Chapter 25: Kemal, the wandering priest (1)
The commercial cart was shaking and bouncing. The road was also in bad shape, so every stone under the wheel was felt intensely.
Suin sat inside the wagon with other travellers. There wasn't much space to begin with and after a few hours of riding, her buttocks were beaten blue. As expected, riding a horse was incomparably smoother than this torture. On the horseback, at least Luan made sure she wasn't inconvenienced.
The only good thing about the carriage was that they were protected against the rain and wind.
"Ack!"
The uneven road made the cart wobble and Suin jumped out in fright, hitting her head by the low ceiling.
"Are you okay, miss?" A priest who called himself Kemal asked her.
Suin tried to avoid him as much as possible because he was like a celebrity in the group. People naturally flocked to him asking for his blessing and guidance. And because he was kind and generous, he would answer to their request.
To encounter someone with divine power outside the temple or battlefield was rare, so once the people smelled the opportunity, they wouldn't let it go. Suin felt bad for him, but at the same avoided him at all costs. The fewer eyes were on her, the safer she felt on this journey alone.
The priest was young, maybe 25 or something, so still younger than her mental age, but was very gentle with everyone and calmly spoke to both children and adults alike. He tried to read some books at first, but people wouldn't leave him alone, so he just spent time politely conversing with everyone.
He was handsome. Unlike the edgy Blaine, the priest was like a clean spring calming one soul. His ash-like hair and viridian eyes were catching to the point that Suin felt sinful for liking his look so much. But he was still lacking to a certain knight.
The priest understood that she was concerned with other people, so he just gave her a light smile and returned to his seat. Besides the priest, her travelling companions sharing the same wagon as her were two men, a mother with her a few-year-old child and two elderly women. They were the people that she would spend time with for another week.
By the evening the procession stopped in the plain preparing to camp the night out. People from different wagons grouped together, making few campfires. Suin decided to stay with the same people she shared the space with before. Soon, they will all be strangers going their way, but today they will feast on hard bread and jerky together.
The meal was terrible, but no one complained.
Suin picked her share in frustration. Hard to say, whether she was more annoyed by the bumpy journey, or the poor food she was fed every day. In fact, with dried meat available, she could cook up a warm meal for everyone. But ultimately, she decided to hide her skill, as too much attention would be troublesome for her.
She planned to sit alone a bit away from her group, but then she saw a priest walking away. Overcome with curiosity, Suin put her food packet into the robe and followed the priest.
To her surprise, she found him not far away crumbling the bread on the ground.
"Father, what are you doing?" She asked. The food was horrible but not to the point of throwing it away. When she came closer, she could see the group of ants running around chaotically.
She thought he was being disrespectful, but he was even holier than she thought.
"Oh, I'm sorry… Are you trying to catch them?"
The idea of a divine Father hunting for insects was too weird, but in the end, when you are hungry, you will do even worse things. And besides, many cultures in her past life were able to include bugs in their diet.
The man was surprised, that she spoke to him first. He thought she wanted to travel as quietly as possible. Honestly, he didn't think it was a bad idea. Judging by her voice, she must be very young. Travelling alone is dangerous to any woman, regardless of their age.
"No need to call me 'father', I'm not officially appointed yet."
"Then…?"
"I'm Kemal, miss." He introduced himself again.
"Hello, Mr. Kemal. I'm…" The girl planned on returning to the introduction, but Kemal stopped her.
"There is no need, miss. You should be careful, don't give out your name to strangers carelessly, especially when you are alone now." Most people around knew that she joined them with a knight, who left shortly after for some unknown reason. However, no one bothered her, because they were paid quite a lot to safely get her to the city.
He meant well, but Suin smiled. " You can call me Nella."
She was not stupid and she knew the importance of hiding her identity. Nella sounded nice and short and she decided to use this name from now on.
"Miss Nella, then. What about you? Why are you not eating?"
"The food… is like chewing on the stones and all my teeth fell out because of it," she said seriously.
Kemal laughed heartily. The food provided by the merchants was indeed wrong, but everyone thought of surviving, rather than complaining. Besides, to live in the west, you must prepare your stomach for even worse than jerky and stiff bread.
"Still… It's important to eat to have energy," he told her.
The almost-priest looked around and found some dried-up branches. The only plant growing around was the so-called tree. Suin heard people cursing on it, as she learned that the west used to be covered with them. But since it had no known use to them and they believed that tree was taking the nutrition and moisture out of the ground, most of these majestic olives were cut down and sold as firewood.
This story frustrated her too much. Did they really cut down the trees in order to save the land from drying? Trees are not stealing water! Trees are necessary to keep water in the soil!
They made a stupid decision, killing the land in the process.
The lack of basic science was so frustrating in this world.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone