Chapter 0062

Tempest sedately walk towards the back alley because everyone knows you’re up to no good if you are running around in a hurry. The red mage did not want to attract attention, least of all from those greedy bandits after the Brilliant Yin Sect Disciple Token.

 

After traveling through the forest for a while and attracting all sorts of trouble, Tempest decided to head towards the nearest town and try to lose her pursuers. A child in the forest stands out. A child in the city becomes part of the background.

 

Tempest had the spirits help her erase her trail or the bastards would have caught her several times over. Even with their help, she barely made it to this medium size town. She immediately lost herself in the crowd, found a place to change her clothes and began to wander around all the while keeping her eyes and ears open for news of her pursuers.

 

“The damn psycho. She did it on purpose! She knew there were going to be people coming after the token and still handed it out in the most ostentatious method possible.” Tempest silently cursed that no good trickster.

 

If the token wasn't tied to the people important to her, she would have sold it at the first opportunity instead of being hunted like a sick elk after a long drought drove off all the other prey.

 

If Aria Se Jivock heard Tempest’s thoughts, she’d outright deny it while hugging Tempest’s thigh and begged for a chance to explain herself. Xing Zhi Hui would walk up to the two clowns, because that’s what they would be, clowns providing a show for everyone, and knock the crazy woman unconscious. Only heaven (and this author) knows how many times she had to do that before. Xing Zhi Hui had lost count years ago. Aria Se Jivock was that shameless.

 

“Stupid spells destroyed all my loot! All I have is the money I earned from selling my charms.” Tempest continued to grumble. The loss of the loot from the bandits she vaporized earlier hurt the red mage. She joined the mercenary group to earn money in the first place. Not only did she not get any reward for killing the little cutie, she got robbers on her back and nothing to show for her efforts.

 

Suddenly one of the doors opened and a plain black haired girl dressed in a rough woolen brown tunic and a worn but clean pair of pants burst out.

 

Luck was never on this girl’s side.

 

Not another Seina Yamada! One was enough and now she has to deal with another one.

 

Seina Yamada who? Hmph, uncultured plebeian! Everyone should have watched the entire Tenchi Muyo series and its spin once in their lives. You haven’t? Blasphemy! Go watch it.

 

In the spirit of Seina Yamada, the black haired girl tripped over a small crack in the road.

 

There is saying Tempest heard back on Earth - a drowning man will grasp at straws. Tempest never understood the saying. Tempest tried to avoid immersing herself in large bodies of water lest she gets felt up by phantoms hands. In the case where she did go swimming or diving, whatever they call it, she never felt the need for air. She travelled through the water like a fish, no wait, a shark lurking in the shallow reef. 

 

Slowly, Tempest was beginning to learn about psychology and life because the black haired girl grabbed onto her as if she was the straw and the girl was drowning, regardless of how futile it was.

 

So Tempest found herself in a precarious position where she is on all fours, caging the black haired girl laying flat on her back below. If she was male, she’d be slapped with the label of a child molester or a pervert.

 

In an anime, the main character would have accidently kissed the girl by now. Thank god this isn’t an anime.

 

Americans have a universally accepted law named after Edward Murphy, called Murphy’s Law. The law is simple and yet profound. The concept of Murphy’s Law is simple, “If it can get worse, it will.”

 

Those wooden planks someone casually leaned against the wall, well, good old Murphy’s Law came into play. They fell down on Tempest.

 

“Ahhhh.”

 

________________________________________________________________________

A while later, maybe it was 100 years later because Tempest felt like an old hunched back woman suffering from arthritis, Tempest got up from under the rumble.

 

“I am sorry, I really am.” An insincere apology came from a plain tanned face with dead eyes.

 

Dead eyes?

 

Tempest stared into the pair of desolate eyes beaten down by fate itself, destroying all hope the girl might ever have. These black eyes go beyond desolate.  It was as if she was a zombie.

 

Tempest saw a pair of similar eyes before.

 

In the past, a pair of hopeless brown eyes watched the world like an unfeeling spectre. The image of a girl from Tempest’s past overlapped this plain girl. Different facial features, yet the same eyes, the same plain countenance and the same unperturbed aura exuded from the black haired girl in front of Tempest.

