Chapter 178: Funding the Trip

Waking up, Moon jumped to his feet, Liquid Mountain trailing behind him. "WHERE IS HE?" He looked around.

It took him a second to realize this wasn’t the arena; he was in his room, sleeping, and had just woken up after getting beaten thoroughly and passing out.

He looked down at himself; his shirt was on, and Liquid Mountain was placed on his bed, which was why his hands found it naturally.

He dropped Liquid Mountain and slid his shirt off his body, moving fast toward the mirror. How badly was he beaten, and how much did it further impact his looks?

"THAT SHITTY MUSTACHE DID IT AGAIN," Moon cursed once he saw his eyes, once again, as round as a ball.

Everything else was fine, only a minor bluish hue here and there, but it didn’t hurt or strain his movements much.

Yet the eyes... they fell victim to training violence and suffered again.

Moon held his head tightly with both hands, trying to prevent it from exploding.

"What do I do now?" He examined the state of his face now.

His hair looked like shit; he had lost most of it in the battle less than a week ago, and it had yet to regrow, as were his eyebrows.

Now his eyes looked like he’d just gotten two more mouths, yapping nonstop whenever he blinked.

Moon ran around, locating his Book of Grudges and his pen.

Instead of listing Samuel among everyone else, he decided to open a new page for him, titled [Mustache Bastard].

-300 punches in each eye-200 stomps on the face-400 kicks in the guts

Moon stared for a moment at the numbers before shaking his head through gritted teeth.

"NOT ENOUGH!"

Moon decided to add a zero to each item.

3000 punches, 2000 stomps, 4000 kicks.

Moon stared with his eyes nearly closed at the numbers before closing his eyes for real, giving himself a moment to imagine it happening.

After a short second, he nodded. "These are good numbers." He stood and stored his Book of Grudges somewhere again he would forget.

He looked again in the mirror, seeing the state of his body. He posed with his muscles to see if there was any progress.

He’d been eating, training, smithing, and fighting cheating, shameless old men for some time now. At least some improvement should have come to be.

Soon, he saw it. His arms felt fuller; his skin was stretched a little tighter over the slightly fuller arms.

Moon decided to feel these muscles, and once he did, he nodded in satisfaction for the first time today.

"I’ll make better muscles than his," he said, picking up his shirt and Liquid Mountain before sprinting to the eatery.

Muscles were his only salvation now that he’d suffered the strain of keeping his mind intact, but still got beaten to the point he couldn’t recognize his own face.

Smack~

"Sup, brat?" Ed said as soon as Moon violently smacked the door open.

"FOOOOOOD!" Moon growled.

Ting~

"Here," Ed placed on the counter, before Moon ran and picked it up and started eating as fast as he could.

Watching Moon eating like this, Ed didn’t look happy about it. He was cautious about his mental state since that day.

He even had a long argument with Samuel because of his concerns and demands.

The day before today, in the eatery.

"Samuel, you don’t have to utterly destroy the kid. He’s a better fighter than you and all, but you don’t have to flex," Ed said with a concerned tone.

"You take care of that; I only have to make sure he’s ready before stepping out," Samuel said dismissively.

"Fine then, disable the sensory blockage around his room so I can keep an eye on him," Ed said instead.

"No," Samuel rejected it right away without explanation.

"Samuel, blocking others from spying on you is cool as fuck, I give you that," Ed praised first, before saying, "but we are taking care of a kid now for the first time."

"I’m only training him," Samuel said flatly.

At that time, Moon opened the door of the eatery, with Dorbish following. That was when Ed sent them away to try to reach an agreement with Samuel, who stubbornly did what he was doing without a way to change his mind.

In the end, Ed had no choice but to give up. Knowing Samuel, sometimes it’s just meaningless trying to force him to do something he refuses for a reason he didn’t voice.

"Fine, Samuel, fine," Ed said in defeat. "Do you have any money?" he asked Samuel instead.

Samuel waved his hand, and a pouch of coins flew to where Ed was. "This is all the money we currently have," he said.

Ed examined it for a moment, pursing his lips.

Samuel stood from his seat now that he’d finished his meal and headed out of the eatery. "Samuel, wait," Ed said, stopping him from leaving.

Pausing, Samuel turned around.

Ed waved his hand. A large amount of metalwork items piled together. Daggers, swords, mismatched pieces of armour, and many other items.

"Find a way to sell these," Ed said with a heavy face.

Samuel locked gazes with him for a long moment. "Since when?" he asked.

"Since now, there’s no point holding onto this junk anymore," Ed said. "In the first place, I made them to be sold, but in reality, they’re nothing but junk," he elaborated.

The two exchanged a very long look before Samuel nodded. "I’ll send them right away," he said as he waved his hand, getting them to disappear as he made his way out of the eatery.

Back to the present, Ed watched Moon eating violently and shook his head.

He looked down then on a large pouch of money, much larger than the one Samuel gave him a while ago.

"Brat, say," Ed said, getting Moon’s gaze to fall on him. "Do you know how to swim?" he asked.

Moon blinked his ball-sized eyelids once before nodding. "Yeah, there was a river we used to get behind the enemy armies every once in a while."

"How was that river?" Ed asked again.

Moon thought for a moment, recalling the image and the experience. "It was muddy, bloody, and dirty," he said. "There were cleaner ones, but once a battle starts near a river, it always gets dirty."

Ed nodded. "You’re saying you never swam in clean water before, right?" he wanted to confirm.

Moon nodded, getting back to his food.

"Have you ever seen the sea then?" Ed dropped a new question.

Moon squinted for a moment. "I think big brother Uon mentioned seas in his lecture; salty water, vast, and people would visit to swim."

Ed nodded. "That’s the sea," he confirmed.

"I only saw the sea yesterday when big brother Uon brought me to the edge of the facility," Moon spoke with a hint of newfound excitement. "It looked awesome," he said. The spark in his eye returned.

"Everything looked awesome; I didn’t know we were flying," he added.

Ed took off his headwear and scratched his head. "I was thinking of bringing you out of the facility once to see these things up close," he said with a smile.

Moon’s eyebrows rose, looking curiously at Ed, who added, "Tell me, do you think this is a good idea?"