DragonRaja

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.28 Final)

2014-10-30T00:26:00.000-07:00

It is afternoon now. The leaves are constantly falling down. The sky is sunny and bright. The birds are singing crisply.

I lifted my head, saw a branch which no longer has leaves on it. Several birds are standing there, looking at me.

I threw some bread crumbs forward.

Birds seems to be looking at me with doubts. I was wondering "what kind of face can make the birds feel easier? "But I gave up. I can't read the horse's face, then how would the bird be able to understand my face?

Oh, I could be wrong! Horse doesn't have face muscles to make expression. That is, only humans can make "expression".

Elves can make facial expressions too. Iruril is lying in the blanket, with her arm on her chin, she is making a lazy expression like she woke up just now, looking at me and the bread crumbs. She looked up at the sky. Iruril smiled, then start whistling.

"Hush, hush, hush, hush -"

Soon, a little bird flew down from the branches. The bird began pecking the crumbs, and soon after, all the other birds also flew down and started pecking the crumbs. I held out my legs, using my arms to support the body, and I am watching this scene. In order not to scare the birds, I said in a very low voice:

"Your are good at whistling!"

Iruril looked at the birds, and then looked at me.

"Can you give me some bread?"

I took a bread from the basket. Iruril in the blanket is eating the bread in a recumbent posture.It looks very natural. She can actually eat while lying down! If it's Jamini, she will not be like this. But I also don't feel that it's rude. She is not human, isn't it funny for me to have that feeling? If we say an elf is lying in the woods above the leaves and eating, it sounds normal.

"Oh, it better to sit when you are eating."

Oh, what a Sanson. Iruril turned to Sanson.

"Huh?"

"If you are lying down, hmm, it may not be good for digestion....."

"For most creatures, their posture has no relationship to their digestion ability."

Thus Sanson has nothing to say. He smiled faintly, and then went back to his geography book. And I laughed, continued looking at those birds.

Iruril stood up from her position. She cleaned her hands, began to tidy up her hair. Because her hair is very long, so when she sleeps, of course, it will become a mess. But Iruril is now like a dog who shakes its body, shaking her head left and right, back and forth vigorously. I am totally shocked, and Sanson's jaw is also dropping. All of those birds flew away.

After Iruril finished shaking her head, finally collect her entire hair to the back, forming it with her hand. It looks really simple. Iruril picked up the leather coat beside her, found a comb, then started combing her hair.

"Hmm, I don't usually watch girls combing their hair, but this looks very simple!"

"How do human girls tidy their hair?"

"Well, first they wash it, then comb it, and then let it dry, then bun it up or make a braid ......"

"I want to wash my hair too."

"Anyway, they don't shake their heads like you did, I was a little surprised."

Iruril tilted her head, said:

"Oh, right, human hair usually intertwines, but our hair doesn't, when we shake it can all spread out."

"That must be very convenien."

"Well, is that convenient? Hair like mine is not easy to braid. My hair is too thin and dry, so most elves have disheveled hair like. It looks very strange, doesn't it?"

"No, not at all."

"I always want to try braid or bun hairstyle. But this kind of hair..... Do you want to touch and see?"

Iruril came to me, then grabbed a handful of hair to let me feel it. I gently touched. Iruril asked me:

"Isn't it very thin?"

It feels like a kind of yarn.

"It is really thin. But looks like you have a lot of hair."

"Right, we have so much hair, more than enough to make a bow. The bowstring of my bow is made with my hair. Usually when elves have their hair grow to certain length, they use it to make bowstrings. And they will always bring the bow with them."

At this point, Sanson said:

"Oh can I take a look at your bowstring?"

Iruril immediately took the composite bow out from her luggage and gave it to Sanson. I also got close to see that bow. Sanson holding a bow, bouncing the bowstring several times, and then he made a remarkable face.

"Very good bow. Though it doesn't fix my size, it's still really good."

"Size? Oh, are you referring to length of arms. Do you want compare your arm's length with me?"

Iruril outstretched her arms to the sides, hence her chest is popping out. Sanson ran back back a few steps, and his head hit the tree. He is patting the back of his head and groaning, then Iruril looked surprised and said:

"Why did you run away suddenly?"

Because if two people compare their arms length this way, they will touch each other's chest. It's similiar to a hug. Hey hey, I blushed by just wathcing. Sanson barely calmed down, and then said:

"Ah, um, forget about that. Oh yes, did you say that this bowstring is your hair?"

Iruril kept shaking her head, but then answered the question very cheerfully:

"I wrapped many times before success. You see, it's black right? Other elves also carry a bow with the same color as their hair. So if you see an elf with a bow which has different color from her hair, you know there is a long story behind that bow, or something very important for the elf. "

"Oh, yes, you explained very clearly."

"Huh? ......Alright."

Iruril shook her head again. Sanson seems to hit hard on the tree, he is still talking nonsense. Iruril took the bow back, then she still felt very strange and looked at Sanson, and then walked back to where she put the leather coat. Whenever she walks, I have a feeling that leather pants are really beautiful..... Should I buy one for Jamini? But will that girl look good with leather pants? Iruril picked up the leather coat and put it on, and then began searching in her luggage. Soon, she took out a very very huge book. I will believe if someone tells me it's a shield! Sanson and I are looking at this big book with our admired eyes, Iruril has opened the book, and began turning those huge pages. Because the pages are too big, so Iruril uses her entire palm to turn the book pages.

"Ah, can I have a look?"

"Can you read it?"

Sanson and I approached and started reading this book. Oh, a whole new experience! The white part should be paper, and the black part should be words, right?

Sanson and I looked at each other, and then looked at the book again. On the book there are strange sharps and patterns, there are also many complicated texts, but we don't know what kind of language is that.

"Is this Elvish?"

"This is the language of magic, Rune. In fact, we can't read this language out."

"Huh? We can't read this out?"

Iruril thought for a while, she cleaned the leaves on the ground, let the soil exposed. She took a small stone, and then began to write something on the ground. THM, OEW. What is this?

"Can you read this out?"

I used a surprised face to read them letter by letter. Then Iruril smiled and said:

"I would read like this: Three Human Man, One Elf Woman, '

"Oh!"

Sanson and I nodded.

"But we can read these letters out right?"

"Yes, that's because these letters can be read out originally, so you could read this out as" THM, OEW ", but Runes can't be read out in the beginning. But Rune is like the letters I just wrote, they are meaningful. The explaination seems a bit strange, but that's the best I can illustrate. "

"Oh... So, why the spells those wizards memorizing, they could read those out when they are casting?"

"Those are not runes, those are "Initial". Rune is the language when wizards memorize spells, while "Initial" can be in your own language. When they memorize spells written in Rune, naturally there will be an Initial created. For example I wrote "THM, OEW", and when I cast I read out "Three Human Man, One Elf Woman,". It's similar for magic. "

"Naturally? Then if one can understand runes, he can use magic ......"

It sounds so simple.

"No, not like that. You also have to understand how magic flows."

"How magic flows?"

"Take Aphnaidel as an example. He is a wizard, so he understands runes. But even tough I taught him the means, also wrote down the runes to him, he still can't cast "Summon Follower" immediately. Because he still needs spend some time to study and train on the flow of magic. He will be able to cast the spell only after that. Of course, I could have taught him essentials on the magic flow, it should be easier for him to master the spell. "

I shook my head.

"So..... Wizards teach their disciples, what do they teach taught? I always thought that they would just teach them the spells."

"Teach them the techniques of using magic, the methods to practice the techniques, the runes, then they teach them the spells. That's when they teach the runes required for particular magics. That is like you said 'teach them spells'. But those are not all of learning magic. After teaching the runes, they need to explain the flow of the magic. This is a difficult part. If we take swimming as an analogy, leanring runes for a spell is like entering the water. If you want the magic comes alive, it will be like teaching how one moves his hands and feet in the water in order to swim."

I raised my hands and said.

"Oh, that's so complicated! Sanson, is my head smoking?"

"Yeah, a lot of smoke there!"

Sanson's joke made me laughed. But Iruril turned to a worried face and asked:

"Huh, what does that mean? Why is your head smoking?"

Ah? Do we need to explain?

"Oh, that's just a joke, when water is boiling in a kettle, wouldn't it be smoking? So if our brains are boiling, we say 'our head is smoking' "a. So this is just a metaphor."

"But Huchi, I don't see smoke on your head!"

Sanson and I are speechless and looking at Iruril. We wanted to continue explaining, but when we try to start illustrating, I suddenly feel that using kettle as a metaphor of brain, it's really difficult to explain why people should find this funny.

Why did we joke about this?

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.27)

2014-10-28T23:35:00.002-07:00

The morning sun is rising.

At the dawn, we dropped down the baron in a remote area around the Renus City. The baron has already lost all his courage, he is completely like a zombie now. Even if he return to the city, he now has no property, no force We encouraged him to find a friend to help him, but he doesn't seem to have any friend. Revenge happily is the best thing, but look at his depressed face! We still feel very sorry. How would he not have even one friend?

I can probably understand the way of Karl's revenge. He induced the results which woulld be produced naturally from the Baron Silikian's characteristics. If Baron Silikian was a highly prestigious person, then no matter he disappears or not, he could still retain his property and prestige. Karl's revenge is to make the potential penalties happen, while a good person won't be damaged at all.

But this is very effective on Silikian. Hmm, Karl is a very scary person. Wehn I finished, Karl immediately laughed.

"You are right, Nedval. A person who commits crime, even if he didn't get any penalty that can be seen, he can't feel easy to live. Because the penalty would have been built up gradually within his heart. The so-called penalty doesn't happen anywhere else. If there is a wise judge, he will know the most appropriate penalties of criminals, already exists in the hearts of those criminals. I am just following this principle. "

Now we are in the middle of a mountain in the east of Renus, and we are camping here. Going to sleep when the sun is rising seems a bit strange, but because we haven't slept all night, so we can't move on.

While I am enjoying the morning sun, watching the vague lights of Renus City, I say:

"Renus, we have good memories there, bad memories also."

"This is the same no matter where it is. As long as it's a place where human lives, this's the same."

This was Karl's answer. I looked at Iruril.

Iruril is looking at the morning sun. Then she slowly closed her eyes slowly, facing the sunlight like a sunflower. The sunlight shining on her eyelashes is really beautiful. "Iruril? Can you compare human cities and elves cities?"

Iruril still closes her eyes, she said:

"Elves has no city."

"Then what is your point of view, as an elf, on human society? Frankly I am a bit worried, and a little ashamed. What is your opinion on our society?"

My question also attracted the attention of Karl and Sanson. Iruril said:

"Well ...... There are a lot of disappointments. There are also many amazing things, it is very difficult to define in one sentence. Although I only spent three days in that city, I feel like I've been there for 30 years. Does human usually live a day like that? "

"We certainly don't make every day that adventurous."

"Really? I was suspecting that was it because such intense life, so humans tend to have a short life. I especially couldn't imagine the behaviors you guys did last night...."

"Clever, right?"

Iruril smiled,. Then she opened her eyes and looked back.

"Yes, that's clever. Those clever acts, despite the virtue, only to express my feelings, they made me very jolly! This is a similar feeling to the sense of speed, very jolly, and comfortable. Oh, I don't know how to describe this in human words. 'Vibrant'? I don't know. "

"It's ok. We totally understand what you want to say."

I'm relieved. Iruril didn't give us any negative opinions. I was very worried that Iruril would think all humans are like the kind of Baron Silikian. I always thought humans were full of love. But after being together with other races, now I always feel that it will be great if human can be a little better, a little more elegant. I myself is a typical human.

Sanson said:

"Well! Let's sleep! We are all very tired."

Karl leaning against a tree, said:

"I didn't do much yesterday, I will guard. You quickly have a sleep! We wasted three days, if we want to speed up, we must get enough rest ."

I had a dream, in the dream there was Jamini and my hometown Fief Heltant. Was that a nightmare?

※ ※ ※

Creak creak! That's the sound of stretching bones.

"Ah, when can we sleep on a bed again?"

While I was twisting the body, I said to myself. My bones sound scattered.

Karl leaning against the tree, is sleeping. Well, such a good guard! Sanson heard me talking and opened his eyes, then stood up. He looked at Karl and laughed, then he woke Karl up. Karl hurriedly explained that he fell asleep just now, he is very sorry, but Sanson said with a smile:

"It doesn't matter. We all stayed up late, this is reasonable. Sleep there. It's not good to travel in the night, I think we should have a whole day of rest today here."

"Does time allows?"

"Originally we planned to finish everything in a month and a half, but we wasted three days in the Renus City, so we have around forty days left only. We have to have an audience with His Majesty the King, also to visit the Huritchell family, and to sell our fief, will there be enough time? "

"Forty days, only forty days .... Well, Percival,, I heard it takes a month to get into the palace."

"Huh? Is the Palace so big?"

"No, that's because it first from has to be reported to the officials, level to level, so it will take such a long tme. Fortunately I am a full-fledged deputy of Fief Heltant, what we have to report is about the king's dragon. So they should be able to arrange an audience with His Majesty the King for us immediately."

I interrupted and said:

"But is it necessary for us to see His Majesty the King? As long as we tell the officials that Cathselprime was defeated, then they can transmit that to the King right?"

"That could cause trouble. If it's something else, maybe we could do this, no, we do this for anything else, but the dragon is different. Wherever the dragon is, she is still the king's dragon. And Cathselprime for his Majesty the King, is a very important. His Majesty the King sent her to Fief Heltant directly. And Because it was sent by His Majesty directly, we have to report this directly to his Majesty, but not the officials under. "

"Oh! Really annoying. Is that very important?"

"Very very important. In case His Majesty the King gets angry, we could be beheaded. The officials certainly don't want their heads chopped off."

"Huh? Beheaded, that's death penalty?"

Karl tittered.

"Of course that will not be our case. Theoretically that could be a outcome, but we don't have to worry too much about it. The person in charge of operations the thane of Heltant, but we our thane has full transferred the command to Earl Huritchell. So responsibility of defeat should be on Earl Huritchell "

"So Karl you will be safe?"

"Right, as long as we tell His Majesty:"Cathselprime was sent to support, but we were still defeated, we are really guilty, "His Majesty the King should forgive us, and then we will be fine. We have to this officially, and be recorded. Moreover I heard that his Majesty the King is very kind. After his elder brother being dethroned, when he became the Crown Prince, people were even excited about that. "

"Oh, really surprising."

Karl took a deep breath and looked at me, then smiled. But he turned to a sad face again.

"Only forty days... Reporting the lost war is not really a big problem. The really problem is how do we raise the money. That's what I'm worrying about. Even if Deacon Mr Hamel has huge talent, it's not possible o raise enough money within our fief, after all, the money is our responsibility. When we arrived the capital, we have to beg the King family, or beg the House of Lords, no matter what, we must raise the money. I brought all the tax right pleadings, we will sell them as the last resort."

Seeing Karl so worried, Sanson interrupted:

"Well, we can find a way to return in a shorter time. Because I didn't traveled on these roads, I was planning by the map only, so It was a bit uneasy to plan the route. But we should get a little more familiar when we return, right? "

"You're right. I understand."

Karl nodded, and then went into the blanket. He struggled in the blanket over and over again, distressed for a long time before he fell asleep. Sanson opened the luggage, took out the geography book, and then began looking at the map carefully. And me, I took out the basket Jusina gave us.

In the basket there are bread, beer, as well as cheese and fruits. Ha, That girl could say those funny words. What was that? Her own heart has been given stolen by a traveler? She will miss the traveler for her whole life? Ha ha ha!

The large beer bottle is sealed tightly, it is sealed with wax. Once I opened the lid, a lot of foam came out, probably because just it was shook badly. After I drank a little, I gave it to Sanson, and then began to eat the bread.

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.26)

2014-10-26T23:57:00.001-07:00

We are again back to the second floor. Aphnaidel became very quiet after getting his life back, he even led us the way kindly. After reaching Baron's room in the central of the second floor, I told Aphnaidel:

"Please ask the baron out, keep your volumn low."

Aphnaidel did as I said, quietly asked the Baron to come out. The baron seems to be having a nice sleep, he didn't wake him.

"Don't you have the key?"

"No."

"Never. Well, As the memorial of the return of my OPG."

I pushed the door with my hands without any hestitation. Whew! The whole door flew away. I said quickly:

"Good, Sanson! You take Baron out! I will stop those servants."

Sanson moved his body swiftly. Then I started looking at those servants, after they heard the sound of me destroying the door, they are in a commotion. They tried to look around the second floor, but they can't see clearly since it's too dark. After a while, they lit the candles and lanterns, once they saw our faces, they all creamed. Sanson has already captured Baron Silikian, he dragged him out.

"You damned people! You know who I am, how dare you! Do you really want to die?"

Baron swore a lot of harsh words. He really doesn't know the situation! I grabbed the guy's feet, he roared:

"Bas, bastard! How dare you! Put me down!"

"If I was your servant, I would listen to you."

Then I hanged the Baron outside the railing. Those maid below screamed.

"Uh ah!"

There are bubbles in Baron Silikian's mouth. I shook my arm up and down and said:

"You are really heavy!"

"Bastard! How dare you do this to me, do you think you can survive after this?"

"If you keep being this noisy, do you think you can survive after this?"

The baron then became quiet. Because as soon as I release, he will become the "Past" Baron Silikian. He shouted desperately:

"You, you, catch me! Ah, no, come up and kill these guys!"

The Servants ran in panic beneath Baron, then raised their hands. I tooka step to the left, those servants moved the to left immediately. And when I stepped to the right, those servants cursed and rant to the right. Really funny! So I moved left and right several times.

The baron's head is facing downwards, so he became disoriented after being moved around by me. But he is still shouting, continued to curse me. Karl could not stand and said to me:

"Enough, Nedval. Don't do this this, better put him down."

I smiled, and then let him down. Once Silikian was down he immediately wanted to run away, but I held the guy's shoulder. So he can only use his free mouth to hurt me as much as possible:

"You nasty people! Dirty rats in sewage! Don't you know how to respect people! You really want to be dead so much huh! Dare to be rude to me These dirty bastards!"

The baron's mouth is really amazing. He should be very dizzy now, and he actually can keep cursing. Karl wanted to speak, but he shook his head and gave up.

"Seems we can't really talk to him. Nevermind, let's go."

"Idiots! You think you can escape? Do you want to flee to your rat hole? No way! You will first be teared in half! You dare to do such a nasty thing on me, and think that you could survive? Even kind person like me won't spare you mercy! "

I said to Karl:

"Just throw him away. He is really disgusting!"

"What did you say? Brat, what's wrong with you? You callow boy! How can you treat me this way?"

Karl almost asked me to throw him out.

"Throw him away.... is not right."

At this time, the door was violently opened, the private soldiers rushed in. They are really quick! Only now they appear! They ran to the second floor, after they saw the Baron became a hostage, they shouted:

"Hey! You, hic! We are surrounded, ah, no, you are surrounded!"

I shouted at their faces:

"Can't you even speak! Stupid soldiers! You actually can still deploy, I am really amazed!"

The private soldiers are all drunk, they can't even walk properly, and some even wear their armors in a wrong side, and some people put the shield on their head, hold the helmet in their hand, really. They don't look scary no matter how you look at them, really ridiculous. These private soldiers ate what kind of guts? How dare they be drunk like this? The baron seems to have the same feelings as me. He shouted at the private soldiers with me. Private soldiers didn't even hear a word from the baron, they are all falling around, some even sitting on the floor and vomitting. Really amazing! If we knew it, we should have came from the front gate! Karl looked at those private soldiers and said:

"Well, this should be enough!"

Sanson and I are surprised, we looked at Karl. Karl bowed to the Baron Silikian properly , and then said:

"Mr Baron, let's make a bet?"

"Bet, what bet?"

"We bet if Mr Baron disappears, whether those soldiers would plunder all your property How about that? I bet if we take you away now, the soldiers will plunder the gems you care, the clothing and important documents I bet "they will', and Mr Baron you will probably bet "they won't", right? Because you believe in the loyalty of these soldiers."

Baron's face finally emerged fear.

"You, you, how can you...."

"Nedval, knock him out."

Once I heard these words, I punched the baron head, The baron then fell to the ground like a frog. Karl is looking at the bottom, he said to Aphnaidel:

"Mr. Aphnaidel, Where is baron's family?"

"He has no family. His wife has passed away, and his daughter has already married long time ago."

"So we don't have to hestitate. Mr. Aphnaidel, you will probably want something, won't you"

Aphnaidel giggled. But he noticed Iruril's eyes, then lowered his head. Karl said:

"In the permitted range of your conscience, take something. As the salary of serving the baron."

"Forget about it. I will get my baggage. I already earned enough tonight. I learned a new magic."

Karl smiled and said:

"You are indeed a wizard. I thought you'd say "You spared my life". You can leave now. If possible, please go back to your teacher."

After Aphnaidel thanked to us, he went back to the basement. Karl quickly ordered:

"When the private soldiers is making the mess, we can't let those servants get injured. Percival, Nedval, take away the private soldiers' weapons and equipment, make them all unconscious. They are all drunk, this should be easy right? And, all you manservant and maids here, we will take this guy away, you can take whatever you like! "

"What, what do you mean?"

Karl exposed a cunning face and said:

"If you don't hurry, you'll miss a lot of things."

The eyes of the servants finally turned sharp. Then I laughed with Sanson, jumped off the stairs.

"Ha!"

Punch... Slap... Toss... Kick...

We rode and left the Baron's house. Iruril took a horse out from the baron's stable. Really surprising. I laughed and said to her:

"Elves also do this kind of thing huh?"

"This is a very reasonable behavior. Those horses have lost their master anyway, they could be sold, or taken away by those private soldiers. Because there is no owner now, so I will be its owner. Because it is reasonable choice, put it the name "Reasonable" is that good? "

"Good, because what you did is 'reasonable '. "

I smiled slightly, and Iruril also smiled, only Sanson is with a bitter face. Now he can't ride the same horse with Iruril, but with the baron. I asked Karl a question:

"But if we just leave, isn't this kidnapping? Won't the municipal government send people after us?"

"This guy had such a big influence at the municipal government, was only because of his money. Now he has no money, the municipal government will no longer be afraid of this guy. And we also have a method. "

"What method?"

After we reached the city hall of Renus, we finally knew what method was.

On a small road near the city hall, I prepared a paper, ink and pen. After we bought these, they finally come in handy. Karl asked the baron to write a statement to donate the arena to the government. Of course, it is impossible that Baron would wrote that statement willingly.

"What, what? This is impossible!"

Immediately after Sanson shook his head, he whispered a few words in the baron's ear. Soon, the baron turned to a green face, he quickly began to write the declaration. I asked Sanson:

"What did you say?"

"That doesn't matter. I don't want to say that again anyway."

Baron wrote a Statement regarding to donating his arena to the municipal government. And luckily, we have three people here, because Iruril is not a Vyseus citizen. Anyway, under the signature of the baron, Karl, Sanson and I signed.

"I'm not an adult, seems that I can't be a witness."

Karl shook his head and said:

"No, thane of Heltant can decide whether you are officially an adult or not. And I am now the deputy of the thane of Fief Heltant, so your name written below my name, can receive the same treatment as mine do. "

Ha! That is great! I finished my signature. Karl picked up that piece of paper and shook a few times to make the ink dry. Then he said:

"Good, if the municipal government received this property, they don't have any opinion on us anymore. And....."

Karl took out another sheet of paper, quickly write some words on it. After he finished, he said:

"Renus City government will not be chasing after us, Didn't Mr. Cherine say that we are not on the criminals list? So there is no reason for the city government to capture us. I wrote," Arena to exchange our freedom! ", if the mayor's brain is functioning, he must agree to my proposal. If they want to treat us as criminals, and arrest us, baron's declaration will become invalid. Because criminals can't be witnesses. "

"Wow!"

Sanson and I praised from the bottom of our hearts and nodded. Is Karl a former criminal or impostor? We ran some distance away from the city hall, Karl tied the two sheets of paper on an arrow, and fired at the city hall. It's like a signal for us, we galloped to leave the Renus City.

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.25)

2014-10-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

Sanson grasped Aphnaidel's head easily who had his eyes covered. Sanson folded his arms, and mounted the dagger on his neck.

"How are you! The very weak archmage."

That guy only opened his eyes and saw us then. His face suddenly turned shock.

"What is it.. Isn't there a fire? Who you are!"

"We are the people who shouted fire. Well, let's go inside, shall we?"

Sanson pushed that guy, then we entered into the room.