 

Except… except back then there was a spark left. Just a little. It was enough. A spark with a lot of crazy nurturing brought her back.

 

They were getting to know each other.

 

They were the best of friends.

 

Until the good times ended.

 

She misses them very much.

 

“No worries.” Tempest waved away the ingratitude. “Why were you rushing earlier?”

 

“A woman is about to give birth.”

 

“Oh, you are going to fetch a midwife. You don’t have to hurry. Giving birth takes time. It is better to take your time instead of rushing. You might get into an accident along the way.” Tempest smiled genially in reminisce.  “You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others.”

 

It wasn’t the exact word she told the unlucky fellow back then, but the gist remains the same.

 

“I’m not looking for a midwife. I was told to look for a corpse cleaner.”

 

“Ugh…” The reply stumped the red mage. Corpse Cleaner? What is a corpse cleaner? The person is already suspicious enough, and this is before Tempest even met the poor bastard.

 

The plain girl explained, “Everyone knows a corpse cleaner is better than a midwife when you need someone to cut open the belly of a mother to take the child out.”

 

Okay. That makes a strange sort of sense. A mortician or corpse cleaner, in this case, dissects humans when they perform an autopsy. Morticians are better than midwives when it comes surgery. Unless it is a Caesarian, which is then performed by an obstetrician, not midwives, midwives… um forget it.

 

Who can do what in the medical field is complicated.

 

“Ah, go on then. Saving two lives is very important.”

 

Tempest got a weird look from the plain girl. It is better than the dead fish eyes she was getting previously, but somehow, Tempest doubt the trust between her and the plain girl turned for the better.

 

“Midwives help deliver children. Corpse cleaners clean the body and harvest the organs of the mother and child in a difficult birth.”

 

“What did you say?” Tempest thinks Ventus is messing around with sound frequencies because she could have sworn the girl was looking for a black-market doctor to sell the organs of a mother and child.

 

“Corpse cleaners harvest bodies, clean them up and resell them to cultivators interested in necromancy or puppet refinement.” The plain dress girl tossed out the fact as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

 

“Are you insane?”

 

“What is wrong with trying to sell the dead bodies of the mother and child to pay for her expenses? What is insane is a complete stranger taking care of the mother and child for free.”

 

The people in the Cardinal Realm are blacker hearted than the organ traffickers on Earth. A mother and child deserve a proper burial, not to be used as experiments for the powerful.

 

“Didn’t you say both the mother and the child are still alive?” Tempest asked again to confirm.

 

“They are alive now, but there are complications with the birth. Both mother and child may die. They might as well get some money out of it.” The plain girl said with very matter of factly, as if she was talking about buying a pig or a goat. For that matter, the mother and child might as well be a piece of meat the girl is going to carve up and sell to the highest bidder.

 

What happened to the love and the values of humanity? (Where's the love)

 

What happened to the love and the fairness and equality? (Where's the love)

 

Instead of spreading love we're spreading animosity.

 

Damn it, what was the next verse of the song? Ah forget it. No matter how apropos the song is to Tempest’s current mindset, it doesn’t help with the current situation.

 

Tempest didn’t want to involve herself in other people’s matter, but she can’t stand idly by and do nothing.

 

Maybe.

 

Maybe when she lived in this world long enough, her current mindset might change. The tyrannical mindset of this world might seep into her bones, changing her personality to a cruel tyrant who did anything she wanted to because she had the power to do. She had the power back on Earth to become a tyrant, or mafia boss, same thing, but the morals and values of Earth stopped her.

 

The environment of the Cardial Realm encourages slaughtering. She’d seen it during her time with the mercenaries and now this. A group of evil people intend to squeeze every last drop of blood from the mother and child.

 

Tempest knew she had to change her mindset if she was going to survive in the Cardinal Realm. However, she hasn’t changed yet.

 

“Let’s go. I’ll see if I can do something about it. It’s better than calling a corpse cleaner.” Tempest folded her sleeves as if she was preparing for the fight of her life.

 

A glimmer of astonishment flashed through the plain girl’s eyes but it was quickly suppressed. The plain girl has seen too much to believe the righteous words of a complete stranger.

 

“This way then.”