THAT DAY I BECAME A STAR

KEVIN KOERSOMBRE POV:

The next morning, we prepared as best as we can. The armor I had on is completely useless now. The same can be said about Willhem and K'nor. Only our clothes that were inside our bracelets are intact.

"Tch." This is one more reason to find Tatiana and make her pay.

"How are we going to do this?" Willhem's rapier doesn't look too good. The tip is broken.

"I don't know. Think you can still use that?"

"Nope, I will find one when we reach there.."

"Okay. Then let's run."

"Run? Wait, you know Titan is still four days away from us?"

"Nope, I didn't. But even so."

"No, this isn't-"

"Willhem, we mustn't waste more time." What are you being indecisive for?

"I know that but we will be exhausted before we reach the city. There is no point to this if we are dead tired by the time we arrived."

"What do you propose then?" I was thinking running straight for it.

"Nothing much. The horses are outside. If we use them correctly, we  could arrive in three days top."

"Wait, the horses survived?"

"Yeah, they ran away when the battle started."

"I see. Okay, let's go then."

***

Two days. We have been riding for two days, taking small breaks of two hours every time the horses were about to give up. Now that the sun is setting, I think we can stop and let them have a good night of sleep.

"Willhem, let's stop for now."

"Okay."

We stop in a plain and the horses immediately sit down when we leave them alone. Their breathing is so heavy that it becomes the only noise present in the plain. K'nor is just panting a bit. He should be able to go on a bit more, I am sure.

"You think the horses will hold on until we reach Titan, Willhem? They look like they are about to collapse." Their legs are trembling.

"Hm…Maybe they won't. But we can't waste time as well, right?"

"Yeah, we are just one day away. Can we just go on foot?"

"Nah, one day is still a lot. Let's give them the night and tomorrow morning, we will move as soon as we wake up."

"Okay."

We rapidly sleep, without eating. We this morning so it should be okay. The next morning finds us already on the road. The horses are running slower than yesterday but we have to push them.

They try to keep on but around midday, they finally collapse out of fatigue.

"Well, they did their best."

"Yeah. Thank you, guys."

"Hiii!" I lightly caress my horse and he answers with a light scream. It must hurt, I guess.

"Now, let's go."

"Yeah. You should get on top of K'nor."

"No way!! I said we should keep as much strength as possible. If I do that, he will be more tired than us."

"Woof!"

"See, he doesn't care."

"I said no. Let's go."

Willhem releases his aura then turns around and starts running. Well, if you want to do it like that…

"K'nor."

"Woof!"

K'nor releases his wind aura as well like he understood what we are doing. Then he goes after Willhem. I do the same and just like the time I went to look for Selene and Excafol, I use Lightning Angas as well.

Soon after I start running, I catch up to Willhem but it seems K'nor is even more ahead.

"Well, I will see tonight, I guess."

"You little punk!"

"Fufu." I accelerate and join K'nor then we continue running at full speed. When the sun sets, we stop near a very big tree which leaves covers the radius of three houses and wait for Willhem. If he follows the same path, he should pass by here soon.

Willhem arrives surprisingly thirty minutes later.

"Are you okay?"

"Huff…Fuck off, dammit!"

"Pfff…Just a light run like that and you are out of juice already?"

"I said fuck off!! Damn!! How can your knees not hurt after all this?"

"I can't feel pain. Maybe they do."

"Shit. Fucking cheater."

"Anyway, we should be close now, right?"

"Yeah, this tree is called the guide. When you encounter it, it means Titan is not far."

"Is that so."

I fly above the tree and look around. Indeed, I can see the city already, or the dome that covers it. But…

"Willhem."

"Yeah."

"We have a problem."

***

"The dome is indeed way bigger than any other I have seen so far."

I brought Willhem up so that he could see as well. The dome covering Titan is way bigger than anyone we have seen so far. It is big enough to cover three cities alone easily. And I am talking about big cities here.

"Those guys went overboard for sure." I can believe the size of this thing.

"They have to. If Titan falls, the war is over. Titanium is like Nivanheilm. SO long as the bigger cities where the most nobles and warriors fall, the rest just follow. And I remember that there were villages in the nearby vicinity of Titan. They must have caught everyone inside."

"The hammer hands is really ready to give everything he has."

"That's what the church gets for ignoring a problem that they should have resolved a long time ago."

"The church?"

"Yeah."

I get down with Willhem and it seems K'nor went hunting. He is not here after all.

"you mean the church is responsible for all this?"

"Not entirely but they should have dealt with it. When Syldavie annexed Titanium before, the church and the hero at the time said it had nothing to do with them since it wasn't related to Longinus. In the end, the titanies were enslaved and suffered for numerous years of it. Do you know the five-hundred-thousand day?"

"Hm…Maybe?"

Sigh…You are a titanie and you don't even know that. Before Ioll got destroyed, they once purchased five hundred thousand slaves from Syldavie and all of them were used in a single day."

"Ah, the story about Angas pools."

"So you do know of it, then."

"Yeah, someone told me about it. I just didn't know that event had a name."

"It does. And it is a name every titanie has engraved in his heart. A proof and constant reminder of how they were treated."

"But things have changed since then."

"A lot, yeah. I mean, just look at you now. You are noble in Syldavie, the very country that enslaved your ancestors. And the saintess is even a titanie as well. That's something they would have never imagined at that time."

"If you say so."

"You don't seem interested in all this."

"I am not. Those are things from the past. I must focus on the future if I want to survive."

"If you don't know your past then it is no use. Because every time you will look back, you won't see anything. Therefore, it won't be long before your future becomes cloudy as well."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway-"

"Woof! Woof!"

"The food is here."

"Exactly."

K'nor comes back with a gragora. It has been a while since I ate this. I cut some thick branches then plant them in the ground and dig a small hole as well. Then I take the corpse from K'nor and cut the head of the gragora. I also open the stomach and let the blood drains in the hole.

"You are used to this, I see."

"Yup, more or less. You will take care of the fire, right?"

"Yup."

Willhem goes to pick up so dry wood while I take a pan from Bal's bag. I also take a handful of seasonings. They are all blend together and the taste is weird but that's the only thing I have on hand now.

When Willhem comes back with the wood, I have already finis skinning the gragora. I simply cut our part and launch the rest at K'nor. He falls on it as soon as it touches the ground.

I took the heart, the liver, and a leg of the gragora. The intestines aren't good since even K'nor doesn't eat it. I cut everything in big chunks of meat and put them in the pan. The pan is overfilled with meat and some of it will certainly fall if I try to move it carelessly.

"Couldn't he used a bigger one?"

"A wok? He was never fond of those. Bal was a cook before, you know?"

"Yeah, I heard that's how he became bald."

"Ahaha!! He would definitively fight with you now if he heard that. But yeah, his son made a mistake once and poured out hot oil over his head. The priests were able to heal him enough to prevent any scars but they couldn't save his hair."

"And what about his son?"

"He left him at their restaurant. You will see once we get there. Their pasta is delicious."

"Fufufu. I look forward to it."

The meat starts burning a bit so I had some water mixed with the seasonings. Soon after, the smell of slightly burnt meat fills the air. It is still edible, right?