Chapter 25  

Kai ended up buying a few herbs he was curious about from old Selly. After some fierce haggling, he spent a mesar and thirty-five chips.

He pushed the price down from an initial seven mesars and thought he got a good deal. Selly’s radiant smile as he walked away told him that he might have gotten scammed.

There was no way to get a great deal at his first haggling against a seasoned merchant. You live and you learn.

He wasn’t too upset but decided he had enough for today and headed home. It was better if his mother found him there when she got back.

Upon entering new town, he noticed a small crowd of people forming around a man one street over.

A couple more minutes won’t make a difference.

Kai walked towards the crowd, curious about what the man was saying to gather so many people. The speaker seemed to be an islander less than thirty. With dark hair, tanned skin and a charismatic presence. He was speaking with fervor, gesturing with his hands to give weight to his words.

“—aren’t you tired of being treated like vermin? To pay taxes to a governor who desecrated our lands!? What would your ancestors think if they saw you now?”

His eyes full of passion moved through the crowd as if to dare anyone to meet his gaze.

“Each second those dogs remain here is a slap in the face of the spirits! How are you going to face your ancestors in the afterlife if you roll over to their demands? Do you not hear them cry tears of anger for how our land has been sullied!? The great spirits Kahali and Yatei are on our side. It’s time we return to the old ways and follow the will of the spirits!”

The man continued to rally people with conviction on the border of fanaticism. Denouncing the perversion of the Republic and inciting people to rebel.

The crowd was hanging on his lips, echoing his words and emotions. Kai noticed not everyone was nodding along and some looked skeptical, but they were in the minority.

Kai would be the last one to defend the Republic. He would gladly hit the governor in the face with a bat, if he could. But things were not as simple as that man was making them out to be.

Even a year ago he would not have fallen for this, and certainly not now. He had read a little about the history of the Talthen continent in Virya’s library, which put into perspective what the Republic was doing. If people thought things were bad now, they had no idea how truly terrible they could get.

Just the fact they were free to keep practicing their religion and traditions was considered an extravagant concession, only present in recent history in the most ‘progressive’ countries.

Forced conversion was not unusual for the conquering force. In the kingdoms where religion played a pivotal role, it wasn’t too rare to make the conquered populations choose between converting to a new faith and losing their heads. Sure, that was considered barbaric by the common consensus, but it didn’t mean it didn’t happen. Exploitation or enslavement were much too common.

Without even taking into consideration when the conflict was between different races. That was a whole other can of worms. It wasn’t a given that every race treated foreign ones more harshly than their own people, but all the most extreme cases in history happened that way.

The most infamous was five thousand years ago, when the Arck’leesi Theocracy waged a holy war on all races they considered inferior. They burned down whole kingdoms and brought more than one sapient race to the brink of extinction. They were only stopped by a coalition that combined the forces of most of the continent.

All this wasn’t to say the Republic was some beacon of morality. Virya’s books focused more on ancient history, but the little he had read made it clear there was no kingdom without a pile of skeletons in the closet. The Merian Republic might not allow slavery and have relatively fair laws, but its rulers were no saints.

The people of the archipelago had the right to be furious, protest and take any opportunity to change their situation for the better. However, he saw no such opportunity. It was clear to him that inciting a rebellion was a madness that would only lead to greater suffering.

The man showed no sign of stopping his rallying. The intensity of his words kept rising and rising, resounding loudly through the streets.

Kai didn’t like where this was going one bit. Looking around people seemed completely taken by the fanatic speech.

Few seemed to have kept their mind. Among them, he noticed a man with a rugged beard and an almost military cut of hair, who looked at the speaker with disgust. With his appearance and expression, he stood out from the rest of the crowd like a colorful seashell on a low tide.

Observing his face more carefully, he looked somewhat familiar. Kai took a moment to realize he was the same man he called uncle and used to get out of the shady part of town the night before. In the daylight, he didn’t look that old, maybe late thirties.

