《By The Sword》Chapter 16
Advertisement
By The Sword - Homepage
If you want to get notified of updates for this serial or chat with me as well as other serial authors, consider joining our discord server!
It all happened so fast.
After my meeting with Arathorn and convincing Kye to come with me, the past day had rushed past in a blur. Despite the simplicity of the task, there had been more preparation than I’d expected. I’d prepared for trips before—as a high knight, travel had been half of my job. But here, things were still different. Here, I’d actually had to learn about my destination. It wasn’t a place I already had conceptions of based on stories from my youth. No rumors, no tales—nothing. It was exactly like all of the other things I’d faced since the beast had cursed my new life.
Entirely new.
And that novelty had led to multiple things. Namely, it had led to decisions. After reporting the task to Lorah, Kye had actually given me a run-down of Norn itself. She’d told me her experience of traveling there and made sure I was fit for travel at all. But after that, the decisions had only just started. I’d had to decide who would pick up my assignments while I was gone. I’d had to decide what to bring—what weapons and equipment. And all of it had only served to remind me of one of the few things I’d actually disliked about being a knight.
“Are you fucking ready yet?” Kye asked from the doorway. I chuckled. At least one of my decisions hadn’t been that hard to make.
I smiled, narrowing my eyes on the weapons rack again as a knife balanced in my hand. Shifting it back and forth, I feigned interest in its weight and composition. After all, I actually was interested in those things, so it wasn’t that hard to pull off. I’d just made the decision already.
“I’m still deciding,” I lied, my lips cracking into a wry grin. The longer I spent with the Rangers, the more devious I found myself becoming. It was enjoyable to indulge in some of the childish things I hadn’t done since my previous youth.
“Just pick one already,” Kye said with a groan. In the corner of my eye, I saw her slump back against the wall while she twirled an arrow between her fingers. My grin only deepened.
In reality, I was only choosing between what backup weapon to bring. As a knight, I’d never had to worry about it because my sword had been able to tear any of my foes to shreds. But now, I didn’t want to take the chance. No matter how much I hated admitting it, Ruia was more dangerous. It was unknown. So I wanted to go prepared.
I tapped my foot and brought the knife up in front of my face again. Its metal tilted at the very edge, sharpening even further with an unreflective grey tinge. It was tipped with blue silver, I noted. One of Kye’s favorite weapons to use. So naturally, I asked her about it. “You think this knife would be useful?”
Advertisement
Kye straightened up, casting a glance my way. And when she saw the knife in my hand, she rolled her eyes. “Yes. You know it is—now stop dawdling. If you don’t choose, I’ll put another hole in your side.”
I finally broke, my face contorting as a laugh bubbled up out of my throat. I turned to Kye and tilted my head. “Wouldn’t that just hold us up even more?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. But I’d get to shoot you again, and I say that’s worth it. This isn’t my job, you know. It’s your own grave.” At the tail end of her sentence, she smirked.
The signature expression made me chuckle. “Fine. I’ll take the knife.”
“Great choice,” Kye said dryly. “Now can we go? We’re wasting daylight.”
Finally, I yielded. I took the knife and holstered it on my waist where I’d already placed the sheath. Then, still grinning to myself, I turned back to Kye and rolled my wrist. “Yes. We can go.”
She rolled her eyes again and walked out the door without me. I chuckled, pushing myself into a brisk walk as I caught up. The bag dragging down my shoulders reminded me of exactly what we were doing. As a ranger, we rarely carried more than our weapons and a few extra supplies. Carrying the brown bags that I’d always seen on the shelves was a strange experience, at least. All I had in mine were rations, my extra uniform, and my bedroll, but the extra weight reminded me that this was it. For the first time since I’d arrived, I was actually leaving Sarin.
Although, at least I didn’t have to carry as much as Kye did. Along with all of her own supplies, she was also carrying the extra equipment and medical supplies that she’d insisted on bringing but hadn’t let me carry for fear that I’d complain.
I scoffed as I caught up. “How far is Norn anyway?”
Kye turned to me. “Not far. It shouldn’t be more than a day’s travel away on foot.” The signature smirk tugged at her lips. “Though, traveling with you, who knows. It could take up to a week.”
I rolled my eyes, straightening up. “A day’s travel it is, then.”
