The Musafir
High Cliffs
A CORPSE lying in a very sad state. The bodies are covered in carrion-eating insects. Lying on the ground; among the high weeds. It was as if the one who killed him had no sense of humanity at all. It is clear that his death was caused by a black swordsman who had been used to killing opponents without giving honor.
His body was full of cuts. His whole skin is darkened. The dried blood created black patches around his mouth.
Besides appearing to have been hacked many times, the corpse was also poisoned before death actually picked him up. The mantan did not understand what kind of reason required the corpse killer to do this cruel thing.
“Kana, help me provide pancaka for this guy.”
Kana nodded her head. Without being ordered a second time, he immediately moved towards the forest in search of dry wood. The mantel walked not far from him.
***
JUST AS the twilight had passed and the night had replaced it, the pancaka containing the most viciously murdered corpse was burned. The light of the fire illuminated the trees around the pancaka and also two different-aged men who stood not too far away from it.
Mantingan looked at the pancaka with a face that seemed flat, but different from Kana who looked at the pancaka with a very very sad gaze.
“This is the martial world, Kakanda? Is murder really something that is mandatory for every swordsman?”
The mantan only nodded his head in response. After all, this is what the martial world looks like. Like the word, a warrior who joins the martial world is actually resting on a tree whose leaves have yellowed. Once the wind blows, fall tens to hundreds of leaves. It could be about the warriors below it.
That's how the leaves are likened to a death-ending fight.
The path of a warrior is the path to death. And the most expected death is death in battle.
“Why not make peace?”
This time the answer. “Because that's how the martial world is, peace is not interpreted as days without fighting.”
Kana lowered her head. “Could it be someday, you could change a crazy rule like this?”
“Why didn't you just change it, Kana?” The mantel laughed softly. Kana's question sounds absurd.
“I'm not joking at all, Kakanda.”
Slowly but surely, Mantingan stopped his laughter before staring at the still-sluggishly bowed child. From her tone, it was obvious that Kana was not joking.
“Kakanda, I see you have the ability to do that. I felt it, and I definitely felt it too. This crazy rule will continue to wreak havoc and destruction in the world of the common man if it is not changed soon.” Kana said with a pus. “My parents died because of this crazy rule, but I was lucky to meet the Kakanda. But then, what about other children who are just abandoned? Their fate will always lead to be a beggar, a botanist, a thief, or even die in hunger.”
Mantingan actually had a hard time believing that the words were actually coming out of Cana's mouth. He knew the truth of the boy's words.
But after all, it is not an easy job to change the basic rules of the martial world that have existed for centuries and continue to be maintained until now. After all, isn't a warrior a person whose way of life is only to fight and fight, not for anything else?
The real mantan cannot blame such a fundamental rule in the martial world.
People who have great power like warriors, will indeed fight each other to conquer and master something with other powerful warriors.
For indeed the rule of the jungle prevails, where the strong will always rule, and the weak will be worthless crumbs of rubbish.
Such is the martial world which if called cruel is legitimate. The way of life of a warrior is much different from the way of life of a layman.
Silent, full of blood, without affection. Keep it that way until they meet a strong opponent to defeat him.
Mantingan could not guarantee that he did not die because he was killed. But it would be nice if first Kembangmas found before it happens.
***
THREE DAYS passed by so quickly and so briefly, as if the trip was just a tea stop by. After passing through the wilderness that is quite difficult to penetrate, the,
Mantingan and Kana arrive before a high cliff that seems to be very impossible to climb.
Mantingan recalled how he had encountered this cliff several times. The first time was the night the White Mask Squad picked her up at the inn rented by Dara. At that moment, he spurred on a white horse that ran as fast as a whirlwind.
Found the steepest white cliff back, Mantingan's mind immediately drifted away. Imagine the beauty stored behind the cliff. White Wind College. A true beauty. A true piece of heaven. Which is intentionally hidden.
“Do we have to turn the road, Kakanda?” Kana suddenly asked, instantly disperse the reverie of Mantingan.
“No, indeed this is where it is.” Mantingan. “Go to my back, we have to pass through that cliff.”
Without asking much more, Kana jumped onto the back of the Mantingan. That was when, Mantingan immediately jerked his legs upwards. He did not flicker as fast as he often did, but floated lightly as a piece of cotton. That's the right way to enjoy the view.
On several occasions, Mantingan's legs tread the cliff wall so that his body again floated upwards.
“Did after passing this cliff, I will soon leave Javadvipa the same also means leaving Kakanda?”
Smiling coat. Still hovering in the air, the young man replied, “If one day you have grown up, become a swordsman or at least a leading scholar, it is not difficult for you to go to Javadvipa, no?”
And when Mantingan's foot stepped on the top of the cliff, then Kana replied, “It was not difficult, but what if Kakanda had died from suffering defeat in the fight?”
The mantan was still smiling, choosing to divert the talk material. “Look in front of you, Kana.”
Kana squinted her eyes until her eyebrows clutched. “Only misty forest, what should I see?”
“In that misty forest, hide a piece of heaven.” The mantel widens his smile. “And that's where the end of our journey is.”
After being satisfied to look at the expanse of forest covered with thick fog so that nothing can be seen except the fog itself, Mantingan again threw himself into the air. Floating down as light as cotton.
It didn't take long until his feet set the ground. The mantingan did not ask Kana to come down, instead asking her to tighten the robe she was wearing, before finally flashing fiercely into a sea of thick fog that was cold not a reed.
