Crafted by the world you are,

  Crafted by the world you eat,

  Crafted by the world you speak.

  Forget not, oh unsatiated one,

  The world has long stopped listening to fools.

  So, there are several issues with my current predicament.

  First and foremost, no toilet.

  That alone should’ve been enough reason for me to turn around, tell Ephe to kiss my pale ass, and jump off the balcony again. Perhaps then the Custodians would finally give me easier tasks.

  ‘Continue Existing’ was straightforward enough. Don’t die. Easy, right?

  Well, haha, not so much once I’m outside the Castle, where Gods know what sort of fuckery might happen next.

  Second issue, no hygiene.

  Again, just go back, Elio.

  But nah. I might be some sort of masochist, I think. I like putting myself at risk and wiping my ass with leaves and tree bark. Otherwise, why else would I, a modern man, a respectable introvert, a widower, travel with a pair of lunatics through a forest of colossal trees, just days after saving them from being dissolved in the gastric acid of a God?

  Great question, Elio. I’ve got no bloody idea why you’d just take Ephe’s word at face value. It’s not like she hasn’t already put you through the gutter a few times.

  Good thing I’m half suicidal; otherwise, not even Julia could’ve convinced me to go out again.

  Still, here we are.

  Third issue, these two.

  When they walk in silence, all is well. But the moment they start talking, they bicker like a married couple that hate each other.

  When they answer my questions, they hesitate and sometimes lie.

  When they ask theirs, they push harder and harder until I have to tell them to stop.

  And don’t even get me started on the ‘Your Grace’ at the start of every bloody sentence, that’s been grinding my nerves raw since dawn when we left Calcan Castle.

  Fourth issue, because why not?

  Since my luck’s a cruel bastard, through it all, Stevin and Enna keep looking and acting around me like I’m plotting to eat them and their mothers both.

  A ‘Vampire Lord’, I’ve heard them whisper a few times, one who walks under the sun and can feed on something other than the usual vampiric calorie source.

  I was curious to know what that source was, but asking would probably make me look more suspicious.

  Whether it’s mana, souls, or blood, I don’t know.

  All I know is that those two bastards think I’m planning to suck whatever it is clean out of them sooner or later.

  Hence, the distance between them and me.

  “Ephe,” I sighed, walking around a fallen, colossal tree and trying to keep up with the two ahead, “How long will this journey take us?”

  [At the Current Pace?]

  “Yes.”

  [With Breaks in Between?]

  “Yes.”

  [How long will the Breaks be?]

  “Ephe…”

  [Calculating.]

  [...]

  [2 Weeks, 4 Days, 12 Hours, 31 Minutes, 47 Seconds.]

  [46 Seconds.]

  [45 Seconds.]

  “Okay, okay, I got it,” I waved her off before she could start counting milliseconds.

  If that was how long it would take the three of us, I didn’t even want to think about the road back alone after I was done with all this bullshit.

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  “Did you say something, Your Grace?” Stevin shouted from about a hundred feet away.

  I had three curses ready to throw back at him, sharp ones, stinging the tip of my tongue, begging to be said.

  “Yes, wait up,” I called instead, jaw tight and angry with myself that I said none of them.

  But between all my newfound frustrations, carrying a bag full of air-conditioned clothes, water, and enough fruit to last a few days, while also worrying that once these two regained enough mana, they might try to kill me, I still had to digest the mountain of information they’d given me and hadn't had a chance to fully process.

  Especially about these Roads of theirs.

  It wasn’t like Ephe, or the Reign Index, or even the Reigncraft. The Roads were actual fantasy magic, pure, fundamental, intrinsic.

  From what I gathered, everyone had the capabilities to manifest one, and everyone who did could use it, but aside from some passed-down genetic interference, what a person got was more or less… luck.

  A poor system, in my opinion. The son of royalty could end up with a useless Road, while some back-alley murderer could stumble into a world-breaking ability.

  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it might not just be luck at all.

  Of course, there were exceptions to every rule, and I could be wrong about it, but a Road never manifested into a wrong person.

  Meaning that, as it was the case many times in history, power was never given to a person not befitting of them. They took it or inherited it.

  But here, it took shape, the power one manifested was always a reflection of who they were destined to become. Their purpose. The Road that was meant for them to walk on.

  If a prince received the Road of Fire, he could become a great mage, yes, but not a king.

  While a slave might awaken the Road of Kings and rise to lead nations, as Enna once told me of one such King who existed a long ago.

