Travelling from the edge of Mystic Meadows all the way back to the wilderness between U.N.U. and Lycantopia was going to take too long. Zero was currently in a hurry to get Pocky back so that the Sea Hand brothers could start working on the sinking ship.
"Must I really agree to this oath?" Pocky asked nervously. He stared at the hunting knife in his hand and back to the magic scroll.
As a shipwright, he didn’t study magic. To place his life in the hands of strangers who saved him was a huge risk. If Zero wasn’t the Chosen One, Pocky would never agree to it.
Zero nodded. It was the fastest way back to Pocky’s village. However, it was also something Zero and Truen thought of beforehand. Pocky wouldn’t be satisfied to make up with his brother after that dispute about the world’s shape. Hence, they decided to cast strong illusion magic to convince him in the shortest time possible that the world was indeed round. The globe Zero prepared beforehand would be his gift to sweeten the deal.
Cutting his finger a little too deeply with his unskilled paws, Pocky winced as the blood fell onto the magic scroll. With a flash of light, the scroll burned up, sealing the deal. Zero smiled happily and healed Pocky’s finger with simple healing magic, much to the shipwright’s astonishment.
"Remember," Zero put a finger to his lip. "Anything that happens from now on until you reach your village remains a secret."
Pocky nodded his head, amazed by just how many secrets Zero had. On top of powerful void magic, Zero could heal too! What kind of magician was he?
With no time to ponder about Zero’s magic, Pocky shrieked when Bob transformed before his beady eyes. The creature from legends stood before him and eyed the shipwright lazily. Truen hopped on quickly without hesitation, and Zero laughed at the shipwright’s frozen expression.
"This is the Eternal Dragon from Endow Hill. Meet Bobbinskrier! We call him Bob for short."
Bob looked at Pocky with the same intense gaze, and the shipwright didn’t question further. This was the same person he saw earlier. No wonder he could break apart those boulders blocking the cave’s entrance so easily! It was a miracle the cave didn’t collapse when Bob shattered those rocks.
"Let’s find out what you couldn’t find out all those years ago," Zero told Pocky as they took off into the air.
Bob flew at a lower altitude than normal. Truen was in charge of weaving an illusion of cloud. At the same time, Wii took care of making the sun’s illusion according to Mii’s instructions. The plan was to chase the sun constantly over the ocean to see if they could find another land and reach the same land if they travelled directly in one straight line. Conveniently enough, Pocky already did half the hard work by walking to the border of mystic meadows. Their current location was almost directly opposite of Pocky’s village. Hence, if they reached Pocky’s village after chasing the sun, Pocky should be convinced that the world was round and didn’t fall off the edges of the sea.
From the sky, Pocky didn’t think they were going very fast. He didn’t feel the wind in his face and wondered how it was possible until he noticed how Bob’s head was constantly raised to block the strong winds. Touched by the dragon’s thoughtfulness, Pocky changed his opinion of Bob. The dragon might look scary in both his human and dragon form, but he might be a nice person on the inside.
Because they were constantly flying to chase after the sun, Pocky realised that he didn’t know what time it was. The sun was setting slower than it should, and after a while, Pocky’s stomach grumbled. It still looked like it was slightly past noon, but Zero informed them that they were going to have dinner.
Out in the middle of the ocean, poor Bob couldn’t rest or stop. Pocky pitied the dragon, but Bob reassured him that it was fine. He had plenty of strength left to fly for a week without stopping or resting. Pocky finally understood why Bob was eating non-stop for the whole of that morning before they flew.
Over dinner, Zero and Truen talked a little more about the things they saw on their adventures. At the same time, the doctor tried to gather more information about merfolks for Jacqueline.
When Pocky heard that Half Moon Village adopted a quarter-mermaid child, he was surprised. "How did a child get so far up in-land? With mermaid blood in her, does she show any signs of ageing?"
Puzzled, Zero asked why that was important. Pocky shook his head. Zero really knew nothing about common legends.
"It is said that merfolks are cursed. They were cursed by the gods for fooling too many people with their tricks. Neither fae nor beastfolks, these creatures lured sailors and land walkers into the sea to eat them. As a result, all their descendants are cursed to die tragically and become seafoam if they ever told a lie. However, as some sea folks have the immortal blood of faes, they are immortals. It’s one way to cull the herd if you asked me."
When Zero heard that, he wondered if half-blooded sea folks were exempted from that. After all, Douglas told many lies. Either that or selkies were just not part of the merfolks. Zero didn’t know, but honestly, he wished that the traitor he worked so hard to save was living happily with his new chance at life.
"Oh, what a surprise!" Zero mused when he received news from Lily. "Lady Zenobia managed to seal the deal at 30% profit with Jynx. I guess being tea buddies with the ruler of U.N.U. has its benefits."
Truen raised a brow. "How did they become tea buddies? Isn’t the Chieftess busy running around doing ambassador work?"
Zero grinned. Thanks to the convenience of magic and speedy delivery by the mole werebeasts, Zero had several copies of magazines that Zenobia modelled in. Mitchnew managed to snag a few copies before it was completely sold out. A few of the men in Half Moon Village bought it to show their support, and Zero had to admit, the Chieftess looked great as the face of Jynx’s new fashion brand. The monster silk that Penelope wove made a very fashionable but sturdy female armour.
It was hard for anyone to be dissatisfied with Zenobia acting as the model for the new launch with a body like that. In fact, it was such a success even out of U.N.U. that Jynx started complaining about lack of hands. They ended up employing cheap labour by summoning more low-levelled undead for production purposes, but that was a story for another time.
As Bob flew without a break, Pocky enjoyed looking through the catalogue and gawked at how outrageous the fashion statement had evolved over the years. Modesty was a thing of the past, and Pocky had a hard time claiming that he hated it.