God Complex - Vol. 1

III. Peculiar Client-Part III.

Jun walked through the streets on the land-based part of Nuoach Bay towards one of the rivers that flowed through it.

The river was called La Nin in Mang, or the Long River in Common.

Jun hadn't used the Common Language since he had learned it in his early childhood as he spoke his native language during his time in the kingdom he grew up in. And then he only used Mang since he moved into the Mang Kingdom.

He didn't have a permanent residence in the kingdom but he did reside in the inns and traveled from city to city.

The last thing he expected himself to be doing was to be traveling to Perenykisk and having to brush up on the Common language.

Common was a way for people of the Lands to communicate easily if they didn't know each other's language. It was the official language of Perenykisk since it was so diverse and mixed. Whether it be from the amount of foreigners that entered the kingdom to do business or reside there.

The Long River was used as a way to get to Perenykisk from the East. It started from Nuoach Bay into the river of a city that was close enough to Perenykisk that you could get there by horseback in half a day.

It was a pretty straightforward way to get to the capital of the Yimpan Empire pretty safely. If you didn't run into robbers, creatures, or dragons.

As Jun stepped onto the dock and held his bow close to his chest. He wasn't an adventurer but since he didn't have permanent residence anywhere he had to travel with the little amount of belongings he did own.

The bow was covered with a blanket to hide what it looked like because it looked extremely expensive and he didn't want to deal with robbers everywhere he went. Or attract unwanted attention.

He had a talisman that was looped around the back of his pants. Jun wore his usual tunic, black pants that were cut out on the sides with string crisscrossing in an X shape to hold it together to a degree, and boots.

Jun also wore his small backpack on which held his sweater, makeup that he frequently used, and extra money that couldn't fit into the pouch that An had given him.

He stood on the docks for a bit, waiting for a merchant or someone that was traveling to Perenykisk.

Eventually he saw a small sampan boat coming down the river. Jun immediately recognized it as a Huazan boat and waved his hand to try and get it to stop.

Fortunately, the boat let down its anchor and stopped at the docks. He saw that an elderly woman was the only person on the sampan.

She was wearing a simple red Huazan robe with a white apron that was tied around her waist and covered the bottom half of the front of the robe.Long white hair was tied up into a bun on the back of her head with sticks that seemed to be decorated with small, silver flowers.

"Hello miss," Jun said in formal Huazan as he did a quick bow at the woman.

Formal Huazan was often used for those who were older than oneself, of high authority, or an elder. Every Eastern language had a formal variant.

The woman eyed Jun as she looked up at him on the docks.

"What do you want...boy?" the woman asked in an abrupt manner, squinting her eyes up at him.

Jun immediately recognized that she spoke a dialect of Huazan that was spoken in the secluded mountainous villages that used to be around Shiyong.

Before they were burned down by the emperor and the people slaughtered.

Jun stood motionless on the docks staring at nothing in particular while he tried to suppress his thoughts.

"I don't have all day!" the woman yelled as she hit the edge of the docks with her long wooden paddle that shook Jun out of his trance.

"Ah sorry miss!" Jun apologized quickly, raising his bow in defense. Along with him switching his dialect from that used in Shiyong to that of the woman's, "I just want a ride to Perenykisk or the city near it. I can pay you."

Her facial expression softened as she noticed that Jun spoke her dialect.

"Hop in then, I want to get there soon." The woman tapped her foot on the floor of the boat.

Jun bowed again and carefully hopped into the sampan below. Then went to pull up the anchor for the woman so that they could continue down the river's current.

He offered her some Mang money but she shook her head.

"I don't need to be paid with your money. Meeting someone else who knows the dialect of Kaomi is more than adequate payment."

Jun smiled at the woman while he sat down at one of the two wooden chairs that surrounded a small table.

He looked at the small hull situated on the other end of the boat and saw boxes of cargo stacked tightly together. Along with a small bamboo bed in front of the cargo with a small lantern hanging above it.

Jun decided to take a look at the scenery around them as they traveled. After a while the scenery of the houses and buildings of Nuoach Bay were replaced with amber and fir trees which also covered the top of the river.

Causing the river to be mostly shaded with beams of sunlight coming through the spaces in between the leaves and branches. It was a new type of scenery for Jun to see and he welcomed it gladly.

"What's your name?" the woman eventually asked Jun as she sat down in the remaining chair at the table.

"I'm called Jun Li." He bowed his head slightly.

"Misaki Kimura," she said with a small smile, "what draws you to Perenykisk?"

Jun knew that he couldn't tell her the real reason because she would more than definitely throw him off into the river in disdain. Or hit him with her oar.

"I heard about how profitable hunting was over there so I decided it was time for a change of scenery." Misaki looked at him as she leaned back in her chair.

"Have you even heard about the creature terrorizing the countryside over there?" she asked, a hint of concern in her tone. Jun ran his hand through his hair.

"Yeah. But the profits are worth it." He did a small nervous laugh as he held onto his bowstring tightly. The woman sighed at him as she shook her head.

"You young people nowadays. So reckless."

The two of them decided to sit in comfortable silence as they took in the scenery around them and the ambience of various animals.

Jun guessed Misaki is quite familiar with this scenery as he noticed she was soon taking a nap in her chair.

Evening soon came and Jun was tracing the symbols that were engraved on his bow.

Misaki was fusing around with the boxes of cargo. Making sure that all of her exports of fruit were there and that none of them got stolen.

Jun learned that she worked for exporting fruits from her stepson's farm in one of the coast cities of the Mang Kingdom.

All of a sudden Jun heard her speak to him as she continued what she was doing.

"Oh, Jun." He looked over at Misaki. "It is more than likely that He is going to be traveling to Perenykisk to claim the generous reward for the bounty there."

Jun frowned at her words.

"Who's 'He'?" Jun watched as Misaki stopped what she was doing and looked at him with intense eyes.

Like this was common knowledge. She then spoke, with a slight tremble in her voice.

"Arkshan..."