Two days after the heist, Lu headed for the outskirts of Yennet County on a country road leading back to Leoso. It was time to hand over the requested bounty for someone to bring it back to the Prince.
Lu followed the road until he saw a carriage with a subtle, faded red handkerchief tied to its side.
"Heyo! Nice weather we're having, don't you think?"
"That's not the code."
"Eyy, cut me some slack, Jimbo. I forgot the code."
Jim, the same smuggler who had brought Lu into the country, was also in charge of bringing the skull back to Leoso.
"..."
"So you're running double shifts, eh?"
Jim shrugged.
"The boss pays well. What can I say?"
Jim looked around before reaching out with a hand and accepting the bag with the skull. He didn't check the contents before stuffing it inside a secret compartment in the carriage.
"So, uh, kid, did you…?"
Lu shook his head.
"Nope. I didn't get any opportunities to try it out. The only person brave enough to fight me was this beautiful lady with a sick sword. I can't use such a thing against someone like that."
"A beautiful lady with a sick sword…?"
Jim looked at Lu in doubt.
Lu nodded.
"Yeah. She introduced herself as Raiva Bahsi."
Lu said her name with a dreamy expression, reminiscing about her beauty and the feeling of her thighs.
Jim turned his head forward and whipped his horses into action. They got the message and started to move.
"O-oi?"
Lu stared dumbfoundedly at the back of the carriage before sprinting to catch up. If he were fast, he would make it before the horses built enough speed. However, it didn't seem like Jim had any intentions of letting that happen, as he encouraged the horses to go faster.
"What the fuck, man?! Not even a goodbye?"
Lu shouted while running.
"Of course, there's no goodbyes. This meeting never happened! Stop chasing me!"
Lu furrowed his brow as he glared at the disappearing carriage.
"Hmph! Fine! See if I care!"
Lu did care. He crossed his arms and huffed before stomping his feet a little and kicking the dust on the ground.
"Sure, she's a mass murderer and what-not. But it's not like she's that scary…."
Lu walked back along the road with a frown until his eyes gradually started lighting up.
If people were so scared of Raiva that they wouldn't even let Lu talk about her without running away with their ears covered, Lu just had to change the public's opinion of her!
Lu nodded decisively. He knew what he was doing next.
With a goal in mind, Lu started knacking out a plan as he made his way to the Bahsi Duchy. As usual, he spent every moonlit moment training his Blessing and world essence. But he was finally feeling like he wasn't getting any more world essence, no matter how much he trained.
Lu was both disappointed and excited. It meant he could finally begin condensing his world essence. But it also meant he had hit his limit in terms of world essence purity. It was a shame. He had almost hoped he wouldn't have a limit and could just continue training his world essence forever.
Unfortunately, such an exaggerated dream wasn't possible.
'Unless…?'
Lu got an idea for how he could change that. So, he held off on starting his world essence condensation until he could confirm it, either for himself or by asking his Master. It wasn't like he absolutely needed to get stronger right now.
Lu was calm as he walked through the deserted Bahsi Duchy that only had menacing forests with tall trees and hungry beasts. He could see remnants of old cities and towns during his journey. But there was barely a sign of life anywhere, except for the beasts that tried to turn Lu into supper.'
'Okay, maybe I need to get stronger.'
Lu wasn't a match for any of the beasts who looked at him with interest. All he could do was run like hell until night fell and hope the clouds wouldn't obstruct his survival.
However, Lu, who had skirted around on the edge of recklessness, the wrong edge at that, finally ran out of luck.
He didn't even hear it until it was too late.
Some kind of six-legged beast with two fluffy tails had thrown itself out of the forest and straight at Lu. It had done so during the night, as if its dark fur and predatorial eyes weren't proof enough of it being a nocturnal beast.
Usually, the night was when Lu was the strongest since the moon bathing him in his light increased his strength, speed, and reflexes, not to mention his ability to Stroll around inside the beams of moonlight like a spirit.
However, for whatever reason, the six-legged beast had decided to attack Lu on a night when the moon was but a sliver and hidden behind a thick blanket of clouds.
'Shit.'
Lu narrowly dodged most of the first lunge before he even knew what was going on. He had leaned forward and dove into a roll. But the beast still managed to leave several deep scratches on his back.
Lu hurriedly got up and fished out a dagger from within his sleeve.
"Hey, can't we talk about this, Mister Fox á la Shadow?"
The fox-like beast responded by stepping to the side before promptly launching itself forward, its jaws opened wide, ready to swallow Lu into the impenetrable darkness hiding in its mouth.
'If that's how it's going to be, Mister Fox, then I'll show you…!'
Lu tried to raise his dagger but ended up getting pushed down by the fox-like beast's front paws. He just barely managed to stop the beast from eating his face by putting his arm in the way.
"Argh!"
Lu cried out in pain. Getting bitten and chewed by a ferocious beast that seemed strong enough to pull Jim's cart on his own wasn't nice.
Lu felt the bones in his arm begin to break.
He gritted his teeth and used his other hand to take out a dagger from his hip area.
'Oh, no, you don't!'
Lu channeled his world essence into the dagger's hilt.
Concentrating with the fox spitting in his face from the other side of a heavily bleeding arm leaking blood into his eyes was difficult. But compared to trying to sleep when Margie was snoring? A cakewalk.