Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Chapter 200: Sliver of inspiration

Four, maybe five hours have passed since we first set from the forest. By now, the sun has fully risen, showering the bloody battlefield with enough light to bring any sane man to the end of his wits.

The sun's light washed away all the shadows, all the falsehood, all the pathos of how a naive person would see war. With no more darkness to hide the gruesome, bloody marks of the massacre, I had no other choice but to come face-to-face with the grim reality.

As easy as it was to forget when I focused mostly on my numbers growing, every time I added a new record to my battle log… I would effectively reap someone's life.

Most shockingly, I was shaken by the gore and awful stench left after the battle rather than the moral consequences of taking a major part in it.

Sure, I felt bad for all those who died, be they humans, celestials, or divines. It was a pity they had to die here, just to lay the foundation of a proper negotiation…

But I hardly felt anything beyond the natural sympathy towards the pitiful… lessers? Just like I would feel sorry for a bird or other small animal getting run over.

'I can feel something… lacking…'

The tense air that I could still remember from my stand-off with my dearest of aunts. Even though there was no blood spilled there, just the mere presence of humans from the earth ready to fight made the atmosphere grow thicker.

And here, in the middle of the battlefield, I was merely inconvenienced by all the gruesomeness and the overwhelming, awful stench.

I felt no exhilaration over the victory nor grief or sense of guilt over those who died for it.

'Strange,' I summed up my thoughts before shaking my head to refocus my attention.

The only reason why I could allow myself that much stray thinking, was because the effects of my Eye of Time were quickly running out. Right now, I still had a bit of distance to cover before reaching the first of the checkpoints that continued to flare up in my mental task list.

"Haaa…" I exhaled a lungful of air before slowly taking in the cold, wet air of the morning.

As awful as it was in taste, it still served well to clear my thoughts.

And I needed my thoughts clear for the meeting that was about to ensue.

"That was… a glorious battle," Claudy commented pretty much as soon as he came into my view.

Despite standing out in the relatively open, he somehow made himself appear as insignificant as a random tree or bush, making my awareness simply slip over him.

Only when the man spoke out to me did the illusion fall apart, revealing his presence to my eyes.

"It was anything but glorious," I threw the ball back while moving my arm as if trying to make the joint snap and relieve the pressure. "There was a bit more of them than I expected and there were some…" I turned my eyes to the back, where I'd last seen Madam before she parted ways to drag unconscious Lazar away from everyone's prying eyes.

"Disturbances," I finished while dragging my eyes back over to the young noble's face.

"I see…" Claudy murmured with a small smirk on his face.

He appeared to be perfectly relaxed, almost cheerful, making it seem as if neither the clash with the reinforcement nor the bloody battle before took any tool on him. Despite not sleeping at all through the night, he didn't show any signs of exhaustion or mental wear.

And, as deeply unsettling as Claudy's peace of mind was, I just couldn't help but respect it.

"Anyway, it seems like you've proved your point." Claudy's smile grew as he turned to give his subordinates a glance. "While there were certainly some… hiccups," the mercenary leader turned back only to grace me with an even wider yet emptier smile. "I do believe you might have some means to stand your ground."

For a moment, Claudy's eyes escaped away from my face and over my shoulder, staring somewhere in the distance.

Unsure whether it was just a psychological trick, something vital happening right behind my back, or maybe a nostalgic gaze out into nowhere… I gritted my teeth and endured the pull of my curiosity to look over.

Whatever it was that attracted Claudy's eyes ended up not being important enough to get any further reaction out of the young noble. And as his eyes returned back to my face, throwing my mind into a frenzy of coming up with any tricks he might want to play now…

"I'm hereby accepting the cease-fire terms between the defenders of the forest and the mercenary army," Caludy announced… in a tone as flat as composed as usual. As if he was commenting on the side about how he liked roasted meat with some good booze. "And I do believe you mentioned you have another task for us. Didn't you?"

Claudy gave me not time to swallow the news, instantly advancing from a direction I completely failed to predict.

I made countermeasures for all sorts of ways, means, and tricks Claudy could use to wiggle himself out of the deal now that I've fulfilled my end of it. What I didn't expect, though, was him happily reaching out to shake my hand while asking for errands!

And while, in fact, did mention a job I had for some of Claudy's men in mind…

I shook my head before slapping my hands against my cheek.

Slightly to the side and hiding behind my back, Fay twitched at this display of self-violence only for her fingers to grasp tighter at the loose cloth of my simple, casual even, outfit.

"I will need you and some of your men to come to the camp and properly bury the dead," I revealed my grand plan… Or at the very least, the part of it that involved Claudy and his soldiers.

"And?" Claudy asked, leaning his head over to the side with a look of slight loss.

"That's it." I smiled in response before looking away and then up, to the already bright sky.

Then, as the wind blew past my ears, as the warmth of Fay's body coated my arm and shoulder, as the disgusting smell of feces and death filled my nostrils…

A strange thought appeared in my head. Seemingly out of nowhere, born foreign to the grounds of my experience… yet still extremely familiar, like a distant echo of a lost memory.

"Some might believe I'm a catalyst, but I'm merely a herald of massive change this world will undergo."

Prompted by this strange sensation, I allowed it to overflow from my soul and spill out through my mouth, etching its mark into the very fabric of the world around me.

"By human nature and simple convenience, my name shall ring through major events to come," the words continued to flow, but the essence of the inspiration that filled me quickly started to dry out.

By the time I closed my mouth, the essence, the echo of a lost memory completely vanished, as if it never existed to begin with. Yet, carried by the momentum it already gained, my mouth opened up once more.

This time, though, it wasn't this strange sliver of inspiration guiding my words, but a crude, imperfect imitation, reflection of it.

"So I really don't want to start my story as a harbinger of the plague who cursed and decimated the grand imperial army, do I?"