Chapter 100
For several seconds, the two women's minds went blank. Then they nudged each other before Hana finally voiced what was on her mind.
"I'm not sure," she paused briefly as she studied Zavi's expression before continuing, "but he was with a man and a woman who were fighting me earlier."
'Yeah, that woman was insane and genuinely trying to kill me,' Hana added inwardly, raising an eyebrow.
Zavi did not want to immediately assume that the two people Hana meant were Zuhen and Felina. After thinking for a moment, he glanced at Aaron and spoke in a low voice.
"What did those two look like?" he asked, simply trying to confirm it further.
Mine seemed to think hard, her eyes shut tightly with a crease forming on her face as though she were desperately trying to reconstruct her memories from earlier.
But from behind her, Mine let out a sigh before answering Zavi's question.
"The man was wearing a thick jacket with fur around the collar. As for the woman, she wore a velvet winter jacket that emphasized the curves of her body."
'What the hell are they even talking about now?' Aaron immediately moved away because he had no interest in hearing something like that anymore. He walked over and sat on a row of chairs, watching them from afar.
Meanwhile, Zavi stubbornly kept digging for more details to make sure the two people were really Zuhen and Felina.
"Did the man have black lips?"
"I don't know," Mine answered in confusion.
"Did the woman have a rough way of speaking?"
Zavi could not hold back his curiosity and kept throwing questions at her until it started irritating her.
"Don't know," Mine replied weakly.
"Did the man smoke?"
Mine clicked her tongue before answering in a raised tone, "How would I know...? Tell me, who the hell notices an enemy's habits in the middle of a fight?"
Zavi touched his chin and nodded.
"Fair point."
He fell silent for a moment while Mine stared at him with a strange expression.
"Sorry. I was deliberately trying to provoke you." Zavi grinned mischievously.
Mine clicked her tongue again. Meanwhile, Hana's face already looked fed up with the two of them talking.
'How much longer do I have to stay here?' she complained inwardly, because the position she was tied up in made her arms and shoulders ache and go numb.
"The man had a Recipestele fighting alongside him." Hana finally spoke up, already sick of it all as she subtly signaled with her eyes.
"Seems like staying here any longer is a bad idea." Zavi felt a gust of wind mixed with heat brush against his body, making his hair sway and sweeping the scattered leaves across the floor.
The atmosphere in the station area before dawn once again sank into silence as fierce winds carrying brown leaves spiraled through the air.
"Are you still staying here?" Aaron's cold voice pierced him from behind.
Zavi turned halfway around and said, "Aaron, can you carry those women?"
"What for?" Aaron asked with a look of disbelief. He thought Zavi was planning to do something indecent to the two women, whom he considered extremely beautiful.
"Just carry them," Zavi answered, then raised his index finger to his lips while keeping his mouth shut tightly as if he were planning something absurd.
Hearing the conversation between the two men in front of them, Hana and Mine frowned and thought about it at the same time.
'Are men always like this whenever they meet women?'
Because the wind was blowing harder and harder, carrying the sharp scent of blood and the metallic smell lingering around the station area, they quickly left the place behind. Without using a steam train, they were forced to run several kilometers away from Minehold City.
As they hurried along the railroad tracks, Zavi finally realized that the two women looked as though they were riding on a plane, when in reality they were lying tied up on floating disk-like shadows.
Several hours passed quickly after they completely left Moran behind, walking through valleys and long roads bordered by endless stretches of grasslands.
The two men often stopped to rest because they were truly exhausted from constantly walking alongside the steam train tracks while staying alert to their surroundings, not knowing what dangers might be waiting for them.
The clock showed 06:30.
As the sun rose from behind the soft white clouds, its warm light illuminated the life beneath it. It created a beautiful morning atmosphere, yet it did nothing to change the tragic fate that had befallen Moran.
At the moment, the four of them were resting inside a villager's house located several hundred meters before the entrance to Minehold. The owner welcomed all four of them warmly and happily, because it had been a long time since guests last visited his home.
The house stood at the edge of the village beside a clean flowing river and a windmill that creaked softly every second, giving the impression that life in that home existed in harmony with nature.
"Sorry for troubling you, Sir, Ma'am." Zavi did not know what else to say as he enjoyed the water with a bright expression.
"Ah, no need to be so stiff about it," replied the man named White, the owner of the house.
At the moment, they were sitting on seats, though they could hardly be called chairs because they resembled beds instead. Still, they were comfortable enough to sit on for hours because the bamboo used to make them was of the finest quality and resistant to termites.
The three men sat there while the three women sat in the right corner, chatting about the events they had heard through word of mouth.
"What a pity," said the woman named Vika, White's wife, with a gloomy expression. "Beautiful women like you already know how cruel the world can be."
Because Moran City had been destroyed due to their actions, Mine and Hana could only nod awkwardly in response while remaining wary of the two men whose strange and unsettling personalities kept watching their every movement sharply.
Then from the left side, White grew curious about the details of Moran's destruction and the comet he had witnessed that night alongside his wife and the other villagers, making him unable to hold back his curiosity any longer.
"The city was destroyed because of a comet, is that true?" he asked while drinking water from his metal cup.
Zavi, who felt partially responsible for the city's destruction, answered hesitantly, "Your statement is correct, Sir."
Aaron sighed and began carefully recounting the incident after finally realizing that he himself had been struck by the comet as well.
"The comet struck the northern side of Niki District, and the impact triggered natural disasters in the form of earthquakes and landslides."
"Wow, life in that place really is harsh." White nodded as he observed their expressions.
Aaron, already sick of staying there and talking about pointless things for more than two hours, nudged Zavi with his elbow and wore an irritated expression.
This was the downside of dealing with someone who had an awkward personality.
Zavi slightly opened his mouth after understanding what Aaron meant, then immediately crawled forward slowly.
"Sorry, Sir," Zavi said apologetically. "Could we end this conversation here? We've spent more than two hours talking about everything happening in Moran."
Zavi thought the central government was extremely selective when it came to building proper facilities that were far more advanced than the ones in Moran. He had learned from White that Minehold had several stations, though he already knew this beforehand because he had once visited Greysia.
He knew and thought, 'Even though Moran is constantly hit by disasters, what's wrong with building facilities just as modern as those in other cities to make the citizens happy? Especially since the people of Moran want the rights they deserve after paying taxes, but those bastards refuse to take risks that might bankrupt them.'
After fully organizing his thoughts, Zavi immediately thanked them for the warm hospitality and the drinks they had generously provided for free.
Of course, Aaron and Zavi also brought the two women along because they were important assets for finding Zuhen and Felina, as well as helping Mine search for her Recipestele, which still had not appeared no matter how many times she called for it.
White and his wife smiled faintly as the two men waved from afar, watching the backs of the four people as they walked away from the house and headed toward Minehold.
The four of them now moved forward through the village surrounded by breathtaking natural scenery, accompanied by the fragrant aroma of food drifting through the air as they passed one house after another.
After walking for several minutes, Minehold finally stood before them as they reached a slightly elevated patch of land and gazed upon the beauty of the city from above.
— End of Volume 1 —
And thus, the gears of fate quietly began to turn once more.
Beyond the towering walls of Minehold, new truths, hidden horrors, and encounters far more dangerous than death itself were already waiting for them.