Province of Sulus
Satoshi drove his vehicle slowly on the main road as he traveled westward toward the port. He had one of his hands holding his communication terminal.
"As of now they still haven't found out the exact identity of the two Grand Masters or their current whereabouts, but they have singled out two of the most likely suspects.
One of them is a genius of Eyriin that disappeared 60 years ago somewhere in Asira. He was known as Master Immortal Outreach or something.
The other is a female of Sulus but she moved to the Frozen South wilderness and made a name for herself 40-something years ago. Known also as Celestial Whisper.
Their relationship, affiliation, or their motives for the attack is still unknown. So far the United Front speculate that the reason for Human King's excursion this time is to flush them out.
Seems like he has reasons to believe that they are somewhere in Terra-Esterna. So I guess you can expect things to be a little bit rowdy there very soon.
I guess that's it, that's all Dante is allowed to tell me. I'm heading to Xinjia-kor soon, let me know if you need anything.
[BEEP! Recording over BEEP!]
Satoshi played back the message he just recorded and listened carefully. After he made sure there was nothing wrong with it he then sent it to Oda. He then proceeded to compose another voice message, this time to Mahalini.
[BEEP! Recording message BEEP!]
"Hey, I sold three boxes of your dried persimmons to the military guys in United Front's Sulus Branch. Sold them for double the price. But I'm three boxes short now, so you will need to notify some of your customers and let me know how I should adjust the delivery.
The army guys also asked if you can make routine delivery to their base, I'll send you their details later so you can contact them yourself. I will also send you the money from the sales as soon as I get the chance."
[BEEP! Recording over BEEP!]
Satoshi gave it a once over like before and then sent the message to Mahalini. He then rummaged around inside his vehicle compartment and took out a map. Carefully, he opened the map and checked on the route he was on.
"I need to hurry a bit if I want to make it, didn't think visiting Dante would take that long."
After he reaffirmed the routes he would need to take, Satoshi folded his map and put it back into his vehicle compartment. He wrung the throttle on his vehicle even harder, sending it barreling on the road even faster than before. He was worried he would be too late to catch the ferry to Xinjia-kor.
Satoshi's journey had been smooth thus far. He took the main road whenever he could and drove for close to 12 hours non-stop every time. Since this vehicle was not equipped with autopilot, Satoshi needed to maintain his focus all the time. When he felt a little bit tired he would take a 10-minute break to freshen up and continue shortly.
Satoshi made his own fuel for the vehicle using the gloves that Unsui had made him. When he ran out, he would stop for a bit and make some more. Thus he did not need to worry about fuel and fuel expenses.
As Satoshi was cruising through the long empty road, he noticed that there was a vehicle stopping ahead of him. Two people were standing around this vehicle.
Satoshi didn't ease on his throttle but navigated his vehicle to go around the stopped vehicle. In fact, he went even faster.
The two people standing near the vehicle noticed Satoshi was approaching and instead of moving to give him a way through, they moved closer to Satoshi.
"HALT!!"
One of the men gave a loud shout as he signaled for Satoshi to stop.
Satoshi paid no attention to it and planned to continue driving. But as Satoshi became closer he noticed there was another vehicle stopped ahead of him, and then another one. Suddenly, someone came out from his blind side and directly stood in Satoshi's way.
"Please! Stop!"
Satoshi was taken by surprise by the sudden appearance and quickly pulled his brake. The vehicle slid and screeched as it was drastically losing speed. Finally, it stopped just a couple of feet in front of the man.
"Are you nuts?! What the fuck are you doing?!" Satoshi barked at the man.
He eyed the two men he passed that were now behind him from his rear-view mirror. At the same time, one of his hands slowly moved toward his hip where he kept his karambit.
The man slightly frowned from being cursed at but still calmly replied, "Forgive me young man, but we are in an emergency and in a dire need of assistance."
Satoshi closely watched the man and the vehicles. The man could still reply politely after being cursed and these vehicles seemed luxurious, thus Satoshi thought these men shouldn't be common bandits. But he still maintained vigilance nonetheless.
"What do you want?" Satoshi asked with a flat tone.