The light inside is on, what we can see is a mess. We can smell weird flavor everywhere, rotten taste, oil, sulfur and so on, we almost needed to cover our noses. And there's a lot of clutter, such as fine iron powder, gold powder, crystal ball, sulfur, animal offal, animal hair etc., and there is even animal urine. The walls are covered a lot of weird stuffs like iron wire, rope, every shelf is filled with all kinds of bottles. Iruril frowned, then sent away Wisp.

After kneeling Aphnaidel on the ground, Sanson pulled off the cloth covering his face.

"You, it's you!"

Aphnaidel turned to a pale look. After we pulled off all our face covers, Aphnaidel made some breathless cough. Sanson said with a cunning smile:

"Do you want me to kill you first then torture you, or torture you first then kill you?"

Aphnaidel's face looks like a dead person now. I decided to get my things back first.

"Hey, give me back my OPG first. Where is it?"

"That thing. In the pot over there ......"

"What! In the pot?"

I panic and went over to see the stove. There is really a pot filled with water, and it is boiling (lot of things I've never seen are inside, the color and taste is simply awful), My OPG is floating in it. Oh my goodness! I used the iron clamps nearby to clip it up. Loads of dirty things are being brought up with it, around the fingers part of the glove, there is even a animal eyeball sticking on it. I have to curse!

"What the hell are you doing!"

"Doing, doing research ......"

"Do you want cook it and eat it? You are crazy!"

I put them in a bucket placed next to the pot, washed them roughly and shook a few times, after wiping them with a towel, I put them on my hands. Although there is no feeling, this thing originally feels like this. If I need to test i.... I picked up an iron bar on the wall and waved. As before, I can do it easily.

"Good, it's still working. But what did you want with it?"

"I, I wanted to summon Orc as my Wizard Follower......"

Wizard Follower? This time Iruril laughed.

"Tha's ridiculous! Why would you want a Orc be your Wizard Follower? Actually where did you learn your magics?"

Aphnaidel looked surprised.

"You, you know how to look for a Wizard Follower?"

"Didn't I cast 'Ice Wall' in front of you?I know that series of magic."

"Can... Can you teach me ......"

"Sure, according to the different types of followers you want to summon, there is different time constrain, so first you have to pick the creature's active period. Fill a brass stove with charcoal, then put some incense in, the incense must completely cover the charcoal's surface. While finishing the spell, you have to add incense several times. After that, put aloe and.... "

Sanson, Karl and I are all tongue-tied! We are watching Iruril saying these words calmly, while Aphnaidel is carefully listening and writing notes. It feels like a really joyful lesson! During the lesson, we picked up the strange things of Aphnaidel, played around while waiting. After Iruril finished her tutorial, she even helped him to write something on the note.

After Aphnaidel finished, he looked at the piece of paper, made a satisfied expression.

"That sentence is right! Elves are different from humans, elves are really at teaching magic!"

Iruril also smiled slightly.

"Learning a new magic is very precious. But the cost is your life."

After Aphnaidel heard this, the piece of paper in his hands fell to the ground. His scared face makes us very happy. Iruril is really a very calm person. She said coldly:

"You have accepted the things I just taught, so now I have accept the cost. You should not have any objection, right?"

Iruril pulled out her piercing sword. Aphnaidel moved back a few steps, stumbled and fell to the ground. He is like a poplar leaf in the wind, constantly trembling, he said:

"Please, please don't kill me....."

"You used your childish magics, helped the baron to oppress the citizens of this city. And this way it also had your own desires satisfied. You felt quite happy right? Uphinel gives a rule to this world, no matter what you do, you must pay the price, how can you not know? Uphinel made the balance, and Helkanes made the mass. Your balance is too tilted. now we should make it balanced. Your live would be the mass! "

Iruril's voice was calm, as if she was talking about the weather tomorrow. However, in the ears of Aphnaidel, it could be the world's most horrible voice. Aphnaidel continued to retreat, until he hit the wall. Iruril then slowly moved forward.

Suddenly Aphnaidel growled loudly:

"You said I had my desires satisfied!"

Iruril looked surprised. Aphnaidel is crying and shouting:

"Damn! Human wizards are not like you elves, they don't just teach magics so generously! I learned a decade and I am only level two!I have paid tons of time to serve them! "

"You should understand the magic is not easy to learn and use."

"But I still can't bear! I can't bear to dedicate all my young time to that decrepit old man, so I ran! But with my level two magics, all I can do is to serve these filthy profiteers! "

Iruril is quietly watching him, she said:

"For humans, in order to learn magics, the time needs to spend is too long."

"Yes! We're not elves! The desires of young men, we have to give them all up, we can only dedeicate to magic. When we become a useful wizard, we will almost be in the age of stroke! I don't want that, so I ran away! Desire? Oh! Is that desire? Yes, indeed, life has became very easy.I just had to moderately tortured those who the Baron specified. Yeah, kid! As you said, I throw them ropes, throw them bones, but, but I always feel uncomfortable. I don't know when would I encounter a better wizard. I am afraid that people would eventually find out I am very good wizard. so I claimed myself a Archmage, and even wearing those ugly robes! However I couldn't stand this too. After all, I am a wizard! I miss those magical research. So I started doing research every day, I tried to creat magics I have never heard of, I tried to experiment..... "

So that's why Aphnaidel took my OPG, to create magics. Karl tried to ask him:

"Did you go back and find your teacher?"

"I am too ashamed.. I can't go back. Whenever I think of my dissolute life, I know I can't go back."

Aphnaidel bowed his head, he is crying. Iruril looked at him, and put away the piercing sword. Aphnaidel heard the sound of the scabbard, he quickly looked up.

"Uphinel and Helkanes created time."

Aphnaidel wiped his tear, looked at Iruril. Iruril said to him:

"Time is absolute, and it can't be changed. But we can utilize time."

Iruril smiled slightly.

"I will leave your time to you. Please take advantage of it. Balance your tilted balance by yourself. Please look back, and change your days ahead."

Aphnaidel's face finally appeared hope. He kept bowing to the ground, and said:

"Thank you! Thank you!"

Sanson and I looked at each other, then shrugged.

"Really, Iruril solved everything. We don't have to do anything anymore."

"Yes, if it were me, I would relentlessly beat his ass. When I quietly waited half a day there, I wasn't expecting this!"

Iruril heard me and said with a smile:

"Huchi, I'm sorry."

"No, you don't have to say sorry to me, I am very happy with this. But you must leave us the baron. Hey! Aphnaidel?"

Aphnaidel is still bowing. Until I urged him once again, he stood up. I said to him:

"Well, Iruril handled you. But it will be a little different for the Baron. Come with us."

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.24)

2014-10-21T01:10:00.001-07:00

We have reached the Baron's house. The night is dark, dark everywhere. The house is quiet. We tied the horses beside the stone wall. We all covered our faces with Handkerchiefs , Iruril even tied up her long hair, and then stuffed inside her clothes. Sanson said:

"Hmm, Iruril, you don't have to come with us ......"

"I have to make things clear with the baron and the archmage."

"The bottom line is, I started this. It is my fault."

"If you look this way, then we can say that it's our births' fault. Well, shall we start quickly?"

Of course, we have to act quickly. Sanson below helped Karl and I crossing the fence. The fence is not very high, so we got over simply. Then Iruril got over also, and Sanson put a little bit of effort and crossed the fence too. Karl observed the mansion, and then said:

"According to my observation, the bedroom is at the central of the second floot. The other room with a balcony is also a bedroom. Rhe building next to shoujld be the private soldiers' place. But where can the archmage be in?"

"If we say 'Archmage's laboratory', we usually thank of the basement, right?"

"Let's go."

We quietly approached. Goddess Lumina's moon goddess has risen for a long time, so under the two moons of Lumina and Selena, it is very bright. Therefore, it should be very difficult to stalkin, but incredibly, there is no one in the courtyard. On the contrary, the building which the private soldiers could be in, are full of noises. Took a look over, the private soldiers are drinking and singing They really know how to enjoy!

"How dare they get paid for this?"

We quietly ran towards the main building.

The door looks majestic, but it s locked. This is locked from the inside with a latch bolt, so we have no way to open it. Sanson is looking at the windows, but Karl shook his head, he said:

"There should be a kitchen somewhere. To allow the fumes and food smell to disperse fast, the kitchen should be located on the outside of the place. We go around to the back and see!"

We went around to the back, and indeed saw a kitchen connected to the main building. At the moment, we heard someone approaching. We quickly hid behind the trees. The man came over dressed in ordinary clothes, so we don't know whether he is a manservant or private soldier. But seems to bea private soldier. Because he is drunk, he is walking unsteadily, once he arrived the kitchen, he started knocking hte kitchen door.

"Hey! Come out! Open the door!"

Soon, I see the kitchen light turned on, then the kitchen door opened. A maid opened the door with a lantern. The maid was rubbing her eyes when replied:

"What do you want? We were sleeping?"

"We don't have enough wine , I brought the bottles over."

"You guys' job is to drink like this everyday? No! I don't want to give you anymore!"

"Oh, you are so scary! Let me see...."

"Uh ah! Are you crazy!"

The private soldiers wanted to cling to the maid, but got kicked in the leg bone. The kitchen door shut, the private soldier are cursing while walking back. At this time, we came out from the tree.

"Well, now we know the way in!"

Sanson nodded and went to the kitchen door, he is knocking on the door heavily.

"Hey! Hurry! Just one bottle!"

Bawl immediately immediately came from the kitchen.

"You dare to come back! You! Don't move!"

After the maid's angry voice, the door opened. The maid is holding a poke, but her arm got caught by Sanson. The maid's eyes widened, before she shouted, Sanson covered her mouth.

"Quiet! If you shout, I will kill you!"

Sanson's voice came behind the handkerchief, so it sounded terrible. The maid is trembling and she nodded. Sanson continue hooding the maid's mouth, and said to her: "I am moving my hand away, but if you dare to cry, you'll be in trouble. Understand?"

Once the maid is released, she immediately said with mosquito-like voice: "Please don't kill me,.. Please don't kill me," and began to tear. Sanson looks like doesn't know what to do and said:

"As long as you do as I say, you won't be hurt. Okay, Apart from you, is there anyone else awake?"

"No, no one is awake. I was sleeping too, but because someone shouted....."

Then Sanson turned the maid around, grabbed her shoulder and said:

"Good. Please lead the way now. Dagger behind your back, so be careful!"

The maid is trembling too much, she nearly can't walk. Later we kept urging the maid, she finally managed to enter the kitchen.

Once we went into the kitchen, we found the door to the main building. Behind the door is the lobby, where the manservants are. Because there is no personal room for manservant r- only maid rooms.

I was thinking these things while walking, so I almost stepped on a sleeping manservant. I managed to stop in time, so I only slightly kicked his hand. After the manservant turned his body, he fell asleep again. In that short moment, the four of us took a cold sweat, we were all standing like a stone. Sanson with a low voice said:

"Huchi, you idiot!"

"Whew! I was more afraid than you, stop mentioning again."

We quietly took the stairs leading to the second floor from the lobby. Although we got panic due the scrunching sound of the stairs, the manservant didn't awake as they were likely hard-working during the day. After we got to second floor, there are corridors at both left and right, also another corridor in front of tus. In the front end of the corridor there is a very ornate door. Before the maid pointed to that room, we already knew that's probably the baron's room.

Sanson said:

"Where is the archmage?"

"In, in the basement. In the end of this corridor, there is staircase leading to the basement."

"Can you open that door?"

"No, I can't. Only the baron and Mr deacon have the keys."

"Okay. If people find out that you lead us the way, you are unlikely safe. So, I have to make you unconscious, you can then say that you were knocked out while resisting. Understand?"

Although the maid face became very pale, soon she nodded.

"Please, please be mildly."

"Ok, I'm sorry."

Sanson nodded to her, then punched her belly. After the maid made a low groan, she fell down, but Sanson held her, let her sit against the wall. Sanson shook his head.

"Well, I hit a woman, I am really sorry to her."

"But she will be grateful to you. Let's go, we are going to the basement."

"Why?"

"If we open that door, all the servants will be awakened, so we should capture the archmage first, then ask the archmaage to open the door."

We went to the end of the second floor and found the stairs. Why the stairs to basement would be located on the second floor it? Strange, but Karl explained to me.

"This is because the basement was built with an important purpose. According to certain rites, the first floor is the living space of the servants, while the second floor is the living space of the owner and his family. So the important basement of course connects to the second floor, and the servants certainly can't get close to it. "

Really? Regardless of what the original purpose was, because thes stairs are going from the second floor to the basement it is very steep and very long. Fortunately, these are stone stairs, so there will not be footsteps. But as we are walking downstairs in the dark, we must feel the walls and walk slowly. Then Iruril said:

"The most beautiful fairy among your enemies, hidden dark is it's food. Please come out and devour the darkness!"

Suddenly a light appeared, which startled us. Take a closer look, though it is not very bright, but suddenly seeing light in the dark hallway, we naturally scared. Because of the light, we can't see what's the thing at the center of it, but it seems that something is moving around. I looked at Karl, Karl answered:

"Oh it's Wisp. It's more beautiful than the legend. Even though it's called Light Spirit, we can feel it's beauty much more in this darkness...."

Because of Wisp, we continue to go down easily. The light is not red, but with a little bit blue, so it looks like a bit strange. We found a door after we went down to the baseman, on the wooden door there is iron above as a reinforcing material. It looks very sturdy. Well, how to open it?

This time it's still Iruril's job. She asked me and Sanson to stand on both sides of the door, and Wisp flew above the door. Then she began to read the spell.

"Under the air, carrying life, watching the world. The you who don't belong to anything. Please put one of your power here."

Then, the basement which is possible to be windy became windy. Soon, Iruril looked at the stairs we just went down, she said:

"Now no noise can go up. We can make him open the door for us now."

"Huh? How ?"

"Shout" Fire '. "

Right! If people in the basement hear a fire, they will be very fear. Sanson and I soon began shouting wildly with broken throats:

"The house caught fire!"

As expected, noises soon came from the room, I can the sound of something rolling down. Then there was a "uh ah" scream, while the door was opened. A bare chested man ran out. Once the door was opened, Wisp flew close to the man's eyes, so he had to cover his eyes.

He is Aphnaidel.

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.23)

2014-10-16T20:49:00.001-07:00

Sanson as pure Heltant man, unconditionally agreed, and another little special, but also pure Heltant man, Karl, is hesitating, but it seems that he can't resist the temptation of revenge too.

"Ah..... It's better for us to leave quietly."

"Not quite right. They might send soldiers after us. It's better to settle things down clearly. And the municipal government here is tantamount to the false Baron's puppet, so if we want a good ending, then, we find the Baron."

"Isn't that too dangerous? There are a lot of private soldiers in the baron house."

"Are you talking about those useless private soldiers? They must be sleeping deeply now. Those guys could even say," We were sleeping when the trolls came out, so we couldn't help"kind of thing, couldn't them? Those guys would not wake up until we set fire to the house."

I continued to convince Karl. The reason I do this, is to get a clear explanation on being imprisoned, and the subsequent prison break events from them, and if incidentally revenge is included, that should be good right? I persuaded Karl, and Karl finally made his decision.

"Then we give it a go."

"Great, we should back to the Hostel of Dozen first. We have to get our luggage back."

We rode to Hostel of Dozen. Sanson asked Iruril to sit behind him, but Sanson looked overwhelmed. Conversely Iruril naturally grabbed Sansoni's waist, Sanson seems to be the only one who believed himself did something bad, kept being excited. Sigh, he should get a wife, sigh!

There is no light in Hostel of Dozen, except a lamp in the lobby on the first floor. We quietly went to the window of the lobby. Jusina is sitting in the lobby, looks like there are some account books on the table in front of her. She is looking at the ceiling blankly, I knocked on the window.

Jusina startled, she looked at the window, and startled again.

"Hu... Huchi?"

"Hello! Tonight is going to be a good night!"

"Huh? How did you escape?"

"Can you believe that? I just spilled the bottle of strong wine on the wall, and it melted."

Jusina is so surprised that she doesn't know what to do. But then she ran over and opened the door for us. We went inside quickly. Jusina carefully checked out our body, and then said:

"Why? Oh, I mean how could escape from....."

Karl shook his hand.

"We don't have time to explain. Is our luggage still in our room?"

"Ah, I moved those."

We followed Jusina, and then picked up our own luggage. Cherine and other manservants should be sleeping, so we don't see anyone else. When Sanson was filling his water bottle, and I talked to Jusina:

"Well, listen, but don't interrupt. We broke from the prison, and now we have to leave this city. But before that we need to deal with someone, so we are going to find him first. How much is the room rate ? "

Jusina didn't answer me, and said something irrelevant.

"Are you leaving? Now?"

"Shall we leave when the warm spring comes?"

"...Your mouth is really....."

"Oh, really what? Do you want a goodbye kiss?"

Jusina's cheeks turned red, and then she received the hostel fees from Sanson. We are leaving with the luggage quickly. At this time, Jusina came out from the hostel and gave a basket to me.

"Time is too hurried, there is nothing I can give you. Here is some food, you can enjoy on the road."

"Thank you. No wonder people say, after visiting this hostel, no matter where you go to the land, you can tell people the good memories here. Thank you again, the noble lady Jusina. Well, please say thank you to your brother for us too. "

Jusina seems to want to add something. Time is running out, why is she dragging, sigh! In the end Haltent girls are the best. Because they are straightforward and simple.

"Jusina, you better finish your words now. Even cursing would be better than regretting not finish your words in the future, Hurry, because you didn't get a good chance to scold me, so you are behaving like this now right? "

Jusina's lips suddenly became flexible again.

"You... Bad man, give me back my heart!"

"....What?"

My "What" sounded even weaker than the night breeze. Karl and Sanson also seemed to get hit by a hammer. I managed to cleared my throat, and ask a little louder:

"What did you say?"

Seems I am not loud enough. Jusina began crying.

"Hum, hum, it's like all the legends! Hum, a girl working in a hosel, hum, a traveler stole her heart, But then the traveler left the city, and never came back again. The girl will wait for a lifetime. Hum. She might marry another man, and have children, hum hum, but she misses that traveler for her whole life. "

Wow ah! I can't take this anymore. Really! This girl is making story between her and me. Sounds like a really story, but only making up everything with her imagination! Such imagination is usual in puberty. I wiped the tears for Jusina, and then asked her:

"Hey! Weren't you so angry that you wanted to kill and swallow me?"

"That's exactly the beginning, you abducted my heart. I knew it. When I was very rude to you, I had the feeling, you would be the man who abducts my heart. Alright, you must be, I know I've met my Magical Autumn, once a lifetime. "

Magical Autumn... I am getting crazy! Hey, you were the one being rude first, that's probably because you were pissed off by that drunkard. What the hell is happening?

"And, that morning, you fought against those trolls in order to save the people you don't know, but those people still treated you cold, and you were wounded, I looked at the man, I knew my heart would never turn back. "

Gran Elver, please! After I screamed a few times in my heart, finally forced myself to say calmly:

"Jusina, stop your nonsense imaginations. You and I just met each other for three days, and two days of those I was in the jail, you have no way to get to know me. I'm not a good man. The feeling you have on me, 90 percent are from yout imagination. "

"No, this is my fate! But I will not stop you from leaving. Since she has given her heart to the traveler, of course, she will get punishment. Go, I won't grab your legs. Though you are taking away the most precious thing I have, and never come back again. But I don't blame you."

She seems to love the story. Jusina seems to want be a "after her heart got stolen by a traveler who left with the autumn, the girl missed the man in every autumn throughout her life." Then I certainly d should not shovel the reality into her mind. Jusina will feel stupid after a while. Although she could be very sad from now until then, she can keep her beautiful fantasy.

I rode on Jamini without saying anything. The they people are surprised but they also got on their horses afterwards. I looked down from the horse, and said:

"Hey, Jusina!"

"....Huh?"

"You will find a good man. If you get a son, and if his forehead looks trouble-making, name him Huchi, okay?"

Karl and Sanson are groaning. My uncles! This makes me sick too. But I think Jusina would like to listen to these words. As I expected, Jusina blushed and nodded. Oh, ridiculously! Her husband will probably strongly oppose. This little girl! But I nodded with a very solemn expression.

Jusina suddenly moved her hands close to my neck.

"This, keep this for me carefully. Don't forget me."

It's a necklace. ...... My head is expolding. The necklace Jusina gave me, there are shiny beads on it. It's the kind of necklace that I fear people would notice and hence won't put on my neck.

I didn't shout, "Oi! How could I wear this vulgar childish necklace!" ! On the contrary, I accepted that thing, worn it around my neck. Then I rode away without a word. "That traveller did not speak further, marched in the autumn night and disappeared, He never returned. Yet that man who stole my heart, Can I not hate him? Certainly I hate him." ...... Think of here, I am full of goosebumps!

As not to disturb Renus citizen's sleep, we rode quietly for a while, and I turned back. Jusina is still standing in front of Hostel of Dozen like a stone. Did someone say "Tonight is going to be a good night," but, sigh. After riding some time, Sanson began to talk to me:

"Oi, Huchi,"

"Stop! I did what the girl wanted, and I couldn't take that too. So don't you try to mock me with that."

"...... You shouldn't play around with innocent girl's heart."

"Then what do you want me to do? That girl doesn't really like me, she just put me as a prince in her puberty dreams. So what can I do? I just accomplished the girl's dream, spoke some touching words and then leaft. If I didn't, I would probably feel guilty. Damn, I don't love her at all, no guilty! "

Karl nodded, and Sanson closed his mouth. Iruril behind looks like that she totally cannot understand what we did. But soon Sanson said in a low, butvery clear voice: "Of course, your heart is already at home, no, it's at this horse you riding...."

"Grrrrr! Sanson!"

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.22)

2014-10-15T23:22:00.000-07:00

Duhon moved his hand towards his stomach, and pulled out a bunch of keys.

"Looks, these are magical keys, the keys to freedom. Haha. All the doors in this prison can be opened by these."

I think so too. Because there are over a hundred keys there! Really, if we have to try the hundred keys one by one, it not easy to not get caught.

Duhon managed to read our faces (Because the prison is very dark), so he started explaining to us.

"Of course, there is no need to try these one by one, Here are a total of 103 key. The truth, these are copied from the mayor's keys! You know, it wasn't easy to copy 103 keys. Ah, it really was a epic project! When I dressed up like a laundry worker while the mayor was taking a bath, I set a fire in his room, and then..... "

"Stop!"

Axelhand hit him with his elbow, finally Duhon stopped his trash talk, He continued to explain the plan:

"Letters and numbers are printed on the keys. Check out your cell lock on the iron railings, there should be several consecutive small number below."

I looked Sanson, Sanson moved to the iron railings, carefully inspected the lock. After a moment, Sanson said:

"Well, yes J-104, sounds like Jail 104."

I quickly looked for the correct key under the moonlight. It is not an easy task to read the little digits on the keys, but after a while, I finally found the J-104 key. I'm laughing:

"For the people who are being held in this city jail, this is a really precious treasure! Duhon, are you a thief?"

"Well, why are you saying the same thing as this dwarf? I am just a expert of transferring ownership. Oh right, you cannot come out now. After you can clearly see the moon, that is after the second moon Lumina crossed the mountain, come to the front gate. We will get your horses out from the stable first and wait at here. And these. "

Duhon gave us three daggers. He continued:

"All actions should be carried out quietly, and then come out. Try not to cause any attention, understand? Remember that you can open all the locks in this building. There we go."

"See you soon!"

Axelhand said handsomely and then stood up. Duhon looked at Axelhand who suddenly stood up, unhappily pulled his arm and then disappeared. I took a deep breath and held my fist.

"Well, let's start."

Karl shook his head and said:

"Now? The halfling told us to wait until Goddess Lumina's moon...."

"But if we want to get our stuff back, and rescue Iruril, there won't be enough time."

"You're right. Ah, then we have to learn to be a thief., There is no other legitimate way to get out of here."

Karl nodded and walked towards the iron railings. No one is outside. Sanson whos is holding the key is trying hard not make any noise(In fact it's very difficult since there are so many keys on the key chain.) - J-104. Cak dak! What a wonderful sound, the lock is opened.

Sanson opened the iron railings door which has no painting, carefully, and then went out. Then we are all biting the daggers in our mouths, like three assassins, hidden in the shadow of the aisle. Sanson followed the memory of the time we got brought here, carefully found our way out, but I pulled Sanson and whispered:

"We should find Iruril first. They said she is on the lowest floor."

Sanson nodded, then we turned back. The municipal underground prison seems to be composed of several levels. Where we are in the first floor. We looked around and didn't see anyone else. Then we found a stair which leads to the lower floor. When we went down the stairs, we suddenly saw flames underneath.

