When A Mage Revolts

"Why don’t you have something to eat? Aren’t you hungry?"

The day darkened as night arrived. Howl held two pieces of dry bread in his hands and looked at Benjamin questioningly. They were in a valley beside a potato field. Benjamin shook his head and forcefully smiled, "Thanks, but I don’t have the appetite."

The moment he heard of Michelle’s passing, his emotions became complicated. This indirectly confirmed his earlier suspicion - that Michelle sacrificed herself to save him.

But why?

He found it hard to believe.

It was not as though he did not think the Church was lying. The Church may not have caught her and leaked this information in order to calm the people. However, Howl revealed more details as he pressed on.

"The Church’s bulletin explained that the spread of the plague wasn’t done by a living Mage, but rather a soul manifested by a dead Mage named Michelle. The way this soul was formed was very unique and wouldn’t last long. The Church has completely extinguished it and started establishing a cleansing cross to purify the water source so no one can spread any disease through the water source."

Benjamin was stunned for a while after hearing this.

The mention of "Michelle" is a confirmation that the Church has indeed captured Michelle or they would have thought Michelle has escaped abroad and not tied her to the plague.

The "Soul" he said earlier, what does it mean?

... Could it be that Michelle had already passed on before this?

Nothing was enough to describe Benjamin’s shock. He even thought that the Church may be spitting nonsenses but if you could think about it, there was no need for the Church to make such a move. It did not matter to the people whether it was a Mage or a Mage’s Soul who spread the plague. The Church must have told it like it was, there was no need for frills.

I guess... This had to be real.

Michelle had died somewhere out there and became a Soul. She returned to the capital, saved him and evidently sacrificed her bodily soul in order to lure the Church away from him.

He felt there was a mountain of pressure on his chest - stuffy and oppressed that he could not take another breath.

From the moment Michelle appeared, Benjamin had a slight suspicion. He felt there was no logic to the way Michelle handled things and her personality was a little different. But no matter how he wrapped his brain around it, he would not have thought that Michelle had died and the person who escaped to the capital with him was only her Soul.

Truth be told, this world was not one where souls haunted. Souls only existed within legends and myths. There were not many who have heard of others seeing living souls. Therefore, death was merely death, even if the soul was willing to stay, it was nearly impossible.

Unless, the person who passed had a strong urge to live...

He gripped his knuckles as he thought about this. His feelings were mixed, as though he drank a bitter wine.

He remembered when he was shoved down the horse carriage. Michelle became overly emotional, talking to him about the "inability to move on". Benjamin had never seen Michelle in such an overly emotional state. Her hatred towards the Church was like blood spewed from the arteries and drenched the whole capital.

She hated the Church to this extent.

Benjamin suddenly realized that he could understand this feeling a little more.

"As long as you’re still a Mage and the Church still existed then..." He subconsciously recalled the words of Michelle.

"What did you say?" Still in reality, Howl was standing aside clenching on his bread. He did not quite make out what Benjamin said, so he scrounged his face to ask.

Benjamin quickly came to and shook his head, "Nothing, it’s just that... an acquaintance has passed."

Even now he could not think of a word to describe Michelle. Their relationship was overly complicated. Companions, enemies, calculative, sacrifice... He thought of it, and the only thing that blurted out of his mouth was ‘acquaintance’.

A very shallow yet twisted definition.

If someone was to hear this, they would probably be confused.

Strangely, Howl nodded as if he understood Benjamin. He tried to be comforting by patting Benjamin’s shoulder but wounded up scattering bread crumbs on him.

"Don’t be too sad, people will eventually die," It was as though he did not notice and continued on. "When at first I got up from the pile of horse manure, everyone I knew had died. Boss, Ant, Volcano, Axe... I was very sad and felt that I was useless and shameless to the point that it wasn’t worth living. I didn’t have the appetite and sat at the mountain top for a day and a night, thinking it would be better if I just died."

Although Benjamin wanted to inform Howl that their boss had not died but rather took off during the chaos, but... Ah well.

A mountain thief’s image of his boss, he best not ruin it.

"But you chose not to end yourself, or dwell on it and you lived on." He continued the conversation, "Why?"

It was not that he was curious, but it would not hurt just to ask.

Confronted with this question, Howl’s hands quivered with his bread and said:

"Well, I was hungry."

"..."

Benjamin was speechless and did not what else to say.

"I was really upset and regretful but all of a sudden, I was really hungry," continued Howl. "I was hungry to the point I couldn’t take it anymore and went down the mountain to look for something to eat. It was then where I met Nina and Sandy."

Howl paused for a moment as he reflected on his memories. "During... During that time, they were sitting by the road side and one of them was holding a piece of dry bread. I went over and asked if they could divide some for me to eat. Nina nodded and tore her bread in half to give it to me. I took it and finished in a few bites. They saw that I ravished it and asked how I came to be and if my family left me. I told them that I didn’t have a family. They were happy to hear that and told me that they were in the same situation, without a family."

Howl laughed, "Nina said if there weren’t given any help, it was hard to find food. Then she asked if I would accompany them in search of food. At that time, I felt the bread that she gave me was delicious and it was the best bread I have ever eaten in my entire life. I still wanted to eat that bread and so I agreed to the quest of food hunting."

"Then... Then I went with them to find food. Slowly, Nina told me that we had to find a place to stay, so we built a house and started hunting and planting. Sometimes, I would help them to buy some weird things from town, which I didn’t like but... days went on like this and you don’t go hungry, nothing out of the ordinary."

And just like that, Howl shared his life story. Benjamin couldn’t help but feel something was amiss with the story.

"Don’t you think that... you went from being a thug to being ordered around by two girls, wouldn’t you feel aggrieved?" Benjamin thought hard how to place his sentence, but he himself didn’t quite understand what he was trying to say.

He had this strange sensation that compelled him to prompt the question.

"Nope." Howl did not quite grasp Benjamin’s question and instead asked, "You’re really weird and you overthink things. Don’t you feel tired of living thinking about this and that?"

"..."

Benjamin was stunned for a moment and could not help laughing.

He did feel like he has been schooled by this child.

"My mouth’s dry talking to you." Howl shook his head. "Hey, are you going to eat this bread. I’ll take it away if you don’t."

"... I’ll eat them"

Benjamin took the bread and started chewing. He had a strange feeling that this hard rock looking bread could be delicious.

The System appeared out of nowhere and said, "This dry bread was dipped in chicken soup, surely the taste wouldn’t be that bad."

"...You talk too much."

As he got halfway through with his bread, Howl turned to return to the little wooden cabin. Benjamin returned to his senses and asked, "Oh yeah, didn’t you say there were two pieces of news? You have mentioned the earlier, what about the latter?"

Howl scratched his head, trying to recall what he said.

"Uh huh, I had almost forgotten the second news," he smiled embarrassingly. "The afternoon of today. The Church at the capital is having a really huge... what do they call it? I think it’s an... admission ceremony?"