Chapter 16: Mismanagement
It was the wee hours of the night and everyone was sound asleep. Every corner of the corridor was cast in darkness and draped in silence. The only ones still awake at this hour were the soldiers on patrol.
As the silent night ticked away, that was when it happened. Furniture started to rattle and clatter before a thunderous tremor shook the ground.
“An earthquake?” Ruri asked, waking up in no real panic, as she calmly watched the furniture tremble around.
Kotaro and Rin woke up soon after and huddled over to Ruri’s side. Chi, on the other hand, showed no signs of waking up as he remained conked out with his gut hanging out.
Even though the Spirit of Earth should’ve been the first one to react to an earthquake, Chi remained unfazed. Ruri was all the more impressed at the depths of his lackadaisical attitude.
“Are you okay, Ruri?” asked Kotaro.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Feels like a four in intensity—by Japanese standards, at least.” Ruri didn’t live in the Land of the Rising Earthquakes for nothing. This small set of tremors wasn’t nearly enough to spook her.
It wasn’t long before the quake died down and Ruri went back to sleep—that is, until a violent knocking assaulted Ruri’s door, one not caused by any earthquake.
Ruri jumped up from her pillow in surprise. “What? What? What?!” She rushed out of bed and opened the door to find Ewan and Joshua there, both looking tense.
“Are you all right?!” Ewan asked, a frantic look on his face.
Ruri thought he was going overboard, but she saw that even the normally jolly Joshua looked serious.
“Well, yeah. That little quake was nothing special. Most it did was wake me up out of a good night’s sleep.”
“Wait, why are you being so nonchalant?! The ground just shook!” Ewan replied.
“I mean, earthquakes aren’t really a rare occurrence, are they?”
As soon as she said that, she heard an awful commotion.
“Make sure His Majesty and Lady Beloved are safe!”
“This is unthinkable! The ground shaking, of all things!”
“Who in the world angered the spirits?!”
A chorus of flustered voices rang outside Ruri’s door. Things were devolving into a bit of a panic.
While earthquakes weren’t at all uncommon for Ruri, she finally realized that might not be true in this world.
“I’m guessing this is a pretty big deal, then?”
“Sure is,” Joshua explained. “I don’t know the deal in your world, but here, earthquakes rarely happen. In this world, they’re known as the ‘wrath of the spirits,’ and they’re said to be triggered by spirits, so everyone is freaking out right now.”
Not only were earthquakes infrequent, but because science hadn’t developed in this world like it had in Ruri’s, the reasons behind why they occurred were naturally ill-defined. It was no surprise they’d assume they were derived from some unknown force, given that fact. Then again, since this was a realm where magic existed, she couldn’t deny there might’ve been some factors that lacked a scientific explanation.
All of a sudden, Arman came running into Ruri’s room with his aides in tow.
“Ruri, is there something wrong with Lord Spirit of the Earth?”
“Chi? He’s fast asleep over there.”
“So Lord Spirit of the Earth didn’t cause the earthquake,” Arman said, his face a mix of relief and apprehension.
Assuming that Chi, a supreme-level spirit, was behind an earthquake was most likely normal in this world.
“I don’t think so. Chi does some outrageous things when he’s bored, but he’s calm when he sleeps. Even if he were awake, he wouldn’t do anything to cause trouble for others.”
“I see. Celestine said there was nothing wrong with the other spirits either. I suppose we’ll just wait and see what happens.”
Just as Arman, who was now feeling more assured, went to leave Ruri’s room, the ground started to quake once more. It was a very small tremor, but it seemed to be enough to instill terror in the hearts of everyone not acclimated to earthquakes. Frightened screams could be heard from everywhere.
“Hmm, aftershocks?” Ruri wondered aloud, the only one remaining calm.
The weak earthquake continued to persist. As Ruri was eating breakfast the following morning, the tremors started once again. The caretaker women all shrieked and crouched down in fear, but Ruri continued to eat unaffected. That was when she finally realized that these quakes had been happening a little too frequently. Some aftershocks were fine by her, but it could be the threat of a bigger earthquake to come.
