Chapter 133 - Pursuit

I walked into the shed, then looked at the bucket, just there in its lonesome. For a few moments, I imagined the bucket was mocking me, saying something along the lines of, 'you tried so hard to avoid me, but in the end, I was inevitable.'

That was probably a little overdramatic considering I was just staring at an inanimate object in a still room, but it felt like that nonetheless.

With a sigh, I walked over to pick up the bucket and began to process.

Going to and from the river was annoying, to say the least. It not only took a considerable amount of time, but it didn't feel like I was progressing. The rate at which the farm was being watered was just so slow.

If I went too fast, the water in the bucket would spill out, but if I went too slow, it would take far too long to finish watering the farm.

There were several times where I wanted to just quit.

To pretend that either the bucket didn't exist, or that I didn't realize the water spell was counterproductive to watering the farm. Basically, I wanted to cut corners.

However, every time those thoughts came up, I felt pathetic. In the end, I gripped onto the handle of the bucket tighter and kept on watering the farm like this.

I was reminded of the time when I climbed out of the canyon. Like now, there was no sense of progress. Every single step made seemed pointless, but also required great amounts of will to overcome.

The only difference between then and now, was that my life was not on the line.

In other words, this was something I could do. The reason why it felt so hard wasn't that each step slowly tore apart my body.

But because I was lazy.

As this fact became apparent, I got mad.

Mad at myself.

It was as though my body was set aflame, burning in shame.

And so, I continued to water the farm with the bucket, no matter how unrewarding it felt. From the river, to the farm, to the river, to the farm.

At first, my steps were motivated by anger. But as I continued, I realized there was a certain rhythm to it.

The water would spill out of the bucket not because the bucket was swaying, but the water itself was swaying. The reason why it even spilled out in the first place was that my hand resisted the swaying of the bucket.

And so, I loosened my grip a little, letting the bucket swing with the water. It wasn't the most perfect, but it still worked.

Even when I jogged, most of the water stayed within.

After trying this a few more times, I tried to move a little faster. My grip loosened a little more while the bucket swayed even more violently.

It was chaotic, but most of the water still ended up staying within the bucket.

I began running back and forth from the river and farm and I was only getting faster.

At some point, I was essentially sprinting as fast as I could. The bucket was swinging in full circles around me. It was a little hard for me to believe that the water could actually remain in the bucket despite how I was treating it.

But it did.

The only reason I decided to do it in such a strange way was that when I tried to prevent it from flipping upside down, more water spilled out.

And so, I sprinted with all I had while letting the bucket wildly swirl around, doing cartwheels.

A small smile gradually formed on my face when I thought about how absurd it all was. It felt like I was being an immature child, but doing it this way was ironically the most effective.

There was a certain sense of flow with the water and the bucket. Initially, I tried to resist it in order to carry it over to the farm. However, there was no reason to resist the flow in the first place.

Only by embracing it, could I move forward seamlessly.

It was definitely chaotic and made my shoulder ache after a while. But there was a certain sense of order within all of it.

In the end, I ran back and forth, wildly swinging the bucket around. And the entire time, I was laughing to myself.

If anybody saw me in this state, I would probably be really embarrassed. However, in this plot of land, I felt isolated, like it was only me that existed.

In a certain sense, it was lonely, but it also meant I could fully unchain myself without worrying about how I looked.

...And before I knew it, the whole farm was watered.

The process itself definitely took quite a while considering the setting sun, but time flew by.

I dropped the bucket to the floor and rubbed my sore shoulder.

A soft sigh escaped me.

"...Heh."

With that, I went back into the palace and up into Mildred's room. As for Mildred herself, she was sickly. Thankfully, after straining my mind a little to cast the healing spell, her body turned to normal.

I took out fifty of the coppers from her drawer and made my way outside.

...Then stopped at the palace entrance.

I wasn't paying attention to it before, but the streets were no longer filled with people, but guards.

The guards walked around in pairs of two, patrolling the area.

With a bit of hesitation, I took a few steps forward. However, a guard walked up to me and blocked my path.

"Stop! No civilians are to be out on the street. There is currently an unknown murderer within the kingdom. Remain in your residences until further notice."

...Ah.

I furrowed my brows.

"What if I just want to buy something?"

The guard shook his head.

"The streets must be clear of anybody that will get in the way. This is how we can minimize the casualties, confusion, and catch the killer in one fell swoop!"

After a few moments of silence, I nodded my head.

"Ok."

I backed off into the palace, but not with the intention of remaining within. The guards continued their patrol without another word, almost like they had gotten very familiar with saying those words.

It seems my little episode from earlier had a few rippling effects, though that probably should've been expected.

This meant it wasn't going to be easy to buy the parchment I needed. There was also the option to just listen to the guards, but I refused to do so when I was already so close. Especially since I knew there wasn't any true danger.

After all...

I was the murderer they were talking about.

Suddenly, I felt a chill come over me. Not a fearful one, or one that made me shiver.

But a familiar one.

For a few moments, I was under the impression that I had returned to the forest, weaving my way through silently.

However, this wasn't the forest. There were no trees for me to hide behind. Instead, there was an empty street from which I could be spotted from very far away. However, so long as I got into the alleyway without being detected, it should be easy enough.

I watched the guards patrolling for a little while, trying to find any openings.

Unfortunately, while there weren't too many people, there were almost always at least two sets of eyes watching almost every part of the street. There were a few gaps where the street wasn't being observed, but they would at most last for a few seconds.

In other words, I would only be able to get into the alleyway after being seen.

Every few minutes, a small gap of a few seconds would open up. I watched these rounds happen a few times, hesitating with each cycle.

Eventually, I steeled my nerves and told myself I would move the next time.

The gap appeared...

Then I hesitated.

In the end, I let this opportunity slip by as well.

A bitter smile formed on my face.

I would have to do this eventually, so there was no use hesitating.

I exhaled slowly, letting the chill come over me. Then when the opportunity arose...

My figure moved.

It was as though a statue suddenly began moving against everyone's expectations.

My head was lowered while my eyes looked downwards. The alleyway was only at the very top of my vision and was blurry.

But it was there.

I was sprinting, letting the wind whip by me. However, my steps were completely silent, contradicting my appearance.

In only five or so seconds, I slipped into the alleyway. For a moment, I thought my presence went unnoticed. However...

"What was that?"

"I don't know, it just looked like a shadow."

"Damn, that might be the killer. We have to chase after it!"

And so, the pursuit began.