We hurriedly attached our body on the wall at the entrance. The tramp of footsteps are coming. Sanson on the other side put up a finger. Does that mean there is only one person?

After a while, the footsteps are getting closer and closer, the light is becoming brighter. It is a soldier holding a torch coming up from the stairs. Because I don't have OPG now, so I didn't give him a punch, but I patted his shoulder.

"Hey, I have a question."

He turned to me, with a shocked face. Then Sanson behind him quickly grabbed his neck, and put his dagger on it. Good teamwork.

"If you dare to shout, you're dead!"

Sanson threatened him in a low voice, the soldier doesn't dare to make any sound. I quickly snatched the torch he was holding, and also the sword on his waist.

"Is it another prison downstairs? Is there an elf?"

"Yes, yes."

"Keepers?"

"Me and two other guys"

Just like Cherine said, there are soldiers guarding understairs. It must be very tough to do guard work in the middle.

"Where were you going?"

"I was about to get us some food...."

"Oh, you can't do that. Turn around to get another person to come with you."

"You said ask another person to come over?"

"Just tell them," Oh, my feet, I fell down. Hey, one of you bring along a torch and help. " Make it sound real, understand?"

Although the soldier doesn't look willing to, but Sanson's hand added a little force, he immediately cried as he said.

"Oh, my feet, I fell down. Hey, one of you bring along a torch and help!"

From far below an impatient voice came right after that.

"What? This guy doesn't know even how to walk?"

Sanson quickly knocked the guard out with the dagger hilt. The guard fell on the ground. I extinguished the torch. Then we could hear footsteps from end of the stairs, torch light appeared again.

"Hey, where are you?"

I said to this soldier: "Here," and the same way, the soldiers also got grabbed by Sanson. It is so much fun! The soldiers also shouted as what I instructed:

"Hey! Looks like this guy's leg is broken! I can't lift him up alone, come quickly!"

Then this soldier got knocked out too, after the last of the soldiers showed up impatiently, Sanson made him unconscious equally. Why is this a little like playing game? We looked at each other, then tittered, walked downstairs and left the soldiers behind.

We found Iruril after seconds. In the middle of the way there is a table, there is a lantern on the table. I can also see cards on the table. Iruril is at the prison in front of that table.

"Iruril!"

There is a pretty person inside the prison, smiled and stood up. That is Iruril.

"Please come over."

"Huh? Don't you feel surprised?"

"Although those soldiers who couldn't, I could hear the noise coming from upstairs."

"Wow! Amazing!"

Sanson quickly checked this prison's lock, then opened the prison door with a key. Once Iruril came out and stood in the light, we immediately noticed her tired appearance. We always saw her comfortable appearance, so now been held in jail , she looks very abject. Her face and hair are not very clean. I heard that she couldn't even eat normal food..... However, she is still calm and dignified. Sanson is very sad, to the extent that he couldn't say anything. We had to urge him to hurry.

Next to the table there are three crossbows. These bastards! If Iruril tried to use magics, they would probably shoot her with this. I don't know how to use a crossbow, so the other three persons took them. Then we also found some rope next to the table. Holding the rope, we again return to those fainted soldiers. After the soldiers were bundled, Sanson asked:

"Which one should we wake up?"

"The last guy, most senior people always comes last."

Sanson woke the last soldier up, he seems to get a very painful head, wildly frowned, and then a terrified face. Sanson asked him with a ferocious face:

"Well, Answer every questions I ask. If you don't talk, or I feel that you are lying to me, then I will cut your fingers one by one, so you can lie to me ten times. When there is no finger left, I will cut off the thing in your mouth. "

Karl and I are scared after we heard this. The soldier is almost tearing, kept nodding with fear, Sanson asked him where they put our stuff, as well as the status of the soldiers outside. The soldier obediently answered each question sincerely. Sanson again banged the back of his head, so that he fainted, as an alternative to saying thank you.

The soldier said that our stuffs are in the municipal storeroom. And that place is inside the city hall, so there should be no guards. The soldiers should all be in the guard house, except two guards in the front gate, sitting in the outpost.

Because it is at night, the government staff are not here, we went the way the soldier said, and soon found the storage room. Duhon was right, those are magical keys, we broke in to the storage room easily. We found our armor and weapons, but I don't find my OPG.

"Damn! Must be that Aphnaidel. He could take it away already!"

"Nothing we can do now. Let's talk after we leave here."

We went to the front gate of the municipal building. We observed the situation from the window next to the front gate. It is unfortunate! One of two soldiers is patrolling. Soon after, he began to walk around the building.

"Should we go now? Or wait until he come back?"

"Of course we wait. Goddess Lumina' moon has not risen yet."

We are looking at the window impatiently, while waiting Goddess Lumina's moon to rise. During th period, the soldier has already came back, he sat back in the outpost and chatting with another soldier. Ah, if we fight those soldiers, all the soldiers in the guard building would come out to help. The guard building is in the left of the main building, but they are very close. Sanson frowned and looked at that direction.

"It would be great if there were ways to go out quietly... That stupid halfling, why would he tell us to come out from the front gate? Sigh, the moon of Goddess Lumina is rising soon. Should we shoot them with this? "

Sanson seems to wan to lift his crossbow. But before I speak, he said:

"No. Right? We have to fight for our freedom, but their life would be hurt."

Iruril then came forward She began casting a spell.

"Huh? Did you memorize a spell?"

Karl helped to reply:

"This is Summon Fairy. It can be done without memorization."

As Karl said, Iuril read something that I can understand.

"Among dew in the night, owner of the only dry sand, the guardian of rest, please soothe those who who can't sleep!"

I feel like something is moving, but I can't see. Karl said:

"It's the Sleep Fairy!"

Sanson and I keep looking at outpost. After a moment, the two soldiers begai to yawn, stretch their waist, and then tried hard not to fall asleep by slapping their cheeks.

"Don't resist! Sleep! You bastards!"

Sanson and I whispered anxiously. But in fact, nothing is anxious. The soldiers started to nod, then lied on the table and fell asleep.

"Good, let's go."

We are out of the main building, quietly walking. Although this courtyard feels really long, fortunately nothing happened after we arrived the front gate. Sanson and I high fived with out making a nosie, we also quietly said:

"We came out!"

The night city is silent, the occasionally blowing wind adds to desolate atmosphere. The quiet moonlight illuminates the surrounding faintly. But after we arrived the front gate, we haven't seen anyone. Isn't the moon of Goddess Lumina here already? Did that halfling cheat us? At this time, we finally hear the voice of Axelhand.

"Oh, you guys are really on time!"

This time I understand Duhon's feelings. We are all scared because of Axelhand's loud voice. We turned back, and see a red light spot in the dark. Axelhand is smoking a pipe, sitting next to city hall fence. Because he is under the shadow, and he is too short, so we just didn't see him.

After he stood up, Duhon appeared immediately, he just greeted us with a gesture. We followed Duhon and saw our horses tied to a tree. Axelhand still holds a very calmly look, he told us:

"Well, run. Now, it should sufficient to repay the favor of you guys helping me to cross the Bridge of Dozen, right?"

"What? You did such a dangerous thing just to repay that....?"

Dwarf blown a beautiful smoke ring towards the sky. His eyes are like the night sky over our heads, infinitely deep and shining. His black eyes are shining in the moonlight. He replied:

"Didn't you guys risk your lifes to fight with me? Dwarves treat who fought together as friends forever. Yes, yes, even the forest race who doesn't uuderstand the beauty of rocks."

The last words are a little weaker. Iruril nodded and said:

"Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome! Go quickly. If it's destined, we will meet again."

Then Axelhand had another smoke, turned away without saying anything. He looks like just taking a walk in the evening, but not breaking three prisoners out. Duhon who took the key chain back from Sanson winked at us, then he turned away immediately. Karl is surprised and said:

"Ah, you don't want us to pay...?"

"That's fine. The cunning dwarf have already paid."

Axelhand? After Duhon turned over, he stretched his two arms forward and then said:

"Whenever you come to this city, if you encounter any difficulties, please remember me. Duhon Butter! Expert of transferring ownership, and the only truly romantic in the night! Ha ha ha!"

So Duhon disappeared in the darkness, leaving behind only his hearty laughters. Although Karl wanted to say something, he couldn't see Axelhand and Duhon. In the bright moonlight, only we are here.

"Oh, such kind men."

"Not men, but dwarf and halfling. And when it comes to men, I really want to see a man. Nope, two men."

Karl looked at me and Sanson. I aggressively said:

"We only have one night. Tomorrow morning people will find us escaped, so I have to make sure the false baron and the suck archmage get a unforgettable night."

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.21)

2014-10-14T23:39:00.003-07:00

"This is ridiculous!"

I am furious, and once again bumped into the iron railings. But the iron railing didn't even move a bit, I fell to the ground. Damn, now my OPG has gone. Sanson looked at me and said:

"If you try to escape, then you will became a real criminal, Huchi."

"Well, aren't treating us like criminals already?"

Sanson still holds his suffering face, sitting in the corner and didn't answer. Karl is also showing a very unhappy expression, he talked to Cherine who came to visit:

"Well, where is the guard captain called Rynin ?"

"In the charge of negligence, he lost his pension as the punishment."

"My God! Negligence?"

"I am surprised too."

Cherine told us the story, but he seems to be more angry than us. I frantically grabbed the iron railings again, violently shaking. But after being kicked by Sanson, I fell again.

"Dude! Stop muttering like a pig, like, can you stay quiet for a while?"

"We are in such a depressing situation, how can I possibly keep the dignity of the human being?"

Subsequently, Jusina who followed Cherine called me.

"Ah, Huchi..... Drink this, I have no other ways to help you. I secretly brought this here. Whenever I think of you suffering...."

Jusina spoke, while took a small bottle out from her pocket. Although I said aloud: "You think I am a drunkard?" "It is the first time I ever been in the jail, but that doesn't mean I am fallen to this extent!" kind of words, I still took over the wine bottle. Jusina saw my actions and giggled.

One I opened the lid of the bottle, I felt lightheaded. This wine seems really strong. I took a sip, then gave it to Sanson without saying anything. After Sanson took the bottle near his nose, he sniffed and shook his head.

I started stroking my hot cheek and said:

"The horrible scary guy has gone. Thank you, Jusina."

"If it could help you to cool down, it would be great."

"But I'm sorry, it didn't really help. In the end why things became like this?"

Things treally should have been different. We arrived the city hall, all our weapons were taken away immediately, they even take away my OPG. Then we were shut in prison. At that time I still thought we were just being held temporarily, once the investigation is complete they would let us go. So I was even very pleased, as I got the change to visit prison the first time ever in my life. But it's been two days and we haven't heard a single word for the government.

However, on this second night, Cherine came to visit us, and told us that fake Baron called Silikian had already been released, and the guard captain Rynin who arrested him was disciplined. Moreover, the municipal government doesn't seem to intend to investigate. Cherine said it might be Baron Silikian's decision to get rid of us.

I scratched my hair, and then said:

"Wait a minute, what about Iruril? Where is Iruril now? Iruril is an elf, I don't think they can lock her up?"

Cherine is very depressed and said:

"The elf is not Vyseus citizens, so she is not officially locked up, But you guys are actually in the same situation. All of you are jailed without clear charges. In fact you are not on the criminal list, so you don't even exist. We in fact didn't come in the name of visiting you, but in the name of sightseeing the prison. Do you understand? "

"Dam....."

"You should feel lucky. No one can even get close to the elf now. We heard from the jailer that she is bottom locked in the bottom floor, her situation could be even worse than you. And they are afraid her casting magics, they even don't give meals to her. In a rugged stone chamber, monitored by soldiers 24 hours. "

"Oh my God! They can just prevent her from memorizing spells in the morning, can't they?"

"Summoning fairy doesn't need the memorization process...."

"Damn!"

I kicked the stone wall. Of course, the result is my foot hurted. If I had OPG, I would able to punch through these walls, go out and beat those guys. Karl said with a sad voice:

"Cherine, so it sounds like we can not expect a fair verdict, right?"

"Sounds....Yes."

"Really, we are in a tight schedule. And Miss Sereniel also delayed her schedule because of us, not only that, but she is suffering from this pain.... These people are extremely abominable!"

Cherine's face looks bad. He has already filed a complaint to the mayor, he is also looking to manufacture a public protest, but he doesn't look confident on the result.

After Cherine and Jusina left, I kept thinking. Now I can't stand it any more. Break out! We must, we must break the prison! But how to prison break? I looked at only window here. The window panes are made of stone, even without these panes, the window is too small, it's impossible to escape from there. Now, through this window, we can see the starry night sky.

"Damn it, give me that, Sanson."

I took the bottle from Sanson's hand, and began drinking. Huh? The prison ceiling started moving, looks like the prison will soon be collapsed, then we will be free. Freedom! Muhahah ha ha!

Alright. I am sticking my fever cheek on the cold stone wall, I started grinding and talking to myself:

"This will not ned well, If we get locked here for months, everything will fall apart . If we can't raise enough money, then Amurtaat will kill our thane and the Earl, and those prisoners. Deacon Hamelhow won't find any other way to raise the money. "

Heard me muttering voice, Sanson and Karl's face became melancholy. Although this is the fact that they all know, but they can't do anything about it. Should I keep grinding the wall with my cheek, until the prison wall gets worn out?

A funny face appeared in the only window here. Ah, the face really looks interesting. I think I am too drunk. Why would I see a head with long grass on it, a child with a middle-age face?

"Butter!"

I reluctantly lowered my voice. He is the halfling who called Duhon Butter. Duhon straightened up a finger in front of his mouth, it is meant to keep us quiet. Sanson quickly moved to the iron railing and monitoring outside, Karl and I approached to the window.

The prison where we are is underground, so the window is on the same level as the ground outside. Hence Duhon put some hay on his back, and laid on the floor. Outside is the City Hall courtyard, he probably dressed like this in order to not be found. Duhon whispered:

"Gentlemen, if I get caught, we would be all done. So we make it quickly and easily. Get you out, how much are you willing to pay?"

Karl was surprised for a moment and then replied:

"How much? Ah, how much do you want?"

Duhon laughed. When he opened his mouth , something came down to hit Duhon's head.

"Bastard! I knew it!"

We are caught! The guards found out. We are done. But all Duhon doesn't look surprised at all. Instead, he quickly stretched his hand to the side, as if to let another person to lay on the ground. After a second, another beard face appeared next to Duhon

"Axelhand?"

It's the dwarf we encountered on the "Bridge of Dozen". Duhon quickly move the haystack to Axelhand's back, he is accusing Axelhand if a barely hear-able voice.

"Hey, what are you doing Why shout so loud? Do you think we are in dwarves' mine? This is a prison, prison!"

"Really funny. So the righteous people are inside the prison, the bad guys are outside the prison, Is that what Human does?"

We heard Axelhand's words, Karl seems to blush as a human representative. But I didn't blush for that. Because my face are already red because of alcohol. I asked Axelhand:

"Why are you here?"

"I am here to save you, I don't what human's rule is, but for dwarves, righteous people stay outside the prison, bad guys stay in jail, so I sent this little bad guy over, but I knew that he would play tricks, so I followed and had a look. But looks like you are doing pretty well in the prison, aren't you? I can even smell alcohol. "

I didn't listen to his long words. The first sentence is the most important.

"You come to save us? Prison break?"

"Yes I am."

"How?"

"This little bad guy will help. Hey, quickly tell us your plan!"

Duhon clicked his forehead, and groaned.

"Dwarf.... Please, can you keep your voice down?"

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.20)

2014-10-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

"What did you say? Why did you put so many charges on our heads?" Sanson is surprised.

"You have trespassed Renus's citizen Baron Silikian's mansion, destroyed his garden, assaulted his men, and killed the Baron's adviser Aphnaidel."

Sanson's jaw dropped, I gently pushed Sanson a bit, and then said:

"Please at least erase the last one, this Archmage is not dead."

Rynin West Looked at Aphnaidel, and confirmed that he is still alive.

"Ah, still alive. But the former charges...."

"Please also erase those charges. About violence, that was actually a legitimately defensive behavior. These people tried to use magic to attack us first. So damaged goods are caused by the same reason. And the trespassing this one, when we came in, Baron told us clearly that"aWelcome to come to my house, guests" so this charge is totally wrong."

Rynin West is surprised and looking at Silikian.

"Is that true?"

Baron Silikian blushed and said:

"That's bullshit! Hey, Rynin! What are you doing? Did you forget who give you the salary? Arrest these guys now!"

Rynin made a competent face and stared at Baron Silikian.

"Sir, the municipal government gives me salaries as I serve the municipal government."

"Idiot!"

"But I'll arrest these people you accused. Since they are accused, we will definitely investigate thoroughly. Lay down your arms, come with us."

Hmm, he seems to be righ? But we can't just let it be.

"Well, did this guy accused us formally ?"

Rynin calmly replied: "No, just a verbal report. Certainly we can't make a formal charge. So I am not arresting you formally, but just want you to assist in the investigation."

"Ok then we have a verbal report on this guy too. Charge of false charge. Take him away like us. If you don't, we are not going with you."

Karl looked at me happily, Sanson looked at me admiringly. Ah, my mouth, I feel amazing about it too. The guard captain called Rynin nodded.

"Okay. Baron Silikian, please come with me?"

"What? Is your head burnt? Arrest me? How dare you?"

"I have already told you, this is not an arrest. It's assisting the investigation. If you can come with me ..."

Pop! What a bang! Baron Silikian literally slapped Rynin West in the face. We gaped, unbelieveably watched the scene.

Rynin is biting his lower lip, trembling with rage and staring at Baron Silikian. Baron Silikian is angrily shouting:

"You rude bastard! Arrest me? You little guard caption trying to be cocky huh! Look at yourself! I have seen how you do you job, I knew you are not a reliable guy! You don't even know the basic manner. Gratitude! Understand? I will make you.... "

Baron Silikian haven't finished his words. Pop! This time it's Rynin giving Baron Silikian a resounding slap.

Baron Silikian fell to the ground.

"Those people are coming with me to assist in the investigation, and you are now officially arrested, nn the charges of civil violence, insult civil servants, and hinder civil servants official duties."

Baron Silikian is still lying on the ground. After hearing these words, he shouted:

"My men! Arrest him for me!"

The soldiers fell back to the ground just now, all picked up their halberds and came forward. Then Rynin West went back quickly, while the city guards also held up their spears. Rynin shouted with a very stern voice:

"Lay down you arms! How dare you aim your weapons at the Guards!"

The soldiers rudely shouted back:

"What guards? You are withered and useless, we only listen to who pay us!"

Oh my God! It's not going to be good. 20 to 30, the city guards is in disadvantage here. Sanson and I looked at each other, then ran immediately to Rynin's side. Iruril and Karl also walked slowly, and then stood beside Rynin.

We took a step forward, and the private soldiers already began hesitated. They are now especially afraid of Iruril, as they just witnessed Iruril's wind magic. I whispered to Iruril:

"Say something to make them fear! They are afraid of you."

Iruril nodded, and took a step forward. Immediately the soldiers also took a step backward. Ha, really powerful. Rynin looked at the beautiful elf woman, who can threat more than thirty soldiers on her own. Rynin is showing a unbelievable face.

Iruril said:

"Gentlemen,"

The soldiers hesitated, as if the words from Iruril pushed them wildly, they stepped back again. Nice!

But Iruril suddenly looked confused. She stepped back and whispered in my ear:

"What should I say?"

Oh my god! Gran Elver! I shaked my head and shouted:

"Oi! This lady asked how many people should she kill. What should I answer?"

All the soldiers' faces became pale. Iruril is surprised and looking at me, and then she said:

"Why did you lie?"

Oh, why don't you cooperate with me? I just - continue to say loudly:

"What, you mean you don't want me say this horrible truth to them directly?"

Iruril is now beginning to daze, seems that she is thinking that is her questions really so horrifying? The soldiers are also imagining the "horrible words" from Iruril. I continued: "Gentlemen, no matter what you do, Baron Silikian is going to be arrested, but if you try to resist the guards, the charges on Baron Silikian will be more heavy. The Baron will become the public enemy of this city, and all of you will also become our public enemies! You do not want to escape for a lifetime, right? So do it for youself, cooperate with the guards! That way you might be able to lighten Baron Silikian's charges. "

The soldiers hastily looked at each other, after a few words, they immediately surrounded Baron Silikian. The baron struggled to say:

"You damned bastards!"

"Ah, Mr Baron, just do what the lad said. If we resist, Mr baron will face more charges. So we serve Mr baron, we should let the Guard arrest you."

"What did you say? Don't listen to these guy's bullshit!"

Watching the scene, I made a leisurely smile. Karl said:

"Nedval, I didn't that you have such a fast reaction."

"I didn't know too."

"I didn't know too. You lad! Awesome!"

Sanson is patting my head while laughing. Baron Silikian keeps shouting with his loud voice, cursing the soldiers, Rynin, me, and other people around, so no one is willing to help me. The private soldiers handed Silikian over to the Guards.

Rynin strive to make calm expression, and said to me:

"I am grateful for your help, but rules are rules..."

"We can come with you. It doesn't matter right?"

Sanson and Karl agreed. At this point Cherine went to the front.

"I am Cherine, the owner of 'Hostel of Dozen'. I am coming with you as a witness! "

Rynin nodded. Cherine also brought a few people and his servants with him. We are following the city guards to the City Hall.

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.19)

2014-10-08T01:39:00.002-07:00

The little black ball Aphnaidel lighted up all a sudden, it turned into a huge fireball. The fireball which is as tall as a man, is now aiming Iruril. The combustion is making terrible noise in the air. I feel like my hair is going to be burnt by the hot wind. And now Iruril also finished her spell.

"Wall of Ice!"

A huge wall of ice appeared in front of me. Although the ice wall is blocking my line of sight, I can still hear a loud noise. The fragmented ice wall burst out everywhere. My reflex action is to cover my face. Even though my eyes are not injured, my arms feels like being whipped heavily.

"Uh ah!"

After I lay down my arms, I found that they are all cut up. The ice wall in front is gone, replaced by water vapor clouds. There is no one in front. But then Iruril jumped into the vapor. After Iruril disappeared in it, I called her:

"Iruril?"

Soon, we heard a noise of battle, and then there was the sound of something lying on the ground. Sanson and I are waving our hands in front, just like swimming in the clouds, and trying to walk forward. Then I accidentially stepped something soft, And Sanson bumped into something. Sanson shouted:

"Ah! Really, really sorry!"

Sanson hugged Iruril, he hurried to ran back, then stooped like his nose almost touching the ground, apologizing to Iruril. And what I stepped on was Aphnaidel.

"Wow ah!"

"He was hit in the head, so he is fainted. He is a dangerous guy."

While I am laughing, I am carefully watching this guy. I stepped on him and he did not react at all, I thank he should be completely fainted. I then looked around.

What a mess. Those flowers in mansion, are all scattered around because of collision between the ice wall and fireball. In the middle of the collision, a big hole was even made on the ground.

Karl stood on the other side came after a sigh. Cherine and the citizens all gaped at us. Come on you people, we don't know what to do next too. We wanted to discuss peacefully to resolve this matter, we even brought the prisoners here obediently, but the mean these people treated us was too intense, right?

Karl looked around us, and then looked down at Aphnaidel on the ground, he said:

"So now, a calm dialogue to resolve will be much more difficult. But there is no other way. Let's look for the Baron. If he ask us for all the compensation, what should we do?"

"Whatever, I'll lock that guy in the toilet by the time."

Karl smiled slightly.

"Nedval.... Your advice sounds very attractive, but after all, we can't do that."

After a second, we hear the noise began in the crowd. We all turned to that direction, and immediately heard a big scream.

"These people! They beat my people up, also killed my advisor Aphnaidel!"

I recognize the voice, but the words really make very angry. We looked at each other in a surprise.

The villagers separated into the left and right , and then Baron Silikian and more than twenty soldiers ran over. And those soldiers who floated in the air are also on the ground,because "Feather Fall" has stopped. They all stood up without any injury. The soldiers ran over are all wearing crusty armor, holding a spear, The one who is wearing a sword, looks like the leader of them. The soldiers swarmed over and surrounded us, then that leader came forward and said:

"I am Rynin West, the Guard Captain of the Renus City. Put down your weapons! You are now arrested on the charges of trespassing houses, destroying objects, violence and murder."

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.18)

2014-10-06T00:41:00.002-07:00

Sylph began dancing around in the air. This scene will absolutely move an emotional person, But the sudden wild wind will absolutely take us back to the rational world right after.