She tried asking Chi since he was the Spirit of Earth, but he said he hadn’t done anything.
As Ruri pondered over other potential causes, one that crossed her mind was the landmark that lay far off in the distance—Mt. Ulawoon. She remembered it being a volcanic mountain. It wasn’t an extinct volcano either; it was very much active.
According to one of the caretaker women she asked, it last erupted a thousand years ago. A terrible thought crossed Ruri’s mind, but she decided not to think about it, assuming it was probably a baseless worry.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
Ruri had spent quite some time in the Nation of the Beast King. At first, she was extremely reluctant to have so many people acting as her caretakers, but now she had grown fully accustomed to it. Her caretakers had been waiting on her every need, hand and foot—so much so that she worried if she’d be able to return to life as usual, tending to her needs on her own, once she got back to the Nation of the Dragon King.
She had grown accustomed to all of the spice-laden dishes and was able to stomach them without issues, but the constant supply of spicy foods was making it hard to stave off the craving for the Nation of the Dragon King’s cuisine. Whenever she got the urge, she would eat the food she’d brought with her as she wondered what Jade was doing back in the kingdom—the thought of which made her somewhat sad and lonely.
It seemed she was getting homesick. She wondered when she’d be able to go back.
As her urge to return and see Jade again grew, Joshua came to her one day and asked her, “Hey, Ruri. You remember that mother and child who used the dragon’s blood?”
The father cured by the dragon’s blood along with his wife and daughter were still fresh in her memory, so Ruri had a very clear recollection of them.
“Yeah, of course I do,” she replied.
Both her and Ewan developed a look of satisfaction as they remembered their good deed from that day.
“Sorry to burst your bubble, but we’ve got a situation.”
“What do you mean?”
Ruri and Ewan both scratched their heads.
Joshua then proceeded to take them to the house of the mother and child from before.
“Come on, gimme some too!” yelled a man.
A woman declared, “My poor child is sick! I beg of you!”
“Don’t hog it all for yourself, dammit!” shouted another man.
In front of the mother and daughter’s house was a mob of people all raging in unison and pounding their fists at their door so hard it seemed likely to break. But no one was coming out. They were most likely too afraid to do so due to all the angry yelling.
The sight of all this was filling the air with a vague sense of dread.
“What’s all that about?” asked Ruri.
“...Those are people who came looking for dragon’s blood.”
Ruri and Ewan both gasped, their eyes widening in shock.
“A young girl assaulted Ewan, a dragonkin, for dozens to see right in the middle of town—screaming about giving her blood. And right after, that girl’s father goes from being on death’s door to good as new. Seeing that, people thought she must have convinced said dragonkin to treat him. Of course, the dragonkin cure that readily came to mind was dragon’s blood. The people in front of that house are out for blood—dragon’s blood, that is. And they’re asking for the family to put in a good word if they don’t have any to spare themselves.”
“Why did it all turn out like this...” Ruri murmured.
“Personally, I figured it’d turn out this way,” Joshua replied in a very pragmatic manner.
Ruri and Ewan both turned to him in surprise. “Why...?” they asked, neither understanding what he meant.
Joshua looked at them both with exasperation, like you would a couple of confused children.
“That’s just how big of an effect dragon’s blood has. It’s pretty obvious that anyone would want medicine that cures any ailment in the blink of an eye. You can’t just go using it in front of people or else it stirs up chaos like what you’re seeing. I specifically told you to be careful how you use it, didn’t I? That also meant to be mindful of any situations that’d come as a result.”
“Right...” said Ruri in reply.
“That goes for you too, Ewan. You need to think hard on why we don’t allow this medicine outside the kingdom, or sell it, for that matter. It’s to avoid situations like this. A single drop of dragon’s blood could very well start a war. That’s why dragonkin don’t just go sharing it with people.”
“Yeah...” said Ewan in reply.