"We would like to trouble you with going back where you came from, to the city, and fetch us a mechanic. One of our vehicles is having trouble."
"I'm actually in a hurry, I don't think I can afford to go back to the city…"
"We will reward you handsomely for the trouble."
"Why not ask your own men to go, these other vehicles seem fine to me."
"I'm afraid we cannot break our convoy."
Satoshi noticed the weird answer and thought what could be the possible reason, "Then why not move your cargo to the other ones? That should be easy enough."
The man looked closely at Satoshi after his probing question," I'm afraid that won't be appropriate for me to do so."
"Welp, then I guess there's nothing we can do. Now if you'll excuse me…"
"Please, young man, we are quite tight on time and you are the first traveler we have encountered. I don't know how long we would have to wait for another to come along."
"Then just move your cargo, where are you rushing to anyway."
"It is very important for us to catch the earliest ferry to Xinjia-kor."
"Well I'll be damned, I'm also heading there so you know how pressed with time I am," Satoshi said as he slapped his cargo of dried goods.
The man looked at the things Satoshi brought with him and pondered, "We will pay you 5 Gaels to compensate you for the tardiness we caused."
"Dang! I thought you were going to be generous!"
"Ten Gaels! It should be more than enough to pay for your expenses two times over, and with a lot to spare."
Satoshi pretended to ponder, "Well even if you are willing, I'm not sure I can find and convince any mechanic to come all the way here, on such short notice no less…"
"Just find the mechanic and promise them 10 Gaels just to come, there will be more after they fix our vehicle."
"Yeaaa…I don't think it would be that easy. We don't know what problem your vehicle has, what if they can't fix it."
"It's a coolant problem. The coolant reservoir is leaking and the energy core is overheating. It's a pretty simple one to fix if they have the equipment. Just tell them that and bring the appropriate equipment."
"That does sound simple…So let me repeat, you will give me 10 Gaels to bring you a mechanic, and you will also pay them 10 Gaels just to come. Extras will be given when it is fixed."
"That is correct. Now, if you could hur-"
"Upfront."
"What?"
"I want to be paid upfront."
The man was surprised by Satoshi's sudden request for upfront payment. He wasn't sure if he should trust this man whose identity was totally foreign to him.
"Remember, we are in a rush here," Satoshi said.
The man gritted his teeth and decided to gamble on it. He had no other choice at this moment after all. He took a money bag from his pocket and after taking some of the contents, gave it to Satoshi.
Satoshi received the ten Gaels and couldn't help but smile. With this, he would be able to afford the fare for the ferry. 'Guess I won't need to use the medallion after all!'
"Fund received, thank you," Satoshi said as he put the money into his inner pocket.
"Now, if you would hurry-"
"Relax, let me take a look at your vehicle." Satoshi got down from his vehicle and approached the vehicle that was in the middle of the convoy, the one that needed repair. This one was considerably bigger and more luxurious than the other two.
The man hastily approached Satoshi, who was getting closer to the broken vehicle.
"You don't need to look at the vehicle, just tell the mechanic what I told you and it would be enough."
Satoshi disregarded what the man said and squatted down and looked under the vehicle. There was a puddle of coolant seeping from the reservoir. Satoshi could even see where the leak was.
"I won't be so sure about that, after all, there are many kinds of vehicles so there should be as many kinds of coolant, right? Can you pop the trunk?"
The man was getting anxious at Satoshi's longwindedness, he unwillingly popped open the trunk in hope that Satoshi would hurry as soon as he was done with it.
Satoshi analyzed the engine compartment of the broken vehicle. There was still steam wafting out from the overheated energy core. Satoshi didn't understand much about the majority of the components, but as the man said it was a coolant problem, a rather simple one.
"You have seen it. Now please, hurry, we cannot waste any more time."
"Oh relax, it's a simple problem. Your young master should be able to fix this if you just ask."
The man was startled at what Satoshi just said, but before he could retort Satoshi had walked away toward his own vehicle and took a huge jug of water.
Satoshi took off his driving gloves and put on the gloves Unsui had made him.
"Now, it is not necessary, but do you happen to have anything with alcohol and sugar?"
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