Iruril's black hair is fluttering in the wind, as if the wind moving across a cornfield. The haird is fluttering hair, but it doesn't make people dizzy. It looks like softly rippling waves. I move away the hair stabbing in my eyes, and I am carefully watching the situation at hand.

Other people's clothes are also fluttering. But those soldiers who got hit by "Feather Fall", are now like bits of paper, swirling along the wind. While the soldiers are constantly shouting, a strange laughter by Sylph can still be heard.

"Uh ah uh ah ...... ...... ...... Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

All the citizens look haggard. Cherine, the hotel boss, catches his servant's shoulder tightly, as if he is going to fall on the ground. But that servant also seems to be losing his balance.

Aphnaidel now looks totally hopeless, he is watching Sylph while grinding his teeth. Iruril let Sylph to handle the soldiers, then she quietly looks Aphnaidel. She looks very calm, I can't feel a little uneasy on her. So I am just waiting quietly at the side. But then, I noticed Baron Siliken had fled away some-when, leaving Aphnaidel in the courtyard alone . Where did the Baron go? Aphnaidel shouted:

"You despicable elf! Magic belongs to mankind! How dare you steal it from human?"

"Magic belongs to dragon originally."

"Shut up! Take this! Archmage Aphnaidel's wand!"

The soldiers in the air are still floating like leaves, and the broad courtyard are covered by the whirlwind. In the wind, an angry archmage waving the wand and clam elf are face to face, counting down for the showdown. The scene makes me excited again.

"Summon swarm!"

Aphnaidel said. He raised a red cloth and waved it like a flag. Then all of a sudden some black creatures appeared behind the cloth.

"Zzzzzzzzzz! ZZzz!"

Oh my god. Bats! Dozens of bats! I am afraid so I ran back. Those bats immediately flew towards Iruril. It should be very scary, but Iruril still stands there quietly.

I desperately shouted:

"Iruril-!"

"Why?"

Her answer is really boring. I am shocked when I am looking at Iruril, while Iruril is just looking at me quietly. Taking a closer look, though it looked like the bats have wrapped up Iruril , but the truth is they are just hanging on her head and shoulders. Iruril even lifted both her arms forward, so that these bats can easily hang on them.

"Are... are you alright?"

"In the middle of the day.... Their eyes must hurt. These bats are probably not alright?"

"No, I'm asking you!"

"Ah? Me.... My arms are a little bit tired. And a bit smelly."

I am very nervous and heavily breath. I usually do not think I am a weird person. But now what surrounding Iruril are not pigeons or any kind of beautiful birds, but with bats with black dense hair. But why Iruril still looks beautiful at this moment? One of these bats is even drilling among Iruril's black hair. Gran Elver who blesses elves and innocent girls! Haven't talked to you for a long while. Why is you blessing always like this? The elf is surrounded by bats, why she still looks so beautiful?

Iruril is playing with a bat on her arm and said:

"Really poor... Coming out in daylight, you must be very uncomfortable under this sunshine. Poor. Feel free to go back to your cave."

Then all those bats are all beginning to fly, making a crunching sound. Soon, the bats covered the courtyard, and their shadows began to move, the place became dark all a sudden. Although some of the citizens cried and made a little bit of noise,all the bat flew away soon. Iruril tidied up her clothes after the bats disappeared, and then said to Aphnaidel:

"I thought you were going to attack me, but why did you call the bats out to bully them?"

I am a bit fed up, so I laid on Sanson's body, while Sanson shrugged.

"Hee hee hee, Ha ha ha haaa!"

We fell on each other and started laughing. Poor Aphnaidel is trembling with anger.

"No! Wrong! It shouldn't be like this. You didn't use any defensive spell, or confuse spell! Why did my bats...."

"Wait, wait a second!"

Iruril interrupted Aphnaidel, she looked at the soldiers who are still floating around in the air. She points her hand to the soliders, and then said:

"Happy dancing with them? Now please place them down."

The soldiers begin to fall down slowly like a leaf. But the soldiers seem to think that slowly falling down is such a horrible thing, So all of them are struggling hard, so the scene looks very messy. Why is that scary? Isn't the falling really slow?

"Heads up!"

Sanson shouted, What? This damn bastard! While Iruril was looking at the soldiers, Aphnaidel quickly read some spells. But this time was different from other spells, it took longer. Iruril heard Sanson and then immediately turned to Aphnaidel. At that moment, her eyes showed uneasy for the first time. She quickly looked back, then ran forward. I often see that look and the action in my hometown. She is standing in front of us in order to protect us ...

"Iruril!"

Iruril facing Aphnaidel also began to read a spell. Aphnaidel is sweating hard, We can almost see the blood vessels on his forehead, and his two arms are shaking. Anyway, this is definitely not another little magic trick.

Sanson and I started to run forward. But Aphnaidel has already finished the spell, and came up with a little black ball. He then threw it to us.

"Eat this! Fireball!"

Holy mother of god.

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.17)

2013-07-25T23:48:00.002-07:00

However Aphnaidel could not finish his words. Cause I've already cut off that rope by my 'Unaware Slash'.

Hanster fell, I quickly went to check his breath. Fortunately, he is still wheezing. I put my sword down, and then said:

"Hey, what the hell did you do?"

Silikian surprisedly looked at Aphnaidel. Aphnaidel's face burst red and green. Suddenly he shouted:

"Bastard! How dare you destroy Aphnaidel the Archmage's stuff, absolutely unforgivable!"

His face suddenly turned angry and he began to search in his pocket again. Really, what is he doing?

Tyburn doesn't even need any tools or powder, why is this guy so troublesome? Is it because he is an Archmage?

I didn't have time to sort out these ideas, Aphnaidel had already taken something out. It's a small, white, strange looking .... bone? He threw the bone towards me. Hum! Want to mess with me? By that? What can that do to me? Aphnaidel quickly shouted:

"Scare!"

Sounds like something scary will happen...... But nothing really happened. I nervously looked at Aphnaidel , and then looked at that bone on the ground. Am I hit? How come I don't feel anything? But Hanster lying on the ground suddenly screamed wildly :

"Uh ah! Uh ah! Go, go away! Uh ah ah!"

Hanster began to run, and then rolled over, and fell to the ground again. He then started crying. His face is covered by tears, saliva and sweat, everything that can come out from his face came out, completely messed up. The soldiers standing there tried to catch Hanster, but Hanster crazily pushed them away.

Aphnaidel's eyes are widen, and stammered:

"Lad, you, can't you feel anything?"

"Well, I can feel that my mood is not good. I was hit by a piece of bone, how could I feel good? What kind of bone is this? Chicken bones from your breakfast?"

Aphnaidel looked at me, then at Iruril, his face looks like he saw something unbelievable.

"Why, although elves can't feel the terror of dead, you, you are a human!"

At this time Karl and Sanson came forward. Karl calmly explained it, I finally got to know what was going on.

"You actually use that evil magic. Casting with dead man's bones. Such evil magic will bring people a terrible fear, and even to a level that drives man crazy. But this boy in front of you, he has no fear to dead. Because he has seen a lot of dead, and so has most of people from our village. "

Aphnaidel startled eyes and said weakly:

"You, are you a wizard?"

"No, I'm just a scholar."

This is a dead man's bone? Huh? Really strange. I kicked the bone away, Aphnaidel was amazed and looking at me. However, if you want to find these bones, you got to dig a grave, right? I glared at Aphnaidel and said:

"Ha, you ghoul. Did you dig your own grave to get this stuff?"

Karl corrected me. He said:

"No, it should not be, Nedval. It should be obtained from the undead."

"Really? Ah, anyway, still something terrible. But is he really an Archmage? I thought wizard can reverse gravity to invert heaven and earth, and summon Balrog by teleportation. But why is this Archmage playing rope tricks, sprinkling powder and bones?"

Aphnaidel immediately said:

"You, you bastard! Are you trying to insult me!"

"I'm sorry, but the wizard I know is really like that. You seem to suck a little bit?"

Aphnaidel looks pissed off, and he quickly put his hand into his pocket again. Another rope! Aphnaidel threw that over to us immediately, and shouted:

"Succinct!"

"Ah, watch out!"

I quickly pushed Iruril and Karl away. As a result the rope is only tied on me. Aphnaidel frowned. He wanted to catch all four of us together. Now he glared at Sanson and Karl.

"I decided to take my time to deal with this dirty-mouthed kid. Now it's your turn, what should I do?"

Sanson's face looked at Aphnaidel kindly, and then said to me:

"How long do you want to be tied?"

"Not long."

I pushed with my arms, the rope immediately got broken into many parts, falling to the ground. Both citizens and soldiers watching are amazed, while Aphnaidel is shocked. This time he finally carefully looked around me, and then he noticed my gloves.

"That's OPG (Ogre Gauntlets)! Who the hell are you, how come you would have such a treasure?"

"This is my gift for behaving good."

Baron Silikan began to roar:

"Aphnaidel! What is happening? Aren't you very proficient in magic?"

"These are not normal persons! Hey, soldiers! Arrest them right now! No! Kill them all!"

Aphnaidel stepped back, Baron Silikan also stood up from his chair and fell back hurriedly. Then more than thirty soldiers started moving towards us, their halberds looks terrible. Seems more terrible than the Orcs' machetes! Karl shouted:

"This is how you treat your guests? Baron! Did we do something wrong? We just tried to stop those trolls from making trouble, so we helped to kill them, is there anything wrong?"

Baron also shouted:

"Shut up! How dare you kill my trolls and being so shameless!"

Karl is very angry and speechless. And then Aphnaidel shouted at me:

"That naive kid actually has such a rare treasure. That thing should belong to me, used in my research. Soldiers! Kill them all, now!"

What? Are those words from a human's mouth? I stood out and was going to yell. But Iruril stood in front of me first.

"Iruril? Please stay away!"

Iruril turned and looked at me.

"Huchi, we're friends, right?"

"The answer is the same! No matter how many times you ask."

"Then I should help to stop them, but not letting you to face 32 soldiers!"

Oh, are there 32? Well, that is not very important.

"That's true, but for me too!... If you are in danger."

"I'm not in danger."

Iruril turned back again, then put her hands together. With such a beautiful elf standing in front, the soldiers looked around each other nervously. Iruril began to murmur some strange words. Huh? Is that a spell?

"Grease!"

"Uh ah!"

All the soldiers are slipping and falling down suddenly. At that moment, Iruril casted another spell quickly.

"Feather Fall!"

Then, the soldiers became very strange. They are now all floating in the air. Although they should have fallen after losing their balance, they are falling down slowly, just like in the water. The soldiers are cursing, trying to move their body straight and stand, but they seem to not able to control their own bodies. The so-called 'Feather Fall' magic, shouldn't be a magic that makes body light like a feather? So is Iruril a wizard? But thinking of the look she fights with her daggers, she doesn't look like a wizard at all. Also, if she knows magic, why didn't she use that when she was fighting the Urcs? Ah! 'Memorization'.

Certainly. That day Iruril was night-guarding for us, so she couldn't perform 'Memorization'. I recalled Karl's words:

"When wizards are using magic, they don't do the same like works of carpenters or lumberjack. Those use their own strength, but wizards use the power of the nature. However, we should be clear where the difference is. Truly skilled carpenter utilizes gravity to nail, and he can handle the bounce force naturally. Most people get tired after a few nails, but carpenter can do hundreds. This is because they use the forces of nature. Eventually, people who use their own strength, when they master their skills, they involve the forces of nature. So it's even more true for wizards who are already relying on the power of natures, they combine themselves with nature every single day, and they even practice for that. That is the purpose of Memorization. Nedval. Of course, in a short sentence, it is just to memorize the magic you have to use on that day, but there is a complex meaning in it. "

When I was thinking of these words, Iruril continued to cast her magics. But the strange thing is, I can now understand what she is saying.

"In the Atmosphere, Carrying the Lives, Monitoring the Things, Who Do Not Belong to Anything. Dance, Right Here, Right Now. I Pray!"

Shoop -! Shua -!

Wind and laughter started coming from the sky. I'm amazed by what I am seeing.

There is something in the sky moving forward, I can't see it clearly. It's just like a flickering figure. Seems to be a very small man, but I really can't see clearly. Except those soldiers who lost their balance, everyone is looking at the sky. Karl with a remarkable voice said:

"Never thought that I'd have the chance to see it! Sylph!"

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.16)

2013-06-20T02:39:00.000-07:00

We have just discussed how to go, and we decided to ride. I don't know why we have to ride, but Sanson insisted to do so.

So now Karl and I are riding along the main road of Renus City, between us are the eight soldiers walking in two columns. Ah, we are on the horses and the soldiers are walking on foot, although we didn't lock these soldiers up, it looks exactly like what captives transfer looks. The could be what Sanson tried to achieve.

I glimpsed that the soldiers' faces all turned red, and they are walking with their heads down, not looking up nor looking around. However, the citizens in Renus City can see us clearly. People are whispering.

"Hey, aren't those Baron Silikian's guards?"

"Really, why are they like this?"

"The lad riding on the horse is that kid this morning! He cut the troll's neck...."

Karl looked around and unwittingly blushed, he murmured:

"Ah, we are really like going to a exchange of prisoners."

"Huh? You're right! Karl! Good analogy!"

I tried hard to make an awesome expression. Although I hope Jamini can walk elegantly, but Jamini is just like walking in the fields, more like shuffling, which makes me really unhappy. Ah, forget about it.

Jamini is Jamini. Regardless it's the horse or the human.

And Sanson is at the back of the soldiers. He let Iruril to ride his horse "Meteor", and he is grabbing the reins and walking on the ground. Iruril with a very worried tone asked him to ride together, but Sanson firmly refused.

And further behind are Cherine and the servants of the hostel. We asked them not to come, but Cherine said we are their guests, so he has to be responsible in the end.

"Perhaps when that Baron saw your number, he'd do it hard. Once you enter the house, it could be difficult to come out again. Though we are unable protect you, at least when the Baron see we have so many people, he would probably not imprison you deliberately. "

Cherine said those words, and led the people to follow us. One of the few passers watching us shouted:

"You see! What've they done?"

That leader Hanster immediately shouted back:

"You stupid pig! These people killed the trolls, of course they will need to pay compensation. Now we are escorting them to the Baron."

I almost fell from my horse, Karl, Sanson and Iruil are also laughing. The passer spitted and scratched his head:

"Bah! What, you said who is escorting who?"

People began to laugh. Ah, riding a horse does have many benefits. Hanster viciously clenched his fists, but because he is empty-handed, he can't do anything. All their halberds have been broken by me.

By the way, I really feel very uncomfortable. I constantly think of that Archmage Aphnaidel. What kind of person is he? Tyburn can summon Balrog, then this Archmage might be able to summon a dragon?

"Hanster, excuse me, what kind of person is this Aphnaidel?"

Hanster looked up at me unhappily, then winced and said.

"He's not human being. He is very frightening."

"He's that scary?"

"If I were you, I would only go to deal with him when I want to die...."

Hanster hasn't finished his words yet, his body began to tremble incessantly, my whole mood turned worse. We punched the men of the horrible Archmage, and now we are bringing them back like this, uh, this isn't good.

※ ※ ※

We finally arrived Baron Silikian's mansion. It's a very majestic mansion, but there is no time to look at it. As compared to the mansion, I found a more attractive picture which drew my attention.

On the courtyard in front of the mansion, there is a shed, under the shed there is a red carpet. A very ornate chair is placed on the carpet, and someone is sitting on it, I don't know whether he's the Baron or not, but he seems to know we are coming, and is waiting here. Although he is wearing gorgeous clothes, those clothes look too expensive that make people afraid to eat as if they would dirty the clothes. A servant is kneeling and holding a bowl, something like biscuits is in it. He has been constantly eating. Really terrible!

Beside him there is a man in robe, holding a wooden stick, impatiently looking at the sky. When I saw this robe on this man, I thought of Tyburn's. Tyburn's robe is kind of a functional clothing that you can even sleep in it. But now looking at this robe, it's completely like shouting at people: "I am an Archmage!" If not, why it's all painted with stars and sparks patterns? Maybe this man is the Archmage Aphnaidel. I would like to look at this man's face, but he has been looking at the sky, so I can't have a clear look. However, he is unexpectedly young. I thought grand mages should all be elderly. On their left and right sides, they are lined with soldiers wearing chainmail and halberd, about thirty or so.

Because the main gate is opened, we can walk directly into the courtyard. Behind us are Cherine and his servants, as well as curious citizens. Once the citizens noticed that the Baron and the Archmage are there, they began to get excited. The crowd is getting louder and louder.

I sighed and talked to the soldiers:

"Well, your men are there, do you want to stand next to them?"

But those soldiers' faces are covered with fear, they hesitated to go back. What? How could this be? The leader Hanster stammered:

"We... We are dead! Aphnaidel the Archmage is there......"

At this time, the Baron sitting on the chair made a gesture to retreat the servants, he began:

"Welcome to my house, my guests!"

Karl looked at me and got down from the horse, Iruril behind also dismounted. Then Sanson and Iruruil walked over. The baron nodded.

"Three men, one elf. Right!"

"So you're the Baron Silikian, owner of the arena?"

I asked. The baron's temple twitched, he said:

"Owner of the arena? Yes, I am Baron Silikian."

"I heard that you are a fake baron?"

The baron seems to explode soon. My mouth can just tell truth, so I can't help even if it makes him unhappy. Baron Silikian didn't shout at me, but looked at someone behind me.

"Hanster!"

Hanster with a desperate look came forward, suddenly knelt down. Baron Silikian said:

"How come I can't see the compensation? What is it? Why does this guy dare to be so presumptuous here?"

"We were ambushed! Once we arrived at the hostel, they set things up with Cherine, the owner of the hostel, and ambushed us! So they got our equipment...."

I couldn't hold my laughter. So stupid! Please think about the situation before you lie, how could he be so stupid? Baron Silikian's face is twitching, looking angrily at Hanster, until Hanster couldn't stand anymore. He began desperately kowtowing.

"Are you trying to fool me?"

"I deserve death, please forgive..."

"You really deserve death."

Hanster raised his head desperately. But the baron'eyes have turned to the Archmage. I stepped back a little.

Aphnaidel's eyes which have been looking at the sky, are now looking down at Hanster. Hanster's face is already half-dead. He fell and sat on the ground and kept crawling back.

"Help ...... Please forgive me!"

Aphnaidel put his hand into his robe, and then took something out carefully. He is now holding a black rope.

"Scream. Let's see if you still have any living value, Hanster!"

Aphnaidel's voice is cold. He threw the rope to Hanster.

"Uh ah!!!"

As if seeing a snake flying over, Hanster is screaming in horror, and began waving his arms. What? He is afraid of rope? Aphnaidel began muttering. Just like those random unknown words from Tyburn, and then said quickly:

"Bind! Tie & Knot!"

The rope flying over seems to come alive, it's now crawling around Hanster's body and wrapping his neck. Hanster in order to prevent the rope from tightening around his neck, is desperately clutching both ends of it, but he can only try his best to stop it, but there is no way to rip it off.

Hanster has flushed.

Aphnaidel again took out something like powder from his robe. He sprayed it over to Hanster, and cast another spell.

"Rope Trick!"

At that moment, one end of the rope wrapped Hanster's neck began going up towards the sky, the other end stood stiffly on the ground. Then, Hanster because of his body weight, got the rope tighten on his neck.

"Uh, uh ahhhhh!"

God, so he is going to die! Whether that guy is a scary Archmage or not, I can't stand it anymore.

"Hey, what are you doing!"

Before I yelled, Iruril had already taken action. I saw Iruril's brunette. She ran towards Hanster, and then raised her left hand dagger and cut rope. A crash.

Huh? Isn't that a rope? Iruril embarrassingly looked at Aphnaidel, she wanted to help Hanster. However the upper end and the lower end of the rope are like tightly pulled, so Hanster's body is lifted naturally, his neck is hence tightened. Aphnaidel mockied:

"That is not a normal rope, silly elf...."

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.15)

2013-06-10T02:35:00.000-07:00

Sanson didn't draw his sword. He said to the soldiers:

"You insulted my lord, so I have to duel with you. Do you want to come one by one, or once together?"

The soldiers looked at each other. Anyway, if they so many people are going to fight against a person, it would hurt their dignity. One of them, that soldier who got his halberd broken by me, took over another soldier's halberd, then took a step forward. This man seems to be their leader. He looked at me standing on the stairs above, said:

"Hey, do you want to come down?"

"Why should I go down? Ah, are you begging me to fight with you?"

Thay guy grunted, and then suddenly stabbed with his halberd towards Sanson who hasn't drawn his sword. But Sanson has been monitoring his footsteps, so before he could move his arms, Sanson had already read his intentions. Sanson gently stepped back, and then kicked the ground with the same foot, then charged towards the soldier who lost his balance. Sanson sent a heavy punch. Bang!

"Ah!"

That guy was hit right in his face, he looks like that he is going to faint, and began to retreat. Sanson said:

"Did you really close your eyes? This guy's foundation is too bad."

Sanson then drew out his sword. That is the sword our thane spent almost all his money to purchase, in order to deal with Lycanthropes, it's coated with a layer of silver, so it's a very beautiful sword. The soldier also waved his halberd nervously, Sanson held his sword horizontally, and then parried the halberd. The halberd hit the sword, emitting scrubbing noise, and then bounced away. It takes time to lift the heavy Halberd again, Sanson took a step forward and gently stabbed. The soldier's hand immediately stopped moving. Sanson pointed his sword at the guy's throat. Simply, the duel ended.

"Ah, ah -"

That guy emerged bloodshot in his eyes, watching the sword pointing at his throat. Sanson shaked his sword around a few times and said:

"I will not kill you if you apologize. But if you want to die, you should know what to do."

"Damn you!"

Another soldier waved his halberd suddenly, and Sanson took a step back swiftly. Then, the soldier who lost raised his halberd again.

"You son of a bitch! Do you know who we are!"

All the rest of the soldiers swarmed over. I have never seen such despicable persons. I raised my bastard sword and the then jumped forward. Because I was standing on the stairs, so I can jump quite high. I pulled out my sword in the air, and then held the blade and scabbard with my hands.

"Ah ah!"

Using the power of jumping off, I destroyed two halberds with this strike. I cut one with my sword, and broke another one with the scabbard. Then, after I was standing on the ground again, I immediately performed 'Unaware Slash', because both of my hands are raised, so it's easy to follow the center force, I again destroyed two other halberds. Although they don't act like human, I wouldn't have a single thought of stabbing their bodies with my sword. This is not for these guys, but for myself. So I swing my scabbard.

"Uh ah!"

The soldier who got hit in the cheek by me, even had his teeth popped out, and he fell to the ground. I put my sword back into the scabbard, and then started waving. I hit two other soldier's arms, they are scared and retreated. I hit their arms like chopping with an ax, they should be very painful right? Are their arms broken? They should be able to live in this lesson in a month.

Sanson looked at me and seemed to understand my intention. Similarly, he withdrew his sword back into the scabbard, and then waved it. Before that, I hadn't felt that Sanson even tried, but once the sword was back into the scabbard, Sanson's moves became very cruel. Because there is no further consideration, he started hitting neck or chest or other important parts. So even it's a scabbard, among the soldiers who got hit, no one didn't faint after screaming. Sanson thinks those fallen soldiers are clumsy, so he kicks them away, or simply steps on them, and then continues to attack the others.

So the two of us are crazily beating them with our scabbards. After a while, on the road in front of the hostel, there is no healthy soldier left. The eight soldiers are all lying on the ground together and groaning.

I kicked the guy who tried to ambush Sanson and said:

"You bastard, I'm an ogre killer. How dare you!"

Come on, I've dueled with Ogre, Gargoyle and Gorgon, those monsters illusion, and even fought with real Orcs, Urcs and Trolls. Although my foundation is poor, in fact these soldiers are in similar level as me. But compared to them, I have those horrible experience. So probably because of those experiences, I am able to defeat them so easily. I aggressively scared them, Sanson stopped me.

"Stop, Huchi. If they are as capable as us, then it doesn't matter. But their foundation is really poor, I start to feel sorry doing this."

※ ※ ※

Cherine standing on the stairs is looking at us blankly. Soon Jusina called some servants to help the soldiers. But Jusina seems to don't know what to do, Sanson as well. Sanson frowned at the achievement me and hims have just done, he said:

"If we leave, it creates no problem to us. But Cherine and Jusina have to do business here, things must end satisfactorily. Let's move them to the lobby."

Jusina gratefully looked at Sanson. The following servants helped to move the soldiers into the hall.

