East Road Quest

Chapter 40: Bread

Ruby halted in her tracks as she approached the fallen sand goblin.

“Huh? Dead already? How can one that didn’t die even after losing half its head perish from a mere forehead wound?”

Jade followed Ruby, questioning as well.

“That’s what I’m wondering. I was taught that demons only die by the light of annihilation…”

Ruby, to verify, nudged the sand goblin’s corpse with her foot. Jade pondered while looking at the hole pierced by a chain in the demon’s forehead.

‘If such physical attacks can kill, then human weapons might slay demons too. But if each has a different weakness, it could require hundreds of sacrifices to figure it out.’

Soon after, the sand goblin decayed rapidly, crumbling like a poorly made sandcastle. Other monsters evaporated in a similar fashion, one by one.

The black blood on Ruby’s forearm also vanished with the black smoke.

“Let’s go. If we stay here, we’ll keep fighting the same battle,” Jade declared.

“I wouldn’t mind that,” Ruby replied.

“I would,” Jade countered.

“Really? Then let’s finish off this one too.”

Ruby flung her chain into the nearby sand. As it burrowed and reemerged like an arrow, it dragged out a monster with a snake-like head and an insect-like body encased in armor.

The creature screamed in agony like a pig dragged to a slaughterhouse, resisting desperately.

Ruby, twice the height and five times the weight of an adult, dragged the massive beast along and punched it. The creature’s face, protected by hard scales, shattered, and black blood splattered around.

“You were pretending not to notice, hoping to call more of your kind?” Jade asked, horrified.

“Yeah. But look at this. This one’s still alive in this state.”

Ruby pointed at the monster, still alive despite its smashed face.

It tried to flee, kicking rapidly, but was bound by the chain.

“Why is that?”

Ruby asked, curious.

“I’d rather not know right now,” Jade replied, reading the dark demon annihilation incantation. She placed her glowing palm on the sticky, blood-covered head of the monster. It burned in the light, and the demon’s blood on her hand also vanished.

‘Is it alright for demon blood to touch human skin?’

Jade rubbed her clean hand on her trousers, where blood had splattered, and wiped her face with her sleeve once more.

“We need to find Pendale,” Jade said.

“Who?”

“The thief we saw in front of the temple earlier. A demon from within the temple has taken his body.”

“Oh, I have some business with that one too. Alright, let’s deal with him first,” Jade proposed.

“You speak as if you can find him?” Ruby touched her nose.

“My sense of smell is keener than a wolf’s. It fades quickly in the desert, though.”

“Then let’s hurry before the scent is gone!”

“You can’t keep up with your pace. He’s moving very fast right now.”

“Are you going alone then?”

Ruby crossed her arms and shook her head.

“I said I’d bottle him up, but it’s not easy. I need a special bottle. You can’t kill what has no form.”

“You need my light of annihilation.”

“Exactly. And even if I could take him down, should I leave you here? The demons we just dealt with aren’t the only ones in this desert.”

Ruby spoke calmly. Jade was flustered.

“What do we do then?”

“Wait here for a moment.”

Ruby pressed her ear to the ground, then without giving Jade a chance to speak, dashed towards the Albite Valley. She kicked up dust, moving faster than a horse.

In less than three minutes, she returned, leading a horse.

It seemed to be one of the horses left by the thieves.

“Get on,” Ruby commanded.

Jade did as told, mounting the horse. Thankfully, there was water in the saddlebag.

“Let’s go,” Ruby took the reins and led the way.

“Aren’t your bare feet hot?”

Jade took a sip of water and asked.

“Not at all,” Ruby replied, striding with wide steps. The horse had to trot to keep up.

“Where did you get those clothes? And you had bread earlier too, right?”

“I did. I want more. After starving for 500 years, I could eat a whole whale.”

“Where did you get the bread?”

“It was a gift,” Ruby answered proudly.

Jade, feeling a bad premonition, asked, “You didn’t do anything bad while I was unconscious, did you?”

“I didn’t,” Ruby replied confidently, then hesitated. “Well, by your standards, it might be considered bad.”

Jade’s heart sank. After all, this was the creature who had declared it would destroy the world upon release.

“What did you do?”

“It was nothing,” Ruby shrugged.

“What kind of ‘nothing’?”

Jade pressed for an answer.

“After I took you out of the temple, I smelled bread somewhere.”

Ruby spoke with an air of annoyance.

♦

Jade only knew that Ruby had ‘taken her out’ of the temple of Baipel, not ‘how’.

Ruby hadn’t retraced the dark path Jade had walked for hours. Instead, she had burst through the ceiling with her head, causing the tunnel to collapse.

Of course, she had taken Jade with her. She needed to understand the meaning of ‘sorry,’ and if she had to kill, it had to be by her own hand…

That’s when the smell of bread wafted through the air.

