While Others Cultivate I Use My System To Travel The Multiverse - Chapter 194: Hubriel's reasons

“You guys heard what she said.” Staring at the clouds behind which Teria disappeared just a moment ago after shouting her threats, I finally turned my head around and cast a glance at the rest of the group.

“Yeah. You don’t need to say anything.” For a moment, a solemn nature overtook the area. At this particular moment, I couldn’t really tell whether everyone was sending me off with such sad faces or if they just managed to catch on and play their roles perfectly.

In the end, though, it didn’t matter which one was it. They were nothing more but fodder, and I couldn’t be mistaken to treat them in any other way.

“May I have a word?” Stepping forward, it was Hubriel who broke the discipline of the group and actually decided to intervene before I would make all the decisions regarding the future on my own.

“Sure, what do you need?” Unwilling to reveal what I was actually thinking, I leaned my head on my right shoulder, feigning ignorance.

“Alone.” Seeing how persistent the man was, I had no other choice but to nod my head and gesture with my hand at a nearby gathering of bushes. As we walked away from the rest of the group, I could almost physically feel the stares of everyone else along with their deep regret that they weren’t the ones to act up first.

“What are you going to do now?” As soon as we put enough of a distance between the two of us and the rest of the group to have any hopes that our voice wouldn’t reach them, Hubriel spoke up.

“Isn’t it obvious?” All at once, my mood degraded. Here I thought that this man was intelligent enough to call me out for some actually important reason, only to learn that he was just interested in rumors and gossips…

“It is, but I wanted to hear the details. You are going to meet with that girl, right?” Once again casting some kind of spell that resulted in a mist of light covering his hands,  Hubriel quickly proved to not trust his words to the chance. This time though, rather than covering me with this spell of his without my notice, I felt something strange as the sound transmission was cut off.

“Yeah.” Looking in the direction where the girl took off, I could vaguely see some hints at the horizon giving away a presence of a huge natural structure. Whether it was a sea, a set of short mountains, or just a big forest, it didn’t matter. After all, the only reason why we were going to meet elsewhere was so that we could avoid any onlookers when joining hands once again.

“But it’s not that simple, isn’t it?” Looking straight in my face, Hubriel smiled. Somehow, this man was capable of reading quite a lot from my face alone, even though I was fully and perfectly sure he had no skill like my witchcraft.

“It’s not. Listen, this might sound like a bad idea…” Hesitating to show this kinder side of me for a moment, I ultimately decided to be open about this matter. “Actually, you will need to help me a bit. What I need you to do, is to start preparing the ground for a huge betrayal.”

Not daring to look at the man himself, I snapped a random flower from the grassland before putting its stem into my mouth. Chewing on it, I awaited some kind of reaction, only to realize a few moments later that I wasn’t going to receive any.

“I didn’t expect you to be so calm after hearing it.” Since I decided to be open already, there was nothing wrong with acting openly all the way.

“Well, if you were going to stab us in the back, you wouldn’t just reveal it like that?” Leaning his head to the side, Hubriel looked at me as if I was some kind of maybe not an idiot, but a person too naive to bear the sigil of being mature. “I’m certain you saw how close I am with the rest of the folks.” Smiling to his own thoughts, Hubriel looked towards the rest of the group. “They might be young and naive, but they are honest and hard-working.  It’s my duty to oversee their growth so that they can become the spending people they have the potential to be.”

Suddenly revealing his own soft side, Hubriel reached out to his pocket before pulling something that I didn’t expect.

A smoking pipe.

In a precisely carved piece of wood covered in some kind of see-through, amber-like substance, a small pile of brownish herbs found its new home before that so-called secondary mage set it alight. Taking a long whiff, he held the smoke deep in his lungs before letting it go in a single, long line.

“So it’s not my perception that told me you are stronger than everyone else in your group?” Here, I wasn’t exactly honest. But this small lapse of my consistency came from a simple fact that no harm would be done to either side with such a small and convenient lie, while a lot of time could be wasted in order to explain it properly otherwise.

“No. I’m still stronger than even the three strongest of them combined. But they are growing fast.” Spewing those two, separate sentences in rapid succession as if they actually were a single statement, Hubriel took another cloud of smoke to his lungs before pulling the pipe out of his mouth and passing it over.

“No, thanks. I do not smoke.” Refusing the treat, I looked at the man with newfound respect. While I knew that everyone had their own circumstances that pushed them into all kinds of situations, I couldn’t help but draw similarities between the situation of this man and the situation that I used to often experience in all kinds of mangas and novels I would read in my younger years.

With the only difference resting in how dense the protagonists of those stories were in contrast to how dedicated and goal-oriented the middle-aged man before me was.

“Okay then.” Patting my knees, I shook my head to push aside all the thoughts that were not of vital importance. “What I need you to do, is to prepare the rest of the guys for the moment when I will elope with Teria.” I barely managed to stop my tongue from clicking when I made this unfortunate slip of a tongue. Adding the intimate context by using this specific world would only cloud the information I wanted to pass to the man.

“And you need us to chase after the two of you, right?” Not asking any unnecessary questions, Hubriel instantly focused on the topic at hand. “From where Teria set the place of your so-called duel, you should take about a week to two more before crashing into the last border. Past that, you will be back in the first Kingdom you told us about.”

Closing his eyes to recall the rough outline of the terrain, Hubriel quickly came up with a suggestion. “How about heading for the North Star city first, then passing through Latievan and ultimately Ku… AH, you won’t know those names either.” Suddenly realizing his mistake, Hubriel turned silent before suddenly standing up and pointing his hand to the southeast.

“As long as you travel for about thirty miles in that general direction, you will see a large tract. While there will be some woods and swamps, it will be mostly surrounded by lush and often well-maintained farmlands. As long as you follow it for another few miles, you will reach the best city to cross the southern gates.” This time, Hubriel’s explanation made a bit more sense. Yet, ignoring his advice, I just stared into his eyes.

Then I just decided that whether he understood the reason behind my decision or not, it didn’t matter at all. Because either way, as long as the results of his actions were in line with what I wanted to achieve, his source of motivation mattered too little for me to care.

“Once you get to the city, head to the port. As soon as some whores will start proposing their services, ask them to lead you to the Parger. He will help you get beyond the wall.” Reaching out to his belt, Hubrial detached a sizeable sack from it before throwing it towards me. “Here is about twice as much money as you will need to get the two of you across.”

Standing up, this time it was Hubriel’s turn to dust off his knees. But even though I just received a huge dose of information I so desperately needed, there was something that bugged my mind too much to let the man go just like that.

“Why are you so helpful? What interest do you have in all this?” Standing behind the man, I asked. To give me money, give me such a valuable plan and information, cooperate or at least declare willingness to do so with my plan… All of that wasn’t something that I could expect from a random stranger. Yet, Hubriel at least appeared to be willing to go with all this trouble.

Unless he would give me the reason, I would be unable to accept his help just like that.

“You see, I come from one generation before them.” Nodding with his head towards the rest of the already impatient group, Hubriel smiled. “You know, there is something about you that makes me perceive you in a pretty similar way I do those guys.” Crossing his arms over his chest, Hubriel smiled. “YOu guys are the salt that will add the taste to the future to come. And I’m helping here and there…”

Out of nowhere, the entire notification window that still outlined all the side missions I had to finish, exploded in a bright red as all the names of the missions exploded in this color. “because I know a little bit more than your average man.”