User blog:Carol of the bells/Days of Ruin --- Zen's exile, part 39

Days of Ruin --- Zen's exile, part 38
Yay, lot's of good news~! First, I passed my finals! Woohoo~! And I defeated Grahdens! YEAH!!! And I summoned Magress! That gives me the complete collection of Heroes of Gaia!!!! WOOOH~!

Sorry, I had a good week. On to the story~!



Zen, Karl, and Seria had parted ways after the battle with the Juggernaut, as the latter pair resumed their persuit of Graham (I'm 100% sure I spelled that wrong..). After recieving instructions from Tillith, Zen headed south towards the swamp, to get to the coast and head towards Abbadon. After a full day of traveling, she stopped by an inn to rest.

"If we continue south," Zen murmured, observing the map before her, "And travel all day, then we should reach Abbadon within the week, or less, if we're fortunate."

Galant rubbed his chin. "That's true, but wouldn't it be faster to continue along the coast and take a merchant ship?"

She shook her head. "It would, but there are many monsters along the way. I don't want to endanger anyone."

A maid stopped by their table, jotting down their drink and meal orders before heading back to the kitchen. The group recieved a few odd stares from the other customers, as their company took up three booths. One of the booths was particularly noisy.

"It was ridiculous!" Zeln shouted, recounting a story of one of their previous battles. "If Sergio was of the opposite element, I should've fought the monster! But no, mister Blue-Blood had to take all the glory!" He planted his head into the table. "It's not fair...!"

Lancia sighed in exasperation, turning red from embarresment as more people stared. "Geez, would it kill you to shut up? You're being so noisy, and you're not even drunk yet!"

Sergio, who was drunk, hiccuped once before squinting his eyes and scowling at the lightning unit. "Why..why would I let you-hic-fight when you-hic-never w-win, huh?" He drawled out the last word for emphasis.

Zeln planted his hands on the table, glaring back. "That's not true! I-I've won plenty of battles!" He pointed a fingur accusingly at the black-haired man. "Y-you're just trying to get Zen's attention!"

He flushed immediately, eyes widening. "T-that's not...not true!!" He hicupped. "If I don't protect Zen...then who will...?"

"That's what the rest of us are for, idiot!"

Lancia gave them both a swift swat on the back of the head, hissing that they be quiet before they got thrown out.

In the other booth, Zen was still planning their route. The waitress came back with their food, and the summoner noticed she was glancing her way nervously.

"Excuse me," Zen inquired politely, "Is there something I can help you with...?"

The maid stumbled over her words before calming down and saying, "I'm s-sorry, I didn't mean to stare...it's just you look similar to another summoner who came through this way a few days ago."

Curious, Zen glanced at her units before looking back at the maid. "Oh? Who was it?"

She gripped her tray, averting her eyes. "He was a very intimidating man with brown hair and dark blue eyes. He had two other men with him, but they were much younger. One of them wore a mask."

Her eyes slowly widened at the description. "Did..." She swallowed thickly. "Did one of them say their names? Or where they were going?"

"One of the boys--he had his hair tied back--he called the oldest one...what was it.." She paused to think. "Um...Keith? No, Ko? Yes, his name was Ko, I'm sure of it."

The units froze, all staring at Zen expectantly.

"Where were they headed?" She pressed.

"T-the swamp...do you know them?"

Zen stared down at the map, where the swamp was marked. They were heading right for it. "Yes," She replied absently. "I know them..."



As prestigious as the Samui family was, not even Ko had a salvageable sense of direction. Because of this, they had been wandering around the swamp the past two days, even though they head set out immediately from the small tavern.

"This...makes no sense at all..." Kaine murmured in irritation, trying to decipher the map they had been given. "That guy probably made this map himself. It's terrible, and useless." He sighed, folded the piece of paper up and putting it in his pocket.

Haku groaned. "Wait, does that mean we're going to spend another day in this place, just wandering around hopelessly?!" He mumbled a few more things in despair, sulking against one of the swamp's trees.

Kain knelt down, touching the damp ground with his hand. He cringed against the feel of the slime on his fingers, but ignored it. "I can't sense any rogue units nearby...According to that sorry excuse of a map, we should be heading north..." He stood, squinting through the treeline. "But with so many trees, I can't tell where the sun is..."

"It's this way," Ko announced finally, walking in the general direction of east.

The brothers looked at each other before following, nervously. When they had first heard of the job, Ko chose to bring Kaine with him. But Riku insisted on coming along, under the guise that he would be "too lonely without any of his precious younger siblings". Though in reality, he was afraid that Ko might kill Kaine on the job, for whatever reason, whether it be out of anger or impatience. Kaine was secretely glad Riku had come.

"Y-you sense the rogue?" Riku asked.

The older brother said nothing, but simply kept walking.



Yay~! Filler-but-not-really-filler-chapter! Wooh!

-_- I'm sorry I'm such a dissapointment....I'll try harder!!!! >\\\\<

Thanks for reading~!