Chapter 1098: 85. Fooling
"This way."
The "fledgling" flapped her wings and led Muen out of the village. Although she was not very old, her pace was not slow. Before long, that village had disappeared into the mountains and wilderness behind them.
Not long after leaving the village, they came to a rather treacherous ridge. On the lower side of the ridge was a mine shaft, and Muen saw several people inside, mining something with clinking and clanging sounds.
After crossing the ridge, they arrived at a wasteland full of dry grass. Two children about Marcie’s age were bent over, rapidly harvesting that seemingly useless dry grass. Several haystacks had already been piled up beside them, while another tiny figure was staggering away with a haystack on their back. From far away, it looked like an ant carrying food, the person’s figure almost completely swallowed by the enormous haystack.
Then, after passing through the wasteland, they reached a continuous stretch of fields. This place was much livelier. Muen discovered that most of the people from the village were still here, working in the fields in full swing.
"Uncle Mika, good afternoon!"
"Uncle Taylor, you should rest already!"
"Aunt Casey, I already put your warmstone share in front of your house. Remember to take it when you go back."
Marcie greeted every person warmly. She seemed to be very popular in the village, and everyone responded enthusiastically as well.
"Little Marcie, are you finally setting out?"
"Yes. I’ve already received an invitation from Rabuya City, and I’m going to join the City-State United Pioneering Association!"
"That’s wonderful. Good luck."
"Mm, thank you, everyone, for your blessings. I will definitely become an outstanding pioneer, open up roads, unravel the curse covering this place, and give everyone a beautiful future!"
"Haha, then we’ll be looking forward to it!"
Laughter and cheerful voices echoed across the fields. Muen was not familiar with these people, so naturally he did not need to exchange too many greetings. He only took advantage of the opportunity while Marcie, who clearly had an extreme case of social confidence, attracted everyone’s attention. He went to the edge of the field and examined the food crops that had just been dug out.
"Most of them are these potatoes."
Muen picked up a potato about the size of an egg and weighed it in his hand. It did not look any different from the ones at Grandma Meg’s house, so the taste was probably no different either.
"The yield... is lower than I expected. I remember potatoes are supposed to have a very high yield."
Muen did not know the exact yield value of potatoes under normal circumstances, but it was certainly far more than this, because it was very obvious that most of the potatoes dug up here were poorly developed, with sparse results.
As for the reason...
Muen grabbed a handful of soil. Just by touching it, even as a complete outsider to farming, he could clearly feel how barren it was.
Poor soil, and daylight that would gradually decrease or even disappear completely. It would be strange if crop yields could be high in an environment like this.
"Is this also why that forest farm before was so precious?"
In a place where even crops carefully exposed to light struggled to grow well, trees, which were even harder to cultivate into useful timber, would naturally seem especially precious. Following Marcie all the way here, Muen had discovered that whether it was valleys or mountains, everything was indeed bare.
And in the village, the people here did not seem to use wood as fuel either. Instead, they used a mineral called warmstone, which could release high heat.
The things inside the backpack Marcie had swung around before, as well as the things being dug from below the ridge just now, seemed to be that kind of warmstone.
"What are you doing?"
Marcie, who had finished dealing with a large number of familiar villagers, finally had time to put her attention back on Muen. Her gaze was still just as wary and suspicious.
"Don’t tell me you’ve fallen in love with the taste of potatoes and decided to sneak away with a couple while no one’s paying attention."
"Stop messing around."
Even if he were going to sneak something away, it would never be this thing...
"I just think these potatoes should still be able to grow for a while longer. Digging them up like this really is a pity."
"There’s no choice. Everyone wants them to grow a little longer, but the Long Night Period is about to come. There won’t be any sun then, so these plants won’t grow anymore, and they’ll rot in the ground very easily."
Marcie pouted. "Getting sentimental here because of such an obvious problem. You really are childish."
Muen: "..."
"All right, all right. Hurry up and go. We have to get out of this valley before it gets dark. Otherwise, the road at night won’t be easy to walk."
Marcie urged Muen along and continued on their way.
They pressed forward, crossing the rugged ridge. Along the way, they encountered more people Marcie knew. They greeted one another, and some even gave Marcie small things, such as freshly dug potatoes, grass crowns woven from dry grass, or a tattered rain cloak.
The things were not many, nor were they valuable, but Muen could still sense the faint feeling they cast upon Marcie...
A kind of expectation.