“Those demons must have been crushed to death in the cave, right? That takes care of one less nuisance.”

Jade had no concerns about leaving Poe in front of the temple for a short while. Thus, he ran about a mile, following the enticing scent of bread.

At the source of the aroma, there was a carriage. It seemed to belong to merchants crossing the desert. However, the situation was a bit peculiar.

About five merchants were tied up, and around twenty mounted bandits were unloading goods from the carriage.

Ruby approached them, chains clinking.

“Hand over the bread,” Ruby demanded, extending his hand.

A bandit on horseback asked with a baffled expression, “What’s with this naked brat?”

“I know there’s bread. Judging by the smell, there’s plenty! Give me some,” Ruby insisted.

Among the bandits, a middle-aged man with a neatly groomed black beard asked the captured merchants, “Who is this brat?”

The merchants could only shake their heads.

“Lost little kid, huh? What’s your name?” the bearded man inquired.

Up until that moment, Ruby had not remembered his name.

Even if he had, he wouldn’t want to answer such despicable people.

“Are you going to give me bread or not?”

The man chuckled and threw a chunk of cheese from his pocket at Ruby.

The cheese landed at Ruby’s feet and rolled on the red sand. Moreover, it was so moldy it was inedible.

“Eat it up. Once you’re done, I’ll throw you a piece of bread. If you bark and eat, I’ll give you two.”

The other bandits laughed as if they were dying.

Ruby laughed too.

“Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Even after five hundred years, people’s reactions to me are the same. Fine, I’ll let it slide because it’s amusing. Eat this trash yourself, and hurry up with the bread.”

The man smirked and then ordered two men standing beside him.

“Being out in the desert sun too long brings out all kinds of crazies. Bury him in the sand.”

“One so pretty, why not capture and bury him, boss?” suggested one.

“We have a long journey ahead; I don’t want extra baggage,” the boss said, waving his hand dismissively.

“Understood.”

Two men advanced towards Ruby with their swords drawn.

Ruby warned them, “It seems pointless to warn you since you won’t listen, but for my conscience, I’ll say it anyway: come any closer, and it won’t be me buried in the sand, but you.”

The two men sneered and continued towards Ruby.

“Let’s see you try.”

“Sure.”

Ruby buried the two men upside down in the sand.

It happened in an instant, just as the bandit leader uttered, “Huh?”

Ruby picked up the cheese from the ground and leaped onto the horse the leader was riding. He wrapped his arm around the man’s neck and shoved the cheese into his mouth.

Ruby whispered into the leader’s ear, “If I were in a bad mood, I’d pull out your guts through your backside and stuff them back in through your nostrils. I haven’t tried it yet, but if I did, you’d probably live for three days like that.”

The leader could only gurgle, the moldy cheese stuck in his mouth, unable to spit it out because Ruby was pressing on his jaw.

“But do you know why I’m not doing it? There’s someone I’ve decided to kill first. Until then, I won’t kill anyone. Of course, the two I’ve buried might suffocate soon, so I’ll allow you to dig them out.”

Only after Ruby’s permission did the other bandits hurriedly dig out their comrades. The two emerged from the sand, vomiting and retching.

When Ruby released his hold, the leader spat out the cheese and shouted, “You brat, do you have any idea who I am? If you’re the demon of this desert, you’ve messed with the wrong person. I am Karp, leader of the Karp bandits, granted all rights by the ruler of this desert!”

Ruby, still sitting behind the leader, said, “Quiet down! I never asked for your name, flower boy!”

Karp didn’t dare look back.

“Flower? Again, I am Karp. Who are you? If you’ve messed with me, you won’t survive!”

Another bandit threw a knife at Ruby, aiming for the back of his head to save their leader. Ruby caught the knife without even looking back.

“Hmm, this seems like something your subordinate gave me to use? If given, it must be used. How should I use it?”

Ruby held the tip of the blade and the handle between his thumb and forefinger and snapped it like a toothpick.

Karp gasped in horror.

“Don’t do it.”

“Were you the one who told me to bark?”

“I was wrong.”

“Were you the one who told me to eat that cheese?”

“I just…

“Then you eat this.”

Ruby forced open his mouth and inserted the broken blade, then clamped his jaw shut. In the blink of an eye, Karp, the bandit leader, was left with the shattered blade in his mouth, his eyes wide and groaning, but Ruby didn’t let go of his jaw.

Karp desperately shook his head and groaned.

“Don’t make a sound, even if it hurts. Otherwise, I’ll put in another piece, okay?”

Ruby warned.

Karp stopped groaning and nodded. Only then did Ruby let go of his jaw. Karp managed to open his bloodied mouth but couldn’t spit out the broken blade properly. It was already embedded in his tongue and palate.

