Depthless Hunger

Chapter 93: Many Levels of Fear

There was still quite some distance to Monskon City, but Kai was beginning to find the environment familiar. That actually made him even less motivated to hurry, especially since he couldn't enter the city. Since they still had over a week until the Hunter Trials, he decided to use their time for a little more training.

The most enjoyable part of that was hunting monsters with Zae Zin Nim. The average local monsters didn't really stand much of a chance, especially with her hunting mercilessly beside him. It still gave them an opportunity to practice their techniques on better targets than boulders.

Strangely, he had no desire whatsoever to eat the monsters. Not because they were repulsive or toxic, like a normal person should feel, more like they were too small. There was nothing interesting about their meat anymore. So they just harvested the monster cores and disposed of the bodies. Even though he still carried twenty-five hundred Eagles, he'd seen how costly training resources could be and wanted more.

"I haven't spent my life fighting monsters," Zae Zin Nim said abruptly. They had been cultivating, but Kai stopped to listen to her. "We have them on Cloudspire, but they aren't as much of a threat. My instructors said that it was because cultivators were too powerful to be affected by anything but the more powerful sacred beasts. I'm not sure if-"

"I had a feeling you were going to share something more personal there," Kai said wryly.

"Yes, I..." She took a deep breath and met his gaze. "The threats facing me were always other humans, or the other human-like species on Cloudspire. There are methods of cultivation where you can use the deaths of others to increase your advancement, so the earliest step is to avoid this fate."

Based on hints she had dropped in prior conversations, Kai guessed that she had passed that stage rather early. Since she was sharing more than usual, he kept his mouth shut.

"But after that, my next goal was to have a life for myself. My father was - is - the leader of an important sect. I don't think he loved any of his children except as assets. So long as I was exceeding expectations, I was his pride and joy. But if I had fallen behind, then I would have become just a piece on his board. I would most likely have been married off to an ally, and that would mean the end of the life I had so far."

"I can't imagine, but it sounds awful." Kai waited a while longer, then coaxed gently. "But then your rivals blocked your advancement. And I don't think I'll cause any offense when I guess that men on Cloudspire don't want their brides covered in scars and vomiting up bile."

"To say the least. I honestly don't know what would have happened if I had stayed. I think my father still hoped that I would find a way through, but I fled here on my own because I wasn't sure what he would do." Again she lapsed into silence, but something else was bugging him.

"Forget about the Blackblood Physique. If you had reached the next stage, wouldn't you have been a rather powerful cultivator? If you reach that stage here, you'll be free to do whatever you want. Is there still a threat of being married off to someone?"

"Oh, that persists until you reach several stages higher." Zae Zin Nim rolled her eyes as if the threat of forced marriage was just an everyday idea for her... which he supposed it was. "There are a lot of cultivators who want wives who are just a little weaker than them. Or just strong enough to help them for a while before they reach the next stage."

Kai frowned as he tried to adjust to that way of thinking. It definitely wasn't anything that appealed to him. Even in his wildest dreams of becoming a successful hunter, he'd always preferred the idea of someone going through life alongside him. After his experience with the Corinin clan, he was doubly certain of it.

"That's my history." She fixed his gaze with her own. "No real secrets. Just some details that don't matter anymore."

"But you want to go back, right?"

"I... once that was my only goal. Now I'm not so sure. I need more time to think. Until then... I would be glad to travel with you."

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"And I'm glad to have you with me."

Was there more they were leaving unsaid? Kai was terrible with that sort of thing when it came to women from his home, much less from different continents. He decided not to press now and instead worry about it after they'd gotten past their next objectives.

Now that the subject had been raised, he found it surprisingly easy to imagine himself spending his life with Zae Zin Nim. Even with her physical condition. But she seemed to find her own body so repulsive that he couldn't imagine it working. No, they would just need to move forward. Maybe by the time she recovered, she would have thought enough about what she really wanted.