"They seem to have high hopes for you."
"Of course. I’ve been the most outstanding child in the village since I was little, and I will inevitably become the most outstanding pioneer in the near future!" Marcie said with full confidence.
"Outstanding... What is twenty-three plus fifty-nine?"
"Seventy-three plus fifty-nine? One, two, three... carry the ten... Wait, I don’t have enough fingers."
"Truly outstanding."
"..."
Marcie blushed red with shame. She flung the finger she had almost bent in half and said angrily,
"What are you looking at? Whether I’m good at math has nothing to do with whether I can become the most outstanding pioneer!"
"...Indeed, it does not have much to do with it."
Of course mathematics had little relation to that so-called pioneer role, but it did have a tiny bit of relation to a person’s logical analysis ability.
Which meant...
"Miss Marcie."
After they walked out of the valley and arrived at a relatively flat area, Muen pondered briefly, looked at the gradually dimming night, and suddenly spoke in an extremely melancholy tone.
"There is something I want to tell you."
"What is it?"
Marcie warily crossed her arms over her chest. "Night has arrived, and you finally can’t suppress your lust anymore? I’m telling you, I learned quite a bit of martial arts from Uncle Taylor next door. Most boys aren’t my match!"
"No, that isn’t what I wanted to say. And I’m not some beast."
Muen clasped his hands behind his back and looked up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle. The silhouette outlined by the night made his handsome face reveal a few traces of depth.
"Actually, I... may also be a pioneer."
Although he still did not know for the time being what exactly a pioneer was, this little girl cared about it so much that it was clearly an excellent entry point.
"...You?"
"Correct."
"A pioneer?"
"Correct."
"...Pfft."
Marcie suddenly burst out laughing. She even seemed to find this matter so hilarious that as she laughed and laughed, she began lying on the ground, pounding it wildly with her little fists.
"You? A pervert who wasn’t even wearing clothes when we first met? You’re telling me you’re a pioneer? Pfft... Hahaha, too funny. This is the funniest joke I’ve heard all year!"
"You don’t believe me?" Muen lowered his head expressionlessly.
"Of course not? Do you have any proof? An approval document from the City-State United Pioneering Association? Or a badge symbolizing a pioneer’s achievements?"
"I have neither."
"Then what the hell are you talking about!" Marcie swore in a completely unladylike manner. Clearly, in her eyes, pretending to be a pioneer was an extremely hateful thing. "Grandma really did misjudge you!"
"...May I ask what distinctive characteristics pioneers have?"
Muen was not angry at all. He asked with great patience, "Aside from that document and badge you mentioned."
"Characteristics? Pioneers aren’t freaks like those Believers of the Night. How would they have any distinctive characteristics? But if I had to say..."
Marcie touched her chin and thought seriously.
"All pioneers are very strong! After all, pioneers go to those unknown lands to seek hope and a way out for us, who are trapped here. They experience adventures ordinary people can’t imagine. They encounter crises ordinary people couldn’t endure. And those who have survived until now under those circumstances are, without exception, humanity’s very strongest!"
"Adventures? Crises? Strong?"
Muen’s eyes lit up. "Isn’t that describing me?"
Marcie: ???
"Can you stop being so narcissistic? It’s disgusting!"
Marcie’s disdainful gaze was already enough to make certain perverts with special tastes climax on the spot.
Of course, he was not one of them.
"Actually, to be honest, I really am very strong," Muen said seriously.
"Hmph. Whether you’re strong or not isn’t something you get to decide yourself. Don’t tell me you think growing some useless dead muscle that’s only good for looking pretty counts as being strong!" Marcie said with her hands on her hips, full of disdain.
"..."
Then how could he prove it?
Muen began thinking with incomparable seriousness.
It had to fit the understanding here, and it also had to awe this ignorant little yellow-haired girl...
"Look at this."
Muen suddenly picked up a stone from the ground.
"What about it?"
"Touch it."
"What do you mean?"
Marcie was still very vigilant, and even more unwilling to have any physical contact with the pervert in her eyes. But under Muen’s serious gaze, she still mustered her courage and lightly touched the stone with one finger.
"It’s just an ordinary stone."
"Correct. This is just an ordinary stone. But next..."
Muen’s palm slowly closed. As his five fingers gradually tightened, slow and powerful, the stone was crushed bit by bit. In the end, it completely turned into fine sand, flowing out from between Muen’s fingers.
