The Musafir

Farewell

The question managed to make Mantingan choke on his own saliva.

“What did you ask, Rara?”

Rara took a breath, venturing a second time.

“Are you in pairs?”

“Of course not, Rara. If only I had a partner, then there was no way I would have ventured so far like this.” The mantel held his laughter as he spoke.

Rara gathered courage for the umpteenth time. “Do you want to be my life partner, Mantingan?”

Mantingan stopped his movements, making sure his ears did not hear wrong.

“Did I hear wrong, Rara? Just said ...”

“You didn't hear wrong, Mantingan.”

Until he finally sighed, he had already guessed that Rara might ask like this. And it is true that when this happens, he has prepared the answer from the beginning.

“Rara, I really appreciate that. But you see for yourself, I am on duty. This question of yours I will answer when we meet again, Rara, and if you ask me again. But you can change your mind as long as I am gone. I'm not a good man.”

Rara looked down at the floor of the room before nodding her head. “I won't change my mind, Mantingan. And you need to know that you are the best man in my eyes.”

Mantingan smiled, she was grateful because Rara could understand her current state. “But I'm not the best in the world.”

“You are the best. Whether anyone else is going to say anything about you, you are still the best, for me and forever.”

The smiling mantle is wrong. Never had he gotten anything so far from a woman. And honestly, he felt a warm feeling inside his chest.

After the words were finished being spoken, an awkward atmosphere appeared inexorably, so Rara hurriedly parted and ran away from the room before things got even more awkward. Mantingan shook his head slowly and continued his unfinished work.

***

The unanticipated morning came as well, except for Mantingan who was very much waiting this morning. His departure must be removed, like it or not, willing or unwilling.

Far away visible at the boundary of the sea, the sun gives off its rays little by little, which will rise towards the top before falling again into twilight. Extremely slow, as if nothing else could match him.

On the beach, there stood three people who faced someone. The one who was in front of the three people was a Mantingan. And those three people were certainly Rara, Arkawidya, and Birawa.

Before they came out of his house, Birawa gave Mantingan a lot of supplies to make the bundle feel very heavy. But it is not the food supply that makes the bundle of heavy Mantingan, but the presence of hundreds of gold pieces in it.

Mantingan had already rejected the piece of money out loud, but Birawa brought it into a room located underground. There was a slam with the contents of a room full of pieces of money!

Birawa said, “If money wasn't heavy, I'd give it to you.”

One hundred pieces of gold were wrapped in a special bag that made the clattering sound of the pieces can be submerged, so as not to provoke the attention of people to do evil.

Birawa also gives the Mantingan a cut of flower petals that are part of the Gembangmas. Again the Mantingan received it with trembling hands. Not only that, Birawa also gave a note about Kembangmas.

Not all ejection of course, because it will be very burdensome and fill the space in the bundle. But Birawa summed it all up and recorded it succinctly but clearly and densely, so that the piles of piles became as thin as half an inch.

Birawa doesn't thank Mantingan much for saving her granddaughter, but Birawa has proven herself how she thanks Mantingan.

“What I give you is not much, but I'm sure you will like this ring.”

What Arkawidya gave her was a beautiful ring with translucent blue gems. A sweet smiling mantle and quickly put the ring on one of his ways.

Suddenly there was a sobbing sound that attracted more attention than the sound of the waves saturating, that was the sound of Rara's cry, which however expected before. This was the part Mantingan disliked the most from the beginning: the breakup with Rara.

Mantingan was afraid as she parted with Rara, her tears would fall. Do not let him look crying in front of Rara, I don't know what the beautiful white-hearted girl will think.

But it seems Mantingan sadness should not be harbored.

“Come, Rara.” Mantingan opened both of her hands, Rara ran towards him and immediately hugged Mantingan tightly. The mantle hugged him back.

Sobbing Rara on Mantingan's chest, shedding her tears. The mantle stroked Rara's hair gently, her tears slowly dripping down. Isn't that why the man was crying? If men should not cry, why would Gusti create tears for men?

“I promise to come back to you.”

The atmosphere that day was accompanied by waves. The sun increasingly gushes itself at the boundary of the sea with its warm light.

Still with sobs, Rara with high hopes said, “Come back quickly Mantingan. Come back and tell me about your journey. Come back and get me again, Mantingan. Keep these words in your memory, Mantingan!”

Rara took off her arms and ran into Birawa's house, with tears falling onto the beach sand.

“Better you leave soon, Son.” Birawa said with pity.

“Alright, Mr.” The mantle turned around and wiped his tears.

***

The mantan knows very well about which path he should take. Last night he just negotiated with Birawa. And from there he found many irregularities on his map when compared to Birawa's map. He showed the awkwardness to Birawa, and Birawa himself was eventually confused with the map Mantingan.

In the Mantingan map, there are names of places that Birawa says should not exist. Like the names Kuningan and Kanoman, even almost the entire name of the place on the Mantingan map is wrong.

There is no town called Kanoman. Kuningan is not the official name of the city, just a nickname because the city makes many goods made from Brass, certainly should not be used as a name in the official map.

“This guest can be ascertained to be wrong, Son. But strangely, the location of the natural appearance here is not wrong. In fact, you could say, your map is more detailed than this map of mine.”

Then Mantingan compared the locations on his map and Birawa map.

When compared, then the name of Kanoman should be Earth Sagandu, Kuningan is also located on Earth Sagandu. Doesn't that mean, there are two big cities within a single territory?

The astonishment of Mantingan increased when he saw that Sundapura was adjacent to Tanjung Kelapa, an area on which the map was written the name of Tanjung Barat.

“Is it true that this map is wrong, Father?”

“True, Son. Petaku is a map that people generally use today.”

Who then has made up this map in such a way as to detail it? Or actually this map came from the future, after many places changed its name? Mantingan expels that very strange thought.

In the end, Birawa gave the map to Mantingan. It is great when the map after being rolled can be folded in half, so that the size of one fathom becomes half fathoms only.

And now Mantingan has left the coastline, starting his adventure to find the Kembangmas Birawa had met on the island of Svarnabhumi!