Chapter 123: If I Were to Catch Up

  The imaginary hourglass on the mantelpiece seemed to defy gravity, the sands of time flowing upward, rewinding the day to a few hours prior.

  In the quiet solitude of the palace guestroom, the morning light was just beginning to filter through the lattice windows, casting long, geometric shadows across the floor.

  Raito stood before a heavy wooden table, his hands on his hips, surveying the items laid out with military precision.

  He looked different. Gone was the casual wear or the ill-fitting formal suit. In its place, he wore a practical, rugged ensemble designed for survival. A lightweight midnight-blue tunic, loose enough to allow air circulation, was tucked into sturdy trousers. Over this, he had donned a heavy, sand-colored cloak made of rough-spun wool, the hood currently lowered but ready to shield him from the sun’s fury. A matching scarf hung loosely around his neck, ready to be pulled up as a dust filter.

  "Koenka, check," he muttered, picking up the familiar weight of his sword. The scabbard clicked satisfyingly as he secured it to his leather belt, the hilt resting at his hip like an extension of his arm.

  "My Core, check."

  He lifted a silver chain from the table. Nestled securely within a sturdy locket was the crystal, humming faintly against his fingertips. He clasped it around his neck, tucking the cool metal beneath his tunic, close to his heart.

  He turned his attention to the rest of the pile.

  "Rucksack. Water container—filled to the brim. Some jerkies—spicy, hopefully." He packed them efficiently, tightening the straps.

  He paused, tapping his chin. "What else did I miss?"

  "More water?"

  A booming voice answered him from the doorway, deep and resonant like rolling thunder. "The desert is a harsh place, after all."

  "Nah, that is not it," Raito waved the suggestion off absently, his mind still running through his checklist. "I have the emergency flasks."

  The voice spoke again, closer this time. "What about transport?"

  Raito frowned, tapping his chin again. "That is a good idea. But who would be willing to take me to the middle of nowhere in the desert? That's the prob—"

  He froze. His brain finally caught up with his ears.

  Wait. Who said that?

  Raito spun around.

  Filling the doorway, his massive frame blocking out the corridor light entirely, was Bob. The Merchant stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his usual jovial expression replaced by a stern, unyielding wall of authority.

  "Where do you think you are going?" Bob asked, he closed the door behind him, his voice low and devoid of its usual 'Hohoho'.

  "Uh..." Raito shifted his weight, trying to look innocent despite being dressed like a desert fugitive. "Nowhere?"

  "Don't lie to me, boy," Bob stepped into the room, the floorboards creaking under his weight. "You are going to chase them, aren't you? Yukari and the expedition team."

  Raito sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Is it that obvious?"

  "Between the fidgeting at breakfast, the way you kept staring at the gate, and you surprisingly not saying anything when they left this morning?" Bob raised a thick eyebrow. "Yes. Yes, it was that obvious."

  Raito dropped the act. He looked at Bob with pleading eyes.

  "Then let me go. Please, Bob. I'm concerned about Yukari."

  "No can do," Bob shook his head firmly. "I have been told to watch you like an eagle while they are doing their part of the expedition. Zhu's orders. Queen's orders."

  He placed a hand on his hip, looking down at Raito.

  "Besides, do you think you can actually chase them by yourself? It would be suicide. They have a group of experienced caravanners—my best men—and the Raging Bull Guild guiding them. You going out there alone, on foot or even on a stolen camel, would just lead to you being swallowed by the sands."

  Bob softened his tone slightly, stepping closer. "You also know how strong Yukari is. She is a warrior. Just sit tight and relax. They will be back before you know it."

  "I know!" Raito exclaimed, clutching the strap of his rucksack. "I know the risks. I know how strong Yukari is—she is much stronger than me, ten times over!"

  He looked down at his boots, his voice trembling slightly.

  "But... I promised her. Back then, I promised to always be there for her. To stand by her side."

  He looked up at Bob, his eyes burning with a desperate intensity.

