BXBX NOVEL Chapter 49 Galtori Village
"Maybe this might jolt your memory…" Xuna said as she tied her hair into a bun, letting out a lock of hair cover one side of her face. She then hunched, causing her body to tremble as she touched the side of her face shielded by the lock of hair, acting like it hurt.
"You…!" Chief Yubak exclaimed in shock, trembling as he muttered, "Idiot Yuwol?"
"Yes, that was me." Xuna smiled as she corrected her hairstyle.
"But how…" Chief Yubak felt that it was hard to believe, "One side of your face was burned up in an accident. How are you perfectly fine now?"
"It was never burned in the first place." Xuna said, revealing her identity, "I\'m a spy of the Lerni Empire that was operating in the Fornol Empire for a decade. I infiltrated your department to seal secrets regarding the battleship you were building."
"So, I played the part of Idiot Yuwol to do so."
"I see…" He sighed, feeling a headache. Idiot Yuwol was the name given to Xuna after he took pity on her and rescued her from the streets. As she seemed dumb, he gave her simple servant roles to earn her keep.
The engineers called her Idiot Yuwol because she was somewhat scatter-brained. But thankfully for her, most of them were decent human beings and actually treated her well.
Unfortunately, during one of the testing of their battleship, Idiot Yuwol fell into a canal and was pronounced dead.
"I had already prepared a path before hand and swam my way through. There were three other spies helping me at that time, so we managed to successfully copy all the data." She spoke.
"So, that was why the Lerni Empire managed to outmanoeuvre us." Chief Yubak nodded in response.
"But Chief, why the heck are you here?" Xuna asked, "With your capability, the Fornol Empire should beg you to remain with them. Just what happened?"
"Just a case of simple rivalry." Chief Yubak shook his head, "The deputy chief wanted my position. So, when our battleships lost the first skirmish in the seas, he blamed it on my faulty design and jailed me."
He let out a breath of air, "But, I had a lot of supporters among the men I worked with."
The engineers he was on good terms with didn\'t like the deputy chief and had been dissatisfied for a while. So, they saved the chief from his prison and escorted him out of the Fornol Empire along with his family.
"These idiots followed me all the way to these sticks to establish this Galtori Village." He said, watching their wide grins before he stared at Xuna, "Will you reveal this location to the Lerni Empire?"
"Honestly, I\'m tempted, since you\'re that valuable." Xuna nodded, stating after a deep thought, "But, I don\'t wish to force you. I\'ve worked under you, and I respect you. So, I won\'t do it."
"When I acted as Idiot Yuwol, you treated me the best." Xuna smiled, "Life as a spy is pretty vicious. So, those days were by far my most comfortable days spent in the Fornol Empire, so much so that I hesitated to steal all secrets in the end and only ended up stealing the secrets regarding the battleships."
"Thank you," Chief Yubak thanked her in response, "Had you stolen any other secrets, I would have been hanged. So, you invariably ended up helping me."
"There are difficulties in this village, but I\'m happier here as compared to when I was in the Fornol Empire."
It was already late in the evening as the villagers began to return to their homes. Chief Yubak motioned for Xuna to follow him, making her stay in a room he emptied out.
"Dumbass!" Xuna shouted, raising her hands high up upon seeing a youth seated in the living room.
"That action…" The youth\'s eyes widened in surprise before he muttered, "Idiot?"
"Well duh!" Xuna laughed in response, then staring in confusion to see the youth remaining seated. In her memory, he was a chirpy guy.
Her eyes widened in shock as she pulled aside the table that he was seated behind, staring at his legs to see that one of them was missing, "Your leg…what happened to it?"
"The monster did this." Chief Yubak expressed his worry, "We didn\'t have a perfect victory. Yihan was carrying water from the river when he was attacked by the monster. He protected the rest but ended up losing his leg in response…"
Chief Yubak didn\'t even finish recounting the incident when Xuna condensed a rod, causing it to emit a gentle yellowish-white light as she touched his injured leg.
"What the…?" Yihan flinched in shock, staring agape as he saw his injured leg regrowing in a matter of seconds.
"I can also do this." Xuna said, patting his leg as she smiled, "Good as new!"
She then pulled him up, grinning as she saw that he was standing on two legs, "Dumbass!"
