Chapter 101: Women
Translator: Wuxia Dog Editor: Wuxia Dog
Han Jin was regulating his breath with his eyes closed. Suddenly, a shrill but muffled scream came to his ears. He immediately opened his eyes and looked around. Everyone was sleeping, except Sunier, who was standing and hiding in the branches and leaves. Han Jin could see her two feet swinging above him. It seemed that… nothing had happened.
After waiting for a moment, Han Jin was about to lie down when the scream occurred again. He stood up and walked toward the direction of the sound.
Since the last time when Moxinke and Sylner had rolled together while sleeping, they had divided the place into several areas. At least, men and women were separated. Sylner and Moxinke were like childhood sweethearts, and had an extremely close relationship with each other. They might consider it nothing to sleep together, but for others, it might be embarrassing.
In a small and makeshift tent, Sylner was sleeping soundly while Keeley was possibly having a nightmare. Her eyelids were trembling quickly, and her tiny delicate mouth opened and uttered a long, muffled, but clear scream as if a siren was singing.
Her forehead was covered with drops of sweat. Han Jin knew she must have been sunk into her nightmares and could not wake up by herself. He slightly patted her cheek. The scream stopped, but her mouth was still open, looking very weird.
Just when Han Jin was going to turn around, Keeley screamed again. She must be deeply disgusted by the two dead bodies. Han Jin felt himself lucky for having not drunk from the spring water, otherwise, he would have a psychological shadow too.
“Wake up, Keeley!” He slightly patted her forehead several times, and called her name in a gentle voice.
But her reaction was not as gentle as his voice. She jumped up all of a sudden and tightly hugged Han Jin, scaring him so much that he shook his body and clenched his fists, which almost hit her. It was not because of his long-term alertness against Keeley, but his personality. It was normal for human beings to make different reactions according to their personalities when being scared suddenly. Some would scream, some would jump up and run at random, while others would launch an attack when they were frightened. Han Jin belonged to the last category.
“It’s me. Relax… calm down,” Han Jin said in a low voice.
The sun shelter made of tree branches was pushed open. Sunier looked into it curiously. Sylner also opened her eyes, still half awake, and asked, “What happened?”
“Nothing. Keeley had a nightmare.” Han Jin felt embarrassed. Strictly speaking, it had nothing to do with him that Keeley was having a nightmare. What’s more, she wore little while sleeping, and now that they were closely hugging, Han Jin could even feel her heart beating.
“Oh…” Sylner turned over and fell asleep again.
Keeley was awakened. She immediately pushed Han Jin aside and lay back down on to the straw mattress. “Are you all right, Keeley?” Sunier asked concernedly.
“Yes and thank you. I just had a horrible dream,” Keeley replied vaguely.
Han Jin shrugged and walked outside. Sunier stared at his face seriously. “Raphael, you have touched many women, right?” she asked abruptly.
“No. Not at all.” Han Jin was shocked.
“No?” Sunier moved over to him and studied his face carefully. “If you haven’t, do you know how you would have behaved like just now?”
“What?”
“You would have blushed, felt thirsty, and would not have dared not to look at anyone else; the same as how Keeley had behaved.” Sunier frowned. “But you hadn’t. Why do I feel like you are not an inexperienced man?”
“Nonsense, she is a woman and I am a man; we are not the same.” Han Jin had also realized himself that he was too calm, so he had to find some excuse to stall her. If he really was a virgin, he would have never been so calm when hugging Keeley like that.
“Tell me the truth: have you touched any women before?” Sunier asked again, this time omitting the word ‘many’.
“Yes, of course. I touched you once. What’s so strange to you?” Han Jin replied casually.
“You… I mean that kind of touch…” Sunier blushed.
“What kind?” Han Jin kept asking ‘modestly’.
Sunier was finally defeated by either Han Jin’s modesty or his impudence. She gave some vague reply and walked away, jumping back up the tree with several leaps.
When speaking of women, Han Jin had felt speechless and had even wanted to shed tears. In his eyes, women could be divided into two categories. One was where you would have to be responsible for, and the other was where you did not have to be, and the latter attracted him. Only young men who knew nothing about responsibilities would be willing to take responsibility for all the beauties in the world. Any sophisticated man knew that a single share of responsibility was heavy enough.
Han Jin knew this clearly, and that’s why he showed interest in neither Keeley nor Sunier, no matter how beautiful they were. In this regard, he despised Moxinke the most. That guy had described him as a flirtatious man with the barmaids who used all kinds of seductive words and sentences, and had guaranteed a feast for his eyes by taking him to one of the most interesting bars, which had aroused his curiosity about watching ‘professional players’ in this world. But the fact was that Moxinke was strictly eyed by Sylner himself. Not to mention having a feast with his eyes, even drinking was seldomly done by him.