  But there were some layers to it that I still haven’t wrapped my head around.

  Like the Roads themselves having a system of evolution, just like the Reigncraft, but with clearer paths, and a final destiny.

  The Angels, as Enna and Stevin called them, were the final Evolution of a being that had walked the totality of their Road, becoming something akin to a Demigod in every way imaginable.

  Which meant that, in a way, a Road’s power mattered only at its beginning, not at its destination.

  That made sense, until you learned the Angels themselves had their own hierarchies, systems, and ranks, which made my head ache just trying to connect the dots of it all.

  So… was it luck after all?

  If someone received a powerful Road and completed it, did that make them a stronger Angel?

  Or did every Road, weak or strong, lead to the same gate, and only then did their climb begin again?

  Of course, these two didn’t know.

  Of course, Ephe did not reply.

  Which meant I could only guess what the answer was.

  Many such things still needed to be processed by my own head. The rest, like the races of Mankind and their religions, though strange to comprehend and even stranger to imagine in some cases, were simple enough to grasp.

  Elves existed. Cool.

  “Why?” and “How?” became questions for later, since asking these two about the evolutionary process that led to pointy ears probably wouldn’t get me far.

  What mattered was gathering as much information as I could from them.

  As for their religions, well, weird, but not the kind of weird that people back on Earth hadn’t already imagined.

  Gods existed, apparently.

  Which, sure, it is kind of obvious now, since I’m here. But whether the Custodians or that “Most High” Ephe mentioned once were actual Gods, I couldn’t say.

  Religion and godhood were difficult things to comprehend.

  Especially for me, being an atheist all my life and such, but even more so now since I found out that they, in some form, existed.

  “Your Grace,” Enna said, cutting through my thoughts. “Let us take a break.”

  “Fine,” I sighed, grateful for the excuse to rest my burning feet.

  Julia had tried to make me like hiking; she failed. The satisfied groan I let out as I flopped against the trunk of a colossal tree proved it.

  What worried me more than my own legs was how these two looked entirely unaffected. No sweat, no ragged breathing, just smiles, shits, and giggles as they looked at me.

  “I’m curious,” I said, reaching for the waterskin I’d brought, “Why a break so soon? We barely walked ten hours.”

  A bluff. My feet screamed.

  “You have impressive stamina, Your Grace,” Stevin groaned, bending to rub his calves. “My feet are killing me.”

  [Lie.]

  Oh. Oh.

  Enna gave a light chuckle. “I’m not as whiny as this Gentle Lord, but my drained mana is definitely taking a toll.”

  [Lie.]

  [Her Mana is at: 47% capacity.]

  Well, looks like I jinxed it again.

  My earlier cockiness, thinking I didn’t care what they thought as long as they fed me information, had aged poorly. Sure, my looks didn’t help, and making it sound as if I’d slept through centuries of history wasn’t my best move either, but still.

  Now… how to salvage this?

  [Danger.]

  [The ‘Guests’ are Mentally preparing to Attack the ‘Subject’.]

  Good morning, sunshine. Thanks for showing up.

  Thank fucking God you are here, huh?

  “You know,” I cleared my throat, opening the waterskin, “There was one saying that I liked since I was a small child, a verse from a Holy Book. It says, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’ so if you wish to attack me, first be ready for me to attack you.”

  Gods, please, make this bluff of mine work; otherwise, both my plans and Ephe’s damned Directive go straight to hell.

  Their eyes went wide with pure terror as if they were looking into the eyes of the snakebird itself.

  For moments that felt like hours, as my tension was rising, fearing my bluff failed, I kept drinking water. An excuse to appear as calmly and as unbothered as possible.

  Eventually, Stevin sighed some of the tension away, slumping to the dirt, “There goes the only advantage we had.”

  “What will… happen to us?” Enna whispered, fear gripping at her throat.

  I set the water down and looked at them plainly.

  But in truth, I was relieved, praising whatever God listened to my prayer that my bluff worked.

  Still, I didn’t show it as I started speaking, “We will enjoy our break and have a chat… about the foolish things you call me.”

  “And then?” Stevin swallowed, now aware that I knew he called me a vampire.

  “And then we continue this journey,” I shrugged, ignoring the surprised looks they gave me.

  “No dying?” Enna asked, somehow more terrified now than when those savages had her tied up.

  “No dying.”

  “No turning us into vampires and using us as slaves for all eternity?” she followed up.

  My dear Julia, I beg of you, protect me from these idiots.

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