WSU VOLUME 2 CHAPTER 3: THE HERO AND THE AWKWARD JOURNEY (PART 1)
The Hero and the Awkward Journey (part 1)
My name is Leon, and I am a hero.
I still felt numb. I felt like I had been murdered yesterday, though it happened two years ago. I did not have any memories of the past two years, so I had no knowledge of anything that has happened since my resurrection. But in the past few days on this journey, I had gotten some explanation from the people travelling with me. I also read Zhai He’s diary, so I kind of knew what has happened in the past two years.
In those two years, I seemed to be an uncle, named Zhai He, who opened a weapon shop.
My traveling companions did not seem to know the story of Leon, and they did not know that the original owner of this body was me. But when I awakened at the moment I was close to death, I recalled clearly that there was a person named Zhai He calling my name in that world of full of swords and corpses.
He had already known who I was.
That is to be expected. That kind of person would not set out on a journey while knowing nothing of my identity. Moreover, he used strips of cloth to alter his stature and used a cloak and scarf to completely cover my face. Everything was done to deliberately hide my appearance. He had probably found a reliable person in that town and asked them about my history.
Ever since I had entered into the ranks of these travellers, the atmosphere has been extremely awkward.
I have never been a chatty person, and I also don’t understand my traveling companions at all. They look very depressed, so I just kept my mouth shut.
If another person were to join us, it would take them little observation to notice that there someone was missing.
When that girl named Carolina was not driving the cart, she would use her silver white sword to whittle wood making many wooden figurines. But they all resembled a certain person. He looked like me, but he gave off a completely different feeling. His hair was disheveled, and on his chin was a stubbly beard.
Carolina was not skilled at all, but she didn’t need to be at super high artisan level. She just mechanically repeated the figurine making process.
They were all doing different actions. Some were waving, some had their hands on their hips, some were cooking, some were making swords.
Their expressions were also different. Some were cheery, some were sorrowful. Some wore a smile of self-confidence, and others were sobbing in despair.
When she was making the crying uncle, hot tears would stream down Carolina’s face without sound. It was hard to imagine that such a girl, as cold as ice and frost, would cry. Her face remained expressionless like a board, and she did not speak a word. But the sword in her hands would tremble, and sometimes she would even cut her snow white skin. What surprised me was that when she felt the pain, she wipe her tears dry and use white bandages to bandage the wound. Afterwards, she would continue with her carving like nothing had happened.
Even if it was me, I knew that she was hiding her feelings.
The little girl named Elan was not as stoic as Carolina. Every day, her eyelids would be puffy and red. When she slept, she would cry out “He ge, He ge” without ceasing. Her tiny body curled up despondently, and she would often awake during the night. I would often hear rustling noises in the middle of the night and open my eyes to see Elan noiselessly crying as she gazed at the stars.
Little Hairball looked like he was not affected, but Mademoiselle Phantom told me, since Zhai He had left, Little Hairball would not nibble on the wildflowers on the roadside as he walked behind the cart, or look at the world around him.
The little creature named Jinwen would rest on top of Elan’s head every day. He would mutter to himself and sadly gaze at the clothes he was wearing.
The most mature one of the entire group, Mademoiselle Phantom, would also turn reticent.
This group would collapse soon, and their only hope was me. I needed to disappear, otherwise they would never be okay.,
But I had tried countless times, but I had no way of so simply losing myself. I did not know if the soul and memories of that person called Zhai He were still in this world. Though I had didn’t want to be a downer about it, it was very possible that they would never return.
From the bottom of my heart, I did not want to travel with them.
They couldn’t possibly know about what happened with Scampelier, but I knew. Two years ago, I had personally saved her. At that time, I was prepared to receive everything that was to come. Blamed by countless people, chased out by my companions in tears, murdered by a close friend. These were nothing to me. But now that I am living, I have to think over the consequences.
I cannot drag Zhai He’s friends into this.
Scampelier was too dangerous.
Though there are many ethnicities in humans, their appearances and mannerisms are not all that different. The demons are not like that.
If they live in the forest region, they are called forest kind.
If they live in the river region, they are called river kind.
And so in a similar fashion, the high-level demons of different areas are named as such.
Of course, only high-level demons have the qualifications to be called so-and-so kind. Even if a low-level demon lives in a forest, they are not qualified to be called Forest kind. They are called just demons. Of course, humans have more than one name to call the low-level demons, so when you enter a village, follow the local customs.
Demons from different areas have different lifestyle habits, and their appearances also differ dramatically.
Besides the demons who are named after their surroundings, there are also special populations, like the ghost race Elan is part of. There exists those who have not been seen for many years at the bottom of the deep sea or in the snow springs of high mountains, or living near scorching hot magma.
Living in the land close to hell were those called ghosts.
Scampelier was an existence greater than the ghosts, one of the fiend race.
The fiend race lived in a distorted space shaped like a fortress. They were extremely dangerous demons. Of the five regional generals of the demon territories, there were two of the fiend race. There was also a ocean kind, a sky kind, and one unconfirmed species.
There was more than one unconfirmed species. The species of the demon king was also completely unknown. Maybe he was of the demon king race. There were also a few other species that could not be confirmed. For example, the heat-resistant legendary magma turtles living near lava has never been seen by a human. There was no way to catch them, so they were considered an unknown species.
Scampelier, as the number one regional general, required us to sacrifice three hundred of the elite First Division troops to defeat her. That was true hell, the overwhelming difference of strength. I was not afraid of dying, but when I came in contact with Scampelier, I had abandoned the notion of killing her.
What was even worse was we had sacrificed three hundred people, many of whom had strong passive skills. That is to say, if we planned to defeat Scampelier next time, the number of people that had to be sacrificed would be far greater.
So I have always believed myself to be a criminal. Because of me, mankind lost their only opportunity to kill Scampelier. In their fortress, the fiend race was an almost unmatchable existence, even if it was that guy’s strength, it would be no problem to massacre an entire city’s worth of people.
Since my identity had been exposed to Shen Zhen, I had to be prepared for the intelligence to leak. If Scampelier knew of my existence, the consequences would be too horrible to even think of.
Since Shen Zhen was no longer pursuing me, I think that they planned to observe me. So I was safe for now.
There were people I wanted to see and people I didn’t want to see.
If at all possible, I did not want to see Shen Zhen and Scampelier.
I wanted to see her.
Alice Parkdovich, the seventh princess of the Sheng Qiao Yi kingdom.