The party of six consisting of The King of Peasants, Lily, Richard, Cindy, Brick, and Allen, departed in the afternoon of the 20th of July. 12 days remained before the Dragon Hunt began. After a few hours on the extremely fast camel dogs, two thirds of the group made it to zebear breeding grounds.
"We'll start with Richard's first as it is the easiest. Zebears don't contain mana so they aren't particularly dangerous unless you cannot keep your distance. Rookie mistake number 7, never go head to head with zebears," King said as he jumped off his camel dog. Lily followed after struggling to get off, "I've never hunted a zebear before."
"Really? Then this will be your first time."
"I'm hunting too?"
"Everyone gets a chance at hunting in this party," Brick answered as he rode in closer with his camel dog. "Your highness, it's my turn to start the hunt."
"Is it really? I thought Cindy gave up on hunting last time, it's still her turn," King replied grabbing a large carrot out of the bag on the side of his camel dog. While Brick and Richard got off of their camel dog, King fed his camel dog with the carrot as he conversed with Lily.
"Why did you party up with that freak," the King whispered to Lily.
"H-Huh? Are you talking about Allen?"
"Yes. From what you've told me, he's not normal. I don't even think he's human."
"But, I don't know, I feel like I can fix him in a way."
"Fix him? He picked a fight with his master and he even got a baby killed! See, this is why I've had so many problems with society. First they, your family, tax us and ask for donations when there is a whole lot of us in poverty. Next, they still allow slavery for some reason. Not even Xyoinia has slavery."
"I get that, but we have to have some of these systems in to allow for us to continue to thrive. W-Without slavery..."
"Without slavery, we won't have freaks like Allen. Children can grow up normally and get the proper education they need."
"I've been trying to explain to him what empathy is and how to be empathetic, but I'm not sure if he understands it or not."
"He's 15 right?"
"Yes."
"And this is the first ever time he's been free. Have you even asked him what he's been doing the past week."
"No."
"Rookie mistake Lily, know exactly who you're helping. You've seen what he's done as a slave, what will he do as a free man now? A hunter on top of that, he might kill a man sooner or later."
"Killing a man, hunting a zebear, isn't it the same thing?"
"If you believe that, then why did you become a hunter Lily?"
Thoughts raced throughout Lily's mind, 'To be my own person. That was my reasoning, but what does it all mean. What did I mean by being my own person. Did I want to be free? Who is Allen? He's honest and lost. Is he a bad person? He ate a baby, of course he's a bad person. He understands respect in a way? What the hell goes on in his head? What is even happening in my head?'
"Mr King sir," Richard interrupted their conversation as King's camel dog finished eating the large carrot, "We've unloaded everything, and we're ready to go. Brick has gone out to scout out the area. Is there anything more we need to do?"
King smiled at Richard, "We'll be on our way, just try to keep up with Brick."
"R-right! Thank you again for doing this for me," Richard bowed.
"Raise thou head. I am but a simple hunter at the moment. Hunting is like going on the crapper," King snickered, "It's private, and no matter how much you may struggle, the result is a refreshing feeling."
Richard raised his head, he took a moment to think about what King had said, then he laughed at the metaphor. "Yes sir," he began running off toward Brick who wielded a shovel and a backpack the size of his torso on his back.
As Lily smelt the rancid smell of burnt flesh, she looked around to look for Allen and Cindy who had yet to arrive. "They'll be here eventually. Let's just follow the others, this isn't even our main hunt anyway."
Lily nodded, signaling King to begin following the footprints of Richard and Brick. Lily followed behind her as she noticed the camel dogs tied up to a tree, they looked exhausted and beat. 'I wonder if Allen is exhausted right now. Would it even matter, he has like a ton of stamina, this should be nothing to him. Then why have they taken so long? Whatever the reason, it should be fine. Yes, Lily they are fine, just follow King.'
A mile away from them was an exhausted Allen, he was dripping in sweat. Each movement he tried to make felt as though he was lugging his body through a deep crevice in the ocean. With him was a bored Cindy, who rode on her slow paced camel dog while throwing a ball that glowed with a fine white transparent light at trees that surrounded them. Each throw was as swift as a peregrine, it glided through the air as though it commanded the winds to carry it. After hitting a tree at extreme speeds it would bounce back just as fast, and without fail, even if she had to jump off her camel dog; she always caught it without getting injured or too dirty.
"How do you do that," Allen asked panting.
"It's Mage Ball, have you ever played it?"
"No. My master never really let me play games. I've never really heard of Mage Ball."
"Good. I'll teach you the basics of the best game ever created in human history."
"It's that good?"
"I'm lying of course. It's just my favorite game."
"Lying is bad you know. A God might light your pants on fire."
"Who the hell told you that bullshit."
"I've read it from a book. It's my favorite book."
"What's it called?"
Allen paused for a moment, his legs gave way a second later as he fell face first into the ground. "I forgot," Cindy laughed at Allen before stopping her camel dog, and jumping off and stretching herself. She bounced the glowing ball in her hand off the ground, it flew straight up to the sky. She then extended both of her hands out, then gestured her hands as though she was coaching Allen's body to float up and get laid down on the back of her camel dog. Her hands glowed a fine transparent light.
While Allen's body listened to the coaching of Cindy, she finally responded, "How do you forget the title of your favorite book?"
"Well, you know what. I've been going through a lot lately. Can't you have any empathy, or sympathy for me? Sometimes things just happen and I don't even know why. It hurt to think about them so I just kept working and going along with that witch guy, Wick. Every thing I said he had something to say that confused me, and now I'm wondering who I even am anymore. I thought I was special because of my eyes, but I hear that there are hundreds of thousands of people with eyes like mine," Allen's body successfully made it on top of the camel dog.
"People are liars, you know you can still be special even when there are other people like you," Cindy cracked her neck as she looked up at the sky and took a few steps back and extended her hand.
"That wouldn't make me special then, I have to be the only one," Allen said as the ball finally came down, landing perfectly in her hand.
"Fuck it, kid, quite frankly, I do not care enough about you to worry myself with this shit. You wasted these last few hours just running and wasting mana to catch up with us, when you could have just gotten on the damn camel dog. Can I please just get a few moments of silence in peace," Cindy groaned and jumped on top of her camel dog.
Like a dog, Allen obeyed her order as he reflected on the two weeks he spent with Lily on their way to the Truman Farm. 'Lily said I have to take better care of myself. I can't allow myself to keep getting hurt like I did with the unicorns. Yet I let myself get tired like this, I let myself get beat by master. I should have just run away. Am I really free? Am I still a failure? If that King guy can kill the last dragon, what's the point of me. He's worked harder than me, he has such a higher HEL than me. Maybe I can work harder than him, but in time for the hunt... That's basically impossible. Should I just die....'