aruunl]
Even though most of the blood used to write it was messed up, it didn't take a genius to understand the line.
[What goes around, comes around.]
Looking at the sentence, Marquis Courtner furrowed his brows deeply.
"Find him or her or whoever they are! I want them brought back to me right this instant!"
He left the stable in a flash. Staying in that place any longer made him feel sick.
"Darling, did something happen?"
The person who greeted him was Medea, his second concubine. She seemed to have left her room in a hurry as she was still in her night gown. Seeing the angry expression on her husband's face, she looked worried.
"It seems like we kept our enemies too close."
"...What do you mean?"
Not bothering to answer her, he returned to his room. As expected of someone who was accostumated to death, just after two cigars, he was already back to his calm self.
Meanwhile, Medea was left in a daze right in front of the stable. Many attendants who were passing by couldn't help but glance at her even in this situation. She looked quite enchanting with her face, portraying a wife worried about her husband perfectly.
'...He didn't figure out, right? Or did he?'
Though if anyone looked at her closely, they could notice big drops of sweat covering her forehead.
Unlike what she looked like from outside, her thoughts were completely different.
<[A/N: Joshua's immature mind will develop itself slowly through his journey, don't worry lol^^.]>
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
rosfuel
rosfuel >> Hello there!
Sorry for the short chapter, I'll try my best to make up for it but it may be hard for me to write for a while because it seems like they are planning on closing the internet modem in the midnight which is the exact time I start writing because I have school in daytime.
But I'll try my bestest to write! (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง
Then, I wish you all a good morning/noon/evening/night (ᵔᴥᵔ). <<
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