Free Web NovelChapter 4: The Lady’s Offer
What lay in front of Ronan was a massive open ground with nothing visible to him for a long long distance. But it was not the size of the ground which had shocked him. But what lay in front of him.
The ground, as far as he could see, was almost a mixture of darkish maroon and black in colour. And there was not an iota of vegetation in his sight. He could see for kilometres and could not spot a single stalk of grass.
It was as if an apocalypse had struck the world. The air felt oppressive and suffocating and everything was hazy. The sun was rising in the distance but even the sun appeared to be dim. It lacked the usual brightness and the majesty he was used to.
Ronan was not in his own world. It was obvious. This was what he had been fearing and had not been trying to think. He had an inkling that he was not in his own world and had been avoiding that thought till now but now the overwhelming evidence was in front of him.
And if these things were not enough, Ronan also spotted something else that confirmed his suspicion. Abominations. He did not need to be told that these were what the lady had been talking about.
He saw a couple of them about a hundred metres from the building.
Their overall appearance was almost human. Two legs, two hands and two eyes. But everything else was different. Their skin was dark red in colour and their nose was crooked. And though they had two eyes, they were disoriented and of different sizes. One of them was plump and short while the other was tall and muscular. They were walking but from a distance Ronan could tell that they were mindless. They were working only on their instinct.
Seeing their faces and one big and one small eyes, Ronan felt a shiver in his spine. Were they dangerous? Surely they were. He did not doubt it.
Ronan looked at his wrist and wondered if he should bring his cube out to charge it and immediately return to his own world when the lady approached the window behind him .
"Two of them," she muttered as she narrowed her eyes on the abominations.
"Yes," Ronan responded with all the calmness and composure he could. But inwardly he was shaking.
"Did you eat the food?" He asked. "How was it?"
"I have not eaten anything like this in my whole life," she replied. "What was it even? Fried chicken rice you called it. Never heard of it."
"It is my secret," he replied with a small smile.
"Are you a smuggler?" She questioned. "Selling things of The Sanctuary to the outside world."
Ronan did not reply immediately. He wanted to let her imagination run wild and make it appear to her that he was a man of connection.
"I do trade things," he replied. "There is nothing more I would say."
"I get it," she said, "that you have come to Kovliar to sell goods."
Kovliar. The name struck Ronan. Was it a city? Most likely. Or maybe a settlement. The lady most likely belonged to Kovliar.
"I must say that if you can bring more things like these, they will sell like anything," she remarked. "Even the rich of Kovliar will go mad after them."
"It is nice to hear," he replied. "This is what I would wish for."
"How much do you think I could get for the food and the water?" He asked casually.
"Honeslty," she responded, contemplating after a moment. "I do not have an idea but I guess a lot of people would be willing to pay a lot for it."
"And if you are asking me for payment," she added, "then..."
She paused as she inserted her hands in her jeans pocket and pulled out a bunch of crystals and handed it over to him. Five strange looking crystals.
"This is all that I have right now," she said.
Ranon took the crystals in his hands with much intrigue. The crystals were rectangular shaped and light blue in colour. It was around 3cm in length and 2cm in width. He did not say anything and simply kept the crystal in his pockets.
"Who are you?" Ronan asked the lady. "And what do you do?" freewёbnoνel.com
"My name is Elicia," she replied. "And I am a mercenary."
"Mercenary?" Ronan asked with an intrigue.
"Yes," she replied.
She did not elaborate and neither did he want to ask questions and take a risk about giving the fact that he had no information about this world.
"You seem rather weak," she remarked out of nowhere. "Are you not injected with the serum?" fгeewebnovёl.com
Serum? A kind of medicine. Maybe something that made people strong.
"No," he replied.
His heart was throbbing. He was not sure what this meant but at this point ’no’ was the only answer he could think of as coming appropriate.
"Hmm," she responded. "I do not think that crystals would have been an issue for you."
"I have other considerations," he responded, nonchalantly.
"How far is Kovliar from here?" He questioned, trying to divert the issue.
"25 kilometres towards the East," she replied.
"What are you going to do?" She questioned. "When will your friends be coming? Will they even find you?"
"They should," he replied. "They may take time but they will. I have left some signals that they should pick."
"You can come to Kovliar with me," she offered suddenly. "If you want I can help you with some of your goods. I am a mercenary and I have some contacts in the city. I will take ten percent as commission and you would not have to worry about finding someone reliable in the city."
"You can?" He asked.
It was then when it suddenly clicked in his mind and he thought of something.
"I can," she was quite eager. Who did not like to make money?
"But apart from crystals, can I get payment in some other form?" He asked tentatively.
"Something else?" She asked with a frown on her face. "Like what?"
"I need some metals," he said. "Gold, silver?"
As he mentioned gold and silver, his heart was again throbbing. He did not know if these metals even existed in this world.
"You want gold and silver for these things?" She asked with a laugh.
"Is there a problem?" He responded.
"No," she shook her head. "I do not know why you want gold and silver but I think I can get you paid in gold and silver and as much as you want."
"So, you are coming with me to Kovliar?" She asked.
Ronan took a few moments to contemplate his answer. The thing about asking for gold and silver had just popped randomly in his head. The way Elicia had reacted to the bowl of fried chicken rice and the bottle of water had established that it was a valuable commodity in this world.
And the wasteland that was in front of him affirmed it even more. He had no idea what they would be eating if there was no vegetation? And she had mentioned about water with a rancid taste. It seemed that even water was an issue here.
And Ronan, though was very desperate to return to his house, he could not ignore the allure of making a profit.
"Not today," he answered. "I do not have any supplies with me right now. And I have something else to accomplish."
"Oh!" Her face dimmed a bit.
"Can you meet me here?" He asked. "Tomorrow. Sometime in the afternoon."
"I can," she nodded her head.
"I will come clean with you," Ronan said.
"Me and my friends are not here to really sell goods," he continued. "We had some other work and they are most probably busy doing that."
"But I am personally quite interested in selling some goods and earning a bit of profit," he added.
Elicia simply shrugged her shoulders. This did not matter to her. She was fine with anything as long as she could earn some profit from his profit.
"I had stopped here thinking that I would rest for a couple of hours before returning to Kovliar," she remarked, "but now that I am fed and not thirsty any more, I will depart immediately."
"I will not help you downstairs," he said with a chuckle. "What time will you come tomorrow?"
"1:00 PM," she replied.
"Give me your contact," she said suddenly, taking out a rectangular device that resembled a mobile.
Well, his mobile of his world would surely not work here.
"We will meet here at 1:00 PM," he repeated, avoiding the question.
Elicia’s face dimmed once again. She got his message and kept the device back in her pocket. She could not force someone if they were not willing to give their contact. But doubts had surely begun to form in her heart.
The duo exchanged another nod before Elicia slinged her rifle on her shoulders and descended downwards. Ronan was waiting on the window when he spotted Elicia emerging from the building and his eyes literally bulged from shock.
She was on a motorbike. The look of the mountain bike though not exactly similar but was very close in appearance to the mountain bikes of his world.
Slim and lightweight and fit for rough terrain. For whatever reason, he had been expecting that she would be trekking to her destination. It had never occurred to his mind that she might be riding a motorbike. This showed the complete lack of understanding he had of this world.
Elicia craned her neck towards him, gave him one last look, twisted the accelerator and the motorbiker sped away without making even the littlest of noise.
.
.
.
[Add the book to your collection. Send it some power stones. Tell me your opinion about the book. Leave a comment. Give the story an honest rating and a review.]