"See? It became ordinary sand."
"..."
Marcie’s eyes widened. Watching that fine sand slowly trickle down, she seemed to turn into a stone statue.
Only after a very long while did her little head seem to finish processing the scene before her. She spoke haltingly.
"Y-y-y-you... You actually crushed it directly? Such a big stone... You crushed it with one hand?"
"I told you. I’m very strong."
Muen casually scattered the fine sand in his hand completely, letting it be blown away by the night breeze.
To Muen, this was not anything difficult, nor was it anything worth bringing out and talking about. But the level of strength in this place was too low. Judging by the paper combat strength of those evil believers before, which was roughly equivalent to a dozen or so villagers holding farming tools, crushing a stone into sand barehanded was already an incredible display of power.
"C-could it be some kind of trick?"
"Didn’t you check the stone just now? ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) I did not use any tool to block your line of sight. I completed it right in front of you. If you don’t believe me, I can do it again."
"N-n-n-no... no need."
Marcie shook her head like a rattle drum.
"I was only asking. Are... are you really a pioneer?"
Marcie suddenly became respectful. Those eyes that had dared to glare at him fiercely before were now timid, clinging tightly to him like a sticky little kitten meowing for attention.
This little girl...
Should he say she was realistic, or that she simply worshiped these so-called "pioneers" too much?
Muen found it both funny and exasperating.
"I am. To be precise, I am a pioneer who has lost most of his memories."
"Lost most of your memories?"
"Correct."
Muen clasped his hands behind his back again and once more looked up at the sky at a melancholy forty-five-degree angle.
"I lost many of my memories here. So many that I may not even be clear on certain matters of common sense. In any case, when I woke up, my clothes were already torn to rags, and I had fainted by the river near your family’s forest farm."
"Fainted? And then?"
"Then I was picked up by Grandma Meg. You know what happened after that."
"..."
Marcie’s small mouth opened slightly, and her entire person froze again.
A pioneer, a pioneer...
The pervert she had nearly hit before was actually a pioneer...
Th-th-this... was this reasonable?
It sounded extremely unreasonable.
But just now, he really had crushed that stone in one move!
Such a big stone, crushed barehanded all at once. That was something not even Uncle Taylor, who had taught her martial arts, could do! And Uncle Taylor had even spent some time as a pioneer when he was young!
Besides, thinking about it carefully...
Why would Grandma, who had always been wise and calm, let a stranger escort her?
Could it be because...
She had actually known all along that the person before her was a pioneer?
Grandma...
She had blamed her before, but in reality, Grandma had considered so much for her?
"I’m very sorry!"
Marcie suddenly bowed hard to Muen.
"I-I-I... I didn’t know you were actually a pioneer. My behavior toward you before was far too excessive. I’m very sorry! If you want to punish me, then please punish me!"
"..."
Muen let out a long breath.
Mm. It seemed he had passed.
Although making things up was very immoral, compared to being looked at every day with the gaze one used for a pervert, this admiring gaze was still far more comfortable.
And just as he had guessed...
This little girl really was easy to fool.
Her eyes were filled with a clear and foolish innocence like that of a college student. If he did not fool her a little, it would simply be unworthy of such a perfect opportunity to be alone.
Without a hidden big shot like Grandma Meg around, fooling a little girl like Marcie, who had just stepped out into the world, was child’s play for him, wasn’t it?
"It’s fine."
Muen waved his hand, seeming extremely magnanimous. "As a pioneer, I certainly would not care about such a small issue. Raise your head."
"Thank you so much. As expected of a great pioneer..."
Marcie raised her head. As the two spoke, the night had already completely covered all things in the world. The sky was pitch-black and empty, yet Muen could miraculously see stars in this girl’s eyes.
This child...
After he drew out the relevant intelligence, he should properly apologize to her once.
Muen reproached himself this way.
However, that was for later.
Right now, he first needed to rely on this apparently very impressive identity as a pioneer and squeeze something out of this girl. He was truly looking forward to it...
"By the way, great pioneer, may I see your identity code?" Marcie suddenly asked.
"Identity code?"
Muen froze. What the hell was that?
"Yes, your identity code."
Marcie nodded and said seriously, "Every pioneer has their own identity code. It is the proof of identity that belongs only to them. As a pioneer, even if you’ve lost your memories, that code definitely would not be lost. That is precisely why it exists!
"...So can you take it out and show me?"
Muen: "..."