The Rules of Blood-Volume Two ; Chapter 52 (268) - The Beasts Whisper
A lion with a sword in its mouth.
That was the sigil Blanc had seen on the carriage that passed them the morning after they left Segetuza. And again, the following evening, this time coming back from the same city.
Both times, they had fled at the first glimpse of it.
For that was the symbol of Blood Maiores, gifted to them by the High Monarch himself. But the carriage’s comings and goings, nearly two days apart, meant one thing. His plan had worked to the very end.
Blanc gave himself a congratulatory pat on the shoulder, grinning like a man who’d just cheated fate.
Celine would be proud,
he thought, even if he hadn’t had the chance to write his wives a letter, letting them know how he fared.
With a promise to himself that he would write one at the first chance he got, he focused on what was to follow.
The road ahead was long, treacherous.
And now that the plan had wrapped, tragically empty of food for the time being. Now they had to walk past any town, city, or village they came across, all to avoid being discovered.
At least until they were out of the Domain of Blood Maiores.
But it was a foolish dream to think Blood Maiores would stop at that after being so brazenly shamed by an unknown man. As for the next few days, carriages, with that same sword-biting lion, rushed across every road wide enough to hold them.
Making Blanc, Velakia, Thareni, and Lendros have to rest in the weirdest of places, without any tents, so as not to draw attention.
They slept hidden between bushes, in tall grass, or up a lone tree they found on their walk.
Meaning, that frankly, after two entire weeks of this, they were scratched, some of their clothes ripped, and utterly exhausted with less than four hours of sleep between each other stretched across a few days.
Still, they had covered impressive ground.
By the fiftieth day of their journey, they were only a day or two from the edge of the Domain.
But the exhaustion clung to them like another pack on their backs. And with each passing day, Blood Maiores grew more impatient, releasing their private militias to scour the land on foot. With a few coming dangerously close.
Luckily, the Raw Vita coursing through their bodies kept their senses sharp even through fatigue, though it drained their strength faster, burning through their energy and what little food they had left.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
And a person who had as much Raw Vita as Blanc did required many times the food a normal person would. Now they were empty. Of food. Of sleep. Of strength. Yet what Blanc feared most wasn’t hunger or pursuit.
It was what his own body was begging him to do.
Whispering in his ears countless times. Even his monologue that had remained silent for months now came back only to taunt his desires.
The instincts of all the beasts he had harvested were taking over his mind, as he, even without noticing, began staring at the females of the group. It was not intentional, not really at least, as his mind grew too foggy in such times.
Yet, he powered through them exquisitely, managing to hold his desires in check for as much as possible.
For once he slept and ate, he would be fine.
They just had to somehow resist a bit longer.
“How are you faring, Velakia?” Blanc asked, as they stopped near a creek to refill their water.
“Like a wingless bird,” she replied as she crouched down, placing her waterskin into the creek.
“Well said,” Blanc replied, his eyes moving downward, before he moved his body in the opposite direction entirely, “Still, we can try to get some sleep tonight, it’s going to get dark soon.”
“Wouldn’t it be best if we kept on walking?” Velakia wondered, looking in Blanc’s direction, before getting up on her feet, waterskin in hand, “If what you said was correct, we should be near the edge of the Domain.”
“A day or two away,” Blanc nodded, “But we deviated a lot from the roads we planned on taking just to not be seen, so most likely two days, can we hold on for that long?”
Velakia sighed, looking at the ground, pretending to be lost in thought.
For even though the princess did not show it, she was struggling with the same issues Blanc was. And Tahreni and Lendros were none the wiser either.
If greed turned one into a cursed being, the lack of things one needs to survive turned them into beasts.
As a lack of basic needs allowed the instincts of the beasts they harvested to slowly take over. For a beast only knows how to survive, and if the beast cannot survive, it will ensure it will leave something behind that will survive in their stead.
And now, the tens, even hundreds of beasts all of them had in their souls were now whispering in their ears to survive, one way or another.
Yet, they still held on, although only as a facade.
“Do you think there is a place where we can rest?” Velakia asked, not moving her eyes from the ground.
“There should be something we can hide behind for a few hours in that valley,” Blanc pointed forward, “A bush, a tree, anything really.”
“What if-” Velakia wanted to speak, but the loud neigh of a horse resounded from the valley in front, making her fall silent.
Blanc turned his sight towards his companions, adrenaline stopping his desires just enough, “We walk around the valley.”
“Wait, what if something is happening below?” Velakia asked.
“We still walk around,” Blanc shook his head, “Last time we did this, it made sense, but now we are not in the best of shape to help. Especially while we are still in this Domain.”
Blanc had a point, one Velakia couldn’t deny, but still, she pressed on for one simple reason.
If there was someone who needed help, maybe they also had food to give or food they could take.
“We should at least check,” she said, looking into Blanc’s gray eyes, “From a distance.”
And Blanc could only look away and sigh at her words.
.
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Volume Two ; Chapter 52 (268) - The Beasts Whisper
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