Their conversation lapsed and they returned to cultivating. It was almost relaxing, so of course fate finally threw another problem at him in the form of a massive object hurtling in their direction.

Zae Zin Nim stood up first and he recognized it a second later. At first he thought the speck on the horizon was a monster, then he realized that it was a human construct. A mana-powered wagon, but a far sleeker and faster model than he'd ever seen before. As it drew nearer, he realized that there were actually several of the vehicles moving together.

They were both prepared for opponents to emerge, but when the lead wagon drew close, Razz popped out of the armored front. "Finally! You two were moving way too fast. I really started regretting coming along myself, let me tell you."

"Razz? Is everything alright?" Kai stepped closer, examining the contents of the wagon as well as he could. It had more hunters than average, but its real cargo hissed with powerful mana.

"You're asking me that? I guess it's not a surprise that you haven't heard." Razz pulled himself over the side and dropped down beside them. "I'm not sure how much of this is secret, but I decided that I didn't care. This is too important."

"Out with it."

"The monster incursion is coming early, and not just early. Something is so wrong with this one that they're canceling all Hunter Trials. All of the cities near the Frontier are supposed to be evacuated immediately, though the order came out too late, so the evacuation is causing trouble. Everyone in southern Goralia has been ordered to send troops and supplies. You're lucky I was already working on a big shipment."

Kai knew that he was staring, but that news was worth it. "You're saying all of Goralia is treating this like a war?"

"No. Every nation near the Frontier is on high alert. They say even the Krysal City States have agreed to a cease-fire and are trying to shore up the western front." Razz slowly placed his hand against the side of the wagon. "People are scared, Kai. Scared enough that I wonder if this shipment is really doing any good."

"There's no way of knowing, but thank you. Did you come to distribute this yourself?"

"I thought I could catch up with you faster than this! But no, I just wanted to warn you in person, because there are a few other details that no one is supposed to know about."

Zae Zin Nim had been listening all along, but now she stepped closer. Only once they had huddled together did Razz continue in a whisper.

"Some of the southern nobles don't trust the Frontier forces anymore. They think that they did something to cause this, or that they're making the monster incursions worse somehow, to justify their own existence." Razz shook his head. "I don't know everything. Dommag Corinin was apparently one of the members of this conspiracy and I only know what I learned from his papers."

"A conspiracy?" Kai asked. "Surely they wouldn't attempt to undermine the Frontier right before a historic incursion."

"No, they're supposedly going to send in a group of their own to investigate, without any elites to stop them. I don't know how mad that is, but I do have the location where they'll make the attempt. I thought you'd want to know, but honestly, I think the smart thing to do would be to get as far away from the Frontier as possible."

That didn't seem likely, but there were too many unknowns. Instead of worrying about them, Kai looked back over the wagon and smiled at Razz. "Thanks for filling your end of the bargain. It looks like the north needs your help even sooner than I thought."

"I'm doing what I can. I want to... you know... do the things we said the last time we parted."

"Right, no need to go over it all again." Kai clapped the younger man on the shoulder. "Get back to safety and we'll do our part."

Razz nodded with confidence he obviously didn't feel and returned to the caravan. He and a number of other officials climbed into one of the smaller wagons and headed back south, while the rest began to move. One of the hunters called down at them, offering a ride, but Kai waved them off.

In minutes they were running far ahead of the main group. Once they'd established a pace, Zae Zin Nim glanced over at him.

"Does this change anything? Are we still testing our skills in the incursion?"

"That depends how fast things go bad. Normally we'd leave the majority of the fighting to the Frontier elites and defend Monskon City, but that may not be an option." He tried to peer ahead, even though he knew they were still far from their destination. "We should stop by there next and get more information. After that, we need to decide if there's anything to be done about this southern expedition. But for now... back to Monskon City."

That night, Kai didn't dream of the Frontier. He no longer needed to, with the world twisting ominously in his heart.

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