Me and Betsy were trucking…. Or was it wagoning? Anyway.... Along the next morning. After the brief incident the night before, we just rode away to the next clearing and re-set up our little camp. I sat on my bench and looked at the folded up note I had written to Erana. I had written a couple of these since we had left the town and the others I could send back in Meguro. This one, I wasn’t sure how I’d get it to her unless we passed through a village, and judging by the map, there weren’t a ton of villages along this main road. I sighed and folded the note up and stuffed it in one of the numerous pockets I had in my robes.

  We didn’t get that far from our little parking area until we found some new shenanigans afoot. As we rode along, there was a tall, lithe man who stepped out from a wagon parked along the side of the road and waved his hands at us. The man was clearly waving us down for help and I imagined the wagon having its blinkers on like cars did when they broke down. I grinned and gently pulled on the reins until Betsy stopped beside him.

  I noticed immediately the man didn’t have any horses or ox or anything hooked up to his wagon. He wore cultivator robes that were a blue green. The inner was more green while the outer was more blue. I blinked and smiled at him. He was a younger guy who still hadn’t been able to grow his hair long enough to make the topknot. Grease held his slicked-back hair.

  “Thank you for stopping. I had some trouble with bandits last night and I’ve been stuck,” he said and crossed his arms.

  “They stole your horses?” I asked as I climbed down and wondered if they were the same bandits I had problems with the night before.

  He nodded his head. “Unfortunately. They were good horses, too. At least they left my goods, though, I suppose,” he said with a shrug. “The bandits have been getting bad around this stretch of road.”

  His wagon was a lot more plain than mine was and didn’t have the covering to keep things dry. Judging from what I saw it would be easy for us to load his stuff up onto my wagon. “Yeah, I had a run-in with them last night myself.”

  The man frowned when he saw me inspecting his stuff, and then I heard Betsy give a low bellow. It was only a moment later when I felt that familiar cold wave pass through my body and I frowned at him.

  “Isn’t that considered rude?” I asked with a cocked eyebrow and a slight grin.

  His eyes went wide, and he looked away while he tried to play innocent. “Uh, yes, sorry. I just wanted to see who I was dealing with. Someone who could fight away bandits and keep their stuff. Your ox seems powerful.”

  I nod and wave it away. “Where are you heading? We’re going to Yoshino. If you’re heading there or somewhere along the way, I’d be happy to give you a lift. Just hop up and we’ll load your stuff from your wagon to mine.”

  The man went wide eyed and nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! I mean, not exactly. My sect is between here and the capital off the main road. I can get word to them though to meet me at the exit I’d take,” he said as he moved to and climbed up to the back of the wagon.

  Without prompting, Betsy moved forward a little so the back of my wagon was even with where most of the man’s crates seemed to be.

  “Aren’t you a cultivator? How did some bandits rob you that bad?” I asked once he handed down the crates and boxes.

  He didn’t have much, so it only took a few minutes to transfer everything he had. He didn’t answer me until I was in the wagon securing stuff with rope.

  “Oh, I’m still in the very early stages. I’ve just formed my core not too long ago. If I didn’t have my skill with runes and carving, I wouldn’t have gotten into the Cove Garden Retreat,” he said and smiled, not hiding some amount of pride.

  “Oh,” I said as I climbed down from the wagon and looked back at him. His smile faltered, and I opened my eyes, faking realization. “Oh! Of course. They’re the ones…”

  “Who only allows people who are already in the spiritual realm of their cultivation, yes,” he said as the smile plastered itself back on his face. He spoke in a refined sort of voice. Like he came from money and was more of an academic than anything else.

  “But you’re good with runes and stuff?” I asked as we both walked back up to the front of the wagon. “What do you want to do with the wagon itself?” I asked and pointed at it before I climbed up onto the bench.

  He shrugged and followed me up. “Once I get back, I’ll be able to get some horses and come and retrieve the cart, and yes I was a student of an arcanist who had a notable reputation. He’s suspected of being dead now though, so the sect grabbed me up in hopes to bring them some amount of prestige and knowledge to them,” he explained.

  I nodded my head, somewhat impressed. “Nice. Sorry about your old master though,” I frowned and grabbed the reins and gave them a small whip.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  He sighed and lowered his head with a shrug. “Way of the world, unfortunately, with cultivators. Though, I think if anyone survived, it would have been him. He was powerful…” The cultivator trailed off and looked out at the road as we went along for a moment, lost in memory.

  I stayed silent and let the man have his moment.

  “Anyway, my name is Soga. Thank you so much for helping me. I’m surprised they haven’t sent out a search party or something for me yet. If you ever need anything crafted, find me at the sect and I’ll be able to do it,” he said, beaming at me.

  “Good to meet you Soga, I’m Maikeru.” I didn’t bother giving the man my real name. Whenever I told someone my name was Michael, they instantly just called me Maikeru, anyway.

