I was born sick and I died sick. Not able to experience the joys of youth, I could only rely on the books to fill the emptiness in my heart.
When I was gasping for my last breath, the only wish I had was to be reincarnated in a healthy body and live a life full of thrills and excitement. That's only if reincarnation is real, anyway.
How could I have ever thought, however, that my wish was misinterpreted by God? Indeed I have a healthy body. But the thrills and excitement that I asked for is definitely not this kind of thrill and excitement!
I was thrown to the plot of my favorite book without much of a choice. Although it is definitely my favorite but reading it and experiencing it in real life is definitely different..! What use is a healthy body if I die right away in this war!?
Alone and clueless, I tried to survive as much as I can and vowed to travel north where the coming war will never be able to reach. The Kingdom of Ma-i is definitely the best place to live! Although it wasn't mentioned much in the book but I remember an adjective that's clearly evidence of my assumption. The Kingdom of Ma-i is peaceful.
After finally crawling my way out of the would-be war zone, I was lucky enough to have met a kind farmer that offered to have me travel on his horse cart till the next town.
That was when I met him.
A lone traveler. Our meeting was purely coincidental. Actually, we would not have had any interaction if I did not remember this town was going to go down in flames that night. I urged everyone to take my warning and leave but the people thought I was being ridiculous. To cut the story short, he was the only one who listened.
We departed early afternoon and when night fell, as we rested far away into the mountains, we saw the town fall into flames.
"It really did burn." He had muttered calmly, a bit of curiosity in his eyes, but that was all that had come out from him.
Meanwhile, I was huddled by the tree, covering my ears, trying to block out the cries of agony the wind had carried over. I did the best I could. I know that and yet I couldn't help but feel guilty... Maybe I didn't warn them enough? Maybe I should've urged them more?
"We'll have to sleep without lighting up a fire."
Travelling with him all afternoon, I realized that he was a man of few words.. I mean, I knew that already by his one liner responses back in town but he was even more so as time passed by. I also learned that he doesn't have much sympathy in him as he stood there without as much as a flinch from the faraway screams.
I continued to cover my ears, wishing everything would stop and when it finally did, I felt relieved.
"Where are you heading to?" he suddenly sat beside me.
"East." I lied and moved away a little, not appreciating the sudden proximity.
Now that it was night, I felt a little apprehensive. My safety felt as if it had been stolen by the dark sky. I know it's a little late to feel that way. I should have parted ways with him even before sunset but the fear of being alone and the fear of the unknown and the what ifs overshadowed the former. The only weapon I have is a butter knife and it would have been fine if I was a black belter in some kind of martial arts but I wasn't.
If a group of robbers were to suddenly appear, I wouldn't know what to do. That was why maybe I didn't consider going on my own. Truthfully speaking, I had weighed the risks of either meeting a group of bandits along the way and staying with a strange man. Without much debate, I decided it was better to stay with the stranger, after all.