Once we entered the hall, Sanson asked the guy who looks like the leader to sit down, together with Karl and Cherine at the same table, while the other soldiers are taken to other few tables, sat by me and Iruril. Jusina brought mugs of beer to us and the soldiers. She seems to want to treat this as a simple matter like a fight between energetic teenagers in a village, and now it should end with a smile. In fact, no one suffered from serious fatal injuries, so Jusina's action received very good results. What a calm girl, she can catch the essentials! Soldiers don't seem very happy, but they didn't refuse the beer.

Karl and Sanson are talking with the leader(his name seems to be Hanster?). Hanster although looks miserable, I can still feel his anger. Sanson also looks angry but is suppressing himself. Karl and Cherine are trying to coordinate between the two of them.

I took the beer mug and stand against the wall, monitoring the soldiers sitting there and drinking the beer. Iruril is standing beside me, against the same wall. The soldiers have been staring at me, whether they are enemies or not, I really don't want that kind of expressions while enjoying beer.

"As long as you keep your hands on the table, plus, do not stand up, I will not interfere you." The soldiers heard me and smiled a little. Some soldiers are touching their abdomen, some stroking their cheeks, and sipping beer.

One of them said to me:

"Hey, lad."

"Why, please call me Huchi."

"So your name is Huchi? What a funny name, I am called Kelly. Why do you have such a big strength? Also, you mentioned that you are an ogre killer? You mean you've killed an ogre?"

"I have fought against ogres, gargoyles , gorgons, hobgoblins, minotaurs, also nine Urcs at once, and trolls this morning. Trolls are the most annoying, they just keep regenerating. "

The soldiers are all surprised. Kelly said:

"Kid ....Are you bragging?"

"You should have seen the trolls we killed. The others are also true. Why would I lie to you?"

Kelly didn't reply. I stated a long list of monsters, looks like they haven't even seen them. I am surprised to say:

"Aren't you mercenaries? You got to be useful so that you were selected, right? Why are you so surprised?"

Kelly unhappily smiled, and then replied:

"Lad, if it's not redneck like you, no one dares to touch us. We have never thought that someone would really mess with us, so we just relaxed our guard."

"Really? Sanson and I had sufficiently warned you, and you were still relaxed?"

"...... Although I don't know whether you can keep this arrogant attitude, if our troops are all deployed, you'll be finished in a minute. So stay happy when you still can."

I am not very happy about those words. But this time Iruril spoke first.

"Then I would like to ask a question, why weren't you deployed when the trolls were breaking out?"

"We were sleeping! It's early in the morning!"

The soldier replied unhappily. But I am very angry. That was already long after dawn. I recalled our hometown guards, who wake up for training before the sun rises in order to protect us. I said:

"What? Don't you have sentry? And before we started stopping the trolls, they had already come out for a while. And then we fought for a long while. In such a long period, you should have had some men here! "

Kelly hesitated to answer:

"Where we live is far away from the market place."

Heard these words, Jusina laughed. The soldiers looked at Jusina ferociously, but Jusina came closer to me without looking at them and said to me.

"Silikan's mansion is just next to the market. Oh! It's so far away! About one minute away."

I'm really speechless. I finished my beer.

"Well, thank you, Miss Jusina, please give me one more."

Jusina smiled and picked up the mug. However, Iruril said:

"Please don't drink anymore. You have been drinking since you sat down, totally six pints."

I didn't have time to reply before Jusina's words, she said:

"Ah, he can drink whenever he wants to. That's none of your business right?"

Huh? Wow, really powerful businessman spirit. Do you want to make money so much?

"No, it does not matter, Jusina. I shouldn't drink anymore indeed. And well, do you have to be so blatant of your business mind?"

Jusina looked shocked and looked at me. Why are you so surprised? Then Jusina suddenly changed her face and shouted at me:

"You Retard! Do you think that I want money from you?"

Jusina ran away. I am tongue-tied. Huh? When your mind is exposed you should escape quietly, why the hell she shouted retarded at me so loud? Really sinister girl. The soldiers are tittering. What are you laughing at?

I leaned against the wall, and then pulled out my sword and checked the blade carefully. This sword has slayed trolls, crashing with halberds. After the few battles, I want to see if there are damaged areas. Fortunately, the blade is still intact. Ah, thinking carefully, this sword hadn't crashed with metal before. However, when the soldiers saw me looking at the sword, all of them became tensed. So I put my sword back into the scabbard. Kelly again said to me with an unhappy voice:

"You lad, you may be able to gloat around with your strange strength, but if you meet magic, can you still be so easy?"

"Do you know magic?"

"Ha! Mr Baron employed Aphnaidel the Archmage! Aphnaidel will be dealing with you people, and maybe he will suck your soul out before killing you. If we let Aphnaidel know what you've done on us, he will! "

"Ah, an Archmage...... Not a good news."

Really bothering. I think of Tyburn, he can make the trolls flying to heaven, summon Balrog to kill Taurens, and also make a lot of horrible monster illusions. But now this is not even an ordinary wizard, but an Archmage!

Sanson shouted to me:

"Oi, Huchi! Let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"We should go to visit the Baron. Talking to his men is not enough."

"Ah? We are walking into the enemy's camp?"

Sanson heard what I said, and immediately smiled.

"Come on man. Of course we have go to make this clear. We helped to handle the trolls, but he sent the soldiers to seek compensation, sure, we don't feel good. Although we won't ask for rewards, we should make our reasons clear, and we should send these soldiers back nicely, so that they won't say anything. "

"Wait a minute, wait a minute! I just heard that there is a wizard! No, a nArchmage!"

Sanson although looked lost, he turned calm shortly.

"So?"

He asked me, I have nothing to say.

"Then let's go. The Archmage is waiting for us!"

Cherine nervously held Sanson's shoulder, said.

"Are you really going there? Do you think if you go there, he would apologize and repent their faults? Don't you think you are silly doing that? Just leave this town. You don't have to do it for us... And the Archmage, Aphnaidel is a very cruel man. It's because of this Aphnaidel, the Baron gained such a power in this city."

"We certainly know it could be dangerous, but if we go with his soldiers, try to talk with him, he shouldn't be severe on us."

Cherine shook his head.

"Is it that simple?"

　※　　　　　※　　　　　※

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.14)

2013-05-07T00:46:00.000-07:00

I really don't know how did I arrive the hostel. Anyway, after I arrived, Jusina's brother, that beardy , walked to the entrance. He saw my appearance and widened his eyes.

"Jusina told me... Sir, please wait a minute."

"Ah?"

That beardy lifted me up. What's going on?

"Well, just a little sprain! I would feel embarrassed if you do this!"

That beardy just moved me upstairs like this, Karl, Sanson, and Iruril also followed. After we entered the hostel, he brought me into a room next to the dining hall. It should be his room.

He put me on a table and checked my feet. He pressed my legs, and then asked:

"Does it hurt?"

"Well, why don't you look at my face?"

"Ha, it's swollen. The bones are not broken.... Probably cracked."

Iruril then went out. After a while, Iruril came back with something on her hand. I feel like I have seen that thing before? Ah, it looks the bottle of medicine that was given to the Urcs.

"Drink it, Huchi."

"Does it work for broken legs?"

"Well, haven't you seen that this even heals huge wounds?"

I nodded, then took the bottle and took a sip. The beardy is startled, looking at Iruril. But soon, the pain on my legs subsided completely. I jumped down from the table happily.

"Oops, I made the table dirty."

"Ah that, that doesn't matter, I'll clean it up. But how is your leg?"

"It doesn't hurt anymore. But I'd need to take a bath. I am really making a mess in this hostel."

"Jusina is preparing the bath water. Please come with me."

Oh, so she ran back to prepare for these! Very nice. I should really thank her. Strange. Impressive.

※ ※ ※

After a while, I cleaned my body and changed clothes, and then neatly sitting in the hall. Everyone else also gathered together. Each of us ordered a beer. Later that beardy also sat down at our table. His name is Cherine. I was shocked when he mentioned he is the owner of this hostel.

Beardy Cherine nodded and said:

"It was my father's, but he died last year, then I took it over and operate this hostel. Mother is living in another place in the urban area, she is not interested in business. When father was here, I was the chef, Jusina is responsible for accounting and cashier, so I usually just cook. "

"Jusina seems very capable."

Then Karl asked a question:

"But why could there be a sudden appearance of trolls?"

Cherine seriously thought.

"I am not sure as I didn't see it. They might escape from the arena. I have sent someone to ask for it."

"Arena?"

"Yes, there is an arena in this city. I've heard that there are a few trolls, so it could be them."

What is Arena? That halfing name Butter Duhon also mentioned that yesterday, but I am still looking at Sanson confusedly, Sanson also has no idea. So I asked Cherine.

"Arena, what is arena?"

"It's a place for fighting. Sometimes it could be soldiers against soldiers, and sometimes it could be soldiers against monsters."

"For what?"

Cherine looked at me with a surprised face and said.

"Of course it's for show. Also for gambling. You can bet on the result."

"What?"

We are all startled. For show? I fought against the phantom monsters summoned by Tyburn, the villagers were watching, like that right? However, those were phantoms, like acting. But those trolls just now were real.

"They fight against real monsters? They could die then?"

"Yes, they could die."

Sanson said unbelievably.

"What? People actually do crazy things like this. What kind of persons will fight there?"

"Some professional fighters.... They are usually poor. And you can get a lot of money if you win."

"What is that, they risk their life just to make money?"

"Some people do."

Karl interrupted and said.

"But are there a lot of them? Although there should be a lot, that's why the arena can continue its business, I thought there shouldn't be many people who would give up their life to make money. And for a great warrior, regardless of how good he is, he won't define himself in this way."

Sanson made a proud expression. Karl said, like a seasoned warrior.

Cherine flashed an unhappy expression on his face. His beard obscured and we can't see clearly, but his eyes are clearly angry. Cherine said with an impatient voice.

"Have you ever heard of usury?"

Usury? That is a high interest rate loan, isn't that? But why did he suddenly mention that? Karl, however, frowned and said:

"So... The owner asks the warriors to fight in the arena, in order to cover their debts?"

"Exactly!"

"Huh! Does the Municipal Government allow this?"

"That man is very powerful. He bribed all the council staffs. Even the mayor, if he dares to do anything, he will be replaced. This is a public secret here. Even the guards of this city are like the private army of that man. He also has very powerful personal guards."

"Oh my god!"

Outrageous!

I probably know what happens here. So he would lend money to the people who need it urgently, and when they have no way to afford the extremely high interest rate, they would have to fight in the arena. He doesn't have to pay them even if they win, as they owe him the money. If they lose, of course he doesn't care. He can also make the money through the bets. Rationally I can generally understand, but I still feel incredible about that. Asking people to give up their life to pay for the debt? What is wrong with his head?

※ ※ ※

Noises suddenly came from the entrance, that's the sound of shoes stepping on the floor. Sanson tilted his head:

"What is that noise?"

Cherine looks worried, he seems to already know what the noise. After a while, eight fully armed soldiers walked into the lobby, all wearing a chain mail and holding a halberd. Nice equipment! Jusina behind tried to stop them.

"We have guests here, what are you doing?"

But those soldiers didn't even listen. Are they the guards of this city? However, Cherine said:

"They are the mercenaries I just mentioned."

What? Mercenaries are such fully armed? The Guard Captain of our thane, Sanson, looked down at his crusty armor unbelievably. Those guys looked around, and then came toward us.

"Cherine, here they are?"

Cherine gloomily nodded. Then the soldier said.

"Good. We are the soldiers of Baron Siliken. Did you guys kill the trolls?"

Baron Siliken? A nobility? Sanson nodded and said:

"What's wrong?"

"The price of a troll is 200 Purcell, so that's a total of 600 Purcell. Pay for the compensation."

I don't think I got it wrong, because Sanson is also surprised to look up at the soldiers. Karl and Iruril also did the same action. Sanson is puzzled and asked:

"Wait a minute. You asked us to pay for it?"

"Otherwise who is going to pay?"

"We helped to kill the trolls, but you didn't even say a single thank you, or give us some bonus, yet you want us to pay?"

"Scum! We use them to make money!"

The soldiers impatiently looked down, and kicked Sanson's calf bone. Sanson reluctantly kept silence, followed by fire sparks in his eyes. He angrily stood up. I stood up at the same time.

"What did you just do?"

"I told you scums to mind your behaviors."

"Scum? I am the soldier of the dignified Viscount Haltent, The Guard Captain of Fief Haltent, Sanson Percival. What did you just do to me?"

The soldiers heard the word 'dignified', issued contemptuous jeers.

"What is it so dignified about a Viscount? Which countryside village are you from? Do you know what kind of situation are you in right now?"

"Those guys from bandit villages are really troublesome. Their brains don't function properly. Pathetic. "

"He could be serving some kind of a Bandit leader deep in a mountain... Bah!"

Seems like the identity of Sanson is very funny, they are all laughing at it. This surprised Sanson that he even forgot his anger. The soldier kicked Sanson's leg again, completely treats Sanson as his own subordinates. Sanson made a groan, and bent over. The soldier is even trying to hit Sanson with the tail of his halberd.

He did not succeed. Because I grabbed the halberd. The soldier made a grim expression.

"Who is this kid?"

He tried to pull back his halberd, although I am just grabbing it with one hand, he couldn't get it back with both of his hands. Until I spin the halberd, he had to release his hands. Before he changed his face again, I held the halberd with both of my hands.

"Then how much is this?"

"What?"

I broke the halberd into two halves. The soldiers' faces are showing that they are shocked. I again held the two halves of the broken halberd in my hands, broke them into hour parts. I threw four broken parts back to the soldier, and said:

"And how much are you?"

The soldiers's surprise finally turned to fear. I said grimly:

"If I kill you all, how much do I have to pay?"

The soldier who had its halberd broken took a step back, the other soldiers are all retreating backwards. I am so angry, moved my hand to my shoulder, wanted to pull out my bastard sword. But I didn't equip my sword after shower.

Sanson drew his sword, said lowly:

"Let's go outside!"

Looks like Sanson considered about Cherine's position. The soldiers are hesitated to move backwards. They also seem to think fighting with halberd in a room is a disadvantage. They went back a few steps out and fled outside. Sanson breathlessly followed them. Karl stopped him.

"Well, Percival, what are you planning to do?"

"Our thane is insulted, insulted by the men of a Baron. We don't even know if he is a real Baron. Cherine? That Siliken, is he really a Baron?"

"How would men of a Baron behave like that?"

"I knew it, a fake Baron. We'll see!"

"But are you going to fight with so many people alone?"

"Death could occur anywhere anytime, but it's not easy to have the chance to choose when and where to die. So if I have the chance to choose, I am willing to die."

Sanson said these weird words and then walked out. I hurriedly ran to the second floor. There is no time to put the armor on, I just grabbed my sword and then rushed downstairs. Sanson and the eight men of that fake Baron are already standing outside the hostel, confronting with each other.

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.13)

2013-04-10T02:03:00.001-07:00

※ ※ ※

After a commotion and Karl's explanation, I finally realized that the taste was not poison but the original taste of that thing. Jusina's eyes became colder, and Sanson is laughing to a extent that he can't breathe. What a shame, shame! But why would people want to drink this thing?

Anyway, after the breakfast, we went outside. Sanson is going to buy a horse with Iruril. Karl and I are going to the market. But Iruril felt that we better go together. She also wants to buy something, so she suggested to come with us. I borrowed a wheelbarrow from Jusina, Jusina seems to think that I will break the wheelbarrow, took it out unwillingly.

"Going to the market?"

"Yup."

Jusina's face grew worse, she repressed her anger and said:

"Hum, how unfortunate that I'm going to market too? Follow me!"

"Oh, are you? Great! But are you going alone? This large hostel should need a lot of supply right?"

"Humph! Hick. You can simply make an order. Then they do the shipping."

"Oh? Really?"

Under the guidance of Jusina, we easily found the market. Jusina separated with us once we arrived.

We bought flour, dried meat, bacon, vegetables we can eat tonight, salt and some others. The price level here is really low. Those are cheap prices that can't be imagined in our village. Especially paper is incredibly cheap here. Karl dragged me to buy a lot of paper. Paper should be useful wherever! At least it can be used to record something. I also bought pen and ink. I put them into the barrow and asked happily:

"Why are things so cheap here?"

Karl replied with a smile.

"You should have said things are so expensive in our village. Because merchants don't often enter our village. But Renus City is close to the Hudyne river waterway, it's also a gateway of the Central Avenue, so goods are rich here. Hence of course, the price level will be very low."

"If we eliminated Amurtaat, our village would become a gateway of the Central Avenue too, then there would be much more goods in our villages, prices would become cheaper too, right?"

Karl just smiled quietly. Iruril then said:

"Huchi, the reason you want to eliminate Amurtaat is to get richer and happier? "

"The reason we want to eliminate it is not to be so pathetic."

Iruril seems not to understand what I meant. But I don't want to discuss Amurtaat during this pleasant shopping. How is my dad doing now? He might be locked up in a goblins cave, eating disgusting food. Damn it! While I am here happily shopping for cheap stuffs. Dad, how come your son is like this?

Just when I was thinking of that.

"Ughhhh!"

Screams! Are we in Fief Haltant? The atmosphere of the market suddenly changed. People are escaping crazily.

People are running around here and there. Sanson immediately found the source of the screams.

"There. What's going on?"

"Let's go and see."

Karl ran in front. We continued to hear more screams, and the sound of things falling apart. And the direction we are running to, there are a lot of people fleeing The faces of the people are eclipsed because they are terrified. What happened? Then we saw the things chasing after the people. Damn! I feel like I have experienced the same thing somewhere before.

Three trolls are running over.

"What? Trolls! Why would they appear in a city?"

Sanson hurriedly draw out his sword. People are running around in a panic, but I saw a burly man actually bumped down an old lady in front of him. That old lady fell to the ground and is unable to get up. She seems to have an ankle injury. She is trying her best to stand up, nonetheless she can't because of fear and pain.

"Did you see that happen?"

No, how could that be! In our village, burly guys will come forward to help even if they'll die. In fact, not long ago I experienced the same thing in our village. My body is faster than the my thought.

I stood in front of that guy. He wanted to push me away rudely, but I clutched him and said:

"Hey! Help that old lady!"

"Kid, are you nuts? Are you her grandson?"

"No, I am not her grandson, but you can not do that!"

The man didn't answer and is trying to punch me. This asshole! I grabbed the man's wrist. The man's arm suddenly got blocked, he now looks like his shoulder is falling down. He fell to his knees after screaming stridently.

Although I wanted to punish that man properly, but more urgently I need to punish the trolls. I threw the man away, and then ran to the old lady.

"He - Help!"

That old lady crying for help with tears. The trolls are ferociously running over. I found the troll holding a stone axe making a strike, I grabbed the old lady's feet before her head gets chopped in half, pulled her away. I managed to save the old lady and put her behind me.

"Can you run by yourself?"

That old lady struggled to run. Then I pulled out my bastard sword and blocked the middle of the road. Well, bring it on! Men of Haltant do this! How much time can my life buy? Oh! Who can I tell my last words to now?

"Hey, you monsters, how long you think you need to take to kill me?"

Becuase I have OPG, so I dare to be so fearless. Meanwhile, the old lady has already long gone away.

Fortunately, I still have my reinforcements. Another man of Haltant came and stood by me. Sanson did not say anything, he pulled out his sword and brandished it. The arm of the troll holding a stone ax immediately got stabbed, a wound which bone can be seen is made. Sanson shouted with a low voice:

"I only got one life! So it's very precious! It's unique!"

Good, well done! Nice stab.

"Ah, ha, my unique move 'Unaware Slash'!"

My best and only trick! The troll is subconsciously swinging its stone axes, it got blocked by my first strike, and I chopped its arm off with the second strike.

"Pop!"

That monster hurriedly backed off. But in addition to the one Sanson is dealing with, there is another one trying to attack me from the side. Suddenly a dazzling light flashed in the middle of us.

She's Iruril. Iruril is performing a very rare swordsmanship with her left hand dagger. She's like peeling an apple, raised the dagger and aimed at the troll's arm, effortlessly cut down its arm muscles like dried meat, . How calm do you have to be to perform this move?

"Gahhhh ahhhh!"

That troll staggered backwards. Its wound is regenerating fast. Damn, after all, it's a troll. I have to pass this monster to Iruril, then focus on the one without arm in front of me. That troll's arm hasn't been respawned, but another arm without the stone axe is punching towards me.

"Wow!"

My belly got punched hard. My body is flying backwards. The reason I didn't die is only because of OPG's blessing. Thank you, Tyburn. I almost fainted, but that would then make me die. I stood up after tumbling.

I noticed someone were looking at me. I shouted at them:

"Please help!"

However, when they heard my voice, they were like hearing some kind of signal, wildly turned and ran away, some entered into the next building, and even shut the door. This is really ridiculous! The noise of banging door came one after another.

"Nedval! "

Hearing the voice of Karl, I finally got my mind back. That troll is now charging towards me. It has somehow regenerated its arm, looks like it's going to give me a hug.

"Go to hell!"

I hold the sword body with one hand, clutch the hilt with another hand, then rolled forward. The troll missed its punch, and I got to the trolls' feet. Then I didn't even get a chance to get up, didn't look behind, I waved my arm. I don't know what I just hit.

"Gahhhh!"

Seems like I chopped that guy's inner thigh. I rolled forward, then again stood up. The troll struggled to turn around, we are now face-to-face. I can't give it the opportunity to regenerate!

"Unaware Slash - Sideways!"

I am spinning my bastard sword horizontally, and spinning my body. But this time I knelt down after I finished a lap. The second slash I chopped very low to tilt my waist backward, this time I hit the troll's feet. Don't you run fast! I immediately straighten my knees and waist and spin again. I can feel that my ankles are broken, but I still managed to jump forward, successfully made my third strike.

The troll's head flew away. Then I directly bumped into the troll's body with no head on it. The troll finally fell down, its blood sprayed into my mouth. Wow! Damn. And I don't know the condition my ankles. I held the pain of my ankles, stamped on the troll's corpse. I then looked at the situation around.

Sanson is dueling with one troll, he made thousands of wounds on its body with his ogre-like strength. If it is a human, one of those wounds could be fatal. But the troll is stilling swinging its stone ax to force Sanson to step backward, in order to allow itself to regenerate its body. On the other end, Iruril is dodging around easily, moving between the back and side of the troll, but definitely not battling with it face-to-face. Whenever the troll tried to attack sideways, Iruril would cut its arm with her dagger, or stab it exposed waist or back with her estoc. But for trolls, wounds can be regenerated even they were made by Sanson's long sword, not to mention those by estoc. Those are just tiny wounds. Who should I help first?

I was thinking and stood up unconsciously. I feel serious pain on my ankles, almost felt to the ground.

"Hmm...."

Karl thought we were coming to the market for shopping, so he doesn't have his longbow, he hurriedly came to hold me. I grabbed Karl's shoulder, looked around angrily. Such a big city, with majestic buildings and wide roads that our village wouldn't ever have, why I can't even find one person? I really don't see anyone.

However, when I looked upward, I found on the second floor and the third floor there are people watching. Looking closely, every windows there are people looking at us.

Disgusting.

"Uh ahhhhhhh!"

I waved my sword, jumped a step forward. There's a troll with its back in front of me, it is chasing after Iruril. I lifted my foot, then jumped up with another foot without any hesitation. I turned the blade downward, stabbed the bastard sword into the troll's back.

"Galalalallaa!"

"Ahhhhh!"

I used all my strength to pull the sword down, I feel like something keep hitting my sword, and then suddenly, the feeling on my hands was gone, the sword is now outside the troll's body. The sword actually went through the troll's waist. It immediately fell forward. I stood on the troll's back, began to stab on it.

"Uh ah! Uh ah! Uh ahhhhhhhhhh!"

I don't know how many strikes I did. The back and neck of the troll have completely turned into minced meat, its blood is all sprayed on my body. Finally, I grabbed the head of the trolls. Because there is no hair, my fingers penetrated into the capsule. Because it's waist was completely destroyed by me, I pulled up only its upper body, and then cut its neck with my bastard sword . I then threw it to the side.

Iruril wasn't looking at me, she is still calm. She has begun to help Sanson. Iruril from behind barbed the troll's knee from behind, forcing the troll to knee down. Sanson then split troll's head into two halves. Bone and blood are all around. But Sanson and Iruril still have their bodies clean, I am the only one who is completely covered with blood, there is even flesh on my face and hands. I am still sitting on that troll.

Sanson approached and held out his hand. I grabbed his hand and stood up. My foot is still hurt and I almost fell, but Sanson held me.

"Feet injured?"

"Sprained. It doesn't matter."