What a weird coincidence finding him here. Well... Thinking about it a moment, there were less than two thousand people in Greenside and those that lived in new town were even less. It wasn’t like the odds were abysmally low.

Kai moved towards the man with hesitation.

I guess I should thank him.

As he got closer, he noticed another detail he had missed last night. The man was built like a tank. He could see his muscles bulging underneath his shirt. Coupled with the thin pale scars that marred his hands and forearms against his tanned skin, he gave the vibe of a veteran soldier.

He didn’t know how he thought this man looked reassuring last night with such a clear intimidating aura. But even now, he didn’t get a bad feeling from him.

“Hi, uncle. I wanted to thank you.” Kai cheerfully greeted the man. His Acting skill was more useful than he thought.

The burly man turned his eyes away from the speaker. He looked confused for a moment before realization flashed into his eyes.

“It was you!”

“Yes, I got lost and needed a little help to get out of there. I’m so lucky that my uncle was there to help me. I’m Kai by the way.”

The scarred man stared at him without being able to formulate an answer. Overwhelmed by his shamelessness.

“Moui.” He replied with a deep tone.

The big man looked caught completely off guard by his friendliness. Moui was probably used to having people deterred by his menacing air. There was something deeply amusing seeing such a tough-looking man not knowing how to act around a little kid. Kai couldn't resist playing with his brave rescuer.

Regaining his composure, the man tried to assume a stern lecturing pose. “A little kid like you should be more careful.” Moui’s eyes fell on his light ashen hair, the clear sign he wasn’t a pure islander, but quickly moved away.

Maybe I wasn’t wrong about him.

“Where is your mom? It could be dangerous for you here. Each time one of those rambling fools makes a speech it only brings trouble.”

Kai ignored both his stern look and question. He kept his innocent smile and asked, “Are there many of those rambling fools?”

Moui was trying hard to look menacing. He alternated weird frowns and cold looks as he tried to understand why his 'scary' appearance didn’t work on this kid. The more he tried the more the whole scene looked hilarious in Kai’s eyes.

He answered with his deep tone. “How do you not know about them? They are everywhere these days. They spout nonsense and try to recruit people to their lost cause.”

Kai shrugged his shoulders, “I just came back to town.”

Moui seemed to have accepted he was not going to intimidate him and gave up on trying. He shook his head, “They call themselves The Voice of the Ancestors. Can you believe someone came up with such a stupid name and thought it was a good idea? You can hardly find a wall in town without their stupid mark.”

“You mean the hand with the sacred symbol?”

The man nodded.

This was quite worrying. He had thought this rally was an isolated case, not a large phenomenon.

“Why don’t the Republic enforcers do anything about this? I don’t think they agree with the message, and they don't seem like the kind of people who respond to provocations lying down.”

This time it was Moui who replied with a shrug, “I don’t know for sure. There are rumors The Voice of the Ancestors has spread to every city of the archipelago. Half of the enforcers were recalled to be deployed to strategic areas and those left here don’t move out of the old town. The governor doesn’t give a damn about what happens in Greenside.”

Kai couldn’t keep his casual smile any longer, a deep frown appearing on his forehead, “Are they trying to cause a civil war?”

Moui looked at him weird. Kai had to remember not everyone thought it normal to see a child reach some conclusions. In the end, Moui could only nod, “As I said: rambling fools. But don’t trust what you see right now. That idiot is using several skills to have the crowd agree with him. After people have the time to cool off, many will change their minds. It’s easy to tell people they have been wronged and have them agree, but how many are actually going to do more than grumble?”

Moui seemed to realize he was talking politics to a child, “You should go home before one of those fanatics sees you. With such a large crowd the enforcer may choose to show up.”

Kai nodded distractedly, looking at the chanting mob.

Moui sighed, “I meant right now. Come on, tell me where your house is, I’ll accompany you there.”

