No Longer Feeling Vol.1 [The Bellken Escapades]

Himura Satō

A cold breeze brushes my cheek. Sitting atop the stone wall, I tap on the wall, creating a clunking sound. I lift the gauntlet with a bit of effort to inspect it. A solid iron plate covers the top part of my forearms. There are many gaps between the plates which show the leather underneath. Each plate was attached to the leather with multiple pins, it was not uncomfortable since before wearing the gauntlet, I wrapped the bandages throughout my entire forearm. I then use the leather strips and tie it in a spiral pattern going up and down before securing it tightly.

Turning to my hands, the top of my hands was protected by the steel plating, each joint of the fingers had a gap allowing my fingers to function like normal. My palms and the lower half of my forearms included straps near the elbows and wrists to tighten the gauntlet.

The shin guards were a lot simpler, only having a single solid plate and three straps to tighten it. I sigh and look up to the moon. The brightness has gone down considerably and yet when I turned to the city, there were people still going around, houses still filled with light, and work still being done.

From what I can gather, people with eyes that glowed slightly were the ones active while the people such as myself were now sleeping. I turn my head to the stone tower within a certain distance of the wall. I felt something for some reason.

I yawn. Considering that I have not slept for an entire day in my world, and another day in this place, my body is begging to just collapse right at this moment. Looking back to the city, I try to find a place to sleep. I cannot get into any inns or hotels even after getting a few coins for obvious reasons so I have to look for an alternative. 

As I go down, I see a ladder in an alleyway. "..." I pondered for a few seconds, looking around trying to see any flying creatures around. I took my chance, I feel that this is probably illegal but I do it anyway. If I stay longer my heart might feel heavy and make me not do it at all. I cannot have that, besides, the roof of this random house is probably safer than the alleys.

Laying down on the clay shingles, my back is already hurting but in the end, I still slept like a baby. Still, as I drift into slumber, I could not help but feel something again.

After god knows how many hours, I heavily opened my eyes, the land had an orange-like hue that is slowly turning blue. Activity in the city is still the same with the diurnal species active in the morning finishing their work and going home.

Looking around, the ladder was gone. "Ah shit." I said to myself in a tired tone. My back was aching but other than that, nothing happened to me. Looking at the small pouch, there are still the same three silver coins and two bronze coins inside like yesterday. My long blade is next to me, my switchblade is in my pocket, my spear with a broken handle was near my leg, and everything was still in my bag.

I feel dirty, I want to take a bath but to do that I need to get off this roof first. Looking at the edge, I saw a balcony next to this building. I jumped and a young woman inside saw me land. I put a finger in the middle to my mouth, asking her to keep quiet as I jump and land into the alley.

I fell on my butt but I stood up as fast as I could and left before the young woman could take a look at me. I walk to the same hole near the slums as I comb my hair with my hand as my hair is currently resting on one side because of the way I rested my head.

Leaving the city, I find myself in the same river as before, the same place where I washed my face. Looking around, the goblin's body was gone, probably eaten by something. On the way, I was grabbing some sticks and now, I place them all in a line surrounding an area, hidden in the grass.

This basic alert system will do for now. First and foremost, I drank as much water as I could. My body suddenly feels a lot energized unsurprisingly and then I take off all of my clothes and hang them in a branch. I sat in the river, washing my hair, sometimes drinking it, and generally just enjoying myself as I began to think again.

"Hmm…what to do with my coins…" I ponder. The best move right now is to observe the people use their coins to buy certain stuff so that I have an idea on how to buy things for myself without talking.

"That also means that I should not be wasting my time here." With that, I leave the brief movement of peace that I had in the river and basked in the sun as I dry myself on the grass. After some time, I put on my clothes and with a head tilted, I walk back to the city while squeezing the water out of my hair.

Behind the trees near a river was a certain knife-eared woman, holding a knife. A bow hung around her body like a backpack and a quiver by her waist. Hanging on her forearm was a towel. "..." She remained silent as I passed her without me noticing. 

Back in the city, I was in a line of three people. I peek in front to see what they were doing and eventually it became my turn to talk to the vendor. "ᏇᏂᏗᏖ Ꮄ'ᎩᏗ ᏇᏗᏁᏖ, ᏦᎥᎴ?" She asked in her gibberish language. With a bit of hesitation, I spoke crudely, "Ve…re…a…du." I felt embarrassed for a moment, how long had it been since I felt this way?

"ᏂᎧᏇ ᎷᏗᏁᎩ?" She responded as I was opening my coin pouch. I did not know what she was saying but I realized that I have not specified what kind of bread and how many so I pointed at a circular loaf and raised one finger at her. 

I have no clue how much it was, but according to the lady at the very front earlier, it should be more than my 2 copper coins and so I gave her a silver coin. She hands me the bread and 7 copper coins with a silver trim.

After getting it, my eyes laid at the drying large price of meat hanging. My mouth was watering at the sight of it. From the looks of it, the meat is probably the thigh of an animal. 

I wanted to buy it as well. But I could not quite catch what the man said in front of me in the line and so I could not ask for it. "..." After a few seconds, there was desperation in me and I pointed at the meat, handing her my last silver coin.

She grabs a knife and cuts a nice chunk of it. The man earlier handed 2 silver coins and was nearly given half the meat so I was confident I could get something with the silver coin. I bow and smile to her slightly, she seems to be flustered at that but I was turning around by the time she did respond.

As darkness began to encompass the land, I enjoyed my bread and meat. The bread sucks compared to even stale bread in my world but the meat is at least bearable. 

Looking up, the moon was not as bright as last night. "There goes my plans." I said to myself, disappointed. Even after searching casually, I still could not find the same group as last night and since I have no light source, I probably will not be leaving this city.

As I wandered around, I found myself walking atop the stone wall. The bread was nice, food from my home was still better but it was nice. The dried meat also had a surprisingly good taste but then again, it was my first time eating smoked meat so I have no basis for it.

I sigh and clear my thoughts, feels like thats all I have been doing recently. I sigh again. "It would be understatement so say that I'm fucked. I lack so much information and I hate that fact. Thankfully, that earlier event helped me realize that I have chance of learning the basics. It would take time but it was plausible. But that's the problem, I need time to learn and to get that time, I need money to survive."

I think back to my days here, "Apart from art, fighting is the only thing I can do to make money. But somebody else will have to do the talking which means…" I look back to that knife-eared woman, out of the entire group, she seems to be the one that trust me the most. And so, if I stick by her or maybe we team up because we "coincidentally" have the same goal then I might be able to earn money. That might work if I am lucky.

"What a leech…and creepy too." I mutter at the back of my head. It was night, she would probably be awake like last night, hopefully. As I look around, I notice that there were a lot more armed people walking around and half of them are diurnal. "Is there some sort event or something?" 

Actually, there were a lot armed people including guards and looking around there were almost nobody is simple civilian clothing. A chilling breeze passes me and as if the world was listening, the answer came quickly.

Looking up, gigantic green fumes coming from god knows where was swirling around the moon until eventually, that fume turned green then at that moment, loud and aggressive growls came outside the wall and from the moon.

In my stunned silence, I was both mesmerized and fearful as flying creatures with imp-like proportions assaulted the city. "Crazy thought, but I think that's not good." I said to myself sarcastically, reminded of the cruelty this world possesses.