Drawn Blades

Chapter 9

The little clothes I have are sprawled out across my bed, an odd mixture of violet and brown covering my mattress. I'm sure that it won't be too difficult to pack up my bag, but then again, these clothes are pretty big even when folded and my bag is quite small. It's mainly small because it's meant to be tactical, and you can't exactly run or climb so easily when you're carrying around a huge backpack. Though sometimes I don't really need my backpack since I have my tactical clothing. But that's not a choice this time around, barely any of my violet clothes have pockets. Another question though is if I should even bring my brown clothing with me? Or do I wear the brown clothes and change into the violet ones once I get onto the ship? Perhaps vice versa? I don't know, Jeffrey never told me what I should do, he just told me that I don't have to worry about work today and just pack up.

Though I wish I could've helped out. Today they're all working in the fields which means that Diamond will get a break, Jeffrey stopped using her for the farm work around two years ago since she can't handle the weight of the equipment anymore. So there are several things I could've done to help out, take care of Diamond, help in the fields, or bring out food and drinks every hour or so. It's boiling out so I really wish I could be there helping everyone. From what I know it's only the three of them and around a hundred acres of farm to get through.

Yesterday wasn't so bad though, surprisingly once the sun started coming up the temperature began to drop. The only thing that was on my mind yesterday was Antonio, or at least the man I hope is Antonio and not just some random guy I was watching. His eyes meeting mine repeats in my mind constantly, his huge muscles flexing under his torn muscle shirt, his torn sweatpants and combat boots.

Wait, combat boots? Why would a ship worker wear combat boots? Is it possible that my mind replaced his outfit with other items later on at some point? No, there's no way. I have no reason to see his appearance differently. Then again, why would he have a skull mask on as well? None of the other men had masks on. Also, it's possible that he had weapons strapped onto him too, I remember seeing little bulges on his pants, like around the calves and thighs. I doubt that some random adventurer would need to carry weapons around, especially in Sareanin. It'd make sense to have weapons on you at all times if you were to be traveling to say Ulnac or Rapard, but Sareanin?

If that is the World Wanderer, then it's likely that there's even more I need to figure out about him before I spend even a second alone with him. It's possible that he might be a mass murderer or even a spy or assassin from another country. Plus I doubt he would've gone to my night school because I'm sure that I would recognize him. Sure, someone's appearance can change drastically in a year, but I'm sure either his name or voice would at least ring a bell. Plus it's barely possible to get a nickname like 'World Wanderer' in just a year's time, so it's highly unlikely for him to be a neutral assassin like myself and my colleagues.

So who is he?

Perhaps the Sareanin National Public Library has some documents I can search through. They keep records about the imports and exports of goods and people in a private sector, but I could just sneak past all the security. They also keep details about ship names and the workers present on said ships. So all I need to do is remember the name of the ship I saw that crew unloading crops from then search for the name Antonio Zuma. Perhaps I'll even be able to find a few articles referencing his nickname.

But how would I get there? I don't have a ride and the library is on the other side of the nation. Which would be over a ten-hour horse ride with the fastest steed in all the land, so I certainly won't be able to just run there. There's also the case with the skin-melting heat that would make the conspiracy theorists think that Duthious is attempting to take over again, so I definitely can't just go out for a run.