Ah… Han Jin let out a sigh and lay down on the straw mattress, looking at the blue sky, lost in thought. He felt sleepless now.
When it started to get dark, Michelle woke them up from sleep. Such a reversed timing for work and rest made them feel even more tired. Though they had slept from sunrise to sunset, they still felt that it was not enough.
While the bonfire was burning and they were all sitting around it, Han Jin took out a piece of Treefolk wood and started to engrave a charm. Making charms of Holy Tortoise had become his daily work. It was easy to go from economy to extravagance, but not from extravagance to economy. They had gotten used to sitting on the back of the giant tortoise. If Han Jin asked them to walk on their own feet, they would certainly go on a strike.
Keeley yawned and walked out from the shelter. Her face turned red as soon as she saw Han Jin. She immediately looked somewhere else to avoid looking into his eyes.
“Why is it still bread, Michelle? Can’t you change it?” Moxinke grumbled.
“But we have nothing else?” Michelle replied in embarrassment. “The only thing left is bread.”
“Why didn’t you take something else?”
“Don’t bully Michelle. Even if he wanted to, he had no place to put the food,” Han Jin reproached. “Would he put it into our space rings? Or are you going to carry it on your back?”
“Space ring!” Moxinke suddenly looked at Cessacioun. “What about the ring? Can you open its space?”
“No, it is useless now.” Cessacioun shook head.
“What if an alchemist cooperates with you? Can you fix it?” Moxinke was reluctant to give it up.
“I don’t know. But we should give it a try, right?”
“By the way, where is the jade pendant, Moxinke? Let me have a look.” Han Jin said.
Hearing this, Sylner immediately took out the jade pendant and passed it to Moxinke, who then passed it to Han Jin. It was a primitive and simple jade pendant made from an excellent material, which didn’t look like a common decoration. However, the bottom half of it was missing, so Han Jin couldn’t understand its usage no matter how carefully he studied it.
“Have you seen similar kinds of jade pendants?” Han Jin asked. Actually, the two dead men had nothing to do with him, but he still wanted to find out what had happened due to his occupational habits.
“Let me have a look.” Keeley reached out her hand first.
Han Jin leaned forward and passed the jade pendant to her. Soon, it had been passed around, but no one recognized it.
“Why are you so interested in Cabri, Raphael?” Cessacioun asked. “We have only met him once…”
“I could not sleep during the day, so I walked around the woods and found lots of traces of fighting. They fought along the way towards the spring.” This said, Han Jin pointed downstream of the spring. “And Cabri was overpowered there.Then, his companion was killed, and Cabri himself suffered a long time of torture and at last, died in a strange way. I can’t find out the exact reason for his death. Don’t you think he was hiding a big secret?”
“More bread for me!” Moxinke shouted and grabbed some more pieces from Michelle, forgetting that he was the only one who had complained about the bread just now. No one showed interest in Han Jin’s analysis. But he couldn’t blame them for it, because his words were too vague and too unengaging. If he had told them that Cabri must have known a place where the treasures of giant dragons were hidden, they would show him real enthusiasm without hesitation.
Han Jin looked awkward. “Cabri was a high grade sage. Since his enemies could capture him and kill him in a way that is beyond our competence, they can kill any of us in the same way. We have already got enough troubles. Do we need to get ourselves into more?” Sunier said slowly.
“Yes… You are right.” Han Jin smiled. He put the jade pendant into his space ring. Though he agreed with Sunier, he still didn’t want to throw away the only clue.
“Is there anything interesting in your hometown, Reg?” Sylner asked.
“That depends on what you are interested in.” Reg gave it a quick thought. “Have you seen a waterfall?”
“I mean something strange and eccentric.”
“There are only one hundred or more villagers in my hometown. Do you think there would be anything strange and eccentric?” Reg cracked a bitter smile.
“I heard that when Regiment Commander Conrad was still a boy, he had met a poor old man. Regiment Commander Conrad was very kind and ran home to find something to eat for that old man, and then he became the old man’s student. Is this story true?” Cessacioun asked.
“Yes, it is. I saw this old man before when I was a boy,” Reg replied in a low voice. “Both my grandparents were ordinary farmers. How could they have cultivated a tenth-grade professional?”
“Wow…” The atmosphere of the discussion immediately heated up. Such a dramatic story never failed to arouse people’s interest.
“You have seen the old man? What happened later?” Cessacioun kept asking.
“He has been missing for years.” Reg sighed, thinking that if this elder were still alive and could have taught his father from time to time, his father would not have died in his prime age, since all the skills and knowledge his father had were learned from this elder.