"You... you survived?"
The voice startled Nile; the Runic words disappeared, and he quickly drew his bow and aimed in the direction of the voice. The voice reached his ears again.
"Thank God, I was so worried about you."
Nile whipped his head toward the sound, his eyes darting as he scanned the blood-soaked camp.
'Who is it? Where is he? I can't see him.'
Nile stood rigid, keeping the bowstring pulled taut against his cheek. He looked everywhere—behind the piles of dead wolves, toward the treeline, and near the cliffside—but the camp appeared completely deserted except for the corpses. It was an uncanny sensation. The voice clearly possessed a distinct direction, yet it felt as though it were coming from nowhere.
"Oh, wait! You can't see right now. I need to remove this," said the unknown voice.
The air shimmered, and a familiar shape resolved out of nothing.
Nile shifted toward the sound, and then he saw a familiar figure.
'He was so near to me, and I didn't even notice him.'
"Don't shoot, don't shoot," the young master cried, frantically waving his hands.
Nile still held up his bow, ready to shoot at any moment.
"How did you do that?"
The young master's jaw dropped, his eyes wide with utter bewilderment. "You... you can talk?" Up until this exact moment, he had been entirely convinced the boy was completely mute and half-deaf.
"Answer me!"
Nile's icy tone snapped the young master back to reality.
"Answer what?"
"What you just did now. Appearing in front of me just now."
"I'll tell you if you put the weapon down."
"No chance."
"Come on, aren't we friends?"
"....."
"I mean, we shared hardship, struggled through it together. We faced it together, and we survived together also. So basically, we are comrades in arms."
"..."
"Fine, fine!" The young master hastily pulled a sleek, metallic ring from his finger and held it up to show Nile.
"It's because of this ring."
"This ring is a Tier-One, Medium-grade artifact. With this ring, anyone who wears it will be hidden, blends with surrounding. As long as the wearer doesn't do anything drastic, the position will not be exposed. I have answered your question, do you... mind lowering the bow."
"Two more questions."
"Two more?? Fine, ask."
"If the ring hides the wearer and doesn't expose the wearer's location as long as the wearer doesn't do anything drastic, then how come I didn't see you when you talked to me. And if you had that ring before, why didn't you use it before?"
"To answer your first question, it's because you are a mortal and haven't felt any prana. The ring works well on mortals. I hid in the surroundings, and when I talked to you, no mortal could find the wearer. Think of it like a person hiding in a green background with him wearing green clothes, and no mortal could tell the difference. I didn't use it before because I couldn't. I needed a perfect opportunity. Plus, I was tied up back then, and there are some drawbacks when using it in front of multiple people. I have answered all of your questions, so could you please lower your bow? It's making my heart race."
'Artifact. Prana.'
'And this ring, artifact, is so broken. How is this thing even allowed to exist? Since there is a grade and tier in the artifact, there must be more of its kind.'
Listening to the young master, Nile heard some words which he hadn't heard before in his life. And Nile could construct a system of the world.
'Do I kill him? No, I need him, and he hasn't done anything harm to me.'
Nile lowered his bow and sling across his torso. But he still has the other hand on his blade, ready to draw at any time.
'I can't let my guard down. I need to keep a close eye on him, who knows how many of these magical artifact and what kind he has?'
Phew!
The young master sighed in relief.
"I knew it, we were friends brought together by destiny. Did you know I was so worried about you when you didn't return? So what happened back there?"
Nile looked around; he saw corpses, blood spilt on the ground, and a cooking pot fallen on the ground with soup spilt over. He went towards the Aegis corpse and crouched down, the young master behind him still talking to him.
Nile ignored him and inserted his hand into Aegis's pockets. He was checking for any valuables he could find. In the pocket, his knuckles brushed against something heavy, cold, and metallic. He drew it out into silver moonlight: a hunter-case pocket watch, its brass surface worn to a dull, smooth patina from years of pressing against a heartbeat that had now stopped. Nile pressed his thumb against the crown. With a sharp, metallic click, the spring-loaded lid snapped open. Beneath the grime on the glass, the pristine white porcelain face stared back at him. To his astonishment, a faint, rhythmic tick-tick-tick echoed.
'10:30. Looking closely, there are twelve hours in the clock with an hour hand, a minute hand and a second hand. It's no different than any other clock on Earth. Hmm.. So they might have a similar time system to Earth.'
His thought was quickly interrupted by a voice.
"Quite rich for a bandit. The watch looks expensive, or he might have looted it from a rich person," the young master said from over his shoulder, apparently done with the question he'd been asking.
Then he looked at Nile, who was holding the pocket watch.
"You don't talk much, right? I have been talking, and you kept ignoring me. That's hurtful."
Nile put the pocket watch into his pocket. He tilted his head toward Guiteng's corpse and said, "If you have so much energy to chat, then why don't you loot that body and search for any valuables on him?"
The young master looked at the bloodied Guiteng's motionless body.
"No way. I have never done that kind of stuff."
"If you don't do it, then you might go hungry today. I bet you didn't eat much. Who knows, you might find some food on him."
The young master was silent for a moment, maybe he was thinking or being hesitant, "Now that you mention it, I am getting hungry."
With hesitant, awkward steps, the young master slowly dragged himself toward Guiteng's body.
Nile turned his attention back to his own task. In a pocket near the chest, his fingers touched a small, cold metal.