"T-This is…" Tears streamed out of his eyes as he stared at his regrown leg, in disbelief, touching it to see that it was as good as new, just as in his memory.
He then faced Xuna, only now noticing the horn growing on her forehead, "Thank you…"
"It wasn\'t much," Xuna nodded, "Healing abilities are rare among Horned Humans, but there exist a few."
"Horned Humans…" Yihan wiped his tears, asking, "What exactly are they? I have been hearing the discussion outside. You\'ve also mentioned the Blight Humans, right?"
"What is the difference between the two? What\'s their purpose?" He wondered, "And why did they appear all of a sudden?"
"It makes no sense."
"Well…" Xuna felt at a loss of words before clapping her hands, shouting, "Master, care to explain? I\'m curious about it too. I know you\'re here."
"You\'re getting better at wielding Coincidental Luck." Rhizen\'s voice resounded, startling the two men as a mosquito appeared before them, gradually growing in size until it became as big as their head.
It then transformed into Rhizen as he yawned a little, looking tired, "I hadn\'t had a wink of rest for the past few days."
"Even I slept pretty well, master." Xuna frowned.
"If I wasn\'t constantly aiding you from the back, you would have taken more than a decade just to get to this point." Rhizen rolled his eyes.
He then observed the trace of fear evident on the faces of Chief Yubak and Yihan, taking a seat nearby as he motioned for Xuna to sit too.
Xuna slumped on the sofa beside Yihan, patting his back, "Relax, dude. Master is terrifyingly strong. If he didn\'t stress it otherwise, everyone in the Lerni Empire would have begun to worship him as God."
"I\'m not a God though," Rhizen smiled wryly, "I\'ve just fought nonstop for a millennium. That\'s all."
"Anyway," He thought for a moment before speaking, "There\'s this entity called Apocalypse. Its only goal is to destroy all civilisation on every world it encounters. My goal is to one day destroy Apocalypse, but it\'s easier said than done."
"It has destroyed thousands of worlds already and would continue to do so." He spoke, watching all three listeners shudder in response, trembling in fear.
Upon seeing that Xuna too paled in fright, Yihan realised that she too didn\'t seem aware of it. He controlled his thoughts, hearing what Rhizen had to say.
"I established an organisation to go against it. We call ourselves the Post-Apocalyptic Dispatch Society, and our goal is to aid the recovery of all the apocalyptic worlds." He then used Dust Wave to compress and shape them into three worlds, "Currently, we\'re active in three worlds, the Undead World, the Green Sludge World, and the Aberrant World."
"Apocalypse\'s power had been concentrated the most in the Aberrant World. But, its peak power wasn\'t able to win against me, and hence, they extracted all their power and made an escape." He stated in annoyance, "And they did so by infecting my subordinate, Yulna, transforming her into an Aberrant."
"She also stole a Tower of Purification and turned it into a Tower of Corruption. And when she pierced through space, the closest habitable world was this." He said, controlling his tone to prevent scaring the other party too much, "Yulna isn\'t strong enough to kill me. And hence, she wishes to take over this world\'s strength."
"She would either kill me or use all that strength to contact Apocalypse." He continued, "That\'s her goal. And for that, using the Tower of Corruption, she\'s feeding people Devil Fruits to turn them into Blight Humans."
"Then…" Xuna stared in shock, "On that day when I came across you, had I consumed that Devil Fruit…"
"I would have killed you," Rhizen nodded, "But that wouldn\'t have happened because of your Coincidental Luck. So, you needn\'t worry."
"So yes, war between the Blight Humans and the Horned Humans is inevitable. It would eventually swallow this entire world." Rhizen concluded in the end, "That\'s just how things are."
"But, if we destroy this Tower of Corruption, then our world is safe?" Yihan thought for a minute before asking.
"Unless Apocalypse personally makes an appearance, yes, it\'ll be safe." Rhizen nodded, "Without her Tower of Corruption, Yulna wouldn\'t be unable to create any more Blight Humans. It would cripple her growth and make it easy for me."
\'But, if he\'s the enemy, our world is doomed, right?\' Yihan made eye contact with Chief Yubak as the same thought resounded in the minds of these two intelligent men.