Chapter 34 | Participation Points

After leaving the cart at Mr. Filip’s place, Theo returned to the shack to find Long Tian meditating. To no avail, obviously. He seemed to have underestimated how low he had fallen realm-wise, and the lack of qi around here.

With each passing day he worked at the farms to do his part in the village, his snow-white skin would become more and more tanned. His long, silky hair would get a bit more rugged. His frail but firm body would become burlier. Well, now that they had money, he could avoid doing that.

Sure, there was the loot from the tower, but they couldn’t sell those artifacts in a backwater village like this.

Frankly, Theo couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy. But what could he do? Helping Satou protect his village was one thing, trying to get a fucking cultivator back home across the stars and maybe, possibly, across dimensions was another.

It was such an abstract task, so far away that he couldn’t even muster the courage to think about it.

So, he let it be for the moment. The exhaustion of the day was settling in, although they were only halfway through it. After a quick nap, he stretched and headed for the river to wash up. The strange bathing habits of the villagers were hard to stomach for Theo, namely, going to the river maybe twice a week and wiping yourself with a cloth from time to time.

As a modern person, he had a hard time accepting it. Though, on the other hand, he could understand. Not only was the cold river hard to wash in, it was also dangerous. Sure, Theo barely felt the cold’s bite against his skin and could shrug it off, but the normal villagers could get sick easily. And with the lack of antibiotics…

Well, Theo had developed a certain affection toward the village, so he would gladly concoct them some painkillers or antipyretics. Unfortunately, antibiotics weren’t included in alchemy. The potions were very effective at bolstering the immune system, but Theo wasn’t sure if he wanted to distribute such precious stuff to the villagers for free. And if he were to try selling it, they wouldn’t be able to pay the price.

As he arrived at the river, he noticed someone else already in, standing with his back turned toward Theo. The man was completely motionless, as if he was meditating against the flow of the river.

Theo coughed loudly to signal his presence, and the man, well, the young man, turned to face him. It was that kid called… Kai? The one who was crying because he had been dumped by his childhood sweetheart or something.

Although the system hadn’t reacted to him, that didn’t mean it never would. Theo wasn’t exactly sure, but he had the feeling that people could fall from being main characters or ascend into becoming one. For example, if Satou were to settle in the village, live some of his so-called slow life, wouldn’t he lose his main character status? Would he even stay one after becoming an old man thirty years later?

And on the opposite end of the spectrum, maybe this Kai guy wasn’t quite there yet, but he could very well be on his way to becoming one.

Hearing him cough, Kai turned around and faced Theo. His brows rose slightly before settling into a frown. It was so natural on his face that Theo could feel the young man’s distress.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine,” he said. But he didn’t sound well. Theo could see his shoulders and chest rising and falling rapidly. He was obviously exhausted.

“I think you need to leave the water,” Theo said. Seeing Kai not respond, he sighed and started taking off his clothes.

“What are you doing?” Kai asked with a raised brow. Theo looked at him, confused.

“What do you mean? Why am I undressing next to the river? The river the entire village bathes in?” He paraphrased Kai’s question for him, which made the young man ‘ohh’ in understanding.

Maybe he is a bit of an airhead.

After undressing, Theo stepped into the water without so much as shivering and sank his entire body but his head.

Kai’s eyes widened at his lack of discomfort as he inched closer.

“You… Are you a warrior?” he asked. Theo raised a brow.

“No? Why?”

“Huh…” Kai muttered. Then, however, he gritted his teeth. He forcefully stabilized his shivers, closed his eyes for a moment, and regulated his breath.

“What are you even doing?” Theo asked.

“I’m training. Even a non-combatant like you can resist this cold, but I keep shivering… I can’t become a knight if I stay like I am.”

“Ohh… Right. I heard your friends speaking of you wanting to become a knight.” Theo nodded. He had always liked people with goals.

“You know me?” Kai asked with a frown, taking a cautious step back in the river.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author’s consent. Report any sightings.

“I just heard bits after you bumped into me.”

“When… Oh. I remember now,” Kai said. Then a slight blush crept onto his face as he scratched the back of his head. “How unfitting of a knight. I am truly sorry.”

“Nah, don’t worry. I know it might not feel like it, but even those knights are human,” Theo said. To be honest, his words weren’t directed specifically toward the knights, but figures of authority in general. When faced with a clearly skewed power balance, people could deify the people with more authority easily.

“‘Nah’? Like, no? Uhh…” Kai seemed to have a bit of a hard time understanding what he was talking about. He closed his eyes and thought for a few, long seconds. “I see. So knights can make mistakes too?”

“Obviously,” Theo said. “Think about it. There are ranks to knights, right?”

“Uh… Yeah? I think so.”

“Which means that some knights are objectively weaker than the others?”

That one took time to understand, probably not because it was a hard statement, but because Kai was losing track of the conversation.

“Y- Yeah…”

“And that means some knights make more mistakes than others. If the best knight never makes mistakes, the worse knights will make some mistakes.” Theo tried his best to keep it simple. It was becoming more and more apparent that Kai wasn’t quite a genius when it came to abstract thinking.

The young man seemed to short-circuit for a moment, his eyes going empty. He thought and thought, approximately for a whole, awkward and silent minute before finally reacting.

“Oh… Oh! I see. That makes sense! So not only do I need to become a knight, I need to become the best knight ever!” he said. Theo frowned.