Capítulo 262: She Hears Briar's Story
"You mean Robin isn't here anymore!?" Christian exclaimed, in panic. "I thought you said that he'd be fine out there?"
"Calm down. Robin IS fine." Jasmine said, frowning in annoyance at Christian. "One of the bandits had a portable random teleportation sphere with a one time use. It seems that they're outside of the sandstorm, so they'll be heading for one of the checkpoints instead."
"They? What do you mean 'They'?" Christian asked, sharply, with narrowed eyes.
"The lone traveller that chose to walk instead of sitting in the caravan was pulled in along with Robin." Jasmine replied. "Honestly, you get worried about the strangest things."
Christian didn't answer. His heart was bleeding with envy. 'Why couldn't it have been me that teleported with Robin! I should have gone out to fight with him! I shouldn't have listened to Jasmine!' This was the one resounding thought that was screaming in his mind currently.
----
"So, now that we know where we're not, where exactly ARE we?" Robin wondered aloud. The two of them were taking a break under the shade of a nearby palm tree.
"Well, that depends." Briar said. "In this desert, there are two main underwater rivers that create the majority of the oases in this desert. So odds are, if you can follow the river accurately, you can reach a settlement eventually as well." She drew a small map on the dirt.
"And you can do that?" Robin asked.
"While it isn't my best mana affinity, I can still find where water is, so yes, you could say that." Briar nodded. "At the very least, we won't be leaving the river area, which means that if we dig deep enough, we can always find water."
"Hmmm." Robin considered. Ponzu had enough drinking water stashed away in his own personal storage for the group, so there wasn't an issue there.
"So what's the catch?" Robin asked. Briar's tone indicated that there was more to what she had said.
"The desert has its own predators to watch out for." Briar waved her hand and a knife flashed past Robin, accurately pinning down the head of a black cobra. "It isn't finding water that is an issue here, but making sure that we're able to arrive without getting poisoned."
"Of course." Robin sighed.
"It's best to rest during the day and proceed at night, once the moon has arisen." Briar said. "At least, that's how I've always crossed the dessert. It is far too hot otherwise."
"Are you prone to heat stroke?" Robin asked.
"Funny, right? I have a really high affinity with fire mana, too, but when it comes to the heat generated by sunlight, I am often rendered hopeless." Briar sighed. "While I have an affinity with light, it is mainly with a cooler kind of light, such as moonlight."
"Maybe you're just overwhelmed by the intensity, then?" Robin asked.
"Maybe." Briar pondered, then fell silent in thought.
"...so, what brings you all the way out here, then?" Robin asked, out of curiosity. This was obviously not the place where Briar was in her element.
"I'm gathering ingredients for a friend." Briar said.
"Ingredients?" Robin asked. What sort of ingredients could be found out in the desert? "...Cacti?" She muttered, puzzled.
"Heheh. No." Briar waved her palm, and another knife flashed out, striking a small figure. This time, she got up and walked over, picking up the knife. Skewered on the tip was a near transparent scorpion, already dead.
"Ingredients to try and make an antidote for the poison found in these little critters." Briar explained, with a dark expression. "An assassins group I hunted liked to use these because there is no known antidote. Unless you have a rare artifact that can isolate and remove it quickly, it is difficult to survive their venom."
"What is its name?...the scorpion, I mean." Robin asked.
Briar paused, looking down at the scorpion at the end of her knife. Her expression softened a moment as a memory came to her. Before she opened her mouth.
"Silent Scorpion."
"So..." Robin recognized the expression on Briar's face.
"Who died?"
Silence pervaded the air in between them. Yet it seemed to weigh heavier than any words ever could. Briar stared at Robin, before she slowly spoke.
"How could you tell?"
"You are obviously disgusted by these scorpions." Robin said. "Yet you seemed to be thinking of fond memories. Obviously, the person who died must have been very close to you."
"To be clear, it wasn't just one person." Briar sighed, sitting back down under the shade of the tree. "It was my whole village. Including...my mother."
Robin's eyes lowered in a moment of silence for the lives that had been lost. "So, that's why you're here then. To prevent it from ever happening again." Robin realized.
"Among other things, yes." Briar agreed. "So...you too?"
"...both parents. In an accident." Robin replied. "But I still had my older brother with me. So, I wasn't sent to an orphanage, thankfully."
"I also have a younger sister still alive." Briar nodded. "So, we are similar despite our differences, it seems."
"...Do you still miss her?" Robin asked. "Your mother, I mean?"
Briar tilted her head in consideration. "No." She replied.
"Huh?"
"I cherish my mother even now." Briar said seriously. "I will never forget her words, nor will I toss aside the affection that I have for her, despite her absense."
Robin listened as Briar looked up at the sky and continued to speak. "Because...I may not be able to see her, but the moon and the stars in the sky reminds me that she is watching over me. I don't miss her, per se. Instead...I look forward to meeting her once my duties are done."
Robin's eyes widened slightly. Then she smiled bitterly, as she looked down at the sand in front of her. She felt like life was like this. No matter how good of an oasis you built up, it would still be destroyed and buried in the sands of time. Even loved ones would be lost, without even a ripple.
"I... don't think we are that similar, then, aside from circumstances." Robin said in frustration.
Briar blinked in surprise and observed Robin's expression, curiously.
"Why?"
"Because...I still miss mine, terribly." Robin replied, biting her lower lip.
Briar blinked. Robin's figure suddenly reminded her of herself a long time ago. She smiled and sat down next to Robin.
"Maybe we are not so very different after all." Briar said, as she sat down next to Robin and patted her head.
"You remind me of how I was back then." Briar said. "It wasn't just my village that was the target of the assassins group. I was, too. Although, I wasn't aware of it, until they ambushed me and my party, one day." Briar fell silent and closed her eyes as the memory came back to her.
"...What happened then?" Robin asked.
"I...was the only survivor." Briar said. "I was chased relentlessly after that, so I was always running. Always fleeing from town to town. Always causing those around me to get injured or harmed. I had become quite reclusive at that point, I recall. The one thing I had wanted to do was find somewhere far away from everyone where I could live undisturbed in the wilderness. I had it all planned out, too."
"What happened then?" Robin suddenly felt she knew how Briar had felt.
"Then? My plan failed. I had been constructing a permanent sanctuary for myself. I was just minutes away from actually finishing it. But it all went to dust with one magic dispel scroll." Briar laughed. "My, that sure was the biggest waste of money I had ever seen in my life."
Robin nodded. It would surely be a terribly frustrating thing to have everything dashed to pieces just minutes before completion. Robin would have been extremely upset.
"But... that dispel scroll may have saved me instead, now that I think of it. It made me mad, after all." Briar chuckled. "Mad enough to take the journey that would change my life for the better."
"What did you do?"
"Do? I faced them head on. I met people who became my new family. I travelled to places I had never been before, and saw sights I had never expected to see. But I don't regret a single moment of it."
As Briar spoke, Robin recalled her own journey through her time here in this world, and came to realize that she too didn't regret it.
"So...Did you find them? The person behind it all?" Robin asked.
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