Chương 298: Daldyr

"I agree," said Trish, as she looked over the massive, sprawling slums that lay outside of the inner city.

"Really?" I asked, as I tried not to grin.

"Trish and I both agree. The current situation is unstable," said Markus, as he grimaced.

"This situation is a barrel of gunpowder. All it's missing is a match."

"I'm also happy getting out of here," said Anise.

"I… I don't know who's in the right here, if things explode like this. On one hand, most of the people of Damilius didn't directly participate in the injustices committed against the people here. I don't think they deserve to get hurt because of that. But on the other hand, I don't think the Zannans are wrong either. If they want freedom from this, I would sympathize with them. So I don't want to participate at all. It's best to leave things alone and find our own path." I smiled.

Anise's words echoed my own sentiments. I didn't want to participate in a war that didn't feel 'just.' In this case, I wouldn't feel good about helping either side. I turned towards Iselde and Vance's families, to see if they objected, but they didn't have any words of rebuttal. They were less active in the conversation, but they still seemed to agree with us.

"Then we're all in agreement?" I asked.

"We'll find a quiet place to settle down and wait for everything to pass?"

"Sounds like it," said Vance.

"In that case, we'll have to find a place where we can stay out of this," I said, thoughtfully.

"How about a small, out of the way village? Somewhere that the natives were less harmed by Damilius's colonial policy? If the population is lower, it would also make it easier to escape if something goes wrong, since we can fight off a good number of combatants on our own. I'm happy with being a village healer for a while, if nothing goes wrong." Trish's eyes lit up.

"I wouldn't mind being a doctor for a small village, either. It may not be quite the same as my old clinic, but… I wouldn't have studied medicine if I didn't like healing people. And I miss having a clinic under my name," she said.

"I put a lot of years into the last one, and losing it feels bad." Markus nodded.

"I could find a job as a woodcutter or something. I'll have to look around a bit and see what jobs are available, but I'm sure I can figure something out. I have a pretty strong body, from all of the training in the military. Since factories are far less widespread on this continent, manual labor is more valued here. I can leverage that." After a few more vague planning for what kinds of jobs and environment we wanted for our new home, we broke apart. Then, we started hitting up the local shops.

Money from Damilius might become useless soon if things blew up, but it wasn't useless yet. We used every single scrap of money to buy supplies. The three of us prioritized materials for Felix's experiments and medical supplies for a new clinic. We also bought a bit of chocolate, since it was cheaper here, and some books for Anise. Finally, we bought supplies such as tents, food, and water, for if we ran into some sort of problem acquiring those outside.

Then we bought a map of the rest of the archipelago, as well as a few travelogues and introductory guides to the continent. We regrouped near the dock, and spent the next few hours trying to match our needs against the descriptions of various towns and villages. Eventually, we found a few towns we were satisfied with. All of them were on the smaller side, with populations lower than ten thousand, and were rather rural. We avoided plantations, because those would likely also be pits of resentment.

The towns we looked at were also close to metal deposits, so that Felix would have materials to play with. Through reading the travelogues, Trish and I also realized that there was a smaller, hidden benefit to settling in a rural town. There were a lot of poisonous bugs and plants on this archipelago. Thus, there were a lot of diseases and dangerous injuries that appeared here.

In a rural town, it was unlikely that there would be any truly exceptional clinics or healers, meaning Trish and I would be much more appreciated. This would also make our position more stable if things erupted in a dangerous way. It might not be a perfect guarantee of safety, but it was the best we had. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The final thing we did before leaving town was find a few books on the language and culture of this archipelago.

I wouldn't be able to learn how to speak Zannan in only a few days, but I could at least learn some basic phrases and cultural customs. The people here would definitely feel better about us if we learned their language, so I intended to add it to my to-do list. We spent a little longer hashing out exactly which town to head to, and settled on Daldyr. It had a population of 7, 000, and exported a modest amount of wool and meat. After choosing our destination, we started walking.

It took us three days of hiking across dirt roads, but with the help of Soul Sight and Anise's magic, we didn't have any major problems during the journey. We hunted down a few smaller animals to eat as we traveled, and our tents were decent enough quality to keep us comfortable. My mother started suffering from withdrawal symptoms as we travelled, and I healed her each time. I still had very mixed feelings about her.

While it had hurt, I had accepted a long time ago that my mother was not going to be a part of my future. She didn't want to be. Or at least, she didn't want to be a part of my life as much as she wanted to keep taking drugs. The only thing I wanted from my family in each world was for them to love me. Sometimes, I felt that from my mother - but much more of the time, I felt like she had forgotten about my existence.

I didn't want to subject myself to a relationship where I tried to help someone and they spat on my efforts over and over again. On the other hand, I had brought her to this continent. Leaving her to die had still felt wrong to me, so I had brought her along. But I didn't think that would change our relationship. I spent much of the hike trying to figure out where the line between my mother and I should be. What was and wasn't okay. What I was willing to do to help her, and what I wasn't willing to do.

Coming to conclusions was hard when the problem was so complicated. So eventually, I settled on leaving things be for now. I would distance myself again once we got to town, and take things one step at a time after that. Once we arrived at the new town, it looked more peaceful than I expected. While people didn't exactly look prosperous, they weren't poor, either. Our group stood out among the local populace, but not very many of them looked resentful of us. I smiled. The lack of resentment was a good start.

Some of the people who had showed up seemed wary of us, but nobody seemed outright afraid or hostile. If they were, things could have spiraled out of control much more easily. But since nobody here seemed to care that we were from Damilius, things would be easier. As we continued walking forward, a short, scruffy-looking man with skin the color of ebony and an easy smile stepped forward. He gave us a brief nod, as his eyes swapped from person to person. It looked like he wasn't sure who to talk to.

I glanced at the others, and they gave me slight nods. With their approval, I stepped in front of the group, and held out my hand in the Zannan hand gesture for 'respectful meeting.' Zanna had a lot of emphasis placed on some physical motions, such as the first hand gesture one makes when meeting a new person. Since I had learned about it, I would definitely use it. Upon seeing my hand gesture, the man's eyes lit up. He made the same gesture back at me, and then smiled.

"It's rare to see someone from Damilius use a proper hand gesture," he said, in perfect Damilian. I blinked in surprise, and the man laughed.

"I can speak the language of Damilius pretty well. I handle exports from the village, and we have a few business dealings with companies from the mainland. Since that's the case, I learned the language so that nobody could cheat me. What brings you folks here?"

"My name is Miria, and these are my friends and family members. We're looking for a place to move to. Does this town need someone with a healing ability, a doctor, and a few workers?" I asked.

"Ability?" The man gave me a much more interested look. He chuckled.

"We don't have an ability user in town. Can't say I'm that familiar with how abilities work what their limits are. Are you willing to give a demonstration? You can settle here either way, but I'm curious." I grinned.

"Of course!" In my thoughts, I cheered. The first step towards building up good will seemed like it would be easier than expected.