  "I can't just sit here drinking tea while they might encounter some danger I don't know about. What if something happens that swords can't fix? What if she needs me? Please, Bob."

  "Ok..." Bob sighed, the stern mask cracking just a fraction. He leaned against the doorframe, the wood groaning. "You are concerned about Yukari. I understand."

  He held up a hand, ticking off fingers. "I am also concerned about her. About Mila. And about my sister-in-law, Aleena. My old friend Tanvir. Malik, my nephew-in-law. And my men."

  Bob’s voice grew softer, laden with the worry he usually kept hidden behind his laughter. "I also have people I am deeply concerned about. They are out there trudging through the harsh terrain, fighting for a discovery of a lifetime that might not even be worth it after all that."

  "Then..." Raito started to interrupt, hope flaring.

  "However," Bob cut him off sharply, his voice regaining its steel. "They have each other out there. They have numbers. They have people to rely on."

  He pointed a finger at Raito. "You, on the other hand, are alone. You are not a native of this land. You don't even know the direction to the market, last time I remember. I have already buried my family once, Raito. Don’t make me go through that again.."

  Raito flinched as if struck.

  "You are concerned about them," Bob continued, his gaze piercing. "But don't forget, that connection goes both ways. Yukari cares and is concerned about you. I care and am concerned about you. Do you understand, young man?"

  "Bob... I..." Raito couldn't talk back. The words died in his throat, choked by the realization of his own selfishness.

  "Let's not forget I already promised Miss Yinzi to not let you get in too much danger," Bob added, crossing his arms.

  Raito’s hand tightened around Koenka's hilt until his knuckles turned white. Everything Bob said was true. Leaving alone would just make others more concerned about him than he was about them. It would be a suicide fueled by a bad decision, a burden on the very people he wanted to protect.

  He slumped against the table, defeated.

  "Then... what should I do?" Raito looked up at the giant merchant, his eyes lost. "I..."

  "Then you need a chaperone," Bob stated simply.

  Raito blinked. "Huh?"

  "Someone native to this land," Bob listed, counting off on his fingers again. "Someone experienced to guide you through the desert. Someone who has transport strong and fast enough to catch up to a royal caravan."

  "Where do you suggest I find someone like that?" Raito asked, confused. "Everyone like that is already on the expedition."

  "You are looking at him," Bob said, pointing a thumb at his own chest with a grin that stretched his mustache.

  Raito stared at him. He blinked once. Twice.

  "But... you just told me that you won't let me go," Raito stammered, his brain trying to catch up with the Merchant's logic. "That it is dangerous and suicidal. And that you are watching me like an eagle. What gives?"

  "I told you 'ALONE' it would be suicidal," Bob corrected, his grin widening into his trademark expression. "But with me? You are going to get there safe and sound."

  He winked. "And if I am guiding you, I will also be watching over you. So, 'technically', I am not abandoning my job. I am fulfilling it with extreme prejudice. Also, my brother is still tiny bit angry about the whole alcohol debacle, so I would rather not be here right now. Hohoho."

  Raito’s mouth hung open for a second before snapping shut into a grin that matched Bob's.

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  "You sly merchant." Raito laughed.

  "Hohoho!” Bob bellowed, slapping his belly. “Well, what are you waiting for, boy! Head to Tama’s stable. We leave in ten minutes!"

  Ten minutes later, the air in the royal stables was thick with the scent of dry hay and warm animal musk.

  Tama, the massive, shaggy brown yak that had carried them through so much, stood patiently while being harnessed to a sturdy, reinforced desert carriage. Her breath puffed in the cool morning air, and her dark eyes watched Bob with intelligent recognition.

  "Ready for the trip, Tama?" Bob asked softly, brushing her magnificent, thick fur with long, soothing strokes.

  Tama grunted, shifting her weight and nudging Bob's chest with her broad nose.

  "That's my girl," Bob cooed, his voice losing its booming quality for a moment of pure affection. "My lovely, good girl."

  "I'm counting on you, Tama," Raito said, walking up to her other side and burying his hand in her warm flank.

