RE:WRITE

33.0 Grayscale_Chapter 8: Flint

"Finally!"

I splashed through the waves and fell onto the sandy beach, hugging the land as tightly as I could.

"Finally, I thought I'd never walk on the ground again. Ugh, damn sea, damn raft, damn Kai!" I rambled, sprawling on the beach and rolling in the sand.

"Hey, it wasn't that bad, was it?" Kai chuckled, guiding the raft up the shore.

"Shut it." I said, glaring at him.

"For once, I agree with the shady hero, shut it Kai." said Runir, trudging out of the water.

Amy glared at him too but didn't say anything as she got off the raft.

Kai sighed. "Hey, I taught you how to swim, didn't I? Imagine how embarrassing it would be if people found out that the Hero couldn't swim?" He smirked at me.

I felt heat rising up my cheeks so I turned my face away.

I heard Kai chuckle. "Right, let's get rid of this raft."

"Wait!" I shouted, stopping Kai from putting it into his Storage.

He looked at me quizzically, but I strode past him without meeting his gaze. I walked up to the raft, took out my Sacred Sword and cut that fucking wooden board into pieces.

I turned around, feeling satisfied, and ignored Kai's upturned eyebrow as I walked away from the beach.

-

"No way." I said.

"Never." said Amy.

"Not a chance." Runir.

"Too late, I already promised to train you and I've only managed to teach you how to swim so far. We still have to go over my special training course." Kai said.

"I don't like the sound of that." I mumbled.

This was bad. If that week kicking water out on the sea counted as 'learning how to swim,' then I was sure that this 'special training course' would be even shittier.

"Don't worry, I don't think you'll need my help getting stronger physically. No, I'm just going to help you guys toughen up mentally." said Kai, picking his way through the forest. "But for now, we need to find- oh here it is."

"What the hell?" said Runir, his eyes widening.

"How can this-" I said, dumbfounded.

In front of us was a road. Not a paved stone path or a gravelly mud track, but a real asphalt road like back on Earth. But why would something like this be in a fantasy world like Erath?

"Now we just have to follow this to the Second Anchor City and then we can make our way up to the- What is it? Why did you stop?" Kai said, realizing that only Amy had followed him onto the road.

"This is a fucking road!" I said.

"Really? I thought it was a bunch of dead birds. They keep dropping out of the sky when they hear something dumb." said Kai, dryly.

"No, I mean this shouldn't be here." I scowled at Kai.

"Why not?" he said. Even Amy was looking at us with a confused expression now.

"The books did say that the Demon Lords and Heroes brought knowledge from their own world but it never said anything about roads. But if they have roads..." muttered Runir.

"But why didn't we see any in the other Kingdoms?" I asked.

"Oh, is that why you're confused. These roads are expensive so only the Air Kingdom builds them, since they're the only ones who actually need them." answered Kai.