"Luckily, we don't have any serious injuries."

"But aren't there any guards in this damn city?"

"Maybe it takes a while for them to mobilize."

I blankly looked around. The windows of surrounding buildings started opening. Then people started coming out. Now you come out! Ha! Are you going to help now? Those people are frowning and trying to block the blood with their feet to prevent it from flowing to their doors, they are even wiping those blood and flesh off the walls and doors angrily. I looked at the scene.

"Sanson, let's get back. Hurry."

"Hurry?"

"If we stay here any longer, I may kill some persons."

Sanson nodded silently. I began to walk forward under the arm of Sanson. Karl pushed the cart over. And Iruril came over, started to wipe the blood off my face with her handkerchief

"It doesn't matter, Iruril. It's not easy to clean anyway."

"You can walk only when your eyes can see, isn't it? Okay... Now your face look better."

"Thank you. I'll definitely buy you a new handkerchief."

Iruril didn't answer, just smiled. The road to the hostel is really damn long. When I think of walking there with this foot, my eyes goes yellow. Legs injury is not a trivial thing. Only one injured leg makes it so troublesome and inconvenient, not to mention Tyburn who is blind, he must be more frustrated. Tyburn! If you were here, you must be able to cleanly and simply get rid of those trolls. And we wouldn't have to see such a disgusting scene.

"Mr Nedval?"

Who is that? Who is calling me so brusquely? I parted away the bloody hair attached to my face, in order to find out who is in front.

"Oh, the Mighty Noble Lady!"

Jusina in a corner of the market is looking at me with a frightened face. I don't care what she wanted to say and said.

"I won't dirty the hostel with this blood. If that happens, I will be clean that up by myself."

"Ah, no, Huchi, ah.... I understand. "

I don't understand what she is talking about. Jusina swiftly ran away. Hmmf! She looks that she doesn't want to get stained by the blood so she ran back to the hostel. I looked back a bit and saw my footprints on the road. Bright red footprints. Footprints linked up. With such obvious red footprints, even not well-trained soldiers can easily track me down!

My footprints, really? That's my footprint.

So dizzy.

※ ※ ※

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.12)

2013-02-28T01:07:00.000-08:00

Early in the next morning, I put a washbasin in front and began to wash, I almost cried.

"I never knew that washbasin is such an important thing!"

And there is even soap in the bathroom. I had only heard of this precious thing, and now I get a chance to use it, but it's taking me a long time. This thing is really difficult to hold. Sanson laughed when he saw me like this, but his face looked a little anxious. When he was walking to have breakfast, he was absently looking around.

We woke up early, so there are no other guests in the dining hall yet. Jusina actually pretended that she didn't see us when we came in, continued cleaning the tables.

"Hey, Jusina, obtuse girls like you of course would be dumped by men."

"You want to make trouble in an early morning?"

Jusina is getting angry again. I blithely said:

"I want to order, bread and soup, any kind will do."

Karl and Sanson also ordered theirs. Sanson is looking anxiously at the entrance, but Karl didn't seem to notice Sanson' face. He looked around, found that there is a large piece of paper on another table, he picked it up and read.

"What's that?"

"It's a magazine, Nedval."

"Magazine?"

"This is a weekly magazine, documenting what is happening in this city every week. It can be used to deliver messages to the people of the city."

"Isn't it something like public reports by our thane?"

"No, this is something issued by the citizen. It records someone's cow missing, whose birthday is on this Tuesday, or news from the southern war with Zypern, etc. Quite interesting, this article tells 'Why Zypern has a Strong Navy?' opinions!"

"Well, even people like me know the reason why. Because they got a lot of desert, so they can only develop on the ocean, right?"

My answer gives Karl a very satisfied face.

"Brilliant! Nedval. In short, they collect information from travelers, and post on here. Selling this magazine can also make money. "

"Oh, you mean someone will pay for this? Ha! You can just ask people for the information, can't you?"

"The price will not be very high. And this city is much larger than our hometown, it is difficult to spread all the news. Look! Take a look at this ad. Message from The Temple of Gran Elver on the Hertz Mountains. Temple of Gran Elver offers a winter religious research, interested members can apply for trainee positions during Winter, participate in the researches about Gran Elver. The Autumn harvest has ended, so temples won't be busy in farm works, of course, they can then do catechisms."

"Oh, that kind of message, can't they just announce...... it?"

"Because this is a huge city, people who want to deliver a message can pay the magazine money, and then ask it to publish the message. Plus this is not just a fief, but a city, if institutions like the municipal government want to announce something to the public, they also give money to the magazines and ask them to publish. So the retail price can't be too expensive. "

"But, no matter what, paper is very very expensive isn't it?"

"Well, maybe the magazines signed contracts with the shrines, paper are provided by the shrines here. And in return shrines and temples can publish news in cheap prices."

Karl smiled. I shook my head and said:

"Amazing. If it's not this trip, I might not get to know magazines such things until I die."

Jusina who was cleaning another table chuckled after she heard what I said. Hum, so what, I am very ignorant. If you were born and grew up in a place like Fief Haltant, what would you become? Karl said:

"Travel often brings us new knowledge. This is a pleasant gift of trips. "

"Right. Ah! That we can sell messages to the magazine too."

"Huh?"

"'The Ninth Amurtaat Crusade is defeated.' How about that?"

"This is a good idea. But we should report to the King first. Things should be sequenced. So we should still report to the King first."

Then another voice came.

"You said the king's dragon is defeated?"

We focused into the chat so much that we didn't notice Iruril walked over. Iruril sat down at our table and asked:

"Who defeated the king's dragon?"

Who? Well, why didn't she ask 'What"? Why she asked 'Who'? This seems a odd way to ask. Karl replied:

"What a fresh morning! Miss Sereniel, since you have heard our conversation, you must know we have to report to the King His Majesty first."

"He is not my king."

Iruril pointed out Karl's mistake gently. Karl smiled sorrily and said:

"My apologies, Miss Sereniel,. Cathselprime is defeated by Amurtaat."

"Is Cathselprime the white dragon of Hustheil?"

"Oh, you are very clear about that."

Iruril looks very cautious.

"Speaking of Amurtaat...... The Watcher of Sunset, the Black Window of Helkanes, Amurtaat is also a name of this Black Dragon. Did it wake?"

Huh? What does it mean? Did it wake? Did it sleep before? But Karl replied blandly:

"Yes, it woke fifty years ago."

"Really?"

Strange. This elf lady didn't know get to know of this news for 50 years? I wanted to question her, but then Jusina carried the breakfast over. Jusina saw Iruril on the same table with us, asked:

"What do you want for breakfast?"

"Bread and milk please."

Jusina immediately carried the food over. Simple orders really result in fast service. I don't know whether elves chat when they are eating, so I am not talking. Sanson is worshiping Iruril with his admirers eyes while she is eating. Do you really want to watch people eating? He can actually be able to focus on watching someone eating! I kicked Sanson's feet under the table to warn him, he hurried began to eat his own breakfast. But pretty soon, he held his spoon motionless and stared at Iruril again, he didn't notice even the soup is flowing out of the spoon and making the table wet. God! I can't take this anymore. Iruril noticed Sanson's action, she was surprised and say:

"Mr. Sanson, the soup is all going to the table!"

"Ah? Oh, I'm sorry!"

Sorry for what? I'm really going crazy. Iruril is also surprised and looked at Sanson. Sanson is sticking his face on the plate, eating his stuff hastily.

Jusina's brother, that Breadie, is really good at cooking. I finished my soup, could not help but wanted to lick the soup plate, I spent a lot of efforts to control myself. If it's not Jusina watching me like watching a clown, maybe I would really do that. After we finished our breakfast, Jusina asked what drinks do we want. Everyone ordered juice, only Karl ordered coffee. What the heck is Coffee? After a while, Jusina brought over a cup of black and hot smoking thing. Because it's in a cup, it looks something like tea.

Karl drank the coffee joyfully.

"Wow, I haven't drank a coffee for a long time."

In the end what is that? Is that tasty? I absently finished my juice, and ordered a cup of coffee from Jusina. Jusina seems to think that I look ridiculous, and then immediately sent me a cup of coffee, she even put that in front of me with excessively careful action. I took a sip of that thing, Sanson kept looking at me asked curiously:

"Hey, Huchi, is that thing good?"

I didn't answer him, so he made a more curious face. That's because I made a very ominous speculation, so I couldn't answer him. Soon, I glared at Jusina furiously:

"Ju... Jusina! Are you trying to poison me!!?"

※ ※ ※

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.11)

2013-02-26T01:40:00.001-08:00

Not only the beer, even the dishes here are very tasty. We (Karl is excluded) devoured all the dishes, the halfling next to us began to suspect that we contain dwarves blood.

After the dinner, we were taken to our room.

It's a large room with four beds, but we only have three people, so there is one extra bed. Hence Sanson and I threw our bags on the bed, and kindly asked the luggage to take a good rest, and then we went down to the lobby again. The mellow taste of the beer is still lingering in my head at the moment. Karl said he wanted to lie on the bed, so only two of us came down.

The lobby is very spacious, it has a low ceiling like the dining hall. The whole ground floor of this building is very short, and this is a matter of course. Wooden buildings with a lot of floors, are not like castles which can be built to a very great height, because beams and columns will be broken. Fortunately, this low ceiling doesn't make people feel stuffy, but elegant with the bright-colored wall.

The time Sanson and I came down was quite late, so we couldn't get a good seat near the fireplace. But the weather is not very cold, so it doesn't matter. We chose a seat by the window, and began to enjoy the rye beer. People are talking, there are also gent singing voices. I looked around.

Here except the halfling named Duhon and another halfing, all the others are humans. I paid particular attention to the halflings. Because our village is like Amurtaat's front yard, that's a place that halfings don't want to live in. If it is not human, who would want to live in a village like that anyway? So I have rarely seen a halfling.

I heard that halfling's feet are super hairy. Duhon Butter is now lying his feet on the table, and talking to his friend excitedly.

"Did yous visit the arena today? Damn, I thought that guy could survive. "

"Why would you do such a ridiculous bet? Nobody would bet on that guy."

"Well I might win a higher bonus by doing so! "

What are they talking about? Anyway, to say whether that is kind of skill, that is certainly a kind of skill. I admire them much. The table Duhon at is a human table, which is too tall for him, so Duhon put a bucket on the chair, and then sat on it. He also put his feet to on the table, in order to get balance. And he is drinking with a beer mug which is as big as his head. After he drank certain amount, it seems he is almost falling backwards, that put me on tenterhooks.

Besides them, Jusina put a candle on the table in a corner of the lobby, she is now calculating with an abacus while writing something. Is that an account book? Jusina seemed to notice that I was looking at her, she lifted her head a bit, and suddenly bowed her head again. Sigh, although she is a stranger to me, our relationship became like this, it still makes me feel bad. Soon, Jusina heard someone ordering, she picked up the wooden plate and quickly ran towards the dining hall.

"With such tasty beers, I really don't want to leave." Sanson said.

I laughed and replied:

"So can we stay here tomorrow?"

"No, we have to hurry. We are not leisure travelers."

"Ah, we have people in hometown waiting for us. When these things are over, I would like to travel around the entire continent once."

"So you have already tried the taste of travel."

"Yeah. If it's not this incident, I would never know such magical places like the Bridge of Dozen. And I'm sure there're more bizarre things that I don't know. I have never had such a feeling before. Now suddenly I get to see so many things I don't know, think about it, if I had not seen them, that would be a great pity!"

"Even you want to try everything on the world, how can we have enough long life to do so? I think there is no need to feel pity for the things you haven't tried. It more important to enjoy the things you experienced."

"Thank you! You are right. I only wish to enjoy all the things I experienced. Say a horse and Sanson riding on me at the same time..."

"Shut up!"

"Actually why did you make the same mistake twice in the morning and at noon?"

"I don't know! Really, why did I say that? If I meet Iruril again, I will really be mad. Though we will not meet again."

"Your judgment is too hasty."

"Huh? "

"Look at the entrance. Really surprising! Meeting a person three times in a day without any appointment beforehand...., how do you say that again?"

Sanson quickly turned to see, then moaned a few times. The other guests in the lobby are also looking towards the entrance. Iruril is standing there.

Iruril's black hair under the reflection of the light looks like black and red waterfall scattered on the shoulders. Iruril looked around, and then stopped her sight on us. Her eyes are a little bigger.

Iruril walked toward us. She put her luggage on the table, sat down and said:

"Really surprising! Without any appointment beforehand, meeting a person three times in a day, I shall consign my life to this person."

Right, right! That's the statement! Without any appointment beforehand, meeting the same person three times in a single day, even they are separated by the whole mainland, they will eventually meet again, so they absolutely can't be enemies. In case they are enemies, they won't be able to escape from each other and will get killed, so theirs life is each other's. If they are friends, under any circumstances, they will help each other out, so theirs life can also be said it's each other's.

Iruril said the same sentence that I was thinking of. I laughed and asked her:

"Who said that?"

"You seem to ask me about human words often. This was said by King Rhuterino, when he was in the Central Avenue, meeting Handrake the Archmage three times in a single day."

"We are now also meeting three times in the Central Avenue ha. Oh, did you get a horse? How come you could get here so fast?"

"Horse is for human roads. I ran through the forest."

Well, there is a saying, don't race with dwarves underground, don't race with elves in the forest. Wow! She runs really fast! Sanson very carefully said:

"Hmm, really happy to see you again, Iruril, are you going to stay in this hostel tonight?"

"Yes, I like the sign here. And I recalled the things happened today with you, and I came to take a look. I did not expect to see you again."

At this time, Jusina came over and pouted:

"Madam, are you with them?"

"No, but I know them. I also want to spend the night here, do you have a room?"

"Of course. Do you want it now?"

"No, I would like to chat with them first. Can you give me a beer please?"

Jusina nodded, and then went away. She is looking at me with strange eyes, as if questioning in the end what is this guy, why does he have such a strength, and even is a friend of elves. Then I saw the other guests, seemed to be because we know the black-haired beautiful elf suddenly appears, became more interested in watching us.

Honestly, I quite like these sights. I asked Iruril:

"Where are you going? Ah, I don't have any reason to ask, just curiosity."

"I am going to the Dellhapha Harbor."

Where is that? I looked Sanson, Sanson stopped a while and said:

"Oh, then you will go across the capital, right?"

"I will go across the capital of Human."

"Oh, then, although it's my third request, would you like to join us?"

Wow, this is the third time. If Iruril says she has no horse again, then how would Sanson answer? But I am very disappointed, Iruil didn't say things like she has no horse.

"In the afternoon when I was walking in the woods, I thought a lot. Seems that I may be able to learn a lot of things from you, so I regretted that I did not join you."

Iruril suddenly shocked a bit, then tranced:

"Did I just say the word 'Regret'? "

"What?"

"Regret... I've actually learned that much. In the past, I would never change my mind. Now I have learned to desire those things I couldn't reach. Now I actually talk like humans."

I can't understand these words, so I kept silence. Iruril went on to say:

"I refused twice, yet you proposed again, I am really grateful, Sanson. I will travel with you to the capital. But I need to find a horse first."

Sanson's face... I don't even want to mention. This playboy! Just wait until I return to hometown! Can my mouth keep secrets? Of course not!

Iruril finished her beer and went to the second floor. Sanson is still unconscious due to excitement, after he noticed my face he quickly coughed, finally began to control himself a bit. I tried to make an unhappy face, then said:

"You are fascinated. Else you are pretending to be fascinated!"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, the third possibility. You aren't neither fascinated nor pretending to be fascinated, it's just me who thinks you are fascinated? Really strange!"

"Huchi! Stopping saying crap! Finish the beer and go. We should sleep earlier. Get up earlier tomorrow morning to buy some food, kerosene, and other supplements, it will be very busy."

"That won't matter. Karl and I will handle those things. You understand horses the most among us, so you should go to help Iruril to choose a horse."

"Really? You guys will handle all those things?"

Sanson stared at me happily for a while, finally realized that he fell into my trap. Sigh, even Jamini won't be faked by this simple words. Sanson is really like an ogre, not just strength, but mind!

After we entered our room on the second floor, I saw Karl sitting on the bed reading a book. We haven't had beds and candles for a long time, so only just now he could start reading, but I guess he must be reading some boring academic books.

Karl only reads that kind of book. When traveling shouldn't it be more suitable to read a novel, right?

"What book is this?"

Karl closed the book, then said:

"Some kind of wizards biographies. The book title is too long, so I won't bother mentioning. I would like to find out Tyburn Highseeker who built the Bridge of Dozen, but I don't see his name here. Although it is not like a name list of wizards, I thought after making such a great achievement, he must be a very famous wizard."

"Really? Oh, right, we met Iruril downstairs."

Karl's eyes are very surprised.

"She is in this hostel?"

"Yes."

"Really surprising! There is a saying that, meeting a person three times a day without any appointment beforehand, you should dedicate your life on this person."

"King Rhuterino said that, right? Iruril said the same thing. Sanson made his third furious invitation, she finally agreed to travel with us. "

"Percival, she really wants to go with us?"

Karl asked Sanson, and Sanson nodded. Karl laughed.

"Although that's nice, traveling with... Eh, nevermind. Percival arranges our trip, we should respect Percival's decision."

Karl agreed without any objection, Sanson looks very happy because of that.

Later, because Sanson and I haven't enjoyed wallowing on a bed for a long time, we kept throwing pillows at each other, rolling under the sheets, and jumping on the beds. If Karl didn't stop us, we would probably play for a whole night.

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.10)

2013-02-01T01:42:00.000-08:00

The western sky behind us is turning red, the land in front of us is glowing dark, we are about to enter the night. Far far away, when the lights of the city have all lit, we have already passed through the Hudyne Ridge, we are heading towards the plains. In the chilly evening air, twinkling lights in front of our eyes, we are naturally urging the horses to run straight-up forward.

After a while, the city appeared. This city is much larger than our hometown Heltant. One of the characteristics is the huge river surrounding the city. This is the confluence place of the Hudyne River. Around the rivers there is a vast wilderness. Along with the night, we saw the cattle and the shepherd boy returning. Sanson told me that the name of this city is Renus. Because it is located at the westernmost of the Mid Glade, so it can be said that it's playing the role of a gateway city of the Hudyne Ridge, hence it became such a metropolis.

Under the dark sky without a trace of evening sunlight, we entered Renus.

After passing through the Hudyne River, we crossed a bridge that leads to the entrance of Renus, the lights of the city seem to become warmer in order to welcome us. We walked along the main road of the city, then turned into a road lined with taverns and guesthouses. I don't know whether it's because here is a gateway city, there are a lot of hostels.

I looked around and said:

"How do we choose a better hostel?"

"Of course you ask people."

I nodded, then asked a middle-aged man passing by.

"Excuse me! I would like to ask something. We are travelers, where is the best hostel of this city?"

The middle-aged man raised his hand, pointing to a sign. It says "Hostel of Dozen".

"Lived over there, no matter where will you be on the land, you will be able to share good memories of this city."

"Ah, thank you."

I nodded then turned to Karl:

"The Hostel of Dozen? So if we don't have 12 people, we won't be served? "

"I'm afraid that's unlikely to happen. They may just be copying the name of the Bridge of Dozen I guess."

So we headed towards the hostel. The hotel is located a little further next to the main road. Once we got close to the hostel we could see a quite large backyard. The front of the hostel is built from wood, with elegant windows. It's a four-storey building.

We got off from the horses, walked to the hostel entrance.

Bang!

What was that? I am scared and stepped back. Then a heavyset man ran from the hotel entrance in a panic. Then, a bucket flew out from the hostel immediately and hit the man in the hind-brain. Whew!

The man fell forward, rolled down the stairs in front of the door. Really amazing! But soon a sharp cry came.

"If you have died, lie there, if you haven't, also lie there! Because I am going to make you die!"

But the man was not stupid, he got up and ran away immediately. And we are scared and looking at each other.

Sanson spoke first:

"Looks like we chose the wrong place."

Karl also nodded worriedly. But after a blink of eye, there is a girl coming out from the main entrance, holding another bucket. The girl ran down the stairs, nearly bumped into Sanson. Sanson was scared and walked back a few steps, The girl glanced Sanson, and then glanced the two of us. She is a blond girl in similar age as me.

"You are here for meal and sleep?"

"Any other special services?"

The girl heard my answer, deliberately picked up the bucket and said:

"Of course you can also eat this. But didn't you see someone ran out hurriedly just now? Okay, forget that. He must have run far away. You got three horses and three people, right? Please come in. Leave the horses here. Hugh! Come on, quick! Take the horses to the stables to get them tied, any of these need to change their horseshoes? Seems not. Looks like they run good! Hugh! Be careful of your head if you still don't hurry up! Why aren't you guys coming in? What you are doing? Do I have to prepare a red carpet in front of you? Hugh! You! You are so slow, are you useless? Take the horses! Quick! Horses follow Hugh, men follow me!"

Now the horses have fallen into their hands, seems that we must go in? Sanson and I heard her words, took a deep breath and followed her. Karl with a helpless face, smiled and came with us. Once we entered the hall the girl asked:

"Wine, food, bath, sleep, toilet? "

It's really hard to understand the question. I managed to find out that she is asking which one out of those five we want to do now. So I answered:

"The former two."

Under the guidance of the girl we entered the dining hall. The dining hall is quite dark, so we were unable to see clearly, but when our eyes adapted to darkness, we found that this is a very broad place. A light is hung from the ceiling, under the light some people looked at us carelessly, then went back to their own business.

It's quite noisy here. We were like pushed by the girl and sat down at a table, the girl immediately disappeared after shouting at someone else on another table. But soon enough, the woman took some huge beer mugs and appeared again. Those are foaming rye beer, the yellow foam are shining under the lights. That girl is literally throwing the mugs. The mugs are falling on the table and issuing loud sound. Surprisingly not even a single drop splashed out.

"What do you want to eat? You can order whatever you want, I guess I don't have to explain anymore?"

Sanson sheepishly said:

"Do you have chicken?"

"Didn't I say you can order anything you want? One chicken, and?"

"Pork pies and sesame cakes. "

Karl ordered. Sanson also picked up his courage and ordered again.

"Well, then I will get pork pies, plus meatballs and pancakes, but can you remember them all?"

"I can remember 'all' only after that kid ordered. Lad, what are you going to get?"

She is similar to my age, but keeps calling me a kid. Of course I don't feel good. Didn't she say I can order anything? I pouted, and then said:

"Dragon meat pie."

The eyes of the girl immediately sharpened up. I smiled and continued:

"Stew Gargoyle Wings, I especially like the wings. Roast Orcs Loin and Giant Flea soup. For dessert I want Water Element juice and Black Slime pudding. I haven't got a pudding for a long long time."

The girl said angrily.

"Hey, kid, do you know why that big man escaped like that?"

"Why?"

"Because he said he wanted to drink my milk."

Sanson suddenly blushed, and turned his head away, Karl also lowered his head. But I am looking at the girl with my very kind eyes and asked:

"Can I have one too?"

"Tired of living?"

The girl slammed the table, the guests around are all looking at us. A guest with a very tiny body murmured:

"Hey, Jusina can't even be patient for five minutes, she is about to fight again!"

I looked at the man. He is really short, even looks like Sanson's 8-years-old brother. But from his face, he looks a lot older. Halfling? I turned to the aggressive girl.

"So Jusina is your name?"

"Kid! If you piss off Jusina here, you will become the thirteenth!"

"The thirteenth? "

"This hostel is called the Hostel of Dozen. We don't need the thirteenth! I mean you will get your ass kicked out of the house!"

"Is this little girl the boss of this place?"

Jusina's cheek is twitching. Although the time we spent with this girl is not very long, that expression shows that her anger is about to explode. She is holding a plate with mugs on it. She suddenly lifted the plate.

Phew!

I really want to yawn. Even the Orc's machete can move faster. I blocked the plate pounding to my head, and pulled it back softly. Of course, Jusina who lost her plate is now looking at me with astonished eyes. All the other people in the dining place stopped talking and looked at us. Nice, it's much more quiet.

I am spinning the wooden plate with my fingertips and said:

"Oi, Jusina, I asked someone for a recommended hostel, he actually recommended such an unfriendly one, what could be the reason?"

Karl with a smile leaned back on the chair and drank the rye beer. Sanson who is so hungry with a dying face is now looking at me.

"Dude! Just order quickly, so that I can fill my stomach, can't you?"

"Well, I did order, but this young lady wants to hit me with this thing."

"Isn't that because you ordered some ridiculous things!"