Kye laughed, tilting her head as we made it to the base of the climb to the main part of town. “I am still holding you to that. If this takes longer than it needs to, you are getting another arrow stuck in your side.”
I sneered. “It won’t. And I made sure of it as soon as I picked you as my guide.”
She jerked her head back at that, sparing a sideways glance at me. Then she grinned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I snickered. She already knew exactly what I meant. “It’s impossible enough that you already know our forest as well as you do. After going to Norn once, I’m sure you know the way by heart.”
“I travel a lot,” was all the response I got as we walked up toward Sarin’s main square.
Advertisement
I smiled. “It shows. I’ve never even seen anyone here use a map.”
Kye slowed, and I had to slow down just to keep pace. Looking back at her, she squinted at me as if I’d just proposed an unsolvable problem. “A map? How the hell would any of us get a map anyway?”
I blinked, instantly cautious. In Credon, maps had been a common commodity. They had been made for entire regions, kingdoms, and some of the continent. They’d been available to anyone who had enough coin, and I’d always carried one of wherever my king had sent me off to. Here though, things were different. I had to remember that.
“I don’t know,” I said carefully. Kye shook her head slightly and started walking normally again. But the confusion didn’t recede. “Do you not have a single cartographer here in Sarin?”
Kye shook her head, still blinking. “Are you kidding me? With how expensive they are and how quickly they get outdated? A map-maker would run out of business before they even started.”
I scrunched my face. “How—“ I stopped myself, trying to calm the presence of my past life. Back in Credon, map-making had been an easy process. A few professionals skilled in pen-work could create and copy them easily. But in Ruia, it must’ve been different. In some way, it made sense that any form of map was unreliable, but it still irked me. “How does anyone get anywhere without one?”
Kye scoffed. “They know where they’re going,” she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Either they have been to their destination before or they don’t go at all. It’s that or getting lost.”
My eyebrows dropped. It still felt… wrong to me, but I nodded anyway. I kept the rest of my questions inside and catalogued them away to come up at another time. Better not to push it further, I reasoned. So I chalked it up to differences between the continents and moved on. After all, I had enough to worry about as it was.
So I just let the silence that had settled continue as we walked on. Into Sarin’s square and past the sweeping town hall. Through all of the bustling commotion that melted my confusion in an instant. As we walked on, we even got a few waves and nods from the townsfolk. Most nodded to Kye in respect for her service. But some nodded to me, offering the kind of respect that I hadn’t felt in months. The kind of respect that I’d earned in spades whenever I’d returned to Credon triumphant. In Sarin, it came in the form stray glances and esteemed smiles as opposed to cheers and decorations, but it was respect all the same. It felt good.
From my experiences with the townspeople of Sarin, I knew that they respected the Rangers. Revered them, even. To the town, we were seen as protectors—as providers that allowed Sarin to exist at all. And I supposed that wasn’t very far off. Every time I’d been in town, it was always bustling. Busy and cheerful yet accepting. And I hadn’t ever figured out why.
Before coming to Sarin, I’d been tricked by Death. I’d almost starved in the woods. I’d been taken prisoner by mercenaries. And I’d learned that the second chance of life that I’d thought I’d earned was on a corrupted continent instead of my own.
Yet, Sarin was different than that. It was a welcome contrast to the bitterness and the danger that felt safer and more content. It gave me a place to sleep. A place to train. A place to gain the experience my new body so badly needed. It gave me a purpose, and one that wasn’t that different than the one I’d had before. I’d protected citizens as a knight, and I was doing the same thing as a ranger.
It only made sense that people were grateful.
The near-afternoon sun glinted in my eye as we left the square. We turned down a narrower street that led past houses on the outskirts of town. That led back out to a path all too similar to the one I’d arrived on. But as the commotion faded behind us, I couldn’t help feeling bad. And it wasn’t about the uneven roads or mouth-watering smells we were leaving behind. It was that we were leaving at all. We were walking right out of safety, right out of home.
“Leaving this place is harder than I thought,” I said, shaking my head with a dry laugh.
Kye turned to me and nodded, casting a glance at what we were leaving behind. “It really does have that kind of effect on you, doesn’t it? It sucks you in just to spit you out sometimes.”
