Chapter 24: Heart Conscious
“Pull the carriage”
Sitting on the driver seat of the carriage, I commanded my new voluntary worker.
“All the way, but, it’s so far,” he said, his voice getting lower with every word.
Hearing Neraldo complaining, Grey, that’s sitting on my shoulder lashed out at him.
“What’s that I hear? someone that can fly without any effort can’t even pull a carriage, what a joke!”
“Shut up rat, do you know why there’s only one city in this southern region hmm?”
‘Is there really only one city in this region?’
“That just means you don’t have to stop anywhere else, now do your job your horse and take us to Pilgrim city.”
“You stupid rat, I only listen to my queen, not you, you oversized maggot.”
“Then do what she said just now, why you are not pulling the carriage.”
“Wait, Grey, let him explain.”
“Thank you, my queen, you see, this place is not normal,” he said, grabbing a handful of sand from the ground.
“Get to the point,” Grey said impatiently.
“There’s a curse in this place, placed by Queen Vanny, to bring out the evil and good inside one, bringing reward to the good and punish the bad.”
“But, isn’t she evil, I heard from Alex what she has done to her.”
“The queen’s intention is unpredictable, but, she did put a curse on this land, the pope, one of the strongest humans confirmed it.”
“So what does this curse do?”
“My queen, your heart must be one of the purest I’ve seen, for you to be able to traverse 3 months of travel into a couple of days.”
“So the miracle of the Judean is just a curse from her,” I said, wondering her intentions.
“No, the curse and the miracle are different, the curse only punishes the vile, but the miracle will end you if you have a foul heart.”
“So Vanny just spread an imitated version of the Miracle but weaker, then why is it called a curse?” Grey said.
“The miracle is only present in the Judean desert, but the curse is forced onto anyone that passes this place, it will not disappear, even if you leave far away from this place, that’s why it’s called a curse.”
“I see, the reason why there’s only one city is because of this curse.”
“Not just that, Pilgrim city is the only city where the curse can be mitigated temporarily.”
“Isn’t the curse a good thing, I mean, it makes people true to themselves?” Grey said.
“Haha, Rat which hole did you come up from, the heart of all beings is full of evil, and after all, it’s easier to fall than to rise.” He said, laughing at Grey.
“Stop laughing!”
Looking at the sun hanging in the sky, the fatigue from before started to catch up.
“Neraldo, what you’re saying is, if I pull the carriage, we will reach Pilgrim city faster?”
“If your highness is pulling the carriage, yes, we will reach the city faster,” he said, lowering his head
“What?! Not only did you escaped your job, you're even suggesting Alex to do your job!” Grey said, jumping at Neraldo.
“Neraldo, get in the carriage, Grey keep an eye on him.”
“As you command my queen, but, you don’t have to command your pet to watch me,” he said, holding Grey away from his face with both of his hands.
‘Why didn’t I just leave this vampire, oh yeah, intel, when I asked all my questions, I’ll leave him?’
Jumping down the carriage, I grabbed the horse’s rope that’s used to pull the carriage and tied it to my shoulder.
‘It’s like I’m carrying a backpack but, carriage version.’
///
“Grr, this is making her more tired, help her you lazy loafer.”
“You know what, I like what you called me,” he said, his face making weird expressions.
“Fine you weirdo, I’ll help her myself,” he said.
“No you don’t, only her highness can lead the carriage, your body is too small to help anyways,” he said.
“I’m going to make you regret saying that!” he said, trying to scratch Neraldo.
“What can a rat like you do anyway,” he said, grabbing Grey easily.
“You’ll see,” He said, slipping away from Neraldo
///
Pulling the carriage until the sun is down, my body struggles to move as the fatigue of three days and three nights is starting to appear.
“Come on body, just a little more, a little more and we’ll be there.”
*huff* *huff*
Slowing down, I felt my lungs and heart franticly working.
“Alex, just rest for a night,” Grey said, concerned.
“I can still go on,” I said, covering my body with my soul flames.
“Those flames again,” Neraldo said, looking at my flames.
“What flames?” Grey said.
“You can see it, you even reacted before it can even appear on my body, it’s like you can see the future.”
“Well, I didn’t actually see the flames, only when you revealed it to me, I can see it, what I’m using to sense your highness’s flames is my heart conscious.”
“Heart conscious, what’s that?” I said.
“It’s the core of your soul, the manifestation of your true self, your true desires, the heart conscious is the voice that tells what’s wrong and what’s right in your mind,” he said, pointing at his chest where his heart is located.
“Then how does the heart conscious make you be able to sense my flames.”
“If the heart conscious is trained enough, you can roughly predict the future and sense danger, when I met your highness; I sensed no danger, which made me believe that I can easily steal your highness’s blood.”
“Hey, you haven’t returned Alex’s blood yet,” Grey said, reminding me of it.