Both of them hung their heads, crestfallen. They understood the terrible situation their compassion helped cause, albeit too late.
“And giving someone who attacked you dragon’s blood? That’s pretty much an open invitation, saying it’s all right for anyone to assault a dragonkin in the future. Are you both trying to expose dragonkin to danger?”
“We’re not!” they both replied.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if your thoughtlessness sparked something like that, though. People might try to use any means they can to get blood from us, playing the sympathy card and whatnot. And if we refuse, they’d probably call us heartless for not forking it over. But dragon’s blood isn’t an infinite resource, and it’s not something we can just hand out to everyone across the world. So, I’m warning you both—think about the repercussions before you act from now on.”
“...Yes, sir,” Ruri replied, slumping her shoulders, disheartened.
“Yeah, all right,” Ewan said as well, his shoulders following in suit.
Joshua rustled both of their depressed heads as if to say he was done lecturing them.
“But you’re not right at all, Joshua,” Ruri proclaimed. She looked up at Joshua, sulking. “Why didn’t you warn us of this happening back then? You just let Ewan and me run free and get excited without saying a single word.”
When Ewan had asked to use the dragon’s blood and Ruri had accepted, Joshua said nothing. He simply watched the two do what they did and told them about how to use the medicine. If he had given a proper explanation at the time, then neither Ruri nor Ewan would have even attempted to use the medicine.
“I figured it would be a good lesson for the two pushovers, getting all moved by that sob story. Sorry ’bout that.”
“You’re terrible. How can you be so dismissive?”
“Okay, maybe not the best way to put it, but you hear that kinda stuff all the time. Are you going to heal every single person in a similar situation? How? Processing dragon blood into medicine isn’t easy, you know.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really. It would take months to make the amount in that small vial you were given.”
That revelation shocked not only Ruri but Ewan, a dragonkin himself, as well.
“Wait, really?” Ewan asked.
“Wait, you’re asking? You don’t know how it’s made, Ewan?” Ruri asked.
Ewan winced as if she hit a very sensitive area.
“They still haven’t taught Ewan yet. There are some requirements to meet in order to learn the secret techniques. The most important of them are being trustworthy and keeping tight-lipped. You can’t teach secrets to someone who’ll give away medicine that’s not supposed to be distributed to anyone who tugs at their heartstrings. And I’m sure this little incident will help ensure he’s kept out of the loop for even longer.”
Ewan slumped in disappointment.
“Well, anyway, what do we do about that?” asked Ruri, referring to the mob that was still in front of the house. If they didn’t do something soon, then the family inside would have to sit in fear of the mob eventually busting their door down.
“Ah, right. I should probably straighten this out.”
“You can?” asked Ruri.
“Just sit back and watch,” Joshua said before briskly walking toward the mob.
Ruri and Ewan watched on discreetly from behind a corner.
Once the screaming masses shouting and banging at the door caught a glimpse of Joshua, they seemed to identify him as a dragonkin based on the aura he exuded alone. They ceased yelling and turned their attention toward him instead.
Ruri watched with bated breath, but Joshua simply gave his usual charming smile as if nothing was wrong at all.
“You’re a dragonkin, ain’tcha? Gimme some dragon’s blood, please. You gave it to the guy who lives here, didn’tcha?” demanded a man.
“Please, give me some as well. I’ll pay you good money for it!” pleaded a woman.
Joshua looked around at the people, each giving their individual requests, and spoke to them. “Sorry, folks, but dragon’s blood isn’t what helped cure the guy who lives here.”
“Don’t tell lies! Explain how someone that badly injured is good as new, then!” refuted the woman.
“Yeah! Explain!” said the rest of the mob in agreement.
Showing no signs of backing down, Joshua continued to elaborate. “It’s the truth. The Church of God’s Light healed the guy here.”
“God’s... Huh? What’s that?” Everyone in the crowd looked dumbfounded.
However, among the confused masses, Joshua’s words seemed to jog a single elderly woman’s memory as she said, “...Come to think of it, the lady of this house said something about a believer of some sort of church dropping by, offering to help them in their hour of need.”