I bobbed my head, twisting around to spare one last look at the collection of wooden buildings I now called home. The town that had made me feel welcome on a foreign continent and even in foreign skin.
When I turned around, I was met with yet another foreign sight.
Stretched out in front of us as the cobblestone path degraded back into marked dirt lined with stones was a huge field of grass. Unkept and unwieldy, just like it had been during my first days in Ruia. It was scattered with jutting rock formations that seemed to reach to the sky. To my left, the same forest I’d been hunting in for weeks stared back at me. And to my right, the same intimidating mountains loomed over as if taunting us with our destination.
Kye stretched out her hand and pointed in the direction of a collection of trees that led up to the mountainside. “Norn is in that direction.” She smirked. “Didn’t need a map to tell me that.”
I laughed, my mood lightening. And as she walked forward, I was tempted to take a look back, to take one last glance at what I supposed was my new home. But I resisted. I looked at the sprawling land in front of me instead before running to catch up with my companion.
The only way to go was forward.
Advertisement
- End646 Chapters
The Wizard World
Ye Song, who once lived in a technologically-advanced world, died and reincarnated into a noble teenager’s body in another world. A fantasy world filled with magic! A series of events filled with tragedy, action, etc. began to unfold one after the other when he fatefully encountered one of the most guarded secrets of this world, obtaining the legendary power of Wizards. Watch how he reaches unreachable heights as a powerful Wizard in this new world
8 2509 - In Serial12 Chapters
The Fragile World
Time… The river that flows down many paths. Every action that can be will be and has been. What seemed to be an unchangeable force yet turned out so fragile. That which separates two time lines has shattered and now all god can do is try and mitigate the damage. What happens when the most dangerous enemy you must face is not a great and powerful demon lord… Or over powered villain. What if the great enemy you must face is none other then yourself. Join David Nowak, an Ex-Psychologist now hunted by every country across the globe as he must keep his other self from meeting his goal at all costs. But just what is his goal, and who is this mysterious woman who calls herself Nona.Authors note- Switching my release day to sundays. Trying to work around some things. Some tags may not be apparent immediately. Tragedy isn’t limited to the MC.
8 97 - In Serial10 Chapters
The Dangers of a Double Life
Arthur Tracz is an IT technician, a loving husband and excellent friend. Aoife Brosnan is a courier, good daughter, and a volunteer. Gary White is a detective, ex-husband, and a father. They appear to be your average citizens, yet they harbour secrets some of which are so dark that if they were to be revealed they would end up on the top of the news on the international level. These people have no connection to each other, yet their double lives will lead to their fates interweaving. Their lives will never be the same. That is... if they survive. This story was originally supposed to be game, but due to me working on more important project and because most likely I would never have time and funds to do it. I decided to write it as a book which gives me more options in pursuing its narrative. Chapters will be released one a week, Sunday, 14 am CET.
8 57 - In Serial24 Chapters
RE: DIVINE
(Mature story with language, with possible sexual situations and gore later on) Partially a parody for people who complain of the influx of op reincarnated mc's. The main character died and won a prize for doing so. The prize? Divinity! Follow our main character in a realm where he is absolute!
8 75 - In Serial68 Chapters
"The Unwanted Princess (" most precious princess")
Sapphire Elizabeth is the youngest princess in moonlight kingdom. mayroon siyang limang kapatid na lalaki at pitong kapatid na babae si sapphire ang ika-13 anak ng Hari.she is the unwanted princess, powerless. hindi kinilala sa palasyo bilang prinsesa. ngunit hindi ito hadlang. she can be her own, be herself. she has her own way of being a princess. di nasusukat sa trono o titulo ang pagiging prinsesa..the royal family abandoned her but the people in the Palace respect and love her.
8 167 - In Serial4 Chapters
first love.. (Child tord X reader) Part 1/3 (discontinued)
(discontinued) I'm no good with descriptions... but the Title says it all.This is a child reader x child Tord.⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙1/3 books𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠fighting (gasp.)Minor cussing.𝕯𝖎𝖘𝖈𝖑𝖆𝖎𝖒𝖊𝖗I do not own any of the eddsworld charactersall eddsworld themed rightfully owned by eddsworldcredits to the person who owns the art on the cover.I do not own any of the art in the story credits to the owner.
8 149