“If my queen wants her blood back, I can gladly give it back, she can suck me dry,” he said, showing his neck.
“No thanks, you can have it.”
Seeing the man naked with his manhood introducing itself, I refuse to be near him.
“Thank you, Thank you my queen!” he said, thanking me profusely.
“If you want to thank me, teach me how to train my heart conscious.”
“Yeah teach me too,” Grey said.
“It’s easy, all you have to do is to trust yourself, calm down and listen to yourself, in fact, your highness is already doing it,” he said.
“Really, then why can’t I see into the future,” I said.
“Of course it’s because I’m a master in using my heart conscious, my power is useless after all.” He said, lifting his head and showing his chin.
“Don’t be smug you masochist, how long did you practice? a million years probably, even I can reach that level if I have that much time.”
“Don’t daydream rat, if you want to know that badly, my age is sixty-five, I trained for about fifty-two years,” he said, pride showing on his face.
“Why are you proud of that? Isn’t 52 years a long time” Grey said, his words laced in disdain.
“Well rat, I’m confident that less than a hundred people can do what I can do.” He said, his smile getting bigger.
“Yeah right, I bet there are thousands of people hiding their abilities, unlike you.”
“Neraldo, how far can you sense into the future?”
“Sadly, only three seconds.”
“Only three seconds, training for more than fifty years and this is all you get,” Grey said, mocking him.
“I’d like to see you do better, rat,” he said, challenging Grey.
“I will!” he said, going to the back of the carriage.
“Heh, what an idiot,” he said, closing his eyes.
“Hey Neraldo, what did you see in your network book?”
“Oh about that, I can’t actually use magic, I’m poor you know.”
“What about that book, where did you get that?”
“The book is fake your highness, in fact, one of the reasons why I even showed a picture of your highness is because your highness didn’t even seem to know that this book is fake,” he said, showing his book.
“I see, I guess being oblivious sometimes is a good thing, if I have known that your book is fake, you would’ve sneak attacked me without warning.”
“Oh, it looks like one of the humans is waking up,” he said, looking behind the carriage.
Hearing what he said, I hurried my legs or flames, to be faster.
///
A little girl, covered in a blanket, opened her eyes, showing fear and confusion
‘Did that bad guy go away?’ she thought, sitting up
“Hey Lucy, you woke up,” A voice said to the girl
Looking beside her, the girl saw Grey, looking up at her
“Mousie, your here, is the bad guy gone now?”
“Don’t call me mousie, when it’s only the two of us, call me Austin.”
“The two of us? Isn’t papa driving the carriage” she said, looking to the front of the carriage to see a naked man’s back
‘Isn’t that...’ she thought as her body started to shake.
“Hey, don’t look at him; you’re too young to see something as ugly as that.”
“Isn’t he tha-“
“No, that’s his weird, ugly, and perverted cousin, just ignore him, the bad guy has already ran away like a scaredy cat,”
“But, aren’t you a mousie, aren’t mousies scared of cats.”
As she said that, the sound of stifled laughter could be heard from the naked man in the front.
“I’m not a mouse, look at my tail, it’s furry and short!” he said, slightly angry at hearing Neraldo laughing.
“Aren’t every small, furry animals, is a mousie, mama said that all the animals that are as small as mousie is a mousie,” she said, as innocent as an angel.
“No, that’s not true, there are also squirrels,” he said.
“You mean, mousie is not a mousie, is mousie a cockroach then,” she said, visibly distancing herself from Grey.
“Hahahahaha-” unable to hold it in, Neraldo laughter erupted, making Grey really angry.
“No, I’m a mousie, I’m a small mousie, look at my cheeks,” he said, stretching his cheeks with both of his hands.
“Whoa, mousie’s cheeks are rubber,” she said, catching Grey and lifting him up.
“Can mousie’s other body parts stretch?”
“Ahh, not the tail,” he said as he lightly screamed at his tail being pulled.
‘Having your spine pulled isn’t the nicest feeling in the world’ he thought before he gave up and became Lucy’s toy for the night.
‘The girl isn’t half bad, a pity she’s a target” Neraldo thought as he looked at her playing with Lucy
‘Keep harassing the rat and maybe I’ll fake your death to the higher-ups.’
Looking at the girl pulling the carriage, he felt admiration.
‘No one can be her son other than me, only I can have part of her power, with my talent and her bloodline, I will make them regret kicking me out of the clan.’
Feeling his little brother waking up, he cooled his thoughts before, his queen gets disgusted again.
‘Calm down, thinking of crushing them won’t help me right now, I will have my revenge for all the pain I suffered in due time’ the man thought, making his little brother go turbo.
‘What is this perverted man thinking, he better not thought of me, I’m not gay’ Alex thought secretly looking at Neraldo.
‘I knew he’s trouble, I should’ve just left him.’ She thought as she pulled the carriage slightly faster.
Looking forward to the next chapter!