Chapter 171- Outside World (Part 3)
Then, the platform they were standing on blasted off into the horizon, flying at an extremely fast speed as it quickly descended from the clouds. The island behind them quickly vanished behind the veils of whiteness as the ground beneath them, as vast as the eye could see, finally appeared.
Rin felt a sense of nostalgia seeing it even though it has been barely over a month since the last time he saw it. But, Divine Sapphire was an extremely beautiful world filled with vast green plains, amazing wilderness, mesmerizing cities, and beautiful structures reaching hundreds of years of history.
Even a newcomer would instantly feel attached to the world as if they lived there their whole life. This was also one of the reasons why this world was a fan favorite in the game.
People loved it greatly and loved its mysteries more than anything else.
A few moments later, the platform landed on the ground near the gate to the demon world. After Rin, Elise, and Evelyn stepped out of it, the platform instantly flew up again like a rocket, disappearing in a second.
"This way, the journey will be slightly long so try to keep up with me," Evelyn said to Rin and Elise.
The two nodded their heads in understanding. After that, Evelyn cracked her neck a few times and got ready before her body vanished from where it was standing before, appearing 20 meters away.
The duo was quite surprised by this sudden show of speed. However, they quickly shook their heads and then dashed after Evelyn at top speed.
'Woah! No matter how many times I try it! Gaining powers and experimenting with them is the most amazing feeling in the world!' Rin beamed with an excited smile as he crossed tens and tens of meters in a short period of time.
Quickly, they were able to reach Evelyn's side and keep up with her which was something that made the latter blink a few times. But, eventually, she smiled and didn't say anything at all.
The journey was still at the start so they had to conserve their energy as much as possible so that they don't end up exhausted in the middle of the road.
***
"Ouch, ouch, ouch. These bug bites piss me off!" Rin groaned as he slapped an insect away that tried to bite him. His arms were swollen from all the bites he got.
"Fufufu! Orange-eyed bugs are known for being blood-sucking creatures. Although, the ones that actually suck blood are the females. Even female insects like you, Rin. You naughty playboy~" Evelyn joked as she looked at Rin with a smile.
"Huh? What kind of nonsense is that?" Rin replied as he rolled his eyes before he slapped another insect.
"Hmm? Is it tho? Look at me and Elise, we are both untouched. I don't think that's a coincidence."
What Evelyn was indeed the truth as when he looked at her, there was not even a single female insect trying to bite her. Turning to Elise, she was also free from the horrible pain of the insects.
'Huh? is this really the case?!' Rin couldn't know whether to laugh or cry at this sudden realization.
"Playboy! Rin is a playboy~"
"Shut up!"
"Fufufu!"
As Rin and Evelyn kept bantering casually, Elise was looking around her silently. Her eyes scanned the area they were in at the moment.
It has been almost 15 hours since they left the academy. The sun had already vanished on the horizon.
They were walking through some kind of thick forest somewhere at the border. She wasn't really good with maps so Elise relied on Evelyn to guide them. Rin was also the same case.
"How far is the city?" Elise asked.
"Oh? We are very close… No, never mind, we are here." Evelyn said as she stepped forward and pushed a huge tree leaf to the side, revealing the sight behind it.
A majestic city presented itself in front of them with its towering walls and… or that was what Rin and Elise expected to see. However, what they saw was extremely different from their expectations.
Instead, the city was merely a broken down, gloomy piece of huge land filled with old houses and dirt, uncemented roads that looked as old as the city itself. The whole place screamed of poverty and misery.
In and out of the city, came old carriages barely filled with merchandise. Even though this city was on the borders so it was a very great spot for merchant transactions and extremely rich individuals to invest and make it a flourishing haven.
Yet, nothing of that was present. Instead, it seemed like the city's economy seems completely dead as if someone deliberately tried to destroy it.
"What is… this?" Rin questioned as he looked at the place, shocked.
"That's the city of Linta… or what was left of it at least," Evelyn said.
"What happened?" Rin asked.
"Corruption, lack of monitoring, and also the stupid and continuous blunders of the lord. In less than a year, this place was turned from a prosperous border city that linked the two kingdoms together to a poverty-ridden shithole. I'm quite surprised honestly how bad the situation became." She sighed.
"Why would he do such things, though? Is he intentionally trying to ruin the whole city?" Elise asked from the side.
"I have no idea if I have to be honest. All I know is that the lord has been acting weird lately. It's quite odd actually, now that I look at it, everything started exactly a year ago. The time is weird and simply too sudden. The lord was fairly normal before that. I really do have some suspicions."
"Yeah, this doesn't add up," Rin murmured as he squinted his eyes.
'Why do I have a bad feeling because of this?' He thought to himself.
His instincts were alarming him for some reason. He really couldn't see why a simple mission like this one could be this bad. Was the lord that strong? He doubted that would be the case since from what Evelyn said, he didn't even know how to use magic properly.
Then, where this sense of danger is coming from? Rin didn't know and he hoped he would never know. He really didn't want to see this mission turn into a disaster. From everything he experienced till this point, the chances of that happening were stupidly high. Rin was now even known as a trouble magnet by Elise and they would even joke about it even though both of them knew it was weirdly the truth of the case. f𝗿𝐞ewebno𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝐨m
"Anyway, let's move. It's still early so we can find a good inn for the night. We can move tomorrow." Evelyn said as she stood up, dusted her clothes, and then started walking out.
Rin and Elise followed behind her. Both of their postures were quite tense as they looked around. It seemed that even Elise had the same feeling as Rin which made the latter almost certain that the matter of this lord was way more complicated than a mere man having some fun.
(A//N: I decided I will start uploading two 1.2k words chapters everyday instead of one 1.5k words chapter :) )