The Musafir
Rashid's Concern
“Not that question I want to discuss with you, Rashid.”
MANTINGAN shook his head as he said so, to remind Rashid that they met here is not to discuss everything about love, especially his love with the North River Angel which really does not end well.
“Well, then what are you going to talk to me about, buddy?” Rashid leaned his back against the back of the bench. Clamping the pipe in his mouth, then pecking it with a pair of flint. Trying to be even more relaxed, even though he knew very well that whatever Mantingan was going to talk about this time must have been heavy.
“Author the script.” In contrast to Rashid, Mantingan pulled his back from the back of the chair. This time, he meant it. “I've finished it.”
Rashid widened his eyes, as well as his wide-open mouth involuntarily. No more having the pipe slide down. Falling after no more lips clamping it. How good news it meant to him, but how much it would tear off the veil of his identity for a moment!
Rashid moved deftly, very agile, so agile, that he managed to catch the hornbill only a moment after drifting down.
With cold sweat on his forehead, Rashid fretfully glanced at Mantingan in front. He found that the young man was smiling widely while staring at him.
“Alright,” said Rashid resignedly. “I'm like I can't hide everything in front of you, man.”
“I've known it since the beginning.” Mantingan replied casually, again inversely proportional to Rashid who was still tense. So quickly things turned around! “Only, I do not know to what extent your knowledge of the treasure, for you yourself have never shown it to me. Then it is only natural that I put on full vigilance when meeting you before. But now, a little bit I have known it, I feel no need to be fully alert to you.”
“Pardon me, my friend, I have hidden this from you.” Rashid put his hands clenched, menjura while bowing his head, as usually people say respect to others. “I just don't want you to challenge me to fight, which always ends in a bloodbath at one of them. My beloved is still and will continue to await my return on the Peninsula. Before I met him I didn't want to die. Really, that's the only reason I.”
“Not a problem, this is even an advantage for me.” Manten still smiled wide enough, making Rashid unable to hold back his question.
“Advantages? What kind?”
“As I was saying, I have completed the script of my travel book. But even so, it does not mean that my journey immediately stops. I will continue to wander, Rashid, and my travel book must also continue.”
Rashid frowned.
“Who will continue my book, Rashid. As long as I wander later, record all the news about me that will surely blow quite strongly in the martial well. This is probably going to be the hardest task you've ever taken on during a storyteller's job, because the news whistling in the martial lake is often different and it is uncertain which news is true and which news is wrong, then you will get the right payment.”
The mantle reached into the inner pocket of his robe. After getting the desired item, he placed it on the table. Rashid who saw the item became dumbfounded by it.
“Friends, you're not kidding me, are you? This ... very excessive.”
“You deserve this, my friend. I will not give it if the task you will take lightly.”
“You were not the first to ask me for such a thing, my friend, and at that time the payment I received was only a thousand gold pieces; and that alone was more than enough. But this, ten Stones worth 10,000 gold pieces, I think you have gone mad Friend.”
Rashid was silent for a moment. It was clearly a look of concern on the wrinkle of his face.
The fees Mantingan offers are very high. It was more than enough to purchase the many resources needed to improve his martial practice for dozens of years.
But in terms of mourning for life, Rashid became hesitant to accept it. The risk is too high to be taken by someone whose return is always anticipated by his lover in a distant land. Nor does it mean that Rashid is scared, just that what he needs right now is not always about money.
She wants to marry her lover; live happily with her little family later.
To achieve that, he does not need excessive money. Just enough.
However, he believes in the existence of destiny and soul mate. The story of Hero Man must be written by one man, and not by another narrator. Rashid has vowed to never pull the story he's written, no matter what the consequences.
That is what makes him now a fugitive of the Koying government.
How not to be a fugitive if he came all the way from Javadvipa to Koying just to write the real situation in Kotaraja Slum Settlement, Kotaraja, who then refused the order of the Koying Kingdom to declare that what was in his writing was a mere essay with no real purpose?
Fate was the only thing that made Rashid not directly refuse the task offered by Mantingan.
“Why don't you write your own travel story, man? Of course if it is like that, it will be more perfect your travel book. Then after completion, I will meet you to take the continuation of the book.”
The mantel shook slowly while smiling faintly. “As you once told me, Rashid, the death of no one expected. Especially against the swordsman who is always faced with death in every roar of his breath. So after I died, with nothing left of me, what kind of script can I give you?”
Rashid pensive. Breathe out the goal, then exhale it with the goal anyway. Fretted. It was certainly not easy for the man to make a decision. The mantan can understand it, so silent is he. Waiting without urgency.
After a while, Rashid opened his voice again. “I think there's nothing else I can choose, man. I feel that I have been paired with your story, which is really in terms of being a match is difficult to reject. No matter how strong, I will return to the rope of the match. So let me carry out this honorable task, give me full confidence to write your stories, so that I can keep it in order not to be devoured by time.”
The mantel that heard that smiled widely. Rashid's words had been well established, it did not at all appear that he was forced to accept the offer of the task.
“Receive this.” The mantle pushed the ten Rock Bongkahs on the table in Rashid's presence. “Come tonight to my room, I will give you all the manuscripts of my stacked travel books. As for noon until evening, there are many things that I must take care of, it's good you don't look for me at that time.”
Rashid received the ten Bongkah Stones. Keep it well under his cloak. How worth is worth 10,000 pieces of gold.
The two stood up and shook hands before separating. Mantingan moved towards the outer door of the inn, about to meet Dara while looking for the network of Darkness Puan scattered throughout the city. While Rashid moved to the stairs of the inn, about to go to his room to re-write the other manuscripts that he must complete before night.
