บท 194: Fear, Corruption, and Hope
"Wake up! Teacher, wake up!"
"Five more minutes... no, five more days..."
"You said the same thing both ten minutes ago and an hour ago, guess we have to do it the hard way, *nom*"
"Ouch! What the hell! Don't bite me!"
"Forget about that, we need to start packing things up, you're the only one who hasn't gotten up," Wanjing says.
"What time is it?"
"Noon, we've been wasted a lot of time here since you wouldn't get up. Oh, and it seems someone tried to enter the campsite last night. Whoever it was got injured by the fence you put up and Lia scared them off during her watch. She said that she decided against chasing since there were too many unknown variables and everyone else was sleeping."
"*Yawn* I guess that's fine," I say while getting up.
Leaving the tent, I find that the only thing left standing from the campsite is my own tent as everything else has been stored away. Even the fire pit I had made last night got stored, not that it matters much since I was just going to eat it and do the same thing.
While the others take a moment to bring down the last tent, I go and take apart the fence I made. Compressing the entire thing into a dense ball of metal, I swallow it and place it into my stomach storage before regrouping with the others.
"So at what time should we expect to reach the city? Now that I think about it, what's its name?" I ask.
"Its called Dongbu Bianjie, the largest settlement near the border with Zhongyang and Yamato," Yue says.
"And since someone wanted to sleep extra late, we might need to spend an extra day camping," Aurelia says.
"Well, excuuuse me, princess, but a lady needs her beauty sleep."
"One, I'm an Empress and two, out of all of us, you're the one who needs the least sleep."
"Lets just move on and get going, I don't see this conversation going anywhere if I can even call it that," Yue says.
Leaving the campsite behind we return to the main road and resume our journey, while Aurelia and I continue our argument for a while before we get tired of it. Over the past few hours, I had heard the sound of metal clashing in the distance off of the road and I'm sure the others noticed as well, but keeping with our previous decision from the night before, we ignore it as we make our way to the bridge.
Overtime the sounds in the coming from the side paths and forests become pronounced as we can hear some yelling and screaming. Both battle cries and shouts that call out in pain. I think I'm starting to piece together what it is that's currently taking place, but I think it's better to avoid getting involved.
After a bit of time, we finally arrive at the bridge that we're supposed to use to cross the river, or rather, what's left of it. Clouds of dust and smoke fill the sky in the distance as the clashing of steel can still be heard, followed by the cries of war. On the other side of the river, we can see what's probably two groups duking it out in the distance. And if I'm not mistaken, I think I can see one of the guns I made and sold in Shiping as well.
"You've figured it out, right?" Yue asks.
"If you mean the Triad's purpose here then yeah. I had an idea earlier but seeing this only solidifies it, a gang war, right? That's all I can think of seeing this."
"One side is obviously the Viper Triad we came across previously, but who are they fighting and why?" Aurelia asks.
"I dunno, I'm not too well versed on the subject. But we do have the leader of the Scarlet Wings with us who should be more knowledgable on the subject," Wanjing says, looking at Yue.
"I can't tell from here, they're too far away for me to say any fine details. But the real question is how do we deal with this? They're fighting right on the main road and pretty much all the side paths as well. At this point, the only way to avoid them is to fly, but we would attract the attention of the central government if we did that."
"Speaking of, why aren't they doing anything about this?" I ask.
"The official statement is probably something along the lines of 'we don't have enough personnel in the area and reinforcements are on the way' or something similar, but the truth is probably closer to being a mix of fear, corruption, and hope that both sides take some damage. The size and strength of the Viper Triad is nothing to scoff at and they seem evenly matched with whoever it is they're fighting. The central government is probably hoping they take each other out in the conflict while also lining their pockets as they privately agree not to interfere," Yue explains.
"You don't think they'll just let us walkthrough, do you?" Wanjing asks.
Turning my gaze to the right, I see a group of people rushing towards us, and look back to our left is another group running at us, "Yeah, I don't think we'll be able to peacefully walk through this mess."
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Akkre_Kojuuin
Akkre_Kojuuin One mistake is all it took for me to completely mess with my sleep schedule, not that I really had one to begin with.
I haven't really thought about how to really deal with this whole gang war thing. I started it because I thought it was interesting but now I don't know what to do with it.
Have a good night everyone.
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