As Ruby dismounted, the bandits aimed their swords at the captured merchants.

“Don’t move! If you do, we’ll kill these men!”

One warned.

Ruby shrugged.

“Kill them or not. They’re strangers to me.”

The bandits glanced at each other.

“But if someone dies because of me, it would spoil my mood.”

Ruby continued, finger raised.

“If even one of them dies, I’ll do to your leader what I’ll do to your belly buttons! You think your belly button can’t open as wide as your mouth? If you shove your left thumb and right thumb into your belly button and pull both sides… it opens quite wide, doesn’t it? Have you tried it? Of course, I have. I’ll shove the blade your leader can’t spit out right into it. Do you understand what I mean?”

The faces of the bandits aiming at the merchants turned pale. Some had already dropped their swords and backed away, but Ruby didn’t stop talking.

“And before that guy dies, I’ll pull the blade out through his belly button. Then, one by one, I’ll carefully insert and remove that blade into each of your belly buttons, passing it on to the next guy…”

“And then, I’ll slide the blade in and out, and shove it right into your boss’s mouth. His mouth is big enough to fit two, don’t you think?” Ruby said, scrutinizing each face with care.

“Do you want to know the most amusing part? I can make sure no one dies in the process,” she continued.

The thieves were struck dumb with horror, unable to speak, while Karp, with a blade in his mouth, was trembling and bleeding profusely, unable to utter a sound.

“Now, that’s enough. Scram. If you want to challenge me out of pride, this is your last chance, you pollen-like weaklings.”

With his bloodied mouth covered, Karp slinked away, followed by the other thieves in retreat.

Once they started fleeing, it was chaos. They tripped over each other or fell while looking back as they ran.

Ruby watched them with a burst of delightful laughter, then turned her head towards the merchants tied up next to the carriage.

“Now, it’s your turn! I know everything you’ve got. It still stinks. If you lie, I’ll do to you what I just did to those who ran away.”

The merchants cowered in fear.

Ruby extended her hand towards them and demanded, “Hand over the bread.”

♦

“That’s how I got these,” Ruby declared.

“The clothes were given willingly. They tried to offer me their uncomfortable, expensive garments, so I asked for the comfortable clothes one of them was wearing. They were even willing to give me everything in the carriage. But I didn’t need it. It’s a gift, right?”

Jade, astonished by his outrageous story, asked, “Really?”

“What? Oh, that. No, it’s a lie. I’ve never actually tried to stretch my belly that big. Who knows if it’s even possible.”

“No, not that part… Never mind. Let’s stop. I’m just glad no one died.”

Jade glanced at the setting sun and assessed their location.

“But why are we heading north?”

“Because the scent left by Pendale leads north,” Ruby replied with a hint of suspicion.

“And I smell other humans. Just as you said, it seems he’s seeking out other humans.”

“The demons I know stay in a human’s body until death, and they can only possess the bodies of the dead. But this one can take over the living. If he hides in the metropolis, we might never find him.”

“Don’t worry. We can catch him before he leaves the desert.”

Jade found Ruby’s assurance comforting, yet it also felt strange.

“I thought you’d say, ‘What do I care about Pendale?’”

“At first, I did. But then I realized it wasn’t something to ignore. He’s been with me for a hundred years. I thought he just drifted in by chance. But look at him now. As soon as he’s free, he joyfully steals human bodies and flees!”

Jade belatedly realized something.

“Was he not just a drifter, but trapped like you?”

“He claimed to be the strike force commander of Baipel. I don’t care who he is. I would’ve said, ‘What do I care?’ But who sent him? Who is Baipel? That, I need to find out!”

Jade opened a book to a passage mentioning Baipel.

“If this book is correct, Baipel is among the highest-ranking demons.”

“How high is that? Three?”

Ruby inquired.

“I don’t know. It’s more about rank than power.”

Jade was reminded of a childhood joke, ‘If the Emperor of Rome and the Holy Emperor of Rotin fought, who would win?’

“Even among angels, the Angel Chief is above the Four Archangels, but the Four Archangels aren’t necessarily subordinate. What about demons?”

Ruby pressed on.

“It doesn’t seem demons are as systematically organized. But according to this book’s classification, there are ten demons at the top, and he’s one of them.”

“Haha, that’s good. I couldn’t fight the Angel Chief with all my might, but I can fight a demon. When I meet him, I’ll politely introduce myself and then beat him until he’s dust.”

Ruby spoke with confidence.

Even from a brief half-day’s experience, Jade knew Ruby wasn’t just boasting. Instead of feeling reassured, it felt surreal.

‘This morning, I was afraid of a small demon that didn’t even reach my waist, and now I have a companion who’s looking forward to fighting the highest-ranking demon.’