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"Hey, Xelean. There's something I don't understand, why do you always cook your own food instead of buying prepared stuff and storing it in your storage skill?..." says Kelion in a tired voice, seeing me take out my cooking implements while we are camping for the night.

"....Wouldn't that be a better use of your skill's capacity? I understand that the adventurer's ability has a very limited capacity but..."

"First of all, the capacity of the storage skill is level dependent and.... To put it simply, I don't have any problems in that regard. And, about the reason why I cook my own food.... I really can't put it in a nutshell..." I say evasively, trying to make Kaelion realize that I don't feel like talking about it.

But, not surprisingly, the elder orc cares rather little about my intentions, so he asks, "Does it involve a good story?"

On the suspicion of getting to hear a good story, all the weariness of the journey disappears in an instant from the aged orc's voice.

'He seems to really have a passion for new stories... Well, I'm not that bothered about telling it either...'

"It all started as a way of remembering a lost friend..." I begin to tell him the story of how I met my first adventuring party, how we became friends, and how one day we set off on a journey to help Ragnar, after which Joseph died and the party split up.

"... The thing is, I've taken a certain liking to the process of cooking. I don't know... There's something about the act of mixing and preparing a combination of ingredients to create a whole new flavor that I find very interesting... and that's why I keep doing it even though I don't need to."

'What a great remedy for sorrows alcohol is. Normally I wouldn't like to remember these things, but now it's almost as if they happened to someone else'.

"Ahh, I understand… Anyway, it seems to me that you're really good at it. You could even make a living out of this" says Kaelion, who has already tasted my food a few times, though he usually only eats those hardened biscuits he carries in his saddlebags.

'I can't really trust the words of a chatterbox.... But it's nice to have my cooking praised...'

...

I've been with Kaelion for several days now, and I think I can be sure that he has no ill intentions towards me.

But for some time now, there has been something bothering me about the way he is 'leading' us to the capital, and I think it is time to talk about it.

This continent, unlike my home continent, which is relatively circular in shape, has an elongated and straight shape, similar to the trunk of a tree.

In the central part of this elongated shape, at its edges and in opposite positions, are the Colosseum City, the capital of the empire, on the western edge; and the city of Krag-an, the city currently under the control of our expedition, on the eastern edge.

At the two extremes are the city of Altrisos, capital of the Avian country, at the northern extreme; and the city of Riedrun, another orcish city, at the southern extreme.

Those are the four main cities on the continent and the places where the labyrinths are.

But as it happened on our continent, almost three years ago a fifth labyrinth fell here too.

According to the map, this last labyrinth is a little north of the center of the continent, in a city called City of Heaven's Doom, which was built in order to make it easier for the empire to have an offensive base near the Green Forest, which marks the territory of the Sky Country, home to the Avians, the only race that remains free from orc rule, at least for the most part.

I learned about all these things over the past few days, partly from the map and partly from the information Kaelion has been telling me whenever I asked him about the details of the places on the map.

The problem is that, if I went by the map on my interface, Kaelion has been guiding us erratically for days anywhere but the capital.

"Hey, Kaelion! I'd like to know what the fuck you're doing. We've been off the direct route to the capital for days now…" I say aggressively, trying to see if there's any reaction in the elder orc to give away his deception while holding the map in my hand so he doesn't suspect that I can find my way without it.

"... A few days ago you said we were a week away, but it seems to me that even now we're still missing a lot more than that because of all the weird detours we've been taking,"

"Don't worry. You're just reading the map wrong, kid. Trust me," says the orc, averting his gaze but keeping his voice firm, ignoring my aggressive attitude.

"Haa... You're playing me for a fool, but I'll play along for now…" I say, although my blood boils knowing that he is cheating on me but knowing full well that it is impossible for me to prove it without revealing information about myself.

"... Anyway, I'm warning you, if we don't get to the capital of the empire in the time you told me, I'll kill your wolf and leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere"

"Boy, I already told you this, if you're not careful, you're going to get yourself killed with that attitude," he says, stopping his mount and glaring at me angrily.

"Ha. And who's going to do it?" I ask, glaring at him with a fury that mirrors that of the elderly orc.

"Haa... Not me, boy, so stop trying to make me your enemy. I'm only trying to help you..." says the orc, dismounting and rubbing his forehead with his forefinger and thumb as his fury seems to suddenly subside.

"...Yes, it's true that I've been taking every possible diversion for days to delay our arrival at the capital, but that's only because I fear that, if you keep picking fights at the slightest opportunity, as soon as we get to the capital, you're going to get a bullet between your eyebrows."

"I'm not afraid of the bullets from those toys of your kind. I've taken hits from the rifles of orc soldiers before, and they're no big deal. Besides, they take a long time to reload, and their aim stinks. It's easy to dodge the bullets and kill the people using those shitty weapons," I say, laughing at the stupid excuse he's come up with to justify fooling me for so many days.

At this revelation, Kaelion covers his face with his hands for a few moments, after which he says almost voicelessly, "I have met many like you... Youth who think they can take the world by storm... But life is not like that. You're wrong, boy, and not only in your attitude. Haa… let's start with the last thing you said, since it's the easiest subject to deal with.... I notice you call every firearm you see a rifle, but haven't you stopped to think how odd it would be if all varieties of firearms had the same name?"

"I... I hadn't thought about it, but... What's that got to do with anything?" I ask, irritated that he's diverting the topic of conversation but at the same time curious about the possibility that I might have been wrong in my information about the orcish weapons.

'It's true that I heard Charity call the orc weapons 'rifles', but I could never verify whether she meant a specific type of weapon or all of them in general...'

"This is a rifle," says Kaelion, touching the leather-holstered firearm at the side of his wolf's saddle. "On the other hand, what you are describing are muskets. My rifle can fire without reloading up to 20 rounds in rapid succession, and reloading only takes a few seconds. The accuracy of its shots is effective up to a distance of 120 meters, and its maximum range is 300 meters. In addition, the speed at which the projectiles travel makes them almost impossible to dodge. And I don't think I need to explain to you that you are also very wrong about the damage that this type of weapon can generate... I'm not saying all this to provoke you, but if I shot you in the head with this weapon, you'd probably be dead in a few seconds."

"Don't try to sell me smoke, elder orc. If all that's true, why haven't I come across anyone using the kind of weapon you're describing?" I say, fed up with the level of nonsense coming out of the elderly orc's mouth.

'It doesn't make sense that the empire would have such weapons. If they did, the orcs could have beaten us in the battle on the beach very easily. But that didn't happen. So everything he is saying can only be lies'

"I guess a picture is worth a thousand words.... See that rock over there, the one fifty metres or so from here that's the size of a person's head?" says Kaelion as he pulls his weapon from its holster.

"Yeah... what's up with it?" I say, putting myself on guard against a possible attack from the old orc.

It wouldn't make sense for him to decide to do so now that I'm watching him, but it's better to be cautious.

'After all, he's already tried to trick me once...'