Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 530: Departure

The next morning swiftly arrived, normally, Asher would have slept like a baby without a care in the world, but he was on a mission and in an unknown territory, so he stayed awake throughout the night and only slept when it was 4 a.m. in the morning, waking up again by 6 a.m. Although he got only two hours of sleep, that was more than enough for someone like him, as his body and mind were far more resilient than that of an ordinary man and required far less rest to function at their absolute peak.

Asher didn’t bother bathing, he simply used Astra energy to cleanse himself before stepping out of the room, yesterday John had told him they would leave at sunrise, which would be 6:30 a.m., so he left his room at 6 a.m. as he wanted to arrive before the departure time and avoid giving the impression that he was careless or unreliable.

He got to the place where he had met John yesterday early, since he had checked into an inn that was nearby, so he didn’t have to walk far or move in haste. Arriving, Asher’s gaze fell on a long line of carriages and horses, the carriages were ten in number, each attached to two Enduron horses that would pull them with steady strength and disciplined endurance.

The caravan was going to be arranged with eight people per carriage with one person out of the eight acting as the coachman. Asher looked around, all eighty caravan members had arrived, he seemed to be the last person, he walked forward as he moved to greet them as he would be traveling with them for the coming days and possibly nights as well.

"Hey, Asher, you are here, for a moment I thought we were going to leave you behind," John’s voice resounded from the side as he walked forward with a bright smile on his face.

"Good morning," Asher greeted as he shook John’s outstretched hand, without missing a beat, he greeted the other members of the caravan as they were almost twice his age and regarded him with expressions ranging from curiosity to faint amusement.

"We will leave in a few minutes, we are just checking a few more things, maintenance and all that," one of the caravan members spoke, a woman, Asher nodded and said nothing more, understanding that preparation and caution were what kept large groups like this alive on dangerous roads.

"You will ride the same carriage as me," John stated, and with that, he led Asher towards his carriage with calm steps as he gave out a few orders with the ease of someone accustomed to leadership. Asher didn’t need anyone to explicitly spell it out for him to know that John was the leader of this caravan, the way the others listened and responded to him made that abundantly clear.

A few minutes blurred forward and it was now time to depart, Asher climbed into the carriage, but this one was made of pure wood. Unlike the ones he usually sat in that had cushions or were designed to limit the shaking of the carriage through intricate craftsmanship and layered suspension systems, this particular one had none of that, it was simple, sturdy, and entirely practical.

He had to sit on hard wood, at his left a woman sat, at his right a man, opposite him sat four other men, John was amongst them, making them a total of seven, with the last member controlling the Enduron horses from the front with steady hands and a practiced posture.

"How long will it take to get to the Blackstone Village?" he asked as the carriage rolled forward, his body already bumping slightly as the carriage moved over uneven ground.

"Hmmm, it will take us about a week, but since we aren’t going to the Blackstone Village and would only be stopping you near the area so you can complete the journey yourself, we will get there in 6 days or thereabouts," John replied as he sat with a calm expression, his voice steady and assured as though he had made this journey countless times before.

’Seven days then,’ Asher thought to himself, unbothered as the mission gave him a whole month to complete it, which was more than enough time by his standards. Soon, the carriage arrived at the Thornvein County exit gate, they weren’t searched nor did they encounter any issues, they simply passed through the gate with ease as the guards seemed familiar with the caravan and its members.

The horses galloped forward as the caravan rolled into the pale light that glowed over the world as the journey began in earnest. As the horses moved, Asher sat in silence as he didn’t have anything else to say or ask, his mind remaining composed and observant.

But although Asher kept quiet, it didn’t mean the rest did, John and the others simply chattered amongst themselves as they laughed and gossiped about various news and topics they had picked up in different villages and places where they made their trades, discussing market prices, rumors of bandit sightings, and trivial disputes between local nobles.

Asher, who was a lover of silence, peace, and quiet, couldn’t help but sigh in defeat, he couldn’t complain or tell those who were helping him to be quiet.

’Although I didn’t pay any coins, I guess my sanity is the price I have to pay for this trip,’ Asher sighed to himself as his eyes remained closed as though he was meditating. He was tempted to erect an Astra energy barrier and nullify the sound around him, to create a pocket of perfect silence within the shaking wooden carriage, but he didn’t, what if they talked to him and he didn’t hear because he had tuned them out.

’I wonder how one hundred people have been able to survive until now, moving in such numbers,’ Asher thought to himself. Normally they would either be robbed by bandits, or attacked by monsters and beasts lurking in forests and along desolate roads, but all one hundred caravan members seemed to survive every trip and trade they made and had made in the past. Well, aside from when an unknown force decided to kidnap some of them, mistaking them for villagers during that unfortunate incident.

’The strongest of them is at the Blazestar Life Rank,’ Asher thought, his senses subtly focused on a man that was seated within the carriage that was up ahead, the one at the very forefront of the caravan. Although the man was stronger than even John in terms of raw energy and presence, John seemed to be the leader here, which meant that strength alone did not determine authority within this group.

Asher didn’t think much of it, everyone had a system that worked for them. Maybe the one that was stronger than John was an all muscles, zero brain type of person who preferred to simply follow orders rather than shoulder responsibility, with that thought, he shook his head as he decided to forget about it once and for all, choosing instead to conserve his energy and observe the road ahead with quiet vigilance.