23 Memory of the Skill

Thorn, Rose and Cure Song were striding toward the Mercenary's Guild.

\"Hehehe… Now that our party has two one-star veterans, I wonder what kind of jobs we'll be able to take.\" Rose commented, eyes shining with anticipation.

\"You shouldn't be too excited, although the higher ranked jobs have amazing rewards, their difficulty and the risks involved with them are in a completely different league in comparison with the unranked jobs.\" Cure Song warned.

\"It'll be alright; if the incompetence of the two of you gets us in trouble, I'll save your pitiful asses.\" Thorn magnanimously promised.

\"Mmm? What are you talking about? Obviously when the two of you get in trouble, I'll be the one saving your lives.\" Cure Song replied using a resolute voice.

\"Oh, really now?\" Thorn frowned at Cure Song.

Instantly, a heavy atmosphere of hostility materialized between the pair of males.

At that moment, Rose cut in with an evident amused smile: \"You two sure are funny. It's a matter of course that when the time of crisis comes, I'll be the one rescuing the both of you.\"

Taken aback, both males remained silent for a while. Then…

\"HaHAHAhaha…\"

\"HahahaHAHA…\"

Their unrestrained laughter burst out.

Expressionless, Rose saw their laughter hurt their stomachs and swore: \"I'll definitely shut your mouths later.\"

Not too long after, they arrived at the Mercenary's Guild. Unexpectedly, there was a strange scene playing out at the entrance: Vei Dal was standing with a troubled expression in front of a gorgon kid who was holding a whiteboard which had written on it 'I need a mercenary with a skill related to tracking to track and rescue abducted people. I'm offering four black horse monsters and a 4 m x 9 m D-class zenanium carriage of eight wheels as payment. It's urgent!'

When Rose's party approached them, they heard Vei Dal's gentle voice: \"I really understand your situation, but there's nothing we can do. Perhaps you don't know this but to search for a mercenary in front of our gates and not in our Contract Hall is the same as giving us a hard slap on our faces. Please, you must go elsewhere.\"

But in spite of Vei Dal's words, the kid didn't walk away. She trembled in fear lowering her head, but still refused to give in on her search.

After calculating what was the equivalent in money of the payment the little gorgon with white snakes was offering, Rose came closer to Vei Dal, and asked: \"What's going on?\"

Vei Dal turned his gaze to look over at the recently arrived cultivators, and then exclaimed: \"Oh, it's you guys! Thorn congratulations for your victory! Sorry, yesterday, I hadn't the chance to congratulate you because of what happened…\"

\"Don't worry about it.\" Thorn smiled waving his hand.

\"Cure Song, did you join their party?\" Vei Dal couldn't help but ask in surprise.

\"Yeah.\" Cure Song replied, not too glad about the entire situation.

\"That's great! I'm sure your party will become famous some day!\" Vei Dal emotionally affirmed.

\"Yeah, it's a pleasure to see you too; anyway, what's going on with that little girl?\" Rose asked turning her head in the direction of the nervous and gloomy kid.

Scratching his head with some embarrassment, Vei Dal replied: \"She want a mercenary to resolve the mysterious abductions on the roads surrounding Lurep Village. That's why we didn't let her in our Contract Hall. She would be just wasting her money with the entry fee after all. But then, she came here with that whiteboard and refused to leave… *Sigh*\"

Tilting her head, she asked in bewilderment: \"Mysterious abductions?\"

The shadow human replied amazed: \"Don't you know?! Since almost ten years ago, there had occasionally been reports of people going missing; after investigating, we always ended up finding only empty carriages. We couldn't find the responsible of the kidnaping, neither could the Lurep Village Adventurer's Guild Branch, not even the military forces of Lurep Village could. We even contracted tracking experts from the nearest city, Stormy Cloud City, to help with the case, but it was to not avail. It's a matter that has been troubling us all for quite a long time now…\"

Rose cast a quick sideway glance at Thorn, and said to Vei Dal: \"Is that so? Well, I'm confident in the tracking skills of our party, so we might as well give it a try.\"

Vei Dal got confused, to his knowledge in Rose's party there wasn't a single cultivator with a tracking skill.

Even Cure Song got confused.

She ignored their reactions and looked into the completely black eyes of the gorgon kid. \"Hello, my name is Rose. Your job offer, we are accepting it!\"

Deep astonishment flashed through those black eyes, and then tears of joy streamed out of them. The kid wasn't ignorant about how hard her request was, there had been just too many mercenaries who unhesitatingly refused to help her after all.

Smiling gently, Rose asked: \"What's your name?\"

The kid let go of the whiteboard, used her hands to wipe away the tears from her cheeks, and gnashed her teeth to keep her tears at bay. \"I-I'm Caroline Darrel.\" She muttered.

Caroline Darrel took a deep breath, and buzzed: \"L-let's go.\" She then turned and ran toward the west gate of Lurep Village. Knowing that her family might be in danger, she didn't want to waste more time.

Rose's party followed her, and Rose grabbed her up and carried her on her back as she accelerated.

It was the first time for Caroline Darrel to experience the sensation of being touched by a stranger that she had just met, and yet, she didn't panic. Somehow, she could feel that Rose's back was safe.

