[9] Leaving Behind The Town

It didn't take long before I arrived at the town's gate.

I had already completed all of my previous tasks beforehand, said my goodbyes to those that mattered—which wasn't much—and ensured that my presence here would be muddled to a horrible rumor before eventually disappearing upon the village's inevitable death without my presence.

Nothing else tethered me to this place. My Master was dead, everybody hated me, and nobody acknowledged the work I did to save this shithole of a place.

I should already be out there and living a new dream without the constant whispers that wish for my demise. Yet something stopped me from taking that first step out of this gate.

This town never treated me with anything but the worst so it wasn't an attachment of any kind, rather it was a disbelief of my current action. I was going to leave, never to turn back to this old life. It was a new feeling, something that made me pause in my action.

The first step outside was a whole different emotion. It was freeing. It was amazing. It was like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders.

My steps were continuous, growing faster until I was running to the other side of the road. The town was already shortening from where I stood, like a distant memory starting to fade away after waking to a new day.

I was laughing by the time I stopped, removing the bear from my head and hugging him over my chest. I spun us without a care in the world, laughing and screaming to my heart's content until my voice strained.

"We're leaving." I felt the smile on my face creep wider as I fully took in what I'd said.

"From now on we're going to be different people. No one will know what we are, how we came to be, or who we once were. If they chose to hate me or you then they'll do it after they see who we are. We're going to have a new life, King. A new life!"

The bear's response was a long lick across my face. He was excited at the changes but he was still adjusting to his new sleep schedule, bringing his face closer to nap on my shoulder.

Instead of being annoyed at his lackluster response, I kissed his head and held him tightly with an unsaid promise to give King a better life than what we had initially.

I walked for the whole day, covering a large distance that surprised me more than anyone else. I had to recalculate how long it would take us to get to the Capital. Anything that gave us more time to adjust to a new life there was good news, the excitement in my chest brewing to higher levels at the prospect.

King was asleep for most of it, only waking when there was something nearby that interested him. It was mostly different critters and animals that I hadn't seen since I arrived in the town, which meant that King had never seen them before. Rabbits, jaggerlockes, and woodpeckers to name a few.

Our time together was peaceful and serene. Despite the fast pace I walked, every inch of the landscape didn't escape my eyes, captivated by the different beauties all around.

By the time that night fell, I walked out of the road and set up a small camp about a mile from the main road as a precaution. King was awake at the time and helped with setting up the campfire, an action that the bear was slowly getting used to from the week we spent living in the forest.

Another reason why we stopped sleeping at the inn in our last days in the village was to acclimate King to the new protocol that we needed to do at night for safety and security.

It wasn't anything complicated; one of us needed to be awake while the other slept until it was time for them to switch places. The most basic procedure for every adventurer in a party is something that I picked up from somewhere in my past.

While it was simple to say, it was particularly hard for those who are used to having a perfect 8-hour sleep schedule. King was the perfect example of this and we couldn't make any mistakes while we're already on the road, with the possible consequence of our life on the line if it was made.

Those mistakes should have been ironed out before we had to leave. I couldn't lose King and vice versa.

King would be sleeping first, while I guarded us until the moon indicated that it was midnight. By then, I would wake King and it would be his turn to guard while I slept, his shift would last until sunrise.

It was plenty dark when we finished eating and put out our campfire. King was already fluffing his place to sleep on while I stretched out and readied myself for my time.

"I'll wake you up when it's time for your shift, okay?" I whispered as I stroked his fur, helping him relax in his position.

He cooed in response, trying to paw at my hand, no doubt to ask me to stay and cuddle with him.

I kissed him on the muzzle, "Not tonight, pretty boy. You can cuddle up to me all you want when we're traveling in the morning, promise. Now, go to sleep. I need you to be fully alert when I wake you later."

It was like flicking the light switch as soon as I took my hand away from his fur, the bear fell asleep instantly. It was a talent I wished I had.

I doubted a lot of things would happen this night but I could never be sure. I pulled out my weapons and laid them out on the grass in front of me, picking one from the pile and started sharpening them.

Memorizing the length of the blade, I closed my eyes and spread my magic around us while I strained my hearing to as far as it could. It's been a while since I've done this kind of detection, I used to use this to find the wolves before I memorized their spawn location. However, I never used it in endurance, it was always in short bursts due to its large field of range and magic cost.

I saw these nights of the patrol as an opportunity to improve that range and make the unnamed skill/spell less costly in mana consumption. Maybe in the future, I could maintain a certain distance casually without having to close my eyes.

My current distance in estimation was around eight feet. It wasn't anything note-worthy but I was inching closer to nine after every use. I should try to use it while I'm walking, who knows, maybe I'll discover a rare creature on the way to the capital and make loads of money to sell.

Sharpening my weapon wasn't necessary to be able to use the detection method but it did give a good guideline to space out where I was focusing my attention.

As a master of my weapons, maintaining them with the proper sharpness and cleanliness was so easy that I could do it with my eyes closed. There was a rhythm every time I swiped the sharp edge of my blade over the wet stone, with each swipe I redirected my attention somewhere else with the detection method. Doing this was both generally efficient and magically fun.

Master thought that my love for magic rivaled the scholars of the field. I doubted that it was true since he often said things to cheer me up from the town's scrutiny.

Maybe some of his words held a tiny bit of truth. From the little I remembered of my past life, I loved magic. I saw visions of magic being performed behind little screens and was fascinated by every facet that it was depicted.

When I first discovered that I could use magic, I used it every day, mimicking the shapes around me until I could replicate them easily with all of the details maintained in the small flame projection.

I thought it was fun to be able to manipulate the elements in such a way. Learning new ways to use magic was even more fun and this detection method only fed my hunger to learn more about magic and its uses.

While my physical capabilities were able to detect up to eight feet around me, adding magic to that enhanced it with an additional three to four feet depending on the magical output.

Detection was just one thing. Recently, I found out that I could use magic to project a perfect imitation of my surroundings in my head. It wasn't far for now, reaching only three feet in radius but because magic reacted faster than anything I could currently muster it was extremely good. Just imagine what I could do the more I improved this spell.

The only downside, for now, was that I responded too quickly to whatever came closer to the range that my magic projection could see, often killing them before I identified that they were harmless. I had no idea how I could prevent this from happening but I kept trying to no avail.

Throughout the night, I think I've killed more critters than ever in my life. Should I feel guilty?