Weapon snatched away, the overwhelmed Jusina said:

"You! You are an adventurer? I see you have a bit strength, so you are trying to be rude on me, aren't you?"

"Speaking of rude, you are the one who behaved rudely first. "

Jusina didn't want to listen to what I said, turned away and shouted:

"Brother!"

Whoops! She really got so many tricks. Why didn't she simply call out her dad? I expected a four cubits tall big man, with a ferocious and grim face.

My expectation is only partially right.

From the kitchen there is really a four cubits tall big man coming out, almost as big as Sanson. His face, however, is covered by big beard , so can't tell it's ferocious or not. His beard is really rich! He walked over, the low ceiling now looks even lower. The light hanging from the ceiling almost hit his head. The man wiped his hands with his pron, and then said:

"Why call me out?"

Huh? The voice sounds pretty young! Although he looks old because of the beard, in fact he can't be too old. Maybe around Sanson's age? Anyway, since he is the brother of the young girl, he could be very young. Jusina said with a righteous expression to me :

"Order again in front of my brother."

Why not! I crossed my arms, looked at the man and said:

"Dragon meat pie, Stew Gargoyle Wings, Roast Orcs Loin, Giant Flea Soup. Water Element Juice and Black Slime Pudding for dessert."

Ha, what will be flying over this time? Firstly a bucket, then a plate, what could be next? How exciting! However, I found the man's eyes are with a smile.

"Sorry sir. The ingredients just ran out. Would you mind ordering something else?"

Hum! That's quite a gracious answer. This gives me an opportunity to clean up my joke! I should also answer graciously.

"Then I'll get pork pies and chicken, sesame cakes, coupled with meatballs and pancakes. We'll drink the beer first, so you can take your time to prepare."

"Yes sir."

The man immediately walked away. Jusina with a funny face chased after.

"Brother! That kid was fooling..."

"I heard what you just yelled. You are calling him a kid, but in fact he is as old as you."

"What, what!"

Jusina continued talking to her brother while he walked into the kitchen. I laughed, then leaned on my chair. This is really a pair of ridiculous siblings. Well, the brother is nice, but the sister is very ridiculous.

"Why would someone recommend this place?"

Karl said with a smile:

"I think I know the reason."

"Oh? What is it?"

"Please try the beer in front of you."

I tilted my head, then picked up the huge mug and moved it to my mouth. One, ah? Two, Huh? Three, Ah! Glou-glou.

"Wow, ha, wow!"

Sanson who was with a painful expression because of hunger, saw my sudden change of mood, also picked up his rye beer and drank. Sanson's eyes suddenly widened.

"Oh, it tastes really good!"

Sanson and I finished the two-pint mugs in a glance. Even someone like me who doesn't understand wine thinks it tastes good. I asked Sanson whether he wants another one, and then shouted at the kitchen.

"Oi! Jusina! Give us two more beers!"

Jusina ran over from the kitchen like a dashing wild boar.

"How dare you speak to me with such a command tone!"

"The mighty noble lady Jusina, may I have the honor to get two cups of delicious rye beer from you?"

Of course, I was not trying to praise her. Jusina immediately raised her eyebrows angrily:

"What? Are you making jokes on me?"

She lost her temper again. In the end why is this lady so dissatisfied, how come she gets offended so easily? Why so aggressive? The other guests in the dining are looking forward to the second round showdown and watching us.

"Hey, Jusina, I would like to ask you a question, seriously. Did you just break up with your boyfriend?"

Laughter burst in the dining hall . And Jusina is now grabbing my throat. Oh my God! Now I have no way to speak, so I can only stare at Jusina. If she were in our village, she's absolutely a smelly bitch that no one wants, even Jamini wouldn't be so rude. Zero mark!

I finally said in a broken voice:

"I'm done! Take your hands off now, otherwise you'll regret! "

"Then give it a try!"

Can this be tough? I grabbed Jusina's waist and lifted her up, because I often practice with Jamini, and I got OPG, so I feel that her weight is even lighter than a beer mug. I threw Jusina up like a child, then caught her back (I try not to let her hitting the ceiling, but that's difficult). People in the dining hall started screaming.

"Mum!"

Jusina is struggling like drowning people, and then fell down towards me.

"Am I your mum? Then please be a good girl!"

Jusina although fell down quickly, I'm still able catch her on her waist, she is hanging in midair. Jusina kicked my chest a few times, but I couldn't feel hurt even when my horse kicked me before. I ignored this, warned Jusina:

"If you can stop attacking me, I will quietly put you down. Otherwise my action will be more brutal, whether you believe it or not, I have the record of throwing Orcs 60 cubits away. "

"Liar!"

I turned to Sanson, Sanson said.

"Miss, what he said is true. During the day at the Bridge of Dozen he saw four Orcs, they were unable to cross the bridge because they had insufficient number. In the end he threw them all over, so those Orcs could cross the Hudyne Valley. But hey Huchi, put her down, what are you doing man? "

I obediently put down Jusina. Jusina is staring at me with bitterly eyes, but now she knows my strength so she doesn't dare to do anything. I handed out the empty mugs, and then said:

"If you can take us some beer, I'll appreciate much, and then drink quietly. Peace, okay?"

Jusina picked up the mugs and then ran away swiftly. I took a deep breath, sat on my chair.

"What a rude girl! She actually grabbed my throat!"

"Well, I was astounded too. Maybe she turned into this after working in this bustling hostel."

"No, that should be her raw personality."

The halfling on the table next to us then spoke:

"Excuse me, is what you said really true? You really threw the Orcs across the Hudyne valley?"

"Yes, it's true. Thanks to those Orcs we could make up the number to cross the bridge. So we had to send them back."

The halfling's eyes are blinking, and said:

"Oh, really incredible! If it's not a giant, it is impossible to throw a person over a distance like the Hudyne Valley. Ah, my name is Duhon • Butter."

"My name is Huchi Nedval. You name is Butter? Really a special surname, does your family make butter?"

"That is not my surname, but my nickname."

"Oh, is that?"

At this time, Jusina came back. The huge beer mugs are still being thrown on the table forcefully, but she didn't even throw me a glance.

"Thank you!"

Jusina then fiercely stared me in the face, and then walked away. Really a rude girl.

"Despite the quality of the beer here, the service is really bad. With that kind of girl here, how do they do business?"

The halfling named Duhon laughed and said:

"Jusina is in fact a very kind girl. She is different from her appearance. She thinks that she is already a grown up woman, being thrown around by a man she first met, how could her mood be good?"

"She provoked me first."

Duhon laughed, and continued to eat. I started relaxing and began to enjoy the beer slowly.

That's because I am not good at drinking, and I don't want to get Jusina here again. But Sanson has already finished another mug. He is really an ogre.

Sanson looked at me, I said without any hesitation:

"I definitely won't get that damn girl here again. Do it by youself."

※ ※ ※

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.9)

2013-01-28T22:25:00.000-08:00

※ ※ ※

Anyway, I finally threw the last one over. The last one didn't feel uncomfortable at all, and it almost seemed to enjoy the flight. Although it asked me to let it face the front, so it can see the view clearly, that could be too dangerous, so I still pointed its feet in front, and then threw it over. So even if the guys couldn't catch it, it would only get its ass hurt.

While I was throwing these monsters over, the people around me were watching the scene nervously. They murmured: "Uh... There you go!" "Uh... Nice!" kind of things. Iruril held her own hands and watched, when an Urc arrived the other side safely, she would then relax a bit. The Urcs were also the same, after I threw theses guys over, until they caught their companions, they were all clamorous They are now even laughing happily. The one who looks like it's their chieftain(because it was the last one thrown over, so I guess so) went to the cliff and said:

"No matter what happened, I have to say thank you! Oink!"

"I'm very glad to be able to help."

"I will not chase after monsters like you anymore! Oink! We are Urc Fighters! We will not expect to, oink, keep receiving forgiveness from enemies!"

"Okay? Thank you. But how about the Orcs' request?"

"Those weak guys! Oink! Not request, they begged us! Oink! We will just refuse them!"

I shrugged. If it is a conservation between humans, people may feel very unhappy about the words. But if it's between Orcs, how do I know how they would think? I waved my hands and then turned around.

Iruril said to me:

"Seems that you simply ignore the meaning of this bridge. I hoped them to cooperate with other races to cross the bridge, so that they would be able to learn the meaning of cooperation and reconciliation. Although we came over after a battle, I believed if they could learn these things after that, that could still become a good thing."

"Is that so?"

Iruril doesn't look like that she's blaming me. She is just simply saying those words.

"But Huchi, in fact you are the one who exemplified the meaning of this bridge the most. The Urcs who were trying to kill us are now actually saying thank you to you. Now even if the creator of this bridge found that the bridge becomes useless, he would not be angry too."

"If that is the case, it would be great."

"You seem to become a friend of those Urcs."

This elf seems to be so stubborn on certain parts that people can't stand. Maybe I do look like someone who can become friends of all races, but I don't understand those things. I am just a future candle maker of Heltant Fief, the Knight Nedval of the Noble Lady Jamini.... What! How come I am admitting this thing? I'm dead! Axelhand came up to me with a very worried face.

"Didn't you worry that you could miss once?"

I smiled and nodded.

"Yes. And because I missed all, so they could all arrive safely!"

"Ha ha ha! Thanks to you, today I saw a rare scene. Thank you! Hope your journey will be blessed by Karis •Numen."

Karis •Numen... I managed to recall that Karl mentioned it's the deity of the dwarves. But what should I answer? I glanced Karl, and Karl finally helped me to make an appropriate answer.

"May You Grasp the Essence of the Sparks between the Anvil and the Hammer."

Axelhand looked at Karl with a surprised face, smiled and then picked up his luggage. He put on a great backpack, covered his blade with a holster, and then inserted it into the belt. I guess he can't walk easily in this way, but he seems to feel well. Then Iruril started looking at us. Time for her farewell? But then I found that Sanson is showing a "I have great courage now!" face.

Sanson, although with a bit hesitant, said in an upright manner (I don't know how he did it, it's too amazing):

"Where is Miss Iruril going next?"

"Is that necessary?"

Well, what a strange answer. Although it sounds like "Is it necessary to let you know where I am going", this could mean she was upset, but in fact she is just asking purely out of curiosity.

"Can we travel together?"

"Didn't I mention in the morning... I don't have a horse."

Sanson seemed to be waiting for these words for a long time, he answered:

"I can ride the same Huchi with horse!"

I instantly looked at Sanson with a confused face. What did he say? What did he want to do on me? Karl is also looking at Sanson with a smile. And Axelhand is beginning to laugh loudly. Sanson was confused for a while, and then changed his words:

"No, I mean, I can ride the same horse with Huchi..."

"Muhaha ha ha!"

I am almost rolling on the ground.

Iruril shook her head.

"No thanks. You are going to visit your king. You should be in a hurry, but I'm not. I don't want to cause you troubles."

Poor Sanson made a mistake again. So from Iruril said goodbye to Karl, until she silently disappeared in the woods, Sanson didn't say a word, he was just blushing while standing still. I find myself and Axelhand are patting each other's shoulders and laughing. Axelhand is almost losing his breath.

"He said, said, said what riding you with a horse...... Ha ha ha ha!"

"Do I have run with a horse on my shoulders? Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Axelhand separated with us, walked a few steps and stopped to laugh, walked a few steps and stopped to laugh again. Because we are riding, so we got ahead after seconds. The hearty laughter of Axelhand came behind from time to time.

Whenever the laughter came, Sanson would make a face that he wants to die.

I started talking with Karl. Sanson is still not recovered to the state that can listen to me.

"Karl! What do you feel about the Bridge of Dozen?"

"While it was built with good intention, I don't really like to force races to have reconciliation through such an inconvenient way."

"But in order to to make all races which are difficult to have peace to cooperate, you must create this kind of situation right? A person with this ability should be able to build a normal bridge easily. But he chose to build the bridge this way..."

"Right, Nedval. This way is a way that if you don't cooperate, you can't pass. That's the good intention. However on this bridge, the so-called cooperation has turned into a mean only. In my opinion, a real cooperation doesn't need any reason, it comes out naturally."

I repeated the words three times before I understood it.

"That is too idealistic."

"Is that?"

※ ※ ※

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.8)

2013-01-07T01:26:00.005-08:00

Four Urcs and three of us, plus Iruril and Axelhand, we all went to the edge of the cliff. After all twelve of us stood still, Iruril began to whisper:

"In accordance with the convention, we gathered twelve individuals. Please let us cross the river."

Sanson and I stepped slightly forward in order to view the whole scenario, and we almost fell. Once Iruril finished her speech, the floating raft began moving towards us slowly. After a while, that raft reached the edge of a cliff where we are quietly. I looked at the thing with frightened eyes.

Axelhand ran up first without any hesitation. The raft didn't move. After Karl went up, I started to step out one foot on it carefully, and then slowly moved another foot on it. Won't this thing fall? But this raft is still floating in the air not even with a little bit shaking. I try hard not to look down, so I have been staring at the sky. Sanson is also having a frightened face, trying to pull our horses over. The horses tried to resist, after they suddenly stopped, Sanson finally managed to get them on.

After the four Urcs got on the raft, Iruril handed a bottle of medicine to the Urc staying on the cliff.

"This is not difficult, as long as you feed them the right amount. If the wound is very serious, you should also pour a little on that wound. But I have treated the most serious ones, so just feeding them would be fine."

The Urc did not answer, snatched the bottle with one hand, and ran to its fallen companions. Iruril looked into her backpack for a while, and then got on the raft.

Because Iruril has got on, there are twelve people now. The raft began to move slowly. I am a little nervous, so I am grasping the railing firmly and looking at the sky. When the raft began to move, even the horses seemed to be excited.

"Hee hee! Heeee hee hee! Pooffff!"

Sanson wanted to appease the horses, but it seems to be not very easy.

"Hey, Hey! Listen, it'd just be a short while!"

Although the horses are all stamping heavily, the raft doesn't even sway a bit. But the other passengers are all frightened. There is just a kind of feeling that the raft will be capsized. Then Iruril walked towards the horses.

Iruril put her cheek on the middle horse's face, her hands are stroking the faces of the other two horses. So she is now like hugging three horses at once. Then she whispered:

"Calm down. Calm down. We will be fine."

Surprisingly, the horses are beginning to calm. Karl is watching this scenario with a amazed face, and Sanson is staring at her with his over-admiring eyes. Although I am very surprised, I am still nervous, so I don't have a thought to say any words of praise. After this scene, I looked down.

Shit! It's so scary!

The cliff is far away and blurred. From here we can see that at the bottom there is a rapid stream flowing between the cliffs. I started to feel that the world is spinning. The waves go up and then go down blithely, beating the cliffs. I lifted my sight with a frightened face, tried to look around. Then I saw Iruril.

Iruril's black hair is fluttering. Is that wind? Iruril closed her eyes, as if she is feeling the wind with her cheek.

The wind is blowing.

Sasasa......

The Autumn Leaves started flying over from the woods on both sides of the cliffs.

They are the red maple leaves, and yellow ginkgo leaves. The leaves are flying, like a group of frightened birds flying at the same time. The leaves are riding on the wind blowing to the valley, falling while dancing. As far as we can see, the leaves are fluttering everywhere.

As if flying in the rain of Autumn Leaves.

Fly, Dance, Spin, Fall, they are falling without any fear. When you are dancing with the wind, does it matter even you fall? I seem to be able to hear the laughter of the leaves. Sha la la la la. Sha la la la la.

After a while, the last leaf continued to hover in the air. This is the only one left in the air. Moments before it was a performance of a group of flurry leaves. Now it's its solo time. This leaf is small, but it has a bright red color, dancing under the blue sky. Floating, flying, spinning, falling, falling without any fear.

"Are you coming down?"

After Sanson patted my shoulder, I finally got off the raft. Ah, I really want to make a song. The fear in my heart not long ago has completely disappeared. I suddenly want to take a ride again.

I helped Sanson to pull the horses down. Over the opposite side, those Urcs who have taken the medinces have all stood up, they are staring at us ferociously. I thought they were going to shout at us, but surprisingly, they are very quiet. Oh, is it because we have four Urcs as hostages? That being said, they have one more thing different from Orcs. They seem to care about companions. Didn't they say they are Urc Fighters? Hum.

The Urcs came across the river with us got off the raft, and immediately ran away from us to a little distance. Iruril is watching the scene quietly. Axelhand is again raising his tomahawk to the front of his face, began feeling the blade.

Losing all of their arms, listening to our orders, will the Urcs really come to attack us? I feel like that it is worth to observe, but Iruril spoke.

"Please wait here until the other travelers come, then go back to meet your companions. If you plan to do so, then you should follow the convention, don't fight, Okay?"

"Mind your own business! Elf! Oink!"

It's really not easy for them to go back to meet their companions. This Bridge of Dozen although was built with good intentions, it's very inconvenient. The builder seemed to want to place all races in this inconvenience, and yet not to fight. I suddenly have an interesting idea at this moment.

"Oi! You can't wait to join your companions? We also don't want to leave you guys behind after we left, getting ready to ambush us."

The Urcs are looking at me nervously. I smiled and said:

"You want me to take you back?"

"You, what do you mean? Oink!"

I didn't answer, looked towards the opposite cliff and shouted:

"Hey! Focus! Ready to catch them!"

The Urcs couldn't understand what I was saying, and put on scared faces. I grabbed the Urc next to me, then lifted it up. The Urcs above my head began screaming.

"You, you, Oink! What do want to do?"

"Don't worry,the first one is the toughest one. Hey! You there! Wake up! Don't step back!"

Then I threw the Urc over. But I didn't throw with a single thought that if it fall down it would have nothing to do with me. I was aiming very carefully before I threw, so that the Urcs there could catch it. As the distance is about 60 cubits, I pointed its legs forward, and threw almost horizontally, that even if the guys opposite can't catch it, its neck won't break.

Although I tossed easily, Urc's body is not something small. The flying Urc is making strange screams, struggling to move its body. Then it fell correctly on the target location I set, where the remaining five Urcs are. The six guys rolled into a ball. I took a look whether they are injured or not, but they seem to be alright.

I laughed, looked at the remaining three Urcs here. They are all scared with their blue faces on and start running around. I should make them feel easier.

"Hey, didn't you see that? The first one is the toughest one. After that, you have more and more people to catch you there, you will then be more safe."

Once I finished my words, the Urcs began to argue who to be the last one.

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.7)

2012-11-30T02:06:00.001-08:00

"Ahhhhhh - !"

What was that? Before I got the answer, Sanson simply rushed forward. He actually directly rushed into nine Urcs, what is he thinking? Actually, not directly. His target is the rightmost one. So what? I threw away my worries, and rushed to the left. The Urcs quickly gathered to each sides.Then Karl also raised his longbow and began shooting.

I didn't raise my sword, just running forward. My upper body is hence exposed. A Machetes is coming to my head. Fool, I just hoped you to do so, you have been trapped!

"The Unaware Slash!"

The machete of the Urc is bounced away, because of the reaction force, the Urc's arms are lifted, its chest is completely exposed. I flipped one more time, swinging my bastard sword upward. Huh?

The Urc jumped back a bit, made an empty space from me. Look at this guy! I finally realized the weakness of my move because I'm flipping on the same spot. This time it's my arms lifted, my chest exposed. The Urc is now swinging its machete over. Uh ah! I'm dead!

"Reverse!"

I ignored the momentum of my arms and waist, brutally struck my sword downward. I thought my waist was broken, then managed to parry the machete to the ground. That Urc because of the impact kneed down. I made a flip and then struck downward again, chopped that guy's helmet in half. But I have feeling that my waist is also cracked. The images in my eyes are looming, there is even flash.

"Wow, that's bad!"

I temporarily retreated to the back. But the other guy's machete wouldn't allow me time to rest, is immediately coming over. This guy really wants to kill me? But speaking of that, I have also already killed an Urc. I picked the easiest way I can think of.

"Ah, ah -!"

I raised my right leg, spinning the tip of my sword and stabbed out. I came up with a name of this move immediately. I am really smart.

"Grease Stirrer!"

I am moving like how I stir the grease when I make candles, spinning my sword to attack. The machete was blocked away, once I felt that the spinning tip hit something, my right foot stepped on the ground heavily, stabbed forwards according to the momentum. Ga! It feels differently from using the Unaware Slash, the feeling inside the Urc's body is transmitted from the sword to my fingertips. I suddenly got goose bumps on my whole body.

"Uh, damn. I'll just screw you up!"

I drew a huge 8 with my arm, and then began to retreat. Because the sword is spinning so fast, it became a very powerful defense. The Urcs are hesitant to get closer, I managed to retreat to a distance that I can take a breath. But once my arm stopped, a machete was coming over again. Huh? It actually ...

That machete feebly fell to the ground, the Urc which held it now has an arrow on its back. It was shot by Karl.

Then near my waist, there is a small thing rushing forward.

"Your move was so cool! Ha ha ha!"

It's the dwarf. He put his tomahawk on his shoulder, and lowered his body charging forward. Even if he didn't lower his body, he was short enough, now he is really very short. Two Urcs slashed with their machetes at the same time. But the dwarf struck with the tomahawk on his shoulder with a unbelievable speed, he hit two machetes at the same time.

Surprisingly, the two machetes are broken. Then something suddenly jumped on the back of the dwarf.

"What!"

That's Iruril. Iruril ran behind the dwarf, at the instant the dwarf hit the machetes, she stepped on the back of him and jumped forward. Then she used the two swords on her hands stabbing the vulnerable Urcs. Wow, that is really nice teamwork. But probably only Iruril thought it was a teamwork.

"Where did you step on!!"

Iruril showed a face like she didn't hear that, immediately rushed to the Urcs nearby. An Urcs stabbed with its machete crudely, but Iruril just made a spin, stretched out her right leg backwards. Then the piercing sword in her right hand broke the machete, then made another spin smoothly. Once the Urc realized that Iruril is now behind its back after the dancing-like elegant moves, it screamed almost like choking.

"Oink!!"

Iruril stabbed her left-handed dagger towards her right armpit, hit the Urc behind. Then her body spin again in the opposite direction, pulled out the dagger, and then stabbed from her left shoulder after towards the Urc's back. Then the Urc fell down.

So, I got two, Karl got one, and Iruril got three, then there should be one or two left. Where are those guys? Don't know when, Sanson has finished three and he is wiping his sword. The Dwarf took one look around and murmured:

"What the hell? Are you monsters? I didn't even get one."

Iruril took out her handkerchief and began wiping her swords without any expression. Like Balrog, this action seems to show that things just happened didn't affect her emotion at all. So...... She wouldn't get excited due to a combat? It appears that she was like doing some daily activities like eating or washing face, without a trace of emotion. Hmm.

Maybe she really had fought too many times, getting already numb now. Say, if I am 120 years old, even if there is only once a year, I would have fought more than 100 times. Compared with her, I am leaning against a tree, suffering from my low back pain. Not cool.

But so what? I am just a candle maker who got OPG accidentally.

Sanson with a sorry face is watching me rubbing my waist.

"Although you lad can do some moves that other people can't, it doesn't mean that you won't get hurt. No matter how strong you are, you would need basic skills."

"Have I ever learnt how to use a sword?"

"In fact, there is no much difference between a sword and a fist. Because you focus too much on that sword, thinking of chopping with the blade, or stabbing with the tip, so strange moves would appear. When you are fighting with your fists, would you flip around? Would you spin your fists? "

"Oh, so?"

"When you are using a weapon, the weapon is only an extension of your arm. It easy to notice when you are using a spear, which should be similar to sword. Fight by your common sense!"

I heard the words of Sanson, suddenly felt very frustrated. So I am really lack of common sense? But then I recalled Iruril last move.

"But Iruril just back-stabbed from her armpit. Anyone punches from the armpit?"

"That can only be done after you are skilled with the basis, getting very familiar with the sword itself. Only to that extent, you will be able to perform combos, or perform moves while rolling like you did."

Hmm. Is that true? Anyway, my waist seems better now. I quietly moved away from tree, then stood up. I looked at Iruril, she is searching something from her backpack. And the Dwarf is still muttering.

"What was that! Ridiculous! I wanted the fight the most, but didn't even kill one in the end!"

Karl smiled to the Dwarf.

"Because of the situation just now, we didn't introduce ourselves. My name is Karl."

"Axelhand • Eindelf."

"Ah, Mr. Eindelf. Thanks for your help."

"Help? I didn't kill even one."

Karl embarrassingly smiled, in order to rescue him from the situation, we walked over with the same smile, each introduced ourselves. Iruril is still searching her backpack like before, looks like she completely forgot us. Until she found something, she walked away to another direction. Axelhand got angry.

