Chapter 64 - The cliche plot is here

*Boom**Boom**Boom*

The continuous booms sounded when Marc, Rofta, and Gina landed at the west coast.

When they were looking at their surroundings with a beach and ocean so long the eyes can see.

"Where are we and what are we doing here?" Asked Gina a little guilty as she was practically the reason for being an enemy of Fiore now.

"We are here to meet a friend I have made when me and Rofta trained separately." Explained Marc while looking around for something.

Rofta saw Marc collecting stones and was wondering what he was up to, while Gina began helping him without question.

When they had collected a pile of stones, Marc then said while pointing out at the ocean "You see those rocks sticking up in the water? Help me throw stones at them. Throw with everything you got."

Rofta wanted to know why they were doing such childish things, but Marc already began throwing stones like a kid high on sugar, or more he used his Paw Magic to send them flying.

Gina tried to throw a stone normally but got embarrassed as the stone slipped out of her hand and hit Marc's head.

"Ouch! What are you doing?" Questioned Marc while rubbing the back of his head.

Gina didn't want Marc to laugh at her for being bad at throwing, so she played it off as an act of revenge. "Humph, that's for calling me flat earlier."

"Tch, okay you are not entirely flat. You might be able to squeeze an ant between those pancakes."

Rofta shook his head at the two's banter and imagined his ideal future wife while throwing a stone after another. A caring innocent loli.

Suddenly the three's attention was taken to the ocean when the water suddenly began being unruly.

"He's finally awake!" Exclaimed Marc happily.

"What's going on?" Asked Rofta and Gina but he didn't answer.

The rocks they have been throwing stones at suddenly began raising in the water.

Not long after a giant being primarily resembling a large turtle, but with a crab-like shell, spikes all over its body, and three shrimp-like tails. Under its shell, it has red, muscle-like tissue. It has a pair of human-like arms and hands. Its lower jaw is rather big and has teeth-like horns, together with its big forehead, which also has horns, it somewhat resembles a mouth with big teeth, making it look like the rest of the face is inside the mouth. Its eyes are red and have crimson pupils

Rofta was cursing his luck until he remembered what Marc said earlier. While Gina thought she was truly bad luck and should just die.

"Who's dares to interrupt my sleep?" A voice sounded inside the three's heads.

When the big turtle-like-being saw Marc's grinning face, the voice reacted with "Marc? I should have known it was you. The most persistent and annoying human I have ever met."

"Yo, Kurma," greeted Marc with a hand in the air and a big grin.

"Sigh, why can't you let this old one sleep?" Asked Kurma while coming closer so Marc could only see his head.

"Sleeping too much is bad for your health." Refuted Marc.

"Yes, you said that before, but I still don't believe it." Kurma shook his head not believing the claim.

Leaving that topic aside, Kurma asked while glimpsing at Rofta and Gina "Who are those two?"

"These two are my friends, Rofta and Gina." Presented Marc.

Kurma's big red eyes showed surprise and uttered "Impossible! I was sure you had no friends. Are you two really his friends?" Before asking Rofta and Gina.

In response, Rofta didn't want to answer that question as he's a little tsundere, and Gina still held a grudge at Marc's remark about her chest, so she just threw a tantrum and looked away.

"They sure don't look like your friends," Kurma stated to Marc.

"What do you know? That's how friends are supposed to be. You just don't know anything as all you do is sleep all the time." Marc shrugged off the statement.

"Fair enough. So what do you want? Surely, you don't want to ride on my back again?" Kurma asked suspiciously as that's the first thing Marc asked when they first met.

"You are making me blush~ You know me so well." Marc began kidding around with the giant turtle without restraint. Though although Rofta didn't show it, he was sure the being in front of him is a god.

"That's a god, right? How the hell did Marc manage to befriend one? Aren't they supposed to be even more arrogant than dragons?" Wondered Rofta.

"Stop kidding around. I can see you are wounded, so what happened to you?" Kurma asked as Marc was still a little wounded and didn't manage to fully remove them yet.

"Ah? This is what happened…"

.

.

.

After retelling the whole story with dragons, Kurma asked seriously "These dragons… Do you know where they are and do you want me to kill them?"

"Nah, rather just give us a lift to the island of Caelum. We can't stay in Fiore anymore before raising our strength-" Marc planned to travel the world, and the closest country was Caelum, but then Rofta asked.

