Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Chapter 1708  Waiting

Ning and Shara stopped before the forest, looking around. The forest ended in an abrupt grassland that was a little overgrown, but not that much. There were large green bushes all around, but they were scattered throughout the green landscape.

Ning and Shara got off their carts, looking all around.

It was early enough in the day that it could still be called morning, so Ning wondered if that was why no one was around.

”I definitely told them to wait for us around here,” he said. ”I told them it would be within 7 days. Did they forget or what?” ”What do we do if theyʼre not here?” Shara asked. ”What if there is no one here?”

Ning frowned. Had those people actually not made it past the forest? It shouldnʼt have taken that long to make it past the forest. Were they perhaps attacked by something else? But then again, the forest didnʼt have dangerous beasts, at least not if they stuck to the road.

”We… can stay here for a day,” Ning said. ”If they donʼt show up by tomorrow morning, we will make our way back to the city.”

”Weʼre going back?” Shara asked, exasperated. ”But we just came!”

”Well, nothing we can do,” Ning said.

”And these items?” she asked. ”The food will go bad soon if we donʼt do anything.”

”Weʼll sell it too. The weather is cool, so they wonʼt go bad that quickly. Still, we should keep off the sun. The forest should be cooler.”

They took the carts close to the forest where they let them stay out of the sun. Then, Ning and Shara walked back out and sat on the grass, bathing in the sun during this cold day.

They had nothing else to do, so they just talked for a while, making plans on what they were going to do next. The obvious plan was to leave for the Republic, so the only question was how they were going to go past where the battles were happening and sneak into the Republic.

That was going to take a bit of a sneaking around.

They waited around 3 hours when suddenly something entered Ningʼs Life Sense that was not a random insect or animal. He quickly got up, holding the spear close to him.

He looked at the bush in front of him and knew a man hid there now, having arrived there at some point.

”Who goes there?” Ning shouted. ”Behind the bush. Show yourself or I will attack you right now.”

Ning waited for a while and got no response. Seeing that the person didnʼt intend on speaking, he began making his way toward them, while making enough noise to alert him of his arrival.

Ning dashed forward when he was close enough and pulled his spear to attack him. Just before he stabbed it though, he saw that the man had his hands in the air, already. ”Donʼt attack me!” he shouted before Ning could do anything. Ning looked at the man and recognized him as one of the people he was looking for. ”So you are here!” he said, anger filling his voice. ”Why did you make us wait 3 hours? I told you to be here all the time.”

”Kid, please donʼt hurt me. I was just following orders,” the man said.

”Your bossʼs order?” Ning asked, somewhat furious. ”Yes,” the man said. ”What orders?” Ning asked.

”To keep an eye on you,” the man said.

Ning frowned. ”Were you sent here to harm us in any way at all?” he asked. ”Answer me or Iʼll kill you right now.”

The man shook his head furiously. ”Just to keep an eye on you. And… anyone else that might come with you,” he said.

”Who else would— Did your leader think I was bringing an army to capture them?” he asked.

The man said nothing but his awkward smile was all the answer they needed.

Ning took a deep breath and took back the spear. ”Bring your leader here right now,” he said. ”If he doesnʼt come to me in the next half an hour, I will turn back and leave with all the food and clothes Iʼve brought.”

The manʼs eyes widened in surprise a little.

”Iʼll go call him. I will bring him quickly,” the man said, quickly getting up and leaving. ”Donʼt leave.”

Ning watched the man run away and noticed him limp a little. He had a bad ankle from what he could tell. ʼHe mustʼve twisted it somewhere.”

”What now?” Shara asked.

”We return to the cart,” he said and walked back to the cart to wait. They stayed in a visible area so the boss wouldnʼt miss them when they arrived.

After waiting for about 25 minutes, he saw a few men walk toward them, one of which was the man from earlier, and the other one was the boss.

They came closer, but were still very suspicious of the whole thing by the way they walked around.

”You truly came,” the boss said as he walked toward Ning.

”And you didnʼt,” Ning said. ”I thought we had an agreement to have people look out for us. You made us wait out here for no reason.”

”I would say there was a good reason,” the boss said. ”We needed to be sure that you werenʼt bringing in soldiers to capture us back. That would be terrible.”

”Even after my claims of wanting to fight against the empire?” Ning asked.

”Especially after that,” the boss said. ”I needed to be extra careful at that point and time. I donʼt know who you are or why you are doing this just yet.”

”I told you why—”

”You could be lying. I need to be careful. For my, and my menʼs sake.”

Ning stared into the determined eyes of the man who cared for his men and had to give up in the end. ”Alright, fine. I guess I understand,” he said. ”So, how much longer do we stay out? The longer we wait, the higher the chance of the food and medicine going bad.”