"Hey! Are you not willing to deal with a dwarf?"

Iruril raised her head, looked at Axelhand.

"Huh?"

"Why didn't you introduce yourself, or greet?"

"These gentlemen know my name, I thought they would help me to... "

Axelhand sharpened his eyes.

"Why wouldn't you come to talk to me directly? Are you bothered to talk to me?"

"I'm a little busy. My name is Iruril Sereniel."

Then Iruril turned away, walked to the Urcs who have fallen down. Axelhand walked towards Iruril angrily, we would also like to know what's going on, so we ran to her. Iruril is holding something like a little vial and feeding the Urcs something, once they swallowed, they exhaled a long breath. Those are the guys who got stabbed by Iruril in the back, Iruril poured some medicine on their backs also. Surprisingly, the wounds on their backs are now gone.

Axelhand is shocked and said:

"You, what are you doing? Why did you heal them?"

"Don't you want to cross the river?"

Axelhand is surprised and widened his mouth. That's right. Because it's the Bridge of Dozen, so we still need 4 more people to cross the river. So to say, Iruril is going to cure four, and then ask them to cross the river with us? Really surprisingly calm. Iruril said to me:

"Throw their weapons down the cliff. Sanson, please give me a hand."

I collected the machetes and thrown them down the cliff. A huge noise issued from the bottom, and the machetes got swept away by the rapid stream quickly, all are disappeared completely. I went back and took a look, Iruril has already cured five Urcs. Huh? Why five? Urcs have lost their weapons, Sanson is holding his sword standing in front, Axelhand is still murmuring "I didn't even kill one. Should I try it now?" kind of things, the whole situation makes people so uncomfortable.

Iruril said:

"I do not know what happened between you and the humans, I just want to cross the river. I have cured you, so that you can also cross the river. But if you refuse to, this thing will become very troublesome. '

Why is she speaking with such a solemn tone? Almost the same as the tone she talks to us. Although this is not a bad thing, she attacked them coldly, now the speech is still such calm, I can now really feel that she is different from humans. Does she have no feeling? Or her expression is different with us?

"That's my suggestion. Please help us to gather the number. If you agree, then I will give you the drugs to heal your mates here."

All the Urcs widened their eyes.

"Oink! Is that true?"

"Yes."

"Oink Oink, when we arrive there, you will not kill us? Oink!"

Iruril said without any change on her face.

"Anyway, if you do as I say, it will be good for you. If you don't want to help us, then I don't need you too, I'll hand you over to that dwarf. But if you are willing to cross the river with us, I will give your companions medicines. Think about it calmly, then you will know what to do. "

I guess even so, they can't think calmly right?

"Oink! But after we crossed the river, how can we come back? Oink! If we can't come back, what's the use of that medicine?"

"Didn't I cured five of you? Leave one here. I will give the medicine to that one, then we cross the river. Then he can heal the others."

Wow..... Really defeated by her. Her mind is really clear. Axelhand is also too surprised, now is just standing there with his mouth opened. The Urcs calculated the number, and then nodded.

"So be it, Oink. Fine, we don't any other choice. Oink Oink Oink!"

Iruril also nodded. Then she said to the Urcs.

"So we are friends now!"

Uh! I nearly fainted. Although only I know the meaning behind this sentence, other people with the dwarf and even the Urcs are totally stunned. The Urcs with a speechless face are looking at Iruril, then shouted rudely:

"Oink Oink Oink! What are you talking about! Now we are disarmed, so we have no choice! Oink! We will definitely revenge!"

Iruril tilted her head and looked at me. Please... Don't look at me with those eyes, OK?

"They are different from you, Huchi?"

"...Yeah."

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.6)

2012-11-20T01:46:00.001-08:00

I coughed a few times, then started watching the Urcs and Dwarfs who are shouting at each other. I said to Karl:

"We follow what the dwarf said, how about that? We attack the Urcs, capture four of them and then cross the bridge."

Iruril's eyes show that she is worried. I became very embarrassed, Karl also shook his head.

"Ah ...... If you do that you will violate the wish of the creator of this bridge, won't you? And if we fight, people may get injured."

"So we can only advise them to leave five here. I don't want to go with nine of them."

Iruril shook her head.

"If we can trust each other and follow the rules, this thing will be simple. Now it's like..."

Who doesn't know? I said to Iruril:

"Now the problem is the Urcs might not follow the rules, Iruril?"

"Why do you think that they won't follow the rules, Huchi?"

"Because they are Urcs."

"Is that so? The Urcs will probably think, because these guys are humans, dwarves and elves, so these guys can't be trusted."

My eyes are widened. Really! I looked at Karl, he nodded.

"That is right, we have to trust each other. That should be the purpose of making this bridge, but these races got much hatred elsewhere, you want them to trust each other here, it is a bit difficult. This Tyburn Highseeker is wishing too much."

At this moment.

In front of me, a Urc suddenly stood up, the Urcs which were shouting at the Dwarvf are also approaching. They are pointing at us and twittering. No, it should be said, they are pointing at our horses?

I suddenly feel creepy.

Even if three of us, Iruril and the Dwarf are all dead, as long as they got the horses, they can have twelve and cross the bridge. How stupid! This plan is absolutely unfeasible. Although our number is smaller, the Urcs think that they can win, if they want to cross the bridge, they can't have anyone of them dead. However they might be stupid enough to neglect these.

My brains quickly flashed. I must find a way, so they won't rush in. I picked up a small stone, and then deliberately stretch forward my hand and let them see clearly. The Urcs immediately looked at me with surprised eyes.

"You probably think that killing us all, taking away the horses, then you can have twelve. But that is impossible."

I smiled, then crushed the stone with my thumb and forefinger. The stone turned into powder in a glance. The Urcs began screaming and retreating. One of them began to shout:

"Oink, that, that is the candle maker! The Monstrous Candle Maker! Oink!"

Wow, I'm actually becoming so famous in this region? But the Urcs raised their weapons together.

The Dwarf who were yelling saw the machetes of the Urcs, panicked and retreated. Those machetes are much larger than the Orcs', almost as large as humans'. After a glance, the scene became a confrontation of Urcs vs Wizard - Dwarf - Human Coalition (?).

"Hey, what do you want!?"

I was shocked, so I shouted. One of the Urcs laughed and said:

"This is really great. Oink! We don't need to cross the river now! Oink, we thought you, Oink, had crossed the river. Oink Oink!"

I suddenly winced.

"You are chasing after us?"

That Urc is pounding its own chest and said:

"We are Urcs! Urcs Fighter! Oink! We have accepted the request to destroy you all! Oink! The weak Orcs mentioned you to us with a scared tone, Oink! We have never expected, Oink, you are actually just several lads and elderly! "

Sanson figured out how it happened, he began gnashing his teeth. Seems that those Orcs which were after us requested these Urcs, so in order to catch up with us, they tried to cross the river. But we actually departed lately this morning, so we fell behind them. Sanson said in a low voice:

"Looks like there will be no good ending on this."

※ ※ ※

The Dwarf came to our side, and murmured:

"Hearing those words just now, I guess I know what is happening. You are being chased after by Orcs?"

"Yes. Really sorry. This is our business, so please stay away."

Karl pulled out his sword. The Dwarf shook his head.

"No, what are you talking about. Now, we can finally have a good fight together right?"

I looked down at this bold dwarf, and then smiled at him. The enemies are not ordinary Orcs, but Urcs, and there are nine of them, we have only five people, however, the Dwarf is showing absolutely no fear. Wait a minute, do we really have five people? I looked at Iruril. Iruril also looked at me at the same time.

"Huchi."

"Yes?"

"This morning, we've became friends, right?"

I smiled slightly. Iruril didn't seem to understand the meaning of my smile, so she tilted her head, and then she drew out her piercing sword and left hand dagger. I said:

"Wait. Their targets are us, so you can keep yourself away from this."

"Didn't you say that you would do something for me?"

"So I ran to wash my face, didn't I?"

"Then I should do something for you too. Right?"

If you are a human, then that should be correct. But I don't if that's the case for Elves. Once again, I write down in my mind: "Elves are very troublesome", and stood out. The Urcs suddenly stopped, and raised their machetes. That's a bit scary. They not only can endure the sunlight, their size is also very big, their height is probably only a little shorter than me, but their shoulders are wider than me. What should we do now?

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.5)

2012-11-02T02:33:00.000-07:00

Huh?

We stopped moving forward hurriedly. Sanson moved his hand towards his waist, and I moved mine towards my shoulder, we are ready to pull out our weapons. In front of us there are nine Orcs, one Dwarf and one Elf.

Why are these Orcs wandering round during the day? Anyway, the Orcs are staring at the Dwarf. And the Dwarf is holding a huge tomahawk, stroking the blade and staring back at the Orcs. It reminds me of the tomahawk of Minotaur. The length is not that long, but size of the blade is similarly big.

However, even with such a big ax, the Dwarf can stand in front of nine enemies proudly, he is really amazing. Moreover, these Orcs compared with those we fought against, their bodies are larger, and they look more violent. The Orcs are staring at the Dwarf with angry expressions because of his provocation, but the Elf is actually not looking at any of those two parties, but standing in a distance from those guys and looking at the sky. We actually know this Elf.

"Iruril?"

Because the noise of the stream covered the hoofs beat, they didn't notice us until we got close. Sanson and I immediately jumped off from the horses. Sanson said to Iruril:

"Are you okay?"

Iruril tidied up her hair which got blown by the wind in the valley, and then said:

"We separated just now, and we immediately meet again."

"Don't worry, I will protect you."

"Huh?"

Iruril tilted her head. Sanson tensed up. Then I found that the situation is a bit strange. The Orcs have a overwhelmingly advantage number, but they didn't attack. And the Dwarf is not afraid at all, majestically staring at the Orcs, so it even seems like that the nine Orcs are afraid of the Dwarf. Iruril looked at me and said:

"Huchi, which side will you help?"

Uh... This is really a difficult question.

"I have to find out who needs help first."

Then the Dwarf put down the tomahawk and said:

"Fine now. Plus three, there are fourteen now."

But the Orcs' expression became very strange. One of the Orcs shouted:

"Oink! Then who will be left here?"

The Dwarf giggled with his gruff voice:

"I will kill two of you, how about that?"

"Oink! You and the Elf should be killed!"

Then Iruril stood out.

"No one should undermine the convention."

After she said, both the Orcs and the Dwarf looked at Iruril with unhappy faces. Sanson and I don't know what to do, we got confused. They actually didn't fight. But I don't understand what they are saying.

Karl asked calmly:

"Miss Sereniel, please explain the situation to us."

"Is it the first time you come here? "

"Yes."

"On the Bridge of Dozen, no matter what races you are, you can't fight."

"Can't fight?"

Sanson widened his eyes. Iruril nodded and said:

"It is the wish of the person who made this bridge, so he made the bridge that it will only move when there are twelve."

"Huh?"

Iruril pointed at the valley. We are startled.

The two cliffs are separated by about sixty cubits. However, in that the middle of the air there is a boat floating. No, I shouldn't say that it's a boat, it's just a large square which looks like a raft, there are railings on it, the structure is very simple. The most surprising thing is, it is not supported by any rope or other things, it's just simply floating in the air.

I ran to the cliff with Sanson and looked around, there can't be any hidden device. The thing is really floating in the air. There is just a circle painted on the bottom of the raft, as well as many complex patterns. That should be Magic Patterns... It's Magic!

Iruril continued to explain.

"Regardless of what races, there must be 12 individuals gathered in order to cross the bridge. As long as you can't fly, you have to comply with this rule no matter who you are. So everyone here would not fight."

Karl tilted his head and said:

"Uh... Does it work with twelve of the same race?"

"This doesn't matter though. So human businessmen or Orcs usually come with a team of twelve. But for other races it's not easy to have twelve of them traveling together. So no matter which races of them, they will be waiting here, and then cross the bridge together, and only because of that there won't be any fight here. "

Wow. Absolutely no fight? Well, it really is an amazing place. Karl nodded and said:

"That... The intention was good, but it's a bit inconvenient. If there is no twelve, the bridge is absolutely useless."

"Yes. But here is a busy place, so if you wait for a little while, gathering twelve is actually very easy. Also because of that we met again."

Aha, I know what's the problem.

Originally the Orcs, the Dwarf and Elf had a total of eleven. Therefore, in order to cross the river, although they didn't feel comfortable with each other, they didn't fight, and were waiting for the next person. But now we have three people. So the major problem is that two people must be left behind, and wait again for the next ten people.

During Iruril's explanation, the Dwarf continued roaring, shouting at each other with the Orcs.

"You disgusting jerks! Your should thank that you are on the Bridge of Dozen! Elsewhere, you would have destroyed by me!"

"Oink! How could there be such an ugly, long bearded short dwarf!"

In fact Orcs and Dwarves are impossible to take each other's size to make fun of. But these Orcs are so big that they are unlike Orcs, so they can point at the nose of the Dwarf and call him shorty. On the other hand, the Dwarf can't attack the Orcs in front of him, so he seems like going crazy. He hasn't got any foaming at his mouth, which is very amazing.

"But how can these Orcs walking around during the day?"

Probably heard me talking to myself, Iruril said:

"They are Urcs."

"Urcs?"

"They are known as a kind of Orcs. And it's the name of this branch... They are quite large aren't they? Although they also hate the sun like the other Orcs, they are still able to endure it. So the situation now is very strange. Usually Orcs won't come out during the day, so there wouldn't be any problem and you would be able to cross the river. But now Urcs and Dwarves, the two rivals, meet here."

Karl nodded and then walked away far enough from the Urcs, hesitated to say:

"Excuse me, please listen to me for a few words. Because we are latest, so we'll leave two people here and wait. Is that Okay?"

But the dwarves seems totally not willing to do according to Karl's words. He is swinging his tomahawk rudely, forcing Karl to step back.

"What do you mean? Come on! You leave two people here! Those left here can stay alive. But after crossing bridge, I don't know what will happen to me!"

After listening to the words of the Dwarf, I discovered another problem.

It's the proportion of all races after crossing the bridge. Iruril said very clearly that, no one should fight here. However when the destination is reached, will we still follow the rule? So the Dwarf is calculating a good proportion of races. If we leave two Urcs here, three human, an elf and a dwarf together we have a total of five people, and seven Urcs can cross the bridge. If there will really be a fight, we still have a chance. But if only one of us cross the bridge, the number will be three to nine, we can be in great danger. Although I unconsciously put Dwarves, Elves and Human in the same team, the idea seems to be correct.

Sanson's idea is probably the same as mine. He frowned, pulled Karl over. Although he is whispering with Karl, he's so loud that even I can hear.

"We don't know what the situation will become after crossing the bridge. Three of us have to go together."

"But... Didn't you hear that, no one can fight here?"

"Orcs can't be trusted."

Karl frowned. Then Iruril said:

"Mr Dwarf, excuse me. Did you count these horses?"

Huh? The horses are counted? Well, sure. This is a matter of course. No matter what races should be counted. So, we have seventeen here waiting to cross the bridge? The Dwarf shouted excitedly:

"Right, five of you Urcs can come with me! Which one want to stay?"

"Oink! Nonsense! Human, you are the latest.You stay here with your stink horses, wait here! No, you have to give one horse to us!"

Ah. Everyone is speaking their own language now. Iruril said:

"Absolutely no fight is allowed. That way no one can cross the bridge. We must follow the rule. You have to promise this first, then we can decide who will be staying here."

I think this sentence is absolutely right. However, such a right thing, for the excited Dwarf and Urcs, it looks non-sense.

Headache. If any one of us go with them, that man will be in danger. After we cross the valley, if the Urcs change their mind, he is likely to be attacked by them. I really want to suggest that the six of us (including our horses) must pass together, but we came late, it seems a bit unreasonable.

The Dwarf is very excited, and keeps shouting: "I will take five of your lives, tie the rest with a rope to go over it!" Kind of thing. The Urcs are squeaking, asking us to give up one horse.

What the Urcs thinking is obvious. Which horse is not a problem, as long as they can cross the river, they can deal with the Elf and Dwarf easily.

Although all races are shouting at each other, there is no fight. If we really fight, regardless of who win, they can't cross the river. Because there is no twelve in the same races, in the five races here (Horse is a race too!) we need at least two races to go together. Well.... The man who built this bridge probably had thought of such a scenario! Although we are in this kind of situation, I decided to satisfy my curiosity first.

"In the end who built this bridge?"

Iruril looked at me and said:

"Strange. You actually ask an Elf about human stuffs."

"You make us the three most lack of knowledge men then. Who?"

Iruril smiled. I saw that, and realized that this was the first time I saw her smile.

"A human wizard. Called Tyburn Highseeker."

Then we, the three human's expression became very weird. Karl asked me:

"Nedval, what is last name of Tyburn? "

"Huh? Even Karl doesn't know? I don't know."

Sanson kept blinking with a confused face, and after a while, his eyes again fixed on Iruril's body. Stop staring at her! Really want to kick his leg. I don't know whether Iruril understands that kind of vision or not. She said to me:

"Do you know him?"

"We know someone who is called Tyburn, but we don't know his last name..."

Iruril tilted her head.

"I've never heard human life can be that long. The bridge was built two hundred years ago."

Two hundred years? Then it's impossible. Karl shook his head.

"Sounds that the builder should be another man."

"Maybe."

Chapter Two: The Difference Between a Kettle And a Brain (Pt.4)

2012-10-19T03:05:00.002-07:00

Today's weather seems to be very good. The hot sun is burning my eyebrows.

"Huh?"

I rolled my blanket up and stood up. Sanson and Karl are sleeping in their blankets. What happened?

Nobody was actually night guarding, all of us went to sleep? But then I saw Iruril, she is sitting next to the extinguishing campfire. Iruril looked at the smoke of the campfire and said:

"You woke up?"

Iruril didn't look at me when she was speaking. I'm scared ans said:

"Ah, you helped us for the night shift, Iruril?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I heard that you couldn't sleep well for several nights because of the Orcs. "

"Ah... Thank you. "

"Am I your friend now, Huchi?"

I suddenly can't understand what she said, and scratched my head, then I remembered the dialogue last night. I suddenly felt very funny and chuckled, then walked to the campfire. When Iruril sits down, she doesn't seem to be taller than me much. Probably because her legs are too long.

"Yes. You are my friend."

"Then will you do something for me?"

Huh? Well, yes. I deliberately whack my palm with my fist to show her, and then said:

"Of course, if you care about me, you won't ask me to do something strange, so-called friends has always been this way, hasn't it?"

Sound a little cunning huh? Iruril looked at me and said:

"Then please go to wash your face."

"...Good."

I went down the cliff we slept on to a small valley to wash my face. Because the altitude is very high, so there are not many trees. In the middle of this plateau, a shallow stream draws a narrow crack on the plateau, calling it a valley is a bit strange. Autumn is deep now, the stream is cold to the point of biting. After I went back to the camping place, Karl and Sanson also woke up. Seeing both of them getting up, Iruril stood up and once again picked up the backpack next to her.

Sanson said hurriedly:

"Eh, you have to leave now?"

"Yes."

"No, why are you leaving so soon... We didn't eat breakfast... Although we don't know where your destination is, if we can travel together, that will be so much better..."

Sanson hurriedly stood up and said. Iruril looked at Sanson with a face without any expression or emotion.

"Travel together? Well, I don't have a horse."

"That why don't you ride with me?"

Iruril looked at Sanson confusedly, and Sanson showed a fainting face because of his words just now. I turned my head and chuckled.

"I don't want to cause you so much trouble."

Sanson because of making a mistake, he couldn't say anything from his mouth now. Iruril slightly nodded to me and Karl, then said:

"I Wish You a Pleasant Journey, Sunlight Always Accompanies Your Ears, Until the Sun Sets."

For this kind of anicent valedictory from Iruril, only Karl has the ability to answer.

"I Wish You a Safe Journey, Returns as if Departs, Beams with Joy."

Then Iruril turned away and left.

She went to touch each of our horses tied to a tree. The horses quietly stood there. Iruril then disappeared in the woods which has no road. We heard the sound of bushes and grass, Iruril's black hair was gone soon. A while later, we saw Iruril far on the hill, after she climbed over the hill, we could no longer see her.

"Why doesn't she walk on the road?"

After Iruril's figure completely disappeared, I said. Karl replied:

"Road is for human. Elves don't build roads."

"They don't build roads?"

Karl smiled and said:

"There is a saying: When an Elf walks in the forest, she becomes a tree; When a Man walks in the forest, he creates a trail. When an Elf looks up at the sky, she becomes a star; When a Man looks up at the sky, he creates constellations. These words illustrate the diversification of elves perfectly."

"Diversification?"

"Staying with an elf, the elf will become like that thing. Staying with a human, that thing will become like human. "

This sentence is really clever. Well, I haven't had such a good sleep for a long time(when you get woke up for the night shift, it's really a grind), and now I can feel that I am full of energy. I said:

"Then if an elf meets a human?"

"The elf will become very like human. So Sanson, your request just now was very rude."

Sanson blushed. He said:

"I, I don't know. In fact, Huchi and I can ride the same horse ..."

※ ※ ※

We kneaded some flour into dough, began to make scones on a pan. In order to keep some for lunch, we used a lot of flour. If there are some milk or eggs, the taste could be much better. But now we are living in the wild, we better not to be so pampered.

Karl only ate a little, I am the type of person who eat until getting tired, Sanson on the other hand is regardless of how much he ate, he won't get tired. When I was making the scones, Sanson was already picking up some of the scones and ate like a glutton.

"Leave me some Okay?"

"You fool. Why would you start eating only after all are toasted?"

Well, that's right. So I began to cook with one hand, and use another hand to grab the scones and eat. But I soon found that this method has a very big problem. That is, no matter how much I've made, there can't be anything left for our lunch.

Sanson and I realized that surprisingly, and Karl is looking at us with his deep eyes and smiling.

Sanson is still regretting what he had said.

"I should have just said Huchi'd ride with me..."

"Stop thinking about that, okay? It's already happened, what's the point of regretting? "

I grabbed more flour to knead, and asked them:

"About those Orcs, what are you going to do?"

"We already know where their location is, if we pretend not knowing and just walk over, I will feel very bad."

"So is there any way to solve it? Hey, don't touch! That's for lunch!"

Sanson insisted to pick one more into his mouth, revealed a pleased expression. But Carl looks upset and said:

"No way. We have missions, shouldn't go and risk our lives. This is not something that we can control. After we arrive the capital, I will report this to the defense ministers or influential individuals."

"But what about those people..."

"Although we feel very sorry, the Orcs would not arbitrarily abuse the craftsmen. And craftsmen don't often travel, so it's very difficult for the Orcs to catch more of them too, we can only be patient now, Percival. "

"Gee (Chewing sound), Yes!"

"Please clearly mark their location on the geography book, and write down the signs they said, so that when we reach the capital we can make a complete report."

"Sure!"

After breakfast, we set out. Haven't slept so well for a long time, so I feel really happy. But because we slept till so late, plus we spent so much time on making extra scones, we set out late. I began to whisper that Sanson is the one who makes us late, Sanson replied that we should able to pass through Hudyne Ridge in the afternoon, in the evening we can enter the village to rest, so he told us not to worry. Then he began to mutter again.

"I should have said Huchi'd ride with me..."

"Shut up!"

The place we slept last night looks like the boundary of a forest. When we are down to the lowlands, we gradually entered deep into a forest. Although this is just a mountain road, because it's an extension of the Central Avenue, so the road is smooth and wide. It is very suitable for horses, but because it's a bit steep, in order not to get the horses too tired, we are moving forward with a jogging speed. I've rode for several days, so I also started to get very familiar with horses.

Probably about a hour. We are around the height of rapid streams appear in valleys.

Wocha la la la!

I heard the strange noise, so I looked at Sanson. Sanson said:

"That is the Hudyne River. Because it's a jet stream in the valley, so it sounds loud, right? We have to cross the river."

"Jet stream? We don't cross a jet stream on a horseback, right?"

"Don't be nonsense. There is a bridge."

"Wait a minute! Let me guess. It was Hudyne Ridge, then Hudyne River, so the name of the bridge, should be Hudyne Bridge right?"

"Wrong. The Bridge of Dozen. "

"What? Dozen? What does this mean?"

"I don't know. That's what the geography book says."

So we ran toward the Bridge of Dozen in this confused situation. The closer we get, the louder the sound of rushing water becomes. Now it's even difficult to talk to the person next to you in an ordinary volume.

After a while, the trees which blocked our sight instantly all disappeared. We found a huge cliff appeared in front of us. However, our attention is not on the cliff, but the thing standing in front it, we are all shocked.