A Mysterious Land! Destination: Urvenia! (100)

It was about two weeks later. Akasan had just left White Claw Academy for the day.

Narumi met him at the door. They starting walking back to the palace.

"Your last day right?" she asked.

Akasan nodded. "Those kids are something special, I can tell."

"So tell me. Where were you headed again?"

Akasan looked at her. "I'm going to Urvenia."

Narumi stopped walking for a moment. "U-U-Urvenia?!!"

Akasan kept on going. "Yup. I have business there."

Narumi caught back up. "But why? Doesn't everyone want you dead down there?"

Akasan shrugged. "Maybe. Doesn't matter though. I got some information saying that they wanted me there for something, so I'm coming to them first. Besides, it's the closest I'm ever gonna get to Olympia without being hunted down and killed." He started chuckling.

Narumi facepalmed. "Honestly, I don't understand you sometimes. What do you expect to gain?"

Akasan looked at her. "If I'm being honest, nothing."

Narumi couldn't help but laugh a little. Akasan was so simple it was amusing. "How will you get there?"

"I've got a ship waiting for me at the port. I'll get back before too long."

The two walked up on a fork in the road. Akasan went right, Narumi went left. She waved as they parted ways.

"Have a safe trip! I'll watch over the kids while you're gone!" Narumi said.

Akasan waved back. "Thanks, I left a training schedule for them, make sure they follow it!"

Akasan flew out towards the eastern harbor of Arbok. He boarded a ship and sailed out.

The course went above and around Titania instead of the quicker southern route as to avoid Olympia as much as possible.

Akasan looked behind him. "This boat is pretty fast..."

The boat Akasan was on had some modern modifications to it, so that it could travel from country to country much faster than previously possible. He crossed his arms, looking out to the deep sapphire seas. "I'd much rather fly."

After four days' worth of sailing, Akasan was finally dropped off at the northern coast of Urvenia. He hopped off the boat and went on his way. He looked back as the boat left.

"Well, no turning back." Akasan said. He scanned his environment.

It was a wasteland of dark red rock and dirt. The terrain was rocky and jagged, but the elevation didn't vary much over a difference of a few feet.

He started walking.

Soon he came up on what appeared to be a town.

Most of the buildings were made out of old wood, the people walked around in tattered clothes, and there was almost a pure dead silence in the air.

"What is this place?" Akasan said to himself.

A little red-headed girl tugged on his jacket. "Hey, mister... do you have anything to eat?"

Akasan looked at her. She was deathly skinny, just like everyone else he could see. Her eyes were of those who'd suffered greatly.

Akasan reached into a bag he had on his side. He pulled out a plastic-wrapped sandwich.

"Here." he said.

The girl smiled and took the sandwich. She ran off with it.

Akasan sighed and kept walking. He came to a four way intersection in the dirt paths.

"Hey, you! What's that you got there?"

Akasan heard a man's voice, but it wasn't talking to him. He looked to his left. It looked like the little girl had gotten stopped by some sort of officer.

"I-It's... food..." the girl said timidly.

The officer smiled. "Food, eh? Let me see that." He swiped the sandwich. "Eh? A sandwich? What are you, rich? Obviously we haven't been taxing you enough. Maybe we should start charging double!" He started unwrapping the food.

The girl started crying. "No! Please don't eat that!! It was given to me, it's not yours!!"

The officer frowned and lightly kicked her to the ground. "And what rule prohibits me from eating this? I'm a bit hungry too, you know... I haven't eaten since breakfast!" He opened his mouth to take a bite.

Akasan suddenly intervened, grabbing his arm before the officer could sink his teeth into the bread.

The officer growled. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

Akasan glared at him. "I don't recall giving you that."

The officer tried to snatch his arm away, but it wasn't budging. *"What?! I can't move my arm! Is this some sort of trick?!"* he thought.

Akasan casually removed the sandwich from the man's hand and gave it back to the girl. He let his arm go.

The officer glared back at him. "Hey, do you know who you're messing with?! You'll regret this you outsider!!" The man ran off to an unknown place.

Akasan looked back at the girl. "You alright? What's your name?"

She stared up at him. "Aimi. What's yours mister?"

"Akasan."

Aimi smiled again. "Akasan! Here, come this way!" She tugged at his hand and led him somewhere.

Akasan ended up at a small shack of a house.

Several parts on the outside were clearly old, even some wooden planks coming off on the sides.

Aimi pushed open the door. She pulled on Akasan and brought him along with her.

