Chapter 196: Shadows and rainbows
The fields shone in all sorts of vibrant colours beneath the bright sunlight. It wasn’t wheat nor any other mundane crop that was planted here, however. Instead, it was a strange magical fern, glittering in a faint Red within one’s Mana Sense. Its leaves ranged from pale blues to fiery reds, to piercing yellows and exotic pinks in one’s regular vision.
And, completing the magical scenery, the rhythmic chirps of crickets added a soothing melody to this tapestry of natural beauty. It was almost enough to cover the occasional grunts of the farmers and the dull thuds of their rakes stabbing into the moist dirt. Though there was little it could do to mask the acrid blend of sweat and fertilized soil assaulting the nose.
Either way, Jason wasn’t in the mood to appreciate any of this. He’d spent weeks travelling to this latest destination, praying to Phoebe it wouldn’t be another dead-end. Yet, it wasn’t until the last day or so – when he had already approached enough to determine what sort of place this was – that his hopes were dashed once again.
“Fucking waste of time!” he spat, his clenched fists drained of all colour.
He was tempted to toss the objects against the ground to quell his anger, but he held himself back. The last thing he needed was to add more misleading karma threads to the items. Both the Aurora Dew and Nesha’s clothes had pointed him to this location – among many others, each more useless than the last. This time, the trails had already split up, leading to multiple people, many of them among the farmers working here. But it didn’t take a genius to figure out that none of them were his targets.
“Hey! You there!” he yelled at the nearest person to whom both sets of threads were attached.
“M-My lord?” the farmhand stuttered, taken aback.
He dropped the rake in his panic, hurrying towards Jason. Though he didn’t say anything upon reaching him, seemingly struggling to find the right words. Luckily for him, Jason had plenty of questions for him.
“What do you people grow in this place?” he asked.