Chapter 12: Chapter Twelve
"Alright, this is where we part ways."
I said, smiling at Wolbach who was leaning on one leg with her hand on her hip.
"Yeah, it was nice meeting you two again. Do be careful though, there are bandits on the road to Axel..."
We stared at each other for a moment before Ethan snorted and I chuckled. Wolbach joined us in our indulgence in "Powerful humor".
"Aaaah~, good one. By the way, do you know where we can find Iron Bark Overlord? We kind of need its... bark."
I asked her, causing her to give me a thoughtful look. She hummed and put a hand on her chin.
"You can probably find a few in the twilight forest, though they have high magic resistance... Be careful of the faries though, they tend to mess with one's perception of time."
I nodded, sending a glance at Ethan who got into the carrige which was departing in a few minutes after they were finished loading.
"I shall keep that in mind, Thanks Wolboch."
She smiled and I turned around to get into the carriage. I sent a final glance back at her, seeing her wave and go back inside the city.
"We're moving out!"
I heard the owner of the carriage shout and we started moving.
"You like her."
Ethan pointed out, looking at me nonchalantly as if what he just said wasn't the dumbest thing that had ever left someone's mouth. He knew me, and that made it worse.
"She has a nice rack."
I tried to get him off my back by agreeing and placed my head on my knuckles, still looking at Arcanletia.
"Yeah no, I'm not that dumb, I've known you for a second lifetime now, and I know your type. Remember our second year at university, that hot lecturer who started working there, you glanced at her once and rolled your eyes like she wasn't an Instagram model."
He slipped back into English when he started talking and I just shrugged. True, I did not care how hot a person was. True, physical appearance did draw my eye but if I didn't know how they acted, I usually lost interest pretty quickly.
"Look who's talking, you hopeless romantic. I know we are brothers now, so unfortunately you lost all of your chances with me."
He scowled, rubbing his forehead.
"Can you stop acting gay for five minutes? I'm trying to have a serious talk here."
I took a deep breath and lost the amused expression on my face, looking at him seriously for the first time since what felt like a lifetime ago.
"I don't want to talk about it, Ethan. Why are you bringing it up now, anyway?"
He returned my expression, tilting his head to the side like he did not understand why I was acting like this.
"Because our life started now. We are free to roam around the world, I got over my past life a while ago, while you are still the same."
I scowled at him, my annoyance spiking at the tone he was using like I was a slow kid who needed something explained to him patiently.
"Get over yourself and enjoy the second chance you have. There are no parents to resent for forcing you into something you don't want, there is no medical course with fourteen subjects to fuck you over-"
I raised a hand, interrupting him mid-tirade.
"I get it, okay, no need to fuckin remind me. I'm doing what I can-"
This time, he cut me off by slamming his hand on the wooden wall.
"You're doing shit! I watched you distract yourself! You only talk to me, our sister, and our father, you are not trying!"
We glared at each other and I had half a mind to teleport away to somewhere to calm down or blow off some steam, but decided against it and leaned back, taking the same position I was in before and looking outside of our carriage.
This hasn't happened ever since we came to this world, and I can confidently say that I did not miss it at all.
My mood took a nosedive into oblivion and I needed something to take my mind off of this conversation before I was calm enough to think it through.
I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment.
This was going to be a long ride...
___
"If you want to pass, you need to pay a fee, old man!"
I looked outside the window, looking at the gathering of five people who were holding various weapons. A bowman, two swordsmen, one using an axe, and one of them even holding a staff.
The said old man was trying to calm the situation down, to talk it out since he did not have enough money to hire a party to protect the carriage.
I scowled at the lowlifes that were blocking our path.
"I'll deal with this."
I jumped out of the carriage, heading toward the bandits who were acting tough in front of an elderly.
I didn't even bother with reinforcing my body as I walked closer.
"Whose the kid? Don't try to play the hero here bo-"
A blade of wind cut through the dumbass's skull, and I watched as the top half of his cranium slid down and to the ground, followed by the body dropping next to it lifelessly.
There was silence for a second before the archer in the back snapped out of his daze and shot an arrow at me.
Wind erupted from my body, throwing the arrow off of its trajectory. Before it could land, I raised my arm, a singularity sphere appearing in the middle of the bandits.
They screamed and struggled as they were sucked into the gravity spell, in front of my palm, a red magic circle appeared, glowing faintly.
"Ignition wave."
I muttered, and a wave of fire spewed from the center of the magic circle. They screamed, they begged but it all fell on deaf ears as they burned.
I channeled more mana into the circle and the flames started changing color and I watched despondently as they burned to a crisp. The singularity sphere disappeared and the bodies dropped to the ground.
"Was that really necessary?"
I glanced back, Ethan was looking at me with a raised eyebrow. I shrugged, I needed to blow off some steam.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
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stone