  Tama turned her head to Raito and let out a determined, low-pitched grunt that vibrated through his hand.

  "Alright then," Bob announced, climbing into the driver's seat with surprising agility for a man of his size. "We ride!"

  With the snap of the reins, the unlikely duo and their faithful steed rolled out of the city gates, leaving the safety of Kah-Kamun for the scorching embrace of the Golden Desert.

  Shortly before the present...

  The heat was stifling behind the massive, monolithic boulder shaped like a sleeping giant. Raito wiped sweat from his brow, peering around the rough stone edge.

  In the distance, he saw the chaos of the battle. He saw the ice spikes erupting from the sand. He saw Yukari, a figure of beautiful, terrifying rage, decimating the pack of monsters.

  Then, he saw it.

  The sand behind Yukari bulged. A massive shape, darker than the surrounding dunes, surged upward.

  "Yukari!" Raito shouted, his body already moving to sprint out from behind cover.

  A large hand clamped down on his shoulder, rooting him to the spot.

  "Young Raito," Bob hissed, pulling him back into the shadow of the rock. "Do you want them to know we are here? We are technically not supposed to be here! If Lady Lihua sees us now, she will send us back in chains!"

  "Urgh!" Raito grunted, watching the alpha sandworm's maw open wide behind his wife. "But she's—"

  He gritted his teeth. He couldn't run out. But he couldn't do nothing.

  Panic warred with logic in his mind until a spark of inspiration hit him.

  "I know," he whispered.

  He dropped to one knee. He drew Koenka from its scabbard, the blade singing softly. Instead of swinging it, he reversed his grip and drove the tip of the sword deep into the sandstone ground.

  Clink.

  "Focus," he muttered.

  He reached for the locket around his neck. The Fire Core hummed.

  Active.

  A surge of searing heat flooded his veins. He didn't project it outward into the air. Instead, he channeled every ounce of that thermal energy down his arm, into the hilt of Koenka, and straight into the earth.

  "Got you."

  He closed his eyes, visualizing the network of tunnels beneath the sand—the very tunnels the worms used to move. He felt the vibration of the alpha worm's tail, still submerged deep underground as it launched its upper body.

  He pushed the fire.

  It wasn't a fireball. It was a concentrated pulse of superheated flame energy, traveling through the bedrock like a lightning bolt through a wire.

  It found its target.

  The energy slammed into the tunnel directly beneath the alpha worm.

  In the distance, the worm didn't explode. It didn't burn on the outside. But deep below the sand, its lower half was instantly cauterized by a flash-fry of intense heat. The sudden, agonizing shock to its nervous system was catastrophic.

  A wet, hollow crack echoed through the sand.

  Raito watched as the worm jerked violently in mid-air, gagged, and then went limp, crashing dead to the sand before it could snap its jaws shut on Yukari.

  "Phew," Raito exhaled, pulling Koenka from the ground. The blade was glowing faintly red, but quickly cooled. He wiped the sweat from his eyebrow with a shaking hand.

  He looked up to see Bob beaming down at him.

  The Merchant gave him a silent, enthusiastic thumbs-up.

  Present.

  "Miss Yukari, thank you for the save," Malik said, stepping out of his own carriage and wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. He headed straight for the group of women gathered near the dead alpha.

  "No need to say thank you," Yukari said, shaking out her hands. "I just needed to de-stress."

  "You are so humble," Malik smiled, but his attention drifted. He blinked, noticing the odd tableau.

  Mila was holding Yukari’s arm outstretched, pointing her finger directly at a massive boulder in the distance. On Yukari’s finger, the Sakura ring was blinking vigorously like a lighthouse beacon.

  "What are you guys doing?" Malik asked, tilting his head.

  Mila quickly let go of Yukari’s arm as if it were on fire.

  "Uh... stuff," Yukari said quickly, hiding her hand behind her back. "We can't really explain much right now."

  "Do you know anything about that boulder over there, Malik?" Mila asked, pointing with her chin toward the rock formation Yukari’s ring had indicated.

