164. Kiss my Black Ass!
Chapter 164: Kiss my black ass!
By the time the sun started sinking, my muscles were screaming in that dull, familiar way that meant I had pushed them hard enough to forget everything else for a while.
The Adventurer’s Guild training hall had become my refuge for the day. Not peace. Just exhaustion. I ran drills until sweat soaked through my shirt. Lifted weights that cracked stone flooring. Circulated Ki again and again until my core burned like it had been packed with embers. Faster. Stronger. Denser.
More power. Still not enough control.
I kept thinking about percentages while I trained. Thirty nine percent. Like a joke someone carved into my bones.
By the time I dragged myself back to the Mikaelson Inn and Tavern, night had fully claimed Torak. Lamps glowed with that soft mana-light that pretended everything was fine. Laughter spilled out the front doors. Music. Life going on.
I pushed inside and headed straight for the bar.
Erik was there, polishing a mug. He looked up once, took in my expression, and didn’t ask a damn thing.
That alone nearly broke me.
“Ale,” I said. “Strong.”
He poured without comment. Set it down. Didn’t charge me.
I drank.
Then another.
Then another.
Time got soft around the edges.
Eventually Erik leaned on the counter across from me. “You look like a man thinking about running.”
I snorted. “Thinking about it? I’m fantasizing.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Dangerous fantasies.”
“Everything here is dangerous,” I said. “Including being useful.”
The alcohol loosened something ugly in my chest.
“I did what I had to,” I muttered. “If I didn’t do that, I would be dead in the ruins of that fucking cursed forest. I didn’t wake up that morning and decide to fuck over a kingdom. I was trying to stay alive.”
Erik listened. He always did.
“And now,” I went on, “I’m an enemy of the state.”
I laughed bitterly. “Enemy. Me. I don’t even belong here.”
He frowned. “You’re a resident.”
“Temporary,” I snapped. “Permit based. Revocable. I’m not a citizen. I don’t get protection. I get used. Anyway it doesn’t matter. I have seen this kingdom and it is dead to me. When this is over, I will be making myself scarce. Maybe find a small little kingdom that isn’t like this, at the brink of war with the most powerful state on the continent.”
I slammed my mug down harder than necessary. Ale sloshed over the rim.
“The Duchess doesn’t care. The kingdom doesn’t care. Why would they? I’m expendable. Convenient. Something to hand over wrapped in legality.”
Erik’s voice was quiet. “Running won’t fix that.”
“No,” I agreed. “But staying guarantees it.”
Another drink. Another.
The tavern noise blurred. I started talking louder. Didn’t care.
“I nearly died in that cursed forest,” I said. “You know what it was like in there? Magic beasts the size of houses tearing each other apart like it was feeding time at the gods’ zoo. Trees that tried to eat you if you stood still too long. Ground that swallowed your boots if you didn’t keep moving. The whole damn place wanted me dead.”
I laughed again, sharp and ugly. “And for what? So this kingdom can decide I’m treason with legs.”
Some patrons glanced over. One muttered something under his breath.
I turned on him instantly. “What are you staring at?”
He looked away.
“Yeah,” I slurred. “That’s right. Your kingdom sucks. You can kiss my black ass.”
Erik sighed. “Kaizen.”
“Fuck you and your king,” I shouted, not even sure who I was aiming at anymore. “I’ll be damned if I spill my blood for you worthless pieces of shit again. Go cry to your mothers for all I care.”
The tavern went quiet.
I raised my mug in a crooked salute. “Fuck everyone.”
That was when Freya appeared beside me.
I didn’t even hear her approach. I just felt the air change.
“Kaizen,” she said tightly. “We need to talk.”
I laughed in her face. “Oh look. The bitch who’s fault all of this is. Duty herself.”
She reached for my arm.
I yanked it back. “Fuck you! You don’t get to play concerned now.”
Her eyes hardened. “Lower your voice.”
“Why,” I barked, “so your precious city doesn’t hear what I think of it?”
People were staring openly now.
“It was because of you,” I said, pointing at her. “You know that? Because I trusted you. Because I followed you into that mess. That mission. That forest.”
My words spilled faster, angrier.
“I wouldn’t have taken it if it wasn’t for you. Wouldn’t have gone anywhere near that cursed place. I survived monsters eating monsters. Survived trees snapping at me. Survived the ground trying to swallow me alive. And now I’m supposed to smile and march to Avigate like a good little offering.”
Freya’s hand closed around my wrist.
Hard.
“Enough,” she said.
She dragged me toward the stairs while I stumbled and cursed. Someone laughed nervously. Someone else looked relieved it wasn’t them.
She hauled me up to the second floor, shoved open the door to room 2B, and threw me onto the bed.
I bounced once, laughing weakly.
“You can’t keep antagonizing everyone,” she snapped. “Things just got a whole lot worse for you.”
I squinted up at her. “Let me guess. The convoy got hit and the idiot envoy taken.”
She froze.
“What,” she said slowly. “How did you know.”
I swallowed my next words just in time.
“I am more than you know,” I said. “I know a lot of things.”
She studied me, suspicion plain on her face, but then she exhaled.
“The Duchess expects you to be part of the investigation,” she said. “Immediately. We need to find the Envoy before word reaches the Empire.”
I lay back, staring at the ceiling.
Of course.
The System had already told me. Rescue the Envoy. Mandatory.
It always knew.
Like it knew the beast horde was coming. Like it knew I would go after the Stone. Like it knew this would happen too.
The thought slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
“Is it predicting things,” I murmured, “or manipulating them.”
Freya frowned. “What are you talking about?”
I laughed softly, alcohol and dread mixing into something hollow.
“Nothing,” I said.
But inside, the answer scared me.
Because if it wasn’t predicting the future.
Then it was making it.