Chapter 75: Roads Diverging
Morning arrived quietly over Sunset City, the scars of the berserker incidents had faded but had not been forgotten.
A new tower was built at the centre of the city, people gathered around. The tower had the names of all victims of the incident.
And at the top of the tower, the statue of the God of Souls rested as the families of the victims often came here and offered their prayers.
Today Yan passed through the tower while dragging a goat behind him with the rope in his hand.
"Maa."
The goat obeyed and followed, they walked through the streets.
"Maa."
The goat looked at the meat that was being cut around, it glanced at a half-cut boar, and a half-cut chicken, and it stopped when its eyes fell on several dead goats hung on hooks.
Yan glanced at the butcher standing behind the cutting table, sharpening a knife against a whetstone.
"Maa, Maa."
The goat cried out, and upon hearing the goat's voice, the butcher looked up.
"Yan, it has been a while, isn't it?" he said, and then he looked at the goat.
"We have a guest as well, it seems."
Yan tied the goat beside the beam, and said, "I'm leaving the city."
The butcher looked at the goat and at Yan, Yan stayed silent for a moment and then said, "I am here to borrow your shop to butcher this."
"Sure, go ahead," the butcher said while he wiped his hands on a cloth.
Yan stepped forward and picked up the knife from the table, the blade felt familiar in his hand.
The butcher leaned against the post, watching.
"Do you remember the step?"
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"Maa."
"Maa."
The goat protested as Yan pulled it over to him and forced the goat's head across the beam.
"Yes," Yan said as the knife moved in a single clean motion.
Blood ran down the wood.
The butcher gave a quiet grunt.
"Still steady."
Yan lifted the body and hung it from the hook as blood dripped slowly onto the soil beneath the frame.
For a moment neither of them spoke, the butcher broke the silence.
"You remember the first day you came here?"
Yan began skinning the carcass.
"Yes."
"You stood there like a statue, and did not even move and just watched."
The butcher chuckled.
Yan worked the blade beneath the hide.
"You told me to leave." Yan said.
"I told you a lot of things."
The butcher crossed his arms.
"And you ignored most of them."
The hide peeled downward.
"Most men can't watch death without flinching."
He glanced toward the slaughter frame.
"You didn't."
Yan continued working as his knife moved smoothly along the natural lines beneath the skin.
The butcher watched quietly.
"Do you still think it's a necessity?" he asked.
Yan paused for a moment as the blood continued dripping into the soil.
"Yes." Yan replied.
"You are a weird one," the butcher said, but Yan ignored it.
The butcher picked up the whetstone again and began sharpening another blade.
"Where are you headed?"
"Trade Miller City."
The sharpening stopped.
"That is towards the west."
"Yes."
The butcher nodded once.
"The road is rough, be careful of strangers," the butcher said.
Yan finished cutting the hide free, the carcass hung cleanly from the hook.
"Not bad," the butcher stepped closer and inspected the cut.
Yan wiped the blade against the cloth while the butcher returned to the table and leaned against it.
"Yan, keep this in your mind."
Yan stopped.
The butcher lifted the knife slightly.
"Butchering isn't always about killing."
The man pointed the blade toward the hanging carcass, "Sometimes it's about saving."
"You cut wrong, the animal suffers."
"You cut wrong, the meat spoils."
"You cut wrong, the work becomes chaos."
The butcher looked at Yan.
"But when you cut correctly..."
He tapped the blade against the wood.
"...one death feeds many."
The yard grew quiet again.
Yan took a breath then cut a portion of the meat and wrapped it in cloth.
Then he placed the bundle on the cutting table.
The butcher looked down at it and at Yan, "What's this?"
"Offering from the disciple," Yan said.
"Thank you."
The butcher stared at the meat for a moment and snorted.
"Idiot."
He pushed the bundle back toward Yan and said, "You'll need more than me on the way to Trade Miller."
Yan didn't argue, he turned around.
"Yan, you damn kid, where do you think you are going? Take your meat back."
The butcher shouted, but Yan did not stop, he walked farther and farther away.
Far to the north, beyond the plains and river valleys, the black walls of Ebonreach, the royal capital of the Kingdom of Noir, rose against the morning sky.
Within those walls, Chen Yu had just arrived.
And Han Defu was already waiting.