Kai wanted to refuse, but Moui had already taken his wrist into an iron grip and didn’t seem intent on letting go. He appeared to have decided that, if his intimidating aura didn’t work, he would prove his muscles were not just for show. His gaze looked at him adamant, warning he would not take no for an answer.

“My house is this way.” Kai sheepishly said.

It was lucky they left when they did. Not a minute later, they heard people running and yelling that the enforcers had arrived. Apparently, they could get off their asses and do something once in a while.

His house wasn’t that far, standing in all its ugliness a dozen blocks away. Funny how their ‘city blocks’ were literal square boxes.

When they got there, he noticed Alana was standing at the door worriedly looking around.

Shit, I stayed out too long.

As soon as she saw him the worry disappeared and turned into a disapproving look. Then her eyes moved to Moui, and a frown appeared on her face.

After what he found out today, Kai wasn’t in the mood to have more fun at the big man’s expense.

“Mom, this is uncle Moui. He offered to take me back home after I got lost.”

Moui threw a glance at him. Maybe showing surprise. It wasn’t exactly what happened, but he seemed to consider it close enough and didn’t contradict him.

If Alana noticed the silent exchange, she didn’t say. Giving him one last disapproving look for making her worry, she turned to Moui with a smile.

“I must thank you for bringing Kai back. I told my daughter to look after him while I was away, but it seems both my children have a penchant for disobeying.”

Moui looked awkwardly at his feet. “It was nothing. He seemed like the kind of kid who often ends up looking for trouble without thinking things through. I just wanted to make sure he reached his home safely.”

Alana sighed exasperated, “You have no idea. Kai always has his head among the clouds. Trouble has no problem finding him.”

Kai threw a betrayed look at his mother.

Hey! That’s not true. I’m the most responsible child you have. Ele doesn’t count, she was born more responsible than most adults.

He could only watch as Alana started sharing a couple of his most embarrassing moments with Moui, who had moved past his social awkwardness and readily agreed with her. They were laughing at his expense. Amazing.

Not even Acting could prevent Kai from blushing. He felt his ears were on fire as the two adults had a laugh over his misadventures. “I’ll go wait inside.”

Looking around in the living room, he found Kea sitting at the table with a deep frown on her face.

She turned to him when he entered, “Couldn’t you stay out of trouble for five minutes?!”

It was she who disappeared and left him alone.

C’mon Kai, time to be the bigger brother.

He suppressed a retort and instead said, “Sorry.”

He didn’t feel one morsel of guilt, but someone had to take the first step.

Kea looked at him bewildered, before nodding satisfied, “As you should be.”

Thanking Moui one last time, Alana stepped inside. She had a smile on her face, but as soon as she saw them, she assumed her lecturing face.

Here we go.

He turned on Acting to look properly repentant as Alana lectured them both on responsibility.

I guess it's better to go all out or nothing.

“It wasn’t Kea’s fault. She told me to stay inside and that she would be back soon, but I wanted to see the market and didn’t listen.”

If this doesn’t make me the best brother in the whole wide world, I don’t know what will.

Kea now looked at him like she was wondering if someone else had stolen her brother’s body. He rolled his eyes. It wasn’t like he was never kind to her. Right?

Their mother also looked at a loss for words for a moment, “She shouldn’t have left you in the first place. But I’m sure this won’t repeat. Right, young girl?”

“Yes, Mom. Can I go now?”

Alana nodded. With only two of them left Kai threw his mom a look.

“You know I’m not a child. Not really.” He said.

She looked at him from head to toe.

“You look like a grumpy child to me.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I’ll stop treating you like a child when you start acting with responsibility. Until then you’ll be my little troublemaker.” Alana leaned in to give him a hug and kissed him on the cheek before he could slip away.

They had talked a few times about his past life when she came to the estate to visit him. After she found out he had died not yet an adult and was several years younger than her, even if he added all it up, she decided to keep treating him like a child.

He could bet she would have done it regardless and that was only a convenient excuse.

Managing to slip away, he made a show to clean his cheek on his sleeve and walked to his room grumbling to himself.