  Malik squinted at the horizon. "I'm not really a boulder expert, to be honest. Mapping and ancient discoveries are more my field."

  He adjusted his robes, adopting a scholarly tone. "But from my initial inspection from afar, that boulder may have been a really old one. Likely old sedimentary sandstone, shaped by centuries of wind."

  "What of it?" Malik asked, still puzzled but explaining with scholarly patience.

  "So just a rock," Zhu commented dryly.

  "I think so," Malik shrugged.

  "Hey!"

  Tanvir called out from the top of the royal carriage, shading his eyes with his hand. "If all of you are done playing with rocks, we need to keep moving! We are burning daylight!"

  "Well, you heard the Shorty," Zhu said, jerking her thumb toward the carriage. "Let's move."

  "But what about the blinking?" Yukari whispered to Zhu as they walked back.

  "Do you feel your power working in a weird way?" Zhu asked in a low voice.

  "Not really," Yukari shook her head. "Other than the blinking, it works perfectly fine. It responds instantly."

  "Then it's probably nothing," Zhu decided.

  "Should I run up there quickly and come back here to check?" Mila suggested, her hand on her sword hilt. "Just to be sure?"

  Behind the boulder, Raito and Bob, who were eavesdropping intently, gulped in synchronized panic. Raito grabbed his sword hilt; Bob grabbed the reins.

  "No, don't," Zhu said, waving a hand. "We need to conserve your stamina for the journey. We don't know what lies ahead."

  Behind the rock, Raito and Bob exhaled loudly.

  With that, the main group moved back into their respective carriages. The doors slammed shut, the drivers snapped their reins, and the royal procession pressed on, leaving the battlefield and the mysterious boulder behind.

  "We almost got caught," Bob whispered, wiping sweat from his brow that had nothing to do with the heat. "That was too close."

  "Why is Yukari's ring blinking in our direction and why does that make me uneasy?" Raito commented, staring at the dust trail left by the caravan. "This is the first time I've heard about that. It never did that before."

  "Either way," Bob said, climbing back into the driver's seat of their reinforced carriage. "We should follow them again. But maybe... from a slightly greater distance this time."

  Raito nodded, climbing up beside him. "Agreed."

  Night rolled over the vast, endless desert like a dark blanket, but the heat refused to subside. The sand, having baked under the sun all day, now radiated warmth upward, keeping the air stiflingly hot.

  Trudging through the desert at night was a fool's errand, courting disaster with unseen cliffs and nocturnal predators. The main group wisely decided to stop.

  They set up camp in a natural depression protected by a ridge. A crackling campfire was soon roaring, the flames dancing against the starry sky. The smell of spiced stew, prepared by Bob's expert caravanners, filled the air, offering a moment of comfort in the harsh wilderness.

  Yukari sat near the fire, stirring her bowl absently. A shadow fell over her.

  She looked up. Varessh stood there, his massive stature completely swallowing the firelight.

  "What do you want?" Yukari asked, not unkindly, but warily.

  Varessh shifted, looking uncomfortable. He cleared his throat, a sound like grinding stones.

  "That... back there..." he gestured vaguely toward the direction they came from. "With the sandworm... that was amazing."

  He extended a large, calloused hand. "Pardon me for not treating you more seriously. I judged you by your appearance, not your capability."

  "No issue," Yukari said, taking his hand. His grip was firm, rough as bark. "I am not here for acceptance anyway."

  "After that display," Varessh said, releasing her hand, "it made me remember something. I had heard of you."

  "Ohh?" Yukari raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

  Varessh leaned in slightly. "You are the 'Snow Flower' of Jinlun, aren't you? The prodigy?"

  The camp went quiet for a beat.

  "No," Yukari smirked, leaning back and taking a sip of water. "You got the wrong girl. I'm just a housewife."

  She looked into the fire, her eyes reflecting the dancing flames. "Last I heard of the Snow Flower... she died."

  Varessh studied her face for a moment. Then he nodded, a slow, respectful gesture.

  "Is that so," he rumbled. "Then I will keep that in mind."