"Can we go to the country of Iceberg instead? I have family there and have something I want to settle."

Not really caring which country they should go to, Marc just shrugged indifferently and said before asking Kurma "I don't mind. Can you give us a lift to Iceberg instead?"

"If you give me that massage again— [Debby] I think you called it— then I will get you there." When the two first met, Marc tried all kinds of attacks to hurt Kurma, and in the end, he tried attacking the mind with [Debby] to make him depressed. But it didn't have the desired effect at all on the big turtle god. Instead of getting depressed, he just got a clear and peaceful mind as a good massage would give.

"…Sure." Said Marc, thinking back, that moment is definitely not one of his best moments he wants to brag about.

…

It took over a month for Kurma to swim for the west of Fiore, all the way to the coast of Iceberg as he swam at a normal pace. Sometimes they even stopped as Marc wanted Kurma to help him train a new spell he was working on. Kurma used his Water God Slayer Magic to make a hole in the ocean, so Marc could jump in it, before letting the water swallow him from the sides and slowly crushing Marc under the pressure. This trained happened repeatedly.

While Kurma was swimming, Gina asked an important question. "Rofta, what is it you want to settle in Iceberg?"

Hearing the question Marc slapped his forehead and urged "I totally forgot to ask that. Yea, tell us already."

"Sigh, it's complicated… " With a depressed expression.

"Hah? Wait, let me guess. It's properly some kind of cliches plot like you ran away from an arranged marriage or something, or maybe revenge? Something bad happened to you in the past and-" Marc began rambling and Rofta felt a headache coming.

"Do you ever shut up? But I did run away but for a different reason." Explained Rofta.

"What!? Your woman was already taken?" Exclaimed Marc and looked at Rofta with pity. It made Rofta gain a tick mark on his forehead.

"NO!! It's because my parents won't let me make my dream come true."

"Your dream?" Gina questioned with curiosity.

"Yes, I want to be the world's best blacksmith!!" Said Rofta while hitting his puffed chest with pride.

Marc could see Rofta's conviction to fulfill his dream and couldn't help explain "Cooool~"

Ignoring Marc's idiotic behavior, Gina asked further "And? Why do your parents not want you to be a blacksmith?"

Rofta gritted his teeth in frustration before sighing again "Guess I should tell you about my family first. My village is known as: "The Sword of Iceberg" and it has produced the best swordsmen ever known in the country since we can remember with no exception. In the light, my village is the sword for the country, but in the dark, it actually controls it as the current king is only a puppet. It's a very cruel family that highly regards talent- even so much that mothers kick their children out of the village if they don't show any talent in swordsmanship. There's no such thing as marriage as it can basically just be called breeding. Love is not a thing in my village…"

"What a cruel family you have!!" Exclaimed Gina with shock. Marc was tapping his chin and thought it was similar to Konoha in Naruto. That village sure loved its bloodlines.

"Yes… I showed great talent with the sword and it made my parents happy, but when I told them I wanted to be a blacksmith they began pressuring me to abandon my dream, but I refused and began rebelling. I refused to learn any of the village's best magic like they wanted and chose my incomplete Inverted World Magic instead. It made them so furious that both my mother and father beat me. Then they gave up on me and I thought I was safe to pursue my dream, but then I heard rumors that they were looking for a girl with great talent so I could breed her, just so she could give birth to a new talent." While Rofta told his story, Marc suddenly exclaimed too.

"I was right!! You are running from marriage." Marc jumped and showed the "I knew it" expression before Gina pulled him down on his ass again to stop him from jumping around. The story wasn't done yet.

"When I heard about it, I immediately went to my grandfather for the truth and confirmed it. He told me "Only the strong have the right to choose their destiny. Either flee like a bug or go seek the strength to make others seem like bugs." I promised myself to come back to my village and show them my magic that they once called weak isn't. That's why I wear this purple lipstick. It's to remind me and make my personal quest impossible to forget. Usually, swordsmen in my village use lipstick to signify an act of revenge." When Rofta said the specific word, Marc suddenly jumped again.

"Now revenge? I knew it! The cliche plot is here."

x2 "SHUT UP!!"

***

(A/N: So Rofta is from a family of cruel swordsmen that values talent over anything.)

(Words: 1767)