  “That would actually be great. I have some ideas for the wagon.” I reached down and grabbed the rolled-up map wrapped in the leather and handed it to him. “Mark where your sect is on the map. I can’t stop now cause I have this delivery to make, but maybe after that,” I said with a firm nod. I’d have to try to draw up my plans for the wagon.

  “So uh, sorry for my rudeness,” Soga started and looked at me with a cocked brow. “You are a cultivator, right? Your core was so…” a pause. “...odd.”

  I lowered my head and sighed a little with a shrug.

  “Oh, nevermind. Sorry I brought it up,” he said quickly when I lowered my head.

  “Huh?” I raised my head and looked over at him. “No, no, you’re fine. I just don’t really know what I have going on. I’m new to all this, and just kind of had all this thrust upon me. The other night I went to the Lying Lily and the..”

  “Wait, what?” Soga interrupted me.

  I stared at him. “I had all of this thrust…” I started, but he shook his head.

  “No, no, you went to the Lying Lily?”

  “Is that bad? We were lost, and we happened upon it,” I shrugged.

  “No, it’s outstanding. Do you not know the stories of the Lying Lily?”

  I stared at him with a blank expression. He just smirked in response.

  “It’s an inn that just pops up when powerful people need a place to stay. You must be more powerful than I originally thought. Do you have a way to hide your cultivation? Open up, let me see,” Soga said excitedly. Before he finished talking, I felt that cold wave flow through my body once more and I shivered.

  “Stop that,” I said with a slight nervous chuckle before I finally shrugged. “I dunno, man, we were wandering around and it popped up. There was this skeleton dude who told me I had a weird core, but he wished I was wind aspected so he could claim me?”

  He blinked. “Well, it could be any number of skeletons. Who knows, really the kind of people who show up at the fabled Lying Lily, but…” he trailed off in thought and looked down the road as we traveled.

  “He said he was a kami,” I offered.

  This made him put his head in his hand with a grunt. “Minoru. You met Minoru. Of course you did.”

  “Uh… okay.”

  He stared at me. “You don’t know about the kami?”

  I shook my head. “Man, I’m going to be nothing but honest with you. I don’t know about anything. The gods, or kami, or whatever you call them, cultivation, anything.”

  “But you’re in the spiritual realm of cultivation, aren’t you? That’s how you feel,” he asked me and I just shrugged.

  “I told you, man, this was all suddenly forced upon me. Cultivation isn’t a thing where I come from. I have some manuals in the back there that I’ve been trying to read and figure out, but I guess I need a master or something,” I said and pointed behind the bench to my little living area.

  “Do you mind if I…”

  Before he could finish, I nodded my head and he climbed over the bench and into my bunk.

  “Just don’t get mud or anything on my bed,” I told him. A moment later, canvas shoes were thrown into the driver’s area and landed next to my feet on the floor.

  I heard him shuffling around and looking through the various books and things. “Some of these manuals are incredible, but you’re right. These won’t help you. These all focus on an element that you cultivate in order to gain power and maybe achieve immortality.”

  “So I don’t have an element?” I ask and look back at him.

  “Well, I don’t know if I’d say that. It’s just…” Soga paused and lifted the light blue crystal that I think used to be my phone. “Oh, nice, you have a messenger.”

  I cock a brow and look back at him and what he’s holding. “A what now? I don’t even know what that is.”

  “It’s something you can use to send messages through the aether,” he explains. “They’re pretty rare. How’d you get it?”

  I ignored the question and asked one of my own. “The aether?”

  Soga nodded his head and climbed back onto the bench to sit next to me. “Yes. The aether is what makes cultivation possible. It encompasses everything. Aether creates everything, and that’s how we cultivate.

  So… it’s the For…. Wait, nope, I don’t need the mouse coming after me. I just nod in understanding.

  “Do you mind if I use it? I can send a message to my sect and you can see how it works,” he explains.

  I just nod my head in reply.

  I watched Soga stare at the crystal and concentrate. A moment later, he lifted the crystal to his mouth, and he whispered something I couldn’t hear. In the time it took me to blink, a slightly transparent blue butterfly seemed to flow out from the crystal. I gaped and watched the butterfly flutter about the crystal. It then flew around Soga’s head and then mine before it fluttered off. The butterfly was visible for quite a while until it seemed to dissolve in the air.

  “Then it rejoins the aether and goes where it’s sent to deliver the message,” Soga smiled when I looked over at him.

  “That’s awesome.”

  He laughed and nodded his head. “It is quite amazing, but be careful. You only have so many messages you can send with it.”

  As of this posting there's 21 chapters and bonus stuff on the

  Hiroshi, Tale of a Sumotori

  You can also buy the entire pre-published version on Patreon and get the published copy once it's ready.

  There's also a to help me get Hiroshi self-published and we've hit most of my stretch goals already. :D