Amber and Norimoro were able to keep pace with me and Betsy for a while with his horses, but eventually they fell away. I looked back and gave a little laugh when they fell back, his horses not being able to match stride with the all powerful Betsy. I reached around and dug through things until I found the small crystal I could send messages with.

  I closed my eyes and concentrated. This sort of thing was still new to me, and basically the only practice I had cultivating so it took me a few to really do what I needed to do. I concentrated on the aura in my body and circulated it through the channels I apparently had. The whole thing about how me coming here and just instantly being a cultivator still confused me, but I guess the lightning just did it to me. I tried not to think about it too much.

  A few moments later, I blinked and watched the small glowing blue butterfly emerge from the crystal and stand on it. I looked down at it with a dumb grin and watched it fly lazily away. I tried to reach out for it, see if it would land on my finger, but it had a job to do. It just floated past me and flew back to wherever Amber and Norimoro were. I basically just told them that not to worry, I would look out for anything bad and send them a message if something came up. Otherwise, just keep on truckin’.

  I looked up at the sky and smiled. It was a clear sunny day and the heat that I had experienced since I came here was wearing off. I had heard someone mention something about autumn, and that summer seemed to be hanging on longer than usual, so I was grateful it was finally starting to cool. It was definitely a lot less muggy than it had been, and I could comfortably wear my heavier outer robe without being too hot.

  For the time being, the road was relatively easy going. We were still on the main Royal Road, so it was well-maintained and busy at this time of day. We moved around other people where we could, and got cursed at by a few when Betsy shifted back over in front of them too soon. Other times, we were kind of stuck behind slower drivers. This really was like being on the highway back home. Just here I could wave and actually say hi to people. Though, I did still pretend to pick my nose sometimes.

  There was one point when the person tried to pick up speed so we couldn’t pass them, but Betsy just lowered her head and charged forward. We had some room to pick up speed before another cart would have hit us, so I wasn’t too worried. Honestly, I kinda wondered what would happen if we did hit another oncoming cart. Would Betsy just demolish them and run over them? Would she lower her horns and just push them out of the way? Well, it’s probably better we don’t find out.

  I leaned back and then looked out to the west, wondering what it was exactly that happened that drew Niku and her master away. I didn’t remember seeing anything yesterday that could have caused such a disruption? Before sending Niku a message, I spent some time thinking about what to say.

  Eventually, I closed my eyes once more and worked on cycling into the crystal and thought about what I wanted the message to be. None of which I’d tell you, it was personal. Alright, the part I can tell you is that I just was sorry she couldn’t come and that I would miss her. Anything else isn’t for your ears. I also asked for more details on what the event was. I was curious, and Amber had a point. If I was going to live here in this world, I should know more about what was going on.

  After all of that was done, I stared at the crystal and wondered exactly how many more messages I’d be able to send with it. I was told it had a finite amount, but how did I know? It’s not like there was a number there on the crystal that told me. Wait. I blinked and double checked to make sure. No, it didn’t. I sighed and put it back just behind my bench in my little bunk.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  I pulled out my shamisen and before I even struck a cord, Betsy was giving sounds of distress. I frowned and looked out at her.

  “Oh, come on, I haven’t even played anything yet. You liked when I played Eggman that day,” I shouted at the ox.

  Another sound of distress and Betsy shook her head furiously before she came to a slow stop. I got the impression of her next to me with her arms crossed. I frowned at the ox and sighed and put the instrument away. “Alright, alright.”

  After safely stowing it away, she started pulling again with a satisfied bellow.

  “You know, I’ll never get better if you don’t let me practice.”

  A bellow.

  I shook my head and mumbled. “Everyone’s a critic.”

  She snorted.

  “You know, it gets pretty boring just sitting here. At least when you were a truck I had to pay attention and drive,” I huffed and got the distinct impression of her rolling her eyes at me and then stomping off. Likewise, her pace seemed to pick up a little.

  “Don’t overdo it girl, it’s a long way down to the Song region,” I said and wished I knew how many miles it was. Or how fast Betsy was even going. Even Norimoro and other locals couldn’t really tell me how big the continent was or how far away we were going.

  The day went by pretty easy and not much happened. We stopped at a rest area where Amber and Norimoro could catch up with us right as we were about to leave. They asked me to stay, but I wanted to get back on the road and get as much road behind us as we could.

  When we got back on the road I thought of sending Hisai a message as well. Nothing long or drawn out and all business. I really just wanted to know how the new wagon was coming along and how much I’d owe him. I also wanted to work out delivery since I was on this haul that might take me awhile. Surprisingly I got a response back just before me and Betsy settled in to rest for the night. I poked at the butterfly and then the words lit up in the air in front of me in that blue aura that matched the butterfly’s color.

  I actually just spoke with Elder Kuchiki earlier today. The man seems to be quite invigorated with the project you gave him. I haven’t seen him this excited in quite some time. Unfortunately, this means you’ll owe quite a bit more than we originally thought but we’ll be able to work it out. How would you feel about trading us your extra long wagon to help pay down the cost? I think we could use something like that. As for delivery, there was something that happened in the southwest part of the empire and we were planning on going down to take a look. We might be able to meet somewhere along the way? Let me know, we’ll work it out.

  I waved the words away and thought it over as I laid in my bunk. Meeting them was definitely a possibility. It’d help me in the long run. I wondered when they were planning on heading down and if we would indeed be able to make it work. There was also the fact I wanted to try and get work on moving something out of where I was going to be and possibly meeting up with Niku wherever she went.

  Then I thought about my coin purse and how light it was going to be after I paid them. Though, I did not in fact have a problem trading them my current wagon. I wasn’t going to need it, I only had one ox and I wasn’t sure if an ox that wasn’t Betsy would be able to pull such a cart.

  Finally, I pushed it all out of my head and figured it’d work out. It usually did, and if it didn’t work out, I’d find a way to make it work. I grabbed one of the path manuals I had and cracked it open to see if I could make use of it. I ended up falling asleep learning about The Twin Stars.

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