There was a young woman on the floor sitting on a straw mat. She was at a low table knitting with some yarn.

"Sister, I'm home!!" Aimi exclaimed.

The woman looked up at Akasan. Her eyes widened. She hurried up and grabbed Aimi, shielding her. "You!! What do you want with us?! I paid everything I owed yesterday!! Isn't that enough?!!"

Akasan held his hands up. "Woah, woah, relax. I'm not from here."

"Huh?" she said, with a surprised look on her face.

"I'm from Arbok."

Aimi looked up at her sister. "That's Akasan! He gave me some food and stood up for me against one of the officers!"

The woman saw the sandwich in Aimi's hand and relaxed. She sat down out of relief and sighed. "Oh... well, thank you, Akasan. For feeding my sister. My name is Sara. I really appreciate it. But this is no place for someone like you. Outsiders aren't welcomed in Urvenia. It'd be better for you to leave."

Akasan closed the door behind him and sat down at the opposite side of the table. "I appreciate the concern, but I won't be going anywhere. I'm investigating, you could say. What's going on with those officers?"

Aimi split her sandwich in half and gave some to Sara. "They're bad people." she said.

Sara nodded. "They work for the shogun of this country."

Akasan crossed his arms. "Shogun? Of the entire country?"

"Yes. Urvenia doesn't have names for their towns. Everything is united under the king. The shogun rules the country in public, while the king only has to worry about foreign matters. The officer you saw earlier was one of the shogun's collectors. They pillage from the citizens to make the higher-ups richer."

Akasan tilted his head to the side. "That's weird. A king that rules over a shogun... but still, it doesn't seem fair to all of you. I mean, what kind of king leaves his people so poor?"

Sara looked at him. Fear was in her eyes. "King Dabi. A frightening man. I've only seen him once. He was coming back from another country and walked through this town. He killed more than fifteen people by the time he'd left us."

Akasan frowned. "Just because?"

Sara nodded slowly. "Just... because."

Aimi looked sad. "He's the one who took mommy and daddy away from us..."

Akasan prevented himself from getting worked up. He kept his cool. "Isn't this country a territory of the Seventh Order? Don't they keep track of this kind of stuff?"

Sara shook her head. "Urvenia isn't part of it. This land is forsaken. Dabi was given ownership of Urvenia as his playground. He can do whatever he wants here. He is God. Nobody cares about Urvenia. A land with no forests, no jungles, no open plains. Almost all of the soil here isn't fit to grow food. Water is scarce and made to be expensive. It's the land of red rock as if it was always bloodstained. A country forsaken by the gods themselves."

Akasan looked her in the eyes. "Do you want me to tear it down?"

Sara looked shocked for a second. "Huh?"

"Do you want me to change it. The country."

Sara shook her head frantically. "No! You'll make yourself a criminal! You'll be hunted by... them."

Akasan sat up. "Who's them?"

Sara was sweating now. "The King's Bloodhounds. A team of assassins."

Akasan put his hands behind his head. "Oh, assassins? That's no big deal."

"Yes it is a big deal!!" Sara yelled. "There are twelve of them! And they're all pure-blooded archangels!!!"

That caught Akasan's ear. "Archangels? Real ones?"

Sara nodded. "They're strong, too strong. You can't fight them. Every country in the world fears them!" She looked down. Her eyes shook with fear. "There's a rumor... that ten years ago, all of them were ordered to kill Jasper, one of the Three Phantoms, who insulted the king's pride. The twelve of them together hunted the phantom down and battled him. And they all lived."

Sara looked back at Akasan. "If there's no one here with you, then you absolutely should not go against the king! You'll be killed!"

Akasan stood up. "Archangels huh. And they can go toe to toe with a phantom together..." He closed his eyes, apparently in deep thought. "Nope, I'm still gonna do it. Even if you tell me not to."

Sara abruptly stood up. "But I just told you!! They're too strong!!"

Akasan smirked. "Well I'm pretty strong too, believe it or not. Besides, my dream is to unite the entire world together. I can't do that if I'm scared of some assassins."

Aimi jumped up. "You can do it!! I know you can!!"

Sara looked at her. "Aimi!! Don't encourage him!! He might really die you know! Why are you so confident?!"

"Because he's nice." she said.

Sara gave up. She fell back to the floor. "We're done for."

Akasan opened the wooden door. "Don't worry. I won't die. I'll win." He left the house as Aimi waved him goodbye.