The woman’s words prompted the others to finally start listening to what Joshua had to say.
“The Church of God’s Light healed the good sir here. Apparently, they save all who worship and swear loyalty to their god. They might still be in the capital, so why don’t you guys go looking for them?”
Hope started to set into the people, amazed that such a group existed. They had the power to cure the very sick and injured. No one knew what these people looked like, but everyone now seemed eager to search for them. But...
“Hey, instead of buying that bullcrap and searching for some mystery person, we could be having this guy give us his blood right now!”
Joshua had managed to divert the subject, but one man in the crowd snapped the rest back to their senses. Their eyes became frenzied, ready to pounce on Joshua at any moment, as tension flowed through the crowd.
However, Joshua kept his same smile, completely unconcerned with the bloodlust looming in the air.
“What? You guys wanna go? Against me, a dragonkin?” he asked.
Although Joshua was grinning, his powerful presence triggered the mob’s instincts and they quickly faltered. Joshua could tell that their bloodlust was starting to wilt away. The person they were up against was a dragonkin, the race at the top of the hierarchy. The fact that not even their combined forces as a mob stood a chance against him was embedded in their demi-human instincts.
“Instead of trying to do the impossible and fight me, I’d recommend you do something that is possible—namely, looking for the Church of God’s Light.”
Joshua intimidated them out of their will to fight. They looked around at one another before they started to leave the area one by one—either to go in search of the Church of God’s Light as Joshua said or simply because they’d given up.
Ruri, who had been watching the situation on edge, looked at Joshua as he came back to where she was hiding with Ewan. She breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that the people dispersed without conflict.
“I didn’t know what would happen there,” Ruri admitted.
“No way I’d let a bunch of wimps like that take me.”
Joshua was probably right, but she was still worried, regardless.
“I’m glad you’re safe, but should you have said that back there? You know, lying about the Church of God’s Light healing that man?”
“It’s fine. They’ll probably start searching hell or high water for the Church of God’s Light now that I’ve told them that. And if the guys we’re after actually are in the capital, we might just get some kind of intel out of it.”
“Yes, but, what if they find out you lied?”
“I’ll just feign ignorance and let it be that. Besides, those church guys are on the wanted list in the first place. If the government nabs ’em, then whether they did patch the husband up or not will be a moot point. The people from that mob just now aren’t going to go asking favors from someone in a jail cell.”
Although she still had some slight reservations, Ruri decided to drop it since the mob had safely cleared out from in front of the mother and daughter’s house.
“We don’t have any clues on the Church of God’s Light anyway. If we send out too many soldiers to search, they’ll probably go into hiding. But with those regular citizens on the prowl, they’ll never see it coming.”
According to the info, the Church of God’s Light was trying to gain more followers. Considering that they’d made it their mission to offer to revive the dead in exchange for becoming a follower, that logic should be accurate.
“But wouldn’t it backfire if they do end up recruiting more followers, especially because you told people about them?” Ruri asked.
“Just gotta catch ’em before that happens. The church might show itself in the capital if we give them an opportunity to gain a bunch of followers. That said, I’ve got a favor to ask of you, Ruri.”
“What?”
“I want you to ask the spirits for help. I’d like for them to pay attention to what people are saying and see if any followers of the Church of God’s Light contact anybody in the capital. If the spirits are too obvious, they might get found out, so make sure it’s discreet.”
“I think everyone can handle that if I ask, but will just watching in secret be good enough?”
“Yeah, we just need to find them. Have the spirits report in and make sure they don’t do anything to them. Just catching one member will allow the guys in charge to pass the buck to the small fries. So, if we’re gonna do that, I wanna let them swim a little bit and take care of the rest from the root when they least expect it.”
If Ruri were to ask the spirits, they would likely agree to her request, gleeful to help. Otherwise, she would just have to ask Kotaro and the others.
“Okay, got it,” Ruri replied.
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