  He bowed slightly and walked back to his men, barking orders about the watch rotation.

  Mila, Zhu, and the Queen shared a quiet chuckle at the display.

  "Smooth," Mila commented.

  But Yukari’s smirk faded quickly, replaced by a somber expression. She put down her bowl.

  "What's wrong?" Mila asked, noticing the shift.

  "This," Yukari said. She lifted her left hand.

  The ring was still blinking. Pulse. Pulse. Pulse.

  She turned her hand, sweeping it across the horizon. When she pointed it toward a dense cluster of cactus formations about half a mile away, the light strobed frantically.

  Pulse-Pulse-Pulse-Pulse.

  "It's blinking faster now," Yukari whispered.

  "You know what," Zhu said, placing a hand on Yukari’s knee. "You and Mila should check it first thing in the morning. Just so that you don't get distracted and we can put this mystery to bed."

  "Thank you," Yukari sighed, relieved.

  Meanwhile, in the heart of that very cactus formation...

  "Ow! Ow! Ow!"

  Raito yelped, trying to extract a three-inch spine from his forearm.

  "Do we really have to sleep here tonight?" he complained, looking around at the wall of prickly green giants surrounding them.

  "What other choice do we have?" Bob whispered, unrolling his bedroll inside the cramped carriage. "There is no rock formation we can hide behind for miles. We should be glad that these cacti are dense enough to hide the carriage from their scouts."

  "Yeah, you're right," Raito sighed, rubbing his arm.

  He climbed into the carriage, exhausted. There wasn't much space.

  "Night, Bob," Raito mumbled. He curled up, resting his head on the only soft surface available—Bob’s massive, heaving belly.

  "Night, kid," Bob grunted, patting Raito’s head awkwardly. "Try not to dream about needles."

  Morning rolled in with a deceptively soft light, filtering green through the cactus spines.

  "Hey, Raito... wake up."

  A familiar, sultry voice whispered directly into Raito’s ear. It was a voice he knew better than his own heartbeat.

  "Urghh... five more minutes, Yukari," Raito groaned, burying his face deeper into the warm, slightly hairy pillow—Bob’s stomach.. He swatted lazily at the air.

  "Should I cook breakfast?" the voice asked again, sweet and dangerous.

  "Absolutely not," Raito mumbled, his eyes still squeezed shut. "Last time, the bread was somehow undercooked. It was dough in the middle but charcoal on the outside. How can you even undercook bread while burning it? It defies physics..."

  He drifted for a second in the comfortable haze of sleep.

  Then, his brain stuttered.

  Wait.

  How can I hear Yukari's voice?

  She was supposed to be miles ahead. He was supposed to be hiding in a cactus patch with a Merchant.

  Raito jolted awake. He sat bolt upright, his heart hammering against his ribs.

  Standing right there, peering into the cramped carriage with arms crossed and expressions that could freeze the desert sun, were Yukari and Mila.

  Yukari’s silver eyes were narrowed. Mila looked amused, but her hand rested casually on her sword hilt.

  Panic, cold and sharp, flooded Raito’s system.

  He turned and started slapping Bob’s belly repeatedly. Whack. Whack. Whack.

  "Bob! Bob! Bob!" he hissed frantically.

  Bob snorted, jolting awake with a massive heave that nearly launched Raito out of the carriage. "What? What?! Did we miss them?! Are the sandworms back?!"

  Bob rubbed his eyes, blinking blearily. Then, he looked up.

  He saw Yukari. He saw Mila.

  "Oh," Bob said, his shoulders slumping instantly. "We... definitely didn't miss them."

  He turned to look at the boy beside him, a look of profound pity on his face.

  "Well," Bob whispered. "You better be ready for an earful, boy."

  Yukari tapped her foot against the carriage wheel. Tap. Tap. Tap.

  Yukari inhaled once. Slowly.

  "Any explanation?" she asked, her voice cold, stern, and terrifyingly calm.

  Raito gulped, shrinking back against the seat. "I... missed the bread?"