Rogue Villain-Chapter 298: Chopping Wood

After traveling with the hot air balloon for slightly more than a day, Ackster and the others left Tenger. They didn’t cross any borders or coastlines, nor did they fly over the ocean. But Ackster could tell my reading the air and mana that they weren’t in Tenger anymore. They were somewhere he had never been before.

As he sensed the atmosphere a little more, Ackster realized that very few people had been there. The mana and the air itself seemed undisturbed and untouched by humans.

The trees were old. Ackster didn’t notice it at first, but just by looking at the trees, Ackster could tell that they were ancient. If he had to guess, they were even older than all of the dragons he had met combined.

He didn’t even know when or how they had gotten here. They had been flying over an ordinary forest somewhere north in Tenger when, all of a sudden, the atmosphere changed.

Ackster looked at Kargas and Mara to see what their reaction was, but they were asleep, so he looked at Wilma.

"It’s for their own protection. They are just asleep. As soon as they leave this place, they’ll wake up."

"Protection from what? And what is this place?"

"It’s nothing dangerous. Those two just can’t handle the power here yet. And I guess this place is the Shore."

"’The Shore’? I don’t exactly see water anywhere here."

Considering his affinity and his Sea God Manual, Ackster was extremely sensitive to the existence of water mana and bodies of water. There was none of those within this space. The closest thing would be a tiny stream flowing and snaking through the forest up ahead.

"Assuming that’s why she brought you here, you will find out what it means when talking to Grandma."

"’Grandma’?"

Ackster felt like a parrot, having to repeat everything Wilma said to try and get a straight answer.

"Who are—"

Wilma almost threw back a joke on instinct before catching herself as she remembered that Ackster wasn’t the person she thought she knew. Someone willing to throw a continent into the fires of war for their own personal gain wasn’t someone she wanted as a friend. But he was capable as a special operative, so she couldn’t sever their relationship completely.

"You’ll find out soon."

Ackster held back a sigh and turned his gaze forward as a clearing with a log cabin came into view ahead of them.

Wilma landed the balloon on the outskirts of the clearing. She left Mara and Kargas in the basket while she went to chop wood after gesturing Ackster to enter the cabin.

Remembering what happened the last time he entered someone else’s house after being shipped by an untalkative Wilma, Ackster knocked on the door and waited.

"Come in."

’What was that?’

Ackster’s ears itched. The voice belonged to that of a woman or a girl. Ackster couldn’t tell their age just by the sound of it. But it sounded like something not belonging to a human. It wasn’t like the powerful voices of the dragons. It was something else.

It was something he wasn’t supposed to hear.

"My apologies. I rarely get visitors, much less people who can hear that. Better now?"

Ackster opened the door and entered.

"Yes, though it wasn’t that bad. I just wondered what it was."

Ackster looked around the simple cabin that was bigger inside than outside. He quickly found a white-haired person sitting next to the window in an armchair, watching Wilma work. So, he went over and sat down in the armchair opposite the small round table. It was surprisingly comfy.

"Welcome. Thank you for agreeing to come here."

The white-haired woman with grey eyes and a smooth face with features that made it impossible to tell her age turned to Ackster.

’Blind?’

Ackster kept his face calm as he looked at the mysterious and beautiful woman in front of him. He couldn’t get a read on her. None of his senses picked up on her existence unless she spoke. He didn’t know what to think.

’A blind ghost?’

The woman smiled slightly.

"Did that girl tell you anything about me or why I asked to see you?"

"No."

Ackster shook his head. That smile seemed to contain a thousand words, many of which indicated she knew what he was thinking about. Ackster cleared his mind and turned it into a blank slate. He still had thoughts. They were just below the surface and in a jumbled mess without any clear structure.

"No surprise."

The white-haired woman showed no reaction to Ackster’s deceptively calm mind as she turned to look at the wood-chopping Wilma.

"Your actions have given her quite a lot of trouble."

"It happens."

Ackster had no intention of apologizing. Although it hadn’t been planned, his actions made him so much stronger in a short period of time that Ackster could finally feel confident that he was going to defeat The Hero. He had also made Kargas stronger and gotten him on his side.

There weren’t even many dragonlings who ended up dead. In fact, Ackster saved the dragonling race by invoking Mazar’s death.

The white-haired woman glanced at Ackster again.

"I could ask you to be more considerate of others. But you won’t listen, and I didn’t ask to meet you to chastise you."

"Why did you want to meet me?"

"In short, it’s because I can no longer see you."

Ackster almost retorted by saying that it was obvious. Upon seeing her eyes, anyone would guess she was blind. But the problem was that she said, ’no longer.’ That meant she had seen Ackster before. But Ackster was confident he would have noticed if someone as striking as this woman looked at him or was close enough to look at him. Even if he couldn’t pick up her existence with his senses, Ackster didn’t think she would go unnoticed.

It was just a feeling, but this place, the Shore, did something. Outside, the woman would be impossible not to notice.

’Unless...’

Ackster looked at the white-haired woman, his eyes widening in growing realization.