Vei Dal stood there, a deep frown on his face. (I hope our suspicious won't end up being more than that: just suspicious…)

With Rose leading the group, the three of them dashed through one after another street, shocking the bystanders in the process.

Soon, the west gate appeared in their sights. At that moment, Caroline Darrel muttered in Rose's ear while pointing toward a carriage park: \"T-there is the carriage I promised, we can use it to travel quicker.\"

\"There's no need, we'll go flying!\" Rose giggled.

\"Oh…\" Caroline Darrel replied blinking.

Once they were out of Lurep Village, still running, Thorn grabbed Cure Song's hand, and then Rose's hand. He looked at Caroline Darrel and requested: \"Point in the direction we have to go.\"

Caroline Darrel resolutely did as she was told.

Immediately after, Thorn activated his Awakened Skill to make the wind around the four of them his own to protect them.

\"This is going to be so much fun! I myself haven't traveled at this speed before!\" He shouted out as he entered into the state of Final-Star Memory of the Skill.

The scenery around the four of them then abruptly became a blur.

Rose, Cure Song, Caroline Darrel and even Thorn himself gaped in shock! Their eyes almost popped out of their sockets!

They were moving at 10 000 times the speed of sound!

However, Thorn immediately shook his head, and showed an unbearably smug smile on his tilted up face.

\"….\" They could only stare at him in silence, open-mouthed.

(So shameless! Could you not change your expression this quickly?!) They grumbled in dismay.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

In a small region of grassland surrounded by a forest of harmless eucalyptus plant monsters stood five empty camp tents.

*Swoosh...!*

Suddenly, a strong wind blew through the entire region; subsequently Thorn and his companions descended onto the clearing.

\"Well, here we are. How do you plan to track down the kidnapers now, party leader?\" Cure Song asked.

Thorn patted Cure Song's shoulder, and smiling said: \"That's my job.\"

Without explaining anything else, Thorn took flight and hovered above the campsite. Looking down, he released his Complex Energy in all directions. Then he did something only First-Star Memory of the Skill and onward cultivators could do: he connected his senses to the domain of his Awakened Skill. Now, he could feel everything the wind caressed. The air itself had just become his second touch sensor! It was an incredible feeling, especially for he could now feel every square inch of Rose's inhumanly beautiful skin. He had to struggle for a moment there to maintain his calm. Lucky for him, he only needed 2 percent of his brain processing capacity to accomplish this. Considering the 95 percent he constantly occupied to keep his madness in check and the 1 percent he was using to connect his senses to the wind, he had left exactly the 2 percent he needed to do what he had to do next.

Stepping once again into the Final-Star Memory of the Skill, he closed his eyes and searched in the 'memory' of the wind. It felt as though time itself were moving backward. He sensed how moment by moment time dragged him into the past.

One day, two days… five days.

By this point, he could already see four black horse monsters pulling a red and white carriage.

The driver was Caroline Darrel. At that moment, tears were flowing down across her face. She tightly held the reins, her entire body trembling and her teeth fiercely biting down on her lower lip.

When Thorn saw her expression, his cold heart thumped restlessly as the memories of his distant past assaulted him. He knew exactly what emotion that expression represented: desperation. That ineffable desperation born out of the powerlessness of watching the world steal everything that matters to you. There wasn't a worst feeling than that.

As the time slowly continued to go in reverse, Thorn saw the entire process of the kidnaping and understood the situation. Taking a deep breath, he finally deactivated the Wind Technique: Memory.

Caroline Darrel was standing next to Rose. She had been looking up at Thorn the entire time, and was so anxious that cold sweat was falling down her forehead. (Please, please, please… Discover where my family are. Please, please, please…) She fervently prayed.

Thorn descended in front of Caroline Darrel, and looked into her shaky eyes. \"Five days have passed since the abduction. I can bring you to your family, but they most likely are already dead by now.\" He mercilessly stated.

Rose and Cure Song became angry at Thorn's cruelty; but, in the end, they couldn't deny his words.

Caroline Darrel slowly lowered her head to hide her teary eyes, and replied: \"I-I know… But I must go anyway.\"

Thorn couldn't help feel admiration for the little kid. However, there was still something he had to ask: \"If we find them dead, what will you do with your life afterward?\"

Caroline Darrel put both hands on her chest as pain pierced her heart. She lifted her gaze, and her hoarse and weak voice answered: \"I'll cry, and cry, and cry, and cry… until my tears run out. Then, only then, I'll stand up to live on carrying their memories, dreams, and wills with me.\"

Those resolute and heavy words opened a small fissure in Thorn's frozen heart. His eyes involuntarily became gentler. (It seems like she had reached her answer to this question long before I even asked…)

Affected by such an emotional scene, Cure Song firmly clenched his fists as sorrow weighted down his heart.

An unprecedented solemnness on his face, Thorn nodded. \"I understand.\"

Immediately after, he took the fragile kid in his arms and said: \"Let's go.\"

Rose and Cure Song each grabbed one of Thorn's shoulders.

Activating his Awakened Skill and glaring in the direction the kidnapers had went, Thorn darted onward.